All Aboard!!!

"This is the POLAR EXPRESS!!!"

We are back from our first EVER family vacation!  We drove to Williams, AZ and rode the Polar Express.  All...the...way...to the NORTH POLE!  Santa gave all four kiddos a very special bell.  If you can still hear it ringing, you must still believe in Santa.

For the record...I can still hear it ringing!

And since I don't like Blogger's new format for pictures....you can see the whole 200+ pictures on FB!  Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas!!! 
GOD BLESS YOU!

Happy (belated) Easter!

This year we celebrated Noah's birthday on Easter. The whole family was already together, so why not, right?

The adults dessert. A big fat Easter egg:
Noah's birthday cake:
He really wanted a tree on his jungle cake. Apparently, the vines that were on there were not good enough. So...gum paste and some wire...wah-lah! He liked that the lion was in the shade. Boys, I tell ya.

He also lost his first "by nature and not by jumping on the bed and bonking brother's head" tooth:
(they are pointing to it which is why you can't see the hole)

Lots of fun looking for eggs:
His new bike:
Fun was had by all!

On Friday night, I watched The Passion of the Christ. I try to watch it every year. I know I could read the story, but there's something about seeing it and knowing it was even worse than what I see. I cry the whole time. I'm also finishing up a Precept study in Daniel. This week, we looked up scripture about what happens after Christs' return and judgment. Thank you, Jesus, for going through torture, pain, ridicule, death, and separation from God for me. For my husband. And for my kids. And for the world. It's no wonder we call Him the Savior.

Happy Easter to all of you! I know I'm late, but you can share in the joy of Easter and His resurrection every day.

"Christ never sinned! But God treated him as a sinner so that Christ could make us acceptable to God." 2 Cor. 5:21

Cookie Decorating Party

Kiss me, I'm Irish!

Love to decorate sugar cookies or just want to know how? Come over!

When: Saturday, March 6th
Time: 10am-1pm
Where: My house
What: St. Patrick's Day Cookies (shamrocks...oh yes)
Cost: $15 (to cover the cost of cookies and icing)

Who's invited? YOU ARE (you know...if you live in the same area)

You'll leave with a dozen, four inch cookies YOU decorated and the knowledge of how to do it yourself again!

If you would like more cookies, please let me know in advance. Each additional dozen is $10. If you would like a dozen small shamrocks, they are $6/dozen.

Here is a sample of what you can create:

Valentine's Day Cookies

I think cookies are appropriate for every occassion, don't you?

Especially when they are this cute!

Valentine's Day Decor

I've never been one to decorate for Valentine's Day...but I'm teachable. Sometimes.

Candy conversation hearts are in a new candy dish that I made from an old taper candle holder and a completely never-gonna-get-any-more-candle-light-out-of-this-candle gone glass candle holder from PartyLite. Stick the old candle in the freezer and then pop it out and reuse the glass it came in. Then hot-glue it to a cute stand! Wa-lah!
I cut out paper hearts and glue dotted them to my cabinets. Fun, cheap, and easy!


I sewed some fabric hearts to hang where my Christmas stars were on my lamps:


And of course...God gave the greatest Valentine EVER!

The frame says:
I've decided this will be a memory verse for our kids this month. I know. My kids are so holy, right? Riiiiiiight......

And lastly. My mantle that used to lookie-like-dis:
Now...it lookie-like-dis:

Hey...when in doubt. Stick a paper heart in it!

See those container thing-y's with the bead picks and jingle bells? They are glass taper candle holders from the dollar tree store that I topped one with a vase from...where? The dollar tree store! Who knew, right??? And the shorter one is topped with another PartyLite glass candle container. Freezer, pop, done. Fur real.

Where have you been?

Oh my! It's been a long time since I posted! Well, here's a short glimpse into what I've been doing!

First, I went to a wonderful Women's Tea and Silent Auction put on by Brooke and her mom, Grandma Dot, that benefitted World Vision and won these:


I love that I can add a smiley face to this little guy with dry erase pens.
And I also received some red and white snowflaked platters and bowls. Love them!

Then, we did a snowman family night with the other Llanos family. Or did the family night come first and the tea come second? I can't remember. Anywhooooo....

Snowman soup:
My partner for many crimes against myself, my husband, my kids...
Complete with krispy treat snowmen for dessert.
We had breakfast with Santa:

Found out Santa visited our house and left letters for the two older boys:
Celebrated the first-ever birthday of our littlest little (who will soon be just our "little" because he is surpassing his sister in size):


Can you see the snowman cake balls on the right? Wish I had gotten a closer picture? Yeah, me too. :(My beautiful sister, Becky, with the red scarf that I covet like a mad woman! Oh, and she's holdin' my new one year old who has manage to develop a two-year old attitude!
The snowman cake says Happy Birthday Isaac around the back in case you were thinkin' I attempted to make orange ear muffs for him. I did not cause that would have been silly. Ahem.

My wonderful mom and world's best Nana:
The sweetest Grammy and Ya-ya ever:


Every one...and I mean every one played Mary and Joseph with Hannah. She would say, "I Mary. You Jofes." And no, that's not a typo. JO-FES. No joke. And I refuse to correct her. I hope she says that for the rest of her life.

Becky, once again. She looks like Mary, don't you think?"Away in a manger...." with Aunt Vicki.

I painted wooden spools for Becky and Brooke for Christmas. The other side has the city of Jerusalem and says "O Holy Night" but I couldn't get a picture to focus on that side.
Baked waaaaay too many sugar cookies (with the help of my own personal Santa elf, aka, Brooke):


And had the stockings ALL hung by the chimney with care...but when St. Nicholas came...well, he brought too much stuff for them and they ended up on the couch. Eh.

And the best thing of all: We celebrated the birth of when love came down. And there just aren't any pictures that do that justice.

I spent time with my family and left my cyber friends to fend for themselves. And no offense to all of you...but it felt good and right.

And now, let us all kiss 2o09 buh-bye:
And say:

Bring it on 2010!!!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

We went and took Christmas pictures yesterday. My old dance coach is amazing at everything she tries to do...and she's taken up photography! I can't believe what a great job she does. I was just lookin' to get one...ONE picture of all of us looking in the camera with me looking at least half-way decent. I got so much more...and a fun time catching up with her and her husband (who was also my dance coach and my old boss).