You are invited...

To Acadia's very first piano recital! 

Date: Saturay, January 26, 2008
Time: 11:00 am

What?  That's past?  Oh, well then let me take you back in time to the moment when Acadia made her musical debut.  Keep arms and legs inside until we've come to a full and complete stop (and make sure the sound on your computer is on!)...

We are very proud of her!  She was bummed that she made a couple of mistakes but I told her that every single person made some mistakes and what is important is that she kept going!  I thought she did a great job!

(Incidentally, at the very beginning she is introducing the pieces she is about to play.  The camcorder didn't do a very good job picking that up.)

After all of the performers played their pieces, their teacher presented the prize to the student(s) who had the most stickers.  (Each week that a student does all of their practicing and completes the theory work and any other assignments she has given them, they get a sticker.  She keeps track and the student with the most, wins.)  There was a tie and Acadia was one of the winners!  The winners get little mini busts of music composers and there are several different ones, so as they continue to win, they will add more to their collection.  Acadia got Haydn today and it is already proudly displayed on her desk in her bedroom.

After the recital, which fortunately Ryan was able to take a long lunch for to attend, we took her out to lunch and let her choose the location.  She chose "Boffin' Bo's", otherwise known as Boppin' Bo's. ;)  It was yummy and I was really good, just ordering a cup of soup and a dinner salad... oh, and a milkshake - but I didn't get a huge sundae and a greasy sandwich and fries like I normally would! lol  Ryan had to rush back off to work so he left while the girls and I paid.  When we got to the car to come home, there was a beautiful bouquet of flowers on Cadi's seat with a note from her Daddy. :)  I hope to get a picture of Ryan and Acadia with the flowers, but for now, this will have to do.

I am really so proud of Acadia!  She is doing so well with the piano, she really seems to have a natural talent for it and I'm so glad that she enjoys it so much and WANTS to play.  I was also very proud of how she handled performing today!  She wasn't really very nervous, a little, but not super.  I think I would have been far more nervous than she seemed to be!  I'm glad that she is getting this experience and I hope that as she continues down this path that she will also continue to perform and share her talents with others.

An Update on Our Girls

Acadia has been very excited about a class party that she and her classmates earned today. She has posted in her blog about it, so go check that out. :) Today should be a really fun day at school, and not just because of the party! They start with Sharing Time (every Friday, but will be first thing this time because of the other things going on too), then have Art Appreciation (I think this is usually once a month, one of the student's aunt is a professional artist and comes in to do fun projects with them.), they also have P.E., and then there is the class party! She wanted her hair wavy and this is how it turned out...


She needed me to take a picture of her doing something for an art project today so we took a pic of her playing the piano...


Last night, Rori was playing on an exercise mat and literally, every 15-20 seconds or so, came up to me to give me a kiss. She was kissing whatever she could get, I did try to give her a kiss but sometimes she'ld just settle for my hand or arm. Then she would wave and say, "bye-bye" as she went back to the mat. lol When she was on the exercise mat, she looked like she was trying to do the splits! She would stand up and then let her feet slide apart until she fell down on her bum. lol

Last week, I found her with some chocolate candy she wasn't supposed to have.



She loves music and has lately been spending a lot of time just looking through this hymnal, sometimes "singing" along.

Winter in Oregon

It is clear and sunny with blue skies here lately.......with that comes colder weather.......down to freezing this morning. Delaying our morning walk until the sun is out a few hours.

Jeff is off on his volunteer job.......he drives the Friends of Florence van to Eugene and Springfield, once or twice a month, taking patients to their radiation sessions. He used the van when he needed it and is happy to help them by being one of their drivers now. Most days he is working out in his shop on furniture........
I resumed my cashiering one shift a week at the humane society thrift store here in Florence......it gets me out of the house a little and helps support the animal shelter. We haven't been doing any ceramics since September......our business client in Eugene was not paying us on time or communicating very well, so we said the little money we were making was not worth the stress !!!! I may do a craft show this year sometime.

They opened the permanent hotel and casino, Three Rivers, here and we will now have some top entertainers......we are going to see Michael Bolton on Monday evening.

Jeff is flying to Phoenix for two weeks next Wednesday to visit his Mother and brother......I leave for Spain and Portugal at the end of March.....all else is going very well here.....

ROBIN & JEFF

Vancouver is Twisted!

Here is a copy of a post in my personal blog called "Twist and Shout":

Okay, not so much shouting... but a heck of a lot of twisting!!!

Today started out pretty good. Ryan was staying home from work, sick. That part wasn't good but it was nice that he'd be around. Rori woke up doing great! She had been sick yesterday but she slept soundly for over 12 hours last night and I think that really helped her. I had a little headache, but other than that I felt great!

To give Ryan some quiet time to rest, Rori and I headed out to run errands. It was so nice and warm! We just wore sweatshirts and enjoyed our shopping. On the way back home, coming up from Portland, I saw some big, dark clouds over Vancouver. "Joy", I thought. Then I saw lightening - and a lot of it! Multiple strikes shooting straight down at the same time. Wow! If Ryan hadn't been sleeping, I would have called home to tell him because he loves a good lightening storm. I remember wishing I had my camera with me (as if I could have 1) taken a picture while driving, and 2) would have actually gotten a shot of the actual lightening strikes, lol).

Shortly after I got home, I saw that I had missed a call from my friend on my cell phone (Thanks for turning my ringer down without telling me, Honey!) so I called her back. "Oh, I was just calling to tell you about the tornados," she told me.

"WHAT?!?!? What tornados? Here???"

"Oh yeah!" She told me that we were under a tornado warning and that at least one had touched down, here in Vancouver! She saw that my car wasn't home and tried to call to let me know. Thankfully, I had been south instead of north, since that is where it had ended up going.

I should have turned the news on right then, I'm sure we had continual coverage seeing as how we NEVER get real tornados. We've had funnel clouds before, heck I've seen funnel clouds here... but we never get real, honest to goodness, categorized tornados. But by this time, my headache had turned into a migraine and I was in bad shape, and that was more important,so I just went to bed while Ryan watched Rori for me.

I finally got up about half an hour ago (my head still hurts but it's not as bad as before, thanks for asking ;) lol) and turned on the news. Sure enough, an F1 tornado touched down in Vancouver in at least 3 different locations. It's winds were 86-110 mph, the path was 2 miles long and 1/4 mile wide. Fortunately for us, it was all west and north of us. Unfortunately for those in those areas, thousands are out of power still because of it. :( There are a lot of home movies and pictures coming in, some are pretty impressive!

Acadia shared with us (maybe I'll have her post it in her blog too) that they were out at their lunch recess when the teachers started to yell at them to run inside. She said they were "herding" them and yelling, "Run, run, run!" She said she and her friends were thinking, "This must be serious, they NEVER tell us to run!" They were first guessing that their school was under "lock-down" but once inside, they were instructed to get on the ground with their heads on the floor and their hands over their heads, an exercise they've practiced before in "tornado drills", and they were told that there was a tornado in the area. She told me that a friend of hers was crying and I asked if she (Cadi) had been scared, she said yes. She said it kind of hurt to stay in that position, too. (I bet!) But she said that afterwards, the teachers talked to them about what had happened and assured them that the tornado had ended up being on the other side of town, but that they had needed to stay in that position just in case and kind of as another practice. I told her that since tornados are so unpredictable, it was really important for everyone to be careful because they can change directions and move so fast, you never know where they'll go next.

Fortunately, there have been no real injuries from the tornado but there has been a bit of damage. There was a boat house completely destroyed on Vancouver Lake, 90% the boats were destroyed too, it looks like. And there are lots of trees totally ripped out of the ground in the areas that were hit (several falling on cars or homes), as well as a lot of roofs stripped of their shingles, some with even the plywood torn off. (Mom, the pictures made me think of your house this weekend, the pictures from the air showed homes with large sections of just wood exposed and people were rushing to get tarps put over them before it got dark since we're expecting rain for the next few days still.) I don't envy them - especially since we JUST got our new roof put on!

Since no one got hurt, some of the stories that are coming out because of this are pretty entertaining. One man was working in some sort of construction, went to use the port-a-pot and as he was in it, the outhouse was lifted up and toppled over! Luckily, the guy had just been "finishing up" and was just "tossed" out the door before anything "unpleasant" got on him! (This guy headed home from work only to find a tree had fallen on his house! Double whammy, poor guy!) Other construction workers were digging a ditch when the tornado went right for them, they had to dive into the ditch they were digging to stay safe. One business put this on their billboard today, "Auntie Em It's a twister!" lol

So that was our excitment today! A tornado right here in Vancouver, WA!

Come on, Baby! Let's do the twist...


Acadia also posted a short blog about it, visit her blog to read it. I've posted other random posts in my blog (I try to post regularly.) in the last week too, some include pictures of the girls. :)

Acadia's Blog

Acadia has started her own blog. If you're interested in knowing what an 8 year old writes about in her blog, check it out! She named it after her favorite song right now, Nobody's Perfect (by Hannah Montana, her favorite singer). Her posting name is "lilangrygirl" which is the name she uses when she plays Star Wars on the xbox. lol

Here is a link to Cadi's Blog.

A Christmas Story

I posted this on my blog and thought I'd copy and paste it here. It includes pics from our time at with Kris, Jeff, Adam, Alisha, Scott, BABY AYVA!!!, Mike, and Debi. You should be able to scroll over most of the pics to get a caption...

Chapter One: Christmas Eve

First of all, Acadia ended up feeling much better on Sunday and fortunately, her friend felt better on Monday.  Whew! :)

On Christmas Eve, our good friends came over for dinner.  We wanted to share our annual Christmas Eve dinner with them and it was so nice!  The kids were really well behaved and we enjoyed having a quiet night.  We ate our usual: cheese, crackers, shepherd's loaf of bread, summer sausage, grapes, apples, olives, cider, et.  We sat on the floor on blankets and watched the short 5 minute Nativity video that the church came out with a few years ago.  Then we finished up our last day of our advent calendar where Cadi puts another part of the nativity scene on the magnet board and we read some scritures, a poem, and sing a Christmas Hymn.  Of course, the last piece was the Baby Jesus so that was perfect!  Afterwards, we let the kids play a little and the adults visited for a bit.  It was a really nice night. :)

After our friends left, we put Rori down for bed and Acadia got to play Santa's Helper for her first time!  She helped stuff Rori's stocking and set up a toy set for her.  She stayed up watching Christmas with the Kranks with us and finally we kicked her off to bed so Santa could come for her. ;) 

Ryan had told my aunt he'd bring a cheesecake to dinner on Christmas and he waited to start it until then, so he was up pretty late!  (But the cheesecake turned out really good! lol) 

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Chapter Two: Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was so fun!  The girls both woke up just before 7am.  Ryan, who had only gotten to bed at 3:30, was so sweet and patient!  He woke up and didn't even make the girls wait.  He was ready by the time I had Rori changed and we all headed out to see what Santa had brought.  It was so fun to see Rori experience Christmas - she loved everything!  She especially loved the Backyardigans playset that I won a few weeks ago! :)  Even though she would stop and check out other gifts that she got, she kept coming back to this one.  I'm so glad we won it! lol

Here are some fun pics:

First, Ryan and Rori in matching Christmas Gifts (apparently, mine is coming - they couldn't find my size in the stores so we're ordering it.  I'm super excited, I was hoping to get one!!!)

And here is Rori playing with a few of her favorite toys:

I have to admit that the kitties were almost a gift for me! lol  I got them because I wanted them!  And once they were opened, they spent a lot of time on MY lap! lol  These cats are so cool, they respond to your touch, they meow, purr, move, and the mom even kneads her paws when she's super content!  Finally, we have cats at our house that won't kill Ryan or Cadi (allergies)!  :)

Cadi had a great Christmas too!  Santa brought her a bathrobe (what she wanted most!) so she wore it the rest of the morning.  She also loved a little stuffed hamster that Santa brought.  Two years ago, we gave Cadi a hamster for Christmas and she named her Angel.  Angel died earlier this year, but this new little Angel won't ever die. :)

Cadi also got some Littlest Pet Shop toys, which she had really wanted.

Ryan spent at least 2 nights out searching for this sweatshirt - he went to at least 3 malls!  We knew she wanted it but it took awhile to find it.  It's a little big but that means she'll get to grow into it. ;)

And how can I leave out this?  Cadi LOVES Hannah Montana!  She got the 2 disc CD and a t-shirt... and her Aunt Debi gave her this...

Ryan got many things football: a jersey, a Patriots gift set, a Patriots football, an official NFL football, etc.  He did get a few things not football related, but that did seem to be the major theme this year.  He wasn't complaining!

I got a super cute bracelet that Cadi made for me, a couple really good books, some great cds, and a leather jacket!  I am also promised a Brady jersey. :D  (Now Cadi will be the only one without one, but she doesn't like football and doesn't want a jersey.  So we're not wasting the money! lol)

Here are some more random pics from our morning...

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Chapter Three: A White Christmas

Living in the Northwest, you don't really expect to have a white Christmas.  You can hope for it, but you just don't expect it.  The chance of getting one is about 1%.  Of course, as the holiday approached, we watched the forecast hoping it would show snow but all we saw was rain.  Then, on Christmas Eve, I heard a weather report say 80% chance of snow in the afternoon!  I hardly believed it!  But sure enough...

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Chapter Four: Fun with the Family

After we opened presents and chatted on the webcam with Ryan's parents back East, we got dressed and went to my aunt's house.  They gets a lot more snow than we do!  Here are some pics...

It was nice and warm in their house though!  We had a delicious dinner!  And it was fun to visit.  My cousin was there with her brand-new baby girl!  Ayva Belle was only one week old - exactly!  She was so sweet!

We had fun playing there, too.  Cadi loved playing ping pong.

There was a huge snowball fight after dinner!  Unfortunately, I don't have pics. :(  But I do have pics of Rori tackling Ryan...

Cadi was cold after playing in the snow and she wanted Ryan to wrap her up in a blanket, so he did...

It was a really nice Christmas and we really enjoyed every moment of it!  I hope you all had a great Christmas, too! :)

The End

 

 

Picture a Christmas

I have been posting on my blog but I think I've decided to post at least some of those posts here too, that way those who don't regularly frequent blogs other than this will still get our updates. :) So, here are a BUNCH of photos I just posted on my blog from the last couple of weeks...

I LOVE this time of year!  We have so many fun traditions and activities!  One of our favorite, newer traditions is attending the annual Festival of the Nativities that our stake hosts each year.  I think this is their 6th year and every year it seems to get bigger and bigger, better and better.   Here are some pictures from our experience this year (pictures taken two weeks ago):

First of all, we went on Sunday so we were still in our church clothes, we don't usually "dress up" to go to the nativities, it just worked out that way this time. 

This room is the "Home Sweet Home" room, they make it look like you're in someone's home.  It's cozy and warm and they have the cutest nativities in it!

The cultural hall has hundreds of different nativities set up.  There are so many different kinds!  Elegant, unique, international... It takes awhile to look at them all!

After we look at all of the displayed nativities (over 600 in all!), we go to the Children's rooms.  It's the girls' reward for being patient and well-behaved in the other rooms.  In the children's room, there are hand-on, kid-friendly nativities.  Finally nativities we can touch and play with!  Rori just loved running around (surprise, surprise!), Cadi liked dressing up and getting pictures at the stable.

And finally, before we left, we visited Joseph's Workshop where Cadi made a little decoration (Jesus in a manger) and colored a picture.

Last weekend, we visited our good friends in Idaho.  This is another tradition.  When we lived in Idaho, we became such close friends and since most of us didn't have family close by, we started celebrating holidays together.  Now that we've all spread out a little bit and don't get to see each other as much, we make an effort to visit at least every Christmas season and have our annual Christmas Party.  It's ALWAYS a blast!  We keep adding more and more kids, so it's getting bigger and bigger every year - but that just means more fun, right?  Here are some pics:

We started this gift exchange when there was only one kid in the group.  Now we have a kids' gift exchange and an adult exchange.  The stories are usually pretty fun - about Riley Right.  Left, right, right, left, and... LOTS OF LAUGHTER!

The next day, on our way to church, we stopped by the Twin Falls, ID temple.  It is almost finished and should be operating sometime in the next year!

Later that night, we read the scriptures about Christ's birth and let the children act it out.  This is always pretty entertaining.  No one dressed up to play their part this year... except for Sleeping Beauty. ;)

And that brings us to THIS past weekend!  Friday night we went to our ward Christmas party.  The children did a great job on the Nativity...

And finally, here are some random pics from the last few weeks...

Rori LOVES playing with the Fisher Price Nativity set...

And now that we have our front room finished, I actually get to put up a tree in our front window!  We have a tree in our family room that is fun and has all our ornaments that contain lots of special memories but the front room tree is my "pretty tree".  I like how it turned out...

Was that enough photos?  We hope you are enjoying your holiday season as much as we are! :)