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On Monday, November 16th, 2009, at 5:57pm, 18.5 inches long, six pounds one ounce, Brilyn Carson Klubnik was born to Jenn and Dean Klubnik with a fatal Chromosomal disorder called Trisomy 18. Her heart had not fully formed the arotic valve and her lungs are very underdeveloped.. More information can be found on Trisomy 18 org website. The girls and I along with the whole Klubnik family are deeply saddened by this, and are spending every moment we have with Brilyn during the short time she is with us. Tim has posted family photos at this flicker account.
While this news will obviously be heartbreaking to our friends and family, we ask that you keep Jenn, Dean, Skylar, and Brilyn in your prayers and in your hearts for the short while she will be with us. Also, please do not try to contact them now. You may contact me if you need.
Also, in leiu of flowers, gifts etc. we please ask that you donate in Brilyn's name to the Legacy Fund that I have set up in her name if you can and so desire: Brilyn's legacy fund.
With the invention of facebook and the fast pace the girls are getting, I have been lazy as of yet to update my blog! Here are some of the many highlights:
June was a busy month with an extra week of school due to the 5 snow days last winter. Cara did her last acro performance:
We have been quite busy these last few months, and I have not even had time to update my blog! One of our big events is that we are hosting our first Foreign exchange student and it is going quite well. Ketsia arrived from Paris France on the 8th and will be with us only a few more days. She has gone to school everyday with Madi and they are getting along fabulously. Here are some Photos:
Madi and Ketsia picking out Lacrosse sticks
Well, when snow hits the Portland metro area, it seems that the city shuts down. Cara spent a total of 5 hours playing in the 22 degree (11 windchill) Winter Wonderland. 
As for xmas lists, mine hasn't changed much. I would be happy with a night off, cooking classes, concert tickets, a weekend getaway, jewelery, new daily silverware (I hate ours) a dishwasher that is quieter, I think just a morning sleeping in would be key.
Madisons list is on Amazon.com. Found here She also would love a cooking class from In Good Taste.
Cara also has an Amazon.com wishlist. She would like american girl doll clothes and items (Doesn't have to be that brand). Found Here.
We went home to visit old friends and had a great time with Margaret.
Here is a photo of our neighbor Greg, Denise, Madge and I at the party. We also got our family portraits back.
You can find more photos in my Gallery. Please take a look and vote on your favorite for xmas.
Madi has been collecting wine corks for the last 3 years and Tim and her finally created a cork board for her room and the kitchen. I just wanted to show off their work, since its been a project in the making for years.
Kitchen:
Madison's Room:
The last Timbers game was pretty fun. We were ahead until we got a red card part way through the game. Here is Madi with her friend at the game. They had a great time getting signatures and buying soda!
Other news. Madison had her second game this weekend. I think the girls worked really hard, but lost. Oh well. Maybe next week.
Will need to get a better photo next week! As many of you know, both Madi and Cara are selling lots of things to raise money. Most things I just donate cash to the cause so please don't feel hurt if she hasn't contacted you.
LaborDay was spent in the garden digging up the potatoes we planted before the summer. I believe we ended up with 22 pounds of Potatoes. (Our biggest crop so far). I think that we are finally getting a lot of the clay we had four years ago when we moved in!
My cousin George came to visit this weekend. It was so great to catch up! It honestly seems like forever since we last were able to do that. I know some of you have been waiting for a photo, so here is one I took at the City Grill on Sunday night. I hope he decides to come out here again with his wife Katherine!
Also, I got my cast off today... YEAHHH I am not walking very fast, but at least I can start strengthening up my ankle to get back out on the soccer field.
This is the closest a fire has come to my parents house. Kinda scary, only a quarter of mile away. They have lived there for the last 27 years and never before has fire threatened the area that closely.
It definitely scared the girls to be evacuated, but all in all, everyone was ok and the fire was put out, and they went to the beach.
My moms birthday was last weekend and she is soooo hard to buy for. So hard, in fact, because she buys or already has the things that she likes. So this year, I knew I needed to figure out something unique. Well, she always loves uncle Mikes pot that he can put in the oven or freezer and that he puts canolli in when he comes to parties. The pot I got her was from the very same place as uncle Mikes. Capps Pots is where the magic pot came from. And here is a photo of the prized possession. Thanks Trenton!
We made it to the last Timber Jim game! I really like that we have a mascot that is a real person. Timber Jim gave it his all! We absolutely enjoyed his spirit and the energy that he brought to every game. I am truely glad that we are keeping the legacy of a real person as a mascot! 
We had a great trip to Germany visiting some of our favorite places along the way. Heidelberg, where Tim went to school on exchange for a year was charming and the girls loved the castle and old town shopping.
Our Paris trip was wonderful. We really liked our apartment near the Eiffel Tower. It is a much better way to go if you are traveling with children. Great to have a home base.
Krickenbach was covered in snow for Easter. The girls had a great time looking for eggs in the house, although were disappointed not to have a hunt outdoors. Tims photo gallery has all the photos. You can find this in his Gallery.
Cara had her 3rd grade school program and was quite excited. The theme was "Your driving me nuts!" and all the songs had the theme of the life cycle of a tree. Cara was a tree!
We have decided to create a bee hive for mason bee's, which are really good pollinators and are solitary bees. The girls are quite excited. Madison even spent 3 hours in the woodshop with Tim working to create the masterpiece.
I was quite excited to see her interest in conserving nature. Poor Cara was stuck in bed with the stomach bug. She will have to help next time.
Two years ago we delayed our trip to Germany to go to Italy with my family. The girls loved Italy and really enjoyed learning the history. This year we will head now to Germany to visit Heather and Jazmin in Krickenbach. We have rented an apartment a few doors down from Heather. The girls are excited. This year Madi took a sampler in languages and one of them was French. She really enjoyed learning the language and culture. Tim is now listening to French tapes with her, as I listen to German tapes with Cara.
We would like to take a side trip to France for two days. We are looking at this apartment to rent. It seems to have a lot of charm. We are hoping so at least! I will have to write up on how it goes!
Legotricity went to her second FLL First Lego League competition and had a great time. This was a hard year for teaming and building, with 7 very talented and smart kids. They really had to learn a lot of give and take. Especially when it came to the challenges. I was very proud of the way they did the alternative energy audit on Medical Teams International. They ended up coming up with some really great ideas. I would like to thank Dan Crowell Excalibur Solar, LLC. Tigard. (503)869-6018 for helping the kids learn about solar power and answering all their questions. He is a great person to go to if you are thinking about getting solar in the Portland metro area.
So many of you have been wanting to see photos, and I did finally post a good deal of them in my gallery including a recent Santa photo of the girls and a school photo of Madi. All those can be found on my Gallery thanks to Tim for spending a whole weekend after Deannas' birthday party to upgrade the server so that you can view them!
Yes, I did buy the copywrite for this photo.
What started out as an idea in our wishbook is becoming a reality. The problem first arrived when I fell in love with this table in 2005. It fit wonderfully in Tims dining room, since I didn't have a place for it in my townhome. Once the table arrived, we realized quickly that white carpet (or carpet in general) was not going to do it for this table. The arms of the armchairs were lifted too high. Tim started drawing up a wishlist for his "formal" dining room with wall panels, ceiling beams and of coarse, wood floors.
Well now here in 2007, we are halfway there.
The girls experienced their first Oregon Snow Days this year with 5 inches on the valley floor. Enough to sled down the big Bull Mountain hills at record speeds. In this first photo, Cara is trying to make the same face as the snowman, I think she is close!
ok now that everyone has theirs out, they are looking for mine. Press on more to see everyones list for '06:
Being a school night I was torn as to whether the girls would be able to handle the last game of the season. It was Fan Appreciation night at the Timbers as well as a silent auction. I decided to risk it and let them go. I am sure I am going to pay for it tomorrow but the girls were left with great memories of this game. Cara won #19 Troy Readys' shirt and boy did she have a smile ear to ear when he took the jersey off his back and gave it to her.
We managed to make it through the first day of school without much difficulty. Cara was both excited and hungry. We had a picnic dinner at the nature park and Tim went over the school rules (At the second graders level) while we had strawberries, melon, and sandwiches. We then left for soccer practice. Its back to the busy schedule again.
Paul invited us over to pick apples and make cider. This was my first experience in home made cider and it was a lot of fun. I hope we can do it again next year. Tim has posted the cider photos here! My Favorite one is this one of Madison.
On the way home from California the girls meet their Idol Taylor Hicks. He is headed for Portland after his show in San Jose. The girls got to see him live last night as well. I think they are having a good Thursday. Thanks to the nice agent at Alaska airlines who offered to help the girls get this picture to prove to their friends that the autograph that they got was authentic. 
I had a quick trip to Tucson last week and got to see my new nephew. He is now 2 months old! He was very cute and Denise is so proud. I also got to see Sondra and Drake. Sondra should be having her baby tonight. I talked to her earlier. I wish her all the luck. Will post photos soon!
Both of the girls did science projects and entered them into the science fair this year. Madison grew mold in the dark and in the light. Although I felt she was not going to get big results, the results were quite surprising. She did a wonderful job not only tracking data but in researching her project. Cara did great as well. She did a project called clean hands/ dirty hands. Tim helped her work out how to do the project and she did great too. Not only did they have fun, they really learned a lot!
For my birthday, it snowed! We had lots that stuck to the ground. So I decided we should go to the snow and sled. Little did I know that the mountain was Chains required and the wind was something fierce. Cara liked snow shoeing more than sledding and with the wind the way it was, I could see why she thought it was way more fun!
Well, the end of year at last is here and we are all fine and happy. I am pretty sure everyone got what they wanted, and I got my quiet xmas at home with my family. The girls loved visiting everyone and their 3 xmas holidays. One of their favorite presents were warm toe socks that they can ware around the house. Cara refuses to take hers off. Another favorite is the various board games for us to play at home as a family. As we wind the year to the end, I look at things we don't need anymore, things we can give away, and how we can be more productive in our lives. With Girl Scout cookies and other various activities, I think that we will be quite busy the better part of next year.
The girls were over-excited when Tim mentioned about working under the house. They wanted to meet the dragon that heats the house under there. They didn't find the dragon quite yet, he was hiding from them, but they did bring a lot of trash that was left under there. Its the little things that we are not aloud to do that are the most exciting. Not sure that they would be as excited to go again, but possibly.
We have been patiently awaiting snow here for the past year and a half. The weathermen had predicted it several times, but each time, there was no snow to be found. Finally, when they predicted ice, we got a small dusting of snow that stuck around for almost a day. We even tried to sled in it, but it was to dry. Oh well, guess we will have to wait 2 more years for snow to arrive once more. See for Tims entry Photos.
Today I went to drop the girls off at the bus stop and realized that all the fountains have a beautiful winter freeze. Not to sure that it is the best for the fountains to be running this time of year. But it definitely looked cool and got the children quite excited. It is starting to feel a bit like Christmas.
Tims parents and grandparents came up to Portland for Thanksgiving with us. We had a great time and got the honor of having our first meal at our new dining-room table. We bought it at the Rejuvenations Stickley sale.
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Tim has saved his Legos since he was a boy and now Tim and the girls have been patiently putting together a Lego city in the Lego room and they now have it almost complete. Cara was so proud of it that she had to share it in class for her "All About Me" week. I am just glad the girls are more interested in building and playing games than watching TV. Madison has also learned how to play canasta recently and is getting quite good at it.
We went for a hike in one of our favorite areas off skyline called Castle Rock. The hike is short, the climbing is good, and the kids love it. I am hoping that we take photos there every year as we watch them grow. Note the clearly missing front tooth on Cara in the next photo.
My mom wanted me to fly out to take family photos. Its hard to imagine the whole family back together again, and I often wonder when the next chance will be. We seem to be moving further apart and our lives are tending to be hurried. 
Well, Cara turns 6 soon and she really wanted to go horseback riding, so I found this great place to take her, and today was her lucky day. After spending the weekend catching and killing slugs, and getting camping stoves, among other things, her time finally came. Both girls were rather excited when we took them for a trip to Rice's Horses and More.
For mothers day we went for a Sunday drive along the coast and to the beach and to the Tillamook cheese factory. The girls had a lot of fun running along the beach looking for shells and visiting the factory where the cheese that we mainly eat is made. There were actually big glass windows where you can watch the cheese being processed and packaged.
More photos are found Here
Today we went to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry with the girls. They loved it! Madisons favorite part was finally dissecting an owl pellet (owl puke!) and discovering the bones and a rodent. She is now asking to buy Owl Puke Book and Pellet. We only made it through the first exhibit and the grossology exhibit. I wonder what else is in store for us next time.
Madison started the soccer season yesterday as Goalie. For her first game in 3 years, she did great! Tim was right there on her side coaching her and the other Goalie Ashley along. They both did well, blocking many balls from scoring.
Cara had fun as well! Though the fact that her games do not start for another week makes her jealous, the fact that there is a playground at the place where Madison plays makes up for it. She really did not like the fact that she only could play at half time, since mom likes to watch the game.
The girls enjoyed their holiday with their cousins at Deanna's and Nana and Papas. Talk about spoiled! They sure had a good time. Here is a good photo of Madison! She sure is growing fast. I think she is now closing in a 4 foot 7'.View image. Other photos from our visit to California, compliments of Madison and her new camera are found here
Cara and Madison were both signed up for kid-ski this winter and really
experienced the snow! We have wonderful photos that I need to get off
of my camera but cannot at the moment. The download is not working.
Cara skis like a champ now and Madison goes down on the snowboard. Tim
and I are going to have real fun taking them snowboard/skiing next
year.
We went to Mt. Bachelor for our first trip out of the Beaverton area. The girls had fun in the snow and made a two volcanoes while playing the first time in the snow. They had the most fun at The High Desert Museum . My only wish next time is to stay in a hotel with 2 rooms. Lights out at 7:30 for the 5 year old strapped us to the hotel. I need to find a better place.
Yes. Packed up all our things and moved for a new job, life and to
start over. Bay area houses are to expensive, and though it is where I
grew up, it was time to leave. How can one afford to live in such an
expensive area. Not to mention that my kids were starting to fight
about sharing their own room. Now, we have a small 3 bedroom townhouse,
with a wonderful school, and I am sure the girls will make some good
friends here. The drive here was nice. Long but scenic. I am glad it is
only an hour and a half flight. Will make it easier to transport the
girls back to their dad for visitation.
