January, in Summary

2015 is off to a good start.  Life doesn't slow down, and as was said today in Stake Conference, we learn and grow the most when we are stretched and tried.  I feel so abundantly blessed and also feel overwhelmed many days; I think learning to work through those feelings of being overwhelmed is part of what life is about.  My thoughts lately have been on working to truly make our home a place of refuge from the "storms" of life.  There were definitely ups and downs this month in this goal, with both happy and sad tears shed.  For posterity's sake, below are a few of the "happy" moments of January.

I finally painted the bonus room.  After lots of color swatches, 12 paint samples, and painting the room totally the wrong color, I finally found the right one!  I really wanted a yellow, "happy" room and several people warned me how hard it is to find the "right" yellow, but I didn't give up.  I painted what I thought was a nice yellow one Saturday and realized quickly it was much too bright and looked "greenish" in the artificial light.  So a few days later, I tried three more samples, chose one, and repainted.  This time I love it!  I am so excited to finally be able get some pictures on the wall.  (The bottom picture is with one wall the "wrong" yellow; the top shows the finished color.  I like how soft it is.) (Thanks to my "artist" friend, Ashley, for her expert color advice.)

 My actual birthday (Wednesday, January 14) was a great day with lots of love and calls from family and friends.  I had a delicious birthday luncheon with some wonderful ladies whom I greatly look up to. (Thank you for hosting, Whitney!  And thank you for coming, Misty, Ashley, Megan, and Tina), and the kids had a great time playing while we chatted.  That evening we had Spencer's basketball practice, then came home and had a family party.  Kyle made dinner and bought me an ice cream cake and the kids did their best to spoil me.

Here are some of Skyler and Andon's creations with a magnetic mosaic board we got for Christmas (thanks, Susan!).  Skyler wants me to take a picture of each of his creations.  Kylene and Spencer also have had fun with it, they just don't ask me to take a picture every time they finish one:).

 The kids all had their dental appointments.  (I forgot to get Kylene's picture.)  They were all part of the "no cavity" club; woo hoo! I think Andon is so cute in the huge chair.

 Andon "graduated" from his five-point harness car seat to a booster seat.  He feels so grown up being able to sit next to the window and is always trying to unroll it despite freezing temperatures:).

We finished "The Nativity" puzzle the beginning of January, then completed two more 1,000 piece puzzles this month.  We are now doing a very difficult 500 piece puzzle.  Skyler continues to be the puzzle champ, with Kylene also spending lots of time on them.  The rest of us help out with a piece here or there when we can. I just love Skyler's stamina on how long he can work on these.  (I wouldn't mind if he had that much stamina in practicing his reading for school!)

Birthday Getaway!

We had such a wonderful Christmas break, it was really hard to get back to "real life".  The kids didn't want to get up for school Monday morning and, truthfully, neither did I.  But, I had something I was looking forward to just a few days later that kept me motivated:).  On Friday afternoon, we dropped Andon and Skyler off at the McCombie's after lunch, and Kyle "whisked" me away to another country to celebrate my birthday!

We headed to Sandpoint first so Kyle could visit an account on our way.  Then we headed north through Ione and Metaline Falls in far northeastern Washington.  We had dinner at cute little cafe' in Metaline, then crossed the border into Canada and drove about an hour north to Nelson, British Columbia.  We stayed the night in darling Nelson and woke to a winter wonderful with the snow falling. 

We had breakfast at a darling cafe' full of amazing French pastries.  We shared a hot cocoa, coffee cake, blueberry cinnamon roll, and a chocolate filled French croissant.  Oh, were they SO good.  I'm still craving more of the croissant:).  Then we drove up through beautiful British Columbia to Ainsworth Hot Springs.  It was so relaxing and just heavenly.  It is nestled right up against the mountain in this beautiful river valley with a lake in view while you sit and relax.  They have a pool that was 99 degrees, then a smaller pool area with the caves that go right into the mountain that was 104 degrees!  (Oh, and the 48 degree "cold bath" that Kyle dared to put his face in and I went up to my ankles; brrrr!) The caves were larger than we had expected and the water is about up to your knees when you're standing.  It feels like a sauna in there.  After soaking, relaxing, and just being together, we had a yummy lunch at their restaurant then made the trek home.

It was just so wonderful being with Kyle, and we had a great time talking and singing together on the long drive.  How I love him and am so grateful for how good he is to me!  I definitely felt spoiled to get to go for my birthday.

Mary McCombie watched our kids at our house.  They had a blast and didn't want us to come home.  We love Mary!

New Year's Week

The Monday after Christmas, the kids and I headed to Oregon to visit family.  Kyle flew in on Wednesday afternoon, then we drove home together on Saturday.  It was so fun and went much too quickly.  We saw my parents, the Alva Barney's, Clark's, Kyle's parents, the Logan McCune's, Mudaliar's, and friends in Wilsonville and Salem. 

Stephanie had a cousins' girl party; Kylene got her makeup and hair and nails done.  They also enjoyed lots of time with the Harms' and Jeremy and Hailey.

 We enjoyed one afternoon/evening with the McCune side at Maile and Parvin's home.  We had Parvin's amazing curry and lots of other yummy food and watched football and visited.  The kids made puppets and put on a "Wizard of Oz" puppet show.  It was fun to see Logan and Shayla's baby, Micah!  They are headed off to live in Costa Rica for 18 months; we will miss them!

 We had our traditional fondue dinner at Jana's house this year and had a great time.

Great times in Oregon!

The first thing we did when we got home (after unloading the van) was finish our puzzle!  It was so nice to have it finished; it only took us a month!  The sad part is that somewhere in all that putting together we lost a piece (can you spot it?) :(.  Skyler and Kylene love puzzles!

Christmas 2014

We loved being home for Christmas!  And having Tutu and Grandpa here for a visit.  We enjoyed the normal Christmas festivities, and lots of time relaxing and playing.  We had a big dinner Christmas eve, sang carols, acted out the Nativity, then went to downtown Spokane and saw the lights in River Front Park and walked through the historic Davenport Hotel (beautiful!).

 Christmas morning, it was present and playing time!

We also made a LOT of progress on our puzzle.  We purchased Greg Olsen's beautiful new painting, "The Nativity", in a 1000 piece puzzle form, and spent most of December working on it.  It has been quite the project, but we are almost finished!  Skyler has worked tirelessly on it, and Kylene and I have helped a lot.  Kyle had more time over the holidays to help, thankfully, and helped us find the way through the very difficult "black" parts.  It has been a lot of fun and also a lot of patient work!  I so wanted to finish in time for Christmas, but we didn't quite make it.  Here's where we got before we left for our trip to Oregon:

I didn't realize I had already done a collage about our trip to the "North Pole", so here are a few more pictures from that:).  I got a few more cute pics from Kyle's mom as well.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Kyle's December Trip to Hawaii

I figured it was important to include pictures Kyle sent us from his most recent business trip to Hawaii, even if it does make me a little jealous. :)  He says it's not nearly as fun by himself, so here's hoping I get to go with him next time.  We'll see!  He loved being able to go to the Big Island on this last trip.

His favorite mountain as he flew in to Hilo.

Poor guy, this is the rental car they gave him...

 Pictures in Volcano National Park, where he and his family spent a lot of Saturdays hiking and exploring and picnicking.

 Rainbow Falls in Hilo.  The flow is really low this time of year, it often is as wide as the arch.

 His dinner at Leung's Chop Suey Restaurant, a favorite old haunt of his family's.  With the table his family always sat at in the background.  He said everything tasted exactly the same; not sure if that's good or bad!