Jesse Tree

I will shamelessly admit that I have missed my mom a lot this past month.  As a kid I would dream of making a Jesse Tree for my own family some day and how fun it would be if Mom would be there to help.  Well, she's doing the work God has called her to across the ocean, and I would never begrudge her that work, but there are times like this when I miss her more.

Our Jesse Tree is complete.  For this year we're just going to hang each piece on a "tree" of branches.  Maybe next year I'll sew an actually Jesse Tree and hook them all on like we had growing up.  Each piece is made out of felt and all the detail work I painted on with fabric paints.  Overall I think they turned out really well.

Brandon has already caught on to the idea and was asking today when he could hang another picture on the tree...now if the stories stick in his head as well, it will be all that much better. 

Here's a couple pictures of how the pieces turned out.

Blessings on your Advent season--the season of anticipating the joy of Christ's return.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Weekend Happenings

The sunset on Saturday was spectacular and Mount Baker was actually semi-clear.  Brandon informed his daddy on the way home from Bellingham that he had to "stop so Mommy can take a picture".  He's learning quickly.

We had a FUN weekend visitor.  The boys especially really enjoyed having Steph around.

Singing Veggie Tales songs as loud as they could together and loving it.  They're both so full of life, it was fun to watch.

We get asked lots if Micah is adjusting to only having one of his hands or if he gets frustrated.  Well, here you can see for yourself how well he is adjusting.

Blessings on your week--especially this week of THANKFULNESS.

FAST Racecars!

Yesterday while cleaning, I happened upon Bryan's old electric race car set so after supper and all toys were put away Bryan cleaned it up and put it together.  Brandon was so excited!  Those cars sure did go FAST!!

They later moved it to the hard wood floor which made it run much smoother and Micah even got a turn.  We had a couple of very happy boys last night.

Well, that is the end of the pictures for now.  Blessings on the rest of your week.

The Ham

With having rather volitile stomachs this week, I haven't been too strict on food.  However, with the progression of days our stomachs have gone back to normal so yesterday I was a little more strict with eating.  Well, Micah decided he wasn't going to eat his sandwhich for lunch (his favorite kind of sandwhich but with a different kind of bread).  So, I put him to bed without lunch and gave it to him for snack, but he still refused so I just recovered his plate and left it on the tray, not thinking much about it.  Well, about 4:30 yesterday afternoon he decided he was hungry enough to eat it.  He was several pieces in when I realized what he was doing because once he decides to eat he tends to stuff his mouth.  At that point I decided just to laugh it off and take pictures of my Little Ham.

And then he very politely brought me his plate and said "Ahh" (translation: All done!)

It made me smile!

Blurry Photos But Treasured Memories

Life with two boys is busy and there's always movement!  This next set of pictures is quite blurry because there was so much movement and very little light, but they are some of my favorites because of the memory they represent. 

Daddy coming home is one of the biggest events of the day some days and oh so much fun!

Climbing up

Fall One

Fall Two and tickle tickle tickle

The Brandon ending...every time

A sweet moment

My favorite picture of the month.

Finding joy in the simplest daddy time is defintely something to be thankful for.

Housecleaning

Well, after being flat in bed, pretty much incoherent for the majority of two days, I'm finally starting to feel like myself again.  Micah started the vomitting at 5:30 Sunday morning and Brandon and I followed.  It is a nasty flu bug that's flying around town.  Bryan came down with a major cold that morning as well so it was a rough start to the week. 

However, things are starting to feel "normal" again.  Yesterday I washed ALL the bedding and each room down, which was a big all day job.  We also FINALLY bought a new vacuum so the carpets are actually getting cleaned--such a relief.  We've been looking for a while because we had some very specific requirements in a very limited budget.  I think the Kenmore we ended up with will be good.

In the midst of all the cleaning I looked at my camera and realized it's the middle of November and I hadn't emptied it yet this month...oops.  It was fun to go through the pictures I had taken, even though there weren't very many.

Without further ado, here is the beginning of what there was:

Brandon has started to discover the joy of climbing trees and we have some great ones for climbing.  He isn't, however, quite tall enough to be able to get up into all of them on his own so we devised the use of the yellow crate and this tree he can get up into on his own now.  He's quite proud of himself!

Micah, in all of his stubborness, is refusing to walk on his own.  He's capable and will walk between Bryan and I, walk along the couch without holding on and basically stand up without holding on, but he will not walk.  It will suddenly happen one day, when he decides he's ready.  Bryan and I were having him walk between us, across the living room the other day but his PJs were getting in the way, so we stripped him and realized we hadn't changed his diaper in a while.  :)

It's the cold time of year again.  Frost is a regular occurance and I've always found it quite beautiful when it lines the colorful leaves.

And then yesterday, much to Brandon's great delight and my great chagrin, it snowed.  "Mommy, it's snowy time!!  But it's rain snow.  When it's all done we can go out and make a snow man."  Thankfully it didn't get that deep and didn't stay.  It might not be so this weekend, though...

Blessings on your Thursday.

A Micah Ism...

Brandon has been the main character of this blog lots lately, so it's probably time for Micah to have a little lime light. 

Micah is a stubborn boy...and that's saying it quite mildly.  I have struggled for months to get him to use sign language--I know he can and he understands when to use it, but he simply refuses with all his might.  How do I know he can?  Because of the one or two times he's said "Please" in sign language, and because the other day when I looked at him and said "Please" verbally and in sign language, he leaned forward and stuck his hand out for me to do it for him.  He's a stinker!!

Well, last week he wanted something really, really badly and was getting very upset with me for continually repeating, "Say Please" and signing it to him.  Finally, he decided I wasn't going to give in to him until he made some sort of effort, so instead of signing "Please" he simply said the sound, "P...P...P..." and looked at me as if to say, "I don't want to do it your way, I want to do it my way and saying the word is far easier than signing."  What could I do?  I gave in with a laugh--as long as he's trying to be polite somehow instead of screaming at me, I'll take it! 

I'm also going to try post a video of a new stunt he figured out the other day.  Stay tuned.

Blessings on your Tuesday.

Sunday--Birthday Surprise Finale

As I said in the last post, we decided to take the scenic route home.  We took 109 up to Moclipse, drove the Moclipse Highway up to 101, 101 to Port Townsend, the ferry across to Oak Harbor, and finally, 20 to I-5 and home. 

It was raining when we left Ocean Shores and rained off and on the whole day.  There's no other way to explain the weather other than to say it was a very moody weather day.

The tree grew in this direction. 

 We drove the Mocipse Highway (a highway Bryan has driven on that Don has not--very hard to do!) up to Quinalt Lake. 

There are five trees (all different species) that are the largest in the world and a couple that are co-champs, found in this area.  We visited the Spruce one, but since it was raining we decided to skip the others and do that with the boys some other time.

I couldn't get a picture without getting rain on my lens.  It was a bit frustrating.

Bryan's 6'4" to give you an idea!

 The fall colors were spectacular along 101!

Our final ocean stop on 101 was Ruby Beach.  From there the road veered inland.

The stone to Bryan's right kinda looks like a man watching the ocean with his arms crossed.

In Port Townsend we had about 45 minutes to watch the sea gulls and read while we waited for the ferry.

There was a rainbow with the full spectrum of colors hanging above Bellingham as we got off I-5.  It was a beautiful way to end the trip.

Blessings on the rest of your week.

October 29, 2011

My birthday was one of the most relaxing days I've had in a very long time.  We spent the morning walking on the beach, driving around the little spit of land Ocean Shores is on, going out to the rock barrier and going flicky window shopping in all the fun little souvenir stores.  After lunch on the beach we spent four straight hours sleeping and reading and didn't feel a bit guilty.  It was just the type of day we needed.  My only requirement for the day was that we watch the sunset on the beach and because the day had been so beautifully blue and sunny, the sunset was spectacular.

We spent the evening swimming and sitting in the spa--again, a relaxing treat. 

A morning stroll on the beach.

The rock barrier.  The waves crashing were so powerful and never the same. 

Sharky's--a fun souvenir store.

 We had a picnic lunch on the beach.  The starlings were fascinating to watch.  It started as a group of maybe a hundred and over the course of the hour we were there it continued to grow and grow and more groups joined together into one. 

The "lighthouse" on top of our hotel.  Unfortunately they wouldn't let us out on the walkway and the windows were filthy so my pictures didn't turn out so well from there. 

Nothings tall enough for my husband.  It's pretty funny to watch sometimes but I feel
sorry for him at the same time.

A fun picture through the telescope.

 Down to the beach to watch the sunset. 

I love how the "wispy" waves show up in the glow of the sun.

Doesn't that just look like the perfect location to completely lose yourself in thought for a while and be
 mesmerized by the waves?

 After we got back from supper Bryan called me outside to see this site.  We had seen a few clam digging couples going out to the beach earlier while we were watching the sunset and they were all putting headlamps on.  We thought that was rather strange, but apparently clam digging is best done at night.  The entire length of beach that we could see was covered in lights, and as you can see from the streaming lights in the bottom left of the picture, more were driving out there by the minute.

We had been planning to get up on time and head straight home, but Bumpa and Grandma called that evening and said they were doing fine and we should enjoy seeing more.  So, we decided to get up early and take the scenic route home, following Highway 101 up the coast and around the Olympic Rain Forest.  Guess what?  It rained all day in the rain forest... ;)