Christmas Eve 2008

Christmas Eve was a quiet and relaxing night. Our neighbor, Faith, came over for dinner and helped Rosie build a gingerbread house. It was the first gingerbread house Faith had ever put together. I think Rosie and Faith had a good time decorating the gingerbread house. After we were done with that, Faith read Rosie a bedtime story and we tucked Rosie in so Santa could come to bring gifts to our good little girl. Merry Christmas!

Daddy and Mrs. Faith putting the gingerbread house together...getting ready to decorate it

Rosie and Mrs. Faith decroating the house

The finished product, Rosie showing off her decorated creation.

Zoo Lights

Last night we took a family trip to see the Christmas lights at the zoo...also known as Zoo Lights. We bundled up, took a train ride and walked around the zoo all decorated in lights. The only animal that we saw was Sam, the baby elephant - very cute.

Zoo Lights at the Oregon Zoo

Ryan, Daddy, Rosie, and Kevin

Kevin is giving a High-Five to the Beaver in lights



Kevin and Ryan on the Train

Rosie and Daddy on the Train

Dragon in Lights

Swan Lake Scene

Artic Blast in Portland

....that's what all the news stations called the winter storms we had here in Portland over the last couple of weeks. We were lucky to have a white Christmas this year, but as soon as the snow came, it warmed up and its all melted away now. Here are some snap shots of what our house looks like in the snow.

The falling snow

Ice on a branch

Trees covered in ice

Our front door wreath

Our house in the snow

During the Artic Blast Rosie got a chance to play in the snow, she loved making snow angels, being pulled in the sled, and tossing snow in the air (the snow was not wet enough to make snowballs)

Rosie to take on the snow


Mommy and Rosie making snow angels




Daddy and Rosie in the snow


Henry loves the snow too, but he needed to where his sweater

Our house...lots of snow

Moving to Wisconsin

Hello all -

Yes, the title says it all. We are on an adventure and moving to Wisconsin. Andy is transfering with Kraft to work at the Tombstone Pizza Plant in Medford, WI. He starts his job early January, Rose and I will follow after the relocation goes through.

Kraft will purchase our house, if we are not able to sell it in two months. We put our house officially on the market this past weekend. In addition, Kraft will move us to Wisconsin. We will have movers come pack us up, move us, and unpack us...so that will be nice.

We were in Wisconsin this past weekend looking for a house to buy, but no luck. The house we were interested in and wanted to put an offer on, already had an offer on it. So, we are back to square one. Please pray that we can find a nice house within our price range, and enough room for at least three of us and room for guests and/or the boys coming to live with us. Our specific house requests are a house with a front entry way, at least 3 bedrooms, at least 2 bathrooms, finished basement (Andy would like a "man-land"), a deck off the back yard big enough to BBQ and its placement that makes sense.

As you may have infered from this post, Ryan has decided to stay in Portland and live with his mom. He will still be able to go to the same highschool, just have a long commute to and from school. Ryan did tell us that he wants to finish out his sophmore year and then come out an see us in Wisconsin this summer, and decide at that point if he will stay with us and finish out his high school years in Wisconsin. We are hoping that's how it will all play out, but we'll see what happens. Katy (the boys mom) will have a full house because Kevin is also moving back to Portland. Kevin will work through the winter, sping, and summer and start school in the fall at Portland State University (PSU). PSU has a film program...and that is what Kevin wants to study, maybe eventually go to film school.

Well, here are some pictures of Wisconsin from this weekend.

Putting an ice shanty out on the ice for ice fishing

View of ice shanties on the lake

View of Rib Mountain from the freeway in Wausau, WI

Rib Mountain is the second highest peak in Wisconsin at 1040 feet.

Can you believe it? Ryan is 16!

Yep, you read correctly, we celebrated Ryan's 16th birthday this month. He turned 16 on Oct.15th. He was so excited that the school decided to celebrate his birthday by having all the sophomores take a practice PSAT test...to get them ready for next year when he is suppose to take it for real. Ryan was not to thrilled about getting up and going to school early for that.

On Oct. 11th, Ryan and Andy headed to Corvallis, OR for the Beaver Football game (I gave my ticket to Ryan so he and Andy could have a "man" day). While in town, they also got together with Kevin and his girlfriend, Anne.

On the 12th we had Grandma Donna, Grandpa Paul, and Brother David (the neighbor from across the street and Ryan's good friend) for a gourmet dinner of Lamb chops, asparagus, and garlic mashed potatoes, and for dessert - birthday pie (thank you Grandma Donna for the pie, it was delicious)

On Ryan's actual birthday, the 15th, Ryan took the said PSAT, and after school had some buddies come over, eat pizza, play video games and watch movies/TV.

But the celebrations did not end there, for Ryan. Over the weekend of Oct. 18-19th, Ryan, his mom Katy, and Kevin went out for dinner and out for a movie.

I think all in all, Ryan had a pretty good birthday, but I still can't believe he is 16! Where did the time go?

Below are some pictures to remember the celebrations.

"Brother" David and Ryan

Andy, the Proud Father

Grandpa Paul and Grandma Donna

He wanted Monopoly

Rosie helping blow out candles

Selle's in September

As Rose is taking a nap, I have a little quite time to myself and thought I would post some new pictures on the blog and let you know what we did the last part of September.

Mt Angel Oktoberfest:

There is no more appropriate setting for an American version of the "Old World" Oktoberfest than in Mount Angel, Oregon. The small community was settled by German pioneers in the 1800s and readily reminds one of the rich Bavarian countryside. Oregon's oldest and best-loved Oktoberfest began in 1966 as a traditional harvest festival to celebrate the bounty of the earth and the goodness of creation. It is Oregon's largest folk festival.

On Sept. 14th, after church, the Selle's (minus Ryan) and the Spencer's headed to Mt. Angel for there annual Oktoberfest. It's something I've wanted to do for many years, and this year we did. We ate great food and listened to some great music. Andy and Chris decided that next year they would wear lederhosen.
According to Wikipedia, "Traditionally, lederhosen were worn by Germanic men of the Alpine and surrounding regions, including Austria, the highlands and mountains of Southern Germany, the German-speaking part of Italy's province of Bolzano-Bozen (formerly part of Austria until after WWI) and Switzerland . Lederhosen have remained regionally popular and are commonly associated with virility and brawn. Some men enjoy wearing them when... attending folk festivals and beer gardens; they are rarely seen elsewhere..."

That would be a sight to see Andy and Chris wearing Lederhosen...maybe next year.

Rose and I danced to the polka band, well we actually just went in circles. She LOVED it, as you can see by the smile on her face. And the Mt. Angel Oktoberfest wouldn't be complete without seeing the Glockenspiel play its song and do its little show.

The Mount Angel Community Glockenspiel, with its hand carved-figures and beautiful music plays daily at 11 a.m., 1, 4 and 7 p.m. The Glockenspiel celebrates Mount Angel’s rich history, Germanic culture and our world famous Oktoberfest.

Visiting Daisy and Baby Carter:

Wednesday, Sept. 17th, Rose and I took a road trip for the day and went to visit our friends at the beach, the Woika's. Rose and Daisy are only 4 weeks apart in age, and Daisy has a new baby brother, Carter. The weather was wet and cold, so we just hung out at the house, the girls played with play-doh, danced, played music, and did some "cooking" with the pretend food. And of course they watched an episode or two of their favorite show, Yo Gabba Gabba! You can see what all the rage about is here on the Yo Gabba Gabba website.

Daisy and Rose

Sitting on the couch eating a snack

Rose and Daisy being silly

Baby Carter

Here is a little video of the girls being silly.


Making Muffins and Tea Party with Daddy:

Rosie decided she wanted to make muffins and have a tea party when Daddy got home...so I helped her make muffins. She is a very good baker.

Rose mixing up the dough

Filling the muffin tins

See Daddy's great form, pinky finger is even up in the air

Rose and Daddy having a tea party

Princess Time:
Rose wanted to dress up in her princess skirt and wear her rubber boots one day. She had to put her boots on herself. If you look closely, her boots are on the wrong feet...but she looked really cute.

1st Dentist Visit

Rose got to visit the dentist this week. I really had to talk it up about how fun it will be to sit in the big chair and move up and down, and how nice the dentist is. (I particularly don't like to visit the dentist, b/c I usually have to have work done on my teeth, that involves needles - ouch!)

It was a very proud mommy moment for me. Rose did SO GOOD at the dentist. She got her teeth cleaned and fluoride - beautiful teeth, no cavities - YEAH! The dentist looked at her teeth and some spots I was concerned about...he said they looked good, and Rose didn't hardly cry at all.

She was excited because she got to where some really cool sunglasses, a neat looking bib, and suck on the straw sucky thing (the spit sucker, as I call it). Also, take a ride on the dentist chair going up and down. I'd say the highlight of her trip to the dentist was picking out her toy for being so good.

Since Rose got to visit the dentist...she shows us many times a day how clean her teeth are..she is pretty proud of having clean teeth.

I am happy she had a good 1st dentist experience and I hope for more good experiences at the dentist, a.k.a. no cavities.

Rose getting ready to have her teeth cleaned

Cleaning and counting teeth

The sucky thing


Rosie showing off her clean teeth with the dental hygienist

Playing with her toy...a green camera

In a Box

We recently purchased some furniture for our basement, as we have been tackling remodeling projects all summer. The furniture was delivered in some large boxes and Andy decided to save one for Rose to play in. So, here she got everyone to sit in the box with her.

Kevin, Rose, Hannah, Ryan, & David

The New Baby Elephant

On August 23rd, there was a new addition to the Oregon Zoo....a new baby elephant. We happen to be a the zoo that day but didn't go see the elephants because we knew it would be a busy exhibit. We waited a couple of weeks and in early September, Rose, myself, and Hannah (our neighbor) went to the zoo to see the new baby elephant. According to the Oregon Zoo website, the baby elephant was recently named Samudra, or Sam for short. Samudra is Hindi for "lord of the ocean."

When he was born he weighed in at 286 lbs (and I thought Rose was a big girl at 8 lbs). As of Sept. 5th Sam (the elephant) weighs 310 lbs. He is so cute! Here are few pictures from our trip to the zoo. Enjoy.

Sam and his mom Rose-Tu

The baby elephant is so cute

Giraffes

Hannah & Rose