Holiday Family Activities

December 2018


Riley was part of The King and I which was a Christmas production put on at our church. It took us by surprise he wanted to be part of it.
Practices began sometime in September I think and lasted until a week before Christmas. He had practice every Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings. Those morning practices were tough, not on him but on me, lol. I am not a morning person so waking up at 6:30 am take a shower, eat breakfast and finish getting ready was always a challenge for me. We were late a few times.

Riley had fun at practice even when a few older boys were being mean to Riley and a few other younger boys... yes, even at church. We weren't happy about that so Jacob made sure to let one of the leaders know and we were pleased when they addressed the problem. If kids don't behave at church then when is a good time to do so? right? That's unacceptable. After that talking to, the older boys behaved themselves.

Riley wanted to sing in the choir but didn't want a solo. He made sure to be very specific about that. LOL!  But once he was on stage he sang loud. I was able to clearly hear him from my seat.

He did good. They all did, it was cute.

A few days before Christmas break his class made gingerbread houses.

Um, I don't think he had a design in mind, he just went with it. It looks like a mountain covered in candy, lol.

We don't stay indoors once the weather changes. We still need to stay active so we make sure to layer up and bundle up before hitting the trails or go on a casual walk. I really don't like to be confined indoors for long. Sometimes we'll go to the YMCA but I quickly become overwhelmed with people and noise and the humidity in the pool area is just too much for me. That's not the place for me to be. So this is why I prefer the outdoors.

Here we were at Carkeek Park in Seattle. It's got trails and a pedestrian bridge which connects to the beach side on the Puget Sound. I'm not really sure how often the train passes through here but one can see it in the distance and it's cool to be able to see it up close while standing on the pedestrian bridge as it passes by. The engineer always sounds the horn, kids get a kick out of it.

Rock skipping continues ... a favorite activity of theirs. In the meantime I like to take in the gorgeous scenery and collect small white rocks. I have a glass bowl full of them.

Being outdoors on a cloudy day is heaven on earth for me.

Cherish your family, make time, 

have patience and laugh often with them.

Embracing These Long Winter Days

The beginning of February was very cold. It iced over a few times and one of those times Jacob wasn't able to leave home until 12:00 pm. This type of weather does not help my nerves. We've also had several days of just cloudy skies with minimal rain and it is only during cold weather that I love the sun.

One good thing about spending more time at home is being able to get a lot of reading done. Some days I get to have three or four hours of uninterrupted reading. I love that! .... all while I sip on some peppermint tea and Sophie sleeping right next to me.

I recently watched the new Ghostbusters movie. I actually like it a lot. It's funny and the four women in it are very likable. Need to buy it. I've found it therapeutic to watch fun/funny movies especially during these long gray rainy days. Laughter brings sunshine to one's soul even in winter. My other go to movie lately is Madea's Christmas. This is about THE only Madea movie that I really like.

I still can't believe that I've completely abandoned drinking coffee at home. It's so shocking to me still but it's true. I really REALLY do love peppermint and chamomile tea. The only time I drink coffee now is when I'm craving a white peppermint mocha from Starbucks but I hardly crave even that now. I do need to buy an extra box of peppermint tea to keep in my car for the times when we're out and I crave it. A lot of restaurants don't offer peppermint tea so might as well bring my own.
I love to drink tea while I'm reading. Very cozy. Jacob has been drinking a lot more of it as well.

Although winter can be dreary and it can keep one stuck at home for days on end it is still a pretty season. I am fond of it.

I really don't like to go to the dentist and honestly I've been hesitant about making an appt for a while now ... but I finally did. I got some work done on the left side. My jaw was tired afterwards and my lips were all dry. I need to make two more visits and I'll be done. I seriously would rather see my Gyn than to get dental work done. So stressful!

Well, we all knew that the Patriots would end up being the champions but I'm sure alot of us were hoping that the Falcons would somehow end up with the win. Our church had a small superbowl gathering. They had wings and lemonade. We brought several boxes of pizza and hawaiian punch. Someone took nachos, and there was also chips and dip and veggies and dip and some pastries. It was a cozy gathering. After we ate we watched the first half of the game but we decided to leave early because Nathan stayed home alone and watching the superbowl together as a family has always been tradition.

On January 24th Jacob and I hung out by the Seattle waterfront then took the ferry over to Bremerton and back. I took several pictures and unfortunately I made the mistake of deleting my pictures before I transferred them to my external hard drive. You know how upset I got?! So not cool. These next two pictures are the only ones I have of our nice outing. Totally stinks.

It was a nice 45 minute ferry ride. We talked and enjoyed the nice view.

Sometimes I do enjoy running errands especially if I get them done before noon. After going to the post office then the grocery store, I stopped by Starbucks then drove to the park and enjoyed some time to myself. I took my book and read for twenty minutes in my car. It was rather cold out but I had a nice view of the lake.


We got snow. Like alot. It began snowing on {superbowl} Sunday around noon but it wasn't sticking then but once it got dark it began to stick. I had texted Sydna and told her to make sure to get home soon because we were expecting at least six inches of snow. She said she would but the dork didn't think it would get bad, #sillyteenager. She texted me around 10:30 pm saying that she had gotten stranded trying to go up a hill. She called one of her friends that lives close by and brought her home. I was a bit worried that her car would get broken into. She said that there several cars were left behind at the bottom of the hill. It got really bad.

This was the first night we got snow.

Snowflakes are kisses from heaven.

This is the morning after. It really does look pretty but I'm not too fond of it because it keeps one stuck at home {can't leave the house for anything} and it's so dangerous to drive in. School was canceled. So Nathan was happy about that but Riley wasn't, lol.

Snowball fight.

And of course they built a snowman that had swords for arms, potatoes for eyes, coke lids for a smile and bouncy balls for buttons ... oh, and Mr. Potato's hat which you can barely see, lol.

After they were done playing we went to the front to keep Jacob company while he shoveled away all the snow on the driveway. I told him to take my Tahoe to work since it has way better traction than his camry. Plus, it would give me some peace of mind knowing that my car is a lot safer to drive under these conditions.

Riley was having way too much fun. I was making sure he didn't get soaking wet. Once Jacob cleared the driveway he drove Sydna to her car. Thankfully it didn't get vandalized. 

School was canceled again on Tuesday and they finally went to school on Wednesday after a two hour late start. It continued to snow on and off for two days. It was crazy. We're not used to getting this much snow here in the PNW.

I do have snow boots but I wore my rain boots instead. I meant to tell Riley to wear his rain boots but I forgot. The path we take to get to his school was super icy. We had to walk along the side next to the fence so we would't fall. Because Riley had tennis shoes it took us so long to get off this path. I didn't want Riley's shoes to get soaked. We finally made it to his classroom just in time. I decided to walk on the thick snow on my way back to the car, it was much safer.

I've got to say that I was relieved once the snow melted two days later.

I'll tell you one thing though, I would rather deal with mother nature than have to deal with health problems. God knows we've had and are having our share of them. The enemy is stubborn but God wins all the time. God is stronger still.

Winter, a lingering season, is a time to

gather golden moments, embark upon a sentimental

journey, and enjoy every idle hour.

-John Boswell

Christmas Eve 2016

Our Christmas Eve and Christmas day was enjoyable and non-chaotic. It was a cloudy Christmas Eve. Our day started out slow. Slept in and it felt so good but I quickly got up and got ready around 10:00 am to prepare appetizers and to hang out with the ones that mean the most.
Enjoyed watching a few football games then switching it back to either a Hallmark Christmas movie or one of our own movies. Those Hallmark movies are SO good. Seriously. I love most of them. I've got a whole page and a half of movies written down that I plan on buying. They're just so touching.

Our church had Christmas Eve service. I remember it was a cold evening. There was fog hovering on the top of the pine trees. It definitely looked more dense than what the picture shows.

Surprisingly we arrived early to church. The children were warming up on stage singing a Christmas song when we arrived. One of the older girls invited Riley to sing with them. At first Riley didn't want to go but then he saw how the kids were having so much fun that he asked us if we could let him go. His boldness takes us by surprise still. He's nothing like Sydna and Nathan and definitely not like me, he totally takes after his father in this respect and I'm so glad for that.
Once the service began and it was time for the kids to sing he walked up those steps with total confidence. That made us so proud.

Service was nice of course. Riley especially liked when it was time for the vigil. It's so nerve-wracking to have a child hold a candle. Our eyes were glued on that candle.

Always sweetheart!

Sydna had to work on Christmas Eve so as soon as she got off she went straight to church. She only arrived about ten minutes late. I enjoyed the company of all my children.

We couldn't wait to get home and get cozy and to eat. We ate tamales then hung out in the living room and watched more movies. We read our advent book and of course, it was hard for Riley to contain his excitement. He wanted to open one of the presents that he had gotten from relatives. We do let the kids open one present on Christmas Eve so he was very happy about that.

It was a nice day. We're so thankful for all the blessings especially thankful for each other. Riley actually slept in until 8:30 on Christmas morning. No pictures to show but the kids were happy with what they got. Jacob surprised me with my very own laptop which I honestly didn't expect to get {yet}. That sure was sweet.

The miracle of Christmas is that He has come near to us, into our world, into our routine life.

So powerful is the Spirit of Christmas that 

even Ebenezer Scrooge embraced it at last.

-P.J. O'Rourke

Living In The Present

As each day goes by I notice that Riley is becoming more independent and because of that he also wants to do bigger kid things like I mentioned in my previous post, no more highchair and now he doesn't want to drink from his straw cup anymore ... at least not while we're at home.
It may not seem like big milestones to some but for me it's all bittersweet because it means that {what could be} my last child is growing up. Since it's been ten years since I last had a baby before having Riley everything we go through with him is like we're brand new parents because Riley is SO darn different than his siblings, from his birth, the way he looks to his personality.

The sun made an appearance one afternoon so Riley and I decided to go for a walk. Good thing too because the poor thing was becoming restless at home. Been cooped up at home day after day lately because of the rain. Too much of one thing is not good.

I had him wear his rain boots so he could splash in the puddles. He loved that! We saw worms and slugs. I think he may be afraid of worms or anything that slithers, for now at least. When we would see a worm he would go around it than walk over it. I told him that they don't do anything but I guess they weird him out because of the way they move. I get completely grossed out. I'm not afraid of them but just seeing them disgusts me.

He loves to go to Sunday school. During the week he'll ask me if its "Someday" {instead of Sunday}. I've tried correcting him but he continues to call Sunday someday. Anyway, we don't go to church every Sunday so when we do he gets very excited and can't wait to play with the other kids. I love how intent he was during story time. He's the little one against the wall.

After lunch on Sunday we drove to Seattle to Golden Gardens Park. Last time we were here was a little over a year ago. It's a very cool park but the reason why we don't visit this one that often is because parking is a nightmare and gets very crowded. This is a popular park because it has a sandy beach, fire rings, concession stand and of course a playground plus it has a marina and it's close to Woodland Park Zoo {which is tons better than Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma}.

The good thing is that we live here and we can visit any time we want especially during winter when there's not many people around. On this particular day we noticed that it wasn't extremely cold. I mean it was chilly but not to where we were freezing given we were by the water.

Like these boys tend to do when we're by the water ... they were skipping rocks or Jacob was and Riley was throwing sand.

We kept walking down the shore and we came across a rocky sandy area. Jacob lifted a medium size rock and found a small crab. He showed it to the kids but Riley was a little nervous. He said he didn't want the crab to pinch him. We weren't telling him to touch it but only to look at it, he still wouldn't get close. I also spotted tiny anemones, some as small as a quarter. I don't think I've ever seen any that small.

I know I said it wasn't freezing and it wasn't but look at Jacob, wearing gloves, lol. He's always cold.

Ok so we recently got new phones. We were up for an upgrade. Jacob and I both got the Galaxy S5. We liked our previous Galaxy so we just decided to get upgrades. I was testing out the camera especially to see how well it focuses. I loved it! I love my phone.
Anyway, there's lots of rocks with barnacles at this beach. I just looked them up wondering exactly what a barnacle is. I wish I hadn't. Those things obviously vary in size but whatever size they are they look like worms. Eww!!! I got grossed out. Now that I know exactly what they are I'm not going to touch a barnacle ever again!!!!!!!! You should google them, pretty gross.

While Jacob and I were taking in the views Sydna kept an eye on Riley. She took the next two pictures with my edit.

Riley is such a happy little guy. He's always smiling and laughing ... and so active. Although I wouldn't mind more mental breaks during my day I still wouldn't want things any other way. He keeps me moving. Obviously, that's what God felt I needed in my life when He gave us Riley, lol.