A merry Christmas

to those who celebrate. I hope you have a very special holiday.
It was pointed out to me lately that just because we don't celebrate christmas doesn't mean that we can't say Merry Christmas to others. I don't believe in a secular christmas, and we aren't christian. Some people don't really think anything about a secular christmas. To be honest this is something that we have been heading towards since we got married. We are bigger believers in getting something for someone when you see it, whether it be a special day or not. And we also don't like commercialism. We don't want to raise children who need the newer brighter toy. We want them to be happy with what they have. We would prefer not to do any toys this time of year. We don't think it is right for christmas to be about Santa Claus and how many toys you get and making sure that retailers make a profit for the year. This kinda makes us sick. I can't express how much this makes us sick. It have become more of a big deal the older our kids get. When we can't go out without our children being asked if they were good enough for Santa to bring them toys. What they were asking Santa for christmas... I am not sure what upsets me more, that most people assume that we celebrate christmas, or that christmas is all about the toys and presents you get. I admit that the religious aspect upsets me more than Jack. He doesn't care so much, but I do think it is really disrespectful to others beliefs. We both feel the same way about the commercialism though.
We do believe that this is a good time to remember that there are those less fortunate than us. We try to give to the salvation army when we see them at the grocery. When we see the shelters collecting at the stores we try to do some shopping for them And tonight when we went to starbucks, okay the only place open for hot chocolate :), we carried on in the spirit of the cars in front of us, each of us putting money towards the car behind us, along with a good tip. These are the things we should do year round though. An extra smile to someone, kind words, a helping hand. But there are two extremes that come out this time of year, those who start their extra kindness, and those who get impatient when you walk slowly with your kids at the grocery store. It is kinda interesting to see.
BUT for those of you who christmas does have a real true meaning, whether it be a religious meaning, or just a time when you know you can get together with your family, I do hope you enjoy your day.

Aren't they cute?

So Jack got called in today. Which sucks, he was supposed to have the day off. Gwen in asleep and we are all quietly lounging around. And I knew this was what they are doing. I am sitting right next to them. But I glanced over and was like, wow, that looks nice. Cuddled up in a soft sleeping bag reading a book. We are raising geeks. And I would almost believe that if I hadn't seen Natalie run and play basketball, or saw Layla dance. They are very well rounded. But I can't help but totally enjoy their geekyness.

Holidays cont.

Natalie's sleeping bag. They love these. They are currently pretending to go camping.

And the tree cinnamon rolls. Gluten free, YAY!!!! They turned out pretty good. I feel better now knowing that if nothing else it isn't something I have to worry about anymore. I have a cinnamon roll recipe.

Happy Holidays!!

So feeling guilty, we went out and got Gwen two things yesterday. Thank you Kelly again for opening up your store so we could shop.
Oh and by the way, this is what happens when Daddy is in charge of getting the baby dressed. I guess she has a diaper on, right?

We wrapped up everything in playsilks this year. It worked out really well. No mess, no garbage, just put everything back in their toy boxes:) Our little DMers got two books that have minis and a game board along with a book.

They also got sleeping bags and I just realized that a few of my pictures didn't show up here. So I will post again with the other pictures.

Gwen's first word

But first some pictures from last night. This is Gwen trying to tear apart Huck's nose...I love Huck, he is so good wih them. He does expect beter behavior as they get older but he seems to know when they are just puppies and don't know any better. We did stop her when we realized what she was doing.

She loves all things furry that walk on four legs though. I swear the only reason any of my children have ever started crawling was to chase after these cute little, and not so little, creatures.

Playing how far can you open your mouth

This is the tale end of a swipe on the tongue across the face. I am so bummed I missed it. And now for Gwen's first word. Yeah all babies babble dadada, bababa. But that first word that they use, they look at something and say what it is. That is the first word for me. The others are firt sounds. Natalie, it was dadas, and she meant nursing. Layla let me ask Jac when he gets home so I know it is what I am thinking. Since Gwen was in my belly she has shown a special fondess for Layla. Is it because Layla's voice could pierce through all that water? After she was born she would totally quiet to hear Layla talk. And now she says, "laylaylaylayla" while looking and reaching for her. It is sweet.

Do you see our trouble?

Beautiful daughters that pout. Oh our life is so hard. I must lay on the floor and be miserable. Oh dear me, oh dear me. Our life is so hard. Don't you love the look Layla gives me? I think I asked to to please not take all the cards out of my wallet. How dare I!

Our craft. Special, isn't it? Jack said that we weren't going to cut down a live tree to decorate our home. Ba humbug! So we took the bounty that was given to us by the storm. A huge branch fell in our backyard. I took branches off of this branch and some heavy duty wire Jack brought home. And I made a wreath. The girls helped of course. We got all sorts of pine sap on us. And the pine cones that are there, they are real and still attached to the branches. I think it might beat painting a tree like we usually do. Jack slightly complained over the size, it is pretty big. He actually hung it from the ceiling :) The girls did a victory dance underneath it afterwards while I was trying to get a picture of it.

And Natalie's birthday cake. I have to say it was a good cake, really good. I am so impressed. And by the way, it did rise. I actually just flipped in on the plate so the rised part is in the bowl of the plate. If fit really well. And then I made a kinda icing with strawberries and whipped cream. They were all happy with it. I have tons of pictures, hopefully I will have some time to put up some more.

Adventure

You know sometimes it is odd to have something happen to you that you know is going to be something to remember.
We got snow Saturday, no biggie. The roads weren't bad. Then Sunday Jack had off. Okay we haven't been out fir breakfast in a long time. This used to be something we used to do a lot. It was still snowing a lot, but the roads were looking good and it was supposed to turn to rain in the afternoon, which would have washed all the rain away. So we go out, also thinking that we would get out to home depot to get the stuff to finish the ceiling, somehow this keeps not happening, I am trying to not get mad over this since he actually had two weeks off a month ago...
So we are out, roads are fine. We eat a nice good breakfast, Jack getting all of our toast and head out. Jack says something about seeing how bad the apartments are, you know to see if he is going to have problems getting out to go to work. So we head down ridgetop. It is not in as good condition as the main roads. As Jack starts t turn down to the apartments, I actually said, I hate that I said this, cuz I would have much rather have been wrong, umm are you sure you want to go down there? But we did, and so started our about hour and a half adventure. We couldn't get out. We were really stuck and the snow just kept coming down harder and harder. I want to think that if it had stopped snowing we would have made itout. In fact, I realy think we would have. Half way through Jack sent me to the office to see if they could help. I was soaked, it was heavy wet snow, as soon as I stepped out. On my way there I was a tree fall down in front of me. Which kinda freaked me out after seeing all the trees that were around me. The office was closed. But Jack had made it almost all the way up, so I hike back to him. But then after a few times and us not being able to see our tracks after going back down because it was snowing so much, I called usaa. Unfortunatly, they were going on emergencies. It is odd. Every few weeks we get a weather forecast with things like watch out, storm of the centuary. I am not saying that this was not weather. But it was all supposed to go away. It was supposed to get warmer, turn to rain and be no biggie. They had not sent out any trucks or anything. By the way while I am here. I have to say that Washington is the absolute worst state I have seen in their road managment when it comes to snow. So after the woman on the phone realizes we have kids, you can't really keep the quiet while you are on the phone. She tells me that kids, emergency. So she calls back the towing guy, he doesn't think he would be able to get us out. He actually came down in his truck and helped us pack up car seats and drove us home. So you know, HE had a hard time getting out of there. The next day, on his way to work, Jack says he saw about 10 cars in ditches.

Which brings us to yesterday. It did finally start to get warmer overnight. And then it started to rain. http://kitsapsun.com/news/2007/dec/03/after-deluge/
Go there if you want to look at some pictures and see what happens when we get unusual rain. I didn't think much of it. Truly, we were getting lots of rain by the house, we had lots of puddles in our yard, but it wasn't bad. Then I looked on the news to find stories of mudslides, sink holes, and cars stuck in the water. Around lunch time they closed the base to people didn't NEED to be there. Jack was able to come home. The problem? We actually needed to get a friends car somewhere so when she comes home today she can drive home. So, me actually slightly terrified after the fun we had the day before, we went out and braved the weather again. We drove her car there and then drove to the apartments to pick up Jack's car that he left there that morning when he picked up the van. I wish I had pictures to show you what we saw. But you can look at the pictures at the kitsapsun. We saw the Central Valley flooding, we actually drove through it. We drove down Tracyton, where we saw someones side yard turn into a whirlpool, there may have been some sort of building there, we are not sure. We drove down by the mall and saw one of our favorite restaurants, 2 Margaritas, under water. But we made it home with no incidents.

It has been an interesting few days. And I am going to apoligize to Washington right now. See, everywhere we have been stationed, we have always brought record rainfall. We didn't really think we would see crazy weather here. Everyone told us, oh the weather there is so mild, almost never snows, just rains. Bull!!! But it seems that we haven't lost our touch, maybe it will be a good thing for us to get to San Deigo. I think they actually need rain.