Sunday, December 30th, 2012
Happy Birthday, Ivan!
We watched Soul Surfer tonight at Else’s house. Magnus liked snuggling up and sitting by Uncle Anton.
When we went home, it was clear outside and Magnus found the moon. Whenever he couldn’t see it out his window he got kind of upset. When we got home we made sure to look at the moon a good long time. Then, he was able to find it out his bedroom window. Hello, moon!
Saturday, December 29th, 2012
Happy Birthday, Elina!
Elina’s birthday celebration consisted of her opening presents and everyone eating pie. It was yummy pie!
Friday, December 28th, 2012
Ivan came over tonight and we all went to dfinner. Afterward we went to Esther Short Park and saw the giant Christmas Tree. It was very cold, but the lights were very pretty. Thanks for dinner, Ivan!
Thursday, December 27th, 2012
Santa left one final gift a few days late. We have been wanting a shelf to keep Dana’s legos on so he could still get into all the boxes. They finally had one at Target today so Dana brought it home and built it. It looks great!
Wednesday, December 26th, 2012
Christmas was good to Magnus. Thank you, everyone for all the nice presents!
Tuesday, December 25th, 2012
Merry Christmas, Everyone!
Magnus enjoyed finding the presents from Santa this morning. He was excited about all the candy in his stocking too.
After opening presents at home we went to Else’s and opened stockings and ate brunch. Then we drove down to Salem and had dinner and more presents. It was a happy Christmas! Merry Christmas, everyone!
Monday, December 24th, 2012
Christmas Eve!
We had very good Christmas Eve. We went over to Farmor’s house for the festivities. We ate a wonderful ham dinner with ris a’lamond for dessert (Dana won the prize this year). Magnus really enjoyed opening presents this year, especially tearing the paper. It was a fun time. Here is Elina playing Christmas carols for everyone with Magnus on backup. We hope everyone had a joyful Christmas.
Sunday, December 23rd, 2012
In our Christmas-y Sunday dress. Dana and I sang in church today and Magnus took a nap. We must have sounded really good.
Saturday, December 22nd, 2012
We found this little guy at WinCo and decided to take him home with us. Isn’t he cute?
Friday, December 21st, 2012
The day the world did not end. Hurray!
We did a multi-birthday celebration tonight and ate dinner at Red Robin. Afterward everybody came over and we hung out.
Magnus and Anton snuggled as they watched Muppet Christmas Carol.
Thursday, December 20th, 2012
Elina and I went out to get some last minute shopping done. On the way to our destination we passed a nativity petting zoo, complete with Curly the Camel. Elina stopped and we got out in the windy cold to visit the animals. Magnus loved it and told us with his characteristic squeal of delight when he meets animals. They were all very friendly and we got a few camel kisses. Magnus also liked petting the sheep and the donkey.
Yay for random petting zoos!
Wednesday, December 19th, 2012
Farmor got a package from Larson’s Danish Bakery in Seattle. So, we had to have some samples. They were very delicious.
Tuesday, December 18th, 2012
Here is what I found when I got home today, Magnus had put the mail key in the front door’s keyhole.
Monday, December 17th, 2012
Terry gave Ruth this book for her birthday yesterday. Ruth has already gone through it with many plans forming in her mind.
Sunday, December 16th, 2012
Happy Birthday, Ruth!
Happy Birthday, Ruth! It was a busy Sunday, but my family was able to come over for a wonderful pulled pork dinner. Ruth made herself a chocolate cake with caramel-toffee frosting. It was good. We hope you had a good birthday, Ruth.
Friday, December 14th, 2012
A didgeridoo is what Ruth found in the really long skinny package from her mom. It is something she has been wanting for a long time. Ruth’s birthday is on Sunday, so we did some of the celebrating today. Elina watched Magnus while we went to go see The Hobbit followed by a yummy dinner at a new pizza place. It was a nice evening.
Thursday, December 13th, 2012
A delicious bubbling mass of sugary goodness. This is just one of the steps in making caramels.
Wednesday, 12.12.12
Elina knows how to make cool Borax crystalline things. She made us this awesome Christmas ornament.
Tuesday, December 11th, 2012
When we brought our tree inside, Dana trimmed out the dead branches with scissors. Magnus watch and now thinks that is what scissors are for. We may have misled him on the definition of “trimming the tree…”
Dana also went to see the movie Lincoln and loved it.
Monday, December 10th, 2012
Dana felt very sick tonight, so he laid on the couch. Magnus wanted to help so he sat on him while playing Anton’s Wii U. Can you find the sick Dana?
Sunday, December 9th, 2012
Watched some borrowed movies over the weekend. Both were pretty good.
Saturday, December 8th, 2012
Happy Birthday, Will!
Santa made an appearance at our ward Christmas party. He didn’t have anyone sit on his lap, but Magnus did high-five him.
Friday, December 7th, 2012
Gingerbread House building tonight. Ruth built an old school house that fell down and became a quaint tent. Dana built a cozy log cabin in the woods. Magnus liked eating the building materials.
Thursday, December 6th, 2012
Our little decorated tree. One of the only true disagreements that Ruth and I have is this: what kind of light goes on a the Christmas Tree, white or multi-colored. I like white. Ruth likes multi-colored. You can tell who won this year.
P.S. I still love our tree
Wednesday, December 5th, 2012
We decided to get a real tree this year, because it would be our first true Christmas tree. So, we went all out by going out into the woods to find one. My friend Brian helped us on our quest. We found a good Noble Fir that we liked. We also saw a cool waterfall, played in some snow, and had good fun.
Tuesday, December 4th, 2012
Magnus gets a little work done at the office in Else’s chair while Ruth prints off the Christmas letters.
Saturday, December 1st, 2012
With the start of December comes the Christmas Elves. The Elves leave presents in your shoes each day until Christmas. Magnus was excited to find this box in our shoes this morning. He also had a lot of fun opening it. It turned out to be a Lego advent calendar.
Friday, November 30th, 2012
Grandpa came over for dinner tonight. We had fun while he was there. He even helped Magnus to defy gravity a bit.
Thursday, November 29th, 2012
We have been getting the Christmas decorations out and Magnus immediately wanted to play with my old nutcracker. It wasn’t long before he banged it on the table and made to hat fall off. So, that was the end of that. Two side notes: The nutcracker is doing fine after a little glue therapy. Also, Else gave Magnus this giant calendar to use as a writing table and he loves it.
Wednesday, November 28th, 2012
Ruth was in charge of Young Women in Excellence tonight, which is like a meeting where the young women at church can get together and celebrate their accomplishments for the year. The evening went great and everybody liked the notebooks they received. This is the DVD that Dana made for Ruth to show during her presentation.
Tuesday, November 27th, 2012
We got some Portobello mushrooms from our mushroom guy at the Harvest Market a little bit ago. We like his advice on cooking mushrooms and he told us they would make great burgers. So that is what we did. Dana grilled the crowns and Ruth sautéed some onions with some bacon and we topped it with pepper jack cheese and spinach. And they were fantastic. It is definitely something we will make again. And our mushroom guy scores another win with his advice.
Monday, November 26th, 2012
Our local newspaper recently held a photo contest for pictures of Clark County and Southwest Washington. 918 people submitted 28,299 photos to a website and then people voted on them. The winners were published in this book. Dana was very excited to learn that he got two photos (1 & 2) in the book, so we had to get one.
Sunday, November 25th, 2012
After church, Dana wanted to go see the Festival of trees at the Pearson Air Museum too. He really liked seeing the decorated trees among the awesome airplanes. And Magnus discovered a contraption that has you land a little airplane on an aircraft carrier that he loved.
Saturday, November 24th, 2012
Ruth and Magnus went to the Festival of Trees at the Pearson Air Museum. They had a good time and Magnus even got to meet the big guy in red for the first time. He was only a little shy and nervous.
Friday, November 23rd, 2012
This was mostly a relaxing day, though Dana did have to work for Black Friday through the night. Ruth worked some more on these note books for Young Women in Excellence. She ended up making 35 of these to give to the young women.
Thursday, November 22nd, 2012
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving was busy but a great success. Terry orchestrated a great meal. And her decorations on the table were very nice. We really liked these cornucopias made out of waffle cones at each place setting. Thank you for the delicious food.
Wednesday, November 21st, 2012
We stayed over in Salem at Ivan and Terry’s house so we could help prepare for Thanksgiving. Magnus helped to make one of the pumpkin pies. Here he is mixing away.
Tuesday, November 20th, 2012
We had fun playing with these giant rubber bands Elina got at work. We made a ring for Magnus to play in. He eventually brought this step stool into it to sit on.
Sunday, November 18th, 2012
Small feet in some big slippers, classic…
Also, we got a new Bishop in our ward today.
Saturday, November 17th, 2012
Our little guy is now pretty good at knowing things just by watching us. Today, he picked up Ruth’s phone and stated talking into it. He has also shown that he knows how keys work (by unlocking a door), how to feed our turtle, and how to stand on the Wii Fit board, among others.
Friday, November 16th, 2012
Like many others, Dana was sad to hear of the demise of Hostess. So, also like many others, Dana bought a few favorites. And they are very good. Hostess, we will miss you.
Thursday, November 15th, 2012
The birds! The crows decided to have a council outside our house today. It was noisy.
Wednesday, November 14th, 2012
Lately, Magnus has really liked watching animal videos, so when he and Dana went to the library today Magnus choose this video to borrow. Also, when they were leaving Magnus took a brochure from a display and stood in the middle of the main entrance area and talked to it very excitedly to the smiles of many other patrons.
Tuesday, November 13th, 2012
Ruth held a Christmas photo shoot for Magnus this morning. Magnus was cooperative enough and appreciated the milk and treats. Dana went to see Wreck-It-Ralph this evening with Anton. It was a very fun movie.
Monday, November 12th, 2012
Tonight, when Ruth told Magnus to give me a good night hug, he went and hugged this toy instead. He must really like this toy.
Sunday, November 11th, 2012
Happy Birthday, Steen!
Happy Veterans Day!
Sunday night at Farmor’s. Magnus found a box of no-bake Jell-O cheesecake in the pantry downstairs. He opened the box and took out the pouches inside. Then he slowly carried them up the stairs. Else was at the top an was wondering why it was taking so long for him to come up, also, why there was a lot of huffing and pounding…
