January Catch-up

 Grandma's bathing chair that Brian Rigged up. This allowed her to be lowered into the jacuzzi to relax and bathe.

 Grandma in her fancy new chair lift in the van.

 Some of the thoughts running through Ashlynn's head right now.

Ty with one of his twin friends at the childrens museum (Cooper? James? I have to see them up close to tell!)

Merry Christmas!

If I had sent out Christmas cards this year, this is the picture I would have put on it. However, this year has been a bit of a roller coaster and we felt it best to cut back in some areas - and the Christmas card didn't make the cut!

The biggest challenge our family has been facing this year was the diagnoses of Brian's mom with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Unfortunately, this is a terminal illness. There is no cure for it and her decline has been rapid. The last few months have been consumed with understanding the disease, trying the emotionally process what it means, and taking every opportunity to make memories with Grandma. In October, the whole family surprised her with a day at Disneyland, one of her favorite places. We also were able to spend Thanksgiving, an early weekend in December, and now we will spend Christmas with them at their home.

Needless to say, we've been a bit preoccupied. In addition to not sending out cards, we were not able to find the time to make goodies to send around the neighborhood or take to our friends. I have since learned, that regardless of our financial or emotional state next year, this is not a tradition that we will leave out. It's easy to think that your friends won't miss one more plate of goodies - we get so many this time of year! But this tradition has nothing to do with sweets. Our family has missed out on the spirit of giving that this gift invites. I think when we return after Christmas, we will have to have a baking day and make "New Year's" goody plates!

*This next part of the post is where I whine some more*

I really have been trying to get in the Christmas Spirit lately. However, this last week brought non-stop rain, a bout of stomach flu, a letter from the IRS, and a broken water heater that only partially flooded our garage and left us without hot water for 24 hours.

I know! Whine, Whine, Whine!

But we did have a wonderful visit from my parents and Amanda. She got to take the kids to farmers, which I'm pretty sure they were more excited about than Christmas this year.

Ty announced that he had discovered that his name is in the word "naughty". (no duh, kid. I could have told you that, even if I was illiterate!)

And when Ashlynn kept hounding Brian for an answer to something, Briggs answered in his best wise sage voice, "She seeks the truth, Father."

Despite these nasty things that have been going on, The Lord is still blessing our family with so many things. And even though I obviously have a bad attitude, He still sees fit to remind me of those blessings. It's just up to me to recognize them.

This is for my mom. She asked the kids to tell me to put Halloween pictures up on the blog.
So here they are!
Briggs was easy this year. All I had to buy was a $2.00 pair of handcuffs to complete his policeman's esemble.
Ashlynn's costume, of course, was a little more involved. She's really into reading the Percy Jackson books, so Greek Mythology was on her mind. So I give you, the Greek Goddess (she wanted me to get her a pomegranate to carry around so that she could say she was Persephone - I told her that was too much). Her costume had to be hand made from scratch - which we managed to do for under $15 dollars. She made the headband all by herself, while I had to rely on a tutorial from V & co. to ombre- dye the bottom of the dress. "Why couldn't the dress just be all white?" you might ask. To which I would reply, "This is Ashlynn we are talking about. Everything must me authentic."
And Ty.

His motivation behind this "Sheriff- gone- bad" costume was the gun. He wanted a costume he could carry a gun with so that he could say, "Happy Hands-up!"

This picture proves he has the squinty-eyed bravado every wild west bandit needs ( and the eyebrows...).

Family Pictures 2010

I have been meaning to post more of our family pictures, but to be honest, I kept putting it off because I couldn't decide which ones I wanted to share. Our friend Melissa took them and captured so many wonderful images, there was no way I was posting all of my favorites on the blog. So here's a few!

I loved the location site, Avila Beach.

As an added bonus, our friend Tani lent a hand with the styling. I love how bright everything turned out!

In a Life Boat With a Tiger

Have you ever read " Life of Pi"? It's a story about a boy who gets stuck on a life boat with a tiger named Richard Parker. However, he doesn't know at first the tiger is there. He thinks there is only a hyena on board.

I just read the following passage and immediately related to it. It made me laugh, and laughing is a good thing right now.

Here's what the narrator, Pi, has to say"

"You might think I’d lost all hope at that point. I did. And as a result, I perked up and felt much better.

We see that in sports all the time, don’t we? The tennis challenger starts strong but soon looses confidence in his playing. The champion racks up the games. But in the final set, when the challenger has nothing to lose, he becomes relaxed again, insouciant, daring. Suddenly, he’s playing like the devil, and the champion must work hard to get those last points.

So it was with me. To cope with a hyena seemed remotely possible, but I was so obviously outmatched by Richard Parker, that it wasn’t even worth worrying about. With a tiger aboard, my life was over. That being settled, why not do something about my parched throat."

There are times in our lives when we are stuck on a life boat with a 500 pound Tiger. This is one of those times for me. Do I know how to deal with a Tiger? No. I know nothing about Tigers.

So instead, I'm going to just enjoy the boat ride and let the Tiger do what he wants.

A wise woman recently told me that once you figure out God is in control, and not us, life gets easier.

So here's me, handing over the reigns...

Present

Some time ago, my sister made these cute critters for my kids. Ashlynn got a pink cat, Briggs got a blue dog (Dodger Dog) and Ty got a camouflage monkey.

Needless to say, my sister knows her neice and nephews well.

Ty latched onto his immediately and dubbed him, "Present".

Due to lots of lovin', Present had to spend some time in my sewing room because of a few busted seems. Today I finally took the time to mend those seems.

When I handed him back to Ty after completion, He gave him a good hug and exclaimed, "Oh! Present! You're all resurrected!"

Thanks Auntie Nessa!

Time For a New Picture

Shopping with Ty Downtown. Ty found something he liked.

Watching fireworks at Angel Stadium on Mormon Night.

At the beach for a friend's baptism

At my new favorite restaurant, Oasis, which serves Moroccan and other Mediterranean dishes.