Christmas Creations

 Photos: December 10 & 11, 2010

In past years we've made a Gingerbread House but this year I saw this kit for a Gingerbread Train. Jonas is still really into trains so it seemed like a fun project for him. We didn't go all-out this year and didn't completely cover the plastic base BUT we did add a few of our own items like the lollipops in the train car and the plastic figures are the gingerbread men from Jonas' Candy Land game. It seemed so right, how could we not use them?

 Jonas' friend Poley the polar bear keep sneaking in to all the photos.

We also made and decorated sugar cookies. These three are Jonas' favorite kind of cookies to make: Cookie Faces. He made one of his dad, one of me and one of himself. You can just try to guess which is which.

Winter Wonderland

 Photos: December 18, 2010

Pretty snowy here on Umatilla Avenue this weekend. We got about 7 inches of snow on Friday night. Pretty exciting for a 6 year old. Finally some good snowball and snowman-makin' snow.

Tony was trying to get Jonas to eat the snow but Jonas said that he wasn't going to because a dog might have peed on it. Wise advice.

 On the lookout for Tony during a snowball fight.

Let's start the snowman.

 Enlist a friend to build the base snowballs...

 ....and get him to stack up the giant snowballs

 Add some rock eyes and a carrot nose....

...and a tumbleweed that was just hanging out in the front yard for hair.

Almost done.

 Show Frosty some love.

 I'm really diggin' the hair on Frosty. I think it's very "High Desert".

Redmond's Newest Pilates Instructor

Videos: July 24, 2010

This was just a few days before Jonas turned 6 this summer. Holy Cow! This is funny stuff. Or at least it's funny to me....but you can probably tell that by all my off-camera laughing.

To the Forest!

Photos and Video: December 3, 2010

We headed out to cut our own Christmas tree again this year. It's always fun to pile all three of us into my little truck. Did I mention that I have to sit in the middle? It's cozy, that's for sure.

This is the tree that we almost cut but decided to shop around the forest a bit more.

Until we found this tree and decided it was the one for us. So Tony chopped and chopped and finally cut it down.....

...while Jonas just stared at him in amazement.

Then the snowball fight began. It was a little tricky though, because Tony had to make the snowballs, hand then to Jonas and then hold still to be pelted at point-blank range. Fortunately, Jonas only has 50% accuracy so it wasn't too painful.

Jonas really wanted to sled but we didn't have a sled and the snow was pretty icy. But he said he could get a running start and just slide on his belly. And he could do it in under 10 seconds. I'm not really sure what the time limit had to do with it. He just like a challenge I guess.




We got our tree home and got it decorated the same day. I think that is a record for us.

Who's That Celebrity in the Limo?

Oh! It's Jonas!

Photos: December 1, 2010

Jonas was one of the lucky kids to have his name drawn to go on the Limo Lunch Cruise. It was a "reward" earned by some kids during the school fundraiser this fall. The kids who sold 25 items earned a Limo Lunch Cruise. We were not even close to selling 25 items but fortunately, all kids got entered into a drawing for every 3 items they sold. Jonas was entered into the drawing 4 times and his name was drawn to go on the cruise. They rode from the school to have lunch at a pizza place that is about 1/2 mile away. So not a terribly long cruise but the kids thought it was awesome. I asked Jonas what the best part of it was. His reply: "We didn't have to wear seat belts! There weren't even any seat belts in the car!" Safety Third, that's what I always say.

Sledding

Photos and Video: December 5, 2010

We actually had enough snow here in town to go sledding a couple weekends ago. Here are some photos and a video of the sledding event. Jonas was fearless.

This is Jonas falling off and being left in the (snow) dust.

I tried really hard to slow us down by dragging my hands. I'm not quite as fearless as Jonas.

Love this video.