Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled into one (post, that is...)

Our lives haven't really been sufficiently interesting these past few months to warrant posting much, which explains my long absence. We're busy all the time, but it's just little stuff- nothing too important.
We enjoyed another nice Thanksgiving dinner at our house last month, with Logan cooking a perfect turkey for the fourth year in a row. Logan's parents drove up to join us for the weekend, and Clark was especially happy to have them as house guests. More people around means more laps for Clark to sit on! We tried to take a family photo before Thanksgiving dinner. It took three shots before we finally got one with Clark sitting still and not licking Logan's dad's face.


The weekend after Thanksgiving was our annual tree-cutting trip into the Santa Cruz mountains. It was so cold up there that day that it actually snowed a little when we reached the top of the mountain. So we quickly found and cut down our trees.
A photo with my mom, Clark and me:
Our tree- in the house and decorated with the train at the base:
Clark and Auntie Katie at Grandma Adams' birthday celebration:
I made a chocolate cherry cake for Grandma:
Logan's sister sent Logan a really nice "Christmas Survival" gift- a Mario Brothers game for the Wii, peppermint Pop Rocks, glittery reindeer antlers, and an awesome homemade Mario mustache ornament! Clark not-so-gracefully models the mustache below:
A closer view of the antlers and mustache:
A few days before Christmas we took a short trip with Logan's mom and her boyfriend to Cambria, which is about three hours south of Santa Clara on the coast. We enjoyed visiting the elephant seals, which gather on the beach in San Simeon this time of year to have their babies. We saw a few newborns, although it's still early in the season for them. This big male was making his presence known:
On Christmas Eve we went to Logan's Aunt Marcia and Uncle Louie's house for a big family dinner. We enjoyed a wonderful mix of Puerto Rican and Norweigan foods, and everyone had a chance to sit on Santa's lap when he stopped by for a visit:
On Christmas morning we had breakfast and present-opening at my parents' house. Clark doesn't quite open presents on his own very well, so Logan helped him unwrap this treat from my parents:
The Sunday after Christmas I made breakfast for dinner and we had Logan's mom's family over to our house. We enjoyed seeing everyone again, and I had fun making a few batches of my great-grandmother Harris' sticky bun recipe for the meal. Maygen and Logan are always happy to see each other:
I was remiss in taking many photos at the meal, so this is the only group shot I managed to get:
We hope everyone had a great Christmas, and that 2010 has great things in store for you!

Dorothy Gayle and Freddy Krueger go trick-or-treating...

Halloween came and went quickly this year. I enjoyed presenting Halloween storytimes at the library again. My co-worker Jenny took some photos of the kids dressed up at storytime.
The twin boys who dressed up as skunks last year came as spiders this year. Very cute!I also took in some pumpkins from our garden again so we could have a "Guess the Weight of the Pumpkin" contest for the kids and teens. Below is the teen pumpkin- it ended up weighing about 35 pounds. Not huge, but not too bad either. Maybe we'll get a bigger one next year.
The kids pumpkin was much smaller- only about 14 pounds. It's funny how some kids have no concept of how much things weigh. I had some 2nd and 3rd graders guessing that it weighed hundreds of pounds!
The Friday before Halloween we had my parents over for pizza and pumpkin carving.
Being a new fan of pumpkin, Clark watched us closely and picked up any pieces we dropped.
We gave him his own pumpkin on the floor to play with, but he was more interested in my camera.
Logan likes to make scary pumpkins. But Clark wasn't scared- he kept licking the pumpkin's eyes.
Mine was supposed to look scared...
I told my parents they looked like American Gothic when they posed with their jack-o-lanterns.
We tried to make the pumpkin look like it was scared because Clark was eating it, but it didn't turn out so well.
All lit up...
On Halloween morning we went to watch Chloe's ballet class. The girls were all so cute, but at three years old they don't follow directions too well yet. As we like to say- "It was like trying to herd cats."
Chloe and her friend Faith pose after the class.
That evening we had a great dinner at Mandi and Geoffrey's followed by trick-or-treating with Chloe. She was dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. She stood still for Mandi to braid her hair.
Geoffrey loves Halloween- especially scary things. He tried to put on his Freddy Krueger mask to go trick-or-treating, but Chloe was too scared. So he settled for wearing the shirt and hat.
After the trick-or-treating, Logan advised Chloe on which candy to eat. She very generously offered to share.
Now, a week later, we're at work on another house project. We've whittled them down over the past five years, and we're nearly done with the whole house and yard. It's hard to believe we've owned (and worked on) the house for nearly five years now. This week we're working on the front yard. On Saturday we went shopping for sprinkler parts and plants, and on Sunday I dug trenches for the sprinklers while Logan put together the system. Here he is soldering the new pipes together:
Dad brought his newly painted truck over for us to see on Sunday afternoon. It's at least fifteen years old (can't remember what year), but it looks brand new now with the new paint job. Clark was so excited to see everyone.
Here's the yard with the trenches and new sprinkler pipes.
Today (Veteran's Day) Logan and I were both off work, so we spent the whole day working in the yard. We built a circular planter around our tree...
And planted several new plants, including a row of lantana along the sidewalk.
It was nearly dark when we stopped working tonight, so I didn't take photos of our most recent progress. I went and got two truck loads of tanbark for the yard, and we still need at least one more. But that will have to wait until the weekend. Back to work tomorrow...

Dogs love pumpkin!

We've had another few weeks of Logan and I being alternately sick. Logan is finally starting to get over his latest cold.
We had one great day of rain and wind a few weeks ago. I was home sick that day, and when Logan got home we spent a cozy afternoon vegging on the sofa. It rained so much so fast that the street in front of our house flooded:
The flood went halfway up into our front yard:

Later that week, when I was finally feeling better, we flew down to Disneyland to celebrate my 30th birthday. Since it was a short weekend, we didn't take a lot of photos, but here are a few.
Logan had to pose in front of the dreaded teacups. He gets nauseous just looking at them!: Logan posed with the biggest sheep I've ever seen at Big Thunder Ranch: And he got involved in a bleating contest with a goat: Petting the goats is always a fun part of the trip for me: Over in California Adventure, the palm trees grew candy corn: Logan happened to be wearing his Chip and Dale shirt when we saw them and posed for a photo: The Halloween decorations are just as much fun as the Christmas decorations were last year: Giant pumpkin heads greeted us at the front gates: The Disney characters were all wearing costumes. So cute!:Last night we gave Clark a small pumpkin to see what he would do with it. He was very interested in it, and sniffed it all over- before chomping into it!
This is my favorite shot:
He left quite a few claw marks in the pumpkin:
When he finally broke through the shell, he started eating it so fast that I had to take it away:
Mmm- yum!

Tomorrow we're carving pumpkins, which should be good for some more pictures. And then on Halloween we'll be spending the evening trick or treating with our goddaughter Chloe. Sounds like fun!