Christmas Snow Fun

The snow tunnel that grandpa made
Austin eating snow. He kept running away from me because he thought I would try and make him stop. I just told him to make sure the snow was white (not brown or yellow!)

The Santa that Uncle Josh made for the kids

Well we did get a little more snow on Christmas. This was the first time I let my kids go outside and play in it. They had a lot of fun. Now I am ready for it to all go away!

Christmas Has Come and Gone Again!

Ashlyn in Kaden and Versii's new car

We all had a good Christmas. I am sad that it is all over. We hope everyone had a great Christmas too!

Is a white Christmas in store for Portland?

I was hoping for some snow when I came to Oregon for Christmas break but I wasn't expecting this. It has snowed everyday since I got here on Tuesday. Church got cancelled today and it is supposed to snow everyday through Christmas. The Oregonian reported: "The National Weather Service says the chance of a white Christmas in Portland is less than 1 percent. The last time the city got measurable snowfall during the holiday was 1937." It is looking pretty good that we will indeed have a white Christmas in Portland. I guess I picked a good year to come home for the holidays!

Santiago in Kuwait

Santiago made it to Kuwait safely. In about a week his unit will be heading to Iraq.

Ward Christmas Party

My last clinical day of 3rd semester!

Kathryn and I
Kristy and I

My clinical group

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School is almost over for this semester! I will be done in 1 week!

Six Flags again!

On our way home from the beach on Friday we decided to go to Six Flags for Holiday in the Park. We had fun but it was a bit crowded. They have a snow sledding hill this year which is new. It was fun but we waited 30 minutes in line for a 6 second ride down the hill.

Thanksgiving at the beach!

So I know that all of you that live in cooler climates are jealous of the fact that we can still go to the beach in November. It was 80 degrees in Corpus Christi which was the perfect temperature - not to hot and not too cold. We are really spoiled living in Texas. For Thanksgiving dinner we ate at Cracker Barrel. The traditional Thanksgiving meal was really good, and the best part was that I didn't have to cook anything! I am tempted to make this a Thanksgiving tradition!

Santiago's Adventures

Santiago inside of the rollover simulator

As most of you know, Santiago is in Colorado Springs right now doing his pre-deployment training. He will then be leaving for Iraq in early December. He gets to come home for Thanksgiving next week which we are looking forward to. We are going to go to Corpus Christi for Thanksgiving.

It's a TWILIGHT night!

So I guess I am going to break my rule of no hair pictures since I had to share these group photos from Twilight (at least they aren't close ups, so you don't get the full effect of my short hair). My friend Alisha made us all T-shirts to wear to the movie. It was slightly embarrassing but fun at the same time. Thanks for the shirt Alisha!

My SHORT haircut!

So I am not going to post a picture of my new haircut, because I want to see the shock on both my husband's face when he comes home for Thanksgiving, and my families face when I go home for Christmas. My sister wanted to know how short I cut it though and so I will just say that I have A LOT less hair now than this second grade school picture. I do think my hair looks much better than this picture though!

Happy HALLOWEEN!

So this year we decided to be cheap and not buy Halloween costumes. Austin borrowed a Nemo costume from my friend Tiffani that he enjoys dressing up in when she babysits him. Ashlyn just wanted to be a princess, so I let her pick which one of her dress-up dresses she wanted to wear. The kids just trick-or-treated around our neighborhood with their dad, Aunt Beti and Uncle Joe (who are visiting us from Nevada). They got lots of candy....

...and even some fun vampire teeth!

Oh What FUN a Chair can be!

Austin and his friend Briley had a lot of fun playing peek-a-boo with his favorite chair today. I got this chair from Ikea for Austin and he just loves it. It spins and the orange cover comes all the way down so the kids can hide inside of it.

FAMILY PICTURES!

Today we had our family pictures taken at the Japanese Tea Garden. I think they turned out really cute. We won this free photo shoot at a Ward Valentine activity. Melissa Kroll in our ward was the one who took them. If anyone in the San Antonio area is interested in having your family pictures done, you can check out her website at www.eternityphotography.com. She is having a special right now for $100. That includes the copyright to all of the prints!

The Lara Family

Santiago and Julie