Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours - Merry Christmas! How beautiful is the gift of Christ for all of us to recieve. He is the greatest love of all and it is our prayer that you feel the warmth of His amazing love wrapped around you this Christmas. And may you have the most wonderful year to come filled with gifts money can't buy and may be some that can too. :)

happy birthday baby girl

We've been busy....
saturday was our little sweetheart's birthday. We decided to keep it as a simple family party (plus our adopted-neighbor daughter). My little girl LOVES dino's so that was the theme. Dino's are her babies - no interest in dolls!?! We even went as far as renting a dino bouncehouse to top off the day. It was a blast -Happy 2nd Birthday baby girl!

Her favorite gift was her 2nd baby dino. It's not soft or cuddly, but she gives him kisses and he sleeps with her in bed.

last day of pre-K

My son has been in pre-k for a year. He started at 3 (which was early for me). His articulation needed some help so we opted to send him to school so he could work with a speech pathologist and hopefully speak more clearly by kindergarden. He made so many improvements so fast that he finally tested out of the program, which was great and a bit sad. Yay for early-intervention and farewell to Mrs. O, Mrs. A and school friends - my son will miss you!

fancy shoes!

My daughter is a sucker for shiny shoes! Last year she had a similar pair of shiny black shoes for her Christmas outfit and LOVED them. This year, well...we're at it again. She wants to wear these shoes all the time (even when she rides her scooter) and with everything (even when she's just in her diaper!). She is really not all that girly of a girl, but don't you mess with her fancy shoes!

christmas cookies

Another family tradition, like in many other families, is making sugar cookies. It was my daughter's first time and she really did well. (Boys & girls really are different) We had a messy blast! :)





I thought i'd throw in a picture of my son dressed up like santa. When I was little my parents dressed up my brother as santa & me as mrs. santa for our guests Christmas Eve. Thanks mom for saving the suit for my little guy to play with. :)

o christmas tree...

Last weekend we decorated our christmas tree. I must admit that the kids & I LOVE Christmas time!! It's from my parents always making it such a great time of year for us kids when we were growing up. This year was extra fun since our little girl is older and understands what we are doing and can participate more. Here are some pictures that capture the evening.



The treat of the night this year was GF (Gluten-Free) cupcakes, which are pretty good! My son was so funny because I brought them out before we started decorating and thought about offering them then, until he said "these are for AFTER we decorate - right mommy!" So I agreed surprised that he would not dare break tradition even for junk food!
A tradition we have all month long is to read Christmas stories by the tree before bed. My son had to go to bed early since he chose to melt down. Oh well there will be many more nights!

good friends...

There is nothing like a good friend to make the happiest day. I am so thankful for some good friends who came to visit this last week. You know a good friend when they can move away and visit a year later as if they never left. Our boys have played together since they were very little. Since they moved, my son has not found a friend quite like this one. So they loved playing together again! We did catch them punching each other, but it was only because they wanted to box each other!! I love boys! Thank you friends for coming to visit – it meant the world to us!!

before we leave november

moment of the month...
I left baby girl diaperless to "air out" for just a couple minutes as I have many times before. I heard her scream as if something had bitten her. I ran out to find crap all over the rug & a little on our couch. Needless to say we are in the market for a new rug and couches!!! (And since you are wondering...it was not the kind of mess that could easily be picked up & discarded)

mispronounced words of the month
My little girl loves to talk! (surprise, surprise) There are some words that she says totally wrong but I love it so much I don’t bother to correct her quite yet. These are some of my favorites…

1. Mickey House (mickey mouse)
2. Here Killy, Killy (here kitty, kitty)
3. Ahnasauhn (dinosaur - did i mention that she does not play with dolls much, but she LOVES her baby dino!!)
4. Booh-Box (juice box)
5. Yuok (sounds like yuck, but it's look)

a life to be celebrated!

On Saturday I went to a memorial service for a wonderful man of God, whose life, was to be celebrated. I actually did not know him well at all, but I know his daughter, Melinda, who I believe is such a spiritual giant in this world! Who she is – is someone who leaves you wanting more of God when you part ways. That is someone I long to be!
There were so many parts of her dad’s life that were so beautiful I found myself fighting tears for such a beautiful person who walked this earth right up into heavens gates. The part that inspired me the most was how he was as a dad. He loved his family and children so much. He taught them to love Jesus and know His word. To see his grown children there and so in love with Jesus, serving Him wholeheartedly in ministry was such a testament of his faith! I want to be a mom and with my husband, parents who will instill God’s love, grace, compassion and knowledge of Him. I want to be a mom who guides her children gently to God by who I am and how I live my life. That is my prayer today inspired by a brilliant, simple man who loved God enough to REALLY serve Him with his life, not just in public ministry, but at home!

more than a trip to ny...

I just got back from a trip to NYC. It’s a lot to take in! There’s so much to look at and so many people from all walks of life. I felt like I saw the world in one small, big city. While the sights were fun and really cool that is not what I will remember most about my trip. I had an experience on the subway that really disturbed me on a number of levels. My friend had warned me that she see’s all kinds of crazy parenting on the subway and I said if I saw that I would probably have to say something. She quickly reminded me that when you see a crazy parent, acting crazy you really won’t interfere and as hard as that was to swallow she was right!
On the subway, after seeing the statue of liberty, I saw a man with 2 small kids and a young teenage girl talking loud and seemingly fine. All of a sudden, he was very angry, yelling and cussing in this young girl's face. I imagine she said something that lacked appreciation and that lit him up. In about 5 minutes amidst a ton of colorful language we learned their story. The girls mom had died and he was taking care of all the kids on his own, which he made clear was more than some fathers would ever do. I was most saddened by the fact that he degraded this girl in front of several people who did not even look at the situation with his 2 little toddlers watching the whole thing. He told the girl to sit away from him and to go home to her grand-dad. He wanted nothing to do with her. That was putting it nicely.
So there she sat with a scowl that could kill. Soon the subway came to a stop and several more people shuffled on. I wondered what they thought of this silent, angry girl on the subway. If only they knew the hurt she had just endured by someone who should be loving her! And then I realized how often we look at grumpy or hard people and think sarcastically ‘what is their problem?’ What if we really cared about what their problem was and actually had compassion enough to love on them when they most needed it. How badly I wanted to go, hug her and tell her she was worth more than all the money in the world and loved by an un-conditional God. I suddenly felt a heavy weight placed on my heart. I was deeply burdened for people - for hurting people, lost people. We have to reach them with God’s love. We have to share hope! But there was more on my heart as time went on….
I also felt God showed me how self-indulgent people there and really how people (including myself) in our culture have become. Really why do most of us exist in this world? We work really hard to make money and spend it on stuff that will impress people we don’t even know. It's the search for anything that will satisfy now! There is more to life then that! What am i supposed to do for Christ in this world? I crave ministry again. Having that opportunity to speak into people’s lives is so incredible and yet it’s not time for that yet. There must be something more I can do as a simple mom - God speak and open my ears to hear You!

new york trip pictures

Here's some pictures from my trip to NY - what a place! I loved central park. Thank you Merle for such a wonderful visit.

quote of the month

Little man wanted to see how tall he was getting in comparison to big daddy. We told him to stand up next to dad to see how tall he was. He ran over with excitement, faced my husband and exclaimed "I'm up to your balls!"

a yard full of sh.....

We decided to re-seed our grass so we could have lovely, green, soft, winter grass. We had someone do it once before, but decided to do it ourselves. My husband & I covered the lawn with 10 lbs of animal crap with our bare hands to try to make this happen successfully! I am worried it's not going to turn out this time. The weather has become cooler over the last couple days and the birds are eating all the seeds - thus, our fall scarecrow has been placed in the back so the birds can laugh at it.
Bottom line - in life, especially lately, I often feel like I'm stuck in crap & wonder when it will get better. Yet every time somehow things get great again. And while our grass may not come in until the summer grass returns the moral of my story is...there will be times when in order to get that lush green grass, we will have to endure a yard full of sh...! :)

good game!

So may be there is hope for us in the soccer world after all. Saturday's game my son actually liked playing and put forth heaps more effort in the game. He especially liked running even if he was still kicking the ball WAY past the goal bounds and everyone was yelling at him to stop running!!
My favorite soccer moment this week: When he was on defense AGAIN and the opponent was running his direction and kicking the ball towards his goal, my son actually went for the oncoming ball and kicked it the opposite direction towards his goal and sent everyone the other way! Hooray - i think he's starting to get this soccer thing, even though he has decided he wants to play basketball instead. Good game, son, good game!

darn pumpkin cookies!

You will not find any pictures of my kids dressed in Halloween costumes because of these darn pumpkin cookies! The above picture was taken earlier in the day PRE-Pumpkin cookies.
Today I thought it would be fun to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that were allergy-free for my sweet little allergy girl. So when these beauties came out of the oven I was so excited I sat down the kiddos for a treat. my baby girl was not so interested in eating at that moment - so I picked her up & fed her a small bite. Shorty after I notice red about her lip. Hoping may be she just bopped her upper lip onto something I waited. Then her chin had some red action. Ya, hives. Before I knew it she was tearing at her itchy hands....it was going to be a Benadryl night. :( After many anti-itch creams, a bath and checking her throat for closure she was drugged and cranky! There went the should-have-been fun night. I delt with poor fussy girl, while my husband took out little man for candy. Pictures were far from my mind until now since the kiddos are sleeping. Moral of the story is you can be allergic to pumpkin!! And if you are not allergic to pumpkin these Gluten-Free cookies taste great - I will be happy to give YOU the recipe.

you've got to be kidding!!!

Arizona keeps giving me reasons not to like it. Really I am trying to see the good in this state, but it's things like this that make it impossible! This Speed Camera is what you will find along an Arizona Freeway now. They have actually posted cameras every couple exits all along the major freeways to keep you going under 75mph. The plan is to have the state covered in another year. If you go over 75mph you will be mailed a beautiful picture of you and charged $181.00 for the picture they took! Ridiculous!!! So to all my out-of-state friends...if you happen to drive into AZ beware of the many cameras lurking along your way. They are watching.
I am so annoyed at this I am lost for words - i just keep thinking you've got to be kidding!!!

soccer???

So my son just started soccer and so far I'm thinking - why???! He has always talked about wanting to play soccer and though my husband and I are not big on soccer we thought, if that's the sport you want to try alright! At our last game he spent most of his energy complaining about how HOT he was. (hmmm...that's familiar) He wanted nothing more than the game to end and for the snacks to be passed out! My favorite moment... he was supposed to be the last string to stop the ball from being kicked towards the goalie. The opponent was coming at him strong and instead of trying to kick the ball the opposite way and defend that turf, he moved right out of the way, stood there watching & made room aplenty for the opponent to run up and kick the ball right at the goal. :) So although I have a mini-van, i will be surprised if I end up as a soccer mom. perhaps he will like basketball better, after all you get to be in an air-conditioned gym!

thank you sarah!!

Thank you sarah for the perfect craft idea!! We finished our spider last night & the kids love having our new friend hang around the house!

ca trip

Truly I thank God for trips back to LA. It's always a breath of fresh air to see family, friends & just be home. While we did not see everyone we would have liked to in that quick week - I know we will be out again soon!

Our trip started off with a fun & beautiful wedding of a college friend & former roommate. (of course i left my camera behind that day & missed many picture opportunities- sad day!)

During our week we got to take a fun train ride into old town Claremont, play with the cousin's pet turtle, ernie - not to mention play with the cousins, (yes, J is sticking out his butt at the camera!)

celebrate my mom's 55th birthday (pictured; grandma, baby girl, me, athena & mom) ,

and play with some favorite friends twice - S.T.'s bunch! Thank God for a wonderful week!

it's coming!!!

Do you ever get the kind of zits that come in deep, painful and are HUGE?! I have not had one since before I was pregnant with my little princess, but it's coming and it will be lovely...oh yes, it will be lovely!

pumpkin patch

Last weekend we went to the local pumpkin patch. It was a blast! There is nothing more fun than seeing your kids so excited about farm animals, hay rides, cotton candy & of course pumpkins!! Did i mention that the weather in AZ was unusually cool, thus the jeans! :) So we went on the perfect weekend. They had a reptile trailer there with tons of well, reptiles of course. And yes, the alligator was real and apparently friendly!??

My sweet girl fell in love with the baby chicks!
And we were the first ones there so the bounce house was ours!!
Decorating pumpkins....

It was a perfect morning for fun!