Countdown to Christmas

 Can you spot them on the tree?

I've been saving empty toilet paper rolls since the beginning of November, and for our countdown to Christmas this year, I bought some $1 items, and some things the kids need, like gloves and socks and stuffed them into the little tubes and wrapped them all pretty. I tied them all together and hung them on the Christmas tree. Aren't they pretty? It was a little time consuming, but FREE because I had all the supplies already. I'm super excited!

Paris Giveaway

Oh Happy Day is giving away a trip to Paris! Can you believe it? She is giving away airfare and hotel for two for a week. And you +1 get to tour The lover's city with her for two days. Get over there and enter her contest!

Read Kiddo Read

Have you seen this site?! It's called Read Kiddo Read, and it is the most amazing, award winning site. It's amazing. I don't know about you, but I have lists of book lists around, that I forget to pay attention to. But this site is specifically focused on getting kids to want to read more. I'm so excited to reserve a bunch of titles at my library and start exploring with the kiddos!

Neighbor Gifts 2010

Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Wouldn't you enjoy one of these cute little jars of goodness?

Tulip Festival

We drove two hours north to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. It was gorgeous, there was fields and fields of all shades of tulips. The kids really enjoyed it. Devin was treated to an ice cream earlier in the day. You can see it all down his shirt. I wish I could include all the pictures. It was just beautiful.

Our attempts at a family picture

Birthdays and Beets

Brooklyn turned 5. I can't believe it.

She kept requesting pink frosting and a tinkerbell cake for her birthday. And since I've developed a strong mistrust of food dyes (especially red 40, WARNING: do not feed this to your kids!) I colored her cupcakes and frosting with beet juice. The cupcake frosting was the most hideous pink color. But when I made the tinkerbell cake, I diluted the beet juice with cream, and it turned out the most delicious pink color. I found the idea of Tink on a mushroom on the web, and loved it. You know how I go for simple.

I didn't send out a family update with our Christmas card this year.

But if I would have, it would have said something like:

Damon's mom moved in with us this year and is working in downtown Seattle.

Damon is still with Wells Fargo.

Rachel ran a half marathon in 2 hours and 22 minutes.

Brooklyn will be 5 in January, (still unbelievable to me). She is in preschool and dance. She loves to color, ride her bike, play with her friends, and alternately help and torture her younger brother.

Devin turned 3 in October, and we're pretty sure he is now taller than Brooklyn ( I don't see it all the time, but I've seen it in a couple pictures). He is also in Dance, and he will be a sunbeam this year.

We are wrapped up in our kid's lives. We visited Utah a couple times, but other than that, we stayed around here exploring the area.

This Christmas was hard for a lot of my loved ones. A lot of folks I know are either not working or under great stress about the way things are going at work. My heart goes out to them. We are not free of this stress. It is a scary and unpredictable time. God bless us all with peace in our hearts and minds.

Homemade Christmas

Tonight I made these awesome batman capes. Alright, my amazing sister, Deborah, did all the hard sewing (there was a lot of hard sewing). They turned out great. I'm oh so proud. Devin doesn't have enough boy dress up clothes. He is often seen wearing his sister's princess dresses. Yesterday i told him, "you need to dress like a prince," and he replied, "we don't have any prince costumes." Can't argue with that. But I am getting him some swords, a cowboy hat, and the above mentioned capes for Christmas. Hopefully this will help. Merry Christmas Everyone! Love you all!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for my blog! And for all of you. And it's time I told you that Damon's mom has moved in with us. She has been out of work since early this year, so she was looking for a job in Dallas and here, and landed a sweet job in downtown Seattle. The kids love having her here. She misses her country property in Dallas. Anyway, that's the news. Happy Thanksgiving.

We painted

After two years of white walls, we finally did it! A chocolate brown, seriously, it kept reminding me of chocolate, and a sky blue. Damon built a scaffold to reach the wall in the entry way.

Autumn

These are a couple pictures I took of the beautiful trees on my street.

I have come to love, love, love green on green.

These two spectacular trees are right at the entry to my neighborhood. I love how they have yellow leaves hiding behind the bright red ones.

And a beautiful display of clouds.
Gorgeous.

Happy Birthday

Devin is

3

He got a spiderman cake, and some other loot.

My baby is no longer a baby. Sniff, sigh!

Sleeping Children and The First Day of School

I don't know what it is, but Damon and I both love taking pictures of the children while they are asleep. We have a whole folder of them. But in other news: Brooklyn started another year of preschool, see top picture. And we had a big weekend around here: Devin potty trained . . . himself, and Brooklyn is riding her bike with out training wheels. I know, I know, exciting stuff!

Snoqualmie Falls

We went to Snoqualmie Falls today. I've been meaning to go since we moved here, and hadn't made it yet. Turns out it is only a twenty minute drive, hee hee. It is beautiful, breathtaking, wonderful. The kids were champs, and hiked the half mile down to the bottom and half mile back to the top without complaining. O.K., we brided them with an ice cream cone on the way up if they wouldn't whine. Hey, I'm not above it!

My trip to Utah for Tamara's wedding BBQ

The Backyard

Devin

Alicia

Deborah and Baby Alec

Family Pictures

Brooklyn in a pretty pink dress

The Whole Crowd

The Romans are Coming!

I made Roman Shades for Devin's room. I'm so proud of myself. It is the easiest shade you can make. Hee hee. but I don't consider myself a sewer. The gene stopped with me. All my older sisters own sowing machines, but up until recently, me nor my two younger sisters did. Deborah, my oldest sister, gave me her old sewing machine when she upgraded. Thanks Deb! And I put it to use. We needed a black out curtain for Devin's room as we thought it would help him sleep better. He was getting up WAY too early in the morning. But black out shades are expensive, so I made one, at half the price! Woo Hoo! And Devin has been sleeping better (later) ever since.

The Garden

I know I've blogged about this before, but I just couldn't help this one:

BEFORE

AFTER

I'm really excited, 'cause I wasn't sure anything would grow!

Beautiful blueberries

Do you know what grows beautifully in the Northwest? Berries, of all kinds. Today I picked blueberries. I got 4 1/2 lbs in an hour for $1.50 a lb. Mmm, think of all the things I can make, pancakes and muffins, oh my!

Puzzles

The kids love to do puzzles lately

And Devin falls asleep in the afternoons sometimes (with his face in the couch).

Don't tell Daddy what we do while he's at work!