Trouble in paradise....

Oh boy oh boy are my kids in BIG BIG Trouble..  While cleaning house today, I happened to notice on Owen's dresser - a dresser he had inherited from his dad, who had refinished and varnished it as a 15 year old when times were tight, a carving of Owen's and Morgan's names into the dresser.  Darren is so mad he has told the kids they are grounded till he leaves (in 2 1/2 weeks) and he wants to completely cancel Christmas.  Trouble is the more he thinks about it the angrier he is getting.  Doesn't help that both Morgan & Owen are pointing fingers at each other.  Owen admitted to some of the carving but insists that Morgan did some and Morgan completely denies any wrong doing at all.  She in turn is belligerently sitting in her room being very dramatic crying saying she'll never get to play in the snow again or have sleepovers or play dates.  Not one of them as actually apologized.  This all makes for a very happy Christmas, especially as Darren would like any excuse to not have it anyway.  Oh dear.....on top of that we have guests for dinner tonight who are bringing their daughter who happens to be a friend of Morgan's and on Christmas day we're supposed to go to another friend of Owen's house for Christmas day dessert.  Let's hope everyone cools down a bit and learns to take responsibility for their actions.  I guess Darren will think twice before giving Owen a knife again!!!

Snow keeps on coming....

Two words... GLOBAL WARMING... I kid you not, we have approximately 14+ inches of snow in our back yard and after deciding to be nice and shovel snow.. yes you heard it... me shoveling snow off of our drive way (not in my wildest dreams did I ever think I'd be doing that in my lifetime here in Portland OR) I woke up again this morning and it looked like it had never been touched... 

This is seriously the craziest weather ever for us.  Can't really drive in this weather so I trekked up to the local supermarket to buy eggs and ham and trudged back down the hill along the road ways because the snow was just too deep to walk through on the sidewalks.  Morgan & Owen went sledding again with friends after building a very impressive snow hut (not quite an igloo) yesterday. (Check out the progress).

 

Milo is just in heaven

 - he loves this stuff and he likes to lie in the snow and watch people walking, sledding and occasionally skiing by.

  

This evening Morgan & I are going to a Mother-daughter cookie exchange in the local neighborhood and I'm going to pull her along on the sled.  (No point in even attempting to drive).  Owen is sleeping over at a friends house tonight.  We've always wanted a white christmas but forecast is for rain.. Still it could just be more snow though..

Snow day in the deep freeze.

As unbelievable as it may seem we got hit by an arctic blast that has turned our roads in to ice rinks and the kids got to have a much prized snowday - no school, so after a day of snow falling we woke to a crystal clear but extremely frigid day and the kids were beside themselves with the idea of getting to play in the snow....here are some of the pictures.   Luckily Owen met up with some of his friends and got to sled.  This was one of my favorite shots.  Of course, it wasn't all play.  They still had to do their chores and had their piano lesson that evening.  I even attempted to go to the store but the roads were pretty icy and most people were driving at about 5 mph which was more dangerous than anything else.   But hey, better safe than sorry I guess.  All I can say is thank god they have school tomorrow.

A suprise visit from Uncle P....

Well of course, I have a ton of stuff to tell namely that we went to Idaho for Thanksgiving and then the visit by Uncle Pee (namely Paul) which was such a great surprise for the kids who were in a complete state of disbelief when Paul came  up the stairs on Saturday morning while we were getting  breakfast ready.  Owen's face in particular was a picture going from confusion to recognition to utter disbelief and then total joy that there was their English Uncle standing in their Portland House.  And he couldn't have picked a better weekend to visit as the sun was blasting high in the sky and it made for a glorious day to go and pick out our Christmas tree.  We managed to give him a cliff notes tour of Portland, taking him downtown to experience Portland's famed Voodoo Doughnuts and Stumptown coffee, and the most amazingly colorful sunset that night, only to wake up the next morning to experience the ultimate Portland weather, pouring rain.  After a lovely breakfast in NE Portland at The Tin Shed we, took Paul up to the Pittock Mansion before heading down to Powell's bookstore and finishing up at Moonstruck chocolatier for a well deserved coffee/chocolate/ tea (depending on your particular taste.)  It was sad when I had to drive him to the airport the following morning but we had a such a fantastic time it was a real treat for all of us, including Milo!