"Both abundance and lack of abundance exist simultaneously in our lives as parallel realities. It is our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend...when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present- love, health, family, friends, work, joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us happiness- the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth."


Dec 31, 2010

Cousin Samantha's B-Day

In November, Samantha invited us to her birthday party (via her mom of course), and she got to have a teddy bear picnic.

They decorated hats for their bears- which Halle loved.
Then they listened to a story about a teddy bear picnic.

And then had their own picnic with their bears.
For dessert, Anneka made adorable cupcakes with bear faces on them.
Cute ideas, Anneka. It was a lot of fun.
After the guests left, we stuck around to play for a little while.

Interesting Odds and Ends

As I was going back in my photo folders to find the pictures I had missed, I found all these. There is no theme, just as the title says - interesting odds and ends.

(1) New Snow
This was our first snow storm of the season back in November. Halle desperately wanted to play in it, so she went out and made her own snowman and was so proud of it.
Then Neal came out and helped her make a big one. The snow was sticking perfectly.



(2) Odd food
I have a friend at work that raises chickens and we buy some from her occasionally. She has a couple of chickens that lay green eggs (that look like a normal egg inside). We think it's pretty fun.


When we dug up our carrots just before that big snow storm up above, quite a few were pretty knarled because we didn't thin them out. These carrots actually braided themselves fighting for space.


(3) Big Helpers
My kids get to help me with Primary projects occasionally. This is a gift we gave to the teachers. It was a pill bottle filled with M&M's and a "prescription" on the outside. Dillon was awesome about making sure each bottle had an equal amount of each color.

(4) Batman's identity is safe
This picture is just pure entertainment. Halle found a batman mask in Grandma's dress up box (courtesy of her aunts from a long time ago) and she thought it was just awesome. She refused to come out of character even for a moment to watch a movie.

Thanksgiving Weekend

If I reach my goal of catching up on blog posts this weekend, you will see why you haven't heard much from us in the last month. The days between Thanksgiving and Christmas were packed even more than usual. We are just now getting a chance to relax and enjoy the last of our holiday time.

So starting with Thanksgiving, we spent the weekend at Mike and Anneka's with Aunt JoAnn. The kids were happy to see Samantha again. Dillon is always so gentle with her even though he's so much bigger and stronger.

These two played all kinds of dress-up and pretend play. At this moment, they happen to be running a cookie bakery out of their purse.
Leaving the princesses to their business, Dillon plays his favorite game in solitude - an intense game of matching.

Time to start cooking, but just exactly how many potatoes do we need? While the adults discuss potatoes, Samantha plots her post-Thanksgiving shopping spree.
Looks like the adults pulled it off and finally made Thanksgiving dinner. Yum!
Halle provided the turkey.
These birds were thankful not to be joining us.
Nothing says Thanksgiving like pizza leftovers for dinner.
And finally some time with the legos
And a competitive game of tennis on the Wii.

Dec 26, 2010

Merry Christmas Everybody!

I know I am super behind on our posts, which I promise to catch up on this week. But in the meantime, enjoy some holiday wishes from our family to yours.