Land Update

Ken and I spent the day at our little land on Sunday and WE CAN'T WAIT TO BE THERE! It is so peaceful and quiet out there. He cut down trees and then cut those into pieces and made a huge fire with them. The fire was so big and hot it turned the metal culvert a glowing red! Our next large project after getting the land cleared the way we like, will be building a bridge to go over the pool of water at the front... HUGE project!! (anyone know anything about building bridges??? Ken has some ideas, but we are always open to suggestions!!)

When you pull up this is the view at the land! (Pre-bridge)

The bridge will go over this area from right to left.

Once you get in this is the view from where the bridge will be looking out to the cul-de-sac.

The view from all the way in the back of the land on the dam.

A very happy Palmer!! He loves to stretch his tiny six inch tall legs!

Ken using the tractor loading the culvert.

Chopped wood plus...

Diesel equals...

FIRE!! Big fire!!!

A beautiful cedar fell to it's fate. It was very old and I was so sad to see it fall.

Pioneer matchsticks.

Nature with a natural glow from our warm sun.

Close up. Beautiful detail.

A stump seat.

He made a dirt bed to lay in... soft and cool. Ken and I laughed at this because he was really getting to dig!! He usually "digs" here at home but he is just digging the carpet or a blanket and not really accomplishing anything! We were proud for him to really get to dig!

We are thinking to start our new home in the spring. When walking around there at the land, Ken and I both can visualize living there and all the great times that will be ahead of us!

New Year, New Adventures, New Growth, New Blessings

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!!

Summarization: Wonderful

Our holidays were so wonderful. We had five different family Christmas' this season to attend and enjoyed every bit of all of them. Different things we experienced during visits to all our Christmas' this year:

• Laughter
• Stew
• 4 hams
• Hundreds of Christmas colored balls
• 4 turkeys
• Biscuits and Gran Grans homemade sausage gravy
• Spicy dill pickles (never had them and now a new love of mine)
• Halloween costumes (nephew "Robin McDowell")
• Hugs
• Lots of "Ugly Sweaters" (rescued from thrift shops all over)
• Fantastic Dessert
• Tears
• Key lime pie
• Fellowship with distant relatives
• A fridge full of Christmas cards to make us smile every time we see it.
• Christmas Carolling to a family friend's home with our homemade candles- poked- through- plastic cups.
• Some sweet and some fussie, but always cute, babies
• Pajamas
• 600+ miles of traveling
• A Quarter Coin Collection with only six quarters in it, missing the other 44.
• Tons of smiles, which are truly contagious
• An outdoor heater, like you see on patios at restaurants, in a living room
• Three bicycles for kids
• Thankfulness
• Thousands of Christmas lights
• One dressed up Santa
• El Paseo Mexican Food
• One two hour+ domino game
• One one hour+ domino game
• Sharing
• Giant candy canes

And that is just the tip of the iceberg as you may say. Here are some pics as well. I hope everyone had a super Christmas, and start the countdown for next year!!!



Kade, Ken's cousin's baby boy- isn't he so sweet?!!

Our little family picture. Doesn't Palmer look thrilled? I think he was super bummed about having to wear his Christmas sweater...

Two great "Ugly" Christmas sweaters... yes those are working Christmas lights on the snowmen that my brother, Adam on the left, is wearing!!!

Robin McDowell (Corbin McDowell's alter ego which he insists wearing all the time... he will correct you if you don't call him Robin. His mom, April, said that he calls them "Robin Mom", and "Robin Dad".

We had everyone stand up and tell about how they found their "Ugly Christmas Sweater". This is my wonderful aunt Becky and Uncle Kyle. When the night was over, she took out her matching Christmas ball earings and tossed them in the trash... too funny!!!

Carolling to a family friend's house... singing Jingle Bells, Oompa-loompa, Lions- Tigers-and Bears, We Wish You a Merry Christmas. They had a long driveway we had to walk down so we got creative with our song choices.

I think they need MORE candy.

The sweet laughter of children... there's nothing like it.

All we girls being so silly... poor Kar-Kar!

L-R: Mandy, Karson, Candace, Alisha

We were all wearing the snow-gear hats and scarves Kim, my mother-in-law got us.

Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas."

~ Peg Bracken.

OUR WEDDING FILM

(By the way... my brother got this shot-- isn't he amazing? He has a great eye!!! I think we all get our creative side from our mama!!)

Want to share our wedding film I love SOOOO much! They are an amazing crew, (thank you Portal Films, Asheville, NC), and completed my vision for capturing this dreamy event for us!! I wanted a creative perspective that really captured the emotion of the whole weekend and they did it! Enjoy!

Click HERE.

Two Thoughts

THOUGHT ONE:

I believe in angels watching over us. Do you?

My dad passed away December 23, 1993, when I was eleven and I have had experiences in my life that have clearly made me think of him... or dreams where he was so very real I would wake up and be so disappointed it was a dream. So many times, since I was twelve, I have dreamt of seeing him in public, and am passionately crying out loud to him in my dream, "this isn't real, you can't be real, what are you doing here", and am crying so hard in my sleep, but in the dream he acts so surprised that I don't think he is real. He acts as if he doesn't know what I am talking about and reassures me he has never left. This has always made me think he uses his wings to watch over my family and me.

Now that Christmas time is here again, it reminds me of last year's family Christmas- it was such a fun one. In the picture below, that is my brother, (Adam, a.k.a. Bubbi), standing and his Kris sitting in the chair. My mom got this picture with her regular point-and-shoot digital camera and it was downloaded at the time straight to her computer. We thought nothing special of it for months. Then one evening my mom called and asked me to look closely at the picture... specifically at the reflection in the window. It is such a strong reflection that it even blocks out most of Kris' head reflection in the window. It looks as though someone is standing with their arm up on the mantle watching us... but there is no other person there. I believe.

SECOND THOUGHT:

My brother, (Adam, in this picture), has such a sensitive heart... and he sure knows how to hit home with the emotions! Too good had to share. He blogged:

"Last night I couldn't sleep so I watched to boob tube hoping it would make me tired. I flipped onto a channel that was showing the Washington D.C. Christmas special. During the show, there was a song played that gave me chills up my spine. Since I heard it, it has haunted me and I thought the only way to get it out of my head was to make a movie about it. For some reason, all the talk of our soldiers in Iraq and the war has really made me emotional this year and it all kinda came out in this video. Please enjoy this tribute to all our soldiers and share it with your friends."

Click here to watch the video he created.

7 days until Christmas! Please remember prayers for those who are missing loved ones during this emotional season.

Loving life, hope you are too.

Let Your Little Light Shine

Everybody meet Alli! She is such a little sweetie and so intelligent!! At twenty-two wee months she has such an amazing little personality. Her mom, Ashley Crump, is the massage therapist at my salon, Status. Which by the way, she has a great special right now for two massages for $65, which you can divey up between you and a friend or however you like (call 903.348.6250 for appts). I've heard only positive words about her great massages!

Ken got a massage by her on Tuesday up at the salon and I played with Alli. Her little brown eyes will suck you in- I don't know how Ashley tells this little girl "no"- ever!

Probably the second time I ever met Alli, Ashely showed me how Alli would show you her "light", and she would hold up her itty bitty tiny pointer finger. Then Ashely would tell her to hide it under a bushel and she'd hide it under her other hand... then the cutest thing ever she'd tell her to blow out her light, and she's put that tiny finger up to her mouth and blow on the tip of her finger! So precious. (she also knows sign language!!)

Here are some pics I wanted to share!

She found a box of kids toys and dumped them out to see it all at once!

Look at those long lashes!

This is one of my favorites I got of her... it's a little hard to see in this blog pic, but that little pool of drool on her lip is classic.

If she only knew what a quarter was... she wanted that candy in there but wasn't sure how to get it! She knew it came out the silver opening at the bottom and would open it and look in and then look at me. I knew she had nice healthy apple slices in her bag so somehow I resisted her tempting sweet look and didn't give in. :) She must have played with this candy machine for a solid two or three minutes- turning and looking, turning and looking... fascinated.

She and I were playing peek-a-boo through the opening under the waiting area coffee table! She'd laugh and smile so big!

She found a box of candy canes I had up there for our customers and I lucked out again because she couldn't get the plastic wrap off. I tried quickly find something else to distract her! I didn't want to upset her on our first play session! :)

She loved these Christmas balls... she'd pick all of them up she could and launch them into the air and watch them bounce- then just laugh hysterically. Luckily, I bought the shatter-proof kind for the business.

Reaching for the lens... I think the sound of the shutter made her really curious.

She would say, "cheeezzzz" over and over and over while I took her pictures...

I only had to show her twice how to lock the Lego's together then she got it!


The drawing and the drawee.

"Good things come in small packages"

Reaching for the lens again... and a forgotten Christmas ball in the background... she was a busy-body and went from one thing to the next the whole time! Kept me on my toes!!

Such a sweet little life. Everyone enjoy your weekend!!!

New Addition: Addison

Hi! I am finally remembering to post these pics! Our friends Kristy and Stephen Brewer had a baby girl and I snapped some pics of her when she was only a week old... she is already over a month old!! She is so beautiful!

Tiniest big yawn I've seen!

A real thinker...

Itty bitty piggies...

So content... and bendable!

Who are you, and what is that thing?

Holding Mommy's finger.

A new baby is like the beginning of all things-wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities.

Eda J. Le Shan