Day 365

And how does one spend the last day of 2009? Well, if you are the mom of two boys with colds, my day was spent cleaning. Last night was probably the worse because Aaron's temperature was nearly 104 degrees, but with a little bit of Tylenol and some sleep, he woke up fever free, but the nose is still running. Andy had a fever two days ago, but poor kid can not breathe due to his runny nose. I have disinfected a few toys but hope to complete the job later today or tomorrow. School starts on Monday and we need to be ready to start another year.

Day 364

I had some leftover cream because I had originally planned on making fudge before Christmas and it didn't happen. Well, what does one do with leftover cream? I make ice cream of course! I made a base of vanilla ice cream and have some Candy Cane Joe Joe's from Trader Joe's to crush up and mix in at the end. As you can see, I had a couple of little helpers who are quite mesmerized by the whole process. I'm just hoping they don't contaminate the ice cream with their cold germs.

Day 363

The most exciting part of my day was the trip to the library to drop off books and pick up a couple of books I had on hold. I took a class back in September and have been waiting patiently for the book by Scott David Plumlee. The other book I found online and it's all about metal, which is a passion of mine in the jewelry world. Of course, getting these books only makes me want to go shopping for supplies so I can do some of the projects.

Oh, and I'm almost there. :)

Day 362

Today we joined some friends at the Seattle Children Museum to spend some time playing together. One of the reasons we went was the festival, Los Posadas. Our friends attend Puesta del Sol which is the Spanish immersion elementary school in their school district and Los Posadas is the Spanish Christmas festival. It was fun to learn about a new Christmas holiday celebration and we received an activity book about several different festivals that are celebrated in the month of December throughout the world.

Day 361

This is my newest piece of furniture. When my grandma passed away a couple of years ago, I was asked if there was any furniture I wanted and since I live over two thousand miles away, getting any said furniture here was going to be a bit of a challenge. Probably by default I received the sewing cabinet that my grandma used to sit at and sew a few clothes for me. My parents brought it up this summer when they came to visit and I finally got around to clearing out a space for it in my studio.

Day 360

Tonight is movie night and since I received a popcorn popper for Christmas and the boys received the movie Up from Uncle Kyle and Aunt Robin, it was a movie night in the making.

We did enjoy the movie and made 3 bowls of popcorn. Andy didn't care for the salted popcorn, but enjoyed the popcorn sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. Aaron liked the popcorn too and left me a nice mess to clean up on my red couch. We might have to start having movie nights more often.

Day 359

Content. Thankful. Blessed.

This is how I described myself on my Facebook status tonight. Unfortunately, there isn't a way to capture these feelings in a picture, so you get a picture of the wire jewelry magazines I received for Christmas. It was a lite Christmas for us this year and it's been one of the best Christmas' too. Mike and I have been teaching out boys that life is not about stuff and it seems that we have been successful in planting those seeds. After Andy opened up two gifts, he declared himself done opening gifts and was completely content with his game and matchbox car set. Aaron was more than happy with his Cars semi truck and spent the day clutching his truck like someone was going to take it away. Don't worry, we did open all the gifts from nana and papa and aunts and uncles. The boys are thrilled and excited and tomorrow we begin our thank you notes.

Day 358

It's Christmas Eve, the stockings have been filled and all the presents have come out of hiding. I am about to head to bed after a busy day of baking cinnamon rolls, zwieback and singing at two Christmas Eve services at church and just stopped to look at all the gifts, blessings and love my family has poured our to us this year. The best present I could have ever received is the fact that my parents and grandparents introduced me to Jesus Christ. He is my Saviour, Redeemer and without Him, I have no life. I pray that you have a chance to meet Jesus for whom we celebrate this time of year.

Day 357

Three stores later, I have finally secured these little pods of star anise. One of my friends had a little get together and made the best drinks, so I got the recipe from her and decided they would be great for Christmas dinner. The recipe calls for a simple syrup with star anise steeped in the syrup and it's amazing how difficult it is to find these pods. I found them at whole paycheck in the bulk section and was thrilled to have located them at a really good price.

Day 356

I figured since we were nearing the end of the year, there should be a little updated photo of me and all my glory. This morning I went to the grocery store to finish up my shopping for Christmas day and of course the comments are beginning because I am not due for another 14 plus weeks. So here I am at 25 weeks and 5 days pregnant.

Here's to another 9 pounder!

Day 355

This week with Andy being out of school for the Christmas holiday, I figured we should have a few crafts to keep us busy instead of running back and forth to school. Since I pulled out my stamps the other night to make labels for Christmas presents, I got the idea to pull out a few stamps and let the boys have some fun today. Aaron had more fun stamping himself with the ink pad than stamping the paper. Baby wipes work wonders on clean up.

Day 354

WooHoo! Vista has been purged from my computer, Windows 7 has been installed and all my programs are playing nicely together. Mike spent the last couple of days backing up my files and then installing 7 and downloading everything I need. He wins the best husband award for this kind act.

Day 353

This afternoon, my guys and I headed out to do a little Christmas shopping. This year, Mike and I wanted the boys to pick out gifts to each other to start planting the seeds that Christmas is about giving to others and not all about ourselves.
As I was wrapping the gifts, I discovered I didn't have any labels and with my pregnancy brain of late, I needed to figure something out because two of the gifts are practically identical and even though I wrapped them in different paper, that doesn't mean I'll remember whose is whose. Lucky for me, I did remember that I have these really fun stamps that my mother-in-law gave me a few years ago. After digging all of my items out of my stamping box that hubby retrieved from the top of the closet, I got busy stamping away. I think I'll be making my labels from now on.

Day 352

Bless those little preschool bakers. This week, the kiddos have been baking up a storm during preschool for the bake sale they held today. Andy had fun going through the goodies and picking up the items he made that his name were on, but also general cookies and candy canes.
Now comes the fun part for dear ol' mom who is the preschool treasurer for the 4's class. I get to be the lucky person who counts all of the money. The children will be donating the money to either the food bank or to the pet store to help out pets in our area.

Day 351

Going to the library takes on a whole new meaning for a few weeks as my little city is getting a bigger library and it's moving time for them. I went into the old library to pick up books I had reserved and was disappointed that one of the books I have been waiting on and was an inter library loan was not there, only the resin book, which I'm excited to be getting anyways. I look forward to looking into another medium for jewelry and possibly dappling in it a bit too.

Day 350

I have ever so slowly been decorating my house for Christmas. This year, I just don't have the stamina and motivation to decorate my house and keep my two year old from dismantling all my work. Today, I managed to get out the stocking holders and stockings and hang them on the mantle. It's kinda funny that my stocking holders are the word peace as some days there isn't much peace going on with all my boys in this household.

Day 349

Today after raiding grandma's fabric stash, I left my boys to play with their cousins and I took my raid home to play. I had purchased the service people fabric a couple of months ago with a plan to make a pillow case for my youngest. Unfortunately, the rest of the bolt was not a yard long, so I needed to add some extra fabric to make the pillow case.
It was fun to pull out my sewing machine again and create with it something my little guy is going to love. He loves any type of car or service vehicle that makes noise.

Day 348

The Monday Random picture of the day. The precious little feet of my every growing four year old. Sometimes I get annoyed and frustrated by all of the random pictures that show up on my camera, but every once in a while, if I really stop and look at those pictures, it's what my children see and it's a good reminder to cherish these little moments. They get too big too fast.

Day 347

This evening our family spent some time with our bible study fellowship group celebrating the Christmas season. The kids were all in the basement with the baby-sitter while the adults were able to chat with one another without being too interrupted by the little ones.
We also had a book exchange with both the children and the adults. The kids, with lots of help from the parents, chose numbers and then went in order to pick out a book. My boys are very excited about the new books they received and spent some extra time tonight reading them before bed.

Day 346

I just love how my little guy's interest in reading has just blossomed as of recent. It so sweet to see him crawled up on dad's lap reading a book together before bed.

Day 345

I received these really fun foam letters and numbers blocks when I was pregnant with my oldest. For some reason, they really drive me nuts. The blocks end up scattered every where and it for the most part drives me batty. With this pregnancy, I have finally just let it go if all the blocks are scattered and out. The important part is the boys enjoy playing with them and if it helps them learn the alphabet or their numbers then all the better.

Day 344

Today I was very fortunate to have not one date, but I got two dates with two of my favorite guys. My first date was with Andy to see the Nutcracker. The Pacific Northwest Ballet does a couple of shows of the Nutcracker for schools at discounted prices and Andy's preschool is one of those schools that is able to participate. We had a good time just the two of us.
This evening's date, my husband and I along with his brother and wife went out for a double date to see the Seattle Symphony. We went to see Holiday Pops with Cirque de la Symphonie where the symphony is accompanied by aerial artists, jugglers and dancers. It was such a fun evening and I'm a huge fan of Cirque du Soleil so it was a nice combination of the symphony with a little bit of cirque thrown in.

Day 343

Best chocolate caramels ever! Too bad they are only a seasonal item at Trader Joe's. I'm thinking I'm gonna need to purchase a few extra.

Day 342

I wonder how many pictures my little budding artist will be taking of the Christmas tree this year. This one was taken with my iPhone and I thought it was kinda cool.

Day 341

Brrrrr!!!!!!!!! This is the temperature outside at noon when I dropped Andy off at preschool. The sun is out, so the temperature is a bit chilly, but yeah for natural Vitamin D!

Day 340

The tree has been unwrapped, lit up and decorated with the help of a couple of excited little boys. I'm wondering how long it will take for a certain two year old to undecorate the tree.

Day 339

This year we are having an actual live tree for Christmas because we aren't traveling during the holiday season. Mike found out through a coworker that Costco was selling trees this weekend for a really good price.
You gotta love how Costco sells just about anything. We went inside to pick up a few items and purchased our tree. Right across the street from the warehouse at the corporate office are two large truck trailers filled with trees wrapped up ready to be picked up and taken home. I had quite the time people watching while Mike took our ticket and receipt to pick up our tree and attach it to the top of our SUV. It must be a requirement of those who drive minivans to shove the tree inside the vehicle between the rows of seats all the way to the front. It was just funny watching several minivans of families doing this.

Day 338

My funny two year old has been broadening his vocabulary of late and his new favorite word is hand. He will put his hands in front of his face and say, "hand, hand, hand." I happen to have my camera in my hands snapping pictures of the boys playing when Mr. Hands came out.

Day 337

Every year, Crossroads Bible Church hosts a Ladies Christmas Dinner for an opportunity to bring friends and family who may not know the true reason we celebrate Christmas. My mother-in-law and I have hosted a table for a few years and this year had a little hitch. We still hosted a table, but my mother-in-law ended up doing the bulk of the work due to my ill behaved children.

Our church is very blessed to have kitchen facilities and a wonderful lady who has a fantastic team that made our very delicious dinner. Our theme was blue, white, silver with snowflakes and the evenings gift was a ceramic loaf pan filled with chocolate topped shortbread cookies. After our meal, we were entertained by The Three Wisemen and one of the wisemen is our very own worship leader, Timothy James Meaney.
It was a wonderful evening of seeing various tables decorated, seeing friends I hadn't seen in awhile and meeting new people as well. The evening is usually one of the first parties of the season and I'm glad I get to be a part of it.

Day 336

After the wettest November in several years, the clouds have parted and the sun has come to brighten out lives again. It's chilly, but it's nice to have a bit of natural Vitamin D instead of the pill form.

Day 335

How cool are these beads? They are mood beads that change with the temperature of your body. The bin above my hand is what they look like room temperature and the ones in my hand have been altered by my internal heater I have growing. I was out doing a little jewelry shopping at a local craft store and the sales gal showed me these beads otherwise I would have just breezed over them.

Day 334

Today the teacher had brought out the work bench for curious little minds to practice swinging a hammer into nails. The children wore safety glasses and little aprons to work in. Lucky for me, I got to see Andy in action since I was snack mom today.

Day 333

I have a budding chef in my house who likes to assist with making dinner if he is in the mood. It's pizza night and we are making calzones. I'm the one in the family who likes mushrooms so those were on my side and Andy was being very meticulous on where the cheese needed to be placed. I enjoy my help and hope this assists him in making good nutrition choices and developing a love of cooking.

Day 332

While Mike and I were enjoying our quiet evening together, I spent my time wrapping wire and beads into a bracelet. It's my trial pieces from the berry vines class and unfortunately it's too big to be a bracelet, so I'm thinking it will have to be transformed into another piece, but I like the bright copper with the blue green beads.

Day 331

Tonight is movie night. Mike and I have a movie from Netflix we've been hanging on to for awhile since we watch more movies online thanks to our new Tivo. I have gathered the snacks for some munchies and if need be, stay awake items to make it through the movie.

Day 330

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have so many things to celebrate and am extremely thankful and grateful to God for all of the many blessings our family has been given this year. As our country sets aside one day to be thankful, I feel we need to be thankful each and every day of the year.

Day 329

The other day during preschool, Andy put together a Thanksgiving center piece with various kinds and colors of lentils and good old Elmer's glue. Today we brought it home and Andy is excited to share it with the family and take it to grandma's house tomorrow. I just love how he tried to write his name.

Day 328

Today was a saving grace for this pregnant momma. The boys went to grandma's house for the day and mom went home to relax and catch up on sleep. I also hunted down a pumpkin scone recipe thanks to Google and baked up some yumminess. I actually took three recipes I found online and sorta did my own thing and they turned out fantastic.

My first posted recipe: Pumpkin Scones

Pumpkin Scones:

2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup light or dark brown sugar

1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/3 cup raisins (optional)

1/4 cup toasted and chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

1/3 - 1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup fresh or canned pure pumpkin (if using canned pumpkin make sure there are no spices or sugar added)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Buttermilk has a nice thick creamy texture with a rich tangy buttery taste that makes baked goods tender. It is now commercially made by adding a bacteria to whole, skim, or low fat milk. However, in the past it was the liquid left over after churning butter. You can make your own by adding 1 tablespoon of white distilled vinegar, cider vinegar, or lemon juice to 1 cup of milk. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes before using.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Stir in the raisins and pecans, if using. In a separate bowl mix together the buttermilk, pumpkin puree and vanilla and then add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture. Mix just until the dough comes together. Do not over mix.

Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead dough gently four or five times and then pat the dough into a circle that is about 7 inches (18 cm) round and about 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) thick. Cut this circle in half, then cut each half into 4 pie-shaped wedges (triangles). Place the scones on the baking sheet.

Place the baking sheet inside another baking sheet to prevent the bottoms of the scones from over browning. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Makes 8 scones

Powdered Sugar Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons whole milk

Spiced Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

2 tablespoons whole milk

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 pinch ginger

1 pinch ground cloves

TO MAKE THE PLAIN GLAZE:

Mix the powdered sugar and 2 tbsp milk together until smooth

When scones are cool, use a brush to paint plain glaze over the top of each scone.

AS THAT WHITE GLAZE FIRMS UP, MAKE THE SPICED ICING:.

Combine the ingredient for the spiced icing together. Drizzle this thicker icing over each scone and allow the icing to dry before serving (at least 1 hour). A squirt bottle works great for this, or you can drizzle with a whisk.

Day 327

This afternoon I received a very unexpected surprise in my mail. One of the gals I follow on Twitter was giving away some of her extra beads and I responded saying I would gladly take any extra beads off her hands. She had sent the first package to someone else and I honestly wasn't expecting anything later on, but I do appreciate my gift today.

Day 326

What do 28 and 18 gauge brown wire and black drop beads have in common?

Another beading class courtesy of the beadclub. My sister-in-law and I took yet another wire class tonight and this one was called Berry Vines. I have one segment out of nine completed, but just honestly enjoyed a kid free evening hanging out with my partner in crime.

Day 325

I have been on a jewelry kick of late and took a picture of a couple of pairs of earrings that I have recently made. The one on the left is a cherry quartz faceted square bead dangling from a hand forged and hammered S swirl. The pair on the right is vintage Lucite blue with silver swirls through out the bead.

Day 324

Andy went to a birthday party for one of his classmates today and brought home a little goodie bag. Inside the bag was probably the coolest thing little brother has ever had the opportunity to play with. It's one of those toys that when you push the button it lights up and spins in a pattern. He looks like he wants to hug it.

Day 323

One of my new toys I got while shopping at Hobby Lobby in Tulsa was a beading lap tray. I thought this would be great to have another way to work on my jewelry and can transport this to various rooms around the house or take it with me on a trip. I am working on a new necklace using more fabulous lucite beads I recently purchased at The Beadin Path.

Day 322

It was so nice to wake up in my own bed this morning. Andy picked up my camera this morning while I was probably checking my email or twitter and was capturing a few moments of our day. Not the most flattering picture of me, but here you have it.

Day 321

This was our last day in Oklahoma with us flying home this evening. There wasn't anything really exciting about my day, but I noticed outside our plane window that the plane to San Diego was about ready to leave the gate. San Diego sounds a lot warmer than Seattle, but I'm ready to be home whether rain or shine.

Day 320

Today was such a fun day. I got to spend the day shopping with my mom and aunt. Mike took the boys to Qdoba for lunch and a little concert with Switchfoot and then bought tickets to the U2 concert at Qwest Field next June.

To top off our day, my parents took the boys for the evening and Mike and I headed to Oklahoma City to see Switchfoot in concert. We had such a great time rocking out and singing along to a lot of the songs since we have almost all their cd's. It was so nice to have a date night with my husband during our vacation.

Day 319

The boys, Mike and I spent this evening at my brother and sister-in-law's house who live in Tulsa. My parents, aunt and grandparents were all there to enjoy each other's company, hang out and eat some pizza. I snapped this photo of Andy sitting on great-grandpa's lap after dinner and it's really sweet how my boys who don't get to see their great grandparents often still enjoy being with them.

Day 318

Introducing

Mr. and Mrs. Keith Reimer

My middle brother has taken the plunge and got married to a really sweet gal this afternoon. It was such an honor and privilege of being able to be there to watch Keith and Alissa be joined in marriage. Andy did an awesome job standing up with both of his uncles and walking down the aisle with Alissa's nieces. I look forward to getting to know my new sister-in-law.

Day 317

Tonight was the rehearsal for my brother's wedding in which my adorable son is the ring bearer. We have been prepping Andy for a few weeks about how he will stand up next to Uncle Keith and Uncle Kyle during Uncle Keith's wedding and hold a little pillow. Andy didn't have much to say this evening, but he did learn he was to walk down the aisle with two little girls who are the nieces of the bride. Later Mike instructed Andy that if he was to walk down the aisle with these two girls, he needed to learn what their names were. My husband is already teaching my oldest to be a little Casanova.