Happy Birthday Emerson and Ryan!

Today Emerson turned TWO and Ryan turned...well, that's his business at this point. Ryan had the day off, so we entertained ourselves with family activities. It was great fun opening Emerson's presents and playing with them (we all helped out in the play department).

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Year two has been full of leaps for E! He is a sweet little guy with a very silly sense of humor. His current fave toys - Brio Thomas Tank trains, matchbox cars, any and every Jeep, and a big Tonka dump truck. He also likes to keep track of everyone's shoes and if he is ready to go, he'll round them all up, pass them out and tell us its time to GO, especially on a walk. We hear 'go walk' all the time. Emerson's language skills are constantly growing and he has just begun recognizing many of the uppercase letters of the alphabet. His fave books this year have been Baby Beluga, anything train-related and most recently Miss Spider's Tea Party and Good Dog, Carl. He seems to have no fear of anything physical and runs, leaps and nosedives whenever he is in motion - which is constantly! He loves to talk on the phone, both to real people and pretend friends. He eats just about anything and is especially fond of DIP (a four letter word in our house). If possible, he makes everything dippable, even a cup of water will do. Emerson's excitement in exploring his world brings great joy to our family. His dynamic personality is a constant source of happiness.

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Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted all the birthday photos and video off of my $%*#@ camera. Of all the thousands of photos I take, it had to be the birthday ones that get fouled up. Grr. Really grumpy.

Lille Leikarringen 2008

Addison Paige Bennett

A miracle and a blessing - The Sevey family's sweet baby girl. I was so fortunate to be there for her debute into the world. She is beautiful!

Christmas time

Christmas at Norse Hall

December 4, 2008

Norah performed at the holiday party at our Sons of Norway lodge - her last Norwegian dancing performance of her first year. We have had so much fun at Norse Hall, and with her children's group!
Outside the hall, built in 1911. She's almost grown out of her first bunad, so we'll have to start working on sewing another one. We may even make Emerson a boy bunad, as he's pretty into the dancing as well. :-)

Norah and most of her Lille Leikarringen group, with her teachers, Miss Karen and Miss Lori.

Happy 17th Birthday, Kodiak!

Family Bowling

ARCTIC BLAST 2008 cancelled our annual miniature golf gathering, but as we are defrosting we managed to all gather at Big Al's, the most pimped out (can I say that on a family blog??) bowling alley I've ever seen. Norah and Emerson bowled for the first time - Norah very meticulously lined her ball up with the arrows, then gived it an underhanded push. Emerson dropped the ball in front of the line then kicked it as hard as he could. :-)

Funny Christmas notes

Kimmie (my 1st grader niece) left a letter for Santa taped to her door. It reads:

To Sonuclos.

Kim clead hr room

ol bi hr sef withaot

Hadley.

From Kim.

Then she drew a picture of "Missclos"

Emerson lost one of his shoes in a snowbank during our heaviest snow day. Unfortunately we did not find it for a couple days and couldn't get out to a store to buy more - and his only other shoes that still fit him are a pair of Keens (not great for the snow!). He had to wear Norah's shoes until we found his other. His faves were the pairs above - yes, both the ones he is wearing and the ones Norah is wearing. He actually insisted on wearing the brown boots to bed on Christmas Eve... This experience has made me realize (among other things) its very unfair that Emerson has two pairs of shoes to Norah's 15 pair!

Christmas with our Great-Grandparents

Not only did we go over the river and through the snowy woods, we brought our new pet dino with us. :-) Great-Grandma loved it, so it was well worth the trek!

Merry Christmas to all...

A very Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

http://www.fusionphotography.com/slideshows/skogen/

Our holiday photos of Norah and Emerson, courtesy of Fusion Photography.

Merry Christmas!

Ryan was the first one up today! He was all ready for the kids to wake up and discover their presents, but while he was outside with Jones, Norah crept down and saw her many goodies. Emerson and I then hurried to jump in the excitement as well. N&E are the perfect ages for Christmas! Everything is so exciting and they are full of wonder. We had a fabulous day playing together, while watching snow fall from the windows. Santa brought Norah the Tinker Bell Set Up (aka Tinker Bell tea set) she has been asking him for, and Emerson was delighted with his train table. Santa was especially fab and brought the whole family a pet triceratops named Kota. We've all had a really funny time playing with him. Her. Whatever. :-) It has been a perfect Christmas for our family, spending the day enjoying each other's company.

Is Santa here yet?

N&E were incredibly excited to come home from our Christmas Eve party and find the PJ's that a Christmas elf left them. Norah actually ran up to bed when we weren't looking. We took Emerson to bed and saw her huddled under her covers, waiting for Santa to come. :-)

Christmas Eve with the Butlers

This year I was so blessed to have all seven of my siblings at home for the holiday. This hasn't happened in several years! Butlers gathered from far and wide to celebrate our traditional Christmas Eve celebration. My brother Neil and his wife Dannelle hosted the whole group. It was a perfect evening - delicious dinner, fun gifts, the children acting out the nativity, traditional secret recipe Christmas cake, handmade felt ornaments and even a visit from Santa. Even the terrible weather couldn't stop this gathering!

Cookie Party

Despite the crazy weather, most of my fam came to bake cookies with us this afternoon. Almost everyone has come in from out of town (just awaiting the arrival of one more brother!) and it was so fabulous to have them over. We baked and baked and then baked some more...and of course did some sampling!

Missing Christmas

We are all so bummed today - the weather has prohibited us from attending our Christmas party with Grandpa and Gramma Skogen. :( Getting kind of stir crazy being snowed in...

What car?

After a day of snowfall, the wagon looks like it is a minivan.

Real Snow!

After a week of the rest of the area being hard hit with snow, we finally joined the fun today. We went out in the morning for some sledding fun in a field by our house and there was about 4 inches of snow. We all took turns going down the hill - tons of fun. By the end of the day we had between 10=12 inches of snow! It snowed alllll day long.

Thornton's

I'd forgotten to upload these pics from a couple of weeks ago. On the rainiest, coldest day EVER (OK, not counting our recent snow days) we met some fam out at Thornton's to look at the animals, have hot chocolate and a hay ride. Brr...we ended up sopping wet and Josie was bit by a goose AND a donkey...but the kids still had a great time. That made it worth it!

Zoo Lights

We've spent the past few days at home, due to ice near our home and snow all over the rest of the PDX area - so when a short break in the Portland weather arrived, Ryan and I took the kids to Zoo Lights. It was perfect! Hardly anyone was there, due to the snow. It wasn't too chilly, no lines for anything - and the gently falling snow and holiday light displays were magical. Emerson was on a mission to see the Zoo train and elephants, and ran through the zoo to find them both. We had a wonderful family adventure!

Slushing

The Portland Metro area has been enjoying several days of snow this week, but we have seen none of it! Very disappointing to have friends out sledding, when we are stuck with...cold ground. :-) Today it actually dropped a little snow, just enough to slide down a small hill. Just barely enough...but we high-tailed it over to Grammie's house and took advantage of it!

The view from Emerson's window this morning!

Kim was a up and down this little slush hill so many times!
Cousin collision

Emerson had fun a few times as well. Once he got wet, he was done.

Hadley and Norah do this "best friends" dance every time they get together. :-) Very cute.

Come on ride the train, ride it...

Ryan had a meeting downtown today, so N &E and I hopped on the MAX and rode over to meet him. We met in Pioneer Square, checked out the giant tree and Saturday Market displays, then visited Santa as well.

Showing Dad how a letter to Santa works

Watching the train and visiting Santa

Downtown Macys

Macys has a very beautiful holiday display - we packed up all the youngest children and took them downtown to explore. The faves - playing on the train, watching the reindeer and playing at the fountain. They also had an opportunity to write and mail a letter to Santa, which Norah and Hadley were very diligent about. Santa was a little snappish...he bit off Aunt Dannelle's head as she was taking pics. A little weird...

Portland International Raceway - Winter Wonderland

Tonight we took a drive through PIR's light display - it took us a half hour to get through the entire course. :-)

We even saw Jupiter and Venus, which have been visible this month.

ScanFair 2008

We braved the freezing rain to visit this weekend's ScanFair festival. Norah danced with her Leikarringen group and Emerson, Ryan and I all took pics. We ate yummy Scandinavian treats, made crafts, browsed through other's crafts, listened to music, enjoyed lots of displays and watched the annual crowning of Santa Lucia.

Our own Santa Lucia

Emerson and his Norwegian dancing buddy. They know lots of the moves, so maybe next year they can join the bigger kids.

An authentic (well, kinda) Viking.

The Nutcracker

Norah's first visit to the Nutcracker. She REALLY wanted to perform and asked several times if she could go up and dance. :-) Super cute. It was a special mother/daughter date.

Norah and me, before the performance. I have half a head in all my photos, as I'm always the photographer! :-)

Festival of the Nativities

This is the second year we attended the Festival of the Nativity at my mom's church. There were hundreds (thousands?) of nativities on display. Very impressive!
Admiring one of the beautiful sets with Grandma

Its hard to look with our eyes, not with our hands...

Great kids room - crafts, nativity dress-up and toys.

I'm a camel!

Kodiak, the very scary wiseman