Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, we sure did. On Christmas Eve we went to my grandparents house and celebrated with family and friends. Santa even stopped by to hand out some presents (Santa was played by my best friend's dad since Curtis figured out that my grandfather was Santa). Lauren was petrified of Santa and was screaming and shaking. :( I felt so bad for her. She is still telling me, "No more, Santa." On Christmas Day, my mom and stepdad came over with their gifts and we fixed a Christmas lunch consisting of ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, peas, carrots, and rolls. In the evening, my brother Luis and his fiancee Michelle came over and had dinner with us. The kids had so much fun, Curtis even asked Michelle to put him to bed! I'm now in the process of putting the apartment back to the way it was and sorting through things to see what we can get rid of and what we are keeping, so that we can get things packed. We have a train table that we need to get rid of, so if anyone wants it or knows someone who could use it, please let me know. I can't believe that this year is coming to an end, can you? We are looking forward to 2010 and moving back to Minnesota. I hope everyone has a safe and fun new year.

I love this picture.

Curtis with Santa.

Claire with Santa. (I don't have a picture of Lauren with Santa because she was kicking and screaming, and moving around too much. My friend got a picture, so when she emails it to me I will post it).

Lauren got into my red food coloring while I was making snickerdoodles. What a mess!!

Claire's two new teeth. When she smiles, it looks like she has fangs, and we can't help but laugh. We've been singing, All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth, but it didn't happen. One of the front teeth is now starting to poke through.

It's Christmas Time!

Can you believe that Christmas is upon us? Boy it sure came up fast! I have been busy baking cookies and chasing after my children. Claire turned seven months on Monday and started crawling the same day. Now she is all over the place. She has also started saying ma ma. She is the only one to say "ma ma" first. The other two said "da da" first. She only says it when she's hungry. Curtis and Lauren decorated the tree this year, which they had a blast doing. They did a good job. We have also been teaching the kids about Christmas and what it's really about. Lauren doesn't understand, but Curtis gets it and has been asking lots of questions. I have to tell you this great story, yesterday, Lauren was holding her tummy and getting a little fussy, so Curtis was concerned that she might throw up. He came up to me and asked if we could pray over her, so that she could get better. That blew me away! He surprises me sometimes with his compassion. I am hoping to finish up my baking and wrapping today. Thankfully we don't have a lot of presents to wrap. The kids get three presents each since Jesus only got three presents from the Magi on His birth. On Christmas morning, before we open any presents, we will sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. Every morning for the last week, I have been reading a little about Jesus' birth to the kids. We want to make sure that the kids know that Christmas is about Jesus and not Santa. This led to a great question from Curtis, which was," Mommy, if Christmas is Jesus' birthday, then why don't we celebrate Christmas for my birthday?" This then led to a bigger discussion about why Jesus was born and ultimately why he died. Well, I need to get back to baking, but I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Christmas.

Cakes

To end the week, I'm showcasing the most delicious of my hobbies, cakes. I learned how to bake and decorate cakes from my grandmother, who bakes and decorates amazing cakes. One day I hope I can be just as good as she is.

I made this cake for Kevin's 40th birthday.

This was Curtis' Buzz Lightyear cake from last year.

Lauren's first birthday cake.

Curtis' cake from this year. Not my best cake since Curtis wanted an apple cake and I had never made one before. It was more like an apple crisp, and hard to decorate. It was a definite learning experience.

Card Making

Today's showcase is on card making. This is another hobby that I have started recently. Like scrapbooking, my skills are pretty basic. Sometimes simple is better, at least until I can figure out how to make fancy cards! :)

This is Curtis' birthday invitation from this year.

This is a birthday card. You can't really see it, but I stamped Happy Birthday on the pink part of the card.

This is a birthday card that I made for my 2 year old niece with the cricut machine. One of the best inventions ever!

This is an anniversary card that I made using the circut machine and embossing.

Tomorrow, I will be wrapping up the week with a showcase on cakes!

Scrapbooking

Today's showcase is on scrapbooking. I didn't get started with scrapbooks until we moved to Minnesota where it's very popular. I'm still learning, so my pages are pretty basic, but I know the kids like looking at them. If you have any suggestions on what I could do better with my pages, please let me know.

This page is about Curtis' first trip to Disneyland and his first ride on Winnie The Pooh.

This page is about Curtis' first Angels game.

I think this page speaks for itself. :)

This page is Lauren's birth. I only have three pages of Lauren's scrapbook finished.

This is Claire's birth page and the only page I have finished in her scrapbook. I am so far behind.




Tomorrow's showcase will be on card making.

Cross Stitch

Today's focus is on cross stitch. Like sewing, I got into cross stitch when I was in jr. high. It's very relaxing, but quite time consuming. Some kits are pretty easy to do and some are very intricate, which takes more time and concentration to do. Here are some of the projects that I have done.

I made this one when I was pregnant with Curtis and it's in the kid's room.

This is Curtis' birth announcement.

Lauren's birth announcement. I haven't even started Claire's yet, I don't have any time right now.

This is Lauren's Christmas stocking that I started last summer. As you can see it's not finished yet. Maybe next year, I will have more time to finish it.

Tomorrow's showcase will be on scrapbooking.

Sewing

Yes, it is time to kick off my week long celebration of my hobbies and crafts! I am so excited to be sharing with you. I decided to start out the week by showcasing clothing that I have sewn over the years. I learned how to sew when I was in jr. high and it has been something that I have enjoyed ever since. I just wish I had more time to make all of the things that I want to make. Oh well, one day maybe, when the kids are all in school. :)

These were some of the first kid pajamas that I had ever made and they are now my favorite pj to sew.

This was the first dress that I ever made. The black mesh was a pain to sew, but the dress came out beautifully. Sadly, I will never be able to wear that dress again.

This is a maternity top that I made when I was pregnant with Curtis. I kinda guessed on what size to make because I had no idea how big my belly would get.

I made both the shirt and the shorts for Curtis last year. It was a fun project to do and he looked so cute in it.

Tomorrow I will be focusing on cross stitch.

Rock and Hard Place

I'm sure many of you have heard the expression, "stuck between a rock and a hard place." Well Kevin and I feel like we are living this expression. We have been living with tight finances for a couple of years now since Kevin stopped getting his raises and health insurance keeps getting higher and higher and rent keeps increasing. We hardly have disposable income and most months we have to take money out of savings to get groceries and necessities. No matter what we are always obedient to tithe and the Lord blesses us for that. We are so thankful that we have a roof over our heads and food on the table, but it is geting so hard to make it out here. We kind of feel like we are in a desperate situation to get out of California before we end up in the poor house. I feel so bad for Kevin because he works so hard and he is being taken advantage of and making peanuts for what he does. He has little panic attacks every morning because he dreads what's going to happen at work. As the wife and mother, I am supposed to stay strong and hold everyone together, but it gets hard sometimes. We had to drop our dental coverage this coming year because we can't afford it and we just found out that Kevin's work didn't turn in the paperwork on time so medical and dental are still being deducted from Kevin's paycheck, which means we now have no disposable income. We have no idea when this will be resolved and it just makes me want to cry. I know that the Lord has a plan for us and wants to prosper us, but it's just so hard to believe that sometimes. I have been chewing on this piece of scripture from James all week. This is James 1:9 The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. This struck me as odd and I'm still trying to comprehend it. I sure don't feel like we are in a high position, but I guess compared to people in third world countries, we live like kings. I need to keep reminding myself of that. Even though this place here on earth is hard, we have our Rock, Jesus Christ, to sustain us.

On a happier note, starting Monday, I will be doing a week long showcase on my hobbies/crafts that I have done over the years, so stop by next week and hopefully you will get inspired. Have a great weekend!

Six Months

Our sweet Claire bear turned six months on the 21st and she has grown by leaps and bounds! She loves being on the floor so that she can roll and scoot all over the place, and she's fast! She has now started to push up onto her knees and she rocks back and forth. It's only a matter of time before she is crawling all over the place. She has gotten two more teeth and it looks like there are four more just waiting to break the gum line. She is growing up way too fast! She had her check up yesterday and she weighs 17 lbs. 14 oz. and is 26 inches tall. I think she is going to be small like her sister. She is such a happy baby and she loves to laugh. She has learned to screech from her sister. I'm sure that's not the only thing Lauren will be teaching her. I'm going to have my hands full when they get older. She loves her cereal, especially the brown rice and tonight was her first time drinking out of a sippie cup. She did really well. That's all of our sweetie pie's accomplishments this month. Have a great rest of the week!