Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

May we always remember that He is the true Reason for the Season!

(Click to Shake)

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Catch-up time

I know, I know, it's been a while since I've updated! We've been busy living life, what can I say? As for what all we've been up to, I think I'll let the photos pretty much speak for themselves.

A couple weeks ago my parents were able to fly out for a visit. Yes, I said fly. They normally drive as Mom hates to fly but because of time contraints, decided they would be able to spend the most time with us if they took an early flight. We had such a great time with them while they were here.

We enjoyed some great meals, so nice to have extra help in the kitchen!

Grammy brought a gingerbread house to put together, it turned out to be quite a challenge, but it's still standing, that icing is tough stuff!

We flew to NC last week for the Kaufman's Annual Christmas party. In addition to all the meetings that Tim attended, we were able to spend some time with family. Calista's little boy, Magnus, and Tyler really hit it off and had lots of fun playing together. Here they were watching Uncle Ken washing his truck and laughing when he would throw the rag up to the window.

We attempted some family photos with surprisingly good results

We've had some really bad hair days around here lately,

And yes, we've even sampled butter. I had it softening on the counter when I turned around to find Tyler sitting on the floor, really chowing down!It's been an interesting month, to say the least, we're looking forward to what the new year will bring. Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

Wordless Wednesday

You know you live in a small town when . . .

first, a little background. We live in a very small town. I don't know if small is the right word, I think itty, bitty, we-don't-even-have-a stop-light, barely have stop signs, is a better way to describe it. It's very quaint, to say the least. One thing our town does have, however, is a newspaper. It also services 2-3 other even smaller surrounding towns, so all together we seem to manage to have enough things to say to warrant a paper. Well, it must be a slow week at The Times Tribune because I just got a call from them wondering if I had any news to put into the paper! I'll have to admit, it sorta stunned and surprised me, at first I thought it was a joke. When I realized that they were serious I politely told them no, I didn't have any news. You see, once a week when the paper comes out, there is 1/2 a page dedicated to the goings-on of your neighbors. There you will find out who went out for lunch together after church on Sunday, who had relatives visiting and the occasional birth announcement. It must be a really slow week at the paper if they're calling me for news, so sorry to disappoint!

An update

I've fallen way behind in my regular posting, my apologies to my 3 readers! :) This time of year can get quite crazy as I'm sure everyone is feeling right now.

I braved the crowds yesterday at 5:30 am to snag some absolutely great deals. The result is that I am almost completely finished with my Christmas shopping. Just need to pick up a few odds and ends, probably at the last minute! The only problem that I had was when I got to Kohls, which unfortunately for me happens to be my favorite store. Unfortunate, because once I finished shopping and went to check out, I waited in line for 1 hr. to finally get to the cashier! I don't think I would've had the stamina to stand there and wait if it hadn't been for my friend, Raquel, who I was shopping with, and who was waiting right along with the rest of us. The time seems to go by much quicker when you have a friend to chat with, Thanks Raquel! :) So did anyone else get out there for the early-bird specials?

Wordless Wednesday

You Are Mashed Potatoes

Ordinary, comforting, and more than a little predictable You're the glue that holds everyone together.

What Part of Thanksgiving Are You?

This little quiz was fun! So how about it? What category of Thanksgiving do you fall into?

I just can't do it,

can't decorate my house for the holidays or put up my Christmas tree, that is. I couldn't even change my blog template. I just can't. I was getting tired of my old look so I did change that, but it's still in the fall category! When my brother and I were growing up, we didn't get a tree, (or take it out of the box if we were on the mission field!) until the weekend of Thanksgiving. It's just what I'm used to and I suppose that's what I'll always do for my family also. I did unpack Brianna's little white tree and let her decorate it this past weekend, she had so much fun and it turned out so cute! It's so girly, with pink, purple, turquoise, and lime colored little ornaments all over it. I suppose she'll be using it as a night light in her bedroom for the next several months.

I'm certainly anxious for the holiday season to be here though, I love decorating for Christmas. I think the tree is my favorite part, I love sitting in the living room in the evening with the lights twinkling, it seems so magical.

But for now, the totes of Christmas decor will remain in that dusty, cobweb-filled basement of ours and the pumpkins will remain on the mantel.. Just wait though, come Thanksgiving weekend, watch out! This house will be SCREAMING Christmas spirit! :)

Oh no he didn't! (Yeah, he did)

My little man had a burst of boredom the other day while I was on the phone with my mom. Then he discovered some crayons. Need I say more? This is the result . . . actually this is only part of the stairway, the entire wall is now decorated in patches of brown crayon. Ugh, now I need to go buy more paint, I'm thinking I might go a shade darker this time around to hide the little hand prints a bit better. Tyler, lets stick to the coloring books from now on, okay?

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Today was Tyler's 2nd birthday, (bracing myself for the 'terrible twos'!) He didn't quite get the Happy birthday thing, even though it was sung to him no less than 200 times by his older sister. He even broke down into tears a few times, I think he just felt very over whelmed. Poor Grandpa and Grammy, all they heard when they called to wish him a happy birthday was total sobbing. He certainly had his moments today but I think he forgot them pretty quickly as soon as he started unwrapping those presents. He loved all his train decorations and cake, even though it wasen't Thomas, it must have resembled a train close enough that he was happy. We relit the candles no less than 5 times, he really loved blowing those things out.

Happy birthday buddy, we love you so much and can't imagine life without our little man!

If I had an interesting post, the title would be here . .

but I don't. It's been a busy week. Homeschooling, baking, coming out of our candy coma's from Halloween, and scrapbooking. Yes, I actually said scrapbooking. I haven't done it in ages and have decided that at the rate I'm going Brianna will be in high school before I get her Pre-school album done. So, I've designated several days this week to getting that album completely finished. It's going well and pretty fast, as I've decided to keep it really simple so that it will actually look like a Preschooler's album. I'll share some pics when it's finished!

Enjoy your weekend everyone! :)

Our Halloween

Halloween is a much-anticipated day in our house. Not in the spooky, ghost and goblin way. We love all the fall decorations, picking pumpkins and carving them, picking out costumes and going trick-or-treating. The small town that we live in makes this all possible and so much fun. Thankfully, once Brianna decided that she was going to be Belle, she stuck with her decision. Tyler loves trains so naturally I thought that Thomas the Train would be a great choice, right?

Not so much. This was in the car, getting ready to trick-or-treat to the businesses in town. He did eventually decide that it would be fun to fill his little bucket with candy, thankfully!

Trick-or-treating in town. From 2:30-3:30pm all the business had candy for the kids, they had a blast walking to all the stores around the square.

'Belle''Thomas'My little princess and IAll the candy that was gathered, WAY too much! :) I plan to dress the kids up again and attempt to take some posed pictures, providing that 'Thomas' will cooperate, I didn't have much of a chance to get pics before going out, they were so excited! Tyler was so exhausted, he was begging to go to bed by the end of the night! Not so much for his sister though, the sugar-high lasted way past her bed-time!

A preview of things to come! (and people to see and candy to get!)

Wordless Wednesday

The PERFECT fall recipe is . . .

Pretty Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

I made these last night and they turned out so incredible good that I just had to share the recipe! This is a big batch so I divided them up and shared with our friends, they had a nice Sunday evening surprise! I did need to double the batch of icing, we like generous amounts of the stuff on our sweet rolls, who doesn't? :) This pic was taken before I put the icing on, but you get the idea! The only thing I did differently was instead of the butterscotch pudding mix, I substituted Pumpkin spice, I think it added a little extra to the rolls that we loved! Enjoy!

How we amuse ourselves while stuck inside on a rainy, cold day!

I know she looks less than thrilled but she kept calling herself a "Robot", and thought she was pretty cool! I have a feeling that we'll be using a lot of these 'creative ideas' to keep entertained inside this winter. I would welcome any kid-friendly ideas that would help my kids with the 'cabin fever' that is bound to set in pretty soon!

Wordless Wednesday

Well, almost wordless anyway! I'm sitting here having a hard time believing that I just took this pic on Sat. and today - 4 days later- our weather has gone downhill very quickly. It's been raining for 2 days now, in the 40's, and they're predicting anywhere from 2-6 inches of snow by tonight! Aaaagggghhhhhh! Help me! I am so not ready for winter!

Harvest Moon Farms - 2008

We made our annual trek to the Pumpkin Farm yesterday. I say 'farm' because that is exactly what it is, it's not merely a 'patch', Although it didn't seem like they had as many pumpkins planted this year as the past years, they still had 2 huge fields of every shape and size of pumpkin that you can imagine. The farm is very Mom-and-Pop, very farmish, (is that a word?!) and quite primitive for this not-so-primitive girl. The only thing that is not so primitive is their entrance fee. I considered pointing out the irony in that to them but then decided not to.
They do have lots of things set up for the kids to enjoy, 2 huge slides and lots of animals. We took a hay ride down to the pumpkin fields and corn maze which is why is looks like we are in the middle of no where, we were! The sky was the the most beautiful shade of blue, so of course I tried to incorporate it as much as possible into my pictures. All in all, it was a fun day and they kids really enjoyed themselves and it wasn't too hot like last year so I remained headache-free, Yeah! :)

Finshed Object Friday

It's Finished object Friday today over at Fresh from the Chari Tree and I thought I'd join in for the first time! Brianna has been needing some more bows and I had fun making these for her. I bought 1 yard for each bow and ended up having some left over, I really only needed about 3/4 of a yard. I'd like to branch out to the more complicated ones sometime, but I thought it best to start small. :)

And here's how they look in her hair - pretty cute!

Wordless Wednesday

Needing God's help

Brianna and I in the office. She's getting a little bored watching me make cards and organize some things. A bored and somewhat antsy little girl in a roomful of scrapping supplies? Not a good combo! I suggested to her that she could practice her cursive letters while she waited on me. She sat down at her little desk and proceeded to get very frustrated because she couldn't remember the correct formation of some letters. Pretty soon I hear, "God, please help me!" Then, not 30 seconds later, "God, could you just do this for me, I don't remember how!" She then gets up and walks away. When I ask her where she was going, that she needed to finish her homework, she replied, "God's going to do that for me." Of course I told her that God will help us if we do our best, but I couldn't help but admire the open honesty and faith that she had just displayed. Oh, that we could have the faith of children!

A good thing - a quiet lunch

A little-known fact about me . . . . .

I like to eat by myself. Now, not in the way that I would go to a restaurant and sit and eat all by myself, nor would I turn down a friend's company for lunch. I just really enjoy some quiet solitude every once in a while. (I'm sure this has nothing to do with having 2 children, one of which has decided that 'Mama' is his new favorite word and practices it a lot throughout the day!) So what does 2 new magazines, an ice-cold Coke zero, a buttermilk biscuit leftover from breakfast and some quiet mama-time equal?
A very good thing! :)