Happy Holidays!!

We hope and pray that this letter finds you happy and healthy.

2008 was a great year for the Pickett family. Forest Grove, Oregon continues to be the place we call home.

Brock turned 17 months old on Christmas day, and is getting so big, it is unbelievable. Each day brings new surprises with Brock, as he is quickly becoming an expert climber, learning more sign language, and attempting to ride the dogs like horses. His vocabulary is up to 17 words and 9 signs. Don’t forget that he skipped right over walking, and went right to running for his birthday.

The dogs, Titan and Nismo, are doing well, and really love playing with Brock. I guess I should say that Brock loves playing with the dogs. He sits on them, tries to ride them, hugs them, and shares his snacks with them. Needless to say, the dogs are very happy about getting snacks from Brock. One day in the summer, the dogs thought it would be a great idea to take a tour of Forest Grove, so they ran off through the open gate and played with some students down at Pacific University. Needless to say, they had a blast! (I didn’t have so much fun, though).

Jon continues to work as a Product Manager at International Wood Products. They had a fire at an off-site storage facility this year, and lost three million dollars of inventory. In July, he went to New York with two friends from college to catch some baseball at Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium. They made the trip because 2008 will be the last season for both buildings, as the Yankees and the Mets are moving into new stadiums. Jon also plays in a regular poker game, and participates in several Fantasy Football leagues.

I went back to work at Fred Meyer this year, working part time on weekends and evenings, in order to avoid having to pay for childcare. Fred Meyer is good, but my days at home with Brock are undoubtedly the highlight. I love every moment that I spend with Brock. I also like to squeeze in quilting and scrapbooking in my rare free moments.

From our family to yours, have a prosperous 2009!

Snow anyone??

So holly cow!! We have a ton of snow, and yes I do mean a ton of snow. This afternoon when I stuck he tape measure down in the snow we had 8 inches and it was coming down like crazy. I am sure that we have closer to 10 by now. I can not believe this weather that we have been having, thanks global warming. We took Brock out in the snow and he did ok, he was not all that fond of it. He likes to watch it snow from inside the warm house. So here are a few pictures of our snow.

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum

Last weekend we got our Christmas tree!!! It finally felt like Christmas. We found this nice place where you cut your own tree not far from where we live. Walked around for a while, and after going back and forth we got the tree that we picked first. This happens every year. We find a treed and then find a different one and so one and so forth and then always come back to the first tree. Though after this year we have a new family rule, and that is what ever tree I pick out first we have to find one ½ it’s size. Some how I seem to pick out HUGE trees for a small house. I think it was about 9 feet or a little more. Jon needed help getting it to the car because it was so heavy, and when we got home had to cut about a foot off of it. And it still manages to make our living room look so very small. Well after we got it set up and it place with the decorations on it looks pretty good. The next morning we came downstairs to find it had fallen over that night. Our plastic tree stand is no match for our 100 lb tree. So it is now leaning in the corner, it looks a little funny, but we have a tree and it is Christmas.

Paradise Found

Early morning on black Friday Jon, Brock, and I piled in to the car and ventured down the coast to Bandon, Or. For those of you who don’t know the town, I am not surprised. It is a wonderfully small beach town on the southern Oregon coast. My parents have a wonderful vacation home there and had it that weekend. It was the most amazing weather that we have ever had out at the beach. I think it was around 70°, sunny, and the most amazing waves ever. Or fist day we spend playing in the sand with toys and taking a shot walk. We did find that Brock is not fond of standing or walking on the sand, but he does just fine playing in it.Brock loved being in the beach house, every where, even the cupboards.

On our way home we decided to drive up hwy 101, which is our favorite thing to do. We stopped at this little turn out that is close to Yahatts that we came across on our honeymoon 3 years ago. There is a bridge that we both love and the sand is quite nice there. We got Brock out of the car so we could stretch our legs.

Later that day we decided to stop and the Newport Aquarium, another top 10 on our list of things to do when at the coast. The last time Brock went he was just about 6 months old and I think he slept the entire time. This time he was running from display to display and even was able to touch the animals in the touch tank. We all has so much fun.