Baking day with my family...

My mom, sister, and I decided that we would host a baking day! Ever since my grandma died we have wanted to spend more time together. It has really been good for our healing. We celebrated the day with friends and family and good eats!

On our way to bake!


All our loved ones gathered together. Merry Christmas indeed!

Oh yes...

In case you were wondering...


Yes,


I did get my


REAL Christmas tree this year!


Thank you Easter Bunny hunny!

Beeeyoutifuulllll

Aren't they lovely...

My sweet son

My son is so sweet. He takes the time to say good night and kiss his sister every single night. He always seeks her out and plays with her or he comes to find her just to spend time with her. Here he is spinning her around like the ballerina she thinks she is...
What a great brother.

Thank you gram gram

My mommy bought my kids gingerbread houses. They had a blast eating making the houses. Thanks mom!

My puppies

I was getting ready to take pictures of my kids for our Christmas cards and I thought I would snap a few pics. of my puppies... At first they sat really still and let me snap away.




Then...

Sushi, the female, did what any self-respecting female would do.

She laid on top of Frisco so she could be seen better!

Good dog! :o)

The real Christmas picture

Of course we took Christmas card pictures.

And of course they came out beautiful.

And of course our children look every bit as perfect as they are...



However, if they were not perfect.

And if they were too busy to sit nicely for a picture...

This is what they might look like!

In their natural habitats...

It has arrived... :o)

Crafts

When I was a little girl my Aunt Dixie used to come over and do crafts with us. We usually made Christmas decorations and the best part of the Christmases that followed were opening the decorations box and remembering each decoration from years past. That tradition died with my youth, and most of the decorations were destroyed in a house fire that we had years ago. But this year with the passing of my grandmother, I thought it was really important for my kids to continue the tradition. I treasure my Aunt and want to spend more time with her. She is an amazing artist and my kids don't even know that about her. We gathered at mom's and made our decorations. We had a great time. I would post pictures of the final products, but the truth is... the together time was so much more significant than the decorations...

Snow...

It might snow tonight!


I'm just saying...

Soccer day

This is how I spend the day at my sissy's soccer tournament...

Happiness...

I just love these two! *sigh*

My adopted daughter

So, I just wanted to let all my friends and family know that I have adopted yet another child. Her name is Jillian and I adore her. She is my Starbucks daughter (don't laugh)! She is part of the family, so I expect that you send her a hearty hello and warm wishes...

Love ya Jills~

Ballin Brit

Brit scored 19 points and had 11 rebounds in this game!

Just in case you were wondering! :0)

Day off

My bestie and I took the day off (from kids not work) and went to Hollywood to see New Moon. It was fabulous. I loved the movie, the theater, the bomb chili and sweet corn tamale, and especially the company. Thanks love for spending the day with me! Heart you! :0)

In case you were wondering...

Just in case you were wanting an update on my home. Here are some current pictures of the progress we are making.

What's that you say? It doesn't look like much progress?

Well, to you I say, "You're right!!!"

The Dove

Here we are saying goodbye to the dove that symbolized grandma. There was a better picture of my mom holding the dove, but it was too painful to look at.

It's funny. When my mom tried to release the dove, she wouldn't fly off. She stayed on her hand, even when the other doves had flown away. It made us smile. Grammy always did love to be with her family.

It's so hard to say goodbye...

What a man

This man moved me.

There were many people at my grandma's funeral...

But this man~

Whose name I do not know~

He moved me...

He knew my grandma from her work. That was more than 20 years ago. He read her obituary and made the trip to both her viewing and her funeral.
She left an impression on him. That doesn't surprise me. She left one on all of us.

But this man. This stranger to my family... he made it a point to come visit us and let us know how special my grandma was to him.

That was a really nice thing to do. A really Godly thing to do. It meant so much to us.

Thank you... sir!

Strategy?

Wow, Satan sure has a strategy. Sometimes it's really effective. He is not omnicient, or omnipotent, or omnipresent, yet he seems to know just what one-two punch will do the trick to make sure we are totally out of commision.

On Thursday my beautiful grandma went to be with our Lord.

We have been busy planning, preparing, loving, sharing, crying, absorbing, redirecting, and just living.

We are barely keeping our head above water.

Satan must have thought that was funny. So....... last night he filled our home with water too. Half of our house was under what seemed like a foot of water. And to add insult to injury, it was toilet water...

Sooooooooooooo~

I'm focusing on this


and this


and these two


So that I don't have to focus on this


or this


or all of this






Well, I'm happy to say that Satan will not win. We have each other, and we have our God.

Today my house is torn up. My grandmother is not with us but...

She is in Heaven and we will see her soon~

And I'll be getting new carpeting~ :0)

Please keep my family in your prayers. My grandma Topel passed away yesterday. She was 92.

She lived a long, beautiful life.

We are still so saddened.

I smile to think that she is up in Heaven telling Jesus one of her stories, but oh, how I long to hear one more myself...

How I long to hold her hand one more time,
or kiss her,
or tell her I love her,
or listen to her talk about her great-grandkids,
or help her put together a jig-saw puzzle...

Rest in the peace and grace of our Father in heaven my sweet gramma...

My grandbaby

Happy Birthday to my beautiful grandbaby Cayden! I love love love you baby!