Blazer Game!

Sarah and Justin gave us the gift of memory making for Christmas this year, by treating the whole family to a Blazer game! We had such a blast! We dropped Maddie off at Grandma and Grandpa Himes' house, and then we headed to Sarah's house for a homemade pizza feast with my parents and Justin's parents, before heading off to the game. It was our last night in Portland, and it really made for a terrific end to a fantastic Christmas vacation. Oh, and the Blazers beat the Utah Jazz, of course! :)

About to board the MAX train to the Rose Quarter, adorned in our red and black colors!My sister is the best! We had such a blast at the game - thanks again, Sarah and Justin!Gooooo Blazers!!!Mom and Dad, looking cute while cheering our team on to victory!Jan, Bruce, Justin and Sarah, excited to pose for yet another picture! And what blog post would be complete without a picture of us?

Special Silly Cousin Time

One night during vacation, my family came together for dinner and a game night. We enjoyed a rousing game of Disney Apples to Apples and danced (or sweated) ourselves into the ground with our new Just Dance 2 game for Wii (which I love)!

Probably the most endearing part of the entire evening was watching Ellie and Maddie play together. They ran around chasing each other, played tea party, read books, played peek-a-boo, and even enjoyed sharing a car seat in the living room together. To top it all off, they were adorned in their special matching outfits their Great-Grandma Erna gave them for Christmas. Super cute!! Some of the pictures are a little blurry, but were too cute not to post.

So happy together!How about a tea party, cousin Maddie?Sounds like fun to me! I'll pour...
Gotta love that they love to look at books - even if one is more interested than the other... :)This is how we get Maddie to pose/smile for the camera: "Maddie, where's your mouth?" She will look up at us and smile, to show us her mouth. Ellie heard the question and answered appropriately...by showing me her mouth. :)Sharing a car seat. They were truly cracking each other up with this game!Giving kisses..Let's play tag! Ready, set, go! Oh, wait! Who's it? Is it me? Is it you? Oh my goodness, this is just too funny!And finally, an action shot of peek-a-boo. :)
Two silly little girls, with lots of love!

Christmastime with the Vandehey family

As mentioned in a previous post, we spent many days with each of our families at various locations throughout our two week vacation. I will let the pictures do a majority of the talking once again, this time, sharing the story of Christmas with my side of the family.

Within 5 minutes of us all being together, Auntie Sarah was reading Mickey Mouse books to the girls, and all three of them were quite happy with this arrangement!Reunited, and it feels so good! Seriously, seeing Tucker was one of the biggest highlights of our trip to Oregon. We miss him so much and we could tell he missed us too! It was wonderful to be together for a little while..Justin was in the same cuddling room as Sarah and the girls, and Brant and Tucker, and he felt a little left out...so he found a good replacement!All the family men with their respective family dogs.Tucker had just as much fun with all the excitement as Ellie and Maddie did! (Either that, or he was just being curious as to what all the hype was about).The girls had fun opening their stockings to find identical sets of presents, like slippers, socks and stickers! And their Great-Aunt Marcia gave them twin baby girl dolls, which were a huge hit! We enjoyed much more than the pictures show on Christmas Day. Our traditional Christmas dinner was fantastic and became a feast in which all six of us (adults) prepared together, which was special. And we enjoyed hanging around the house, conversing, laughing and being a family together. It may or may not also need to be mentioned that over the course of our 2 week vacation, a grand total of 15 family members caught the stomach flu. Without going into anymore details, my turn came late Christmas night. Bleh! It was a 30 hour ordeal, so as miserable as it was, it was a quick turn around for me. Regardless, our entire Christmas celebration was full of joy and love!

WNBA, anyone?

Oh, wait. That's right. I was told that I should sign up for the WNBA. By whom, you might ask?
Well, let me just go ahead and show you a picture and see if you can figure it out...That's right, ladies and gentlemen! Former Portland Trailblazer, Mr. Buck Williams, himself, flattered me when he allowed me to take a picture with him and told me, "We need to sign you up for the WNBA!" Do you see how tall I am standing in this picture?! (I was super excited and completely proud of my height - I think this is the straightest I have ever stood for a picture, and I'm wearing heels!).

My lovely sister-in-law, April, pointed out to me that I forgot to include this imperative piece of information (and amazing picture) in a previous post about the Nutcracker. Buck Williams was a surprise special guest that evening, performing in the party scene of the ballet. I was really excited just to be able to see him from a distance, dancing on stage (it was actually pretty humorous - picture this: petite, white male and female ballet dancers, delicately gracing the stage to Tchaikovsky music, with one, incredibly tall, African American male, moving back and forth to the beat. He did very well, considering the unusual circumstances!).

Anyway, at intermission, as we were all mingling by the water fountain, Buck Williams came walking behind us, heading for the door. I quickly handed my camera over to my mother-in-law, and waited for a few other people around me who had the same idea as I did. Just before it was too late, I tapped Buck on the shoulder. He turned around and I smiled politely, while asking, "Would I be able to get my picture taken with you?" He smiled a great big smile (just like the one in the picture), and said, "Why of course! We need to sign you up for the WNBA!" [insert huge smiles and pose for picture] And then he was gone, out the door and on his way to the rest of his night.

It makes me smile all over again just thinking about it!

Christmas at the Himes' homestead

I'm going to write very little in this post and let the pictures do the talking. I think they do a better job anyway! :) We spent our 2 week Christmas vacation in Oregon, with lots of people, but mainly our immediate family members. This picture set was taken on a variety of days spent at Brant's house.

Adalie is super excited that we are all together again!Brant loved being the train conductor with an old train set from his childhood.It wouldn't be Christmas without sugar cookies!Maddie having fun with some sleigh bells.Cousin love. (Adalie was out shopping when this picture was taken).We went on a late night Shari's run on Christmas Eve-eve. Don't ask why; ask why not? Merry Christmas! Its not terribly early, so we're pretty happy!Grandpa Doug with sweet Zoie, ready for a fun-filled morning!
Grandma Marty made this beautiful apron for Maddie. She loved it but, surprise surprise, was too busy to pose for a picture. :)She was also given a super cool flashlight - her new favorite fascination: "light."Mmm...things must be winding down... (either that, or Maddie has lost interest).
Enough said. :) Thanks for all the special Christmas memories, everyone!

Special Christmas in Eugene

My family traveled down to Eugene to see all of my grandparents while we were in town. Actually, only part of my family traveled down; Justin had to work, and Ellie came down with a bad case of the stomach flu, which in turn kept my Mom at home to take care of her, allowing my sister to come to Eugene with me, Brant, Dad and Maddie.

It was a short visit, but well worth it. We enjoyed a wonderful meal at my Grammy and Pop-pop's house, and my Grandma was able to be with us as well. Normally, when we go down to Eugene for Christmas, we are there with about 30 other relatives, which is great fun, but I really enjoyed the sit-down meal we had together and the chance to connect and have lengthy conversations together. I love all of my grandparents so much and wish I could see each of them more frequently.After dinner, Maddie charmed her great-grandparents with all sorts of fun tricks and games, including peek-a-boo!This one was the biggest hit. She would throw her blanket over her head (well, I would), and then she would turn and walk right for Pop-pop, who would grab her up and tickle her. She thought it was a hoot - so did we! She played this game consistently for about 20 minutes. We finally had to stop the game because she started missing her aim for Pop-pop, and walking into pieces of furniture! Oops.
This picture was taken after my Grandma had already gone home. Thanks for hosting such a special evening, Grammy and Pop-pop!

All dolled up

It has become a wonderful Himes' women tradition to go to the Nutcracker every other year, when one of "younger Himes' women" turns 6. We all get dolled up, put on our fancy shoes and head out to the ballet to enjoy this magical evening together.

Aunt Jackie with Kylia (6) and Adalie (8). Both girls were very excited for our festive evening!
Almost all of the Himes' women; Amber was on her way when this picture was taken.
Grandma bought the girls beautiful tiaras before the show. They felt like true princesses!
Me and April, waiting for the show to begin.Amber, me and April, happy to be continuing on with this tradition!
I'm excited to go again in 2 years, when Zoie can join us!