Recent Photo Galleries

Family Blogs

Other Stuff

30 November 2011

We are thankful for…

Posted by Jenny Hoelter | File under Holidays

Uncles who make cranberry sauce

and donuts,

Walks outside in rain

and wind.

But most of all, for gathering around tables overflowing with sisters and brothers, moms and dads, cousins, grandmas and grampas.

We are a lucky family!

(Thanks to all for the chance to get together–we’ll do it again soon!)

 

 

 

 

 

13 November 2011

As promised,

Posted by Jenny Hoelter | File under Activities, Holidays

An Ewok treehouse in Lego! Clearly a geek thoughtful fan’s labor of love. You’ll have to look at Peter’s pictures (coming soo, I promise! – Peter) to see the rest of the Star Wars scenes…

Halloween happened right after we got home. We had two Angry Birds and an angry toddler.

Drew is wearing his angry bird hat (he was designated by Sara as “the blue one”), but completely refused to wear the rest of his outfit. Luckily he is still pretty cute and figured out “trick-or-treat”, so kept up with the big kids for our walk around the neighborhood. The Angry Bird costumes were Owen’s idea, and Sara wholeheartedly agreed. The two of them provided very specific art direction to the project, and I think they were happy with it in the end. At least they were happy with their candy haul, which was substantial. They got 2 FULL-SIZE snickers bars! This is crazy.

Next came Peter’s 39th birthday celebrated with lots of candles and a big cake!

Awww, they are sweet. Drew helped blow out the candles and Owen was photographer. Sara was the sick one on the couch. (We seem to have one with every birthday.)

Now on to leaf-raking and Thanksgiving!

27 December 2010

Merry Christmas!

Posted by Jenny Hoelter | File under Holidays

We had a simple, sweet Christmas this year–all on our own. The above picture was taken on Christmas eve after church. Owen sang in the children’s choir (“On Christmas Night” and another one–something with bells…). He did a great job! He read his verses nice and slow and only got hung up on “Quirinius.” Sara and Drew sang along with the carols and tried to light us on fire with the candle, but we all made it though intact.

We didn’t have a picture for our Christmas card this year, so we bribed them with cookies (Drew’s is in his hand) to stand in front of the tree in their holiday clothes and took a zillion pictures (4 per second, I think). This was my favorite outtake…

In the morning, we found that Santa had come, and brought the kids some maracas. Of course, a parade was held:

He also brought an easel with a chalkboard and an eraser.

In the excitement of it all, we forgot to cook the Christmas morning sausage, but we did eat the Christmas Stollen (from Cascade Baking) and Sara’s special juice and a double pot of coffee.

Then we opened our presents,  read the books, and took out all of the tiny parts of everything. Here are some scenes…

Our traditional cozy socks from Daddy:

Sara’s beloved and long-awaited “Pillow-Pet”:

Owen, halfway through his new stash of books:

After a lovely Christmas nap, we had our feast, including these tiny tarts that Sara helped me fill. So CUTE and YUMMY!

A sweet day, with it’s challenges like all of them, but somehow everything all came together and we really enjoyed our family.

(Thank Goodness…!)

24 December 2010

Christmas Eve Memories

Posted by Peter Hoelter | File under Holidays, Sara

As we prepare to make new Christmas memories, I thought it would be fun to enjoy one more time Sara’s Baby Jesus Song from a year ago.

Merry Christmas everybody!

11 December 2010

Don’t tell Uppa

Posted by Jenny Hoelter | File under Holidays

We got our tree early. Before the “blessed event” on 12/12.

One of these days we’ll tromp through the snow in the actual woods and argue over which tree is the best. For now, we tromp through the mud at a tree farm (deserted at 4 pm on a Wednesday!) and argue over finding the perfect not-perfect tree. We found a good one, a little narrow with a nice gap near the top!

The decorations were brought up from the basement and put on the tree* and Sara helped her Daddy put the star on top (Owen is now Too Heavy for star duty).

*Pictures of obstinate children and subsequently grumpy mama omitted–grateful to my own mama who reminds me to peek at them when they are sleeping and count my blessings.

1 December 2010

Drizzle, drizzle

Posted by Jenny Hoelter | File under Activities, Holidays

It’s a drizzly Willamette Valley winter!

We escaped the house for a little walk last weekend at an Audubon park in West Salem after coming home from the Portland Hoelters. Why? Because it’s GOOD for you!! We gathered lots of little bits of moss and sticks, light green, dark green, moldy and falling apart and a few oak galls, which forever remind me of Grampa Wing’s house. Kids were goofy, and we only got rained on a little bit.

Thanksgiving was REALLY yummy and we were especially thankful for the presence of Uncle Micah–back from his travels with lots of stories. The traditional Hoelter cranberry sauce was made with help from kids:

Love to all of you today!

2 November 2010

“Tik teet!!”

Posted by Jenny Hoelter | File under Holidays, Kids

Say that, and strangers will give you candy! Unfortunately, Drew is now dealing with the reality that it only works on Halloween and his prize still has to be unwrapped and “checked” by Mommy. Hey, better safe than sorry, right? I found lots of substandard Snickers and KitKats this year, not to mention the Almond Joys.

We had some neighborhood and school friends over for pizza and trick-or-treated our neighborhood in a big group of WOUND-UP kids.

We didn’t get any great pictures of our kids in the hustle/bustle of getting everybody out the door without falling down the stairs or running into the street, but here’s Owen as a “lego guy”.

Sara made a really cute witch, but didn’t like her hat, so ended up looking like a strange graduate or choir member with messy hair. Here she is (in motion) with her buddies, a knight and a dinosaur.

Here they are in action:

Our pumpkins were awesome this year–Thanks Uppa and Grandma Judy!!