Snow update

We woke up to an additional foot of snow this morning. We now have about 18 inches in our yard!

You can tell the difference by looking at the snow level around the mailbox.

Merry Christmas Family and Friends!

As I sit down to type this greeting, I am in awe of the season. Even though all our Christmas parties and gatherings with friends have been mostly canceled, I can't help feel the joy of the season because of what I see outside my window. Parrish, Rob and Lucy (our 10 year old black lab) are outside somewhere sliding down hills and throwing snowballs. I'm here at home while Sabrina takes her nap. Can't wait to join them.

This snow reminds me of Christmastime in Colorado during my childhood. There's just a peace and nostalgia there for me that makes me feel at home. We live on a steep hill which has enticed many kids and adults to sled down this past week. This makes it nice and slick so we have to chain-up just to get out onto our street. However, Rob had a thrill ride one morning when he didn't chain-up and slid down the hill sideways and took out the neighbors mailbox. Good thing they're out of town. Maybe he can get it fixed before they come home.

Our kids:
Parrish has grown into a size 6 already and spends her time teasing her father and showing her little sister how to take things out of peoples' hands. Occasionally she will try to physically pick her up (even though mom says no). But she loves her sister and fortunately they stay in good company with each other. Parrish LOVES kindergarten, but not as much as riding the bus. Playing with friends and pretend play with her ponyville figures are the latest craze. Although we've brought out all Parrish's old toys for Sabrina to play with, she has taken another liking to weebles. After begging mom many times, she finally got to take some dance and swim lessons this past summer. She continued the swim lessons through the Fall and will hopefully pick it up again in the Spring.

Sabrina has learned to hold her own with big sis around. She also has many conversations with us in which we try hard to understand her language. She knows just enough words to get by and keep us all entertained. She extremely affectionate and loves to give bear hugs....the baby version....big squeeze around the neck. I think I could handle that all day long. She has also become quite the fish in water. Mom and Sabrina joined Parrish in the pool last Fall for a class at the same time. Sabrina loves it. Both girls are perma-grin for a straight hour on swim class day.

Rob turned 40 this year. He wants me to tell you all he has managed to stay vibrant and devastatingly handsome. ;) I think he's been watching too many Frank Caliendo impersonations which has distorted his mind. But we love him anyway because he stays employed and helps fund our activities.

Heidi finished up another contract at Xerox this year. Her last day was just in time for the holidays. She has no idea when she'll pick up employment again (working part time is still the goal), but is excited to put in more time volunteering at Parrish's school and hopefully getting the girls out to the ski slopes in 2009.

Our travels this year led us to Montana, Hawaii, Colorado and many wonderful trips to the coast. We will be looking forward to a trip to Mexico (Ixtapa area) this June and hopefully something special for our 10th anniversary in July.

May you enjoy this season with all the warmth and comfort that the holidays bring!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Love The Noce's

Check out what we were up to later on tonight! It's not very often you can ski right from your front porch!

Cute bum

Yesterday as I was trying to get Sabrina dressed (have you ever tried to snap a onesie while the toddler was crawling away?). As we were pulling shirts out of the drawer, she kept saying "cute". Then she sat down and started playing with the diapers by her dresser. As I was trying to figure out how to get a shirt over her head without her screaming or running away, she surprised me with another word. She pointed to a diaper on the floor and said "bum".

Our latest wanderings

We spent Thanksgiving week at the coast and had such a nice time. We relaxed plenty! Each morning we slept in as late as possible (7:30am with the kids), ate breakfast, slowly cleaned up and pulled ourselves together for an outing, took afternoon naps and stayed up late playing games. I've been feeling under the weather for about 3 weeks now so Rob was kind each morning to let me sleep in about an hour more than the rest.

The weather was nice but very foggy. We hiked a nice trail around Cascade Head (North of Lincoln City) but couldn't see much at the viewpoint. That's ok because Parrish had such a fun time tromping through the mud on the path and asking all sorts of questions like, "why are there trees?", "are we going to get lost?", "why do we have grass?". She's really inquisitive these days. In fact, the other day we were contemplating the meaning of Christmas and she said, "Christmas means carnage". I thought, "how did she come up with that?" Apparently she's watched the movie "Babe" too many times. However, in light of what went on this year on Black Friday, she's not that far off, sadly.

Back to the beach.......we also had Uncle Russ and Aunt Janell with us for half the week. While they were with us, the annual Nelscot Reef tow-in surfing Classic was going on. This event is world renowned and is called 48 hours in advance (read about it here: http://www.nelscottreef.com/). People from Brazil, Hawaii and other parts of the US come here to compete. The past 2 years we have been lucky enough to be at the beach when the event has been called. This year there was a lot of fog so it was hard to see the surfers from the shore. However, there was some burn-off by the afternoon so Russ and Janell watched for awhile. It's amazing the size of these waves. I get scared watching. The winner takes home $7500. Prizes for 2nd and 3rd aren't bad either.

There is always something I forget to take with us to the beach no matter how much we plan. This time it was the camera. I thought Rob packed it, he thought I did....that happens a lot. However here are some photo updates of the girls. Parrish in her usually goofiness and Sabrina showing us a big smile. Life is good. We hope yours is to.

High 5

Sabrina started giving me high 5's today. Unsolicited and totally unexpected. I think Aunt Janell has something to do with this. She watches the girls every Tuesday and Thursday when I go to work.

About typing on the computer with Sabrina in the same room.......I thought I was being pretty clever by placing a keyboard that wasn't plugged in at the front of the desk so when Sabrina came up to type while I was at the computer, she wouldn't inadvertently erase what I was typing. So, it isn't working. Sabrina has realized that something actually changes on the computer screen when you press the keyboard buttons. She was very frustrated with me today. Thank goodness for short attention spans!

Here she comes again, gotta go!

Parrish ran her fun run today

Archer Glen Elementary held their annual fun run fundraiser today and couldn't ask for nicer weather.

I got to the school just as Parrish's kindergarten class started their run. Parrish was fresh and strong with a big smile on her face. Parrish did great! She ran 5 laps in 25 minutes! Almost 2 miles. I think most of the kids ran the same amount, but I have no idea how she compared.

In one of these pictures you can see Parrish's 4th grade buddy. We can't remember his name, however! They set up a little buddy system this year for the kindergarten classes. They meet with them every week. I think it's just to help the kids feel more comfortable in their new environment.

Parrish said to me on the way home, "I did 5 laps and I'm 5 years old". Next year she's hoping to do 6. What a trooper.

Sleepy head

This is what happens at breakfast when you stay up all night partying and watching movies......



Ok, just kidding....I think she was tired because of all this activity........





The other big event this week was Parrish's first day of kindergarten! She asked me, "mommy, am I going to like kindergarten?" Of course, I told her she would love it and make all sorts of new friends. Pretty soon she'll realize that it's not preschool and she wont get to make crafts the entire time. But I'm sure we'll get through it. :)

Ahhhhh, back to getting some sleep.......

I have to admit, I have so thoroughly enjoyed watching the summer Olympics this year, but I'm exhausted! Even though we recorded much of the program on our DVR, we were mostly using it to blast through the commercials. I've turned into a huge couch potato in August. Thank goodness we had such rainy weather last week so I didn't miss much of the coveted sunshine we all wait for here in Portland.

Now things are coming to a close and it's bitter-sweet. We'll have to say goodbye to these games, but at least I wont be staying up past midnight anymore.

Now it's time to focus on celebrating Parrish's birthday and getting her started with Kindergarten! Shhhhhh, don't tell her she's getting a bike this year. It's about time she had one. We've been a little hesitant to get her trained on a bike because we live on such a steep hill. Everyone keep your fingers crossed!

Opening ceremony of Olympics on my Birthday

I have a summer birthday. For those of you who also have a summer birthday you probably understand me when I lament that my birthday is often forgotten. However, I must admit that I often get an email from a friend from my past that surprises me with a Happy Birthday message. How did they remember? Well, my birthday is on 8-8. This year is very cool because it's 8-8-08 and it's also the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Bejing. But not as cool as when I turned 16 on 8-8-88. This makes my birthday easy to remember and adds a little fun.

This Friday, I hope everyone has a great day!

Summertime

Wow, I can't believe it's July already. It has been months since our first post. Here's a snippet of the last few months.

April was a big trip to the Big Island for 10 days. What a relaxing and wonderful trip. We snorkeled, surfed, sunned, and watched. My sister and her husband came with us for a week and we were able to make our first stay in the Hilton Grand Vacations Club. What a treat! We purchased this time share back in 2007 and never had a chance to use it the first year. I've included a slideshow that pretty much sums up the trip. Enjoy!

In May Rob turned 40 and we had a get-together with friends at his favorite restaurant, Typhoon!, on Broadway. Part of Rob's birthday gift was season tickets to the Blazers and I finally got him a DVR. To get the DVR, unfortunately I had to upgrade our cable to digital which included many more channels including the premium sports channels. Like I said, unfortunately. :)

In June, we all traveled to Colorado to visit my mom. She just moved into a new house after selling her home in Montana. She is back to a place where she has many friends and also lives closer to my older sister Jill and her family. While visiting we took the opportunity to have Sabrina blessed by a very close family member, Jeff Carney. In the Mormon church, it is typical to have babies blessed sometime after they are born. The ceremony includes giving the baby a name and blessing on their life and health as they grow. It was a very special time for all the family and we so appreciated everyone that participated. My sisters family worked hard preparing a luncheon for afterwards, my mom made all the arrangements with the church leaders, and we invited family and friends from all over the area to join us in celebrating. We were so grateful they made the trek out to my mom's house which is in Parker, CO.

In July, Rob's youngest sister (Sarah) was married in Sisters, OR. We made a long weekend trip out to Bend and stayed with some friends in their newly purchased condo. We spent most of our time in and out with family activities, but had some time to go out for breakfast and visit at night before bed. We are grateful to the Norkitis family for accommodating us so nicely! We definitely hope they take us up on our offer to come to the beach.

Back to the wedding........Parrish was thrilled to get dressed up and be the flower girl. She was so good and did her job so earnestly. Also, she was very distracted with everyone looking at her while she walked down the isle. It was fun time for all of us, but especially fun catching up with all Rob's brothers and sisters, whom we don't see very often all at once. We didn't get to visit much with Bill and Sue, Rob's dad and step mom, because they were so busy with all the arrangements. So we hope to see them at the end of the month when we are planning on staying in Black Butte for a long weekend.

Last, Sabrina is turning 1 years old on August 5th. I can't believe the speed in which the last year has gone by. Not surprising since I'm busier than ever with the girls, working part time and taking care of most household things.....including the beach homes.

We hope you, your family are doing well and having a great summer.
Love Heidi & Rob

Welcome!

Hi,

Rob and I have decided to start a blog so we can keep our family and friends updated on what's going on with our lives and more importantly, our kids. We hope you enjoy!