A lil' Lauren in January: some firsts

She was soooo excited about her EasyBake from Santa-

She watched her cake closely-

and yummmmo! Frosting and all...


We went to the lake and she was finally feeling comfortable about a hook on her pole- what a cast Lauren!

Power tools...no problem!

ooooh yeah and look at the great cart we made for the classroom bunny.


A budding artist with her first canvas to paint-


Just a couple days ago she decided she wanted to learn to ride her bike. So she did! (Mind you it was on one of the coldest days in over a year here!) Off she goes- shivering hands and all. Lauren has always been one of those kiddos that says "Mommy, I can do it myself!" and once she puts her mind to something she just does it. I couldn't be more in love with you and so wonderfully proud of you, Laur-Laur!

Happy New Year!

Oh, but wait...there's more!

We were off to Mom's house after ours for a full day/night of unwrapping, laughing, catchin' up, and eating waaay too much. We all mentioned that we would have a more modest, smaller Christmas this year...ha, I don't think so!

I gave alot of handmade gifts this year...and my brother shares some of my blood! He made this incredible closet for Hannah and Lauren's American Girl stuff. So special. Love it, Steve! This will be around for generations to come.

Every year at Christmas my Dad would always wait until all the gifts were opened and surprise someone with something really big. He just loved surprises and Christmas was always so much fun for him. We want to remember and honor him every year and so this year I got butterfly wind chimes for everyone. I put a comforting poem with it and want everyone to remember him when we see it swaying beautifully in the wind. As usual, he was very missed.

Santa Claus is coming to town...

Gifts for eachother-- from Claire's of course (girly girl dreamy store!)

L gave Daddy a sleepy mask w/ a monkey saying "do not disturb"
(yes- he actually does wear these... shhhh!)

An Easy Bake...! This is all that little L wanted!!

The "spy girls" in our family loooved the spy gifts they got!

THE MOST INCREDIBLE CHRISTMAS GIFT!

Love makes miracles happen! Steve and Heather surprised us on Christmas Eve with news that they will be expanding our family with a BABY in August 2009!!

They drove in with Heather's folks on Wednesday and we went to a very special candlelight service at church. We all came back to our place for a Christmas Eve dinner....and what do you know....a CELEBRATION of not only Christ's birthday but welcoming a new Whiting too! (They were even surprised it happened so quickly!) To tell us they had a small gift for my Mom to open before we ate. Oooooh, we had tears of happiness and joy of the circle of life continuing. We couldn't possibly be more excited!

What can I say? GOD IS SO GOOD and His timing is always PERFECT!

December dancers-

The "sugar glow" from the last day of school before Christmas break!
(the teddy's are from the teachers-- wow?!)
Lauren got to take the classroom bunny home for the holiday's- Snowflake has joined us for a couple weeks...

Hannah doing a hip-hop dance for the parents-- all slidin' and sassy!

Lauren at the "Fairy Dust" table after the pixie-dust filled camp day...

Holidays hustle & bustle happenings...

Okay--- you gotta love this from Lauren (to Mommy and Dabby)...

Let's PAR-TEY!....
~~I did an Open House Party here with 5 other creative women. I opened the doors to a holiday night of "stop and shop" for handcrafted jewelry, art, monogrammed items, handmade hairbows, pretty handmade floral arrangements, and Uppercase Living designs. We all had a ton of fun and plan on continuing to do Open Houses... one scheduled for January already!
~~Josh and I hosted the 5th annual Christmas Party (that's always a blast!) with our dear friends. Missed you Bryans and Mainords!
~~I got to know (and met!) some of the ladies in our neighborhood at a cookie exchange. Nothing like packin' on the holiday pounds a little early too!
~~Our family enjoyed a delightful Christmas party night with our church group friends families.
~~We ate great Mexican at Vila Montez with Josh's ETOX co-workers one night.
~~School Christmas parties are always sugared-up fun (and craziness)..and we were so proud watching Lauren in her little classroom Christmas play.

Other doings and happenings...
~~I started working every Thursday at a pottery place here in town-- it's been fun.
~~The girls, Nana and myself made ornaments, suckers, peanut butter pine cones (for our furry flying friends!) and I did an Advent calendar for the girls. Every day after school they peaked under the number. I wanted to emphasis this year the importance of giving (and getting). So I put things like "Write or draw a soldier a picture and send it", "Give your teacher a holiday hug today" and stuff like "Let's drive and look at Christmas lights tonight" or "Let's rent any Christmas movie you want tonight"...
The girls loved it (and it was cheap and easy to do!)
~~Lauren went to a "Fairy Day Camp" at Dance-n-Drill a bit ago. They fluttered around dancing, did scavenger huts, some sweet art and painted themselves up all glittery. I know it was a fairy fun time for her...

And -poof!- It's Christmas...

Okay, within a 36-hour period a family reallly can transition from Fall and turkey eatin' to Winter and ornaments and angels! Yup, that's just what we did. The pumpkins in our front porch---gone within a flash. In fact Lauren asked me yesterday (amongst all the boxes and chaos on our floor) if Santa was coming TOMORROW. Oh and she said it with such bright-eyed sincerity and excitement- like it was really happening!

We were so excited to put up the Christmas tree from our dear friends who recently moved to Ecuador. (We thought about and talked about you ALL day, Bryans family!) The tree is just lovely. And big! I think a Christmas tree can never be too large. Missing you so much!

Turkey Day!

Thanksgiving day seemed to come and go quickly in our house. Josh grilled a 14-pounder and we just had a simple meal with my Mom. We decided to keep it really easy and have fun.

Traditions are so great to keep and we are intending to keep them! The girls have always had fun decorating our Thanksgiving table somehow each year. Whether its from nature or cute name signs, etc. This year we made a Thanksgiving tree (thanks to Kalen's great idea!). We cut the branch, found old special stones from the Wa. beach when we lived there, and everyone put their own gratitude on the leaves. Loved it! We ended the night with swollen bellies and some new card games to play.

Some of Lauren and Hannah's thankful leaves-
~God! (with exclamation indeed, L!!)
~sistr's (sisters)
~the erth (the earth)
~totol's (our hamster buddy Tootle's)
~flowr's (flowers)
~beds
~freedom (amen, girl!)
~peace (amen. amen.)
Cuuuute!

Some more-
~God's comfort, grace and promise
~Family
~All of you
~Memories of the past
~My four ladies (a.k.a. the girls, Stacey, my Mom)
~Joy of two beautiful daughters and 20 years with an amazing man

We're off the see the wizard...

Every Halloween the girls always have "coordinating" costumes. In the years past they have been dressed up as the princess and the pea (when L was itty bitty!), hula girls, cheerleaders, kitty cats, and fairies. Well, this year they have watched and watched (and fascinated with) the Wizard of Oz! So- here is Dorothy and Toto!

I always had "handmade" costumes as a girl- and love that. Thank you Marla for letting us use the dress your Mom made- and thanks to Nana for the Toto costume. (You never lose your touch!) Nana made her famous Halloween chili- like she has done ever since I was a kid- and came over in a witch hat. I was going to pull out my pink puffy prom dress and be the good witch...but it is a bit hard to zip!! Anyway- we had fun going to our old neighborhood trick-or-treating. We lit our pumpkins. Oh yes you can see in the picture that Daddy got out his saw for carving! The girls spread out (and organized of course) all their goodies and they were all sugared up ready for bed!

It's such a joy that some things never change and that as parents we get the gift of re-living and reminiscing all the childhood wonders of the seasons/holiday's all over again!