Happy Thanksgiving 2006

We hosted Thanksgiving this year, after my one-year sabbatical for being pregnant. Well, I "passed Go" and it was my turn to do it up right for the family. We had a nicely blended family gathering, the 5 of us, Grandmom & Pop, Eileen & Declan, Bern & Shawn and Shawn's mom, Judy. Josie was our token "Poccohantas" dressed in the appropriate attire.

The meal turned out to be my best yet, with turkey, sweet potato casserole, garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus, broccoli casserole (Eileen made) and all the fixings--and of course, WINE. Dessert, provided by expert pie-maker, Judy Donihue, included pumpkin pie, lemon chiffon pie, and apple pie. Vanessa insisted on having something chocolate, so I made chocolate cheesecake.



Activities included lots of pictures, assembling our annual "tree of thanks" (but this time with a frame for our picture); (fake) tatooing the kids and all the adults with butterflies, baseballs, and hearts; and a round of "Scene It" (with Declan and Jack both continually moving our game pieces making it difficult to know what space we were on!). Food comas followed, but a good time was had by all.


We are thankful to God for giving us the gift of Josie this year, Vanessa & Jack, and keeping our family healthy and happy. We are thankful for everything we have and all that we are able to do. We are thankful for giving us our 10 years together, married and our 15 years total, together. Last, but not least we are thankful for our immediate and extended families, and friends that make our lives rich with love. Happy Thanksgiving!

Random Photos Fall 2006

Vanessa our Soccer Star

Vanessa had a great season--she's budding into quite the soccer star. Though we had some motivation hiccups this season, she insists she wants to continue playing. Her best moves that emerged this season are the heel kick (backwards to save the ball from going out of bounds) and assists on several goals!

Jack's 5th Birthday

We celebrated Jack's birthday twice this year. His birthday was on Friday--when we had a small immediate family gathering and cake #1, but we had his party the following day at the Portland Children's Museum (cake #2). (We fed Jack's train addition with a non-take-apart-able train table.)




We had a great time, Aunt Kris (Mike's sister) from sunny San Diego, CA, even came up to help celebrate.

Halloween 2006

Halloween this year was all about variety. We began our evening of trick-o-treating at Jantzen Beach mall--hitting all the generous stores there. We met Pop, Grandmom, Eileen & Declan there as well to get the obligatory cousins' Halloween picture.

Dr. Mike & Mini-Mermaid-Fairy Josie & me as an Stevensville H.S. Yellowjacket cheerleader (authentic letterman jacket and all!)

Next, we headed to our old stomping grounds at the University of Portland to hit the dorms. U.P. Residence Life has a wonderful program where all the dorms host local children trick-o-treating and a haunted house as well as other fun activities. All we needed was my old dormatory building, which is 8 floors, for pumpkins full of candy! Each floor was decorated differently in a theme. Our favorite floor was the "Finding Nemo" floor as it matched Vanessa's Little Mermaid costume. We only made it down 4 floors because the kids no longer had room in their pumpkins! A great time was had by all!