Christmas Morning

We have had a relatively quiet day today.  Unable to go back to Washington to visit and no other plans for the day, we spent the day lounging and relaxing.  

The morning started early and with much excitement that Santa had come, but Chris first wanted to read the Christmas story to the boys.  The picture is of him reading, the next is of the boys saying their "favorite" part of the story.  Pretty cute...we've been working on that for a couple weeks now.

Opening presents from family.

I'm not sure if this look for Noah is terror or excitement, but either way, he's been having a lot of fun with his new trucks and cars today.  This mat is a scene from the movie CARS.  It's Radiator Springs and it's a fun playmat for all their new matchbox cars to race around on.  They've also had a ton of fun playing with that today.

Well, I start my new job in about a week and Chris starts his new job in about a week, so we'll be enjoying the playtime, the snow and the fun of the new year starting.  Thanks to everyone for prayers of support and encouragement over the past few months.  Love to all.

Christmas Eve

Today was a fun and relaxing day. I had to work the early morning shift at Starbucks, but I was able to be home shortly after 11am. We did some shopping (Santa comes tonight you know) and then hung out at the gym playing basketball for a bit of time. I think that might have been the favorite part for the boys!!

Here's a shot of both boys slam dunking the ball, with a little help from dad, of course.



I can't remember why Micah was crying in this picture, but it was too cute not to post. I think he has chocolate all over his face from the hot chocolate I brought home from work for the two of them. And, all this time I thought Noah looked so much like Chris, but I think he might be starting to look a little more like me...



Micah's favorite way to play basketball...just lay down with the ball...he's kind of a bruiser. Perhaps rugby might be more his style.



Noah's got some rad moves here.


If only the weatherman would listen. I keep trying to tell him that we have enough snow and we are certainly going to have a white Christmas, but it just keeps coming. I'm not sure how much more we can pile at the end of our driveway. The car barely makes it through as it is...

This second picture is Micah enjoying his Starbucks treat of hot chocolate while we wait for Dad so we can head to the gym to play some basketball.

Merry Christmas everyone...I'm sure we'll post more in the next couple days....

Holiday Cheer Part 2

We put up the Christmas tree about a week ago.  This year I let the boys help us out.  It was really fun.  Only one ornament was broken and I think that was more age of ornament than anything else.  What was especially funny was that the boys kept putting the ornaments in the same place and often the same branch.  So, we've moved some around since, but it was a lot of fun.  Noah especially loved the star on top of the tree and could hardly wait to put it up.

And it wouldn't really be Noah if he was wearing pants.  

The teddy bear, fondly called Fred, has been a member of our family since I got my tonsils out when I was five.  My Grandma and Grandpa Withrow bought him for me while I was in the hospital.  I've had him all these years and just got him out one night for Micah when he was scared and having a hard time falling asleep.  Now, Micah can't go anywhere without Fred.  It's pretty special for me to watch him with Fred since he means so much to me.

Holiday Cheer

Chris is such a scrooge this time of year, but I have been having so much fun with the boys.  The other day while every one was sleeping I got out most of the Christmas decorations.  I put them all up, except the tree, and when Noah woke up, he came into the office and said, "Mom, I saw all the Christmas decorations up and they are beautiful."  So, I am hoping that I will have two boys who love this holiday and are willing to go crazy with me!!

A couple years ago I quilted stockings for all of us in the family.  I love getting them out now and the boys LOVE them.  Noah even remembered where we hang them.  We don't have a fireplace at our house, so we use some shelves, but that's a pretty good memory, I think, for a four year old...

Chris always hated the Nativity Set I had when we got married, so my mom gave me this one a few years ago.  One thing that I really love about this one is that on each of the main characters there is a scene from the story AND everyone is wearing a quilt.  Can't fit me much better than that!
I have been working on some sewing projects and one day the boys climbed under my table and got on the bookshelf and pretended they were sleeping on bunk beds.  Of course, I had to stop what I was doing to capture that moment.  They also were pretending they were the black and red SpiderMan...fitting who was wearing which underware.
We decided to do Advent Calendars with the boys this year.  I'm not sure if there is supposed to be some sort of story each day,but they just love the cool pop-up tree and good chocolates they get each day.  These are great calendars because we can reuse them for years to come because they are so sturdy and the openings are closeable (is that a word?)
Here is them on day one...Noah shows Micah each day which number to look for and helps him find it.  It's a pretty cute thing to watch him be such a good big brother like that.

Been awhile...

So, we decided about a couple weeks ago to foster care for a dog until a home was found for him.  He was a really nice dog, but he didn't work for our family.  He has found a new home.  He certainly is a beautiful dog!

We went to a church retreat a couple weeks and one afternoon we just spent walking the grounds with the boys and it was so much fun.  The video below shows what this picture tried to capture.,  my boys sure make me laugh.

Muscling...

This is my first attempt at a video post, but this was a funny situation that was happening at dinner tonight and I couldn't help but share it with you all...

So Many Leaves

We have so many leaves to rake these days.  I can't believe it!  The nice thing is that the weather has cooperated.  It has been in the 70s or close to for the past three days, making it that much easier to go out and rake and the boys to play.  We've got two beautiful red maples in our yard, but they are "late" in falling, so we are always cutting it close to leaf pick-up getting these taken care of.  And I kid you not, most of the leaves fall in one day!  

This is a picture of Noah "playing Monkey."  That's how he described it to me so I would put him up in the tree.

This was the first year that the boys wanted to jump in the piles of leaves, so I captured a few of them doing so...

This is just a glimpse of part of our yard...can you still see how many are in the tree!  It's November 5th for goodness sake!!

Africa...

It has been many moons since I came back from Africa, but as we approach this holiday season I can't help but think of our two little boys that are there.  I can't help but think about how much we have here and how little they have there.  It is so easy to trust God and say that He is all we need when we have everything we need.  The faith of the people in Swaziland is amazing and their trust in the Lord was inspiring. 

This is one of our children, Mbongeni.  His dad gave me this beautiful skirt and head wrap.  I loved meeting their family. 

I brought him a soccer ball.  We had so much fun playing together.

We brought along a blow up globe to show them where we lived in comparison to where they were located.

This was a sweet little girl at one of the sites that we visited.  She literally giggled the entire time we were there.

I miss my friends in Africa so much.  I loved being there and the people that I met.  I fell in love with them.  

There is a song called "Africa" (strange, I know) by Paul Coleman Trio...it says, "Africa, I came to change you, but instead you changed me.  I must confess that I came to frame you in a photograph, but you showed me why, you turned this heart around..."

One day...

This is how my day started today.  

But this was the look on their faces at breakfast...Micah loves oatmeal
Noah likes waffles and yogurt
Our afternoon snack was an adventure.  I had seen on a TV show these peanut butter smiles for a snack and tried it out. The boys loved them.  It's just apple slices with peanut butter on it and marshmallows for teeth.  Of course they LOVED the marshmallows, but they ate the apples and pb too...
love having a snack they like...

Tagged

4 things i was doing ten years ago:

1. I started college

2. Living in BJ Hall

3. Deciding that perhaps pre-med wasn't my thing

4. meeting my best of friends

4 things on my to-do-list today (i'm doing this late, so basically, it's what I need to do the rest of the night)...i had the day off work today, so my to do list is much shorter than normal.

1. Get my kids to stop pinching each other (that might take more than a day)

2. maybe take a relaxing bath and watch some TV

3. make dinner

4. view the employment section of the paper

4 Jobs I have had

1. Starbucks 

2. Executive Assistant at QPL

3. Executive Assistant to Associate Provost

4. My first...McDonalds

4 movies I have watched more than once

1. Love Actually

2. Princess Bride

3. Braveheart

4. Bad Boys

4 Places I have lived:

1. Spokane, WA-birthplace thru college

2. Burbank, CA-first place after college

3. Arcadia, CA

4. Grafton, WI-home for now

4 Places I have been:

1. Swaziland-just this past summer, it's so beautiful

2. South Africa--WOW, I can't believe all the history here.

3. Victoria, BC--honeymoon

4. Mount Rushmore-just for kicks I put this one on here.

4 Places I want to visit

1. Ireland-part of my ancestry

2. Alaska-it just sounds cool

3. Argentina-i did a report on Argentina in college.

4. Germany-part of Chris' ancestry

4 TV Shows I watch

1. Criminal Minds

2. Lost

3. House

4. My own worst enemy (this is a new one)

4 Things You may not know about me

1. I like "boy" movies...like Bad Boys

2. I don't like guns

3. I bake and eat when I am stressed out.

4. I like run 3-4 miles a day

4 People I tagged are

1. Karla Schuh

2. Jill Cocking

3. Erin Oranen

4. Kaci Carlson

Fall Days

When the trees start to look like this it makes me so excited for real fall.  Today was a beautiful day, but it wasn't the crisp fall days I love so much.  It was kind of sticky and 77 degrees.  But, even though the temperature was warmer than I like for this time of year, I know that winter is fast approaching and so I won't complain.  

Perhaps the east coast could have the midwest beat in natural beauty when it comes to fall, but I love this.  I don't really remember the Evergreen State looking like this...

We went to a pumpkin farm today, but it had some things I don't remember at any pumpkin farms that I went to when I was little...

The boys had a blast.

They would stand and JUMP from the top and see how they did on the way down.  I feel I got some great action shots.

The pirate ship was fun,but paled in comparison to the previous "obstacle course" pictures.

After the farm it was back to our friends house for lunch and pumpkin carving.

This just made me laugh.