Look what happened 20 years ago!!!!

It really doesn't seem that long ago that we welcomed this beautiful little girl into our family! Truly where does the time go. So for now, it is time to embarrass Tabitha.

HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY TABITHA!!!!

Lizzie's 1st Christmas

Surrounded by a FEW of her presents!
Unfortunately we weren't able to be with Lizzie, Jessica and Robert for the actual day. But we got to talk with them and get our "Lizzie fix" by hearing her coo and laugh. I thought I'd share a few pictures that Jessica shared on her myspace. Enjoy!!!

Just look at that happy face!

Oh, I just want to plant kisses on those sweet cheeks!

Lizzie with her Daddy

Our Christmas Eve Blessing...

...came in the form of an off duty border patrol agent. Here's the story:

Tabitha was working today at Great Harvest Bread. A regular, everyday family came in to purchase their bread for the holiday about an hour before the store was closing. While eating his sample of bread the Father of this family turned around and looked out the business window out into the parking lot. The next thing the GH bread workers saw this man say a few swear words and bolt out the door. They didn't know what in the world was happening and had to wait for his return (as did his family).

Upon his return this off duty border patrol agent said he saw a man looking into the store with tatoos on his face. These were not ordinary tattoos, they were tattoos that were linked to a gang from Honduras. A gang that is notorious for robbery and killing at random. This off duty border patrol agent was not able to catch the man so he called the Bellingham police who stayed nearby to monitor the store to make sure he didn't return. All the GH workers received police escorts to the cars tonight.

You can bet we all hugged Tabitha a bit tighter when she came home tonight after having a wonderful Christmas Eve with Josh's family. Tonight we are grateful to our Heavenly Father by placing this border patrol agent in this Great Harvest store today and protecting our daughter and the other workers.

Have a wonderful Christmas!!! Hug your kids a bit tighter!

Happy Birthday to Amy!!

Well, happy birthday (yesterday) to me :O)since I'm the one that keeps up on the blog! It didn't start out like it was my birthday since there were SO many little errands to run. I had to take Rob in for a follow-up appointment for his cataract surgery (everything is good there), Amber to the ortho (braces come off in 3 weeks!), then to bassoon lessons (Amber has a recital on Saturday) and then Tabitha locked her keys in the van when she went to pay for gas so I got to rescue her since Rob couldn't drive yet.

But it got better once we got home for the day!! Rob supervised the kids making me dinner and I had my FAVORITE birthday dessert ~ mint chocolate chunk ice cream pie from Mallards. Nummy!!! And my gifts were wonderful! In addition to the usual kids presents Rob gave mine early. On Saturday we had 13th row tickets to see Bon Jovi in Vancouver, BC!! It was the most incredible concert EVER!!! INCREDIBLE!!! It was a 2 1/2 hour concert! Boy, did my feet ever hurt! There is a small slide show at the end of this entry and I was SO glad they let us take pictures. Jon Bon Jovi was literally 3 ft. from us during the time he came down off the stage. THAT made the concert for both me & Rob.

To get a sneak peek of our concert go to this link http://bonjovi.aeglive.com/holiday/ It takes a few minutes to download since there are 3 songs from OUR concert!!! You can imagine our excitment when we saw this!!!

Off to get ready for Christmas! So much to do and so little time to do it all in. But we'll enjoy just being together and relaxing and having fun. Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy day ~ it made me feel loved.

LOTS of pictures!!!

Here's just a small sampling of the pictures we took during Robert, Jessica & Lizzie's visit. We SO enjoyed our visit ~ which was waaayy too short. It was a wonderful extended weekend. Lizzie has taken a piece of our hearts with her back to Utah and she completely has every one of us wrapped around her little finger. She's such a good baby. It was great to spend time with Robert & Jessica. Oh, how we miss them!!!

This Little Peanut....

... will be here TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Along with her Mom & Dad :O) We're really looking forward to spending time with everyone for the next few days.

More Snow!!!

IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!!

We're getting snow this morning!!!! Forecasters have been prediciting 2 - 5" all week long but last night I heard 3 - 8". I think the kids (and me too) want the 8" so we can go sledding!!
Well, it's time to announce our winner, actually winnerS for the "How Much Did the Tree Cost?" contest. First here's what the tree looks like finished (minus the tree skirt).
This one was taken from the stairs

This one the dining room.

We had guesses ranging from $5 (okay Cathy, it's been a loooong time since you lived in WA) up to $135. So we actually have TWO winners. So first the cost of the tree was $35

And our winners are: (are you hearing that drum roll)................................................

SALLY with her guess of $25

AND

BEV with her guess of $45

CONGRATS ladies!!! Your RAK will be on it's way on Monday. So Bev, can I keep this tree farm?

RAK thread

I thought I'd start a different section for your guesses on how much the tree cost. Remember that picture is NOT the tree we cut down. The one we picked was 8 - 9'. Leave your quesses in the comments or you can email me. You have until Saturday!!

Whew! What a week!

We had a great Thanksgiving. It's been fun, busy and relaxing. Can I have a few more days? Here's just a few of the things we've been doing.

The day after T-day, Rob goes out in the backyard to put a few things away ~ namely the hose cart. He opens the lid to put in some stuff and look what he finds! The rainbird sprinkler is completely frozen!



Yep! It's been THAT cold at night!

We then head out to cut the Christmas tree. Our favorite place is Fullner Tree Farm out in Deming (Nuggent's Corner to be exact). This is the tree that was saved. From a distance it looked like the perfect tree. That is until Rob went and stood next to it. Um, just a little too tall!


The one we wound up getting measured between 8 - 9ft. Who can guess how much that cost? An RAK is involved!


Aren't they adorable? I LOVE this picture!

On Saturday we went bridal dress shopping. And SUCCESS!!! But I can't show you here because I'm sure Josh takes a peek here every once in a while. If you want to see which one she picked, just email me and I'll send you an attachment. Until then, here's a teaser picture of some of the dresses that she tried on that day.


While decorating the house last night, Amber and David went into David's room to put up some decorations when we hear them yelling "It's Snowing! It's Snowing!" Yeah, right!! You're not going to fool us! That was until we looked outside and it WAS snowing! Go figure!!! Of course it was all melted by this morning. But it sure added to the holiday spirit.

It's Lizzie time! (Again)

Okay, hopefully you're not getting bored or annoyed with me showing off our sweet little granddaughter. If you are ~ too bad!!! :O) HA! I thought I'd share with you all a few of the pictures Rob took while in Utah last week.

A Happy Grandpa! (Oooh, that's weird to say)


Feeding Lizzie. Don't you love those flexed feet?

Snuggle time! Yes, I'm SO jealous but I get to do this in a little over 2 weeks! And I can't wait!

Such a Beautiful Family. I love Lizzie's fuzzy hair.


Cell phone pictures ~ pardon the quality but the subject is adorable!!!
Sleeping in the car

Oh, we're all in trouble with those eyes.

The Talent show!

Here are a few photos from the talent show we were in last week. We did a lip sync to Queen "Somebody to Love". We had a lot of fun!!! And Rob's "performance" will never be forgotten.
Amber's "playing" a piano. We're the backup singers. Until I had a "little" guitar solo. You can see the guitar int he last picture.

Yes! He's wearing a mullet!

My 10 year milestone!!!

So many of you know that when I was pregnant with David (over 10 years ago) the last 2 months I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I NEVER had that with any of the other kids. During the day I was able to control it with my diet but I was devastated when I had to take insulin shots before I went to bed. Over the years I've had my fair share of 2 hour glucose test ~ not fun!! Well, I had another one on Saturday (I have the bruise to prove it!) and the appointment with the endocrinologist today. The doctor was EXTREMELY pleased with the lab results. My glucose #'s were PERFECT!!!! The doctor told me that I have passed the critical time period as statics show that most women with gestational diabetes have full blown diabetes within 10 years. NOT ME!!!! She was so happy and wished more of her patients would have worked this hard to keep diabetes away. I want to make sure I'm around a LONG time for my kids and my grand kids!!!! Cuz this little peanut (and more that will come along) is worth staying around for!

Today I'm doin' a happy dance!!!

It's Hard to Believe

4 weeks ago today this little peanut came into the world! Why does time go so quickly?
That's Robert's hand that she's resting on.
Playtime in her bouncer


Rob is in Utah RIGHT NOW and will be giving this little princess LOTS of hugs and kisses. And of course, taking LOTS of pictures for us. 3 more weeks until they come here to visit!

Crazy! Busy!!!

Sheesh!!! Where do the days go? You think we're planning a wedding around here or something! We are so totally excited because 2 (of many) MAJOR items have been checked off the list. 1 - Flight arrangements have been made for our incredible photographer ~ CLG Photography. And 2 - flight arrangements have been made for our videographer ~ David Perry. Please go their websites to see the talent these individuals have. Cassie and I had way too much fun talking last night. She will totally fit in with our family. Thank you Mergen's family for pointing us in David's direction. He's such a nice guy! Here's a sample of the video that David will do for us. Minus the snow please!!



Holy cow!!! I'm SO excited for BOTH of these excellent people to be a part of this day for Tabitha & Joshua. Which by the way, is MARCH 1, 2008!!! A sample of a bride's maid dress is on it's way. The wedding dress ~ well it looks like we'll have to start driving toward Seattle to find one. Nothing in Bellingham that Tabitha likes.

Here's a few of the shots that I took on our 1st engagement pictures photo shoot. Let's hope the weather will clear enough for some more shoots out at Semiahmoo.

One of those days

Have you ever had one of those days where

• morning comes way too early
• it's too dark at 5:30 am to get out of bed
• you don't want to go to the gym to exercise
• you don't want to take a walk on the trail because it's cold and rainy
• you have 2 kids say their throat "kind of" hurts
• you have boat loads of laundry
• you think you should start charging for your "Mom taxi service"
• your heart aches to hold your Grandbaby
• you have NOTHING that looks good to eat but have a full pantry
• you have too much to do and don't know where to start so you don't do anything
• you just want to snuggle

Well, that's the kind of day I'm having today. I'm not motivated to do much of anything! Okay, so there is laundry going in the washer because that has a way of growing out of control ~ more than it already is. I'm thinking I might want to start a grateful/thankful journal so on days like these I have something tangible to pick up and look at to help me get out of this funk.

Here's our Halloween picture I promised to show you.

Rob was a pirate. I would have loved to have seen his co-workers. They all dressed up as pirates.

David was a nerd.

Amber ~ an adorable judo expert

In my blog surfing today, I ran across this great quote I found on Rebecca Sower's blog. This is from all people ~ Mr. Rogers. Probably not many of you youngins' remember him.

Deep within us--no matter who we are--there lives a feeling of wanting to be lovable, of wanting to be the kind of person that others like to be with. And the greatest thing we can do is let people know that they are loved and capable of loving.

Time....

...where does it go? I can't believe I haven't even posted Halloween pictures yet! Busy times around here. But first I HAVE to show some more adorable Elizabeth pictures. I'll post Halloween tomorrow! And we have round 1 of Tabitha & Josh engagement pictures. We've got to get that invitation picture, you know?!?! But first, our adorable little Lizzie!

Getting ready for her first tub bath

Happy but a bit cautious ~ she looks so tiny and delicate against Jessica's hand

A binky baby!

Talk about multi-tasking ~ love the blanket (wink, wink)

All dressed up to visit her Great-Grandfather for the first time

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Here's a special Halloween TREAT ~

a Lizzie Kitty :O)

Look How She's Growing!

Some new photos for our Baby Lizzie "fix". She was still a little jaundice when these photos were taken but she doing SO much better now.

Love the animal print pants.

Such long fingers. We may have another budding piano player in the family!

This Is "Grandpa Rob's" favorite picture.

Such a sleeping beauty. Jessica's sister, Amanda gave her this adorable hat.