Monday, January 28, 2008

Snow Day!!!!

This morning I woke up at around 3a.m. with the excitement I remember from when I was young... I quickly got up and went to the window; peeked out and knew... today would be a snow day. It was beautiful and I peacefully went back to sleep. When I woke the girls up, both of them were filled with joy to know they got to spend the day together playing in the snow. I had to capture a few pictures on my way to work:


I love the trees in the snow; there is nothing like it!!

I loved the fact that the sky almost mirrored the fresh snow! We had a beautiful blue sky today!


Syrah was being pulled in a sled by her cousin Ryan and as you can see - she was loving it.


Sadie and her cousin Nicole made this huge fort today; they rolled up huge snow balls and then lifted them onto eachother and packed them in. As you can see there is built in seats!





Here is Sadie at the corner of her fort - look at the size of that snow ball! She is a proud girl!!

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Tree

When I got home from working yesterday; Sadie brought down this drawing she had made on the doodle pad; it isn't the best picture, but I had to share...
It says: "This is my love tree and your on the top branch! It was so sweet; I love these little gifts from their hearts!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Sunday we were able to go see the new Veggie Tales; the Pirates who don't do anything with our friends the Caceres's. We had a great lunch and enjoyed the movie (not as well as the last theatre Veggie Tales; Jonah, but still fun to take the kids to a movie). We then came back to our house and played some family games and ate some more! yikes!

Here are the kids: Sadie, Syrah, Samuel & Micah all enjoying some chocolate cake/brownie.


We were too busy playing games to snap many pictures; but I love this shot! These boys are super fun and great friends to our girls! We appreciate them (and their parents too).

Rain, Rain at the zoo

On Saturday we decided to have a family day at the zoo; we were given a zoo pass for Christmas so we have been really excited to get there! Even though the day were a few sprinkles and cold, we decided that we could make it fun no matter what the weather had in store.
This is the first picture of Sadie during our zoo trip - doesn't she look excited?
Syrah was super happy to be at the zoo too! We each picked a favorite animal to blog about.
Syrah loved this owl; Spectacled Owl - this guy seemed pretty happy to be out for the rainy day. We all spent a good amount of time checking out the several birds on display.
Sadie loved the Giraffe's - they were having their barn cleaned so we had lots of time to watch them up close. They are beautiful creatures!
Our very last exhibit was the otters, which ultimately ended up being all of our favorites. Since we have been the zoo has created a new viewing spot so that when these little guys are curled up resting you can peek a view; they were super cute. This isn't the greatest picture, but you can see his little claws and whiskers. We loved watching them!
This was on our way out... you can see that we surely were feeling the rain, but we had a great time and Sadie walked the ENTIRE thing (for those of you who know her medical history, this is amazing!) by the way... notice the massive crowds at the zoo that day?? There is some incentive to go in the rain!

Friday, January 18, 2008

Two down...

So, I had made a goal for myself to try to make at least one new meal a week. I have about three/four weeks worth of "regular" meals, but I thought it would be fun to try some new things. Well, last night was meal number two and just like meal number one... it was not good. Meal number one (last week) I could hardly get down, but Billy enjoyed it enough to take it to work with him for lunch (plus he is the kindest man when it comes to my cooking). Tonight I made an attempt at meatloaf; I have never made it and thought it would be worth the try. Well, that one didn't even make it on plates, I will spare you the pictures.

I realize rather then getting recipes online; I need tried and true favorites. So, I would love if you would post under comments one of your family favorites... I am willing to try and would love knowing they came directly from someones kitchen.


Happy Friday!

Friday, January 11, 2008

A day at work for Syrah...

Friday's my mom comes out during the afternoon to watch the girls while I work; unfortunatly my mom was feeling very sick today so she couldn't come out. Syrah was very upset because she really enjoys her time with Grandma, but when I told her she could come to work with me she was very excited. So, Syrah and I packed a bag of stuff to do and went to the office while Sadie was at school. Syrah was great, most people didn't even know she was there! She made a little place under part of my desk and had the entire set up. She watched Jonah and colored and played games; we went to lunch together and she had a great time. It was really nice having her there.


Here is Syrah's set up; there were several times people came to talk to me and were surprised she was even there!


She colored me some new pictures for my walls too.
We had a nice day, but hope that Grandma feels better soon - she was missed today.
Feel better soon Mom!!

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Quite is Good

We haven’t been up to much, hence the lack of photos! Last week we really enjoyed the fact that Sadie had a little more time home from school and in that also went to a few appointments. Saturday we had lunch with some family we haven't visted with in a long time and then we went to Billy's aunts house and enjoyed some time with family that we don’t' often get the opportunity to spend much time with. Sunday we had a day of hanging out with friends; it was really a laid back, relaxing and much needed day before we got back into the swing. Sadie had some great updates medically (see her site if interested) and is getting back into the swing of the school routine. Syrah is doing well, bummed that her sister is back at school; she misses her during the day. Billy finished up all his work on the Suncadia job and is now getting all geared up for his next assignment in Seattle (yeah, local!). I have been kinda re-battling some health stuff, but think I am on the mend and looking forward to being at full speed by the weekend.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Starting off the year with some rambling...


Our family - all in their pj's and party hats (compliments of the girls) for the first day of the year!!!
Now some rambling...
For many people the New Year represents a time in which things can be evaluated. We can see where we have been and look forward to where we want to be. We can see the changes we want to make and we can reflect on where we have come from. I was so excited as this New Year approached to sit with my family and have a discussion about the blessings we have experienced in this last year. I wanted to make a game of it, where we all shared and spent some time in reflection.

However, what ended up was not that…since Christmas evening our family has been sharing illnesses and it feels very much like when one of us feels better, another gets hit down. Even myself personally; I felt a glimmer of hope yesterday and then woke up today feeling like a MAC truck had ran into me. My point is… it took all I had yesterday to reflect on blessings when all I really wanted to do was to think about how horrible I felt or how horrible everyone in my family was feeling. It was hard for me to reflect on blessings when what I had "planned" for the day crumbled as each of us woke up not miraculously better from the day before.

I spend more time in prayer yesterday morning then I have in a long time… talking to God about how we are feeling and how I wondered if Jesus had ever had a touch of the flu or a cold and how he would have come to his feet and face the day. I talked to Him about the year ahead and how all I really want in this future year is to clearly see His will in each of our lives, which means I will be walking closer to Him. I know that my talking in prayer with Him yesterday is the only way I was able to pull any positive into the day.

We ended up doing some "year end or year beginning" organizing around the girls rooms. We had a nice family lunch together, had some nice quite rest time, each doing their own thing for just a bit of the day, then we had one of Billy's favorite meals (which up until yesterday I had never attempted to make) and played family games for almost 3 hours. We started a 31 day family devotional and ended Pilgrims Progress, which we have been reading for what seems like months… two pages at a time, but only as a family (meaning sometimes we would go days and days without reading). It turned out to be a very nice day… one that flowed and felt peaceful even in the midst of the runny noses, headaches, sore throats and aches and pains. We all were able to look past ourselves and focus on our family, thanks to the answer to a prayer to get through the day even if it didn't turn out how I had pictured it in my head.

This last year I have learned a valuable lesson in letting go; I am a planner by nature and I know for many things that is a blessing from God. However, every blessing can be pushed to far and this is where I have had to learn. I think of this lesson which was taught sometimes painfully this last year often. However it wasn't until this morning that I realized how that lesson was a gift and had I not had the several (sometimes several a day) little lessons along the way, I would have not been able to pull yesterday together. Not that "I" did anything special yesterday, but what I did do, was come to the table with what I had and made the best of it rather then bringing my frustration, anger and disappointment that things weren't going "my way". My learning to go with the flow is far, far from over, but at least I was given a gift of clarity to see that those days that feel so frustrating and disappointing were there to stretch and grow me.
Happy New Year, Theresa