New Year's

Kids enjoyed a party at Grandma & Grandpa's while we enjoyed dinner and a movie. Happy 33rd birthday Alex!

Christmas Day

The girls decorated our tree entirely on their own this year, even humored me for the popcorn cranberry chain earlier this week. They decided to remove the ornaments from the lower 1/3 since we have a puppy who thinks she needs to taste them. Zoey tried a glass ball, broke it (obviously) and gagged on the pieces. It's only funny because she's okay, but it seems to have cured her curiosity. Sheesh. So this is our tree... ...and the presents Santa left beneath it.Zoey was just as excited as the girls. She flitted around like a crazy girl and enjoyed a new chew stick, squeaky duck and fluffy moose.Puppy's first Christmas :)
"This is the best day ever!"I love the contented play that Christmas brings.The Jones family joined us and we got to share in Jacob's first Christmas. He is two weeks old and SO precious! Lindsey was in sweet heaven with a real baby.

I love this.Sabrina, Sarahann, Josh & JacobIf we look old and tired it's because we are.It's been a long day. But a happy one. We had a nice dinner (well, I tried), played the Wii, rode bikes with Sarahann and watched (most of) Pirates of the Caribbean. Loved the Jack Sparrow fix. ;) Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at my parent's. I enjoyed cooking with my mom, who made a fabulous clam chowder from scratch, served with Alaska king crab legs, salad and rolls. Alex deep fried fish and chips since he's not a fan of seafood. Unless it's fried. :) Dad & Alex sporting headbands made by LindseyLove this of Lindsey & Kenny
Paul & me. I'm really going to miss him when he leaves next week. And yes, I'm still recovering from a horrible haircut. Horrible. A month later and it still makes me mad. Jamie & Ben, probably our biggest fans of the crab

A gift for Grandma & Poppy-daddyAfter dinner we played a couple Christmas songs-again with Bev's chimes. They are so fun. A couple times we were in hysterical laughter. So hard to capture but here's an attempt at it. (Sorry to have cut out Alex, Jamie and half of Kenny.)

Dad read us the Christmas story from Luke 2. Jamie and Lindsey got to open their presents from Ben, Grandma and Poppy-daddy since we wouldn't be joining them on Christmas-the first year we spent Christmas day without any extended family. It's complicated. Whoa!!

Trying out the Crayola Mix-em markers from Ben (so cool!)Ben's become quite the artist; here's one of his Pokemon characters.And while I was looking through a book of Ben's art, I found my ghost of Christmas future.

Hard to tell in the picture, but this very dark character is in a graveyard. Bwahh, ah, ah...I love you, my family. I always will.

Baker Family Tradition

Tonight we had our traditional Christmas dinner and program with Alex's family. Good food followed by playing a couple Christmas songs on the chimes I borrowed from Bev. Really fun-wish I had captured it on film. Then Emme read a poem about the Christmas wreath, we sang Walking in a Winter Wonderland, listened to a story about Santa coming to town (good job Wyatt & Molly) and Nicole read us a story she wrote about two friends who shared a beautiful Christmas despite one of the girls having cancer. Very impressive writing for an 8yr old. Then we watched our Nativity DVD from '06. Love you all!

Another Excellent Eagle

Yay Lindsey!

It's not all peaches and cream...

Last week. Zoey. Vaginitis & staph infection. Cephalexin. $138
Last weekend. Jamie. Strep. Zithromax. $175
Two days ago. Alex. Unauthorized transaction from his account. $556
Everyday. Laura. Anxiety, depression. Clonazepam. Uh, ???

Lindsey. Don't fail me now...

This Just Makes Me Laugh

The duck's expression maybe?

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Signs of Christmas

Torturing our puppy. So festive Zoey!This year I bought a pre-built gingerbread house and let me just say, it was brilliant-for this stage of our lives. Their only complaint? Not enough candy. :) Wrapping a couple special presents...

It's beginning to feel more like Christmas!

Some other "tis the season" events...

• Last week Jamie & Lindsey went to a craft night hosted by the young men and women from church. They made us some Christmas gifts-most of which they could not wait to have us open. So sweet! My favorite was the cupcakes with a note that said, "made with love, adult supervision, and proper sanitation." Heh, heh... An amazing event by our youth and their leaders!
• Two weekends ago, Lindsey got to go to ZooLights with Ali and her family. She loved it!
• We put our tree up and the girls redecorate it almost daily. They have no interest so far in making a popcorn/cranberry garland-a happy childhood memory of mine. Oh well.
• The dog. She likes to chew on ornaments. And she ate baby Jesus' head from the girl's Nativity set. Horrible.

Summer Is My Sunshine

Friday after work I headed to Vancouver to visit my dearest friend, Summer. She recently moved back from Idaho so it's much closer to visit now. Woo hoo! We had our traditional Papa Murphy's veggie pizza and watched a movie. Oh. And had Tillamook ice cream and peanut M&Ms. Shame, shame...Saturday morning we went to Terra del Sol Spa in Portland where Summer treated me to, hands down, the best relaxation and pampering I've ever had. We started in "The Grotto" where we checked out the Cote du Soleil room (actual sand on a heated floor, lit by full spectrum lights-with a mural of the beach, of course), soaked in the "jetted immersion tub," sat in the "thermal steam cloud" followed by the "Atlantis cool dip." Next we had hot stone massages and facials. It was fabulous-all of it. Thank you Summer. A million times, thank you! Someday, we will do this for a week. In the desert. Someday...

Ooo la la!So in the movies, when they look all amazing at the spa? It's a lie. Oily and a bit drunken. That's what you look like. Summer humored me for a little trip down memory lane...on our way home from Portland we stopped at the college-where we met, became the best of friends, and nearly died getting through the dental hygiene program. Strangely, after 10yrs we still felt panic going through those clinic doors...

We had lunch at Olive Garden. Always a favorite.And I finally got to meet little Zachary, almost 4mo old. Just beyond words, cute!!

We made cookies with Lilly, who is also adorably cute! Saturday morning she came downstairs to my bed, after asking her mom if her friend was still there. She asked if she could snuggle with me and melted my heart. I love you Lilly!BFFs still sporting the oily hair :)Just no words for how much I love you guys! Thanks for a much needed day away! (And for an awesome light saber fight Lilly!!)