Uncle Burk's Grave Cont'd

Burke at Burke's grave

Burke kissing Burke's grave.

Reunion

Hi Everyone!

Reunion was so much fun. I am so glad both Jeremy and I were able to come. I am so proud of everyone in the family and it was so great to see all the new little people!! Last week was the highlight of my year! I am looking forward to seeing all of you sooner than later.

Love,

Naima

The Wenatchee Valley

This is Christmas Eve from the top of Mission Ridge. I woke up to a bright clear day and headed out the door for a nice Christmas Eve of skiing. Enjoy the view and there is an open invitation to join me next year. I honestly forgot how close Mission Ridge was to home (less than 15 miles). Conditions were good at the Ridge with new snow on the 22nd and on the 23rd. Sorry no action photos as I was flying solo both days. I was planning on making a trip down Squilchuck on the way home to take a picture of where Peter and I attempted to end the senior year of basketball early on the three ski sleds (reliving our big wheel days) but only succeeded in straining a knee. However the camera ran out of batteries so that will have to wait till next time.

Royal Copenhagen HQ

Window Display at the HQ.

Royal Copenhagen stuff is advertised all over and sold at a lot of stores. It is EXPENSIVE! If you'd like to know how much the wares above cost then divide the number by 5. The weak dollar makes most things pretty costly. For example, if the dollar was twice as strong as it is now then the large plate would only be about $600.00. :)

Will in Danish

Will is singing a song here that he learned in Nusery. It is about who created the birds (Heavenly Father) the flowers (Heavenly Father) and You and Me (Heavenly Father). Amazing how quickly kids pick up on another language!

My little gift to everyone

I am going to pick up some see's candy to bring home but I thought you all would like to have a say on what I should bring. A list of the Candies you can choose from along with their specific spellings will be found here http://www.sees.com/sp1.cfm. Please post what your favorites are, and even if you see your favorite mentioned by someone else please re affirm that you want some. The amount I get will be determined by your responses. I look forward to seeing you all this Christmas.

Doing the Dance of Joy

It's official: my thesis is DONE DONE DONE!! (as our grad secretary put it) Hurrah!
akb

Cute, but a little disconcerting

Tonight John and Gregory were building guns out of Duplos (the big Legos for little kids) when William picked one up, pointed it, and started making a "shooting" sound. It was kind of a "th" sound with his tongue sticking out. It was unbelievable. Among other things, he also knows how to point the remote at the tv, and talk into the telephone. What am I teaching this baby?!

Linda and Robin's trip to San Diego

My mom wanted me to post these for her. Looks like the "girls" had a good time!

Cute at Home - Stressful at Restaurants

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! It is that time of the year again. Always one of the nicer holidays. As we are getting closer to Christmas, what dates are people planning to be in San Diego? Trying to figure out my travel plans and curious what everyone else is thinking?

xo,

Naima

thesis

Hi. I'm sending the rest of my revised thesis to matt for approval. I've renamed ch 2 as "The Gothic's Black Heart: Radcliffe, Lewis and the Logic of Networks" Who wouldn't want to read that??

the biggest thanks to dad, without whom i couldn't have finished this!!!!!!

William R. and His Cake

Total Domination?

On the third game of backgammon, I took all my pieces off of the board before my wonderful sweet, dear, loving spouse took off any pieces. Is there a proper term for this? Any takers over the holiday?

happy first!

And happy first birthday to William!

I like William because:
He such a beautiful baby
He's very photogenic
He likes chocolate chip cookies
He's a mellow kid

And I can't wait to actually meet him at Christmas!!

Oh to be 29 forever!

Happy first 29th Don! Hard to believe you are in Denmark.

Don is great because:

He has a great sense of humor
He is very smart
He does a great dog barking impression
He is fun to talk to
He has 2 great boys
He married really really well
He has a healthy perspective on life
He can do great magic tricks
He has great fashion sense
He loves talking NBA Hoops
He loves the Y
He is a great walking-home-from-swimming buddy (you can commiserate on Chicken Casserole with him)
He is a great dancer
He is fun to be around

We miss you and your family Don! Hope you have a great year. We are so excited to see you all in December!

Halloween and the Wii!

Out little cowboys and of course, the dashing Obi Wan. Don got the costume from a rental place nearby but it came with a mediocre lightsaber. Joe came to the rescue and lent Don one of his amazing lightsabers that was a big hit at Don's office.

I got Will's costume a few weeks early so he would get used to it before Halloween came. I asked him several times to try it on and he always either refused or hated every minute of it. We tried to prep him by talking up Halloween and told him he'd have to wear his costume to get candy, and lo and behold, the day of our ward party, he was really excited to put on his costume and gave us no problem at all. We got him to say "Howdy, pardner" when he went to the doors to trick or treat. It was pretty cute. He keeps asking if we can go to another party. He loved to share his candy with everyone, too. He'd always come up to me with his pumkin and say "What do you want, Mom?" Even when he only had 2 pieces left. Burke is still at the clueless age a little bit and I don't think he even knew he was dressed up, though he looked adorable.

Last week I turned on the bath water and Burke was standing at the edge of the bathtub. He started to lean over to touch the water and fell right in the tub in his pj's! After a little shocked look, he got all happy and started splashing around in the tub, pj's and all.

Don, Joe, David and my brother Alex playing tennis on Joe's Nintendo Wii. We've had a ton of fun playing with this system the last couple of months, thanks to Joe. I hear he's planning on bringing it to Wenatchee for Christmas, so everyone get prepared for the fun!

Cookie Monster

C is for Cookie that's good enough for me! Wait! C is for chocolate chips cookies, and those are even better for me!

Halloween in Beaverton

We had a great Halloween. Nathan was an Army Ranger, Katie started the day as an Animal Doctor and later transitioned to an Animal Doctor's Assistant, Gregory was Spiderman, and William was Woodward the Teddy Bear. The kids came to my office and trick or treated in the cubes. We then went to the Trunk-R-Treat with our church group. Trunk-r-Treating is when people bring there cars to a spot and open the trunk (maybe even decorate it), and then kids go from car to car. We then trick or treated our way home. The best neighbor of the night gave each child two King Size candy bars.

Obligatory Doorstep Portrait

Trunk-r-Treating
William at the Park

Angel Face

Paisley Court Trick-r-Treaters (L-R: Aaron Xanthos, Anthony Xanthos, Nathan, Katie, Greg, Christopher (aka Bub) Xanthos