My Muchness

I used to be much more "muchier", and recently realized it. With oodles of help from Cory, and some much needed outings with friends, I think I've got my "muchness" back!

It started with visiting some of my bosom friends from Corvallis. I so needed some chatting with these girls that I used to talk to or hang out with everyday. Then some of my new friends surprise-kidnapped me to go out to dinner for my birthday this weekend. Yummy Thai food, Konditorei, and fun conversation goes a long way.

Back in the thick of the "muchness" search, Tessa and I met up with friends at the A. C. Gilbert's Discovery Village. I'm ever so glad Tessa asked her grandmas for a museum pass for her birthday, it's been awesome! The Gilbert House is 10 minutes from our house, super fun and generally empty during the day. (Thanks to Megan for the pictures, as my "muchness" forgot to charge the batteries to our camera.)

The China Room - Tea and learning about how to write Chinese Characters.

I would call this the Trippin' Room, it was very entertaining!

Bubble Room, messy but fun.

I love this picture, it sums up the crazy personalities these little girls have!

Oh, random side note: if you're not addicted to Downton Abbey, take a hit - it's real good!

What the December?

Here's what happened in December around here. With a busy Halloween and Thanksgiving, I never got around to making caramel apples. They finally got made and Cory was gushing over how pro-fesh they looked. So he took a couple pictures.

Cory took the girls on a Beach outing one Saturday, when I was not feeling well. They did lots of fun stuff like watch glass blowing, playing at the beach with friends, and eating off a frizbee at Mo's.

I HATE the Oregon DMV!!!! There are not enough words to describe my dislike for the need to re-title your car in OR, it's ridiculousness. Plus, it must be a hiring requirement to have only half a brain. This was one of my many visits to the DMV that Tessa documented. (I left out most of the pictures of random, scary people.)

Decorating sugar cookies before our trip to Utah.

Our Christmas trip to Utah was so fun, but very poorly documented. We had a great time with Uncle Adam (2 years since we'd seen this newly returned missionary from Finland) and Uncle Josh and Aunt Sydney (1 year since we'd seen them. Josh is our East coast, 3rd year med student.) We ate and played, picked out a Christmas Tree, went to a play - The Christmas Carol, had parties, visited Santa, saw the lights at Temple Square (and randomly a cute friend of mine from AZ), played games, slept, tried to play in the snow, homemade gingerbread houses, spent some time in Logan, went to Discovery Gateway, and ate more!

The girls were so good about church on Christmas morning. They came downstairs, saw the Kinect, and were totally cool about waiting to open presents until after church.

We all got some fun stuff, but we're especially excited about the Kinect Santa left us, my pressure cooker and new food processor, and Cory's trunk organizer.

Life is now back to normal. Although, I think I need to move closer to my mom, where I am served gourmet food with basically no effort on my part, and my children are put to bed without me even having to ask. I got more spoiled than my kids.

He's not the really, REAL Santa.

When Tessa came home from preschool she informed me that "Fake Santa" came to their class today. She said, "His beard was totally grey and he had sneakers on !" Oh, well.

Sanks-giv-ink

This was our 2nd Thanksgiving in Oregon and I attempted to host it this year. Two of my friends had just had babies (like a few day before and a couple weeks before) so I offered my house and my meager cooking abilities. I'm deathly afraid of the poultry cooking, so I had one friend do the Turkey and the other friend's mom did some drinks, a relish tray, layered jello, and a pie. Other than those things, I did the rest. It was actually a lot of fun, and nothing was a total bomb. Of course I wouldn't even think about taking a picture, so luckily a smart thinking guy snapped this one.

It was a relaxed affair and I'm pretty sure we were all sufficiently filled. The only semi-crafty thing we did was the girls made place mats out of leaves we collected and ironed between wax paper. My children absolutely live to play with this little group of friends so I think they were very grateful. Good times!

Tessa's 4th Year at OneTrueMedia.com

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Little Olys

Tessa started preschool in October. She asked everyday, for weeks, when she was starting school. It's a great program, done through the High School and she loves ALL her Teachers (the 17-18 year olds, taking Early Education Classes). We pay next to nothing and it's amazing! They have awesome activities, great snacks, and tons of one-on-one attention. Her birthday was the week before school started and when we walked in the first day, all the Teachers treated her like

she was the most special person EVER!

This suitcase is for the kids to bring a show and tell item in, and this is not the outfit I planned for the first day. Emory still lets me pick out whatever she wears, but with Tessa, it's a fight to get her to wear anything when she has her mind set on something else - generally a dress or skirt.

All Hallow's Eve

A large thank you to my mom for the costumes. Introducing . . .

Calvin and Hobbes!

Emory always wanted to be Calvin, but Tessa originally wanted to be an Angry Bird. My mom made the costumes and then still pumped out a Hobbes costume, in case Tessa changed her mind. She did, and that meant that the cute Angry Bird wouldn't get shown off. Enter Mom.

Sadly, the super cute stuffed Hobbes didn't get pictured, but not to worry, he is well worn and played with!