Puppy Disaster

Nancy called, JuJu did not make it through the night. This was the small female salt-and-pepper schnauzer that Mali and I had chosen. She was not even 3 days old.

Crokinole

Paul bought a very fun game over the internet called Crokinole. It is a physical game where you flick wooden disks on a wooden board. If you want to see what it looks like, check out the Crokinole World website.

Last night we discovered Nancy making a vat of split-pea soup, so we brought bread and wine and helped them eat it. We also brought the last of the leftover pumpkin lusch for dessert, and Hannah Really Loved it. Afterwards we invited Pablo over for Scrabble, and the girls watched Who Killed the Electric Car.

Puppies!

Tinkerbelle had her puppies yesterday! Seven little cuties, two girls. Mali was dieing to get over there and see them, but we waited until she was all done and things had calmed down. Here's a photo of one from Nancy:

Boxing Day party

Alana threw a huge Boxing Day party last night. Susy went over early to help set up, while lazy Darrin went with Pablo over to Paul's to play Scrabble.
Lots of great people at the party - all the usual suspects, and the new ones: Doug, Erin and Natalie, Mische (no David or Lilly), Pablo's friend Nancy, and more of Alana's neighbors and friends. Andrew and Matias brought Andrew's new game, Betrayal at House on the Hill, but Olivia and her gang harrassed them out of the downstairs, and instead they threw wrapping paper at their parents. Lots of laughing over the white elephant exchange - particularly the belly dancing DVD and the old, scary stuffed-cat toy.

It seems likely that Tinkerbelle may have had her puppies last night - she is ready to pop, and started panting strangely as they left the party. Mali is thrilled.

Merry Christmas!

Hooray, it's Christmas!
We've been visiting neighbors, and are heading to Pablo's for dinner now. Here's some photos from last night and this morning.
Mali and Amy get down for the camera:

Darrin gets to hold a snuggly Conner while he wakes up:

Conner tries out Mali's Rudolph nose:

Susy manages to get sleepy Cooper to sleep:

Andrew and Conner:

Grandpa and Conner:

All the kids at the party:

Amy, Andrew, and Mary:

And from this morning, Darrin's new teapot: (photo by Mali)

Merry Christmas Eve Day!!!

We are safely at the Washington Grandparent's house. Oregon Dad's Dad is preparing waffles for us, and at 1:00 the rest of the family will show up for the Christmas Eve's festivities.

Sick kid, sick dad.

Mali came into our room with a raging fever this morning. She felt a little off last night, but we expected her to get better, not worse. She slept all day and is feeling much better tonight. We put off our trip to Washington for a day. I'm sick now with a sore throat, but I'm going to bed now and hopefully will be fine for tomorrow's trip.

We have finished our Christmas shopping, the Christmas cards are out, and gifts are made for the neighbors (yummy chocolate cranberry pistachio bark). Now if we could all just be healthy by Christmas all will be perfect.

Christmas Vacation

Not too much happening here, this first week of Christmas vacation. Mali and Andrew have been working on their paintings for Susy, click the photo below to see another view. Andrew spent most of today at William's house, and Mali and I walked to the video store and got The Devil Wears Prada, which she has been very eager to see.
Yesterday the kids and I got some excercise up at the school, playing soccer with Matias and a friend. Then Andrew had an indoor game where the Poi Dogs easily beat an Aloha Rec league team 9-3. Andrew had a very good game: his first two minutes as a forward he scored two great goals, one a header!

Christmas Party

Doug and Erin threw a fantastic party at their house with co-hosts David and Mische. Guests included: Paul and Nancy, Alana, George and Mary-Fay, John and Kim? from Intel, Bill and ??? from Intel, Erin's brother and ???, and Nan and ???, and many others I don't quite remember. Lots of great wine and food and fun.

Storm Day

We were all amazed to discover school cancelled Friday. It was a beautiful day, except for the fallen-tree-closed roads and power outages scattered throughout town. I drove Mali up to school since she was heavily laden with gifts and gingerbread house materials. We were a little early, so I didn't consciously notice the lack of cars, and there were people in the parking lot, but after reading the "school closed" sign four times it slowly dawned on me that the school was closed. Mali and I walked up later to deliver the presents, and happily her teacher was there to receive it in person.

It finally did snow for five minutes, but after it hailed hard for ten, leaving a nice sheen of white pellets available for snowballs. William and Lilly were over, and everyone trooped out to play.

Choir at Starbucks

The Nancy Ryles choir sang at Starbucks last night. The photo below shows Mali chatting with her friends Dana and Rachel. Click it to see them singing.
Afterwards we all went to Pizzicato for dinner, and met up with Mali's new friend Julia and her family.

Zoë is Ruth

Mali and Andrew each had their first Indoor soccer experiences of the season this weekend - Mali's first ever. They both did great. I got to play with Mali's team, since they are just practicing. It was very fun, but I am Really out of shape. I played goalie for awhile at the end, so I could rest. Mali was very motivated to score against me, but she never got a good chance.

Mali and I raced home after soccer and showered, so we could all go to Paul and Nancy's church tonight to watch Zoë and Hannah in their Christmas program. It was a musical called "It's the truth, Ruth," and Zoë played Ruth. Hannah played a sheep, and also played her violin (in her sheep costume!) with other violinists before the show.
Afterwards we went for Chinese food with Pablo, Rocio, Matias, Nancy, Z0ë and Hannah.

Friday Night

Mali went to Lexi's Ice Skating show and was very impressed with Lexi's abilities. She came home and showed us some of the moves, and announced she wants to go to Sun River for three days and skate! The details were fuzzy - it's just something she wants to do.

She caught a ride to the show with Lilly, so Susy, Andrew, and I finally watched the DVDs Susy got last week: Highlander and Highlander II. What a disappointment! There was a good TV show, and books, and still more movies, but these two movies are horrible. The first one was watchable, though it's from 1986 and hasn't aged well. I certainly expected something more interesting after all the hoopla and the fact that it's still around - there's another movie coming out next year.

Friday, and everyone is healthy

I think everyone is healthy. Susy is still sleeping, as it's her every-other-Friday off today. Last night she and Mali went to a neighbor's house for a cookie exchange, along with 70 other people. They brought carmel-chocolate-pecan turtles, and returned with a large variety of goodies.

Health Report

Andrew is doing much better tonight. The medicine seems to have kicked in. He actually ate a piece of pizza for dinner.
Mali's friend Amanda is home from the hospital. It's her birthday today, so Mali and I went over there at 7:00 and met up with a few teammates for her birthday party.

The BIG news: Andrew has grown an inch in the last month!!!! It seems to me it was all in the last week. He is now only a quarter inch shorter than Susy. Mali has also grown: 3/4 of an inch in the last month.

Andrew's seat of recovery

Susy took Andrew to the doctor yesday, where he was diagnosed with strep throat and given a shot of penicillin in his butt. He's not awake yet this morning, which is a good sign.
Mali spent the day at Lilly's, then went to her dance class.

Andrew is still sick

He's been eating chicken soup and milkshakes. He was able to choke down a couple of Swedish pancakes yesterday for breakfast, but today he's just gone straight for the ice cream. We're taking him to the doctor as soon as we can get him an appointment this morning. Susy's working from home today so she can take him. Work is sort of hectic for me at the moment.
At least Andrew isn't missing any school! Today's a day off for students in the Beaverton school district, for some unknown reason. update: It's grading day, obviously.

Andrew is sick!!!

Andrew spent last night at Kyle's house, and came home this morning sick. He actually fainted while they were out washing the car this morning, and then he threw up. He came home and took a nap for a couple of hours, but he's still sick with a sore throat and his voice sounds pretty odd.

The Fountain

Andrew is spending the night at Kyle's, and Mali was with Zoë making gingerbread houses, so Susy and I went to see The Fountain. It was a beautiful movie that really wasn't very good.