Our Majestic tree

Well this is it. Our beautiful Christmas tree of 2011. Decorated by Momma, Daddy, Jack, and Jeffie. (Jack got a hold of a corner of the tree and made his mark.) All in all, it turned out so beautiful. I love Christmas time.




Jack's mark on the tree.... I took a picture but then the OCD in me came out and I fixed it.

The Christmas Tree Hunt of 2011

Another year Christmas tree hunting. A little later than we had hoped this year, but between my Dad's, my sister's, and my schedule it was the time that we could do it. The last few years by happenstance, we have gone late in the season and the pickins' were pretty slim this year just like last. It doesn't help that I'm a bit picky when it comes to my trees. I need to have a specific kind which is usually the more expensive of the trees. (Mike says, "You got that right....") It can't be too big, but a small tree won't do either. It has to fairly symmetrical and full all the way to the top. Of course there is a give and take that comes with picking a tree for NO TREE is truly perfect. I think that we found a very nice one, spotted by Daddy this year. 7 and a half foot Noble fir. In all it's glory it is now standing very tall and proud in the kitchen. We had our nephew Jeffie over to help with the tree hunting and also with the decorating. I don't know who was more excited, Jack or Jeffie. It's amazing to see the wonderment filled in a child's eyes when the Christmas tree is lit for the first time of the season. Jack actually started singing "Jingle, jingle, jingle. You can hear those sleigh bells ring. I am old Kris Kringle. I'm the king of jingle-ing." I haven't been feeling the Christmas spirit as much as I normally do by this time of year but now that we have our Christmas tree up I'm starting to feel the Christmas love. I think this might call for a claymation Rudolf and original Grinch who stole Christmas marathon. As I type, we are getting ready to put the finishing touches on the tree. I'll post pictures when we're all finished.




















PS~ Thanks for letting me play with the new camera, Dad. Now I know what I want for next Christmas....

First snow of the season!!

It’s SNOWWWWWWED!!! I’m so excited and sorry to all those who didn’t get to particpate in it but I’m so happy it came! Jack was super excited, too. I told him to go look out the window and he said; “it’s snow. It’s Christmas! Santa gunna be here in 5 minutes, right Mommy?” I did have to break the news that Christmas will come in about 5 WEEKS, not 5 minutes. He looked at me like I was nuts. We then got dressed and had a snowball fight while Daddy cooked breakfast. It’s a good thing we went to play when we did because it was all melted away after about 6 hours. We were happy to have it for the little time that we did. Our fingers are crossed that we will get more snow soon….

Halloween F.U.N. 2011

Pumpkin hunting we went this year, but didn’t get home with any because they were all rotten, or really small. We did however have a fun day playing in the rain. Maris farm has lots of fun activities for kids which is one of the reasons we go there over other places. We got a nice break from the rain shortly after we arrived and it started raining harder shortly after we left. Maybe good luck or good timing but we had lots of fun. Jack had fun just running around. He was one tired pup at the end of the day.

Arkansas Lowmon family visit 2011

Mike’s family came to visit us from Arkansas just before Halloween this year. Normally only Bill comes, but this year we were treated to Bill (Mike’s dad), Pat (Mike’s step-mom), and Grandma Dee (Pat’s mom). We all had a wonderful time. We hadn’t seen Pat in several years and this was my first time meeting Grandma Dee. We spent a few evenings over at Billy’s house visiting. Boom cooked for all of us. She’s such a good cook; she should open her own restaurant. We had a great time and were sad to see them go home. Bill and Pat did try to talk us into coming to visit them, but the jury is still out on that one… ☺

Pierce family fun 2011

It’s been tradition for the last several years that my side of the family gets together some time in August to have a family BBQ. This year it was held at my Aunt Vicki’s new house out in Rainer. She and Daryl just had the house built this year and it is beautiful. I have since been dubbed the photographer for the event. This year, I was able to use my Auntie Linda’s NEW camera and I fell in love. This camera takes awesome pictures and they are crystal clear even with movement!! I sooo need a new camera. Hopefully there will be one in my near future, but probably not for awhile. We had the great privledge of having great uncle Dick and his family at the BBQ this year. He’s the only surviving member out of my grandfather’s 5 brothers. It was a real treat to have him and his family there with us. All in all, it was a great day. Lots of family, and really good food. What more could you ask for? Here are a few snapshots of the day…..














The pictures came out wonderful and auntie Linda if you camera comes up missing, I may have had something to do with that...

Summer Lovin'

WELL, someone fell down on her blogging job and I couldn’t even IMAGINE who that could possibly be. Alas, I will fess up and say tis MY fault. The hustle of life coupled with the loss of internet for several months got to me. So here I sit on my free day off trying to catch up on 6 months of living. It shouldn’t be too hard beacuase this summer gave us so very little sun. Such a typical Washington summer…. We did make the most of the time that we did have and spent it with family. Here are a few of the highlights...



We took several beach trips. Some were sunny, others not so much…







We planted a garden.



We took lots of rides in the Jeep.




Jack had his first OFF Roading attempt. I promise he wasn’t taking after MY driving…




AND, we gave up the binkie this summer also. One day, I couldn’t for the life of me find any binkies and Jack told me that the dragon ate them all. I went with that story and he didn't seem too traumatized. He’s only asked for it once or twice since. I can’t believe how fast kids grow.