2010 Christmas

What a wonderful Christmas we had at the Willoughby’s!!!!

Food, family, fun times, and smiling kids…..nothing could be better.

My mom and dad came up on Thursday night after driving to the Oregon coast first (they picked up ½ bushel of fresh oysters for Christmas Eve dinner). My mom helped me finish baking our family recipe cookies, (I think we baked over 160 cookies). On Friday we iced and decorated them…nothing like waiting till the very last moment!! Danny and Judy arrived about 3:00 PM that same afternoon.

Our house was full, but like I told Paul….I would rather have a full house than an empty house!!!

Paul unfortunately had to go into work Christmas Eve, but only had to work about 2 hours, he was home just in time for dinner…fresh oysters, fresh crab, and Metropal bread….yummy!!!! Later that night we let the kids open up 1 gift, but I got to chose the gift….. Maddux opened up a gift from Aunt Bernie and Paityn up her photo book from Paul and I. The last 2 years I have made a photo book of her softball year. She likes them, but I’m sure in years to come they will be more special to her. I enjoy making them.

The kids ending up going to bed about 9:00 PM and then the crazy Santa helpers came out to play!!!! Actually Paul, Danny, and Judy went to bed, so it was just me, my mom, and dad that were up till early in the morning. Danny and Judy don’t normally give stockings to each other, so this was all new to them. I go a little crazy at Christmas and no one knows what to expect!!!

I had 6 stockings to fill, cookies, milk, and carrots to eat, letters to write back from Santa, and place all the gifts under the tree. Busy night, but I LOVE IT!!!!

Christmas morning arrived at about 7:30 AM this year. The kids let me sleep in a little!!!

We all got up, of course made coffee, and all opened the stockings from Santa together. It took about 1 ½ hours to unwrap all the gifts that were underneath the tree. The kids received everything they had asked for and we all had a wonderful morning. We then had French toast and bacon for breakfast and then relaxed.

Later that day the Rubottom’s came down to open more presents and have Christmas dinner with us. We had 12 people for dinner!!!

There was one sad part of the day....our VERY close friends "The Cedarwalls" were moving to Reno the day after Christmas. We were very fortunate and they came to visit us Christmas night. Lillee (Maddux's girlfriend) was able to spend the night at our house and Paityn spent the night at their house. They will always be in our life and we will forever love them!!!!

Merry Christmas to all!!!!

Merry Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas!!!

Productive Weekend - Tualatin Tournament

This last weekend was another basketball tournament. This weekend’s games were in Tualatin and also Tigard.

The Newberg 6th grade girls played a little tougher competition!!!

Another busy weekend at The Willoughby’s home also. Friday night after work Paityn and I ran to pick up our family Christmas tree. Paul had just gotten off work and was very tired, he worked 12 hours. I had also just picked up Maddux from school and he didn’t want to go back out.

So Paityn and I were off.

We went down to a local tree farm (where we picked our tree up from last year), walked up, looked inside at a couple that had stored inside out of the cold and rain and didn’t see anything at all. We then looked outside at some pre-cut nobles and saw one almost immediately. I had the guy pull it out so we could look all around it and asked him to keep it out while I took a quick look around at the rest of the trees. I yelled back at him and said, “we’ll take that one”…. Paityn and I picked up dinner and back to the house in less than 30 minutes. Not bad for me!!!!

When we got home Paul took the tree off the top of the car, put it in a stand, and took it inside for me. I thought…..wow, one more thing checked off my list!!!

Saturday was a very productive day, actually the entire weekend was good.

Aunt Linda and Uncle Tony came over for a nice visit. They gave the kids their Christmas gifts and we were able to visit for quite a bit. Linda helped me with putting lights on the Christmas tree and we even were able to decorate quite a bit of it. Tony and Paul were able to catch up too.

The visit at the house ended up with Paityn running through the house looking for “beaver treats”….

So Tony’s sister’s husband (Bob) is a professor at Oregon State University and he is of course a BEAVER BELIEVER!!!!!

The last time he was up at our house he gave Paityn such a bad time and they were messing with each other about the DUCKS and the BEAVERS….So Bob had a Christmas gift for the kids, but mostly to get a rise out of Paityn. Both kids opened the gift together and Paityn was scared, Maddux had no idea what was going on. He was just excited to be opening something..It was a book, a BEAVER book. 47 Beavers on the big blue sea was the title of the book. Inside the front cover there was a poem that Bob had written…. Once Paityn finished reading the poem she, went crazy!!!! She went running around the house trying to find the BEAVER treats…It only took about 5 minutes. I asked her when she had calmed down a bit, “ aren’t you a bit concerned that Bob was actually in our house last night”? That just started her off again….

Insert Poem

We all then started getting ready for Paityn’s 1st of 2 basketball games.

The 1st game was at Tualatin High School and started at 3:00 PM. Linda and Tony also decided to come with us. We just love them so much and I know they love our kids!!!!
Paityn played good, quite a few things she still messes up on, but overall I think she is doing great.

The team ended up beating West Linn and then we had to move to Tigard High School for the second game of the day. Linda and Tony had to leave to drive back to Corvallis.



We ended up going to get something small to eat at a local Mexican restaurant and then headed to the 2nd game. By our surprise the girls beat Century, so that meant we were at least in the Championship game on Sunday.

On Sunday the girls 1st game was at 8:00 AM in the morning…(Way to early on a Sunday).

This game was against Tualatin, we found out before the game started that they had also won both of their games the previous day. So we knew we would have to play good to beat them. The girls played great and did end up winning. That only meant that we had to turn back at 3:00 PM and play them again for the Championship.

The 2nd game did not go our way, baskets were not in our favor…..we ended up losing that game and received 2nd place in the tournament.

So far for 2 tournaments the girls are 6-2, not bad at all considering more than half of them are first time basketball players.

If Paityn goes to Newberg High School, it might be fun to watch her play in high school….if she goes somewhere else, that won’t be an option!!!

1st Basketball Tournament – McMinnville, Oregon

This weekend was Paityn’s 1st basketball tournament ever!!!!!

Coach Joe wanted to start off with a tournament schedule to see how the girls looked against other teams. Since we just found out earlier in the week that Paityn made the team, we were a little shocked that there was a tournament already, but actually happy.

I could tell she was very nervous. Her stomach didn’t seem to bother her, but you could tell when you looked into her eyes she wasn’t quite sure what was going on.

The girls had 2 games on Saturday and 2 games on Sunday. The 1st game they played a Centennial team and ended up beating them. The girls scored over 30 points, Paityn had 4 of them.

The game started and she had to jump, since she was the tallest girl. I looked at Paul and said…”hopefully Joe showed her what to do”. You could tell, she was a newer player, but the more they played the better she did. The girls didn’t run their offence, scrambled around quite a bit, but ended up winning the game. They were happy and in the end that is all that matters.

The girls had back-to-back games so the 2nd game was against McMinnville. They played really good, but ended up losing that by 6 points. We later found out that they were an “A” team also, so that made the girls feel a little better since they are only a “B” team at this point. Coach Joe wanted to see how they looked before he actually placed them.

Sunday they also had 2 games and they ended up winning both of them. The girls ended up in 2nd place behind the McMinnville team and 3-1 for the weekend…..not bad at all for their 1st tournament of the year!!!!







Great job ladies!!!!

2010 Halloween!!!!

This Halloween was going to be a very busy day…

We woke up and I made pumpkin shaped pancakes for the family. After breakfast Paul was off to work and I had to drive the kids to Beaverton for a bowling fundraiser with Paityn’s softball team. All the kids were dressing up in their costumes and bowling.

The girls ended up raising over $500.00. Not bad for 2 hours of bowling and Paityn won the “best costume” award!!!!

Paityn was a "fat" ballerina and Maddux was "Batman"

Then we were off to pick up some pumpkins, since Madux had just gotten home the day before from California. We carved them and then got the kids ready for Trick - or - Treating.

The day was a success and everyone had a great time!!!!

Maddux in CA Again…

Maddux was able to go to Hilmar with Danny and Judy when they left Paityn’s birthday.

I miss him like crazy when he goes, but I just think about how good it is for both him and Danny and Judy that at least Maddux can go down and visit. I wanted to be able to send Paityn down, but with school, basketball, and priorities I just couldn’t. Plus she does not like to miss even 1 day of school.

Danny and Judy had so much planned for Maddux while he was down. They want to be able to fit everything in a short week. They went to Santa Cruz, Monterey, golfing, visit family, a game center where he rode go carts, and so much more!!!!

Danny brought Maddux back to Oregon today, the day before Halloween. Danny is so sweet, he fly’s with Maddux and then turns around and takes the next flight home. I guess we are very lucky we only live a short hour flight away from each other.

1st Softball Camp

This last weekend Paityn went to her first softball camp. We decided on sending here for a couple reasons….
1. Fall Ball just ended and they only played 2 weekends
2. It was at George Fox which is a local college
3. It was very inexpensive!!!!

We weren’t sure who was going to be there from other teams so wasn’t sure what to expect. We were walking up and noticed that some of the Panther girls were there, she immediately ran up them and felt comfortable. Even though she doesn’t play softball with them anymore, she is still very close a few of them. Then a couple of the Newberg girls came in and put their noses up at her. I think it is so funny how the Newberg girls don’t like her, I just tell her that they are jealous and not to worry about it. I know she does worry about it though.

The weekend days were filled with throwing, running plays, hitting, and getting timed.

Paityn had a lot of fun and was very happy she completed it. She did great!!!!

Paityn's Big Birthday Weekend!!!!

Friday was Paityn’s 12th birthday and the princess had 2 parties!!!

1. Friend Party: Friday October 8th was her friend “slumber party”. She had 10 close friends come over. At first I wasn’t stressed at all, but the closer it got the more stressed out I got!!! The main reason I was stressed was mainly because I realized that Paul wasn’t going to be there to help me (not that he would be that much help – he is more of a kid than they are), but at least he would have been there. So there were 11 girls counting Paityn and MADDUX!!!

The girls were really good though. All the girls got to the house about 4:00 PM (Friday) and immediately started playing. They went outside for a long time playing volleyball, soccer, and just running around, coming in only for drinks and snacks. Paityn then opened her presents. I thought we would get it out of the way and not make everyone wait. One of her friends got her a “flag football” set, so they immediately went down to the school and set up a game. They played for about 1 hour (until it started getting dark). I was really surprised on how fast the girls ran and how some of them threw spirals…. We all came back to the house and ate pizza, drank soda, and ate candy!!!! I did have an activity for them to do as well. They decorated their own nightshirts. They were able to use fabric markers and write or draw something on each other’s shirts. That way they could remember who was at the party!!! They then played multiple games and had a “blast”. Paul finally got home about 12:30 AM and got the girls all wound up again. He ate and then went upstairs to go to sleep with Maddux. The girls finally went to sleep about 4:00 AM and only slep until about 8:00 AM when I came downstairs and started making breakfast. They were supposedly all STARVING!!!! The last girls left about 12:30 PM which gave me just enough time to clean up the house before Danny, Judy, and Grandma came to visit for the weekend. Overall it was a great party and she had fun!!!! (to me, that is all that matters)






2. Family Party: Monday October 11th was the “family BBQ party”.

The family dinner was so much more relaxing. She wanted the type of food that we used to make for her BIG Birthday Parties in CA. Most of you will remeber those....Tri Tip, cheesy poataoes, Avo's Portuguese beans, garlic bread, and salad. Then she requested that I make her birthday cake. She asked for a german chocolate cake.

Both parties were a success and everything worked out great!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy 12th Birthday baby girl!!!!

Today Paityn tried a new sport…..

She came home one day a few days ago asking if she could play basketball? “of course” I said, where is this coming from?

Both Paul and I took her down to the Newberg High School gym to see what this was going to turn out to be. Not much information was given out. Turned out it was just Open Gym. There were 8 girls that showed up to this “open gym”. Most of them had played previously, but there were a couple girls including Paityn that this was there first time. You could obviously tell who was new and who wasn’t. We had a great time watching and laughing.

More to come on this sport…I’m sure!!!

Maddux and Daddy Time….

Tuesday’s are no known as “Maddux and Daddy Days” in the Willoughby house.

With Paul having minday and Tuesday’s off from work and the kids back in school, we wanted to make sure that Maddux spent time with dad. Tuesday seemed to be the best day for this. It gave Paul Monday to relax from his long work week and gave Maddux a day off from pre-school.

Paul started working out at the gym again and we were able to get the kids into swim anytime. So on Tuesday’s paul take Maddux down to the (indoor) pool and takes Maddux swimming and let him slide down the kiddy slide.

Today Maddux talked to me on the phone and told me that he slid down the slide like a Penguin…..He went down on his belly and landed in the water with his head, arms, and legs up in the air.

They both work up such a big appitite that they need to go get lunch!!!! Today it was Jem 100 (a local ice cream, burger diner).

1-1 for Softball

Sunday Paityn’s team went 1-1……

First of all it was nice to finally be able to watch softball again!!!! After the last two weeks of being cancelled by rain, we woke up worried about this Sunday. Newberg was gray and the street was wet. I went outside and there was a light rain. I immediately grabbed my phone to look at the weather in Hillsboro. The weather app said cloudy, so I decided it was time to get up and get motivated. I packed the ice chest and Maddux’s “snack bag”, started breakfast, and of course an extra large pot of coffee.

Paityn’s team played two teams that were both 14u’s. They won the first game, but lost the second game. She played short stop in both games and did great. Paityn made a couple great “put-outs” and looked good.

Maddux played in the park just about the entire time we were there. He came over to the game a couple times to get drinks and of course his snacks!!!!

I LOVE MY DUCKS!!!!!

My House is to Clean!!!!

Another rained out weekend for softball…..

This last weekend, Paityn’s games were cancelled AGAIN!!!! Saturday was absolutely beautiful then Sunday we woke up to dark gray rain clouds and that ground already covered in puddles. I was hoping it wasn’t that bad in Hillsboro, but apparently it was worse. Teams that played in Newberg and Sherwood were able to play, but not us.

I was able to make Paul and the kids a BIG breakfast and then be lazy until Paul left for work. I enjoy having a day that I can just be lazy, but two weekends in a row is just way too much for me!!!

I’m ready for softball!!!!

Maddux and the Cedarwall Girls!!!

Today Maddux was able to spend the day at the Cederwalls home.

Lillee and Gracee have been wanting to spend some time with Maddux and so we have arranged that Kylee would Watch Maddux for a couple hours on Fridays. This would give a good amount of time for the kids to play and spend time together without driving Kylee totally batty!!!!


Maddux loves the girls and the girls love Maddux!!!!

What Do You Think????

Last Saturday, before the down poor started in Newberg I drug the kids outside for a quick “photo shoot”.

The last few times I have come home from work there had been some train cars that look pretty new and close to the road. I thought it would be a cute Christmas photo of the kids.

After Paul left for work I told the kids to get jeans and a white shirt on and get into the car!!! Of course I heard nothing but complaining from “the princess” (Paityn) and Maddux was in the car dressed before I could even turn around. He didn’t care where or what we were doing, he was ready!!! I drove to where the train was and pulled over to the side of the road and parked. Maddux saw the train and couldn’t wait to get up on it, Paityn on the other hand was scared we would get in trouble.

We ended up only getting a few photos taken, but hopefully we can go back this Saturday (when there is projected to be sun) and take a few more.

To much RAIN for the 2nd Sunday of “Fall Ball”

The rain has started already in Oregon. It had rained so much that the games were cancelled this last Sunday.

I did have a chance to get some things completed around the house though. Laundry, cleaning my floors, and even got to the grocery store!!!

The kids and I also baked cookies. Well I should say...addux helped me and Paityn just kept eating them!!! Maddux and I made both peanut butter and chocolate chips cookies. I'm getting much better at baking the chocolate chip cookies. Not close to his late aunt Patty, but at least they are edible.

I hope the weather is better this next weekend!!!