Christmas Trees!

We got our trees up earlier this year than last year, feeling pretty good about that. I opted to get a fake white tree for the downstairs since it shows off all my purple and silver ornaments better. We got our tree for upstairs at a U-cut off of 209th. Wow, that tree sure smells good!! I don't think we've ever gotten a tree that has had such a wonderful scent. I love it!
We spent time last night getting the ornaments up. The tradition is each person gets to pick a Hallmark ornament for themselves every year. So the tree is starting to get loaded down :) The kids have stuck to a theme most years. Nathaniel gets Scooby Doo, Jonathan gets Spiderman, Elizabeth picks out a princess, Seth started getting Disney characters and who knows what Meredith will end up with. We had fun, the trees look great. Just need to finish getting the rest of the decorations up and we'll be set!

Meredith just played and looked cute while we all decorated.

Jonathan loves this set he got when he was little.



First ornament, went straight into the mouth as soon as we handed it to her!





And...looks better in real life :)

Happenings in Beasleyville

I have been neglecting my blog. I just realized I didn't even post a thing in November. Time has just been zipping past and I'm not doing a very good job of keeping up with it. Sigh. Anyway, I don't have time, haha, to give a complete update so it will be done mostly in pictures :)


First, Elizabeth turned 7 in October. Lucky kid got to go to our ward's trunk-or-treat right after so that is why she is dressed up. The little girl with her in the following pictures is her bestest friend ever, Jill. The two of them together are hularious and I'm so grateful for their friendship and I hope they continue it on through out the rest of their lives :)

Jill stayed the night and the next day we got to spend a few hours at Chuck E Cheese.

Nathaniel surprised us this year and announced he was trying out for the school play! He had fun doing it and has said he will try out again, just not for the next one, it's a musical :)

Nate is the 2nd from the left. Sorry I don't have more pics, they came out too dark to see anything.

Tree decorating time!! We go every year to our friend's tree farm in Yamhill. I think we picked out some pretty good trees this year :) Some friends we had over the other day were laughing as they watched Rob put on the lights. I'm very particular in how the lights go on. They need to go up and down the trunk and then from there you start moving out in very tight cirlces. Yes, it takes a LONG time and yes, lots of strings BUT the end result is a very brightly lit tree that you can't stop looking at. It's a very pretty effect especially at night with the overhead lights out. I'm pretty sure I learned this from my mom. This year he had the pleasure of doing this to two trees :) HAHA.

In the unpacking of decorations we found our Santa hat. Everyone had to put it on and get a picture :)

The tree upstairs. It's covered mostly in Hallmarks. That is our tradition, we all pick out a new ornament every year, usually from Hallmark. The idea being when the kids start to leave the house they will have their own set of ornaments to decorate their own trees :) Jonathan is collecting Spiderman, Nate-Scooby Doo, Elizabeth-the Disney Princesses and Seth we are still trying to figure out, this year it's Kung Fu Panda.

The tree downstairs, picture just doesn't do it justice. I got my own tree to decorate this year and naturally it was done in purple and silver :) I just love sitting and looking at it.

Well, I'll try harder to keep up. We have our yearly yurt trip to Winchester Bay coming up so will need to post pictures from that. Fingers are crossed the rain and snow hold off til we get back :)

SNOW!!!!

Today is great!! Snow, snow and more snow!!! I love it :) Ok one of the reasons we moved out here was, yes, to get away from the snow but it's nice when we do get some of it. Really helps to make it feel more like Christmas is around the corner. We have not seen this much snow since we moved here in 2001. It has been so relaxing to get some baking done today and just stare out the window and see the snow coming down. It is even starting to form little drifts outside our front door.

The following pics are from a week ago when the snow first started then a couple from today.

Seth preferred to watch from the comfort of his high chair. He will NOT walk on the snow or ice, just sits there and screams and clings to our legs or arms. He doesn't like the fact that he slips all over. I mean, really, he just got the walking thing down then we throw him on the ice? He was having none of it!
After the kids came in everyone got Crunch bars. Seth really, really enjoyed his :)
Believe it or not Rob fell asleep here. He tells me he got under the table to plug in the vacuum and then decided to lay there for a sec. He was out in no time :) Next thing he knew he woke up to a camera flash in his face and his wife laughing at him.
Notice there is a lot more snow on the ground compared to the other pics with the kids. This was taken earlier today.
This is the mini drift forming out our front door.

And from a few weeks ago, the kids decorating the tree.