Our sweet Sophie girl is fitting right in to the family.

Owen loves to snuggle with her and Isabella never misses a beat and will take her out to go potty even with snow on the ground! Aidan loves teaching her some new tricks. We started puppy obedience classes on Thursday and go once a week. She's a quick study.

The kids also enjoyed long lazy days at home on break this week. Play doh tends to keep Owen and Bella occupied for quite some time and it gives me a reason to sweep and mop the floors when they are done.

I also took the morning one day last week to head over to Freight house square to see Dan the Lego man at City Blocks. If you are local, it's worth a trip down.

He's got an open area for the kids to work on their own creations.

Isabella set to work on a house

and Owen made some flying cars

All done!

We also stopped at the train display upstairs.

Owen loved it and kept begging to stay just 10 more minutes.

More pictures of Dan the Lego man's Christmas creations

And the 6 foot tall space needle, all out of legos.

After all that, everyone needs a little rest.

Just in case your copy got lost in the mail, here's the annual Teodoro Christmas letter.

Dear friends and family,

As you read this, the 11^th annual Teodoro Family Christmas Letter, we invite you to kick back, relax, and enjoy a glimpse into the state of mad panic that has descended upon us this holiday season. This summer, after months (or years, in Rachel’s case) of house hunting, we finally found a wonderful home in nearby Milton. We made an offer in July, and as so often happens with short-sales, the weeks turned into months as we awaited bank approval. As luck would have it, we were on an amazing early-November vacation with our extended family in Mexico when we received word that our offer was accepted. Yes, after living in NE Tacoma for just a shade under a decade (the duration of Tommy Boy’s college stay, as you may recall) we are finally buying a new house. Since our return from the tropics, life has been a flurry of activity, as the past several weeks have been spent scrambling to pack up our belongings, prepare for Christmas, and pen amusing missives to delight our family and friends. In other news, for the second straight year we were able to make family trips to both Whistler (which Owen found so exciting that he actually fell asleep in a snow bank) and Ocean Shores, and made lasting memories in both places.

Mike spent much of this past year as any self-respecting engineer facing a large purchase would – by making spreadsheets. These budgeting tools amaze with their functionality, dazzle with their colored charts, and generally impress no one but himself. Having been with Weyerhaeuser for more than a decade, he continues his work designing machinery, and in July was promoted from Engineer 3 to Engineer 4, an equally uninspired title if there ever was one. On the aforementioned trip to Whistler last March, Mike began to feel his age as he struggled to keep up with his father and brothers in waist-deep powder. As the only member of the foursome on skis, Mike decided it was finally time to work smarter, not harder, and vowed to permanently ditch his skis for a snowboard.

Never one to enjoy free time, Rachel spent this year as busy as ever, volunteering in the kid’s classrooms, updating her blog [holy-craft.blogspot.com], and generally bringing a crafty flair to all that she does. Rachel’s big news came this summer though, when after years of early morning workouts proved unable to undo the damage inflicted by her many children, she finally decided to have a tummy tuck. Yes, beneath that trim and toned exterior lurked a shar-pei-like wrinkled midsection that no amount of exercise could fix, and unlike those adorable little puppies, she had little hope of growing into. After a few weeks of recovery she was back in action, and completed her first half marathon in September, where the loss of a toenail made her finally feel like a “real” runner.

Aidan is now twelve and in the seventh grade at Meeker Middle School, where he continues to play both bass clarinet and electric guitar for their various bands. Sports are still a major part of his life, and this year he wrestled for the first time (to the delight of his father), in addition to playing baseball, his first love. Baseball season saw him make the leap up to majors from AA ball, skipping AAA entirely, and the transition was a struggle at first. However, he made dramatic improvement as the season progressed, and by year’s end definitely proved that he belonged. For the third straight year, Aidan spent two glorious mid-summer weeks in pre-teen heaven, at the southern Arizona home of Rachel’s parents. Away from the two main stresses in his life (his siblings), he was able enjoy everything Nana and Papaw camp has to offer, like swimming pools, BB guns, and video games.

Eight year old Isabella is currently in the third grade at Brown’s Point Elementary, although like her brothers she will be starting at a new school after Christmas. She just finished up another season of soccer, and while she remains the smallest girl on the field, her quickness allows her to compete with the bigger kids. Bella is definitely speedy, and despite the unseasonal snowfall, she braved the elements (a big accomplishment for our fair-weather girl) and joined her mother for our local community center’s 5k turkey trot on Thanksgiving morning. Her time of just over 31 minutes was even good enough to beat over half of the nearly 900 (mostly adult!) participants.

Owen is now five and began kindergarten this fall, and he enjoys riding the bus to school each day with his sister. His vocabulary is exploding (as you’ll soon see), his reading is steadily improving, and he can count to 122 on a good day! Our Christmas letter wouldn’t be complete without another edition of “actual conversations with Owen”, this time where the eponymous hero of our story was caught at a family gathering shooting his finger gun, only using the wrong digit as the barrel. When informed that using his middle finger meant something not very nice, he calmly replied “I know, it rhymes with truck.” After the shocked laughter died down, Mike decided that should he ever a) pen his own blog, or b) start a rock band, “Rhymes with Truck” would make the perfect name.

On that note, we would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a wonderful 2011.

The Teodoros

Check us out at www.theteo5.blogspot.com, or write to our new address at 2215 Nevada Ct, Milton, WA 98354

All of us have been begging for a dog for about three years now. Mike was the hold out. He finally agreed that when we got a new house we could get a dog. So the search began to find the perfect dog for our family. I spent hours searching the shelters websites, scouring the classifieds and looking on craigslist. We had several great leads on dogs that sounded great only to have them fall through. On our first night in the house, the dog we had been set on (a 1 year old Golden Retriever) fell through. Her boyfriend wanted to keep the dog. We were disappointed. She said we sounded like great dog owners, so she passed on our information to a dog she saw on Craigslist named Maya. Maya's family called me that evening and told us that we could come that night and pick her up, but that she was a bit skittish and she took awhile to warm up to us. We took her on the condition that if she didn't warm up to us that evening, that we would be able to take her back the next day.

Maya was very meek. She literally stayed in this position on the floor for hours, never giving us any indication of any type of personality. UNTIL....
the middle of the night! Around 1:30 we were woken up to her howling and barking and then growling and realized that in our first night in our new house, this is the damage that she did! She chewed up the (custom order only) blinds
scratched the heck out of the door and later when she was tied with her leash to the vise in the garage, she chewed through her leash and then chewed through the garage door wires. Needless to say, she was a 12 hour dog. We brought her home by 9:30 am the next morning! So then the hunt continued for the perfect dog, but not before we did some Christmas celebrating.
The kids and I made Christmas cookies by day and our family "acted" in our churches living nativity by night. Mike and Aidan both had speaking parts, while the younger two kids and I worked in the village. Over 1500 people came through to see the story of the nativity.
We had a wonderful first Christmas in our new house. The kids were thankful that Santa knew just where to find them.

And then on the day after Christmas, we served at church before heading up to the Granite Falls area to pick up the newest member of our family. She's 12 weeks old and as sweet as ever! We found out about her from an ad on craigslist. The family breeds golden retrievers and had plans on keeping this sweet one since she was the "pick of the litter". The family already has three big Golden's, and one more in their small house was just too much. So they decided the needed to find a new home for her and they did. They told me they weeded through over 50 e-mails of people who were interested and saw my e-mail and thought we sounded like the home she needed.
She's extremely loyal so far and really seems to like Mike. She will follow him anywhere!
Isn't she the cutest thing you ever saw under the tree?
And just when I thought she would favor Mike, she jumped in my lap for hours and snuggled in for some sweet love.
We think she's pretty perfect so far. As for a name, I had a boy dog name picked out. We have been racking our brains thinking of one and think we have it narrowed down. We've been trying out the name Sophie and it seems to fit her personality.

We have been so busy the past week physically moving into our new home. We are trying to not be so overwhelmed with moving that we can't focus on the traditions and meaning of this Christmas season, so we are trying to take time out to appreciate one another and celebrate Christ's birth. On Sunday afternoon, we were finally able to get some Christmas decorating done. Part of our yearly tradition is that the kids each get at least one new ornament to open and put on the tree.
The kids love this tradition and we were so happy to continue it in our new home.
Mike also worked hard to get our dying artificial tree (half the lights stopped working this year!) set up.
It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas around our new house!

We swung by the new house last night for our final walk through. Thought I would share some pictures before it got filled with boxes and the craziness that is this Teodoro family of five!

The kitchen is huge! I'm excited for all of the storage space but nervous about the Viking gas stove I have in the kitchen now. I have never used gas so fingers crossed, I don't blow something up!
The dining room will probably remain empty for awhile. I need to find a dining room table that I like.
I haven't put a single Christmas decoration up yet but one of the first things we will do is hang the stockings on this fireplace in the great room.
I think the den is my favorite room. It's cozy, has it's own fireplace and french doors. I'm hoping we can find a desk that I like enough that will continue to make this room one of my favorites.

We will be signing papers today, and moving in slowly over the next few weeks. We plan to spend our first night in the house on the 18th. Merry Christmas to us!

In the midst of sorting, packing and making moving arrangements, we have been able to have a little fun. Isabella ran her first 5K with me on Thanksgiving morning. I've been volunteering and running the Turkey Trot for years now and it's a tradition I look forward to every year.

Isabella ran her first race strong and finished in 31:15. Not bad for an 8 year old!


We spent a Sunday afternoon at St. Luke's advent festival, another one of my favorite holiday traditions. They have stations set up and the kids are able to make crafts, ornaments and other Christmas decorations.
The kids are busy coloring away to make this milk jug nativity set.
Owen really got into making each craft and loved the cinnamon and applesauce ornaments.

Later that evening, we attended a concert at our church put on my the Asanta Children's Choir from Rawanda. That morning, we were able to spend time with some of the kids in Kidventure (the Sunday School that Mike and I teach in) and I even got to teach a few of the kids how to play tic tac toe. A skill necessary for every day life in Africa I am sure!
They were such amazing kids with some amazing stories. I literally wanted to take each and every one of them home with me!
You can see more information about the Asante Children's choir here
It's a new organization with some great needs, so check them out.