Jenks - One Rockin' Family!

December seems to be the busiest month of the year. There are always concerts to attend, gingerbread houses to make, chocolate to be eaten, and carols to be sung. And this year marked the first piano concert in which Madeline and Sharlie performed! Here's the gingerbread house Maddie made at Activity Day Girls. Gemma fell in love with our Christmas tree. She wouldn't take a nap or go to bed until she had kissed the tree goodnight. She would also give it a big hug. Can you guess where she got the idea to do something so bizarre? One of our favorite evenings in December was when we went to Christmas at the Mill. Salem has this beautiful clothing mill that opened in the early 1900's and closed in the 1960's. Now they have tours you can take, and it's used as a conference center of sorts (I've had one video shoot there so far). There was all sorts of fun stuff to see and do. And it's Oregon, so it wasn't freezing cold! They had a fabu...

Here are the November highlights: Brooke celebrated her 34th birthday! A bunch of her friends went out to eat at the Best Little Roadhouse in downtown Salem. They had a great time. Brooke and I had an awesome date on her birthday. I took her to the Coin Jam, which is this cool retro arcade/restaurant. This is the door to the freezer at the Coin Jam. There's all sorts of cool memorabilia in this place. After we played video games, we went miniature golfing, and then I took Brooke to Dairy Queen for lunch and Blizzards!  I wrote a rap song for work called "Go Ergo!" It covers the important topic of office ergonomics. I'll share the music video in March! Gemma was helping me with some mixing. Mom and Dad came to Salem for Thanksgiving. We had a great time, and they decided they wanted to stay in a hotel in town, so we all got to do some swimming at the hotel! Madeline hid under the piano. No one knows why... Waiting for dinner to start! ...

I had the day off on Veterans Day, so we took the kids to the A.C. Gilbert Discovery Village, which is Salem's awesome children's museum. Comprised of multiple Victorian homes which have been renovated and painted in bright colors, this children's museum is a total blast. There's also a big play center which has a giant chess set, big slides, and lots and lots of places to run and hide. We made a little video to celebrate the day:

So when we moved to Salem, my stress levels lowered significantly. Finally having dental insurance, a retirement plan, and a great job all contributed to my emotional well-being. So for some crazy reason I started running. We live in a perfect neighborhood for running, as there are sidewalks everywhere, and there's lots of shade from trees. I made the goal to run three days a week. Just trying to get into better shape. It also helps that I wear a pedometer for work, and you can actually earn $360 a year just for being active. Awesome! So as time has gone on I have been upping my distances, and then I decided to run a half marathon. I didn't want to spend the cash right now to run a fancy race, so I did my own! It's called the Kuebler Half Marathon, and it is awesome! No entry fee, sweet custom signs, adoring fans who give high fives and kisses, and not a single other racer! I'm totally stoked with my time, and best of all, I didn't die! YES!!! Getting some go...

So this year for Halloween the girls all wanted to be characters from Frozen. Of course Brooke wanted to make the costumes, and boy am I glad she did! They turned out great, and most importantly, the kids loved wearing them. We borrowed a fantastic Olaf costume from some friends for Gemma to wear. She loved it and it was quite warm. Before we headed out for a night of trick-or-treating, we did a little photo shoot! Sharlie as "Elsa" Madeline as "Anna" Gemma as "Olaf!" The details are phenomenal. So sparkly! Olaf just wanted to play with flowers. Madeline's dress is so cute! The lighting was really cool right before sunset. Here she is backlit and I used a fill flash to keep her from becoming a silhouette. The vines and flowers are applique. Brooke hand-painted the dots. More applique. Brooke spent hours tracing and cutting these out! Anna and Elsa. Our little cast.

So last year I was contacted by the Williams Reindeer Farm in Palmer, Alaska. They asked if I would fly up to perform at their Fall Family Fun festival. Of course I said "YES!" We waited all year, and our dream trip finally arrived. We dropped the girls off (Maddie and Sharlie stayed with Salem families, and Gemma stayed with Whitney and Karen), arrived at the airport, and took off for our first ever vacation without the kids. But enough talk...pictures speak louder than words! At the Portland airport. Evening flight out of Seattle. We arrived in Anchorage at 10:15, and it was snowing outside! Brooke was so excited. Soon after we arrived at our hotel. It had a giant deep bath tub which actually fit me! You have no idea how rare that is! The Hardy's left us an awesome gift basket. There was even a car key. Woot! Thursday morning we had our first stop, at the Native Heritage Center. The hand-made artifacts were astonishing! Brooke want...