Christmas Pictures 2009

~Uncle Benjamin

~Here is Bay snoozing after all the fun on Christmas. He was pretty tired!

~Here I am at 33 weeks

~Baby Zane enjoying his Christmas present

~Marie and I on our visit to the National Museum of the Air Force

~Jon and his sweet Zane

~My Benjamin

What a lovely Christmas we had! The time flew by and I cannot believe that I had to say goodbye to Benjamin today!

I am looking forward to when I can be with him in Florida.....

We all had so much fun. Played games every night, ate, ate and ate! Me especially ;) I seemed to never get full! It was really nice that Benjamin was able to spend some time with his little nephew. Our time together will never be forgotten. It was so lovely to spend Christmas this year with Jon and Marie. Marie and I are getting our heads straight again after all the fun and are looking forward to 2010!

Happy New Year everyone :)

1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas and God bless!!

Thankfulness....

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Been making preparations for my beloved Benjamin!

Tomorrow is the day and we have a full day of just doing whatever we want! We may go see a movie, eat out and just enjoy being together.

I have been enjoying preparing and planning for his arrival. Today I got the sheets washed, organizing the closet so he can hang his clothes :P Painted my nails and wore a smile. :) So very thankful to Lord for His goodness and love to me.

Christmas Cake

Need some Christmas inspiration? Watch Nigella Lawson bake her delicious Christmas cake. Marie made it last night and it was wonderful! A lot of the fun is in the baking of it as well. Everything is cooked in a saucepan before it is baked. I loved the uniqueness of this recipe :) I love being pregnant during the Christmas season :P

32 Weeks

32 Weeks, wow, almost there!

A picture both Marie and I liked :P which can sometimes be a challenge!

Here are a couple of pictures that I found from the last week and half. They aren't the greatest, but its better then nothing! :P

Almost Here!

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One week countdown and my Benjamin will be here! We were unable to have him for Thanksgiving, but I get him for Christmas instead :) So excited to be able to snuggle with him at night and keep each other warm! I think I am just now adjusting to the cold temperatures. I am wondering how he will do though! Plus most of his civilian clothes are back in Az. He may be borrowing some clothes from Jon! :P

Tea and a Christmas Movie

Tonight we are staying warm by the fire as the wind and snow blow into town. We are enjoying the best movie of the year, Its a Wonderful Life.

Marie made some yummy Thumb Print Jam Cookies , Jon got the movie and I am getting the tea! Even though I have seen it every year since I was little, I never tire of it :) Now I just need a box of tissues! :P

To read more about the trivia I found click here.

It's a Wonderful Life was a box office flop? One of the main resaons for the movie's enormous success is the failure of RKO to renew copyright. Back then, copyright only lasted for 27 years. So 1946 +27 years brings us to 1973, when the copyright should have been but wasn't renewed. TV stations quickly noticed this and began to run the movie, especially at Christmas, which brought the movie to broad audience, who loved it. No one person has ever stepped up and taken responsibility for the failure to renew.

Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart worked together on three films - It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington and You Can't Take It WIth You.

It's a Wonderful Life won NO major Academy Awards.

Christmas Delights

As Nigella Lawson so perfectly describes every delicious morsel of her cooking ingredients, she always throws me into the most delightful "quintessential" experience. :) Enjoying the Christmas season. From decorating the house and tree, shopping for gifts, listening to the Christmas music in the stores, wrapping presents and arranging them under the tree, enjoying snugly babies and puppies too ;P and then of course the cooking! It leaves me to say that I am sad to see that December already seems to be flying by! When I was little, it was the longest month of the year since I was in a hurry to get to that glorious Christmas day. :) But now I just want the season to slow down so I can enjoy every little piece.

I hope everyone is enjoying the lovely season of Christmas!

God's Comforting Love

Psalm 46:1-11

¹ God is our refuge and strength,

an ever-present help in trouble.

² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way

and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

³ though its waters roar and foam

and the mountains quake with their surging.

Selah

⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,

the holy place where the Most High dwells.

⁵ God is within her, she will not fall;

God will help her at break of day.

⁶ Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;

he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

⁷ The LORD Almighty is with us;

the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Selah

⁸ Come and see the works of the LORD,

the desolations he has brought on the earth.

⁹ He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;

he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,

he burns the shields with fire.

¹⁰ "Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth."

¹¹ The LORD Almighty is with us;

the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Selah

Steven Crowder

Steven Crowder does such a great job showing simple truths involved in our political arena. I love watching his videos and this one really made me laugh! Don't forget to scroll down and turn off my music :)

Messages Of Encouragement

Not to long ago I heard about Dr. Charles Stanley, mainly because he had had David Barton over to preach for his congregation during the 4th of July weekend. My Mom was the one who told me about it. But I had never heard Of Dr. Stanley before this. Then recently my parents recommended a message by him on his webpage, so I went to his page and have listened to many messages since. I have been so blessed and encouraged from all that he is preaching, which is directly from the word! :) I thought I would share to those of you who like to have something to listen to while your cleaning or cooking. :P

To visit directly to his audio messages click here. He does a message a day and since we are just now in December there are only a few. I listened to many from November, I wish they were still up! :)

A Laugh :)

These little comics gave me a laugh. I have felt like I have a little boxer in my belly :)

Thank You....

I can't help myself! I happened to look over at Shabby Blogs again and I couldn't resist! Its like shopping, and its free! They always have such lovely backgrounds :P So sorry everyone if I keep changing mine! I promise I will not change it again until the new year ;) Thank you Shabby Blogs!

Traditions......

Whenever I say the word tradition, the Fiddler On The Roof song comes into my head :P

I was so happy to hear that Marie had gotten all the ingredients for our favorite Frog Eyed Salad the other day. Has anyone ever had Frog Eyed Salad before? My Mom would faithfully make it every year and we were always pleased to see that she made enough to last a couple days after Thanksgiving ;).

All it is, is tiny Acini Di Pepe macaroni cooked until soft then you mix in Whipped Cream, Vanilla Pudding, Mandarin Oranges, crushed Pineapple. Put it in a beautiful glass bowl and it looks lovely and tastes DELICIOUS! :) We would only have it on Thanksgiving :)

Does anyone want to share their special favorite traditional dish that they have on Thanksgiving?

~Image courtesy of Larkspur~

A Psalm.........

~ I haven't been able to stop thinking about this beautiful scripture. Its so powerful and moving and I am so thankful for my loving savior and God. Words cannot express my love. ~

Psalm 139

¹ O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.

² You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.

³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.

⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.

⁵ You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.

⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,

¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

¹¹ If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"

¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!

¹⁸ Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.

¹⁹ If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!

²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.

²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?

²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Enjoying the Season..

I have already mentioned that I am enjoying the season of Thanksgiving and Christmas really early this year. Maybe its because the two prior years were a whirl wind. And I have more time now to feel and sense all the delights! Marie and Jon went grocery shopping for Thanksgiving yesterday and it gave me a chance to bake up some Cranberry Scones. I was a little afraid to make them here since the climate is different then what I am used to in Az. And to waste all of those precious ingredients like butter and cream would be such a shame! And oh my did they come out wonderful! :P Just the right texture not too hard. They MELTED in my mouth! ;) Perfect with a cup of tea to wash down with. The cranberries were really pretty to put in and they gave such a pretty color for pre-Christmas scones :)

28 Weeks.....

~28 weeks

~ Its starting to get hard to see those toes!

~Here is Jodi's delicious cake she made on Saturday

Been really busy these last few weeks and I feel I have been lagging in my blogging! I had Marie take some pictures of me at 28 weeks. I had to have her take a lot!!! Its strange to see myself looking so big. And I had a hard time finding a picture that I liked :P The baby seems to be healthy and strong :) lots of kicks and I can just look down at my belly and see it moving in all different directions! Today I just rubbed my belly to say hello to Itty Bitty and right after I felt this enormous KICK!

Our Motives party was a delight on Saturday. We didn't have as many ladies as we had hoped, but we are so happy for the way it turned out! It really gave Marie and I much more confidence in working on women's skin. And to have had a load of ladies show up would have been NERVE WRACKING! :)

Marie and I were bummed, when we realized we had forgotten to take pictures of our party in our haste to have everything *perfect* :) I did take a picture of the cake that our dear friend Jodi made and brought. It was delicious!

Today's Thoughts..

"There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind."

~C.S. Lewis

Beautiful Olga

I had to share the beauty of my sister and the talent of my brother ;)

My brother Nathan is visiting my family in Colorado and went ahead and took Olga's senior pictures while he was there. She had to have them in before Thanksgiving. He offered to do any of her friends as well and didn't get many who were interested. But now I bet they are REGRETTING it! I sure wish Nathan could have taken my Senior pictures! :P My sister Marie also posted some pictures you can check em out here.

Fireplaces

~He he I thought this one was cute too :)

I have been loving fireplaces lately. Well, I have always loved them, but I have been attracted to looking and studying different kinds. I know that stoves are really the better thing to have, because they are the real heat source. Just not as attractive ;) Here are a few that I found. :)

Craving Christmas!

Lately I have been craving Christmas! I know, I should be craving food :P my cravings have been more atmospheric. I have even been dreaming about it at night! :) One dream was about Marie putting out all of her beautiful red Christmas decorations around the house lol!

Benjamin will be spending Thanksgiving up here with us in Ohio, which I am very thankful about! He happened to finish his schooling just in time ;) I am also getting excited for when I can create a home again for Benjamin and the baby and I. Being here with Marie and Jon has been so wonderful and inspiring. I wish very badly that Benjamin and I could settle here in Ohio and live down the street from Marie and Jon. Maybe that can happen when we are all old and retired! At least we will be on this side of the States! :)

I know I have been slacking with my blog lately. I will hopefully have more to post about this coming week and the week after :P We are having our first tea and makeup party in a week and we have lots of plans for the menu. :)

I hope everyone is enjoying November so far :)

New Review!

I just did a new review for our Youtube Motives Sisters account. Its about Virgin Coconut Oil. I show how I use it to take off my makeup for the night. We appreciate everyone who watches and *Subscribes* (hint, hint :P) to our Youtube page. Thank you so much! :)

A little Sick....

This week just flew by. It was a fast week, but also a slow one. We all had been fighting some sort of sickness, flu, cold, or something. The feel of this sickness, seemed to be the knock out kind, head aching, chills, fever, cough and all that yucky stuff. I really think if I had not consumed so much coconut oil in my tea, I would have had ALL of the above. Even the cats have been sick! Luckily little Zane was just fine, other then him teething a little :P

Marie and I have been jogging and walking almost every other day now. It feels really good for me. My joints have been stretching and sore (from Itty Bitty getting bigger) and I feel it at night while I am sleeping. I can't get comfortable. I will sleep on one side and then wake up to throbbing, then switch to my other side and do the same thing throughout the night. I have been trying many things to stretch out those muscles and jogging/walking have helped the most! :)

Have a blessed Monday and week everyone!

Baby Bump...

Its pretty obvious now :) 26 weeks this week!

Truth....

He must become greater; I must become less.

John 3:30

"I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk when we remember that great sacrifice which He made who left His Father's throne on high to give Himself for us..." ~David Livingstone

Healthy Habits....

After finding out that my iron was so low at my last visit with my Midwife Patty, I have been trying to be very conscious of what I am eating for the baby. I have already mentioned that I have been eating lots of molasses, but I can't eat molasses and biscuits all day! I have switched it up a bit and instead of biscuits (I don't want to gain too much weight ;) I have been POURING my Molasses into a bowl of oatmeal. Its very tasty! :) I thought I would type out a lot of the things I need to be implementing into my diet. So here goes.............

I found this wonderful list from my friend Sharon's blog and it was so helpful, that I wanted to share!

Dark green vegetables, prunes, grape juice, apples, apricots, asparagus, bananas, broccoli, egg yolks, kelp, okra, purple grapes, black strap molasses and Brewer's yeast.

I have established a pretty steady routine now, certain vitamins in the morning with several eggs and a nice bowl of oatmeal and molasses. Throughout the day fruit with peanut butter and raisins. Nuts (I need to buy more) salads in the evenings and some other form of protein. At night a glass of Amish milk that we just bought :) with some more vitamins. And of course water and tea throughout the day, with a teaspoon of Virgin Coconut Oil in my hot tea.

Now If I can just keep to this, the baby and I will be on a straight road again! :)

Motives Sisters

Here is a Youtube video that my sister and I made reviewing some Motives Products please be sure to check it out! :) And don't forget to scroll down and turn off my music. You can get these products on my Motives Page here~

Nail Candy Review

~Not Bad! ;)

I will be reviewing the products that I am using and implementing in my business. (Which is really fun!) So first off is a Motives Nail Candy. Or more simply put, (really colorful fun nail polishes). I was really happy with ALL of the nail colors that Motives sells. I don't know if anyone has noticed, that at the store when shopping for a nice new nail polish color, its really hard to find a great color. The quality and selections aren't very good. And I usually resolve into buying from OPI which is REALLY expensive and I hate to part with that much money over nail polish. And since I have discovered Motives polishes I am forever hooked and enchanted with ALL of their colors. The first color I chose to review is the Sunset Boulevard. It was the first I put on and it went well with the season. I really really liked it. And I got several compliments over it. A lot of people said, they wouldn't have picked it, but after seeing it on me, they would for sure wear it! :) YAY! :) The other nice thing about this polish is the high gloss shine that it has. It really gives it a great quality feeling. Every time I do my finger and toe nails, I feel like I just left the nail salon. Its so shiny and flawless looking. Its also free of toluene, formaldehyde and dibutyl phthalate. No one else can say that about their nail polish! :) I will do another review soon on a more conservative color, because they are really nice as well.

You can get the Motives Nail Candy at my web page for $5.25

You can compare to the OPI nail polishes for $8.00 - 12.00

Beautiful Ohio

~Thank you Google :)

It is so lovely to return to beautiful Ohio. I was able to see my Midwife yesterday. She is so much fun! :) We were there over two hours with her enjoying all of her interesting stories. The baby is doing well. She took several tests to see if I was taking my vitamins like I should. The only thing that she was concerned a little over was that I had a low iron level. So I am eating lots of molasses and biscuits! Marie, the baby and I are going to take a nice pleasant walk outside and enjoy all of the gorgeous leaves falling. I am so blessed to be able to be here with Marie and Jon. It was hard leaving Benjamin, but I knew it would be. And all I feel is a thankfulness to my Lord for his many many blessings. Happy Fall everyone! :)

Before I Forget :)

Looking out of our room

My cup of tea! ;)

Six Months :P

Here are some pictures of our room here on base. The hotel was so nice and *comfortable* ;) Two screen t.v.s a nice bathroom, two walk in closets, a sitting room and a lovely little kitchen. :) The beach is just on the other side of the parking lot. It has been so lovely.................. :) Just a couple more days with my baby! :( Notice my silly preggo photo! Benjamin thought I looked pretty nice Military! I think he looks much better in it then I do :P