Eric's 35th Bday

Eric loves the Carvel icecream cake that you can only seem to find on the East Coast. I was able to track down a few Walmart's that carry them so we drove to Vancouver to get one. It was pretty good! Eric was happy! We had a low key family bday celebreation at the parents. Eric got some great gifts...Eric says thank you again!!!!

Christmas Day 2008 Part II

We all decided on a Christmas Day menu that was easy so we could enjoy the day and not be in the kitchen the entire time. Eric prepared a New York Strip Loin Roast. We had the potato casserole dish from the family cookbook and a nice green salad. There were plenty of cookies and candy for dessert. The dinner was great.

The roast before.

The roast after. We should have taken a picture once it was cut into.

Jae was introduced to the whoppy cushion and had a lot of fun with that!
Serious Jae and the Nappers.

Christmas Day 2008 Part I

Christmas morning started for us with the traditional Monkey Bread. Mother used to make this for us when we were kids. Eric liked it. He did ask me why we couldn't just buy the cinnamon rolls they sell at the store that you just put in the oven. LOL. That would be to easy. I told him this was a tradition and to eat up. :) He did like them. However, Barb and I remember there being pieces of bread you could pull apart. We we have since learned that mother and/or Aunt Carolyn used to make it with the biscuits not the rolls. With the rolls...there is no pulling pieces apart but still very good. I must say it was not my best Monkey Bread but it was still good. Next time I will try using the biscuits.

Eric and I relaxed for a little but but then quickly got to the last minute details of getting ready for everyone to come over. There was some challenges getting the Grunwald Jae-Mobile up our hill. The road was still covered with snow. I got a call from Patty asking if there was another way to our house with less hills. Eric and I drove to the bottom of the hill in his jeep that has 4 wheel drive. As we are chatting with them, here comes Jake, Barb and Josh in the Honda Civic and they just plow up the hill. Apparently, one of Bill's chains had come off. Jake did have chains on the Civic. Jake dropped Barb and Josh off and came back down to help. They got the chain on the tire and up they hill they went. It really is not that big of a hill but this is the issue with snow out here. They don't plow the street so it makes it a pain in the @$$ for driving!

Once everyone was settled in the warm house with a drink in hand (we tried eggnog and brandy) we finally gave in to Jae pleading and begging to open gifts!

Christmas Eve 2008 - Family Photos

We were able to get a cousin photo in front of the tree on xmas eve.

We can never seem to get a good picture of the three of us but Bennigan was cooperating this night. Good Boy! :)

Tired Puppy!

I think he is pushing be off the couch!

Christmas Eve 2008

Christmas came and went very fast this year. I think the weather we had the week(s) before really made it difficult. You would think the snow would put everyone in the Christmas spirit but it made for difficult travel and shopping! We got through it. We were very blessed this year and got to spend Christmas Eve and Day with The Grunwald Clan. They usually go to Olympia to see Patty's family on Christmas day. We stuck with the tradition of Christmas Eve at the Parents with everyone bringing a few appetizers and hanging out. We had so much food! I loved Eric's bacon wrapped scallops! OMG! Barb made some yummy stuffed mushrooms. Josh made this new appetizer that was salami, cream cheese and pepperchinis. Very good! We usually open presents Christmas Eve but since we were celebrating Christmas day together too...we decided to open gifts on Christmas day. This allowed time for some games. We played a few rounds of buzz word on Christmas Eve. Can I just say...Caryn....Good!

Anna decided Portland was not hip enough ;) and opted to stay in Costa Rica for an undisclosed timeframe. She has been gone since mid-November. So unfortunately the holidays were spent without Anna. We missed her lots and her deviled eggs (an appetizer often brought by Anna). Josh Pollinger made it to Portland which we were very happy about. It was touch and go for awhile with the weather. As you can see from the photo...Josh LOVES it when I take his picture! :)

Here is a photo with dad and the dogs!


Another Christmas Eve has come and gone.

Artic Storm Outing......

Monday, December 22, 2008 (still...)

This is the mall parking lot. They had tractors out there digging out the parking lot.

Eric and I took the parents to the mall. No Starbuck's! I guess they had an issue with their delivery.

The family at Red Robin! Yeah..we are out of the house!

Artic Storm Part Hmmm....I lost track!

Monday Dec 22, 2008

I got the call the night before that our office would be closed. I was happy that I finally got a "snow day" out of this whole mess! So I woke up on Monday morning, opened the door and HOLY CRAP! More snow! So we had a ton of more snow now over the ice. It was weird because you would be walking and some spots you would all of a sudden sink even lower when the ice gave way. This is a view from our front door.

We can believe the cars that are snowed in. We have been really thankful for our garage this past week!

Another car.

...and another.

Poor Benny! It is pretty deep for him but he is still loving it. He thinks he is an Alaskan Siberian Husky dog!

Artic Storm Part III

This is what they are calling it in Portland...."The Artic Storm". I guess they need to start to get creative after awhile. I think last year was the Winter Blast?? Not sure.

So this is today, Dec 20, 2008. It started sometime early this morning. I know I woke up at 7:30 to snow and it has been snowing ever since! It is almost 4pm now. We have around 4-5 inches I would guess. Now that I have all my xmas shopping done I am a much happier person! (Just ask Eric). I was stressed yesterday because this weather really put a cramp in my planning. So we had a window last night of forcasted non-snowing or icy weather so Eric and I went out for a bit then he did the hand off of me to Barb and Jake. Anyone that knows Eric knows that he can not stay in a mall for more than 60 minutes or he starts to feel weak, light headed, etc. ;) So Barb, Jake and myself took it from there and we got home around 10pm I think. I must say, Jake gets the award for best shopping husband of the year. He was in good spirits and was very helpful. Thanks Jake!

Anyway....the snow is supposed to turn into freezing rain and we are hoping by sometime Monday to be done with all this and get back to our traditional NW mild weather.

Artic Storm Part II

So part two of the storm was not as bad but as things melted a little they froze up at night. You can sort of see how icy the roads are from the picture below.

Eric cooked a nice Prime Rib Roast for Barb's Birthday. Jake helped out in the kitchen.

The meal was soooo good! :)

Dad, Hannah and Bennigan all having a good time.

Babysitting Jae & Hannah for 3 nights!!

Barb and I got to babysit Jae and Hannah for 4 days and 3 nights in October while Bill and Patty where in Maui for a friends wedding. We had a lot of fun but were pretty tired by the end. Hannah decided she only wanted one person to hold her and that was me. Oh...and she wanted to be held ALL the time!! I was flattered the first 24 hours...after that I was really hoping she would share the love...but nope. That put a wrench in our plans because Barb and I thought we would switch things up a bit with doing things with the kids. Oh well....we survived and made it work. We had a super busy weekend...we went to the pumpkin popper, we saw the pumkin races, we made carmel apples, watched movies, played Candyland (my favorite game), and the new elephant game we got Jae. Nonstop fun! The joy of being Aunties is we did get to go home at the end of 4 days and crawl in bed! Barb and I have much respect for what Bill and Patty do and all parents! We questioned often if being "just an Auntie" would suffice for us. ;) Here are some pictures from our weekend:

I got some bowls out for Hannah but Jae decided these made the perfect drums. :)

This is the butterfly net for Jae's elephant game we got him. He was being silly and putting it on his head. He did say a few times this was his fireman hat. He was a fireman for Halloween.

Here was a little down time. :)
This was at the pumpkin races. People really raced in these big carved out pumpkins. Hannah was not much into the races and opted for a nap instead. We kept each other warm!

Jae making carmel apples. Well...just being silly in this photo.

Hannah loved the Tabasco sauce box. Guess who gave her that??!!

This was one of Hannah's "happy days"! She gave out so many smiles this day!!

So cute!!!

This was the day Bill and Patty came back home. We were back at their place. We were all tired!