Happy Valentines Day 2009!

The amazing, creative, homemaker mom inside of me wants to make homemade sugar cookies from scratch, homemade icing and handmade valentines. The practical, busy, with a huge to-do list mom is just glad that I managed to buy the pre-cut-out heart shaped valentine cookies from the grocery store. Hey, at least I did something. Right?
Happy Valentines Day everyone! Hope you feel loved. You are.

First Five

taken from susan's blog, which was taken from cath's blog (which was taken from kate's blog)...see how this whole chain of giving gets started?...cool:

the first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me!
my choice. for you. this offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1. i make no guarantees that you will like what i make! (Dorothea inserts:but hey, I'll try)
2. what i create will be just for you.
3. it’ll be done this year. {translation: you may be waiting a little while}
4. you have no clue what it’s going to be ... it may be cards, a poem, a bookmark, something yummy or a complete surprise to you (and me!) ... who knows? not you, that’s for sure!
5. i reserve the right to do something extremely strange. (Dorothea inserts: I don't think it will be strange even if someone else might...)
6. most importantly, you must offer the same deal on your blog - the first 5 people to comment on your blog (or if you do not have a blog, facebook) get something made by YOU! the first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me ...

Those were the rules as copied exactly from Susan's blog. However, I'm going to add an idea. If you're not the kind of person that wants to make something tangible for others, how about some kind of service for them, any type, any size. And furthermore...I'm really easy. If you just want the gift from me but really don't want to keep the chain going, still sign up-I won't hold you accountable. I'm just excited to make something for someone else. Hey, and since I have 2 blogs there are double chances! And don't forget, the number of comments below doesn't equal the number of people that have "won."

Joseph's first car

We treated Joseph to an early birthday present. Thanks to craigslist we found a decent price on a cozy coupe (those things are SO expensive!). Joseph has loved playing with them at other people's homes. It was a total success. He spent the first half hour just getting in and out of the car and driving little bits. He would not share with his sister for a very long time. He was very possessive. I've never seen him "own" something this much in his life. He loves it.

Keeping big sister busy and away from the car :)



Joseph took his driving very seriously

updates

Just a reminder that I just posted lots of musings on my other blog: californiamuse.blogspot.com
It might not be amusing, but it's a muse musing. Yes, I've always loved ancient statues of the three muses. There's a hint for you at why I chose my "blogger name." (Although that's only part of it.) Happy Reading!

PS

I totally forgot one of the best parts of Christmas. We did an impromptu nativity play per Rebecca's request. The cast included Rebecca as Mary, Joseph as the angel Gabriel and a King, Dorothea as a Shepherd and a King and Fred as Joseph and a King. We quoted a little of the Luke story from memory and sang a few songs. The best part was Joseph saying his lines: "Hark!" and "Baby." Now that's one of the true joys of Christmas!

Favorite moments Christmas 2008

This year was the first time we spent Christmas in our own home after 9 years of marriage! We celebrated German style, with the "Christkind" bringing the presents on Christmas eve while the kids and parents were out for a walk to look at Christmas lights. We lit real candles on the tree, sang Silent Night, O Tannenbaum and a few others. The kids each opened their one "big" present. There were a lot of presents under the tree, but then again there were 9 people in the house! We had the traditional dinner that I grew up with: peas in a cream sauce, rice and ham. Then we were too exhausted to open up anything else, so Christmas continued the next morning. We hung up real socks in stead of stockings and Santa surprised us by switching them for fancy stockings!

Here are a few of my favorite moments:
-when the kids walked in the door after their walk, Rebecca was so overwhelmed she started crying. It was cute.
-Joseph immediately went to the presents but to my surprise, he grabbed the smallest present of all. It was actually a thing of gum wrapped up for Rebecca. He wouldn't let go of it. He kept bringing other people the bigger presents but held on to his little present.
-Rebecca gave me a bunch of shoes for Christmas (I bought them for myself, but had Warren tell her they were a surprise for me). I knew she would enjoy giving me something. After I opened them and showed her how happy and surprised I was she jumped on me with a big bear hug. She was so happy to have made me happy, it was one of those precious motherhood moments.
-Joseph (who hadn't been eating well for days) absolutely LOVED Christmas Eve dinner. He ate and ate and ate.

The magic of Christmas made my little girl cry

Joseph holding on to his tiny present

The doll house (that has been in storage for 5 years!)

Enjoying that Christmas dinner

Just relaxing

Hosting Christmas for the first time

Hanging up our real socks as stockings.

The shock of finding a fancy Princess stocking

Joseph walking off with the right stocking even though no one told him which one to grab!

December 2008 - what a month!

I've been exhausted. Emotionally and physically. I was looking through the recent photos and no wonder-we've had a huge month and a half.

Here's a recap:
-finding out the house was cleared and the sale could go through and closing escrow two and half weeks later. So basically packing up my entire home far quicker than I ever planned on.
-lots of decisions: quickly landscaping my new yard, picking trees per city requirements, driving back and forth lots of times
-the RS Christmas party
-visiting "Auntie Karyns's Christmas house" up by UCLA
-Book club at my place two days before moving
-cleaning my old apartment (with help from friends) till it sparkled
-playing organ for my old ward and my new ward
-Christmas party with my old high school friends
-unpacking, making lots of decisions (I'm not a good decision maker so this is a big stress for me)
-saying goodbye to Rebecca's Kindergarten class and enrolling her in a new school (all very emotional for me)
-a house full of guests
-Christmas and New Year's Celebrations
-new callings in our new ward (Warren and I have started jointly teaching the 12 year old's Sunday School class)
-readjusting to new grocery stores, new streets, new surroundings...

I know this isn't a very interesting post. I guess it's more for me-my justification to myself for feeling so tired. There is still lots to be done. Please keep in touch everyone- at the moment my world feels like it's been turned up side down and I need some familiarity in my life.

Finding places to play - planting a garden - Rebecca's self taken photo

Boxes, boxes everywhere - A room from "The Christmas house"

Some of the ladies from book club

Family time

My little reindeer

It even gets cold in California!

And despite all the stress- finding the joy every day!