Change

No, this isn't a post about the jar full of pennies and nickels that normally sits on the counter. (Quarters and even dimes are regularly raided for the pop machine. :O) )

We're talking CHANGE. Holy moly - changes. Our little home here is now approaching just being a house. 99% of everything is in a box, or wrapped Gillespie-style, and ready for a moving truck. Its' a night full of very mixed emotions. Emotions are right at the surface tonight. There is excitement, nervousness, joy, love, sadness and some anger, too. Thankfully the first four are winning over the last two.

The sadness is at leaving our wonderful friends we have made here, leaving Daniel's cousins, leaving our ward, and leaving Daniel's pre-school. I just wanted to throw a huge THANK YOU out there to those who have had a postive influence on our lives here, and most importantly, on the lives of our boys.

So......the blog will be quiet for a while. A few days, at least. (Packing up - a few days driving - Christmas - unpacking - finding decent high-speed service out there in the 'sticks'.) Send us your good thoughts and prayers as we pack up that big old moving truck and make the trek over many miles of roads, and for a fun and positive start with our new lives. We'll miss those we are leaving, and are excited to see those we'll be joining!!!

Santa Claus and Snow

I've been very negligent in updating lately. (Anyone wanna guess what is occupying my time??) So - here's a bunch of FUN stuff that has happened over the past few weeks.
First - our ward Christmas party. It was organized by the most creative, organized, amazing ward activity chairperson!! It was a night of yummy food and an incredibly uplifting program. [clapping!!] Here are a few pics of the boys with Santa - Daniel is oh, so cool. He hopped right up and started into a serious conversation with Santa. When he told him he would like a workbench, and when Santa told him he had a workbench too - there was pure adoration! Now, Logan on the other hand ... not too sure. He never actually cried, but after 1.5 seconds, he assumed the position we fondly refer to as "Dead Fish".Next set of pictures was from Daniel's pre-school program. He attends a Lutheran pre-school, and they had their Christmas program on Saturday in the Sanctuary. We were all seated in the pews waiting to get started, and they called all of the pre-school children up one by one. When they called Daniel's name, our friend Laurie (who's adorable little Molli is in Daniel's class) was cracking up - she said he went up like he just got called to be on the Price is Right. (Come On Down!!) Ryan video taped the whole program - keeping the camera in his pocket. So, if I can figure out how to download the video - I might add it later. So funny! So - after it was over, we wanted to get some pics of Daniel next to the Christmas tree - but he had other ideas. (of course) He had his pre-aprroved poses for the railing - (honest - no direction from the parents!! where does he come up with this stuff??!!??) and he wanted to take pictures of everyone else. One other, Laurie has cute little Myles... Logan thought he was HIS baby. He just wanted to hug and hold and love on him. So - here's a few from Saturday.
And last, but not least - today we got a bit of snow. We bundled the boys up for their adventure - they had a blast! Logan loves to be outside, and this is his first snow experience. Cadi, of course, loves any chance she gets to be out in the snow. She has a snow ritual ... run around in circles like a mad-dog, do puppy-snow-angels, 'snow plow' around the yard with her nose to the ground, and then catch any and all snowballs that might fly around the yard. (The first picture is an action-shot - she had just caught a snowball.) All three of them heavily protested when I insisted it was time for the warm house, with warm air, and warm (hot) chocolate.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Jingle Bells aren't just for Santa!

When I decided on the decorations for the Christmas tree last year, I did not take into account that I would have a walking-crawling-grabbing one year old.


It turns out my decorating decisions actually worked in my favor! The tree is COVERED with different sized Jingle Bells. Aaaahaaaaaa! Every time he touches the tree - it RINGS!

"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day"

In a struggling world, filled with sadness, hate, war and grief - there is hope, there is faith. . . I have always loved this Christmas Carol, and this year, it is so touching.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

As the month of December is ready to ring in - may all of us carry a thought of LOVE in our hearts this Christmas season, and all year long.

The Food Network has nothing on Medford, OR

I'm often found glued to the tube when it comes time for "Challenge". I love watching those masters at work on creations of cake, cereal treats, sugar art, chocolate . . . and gingerbread. Well, today I've found that little Medford has quite the community of gingerbread masters. Believe me, they come in all ages! We met very young little artists with their amazing creations!

Here's Daniel next to a cardboard gingerbread man. He was SO excited about the entire exhibit, and had his own little camera to take pictures of all of his favorites.

Here's some adorable little puppies from the humane society's submission.

This one was entered in the 'youth' category. Wow! The last picture of the mouse on the keys is from Daniel's camera.

I don't know the title of this one, but I loved the simplistic beauty of it.

Daniel really liked this one - the Christmas Story. With manger, star, wise men, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus . . . and a dog. ?? He was pretty sure it was a dog.

This was one of our favorites, titled Autumn Harvest. With popcorn ball trees, barrels of apples, apple cider jugs, pumpkins and a cute dog.

There were, what seemed to be a whole family of decorators. There were several submisisons with their family name on them - from youth to adult. Here is one - Noah's Ark. This one was the big winner from the Judges. Wow - did she deserve it!!!! Here is the lighthouse! (and reverse view with the house on the other side. Can you see the lightkeeper through the glass? His bride on the widow's walk? Man, I wish the pictures did it justice!)
And last, but not least . . . . on the sideawlk outside the theater was this friendly gingerbread man, trying to lure visitors into the Ginger Roger's Craterian Theatre.
Okay - so for pictures that did Not include a 13 month old trying to swipe the camera out of my hands, 40 other people around each table, and probably proper lighting . . . . click here for more pics.

MEDFORD MAILTRIBUNE PHOTOS

The Butterfly Pavilion - Broomfield, CO

I started this blog a while after we'd gone on a fantastic and fun week-long vacation to Colorado. Ryan and I reveled in all thing Colorado! We wanted to share so much with the boys. After Daniel being at the hospital here when Logan was born, it was fun to show him the hospital where HE was born. We drove through our old neighborhood (tears were shed) and ate at Chili's. Yep, Chili's. Why, oh why, isn't there a Chili's here? You need a little bottomless chips and salsa every now and then - it's good for you!

Anyway, I thought I would do a few posts about all of the fun things we did while we were there. This first one is a Denver-area staple. If you visit the area, you HAVE to go to the Butterfly Pavilion. (It's almost like going to Casa Bonita. You might not like it, it costs more than you think it should, but you have to go anyway. . . . which we didn't do (Casa Bonita) . . . thank heavens! Who needs a bad mexican food TV dinner, just to see cliff divers and crawl around in the cave. The sopapillas, well that's the best part. But, I digress!)

Back to the Butterfly Pavilion!! http://www.butterflies.org/ After a long morning in the sun and fun of Boondocks, half the family opted out of the Butterflies . . . but never fear . . . Chris and Alli were willing to go! We wandered through all of the 'bug and spider' exhibits - without so much as a single touch of Rosie, the tarantula. We watched the bees - very interesting - and tried to find all of the 'camouflage' bugs.

Finally - into the butterfly conservatory! There were THOUSANDS of them!! Everywhere you look - butterflies of every imaginable color and size combination. They're perched on every leaf, feeding on fruit, fluttering past you, and once in a while landing on your shirt. Daniel took several turns with the camera - for a little dude, his pics are not too shabby.I love this next picture - if you look at the plant in front of Ryan and Daniel - there are 3 butterflies just in that one little plant.

Inside the conservatory is very, very warm and very, very humid! Made for perfect 'matching hairdo' pics!A couple of crazy cousins having a great time!The biggest kid around!A few more butterfly pics . . . .

Cookies and Cadi

Thank heavens, Cadi didn't get any cookies!! However, while she was being the 'nursemaid Nana' ...........

Logan was quite comfy hanging out with Cadi while Daniel and I were busy. He really, really loves her, she's really good with the boys, too.

Daniel and I were making peanut butter cookies. Daniel loves to help in the kitchen, and he especially loves making cookies. The reward at the end is better than a bowl of soup!

Coming to you by request - Halloween Pics!

Here's some pics of my sweet boys celebrating Halloween. Daniel has been talking about a 'Skywalker' costume for months - even though he's never seen any of the movies. ???? Logan got the cutest hand-me-down lion ever!

Also a few pics of carving pumpkins - tons of fun!

Tag- Lucky 7s and Crazy 8s

LUCKY 7'S

7 Things I Can Do...

1. Sleep through the night. (Thanks, Logan!)
2. Write silly poems
3. Cook an Entire Thanksgiving Dinner
4. Clip Coupons
5. Spontaneously find words that start with any given letter. (Car-time activity with Daniel)
6. Play Guitar Hero and Rock Band on MEDIUM
7. Clean

7 Things I Cannot Do ...

1. Catch up on the laundry
2. Lift more than 15 pounds for another few weeks
3. Have any more babies (No sympathy needed - we have our perfect family, the surgery just made that decision permanent.)
4. Make it 'home' for the holidays . . . this year
5. Resist the blue-eyed boys in my life! People think the boys' eyes take after me - they should look at their dad!
6. Spend money on myself. It's something I learned from my mom . . . take care of your family first!
7. See without my glasses or contacts

7 Things That Attracted me to Ryan ...

1. His blue eyes and forever-long eyelashes
2. His love of music - all types.
3. His skinny legs. They are very cute!
4. The friendship we shared before we even met.
5. His devotion to the Gospel.
6. His amazing artistic abilities.
7. His "Deacon Dance"

7 Things I say Most Often...

1. "I sure love you, too"
2. "I think Logan is stinky"
3. "Yes, you can call dad"
4. "Turn it down, that's a little too loud"
5. "Don't jump on the couch" (or off it, or onto another one, or onto the fireplace hearth . . . )
6. "We'll play Rock Band when dad gets home"
7. "PLEASE EAT!!!"

7 Admirations ...

1. Uncle Warren
2. Ryan
3. Mom
4. Daddy Dave
5. Jane
6. Kay Tischner
7. Louise Tischner

7 Favorite Foods...

1. Homemade Buttermilk Chocolate Cake
2. Homemade German Chocolate Cake (hmmm, there's a theme here)
3. Thanksgiving Dinner w/ mom
4. Fresh Peaches
5. Garden Tomatoes
6. Garden Cucumbers
7. Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits

CRAZY 8'S

8 TV shows I like to watch ...

1. Amazing Race
2. Ace of Cakes
3. Project Runway
4. CBS Sunday Morning
5. Grey's Anatomy
6. One Tree Hill
7. CSI . . . only the original
8. The Sirius Sattelite channel 6002 - easy music to leave on all day

8 Things That Happened Yesterday...

1. Put away Halloween decorations
2. Brought out Thanksgiving decorations
3. Wrote a letter to my niece, whom I adore
4. Had controlled fits of giggles as Daniel was drawing a picture of himself w/his cousin - to send with my letter.
5. Had a nap . . . everyone in the house had a nap . . . at the same time . . .
6. Turned on the heat during the day - first time this season.
7. Felt unbelievable joy and thanks for my family.
8. Made inappropriate (wink, wink) suggestions to my cute hubby . . .

8 Favorite Places To Eat...

1. My house
2. My mom's house
3. Cafe Rio
4. In N Out Burger
5. Jimmy John's
6. County Line BBQ (no longer there, booo!)
7. Dicky's BBQ
8. Red Lobster (Don't even like fish - just the biscuits and salad!)

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To...

1. Never buying femine supplies again!
2. Seeing Cadi again in the snow. That's funny stuff!
3. Seeing the boys in the snow - Logan for the 1st time.
4. Being able to spend more time with family.
5. Someday . . . having regular date nights again.
6. Being able to go to the temple with Ryan - between pregnancy and nursing . . . all now over.
7. Feeling Christmas spirit
8. Picking up Daniel from pre-school, it's fun to ask him about his day (speaking of - I need to finish this quick and be on my way!!)

8 Things On My Wish List...

1. A mild winter
2. A clean car (how does it get cluttered SO fast!!??!!)
3. Laser eye surgery someday
4. Willpower
5. Re-connect with friends
6. Happy boys
7. Happy family
8. Cadi to stay healthy for more years than expected. (St. Bernards only have an average 8-12 year span . . . she's already FIVE!!)

8 People I Tag...

1. No tags. . . .

Pumpkin Patch Fun

We finally got the boys out to the pumpkin patch here . . . picking out your own pumpkin in the field is a lot of fun! The farm that we took them to - it has LOTS of activities in addition to the pumpkins. The Gillespie Family favorite for the afternoon - the live band!

Here's the boys - getting them to hold still while there was so much fun around them . . . nearly impossible!
Logan watching the band play - I think he was itching to hit the dance floor.Daniel was too shy for the dance floor - but 3 feet away from it was safe enough to show off his ROCK & ROLL move!Who could resist this face? Seriously!Daniel had picked out his pumpkin - thank heavens there were the wheel barrows around. He was ready to take it home and carve it right away.This wasn't part of the pumpkin day - but it's just so funny. Who knew there were so many uses for food storage. Here, Daniel has assembled a drum set (look close at the drinking straw drumsticks) on the kitchen floor. Shortly after this photo was taken, he increased the size of his drum kit dramatically.I always forget how BIG Cadi is. When other people see her, they remind us. :o) Sometimes even a photo just can't do her justice - she's just so sweet.