Snow, Snow, Snow

Meadow and I took the opportunity to go up to Government Camp after the most recent snow fall. There wasn't a lot of snow, but enough to play in. This was Meadow's first experience walking through fresh snow. It was really beautiful and a nice refreshing early afternoon outing.

Here are a few pics from the day before.
Meadow posing by the tree with her rain boots on.
Full view of our Christmas tree. We left the bottom of the tree more sparse with ornaments, just in case the toddler passing by decided to swipe an ornament.

Very proud of knocking down the tower.

She can build a tower even taller than herself. What skill!

Meadow's first steps in snow

Under the tree canopy.

Having fun on a sled ride.

One of my favorite pictures of her.

We were the first people to hang out at this snowpark after the snow.

Meadow had a great time making lots of footprints.

Wyatt's 4th Birthday

This past Saturday we were invited to our neighbor's birthday party. It was really fun to see Meadow interacting with the other kids and take part in the birthday festivities, which included a pinata and eating cupcakes. It was also a costume party. I had just bought Meadow this Christmas dress and couldn't wait for her to wear it. So, I took a bunch of photos of her in the dress. Other than the birthday party, we had a pretty mellow weekend. I got together with my friend Jen and her daughter Maddie on Sunday. It is always fun for all the girls to get together. Maddie and Meadow are both working on sounds and words, so it is really fun to see them interact and immitate each other. They also both sign a fair amount, so they tend to copy each other verbally and with their hands. We also went out to dinner together and the girls did so well. It is so nice to have a friend with similar interests and a daughter the same age. We alwyas have lots of good conversations.

Here is Meadow with a santa hat on. I love this picture of Todd reading to Meadow. They love to sit by the fireplace together.

We went over the local holiday bazzar at Welches grade school. This was Meadow's first sighting of Santa Claus. She was not too sure about him and held on tight to daddy.

On our way across the street to the birthday party.

Having fun with all the balloons. She kept saying her favorite word over and over. "Ball"

My neighbor Janelle with her 5 month old son Tanner and a friend Dave with his 8 month old son, Max.

Wyatt opening up our gift of Moonsand. He was a ghost for the costume party.

Don't you just love this dress. Way to go Macy's for having such cute clothes and good sales.

Playing with some drumsticks and sitting in a bumpo seat. She loves all of Tanner's baby gear, including her swing she used as a baby.

Whacking the pinata. She actually made contact with the pinata. This was definitely cute to watch.

Building towers. One of her favorite passtimes these days. Her cousin's taught her a lot about building when we were in Sunriver. Thanks, Parker, Stockton and Xavier. She has been going over to the refrigerator and pointing to their pictures. She says her cousin Hope's name pretty good. Still working on the other three.

Christmas Tree Farm

This past Thursday, we took the opportunity on a nice sunny day to pick out our tree at a local Christmas Tree Farm. It was so nice being able to drive five minutes from our house and have the choice of several farms to go to. It was also great to support a local business in the area. At Alder Creek Farms they also have several horses and they happened to have a few pug dogs who greeted us as we drove in. Here is Meadow admiring the pugs. They were actually very sweet dogs. Mt. Hood is faintly in the background if you look really close.

I always love the little trees. I guess I just can relate to all the short little trees.

Saying hi to the horses

Aren't these little one's so cute?

Saying goodbye to the horses

Decorating the tree

Meadow was very proud of herself for putting an ornament up. She always claps her hands when she is proud of herself or we say, "good job."

Thankgiving Vacation

We just got back yesterday from our annual trip to Sunriver with Todd's family. I believe this was the 23rd year of the tradition. We were sorry to not be able to bring home the spoons trophy this year. But, the trophy must have been getting bored at our house and will get to experience life at the Wubbena's for a year. Tonia took home the trophy after a hard loss for her Oregon State Beavers earlier in the day. We stayed in a very nice house, which had room for all 11 of us. There was lots of good food to be had all weekend and lots of fun things to do. Although, we really missed the snow to play in. We spent a lot of time biking around the paved trails and enjoying views of the Deschutes river. We got a little bit of Christmas shopping done at the local mall. Todd, hiked up part of Mt. Bachelor with Jeff and Heidi and skied down a ways before it got too rocky. The rest of the crew played in the wee bit of snow that was on the ground.

We also spent time at the local athletic club enjoying their pool and the Florider (indoor surf wave). I got the hang of it a little more this year. So, we all had a nice weekend and Meadow really loved spending time with the boys and would squeal when they would come downstairs in the morning. She wanted to go in their room every morning and wake them up. too cute. I think she is definitely getting ready for a sibling. I guess we will need to work on that in the near future.

Meadow getting excited to leave for Sunriver
Playing hide and seek

The Wubbena's playing Rockband

The boys were really interested in what was inside the turkey. It was pretty cute to watch Ghanny pull out all the innards from the turkey.

Meadow and the boys used these blocks all weekend to build different things. She got really good at building towers.

Hope enjoying her toys in the exercauser

Meadow and Xavier in the Charriot. Meadow took a couple of her naps while riding along with us on our bike rides.

The civil war game (U of O vs OSU) was on Saturday. Meadow cheered on the ducks for a big win. For those who don't know. Todd went to U of O and Tonia went to OSU.

The rivalry begins

It was really exhausting cheering for the Beavers.

This year, Xavier and Parker played in the annual spoons championship. Both the boys hung in there for a while. But, spoons is a ruthless game and poor Xavier got out pretty early in the game.

I made it to the final five, but my husband was a tough competitor across the table.

Stockton playing charades for us during intermission

The Final Three

Final Two

Todd hands over the trophy

Hope hanging out with Dad
Todd surfing

Xavier did an awesome job on the boogie board. It was really amazing watching such a fearless 4 year old.

Me, attempting to surf.

In the kiddie pool with Meadow