Jesse Tree Ornaments Close UP

 

 

 

 

The finished product

I suppose I could make the posts go in order if I start backwards but that just takes too much effort on my part and being as late as it is we're lucky I'm able to post anything at all. Ha ha! ENJOY!

 

 

 

Cheerios

Here's the other two just in case you think I forgot about them. They didn't do any coloring but Liberty sure is getting good at feeding herself Cheerios! Whenever Liberty is eating you can be sure that Condi is just hanging out waiting for something to fall from the sky...

 

 

 

My Coloring Kids

 

 

Creation of the Jesse Tree Ornaments

 

 

 

OK...I did this whole post ONCE already and lost it all. It's late and I've had no sleep so I'm not going to redo the whole thing! Anyhow, this past Thurs., Fri., and Sat. we worked on Jesse Tree ornaments. I'm starting the Jesse Tree CHRISTmas tradition with my children. My siblings do this with their children and now that mine are old enough I'm excited to begin as well. Ours are all hand done and rather large so they're going on a bigger tree, not the tabletop one I'd initially imagined. Anyhow, the kids diligently colored all of these except like 3, which I did. They sat for OVER AN HOUR and worked really hard on them and had such a good time. Then came the embellishments. OH BOY! Big excitement there. I finished them all up with a bit more glitz and glam and put the ribbon hangers on them. I think they turned out GREAT! It was such a fun time and a memorable experience, I think.

Christmas COOKIES

 

Yes, we made cookies this weekend. They are all in the freezer now (except the ones we snuck out of there). The kids were actually feeling OK when we did these. They cut most of them out and helped to decorate them as well. It was fun and of course, YUMMY. I made sure they washed their hands MANY times throughout the process...being sick and all! So, they had a little lesson in how NOT to spread germs.

The EVE of Sickness was upon us...

So, all this swimming fun and then the next day Az came down with a cold. Started out with an earache (which we thought was from swimming initially) and moved on from there. Not just through his upper respiratory system but on to everyone else's as well. I have it the least and since I'm the MOM, that's a good thing. Avi seems to be the worst at present and the baby is pretty sick too. The coughing is horrid. Baby was up projectile vomiting all night after every attempt to feed her the bottle. NICE. Went through lots of cozies, bedding, and towels. Between the baby being up and fussy most of the night and the other kids getting up and down to be comforted all night long Mark and I barely got any rest at all. It was bad enough that Mark actually called in sick for the morning. He had to go to a meeting later in the day that was unavoidable. Mark has never called in sick in the almost three years we've been here (at least I don't think he has?!). Anyhow, we went to see Dr. Frazer, aka Ginger, and she gave us some homeopathic remedies for the kids. They are so sick with this cold/cough thing and are running fevers with it. She said if they don't improve in 48 hours with this treatment then she'll prescribe antibiotics. Hopefully they'll all be better in a day or so! Oh my. It's so sad when the little ones are so sick. So, from the start, this has been going on a full week now. I though everyone was getting better midway and then it took a turn for the worse yesterday. So, here we all are; a house full of sickies. Mark has it too and is not feeling well at all. Avi and him are on the couch. I had to take a break to help Avi. She was having a coughing fit and then threw up. We made it to the toilet thankfully! I know, you're probably thinking, "GEE, thanks for sharing all the details" but hey, it's my life and my blog. It's what's real and what's happening here in my house. Pray for us!

 

 

 

The weekend AFTER Thanksgiving...

Mark's Mom, ie: GRAMMA E, came to visit for a couple days. We had a nice second Thanksgiving and the kids got to swim in the hotel pool the second day...all in all a winning situation! Lots of fun was had. Here's a few photo evidences:

 

 

 

Home Made Chicken Noddle Soup

 

We thought this was a special local sign worth sharing! :-)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Oh we have SO much to be grateful for!!!
I will list a few, ok...the TOP TEN, to share with you. I am grateful that:
1. Mark and I are together and happily married
2. We have such wonderful children
3. We have the sweetest baby that actually SLEEPS and is happy most of the time!
4. We own a wonderful home that the Lord provided for us! Thank You. Thank You!
5. I can stay at home to teach and train my own children instead of sending them off every day to be "raised" by someone else!
6. Mark has an excellent job.
7. We have such a WONDERFUL family & extended family
8. I am making some really great friends here in the desert.
9. I'm happy with where I'm at in my life right now. I am content.
10. We live in a free country, THANKS to all our soldiers who are willing to go out and put their lives on the line to protect our freedom and way of life.

MOST OF ALL (and I know this is more than 10 but without HIM none of this would be possible) I AM GRATEFUL FOR A LOVING AND MERCIFUL GOD!!!


Now that we've done the top 10 I'll move on to what I've been doing today, er, YESTERDAY! I just realized it's now after midnight so it is officially Thanksgiving Day here in Washington. Anyhow, we were originally going to go to my family's homes in the Seattle area for Thanksgiving as we always do...BUT due to Mark being on call at work we had to stay a lot closer to home so we decided to have it here. We invited Mark's mother & some local friends. Mark's mom couldn't come until Sat. so we thought we'd just do it then but I had already invited our friends so now I'm doing TWO Turkey days...well, I decided I'd do the big one today and do leftovers plus some other goodies on Saturday for our belated T-Day celebration with Gramma "E", as the kids call her. So, as you can guess, I was busy cooking all of Wednesday. Here is what I've prepared thus far:
1. TURKEY is in a kosher salt and sugar brine in the fridge
2. Stuffing is all made and ready to stick in the oven to bake
3. I made delicous pie crust for three pies
4. I baked two PECAN pies (Mark's fave)
5. Baked two butternut squashes and made a lovely puree with butter and real maple syrup out of it. Check out THIS LINK (my fave blog besides my own!): http://thepioneerwomancooks.com/2007/11/butternut_squash_puree_try_it_or_ill_deck_ya_.html
6. I baked two sugar pumpkins then made a fresh PUMPKIN PIE (MY favorite!)
7. I made our family favorite; PARTY SALAD, a delicious mix of lime jello, cream cheese, carrots, celery, heavy whipping cream and ummmmmmm...I think that's all...NO, WALNUTS too. MOST DELICIOUS!!!
8. I got the fresh heavy whipping cream and some powdered sugar in my handy dandy whipping cream dispenser with co2 cartridge power!

I'm sure there's more but my brain is beginning to fade and with that what little memory I have left! The point is, I WAS BUSY TODAY!!! And I feel so good about it. I am feeling a little like my own mother tonight. Partly because I'm still up and she always says, "If you want to get anything done you have to do it after the children are asleep". SO, here I am. It's nearly 1AM and I'm totally wired (though brain dead). I'm not sure I'll ever be able to sleep. Thanks Mom! Now I know how you feel.

OK...I also wanted to share with my friends and family who read this my sorrow for NOT posting before now! I really do apologize. I think about posting often...just haven't gotten to the actual DOING of it until now.

I will try to post some pics tomorrow of my food and our day. If I can function well enough to USE a camera tomorrow. I can always ask Mark, I suppose.

Oh, here's something sweet to share. The kids were done with story time and Mark was taking them in for prayers and bedtime and I told Avi she could stay up with me. She was SO delighted. She got to help make the pumpkin pie and you should have heard the chatter that was coming out of her. She felt like such a big girl for getting to stay up late to help Mama. She said she's going to help me cook EVERYTHING from now on. :-) We'll see how long that one lasts. Ha ha. She's was so cute. I wish I could capture the essence of moments & experiences shared like that on a camera or some other device...but it just has to be left to your imagination and falls under that category, once again, of "Guess Ya Had to Be There!". The sweetness of life with children! I can't imagine my life without them. What joy they bring. Not like it's always so dreamy perfect...
We definitely have our moments! And they do drive me insane pretty regularly...but it's TOTALLY worth it!

I'm going for the BOLD and posting this without even reading over it. I have no idea if this flows or is random. Spelling or grammar errors...Yeah, I'm sure there are lots. Please just try to overlook them...and know that if you're reading this... I AM GRATEFUL FOR YOU! I also know I have a habit of using "..." and while it may irritate some who are picky about grammar etc. or distracted by it...TOO BAD. I really can't help myself. I LOVE those little dots. Anyhow, Love to you and a heart of GRATITUDE on this day. OH...I have to share a quote from I know not who, but it demands to be shared! HERE GOES:

G is for gratitude. When I'm in gratitude, if I even stop and make a list of the things I'm grateful for, that's a form of prayer. It breaks my trance of misery or self-absorption.
I did send that out in an email so if you already read it, well, it's worth reading twice so I'm not going to apologize.

LOVE TO YOU ALL and HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

Liberty eating & bathing

 

So, this is how Liberty is currently having her dinner; in her bath! Now, it's not usually THIS messy but she's getting pretty aggressive with the spoon and bowl. I will have to post the video Mark took of it tonight soon. It's pretty cute!

TREE Climbing by the River

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hmmmmm...11-04-2007

The pic with Avi and Az both standing stiffly with their heads down looks like some sort of cover for some type of depressing or bizarre grunge rock album. I have no idea what was going through their minds except that they were THROUGH with having their pictures taken. If you notice that there are more pics of Avi than Az it's NOT because Avi is my favorite. It's because Az was having a bit of a hard time with the whole idea of participation and cooperation that is involved in semi-staged photos. Ah well, he eventually got over it!

 

 

 

 

Bandaid Trees. This is a good one!

The following pictures tell the story of the BANDAID TREES!
Azriel got hurt on a sticker bush and his finger was bleeding from being poked by a thorn. He was near hysteria (as is common when blood is involved) and Mark quickly came up with the BANDAID TREE solution. He told Az that the Willow tree was really a bandaid tree and that all the leaves were special bandaids for just such an owie as his. He picked a nice long leaf off and wrapped it around Az's owie. Amazingly this made everything better for Az and it was off to playing around as usual. As we were walking along a bit later he said to me, "There sure are a lot of Bandaid Trees around here". I agreed, of course. He then proceeded to pick his own "bandaid" as he needed a fresh one. Anyhow, it was much cuter as it was taking place. Somehow the retelling of such a story really loses some of the most important elements of it...thus the saying, "Guess ya had to be there"!