Glen Beck Tribute to President Hinckley

This was forwarded on to me and I found it rather touching. Whether you like Glen Beck or not you can tell this is heart-felt.

Another Birthday

Well, I don't have pictures as involved as Roberto, but it was just Elizabeth's birthday on the 9th as well. She just turned 5. Thanks for setting up so I can post now.
--David Dougall

Happy Birthday to Rob . . .

Well, the apple doesn't seem to fall far from the tree . . . Take a peek at the cake Rob made with Parker and Ethan a few months ago--I guess he also likes decking out cakes . . . I made Marilyn's Mississippi Mud Cake in celebration of his birthday today--but it's just a boring brown rectangle. Anyway, Happy Birthday Rob! Feel loved . . . I took a moment to blog for you on your special day! :) laurel

Happy Birthday to Geoff!

Why a second birthday post for Geoff?

For starters, he deserves more than the few sentences I was able to put up yesterday.

Second, we've got a bunch of great birthday photos. (side note: In the modern age of cellphone cameras and other tiny digital cameras we almost always have a camera on us and can take a pictures of ordinary happenings. Since there is no marginal cost to develop the photos we tend to take lots of pictures. The John B. Dougall camera, though, only came out on special occasions, and thus we have a lot of pictures from Christmas, vacations, and birthdays.)



But enough of my yacking, back to the birthday pictures. The photo here is from Geoff's birthday in 1974. Compare it to yesterday's picture, and do you notice a theme? Mom can get pretty creative with the birthday cakes. Second thought - in Jan1974 the family had 2 adults, 7 & 5 year old boys, 2 little kids, and a baby - that looks like an awful lot of cake for those little bellies (I hope they didn't consume it in the same way the Dougalls would've in the 80s/90s: in under 2 minutes.) Third though - those camoflague bowls sitting on the table must be given a longevity award, because I think they were still in frequent use when I was a teenager.








For the next picture we go back to Tigard. I love the way Geoff got himself all gussied up in his finest shirt to open his gifts. I also love the way his younger siblings are so anxiously gathered around to share in the birthday excitement.



And speaking of sibling involvment . . . . my memory of Geoff's birthdays will always be mixed with memories of my birthday. For a number of years we would open presents at the same time (he'd sometimes get mine & vice versa), we would share the cake (I'm positive that since he was older he always got to cut it), and generally have twice the excitement. I wish there was a photo that really captured it. The best I can locate are the two below.

Here we are in 1984 working side-by-side to open gifts.

Guess Whose Special Day is Tomorrow?

Which Birthday did Geoff celebrate in Tigard? Was it #9 or #10? Anyway, let's hope that tomorrow he has a little more enthusiasm for his birthday then he is showing in this photo. Who knows, maybe he'll be lucky enough to wake up to the happiest birthday breakfast possible: a chocolate choo-choo train cake!

Dougall Family Fitness Challenge

It's that time of the year to set goals and make new year's resolutions. Those of us home for family dinner tonight thought it might be fun to do some kind of a fitness challenge amongst the members of the family and work on increasing our overall health. For some that might be losing weight or for others maybe just increasing cardiovascular endurance. I know we are all busy with jobs, schooling, raising children and what not, but there's always time to squeeze in that 30 mins of exercise whether it's playing tag with the kids outside, taking a family walk, or parking the car a little farther away. They even say you can accumulate 30 min of exercise doing short bout of exercise throughout the day so no more excuses for anyone!
For those of you unfamiliar with the benefits of exercise here they are:
Reduces the risk of heart disease by improving blood circulation throughout the body
Keeps weight under control
Improves blood cholesterol levels
Prevents and manages high blood pressure
Boosts energy level
Helps manage stress
Releases tension
Improves the ability to fall asleep quickly and sleep well
Strengthens muscles, increasing the ability to do other physical activities
Sounds good right! So I'm thining as a family we can help to encourage one another and even get some of the older grandkids involved( Brandon, Tanner, Troy, Mason, Jessica, Sarah, Tyson and Conner ). For every 30 min of exercise you'll get a point that then adds up to different rewards(water bottle, sweat towels, t-shirt...). Then come July when we gather for the family reunion we'll all check in and have a fitness challenge- maybe a 5k race/walk for fun to check up on our progress. Come the end of 2008 there will be a grand prize for the person or family that accrues the most points(gift card or short stay at one of mom and dad's timeshares are a few ideas).
What do you think? Would anyone be interested in joining in on the fun?? Send your comments or suggestions and if it comes back positive I'll post a final draft of the plan soon so we can get started!

A Night in Bethlehem

Times have changed here in Portland. In some ways it will always be the same with Alison around with early morning wake up calls and cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate for breakfast, but long gone are the days we ventured to Mt hood for Christmas Eve and held Christmas our tradiational program. This year for Christmas Eve we celebrated "A Night in Bethlehem" complete with costumes(bathrobes and bed sheets), mediterranean food(spinach pie, pita bread and hummus, olives, meat skewers etc), and a props to immitate the setting(like the canopy set up over the table to represent the marketplace). We watched clips from the nativity movie to help the image become more real.

It was a very memorable night and I'm sure will be repeated for years to come. So if any of you are planning on coming to Portland for Christmas next year you can look forward to our new family tradition!