Today was a transition day, a day spent trying to get back to the "normal" way of life.

It is only January 2nd and my husband decided it was time to take down our outside Christmas decorations. It made me sad to see them being put away, another Christmas in our past. Where did the month of December go. It seems like it was just yesterday that the kids were anticipating with joy the lights going up and getting to help Daddy put up the nativity scene and Santa.

While the kids and Daddy worked outside, I worked on tackling the laundry pile that has gotten out of control these last few weeks. In between loads I snuck in some reading. The book is "Sarah's Key" and it has haunted me the last few days; probably too heavy of a book for this time of year.

But what made the day was that I finally got to stay home, read and drink hot chai tea! That is all I have wanted to do for the last couple of weeks and today I got to. I love a glass of hot chai tea mixed into coffee. The coffee shop that I used to go to made the best chai tea and it was even better with a shot of espresso in it. So when I make mine at home, I just put my mix into my brewed coffee. It is wonderful.

I found the recipe for it last year in a Taste of Home magazine. It is easy to make and you can make it as low calorie as you want. Also since it is a mix, you can control how strong or weak you want to make it. Here is the recipe:

Spiced Chai Mix
3 cups nonfat dry milk powder
1 1/2 cups sugar ( I use splenda)
1 cup unsweetened instant tea ( I use decaf )
3/4 cup vanilla powdered nondairy creamer (I use nonfat sugar free)
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground all spice
1/2 tsp ground cardamon ( This makes the tea!)
1/2 tsp ground cloves

In a food processor, combine all dry ingredients: cover and process until powdery. Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place for up to 6 months.

To prepare 1 serving: Dissolve 3 Tablespoons of mix in 3/4cup boiling water; stir well. Dollop with whipped cream if desired. (I use brewed coffee instead of water)

I hope that it adds warmth and some spice to your life, as we begin this new year.

May, Where did you Go?

Where did May go? I can't believe this is my only post for May; talk about slacking! Here is a brief pictorial of where the month has gone for us:

Our annual family reunion at the coast. This is probably the last reunion for awhile for my husband's nephew as he will be joining the Airforce in August. He is the cool one with the sunglasses. We are standing in front of his brand new car and kayak that he won on The Price is Right! He was the showcase winner that day!

A sweet 17th birthday for my beautiful niece.

A surprise 25th Wedding Anniversary celebration for her parents. Can you believe these two have been married for 25 years? They do not look anything like the pictures of the couples on 25th anniversary cards. Their oldest daughter will be getting married in July. It is so hard to believe.

Two confirmations; the first was my niece. Her sponsor is my oldest sister.

The second is my nephew. He is my oldest sister's son and my brother in law is his sponsor.

We had a graduation of my sweet little girl. It is only preschool, but to her it might as well have been college! She was so excited about all the songs she was going to sing to us.

We had a Spring Fling on the hottest day of the year so far! It started at 5:45pm and it was outside. My son did a wonderful job doing a traditional Filipino dance. We were all melting by the time it was over so we went and had an SOS. It made it all worth it.

We made a quick trip to Papa's cabin to open it for the season. We did get to stay 3 days and 2 nights, which were not enough! I could have stayed for a month.

The kids had so much fun playing in the creek and finding sticks and rocks!

We finished the month with an airshow. Here are two cute kids that had fun for most of the day but after several hours of sun, they were ready to go home.

Don't they all look cute in their sunglasses and hats?

This was the kids favorite plane. It was flown by a woman who got out of the plane dressed as Wonder Woman. She had red, white and blue smoke as well as fireworks! It is amazing what they can do in the aerobatic planes.

My daughter is out of school but my son has to go until Thursday. Oh how I can't wait for Thursday. It will be so nice to have a relaxed schedule for a few months. Summer here we come!

Disneyland Day 1

We got to Disneyland around 3:00pm in the afternoon. The kids were excited about going and seeing Disneyland for the first time. We decided to start our visit with a ride on the Disneyland Express. This is the train that goes all the way around the park, with stops in each different land. We got to see many things that we were anxious to check out. Next we rode the Monorail to see if we could get another perspective of the park.

We got off in Tomorrowland. This is where we would end up spending most of our time. We rode the Autotropolis Cars. The line was long and we were surprised at how warm it was. My son was not to happy about driving but his sister was a different story. She was ready to drive!

We next went and watched a interactive show about the home of the future. This was interesting. The kids loved the Peter Pan room. The kitchen and the dining room table were so full of technology that it was mind blowing.

We grabbed a quick bite to eat in Tomorrowland. A not so great hamburger and chicken sandwich, but the drinks tasted very good for the warm day. We also were able to find were the Jedi Training Academy was and what show times were. My son could not wait for the next day.

We were all pretty tired after traveling and celebrating a busy Easter the day before. So we went and found a place to watch the parade, before calling it a day. We found what turned out to be a great spot, right in front of where Mickey and Minnie stopped! We enjoyed the spectacular show that was put on. We walked back to our hotel with great expectations of the days to come!

Front Porch Picnic

On Saturday afternoon, my children were excited when Daddy told them they could eat their lunch outside. They decided that they were going to have a picnic. My daughter went to get the "picnic blanket" out of the cupboard. I didn't know what she was talking about until I saw the checkerboard tablecloth.

They were having such a great time playing at their picnic that I let them stay out in the front yard. This was the first time that they played in the front yard without an adult being outside with them. I was sitting at the dining room table getting work done on the computer, so I could hear them talking and playing.

After about, oh thirty minutes give or take, I decided to go outside and see what they were up to. I was shocked at how the picnic grew in such a short time! My daughter told me that now they were having a party!

Here she is with her safety goggles. I asked her why she had them on and she told me that she needed them because she was "building" the puzzle! I guess she didn't think they needed to cover her eyes.

When they are having such a good time, how can you get upset?

It is so sad that they have nowhere to play; no big backyard or a fort and playhouse to play in. It would be a shame if they did and they let that all go to waste and instead just played on the front porch. Good thing we didn't have any visitors that day because they wouldn't have been able to get in the door!

Christmas Eve at Home

Christmas at Papa's

Christmas Morning at Home

Christmas Time

We had a very Merry Christmas this year, even a visit from Old Saint Nick! Here he is instructing us on the difference from "aside the nose" and "inside the nose!" Gotta love those replacement clauses.

The kids got tired of posing for pictures. I got a new lens for Christmas and I took over 500 pictures from Christmas Eve until Christmas Day! Thank goodness for digital.

My children got everything they wanted and more. I can't believe how everyone is so good to them.

My daughter looks so cute, she doesn't need that makeup she is putting on. Makeup is one of her favorite things to play with, thanks to her godmother who gave her some last year.

We have had a very blessed Christmas time! It has been very busy with work, family and colds! I hope to get back to my regular blogging after new years! Happy New Years to All!

A Sunday Outing

On Sunday we went on a fun family outing with a purpose, to close Papa's Cabin. We headed up early in the morning to enjoy one last day at the cabin.

The kids enjoyed spending time with Papa and running around the woods.

We enjoyed walking down the dirt roads to and from the cabin.

With the purpose of finding rocks and sticks with moss on them.

We enjoyed the peaceful fall scenery and exploring old buildings.

And marveling at the tall tall trees and all of God's beautiful creations.

And of course Mom got to play with her new camera! It is a good thing that I had kids willing to be adorable!

Here are a couple of my favorites!

What a great day we had. I can't wait for next year and the adventures that we will have.

Happy Birthday Baby!

My sweet little girl is celebrating her 4th birthday today! The first thing she said this morning when she woke up to her daddy and mommy singing to her was, "Lets' go watch the news!" No, she isn't that into the news, she wanted to see her picture on the local news birthday wishes. It was the start to a day full of lots of fun things! Oh how four years have sped by.

Here she is celebrating her 1st birthday!

Oh my!

She has gotten better about eating cake in these last four years, thank goodness! What joy and adventure she has brought to our lives. Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

No Tea Parties Lately!

I made the mistake of thinking that we had escaped all the creepy crud that was going around. I think I even made the cardinal mistake of telling the DH how lucky we were to have kids that were so healthy. Our daughter started on Saturday as I previously posted. Then our son woke up sick to his stomach Sunday morning; by Monday he was running a 102.2 fever on Tylenol and Advil. They are both on antibiotics and have not been having any fun lately. They both took 5 hour naps! My son's fever has finally broke and I think we are turning the corner. Yeah!!
I just hope that the adults aren't next.