We were very kindly invited to join the annual Cascade Crest Easter Egg Hunt. The kids were so excited to see their friends and really had a great time! Thank you!

Sydney was able to see her old babysitter. She was so happy.

It is always fun trying to do the twin thing in times like this...One goes one way and the other goes a different way!

Ali brought her cousin Marissa who we always love to have join us. They are best friends.

We have been in our new house for a year now and this was this first time we had ever seen feathered visitors enjoy our backyard pond. Mind you it isn't very big and they must have been desperate.

Dayne got to go on a really cool field trip about 15 minutes outside of Bend to a location that had indian drawings on the rocks. At school their storyline program right now is on the Northwest Indians.

Adventures

So put a set of twin 4 year old girls in the bounce house with jousting sticks and your bound for tears. Amazingly Brooke who is smaller than Sydney and not as strong went right for a tummy blow to Sydney, knocked the wind out of her and turned her purple for a few minutes. They decided it wasn't as fun as it looked.


But Ali and Dayne found that being thrown to a wall of Velcro was the best way to spend their evening.



So my parents graciously took Dayne, Ali and I to the Harlem Globetrotters a few weeks ago. Dayne sat intently watching and hoping that his skills would soon become that good. Since the was his first professional basketball event he may be sorely surprised that all games do not have that much fun.



Then our next adventure was a trip to the local High Desert Museum for their free family Saturday. Well since the world is all out to find a good deal right now we had to wait an hour in line just to find a parking spot. Mind you this is a cool museum but just local and small so to see a line that long was crazy. But after promising all month that we would go we had to wait :-)

And I thought I looked bad after I get out of the shower! The poor thing gets so embarrassed.

So everywhere we go we hear the same comment...."Saw you on TV!" Yes our family ended up on a commercial here locally for United Way. This is just the stock picture so they made it look a little better for the commercial. Jeff is on the board of United Way and is set to be the President of the board for 2010. He really loves the United Way and puts a lot of time into helping were he can.

Well Dayne turned 9! Can't believe how old he is getting. He is such a great kid and just full of excitement for life. We just had a little birthday party here at the house, pirate themed with a big treasure hunt outside. We have this great open space with rocks and trees to climb in which creates a wonderful boy play area.

(That's my brother Russ on the couch)

Dayne has been playing basketball right now and also got to go on a field trip with his school yesterday up to Mt. Bachelor and they went snow shoeing. He loved it!

Ali is my little angel. She has been enjoying all her new friends in our new ward at church and loves her gymnastics. She is really growing up and is the light of our home.

Pinewood Derby's! I have determined that I am not a good car maker. Dayne still says he loves me but for the second year in a row our car did not do the best. But at least I have a son who always finds the positive. He said to me "That's OK mom we still had a great time".

Catching Up

Well doing this blog is obviously not on the priority list since it has taken me 2 months to post something...so I am going to just do a quick review of what has been happen in our life.

Dayne ran into the corner of the wall and cut his head open 2 inches and received 5 staples. This was the first visit to the Emergency Room for any of the Ludeman household. So it defiantly was an exciting time. Dayne is very proud to hold that title.

Ali turned 7 and her favorite gift was a fish that came with a large tank that she got from her Uncle Russ and Aunt Tonimarie. The fish had a short life as I think its environment was a little large but she is now enjoying 7 new fish.

We enjoyed a trip to "Bouncing of the Walls" for a friends birthday party. This is the best place for Sydney and Brooke, they can get out a few wiggles although most kids might take a nap after a 3 hour bouncing session my girls came home to see what objects in our house resembled the bouncing equipment!

Benson is the newest edition to our household. This was Kitsi's Christmas Present! He is a toy poodle and the kids are having a

great time with him. He is 3 months old.

Sydney & Brooke turned 4! Our terrible 2 year was postposed to age 3 so now we are all so excited that year 4 has come and really look forward to the hopefull advances that they may make in becoming happy and "friendly" members of society.

This is a perfect example of our Christmas. It was very relaxing and we all just enjoyed hanging around. We went out to Grandma & Pappa's for Christmas Eve and then spent the morning in our home as we enjoyed our first Christmas in our new home.





Smiles everywere is always a good sign that Christmas was a success!

Halloween

Jeff has always wanted to do one of his family traditions which is the brownie pumkin. This was the first year for us to start carrying on the tradition. The kids loved it!




Who in their right mind ever came up with the idea to load your kids up on as much candy as you can and then expect them to go to sleep!

The Pumkin Patch

This year was a great trip to the DD Ranch again. The kids just love the animals and the highlight of the trip was the facepainting. The lady took pitty on me and gave us half price since she couldn't believe how many kids we had (like 4 is alot).



Dayne loves spiders and wanted the scaries thing mom could handle.









The lady kept trying to get Ali to get something "Girly" but all she kept asking her for was a pumpkin and the lady finally settled.







Sydney's world revolves around everything being Blue.







Brooke is the girl of the bunch and wanted all of the cutest bugs.









The petting zoo was about the size of our backyard so the goat who stood in the little shack was the best.

Life is good!

Sydney and Brooke are growing up! The latest comment was at my brothers wedding. Brooke was looking at the framed fishing hooks on the wall at the bed and breakfast and said "Look their is Pappa's hookers!" She was so proud.

Well next week Jeff's best friend Max is moving to Tennessee :(


Our family is very sad....we will really miss them. Family vacations will never be the same again.

We miss the BEACH! We have cabin fever. Fall is wonderful here in Bend, Oregon but we really would like to visit the coast again. Hopefully soon.