Question for December

We are in a new month. Any of those well used sayings about time flying by fast would fit in here. "Life is too short" or "The older you get the faster time goes by". In truth, time doesn't actually go by faster as we get older. It is that as we get older we busy our time more. There are more responsibilities, bills to pay, children to feed. We start to realize that no matter how much we do, we will never be able to do everything we want to by the time we die. I have recently come to the realization that there are just too many books out there to read and not enough time to read them all. This said, what I do know is that it does in fact seem like time is going by faster. Because of this I think it is our job to make sure that we are spending our time wisely. We need to be doing things that are important to us and leaving our mark on this world in the best way we can. I am constantly asking myself this question. When encouraging my children or when teaching them I ask myself what mark I want to leave on them and then proceed accordingly. How we speak to others, to our children, to our family, to strangers or how we react to situations, how we serve others and ourselves and what we occupy our time with all comes together to make up the mark we leave on this world.

My questions for December are these:
What mark are you leaving on this world?
Is it the one you want to be leaving?

Brisk Fall Day at Lion's Park in Poulsbo.

I wanted to get some pictures of the girls so the three of us headed to Lion's Park in Poulsbo. The girls had a great time playing while I snapped away. Here are a few of my favorites.

Thanksgiving in Poulsbo & Port Townsend

With all the prep that goes into it, Thanksgiving day has come and gone so quickly. I can hardly believe it but back to work we will be in just a short day and a half. We had a wonderful time with friends and family. I wanted to share some of our pics with you. I pray all your holidays were as wonderful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The holidays are upon us. Wow! I can hardly believe it. Just one more day of madness before Thanksgiving and my to do list is growing by the second. Between making up veggie trays (I think I might have to buy premade ones to eliminate stress) and the antipasta plate and cranberry sauce and pumpkin pies there is so much to do.

A few new things though this year which will be fun but different. My parents are out of town so we won't be seeing them over the Thanksgiving holiday which bums me out a little. I know they will have a great time on their little vaca to see family though so I am happy they are getting to go. We are going to be going over to my sisters for an untraditional Thanksgiving dinner (sounds delicious though so no worries) and then heading over to Robb's brothers' house to have dinner with all of Robb's family. That in itself should be quite the adventure.

At Robb's brother's house there are supposed to be 31 people. Wow! 31? That is just so many people. Robb very much wanted to bring pumpkin pies and we thought the best way to accomodate the number of people, and for ease of serving, was to make individual pies. So we are making individual pumpkin cups with struesal topping. I make these by putting the pie dough into large muffin tins and the filling them and topping them just like I would a normal pie. The baking time is slightly less but they taste delicious and are a sinch to serve.

I have to admit that when it comes to talking about food is when I get a little bummed about my parents being away. There are a lot of Thanksgiving day recipes that I won't get that I love because we aren't having it at our place or my parents' place this year. That said, it should be a lot of fun to travel to new places and try new things. It gives others the opportunity to have the holidays at their respective houses as well. And there is nothing stopping us from having it at our place next year (costumes included). :)

And so I embarq upon the Thanksgiving tradition of getting everything ready in time. Pies baked, cranberry sauce made, veggetables bought. It should be a lot of fun and I look forward to doing it with my girls and husband. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and may you enjoy your time with your family as much as I will enjoy mine.

Spruce Railroad Trail at Lake Crescent

They haven't happened as much as we would have liked. Time always seems to get away on us. That said . . . we finally got out into the woods again. This time we decided to head up to the Spruce Railroad Trail. We haven't been up to this trail since I was in high school and we were very excited to take our girls up there.

From the begining of the hike for the 3 hours that followed the girls were sure to remind us on a regular basis that it was very cold out and they would be much better off if we carried them. We assured them they would survive and proceeded down the trail. It was very cold and the snow level was down.

It was great to get out in nature. The girls were great to watch as they ran down the trail and chased after Robb as he tried to get blood flowing to keep warm. I definitely encourage anyone who enjoys the outdoors to go out to this trail. And, if you have little ones that need to burn some energy, this works great at tiring out little ones. Olyvia and Ellie passed out on the ride home and slept through until the next morning.

First Photos

I finally figured out how to get the pictures from my camera onto my computer and thought I would throw a couple up here so you can see how I am doing so far. Still figuring things out and lots of practice is definitely necessary but I am having a blast figuring it out.

My Girls Best Bud!

Do you remember that one friend. The first friend you ever remember? For my girls that friend will be Logan. They have all known each other since birth. I think Olyvia wasn't even one yet when Logan was in Kelly's belly. They don't see each other as much as they used to, but whenever they do they fall right into their pattern. They are just like family.

I am glad my girls have Logan and that Logan has my girls.

This picture was taken at Sunday School. On Sundays when we get to church they immediately flock to each other - it is wonderful.