New Years Eve Morning at the Needle

This morning we ventured out to visit the Space Needle. It had been years since Tim and I had been there. Tess had never been there, so we thought with the sun out, what a perfect morning to go. Thank you dad and Lorie for the gift certificate!

Starbucks coffee and the Space Needle....you can't get much more Seattle than that!

Going up...

Our little monkey....this girl will climb anything.

Mount Baker

Lake Union

The city and Mt. Rainier

Not sure what ferry this is, but it looked pretty on the water.

View of the Olympics

I love this place....the Pacific North West.

Yeah, it rains...a lot. Yeah, we don't get to see the sun often. However, days like today, make it all worth while. When the sun is out in Seattle, there's no other sight like it. It definitely makes up for all of the cloudy days we have. This picture below was taken from our bedroom window. It's a peek-a-boo picture of the Olympics.

These Tiny Hands

As a mom, there are so many little things I can't get enough of. One of those things are Tessa's little hands. Lately, I've been trying to capture everything she does with them because I know they won't stay this little forever.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Christmas is here and gone just like that. We spend so much time getting ready for this one day. Christmas is by far my favorite holiday for many reasons. We get to celebrate Jesus coming into this world, we are surrounded by family and friends, we spend countless hours in the kitchen baking, we get to put up beautiful decorations, we get to eat lots of really good food, we get to watch our baby girl love every minute of it, and we can't forget all of the Christmas music.

Christmas morning we spent at home opening presents, eating breakfast, and making fun memories! We headed to my dad and step mom's for brunch and then onto my aunts for dinner. A very busy day, but a very fun one!

She tore those presents open like a pro...

Opening her stocking from Santa

Christmas morning and our 2nd tree

Tess opening more presents...

Tessa and her cousin Ashton. My parents have this cute little bench in their living room for the kiddos. These two love to play on it.

Good morning princess...Merry Christmas

Thank for my new toys daddy

Tess loves dogs, and great grandma Calkins put a little toy puppy in her stalking this year. She wouldn't let it go all night.

I'm ready for more presents...

Christmas Eve

It has been a family tradition of ours to open one present Christmas Eve and then the rest Christmas morning. As you can tell from the picture, there was no hesitation from Tess. She dove right in.

...at my parents after the church service

Tim and I hosted Christmas Eve dinner this year. From left to right: My cousin Anna, my step-mom Lorie, my dad, Tessa, and Tim.

Tim made his "famous" roast...yum!

Getting ready....

This month it seems like we've been out of town more than we've been in town. I finally have a few minutes to blog.

These last few months have been so fun with holiday prep. This year Tess is old enough to really enjoy all that surrounds the Christmas holiday. She has been so enchanted with Christmas....the lights especially. It has been a blast baking, decorating, and shopping with her.


Tessa's "Little People" Nativity

Almost Christmas....

We have so many wonderful friends, and I always enjoy getting their Christmas cards. This year I didn't do cards....oops!

Tessa helping to decorate our second tree.... In anticipation of Christmas, we got our tree the day after Thanksgiving. Well, it died about two weeks ago. So, we had to take all of the decorations off and do it all over again. The bright side....we like our 2nd tree much better. We're thinking about making it a family tradition. Ok, maybe not.

Thanksgiving....a little late!

So, I haven't even downloaded the pics from Thanksgiving onto the computer yet. I will do that later. I thought I should at least post about what we did for Thanksgiving since Christmas is almost here.

This year we spent Thanksgiving in a few places. We had dinner with my aunt and uncle in W. Seattle and then headed back to Issaquah and to my cousins for some pie. We had so much fun and enjoyed seeing our family!

I'll post some pics later...

Happy Birthday Boots!

These last few weeks we have been SO incredible busy, which means I haven't had much time for posting. My great uncle Boots (long story about how he got that name) turned 90 a few weeks back. Happy Birthday! We love you!

Here's a picture of Boots and my great aunt Edythe.


Tess found the piano....future piano player??

Faith through suffering

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit -Psalm 34:18

This past week has been an extremely hard week for some of our friends and us. Two different friends of ours have lost loved ones to cancer this last week. One of our friends lost their niece and our other friend lost her dad. It feels like every time we turn around, someone else we know has cancer. It is such an ugly disease, and it's so hard to watch someone you love have to go through so much suffering. It's so hard to see the people you love have to face choices they never thought they have to make. It's so hard to hear the news of someone you care about losing someone they love. It's hard not knowing why God could allow this to happen. It just doesn't make sense to me. That's when I'm reminded that faith is embracing the unknown and uncertainty. Even though none of this makes sense on this side of eternity, I have full faith that God is connecting the dots in ways we can't comprehend....and won't comprehend until we get to heaven. The verse above is a good reminder for me that no matter what hurt I'm facing or what hurt my friends are facing, the Lord will hold us close and carry us through.

Thankfulness

In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
-1 Thessalonians 5:18

I have so much to be thankful for this year. A warm home, my beautiful family, a happy healthy little girl, a husband who loves and respects me to the core, a God with unconditional love that fills my life with so much joy, wonderful friends, and so much more! It's always easy to give thanks when things are going good. When things are tough and not going good, it can sometimes be a challenge for me to be thankful. I remember about 13 years ago, I had been Christmas shopping with two girl friends. I got home and a few minutes, after walking in the door, got a phone call. One of my friends, who I'd been shopping with that day, had just found out her mom had been killed in a car crash. I will never forget hearing the news. It happened just a few days before Christmas. It was so hard for me to find joy that year. It was so hard to be thankful, when my friends mom would not be able to be with her on Christmas. Even though that Christmas was so hard, I was still able to find things to be thankful for. I was thankful that I could be there for my friend. I was thankful that she had not been in the car. I was thankful for the rest of her family being able to support her. I was so thankful for God's strength to carry me through that time. It's in those situations, I want to learn to lean on God more. God's will for us is to be thankful no matter what kind of situations we may find ourselves in. While it may be hard, it is certainly not impossible with God by our side.

Cold, but beautiful!

Tess, loving every minute playing in the snow.

These last two pictures were taken yesterday in the later afternoon just before it really started to snow

Milk, cookies, and snow

Since moving to W. Washington I don't anticipate getting snow like when living in Wenachee. So, when snow is in the forecast, I tend to get REALLY excited. After growing up in winters where we'd have 3 feet of snow on the ground at one time, I miss not having it over here in the Seattle area. However, this morning we woke up to snow, and it has been snowing throughout the day. Without measuring to know for sure, I'd say that there's about 3-4inches of snow on the ground...with more on the way. This, of course, makes me very happy.

What's a better way to spend the morning and afternoon in our pj's eating cookies, drinking milk, baking, and watching all of the snow fall outside. Below is a picture of one of Tessa's toys. As you can see, she wanted to save her cookies for later.

Tess, enjoying her cookies and milk.

Let is snow....more snow pics to come

Generosity...

Blessed is he who considers the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. -Psalm 41:1


As we approach the holiday season, I always hear more talk about helping those in need. Naturally, it's the season of giving. There are so many places in the bible where God talks about giving to others. This year, our small group from church, adopted a single mother family for Christmas. We are so excited to shop for her and her three kids. We are especially excited this year to teach Tess what is means to give to others and just how important it is. What a joy it will be to see the smiles on their faces when we give them their gifts. This year their are so many people in need. I encourage and even dare anyone reading this blog to do something nice for someone in need this holiday season.

Someone got spoiled over at Grandma's

Tess came home with new toys and a whole new wardrobe she helped pick out. Thank you again mom!!

Baby Chloe

On Saturday, Tim and I drove back down to Wenatchee to pick up Tess and head over to my brother and sis-in-laws. We went to visit our new little niece/cousin. It was the first time we had seen her in person. She is BEAUTIFUL!!

My brother, Jeremy, and his new little girl. There's something so special about seeing my brother become a dad.

Tim feeding Chloe, such a pro! :-)

Tessa holding her new little cousin. She didn't want to let her go....Tessa are ready for a brother or sister??

I love that new baby smell. Chloe is just perfect!