Merry Christmas Card Readers!

2013 Year in Review!

* Riley turned 12 in February hurling our family into the world of Young Men's & Boy Scouts! Riley prepared himself well and received the Priesthood too. He enjoyed Boy Scout Camp this summer and completed both the 15 mile mountain bike Flume Trail up at Lake Tahoe, and the 25 mile Verdi Loop road ride! He is my awesome helper!

*April took Mom to HAWAII!!! For an early 15th anniversary celebration Grandpa M. braved our crazy crew & Dan bought an airline ticket for me so I flew over and met him (he was there on a charter). 4 blissful days on Kona with my lover!  

* In May we took a "Family Vacation"!! With Dan!!! We meandered down to San Diego to our favorite beach house aka: Grandpa's house!! A week laying on the beach, playing with cousins, and wearing sandals in May was awesome! We also had some great adventures in our adventure-mobile along the way, Tufas at Mono Lake, hiking inside Panum Crater a rhyolitic plug-dome, Manzanar National Historic Visitor's Center, and Fossil-falls lava tubes to name a couple!

* Sweet Leili turned 4 in June! How did that happen!! Again she got two birthdays as Dan was away for her actual birthday. But she is not complaining!! She got a two wheeler and was off on two wheels not to long after that!

* July brought an AWESOME family reunion in Provo Canyon, my Grandma J.'s favorite place to take all of her grandkids! Then down to our favorite 4th of July spot! Grandma's house!

On the way home we stopped at Great Basin National Park and got to explore the Lehman Caves and see petroglyphics & pictograms.

Danna's birthday in July brought PRE-APPROVAL for purchasing a home!

*Ok are you paying attention...the end of July brought our pre-approval letter and for Dan's birthday at the end of August we moved into our NEW HOUSE!! Can you say whirl wind!! We bought a great 1960 ranch on a 1/2 acre in the most AMAZING neighborhood! We have seen deer, quail, mountain lion tracks in our front yard, bear scat in our back yard (they caught one a street over in Nov.)! We are close to the river and close to a county open space. Dan left 4 days after we moved in and was gone for a month jaunting around NYC and London!

* October brought us Miss Fern's 8th birthday! She choose to be baptized on her birthday and dad flew in just in the nick of time to get to the church! Fern has been taking a sewing class and has been knitting up a storm!

* Super Man Jake turned 10 at the beginning of November!! I got to take he and three other friends on a birthday hike, it was awesome, they were goofy, and I survived! Success!! Jake has turned into a reading machine, he has 6 books going currently!!!

*In november we also welcomed two new kittens into our family! They are so sweet and wonderful! Rose is content to cuddle and let Leili carry her around (we also have to be careful as she is a garbage disposal and will eat anything)! Bryony is sassy and fun to play with (she just chews everything, including chewing an ear bud off of Dan's set)! Petunia and Zinnia are tolerating the new youth, the bunnies Daisy and Dandelion don't really care as long as they get fed and get new hay.

We wish you all our love and good wishes and we hope you enjoy love, light, & simplicity this Christmas Season!
XO

Not a creature was stirring...

...except the bunnies and kitties...

We braved the snow last week and drove up into the mountains to cut down our own tree, it was a magical time to stand in the woods with my family and listen to the silence. My house is not often silent, even when the kids are in bed there are the cats scurrying around and the train. At night it is quiet enough to hear the train. 

I love to look at the tree all lit up in a darkened house with my kids all in bed. Things are so busy around here that somedays I never look at the tree during the day! But at night I take a breath. Find my center. 

I hope you are finding a couple breaths during this Christmas season. 

XO

Yarn Along

Joining Ginny again for her Yarn Along!!

Right now I'm reading, "My Life in Paris" by Julia Child and I'm knitting this cute slouchy hat for Fern in Cascade 220 Heathers color #9453. Shhh, don't tell her!!

XO

Nativities

Such a pause...sadly that is what happens when your computer implodes and saving up for another takes time. The last few post I did off my phone but lets just say posting anything with more words than a text is cumbersome at best and down right frustrating at times. But today my lover left his computer at home and I've finally memorized the password! Yippie!

Today is just a short post, I'm gearing up for our Christmas card post so stay tuned!

I love nativities, between the many of them and the many nutcrackers I have collected over the years you can imagine just how my house is decorated. Most of my nativities have a special memory or story, this one is my favorite. It is a ceramic one from Olivera Street in downtown LA. My mom bought it for me in 2002 when i spotted it in the window of one of the little shops.

Another favorite nativity, completely opposite. This one is plastic, little people that I mail ordered in 2001 for Riley's first Christmas. It is one of my favorites because I love to see the kids all get excited and how they change the positions of all the characters. Riley was always insistent with how it should look, I would put it away at night set up much like my set is at the top and then in the morning he would fix it so that everyone was facing in looking at the baby Jesus. Riley taught Jake and Fern well, that is how it looked for years. But Leili has different ideas and it is always changing. This is how I found it today, a little old school little people and animals from our castle joining the mix!

Tomorrow will be the 120th anniversary of the Nutcracker Ballet first performance in St. Petersburg Russia for the Czar Nickolas on December 18, 1892. As I type this the beautiful strains of Tchaikovsky's ballet are wafting in from the other room, thankfully my kids love it too! Today we took Leili to her first performance of the Nutcracker, or to me more precise the Peanutcracker! The local ballet company does midday performances for school kids, it is condensed, and narrated. Leili was riveted and watched the whole hour long performance and has since told me she wanted to jump on the stage and dance! Last year we went to the full length ballet but left Leili with friends so we were all excited to get to include her this year. Maybe by next year she will be able to sit through the full version! I can hope!

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Knit-a-long

Another week another project but still the same book! I started my Botanical Cowl in this skein of Plymouth Yarn -Stiletto gifted from the lovely Lisa! Thanks Lisa!!! XO

I am really enjoying Anna Karenina and I am down to about 200 pages!! But unpacking and house settling has sadly decreased my reading and knitting time. Everything in its season!!

Knit-a-long!

So I thought why not join this week with Ginny at Small Things. I'm knitting and reading and knitting...all between packing boxes to keep my sanity! Yes we are moving again! But this time it is a happy move, into our own home with a whole 1/2 acre! 

This week I've finished my Simple Yet Effective Shawl, knitted up a couple gift dish cloths, and am getting ready to knit up the Botanical Cowl with this beautiful birthday yarn (actually last years birthday yarn because I've been searching for the perfect project for it!)!! And I'm still enjoying Anna Karenina and then I found this cute story book at the library, Knit Your Bit. It's about boys knitting for soldiers during WWI. This book is not twaddle, it is written very well and was enjoyed by all of us!!

Hold the Presses!!!

No big surprise here, another adventure by car...but wait...can it be? YES! Dan went on our adventure!!!!!

Back down 395 we went, destination: sun, sand, and Grandpa!

But first the adventure!

I've blogged about Mono Lake before, it is one of my favorite, most beautiful places. One of those places that makes you catch your breath and forget about any troubles or thoughts for the shear beauty. This was the first time Dan had been there, we were all so excited to share it with him!

I have become quite expert on balancing on rocks and using the self timer on my camera for family pictures all over the place, what fun pictures we get!

If you count from the left the taller tufas to the fourth where it seems a bit wider on top than the others, then you are looking at an ospry nest that had a mama and eggs! Please forgive me that I forgot my zoom lense in the car!

After a crazy night sleep with three to a bed we stoped at another favorite spot that Dan had not seen ether, Manzanar the Japanese Internment Camp near Bishop Calif. Fern and Leili earned their Jr. Ranger badges!

This is the obolesk that was erected to commemorate all those who lived here and for those who died. Amazingly facinating history. The paper origami cranes are for peace and  healing, arn't they beautiful!

Most likely my favorite family photo of the trip! This is Fossil Falls, you should have seen the comedy of this photo! I had the camera balenced on top of the van, after I pushed the button I had to jump down, run 50 feet and climb up the rock! All in 20 seconds!! It took more than one take!

With Dan with us we ventured further than before since we had muscles with us to help if I could not get everyone out, Jake was a happy camper!

When I look at this picture all I can think is, "Oh, the adventures he will see!"

More to come from our family vacation!

Birthday Making!

Sweet Fern found a great baby doll basket at goodwill last a couple weeks ago and was so excited to give it to Leili for her birthday this month. And then she got bigger ideas!!

And so she picked out fabric (from what the kids call "mom's fabric shop") and then together we cut and stitched!!!

A pillow and pad!! Fern did a lot of the sewing herself I just worked the petal and gave technical assistance! 

Fern even coordinated the fabric with the baby doll blanket Grandma H. made a while back!

I am thankful for the little time Fern and I had to make together. And even more thankful for the lock on my door!!!

I think Leili will be so stoked!!!

{this moment}

{this moment}

Happy Mother's Day!

My peaceful morning filled with So. Cal sunshine, cards and kisses from my kids, and breakfast in my new lounge chair!

Hope your mothering day is lovely!

XO

{this moment}

The Last Day in Paradise.

 We started the day sightseeing after breakfast, and sadly the Temple was just a photo stop since it was closed for maintenance the 4 days we were there.

 We also did a little strolling through town, this was the first Christian Church in Hawaii. I loved the way they used the natural building materials (lava rock). Inside was beautiful with the wood benches and stained glass.

 Their are a few banyan trees around the center of town, they are so interesting! We are standing on a 3 foot high lava wall and we still barely come up anything on the tree!

 After the little sightseeing we headed out to find another beach! We had to drive through a couple miles of lava fields to get to the beach. It was a bumpy ride!

 This one had a lot of lava rock but was beautiful!

 We had lunch on the beach! I could seriously live like this all the time!!

 This beach seemed to be used by more locals than tourists, there were younger guys who came in on kayaks who had been spear fishing and then this guy standing near the water was fishing with a net. And there were a few kids splashing in the waves.

 Dan was splashing too!

 I got a new shirt...hi!

 We went back to my funky restaurant one more time, the kava was wonderful for my travelers tummy!

 We spotted these bananas from the table, paradise I tell you!

 The plumaria trees everywhere are also amazingly wonderful...do I really have to leave?

Yes sadly. After a 5 hour delay waiting for the airplane to get to Hawaii I took off from my island paradise.

 And then the sun came up on a new day. I was so exhausted.

But not even exhaustion could prevent me from enjoying these smiles!

Aloha!

(and yes I am ready to go back and am already plotting my move!)