Holiday Catch Up
Sorry for the silence - we've been focusing on a relaxing holiday spent with family across three states. Here's a start at catching you up on all that's been going on.
We started our vacation in Houston a couple of weeks ago where we got to spend time with the Sanford clan. Shelly's house in Houston served as home based and Stacey joined us there for about a week. It was so great to get to spend time with the family this early in the holiday season.
First order of business: Kennedy put Stacey to work reading to her.
We also had shopping and Santa viewing to do at the Houston Galleria Mall. Talk about an adventure - this mall is truly huge and audaciously adorned with every high-end fancy store you can imagine. It is always a bit surreal to see lined up the stores for Coach, Burberry, Juicy Couture, etc. Despite the plush goods and amazing holiday decorations, the most beautiful site - by far - was our family. Here's Stacey and Oliver.
Finally, no trip to Houston would be complete without a trip to the
Spanish Flowers restaurant where they serve hand-made tortillas and deliver rousing entertainment with the mariachi band. Here are Stacey and Alex (Robin's main squeeze) smiling at Oliver with the musicians in the background.
Oliver really enjoyed the music; her he and I are watching the mariachi band.
Labels: Bean; Kennedy Photos; Aunt Shelly, Beans, Christmas, Kennedy, Oliver Del, Oliver Del; Stacey, Our Family, Sanford Family
Ho Ho Ho...
This week the family is in Houston enjoying the pre-holiday festivities. As part of our annual tradition, we went to see Santa Claus at the mall. This was Kennedy's fourth trip to see the main man and she was still a little shy around him. Oliver, on the other hand, could barely take his eyes off of the funny man with a white beard.
Crazy schedules will likely keep us further from the computer than we'd like; we'll try and include updates as we can.
Labels: Kennedy, Oliver Del
More Snow Photos
We connected with our neighbors and headed towards the small hill in the area for some sledding. Here's Jan with Kennedy.
Here are Zoe and Kennedy:
Oliver didn't go with us but he did get to go outside for a snow visit.
Labels: Beans
Snow View From Front Porch
Snowwwwwwwwwwwwwwing... It started about 7:30 a.m. here and it is piling up.
Inside things are normal. Kennedy is playing a game. Oliver is taking a nap. Susan and Sheryl are cleaning, cooking, supervising kids, watching the news, etc. Early this morning 2 whole chickens went into the oven beer can style. We're going to have a lot of chicken to eat now that the snow has effectively made travel to our house too trecherous for our lunch guests (Grandma and Grandpa Anderson)!
Here's a photo of Sheryl and Kennedy ready to head out the door to play in the snow.
Labels: Snow
Hoffman / Anderson Family Christmas
The Hoffman / Anderson clans gathered together for a holiday family celebration this past weekend. Kennedy the elf (seen here handing a present to Uncle Eric) helped Grandpa Anderson pass out gifts.
The hit of the evening was Oliver's Tow Mater truck from Uncle Eric and Aunt Peggy.
Labels: Anderson Family, Hoffman Family
Sunset, Ear Infections and 1st Tooth
Tinker Bell Kennedy pulled out the art supplies and painted the "sunset" this past weekend.
Today we took both of the kiddos to see our aweSOME pediatrician Dr. Pritchard. Unfortunately, Oliver has an ear infection in his left ear and Kennedy has an ear infection in her right ear. Poor babies.
Oliver's first tooth (bottom front, left) finally broke through at 9 months straight up. It was a tough job getting that tooth out. The one right beside it will make its debut very soon. We can see the white under the gums. Ouch!
Labels: Kennedy art; Beans
Some Random Weekend Photos
Kennedy took this picture of a wrestling ring toy her Uncle Stacy gave to Mommy Sheryl last christmas. Kennedy found the toy in Mommy Sheryl's closet and said "You need to share!"
Kennedy put a dried up wet wipe on Oliver's head for no particular reason. Oliver didn't seem to mind.
Cousin Katrina came over for family movie night. We watched
Fred Claus.
Labels: Beans; Anderson Family
Reduce Reuse Recycle
Kennedy is looking for the recycle symbol on the bottom of this container. She tells us it is easier to see if you use the flashlight.
We look for ways to reduce reuse and recycle. Honesly, reducing is one of the hardest things to wrap our arms around. Why does Costco have to wrap their organic apples in that big plastic bubble wrap? We want the apples, but not the plastic. Sometimes we buy the apples anyway. When we do make purchases, we try to find things that are made from or packaged in recycled plastic or take our own coffee mugs or bags to the coffee and grocery stores respectively. We get the Sunday
New York Times in paper form (there's something about holding the paper in your hands) but read the rest of our news online. We recycle a lot at our house as part of our regular routine (glass, paper, plastics, aluminum, etc.). Portland has co-mingled recycling now and that has been an aweSOME change for us making recycling even easier. Our recycling reduces our actual landfill garbage to ≤ a 48 gallon can every week. Anyway, reduce reuse recycle is an ongoing family effort to which we are committed. Fortunately, that is a shared value in our beautiful city.
Labels: Bean
Photographer Kennedy
Kennedy took this picture of an art piece made by her Aunt Shelly.
Here's a picture of our little photographer. She's wearing the sock monkey pajamas that Ted, Heide and Cassius got her for her 3rd birthday.
Labels: Bean; Kennedy Photos; Aunt Shelly
Decorating the Tree
Kennedy brought her special gingerbread button person ornament she made a few years ago to help decorate the tree at Grandpa and Grandma Anderson's home.
This was her first ever tree decorating experience and she had a lot of fun.
If you see a lot of decorations on the right side of the tree about the 3 1/2 foot level, then you can thank Kennedy! She decorated all over, but this was her favorite go to spot.
Grandpa helped Kennedy with the final touch-- putting the angel on top of the tree.
After decorating the tree Kennedy had a little human horse (Sheryl) riding fun.
Oliver, when he wasn't trying to put his hands in the dog water bowl, mostly played in the living room.
Labels: Beans; Anderson Family
Christmas Tree Hunting
We went Christmas tree hunting at a tree farm in Oregon City with Grandma and Grandpa Anderson. Kennedy thought this ginormous tree was a good one to cut down!
Grandpa favored this style of tree.
Oliver had no spoken preferences.
Grandma thought this was a nice tree.
We all decided this was the tree and Grandpa cut it down.
Labels: Beans; Anderson Family
Squash and Apple Cooking
Susan went all Mommy Chef on us and cooked up most of the organic apples and squash for
Baby Oliver (a name combination he is still known by among Kennedy's friends). Here's a photo of some the squash cubes before they were placed in the freezer.
And here's a photo of Oliver enjoying the yummy home cooked food.
Labels: Oliver Del
Froggies and Tickle Monsters
Zoe came for a visit last week. Here she is playing froggie with Oliver.
Kennedy brought the tickle monster in to the play scene.
Labels: Beans
Oliver and Toby
Pacifiers are good for a few things... settling down to sleep, quieting during a plane takeoff or landing, or - importantly - serving as a barrier between dog fur and baby... This photo was one we took at Grandparents Anderson's house over the weekend. Oliver so loves the dogs and we so love the role this particular piece of plastic is playing in staying between Oliver and sucking on doggy fur!! More photos of doggy love, Christmas Trees and family soon...
Labels: Anderson Family, Oliver Del
