Decorating our CHRISTmas pine

On thanksgiving weekend, our tradition is to decorate our pine tree to remember Jesus coming down from heaven for us, celebrated on Christmas. This year we decorated before turkey-day because our special guest, Grandma, was visiting a bit earlier.

Here's baby Jesus from our nativity scene

"Je(s)us!" says our little one.
Our tradition starts with a story about the First Christmas, our saviors birth, and ends with cocoa as we watch our claymation video of the First Christmas.

Grandma is reading "The REAL night before Christmas", a book she gave us.

Next is a book with Christmas stockings that can be filled.

Our tree is a hodge podge of a variety of ornaments. We decorate our tree with ornaments given to us over the years and a simple prayer for the giver of the ornament. It's a great way to reflect back on the people that have blessed us by being a part of our lives, even if just for a season.

The evening ends with Aunt Sammie's arrival. By this time, grandma and the boys are singing CHRISTmas carols...and Aunt Sam joins in too (she even keeps the beat with her dancing feet!). That video of the four of them is for "their eyes only".

Here are the boys though:

We've always loved this season of remembering Jesus' first coming...so it's a pleasure to start a few days early!

This one's for you, Lola!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOLA

You are loved as you are

Have a wonderful day

Things -to be thankful for- Thursday

Our little one has had the childhood transmitted disease (in the chicken pox family) oral virus since wednesday the 12th...
Every cloud has it's silver lining, right?
Between my husband and I taking turns being caregiver and going to work, we were able to find the blessings of caring for a very needy, clingy, uncomfortable, child with fevers from 101 to 103.7 over a period of six days:
1. Watching movies under a warm blanket
2. Bonding with Daddy


3. As a family, with so much time at home, we got the Christmas tree and lights up -- ready to decorate thanksgiving weekend -- which is our tradition.

4. When he had an appetite back on day 6, we had pancakes!

5. We enjoyed "puppet shows" when our sick little toddler had some energy: here's kessy, our pet one-eyed snowy owl..... 6. Although most of the day was spent like this (below), the small part of the day that he dozed off, our older son and i got to do "artwork" which actually ended up in the completion of all my scrapbooking projects, minus journaling!

7. The dentist recommended yummy stuff that'd the kids and adults would enjoy: here we have sorbets, dairy free frozen desserts, we also had soy yogurt, soy cocoa milk, popsicles, liquids, soups.

8. A bowl of soycream with rainbow sprinkles, soy cocoa milk, and strawberry sorbet soothes the mouth

9. A chance to pull out some toys that we haven't played with for awhile

10. A "care package" (only part of it is shown here) that lasts and lasts and is full of the sweets for the kids

30 + 8

We all had a chuckle after watching this 16 second video being played back. There are enough candles on my cake to illuminate the room...and also darken the room to a "black out" when we blow them out! The funny thing is that there were a few candles shaped into the numbers 38 -- there weren't even 38 candles on this cake!

whatdga do?

Even though my parents are out of town today, they were sure to greet me on my birthday.

Not only that-- they were the first ones I heard from: at 5:20 in the morning!

they know i'm an early riser...and

how cool is that? i love that about them -- they

stayed up late in their time zone to be sure to wish me a great day....

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[i hope that today brings back memories for them about the day I was born. I heard it was a rainy day, friday the 13th...and I couldn't wait to get out..so I was born at the doctor's office instead of the hospital! ]

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.......mom asked, what are you doing today? so , here's the 411.... after a long trafficy one hour ride home from work, i was greeted with smiles and a special home made meal including my sister's signature salad (i love her salads) with spinach, red onions, slivered almonds, pear slices, and vidalia onion vinagrette.
...my dear husband took on the task of making my favorite non dairy dishes including alfredo-style pasta, a streusel layered coffee cake, and fresh baked bread while caring for our sick little boy today.

what a blessing that my sister joined us

check out this poster card...

here's the four of us. i'm wearing the kids' puppy caps,

those'll be great for the next silly hat bunco

Thank you friends for your thoughts, words and calls on my birthday. they each brought me a smile and i pondered "where did the time go?"... i went down memory lane remembering how and who i'd spend past birthdays with (theirs or mine)...my 18th at Corvette's diner eating a ruby burger...my 21st at a Comedy Club in downtown La Jolla, seated front row center and being included in the comedian's routine...my twenty-something seeing the musical Cats and eating out at Prego ristorante.....

now here i am pushing 40... i am so thankful for each little blessing that fits together in my life right now. Thank you Lord.

Flashback to the Country Fair

The boys dressed up as cowboys for our church's annual country fair on Oct 31st. Here is our little cowboy and his pony:

Neigh!

This pet horse has been around for three years :)
Mom sewed up 4 big holes just before we headed out of the house:

Daddy met us there

See the cowboy on the left hanging on to his hat? these real ponies really trot.

The horse in the foreground is carrying our little cowboy AND his pony:

Dancin' to the music with lollipop in mouth

One of my favorite pictures of this guy:

Fall season at the Park

On October 26th, we met Daddy at work and hung out at the tail end of that day's Pumpkins at the Park:

Our pumpkins:

"Scarecrows are my favorite"

popping out of the tube slide

"Here I am!"

"I hol(d) my baby pumpkin"says our little one

Moving through the zoo

It was my special day with the boys...just the 3 of us..so we went to the zoo to enjoy some of the privileges of being part of the zoo family -- complementary rides. While waiting for the bus, we enjoyed the new giraffe enclosure.

the giraffes are so close and TALL. it's neck is as tall as an adult.

it was cute to see them hold hands as they walked (but i didn't catch it in the picture)..we usually go with friends and these two often don't walk together but with buddies their own age

Look how excited this one is to be on the skyfari


Here we are the only ones on the express bus..they thought it was cool to be on top of the double decker bus!

the little one is a little more apprehensive at the start of the skyfari

they both love it by the time we are on the return trip :)

the little one says "i go on it again"

A new tradition

I've enjoyed hearing about friends going up to the local apple orchards and
picking apples for the past few years.

This year my husband and I chatted about starting that tradition this harvest season.

We had a spontaneous opportunity this week and off we went.

The apple picking season starts in late september..

you can see many apples fallen to the ground -- maybe they were more than ready to be picked

The apples are delicious.

The gentleman who greeted us suggested we could eat them right off the tree as we picked.

they were organic and we'd just need to polish them off before taking a bite.

Johnagold, fuji, red delicious..the list went on...we spent our time in the rows of empire apples.

there were 50 trees in each row...

we took a leisurely 30 minute apple picking walk down one row, and then turned down another row and kep picking to fill up our bag.

It was cold and windy - so nice to have chilly weather in November

The boys really enjoy their dad & that tickles my heart

I juiced some apples a few days later, the juice was just as yummy!