Gingerbread Houses

Decorating gingerbread houses is one of our favorite traditions!

Back of the houses. 

Front of the houses. So cute!

Taekwondo Breakathon

Lauren and Emily participated in a taekwondo breakathon fundraiser to raise money for a local children's hospital. There were a lot of impressive taekwondo demonstrations at the event and the girls had a chance to break ten boards each!

Video of Lauren breaking her boards. 

Video of Emily breaking her boards.

The taekwondo masters did some impressive demonstrations!

The grand master (eighth degree black belt!) did a grand finale kick.

Red Stripe Belt Testing

The girls recently completed black belt with red stripe testing! Here are the students warming up. 

Girls doing their form routine.  

Video of the entire form routine. 

Emily doing self defense. 

Lauren doing self defense.

Board breaking! Lauren broke her board on the first try. 

Emily broke her board on the second try. 

We are so proud of them!

Elf Yourself 2017

Every year the girls' school has a holiday fundraiser where students can get their photo taken as an elf. The girls both chose to be University of Oregon elves this year!

Emily the elf.

Lauren the elf.

Fourth Grade School Portraits

Emily, fourth grade.

Lauren, fourth grade.

Christmas Tree 2017

This weekend we went to Al's Garden to pick out our Christmas tree.

We chose an eight foot Noble Fir. 

The girls also got a small fake tree for their bedroom.

Decorating the tree.

The finished tree!

Happy Thanksgiving 2017

This year I made a bittersweet chocolate and pear cake.

Justin made two types of turkey... one was cooked using a sous vide technique followed by a quick deep fry to brown and crisp the outside. 

He also made smoked turkey on the Traeger which is always a hit. 

Yum!

Lane kindly took this family portrait for us. :)

Lauren, Kay, Emily, and Kali enjoying the feast. Emily LOVES sparkling cider.

We had a great time eating and celebrating!

Girls and Justin enjoying some post-Thanksgiving weekend lounging.

Banana Pancakes

The girls made delicious two ingredient (ripe bananas and egg) pancakes and chicken sausages for breakfast this weekend. They found the pancake recipe online and did everything on their own. It was delicious! :)

Birthday Party and a Fancy Dinner

The girls went to a fun birthday party at John's Incredible Pizza this weekend!

Emily enjoying a cool sugary drink. 

Justin and the girls cooked an extra fancy dinner this weekend. They made the carrots using a sous vide cooking technique. The entire meal was delicious!

Piano Recital November 2017

Lauren and Emily both did a fantastic job at their piano recital this weekend!

Lauren played Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran. 

Emily played Shape of You by Ed Sheeran.

Halloween Festivities

Emily's cat pumpkin. 

Lauren's cyclops monster pumpkin. 

Girls with friends at a Baggenstos Farm Halloween event. 

Close up of face painting.

Carving the pumpkins! This year we roasted the seeds with olive oil, salt, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic powder... it was delicious!

The completed pumpkins.

Emily dressed up as the Statue of Liberty.  Lauren was a Japanese princess.