A Sad Big Game and a Cheer Up Picture

It has been long enough for the National Championship wound to lose its sting, so that I can feel good about posting some pictures. We had a lot of fun all season watching the Ducks rock the college football world. Even though it was a heartbreaker of a game for those of us in Eugene, we still love our ducks.
In order to prepare for the game we decorated sugar cookies.

I told Rocky that if she ate too much frosting she might not fit in her muscle shirt anymore. Actually that shirt is really a onesie for a 6 month old baby. I didn't have any U of O stuff for Rocky to wear so I though I'd give it a try. I obviously couldn't button the snaps, but the tails just tucked into her pants and she looked absolutely adorable. I don't know if that story makes me feel more like a really good mom, or a really bad one.
When Brandon walked in and saw Rocky he turned around and went out to buy her something a little more appropriate.

We got all dressed up to go watch the game with the students but due to a little bit of confusion we ended up in the wrong place. The old arena was packed to the brim with drunk and wild 18 and 19 year olds but we were in complete luxury in the almost completely empty new arena. The Matt court staff was nice enough to let us stick around and enjoy the gigantic megatron with them. We also got an up-close-and-personal tour of the beautiful new arena.
The court is really unique with the forest of trees surrounding the edges.

By halftime the girls were bored and we decided to head back and watch the rest of the game with some buddies at the community center in our complex. The final moments of hope were invigorating, but the end was devastating.

The melancholy in the streets was palpable and I was reminded of the famous lines:

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;

The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,

And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;

But there is no joy in Mudville — mighty Casey has struck out.

In order to cheer disappointed duck fans Daisy has finally agreed to let us all get a look at her hillbilly teeth. It is good that she is so darn cute because otherwise these chompers could frighten even the bravest of playground children. If you aren't convinced they are scary by the look of them, just go ahead and stick your finger in there and see what happens.

In other fun news, we had a blast while Caleb and Becky were visiting. Becky promised me that she'd get me the pictures that she took on her camera because this is the only one I have.
We laughed our heads off watching Wipe Out, made ice cream, got soaked on the coast, toured campus and the local malls...(Caleb's idea, I'm not joking) and had an all-around great time. Rocky and Daisy loved swimming at their hotel and may or may not have been the reason that the pool was closed the next day. Rocky keeps asking where they are and hoping that Becky will come back and keep doing cute things with her hair.

Rocky Speak

Yesterday we were honored to attend a special sealing at the Portland temple. Our awesome friends, the Wilbergers were able to have their newest addition, baby Oaklee (the namesake of Rocky's doll) sealed to them for eternity. It was a special experience. It was another reminder of the miracle of adoption.
One of these things is not like the others.

Rocky thought she was being discreet as she tried to work herself into the family pictures but it wasn't working. Brenley said that it would be okay because we could use the pictures later for Rocky and McCoy's wedding video. He wasn't that thrilled with the prospect.


While we were at the temple Rocky pointed out the angel "Macaroni" on the top. She's got quite a few Rocky-isms that we hear a lot. For example, this morning she was reading the Book of Morning and yesterday her dad took her to 7-11 to get a Slippery to drink. She thinks Brandon looks funny when he grows out his mush-mash but it tickles her when he gives her besitos. Her favorite treat is those little red Swedish feces.

Time to Play

Rocky has had a great time playing with all her new toys. She tries to get Daisy to be her patient, but if we have learned one thing about our Daisy, it is that she is anything but patient.
The doll works as a good stand-in who isn't quite so wiggily.


She's starting to develop her inner puzzler.

Even with all the new stuff around, Daisy likes to stick to the old classics, like the wipes that she likes to use as a drum.

2011 Here We Go!

After driving all night New Year's Eve was a pretty slow day for us. We let the kids wreck the house while we slept on the couch and then had a dinner of tapas and soda. We all snuggled under a blanket together and watched The Princess Bride. By 8:30 none of us could keep our eyes open. It was the best New Years ever!

Time to start anew, fresh and clean.

Christmas Morning

I don't know who had more fun, the kids or the adults.

All Things Christmas

Rocky really caught the Christmas spirit this year, and by that I mean that she hovered around Santa until she got her gift then made a beeline for the back of the room. When Santa asked her what she wanted him to bring her she said "A Treat". Easy girl to please. Hopefully it lasts.
Daisy said that she wanted a Corvette.

We were all just relieved that our favorite Santa made it at all due to a certain missing suit.

Rocky, ironically enough was an angel in the pageant. I will admit that I'm biased, but she was absolutely adorable. At first I had her dressed as a shepherd, but she adamantly insisted on putting on the white dress. She stole the show with her big smile. This was one of the only moments of the entire trip that she looked angelic. The rest of the time she was busy putting toothbrushes in the toilet and stealing toys from Ginny.
You'll surely notice that Daisy was beat out for the main part by a doll. In order to show her disgust she decided not to participate.



We had more fun than can be described.

Did It Ourselves

The Howard family Christmas Eve has been evolving and perfecting itself for several years. This year we made the move to Christmas Adam (the day before Christmas Eve...you know, Adam came before Eve). I was worried that it wouldn't be the same, but I found that when the company is good, the number on the calendar doesn't matter. The first rule is that you have to wear the new jammies that Oma gets for everyone.

We have English soup for dinner and peppermint ice cream with hot fudge for dessert.
Then we open presents. This is a day long awaited for us because the other rule of the night is that we make our gifts.
It turns out that making gifts is a LOT of work.
I like it though because when you make something for someone, you kind of give them a little piece of yourself along with the gift. Because I think these gifts are really special I've decided that I need to document what was done.

Kristin made this amazing doll bed for Rocky. Notice the handmade quilt.

Jilly made shirts for all of the grandkids. Each one was different and reflected the personality of the receiver.


I put together a recipe book and bound it in a cake mix box. If you wonder why my blogs have been few and far between the past several months, it is because this job turned out to be much bigger than I originally anticipated.

I also learned how to bind little journals for the boys and I made a hollowed out book for Opa and Ethan so they would have a place to hide their treasures.

This is the bag I made out of old candy wrappers.

Ehan and Joanna even got involved making a snow globe and using real leaves to decorate.


Matt and Kristin also made a longboard rack for Brandon, a book of crochet patterns for me, and potted some cacti for Jill and Jared. Jilly dedicated many hours editing and printing our blogs.


Rocky and Daisy also received some beautiful tutus made by their awesome aunt Cara and Debbie made a DVD of old family videos which is a treasure. I think we were all pretty envious of the duct tape wallet that Hayden made.
We also received a lot of other nice gifts and had a lot of fun with the Rigbys but unfortunately during our Christmas morning adventures we lost the camera in the couch cushions and didn't find it until it was too late.
We especially had a good time participating in the Spritz Blitz with Abia. We ate more cookies than we helped, which is probably one of the reasons it was so fun. It was great hanging out together and watching Brandon and Derek almost choke to death while laughing at their cookie creations.
Rocky had a blast hanging out with Cambria and Jonah and we all fell in love with our newest addition, Quincy. Cambria showed Rocky the ropes at the Discovery Gatewey Children's Museum.