Charlie Brown Christmas

At our hotel the boys settled in for a little R&R. They sat mesmerized by the "Block Head" that we all grew up loving. It was very funny to see how intently they watched. I think that this is the most still they sat without bugging each other the whole trip.

Stops At RR X

Coming home from Oregon we broke up our trip by stopping for a night in Redding. While looking for a place to eat we came across an open air park that was decorated for the holidays. To the boys delighted suprise, they had train rides that went around the whole lighted park, and of course we had to climb aboard. We need one of those stickers for our van that says "Caution: This vehicle stops at all toy train rides".

Grammy Ann

We are finally home after being away in Oregon for almost 1 month. We left on Thanksgiving day when we found out that Ann (Steve's aunt/"mom"), who had been battling cancer for about 2 months, took a turn for the worst and had to be admitted to the hospital. After about 3 weeks in the hospital she lost the battle for her life. She past away on December 13th quickly after being removed from all the life support. She was always a joy to be around, full of life and love for good food, good wine and good company. The day after her passing it snowed for the first time this winter. It was so peaceful, and the boys really enjoyed it. This was their first snow experience ever. Thanks Grammy Ann, no one will ever be able to top this Christmas gift! We love you and miss you so very much!

More Coffee Huggers

Here are two more designs. I'm trying to figure out some really clever packaging so that I can take these to the shop downtown.

"Coffee Huggers"

OK all you coffee lovers out there! Here is something that you might be interested in. If you can't live with out your Starbuck...Pete's...neighborhood cafe...Here is a lovely way to be conservation savvy and be oh so chic too! Drum roll please............................................

Introducing the Coffee Hugger!

It's a unique handmade reusable coffee cup sleeve that you can take where ever you go. What a great little $5 gift for all the coffee lovers in your life! You may even be considered an humanitarian!

My very good sister Jenny requested me to make these for her going green coffee cup promotion in her magazine that she publishes, titled "Artful Living". It features talented people on the central coast who have turned their passion into their occupation. It is a beautiful magazine, take a visit to her web site, you won't be disappointed!

More Aprons

The quilting store downtown has requested that I turn over my stock for the Christmas season, so I decided to make a whole new line of aprons with matching potholders. I am so excited to see how great they are turning out! (If I don't say so myself) Here are the first couple, with more to come. I even incorporated my "colie birds" on them! $29 for the apron and $12 for a set of 2 potholders.

Homeward Bound

It's been difficult to define the condition of our hearts in these sad recent days. Michi has been gone now a week and 4 days and it still seems unreal and all to sobering at the same time. There has been a decent amount of tears and regret, particularly over whether we will ever see her again. This has perhaps been the most difficult part for us to come to terms with. I think that maybe, for our sake, it is best to just simply believe that the moment she saw Jesus she loved Him. Who does it harm to have faith and hope that we will one day rejoice with her at Jesus' feet? So I am resolved to resign my worries, and from this day forth...love a little deeper, cherish a little more, give grace a little more freely and procrastinate a little less.



In the eyes of a child...



Christopher had the following conversation with Steve the day we came home to tell the boys the news of their Grandma Michi.

(Steve has Christopher gathered in his arms as Joshua plays at his feet)

Steve: Christopher...Joshua, dad has to tell you something. (pause) Grandma Michi has died. (pause, quiet tears)

Christopher: Dad...are you sad?

Steve: (nods)

Christopher: Is she with Jesus now?

Steve: I hope so. (Pause)

Christopher: It must be nice to be with Him. (Pause) There are big houses in heaven.



The faith of my child aught to teach me to believe as well.


We'll miss you, Grandma Michi!

And He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." Matt. 4:19 NASB (Note: Christopher is holding his Spiderman fishing poll and wearing Spidy glasses too. He is my little superhero that is trying to save the world one soul at a time.)

Colie Bird Card

Wendy sent me a card with an image that she has termed "Colie Birds". I have a tendency to be drawn to them and and now she says that these silly whimsical looking fowl remind her of me (I'm sure it's not because I can be a bird brain at times...right?). In any case, she is my creative inspiration and I enjoy sharing her talents with everyone.

Dino Dens

Our science lesson today was about where the dinosaurs may have lived. Christopher built houses for the dinos to live in and hide from bigger ones. His idea was amazingly similar to how ours are built all in a row.

Unfortunately, for the inhabitant, there was no back wall to protect from a sneak attack and only enough room to back in and not turn around. Perhaps this is why they are extinct today?!

Coming Undone

My wondrous child has a myriad of peculiar habits that he picks up from who knows where. I always thought that it would be a wonderful thing to document, but thus far have not followed through with this thought. Well this all comes to an end today.

Joshua does everything backwards. When he first started identifying letters he would invariably proceed to shout out letters starting at the back end of a word. You will regularly find him with his shoes on the opposite feet, and if they are on the proper feet you know that a discriminating helper assisted.

But what is funnier yet is his pants. He will ALWAYS put his pants on backwards. After being told they are on backwards and to take them off and try again...he will do as he is told only discover that they are on backwards once again.

Some moms find it necessary to point this out to me...I just laugh and am relieved that he doesn't insist on going bottomless (knowing me I would oblige him for the sake of ease). Now he has discovered buttons and zippers. I find this extremely hilarious and it must be documented for posterity.

Harvest Time

Our church had a harvest festival this Saturday evening. It was only supposed to be a quick get-togther, but it turned out to be a very exciting 3 hour long event! We piled into the car at 5:00pm and didn't come home until almost 8:30pm.

After a parade of costumes, where Joshua took prize for the best 3-5 year old boy costume as Speed Racer, Christopher and Joshua participated in a cookie eating contest.

This is our pastor and his wife.

Lazy Walking "M" mom and her little outlaw.

We also went "treating" from trunk to trunk in the parking lot to marvel at all the wonderfully decorated vehicles, and to gather an eclectic bag full of treats. Unfortunately, due to my lack of forethought we were the only ones not decked out (oh well there's always next year).

After this thrilling outing we attended another social (being the little butterflies that we are...yeah right) we stayed for another 2 1/2 hours. Our neighborhood has little gatherings every now and then. This particular neighbor had planned out quite a night of activies from flinging bugs to pumpkin decorating. We finally tuck our little bugs into bed at 11:30. Needless to say we barely made it to church today.

Here's a card that Steve requested that I make for his dad's birthday. I think that it is "Wendy" clever.

In all God's Glory

I took about 300 pictures of the beach for my mom to paint. I can't share them all with you, but here are a few. God used only the best when He created our earth.

Scrapbooking Retreat

What a view, huh? Twice a year a friend of mine has a scrap retreat at her beach house and invites 9 other women and I have been blessed to be amongst those for the last 2 trips. For 48 hours we exchange laughs, stories, food, walks on the beach, creative ideas, scraping equipment and encouragement. We go to bed when we want, wake up when we want and senselessly self-indulge until we drop from exhaustion. And then we go home happy, fatigued, but happy (and hopefully with a few more pages for the scrapbook).

Tee Any One?

Steve has resurrected his golfing passion, dusted off the old clubs and purchased a new pair of shoes. Yes folks, the golfing legend has returned to the sport after a 10 year leave of absence. With all this enthusiasm Christopher's interest has been peaked. We may have another Ben Hogan on our hands.

School, Books, Teacher's Dirty Looks

Here is Christopher doing his math. He appears to excel in his arithmetic abilities. We are almost done with the kindergarten curriculum. We will be starting the 1st grade math in about 1 more week.

Pie in the Sky

So the apple pie was edible as you can see. Please don't confuse this with finger lick'n good. Apparently I used the wrong apples since it was not only so tart that our faces turned inside out but the consistency was really more like applesauce sandwiched between two crusts. My mom ended up buying some store bought cookies to forgo my tart delight. Steve maned up and did his husbandly duty by ingesting the slice without so much as a single grimace.

It will be better the next time!

HOLY quilt

OK. So Steve has a quilt that I made for him way back when we were dating. Infact, it is the 1st quilt that I ever made so it has lots of sentimental value. However, it is starting to wear in various spots and is in bad need of replacement.

Since I have been giving the opportunity to take a formal quilting class I thought that this would be a good time to make him a new one. For those of you who may not know Steve very well...his favorite color is orange and he delights in all things Japanese (being a hapa and all). This quilt should fit his personality a lot better than the last sunflower one. I finished piecing the nine patch last night at class and will be putting the blue boarder and orange binding on in the coming weeks.

All aboard for Pumpkin Picking!

We had such a wonderful visit to the Pine Hill
Pumpkin Patch. Grammy, Papa, Jojo, Christie, Lonny and the kids came for the weekend so we made it a harvest celebration.









We rode the true to life miniature steam locomotive. We all crawled into the cattle car under the one condition that we would all moo like a bunch of pathetic bovine. Joshua was in 7th heaven rattling the cage from side to side to get a
glimpse of the sites passing by.

Pumpkins galore for the picking (or biting what every your fancy)!

The tractor race was a run-away success!



















Photo ops were literally around ever bend.





And luckily no one was lost in our jaunt through the corn maze or eaten alive by any R.O.U.S's.









Happy harvest time to all!