journey to Supreme Court - 12/16

the Big Red Shoe at top of escalators at Union Station that Dale sees every day he goes to school

Gavin and Grandpa Berg
(Dale's dad flew in for the day to see Dale take his "Oath of Admission" to practice law.)

Gloves on toe-cicle pops
First day of real snow, no shoveled sidewalks, walked through snow for 4 blocks (when Dale wasn't carrying me on his back), my toes were frozen. Never knew toes got swollen and numb till then, but lets not focus on that ... ->

Oath of Admission by General Suter, Clerk of The United States Supreme Court

Thursday, December 16th, 2010.

General Suter (U.S. Army Retired) and Dale in the US Supreme Court Clerk's office (since 1935)

Dale's "I do's" to the practice of Law in Arizona

Dale has promised to be a truthful, honorable, trustworthy, non-offensive, professionally responsible Attorney, once he is officially admitted to the State Bar of Arizona, in Arizona, on 1/11/11.

Gavin, Vanessa, Dale, General Suter, Lee Berg, Linnaea

Supreme Court - 3

Desk and quills of the 3rd US Supreme Court Clerk, seen in portrait, from early 1800's.
Justice O'Connor and Dale. We enjoyed reviewing her life at her display in the museum.

The real Christmas Tree directly in front of the entrance to the Supreme Court

view of the Capitol Building at the bottom of the steps of the Courthouse.

The entrance to the courthouse (that we didn't take with the stroller)

Supreme Court - 4

Thanksgiving in VA

Both of our friends from high school, Steve & Laura Miller, are stationed at the Naval base not too far from D.C. So we spent a couple days with our two little families for Thanksgiving.

All in all we spent lots of time outside while our kids rode bikes, Dale played football, Dale sprained his ankle (and still in a brace 3 wks later), spent lots of time talking and at most 30 minutes eating our long labored over meal.

Gavin and Jack did get to camp out together on a cot for 2 nights. We heard them 'till 10:30 at night talking, such as "I like Lighting McQueen. Do you like Lightning McQueen? Yah."
Gavin finally got how to ride the big boy bike as we were loading the car.

He still talks about it, but he'll have his trike 'till his 5th birthday.
Thanks for having us Steve & Laura.

us at the Stake Talent Show - nov. 20

Linnaea was being a crack up again. We're pretty sure she made up a couple's mind that they want a little girl now.

They both wanted to sit on my lap, or they just wanted to sit together. We can never tell, but that's a good thing. I just think they're cute.

Pumpkin Soup - so so yummy

Pumpkin Soup

with chicken and rice
(easy to change with what you have, and add what you want)

Prepared Rice - 1 cup Rice (wild, brown or white) heated in 2 cups water till fluffy

2Tbsp - Butter or Margarine
1 cup - Onions, (or 1/3cup Dehydrated Onions & 2/3 cup water)
1 can - Cream of Celery Soup
2 cups - Chicken Broth (from carton,can or seasoning cube)
1 can 16oz - Pumpkin (or ~2cups Pumpkin puree)
1-2 cups - Mixed Vegetables (frozen or canned)
2 cups - Chicken, cooked and cubed (or 1 can ~12oz Chicken)
1/2 - 1 cup - Milk /or half&half /or can of Carnation milk
1/2 Tbsp - Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp. - Salt (2 tsp if needed)

Prepare Rice. Then in Large pot, ~6 quart, cook butter with onions. Add celery soup, broth and pumpkin and heat to boil. Stir in rice, vegetables, chicken, milk, cinnamon and salt. Heat to serving temperature, no boiling needed. Still tastes great when reheated for leftovers as well.

Playing in the Leaves - Nov. 15, '10

My Penny girl's 15th Birthday - Nov. 4

Happy 15th Birthday Penny !

Linnaea was sporting her winter puppy outfit in your honor.

We love you Penny girl !

A New View of the World - 10/27/10

This was the funniest thing ever. I caught her in this pose, and she stayed that way long enough for me to get a picture of it.

It's her 5th day crawling and she is sure out to explore.

Linnaea is 7 months old - 10/22/10

She is learning lots from Gavin and he loves teaching her, like how to ride his scooter.

here they are hug wrestling

She LOVES Mommy and likes to be held often.
She also says "Muh Muh" all the time.
[Gavin tells her "I'm not Mama, I'm Gavin"]

And barely making the cut at 11 pm, she actually began crawling the day she turned 7m!

[she also loves playing with Gavin's toys by herself when he goes to bed. shhh]

Pickn' our Pumpkin in a Patch - 10/20/10

The children and I drove out to the country, even turned left at a Mennonite Church, and went out to a farm to pick our own pumpkin:

Gavin picking Mr. Pumpkin
Linnaea sizing up Mr. Pumpkin
Enjoyed playing at the farm

"Scary" Mr. Pumpkin from Gavin's sketch
[I said it was "cute" and was told it wasn't cute, it was scary. Dale was then told that he had to make a silly one, because we already had a scary one]

Down on the Farm - 10/20/10

We went to pick our own pumpkin, but had more fun than that: