Merry Christmas!!!

We hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed

2008 Christmas!! We hope you have joyous

times with family and friends and that you

remember the true meaning of Christmas!

Happy Birthday Jesus!! We love you!!

~Aaron, Kelly and Owen

Christmas Morning at our house.

It was so fun this year b/c

Owen really got into Christmas

and opening presents. He came

wondering into our room at 6:30 am.

He marched right down the step and

sat down in front of the tree with

all the presents. He started graping

for then before we were even ready.

He was so EXCITED!!!

Looking around at all the presents and

wondering what this thing called Christmas

was really all about!!!

For Christmas Owen got a train track and
trains to go with it. He has been into "trains"
lately and seem so intrigued by them. He
also got his "Hess" truck from great-grandma
Hess and absolutely loves it. It is by far his
favorite toy and I don't think he has barely
put it down. It is a pretty neat truck and has
a little skid loader in the back of it. It makes
so many noises and has a lot of different
features to it. It is a great truck!!!

Christmas Eve we went to Cole Community for
a Christmas Eve Service with Aaron's family. Then
everyone came back to our house for appetizers and
pick foods. It was a lot of fun with good food and
fellowship. Christmas Day we went to Aaron's Aunt
and Uncle's house for a Prime Rib dinner and had
a nice relaxing day. Can't believe Christmas
has come and gone already. We are heading to
Portland on Tuesday to do Christmas with Aaron's
family over there. Can't wait!! Hope you all
had a wonderful Christmas!!

Owen and Santa

Last weekend at Aaron's work they had

a little thing for the kids and guess who

showed up, but Santa!! Owen wasn't

quite sure of him at first but he did

sit on his lap after he saw Santa was

giving out candy canes!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS!!

And a lot like winter with all the snow!!!

It has been cold and windy with a lot of

snow dumping!! They are calling for more

snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

We might just have a WHITE Christmas!!

Owen and mom!!

Owen standing in font of our tree. It was very
cute because I told him to go stand in front of the
tree and he actually did!! I was pretty impressed.

Owen being silly. He found this box and
thought it was pretty fun to play in it.
What kids find entertaining!!

Peek a Boo

Owen has been quite the hand full at times lately.
I always thought he did pretty good at not getting
into things, but guess I was naive to that all. I
was working out in my room today and came
down to him having a bag of chips and a bag of
snack mix all over the house...well really only the
crumbs. I think he was feeding the rest to Koda
and I am sure he was snacking on some himself. He
is so busy and into everything. He dumps Koda's
water out or all him food into the water bowl.
Yesterday he helped himself to some cookies he found
in the pantry. I guess my lesson is I can't leave him
along and I need to get things on all my door
handles to keep him from getting into things
he shouldn't. Oh well.... guess he could be into
a lot worse things. He is getting in and out of his
crib all the time. He gets out and throws tons of
books into his crib. Needless to say he does get
back in and will fall asleep. Hence his big bed he is
getting for his Christmas present. He is going
through the lovely 2's that all parents just love.
The fun and trying times of kids....got to love them
though for all they explore and image!!
Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas.

Gingerbread Houses!!

This afternoon a bunch of girls I work with

and their kids came over to decorate

gingerbread houses. It was so much fun.

We bought our kits at Costco so it had

everything we needed in them to decorate

our houses. It has been such a long time

since I have done a gingerbread house.

As you can tell, was the pretties one around, but

we had fun and that is all that matters!!1

Owen started out helping since he discovered all
the candy and thought it was pretty fun to grab
and eat whatever he wanted. Once he learned mom
wasn't going to let him eat all the candy, his
interest was soon gone and so was he.... off to
play with the other kids.


Look at me with all this candy and frosting!!!

Anyone looking??? Good... I can eat another piece.

Morgan and Owen

Michele and Morgan starting to make their

house. Theirs actually turned out really good

despite Morgan loosing interest pretty quickly

too leaving Michele to do most of it. I think

the adults had more fun than the kids.

Morgan testing out all the candy. Who

cares about decorating!!

Kim and Allie decorating their house. Kim

and I were having major issues with

our frosting. I think we ended up eating more

than we did putting our houses. Big surprise

I know....me and and frosting!!!

Melissa and her kiddos decorating their house.

Her kids actually helped the whole time and did

a very nice job at decorating their gingerbread

house. It turned out GREAT!!

Michele going crazy with her frosting. Jenny,

Kristen and Joey came too and decorated

their snowman which turned out very cute .

It was such a fun night. Thanks girls, will

have to do it again soon. Lots of laughs, food,

fellowship and friends....what more do you need!!

My Little Helper

Lately Owen has been wanting to help me

do everything!! Everytime I am cooking

or at the sink he want to be right there helping.

He is so funny. Last night I was making cookies

and he had to be right there helping!! Mixing,

stirring, dumping....doesn't matter he wants

to do it!!

Of course he thinks he can eat some too. Hence

the peanut butter and chocolate all over his face.
With a big SMILE of course!!!

Of course then he has to go to the sink to clean up.

WATER has seriously been his NEW thing this

week. Everything is water!!! The last several

nights he has played at the sink for at least a good

hour just entertaining himself. It is so funny just

watching him. He loves just standing there and

playing. The simple things kids have fun with.

Funny story...not so funny at the time, but looking

back I just have to laugh. While Owen was at

the sink playing so nicely (so I thought) I went

to look at something on the computer with Aaron.

After several minutes I went back to check on him.

Well....he has taken the sprayer from the sink and

with the water fully on started spraying down

the entire kitchen. It looked like a flood!! There

was water literally everywhere. Puddles on the

counter, the floor, the stove...it was everywhere!!

He acted so innocent too and like he had no idea what

he did was wrong. KIDS!!!

Double Coupons=Screaming Deals!!!

Well as most of you know, I do not consider myself

to be a bargain shopper or search for the best deals

or the lowest prices. Well.... I have a few friends

that are coupon aholics and find these crazy

"SCREAMING" deals as they would say!!! Anyway..

Kmart was offering double coupons last week on

some groceries items, but were running out of

most things. So my friends thought they would

call Wal-Mart to see if they would honor the

double coupons. To make a VERY long story

short, they did honor the double coupons for

a while. So all the groceries above totaled a

$172 dollars and some odd cents. However,

with all the coupons, I only payed $24 dollars!!

Now that is a Screaming deal!!

The Exploration of our

Christmas Tree

2008
This morning we drove with our friends

the Hansen's up to Idaho City to find
our Christmas tree. It is our little
family tradition that we started last
year. You get a permit for $10 and
can go into designated areas and
cut down any tree. It is so much fun!
It wasn't nearly as cold this year as
it was last year and there was hardly
any snow. It was drizzling a bit this
morning and we got a little wet, but
the kids loved it and had fun running
around!!! It is such a great way to
get a Christmas tree.

We drove for a ways and then had a brilliant

idea to take this path back into the woods to

see if we could find the perfect tree. Needless

to say we got a good little workout. The guys

hiked a ways in ahead of us and said they

found the "perfect" tree. So Kim and I had to

hike straight up this mountain with kids in

hands to get to the spot. I am sure it was

quite the site seeing up. Poor Owen kept

saying "fall" because I think he thought I

was going to drop him right down the

mountain. It was a good laugh once we

made it safely to the top!!

Blake with the kids taking a break while

Kim and I checked out all the trees to

make sure we found the best one!! The

guys were getting inpatient with us

since it was taking us so long.

Image that!!!

Aaron did find our tree. I looked around

for a long time, but went back to the one

he said was "perfect." So he cut it downed

and we found one for the Hansen's and

out we hiked with our trees!!

The guys and our Christmas Trees!

Owen and Allie posing with the trees. I think at this

point they were cold and getting tired. They did

really well though and it was such a fun day.

Tyler's Apple Orchard~Emmett, Idaho

Today I took my parents to the apple

orchard in Emmett. It was a beautiful

drive with all the leaves changing and

the weather was absolutely perfect.

We had fun picking apples and my dad

and Owen had even more fun throwing

the bad apples around.

Our bucket full of apples!!

Grandma, Grandpa and Owen

Owen trying to find a good apple to pick!!

The tree was perfect height for him!!

Nothing but smiles. He had so much fun

and grandpa can get him to laugh like

no one else can.

Owen on the endless road!!


Look at all those apples. We came home and

made applesauce and apple dumplings. Nothing

like fresh apples. Such a fun day!!!

Linder Farms~Pumpkin Patch

2008

Owen with his new best friend~

Grandpa!!! You will always

find Owen right by his side!!!

While my parents where here, we took
Owen to the Pumpkin Patch. It was such

a busy place with lots of people and

pumpkins everywhere!!

We took a hay ride out to the petting zoo

and then around the whole pumpkin patch.

Owen thought the tractor was pretty neat.

Owen petting the animals. Look...a camel!!


There was a zebra too!!

Owen and his daddy!!!


Owen driving the tractor and

thinking he is really cool!!!