Christmas Joy

The kids had so much fun playing with all the new toys from Christmas. I spent so much time playing with them, I didn't edit & post the pictures! But here are a few!

A Forgotten Card

A couple weeks ago DH asked me to make a card for a customer who had heart bypass surgery, very unexpectedly (aren't most of those unexpected though?). Anyway - masculine cards are such a challenge for me. Well, honestly, most cards are a challenge. I don't really scrapbook to make the paper look pretty, I scrapbook to make my PICTURES look pretty :D

One More Lost LO

One more forgotten LO on the abyss of my harddrive!

Some Lost LOs

I was looking through my files on my computer today and realized I had a few pages that I never posted. So here they are. Nothing fancy.

A Day of Peace!

I am so happy today. My family all went to run some errands and will be gone for several hours. Yay for me - peace & quiet - and maybe a chance to do a little cleaning (and of course some scrap time) without kids pestering and whining........I do miss them all though.......and what a wonderful husband I have to give this mommy a much needed break.................

Last night I did a few digital pages. I had some pictures I really wanted to use, and my printer isn't printing well now, so digital it was!

I simply love this one.

Merry Christmas

From our family to yours!

A little video to share the Christmas Joy (hee hee)



And here's the mug shot for future reference :P


I'm writing this Christmas Eve, we just got home from the Candlelight service at our church. It was a lovely service, nothing showey or fancy, just a bunch of believers gathering together to sing songs of praise and share our Joy of the Season. I managed to sneak in a few shots of the kids by candlelight though. I didn't feel too irreverant because well, I had to really pay attention to the kids because, well, they were HOLDING LIT candles!!!!!

I love this picture. I think it is one of my all time favorites. She looks so angelic-like. Makes my heart rejoice and immediately think of what this special day is REALLY all about.

"Don't be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy for everyone! The Savior - yes, the Messiah, the Lord - has been born tonight in bethlehem, the city of David! And this is how you will recognize him: You will find a baby lying in a manger, wrapped snugly in strips of cloth!"

Suddenly the angel was joined by a host of others - the armies of heaven - praising God:

"Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to all whom God favors." Luke 2:10-14

Emmanuel - God WITH us - was born, not in anyway fancy, but to humble circumstances.

I can't honestly decide which Christmas carol is my favorite, but one of my top three is "Mary Did You Know?" It's a beautiful song, my favorite stanzas (sorry if that's not the right term - I'm not a musician) are:

Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water?

Mary did you know that your baby would give sight to the bling man?

Mary did you know that the boy you delivered would soon deliver you???

The sleeping child you're holding is the GREAT I AM.

May your Christmas be Blessed. May you know the true meaning of Christmas, the Christ Child. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, the only way to the Father (God) and to heaven, the only forgiveness of sins, salvation. John 14:16

The Merry Magic of Childhood

This morning I caught Aly in two places that just made me take a picture.

How sweet to catch those innocent moments of expectation.


Sweetly playing under the Christmas tree.



Ah, the Christmas yummies! I love to make Christmas cookies. I usually make at least 100 dozen throughout the season. These are chocolate cookies, the recipe is from foodnetwork.com and it's called Top Secret Chocolate Cookies. They are SUPER yummy!

This is what we do with ALL those cookies.

I decorate them up all pretty like and we take them to our neighbors. Even if they don't enjoy it, I love doing it!

Oh, Gingerbread House, Oh Gingerbread House

how lovely are your candies......

oh, wait....that's the wrong song!

Every year we make gingerbread houses. It's tradition. Usually I buy a kit. But this year a good friend talked me into trying to make my own.

Next year we're buying a kit. LOL!

I guess I'm just a perfectionist....and I almost fried my mixer mixing the very heavy gingerbread dough.......

Anyway - here's a few pictures of the event. I assembled it and let the kids decorate it all by themselves. Sometimes it's hard for me to let go of that aspect, but I've learned to love imperfection and their interpretation! :D

(oh and for anyone with an SLR camera, I found this awesome tutorial at Kevin and Amanda on how to make your own Bokeh (a little contraption to make lights turn to shapes). My example below of my Christmas tree is very very poor (it's stars, but it just kinda looks blurry), I didn't have enough light in the house to make it work, but check out her site and photos - you'll definitely want to try it yourself!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

My sister took our picture in front of the vintage train. So nice to have me included in a picture since I'm usually behind the lens!

The kids & their cousins. They don't realize that Zac & Tyler are two names and two different people. They think of the boys as one person/name. Makes me chuckle! :D

Vintage Train Photos

Just wanted to share some of the pictures of the vintage train we rode over the weekend. It was a really fun place to take pictures.

I love this first one. As we were getting off, the steam from cars was coming in the window that was left cracked. It was so pretty over the red velvet seats.

I love this red box car. I wish I could have taken a picture without my flash, but it was in a very very dark building and I had to use my flash. It was a beautiful piece of American railroad history.

This is the old 1070 steam engine. It was built in 1907. Amazing.

Windows on the old Northern Pacific passenger cars.

As a last little treat - I didn't bring the video camera with us (urghhh), but I was able to use the continuous shoot mode on my camera and take about 20 pictures in a matter of only a few seconds. I put those pictures into a video of Cody's face when the train first started moving. He honestly couldn't decide if he should be elated or terrified! It was priceless!!!

A Childs Dream Come True

We just got home from a wonderful couple days of visiting family. It was wonderful to see them around Christmas. I'll be sharing photos over the week, but for today, I want to share one very special thing we did.

While we were in Sedro-Woolley, we took Cody on a very special train ride. Like most little boys, he loves trains. We've been trying to take him on a train ride for a while, but because of where we live, and our schedule, we've not been able to make it work. In the little town of Wickersham (I'm not really sure it's a town, rather a sign on the railline), there is a small hobbyist railway. Every year The Lake Whatcom Railway runs a few special trains with Santa as the special guest. It was a wonderful event, definitely a must do for a great family activity.


The rail cars are vintage (I can't find the year) but are very reminiscent of The Polar Express. I remember when I was a kid we'd always stop on the overpass and listen to the train come through on the way to my Grandparents house in Acme WA. Then they used a 1907 Steam Engine. Unfortunately, for political reasons, they can no longer use the steam engine and now use a diesel engine. We were able to look at the steam engine in the engine house though. It was amazingly huge.

The Santa on the train was fabulous! Just look at the pictures and you'll see what I mean ;). And his personality was just as good! I'm sure he was blind by the time the train ride was over though with all the camera flashes he had to look at lol!

Aly using all 4 fingers to tell Santa that she is 3!

O Christmas Tree

As I'm updating my blog, I'm listening to Josh Groban's O Holy Night. One of my favorite three Christmas carols. Could not be more wonderful listening to this, editing photos in the twinkling light of my Christmas tree next to my computer.

What a wonderful life!

This picture is not my tree, nor was it supposed to look like this. In all honesty, it was a total accident of a picture. I was getting ready to take a picture of a family at church and taking a couple pictures on differen settings for lighting checks and somehow wound up with this picture. But I was delighted. I loved it! So I'm sharing my happy mistake with you!

Enjoy and may you have a warm and Merry Christmas!

Miracles DO happen!

SNOW!!!

But that's not the miracle. When you live on a mountain in Eastern WA, to not get snow would be the miracle.

THIS is the miracle:


Yes, folks, she is IN the snow!!!!!

I had to take pictures to document it in case it doesn't happen again, EVER! LOL!

Oh, the things she'll do for shoes................we keep telling her she is not getting snow boots until she proves she'll play in the snow.

Guess I might have to go buy those pretty pink boots afterall..........

Wishing you a snowy white Christmas!