Tuesday's forecast: 50 degrees and dry.  Noah has been asking to go to the park for weeks and was having a hard time understanding why cold weather and rain aren't conducive to such an idea.  I have been telling him that we will go to the park more often when it warms up.  On Tuesday when I told him we were going to the park he just kept saying "it warmed up!"  His favorite is to go to the park near orenco station and then walk to the train station and watch as many trains go by as possible which never gets old for him, great moments indeed.  We waited for four trains to go by (one was a new train, which is the ultimate to him), and then walked back to the park and Noah went down the slide.

That afternoon we met up for our Tuesday afternoon playdate with Noah's friends Ella and Keira at a park in Beaverton.  And once again, Noah was delighted.

Celebrating with friends at Bella Gioia in the pearl.

Great Italian food, great company, and great conversation.

A great way to celebrate my 28th!

7 months along.

Zaya will be joining our family soon!

Thanks to Sarah for hosting!

We finished the night with a St. Cupcake for all and girl talk until way past my bedtime.  I am so grateful for good friends.  I am blessed to have so many. 

(Rebecca, thank you for the pictures.  I can always trust you to not only bring your camera, but capture all of the fun moments!)

This year we celebrated the new year on east coast time, 9:00 pm here, which we thought was a great idea on R and B's part, the throwers of the new years eve party we attended.  That way the kids can come along to the party and celebrate but still get to bed at a decent time.  We had fun.  We didn't really see Noah much.  He spent his time upstairs playing with the Thomas the train set, they have an extensive collection.

He did agree to be torn away from the train set to join in on the countdown.

Happy New Year!

A new year's kiss from my Noah.

Besides discussing and setting goals together on New year's eve, Kristian and I have a tradition of making 10 predictions about the coming year which we keep to ourselves and seal up until the next new year's eve.  Our predictions range from family events to pop culture to mormon culture.  We then open them the following year and see who out does who.  This year Kristian was awarded best guesser with a score of 4/10 just beating my score of 3/10. 

Kristian's correct predictions:

1.  Emily will be pregnant.

2.  2009 will see global temps remain flat or fall, but not rise.

3.  An apostle will pass away. 

(Does that really count?  Isn't it way to general?)

4.  Kristian will increase his salary with a raise.

(Nice job on the raise honey!)

Emily's correct predictions:

1.  Emily will be pregnant with a girl.

(Yes!  I totally called that one.)

2.  The democrats will already be compaining about Obama.

(To be fair I acknowledge that there would be complaining no matter who the president is with the way things are going right now.)

3.  Noah will know how to do a somersault.

(By the way, I forget my predictions about 5 minutes after writing them down and had no influence on this one coming to fruition.)

We are looking forward to the new year ahead which will consisit of a new addition to our family, Noah turning 3, 2 weeks to spend with family in Utah, and a lot of time spent continuing to strengthen our little family.  2010, we are ready for you.