As is tradition, we went to Molly and Jon’s house for Christmas Eve to celebrate with them and with Tee. We exchange gifts, eat good food, listen to Christmas carols and generally spend the evening as one should at this time of year. Lots of Christmas cookies.

Lillie in her new fleece…

Our family…

Little girls like to help everyone open their presents. Gromper…

Granmolly…

Sophie and Lillie got scooters from Granmolly and Gromper. They spent the rest of the night scootering around their grandparents’ miles of hardwood floors.

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After Grandparents’ house we went home to put out stockings and water for the reindeer (Lillie believed this to be very important and insisted on it.)

Sophie woke everyone up at 6:55 am. Christmas had come.

I made quilts for both of the girls. Lillie’s has fish on it and Sophie’s is green with giant flowers on it. I hand embroidered the fish and flowers.

Sophie made me an awesome calendar at school. Each month has a beautiful picture made using a different technique.  I especially like July. They put glue on a marble and rolled it around the page and then sprinkled it with glitter. I love it so much.

Opening more gifts…

Over this particular holiday season Lillie developed a taste for candy. 

The damage…

Still excited about her scooter and attempting to avoid cleaning up the mess, Sophie bundled herself up and went outside to scooter up and down the street.

Lillie got a play doh ice cream maker. We ate so much play doh ice cream that day. She got more use out it in one day that I expected for the entire lifetime of the thing.

She’ll make you whatever you want - shakes, cones, a pile in your hand, anything as long as you like spumoni.

When it was time to put Christmas away until next year, Lillie cried. She keeps singing “Santa Claus is coming to town”, I think that she hopes Christmas will just happen again if she keeps the faith.

It took about 8 hours to get the whole place set up, but it was well worth it. My friend, Margot, gave us her daughter’s former curtains and the room looks complete now.

From the doorway…

From the opposite side of the room…

The “house” corner, where the girls play with their dolls and kitchen…

Note the beautiful blankets and the stickers on the ceiling. The stickers are of planets and stars and they glow in the dark. Sophie has found a way to “recharge” them and make them glow more brilliantly by shinning a flashlight at them for a while.

These are bookcases…

Suddenly the girls are more interested in going to bed at night and want to play in their room more durning the day. Sophie has been jumping off of the walls for the past few days, too excited about the beds. Which, of course, is great.

We had a wonderful 2008.

Sophie started kindergarten in the fall. She is doing very well. She likes her school and her teacher and she is excelling in her work. She is learning French at home and learning how to read. She can read early reader books with Mommy and Daddy and is thrilled to point out words as she goes throughout her day. This month marked a huge milestone for her — her first loose tooth. She must have been the last kid in school to get one. I think that she may have just wiggled it loose herself and she faithfully checked each tooth every day. Most of her friends sport large gaps in their smiles, all the more reason that Sophie was so frustrated at not having any loose teeth herself.

Lillie also claims to have a “loose toose” but do not believe her. She just wants to be like Sophie.

Lillie has quite the little personality. She is very advanced verbally so even though she is just 2 years old, she can and will tell long stories and repeat everything we say. And as she talks she moves her arms and hands around and cocks her head and generally uses her whole body to communicate. She loves to bake with Mommy and play outside and look at fish and pictures of fish and dance around. She likes to run, she can run for blocks and blocks without stopping.

Shad is progressing in both his schooling and his profession. He taught at Pacific University, a private college near Portland, this fall. It meant a 2 1/2 hour drive each way two days a week, but it will look very nice on his resume and we all handled the sacrifice just fine.

Work is going well for me. My influence has spread so I am now heard globally. I really prefer to be home with my girls, which is what a I get to do most of the time. I volunteer at Sophie’s school one day a week. As soon as things quiet down at home after the holidays, I will complete my training to become a Daisy (girl) scout leader. I was never a girl scout so Sophie and I will learn together. I’m working on learning Italian and generally keep myself busy.

Anyone and everyone who wants to come visit us is more than welcome to do so. We had my cousin, Kelly, stay with us for spring break and Owen come for Thanksgiving and a random friend of my sister come for the day before christmas eve, and we loved it. Come see us anytime. We even have Poulo one weekend a month, our favorite weekend of the month.

So happy holidays! We love you all and can’t wait to see you in the New Year,

Love, The Staffords

As is Stafford family tradition, we hiked Spencer Butte. Owen would say that we climbed the butte, as large portions of the trail do not actually exist.

Here we are half of the way up getting a snack.

At the top…

Our dinning room, like the trails on the butte, for the most part does not actually exist. So we moved the table into the living room.  (Note that the leaves on the light table cloth were hand embroidered for the occasion by me)

Margot, Owen and Shad…

Me and Owen…

Lillie wandered by but did not really want to participate…

Later on Thursday, we all played Guitar Hero into the Wii hours of the night. All in all, a very nice Thanksgiving.

Saturday night, Poulo, Nick and Brandy came down for the night. We played more Guitar Hero and some Settlers of Catan. Poulo and Owen and I alerted the gaming store a block from out house to stay open and we ran there and got the Catan expansion pack so that we could all play. Once you have the expansion pack however, you realize why the made the original game for only 4 people. It’s a hella long and confusing game, but we had fun. 

The girls rode on the Ferris wheel and then got off and got right back in line again. About 15 times.

The pizza place also had a Merry Go ‘Round. Lillie was taken against her will and made to ride it. Uncle Nick pointed out that it was very merciful of us to take pictures and make everyone else look to see how cute she is rather than actually rescue her. Perhaps, but we got this photo!

Sydney, Emma and Haleigh…

Sophie and I made flower shaped cupcakes. Sophie helped decorate them with colored frosting and sprinkles.

The final time for the party ended up being about 5 1/2 hours. It was fun and just what Sophie wanted but I think that it will be a long time before that happens again.

Playing in the "Market and Bistro" area.

Haleigh working the cash register

Playing in the "Water Works" area

This was hilarious-- the girls used the hand dryers to dry out their shirts -- inside and out.

The current attraction at the Children's Museum is "Bob the Builder." The girls sat down to design their homes.

Lillie moved in right away -- because they didn't design a door and she was the only one who could be lifted in, she got the house.

After the Children’s Museum, we went to the pizza party at Papa’s Pizza. Pictures of that to come soon!

There is always a craft table for the children…

Mommy did not actually help — I just got bored wandering around aimlessly, so I swooped in to get a photo and take some credit.

We took the opportunity to walk around Mount Pisgah. My sister, Aunt Alex as she is more popularly known, came with us.

Shad and Sophie at the harbor. A lot of boats are named after women…

A favorite hotel activity — jumping on the beds. 

We check out some games from the hotel and played around all night. Well, until at least 8:45 pm.

We got the girls are bundled up and went down to the beach, but only for about 10 minutes. It was pouring rain and, well, I don’t like rain.

Sophie

Lillie

We have a membership to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, so we went there twice during the trip. Because we go so often, the girls mixed it up this time and took paper and colored pencils and sketched their favorite fish and sea creatures.

Lillie is obsessed with fish and is certain that any day now we will be going to Hawaii. So she pointed out every fish that she thought she might see there.

First things first — The corn maze… or as I like to say, the maize maze.

Lillie was sure we were constantly lost — and we really were most of the time. To settle/prevent fights, we told the girls that they could take turns deciding which way in the maze we went. Good plan for peace but it ensured that no one girl’s plan could be fully carried out.

The girls were witches for Halloween. Sophie wanted to be “something scary” but as I could not find a store that sold that costume, and seeing that Lillie was going to be a witch, Sophie changed her mind and wanted to match with her sister. 

Early on Halloween I took the girls to my office to Trick or Treat there. I didn’t realize how much candy there would be! Each department had candy. HR really decorated a lot, complete with scary music and cobwebs and lights out and a giant spider guarding the candy. When we left HR Lillie was pretty shaken and she said “Mommy, I don’t like HR.” No one does, honey. No one does.

We intended to go to a party on Halloween night, but as we were walking out the door, Sophie’s “best friend” from Kindergarten showed up to Trick or Treat. So we quickly changed plans and went out with Dora and her brothers. It was a much better night than we’d even planned.

We had a nice party at out house, guests including the Portland cousins, Granmolly and Gromper, Mima and Margot and Luca.

Lillie is a very grateful child, everything is “thank you” and “please” so it was very amusing to see her light up and appreciate every present.

Lillie is my little baking helper, so I got her a muffin “tin” to make flower shaped cupcakes. I also got her a little rolling pin (she wants to use mine but her little arms can’t handle it) and Mima made her the nicest apron, so we are set for baking…

Lillie recently got a bike, so she needed a helmet…

Granmolly MADE her a hobby horse, very beautiful…

Lillie requested a purple cake. I told her I would make one for her and she said “I want a cake from Granmolly’s house” So GranMolly stepped in and made it for her.

Cousin Julia…

We ate outside, which meant lighting the candles a few times before they stayed lit long enough for Lillie to blow them out.

Cousin Noah…