Somebody put this little ham in commercials! Santa got a real kick out of her little animated self and we were overjoyed that she wasn't afraid of him! She's loving this candy thing too.........she gets it from Santa and from us when she goes in her potty seat. Life is good, eh??

Cassidy went to see Santa at a local nursery. She told him she wants CANDY and she wants to be a fairy. Look how fast ol' blue eyes got herself some candy???????

The Cassidy Isabel show continues........she loves to dance around the room, singing at the top of her lungs and making up songs...........the hands are in the air and she looks like she's worshiping God! It is truly hysterical to behold!

Cassidy munching "stacios" on Thanksgiving evening.

Our dear friend Chris joins us for Thanksgiving dinner and hams it up with some of Cassidy's jewels...........We are very thankful for our life and our friends and family. Just sharing a meal with people you love is such a simple yet blessed thing. Chris' wonderful girlfriend, Suzanne, joined us later as well. It was a low key but really nice evening.

Don is loving learning the construction trade. He is really good at it and loves working with Bill. Bill has even made him a very generous offer of a partnership in his business! So, Don is finally getting out of the casino racket and we are SO thrilled!

Bates and Lois' house is really coming along......they should be moving in in February. It is just gorgeous!

BUSTED!!!! When ever Cassidy is totally silent, we always find her ransacking my purse for mints.........candyaholic!

Cassidy meets and falls for our friend Dena's new grandson, Camden. Dena is the same age as Don so we get a laugh out of us having a two year old and she's a grandma.........gotta love life, eh???!!!! She and her husband Gordon are warm and wonderful and fun people. We love hanging with them! Her beautiful daughter, Alana, is the new mommy in the background.

20 lbs. of plums stewing and fermenting for a big batch of plum wine! It's the most beautiful salmon color.

Cassidy's cool Nonnie climbs in her fort/closet with her.

Cassidy poses as an angel for daddy's birthday.........

Princess Cassidy........she loves answering Lois and I with a sarcastic, "Yes, your Majesty!" (She's right, of course, but where does that come from?????? ha ha ha!)

Cassidy was not quite awake........but she was awake enough to decorate this sugar cookie with chocolate, of course!

Nonnie shows Cassidy how to carve a pumpkin. Cassidy also got to decorate a cookie and drink apple cider.......and it was FREE! This town loves children......it's really cool!

Our little serious Lady-bugger! She decided she likes costumes because we told her she can go to parties and get candy if she wears it........now she'll be wearing it daily because as she says,"Mommy, I love chocolate!"

We took Cassidy to the Pumpkin Patch today.

"Weeeeee're OFF to see the wizard..........." those wacky Bankerts ham it up at the pumpkin patch and corn maze farm! (You GOTTA double click this pic because it is really funny and cute large!)

Cassidy scores an adorable Big Girl Bed........(and loves to pull all of her possessions into bed with her.......hahaha!) She broke a record this morning sleeping in until 9:30!!!!! Unreal!!!! She is pretty content snuggled up in this little bed!

A beautiful sunny/misty day at the Port Angeles marina for the Dungeness Crab Fest.

Don introduces Cassidy to a crab at our second Dungeness Crab Festival in Port Angeles. We had a great time again this year!

Cassidy loves her sunflowers! We had a HUGE wind storm that blew all of our sunflowers down so we've been bringing them inside so that we can enjoy them. They are awesome and they last forever!

Cassidy enjoying one of the treasures she found in the hay game......

Our second farm day..........Cassidy is looking for treasures in the hay at the local dairy farm...........(got milk????) She really loves this day.......lots of activities, children everywhere, great food and music and tons of farm animals to pet. It is a wonderful learning experience for the kids and the adults too!!!!

Handsome Daddy-B working his butt off........He's working two jobs now and learning more tricks for eventually building our home.

Cassidy shakes her booty in the sun room!

The front of Bates and Lois' house. This side faces south west and into their gorgeous woods. The right hand side is a beautiful sun room that Lois will undoubtedly fill with all her favorite growing things! It's very exciting to see this house go up! It's just loaded with cool ideas! (the benefits of years of experience living in different houses AND a very talented designer!)

Our good friend, Bill, who designed and is building Lois and Bates' gorgeous and unique new home! It's really going to be an amazing house.......Bill is VERY artistic with many cool and unique ideas.

We're getting busy canning yummy stuff to eat and give as gifts.......

A small part of our HUGE plum crop.......we had to get really creative to use up all these plums! There were so many they broke the poor tree....(a lesson in fruit tree pruning for us!)

A little Oregon hiker humor...........and it is EXACTLY how I felt after this ride..........

Wow! An Oregon treasure/postcard. This ride rivaled my all time favorite ride in Colorado for beauty.

Don has been riding a lot and he's really good. This part of the trail was really steep and slippery and I didn't even consider riding it, but he kept going back and forth trying to get a good shot........

This is the pay-off for a hard ride..........and it was well worth it!

We just came back from a long weekend visiting my cousin in Cottage Grove, Oregon. There was an awesome gardening festival and his seed company, Territorial Seed, had a tomato taste-off contest. It was really fun and I got to be one of the judges. I tasted 50 tomatoes! We had an amazing time with them.......they are so warm and they make you feel so comfortable in their home. My cousin Tommy's wife, Julie, is an amazing cook and she spoiled us rotten with all her fresh recipes using ingredients straight out of their garden. She makes great veggie stuff too, as her daughter, Farren, is also a veg. (Yeah for me!!!)
This shot is a gorgeous mountain bike ride Don and I took. It is the Brice Creek trail and about 7 miles long through some drop-dead amazing country. Don is in this shot, but you'll have to double-click it to see his happy face.

Cassidy gives free design consultation to Nonnie and Poppy. ("This is where the chocolate goes; here is the spot for the candy; and the cookies and toys go over here...........")

Bates and Lois are in the middle of building their awesome new home! They are up there every day running errands for the builders, clearing brush and chopping logs for their new masonry stove that you can see in the middle of this shot. They come home exhausted but really excited too! Their great room is going to be really amazing with this stove. The company who makes them is out of Finland and they use beautiful soap stone which is the best for maintaining the heat. They look all natural, like you have a waterfall in your home. They also come with a pizza oven so Lois says, "Come on over! Pizza's in the oven!"

My awesome sunflowers are just bursting open everywhere!!

My first attempt at wine........20 lbs. of blackberries went into that! Should be ready around the time some of my girlfriends come up here for a visit next summer.....HINT HINT!!!!! (We'll be howlin' at the moon, eh???)

"That tickles!!!" giggles our little Sassafrass!!!

Words cannot describe this feeling........

Three absolute cuties!!!! Karen just sent this pic to me and I just have to share it with all of you!

"YIKES!! I'm trapped in the plum tree!" screams little Sushi. They love this tree and we're going to love the wine and jam and chutney we make out of it!

We turned some old tubs into our bean garden. These are edamame and black beans with corn in the distance.

Cassidy "harvesting" her strawberries. It's a good day when you can beat the birds to one!

Our awesome garden......giant tomatoes, sun flowers, broccoli, marigolds, raspberries, onions, carrots, spinach, etc........It is so fun to go dig up your potatoes, carrots, onions, fennel, and cut your basil, cilantro and rosemary when you are cooking! We are diggin' it, literally! And the tomatoes and carrots are SO sweet!!!! Yummy!!!!

Cassidy smelling the sweet Sweet Peas. We planted these for her great grandma Isabel who just loves them! They are starting to bloom everywhere and they smell SO good!

Daddy and Nonnie blowing gigantic bubbles for Cassidy in our orchard. If anyone wants a closer look at these pictures, just double click them and they'll get HUGE.........

Cassidy's latest big grinner! She's quite the corker! She keeps asking for "pretty dress" and wore this one for two days. It's from Karen and Lou's cool friends/neighbors Linette and John. Thanks again you guys.....as you can see, she loves it!

Don takes his big sis Karen on a ride on his new toy.........even though her daughter, Camryn, informed her that Daddy Lou wouldn't "appreciate that." Ha ha.