Santa Dog is Coming to Town

Conner has been singing Christmas Carols since the beginning of this month. He isn't shy either. He likes to sing for anyone who will listen. The other night, as I was tucking him into bed, Jared was leaving for work and he yelled to him "Daddy don't forget to tell your friends, at work, about my songs." So he is even advertising.

More snow pictures

That was this mornings readings.


This is the tree directly above the dog kennel. We have been waiting for those branches at the top to break completely off. But they haven't yet...



18 inches and the drift is 23 inches. Pretty impressive for Oregon standards.



Here is a close up of the icicles hanging from our eaves.


This is our RV pad. We usually have the garbage cans back here but they are barried in the front and we can't even open the gate because of all the snow.

More Snow!!!

OK. So I told you I would get more snow pictures of the Dec 2008 Artic Blast Storm. There were some record breaking weather reports. PDX has received 14.5 inches of snow so far. This is the biggest snow in the month of December since 1968 AND the biggest storm total since 1980. In 1969 the got 18 inches so maybe we will break that record on Wednesday if we get anything on the sea floor. Ok at our house we got 18.5 inches of snow.

We went into town to get out of the house and it was interesting to see all the off road vehicles that were out and about. It was beautiful to see all the trees and roads covered in such a heavy blanket of snow.

Our bird house is vacant for the time being. I don't blame the birds it doesn't look to appealing right now.

Jared and I decided to measure our snow. This is in the famous boards we have been taking pictures of.

We have been driving the durango lately so the Truck hasn't been on the road since this all started.

If you take a look at the top window you can see beautiful icicles on the eaves of the house on each side of the window.

Still Coming Down

Day 3...and counting...It is now Monday and it has been snowing all night and it hasn't stopped. We have about 14 inches of snow in most places. I can't believe this craziness. We are loving it just because it is so close to Christmas. I hope it improves soon so we can go places on Christmas day. Here are some impressive pictures. I will send more pics as the day goes on.

The yard lights are completely covered no glow anymore. My snowflake lights are now almost goners. My poor palm tree has bit the dust.

If you look at the boards on top of the Kennel you can see how much snow we are getting. I just looked out the window a few minutes ago and it is atleast another couple inches higher now.

I will send those pictures later. But it is still coming down.

Day number two...Sunday we had about 3/4 inch of ice on the ground on top of the snow.

We decided not to go out today, but we still managed to take some pictures.

More pictues of Saturday night.

Conner's cheeks were so pink. But he was happy.

The dogs had been couped up in the house, so we brought them out to have some fun.

They were so full of energy.

Twelve and Counting

Snow, Snow, Snow...I can't believe how much snow we have. We have more then a foot of snow and it is still coming down.

This is on Saturday after it had already started to snow. If you look at the board on top of the Kennel you can see how many inches we have already.

Here is our front yard. You can still see our yard lights. This was taken in the morning.

After it stopped snowing the freezing rain started falling but we still wanted to go out and have some fun. This is about at 8pm on Saturday. If you look in the back of us, our yard lights look really cool. They are completely covered, but because they were warm, they were making little holes in the snow making a pretty glow.

Jared and Conner were wrestling in the middle of the road.

Daddy piled up some snow for Conner to play in.

Winter Wonderland

It isn't even winter yet and the white stuff is in the air. We got 5 inches of snow in Oregon City. In fact the whole Portland Metro Area got snow. That hasn't happened in a long time. We are also in a deep freeze until next Sunday. We are expected to get more snow on Wednesday and again on Saturday/Sunday before we get out of this artic blast. Jared had training scheduled to teach but no sooner had he gotten there they decided to cancel due to the weather. So we were able to play in the snow all morning.

Conner had lots of fun throughing snow balls at everyone. At one point he was in the middle of the road crawling on all fours. I asked him what he was doing and he said "I'm a snow moving snail". What a character.

He also built a big snow ball. We tried to make a snowman but Conner ran out of gas before we were done. Maybe next time.

Daddy showed Conner how to make snow angels. Conner kept forgetting to move his legs so some of his angels looked a little different. But that's ok. He had lots of fun!

We tried to get a picture of us together but it was snowing so hard at times that the snow was getting in Conner's eyes.

Colby and Tucker even had some fun. Colby wasn't listening very well so we had to put him in the kennel. Jared held Tucker for a picture. He isn't a puppy anymore. This was his first real snow so he still is getting use to it.

Christmas Cookie Exchange

Ok. so I am playing catch up with my blog. We had our Annual Cookie exchange at my house this year. It turned out really well. We snacked on pizza, pop, chips and dip. Corrin and Renae came along and they ended up entertaining Conner most of the time, which I was greatfull for. We really missed Dani this year and were able to talk with her while we were celebrating. We exchanged nut balls, grandma streeter's sugar cookies, Aunt kim's sugar cookies (thanks to Ami and her clan), chocolate nut drops, double chocolate and white chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter balls, peanut butter kisses, seven layer bars and I know I am probably forgetting one or two but there were alot of cookies. We sent some off so that Dani and her family could have alittle bit too.

Thanksgiving weekend

Turkey day was very fun. We got up early to roast the turkey. While Jared peeled potatoes and I stuffed the turkey we listened to Christmas music. Once Conner woke up we took a break and made a donut run. I tried a new stuffing recipe and it turned out pretty good. Next time I will make a couple changes but other then that it was great. The turkey turned out nice and juicy, golden brown and we made it just in time to make the potatoes pack everything up and head to the Turpin's for a noonish meal. It was very relaxing. Edria and Paul Shuey were invited as well and we had a great time. Conner had his usual Turkey, Mashed potatoes, olives and a few rolls. We headed home around 5pm to a nice quite home. We rented a couple movies, made chocolate chip cookies and lounged around the house.

We went shopping on Friday. We stocked up on our annual Fred Meyer socks and Conner got free powdered donuts and apple cider. After we dropped Conner off at Grandma and Grandpa Turpin's so we could do a little Santa shopping. Once we were done we all took a long nap and it was nice. That evening we got all the Christmas decorations out and put the Tree up. Conner was so excited to put his Onaments on the tree. As I was pulling all my decorations out of storage I couldn't believe how much stuff I had. It has been two years since we last put our tree up and most of the decorations were in storage so we had fun exploring all our decorating options. Not everything was put up but alot more than we have had in the past.

Spring Cleaning in November

Our big Garage project is now complete. Jared and his Dad built a work bench and an upper storage unit above the door, in the back of the garage. We are very pleased with how it turned out. Now there will be no complaining about the Cat's getting cat hair on all of Jared's hunting equipment. He now has all his stuff up on top in the storage compartment. We moved all the baby equipment/clothes and holiday totes up in the storage space in Conner's room. We also layed out some of the left over pieces of carpet from inside the house along the walk space. It will also help keep our feet warm when we go to get something out of our spare refrigerator and freezer. I don't have a picture now but I will get one and post it soon. I can actually park my car in the garage now. The first night it was done, which I think was Saturday, I don't think our animals knew what to do with themselves. Chloe our tabby cat kept meowing and looking for her hiding spot, which is no longer there. Tucker our puppy thinks it is his new playground. Colby and Oscar really don't care one way or the other as long as they have a place to lounge.

Sports Highlights - Conner "Connman" Turpin

Last Saturday Novermber 8th was Conner's last game of the season and they all played really good. It was a great season. They were the youngest team in the league with no previous experience. But they managed to score every game and all the kids had great fun. The last 5 minutes of the game on Saturday both coaches agreed to let all the team members, on both teams, enter the field to play. It was a maylay of kids but they all had fun. And of course, because we live in Oregon, it started raining and all the kids got soaked. We got some pretty awesome pictures of Conner "Connman" Turpin at his finest.

Big Friday

Jared and Ed got a Deer tonight. Who needs Wyoming when you have Oregon City. They took Conner this morning but were unsuccessful. Although Conner was definitely a fun addition to the experience. Conner kept saying "Dad don't look that way, keep your eyes on the road." Even at an early age he knows how Dad drives. They could only hunt for a short time because Conner had Preschool at noon. Later I asked Conner if he had fun and he said "Mom it was so cool I saw a squirrel." That was the highlight of the morning hunt. After they dropped Conner off at school they went out to a different place and sure enough after a few buck grunt calls and some antler scapes the big buck came crashing through the trees to see what was going on. I don't think he knew what hit him. Jared and Ed really couldn't believe it either.

Halloween 2008

It was a spooktacular Day. We had our annual Halloween event at ADP. Our group decided it would be appropriate to dress as the presidential candidates. I was Senator John McCain. Jamie was Senator Barak Obama. Wendy was Cindy McCain. Diana was Michelle Obama. Paula was Sarah Palin and we suckered Rick into being Joe Bidden. We were quite the group...After no work and all play I picked Conner up from Preschool. He had a blast at his preschool fall party. He dressed as Spiderman, the same costume as last year, but he didn't mind. He thought it was cool that he got to be two superhero's this year for Halloween (Spiderman and Optimus Prime). Afterward we picked Jared up from home and went to the O.C Shopping Center where they were having trick-or-treating and costume contests for all ages. Conner got a medal, along with the rest of the kids, for a great costume. We dropped Jared off at home so he could make it to work, (he was working the Football game that night), and Conner switched costumes so he could become his second hero of the night "Optimus Prime". Conner and I headed to the O.C Stake Center for the annual Trunk-or-Treat, where we met up with Grandma and Grandpa Turpin. Conner wasn't much into trick-or-treating at that point. So he hung out with us on the tailgate of Granpa's Truck while we passed out Candy to the kids. We stopped by to say hi to Conner's buddy Austin Monte (who was also Optimus Prime) and they played while I chatted with Austin's Mom Kristy. We even made it home in time to receive a few dozen trick-or-treaters. All said and done it was a fun and busy night.