joyful

we had a wonderful christmas.....the excitement of little ones expectant of santa is a kind of joy and magic like no other.

a few days before the big day we baked and decorated cookies to leave for santa (and neighborhood friends)

....with heavy anticipation we waited for santa to come.....and the shouts of glee on christmas morning are just musical as riley finds the sketch pad and new art supplies he had asked for.....and lucy her new pink princess dress (everything pink pink pink).

in our home santa does not bother wrapping his presents and leaves them in front of the stockings, which he of course filled with more goodies.

from family lucy got a new baby.....riley some feathers for his bow and arrow making projects

...todd got a new denver bronco snuggie (next year is the year apparently)

...i got a cork board made by todd from all the wine bottle corks of years past.....and honestly it has taken years to collect all the corks for this board (2011 is the year of organization, so we have big plans for this board...more on that later)

the kids also got a racetrack (really the card should have said To: Riley, Lucy AND Todd)

certainly it was a wonderful christmas morning....

then we headed to portland in the afternoon and celebrated with the greater campbell family for christmas dinner. there were of course more gifts....

....lucy dancing with her fairy doll

....riley with some new magic tree house books (warms my heart that he loves books so much)

...may i present princess lucy

...my niece ella with the kids (she is at the cutest age)

we welcomed a new baby into the campbell family. my cousin jim and his wife megan with lincoln richard campbell (2 weeks old)

....lucy loved him

....and momo (my mom) playing santa for all the campbell kids

...then later having a little fun at the adult gift exchange (yes that is an underwear hat!)

....such a joyful day wrapped in the laughter and love of family. hope your day was full of good tidings as well!

merry christmas!!!

snow birds

we've had a bit of snow around these parts in the past week or so....(might even have that white christmas)...and i wanted to share a couple of pictures of the chickens in the snow. they don't like the snow much, but they really don't like being cooped up (pun intended) in the coop, so todd shoveled them out a path. they look so funny all lined up in a row...hope it brings a smile to your face!

tis the season

the past couple of weeks have been full of holiday goodness

first we celebrated chanukah with our good friends steve and janet. steve's parents just moved to hood river and his mother makes the best latkes i have ever had.....topped with sour cream and homemade apple sauce.......yummmmmmy!! i have no photo and really no photo can capture how delicious they were. we lit the candles of the menorah and said prayers in hebrew...wonderful celebration.

that same night we went 'downtown' for the holiday parade and lighting of the tree.

5, 4, 3, 2 , 1 ...and taaadaaahh!!

the next morning we went to see santa (he comes to the hood river fire department every year) and as todd has been known to observe that because of this he will never be forced to step foot in a mall again. we get there early, sit on santas lap, and then have a yummy pancake breakfast with the firemen.

then we went and got our christmas tree. we tried a new place since the trees at grannie may's last year were slim pickings, and the selection at maggie's farm was much much better. todd cut our tree down and we loaded it onto our front wheel drive sleigh and headed for home (a whopping 2 miles away)

later that weekend we headed down to portland for our yearly outing to zoo lights with momo. this year george joined us to brave the cold.

back at home we decorated our tree. it looks beautius!!

riley had his school holiday program and even got a part playing the glockenspiel (which is a small xylophone type instrument). he was super proud to be picked and nailed the part.

we decorated a gingerbread house which was super fun for the kids.

we are counting down the days until santa comes and enjoying all that the holiday season brings!

farewell to good friends

we had to say goodbye to our very good friends the giorgi family last week. they decided to move to north carolina to be closer to her family. we understand and wish them well but are so so sad to see them go.

riley and gianluca met within months of moving to hood river 3 and 1/2 yrs ago, and the boys have been the bestest of buds since. lucy and alessandro are about 6mo apart and ended up growing up together too. the giorgis went on to have a third little one, ella who about 18mo old now....we will so miss seeing her grow up.

so i just wanted to post a few of my favorite pictures of the kids over the past few years.

the early years....

......sliding together at the park...

....lucy and ale reading at around age 18 month to 2 years (ale had this head of curls as a toddler....so cute!)

....this is about age four and playing 'knight rescue the princess'...

scenes from last summer....

....riley and gianluca on riley's 6th birthday

....on the soccer field this summer...

....lucy and ale getting some hugs

....riley and gianluca doing tandem naked slip n sliding

...jen and little ella...

little ella on halloween...

they had a big going away party at Jen's sister's restaurant Soltice ...it was packed....we aren't the only ones who will miss them!!

and the kids all together just last week...

we will miss them!!!

the days of our lives

we are settling into a cozy, comfortable and rainy fall. snuggling under blankets and sipping hot tea. But its not all chillin out time and as usual life is full of activities.... here are a few pictures of things going down in the hood of late.

first and foremost is that we FINALLY finished painting the house...literally right before the november rains (praise jeebus for a beautiful october!). the house looks great, still a classic white farmhouse but now with a red door, porch, and trim. todd did most of it so i gotta give him props. we also had to get our chimney repaired.

the kids have been busy and enjoying their fall activities.

lucy is loving her ballet class. i mean pink tutus, dancing, twirling...its a 4 year old girls' dreamland.

riley took a martial arts class this fall, which he really enjoyed. admittedly, i was a little hesitant to sign him up because i have memories of my little brother ian coming home as a kid and trying to 'practice' on me (ian also used to jump off furniture in an attempt to fly after seeing superman or watching greatest american hero so his ability to separate reality from fiction was an ongoing issue.) ....love you bro!

anyway riley had a great time.....and not once did he try his moves out on his sister. he took the class with his buddy jack.

riley is also playing indoor soccer. he is on the same team as his good buddy jack and they are really starting to pass and play good ball. no pictures of this yet, but i'll post some if i get any.

both kids take a tumbling/gymnastics class on saturday morning which they look forward to all week. riley especially loves the climbing, and jumping, and swinging.

in farming news we got ourselves ten baby chicks. for about a month they lived in a box in our downstairs shower. then as they were getting too big (and too smelly) for indoor living todd fashioned a mini-coop within the big coop with a heat lamp. the separation is to keep the big birds from attacking these little guys before they are big enough to hold their own (since they have no mama hen to protect them).

so what else....oh we did have a little snow and todd took the kids up for a fun day of sledding last week. not enough on the hill for skiing yet but we are definately sending lots of good vibes to the snow gods!

and in the milestone category riley had his first sleep-over at his friend jacks' house last weekend. he had a great time. that left lucy home by herself that night with daddy and they had a special tea party/dinner...todd even put on his dress coat for the event (such a good daddy).

that's it.....happy fall!