This one is just for you mom. We are sorry that things have been so hard lately with the passing of Uncle John and then some! We love you! This picture will either make you laugh or make you glad we moved away! Thanks for passing your "funny face" gene down the line!

Madeline....about 10 months old here. Hard to believe that she will be 6 years old on Wendesday the 26th.  

This is the picture of Madeline that Dan drew for her 1st birthday invitations. 

The artist is alive!

Dan has finally picked up the pencil again. Below you will see some drawings he has done for the kids this last week. He made them each a little poster of their favorite character that they can hang on the wall in their rooms. It has been fun seeing him draw again. It has been quite awhile. As some of you may remember the last time he drew like this was when he sketched a picture of Madeline when she was about 10 months old. And of course we have teamed up together in years past when making the kids' birthday cakes. I will frost and then he marks the cake with the character and I will fill in the color frosting. Hey, maybe I just came up with a side business?? I will be encouraging him to draw more and will post them for you. Enjoy!

I am not sure which ninja turtle this is. But this one belongs to Spencer and this was the first drawing that Dan has done in about 5 years.

And of course....Sophia's loves the Carebears! Everything she talks about these days has a carebears attached to it. the latest was Madeline had an opportunity to go to Karate class with a friend the other night and Sophia runs up and tells me that she wants to go to "carebear karate" She is so fun!  

This is Madeline's Rainbow Bright. 

King of the hill! I think that Neue is really more daring than he lets on! Or our kids have really brought out the kid in him!

Sophia? are you ready? Well this was about the entire attitude of Miss Sophia's sledding adventure. She went down once in Dan's lap and after that she stood in one spot pouting. To her credit she was overcoming a cold, so she didn't feel well. But a lot of her attitude was out too and she may have been more biting than the cold weather! We love the wonderful age of 2!  

Spencer went down the hill in flash all by himself. So brave! here he is taking the hike back up solo as well.  

There she goes! Madelines first solo downhill sled run!

YEA, Spencer...YOU DID IT!  

Christmas morning at Grandma and Grandpa French's house. The kids were blessed this year and between all the grandma and grandpa's and Santa they got everything they dreamed of. Thank goodness Uncle Neue drove down in his car too...or would never had gotten everythign back home.

Here she made it all the way back up on her own. Good job Mad! 

What could it be Madeline? It is hard to believe she would have wanted anything else considering all she talked about for months was the Magic Hair Princess Dora..which as you can see Santa made sure she got it! 

Anyone who has been around Spencer lately knows to be aware that he may come at you with his kickin' ninja moves! Here he is very excited to have gotten the new Ninja S.W.A.T. team set!  

Madelines Best Friend...Cousin Grace. We miss Grace a lot!  

Something tells me that my dad is not really teaching Spencer the importance of bicycle safety. I can only imagine what trick he was pulling on Spencer. Earlier in the morning when the kids realized that Santa had come and they were gettng all excited to open their presents...my dad decided to tease Spencer and tell him that they couldn't open the presents until the next day. The poor child fell into tears. My Dad the practical joker!!!

Christmas 2004 and more

I know it has taken awhile to update the site. This last Christmas was a busy one. Far more than we anticipated. Dan was in the Christmas play at the church and Madeline and Spencer were both in the Childrens portion of the church program. They all had a grand time and it was such a blessing because Grandma Lu and Grandma Tom were able to come up for the weekend to see the show. Then the kids and I piled in Grandma Lu's van when they were heading back to Oregon on Monday December 20. What trip! Poor Grandpa was listening to the Chipmunks Christmas album in his head for the entire week after returning home. All I have to say is 7 hours...6 people (3 under the age of 6) and the chipmunks on repeat! scary! Dan came down on Thursday the 23rd to catch up with us. The trip home was so much fun. We had really good visits with our friends back home and families. Like I have said in the past it has been getting harder to say goodbye when we return to Spokane...and it is still true. I thought it would make it easier if Dan and I went to a movie with my mom and dad the day we left. thinking a funny movie would lighten the heart. We watched Meet the Fockers. It was hillarious! Laughed the whole way through...the whole way home and still cried my eyes out saying goodbye to my parents. I have finally come to realize that is just the way it is going to be. Which is a good thing. Keeps the heart tender and also makes me realize how strong the heart strings are between us. After returning home I am always so happy to be here. We are absolutley loving it here. Especially this last week. The snow has finally come. It snowed for four days and it is really cold. The kids are loving it. We took them sledding the other day and I am thinking that Dan and Neue had more fun than the kids....they actually went back at 10:00pm for a second run down the bigger hill. They are crazy. The kids did really good. Madeline and Spencer went by themselves and Sophia went with dad. It was a really great day!. except for the poor little boy that somehow didn't see Madeline coming and she wiped him out, giving him a bloody nose. I am still not sure why he was walking up the middle of the hill where everyone was coming down. He was probably lucky it was little Madeline who wiped him out and not one of the many adults that were sledding. I have more pictures of Christmas to put on the site, hopefully later today. The ones below are of some presents from Uncle Neue and some that Neue's parents had sent up for the kids. Since we had our Christmas in Oregon it was kind of neat to be able to have some to open at our home here too. That's it for now. Will post again soon.

Spencer is such a sweetheart. He just loves to open packages and he is so thankful for everyone. 

Sophia was the greatest at Christmas time this year. She opens very slowly and needs to take it all in. And then also need to be able to open the packaging right away so that she can check it out thoroughly. She is like a sponge these days!  

Madeline had been wanting a Princess Annalise Barbie ever since she got the movie in October. Her dream finally came true. 

On our way to our first family hockey game. Dan's friend Drew had tickets for all of us to go with him and his friend. Sophia didn't want her picture taken but was really excited to go to hockey! The cute hats were from Grandma Lu. When she came up in November she gave one to Spencer and it was hit for all of them so she sent a special package with enough for all five of us.  

The kids were very excited about going to their very first hockey game. They especially liked the beginning when the lights were out and they had all these different colored lights making shapes and things all over the ice.  

Madeline's Kindergarden had there very own Christmas program. They worked very hard and learned 8 different songs. It was a lot of fun.  

Sophia was very excited to see her big sisters Christmas program at school just before winter break.