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We went to California over Spring Break to celebrate our anniversary! We didn't want to celebrate without the children so we all went together. We had a great time at Disneyland! We also "played" at Legoland and SeaWorld.

We decided to go hunting for our Christmas tree earlier than normal this year. We found our usual LARGE one (11ft) and Brandt even helped cut it down this year. The children especially enjoy the tradition of eating candy canes and sipping hot chocolate by the fire after we have found the perfect Christmas tree.

The kids have had their costumes for Halloween for a month. Todd decided last week that he wanted to dress up as my knight in shining armor. :) I ran out of time to get all the makeup on for my traditional witch costume, but not to be left out, I came up with a ref costume literally last minute as we ran out the door to go trunk or treating. It worked and we had tons of fun!

Brandt did a report on horses in school recently and so we took some pictures of him and his favorite horse Tassi. All three children started horseback riding lessons over the summer. They are very good. Rebecca enjoys it as well.

Trent started gymnastics and LOVES IT! Suzanna and Brandt have been taking classes at the Gymnastics Academy for a while now. Trent finally decided that he wanted to try also and now he can hardly wait to go each week!

Summer flew by too quickly! Here is Suzanna on her first day of Kindergarten! Everyone is back in school-except Rebecca. But, Mom gets to help everyone with their homework so she feels like she is. Dad continues with his Master's program, Brandt is in 4th Grade, Trent is in 2nd, and Suzanna is so excited that she finally gets to go to school too!

We got to meet Michael McLean and tell him how much his music means to us as an adoptive family. Our favorite song is "From God's Arms, to My Arms, to Yours."

It was a fun day at the beach with other families from our church. Trent and Suzanna played in the waves for hours. We all finished up the day with a trip to the Tillamook Ice Creamery.

The kids wanted me to take a picture of them today. It turned out so cute I had to put it up.

We really look forward to family reunions. This year Todd's family from Oregon, Utah and Washington gathered in Redding, CA for a few days to enjoy the sunshine at Shasta Lake. Everyone had a great time!

Preschool Graduation Day! Suzanna is so excited to attend kindergarten in September. Rebecca had a lot of fun teaching her and the other children.

We love taking friends to the Family River Property! We had such a fun day with two other families that are good friends. Our children are all about the same ages and had such a great time together. The day was packed with fun-- eating, water balloon toss, playing in the water, eating more, atv riding, bbgun shooting, etc. And to top it all off the deer came to say hello!

Soccer season just wrapped up! It was a ton of fun and both Brandt and Trent enjoyed it. They both had good coaches that emphasized having fun, which is important to us.
The kids have also been involved in Piano lessons (Brandt gave his first public performance!), Gymnastics (Suzanna is loving it), and Cub Scouts (we took 2nd place in the Pinewood Derby!!!). Rebecca feels like she is an official "Soccer Mom"!

We decided to take a drive into the nearby hills to enjoy the snow up there. It was a lot of fun, and afterwards we came home and had hot chocolate to warm up (of course!)