Future George Fox Bruin?

As many of you know, I (Dara) went to George Fox University. I loved it! I had some of the best times of my life there and made some really deep connections with friends I still have to this day. 4 times a year I get the George Fox Journal, the quarterly update on Fox to all it's alumni. I love sitting down to read it and find out how the school is doing. It always makes me remember some of the best times I had there: Serve Day, pink donut Wednesdays, the girls bruin brawl, atomic nachos, and my close friends and neighbors. Well, apparently I am not the only one who looks forward to the Journals coming in the mail. Two weeks ago when the fall issue came, Sydney somehow got ahold of it and she loves it! It's her new favorite toy. It's made of really thick paper, so it doesn't rip easily, and she will literally lay there for 30 minutes, just turning the pages and "reading" the journal. It makes me very proud!


"Excuse me mom, please don't bother me, I'm reading the Alumni Connections."

First Thanksgiving

Last week we enjoyed a fabulous Thanksgiving! We were so excited since it was Sydney's first turkey day. As we were getting ready to start cooking that morning, I couldn't help but look back one year to last year's Thanksgiving. I was still pregnant and HUGE!! I was so tired and sore and uncomfortable last year, but this year was so much fun with an almost-one-year-old daughter and house full of company! We started the day off with a family tradition-the Turkey dance. When I was a kid, my dad always "danced" the turkey around in the sink before it got stuffed. We were proud to pass the tradition on to Sydney. We got Sydney dressed up in one of those outfits she'll be embarrassed about someday, but it was too cute! She had on a little skirt with a "My Frist Thanksgiving" Shirt, and a matching turkey headdress! We were all laughing so hard at her in that outfit! Then, Grandpa Ken and Monica, and my parents and Abbie came over to help celebrate the day. The football was good, the food was great, and the pumpkin pie was the best! Holidays are so much more meaningful now that we have a daughter to share them with. We are so thankful for our God, our family, and our friends this year!
Sydney watching daddy do the turkey dance!

Our cutie-pie in her turkey outfit.



Sydney eating her first Thanksgiving dinner.

Sydney and Madison at 11 Months

As the girls get older, they play together more and more. A few weeks ago, my best friend Melissa had a birthday, so we got the girls together for a few pictures.
Best Friends!

Madison, are you attacking Sydney?

Tired out from all their fun!


Playing so nicely together! Chris and I went to a Blazers game, so Sydney went over to play with Madison for the evening. Their first mini-sleepover, although they didn't sleep!

Halloween at Mommy2Mommy!

Sydney and I go to a mom's group every week. This year, it happened to fall on Halloween, so all the little kids dressed up in their costumes. It was so much fun! We even got a group picture at the end and every baby was happy-no one was crying or trying to crawl away!

Sydney's First Halloween

So for those of you who have been faithful viewers of our blog the last few months, you will remember in August we purchased Sydney's Halloween costume and there was some worry that it wouldn't fit come October 31. A lot of people told us to just put her in the costume anyway, even if it didn't fit, because it's just so darn cute. Well, it barely fit, but it worked! Here is the picture from last August when we first got the costume...

And here is the costume last night on Halloween-notice how short the legs are!

This is just another super cute picture of Sydney in her winter hat. It's been getting so cold lately that we have to bundle her up whenever we go outside. I think this hat makes her look like an elf!