Merry Christmas

The Christmas excitement is palpable.









Gogles? CHECK! Lets open our presents! And then A little post present opening toy enjoyment with Grandpa. Christmas was great with the whole family. We did an early round of gifts and eating at Uncle Jared's house before Sam and Sean went off to see their mom. We did another round after Santa's visit on Christmas morning. We went to church. Momma called home to the other half of the family in Croatia to wish them 'Sretan Bozic!' We all got everything we wanted because the kids are still to small to know they want everything in the toy book.

We also got a head start on new years resolution to get fit with a hike in Tent Rocks with the gang.

Adios Oregon.

Our Christmas wish came true and we are home for the holidays.

We had a great time in Oregon and sure will miss our friends. Thanks to J, Baby H, Morgan and Fyre to making our time in Oregon fun. We had a blow out at HooDeeHoo's before leaving town where he found himself at the bottom of the dog pile.





Here Ella tells her siblings how it is gonna be back in Abq, "Stay close and I'll protect you from the rattle snakes and scorpions, thats my job as big sister."








Our house is in such good shape there is nothing to do. So momma came home and went to work remodeling the ginger bread man's house, what do you think? We also got in a sunny afternoon hike up in the foothills. Sure is good to be home for a few weeks.

This Horse Smells the Barn...

Check out Everett! He had a Dr appointment the same day as Daddy did and he is 95% length at 27 inches and 85% weight at 17lbs. In engineering Intel speak that makes this boy out of the normal distribution and out of control. Add to that he is rolling around, jabbering away and always smiling.

Thanksgiving was going to be quite, but then it got more quite. I went to the clinic the day before and was diagnosed with a Staph MRSA infection. So we canceled plans with J's family and stayed home all weekend. I found out Monday at a Dr follow up the Staph was a bogus diagnosis, mostly likely it was bug bite and allergy. This is a case where Internet access is bad, all the things about staph on the web are very scary, glad I didn't have it. I am mad that it killed our weekend and deterred Todd and family from visiting the following weekend. We did have a full turkey dinner, Hanna and Everett were napping so it was Ella, momma and I.

To turn a phrase, all this horse can do is smell the barn and only think of home. We are really looking forward to returning to NM for a few weeks and getting out of Portland. The weather is back to bad which we could probably deal with but since we are leaving we don't have to. The problem is for the last two months we have been planning to leave and it's kept us from getting the kids involved in classes or activities. This plan is looking 99% definite, return to Abq Dec 7th or 8th until the first of the year when we head off to Phoenix. I have to make a short business trip that first week, Dec 10-14th, the rest is vacation/holiday!

Today we went to the roller rink. Putting 4 wheels on each foot makes it hard on the kids to stay upright. They had fun but I think Mom and Dad had more fun taking hot laps. Ella also painted herself a arts and crafts laptop computer with some help from dad. Nice use of an couple old cereal boxes.

Trip to the Pool

Trip to the pool and bedtime another night.












HooDeeHoo and I took one last trip to the beach the other afternoon. It was big surf, not a real clean day for surfing, but still pretty good. At some points waiting at the break there would be 15ft between the top and bottom of the swell. The guy in the pic isn't either one of us but trust me I look just as good as him if the picture is timed for the right second.

Anita, Everett and I all went to Croatia for Anka's Funeral. Everett got to hang out with his older twin cousins. I tried to get an all cousin pic (minus Ella and Hanna) but the kids didn't quite cooperate. I only got a few family pics. These are the most fitting as I took them in Anka's kitchen where the majority of my Croatia visits were spent. Anka took great care of her family and all those that came to visit her. She always welcomed us to her kitchen and kept us well fed. It will always be my place of

choice for hanging out in Zagreb.

Grandma helped out coming to Or to take care of Ella and Hanna. Now that Grandma is gone Ella wants to go home to Abq to see her Grandma. We also changed our moving plans for what feels like the 100th time. We will move to Phoenix AZ to continue my training due to the latest Israel Fab construction delay. The current plan is to leave Portland Dec 15th and visit NM for Christmas and New Years. First of the year move to AZ for about 3 months and then to Israel. That's the plan till the plan changes. We think we are very lucky to move to Phoenix, it was a simple choice when you look at the Portland winter around the corner.

We did Halloween at Hammer Head Shark J's house. Hanna showed some of her character and was not a greedy child. Once she had a few pieces of candy she lost interest in getting more and only wanted to eat what she had. Ella, who hid under the table at Easter to eat all her candy, showed amazing self restraint and would only eat a few pieces of candy per day after Halloween. Her candy would have lasted a month if mom and dad had the same amount of self restraint.

Here the girls wait patiently for daddy to put down the camera and start making pancakes. Everett just hangs out.

Anka Vuletic

May 10, 1950 to Oct 25, 2007

God bless Anka and those she left behind.

We will miss her.

Hanna learns to jump

Check out our boy Everett. At 3 months he has outgrown all these clothes and now is on to 6-9 month clothing. He's gets angry about lying down sometimes and he lets us know he wants to sit up and look around. Here we get a proud momma moment the other morning.

We have been doing a lot of bike riding. We borrowed J's smaller two wheeler and Ella can start and stop it by herself. The girls go to gymnastic twice a week. We also get to the indoor swimming a couple of evenings a week.

Check out the jumping game Ella taught her sister Hanna.

The 2 Wheeler!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you believe Ella at not quite 3.5 yrs old can ride a bike? We found the bike while doing a cruiser bike ride at HooDeeHoo's house a few weeks back when Kuyper was in town. I scrubbed the rust off and it cost me $13 to replace the chain and pedals. Tonight was Ella's first attempt and she took right too it. It was harder to get Anita outside to see her ride than to get Ella on the bike. I don't think Anita expected to see Ella riding this well. Given this we will get her a smaller bike so she can touch the ground and do it on her own.

Here the girls play in the kitchen and a few other photos of Everett.

Changing Plans

Hey folks, on major construction you sometimes get major delays. This is the current case in Israel and the new fab so we won't be coming back through Abq in a few weeks on our way to Israel. Looks like it will be late Nov or Dec before we make our move and stop in Abq but the exact date isn't known.

This week the rains have come and the temp dropped. The grass here actually grows faster in the cool fall and spring than it does in summer, what a crazy place. With the Portland dreary winter phase starting and the extension of our stay momma had to find something for the girls. Anita got them right into a gymnastics program the next day. They have been twice. Hopefully we can get some pics of that, Ella loves it!

Hanna is sick and had us in the ER again 2nd time in 2 weeks at 3am this time. She gets a cold and respiratory distress. Handling the inhaler on a toddler and getting her to take the medicine is elusive to us so we go to the ER for the nebulizer (vaporizer type) treatment. Apparently it is supper critical the timing of the spray and her inhalation even with the chamber. Imagine holding down a screaming kid who takes micro second inhales to make 15 second long exhales. Then kicking and twisting but keeping the mask on her timing the inhaler spray. The doc says sit on the floor legs out, lay her in between your legs with arms under your hamstrings and head squeezed in between. Ella doesn't like to watch the torcher of her sister. But she will be better, its all treatable.

Enjoy these pics of our trip to a park a few weeks back.

Video!!!! WOW!

Everett went to his 8 week appointment the week before. He is 90% weight and 90% height. A giant baby and he eats like it too. This boy may be the youngest but I wonder how long he will be the littlest Doornbos at this rate.

The video tricks came after seeing Todd's blog. Using our digital video camera is too much work and memory to edit. But the video function of our digital still camera works great for this. The resolution is more than enough. This is fun so look for more videos instead of pics.

Move plans are happening fast, not sure if it will all pull together. No tickets bought yet but Oct will be busy. Right now looks like Anita and kids will be in Abq around the 11th. I'll come in around the 19th. We will all roll out across the Atlantic about the 25th. Stay posted and hope we get to see everyone in Abq.

Everett and Dad

Check out Everett and his dad hanging out in matching shirts. We couldn't match 100% for a few reasons. First he has more hair. Second you probably don't want to see me with a diaper and no pants.

Not a lot going on with us these days. I'm working a bunch. We have explored the NW and don't have motivation to load everyone up in the car for any road trips. Weather is also changing here, its cool and dark noticeably earlier. This was an afternoon hike in the nature center by the apartment.

Happy Birthday Momma!

Not a year over 25 if you had to guess!

Growing pains

I think this 3rd baby is hard work... But look at him, he is a master of manipulation! Sleeping there all cute and cuddly. He has his sisters fooled too. They fawn over him all the time with hugs and kisses. But the girls don't realize he is the the reason they don't get quite as much attention. Going a man down on the child to parent ratio is makes life a bit more difficult. Having grandma and grandpa around for July and August sure helped ease us in to this. Not to worry, we will figure it out. Anita is supper mom and I'm a very lucky man.

Check out big girl Hanna having fun jumping from coffee table to chair.








Ella can swim across the pool, but I have to deceive her to get her drawn out. The trick with swimming is go every day and the confidence is there. Miss a few days and take a few steps back. No problem, just the way a 3yr old works.

Everybody is Happy Momma is Home.

We are very happy momma is home. We missed her a lot. We are also thankful Grandma and Grandpa were here to cover for momma's absence. While here we battled a few rounds of pink eye, tantrums and lots of fun in between. Last free day we went up to Mt Hood and road the ski lift. First time for everyone but me. Hanna wasn't unhappy about it but she had a death grip on the bar. Ella wouldn't look down, but she also kept asking to ride it again so it was fun for her. And for momma's benefit, don't worry we had death grips on the girls.

We still say our prayers for Baka Vuletic. Everyone in Croatia is working hard to take very good care of her. Anita brought home photos of our nieces and nephews. Oldest to youngest is Patrik the artist, Tin his brother. Petar is walking and running and doing very well. The twins Janja and Tena are doing great.

Friday night I did the big money Healthnet Portland Twilight Crit. Prize list of $10,000. I got number 47, prime, so I hoped to have a lucky night. Unlucky for me it was a 'supper fun' course of 0.5 mile and 6 turns. Unlucky, I lined up in the back row. I did everything I could the first 8 min (8 laps) to move up and ride around guys, crashes and small groups before latching on to who knows what group for me. Turns out I was in the pack and 12 guys (many pros) were driving hard and lapped us in 12 min. Lucky for me while in the 'pack' I rolled through the front and won a $40 prime! Lucky for me I avoided at least 10 crashes that I saw. Unlucky for me I dug too deep to avoid getting pulled at the start and to get in the group I was in. I was dropped after 25 min, but not pulled as expected. I went a lap down. Got in and then dropped to go a second lap down and stayed in to the finish. I was 30th out of 69 starters. Lucky for me finished Crash Free! Unlucky for me, I lost one glove between the finish and the car.

It was a crazy race with a big big crowd. It was actually fun to get something like that in this year. While solo and other times I kept hearing cheers for 'Go Dan!' the whole way around the course. I concluded there were many Dans in the race. Turns out results say I was the only Dan that finished. I had a lot of support out there from all the friends we've made in town from working, bike riding and otherwise. It made it a great race to ride.