talented friends...

I am so lucky to know and have some dear friends who have talent beyond what I can comprehend. I wanted to tell you about just two today. The first is my friend Lisa who inspires me to be a better momma and wife. She has an amazing blog and I love getting new creative ideas on entertaining and making a home glow with warmth and love. She always answers my endless questions with kindness and warmth. While at Lisa blog a few weeks ago I entered a drawing and won! The prize was a beautiful gift from another talented friend of mine.
  My friend Kim who also can throw one beautiful party and inspires me to make everyday special. It was Kim who made me really realize just how much I love photography. She encourages me, makes me laugh and most of all has the kindest heart! Kim is a women of many talents and you can check out her photography site or her new etsey shop to see just a few. The prize I won was one of her amazing Silhouettes. I sent a picture of my each of the kids. which was kind of hard to sent an unedited picture to such an amazing photographer :) A few days latter this is what I received!

I love them they look so cute framed on the mantel! I love them!!! If you are looking for a fun gift idea for Valentines day this would be a gift that would be treasured for a very long time. Thank you Kim and Lisa for the inspiration you both are to so many and blessing my life in so many ways.

wrapped in love....

The last of the Christmas post, My mom finished up the finishing touches of her beautiful christmas gift to me. . On Boxing day this year my mom gave each of us "kids" a large bag with a blanket in side. Each with it's own fabric that was perfect for each of us. Mine had this cute brown fabric that I love!

Then as I opened the blanket up the tears started and amazing memories filled my mind! You see the story goes back 9 years ago and then even before that. My dad had passed away and I was still missing him with that daily ache and grief that stays with you when you first loose someone. One night while watching Extreme Makeover home addition I saw someone make a quilt for a little girl who had lost her dad from some of his old clothes. I knew that is what I wanted to do for my family too. So I talked to my sis Melissa and enlisted her help to go through the pile of dad's clothes at the house. The pile that we had all knew needed to go somewhere but nobody wanted to be the one to really get rid of. We spend at least two days going through clothes laughing at daddy's hot pink polo shirt, joking about that fact that dad wore the same basic thing each day jeans and a polo shirt with the occasional button down short sleave shirt and very rarly a long sleave button down shirt. Also crying over the many pairs of pajama pants he lived in the last few months of his life. The sorting of his clothes was a healing time in it self, a chance for my sis and I to really talk about all the different emotions we were feeling and dealing with. A chance to be honest and talk about things that we saw and did while taking care of dad that no one else would really understand and we would never really be able to explain. A chance to talk through memories and laugh so hard you start to cry all over again.
Well seeing as neither one of us were seamstresses we put the clothes away in a bag to get to later. As the years went by we often said to each other we really need to work on that quilt. Then my mom moved out of our childhood home and to be honest in the middle of the move and all those emotions I forgot about the bag of clothes. Then about a year ago I remembered them and was afraid to ask my mom what happened to then assuming they had been given away or lost in the move. I decided to look at it as a time of healing for me and my sis and let it go. So when I opened up the blanket and saw the clothes sewn together just how I had imagined them moved me to tears. I am sure this was a project that for my mom brought it's own tears and laughter. I hope it was a bit of a healing time for her too.

As I wrapped myself up in the blanket last night I was overcome with tears. I do still miss my dad so much at times. I miss what I think would have been a different relationship now that I am an "adult". I miss learning those things you learn about your parents as both of you get older. I miss talking to my dad!!! I miss not having him see his grandkids. However I was moved by what a gift my mom gave me! She faced what must have been so many emotions to create something that I will cherish forever.
Thank you mom for not only this gift but most of all working through tough times, being faithful, loving daddy so much, raising and caring for all 5 of us, being a team with dad that made us all a family! For that I will always feel wrapped in love.

book review

 I had the amazing opportunity to review another of Max Lucado's books called Cast of Characters. I LOVED IT!!! In this book Max takes you in to the lives of different characters of the Bible. Opens up  new thoughts and ideas into just who these people are and how deeply there lives have been changed by Jesus. Taking the common and ordinary and making them uncommon and used for God. I loved the way he makes the people in the Bible come alive and relatable. How I can see myself in them and find hope that God too can use someone common like me. I found myself seeing others around me different as well , moving away from judgement and misunderstanding to a hope for each of them. In one chapter he writes "The secret to loving is living loved.". I highly recommend this book the chapters are fairly short and each one is about someone different so you can jump around and take your time. Max Lucado has once again spoken to me in a way that helps me see just how amazing our God really is!

sunny days

Here in Oregon if it's not raining it is time to play outside because it will rain again soon for many days in a row. The other week it was dry and 50 degrees very odd for this time of year so we went outside to play all afternoon. Little Mister could not wait to try out his new scooter and Little miss wanted to ride her bike and try out her new jumprope. I wanted to take some pictures I think my camera missed the great outdoors :)

Sassy Skinny Jeans

For Christmas Little Miss got a pair of skinny jeans from Aunt Rae and Uncle Tim. I swear every time she puts them on she gets sassier. Aunt Rae asked for some pictures so here they are. She had been wearing them all day so they stretched a bit. It was very cold that morning so we were only able to snap a few pictures.

My very talented Mother in-law came up with a very fun gift idea this year the
12 months of Christmas. You should check out her blog to see pictures and her story of putting it all together. It was so much fun to open each month and see what creative thing would be next!

January: Movie night included Regal tickets in a popcorn container

February: Bouquets in Winter included a vase with Trader Joe's gift card

March: Car Wash included Kaady car wash gift card in a car holder

April: Gardening included a bucket filled with gloves, garden accessories, and a gift card

May: Cinco de Mayo included some homemade salsa, Mike's margaritas , and chips

June: Summer BBQ included a glass votive holder, BBQ sauce, and 3 rubs

July: A Taste of Italy included some homemade Limoncello and shot glasses

August: Happy Hour included a gift card to McMenamins in a fun glass

September: Romance basket included pasta, sauce, candles & holders, dessert, wine and a romance music CD

October: Fall Baking included some TJ Bread mix, ceramic measuring spoons, homemade dishcloth, and printed freezer labels from Martha Stewart site

November: Red Box Movie Night included $$$ in a RED box, popcorn, and some theater candy

December: It's Cold Outside! included Ceramic cocoa set, homemade marshmallows and chocolate covered candy canes

I loved the idea so much my sis and I have adopted the idea to make a fun Christmas gift for all the nieces and nephews this coming Christmas. And with the help of a local party store going out of business we have some fun things purchased already! Thank you Karen for another fun idea!!! Be sure to Check out her blog there are lots more creative ideas to be found.

Make It Bake It Grow It or Sew It

We did the traditional Make it, Bake it, Grow it, or Sew it this year with the my family and yet again I am blessed with some talented family member. Must apologize now for the pictures I was tiered and I just don't want to take them all over again so here they are a bit blurry but you get the idea I also gave credit to both the spouses but we all now in our family who really did the work. ( My Sisters you rock)
Doug and Molly made bread and Apple butter for the adults. YUMMY! They also made note books for some of the kids here is a great Tutorial on how to make the books. For some of the other kids she made cute bean bags and included a print out of a bunch of different games to play with them.

Sean and Jen made the adults rice heat packs which I have to say I have used mine a ton! For the kids she made these adorable magnet boards from cookie sheets, craft paper and then made magnets from glass stones and wooden pieces.

Melissa made these shirts for the kids using fabric paint and freezer paper. You can be sure these will be showing up at a few birthday parties this year! Here is a tutorial we used to makes these cute shirts. She also made kits for the adults to grow some herbs this spring. I am so looking forward to having some fresh herbs to use.

My Sister Beth and Her new husband Steve gave us the gift of Family History. She put together some genealogy paper work for all of us. She continues to struggle to get more information on my dad's family as he is not from the USA. It was a thoughtful gift that took many hours.
I gave each of the adults a family breakfast kit which included cinnamon pancake mix( I will post the recipe soon), homemade jam, a pack of family recipes and some new ones I found out in blog land, and some fun conversation starters I printed onto business cards.
My mom gave us an amazing gift that really needs to be it's own post. As soon as I get mine back(hint, hint, momma) I will take a picture and share the story with you!
Look back here tomorrow to hear my mother in-laws great gift idea. Trust me you will want to hear it. It was a great fun gift that I have already started to adapt for next year for the nieces and nephews.

Pioneer Court House Square

Another tradition of Christmas Eve is a stop for some starbucks and some pictures. This year I forgot to give my camera over when it came to our family pictures. I did however get a few pictures of the kids trying to stay dry under their umbrellas while we were waiting for everyone to get coffee.





Then after some family pictures daddy and Little miss went to look for the brick with his name on it. I love this picture just look at how hard she is looking and to be honest I am not even sure she really new what she was looking for she just wanted to help her dad.

I snapped this picture of Little Mister when he didn't know I was watching him. I know he looks sad but he is not at all this is his deep in thought face. This is the face I see right before he writes me another book, or draws me a picture. I see this face when we tell him something new and he needs time to figure it all. This is one of my favorite pictures because I know that face and it is one a boy full of imagination, compassion, and wonder.


After a yummy late lunch at Rock Bottom we came outside to see the city looking like this.


We ended the night with the kids opening one present of new PJ's and wearing then to the movies to see Tangled. When we got home we read the Christmas story and then it was to sleep.

Santa and some snow

On Christmas eve we went to see Santa as usual and this time we lucked out with no line!

The mall was all decorated for Christmas and another favorite event of the day is when the snow starts to fall at the mall. The kids love it! Little Mister even laid down to make a snow angel. I tried to get a few pictures of them playing in the "snow" but there was so many people and other kids around I manged to get just two pictures where you can still see their faces :)





Tomorrow I will post some of my favorite pictures from the day when we went to Pioneer Court House Square.

Flashback just a little to Christmas time. Things have finally slowed down a bit and I have been able to get some things around the house done including take pictures off the camera.

So it is finally time to show those Christmas photos.
For Christmas eve this year we did the same start to the day as always, breakfast at Krispy Kreme.

This year instead of the usual sweet pose I chose instead the chocolate face. I know it will not be too long from now they will no longer allow me to take such pictures :)

After Breakfast we head down town for a visit with Santa and see the rest of the Germer family. Those picture will have to wait till tomorrow. Until then sweet dreams