We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving in La Grande.

Bob's siblings came from Boise, Portland, California and Michigan.

The only one missing was with his wife in China picking

up their new son! Can't wait to meet him!

~~

We enjoyed good company, good food,

and lots of baby holding!

(Emma was reading Jennifer a book~so cute!)

At the annual Day-After-Thanksgiving Parade

(My backseat buddy on the way home).

(Thoroughly enjoying her cereal at our house).

~~

We hope that all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

On why I love this man

He's the best Dad in the world!

~~

Thankful!

On why I love Thanksgiving

Family

~~

Enough said.

On why I'm able to sew...

Because this little one sits at my elbow and plays with her friends.

~~

Thankful!

On why I love the mailman

A few months ago, I received an e-mail from someone I did not know via Facebook.

She said that her mom (another person I did not know) had somehow come across

my "Homemade" album on Facebook and asked if she could take a look at it.

I looked at her friend list and saw that we had several in common.

I went ahead and gave her access.

Since then, we've been e-mailing back and forth, trading patterns, comfort,

and a bit of information on our lives up to this point.

Last week, she asked for my address so she could send me a little something.

This ain't no little something! This quilt is gorgeous! It's

the perfect compliment of purple (my favorite color) and yellow.

There was also a lovely snowman hot mat (forgot to take a pic!) that

will be making it's appearance in my kitchen next month.

I can't wait to relax under this while I read the evening away!

Thanks, Lisa!

~~

And then, today, out of the blue I receive this:

(Don't you just love the tag? I liked it enough that I "borrowed"

the idea for some homemade gifts I wrapped up tonight.)

This cozy knitted scarf traveled across the great state

of Oregon from Mari to me. This will

keep me warm on our Thanksgiving trip and beyond!

Thanks, Mari!

~~

So, that's why I love the mailman. In between medical bills and

junk mail, come beautiful works of art from delightful friends.

~~

Thankful!

On learning to live with disappointment

I used to be an almost-daily blogger...it appears that I'm falling desperately behind.

The normal culprit is that I don't have time each day to download my photos.

So, today, no photos...just babble from me!

~~

I think that one of the most important lessons we learn in childhood

is how to live with disappointments. It's a good thing to get told "no" and

to not get everything you want. Being in that situation teaches you how

to deal in a healthy way with disappointment later in life.

And, in life, there will be a lots of disappointment.

Whether it's job related, relationship related, family related...

there are lots of opportunities for disappointment.

~~

When I had to have the tubal pregnancy removed last month, it was hard.

Very hard. We've had two miscarriages in the past and they were hard; however,

they helped us deal with this. We knew that it was not the end of the world...whether

we decided to try again or just be perfectly happy with the two kids we have.

We have also learned that God has a plan, and it'll all work out in the end.

I often look back with thankfulness on both miscarriages because each of them happened

just before each of our kids were conceived. If those pregnancies had

stayed put you might say, we wouldn't have Ryan and we wouldn't have Emmalee.

~~

And I can't imagine a world without them.

So Thankful!

~~

So, today we are receiving another opportunity to learn how to deal with

disappointment. We made an offer on the perfect house for us here in Boise.

There had been no interest in the house for a month.

Wouldn't ya know it, but they received three offers this weekend

and one of them was for the asking price.

Sadly, that wasn't us and someone else is going to move into

"our" house (that's Emma's view of the situation).

However, because we (at least Bob and I anyway) know that

things happen for a reason and life goes on, we are able to

have a few moments of sadness and then move on.

Telling Ryan after school today might yield a slightly different result,

but this may be one of those experiences he looks back on when

he's an adult and is thankful for the lesson learned.

~~

Wish me luck!

Our weekend

Our weekend started at a Hoe-Down.

The music was AWESOME!

See that beautiful girl next to Ryan?

Once upon a time, long ago, I babysat Amanda, Desiree and their siblings. (Photo taken 1993-1994)

A few years later, Amanda and her brother sang (beautifully) at our wedding. (Photo taken August 8, 1998). She's 17 now and graduating from high school. Yep...I feel old!

I worked on my card kit for tonight's card night.

Sewing has taken up so much of my time that it's been a couple of months since I made cards. It's was nice to sit down with a small project and see the results so quickly.

I love this gift card idea. I got the idea from the scrapbook store...they

had made a smaller version as a gift tag. I enlarged it and it's just the perfect size for a

gift card.

Pull up on the flowers and attach a gift card!

We had our first letter-writing hour.
I was surprised by how excited the kids were for this.
Emma, of course, wrote a letter to Ember.
Ryan wrote to his best friend in Portland.
I wrote my dear friend in Portland and also wrote
a few thank you cards.
This is going to be a new weekly thing for us.
The kids will be so excited to (hopefully) start getting replies back in the mail.


A small-scale war broke out on our bed.
Ryan? Nope. It was Emma borrowing her brother's airplane collection.

I've started my lists for the holiday season.
They are the only thing the keep me sane!


And we did some baking for card night.
These are butterscotch bars...yummy!

And White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies.

These are so good that I had to include the recipe.

1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup vanilla or white chips


In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars until crumbly. Beat in egg and vanilla.
Combine the flour, salt and baking soda in another bowl. Gradually add to the
butter mixture and mix well. Stir in cranberries and chips.


Drop by heaping tablespoons 2 in. apart onto baking sheet coated with
cooking spray. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.
Cool for one minute before removing to wire racks.


And I started the week with peppermint tea and oatmeal with
bananas and dried cranberries for breakfast. Delicious!
I can't exercise for a few more weeks, so I decided I'd
better start eating healthy again!

Last week, Emma and I spent a few days in our

pajamas as I was recuperating.

She spent one morning painting.

Emmalee loves to mix colors.

We put the four colors she wanted to use, and

then we mixed them up. It looked so neat!

The artist at work.

My dear friend, Cassie , stole my thoughts this morning.
My to-do list is sooo long for Christmas.
Last year, I made most of the Christmas presents for our families,
and I want to do it again this year.
But, I haven't started yet!
With all that's happened, I haven't had the energy or desire to work
on crafts lately.
But, yesterday, I got reaquainted with my old friend.
It was so nice to sew again.

Beautiful fabric waiting for me...
to become Christmas presents.

Magazines waiting to thumb through...

so excited for the holidays.

Mom found this Care Bear set from a consignment shop.

She was so excited to wear it today!

Friends, I hope that you have a wonderful weekend!

We plan on spending time with family, working on crafts,

and starting our Sunday letter writing hour.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy birthday to the best mom in the world!

Love, B, K, R and E