Livi Counting

Quotables

"Cleaning while the children are still growing
is like shoveling while it is still snowing."
(Oh, SO TRUE!!!! I saw this on a MOPS email last week and I can't remember who said it, but I've been thinking about it every day since then).


Livi's version of the ABC song:
"A-B-C-D-E-F-G, how 'bout I not sing with you."


And then the best....following is the last paragraph of a Christmas letter we received from some friends that live here, and it really touched me. Sometimes other people can put words to my thoughts so much better than I ever could. May it bless you as well:
"To end this letter we are tempted to close with the words "God Bless." We would say it with all intentions of wanting you to excel, succeed, prosper and be kept from difficulty and pain this coming year. But what we really desire for you is that you really live and prosper with the abundance of God. So, this year we will pray that no earthly luxury would cheat you of true prosperity, which is an abundant life in Christ. If ease and earthly success is given in the process, we rejoice with you, but if you experience hardships and trials this coming year we pray that you cling to Jesus, the giver of abundant life."

Amen, friends!!

I've been "tagged" for a "meme"

So I'm not completely up to par with my blogger lingo. A couple of times I've been tagged for a "meme" (can anyone tell me what a "meme" is....what does it mean?! Is it cuz it's all about me, me?). So this one is just a list of several things about me that you may not have known....some are weird or surprising, I know. :-) And it's definitely not a complete list. Feel free to do it on your blog, too, I love learning those quirky or fun or new little facts about my friends!

I love the smell of fresh play dough (the store-bought play-doh brand)

I was the drum major (field conductor) of our high school marching band.

I always take my eggs out of the carton in some sort of symmetrical way.

I'd love to go to a U2 concert some day.

I like to jump rope.

I'm always playing some sort of tune on my fingers...sort of like constantly playing piano.

It feels really weird to put my left leg in my pants first or my left sock on first, etc.

I REALLY like the Gilmore Girls and wish sometimes I could be in their world. :-)



Bet you never knew I could make that face!

Or wear my hair so fashionably!

Mom time

My mom flew out here for a visit on New Year's Day and it was SO wonderful to have her here. I miss her tons!
We knew it was going to rain, so we took advantage of the 2 days of decent weather we had before it started to get wet and we went to the beach and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was a great beach day (we still wore our pants and fleece coats, but it was pretty) and Carson had a blast in the sand and water, it just makes me so happy that we get to live here and go to the beach in January?!!! Cool. And then the rain set in on our way home from the aquarium and it rained till she left. So we had a lot of good hanging-out-at-home time.
I didn't take very many pictures, so mom you're gonna have to send me some! :-) Thanks for all your help around here, the kids had a great time with you and can't wait till the next time we get to be together.

A Touch of Color

We have a lot of white walls in our house. The trouble with painting in here is that all the walls seem to run together, so there are no good breaking points...if we paint one part of a wall we have to continue all through the house where we might not want that same color. But we did find a section recently that would work, so we we went bold and painted it a dark brown. I just love how a little color can really make a house feel like a home....it makes me want to do more of it in other areas. It's a lot of work, but so worth it. This area is downstairs in the hallway by the kids rooms and closet and garage and bathroom....so there were 5 door frames to go around in that tiny little area and then a big bare section of wall that you see when you enter the front door. We got another coat hook and bench with baskets from IKEA to go there so now we won't have piles of stuff on the floor all the time. I'm trying to get our house a little more organized and workable. I think I waste too much time looking for things as I'm on my way out the door, so I think having these baskets and coat hooks will really help...and I love the bench. The kids can sit on it to get their shoes on, or I can set things on it and for some reason a pile there looks so much better than a pile on the floor. :-) By nature, I'm a piler and Jason's a filer, and I want to be more like that because it's so nice when things are organized and put where they belong. We also got a little paper filer/pen & paper holder/counter organizer thing for the bar counter that tends to be a common resting place for papers that I'm not sure what to do with...so now I can put my piles in a file and make my pile look nice! My blog friend Rachel at Home Sanctuary is helping me with some organizing/cleaning, etc. ideas. You should check her blog out...it's so inspiring and awesome and funny and down-to-earth. Wouldn't it be fun to get to meet our blog friends some day? Anyways...here are some before and after shots...of course the pictures aren't quite like the real deal, but it'll do to give you an idea of the hard work Jason put into painting it so well! Thanks Lovey!

Christmas Tidbits

We tried making a gingerbread house from scratch this year and it turned out to be a bit of a bigger undertaking than I remember it being from when I made them as a child, but the kids loved it. We ran out of icing and ingredients to make more (I think I used too much trying to get it to stand up and stay!), so we didn't get to decorate it as much as the kids would have liked, but they were happy with it.

While we were making the cookie dough, Carson went downstairs to the garage to get a piece of cardboard for our base, and he decided to see what it would look like if he dumped a huge box of packaging peanuts all over floor of the garage! yikes....he didn't tell me about it when he came back upstairs, so imagine my surprise when I went down to get something else and saw this! He was a good sport about cleaning it up, although I admit, I was not happy to see this mess since the whole upstairs was chaos from our gingerbread making. Owell, it all cleaned up just fine.

Some snowflakes we made

Christmas Eve

Christmas Fun

We had a lot of fun trying to get a Christmas picture this year. We had to try it a couple different weekends to get one that would work. We went up to Mount Hermon Conference Center where it's really pretty and found a good spot with some pretty leaves in the background, and the kids were in great moods which helped. We had some fun playing along the way.

Mr. Carson Head

Carson came up with this fun game!

Glimpses

I didn't get a picture of this, but the other day I caught a glimpse forward of what Livi might be like in 10-12 more years. She LOVES to chew gum, and actually does pretty well with it, so the other day she had some bubble gum in her mouth, which is so cute to watch her chew, and she was sort of smacking it while she walked around with her purse on her arm and she was talking on her little cell phone...it cracked me up. And then a couple days ago she asked me to paint her little toenails and fingernails....so we did and she's so proud of it, and I have to say, it looks so cute on her. It's fun having a girl. :-)

On a totally different note, we rode our bikes to our favorite taqueria the other day, and as we were sitting outside waiting for our food, there was a guy at the table next to us waiting, too. He was a big, tough-looking guy, dressed in black with tats all up and down his arms, not too out of the ordinary, really, for around here, but he caught my attention because we were sitting close enough that I could hear him making a cell phone call to his "mama" and it truly brought tears to my eyes. He said, "Mama?! Hi! I just wanted to call to let you know that I'm really excited to see you tomorrow, and I also promise that I'll watch that whole movie with you. I love you so much, Mama, and I wanted to let you know that....so I'm looking forward to seeing you tomorrow, I'll talk more to you then! I love you!!...." Now, I have no idea what their relationship is like, but it was precious just to hear those words coming from him. It was a little reminder for me also to not pass judgment for things on the outside, you never know what things are really like in anyone's lives until you get to know them (or till you eavesdrop on their conversations!!!) :-)

We live in California...

We were at Borders recently looking at some children's books and Carson came across a Curious George book he wanted me to read to him. It was all about numbers and items in various places like playgrounds, homes, etc. One was about the different kinds of weather. There was a box for the different seasons and Carson was saying what all of them were. So there was "Sunny", "Windy", "Rainy", and then "Angely".....I guess it's a sure sign Carson's not too familiar with snow. :-)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Last weekend we went out to Johnson's Farm to get a Christmas tree and it was such a fun experience, I can tell why families make it a tradition. It started raining pretty hard when we got there, so we got out of the car and took shelter under the place where they netted the trees and then we went over to the little gift shop. This family farm is owned and operated by a gal who is in my Bible Study, along with her husband, Farmer Rob, and their sons. It's such a pretty place and there's a lot of history there.
Once the downpour ended, the sun broke out and it turned into a gorgeous day to be up there. We went out in the field to pick our tree and finally stumbled upon "Snowman". They name each of their trees and we decided that Snowman was a good fit for our family. :-)
After getting some hot cider and cookies, we took a tractor-led hayride around the farm and saw the horses and then up to the top of a hill where we each got to roll either a pumpkin or a circular cut of a tree down a really long steep hill to try to get it to roll thru an old tire. It was really fun, and the pumpkins really picked up some good speed going down. Out of all of us that did it (about 15 or so) Carson's came the closest, but none of us made it through. It was just such a fun and memorable experience, I think we might have to make it a tradition for our family, too.

Thanksgiving

My parents and my brother came out for Thanksgiving again this year, and we had such a great time with them. The kids relished all the attention they got all week from them. It was nice to have a change in our routine, although I am finding that I quickly get spoiled with all the help and it takes me several days to get back into the swing of things when they leave. Thanks Mom and Dad for coming out and for all the help you gave me and just for being here, I miss you tons and can't wait till we get to see you again.

My Aunt Ruth and Karl came down from Walnut Creek to join us for Thanksgiving day which has become a really nice tradition, we love their company.

We took my family to the Redwoods for a little walk which was refreshing and fun. The most amazingly huge leaves were falling to the ground, we considered using them as placemats for Thanksgiving!

The kids and I went to the park a couple weeks ago and gathered up a bunch of pretty leaves and berries, etc. and made a little fall garland out of them.

Monarch Migration

A couple weeks ago we went to see the Monarch Butterflies that are migrating south for the winter. They come to an area in Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz that is filled with Eucalyptus trees and milk weed, which they feed on. It was pretty cool to take the monarch trail back through the woods to the place where you look up and see hundreds of them all flitting around from tree to tree. I thought they'd be much closer up for us to see, and I think sometimes they are, but that day they were all up pretty high flying around. It still was really neat and I'm glad we got to see them. The kids had a great time hiking on the trail and finding cool sticks to play with.

Carson says...

Carson's been cracking us up lately.

I was eating my breakfast and reading my Real Simple magazine, and Carson came over and was looking at some of it with me, which didn't last long because he stated that "everything in this magazine is so girly!"....and off he ran.

Carson was putting one of Jason's old t-shirts on Livi as a paint shirt and he said, "Here Livi, put this on and you'll look like a princess." :-)

Last night I was reading the story of David and Goliath to him, and after we were done and had just read about how God had given David all the power he needed to slingshot that rock right at Goliath, Carson said, "I really want some of that power." So I told him that God will give us power if we ask him, like power to be patient and power to do the right thing when no one is looking, etc. So he wanted me to pray for some power for him, "cuz I'm a little embarrassed to ask for it," he said. Silly boy, I just love how honest he is and he's been so curious about spiritual things lately, it's been fun to have some really good conversations with him.

Chicken and White Bean Stew

I was going to email my friend this recipe, but I thought I may as well just put it on our blog so you all can try it if you want, too! It's a recipe from Rachael Ray's magazine, and it's warm, rich and hearty, a good fall dinner.

Chicken and White Bean Stew

4 slices bacon, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 lb. red potatoes, cut into cubes
32 oz. chicken broth
1 whole rotisserie chicken, pulled apart (I just boiled a couple chicken breasts and shredded them)
2 15.5-ounce cans small white beans, rinsed
5 oz. arugula (I used spinach)
Salt and pepper

In a lg. soup pot cook the bacon over medium heat until cooked but not crisp, about 5 minutes. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the potatoes and chicken broth and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.
Add the chicken and beans to the stew and cook until heated through. Just before serving, stir in the arugula (or spinach) and season to taste with s&p.

Bon Appetit!

Fall in the Redwoods

I took the kids over to the redwoods for a little fall walk and we had such a great time. We only had enough time to be there for an hour, but it was perfect and they both walked the whole time! It was so pretty and the smell...oh, the smell...we all kept taking deep breaths in through our noses to savor the delicious sweet earthy smell of the damp and changing foliage. We collected some kind of nutty things that kept falling from the trees, and we threw them into the river just before we got to our car; it was great incentive to keep them going till the end! I think we'll be going back real soon. I'm thankful to live in such an incredibly gorgeous part of God's creation.

I just love this picture of them both trying to smile really big!

Trick-or-Treat!

We went over to our friend's camp and ate pizza out on the grass with a bunch of other families, and then we took the kids trick-or-treating to several different homes around there. Carson and Livi had a great time. Carson had been wearing the tail part of his costume a couple weeks before Halloween, he loves to dress up. I made his costume, which was fun, although he didn't end up liking the head part very much, I think it was itchy and hot. :-) Livi got a cheerleader's costume in a bag of hand-me-down clothes our neighbor gave her and it fit just right for this year. She had some little red pompoms and kept saying, "Go Team Go!" and "Go Dragon Go!" to cheer on Carson. And they've really been enjoying the candy from it all! So we've been brushing and flossing extra good this week. :-) Helps that Carson has to go get a cleaning at the dentist on Tuesday! Hope all's well in there.

We didn't get a very good picture of Carson's whole costume, but this is part of it. It looks cooler from behind. He really wanted fire-breath, and this is all I could come up with! He thought it was cool, though. :-)

Fall Fun

On Saturday we went to Wilder Ranch where they had an old-fashioned heritage fall festival. Jason road his bike from our house to the ranch and met us there, so he got in a great mountain bike ride and we had a fun time with the kids. We got to grind apples fresh off the tree to make cider that tasted SO delicious. We watched a blacksmith make some coat hooks in the old metal shop, that was really cool. They had great music (a banjo and a fiddle) and lots of other little harvesty things for the kids to do. I just love stuff like that, all the old-fashioned things, it's just so fun to experience a little bit of how people used to live.

Carson got to crank some dried corn through a little mill that took off all the kernels and then took a cup full of the kernels and put them through another grinder to make corn meal out of it that we fed to the cows. He loved turning the grinders.

We got some fresh ranch-made pumpkin ice cream that was delicious.

And Carson had a go at the stringed donut competition.....that was pretty funny. He had to try to eat the donut without any hands. It took him a while, but he was determined and ended up with a face full of powdered sugar and a donut in his mouth. :-)

Even nasty things are amazing!

I really don't like spiders. Jason really doesn't like spiders. But as much as I dislike them, I have to admit they really are amazing. And I don't understand at all how they do it, but the webs they spin are simply really cool! And to think that all that hard work only lasts for one night of meal-catching. I've tried to learn how spiders spin their webs, and I've learned a bit more in the process, but I still don't understand how they do it, and how they get those really long strands you see from a branch down to your house and then up again another long distance (those ones you walk thru, isn't it amazing how strong and sticky they are?!). Wouldn't you love to catch a spider in slow motion jumping from place to place casting out it's web along the way? It would freak me out, but I'd love to see how they do it.
Okay, I really didn't mean to write so much about spiders, but I saw these really cool webs the other morning on our deck on a day that was moist with dew and fog and they just stood out clearly against the green grass below. The pictures don't do justice, but I thought they were neat.
"All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all."

Pumpkins

A couple weekends ago, we went to the pumpkin patch we've gone to the last 3 years. It's so beautiful, great views of the ocean, lots of pumpkins and a pretty drive there and back. I think we may have gone a week too early, cuz we already had to throw away Livi's pumpkin, and I'm not too sure Carson's will last another week. Owell, we had fun getting them and carving them.