woodchuck

Hailey has served me well once again. Our last night in Oregon. This is Zuri's new response to "smile" when her picture is taken. We love our little woodchuck.

thee photos

My sources are serving me well with getting me their photos quickly. Thank you Hailey and Courtney and Dad V.

We begin with Zuri's birthday party:

This is the only photo I can find of her wearing her birthday girl crown.

Cousin C.C. touring Zur around

the "eyo?"

New shoes

A quick jump to Seattle. The youngest four sibs. Carmel, me, Ammon and Chanson

Zur getting the swing from Ammon and Carm

Seattle! beautiful photo Court.

The heart coat

Talking to Uncle KJ

ammon and chans

This is how she spends most of her time now. glued to my leg.

I actually was not around for this, but I thought it was pretty funny and explains my brothers perfectly

Those are some for now! Hopefully I'll get some more from my people.

December

We were thinking we'd be wise this break and pack light, so light that we wouldn't take our camera. I know, we don't even know who we are anymore either. We are relying heavily on those smarter people who did take photos this break so those will come later.

But just for the record and before school starts and I forget everything here is what has gone down...that I can remember.

.We survived finals and passed all our classes. One step closer to graduation.

.I realized I really enjoy printmaking, which is a good thing since I don't have a big connection with any other medium.

.We went to Oregon. awesome.

.Zuri got a pretty fantastic winter coat complete with a heart sewn into the back.

.Ate lots of delicious food. Korean BBQ, Vietnamese Fou, and Grandma and Omas cooking. Yum.

.Had a great birthday party for Zuri in both OR and WA. Oregon complete with big party, presents and adventure at Out of this World Pizza. Washington threw in the great baking of Courtney and Carmel cupcakes topped with creative panda bear faces. Very cute. Zuri loved the frosting.

.Christmas was full of fun and Zuri running all over the place with her bigger cousins.

.Zuri learned to climb chairs and how to climb down stairs.

.Zuri has officially gone off formula, all about the whole milk now.

.We discovered Backyardigans is a fantastic kids show. I could sing all about it for you if you like.

.Shopping is still my favorite game.

.I discovered it is really going to bite not living close to Spam.

.We went up north three hours to visit my Hardy clan. They have a beautiful view of Seattle.

.Took a fairy over to Seattle and I realized the North West can get quite frigid.

.I love my court court face and my munchkin siblings...and my not so munchkin siblings.

.My mom, dad, and papo are absolutely fantastic game folk.

.Chris embarked upon a Risk game with the Hardy men that lasted tell 4am. Chanson won.

.Spending New Years in a hot tub, drinking Martinellies straight from the bottle and watching the Space Needle go crazy with fireworks was pretty rad.

.Portland is a really cool city, I hope we live close to here soon.

.True Grit and Easy A are great movies. And Cheesecake factory makes wonderfully rich cakes (yum.)

.Zuri can now blow kisses, fold her arms, sign please, thank you, dada, and wave bye-bye and says hello by putting her hand to her ear and saying "eyo?" can say "love you" in a cute baby voice and "sheep says...Baa" She also sings back when sung to by Christian, it is the cutest thing ever.

.I went canoeing with Chris, his sister, Alicia, and her hubby, Tucker, yesterday....Little did I know I was getting into a much bigger/longer ride then I thought. I pretended to be a grouch (I have bad past associations with boating attributed to my very eventful father) but it was actually very fun this time.

.I got 4 cavities filled..ouch (don't make fun, I have terrible teeth and it's been six years since I've gotten x-rays), but thanks to a wonderful blessing of my brother-in-law being the dentist it saved us an incredible amount of money.

.I love families, they take such good care of us.

So far that's all I can think of. I love the NW, I hope we can get back sooner then it took us last time (two years). Now it's on to another long flight with Zuri (one of the two flights out was absolutely not awesome) and home again to begin another and last one of our semesters at SVU! It will be Christians first time graduating from a school (very exciting) and well, I'm very excited about the next chapter of our long life.

K.

a little Christmas Eve Canoeing

Back in Virginia with the snow fest before we left.

I miss my little Kelso

Chris took Zur snow riddin'

Back to today! Chris decided it'd be fun to go out on the river that is in his parents back yard. So we did! Zuri loved it until she realized how lame it was that she couldn't move at all. It was a fun little Christmas eve adventure.

Her birthday was great! We just gotta get some photos uploaded from Dad's camera. Until then, Merry Christmas!

Our Kid

Oregon has been an adventure so far. Lots of people which freaked Zuri out at first, but now she is enjoying the attention and lots of shopping...who's loving that? That would be me.

Monday night Chris' mom had a piano recital with her students and Zuri was dancing right along to the Christmas music. She loved it. Rich took this shot and It just makes me happy, our little dancer

Tomorrow is her first birthday!! I can't wait, we're having a lunch/party for her with the fam at a pizza play place (?) never been, but I have heard is spectacular! I'll post photos as soon as I can of our little one year old munchkin.

Merry Christmas!

.

December so far.

These are just some random videos I've taken the past few weeks. That's all I seem to use my older point and shoot for these days...Hence why I'd like a flip someday.

the main tricks:

Kelso and his lady friend Poe are playing in the end, that's the creepy noise.

She goes crazy for her blueberries for breakfast. I was trying to get her "mmm" sound as she eats them. She appreciates flavor so much.

She sings with Christian. She also took a pretty bad hit into the coffee table. Ouch, It got infected and she had to get some antibiotics since the cut was too close to her eye she couldn't have a cream. It's all healed up nicely now.

She learned to sign thank you and please this week, i'll catch those via video sometime. I am very proud of her good manors.

Meanwhile in between all the filming of these delightful videos life is still cruisin. Chris has finished his senior paper he is now working on the final draft. He wrote another paper today without me typing (I'm very proud) and he has a new job he started this month! He sells fine Italian Linens to Hotels/spas etc. They are actually very nice linens, I would totally buy some if they didn't make you buy in bulk.

I am doomed for my math final Wednesday, but I'm now seeking for divine intervention with an incredible flow of all that i've learned this semester to come crashing back into my brain for the three hours I need it most.

I went to do the second print on my two runs, only to discover I've been compromised and now will have to reprint many many, and by that I mean almost all of my 15 prints. However, through that set back, I've decided I'll do my senior show with Prints this coming semester. Hopefully it turns out better then this edition did.

Finals are done by Friday, I'm helping Brinn shoot a wedding on Friday , Saturday is a prep/clean/laundry and packing day. Sunday it's off to West side!

K and C.

The Kitchen!

Here it is folks. The walls are not painted yet, but this was the biggest of the biggest projects upstairs. Well, I take that back. Christian had redone the two upstairs bathrooms last year...those were big projects too. I just actually helped with this one :)

The very old wall paper...it was gross.

The very old stain. Also very very gross

The overall nasty

Our friends let us borrow their steamer to get the wall paper off. It saved our lives.

Zuri helped too.

Chris sanded EVERYTHING. Poor guy couldn't feel his arms after, but he got a new sander out of it so he was pleased.

Beginning painting

Our Drawer tower

Cabinets all together, painted a beautiful! We love them much much more.

The walls will have to wait until after Christmas break, we are thinking a nice deep green..or a lighter green, not sure yet. I love it all! It's much cleaner and soo much brighter, I keep turning the light on thinking I'm switching it off cause it's so light. Thank you Christian!

I don't know why this underline has happened....and I don't know how to make it stop. Oh well!