Christmas in the Couve

In our first house here for Christmas - me, Brennan (8), Harrison (19 months), Kristy and Bella (4).

Thanksgiving 2000

For Thanksgiving, we went to Utah and had Thanksgiving dinner at Hubby's Aunt Bev's house. The family dog had puppies and Brennan and Bella had THE most fun playing with them. That was a fun time.

Brennan in Little League

In 2000, when Brennan was 8, he played Little League T-ball. This and soccer are the only organized sports he's played - he also liked football for a while in 8th grade. It's fun having these rare sporty pictures of him.

Here he is - outstanding in his field.

Swinging...

"Run, little man!"

This was the last time Harrison had any amount of fat on his body... love those little pudgy dimples.

Later that summer, we went to Fuddrucker's restaurant and Harrison crawled over to the fireplace and burned his little hand. I knew he burned it, but I didn't know how bad it was until a couple days later when I noticed he had something weird going on with his hand. I opened up his fingers and he had a HUGE blister, all over the palm of his hand. Poor little guy! I wrapped it in gauze and tape, and then wondered how I would keep him from trying to take it off. I decided to play on his vanity, and I told him, "Oh, Harr Bear! Pretty 'hanny!'" a few times, showing him his new bandage. He looked back and forth at his hand and at me, grinned, and never touched it once.

Trip to Dad's Place

Years ago, Dad bought some property near the Canadian border. We took a trip with Dad, Uncle John, Neenaw and Gran to see Dad's property - we had a great time. It was a gorgeous day up at Dad's place and the kids ran all over and had fun. Afterward, we spent some time in Seattle and rode the ferry. What a great trip!

Front: Isabella (4) and Brennan (7). Back: Dad, me holding Harrison (1), Gran, Neenaw, Uncle John

Uncle John took this one.

MEEEEEEEE... Behind me are Neenaw and Bella, and our stupid car that never ran for more than three months at a time - for most of the time we had it, it was dead in the driveway. Eventually we donated it to the Washington School for the Blind, who fixed it and are probably driving it right now.

Isabella & Brennan, enjoying the dirt. I found a tick in Bella's hair that night from all their playing around in the scrub.

Climbing... pretty fun for these little city kids.

"Look how high we are!"

Lake Osoyoos - "I saw youse" - which is half in Washington and half in Canada. I can't get over how beautiful this place is.

The ghost town of Molson, which was really fun and interesting. We had fun looking around the little museum and the old farm stuff outside. What a gorgeous day!

We spent a couple of nights nearby in Omak, then took the North Cascade Highway toward Seattle. Such a beautiful, beautiful drive.

There will be more pictures - I haven't scanned them all yet.

Harrison's First Birthday

"That flame... I must burn my fingers with it... it's so fascinating..."

"What do you MEAN, I can't touch it!!??"

Thank goodness the candle was in a piece of cake. That made everything all better.

Brennan's First Grade

Brennan's first grade year was most rewarding. The school he went to had lots of fun activities - first an Author's Tea, put on by his teacher...

Cute tiny guy with the book he wrote

Muffins with Moms - I'm wearing the famous sheep sweater and my bangs are starting to go gray, but otherwise I like this picture...

Love my sweet boy!

... and Donuts with Dudes. Normally it would have been "Dads" but the school didn't want to offend families without dads. Hubby, who IS a dad, decided to be offended at being left out. Not really, but I wouldn't blame him if he did.

Cute dudes

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Christmas in Richland '99

We went to a local Christmas tree farm with some friends to buy our Christmas tree this year.

It was a nice sunny day

Little Harrison in the purple "Maggie" suit

Merry Christmas!

Brennan, age 7

Isabella, age 3

"Santa" (7 months) and Pa 

Pa and the grandkids

Harrison, Grandma and Pa

Some kind of football pose?

Kristy and Harrison

Pa, Bella's little face, Brennan, Hubby, Grandma, me

Autumn 1999

September: Here we are visiting Grandpa at his house. Brennan and Isabella are on the stairs, Grandpa is standing, and seated: Harrison and me, Gran, Cheri and Neenaw.

Harrison, about 4 months old - one of the last "chubby" pictures we have of him, the little string bean.

This was an exciting year in Hubby's career: he spent four weeks in Monmouth, Oregon, at Western Oregon University, attending probation/parole officer academy training. Here he is being receiving his academy completion certificate.

November: Bella out playing in the leaves with Kitty Alyssa. We have a similar picture of Brennan floating around somewhere.

Our three babies in the leaves. What a fun day.

Halloween 1999

Can you tell we shopped at the Disney Store for their costumes? Never again, that place was expensive. 

Zorro and Cinderella

Three sweet babies. Oh little upset Harrison :) 

... and Harrison wore the traditional First Halloween jack-o-lantern outfit. Oh the humanity!

"help me"

Happy Birthday Brennan!

Brennan had his seventh birthday this year and received a new kitty, whom he named after a girl at school he was friends with - "Alyssa."

Looks like it's party hat time!

Looks like Bella's struggling with her party hat!

Cruise on the Portland Spirit

A picture Hubby took of me while we were on the "Portland Spirit," going down the Willamette River through Portland. We won tickets through work or on the radio or something to take this little dinner cruise, which we later were told by our friends was nicknamed "The Booze Cruise." So we got there, and yeah, it pretty much lived up to its name.

This must be where Harrison gets his "cock your head to the side for pictures" thing he's been doing since at least last year (2007).

Hubby's turn for pictures! We can't believe how much hair he had.

It was a cloudy evening, but still beautiful. A fun trip.

Summer 1999

Brennan looking very handsome in kindergarten class.

Brennan and Bella playing in House #1's backyard with my friend Shelly K.'s two oldest, Brooke and Grant. Shelly's husband Tom joined the Church a few years after they were married, and they came to Portland to be sealed in the temple. We went to their sealing, which was very touching. Many, many happy tears that day.

Harrison's Blessing

Harrison was given a name (Harrison William) and a blessing in early August 1999. We chose his name while expecting Bella in Logan - somehow we knew our next one would be a boy and that would be his name. It was the easiest name-choosing experience of all our kids.

He wore the blessing outfit I made for Brennan when he was born. Carter wore it too. It's a little tuxedo pattern with a Peter Pan collar and a big ribbon tied under the collar. I made it out of satin and the boys wore little matching satin shoes.

We had a family dinner afterward. Here are Ernie, me holding Harrison, Neenaw, Gran, Dad and Melanie, in the kitchen of our first house. It was great to have everyone come for Harrison's big day.

Neenaw, Gran and Mel

Neenaw and Gran

Brennan and Bella (in back) with some of the neighbor kids.