A Newman Family Thanksgiving...

After we had thoroughly stuffed ourselves at the Law family party we headed to Payette for the Newman family Thanksgiving. Believe it or not, I forgot my camera...so I had to wait for my mom to email me her pictures.

Faith trying on her Mama's boots

Kaden, Mason, and Faith hanging out with their Mama
Grandma Geri loves baby Faith!

Uncle Ron couldn't wait to get his turn playing with Faith

Thanksgiving at the Laws...

Somehow I ended up with very few pictures of Thanksgiving. We had dinner with the laws first where we succeeded in stuffing ourselves full. I love this time of year when the whole family gets to be together. I must have been to busy eating to take pictures because I ended up with very few pictures of our Law Family Thanksgiving (officially a Harris family Thanksgiving.)

I love how Braden's belly is sticking out of his shirt!

Grandpa giving Braden his first taste of Jell-O

Madison LOVES olives

After he was done eating Teagen settled down on the floor to play with the trucks

My Favorite Picture...

Law Family Pictures...

Thanksgiving morning, before dinner, we met at the church building for some family pictures...There's not a lot you can do with 21 people and get them all in one picture...Thank you Uncle Terry for coming down to help out...You did a great job!!

Braden, Amy, JD and Madison

Jesse, Teagen and Jori

Happy Thanksgiving...

Senior Pics...Take One...

Justin didn't bother to tell me that he'd set up with Josh for me to take some of his senior pictures today...When Justin remembers, we're in Costco and we've only got about an hour to take pictures before we need to head to Payette for dinner. So we rush home and have Josh meet us there. Here's the rough draft of today's shoot. I asked Josh a while ago if he wanted to have any pictures taken in his suit, his response, "yeah then I won't have to take more pictures in a year when I go on my mission." Typical Josh response! We didn't take too many pictures because it was so cold outside and I still haven't completely figured out the manual modes on my camera...It's been great having our brothers and sisters to practice on! So, ma, this is for you!

We still have some more pictures to take. I want to get some with his guitar and snowboard, but I need snow for the snowboard pictures.

Twilight...

I went over to Ontario to see Twilight tonight with my mom, Tim, Jen and mom's friends Carrie and Rus....It was great! I loved it! I have to say when I saw a couple of trailers and the pictures of the cast I wasn't impressed with the casting. I was proven wrong, Edward and Bella were perfect! I'm definitely buying this movie and might have to go see it again before it comes out on video!

Foster Care Shower...

Tuesday night my friend Jacque threw us a Foster Care Shower. It was a lot of fun to get all of the women from the recently split Middleton 5th ward together again. A huge thank you to everyone who has supported us on our journey to becoming foster parents!!

We love you all!!

Everyone needs a Newman Family blanket! (thanks mom!)

Justin keeping Ty entertained

Jacque did an awesome job on the decorations and food!

Albertsons Deal...

Albertsons has this great deal on...you buy one Sara Lee frozen pie (for $6.39 if you live in the Boise area) and you get another Sara Lee pie free....That's not all...you also get, not one, but two free Bryers ice creams (1.5 qt)....So you save THREE TIMES what you pay!!! The sale runs through Tuesday, November 18!!

Our Evening with Everly...

Tuesday, after our flight got in from Portland, we picked up our friends Dave and Abby's little girl Everly so they could go on a date! She is one of the easiest kids to watch. She's always happy and smiling, until 5:30 am when she's super tired but doesn't want to sleep!! Here are some of the highlights of the evening.

We started by inspecting each piece of the Mr. Potato Head

Then we practiced looking cute...which for Everly doesn't really require much!

Next we worked on our hand eye coordination

We spent a little time talking to our dog Abby

And mastered our ABC's with the fridge magnets

Everly wanted nothing to do with Justin Tuesday night. Just looking at him would make her cry! When I needed to leave for choir rehearsal I was going to have him put her to bed, but that didn't happen...So Everly, in her cute pink footie pajamas, accompanied me to choir. She did great! And man does that girl love music, she danced through the whole thing! Wednesday morning Justin saved her from her Pack-n-Play prison and he was her new best friend (a complete 180 from the night before). Since I got up with her at 5:30 he got her up and fed her breakfast. Maybe she just needs to come to our house more often so she can get over her apprehension for Justin.

On the Boat in Portland...

We took a last minute trip to Portland this weekend. My Uncle Dean called last week and let us know he was going to be there staying on his house boat and we were invited to come up and hang out. So I promptly got a trade for Sunday and off we went! Sunday we spent the afternoon sitting around the boat watching movies (I highly recommend Get Smart, it was much better than I originally thought it was going to be!) and did a little shopping at the mall across the street (because a trip to Portland is not complete without shopping!) There is this really cool antique wooden carousel that was built in 1921 in the Jantzen Beach shopping center.

These were our deluxe accommodations for the weekend. Believe it or not I forgot to take a picture of Deans boat. So this is one my mom took last spring.

I was too busy taking pictures of this REALLY cool boat parked next to us. The story of this boat was pretty cool too, the grandparents of the guy who owns it now sailed over on it from the Netherlands...can you imagine this boat crossing those kinds of waters! Amazing!

This is how you start a boat that has been sitting in the marina for five months...It's a two man job. Monday morning it wasn't raining so we went for a boat ride.

There are some amazing boat houses in Portland...This is the one I am going to own someday...RIGHT! It was the most impressive!

And our trip to Portland would not be complete with out a stop at IKEA. Okay, so we've never been to IKEA, but have heard wonderful things about it...and I LOVED it!! We rode the bus and the max almost all the way back to the airport..I, of course, knew exactly where I was going and I think Dean and Justin were a little worried I didn't. But I was right, just two stops from the airport is IKEA! We didn't buy anything this trip, but I will definitely be back!

Tuesday morning was raining and dark so we took our time getting ready and headed to the airport for our noon flight home. Thanks, Dean, for another great weekend!

OSU Beavers...

I don't know what it is, but I love it when I get to fly on any of the "special" livery in the Alaska and Horizon fleet. Today when we flew home from Portland, we flew on the OSU Beavers plane. It's nothing special inside, just a fun paint job. More Portland pictures to come...