Kids Say the Funniest Things

Henry has a fear of Jesus. Yes...Jesus.

Long story short, at the church we used to go to by our old house the priest was a big man, with a long beard, and a BOOMING voice. He scared the daylights out of Henry. When it was time to say "peace be with you", he went around to everyone (it was small church) to shake his/her hand and inevitably when he got to Henry, Henry would cry. Henry thought he was Jesus. So, whenever we would go to that church he would yell "I don't like that Jesus". Not a good thing to have your child screaming at church.

We have changed churches, but the fear still sits in Henry. He also doesn't like it when the church is full of people (can you say mini-Mark?).

Anyways....lately we have been talking about how Christmas is Jesus's birthday and that is why it is really important to go to church on Christmas. (aka - it is not just about the presents)

This morning Henry says to me "Hey mom....what about this, what if we didn't go to church but we called Jesus and sang him Happy Birthday".

I nearly lost it. I love being a parent to young kids...

Snow Day

Today was really fun. We had a "snow day" at the house. As you can see by the video above, Francie LOVED watching the snow and Mark shovelling it off the deck. Party!

Mark also had fun. He snow boarded down our hill....twice. He appreciates chair lifts a LOT more now.

Car Pileup

http://www.kgw.com/perl/common/slideshow/sspop.pl?recid=13595&location=www.kgw.com

Check out the link for pictures of a car pile up in our neighborhood! This is on our local news website. We finally had a neigbhor pay a guy with a bobcat to come plow our street. We have been getting in out with 4 wheel drive and snow chains.

Winter Wonderland

We have had the unusual joy of snow here in Portland. When we bought our house, we knew we were increasing our chances of having snow as we are at the top of a hill and above 1000 feet. However, this storm has hit all of Portland! Today was the first day that was warm enough to go out play and we made the most of it. Our hill is REALLY steep, so it will be fun when the kids are older and I will need to sled with them (for safety reasons of course). On Tuesday, I passed a snowboarder as I drove up the hill to work. Hysterical.

Francie's 6 Month Milestone

Francie turned 6 months on Sunday. Above is her 6 month picture.
Check out the rockin mini-skirt - own it girlfriend.

Below is Henry's 6 month picture. He definitely had chubbier cheeks!

Bring it on!

Francie turned 6 months this weekend and had her first meal. Um.....I think she takes after her mother. She LOVES her food. She leaned forward the ENTIRE time and ate the whole bowl. Mark already calls her "mini Big Gulp" (his loving nickname for me due to my ability to drink A LOT) and I guess now she will be my fellow piglet. Auntie KK was here for the big event (Francie is going to be baptized this weekend).

WARNING: The video below will only be interesting for Grammy Kris and Grandpa Gordon. I thought they would be tickeled to see Francie with her spoon at the end of a feeding.

5 Months

Francie

Henry

Budva and Frankfurt

So I finally made it back home from overseas 5 days after I was supposed to be home. On the Tuesday I was in Montenegro (after I had got all my passport renewal forms filled out on Monday) I took the bus over the mountains from Podgorica to the coast. The main tourist attraction in Montenegro is Budva. I was there a little late in the season but it was a beutiful day and there were even some people swimming in the ocean. The city has an old walled town that sits right on the ocean. It also has many beaches some hidden in little bays.

The next day my passport arrived from Serbia and I was free to go. I flew out Wednsday afternoon and had an overnight layover in Frankfurt. My hotel was near the airport but I took a taxi into the city and the train back. Everyone was busy setting up Christmas decorations. I managed to find a Bavarian restaurant and had a giant stein of beer and sausage.

This guy was selling sausage on the street with his mobile grill which I thought was pretty cool.

Reuland/Griswald Saturday

Today was classic Reuland/Griswald. We had a family photo shoot today for Christmas cards. Given that Henry is not a fan of posing for the camera (seriously...if you ask him to smile for a picture, forget about it) I decided to make the morning fun-filled so that he might go with the plan. After playing an hour of basketball with him I decided to bring up the photo shoot and that he would need to wear one of the shirts I bought him. That is when it got a little hairy...right now he will only wear shirts with numbers...two numbers. After that struggle was over I went to get Francie dressed only to realize that the awesome Christmas dress I bought Francie yesterday (yes...last night..nothing like planning) was NOT in the bag. Lovely. 1 hour until the photo shoot and I have no clothes for her in red to match the rest of us. So...we stopped at the mall....on the way to the photo shoot. Yes..I was that frantic shopper running into the mall, picking a dress in a minute, sweating as I paid the person, who then sprinted out. I had to dress and nurse Francie in the parking lot in ten minutes flat so that we were not late. I seriously looked like I was in menopause with hot flashes when it was our time to have our photo taken...can't wait to see how they turned out. Henry posed for NONE of the pictures and insisted on telling the photographer that no smiling was going to happen today. Charming. As you can see below, Francie continues to be the drool master - I love the stream of drool going into her lap. When we got home Henry immediately put his Blazer jersey on and went to the backyard for a serious game of soccer and golf. The video above is the interview afterwards. (One bit of background: One big theme in our house right now is the importance of protein to grow. Henry is not a big fan of meat (any kind- even chicken), beans or anything with protein. Every time he picks up fruit or vegetables, he asks with a hopeful tone ... "Does this have protein?")

Beach Babe

It is official. Francie LOVED the beach. She smiled the whole time. It looks like we will be spending a lot of our weekends down in Manzanita. Check out her two teeth! Henry didn't get his until he was 7 months, but Francie got hers a few weeks ago when Mark was in Montenegro. She seems to be working on her third...the drooling and lack of sleep is slightly insane.

Baseball at the Beach

After Francie went to bed, we had a raging game of baseball at the beach house. Here is a highlight. The kid is out of control.