Christmas Tree Lighting - Downtown Portland

On Friday night, Erin, Jason, Conner, Dad, Bryce and I went to downtown Portland to say 'hi' to Santa Claus at Macy's and then to watch the Christmas Tree Lighting at Pioneer Square.

First stop - Santa's Workshop where all nine of his reindeer greeted us.Also at Macy's was an antique train display. Conner got to sit in a mini-caboose...choo choo!Next, off to see the tree lighting at Pioneer Square with about thousands of other Portlanders.

Ta-dah! The Chirstmas Tree looked beautiful all lit up. What a wonderful way to kick off the Christmas Season!

On a Hunt for the Perfect Christmas Tree

On Saturday, Bryce and I set out to find our Christmas Tree. It was no small task. We asked Jason and Conner to come with us as we knew that we would need as many eyes as possible searching for 'the one'. Once we found the tree farm that passed our quality inspection, we pulled on our work boots, grabbed our gardening knee-pad and saw and set-out to find our tree.

Thanksgiving Turkeys

'Gobble 'till you Wobble' - a cute phrase that I found on the internet while looking for a new background for our blog. We definitely gobbled down a lot of delicious dishes this Thanksgiving and I must say that I feel like wobbling today after all of the good food that I've had this weekend.

In the spirit of gobbling and wobbling; Conner, Erin and I made nine Thanksgiving turkeys out of pinecones, silk flower petels (feathers and waddles), plastic grapes (heads), and sparkling gemstones (eyes). They turned out to be quite cute and we used them to decorate the table and hold the placecards that Erin made.

The Turkey Workshop

Our completed masterpieces!

The turkeys at the table

Meanwhile, Grandma Brown held her new great-grandaughter, Ashlyn. What a yawn!!!

After a good stretch...

the little princess was fast asleep.

Conner having fun with the olives

Garage Makeover

Three weeks ago, Bryce went with the boy scouts on an overnight campout to Silver Falls. He was cold. He was camping not only with 12 and 13 year old boys but with mischievious, cooler-opening, and fiesty racoons. Meanwhile, back in West Linn (aka Comfort-land) Carolyn was enjoying a warm, night of comfort at home. What to do while her husband was away camping? Hmmmm....after much thought, she decided that she would surprise her husband with a clean and organized garage. See below for the results of her labors...

Before...

Behold the wreckage...

The assembled shelves at 10:00 pm Friday night. T minus 15 hours before husband returns...

And the end result! After making two trips to Costco, one trip to DI, and one trip to the dumpster to throw away the heaps of cardboard boxes left over from our wedding gifts.

Ahhhh...one could almost live down here now:)

Welcome Baby Ashlyn and Happy Halloween!!!

Last weekend, Bryce and I visited Erin, Jason, Conner and Ashlyn in Kennewick, Washington. This was our first time meeting Ashlyn who was born on October 23 weighing 6 lbs. 6 oz and measuring 18 1/2 inches. I forgot how tiny new babies are!

Ashlyn & Uncle Bryce

I had to get a picture of this one! We found Conner in this position during his afternoon nap - with only his head on his bed and the rest of his body sprawled out on the floor.

Conner and Grandma making Halloween sugar cookies...yum, yum!!!

Conner's blue-eyed cat

Fact: Conner's first word was 'football'. He now owns no less than four Seattle Seahawks football jerseys. And for Halloween he was a 'football guy'. Is this not the most authentic-looking mini football player that you have ever seen? A few pairs of women's shoulder pads were sewn into his jersey to give him some extra football guy padding :)
The Heisman Trophy Models...

Ready to Trick-or-Treat!



Holding Ashlyn one last time before saying goodbye

We had a wonderful time visiting our family and meeting Ashlyn. We love being an aunt and uncle to two ADORABLE nephews and now a niece!