The day after...

Darren had to go back to work today and I will go back tomorrow. This morning for me was spent spending time with my babies. We had a great old time of playing and hanging out, each of them woke up at very different times this morning, they must be getting caught up from the long holiday weekend of not sticking to our schedules! I decided to take them to daycare just before noon since I had intended to do a little shopping with my mom and Trista. First Trista, Jason, my mom and I went to lunch! Then off to the mall and Fred Meyers we went. It wasn't too bad at all, it was very warm in the mall, I forget how stifling it can get, I haven't been there in ages! We got to the car and low and behold Trista realized she had left her purse at the last store, she ran in and I telephone them (they said they hadn't seen it!), just as my mom was about to retrace Trista's steps, she called to say it had been safely recovered! We were all very thankful! We hope everyone had some relaxing time over this weekend and we hope to get ourselves back to our schedules for the benefit of our kids and ourselves!

Merry Christmas!

We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Last night was a fun evening filled with lots of food & drinks, laughter and great company. We got home from my cousins house sometime after midnight. The boys had both been sleeping very soundly after 10:00pm...we extended bed time unknowingly! The festivities started at about 7pm and for once we were the first guests to arrive. I had made some peppermint bark (for my first time) it didn't look that appealing, but was very delicious! I didn't make it to bed until about 2:30am and for Darren is was closer to 4am. Sometime there After Santa stopped in to fill the stockings and leave a few gifts for the children. We had quite a later awakening than usual when we rolled out of bed at about 8:30am. Braeden and Brooklynd were so very ecstatic about the gifts Santa had left that I opened most of their stockings. They were very blessed by many, many people. They got toys, pajamas, and many other things. It was Brooklynds very 1st Christmas, he did very well, still hasn't mastered the art of tearing the paper, I am sure he will get much more practice at his first birthday in less than a month! After our family opening festivities we showered and headed over to my parents. We let all of the kids open their gifts first as Kody was ancy to play with some kids next door and Braeden & Brooklynd were both nearing nap time! This sped the gift opening process up tremendously I think it's a tradition we will keep up! After all the gift giving and receiving we were all pretty tuckered. We started dinner and hung out for a while! My uncle Kevin came over for dinner which was great! My mom, Braeden and my sisters headed over to spend a bit of time with my grandma whom had decided not to join us at my parents house then home we went! It was a great Christmas for us and our babies, we hope you all had a great one!

Happy Christmas Eve...

We hope you all have a fantastic Christmas Eve. Our weekend has been fairly quiet thus far, but we anticipate things picking up tomorrow. We have plans to go to my cousins house in Camas, WA we usually end up staying fairly late. Then Christmas morning we will open gifts here after Santa visits and then head over to my parents somewhere around noon time. We hope you all have a safe and Happy Christmas and Christmas Eve. Love to all!

Recipe & Christmas Fun Facts & more pics!

Holiday Breakfast Casserole Recipe:
Ingredients:
Butter for greasing pan
1 (12-ounce) package frozen hash-brown potatoes
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter
1 cup diced ham
4 ounces Cheddar cheese, shredded
4 ounces Swiss or Jack cheese, shredded
1 (4-ounce) can diced green chilies
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon saltSalsa to taste
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease 10-inch pie pan with butter. To save time, hash browns can be baked evening before. Ham, cheeses and chilies can be placed on top and refrigerated overnight.1. In prepared pie pan, spread hash browns. Brush with melted butter and bake 25 minutes.2. Layer ham, cheeses and chilies on hash browns.3. Combine eggs, milk and salt. Pour over ham, cheese and chilies.4. Bake at 350 degrees 30-35 minutes.5. Place salsa on top before serving.

FUN CHRISTMAS TRIVIA

• There are 364 gifts in 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'
• 'The twelve days of Christmas' was started a long time ago in England because Catholics were not allowed to teach their children about their religion, so each of the verses was really a hidden way to teach about Jesus.
• Artificial Christmas trees have outsold real ones every year since 1991.
• Sugar Plums still exist, though not called that anymore. They are chocolate candies with fruit preserves, cream or other sweet filling in middle.
• The tradition of Christmas lights dates back to when Christians were persecuted for saying Mass. A simple candle in the window meant that Mass would be celebrated there that night.
• In ancient Scandinavia, mistletoe was associated with peace and friendship. That may account for the custom of "kissing beneaththe mistletoe".
• In the Ukraine what does it mean if you find a spider web in the house on Christmas morning? Good Luck! There once lived a woman so poor, says a Ukrainian folk tale, that she could not afford Christmas decorations for her family. One Christmas morning, she awoke to find that spiders had trimmed her children's tree with their webs. When the morning sun shone on them, the webs turned to silver and gold. An artificial spider andweb are often included in the decorations on Ukrainian Christmas trees.
• Santa Claus was born in 280AD as Nicholas, he wore a red and white Bishop's robe.
• The first electric Christmas tree lights were telephone switchboard lights.
• In 1836, Alabama is the first state in the USA to declare Christmas a legal holiday.

Latta/Lorenz Holiday Newsletter

Since ALL of the cards are finally out. I thought I'd include on here the jist of what was in our newsletter (which was included in most of the cards). Most of you have already received one, but if you haven't here is the overview... :-)

This year has been an eventful and busy one for our family. Starting with the birth of our second son Brooklynd in January. It was a big adjustment for us but one that we have thoroughly enjoyed. Braeden loved the new addition and mostly wondered what “it” was! Things have changed a lot since then. Now they interact
with each other so very much. Braeden has become a very helpful and loving big brother, and has only pushed him down a few times! Brooklynd is now almost 11 months old and Braeden is just over 2 years old, yes we are crazy!! We enjoy (most) every minute of it and are thankful for everything. Brooklynd is pulling
himself up and will be walking any time now, I cannot believe how big he’s getting it will be interesting to see which one dominates as they grow up. As you can probably imagine Braeden is a chatter box and can be as stubborn, (we aren’tsure exactly where he gets that), as the day is long, but thankfully he is an absolute doll and a very happy & loving child the majority of the time.
We are very lucky to have our baby boys and are thankful each day for it. As for Darren and I things are pretty much the same. Darren is working for Western Pacific delivering doors & windows to homes being built. He drives lots of miles in a day. This keeps him at work from 6am to 7pm on average, so he looks forward to starting the Sheet Metal Apprenticeship, hopefully in February or March! I am still working at MCAM doing clerical work, this year makes 7! I am also starting school in January, I am registered for 2 online classes and am looking forward to working towards a degree. I have also started selling Avon very recently and
look forward to the opportunities that will bring. For more detail on what our family is up to check out our blog throughout the year www.dtandbb.blogspot. com I try to keep it up to date for all the family out of the area and those of you whom we don’t see often enough. It helps me remember day to day as well!! Best
wishes to all of you for a happy holiday season & a prosperous & healthy 2007
With Love~ Darren, Trina, Braeden & Brooklynd!
Christmas Fun Fact: John Callcott Horsley, a British painter, designed the first Christmas and
New Year's card in 1840. It went on sale in 1843, when 1,000 cards were offered for $1 each.
Christmas Fun Fact:In Italy they have no Christmas trees, so instead they decorate small pyramid shaped wooden stands with fruit.

Not exact, but you get the idea!
Love to all of you near and far!

Silent Night, Jingle Bells, We wish you a Merry Christmas...

Tonight some friends of ours are doing their annual Christmas carolling in their local neighborhoood I believe. They sent out a letter inviting everyone this year and I was so excited because it was one of the things I had wanted to do this holiday season. I think I would like to go carolling because I can't sing alone..if I did the dogs would howl...so this gives me a great chance to belt out some songs without people having to hear me...Hahaha! Darren on the other hand has an amazing voice and let me tell you I hope my children end up with his vocal genes that is for sure! We aren't sure yet if we are going to make it to the carolling even tonight, but are looking forward to planning it in next year, now that we know someone who actually does it! I actually have missed out on a lot of the activities we had intended to do, I know this always happens and therefore am taking it as it comes. The ships have sailed out for the season, I hope to see the Christmas Ships next year. We have had pictures for Brooklynd this week, LOTS of wrapping for both Darren and I, shopping and with the regular house duties we have had a FULL week. We are both looking forward to some time of with the kids and the rest of my family. Ryan is in town as of last night, so I hope to see him soon and reintroduce him to the babies! We hope everyone has a great weekend and a very Merry Christmas!

Ladies Xmas Get Together

Just a photo from our Girls Night last weekend (courtesy of Jaime..thankyou! And Darren for taking it of course!) Our camera batteries were dead therefore we didn't get one...We had a great time and look forward to many more in the future. Love you ladies! Merry Christmas and Happy 2007 to you all!

Happy Holidays...Season Greetings...

Yay...all of my Christmas cards are done & all but one of my gifts are purchased. Now I am just getting to the final wrapping of presents already purchased and sending of our boys holiday pictures. I am happy to be caught up and on schedule I actually have had most of my cards done for sometime now it was mostly the ones whose addresses I wasn't sure of that weren't sent but almost all of those are sent as well I think I have exactly 2 waiting for verification!

We hope everyone is having a fulfilling and wonderful Holiday Season.

Love, hugs & kisses to all!

Holiday Happenings

So this weekend we had a lot going on. Friday we went to dinner for my cousins birthday (Happy Birthday Colleen!) We first attempted Old Chicago where the wait was extremely too long for the kids. It was a big party of 7 adults and 4 children (Wow)! We decided at about 7:30ish that instead of continuing to wait we would head to a less busy restaurant. SO off to Chans we went. They got us right in, but even so it took FOREVER to get our food. By the time we were headed out it was about 10:00pm at that point I contemplated the rest of the evenings activities our original intention was to go out to continue the celebration, however I was tired and the kids were all but sleeping. We talked it over and decided to celebrate as we originally had commited to, so after stopping at home I took the babies to my parents house and Darren and I went to Meadows to meet up with everyone by this time it was almost 11:00pm. We had a very fun evening it was packed..we did some drinking, some dancing and lots of socializing and laughing. We may not get an evening out with Terra and Ryan so we figured we'd better jump at the chance while she was going.

Saturday for me was spent cleaning and picking up and getting food ready for my Girls Get Together. It started at 6ish that night. It was a busy day of spending time with the kids as well as getting things ready. Darren spent the night hanging with Terra and returned home around 9:30ish. It was a fun time with most of our girl friends it was a smaller turn out than usual but those of us that were there had a GREAT time and many more to come in the future. In the gift exchange I got a very good smelling candle, a couple of ornaments and some bath stuff from bath and body works in one of my favorite scents. We enjoyed laughs and lots of talking and had some great food. After it was all wrapped up....I headed out AGAIN with a couple of friends from the party...What a nice guy Darren is for staying home with the sleeping children...I was gone for just over an hour and was home before midnight so it was a nice early end to a fun evening with some friends!

Sunday we had another long day. Braeden and I went shopping and to pick pictures up and then home to get ready for my work Christmas Party. The party seemed to be quite a bit shorter than the previous years but a nice dinner and nice evening was had none the less! IT was a busy weekend and we anticipate another busy one this coming weekend. We hope to see the Zoo Lights, Christmas Ships and Peacock Lane sometime from now until the New Year. I am almost done shopping - just have one gift to pick up and many I am hoping to receive in time either by the mail or by UPS in the next few days I hadn't been worried about their delivery until now! I hope you all are having a wonderful season...stop and smell the hot cocoa...for it's better this time of year.
Love to all!

Night Out & Day In

So over the weekend we were very busy. On Friday we celebrated my dads birthday (his official Birthday was on Monday) at the Spaghetti Factory. It was a good time, great company and good food. Braeden had his first overnighter (since Brooklynd was born) with his Nini and Kody (dodo) afterwards. It was odd being at home with just us and Brooklynd although since it was bed time shortly thereafter it wasn't too different. I did get some odds and ends done that I normally have a hard time with when Braeden is there, which was nice, but we sure did miss him come morning :-) We met up with them for lunch and then Trista and I did a little bit of shopping. We went out for a friends 30th birthday on Saturday and had WAY TOO much fun (well I definitely know I did!) It was great! Sunday we hung out with my parents most of the day ate pizza, played with the boys and watched movies. We headed home near 6:00pm and Darren got the lights on the tree, I started to decorate it and after baths and bed I had some alone time! Darren went to play poker for a while and I got the presents out to wrap, the tree somewhat decorated, the house picked up and such! I had a hard time getting to sleep last night, must be the anitcipation of the holidays! I absolutely love this time of year and am excited for Braeden since the older he gets the more exciting things are...this year he LOVES the reindeer in our yard and the lights! It's wonderful looking at things through a childs eyes!
We hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and is surviving the rain today!! Tata for now!

News..

For those of you whom I haven't contacted yet, I just wanted to let you all know I have decided to explore a new business venture! I am now selling Avon! I am very excited to start this and see where it may take me. I am also FINALLY registered for shool in January and happy to be starting back up again. I am taking 2 online courses and am happy that I am doing that because Darren just found out that unfortunately his apprenticeship won't be starting until February or March! Which means he will have to endure overtime and 14 hour days for a while longer...tata for now! Hope everyone is well.
Loves!!

O' Christmas Tree...

This weekend we had quite the experience getting family pictures for Christmas done and going to get our tree! We went to get our pictures done early this morning, a few turned out well, it will be a challenge for several years to come I imagine, Braeden had to be bribed with candy and Brooklynd just sat there for most of it, I can't even imagine how we will do it next year with them both running around. Some of the most adorable ones were with just them of course, I will upload them soon so you all can see!! After heading home to change out of our nice clothes, we headed over to meet up with Trista, Jason and Kody to seek out the perfect Christmas tree!! Last year Darren suggested getting a Noble (as I have always had Douglas Firs growing up) so we decided to go to a U-Cut Farm that Jason had suggested. The place is right outside of Oregon City...We had a good time trecking around through the tree farm with the boys UNTIL I realized our video camera bag had fallen out of our stroller or rather off, of our stroller. See I had "temporarily" hung it on the handle not very securely...to make a long story short after about 10-15 minutes of searching we were very thankful when Jason came across it! We are very lucky! Besides that little problematic spot in our trip, it was great. We walked away with a great tree for less than half of what we payed last year for our noble! I am so very excited to decorate it, hopefully very soon! Our lights are up outside (Darren took care of that the day after Thanksgiving!!) and the house is decorated as well. I love the holidays with all the adorable decor and fun festive recipes. I am going to attempt some baking this year hopefully time permitting! I hope you all had a great weekend and are having a great holiday season thus far.