holding hands

Jake does NOT like car washes... in fact he is terrified of them. I have been meaning to wash the car in the evening and leave him with Aaron and it just hadn't happened yet. So we talked about it yesterday while we were at lunch and Jake agreed to go through the car wash. Just as we entered Emma reached out and said "Jake, don't be scared, you can hold big sister's hand and everything will be ok!" and just like that he reached out and grabbed her hand... while holding his blanket and sucking his thumb of course! I was able to snap a quick one with my phone. What a precious little memory I will cherish. They are the best of friends right now and I love it.

new do

Okay, here it is. I am quite sure I will be calling today to have it lightened. It is too red/purple for me which is NOT anywhere close to what I wanted or asked for. Booo.

*bleep*

This lovely view out the window left me with some unpleasant words first thing this morning. (not the children - the s.n.o.w) Some would look at this as a fun opportunity to take the kids out and play in it, not me. Not today. We had a movie/pj day and every now and then I shot a glare out the window. Melt. Melt. If you really want to know - I even sang the kids a little "Oh the sun will come out tomorrow, tomorrow ... bet your bottom dollar ..."

... sorry I have been absent from the blog. I've been working on this session from sunday:

more love to come later... and maybe a peak at my new hair do!

www.tinalelainephotography.com

(click it, you know you want to!!!!!!)

i'm a little excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

dear blog,

you have been neglected. is there a good reason? oh yes. can i tell you yet? nope. will i post on saturday what the big news is? oh yes. maybe even friday if your lucky. i'm excited. super dooper excited.

xoxo.

Happy

Valentine's

Day!

Y

One week later...

Last weekend we made our annual Portland trip for SuperBowl sunday - stayed with our amazing friends Josh & Suzanne (with a friday night layover at Nan & Pops! thank you !!!). Their beautiful home was filled with 42 people on sunday - 16 of them were under 5 yrs of age!! And you know what? J&S's oldest girls, Sam and Emma were such AMAZING helpers with the younger kids, it really was not that chaotic... or at least not what you would imagine with that many kids! We LOVE this little tradition and treasure each and every memory from our trips to stay with the Mac's. Our kids are in absolute Heaven playing with their 4 girls, and Jack who is just 6 months older than Jake. FUN TIMES!!!

My dear friend Suzanne and I managed to take a LOT of pictures - she's awesome!

{girlfriends}

It had been 2 years since Aaron and I had visited with Jolyn!!! (middle)

Jolyn and Sam's knitting tradition during superbowl ;)

Just a few of the 19 kids...

Adorable little buddies - they even look alike! :) Jack on the left, Jake on the right

Sam helping out the younger kids.

Emma and her friend Delainey (sp?? sorry Jenny!!!)

Good for the soul

There is something wonderful about a good soup on a cold evening. This one hit the spot the other night.

Chicken and Squash Soup

(adapted from Taste of Home)

1 whole chicken pre cooked (got mine at WinCo's deli)

6 C water

2 cans broth (chicken or vege)

1 large butternut squash peeled and cubed

6 carrots, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

half a bunch of collard greens (it called for kale - spinach would work too) chopped

Salt & pepper

*boil water/broth and add squash, carrots and onion and boil for 20 min or so till tender. Add chicken and collard greens - warm and serve!

this part took awhile - especially with little hands helping!

had to taste the raw squash

definitely worth the wait...

Good-Bye Sucks.

There just is not a nicer way to say it. I tried. But frankly, good-bye's suck. I hate them - but I hate them even more when my children have to say good-bye too. Last week we said goodbye to some very dear friends. Lori and her kiddo's Hannah & Jake. Lori has become a great friend of mine and someone I really admire. Not to mention her daughter Hannah is Emma's best friend. They moved up here two years ago from San Diego and had to move back for job reasons. We have had Hannah over for many play dates, taken the kids on outings, had them over to roast s'mores, shopped Target together, ditched the kids and saw a movie. I will miss you guys terribly. Make sure and move back soon!!! (tomorrow is good for me)

Funny Boy

typical happy jake up from a nap. and wearing my favorite shirt of his.

'Mischief is my business,

and business is

GOOD.'

oh so true.

Random

After taking Emma to preschool, back home so Jake could nap... we ventured to Walmart for some groceries. I don't particularly like Walmart, but I wanted to get the cute little half cans of Dr. Pepper and I was told that is where to find them (thanks to Trena!). As I walked to find a checkout lane that wasn't ridiculously long I saw these card tables with scarfs on them... piles of blue and white... I finally saw a sign that explained how they were made by generous knitters from all over the US - they were only $2 and 100% of the proceeds are donated to the Winter Games of Idaho. I found did my part, I bought two:

On the way to pick up Emma after preschool something completely random caught my eye. A shoe. A very nice white tennis shoe - just hanging out on the side of Eagle road. Have you ever wondered how that happens? I mean, laces tied, slightly worn.... do they just fly out of your car window randomly? I better keep a leash on my shoes... which made me think of something else. My funky new shoes... with a big fat hole in the back. Awesome. Thanks Harley.

That's about it for the day. Oh... and I submitted a scrapbook layout to a magazine. Cross your fingers for me!!! AND your toes. Toes count double cause that takes talent.

Have I mentioned?

Have I mentioned how insanely C.U.T.E. my niece Ava is?? She is Matt and Elizabeth's girl. Love her to pieces, here are a few pics I got of her over Christmas. Missing my girl!! :)

It's been awhile!

We have been busy busy busy! So I'm going to do one of my 'sum-it-all-up' posts - and hopefully throw in a LOT of random pictures! These past few weeks we have:

*Aaron and I celebrated our 5th anniversary! YAY!! We went to an ah-ma-zzzing dinner at our favorite place downtown, then went out Christmas shopping for the kids. It was a lot of fun!! We played a little game and went back through the years saying the best and worst memories from each - it's a challenging game, you should try it!

*Welcomed my in laws after a long drive up from southern California - and they stocked my freezer with the best bread ever that they always stop and pick up in Bishop Cali. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

*Headed over to WW for Christmas. My in laws rented a beautiful vacation home for the holidays. It is just a bit outside of WW (technically just outside of Dixie), and it was a gorgeous Tuscan inspired 6 bedroom home that I wanted so badly to steal the linens and decor - oh and the furniture. beautiful, simply beautiful. We spent a few days with Aaron's parents, his brother, wife and baby Ava, and his Grandparents.

*Once home we had Christmas with Mom, Jeff, Ryan, Nick, Andrea and Kylie - the kids were of course spoiled rotten!! And the food was fabulous too!

*We had an uneventful New Year's Eve and went to bed early :-)

*I photographed a wedding on New Year's Day!! That was a challenge... and it turned out beautiful! There is NO WAY I could of managed to do it by myself - Andrea was so gracious enough to help me out - even though she didn't feel good. LOVE YOU! I'm so excited to edit - but that means I go into hermit mode with 1500 pictures to proof. yikes!

*For Aaron's birthday we drove to McCall and had a quick visit with my dad, Denise and Khloe' and they did Christmas for the kiddo's. It was a fun and FAST trip.

*Today we are back to routine - even with the brand new 5" of snow from this morning!!! Aaron is off to work, Emma is at PreSchool, and Jake is down for a nap. I feel like it is time to breath and get life back to normal after the past three weeks of chaos!

Some random pictures from the past few weeks...

We got a box in the mail from the Fautheree's!!! Jan made me (ok so I was probably suppose to share..whoops) red hot popcorn!!!!!!!!!!!! Best treat EVER. A cute Elf that Emma latched onto, and another tub with a fabulous sweet chex mix. Very special to have a christmas package all the way from florida!!!

The kids new ornaments this year from my mom.

Jake has fallen in love with reading his books. He of course has to be sitting in his rocking chair in his room, it is just too precious.

more to come later.... i need to go proof some photos!

Is it true?

Am I really old enough to have a child preforming in Christmas programs?? oh yes... and it is OH SO CUTE! Emma had her little preschool program last thursday and it was priceless. As soon as I figure out how to put video from our video camera on here I will have to upload one or two of the songs. But until then - here are pictures!

Grandma and Jake waiting for the program to start

Sign Language to Away in a Manger

The did the CUTEST little actions to "I took a lick on a Peppermint stick, it used to be on the Christmas tree, but I like it better ... IN MY TUMMY!"

We left Emma's program a few minutes early to rush to catch Kylie's program - she did such a great job singing!! (Kylie is in the front row -center)

And Emma got to catch up with a couple of her best buds from her old school (ya, my preschooler hangs with 3rd graders:) )

gOt SnOw?

I bet if you live in the NW you have some white stuff hangin' around like we do! I LOVE IT!!! Makes for a beautiful white Christmas!! Here are some pictures from last weekend when the snow first started to fall... we got about 6 more inches yesterday to play in :)

Jake and Emma both LOVED playing in the snow.


and of course, Harley just loves it when we play with him, snow or no snow :)

Emma made lots and lots of snow angels in the backyard... and with each one she would stop and draw a smiley face on the head :)

{all} the kids playing together!

O Christmas Tree

We got our Christmas tree soon after returning from Thanksgiving, but it didn't get decorated for an entire week! AHH! That is so not like me!! But we finally got it done. Sabbath Aaron gave me a much needed restful morning and took both the kids to Sabbath School and I quickly put lights on the tree and thought it would be a nice surprise for him and the kids so we could decorate it that night - then I ran and quickly got ready for church and joined them! So Sabbath evening we decorated our tree and put lights in some of our windows, I'm afraid that may be as festive as we get this year. We do have our stockings up - I just didn't get a picture of that.