The beginning of The Holidays!

Well The week of Thanksgiving is a reminder of how close Christmas really is! The Elementary and Middle Schools have always combined their parent teacher conferences with Thanksgiving.. which means no school for them on Mon, Tues, and Wednesday.. then of course They have Thursday and Friday off for the holiday. Well The high school still has classes Mon-Wed. The 3 younger girls enjoyed having time off and I enjoyed attending their conferences. They are all doing well in school. Maddy straight A's and Syd and Pres with top marks in their classes. Take it from me.. a Mother never gets tired of hearing how wonderful their children are! I am very proud of all of my children.. they all are outstanding Students!
We have so much to be thankful for! Starting with of course eachother and our extended Family and friends. This year we had just a quiet dinner(well it wasn't exactly quiet if you know us) home with just us. The food was delicious as always.. and way too much of it.. especially the desserts. (I can never just make one thing..usually 3-4 choices) After we ate, we went and watched The Movie "Old Dogs" Entertaining fun.
I actually went Black Friday shopping this year! Cole went with me for protection! Which means I couldn't shop for him. But found some great deals.. and managed to avoid too much craziness! Thanks for going with me Cole.

Sierra has always been a tagger! This girl writes on everything! Honestly.. even Fruit!
On the Monday before Thanksgiving, Steven And I had tickets to the TrailBlazer vs Chicago Bulls game. Then Steven got invited to go to the game with the guys so I took Maddy with me. We sat on opposites sides of the court from Steven.. he had binoculars so he could keep tabs on us. It was a fun time. Maddy LOVES basketball so I don't have to worry about entertaining her. Naturally the treats are a must have!

The Blazers won 122 to 98! Free Chalupas from Taco bell! Woo hoo! They must have liked Maddy they gave her 3 coupons!

One Party after another!

Well this was the latest party... Presley had her best friend Maisen and her cousin Elise over for a rockin' time! These girls (along with Sierra, Maddy and Sydnee.. oh and Cole and cousin Parker too) ate pizza.. jumped on the trampoline... played Hannah Montana Bingo, jumped some more, tossed bean bags into boots, jumped some more, played put the tiara on the princess, jumped even more.. got Hannah tattoos, blinged up their own princess tiara's.. ate cupcakes and ice-cream.. then jumped again! It may not have been raining and the sun was shinning but it was still cold! These girls kept going out without their jackets! They made their own creations with stick pretzels and marshmallows. They were very creative! Thanks Maisen and Elise for coming! They would hardly hold still for a picture on the trampoline!
Such concetration waiting for the next number to be called! They were all winners!

Their cool shades!

Cupcakes!

I made Presley a tutu to wear for her party.. she wore it for about 5 minutes then the jeans were back on! She said she couldn't jump on the trampoline it it! WHATEVER!

Her cake on her actual Birthday!

She got 2 of her favorite things.. a wii game and The Hannah Montana Movie! Presley loves to do the Hoe Down!

Thanks Aunt Satya for the picture and frame! I love it! Thanks Halee and Sage for the letters and water color pictures and the photo album of us! I have it up on my dresser!

Presley on her baptism Day. Wearing her beautiful dress that Grandma Merrill made. Thanks Grandma.. I love it!

Steven and Presley Steven, DeLona and Presley

A small gathering of a few that attended Presley's Baptism. Thank you to all who made the time to come. We greatly appreciate the love and support we receive from our family and friends!

Thanks Grandpa Merrill and Uncle Glenn for the wonderful talks you gave! I know Presley will always remember your words on her special day.

Auntie Angelene & Presley

Me and my Sister's, Rachelle and Angelene! Thanks for coming and helping with everything!

Okay there always has to be a shopping day! Since Oregon has no sales tax.. it makes it fun to shop! Sierra was suppose to be in school! She had been running a low grade temp. the night before and the new school rules are students are to stay home until it has been a full 24 hours since their temp goes back to normal. So lucky Sierra.. she got to Hang and Shop on the last day before everyone had to leave to go back to AZ.

G-Ma and Sierra!

The morning of the day of Presley's baptism, Maddy's softball team had a fundraiser @ Applebee's. An all you can eat Pancake and Bacon Breakfast! Thanks to all of our family and friends that came and supported her and her team. They were very succesful! Out of 13 girls on Maddy's team.. Maddy sold the most tickets! Woo Hoo!
If you ever have an opportunity to support one of these fundraisers thru Applebee's.. I highly recommend that you do! Their Pancakes were the bomb! And I am not a big pancake person.. but these were delish! Even the bacon!

Our final girlie photo... just outside of Panda Express.... and no we did not plan on our coordinating outfits.. it just happened! Thanks Dad for taking the picture! love you!

Thanks again to all of our family and friends. We soo appreciate all of you. I realize the financial burden it is to come and visit us and we certainly do not expect anyone too. We welcome any and all of you anytime ! We hope to see you all sooner than later!

Presley turns Eight!

My baby is now 8! Where on Earth does the time go? Seriously... it seems as though she should still be a baby.

It has been a very busy and eventful past 2 weeks. I had hoped to get this posted on her birthday, but it didn't happen so I will just have to make due. There is one thing that hasn't changed about Presley is her round cheeks. I loved them the day she was born and I love 'em even more today! Going back and watching home videos of my children I was reminded that

My older kids called Presley "Baba" (pronounced Babe-uh) when she was younger. The funny nick names we come up with and grateful some of them don't stick around permanently! lol

Presley is a very loving energetic child and We are very blessed that she is ours! Happy Birthday sweetie!

I did actually get a picture of her before she went to school that day. YAY me! So I had to post a few pictures of Presley from birth to now! Enjoy! :)
Presley DeLona Lindhorst came to our family in the early hours of Nov. 9th, 2001. She decided to come almost 2 weeks early. I was thankful.. she weighed in @ 8lbs. 8oz. and 19 inches long. Short and round.

Presley and her Daddy, 2 days old. The day we were coming home from the hospital.

Presley @ 2 months old.

Presley @ 4 months old

Presley at 7 1/2 months old

Presley @ 2 years

Presley age 2 1/2

Presley age 5

age 7 1/2 (first day of school 2nd grade)

I compiled photos of Presley from birth through now and my Sister Rachelle and Sierra were so awesome and made a slide show. We played it at her Baptism and it will be a priceless treasure for years to come. Thanks sis and my Sierra!

Happy Halloween 2009!

The Whole Gang ready to hit the neighborhood! Cole(wearing his riding gear) Maddy(wearing her softball uniform) Sierra(Louigie)Charmaine(raspberry girl)Presley(witch)Savanah(Mario)Sydnee(Dorothy)Ally(wearing Cole's football jersey)

The kids were thrilled that the rain stopped and it was actually a decent night! They were out for over 2 1/2 hours.I told the kids a couple of months ago that I was not spending any $$ on costume this year so they had to be creative with the MANY we already have. Sierra has resources! Her Aunties! Thanks sisters for always hookin' her up!
The Super Mario Bro's

Cole and Ally

Maddy switched costumes last minute to accomodate the weather. Good Choice #00!

Sydnee recycled her costume from last year!

Presley the good witch! (She refused to let me paint her face)

For Young Women's on Wednesday the girls all dressed up. Sierra Chose to wear one of Maddy's softball uniforms for the activity. (Savanah next to her)

The night we carved our pumpkins I baked dinner in a pumpkin.

Presley was impressed.. the rest of the kids have had it enough through the years that they could have cared less. I think it is fun!

The younger girls carving their creations!

Maddy's

Sydnee's

Presley's

The girl's later decorated their pumpkins with puffy paint. They were so cute and I failed to take a picture of them. sorry girls.

But here they are all lit up on Halloween!

Cole did an awesome one and I uploaded the picture and somehow it got deleted.(weird it has never done that before) Sorry Cole... his also caved in before Halloween so it isn't in this picture either.

Steven enjoyed the day watching College Football.. especially the Oregon Ducks Game!

Fall has Arrived!

Well fall has definitely arrived here. The smell of the crisp autumn air, leaves in many colors, the rain... did I mention the rain? The wind blowing, the leaves falling off of the trees. All of the leaves from the dozens of trees in the park now in our back yard. Oh the joy of raking wet leaves.. piles and piles of WET leaves.
Actually it hadn't been too bad around here until this past week. I shouldn't complain. I do love the changing of the seasons. I just really enjoy sunshine. NOT rain. It is hard to believe that only 3 short months ago my children were in the Arizona sun and Steven and I were on the beach in Maui.
I am way behind on my blogging. I made a small dent today at least on the layout and profile pictures. We are off to Cole's football game in just a few minutes. And yes, in the rain! This is actually his very first game this season in the rain. We have been very fortunate.
Maddy's Volleyball season has already come and gone and I haven't posted anything for that yet. The kids carved pumpkins this week and I need to post that too. Oh, and Presley just informed me that Halloween is in 2 days so I will need to post that too. But for now this will have to do. Hope everyone that reads this has a wonderful and Happy Halloween.

Frosh football 2009

Cole is half way through his season and thought I would post some highlights. Starting with some of his biggest fans! Presley! It is so fun to put Cole's other jersey's on the girls and then put his #21 on their face!
Gresham played Central Catholic @ PGE Park. That was pretty cool!
Us girls got it going on ..'ey!

This group looks familar! Go Gresham!

Even Grandpa Lindhorst has made it to a few games!

Playing Defense

Cole is #21

Get him Cole!(this was the Central Catholic game)

Wrap him up!

Offense

Running the ball as a tail back

Cole has scored 3 touchdowns for his team!

This is one of them!

The ball is being pitched to him in this shot

This game Gresham scored 42 points.

When the team scores the cheerleaders do pushups for each point. And when they score again they start at one and go up from there. This games they did alot of pushups. I was impressed at the quality of their pushups when they were on the last 42! Go Gresham Cheer!

This last photo is of Cole playing Defense and intercepting the ball on the 16 yard line with 1:25 left in the game.

Gresham won 22 to 14 over Barlow High School. This was our Civil War game of the year. This is the first win over Barlow in the last 9 years!

We are enjoying watching Cole and his team play.