Joseph's Tree

The Turners gave us a tree to plant in honor of their son Joseph's dedication to the Lord. We look forward to watching Joseph and his tree grow!

Christmas comes to the Tejeda Family

Our friends, the Tejedas, told us they don't really decorate for Christmas or put up a tree, so we played ELVES brought Christmas to them instead! The kids had a ball and the Tejedas were so surprised!

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

DRUMM FAMILY

Our family's favorite show is Extreme Makeover: Home Edition which recently came to the area to build a house for a family with an autistic child. Together with our friends Ashley & Joshua Rooney, we were able to see some of the process and even one of the designers, Didiayer Snider. The kids had a ball and took home tee shirts as a memento which they now wear for our weekly viewing of the show. Sabrina's pink shirt is hard to read but says "Move that bus!" The show is scheduled to air in January - it is the DRUMM FAMILY in Chambersburg, PA. Watch for us in the crowd when the teachers are being interviewed, we were standing right next to them.

Cutting our Christmas Tree Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving 2008

My family from Columbus (Ryans and Chuctas) came to spend about 5 days with us over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Pictures:

Nate, the Grouchy Pilgrim

Gram & Grandad

Kids ready for football and pumpkin pie!

Sabrina's 8th Bday Japanese Tea Party/Sleepover

On the way to Mt. St. Helens

Nate was severely disappointed that we did not get to go down IN to the volcano. Then when I told him we had to go back to Portland to catch our flight which was in 3 hours, he ran around telling people that the volcano was coming in 3 minutes. Crazy boy.

On the way to Mount St. Helens

Dave's sister Elizabeth, and friend Dawn who went to Mozambique with us.

Washington State

On the way to Mount St. Helens, we stopped off to watch people fishing for Coho Salmon - Nate wanted to get right in and fish too! Found a blackberry bush on the way out, so we all enjoyed a little snack!

Dinner at Rowena & Leong's beautiful home overlooking Portland

Rowena & I both had bdays within a few days of each other. This was a chocolate hazelnut torte from Papa Hadyn's - WOW was it ever yummy!

Portland Pics

We went to Portland to attend the Maranatha Volunteers convention, the group we went to Mozambique through. As a bonus, we got to see some good college friends of ours and kids got to play together. We met at Jamison Park where the kids played in a cool water fountain. Then we had lunch at Via Delizzia, mostly for their awesome gelato - it was our 2nd time there.

Rumi & Jesse Burns & Maxwell

Esther & I got our nails down while Dave took the kids to the hotel pool.

On our way to Portland

Ran into our neighbor from Trout Run, Denise, who works for Continental Airlines at BWI.

Mt. Ranier

Nate starts preschool

Nate started preschool 3x/week in the mornings. He sobbed on the way about how much he was going to miss me, but once he got there and saw all the cool toys and new boys, he barely said goodbye to us!

Mozambique Trip Reunion

About 1/2 of the Mozambique trip group made it out to our place on Labor Day for a reunion/cook-out.

Cesar & Shirley Tejeda
Kenny & Sam
Gabby & Dawn