what a great yuletide

Piper gets her first doll. We avoided it as long as we could, be she finally got into the whole doll thing and Ariel was who she wanted. Nana supplied the dream come true here.

Piper was so excited for Santa to come this year. She has been such a good girl this year, that Santa made sure to stop at our house to spread some holiday cheer our way. While we tried to emphasize the excitement of the holiday by expressing the reason behind Winter Solstice and Yuletide, the new year, the birth of the Sun from the Goddess Moon, Piper was still excited about presents. Well, she is a kid. We hope everyone had a great holiday.

Piper LOVES her new camera most of all. She is our new resident photographer

happy holidays

Piper and Dodger pose in front of the holiday tree. We are anxiously awaiting a visit from Santa.

Plie, Passe and arabesque!!!

Piper has really enjoyed taking ballet this month with her great friends Grace and Ruthie. it is a little difficult to take pictures that aren't blurry, but i got a few as they danced around with their scarfs at the end of class. She is excited to be signed up for another class starting next week. We may have a Natasha on our hands!!!!!

the silly days of fall

The fall time is upon us again in Portland and we spend our days dressing up, playing with our new family member Dodger and being silly. Isn't it great!

piper and dodger take a quick break from playing around to make silly faces for the camera.

piper is all about dressing up these days. being a princess is of course one of the favorites of many. here she poses for us with her tiara and cute smile.



piper and dodger play around in the fall leaves. Piper is in there somewhere hiding.

Puzzle Queen

Piper has taken a fancy to puzzles. She started with your standard big 24 piece puzzle of Ariel the mermaid. She quickly advanced to a floor size 46 piece. Then she went to a double sided 48 piece puzzle. Now she is tackling a 100 piece Disney Princess puzzle. This one takes her quite a bit longer and she needs a little more help from mama or dadda, but she loves it nonetheless. I am sure it won't be long before she will be taking on a 500 piecer. You go Girl!

Pumpkin Patch 2007

It's that time of the year again. Leaves are falling, grass is greener. The crisp autumn air fills your lungs and spirit. We took advantage of a beautiful October Sunday afternoon and headed to the very crowded pumpkin patch at suavie's island. We had a great time on the hay ride and wading through vines and looking for the perfect one.

Piper had a great time...

and so did mama and dadda.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE

Mama finally did it. Piper and mama spending so many cold days together just called for some old fashioned cookie making. Not just any cookie...but CHOCOLATE CHIP. Piper hasn't had much in the way of chocolate, so this is a mighty big deal. Needless to say (she is a girl!) she loved the chocolate. Yes mama, you probably just created a monster...but she is cute.

it's good to have friends

Piper and Grace look soooo cute holding hands while walking with their mama's to a coffee shop. They had just finished their first ballet class and they had a blast. It's good to have friends.

ham a lot

Piper hammed it up for the camera this morning getting ready to go to Sandy's for the day. She asked mama to take a picture and gave some great poses. it was hard to choose from the silly pictures. Piper thought they were funny. She was also into showing off her new kitty rain boots which she was quite excited to wear today.

Piper and Teeb

Piper LOVES our friend Teeb. She gets super excited every time he comes over wanting him to play animals, help with a puzzle or watch peter pan. We got a few pictures of them having a fun Sunday evening playing around. We are sad that Teeb is moving back to Louisiana for a while. Piper will miss Teeb fighting off the crocodiles that tend to swim around our couches and rugs in the living room and the lions that appear from down the hall and in the kitchen.

Oaks Park

Piper , Dadda and our friend Steve took Piper to Oaks Park this weekend while Mama was at her dragon boat races. Dadda had a company picnic there and Steve and Piper joined in on the fun. Piper had so much fun riding in the train, on the carousel, froggy ride and even the ferris wheel and roller coaster. We had no idea how much of an amusement ride crazed child Piper is. She was all about the speed, turns and heights as she got onto ride after ride. Now we really can't wait to take her to Disneyland for birthday number 5!


Dadda and Piper ride the trolley train. Dadda being silly as always.Piper and Dadda have fun on the ferris wheel

Piper and Steve gettyup on the carousel horsey.
I love this picture. It looks like she has wings...ahhh, our angel

Powell Butte hike

Piper and mama took advantage of a most beautiful Friday and went on a little hike up to Powell Butte. We saw snakes and hawks and picked a google of blackberries for a blackberry pie. Piper had fun running the trail and chasing bluebirds and finches that darted around the trees and trail.
Piper is lovin' the sun and being silly.

mama finds the most beautiful tree and piper takes a pose in front


piper and mama take a quick break and smile for the camera.

Soap box derby

Dada and Teeb took Piper up to Mt. Tabor for the Annual Soap Box Derby races a few weeks ago. They had a super fun time watching all the crazy derby cars from king kong to tecate stands race down the hill. Piper was very intrigued with the unicorns that followed Noah's ark (apparently people don't believe in unicorns because they weren't on noahs ark and got left behind-not familiar with the story) but Piper loved them anyway

what's been going on?

Piper has been busy lately. First Nana came back to visit for week, then Grandma and Grandpa stayed for a few weeks and watched Piper while mama and daddy went to a String Cheese concert!


Piper and Grace chill out on the couch at mama's new massage business. They were so excited to see each other and had a blast playing with the balloons and eating quiche. Mama had her big grand opening the 18th of August.Piper has been to more weddings at 3 than mama has almost her whole life! We were happy to attend Jason Landis and Sarah's wedding, which was beautiful and fun. 7/22/07

Dada, Mama, Piper, Corrina, Dave, and Raya at Landis after wedding day BBQ. 7/23/07

Piper turns 3-yippee

Piper had a great time celebrating her big birthday number 3!! She had lots of friends over for her party that included 2 kiddie pools (the most popular) and crafts of glitter and feathers and glue...oh my! She talked about her party for weeks before and after and all about her friends that helped her to celebrate.
Nothing like friends, family some sun and water mixed with a little food and crafts to have a great time.


Piper gets a great book from our friend Kim (she paddles in Dragonboats with Mama)


Piper checks out the cool fish mobile Nana got her in Mexico.

kids everywhere playing in the pool, the playhouse and tunnel.


Piper opens her gift from Uncle Mark while Grace, Amber and Rinoa watch.


Gabe does some awesome artwork with the paints!


Piper, Amber and Reilin have fun playing in the bubbles.

Dog Mountian

Dog Mountian Washington. I don't know why its called Dog Mountian. There are a lot of dogs on the trail. You work like a dog going up and down the trail! Whatever the reason, Piper, mama and dada took the Monday after Mother's Day to take on the 7.5 mile vertical hike for the spoils of victory upon completion, which of course the view!!!!

Mama says it should be renamed mule mountian, because mama felt like a pack mule the whole trip. Poor mama and dada. Piper got the sweet treat of riding in the hiking pack that sat uptop mama's back. Pretty much the whole way up and down. Piper did take a few opportunities to run up some of the steep hills and had more fun sliding down them on the way back.

Once we *finally* made it to the top, we enjoyed every minute as we made ourselves a nice picnic amoung the flowers and looked out around us, catching glimses of Mt. Hood and Mt. St.Helens and the Columbia river which surrounded us below.

Piper loved walking in the flowers and watching all the butterflies.

We made it home in one piece, but mama and dada are sore and tired. Piper was of course ready for more play. "why you all so tired? I am so ready to play, i got tons of energy!!!!"