Settling in to December

2005 Christmas Card

As you can tell, getting a laptop did not help the frequency with which I write on this website. I have been busy. I didn't get too overwhelmed for the most part, but I didn't have any extra time. I was the organizer for the Christmas event for the ladies at church. There was a GREAT team of ladies working together to pull it off. I just had to take care of all the little details. It was a lot of work, but well worth it. The ladies seemed to have a great time and things went so smoothly. I'm so glad it is now done. Now it is time to focus on our Christmas time.

I love this time of year. I like to work hard to make it special for the girls. That means we are doing a special activity (though not too hard) each day.

I started this update last Thursday, but never finished it. I'm so sorry. Here's hoping I finish it today....but no promises.

We had a movie night at Kelby's school on Friday night. We watched Polar Express. The movie night we did last school year was not too busy, so I didn't expect the huge turn out we had! We ran out of popcorn, waters, and licorice. The kids had so much fun. I helped to run the concessions again this time.

On Saturday morning, Kelby had a four hour practice for the church musical she was in. Then after the girls had a nap, we went to the Lights of Christmas. We enjoyed dinner, lights, pony rides, and Santa Claus there. Afterwards we visited with Great Gramma and Grampa Lohman and had cocoa to warm up.

Kelby had to stay for both services at church on Sunday. The musical was beautiful and Kelby made an adorable angel. Her cousin Emma was in the play too. They were exhausted by the end, as was I after taking endless amounts of pictures and video! After church we went down towards Seattle to visit with Mike's mom's family for Great Grampa Lohmans 80th birthday celebration. What an exhausting weekend!

I haven't got all my Christmas shopping or crafting done yet, so hopefully I can pull it off soon.

I'm looking forward to going down to my sister's wedding in Arizona in January. That will be a vacation for just me since Mike and the girls aren't coming. I'll get to focus all my attention on my sister that way.

Kelby's school party is on Friday and she has all next week off. I am bringing a bunch of crafts for the kids to work on at the school party. It should be fun. I need to be planning a community-wide silent auction/dinner for the playground, but I just don't have time for it right now and neither does anyone else. It is scheduled for March 3rd, so hopefully we can hash it out by then.

Tegan has been a little frustrated with me being so busy lately. I'm looking forward to when Anika can go in to play at our wonderful Haggens grocery store. Then I'll be able to go shopping while they both play in the play area and even sit and have a cup of coffee and read a bit. Anika will be starting up speach therapy this Thursday. She is months behind an average child. We're not sure why. She is very good at understanding, just not expressing herself. I hope the therapy helps.

I hope everyone is having a restful holiday season! I hope to get a Christmas letter out this week. Pictures should be posted here soon.

		December VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Lazy Saturday

We had a busy week this week. I had everything all scheduled out, so it flowed smoothly without stress. I even had friends over and had Grampa George and Gramma Debbie over for dinner one night! Otherwise there isn't much going on. I'm only writing because I got a new laptop and I wanted to practice doing something useful with it.

Happy Birthday to My Daddy

It's my dad's birthday today. I made him a calendar from our last year pictures.  Since he has officially opened his present, I can post my creations for everyone to see. I LOVE the digital scrapbooking! I made the pictures and then had Costco print it up in a calendar for him.

Wow, we've gotten busy. I said the last time I wrote that I had simplified a bit. I was actually feeling almost bored if not depressed because I didn't have much to do. I got the opportunity to organize the Christmas event at our church, and now I'm working at my peak. There is a point for me where I am doing just enough to keep myself motivated, excited & energized. If I do less, I'm not satisfied. I am always careful not to over do it and end up on the stressed-out side of the scale. It is a careful balance. The Christmas event and Halloween have had me running a bit the last two weeks. The playground stuff should ramp up this month too once we set a date for our community auction event.

Fall is always my favorite time of year. We always make it out to the pumpkin patch with the girls and I love Fall pictures there. The girls picked out their own pumpkins and then carved them that night. Kelby didn't like the guts, but Tegan wasn't afraid at all. Anika would cry in fear when we made her look inside the pumpkins until she got used to it. Then she only said, "guck".

I volunteered at Kelby's school on the Friday before Halloween. I had the kids painting rocks. They seemed to like it, but it was chaos. Then I helped the kids do wax paper meltings with collected leaves. They enjoyed, but I didn't get through all the kids yet. I have to go back next week. Anika and Tegan both come in the classroom and hang out while I help. I'm amazed that they do so well. Then that night the school had their Fall Festival. By the end of that night I was tired! Luckily we got a date on Saturday because I stayed busy with Halloween stuff from Sunday through Tuesday with Halloween stuff.

The girls had a great time on Halloween. I would venture to say that it is their favorite holiday. I didn't play it up at all this year. They remembered the candy and had their own costumes picked out weeks in advance. Luckily they picked easy things. Anika seemed content to wear the bee costume that they have all worn. We had a school party, then went visiting family, then went to the church, then hit about six houses in the neighborhood before calling it a night.

Anika still isn't talking yet. I heard from a friend that the school district has programs to help, so I called them this week. Two ladies came over on Thursday and played with Anika and questioned me to see if she would be eligible for the program. It sounded like she would be because they were concerned too. She really only says "ummm" except a very occasional "no" or "uh oh". If she gets in the program, a teacher will come to our house once a week to work with her. I'm just hoping to gain some tools that I can help her with, because I don't have any ideas right now. It is exciting that I have other people to help me.

Overall things are going great. I am happy and the girls are all healthy. The rain has started coming down, so we are mostly indoors now. It's that time of year though, so what else can we expect. I can't remember anything else significant to share, so just enjoy the pictures and scrapbook pages!

		November Pictures VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL