Star Wars Boys

Today I had a small group leaders luncheon to attend after church, the girls had gone with friends for the day/night to a birthday party, and Jeremy took Caeden out to lunch because we had little food at home. For their Father-Son day, he let Caeden choose where to eat lunch, and wasn't surprised when he chose McDonald's. Caeden reported to me that he had his traditional chicken nuggets and fries Happy Meal and got a puppy toy in the Happy Meal, which he named "Cooper."

After lunch they went to some stores just to poke around a bit. Jeremy wanted to check out Circut City's going-out-of-business sale, and they also went to Target. Once the boys spotted a toy lightsaber, it was decidedly purchased. Jeremy says he always wanted one as a kid and was excited to get it for Caeden. (Jeremy has now been drafted to do all birthday and Christmas shopping for Caeden.) They both were carefully wielding it all evening.

This prompted Caeden's first viewing of Star Wars, the movie this evening while snuggled up on the couch with his Dad. I wasn't sure Caeden should be watching any Star Wars flicks at age 4, but this one was really okay for him. They were super cute watching it together too.

A few recent creations:

Click images to see them larger and with journaling.

Way Back When
by TarynLeah
Scrapbook.com

Flower Crowns
by TarynLeah
Scrapbook.com

ME - so they say
by TarynLeah
Scrapbook.com

snowflake ornament
by TarynLeah
Scrapbook.com

Apology and Honors

Obviously I needed something to get me to blog. I haven't taken any photos since New Year's Eve, because I'm honestly a little tired of the editing process right now. Last week I managed to get through all of the rest of my 2008 photos I still had on the computer. They were from November and December, as well as 3 portrait sessions...so still a couple thousand photos almost. Anyway, they've all been seperated (originals and ones to print), saved to DVD, uploaded to winkflash.com, printed, and are on their way to me. Whew! What a major process. Good reminder to me that I need to do it at the end of every month and not get behind! So anyway, I haven't taken any photos in the past week and a half, and it actually feels good.


I spent the better part of the weekend reading The Shack, by Wm. P. Young. I can honestly say, it is one of the best books I've read. I was completely engrossed in it, and am still pondering it. If you haven't read it yet, do.

Trying to think what else is new around here...

Jeremy has been working on things inside the house. He's put up the west wall in the den, mudded and sanded it. 2 more walls to go in there, but there are 8 6-foot windows sitting in there until spring arrives, so it obviously won't be completed too soon. He also ripped out the west wall in the upstairs bathroom, insulated and put up new drywall there this weekend. The guest room walls are patched and waiting for me to measure and wallpaper in there. (Well, technically, I suppose I need to stain the new window first.) I know, I know...wallpaper isn't cool. BUT, the walls are a mixture of 105 year old plaster and brand new drywall, and even though Jeremy did a great job matching them up while patching them, I'm going to wallpaper to cover the patching. Now, I'm not using ordinary floral print wallpaper! I'm going to use paintable anaglypta. Look it up. It's cool.


We finally decided to sign up for Netflix a few months ago, and have been loving that! We don't have cable or dish, just regular network TV, and don't even watch a lot of that. But, we've gotten into watching Heroes through Netflix. We're 3/4 of the way through Season 2 and loving it. Sometimes we even get a movie for the kids to watch.

It really is nice to be back in the routine of things again after the holidays. Of course the holidays are great, but I didn't realize how out-of-whack things had gotten around here, and it's nice to have some order back.

Caeden and I are doing school again. We hadn't done much at all for about a month, so now we are doing every day to get caught up. It's going well. He's learning about the 4th day of Creation right now, and the months and seasons.

My sweet online friend Angie has honored me with the "Your Blog is Fabulous!" blog award. It comes along with some requirements: I am to award 5 others and also list 5 addictions I have.5 blogs I think are fabulous:

• In the Dailies
• Tanya's Blog
• One Ginormous Adventure
• McBride Family Blog
• From Yesterday

And, 5 things I am "addicted" to...

1. Jesus...Absolutely can't do without Him. So, I guess that makes it an "addiction."
2. Music...My life would be so empty without it.
3. Coffee...I think I'm getting there. Yep. After swearing it off for most of my life, over the past year or 2 I've slowly gotten to the point where I can't do with out my 1 or 2 mugs a day. Vanilla coffee with fat free vanilla creamer.
4. Taking photos
5. The Internet...checking e-mail, my favorite scrappy messageboard, Facebook.

New Year's Eve

We decided to ring in the new year at home last night, just our little family, taking it easy and relaxing together.

Daddy spent some time teaching the kids to play chess and checkers
on Annah's new game board.
Then they all watched a favorite movie Caeden got on DVD for Christmas--The Incredibles, while I blew up about 75 balloons.


Growing up, my family always got together with my mom's Crabill side of the family for New Year's Eve. For part of the evening, the grown-ups and the big kids would blow up tons and tons of balloons. Then right at midnight, they would release them all into one room and we would pop them all! It was such a fun tradition that I always looked forward to, so I decided to do it with our kids this year!

We let them stay up until midnight, but little Sylvie-pie didn't quite make it. She was so tired, and at about 11:30, she decided she just wanted to go to bed. So Daddy tucked her in.
Caeden was so tired, he just kept running around to keep awake.
Annah was full of excitement, but kept saying she was sad for 2008 to end.
She and Caeden had fun running through the balloons...


...and popping them at midnight!


We are all just staying home and relaxing today. Right now, Annah and Sylvia are blowing up more balloons so Sylvia will get to pop some.

I don't have any resolutions or goals to work on yet, except that each of us would grow closer to Jesus and do His will in everything we do. I guess that's a pretty big one really!

I pray you and your loved ones will find the love of Jesus |
and many blessings in your lives in 2009!