Those eyes...

This picture is from our walk to the beach the other day, but I just couldn't resist singling it out.  It's such a great picture of Peter and captured his amazing eyes so clearly.   What a fun, smart, funny, loving and adventurous boy he is!

I'm linking up to And Then She Snapped for this weeks photo challenge.  So, in regards to editing, I cropped the photo and slightly sharpened his eyes.  

Is something missing???

Yesterday we woke up to a dusting of snow.  What a great surprise!  The kids were desperate to get out and play.  In just a few minutes, Natalie was back inside because her clothes got wet and she wanted to change.  Completely on her own, she took off the wet clothes and got ready to go back out.

Don't you think she did a good job?

Walk it off...

After too many days inside, we decided to get out.  Thank goodness the weather cooperated and we were able to head to Chamber's Bay for a walk to the new Bridge to the Beach.

Headed down the big hill...everyone is still smiling!

One of the coolest things about the new bridge to the beach is that the trains go right under your feet.

Searching the beach for treasures.  Yep, the blue bags are the "dog poop" bags provided at the park.
They work great for gathering shells and rocks too!

Peter throwing.

Luke climbing.

Those eyes!!!

Love these two!

What's a trip to the beach without checking out the cool bones that have washed on shore? 

Yuck..what is that?  Some sort of spine and ribs...the boys were FASCINATED.

Heading home with our treasures.

Luke is pretty inventive.

I know you don't care, but for the record, all of the pictures are SOOC.  It was such a nice change to get out into some natural light.  The sharpness, colors, and performance of my 60D continue to amaze me!  I'm still in love!

Catching up from Christmas....

We had a great Christmas this year.  It's the first Christmas in 11 years that we just stayed home for the entire break.  While we missed getting to go to Portland and see extended family, it has also been fun to just relax and enjoy late mornings in our jammies and fun days with our kids. Plus, family came to us!

Here's a picture review of our Christmas.

On Christmas Eve we went to church and then went to auntie Saza's for a picnic by the tree.  In the evening, Aaron headed back to church to assist in the 9pm and 11pm services, so it was very quiet around here.

Christmas Eve jammies

Christmas morning

Santa brought the baby doll that Natty asked for.

Santa brought Luke a desk.

Santa brought Peter the AT-AT...a HUGE hit!

We gave Natalie this Dora tent...the best $12.99 I spent this year.  As soon as she saw it, 

she went in and wouldn't come out.  The boys delivered her presents to her and she 

unwrapped them inside.  It was pretty funny. 

Our family gift was a Wii.  Auntie Saza gave the boys a Lego Star Wars game

that came with light saber Wii controllers...don't get too close!

We spent the later part of Christmas morning with Mema, Pepa and Auntie Saza.  Of course they left about 11am to catch a flight to Hawaii!  (LUCKY them)

On Christmas morning we act out the Christmas story.  A special part of our morning and always entertaining for all.

Here's Mary, Joseph, and a shepherd I think.

Natalie was the angel, and she also chose this doll as our baby Jesus.  Don't

mind the blond hair and pink dress on baby Jesus.

A very excited wise man, bringing a gift to the baby Jesus.

On the 26th, Bubby, Papa and the Lesyk family came.

Here are the cousins...minus Jackson (1) who was taking a nap.
Peter (4), Isaac (8), Reiley (6),  Luke (6), and  Natalie (2)

The kids had lots of fun playing Wii with their cousins.

Luke and Reiley playing Just Dance for Kids....HILARIOUS.

Peter finally beat Isaac at sword fighting.  

Now that we've been adequately spoiled rotten, we can return to our normal life!  What a great Christmas!

Tracking Santa...

This is one of my favorite pictures from Christmas Eve....the boys and Mema tracking Santa on Mema's new ipad.

Merry Christmas 2010...

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas! 


We will be celebrating the birth of Christ...remembering that he showed up in the most unexpected way. And, celebrating that he continues to "show up" in our lives everyday. 

***Just in case you're wondering...this is our Christmas card for this year.  It looks strangely similar to my blog header...that's because once I created the card, I liked it so much I had to make it the header.  My creativity only goes so far!

3 pictures....

Here are 3 pictures from last weekend.  The last two are from Stewart Family Christmas, which we had on Saturday night, because Ross and Shannon were headed out of town.

#1:  Luke made a present, found a box, wrapped it, and made the card!  He did a great job.  My favorite part is the card. I love that instead of writing "mom" he sounded out my name.  And the people are pretty cute too...he liked that he made himself taller than me.  Someday buddy, someday!  I can't wait to see what's inside.

#2:  Aaron's mom was a HERO and bought all of the grandkids pillow pets for Christmas!  Oh the joy!  As you can see,

Peter LOVES his penguin.  Luke got a dolphin and Natalie got a unicorn.  Natalie says,"  Where my Pi-woh Pet?"  

#3: Peter started to unwrap this Snow Speeder...chosen by the very popular, Uncle Ross.  As he ripped off the paper he kept saying..."Look what I got, look what I got, look what I got, look what I got....."  He was THRILLED and couldn't get the words out to tell us what it actually was.  For a boy who has not seen any of the Star Wars movies...the love runs very deep for all things Star Wars!

Luke's Day Out....

Yesterday Peter went off to a birthday party, Natalie was napping, and Luke got invited on a special day out with his good friend Bella.   Luke and Bella have known each other since they were 2 year olds.  SuLee wrote a great post on her blog about their time.  You have to check it out...the pictures are adorable.

Click on the link below....
http://simplysulee.blogspot.com/2010/12/bellas-ukie.html

Another year on the NICE list...

Last night we made the trek to mall to see Santa!  Last year we waited over an hour, but this year Aaron's brilliance paid off.  When we arrived, the line was closed because Santa needed a 1/2 hour break to "feed the reindeer."  Our plan was to wait and be first in line when Santa returned from McDonalds.  Aaron and the boys took their place, and Natalie and I headed into Gymboree to see what we could find.  Suddenly my cell phone rang and Aaron said, "get back here now."  I scooped up Natalie and ran back (it was not pretty in my current condition.)

The boys were thrilled, and Natalie took one look at Santa and started wailing.  Poor girl...it was even more dramatic than last year. 

All in all, it took us about 5 minutes to see Santa.  THANK YOU AARON!  He had a little chat with the head elf, and after telling him our plan to stand in line while Santa was away, the elf decided it was easier just to "sneak us in at the end."  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  It took the sting out of paying $22 for two 5x7 pictures, and allowing me to snap a few shots with my own camera.

This was Santa's idea...put the kids in the chair and then sneak around the back...
Natalie wasn't fooled, and I wasn't going to torture the poor girl.

But, the boys were more than happy to get their picture with Santa. 

After seeing Santa, we headed to Build A Bear, which is right next to Santa.  (awfully convenient if you ask me.)  We had a Groupon to use, so each kid got to choose an outfit for their favorite bear/bunny at home.  Can I just say that I LOVE Groupon.  In the end, we got 3 outfits for the cost of 1.  And, while giving a "present" to the kids before Christmas seems wrong, there was NO way that I was going back to the mall.  So, a little piece of Christmas came early to the Stewart house!

36 weeks....

So, here's the belly at just about 36 weeks.  Tomorrow we get another peek at our little guy by ultrasound.  Can't wait to see how he's doing!

This pic is SOOC, and cropped.  

Snickering Sam...

This week, the photo challenge at I Heart Faces is "Pet Faces."  Those who know me best, know that we DO NOT have pets...we have 3 (very soon to be 4) small children.  Which is all the responsibility that I can handle at this point in time.  But, we have lots of family with lovable dogs...like Samantha.

When I saw the challenge, I immediately thought of this picture....it looks like Samantha is having a good laugh!

Preschool Christmas Pageant....

The preschool pageant is one of my favorites every year. Time flies and it seems like just yesterday that Peter was in the 2's class shaking his bell.

Peter had us fooled once again. He kept saying he didn't know any of his songs, but once on stage he knew them all and did a great job with the hand motions and singing.

And, we thought Natalie would be shy, but it turns out that she loves the stage...see for yourself in the video below

Concentrating hard on shaking her bell

Peter singing, "Go Tell It On The Mountain."

BONUS:  This is what you get when you say, "Put your arms around each other."

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

Don't you love Christmas?  If you don't, go away, and don't ever come back....kidding...mostly!

We decorated our Christmas tree, which is one of my favorite traditions.  We always get a Noble, and even though I don't like stringing the lights on the tree, you won't find an artificial tree in our house anytime soon.  The smell of our tree is amazing and I love the way it greets me every time I walk in the front door.

This year Aaron added a train under our tree.  It's been fun watching the boys learn to "drive" it, and they play tackle interference anytime they even think Natalie might be trying to knock it off the track.  That's not as fun, but I appreciate their dedication.

This year I have seen several gorgeous trees that are decorated with a theme, beautiful ornaments and decorations, etc.   That's NOT our tree.

Our tree is a trip down memory lane.  It's kind of like Christmas-past threw up on it.  And while I add some ribbon, beads, and white lights to try to "class it up" a little, it really is a reflection of the things we love.   Aaron and I both have our childhood ornaments.  And our children receive, and make ornaments every year.  So, our tree is over-flowing with beloved things from the past and present.

I especially love the way our kids proudly hang their ornaments in the front of the tree (in a clump of course.)  And if you come over, get ready for a tour of the kids' favorite ornaments.

Speaking of favorites...here are few of mine that caught my eye this evening.

This sweet ornament is Natalie's from last year.
It was the last year I got to choose what she "liked."  2010 brings
an obnoxious Dora ornament...and she LOVES it!

This is the 4th time this ornament has graced our tree!  My mom
found this and gave it to me when I was pregnant with Luke.
I love that she is holding an ice cream cone with a pickle in it.

I might not say this is one of my "favorites."  But it was given to me in 1977 and
I love that it still graces my tree.

I'm posting this one with my sister in mind.  We were each given one of these by a "great aunt"
that wasn't actually related to us.  It has to be one of the ugliest ornaments EVER made.
It's hard to tell, but it's a plastic plant, inside a plastic prism, hung with an old pink curling ribbon.
I smile every year when I hang it on the tree. 

Aaron's mom gave me 12 of these ornaments and I treasure them.  Each ornament has a different name for God written in Hebrew on the front and English on the back.   They are filled with white feathers.  Like I said, I treasure them!

There are so many others.  I could go on and on and on.  What are your some of your favorites on your tree?  Create a post on your blog or Facebook and let me know. I'd want to see them!

Vanilla Brown Sugar Body Scrub...

It's getting scary...I'm crafting again.  And, I've made another thing that turned out great.  I made a yummy vanilla brown sugar body scrub as a gift for the leaders of our MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) group.  


Turned out cute, don't you think?

Here's the recipe if you're interested...

Mix 2 Cups of Brown Sugar and 1 Cup of Granulated Sugar together until there are no lumps. Add in 1 Cup of Sunflower or Safflower Oil and 1 Tablespoon of Pure Vanilla Extract or you could use a small amount of vanilla essential oil.  (this recipe made enough to fill two to three 12oz jars...I made 30+ jars)  Make sure you use a sealable glass jar.  Add a cute tag, ribbon, and there you go!

Yummy and perfect for smoothing out those dry elbows and heels!  I think these will make great hostess gifts, teacher gifts, etc.  So, watch out if you know me...one of these might be coming your way!

I've been a little busy...

I've been a little busy lately.  I haven't taken a picture in almost a week, but I have lots to report.

First, I've been nesting like a crazy women.  I used to think that "nesting" was a bunch of bunk...but here I am, 6 weeks or less from having my 4th child, and I have cleaned out almost every possible closet, space, room in our house.  Well, except for my closet...there's still clothes on the floor in there.  And, please, don't come over and start looking for a mess, because regardless of all of my hard work, there are 3 small people in the house that constant try to undo all that I do... when it comes to cleaning.  There are still plenty of messy drawers, etc.  BUT, if you happen to look in my linen closet you will find perfectly folded sheets...or if you are snooping in my laundry room cupboards you will find matching organizer baskets, with adorable tags on them just like this. 

And while most of my "nesting" has been focused on non-baby things, I did get all of the 0-3 month clothes out, washed and put away. Blankets and burp rags clean and folded.  Teeny tiny diapers ready to go! 

I recently read a blog of a person I kinda-sorta-know who is a cousin-of-a-friend-of-a-late-uncle (you get the picture) who is also pregnant, but with her first baby.  She is stressing out about not having everything ready...I think she's like 24 weeks pregnant.  I'm sure I was exactly the same way with my first, but thank goodness I didn't have a blog then.  Which leads me to what I like to call, "you know it's your 4th baby when...."  So, without further ramblings....

You know it's your 4th baby when....
1.  At 34 weeks you suddenly remember that you gave your previous bassinet away, and you haven't picked up that infant car seat you were going to borrow.  Worse, is that it doesn't stress you out that your child will have no way home from the hospital and no place to sleep when you get home...instead you wonder if they will let you stay longer at the hospital if you don't have a car seat and think this might be a good way to get extra "vacation" time. 

2.  You plan on smuggling your own pacifiers into the hospital in case you get a hard-core nurse that wants to lecture you on nipple confusion.  For the record, I've had 3 children who have nursed, supplemented, and used a pacifier in early weeks...NONE have had "nipple confusion." (sorry Dad, if you just had to read that.)

3.  Your 6 year old says, "when the new baby comes, are you gonna get out that milker again?" He's referring to the breast pump, which for the record he has NEVER seen in action.

4.  You get all teary and emotional just thinking about "birth-day."  Which I happen to think is the coolest day in the whole world!

Okay, I'll stop now!  I can't wait to meet our newest little guy in just a few short weeks!  He has no idea the crazy, fun, blessed life that he is about to join.  And, we have no idea how this little bundle will instantly become a part of our family that we can't imagine living without.  I never tire of the wonder of God's perfect plan in birth!