Christmas decor

my new flocked tree!!!!! since there is not much snow here I love the way it makes it feel like it just snowed in my house. = ) I'm dreaming of a white christmas. . .

cool idea huh mom? thanks for the wall hanging!

trinity really loves her pink tree. thanks nee nee! it really lights up the calico critters' lives; they are ready for christmas. lol.

my special blankie from nat, it has all of our names appliqued on it

here is my christmas decorating. Thanks for sharing Lynne' you got me all excited to decorate!

catch up

okay well my last posts on activites was our vacation and my slightly depressed thinking aloud. this post shall be factual but nevertheless exciting and informative. . .whatever that means!
Trinity - we are doing pre-school this year, just her and I. She does activity books and is working on her alphabet. so far we have capital A,T,B and little a,b,t, and i. We only do it three or four days a week during blake's nap time. Then she has awana where we do all the review verses (extra work) to help her with memory skills. On wednesday and sunday she has organized story/project time at church and bible study. Last but not least in the school-ish arena she is doing a sports "sampler". 3 weeks soccer - 3 weeks basketball - 3 weeks t-ball. So far we have completed soccer and she is by far the slowest child there. She is always ten feet behind the other players. pretty funny stuff! She tries though, I would like to work more with her, too bad it is almost winter. . .okay so what else? She has a couple bosom buddies over here so that is nice. I think she would miss her friends if we moved now and that is a good feeling. (sounds weird I know, but you get what I mean) We just got her hair cut. Super cute! She is just so grown-up! Her favorite things are going to the library, park, and going out to eat. Unfortunately she is deprived of much more than that becuse anything else costs money! hee hee. We plan to visit honorary aunti laura's live-in sailboat soon. I KNOW she will love that. Oh and she is going to be a butterfly for halloween. Upcoming major events? the DENTIST. I can tell she already has a cavity and she needs a cleaning. We'll see how it goes. . . .

Blake - says "dah-gie" (doggie), "di-shee" (fishee), "buh-die" (birdie), momma, daddy, please, and the phrase that only I can understand "look at that!" started walking a month ago at mom's. Been way too much fun ever since. Life is sooo much easier. Has a temper, knows what he wants and tells you what he thinks about not getting it. Down to one nap, and all his teeth but his molars are almost in. Crazy right? mouth full of chompers at 15 month even though he took a while to get the first one. Missed his 15 mo appt. but I figured it's all good. We will go in nov. He is a devil and an angel and everyone says "to die for adorable". There is a certain twinkle in his eyes and when he flashes his dimples your toast. Then he bites you. . .hmm. . . I would say the worst thing right now is that he is an extremely picky eater on a limited diet. I can only pray he grows out if. Complicating it is a major sweet tooth which I am re-thinking encouraging in any way, shape, or form. So no current stats but some current pics. Tomorrow I will post on Jeremy and I. Aren't you thrilled? = ) love to all!

well people, I've got a new hot button

so I have been grabbing books out of the month's top pics section at the library. It's usually pretty random grabbing at the shelf with blake in the stroller and trinity at the library computers. I usually grab titles that I think will broaden my horizon in some way. I have read a couple of great novels but also some really great current travelouges and autobiographies. Well the title "Not on our Watch" and the picture of the young african girl grabbed my attention. It is an '06 book so not that old, co authored by Don Cheadle (actor from Hotel Rwanda) and John Prendergast (major africa activist, highly schooled in political awareness). Wow, it really opened my eyes to the situation in Darfur. It is heartbreaking; what is going on in the African continent. I know it 2008 now but aspects of the genocide continue. Over 400,000 native people have lost their lives so far through village burns and gang raping of young women. It is horrifying. The book however difficult to read is encouraging in that it is very forward about what we CAN DO to change the situation. I'm all fired up about it! I'm not much of an acitivist but my mother has always insisted that someday I would be some sort of non-profit fundraising sort of freak. Well I don;t know about that but if anything prompts me it would be this. So one of the things they suggested was getting the word out on our blogs and providing links so here you go people. this is IMPORTANT stuff. http://www.enoughproject.org/ provides up to date coverage of the situation and other links for more information. I have included it in my favorite links to the left. Check it out for yourself and oh yeah, the family can expect some interesting presents this christmas in support of my new cause. . .lol