Tree Decorating

Over the last few years I like to have help decorating our tree. Brianda, Eli, Sophia and Tinoly help to put up the ornaments. Every year we play "Hide the Pickle". It is an old German custom where the parents would hide a pickle ornament on the tree for the kids and once found they would receive a prize. As the kids got older I had to get smaller and smaller pickles for them to find. Eli being the youngest has the biggest pickle. Sophia's is half the size and Brianda's is a quarter of the size. Deo hid the pickle for Brianda this year which took her awhile to find. Last year when I hid it she found it in 2 seconds. Sophia found hers pretty quickly and Eli took a bit to find his.

Eli, Sophia and Brianda pose in front of thier masterpiece! Thank you Pereira's for your help!

Apple Hill

Eli, Abbey, Thomas and Isabella get ready to pick out their trees

Eli poses in front of the tree we picked. We all yell "CUTTER" and down she comes.

Joe carries the tree to the car

Eli and Katherine sitting by the fish pond. This year the fish were a whopping $8.50 a pound. We only did that one year and luckily no one caught anything!

The Mitchell's and the Gouveia's getting in the spirit of Christmas

Thanksgiving 2008

Joe takes out the deep fried turkey which we tried for the first time this year. We still did a traditional bird in the oven. It was a big hit!

Uncle Guy anxiously awaits the delectable deep fried turkey...

Bunco Babe Bash

My friend Suzy celebrated her 40th birthday last month and all the Bunco Babes got together and had a fabulous Bunco/Birthday bash with yummy food, a stroll down memory lane, sassy waitresses, a few tears and alot of laughter!

Halloween 2008

Eli gets ready for trick or treating in his Clone costume from Star Wars.

A few days before Halloween we went to the Pereira's for our traditional pumpkin carving night. It's nice the kids are getting older so they can do them instead of the adults! Eli next to his free style pumpkin and Sophia's scary spider and cat pumpkin.

Pumpkin Patch

Eli on the 50 foot slide at Bishop Pumpkin Farm. We watched the pig races, rode the train and the hay ride as well as visited the petting zoo and hay trampoline. All the gang at the pumpkin patch for Abbey's 9th birthday. What hams!I tried to purchase one of these to use instead of a babysitter............WHAT??????
Eli and Joe enjoy an ice cream cone after the festivities.

Fall Tahoe Trip

Out for a brisk walk to see the salmon spawning. You can see Mt. Tallac in the background with quite a bit of snow cover. We hiked in a snow storm one day. Here are the remnants of the storm. Didn't stay on the ground for long.

In early October we spent the weekend with the Ruiz's up in Tahoe. Eli and Kaden created their scary haunted house and graveyard with Auntie Laura's help. Creepy!

Happy Anniversary!

On October 3rd Joe and I celebrated our 16 year anniversary. Every year we go to the church where we were married and the hotel where we had our reception and take our picture. After many years of balancing the camera on a bench or the car we are getting wiser with age and using a tri-pod!