Happy New Year!

Christmas with the Kuffners: Rounds 1, 2 & 3

Christmas with the Kuffners is always a bit chaotic, what with 7 kids and 9 adults in attendance. It can be a bit overwhelming even for us veterans. This year, we were lucky to have the entire family together--the more the merrier, as they say, and also for mass confusion. We had to break gift opening in 3 rounds to prevent the kids from going into utter shock from all the love.

Round 1: Sunday, December 22nd at Mike & Cathy's House (Aunt & Uncle and Cousin gift exchange)

Let the chaos begin

Josie tickling Colette

Jackie boy

Round 2: Christmas Eve at Grandmom & Pop's/Stocking gifts/White elephant

The Cousins with Great-Grandpa Charlie Kuffner looking on (portrait above fireplace)

Our 4 peas in a pod

3 little ladies eating dinner

Vanessa digging into her stocking gifts from G&P

Josie scores a book!

White elephant selections 2007

Pop & Colette

Colette smiling :)

Cousin dog pile

Just in case you were wondering how many chins we now have, here's Mike and me

Here I am teaching my sweet niece, Miss Olivia, the art of the self-portrait

Round 3: Christmas Day at Mike and Cathy's
Unfortunately, Charles, Tiffany, Olivia and Audrey, and Kristin and Mike had to leave on Christmas morning. After making airport runs and attending Mass, we finally were able to open presents from Santa!

Santa came!

Just starting to open...

Vanessa got her first real big kid present: an iPod (refurbished 3rd generation Nano)

Jack got what he wanted: he'd been asking for the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for weeks

Josie got puppies!


Josie got some supercute new clothes from Aunt Ei & DC

Declan picked out this cute purple unicorn just for Vanessa--she LOVED it

Josie opening gifts from G&P

The kids got wonderful gifts from all. We feel truly blessed to have been able to spend Christmas with the entire family! It was a special treat to have Charles, Tiffany, Olivia and Audrey here with us. We know it isn't easy to travel away from home with small children over the holidays.

We look forward to 2008 and all it brings: a new nephew in April and, hopefully, Jack's service dog in March.

Thank you for being in our lives and keeping in touch. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families and friends-the best gift of all.

Happy New Year!

Family Holiday Gatherings

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying the holiday season. We definitely kept busy, so much so that we needed to create a calendar of all our events so that we could keep track of everything. (Go ahead. Make fun of us--Type A, over-organized freaks that we (I) are/am. But you try to keep track of 4 kids, school and holiday activities without losing your head without one.)

Stay with me as I try to chronical the last week.

Sunday, December 16th: Tiffany's Birthday
My sister-in-law, Tiffany, celebrated a birthday with us. We had a nice dinner at our house while the kids ran around.



Thursday, December 20th: OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science & Industry)

We spent a morning at OMSI visiting the Artic exhibit and playing in the science playground. The girls particularly enjoyed playing in the chipmunk treehouse and sliding down the polar bear slide.

Friday, December 21st: Bowling at Big Al's

Quite possibly the best time to go bowling with small children is at 10 AM. Big Al's was a ghost town, but we had a great time with the ginormous bowling alley to ourselves, bumpers and all. Vanessa did quite well beating everyone the first game!

Vanessa has great form: throwing is the newest strategy


Josie tried her hand at bowling even though the ball weighs just about as much as she is



Pop: bowling utopia

Miss Olivia trying Vanessa's bowling form

Baby switching: Charles holding Colette and I am holding Audrey

Here's a video of my niece, Miss Olivia, and her superb bowling technique.

Saturday, December 22nd: Declan's 4th and Kristin's 40th Birthday Party

We celebrated Kristin's 40th birthday party a little late (12/13) and Declan's 4th birthday a little early (12/27) at Grandmom and Pop's condo clubhouse. I busted out the camera equipment to take a family picture--despite what seemed like a thousand pictures, I wasn't able to get a picture with everyone looking. I wasn't terribly pleased with our choice of backgrounds as well, but I'm learning...

The Kuffner Family

(The whole enchilata...for now...)

Charles, Tiffany, Olivia & Audrey

Mike & Kristin

(baby on the way--April 2008)

Eileen & Declan

Miss Olivia helping Aunt Kris blow out her candles

Snuggles with Josie

Jack insisted that Mickey got a photo

Grace & Vanessa (2nd cousins) enjoyed each other's company

Aunt Kathy, Uncle Jim, James, Grace & Laura

Birthday Boy Declan with his incredible cake!

Sunday, December 23: Kristin's Baby Shower

Aunt Kathy and all her "Martha" glory, held a wonderful ladies luncheon in honor of Baby Dutton scheduled to arrive in April 2008. Kristin, Mommy-to-be, received wonderful clothes and goodies for her little baby boy.

Vanesssa's Advent Program

Vanessa has an Advent Program every year at her school. It is always very nice and everyone gets to get all dressed up. The kids are dressed in matching outfits thanks to Lola who sent them from Macy's! Thanks, Lola!
Vanessa sang very well and this year, we had great seats. She was front, but to the side--thankfully, the side we were on!

Cousins

So our 4 kids have 3 first cousins: Mike's brother, Charles, and his wife, Tiffany, have 2 girls (Olivia (3) and Audrey (10 mo.). Mike's sister, Eileen, has one son, Declan (4). Mike's sister, Kristin, and her husband, Mike, are expecting and their little one will be here in April. Unforutnately, my sister, Bern, and her husband, Shawn, have yet to procreate, so my kids have no cousins on the Rubio side.

Here's a picture of the cousins this weekend for the first time all together in one state. Charles and Tiffany and the girls are here for the holidays.

Colette at 2 Months

Can you believe it? She's 10 weeks old! Here she is:

Happy St. Nicholas!

So, here’s the picture we took with Santa last weekend on my birthday. The girls did ok—note the look of sheer terror on Josie’s face--but Jack went running and screaming towards the hills the minute Santa came out, so he’s not in the picture.

I’m not a really big fan of Santa pictures any more because of the terror it seems to evoke in most children (just for the pacification of the parents), but these were free and the girls seemed willing—for a few seconds anyway.

Enjoy!