Happy blessings

You know those odd sightings of the virgin Mary on burnt pancakes & grilled cheese sandwiches? I've had a sighting of my own in Zachary's birthday cake, fresh from the oven:

Do you see a smiley face like I do??? I believe this portends many happy blessings for Zachary for his birthday! 

Happy 1st birthday, Zachary!

(No, iPhoto is still kaput. I'm testing out the email-blog thing I've never tried before.)

It's Christmas card season!

Truly one of my very most favorite things about the Christmas season is the deluge of Christmas cards I receive each year. I love, LoVe, LOVE them...I love hearing from dear friends & family, hearing about all the great things in their lives (yes, I read those brag letters from beginning to end, even the most long-winded ones, always!), I love all the many beautiful card designs & especially the creative ones...and what's better than going out to the mailbox every day and finding a stack of cards amidst the bills?

Anyway...I have my cards being printed as we speak and really hoping and praying they make it here soon. I'm pretty good at keeping my address book up-to-date BUT if you have moved and not passed along your new address to me...OR if you hadn't received a card from me last year but would like one, please email me your address here. Or if you'd like to mail me one of yours and don't know my address, I will happily share that with you too.

Here are a few of my favorites from years past (I'm not going to show you this year's! You'll have to wait patiently for that!) I've been drawing our Christmas cards ever since George & I were first married.

This was our 2nd Christmas in 1999...we had no kids yet, so George & I are the 'kids':

As our family has grown, I've gradually phased George & I out of the picture (and aged us rather quickly too)--I think this was actually the last year George & I appeared in the drawing...this was 2003:

See, this is 2007, and it's all about the boys now:

I don't always do shepherds though you might think so looking at these. I try to alternate between religious/Santa-themed drawings each year. I always pull my hair out trying to decide what I'll do but it's so worth the effort--it is so fun to look back at all the cards over these last 12 years (and this year's is the 13th one!)

All images above copyrighted...please DO NOT USE without consent from me!

I love Christmas cards!!!

AAaaaaaaaaaaAAAAaaaaahhhh!!!

That is my scream of utter frustration.

I am having major iPhoto problems--ever since we "upgraded" to iPhoto '11. I HATE it! It freezes my computer & when it does work, it moves at a snail's pace (and we've even divided our photo library so it has less to work through.) GRRR!!!

Take this as a warning, fellow Mac users...until they fix this, DO NOT UPGRADE to iPhoto 11!!!

So yeah, I promised all these fun things to share now that the book is (mostly) behind me but I am having such an incredibly annoying time with my photos that I usually say forget it. I got the hair pictures up by sheer force of will and way too much time for what it was worth.

So...in the meantime...here is a short list of some of the things I've been wanting to put up here but have given up under the circumstances:

*progress on the boys' bathroom (remember this? It's been in the works for so long that I wouldn't blame you if you have no idea what I'm talking about.)

*progress on the kitchen (same as above. Neither project is completely finished yet...but getting close.)

*newly expanded attic space (I know that sounds dreadfully dull, but I tell you it's about the most exciting thing ever...we are so HUNGRY for storage space in this basement-less house! You'd agree if I could get to the stinkin' photos to post!)

*our 'snow day' a couple days before Thanksgiving...all of you in snowier climates (which is pretty much everywhere except maybe AZ & CA & those other year-round sunny places) would get a laugh out of that.

...and so much more. I gave a lesson to the YW on Sunday about optimism...I'm stretching hard here to think of a silver lining to all this iPhoto mess....hmm. Thanks to the difficulty in using my computer, I am using my time for other more worthy pursuits. I've almost finished a 540 page book in no time flat. How's that? : )

Hair.

Sorry for the delay in sharing the new do. Didn't mean to keep you in suspense.

The before. 

I wish I'd done something pretty with it, but this is more or less what it looked like every day anyway. Blah humbug.

And the after. 

So, I went with the 'B' option. George was most in favor of 'B'...and as much as I value all your wonderful opinions, he's got an extra-large vote. I personally still love 'A' best (and thank you for saying so as well) and have already made up my mind that that's what I'll do next.

I'm not crazy about the way it looks in these photos. It was at the end of the day by the time we got around to getting the pics so that's my excuse. 

I think it ended up a little longer actually than what I expected/wanted. That's fine though...I will make this length work for a bit until I go shorter.

The best part about it all though was that we got a full 12 inches out of it that I can donate to Locks of Love! I've never done that before. Not that my tiny little ponytail will contribute all that much--my hair really is SO fine. It's pretty surreal to hold my own hair like that.

I always notice a haircut most in the shower, don't you? So weird. The best part though was afterward when I combed it out and hit not one single tangle or snag. : )

Thank you all for your help!

Hair today...gone tomorrow.

 The time has come to chop my hair. It's been growing and growing and growing for a LONG time. And it's very, very long and string-y. I should have cut it many moons ago. More moons than I care to admit have passed since I last even had a trim. And I haven't had a real cut for years. Ugh.

I had to dig WAY back to even find some decent shorter hair shots of myself. I dug them out because I'm asking for your expert (because anyone is an expert compared to me, really) opinion. (Ashlee, if you're reading this, I especially would love your thoughts...you ARE an expert.)

So, exhibit A: the A-line...which is a cut I've always loved...I had it when I was in France on study abroad, and when I was married...so happy memories attached to it. But I'm not sure I want to go that short heading into winter, you know?

Exhibit B: which is really just a grown-out version of exhibit A, minus the A-line. I kinda like that length on me...still on the short side for winter though. (I took this pic to show off my new braces-less smile. And I did have braces in the pic above.)

Exhibit C: which is another grown-out version of exhibits A & B... It's a little longer and I could still pull it back in a ponytail when I felt like it... (So happy my glasses days are behind me. Thank you Lasik! and George, who paid for it!)

(Seeing all these pictures of me in skinnier days is a little discouraging...but motivating too. Maybe more of you will be up for another go of the Fit Game post-holidays?)

So can you help me? 
Or do you have a better idea than my options? I am admittedly quite hair-challenged.

I'm going to get it done on Thursday morning so any feedback prior to then will be much appreciated.

It's a DOUBLE rainbow!!!

So we've had some pretty miserably rainy days this last week...

And on Thursday, while I was finishing up the last of the artwork for the book at my kitchen table, I noticed that the light had changed outside--I poked my head up for a peek and a delightful rainbow met my gaze! I am such a sucker for rainbows and full moons. There's just something so magical about them.

It was so pretty out the back window...so then I had to run around the front (and it was still raining, very cold rain, I might add)...

...to see this fabulous sight! A rainbow over my own little house! : )

I ran across the street to get a wider shot...this is about the best I could do. 

And there, do you see? A double rainbow!!! ("What does it mean?"...if you know what I mean.)

That rainbow made all that horrid rain completely worth it. : )

It is DONE!

Happy Day! The book is DONE! : ) Just in time for Thanksgiving...I'm so thankful.

Hello.

Hello... I have a moment here while I wait for George to finish with the other computer so...hello. : )

I am SO close to finally finishing all the artwork for this book. Finished #12 tonight (like 10 minutes ago) and have just 2 left to finish. Despite the rush to get it all done, I'm so enjoying each piece...I'm almost sad it's all finished. But not too sad...I am SO ready to get control of this house, take care of a few projects that have fallen by the wayside by necessity, catch up on other calling-related items, etc, etc, etc, but most importantly, I just want to play with my baby and soak in each moment with him! I so regret every time I have to push him away and plead with one of the other boys to "Please just take Zachary so I can finish this..."

Anyway...George just finished so I must end here. Goodbye. For now.

What a week.

The Halloween Hogwarts Crew: Malfoy, Harry Potter & Hedwig, Dumbledore, & Colin McGreevey

It all started that fateful night when Aaron dared to say, 

"Hey...we haven't been sick in forever!" and neglected to follow that with a knock on wood.

The very night of the Trunk or Treat (pictured above) Aaron was the first victim of the dastardly stomach flu. He was followed by Benno. Then George. Then Zachary. Then ME. Then Christopher. And I'm still waiting for Anthony to erupt in the middle of the night (as was the insidious pattern of attack for each of the boys).

On the other hand, since November is a month of gratitude...I had to find a way to be grateful for the stomach flu (and if Corrie ten Boom can be grateful for fleas, I can certainly be grateful for stomach flu, right?) and that was the time it gave me to work on my art (other than the day and a half I lay helpless on the couch with stomach pain and nausea). I didn't leave my house all week, other than dropping Christopher off to school. Time is a lovely gift when one has a tight deadline!

So speaking of the deadline...I must be off. 

I have such lovely things to share when all this work is behind me. Stay tuned.

Sneak peek

Shhh!!! This is confidential. I'm giving you a sneak peek which will explain in part my absence from blogging/facebook/life in general--

It's another book underway (which is quite the challenge with both the cranky, teething 10 month old & clingy 3 year old underfoot!)

Gallery time

Pardon a little show-and-tell here...my boys have been flexing their artistic muscles lately, so I wanted to share a few that impressed me.

First is Benno's...and this totally caught me by surprise...he went from scribbling randomly across a page to drawing recognizable images overnight! He brought me this and I couldn't believe it--that nose, that nose, what an awesome nose...and the (3) eyes...and that toothy grin...(and he's 3!) 

He then taped it to the oven door for display.

Christopher brought this home from kindergarten. (His teacher convinced him to start writing his name as "Chris" because it was taking too long to write out his entire name.)

The profile of that wolf is fabulous!

This is Anthony's creation...a fun, mazy, squiggly ribbon.

And this jet flying through the air is Aaron's (which is more impressive in color, but he printed out just 2 copies--one in color to keep in his journal and a black & white (see he labeled it for us) for display on the fridge.) He created this entirely on the computer. (George has taught him Sketchbook Pro. I think Anthony did his on George's computer too.) 

I'm proud of my little artists. : )

And now he is six.

We celebrated Christopher's 6th birthday earlier this month!

For lunch on his birthday, we ate out--he chose Pizza Caboose, of course.

He had a soccer game scheduled that afternoon. He wore his "it's my birthday" star sticker on his shirt throughout the practice & game.

After the game we hurried home for a big tasty dinner & cake & ice cream. (I am not a cake decorator...I'm too busy/impatient to do much more than this.)

When I asked Christopher what he wanted for dinner, he said "Spaghetti and hard eggs." Strange combination, but I served them up as requested. : )

It took a few tries to get all those candles out, but he got his wish anyway. : )

A few days later we had his birthday party--I'd never done a friend party for him so it was time. He made it way too easy on my though...he requested a "Wii party" which is the easiest party EVER.

 

See what I mean? SO easy.

These cupcakes might look familiar. I made some almost identical to these for Benno's birthday in April.

(Notice the cupcake on his plate? He licked off all the frosting...little stinker!)

Happy birthday cute guy!!! We love you!

Mt Tabor

We've lived here for 7 years now...longest I've lived anywhere my ENTIRE life!

In all the time we've lived here, we've never explored Mt. Tabor, until a couple weekends ago and what a little gem that park is! Well, it's more than a park...Mt Tabor is a dormant volcano within the city of Portland...but it's a big park criss-crossed with hiking trails and reservoirs and playgrounds, etc, and the views of the city from up there are worth the visit.

So while hubbies were at the Priesthood session of conference, my friend Wendy & I and our TEN(!) children headed off to explore Mt. Tabor.

There are trails all over...we opted for the 1 mile loop.

All ten kids!

One of the world's best climbing trees

There's a big reservoir behind that fence.

Cute kiddos. (Poor Katie, the lone girl in our crowd of boys. She holds her own very well.)

The highlight of the evening was definitely the playground. The kids played on the merry-go-round FOREVER. There's a set of see-saws at the playground too--"an old-fashioned playground" according to the kids : )

My sweet baby....it makes me cold to look at him though he wasn't complaining. It was so chilly that afternoon/evening...we came unprepared since it had been so warm earlier and all of us were cold!

Other than the cold, it was a lovely park and a lot of fun!