Where do I print my blog?

There are a couple of reasons why I keep a blog, the first is for my parents and Trav's parents who live far away to keep up with our lives here in Portland. The second is to keep a journal of our everyday life as a family. I used to love to scrapbook but with 3 busy kids and another one on the way, I do not have a lot of time to get out all of my scrapbooking supplies and do it. For those that have printed your blogs, how and where is the best way to get it printed? I started this blog a year ago and would love to get 2008 printed. HELP!

Baby Girl Names

We finally had my ultra sound last week, after 3 cancellations from the snow and Christmas, it is official we are having another girl. On my Facebook, I asked for ideas for girl names and got a lot of great ones. I thought I would give my parents and other family members and friends who read our blog to give us ideas as well. We have a few we like and both agree on but there are of course some that we do not agree on. The name we both agree on is Brynley. The names I like are Lily, Savannah, and Emersyn. Trav likes Presley, Mallory and Alex. We both have agreed that we like the middle name, Grace. We would love any ideas you have.

Happy New Year!

A couple days after Christmas, we drove to Washington to spend some time with Trav's family. We stayed at Angie and John's the first night and then up to Othello for a couple of nights with his parents, Matt and Katelyn (brother and his wife). We always have a blast with Angie's family, we went sledding, played World Tour, and talked and laughed. Heather (Trav's middle sister) and her family were also in town from San Francisco. In Othello we got to see Travis' grandparents and spend time with his parents. We are looking forward to seeing all the Risenmays this summer at our reunion in Island Park.

I did not take any pictures of our time in Washington. :(

On the 30th we drove to Boise to spend New Year's with Jess, Katie and the boys. Katie is due anytime with their 3rd boy, it was so fun to see her pregnant again. The kids are like cousins and can play for hours and hours. They are so creative when they play together, we barely ever saw them. The adults watched a lot of football, watched many many episodes of House (we are hooked now), and went to a couple of movies! It was a blast and so relaxing, it was a great way end our holiday break. Thanks Jess and Katie, we always love spending time with you. We can not wait to meet your little guy when we pass through town next month.

We had a big New Year's celebration with the kids at 9pm.

Creepy Uncle Jess

Mindy, 5 1/2 months pregnant, Katie, 9 months ready to pop pregnant

Travis and Jess, 10 months pregnant

What proud papas!

Christmas

This was our first Christmas with just our little family in our own house. We had a wonderful time and it was fun to have our own traditions. We had a big Christmas Eve dinner with ham, twice baked potatoes, homemade rolls and the works. Everyone dressed up in their nice clothes and we ate on my Grandma Pratt's beautiful china. After dinner we read the Christmas Story in the scriptures and then watched the church movie, "Joy to the World" about Christ's birth. We wanted to make sure the kids really knew and understood the importance of Christmas.

Travis and I both had the same tradition growing up of opening one present under the tree on Christmas Eve, the present was always new pajamas. When it was time to open up the presents, Baylee had finally realized after 8 years that she always gets new jammies Christmas Eve. Jake was not as thrilled, I think he was hoping for a toy. Everyone put on their new jammies, including Trav and I, and then it was time to write a note to Santa, get his plate of cookies ready and sprinkle the reindeer food outside. The kids were very ready for bed and off they went, even though it took Jake and Baylee a long time to fall asleep. Baylee was very curious and asked so many questions about Santa, I hope she keeps on believing.

Christmas morning, the kids woke us up after 7:30am to see what Santa had left them. I always love seeing their faces when they notice all of the cookies are gone from Santa's plate, they see the note he left for them and their stockings are stuffed with goodies. When they run over to the tree and see all of the presents under the tree, their reactions are priceless. After we opened all of the presents, we had a yummy breakfast of strawberry waffles, sausage, bacon and orange juice. The tradition in Travis' family is to have strawberry waffles, but Travis and I were the only ones to put strawberries on our waffles. Christmas morning breakfast in my family was always homemade scones, we will probably try both next year to see what the kids really prefer.

Baylee got a "lime green" ipod. (Her favorite color.)

Sydney got a pink big girl bike.

Jake got a Nintendo DS (just what he always wanted).

The kids helped make Travis a book about being "THE BEST DAD"!

Christmas Day we relaxed, played with all of the fun new toys and then went to see the movie, "Bedtime Stories". We had homemade potato soup and rolls for dinner and watched movies by the fire. I loved every minute of it. I can not wait until next year.

"Arctic Blast" in Portland

The first Sunday the snow started.

The kids were so excited! Jake decided to wear my slippers outside and got them soaking wet.

We do not think Diesel have ever been in the snow, he could not get enough. When the kids were having snowball fights he thought they were throwing real balls and was going crazy.

The backyard

I think Travis loved sledding just as much or even more as the kids.

Sydney and Chelsea

The Dads made a big jump for the "kids" to go off of, I think they really made it for themselves.

The big sheets of ice that froze over the snow.

The real icicles hanging on our icicle lights .

On Sunday, the 14th of December, we woke up to snow in Portland. It might snow a couple of times a year here in Portland but it pretty much just dusts the ground and melts within a few hours. This particular Sunday it kept snowing all day long. We got a call that morning to let us know that church was cancelled because it was unsafe to drive, even though there were only a couple of inches on the ground. Since I have lived in Colorado, North Dakota, Utah and Montana, I was shocked that church would be cancelled. We had a great day as a family hanging out, playing in the snow and getting warm again with hot chocolate. We thought it would be a one day thing, not 2 weeks of snow. The last week of school before Winter Break was cancelled, which meant no holiday parties or giving their teachers their gifts. Travis could not go to work for a couple of days because they were not allowing cars out in the Portland Metro Area without chains and majority of the offices he called on were closed anyway. The local news stations had 24 hour cover of the "Arctic Blast". We spent that week sledding everyday, playing with friends, playing games and watching a lot of movies. Church was cancelled again the next Sunday because it had snowed about 10 inches the day before and then had freezing rain on top of that which left about an inch of ice on top of the snow. Any other state that usually has snow could handle the snow but the town we live in does not own a snow plough, well at least we never saw them out. We are grateful to have a car with all wheel drive to get around and buy last minute Christmas items, there were many people just stuck in their houses for a couple of weeks. We had a great time as a family and it was nice to take a break from the fast pace of the world, and really focus on spending time together. They say this is the most snow that Portland has received since the 1930s, I think it snowed about 18+ inches. We will never forget this white Christmas.

Church Christmas Party

Sydney and her buddy Zach. They can not get enough of each other. We always have to tell them that kissing on the lips is not allowed.
Baylee's friend, Amanda, came along to the party.
Part of the primary singing Jingle Bells for Santa to come in.
Sydney got nervous when Santa was coming through the door.

Travis and a few others were in charge of our Christmas party at church this year. This was a first for Travis and it was a pretty big deal with all of the planning that goes into having a Christmas dinner for over 350 people. They had all the primary children sing a few Christmas songs. Even though Sydney was not old enough to be in primary until this January, she had to go up with her brother and sister. Santa came to visit all of the children and read a story for the children. It turned out to be a great night!

Baylee's First Piano Recital

Baylee started taking piano lessons this summer and so she had her first recital in December. She did such a great job! Her piano teacher, Carrie, is fabulous and Baylee looks forward to going to her lesson every Tuesday.