Times and Sorensens

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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Dinner by Twilight

Leslie and I had a wonderful date tonight, our last before the baby is born (any day now - please!). We went to dinner at On the Border, which recently opened merely a block from where I work. You can order "Guacamole Live" as an appetizer and they make it right in front of you, so you know it can't be fresher and you get to see what goes into it. Yum!

Then we finally caught the movie Twilight while it was still in theaters. Leslie wanted to see it in the theater and we didn't have time until the bad weather hit and we couldn't go. I figured it would be okay for me to go since it would be obvious to everyone there that I was there to be with Leslie, and I reinforced my masculinity earlier today by replacing the fill valve in our half-bath toilet (and it only cost $7!). Tomorrow I will recover by fixing our front door kick plate and working on our garage door opener, which is not sensitive enough for our tastes.

Actually, I enjoyed the movie. Some parts were good, and most of the bad parts were bad in a funny way so it was generally entertaining. Wait, what am I saying? I need to get to that kick plate...

Friday, December 26, 2008

White Christmas

We had a wonderful first Christmas in our new house. I never imagined that we would have an honest-to-goodness White Christmas moving to Portland, but here we are and I don't think it could have been much whiter. We were nice and cozy inside though and got to share lots of laughs and love throughout the day. I am so grateful for our family!



I just had to include a picture of Joshua intently following the instructions for transforming his newest acquisition, Megatron, from a robot to a gun to a helicopter. I am constantly amazed by his ability to follow instruction manuals and actually make things work (he so does not get this from his mother...a mini-Jake indeed!)


Male bonding time (I love it!)

Icicles

With all this wild weather we've been having here in the Northwest comes something very pretty...


...yet menacing:


No, not the cute little kid -- the long pointy thing that's about as tall as he is!



Good times!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Okay, that's enough...

To help break us in, Portland has apparently decided to provide us with WOUS: Weather Of Unusual Severity. The snow we got Sunday apparently happens once or twice a year, but it doesn't last more than a day, if that. However, this week has had below freezing temperatures all week so it froze and hung around, melting away just barely enough to drive yesterday. And now we're back with a whole new set of snow!


Of course we had to go play in it - there wasn't a choice, really, with those soft, inviting flakes coming down. Once it built up enough we joined almost all of our neighbors in the street to play. We have the steepest driveway on the block, so guess where the sledding was going on? The boys had a blast playing with the other kids in the snow until they got too cold and hungry. After lunch we let them loose in the backyard, and I remembered to take some pictures. In the above picture, Daniel's lower half is obscured by our elevated deck, not that you can tell what anything is because it's all white. The boys enjoyed lobbing snowballs over the fence:


Apparently the backyard is as fun with snow as it is in the summer when they can use the sandbox:


Daniel built the snowman (to his right) all by himself, even rolling the balls himself! I was very impressed.


Joshua built one too, which he said was "Snobody." I thought that was very clever, until he clarified that the snowman's name was "Snow Buddy."

Anyway, things warmed up just a bit too much and it all turned to slush tonight, which means in the sub-freezing temperatures of the next two days driving will be awful - we've already been warned about the "icy rain after snow" turning roads into a solid sheet of ice. It's so great to be able to work from home, especially when you can go out to enjoy the snow and work a little later when it's slushy.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Holiday Houses

I signed the boys up for a holiday house making class at the rec center and we had a great time! I'm extra glad I signed them up since school has been canceled so far this week due to the snow/ice/wind storms we've been having here. It was great to be able to get out and have something to look forward to. I have to admit that if I'd known how bad the road conditions would be beforehand, we probably would not have ventured out. But since the worst thing that happened was that we slid around in the car a bit and we all slipped a little on the sidewalk, I'm glad we went.



I thought this cute little snowman Joshua made deserved a close up:

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Let it Snow!

As I opened the blinds this morning and got breakfast for the boys, I noticed the leaves on the ground in the backyard looked a little white. After squinting at them a bit, I decided it was frost - they said it would be COLD this weekend, and snow down to 700 feet. The boys had just barely started breakfast when Joshua yelled out, "IT'S SNOWING!!!" Since they grew up in San Diego, I wasn't sure either boy would recognize it, but they sure learned fast. They were glued to the windows in front:


After getting dressed, we went to play outside:


The boys had a great time and we built a little snowman, "Snowy":



The snow was already melting by the time we got ready for church, but then it snowed even more during church, and by the time we got home there was a lot more to play in:



I built a second snowman, and I could actually make the balls by rolling them over the snow-covered grass. The boys threw snowballs, made snow angels, and had a great time until they decided they were too cold to continue. It feels weird to be living in the snow, but I enjoy it because it doesn't stick around too long here. And I can easily work from home.

If only I hadn't left my winter coat at my parents' house in the Bay Area...

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Kindergarten Homework

Joshua had an assignment for kindergarten to tell about what he wants to be when he grows up. The teacher gave several examples to get them started, "Abby wants to be a firefighter, Jason wants to train dolphins" etc. The children were supposed to either find a picture to cut out or draw a picture of what they want to be when they grow up. Joshua didn't hesitate for a second before deciding he wants to be a daddy when he grows up, and this is the picture he included for the assignment. It's so sweet because Joshua often talks about wanting to be a daddy, and how he wants to live next door to us when he's all grown up, and how he'll come over and tell us when his "mommy" is going to have a baby. It's too sweet! While I'm at it, his plan to find a "mommy" (wife) is for us to drive him to college and when we let him out of the car, he'll start looking for someone he can be friends with and get married to (as his mother, I'm starting to get teary-eyed here...). He has definitely inherited what I like to call his "gentle soul" from his father. I don't blame him one bit for wanting to be a daddy when he grows up, given the awesome role model he has. Before we had kids I knew Jake would make a fine dad, but I had no idea how amazing he would really be at it. I am constantly amazed and grateful. I would love nothing more than for my sons to be just like their dad when they grow up.

From the Archives

Every now and then I like to do a "from the archives" post when I come across fun but forgotten photos, just to spice things up a little. Here's a picture I took last spring after Daniel set the table all by himself for the very first time. He was so proud of himself and wanted me to take a picture of his accomplishment. That look on his face and his body stance can only come from a (then) two-year-old bursting with pride.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Three months later...

...It's Daniel's first day of school! That's right! A spot finally opened up at the dream preschool Daniel has been on the wait list for and we are pretty excited. I am home by myself right now, which is a really different yet nice feeling. Not that I don't love having my children around, but to know that they are being supervised and enriched by other capable adults and that I have the morning off is just, wow. Never fear; lest I become too spoiled, the baby will be here soon enough to keep me company during this time again. I am really looking forward to that time alone with him though and then regrouping with Joshua and Daniel to hear all about the fun things they did at school.