Christmas Morning!!!!

Christmas Morning!!!

We had an AMAZING Christmas morning!

My youngest sister and her husband are here, and his brother. We are so happy to have family members for Christmas!!! :)

We started our day making breakfast. The girls and I made cinnamon rolls, hash browns, and fried eggs. It was good. :)

Then we gathered in the leaving room and my husband read us a scripture from the Bible to remind us of the reason for our celebration. He read Luke chapter 2. We prayed after our Bible reading and started to open our gifts.

The girls had a lot of fun opening their gifts. They loved their new toys, and clothing and such. My sister got a DS horse game for our oldest daughter and she loves playing with it. Our second oldest got some polly pocket toys and she has been playing with them non stop.. The baby got a remote controlled farm pig. That is the cutest thing ever... LOL :) and the fact that she loves it makes it all so much better.

I have the best husband in the world!!! :)

He got the BEST gift for me ever. And the way he presented it was just so touching!!! :) I love my gift! He got me the Cricut Expression...!!!!!

I have two cricuts now... I'm planing on using the small one for my scrapbook ministry at our Church. We have a lot of teachers at our crops and I just know that they will love using this not only in their scrpabook but also in their display boards and such. I can not wait to show it to them!!!

We all had a lot of fun opening our gifts and taking pictures of our excitement!!!

After that we went to the beach. Yup! Our first time going to the beach on Christmas day. Then we went out for lunch and a movie. We watched "The Tale of Despereaux". It was a very cute movie. I'd recommend it for any age.

It was just an awesome day!

I'm so Thankful to the Lord for giving me such loving family and friends! And most I'm Thankful for Jesus with out Him I would be lost!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!
Nadya

Nothing is better then to spend a night in the dark because of a power outage...

That was our Friday night!

The island of Oahu had an electric storm Friday, Dec. 26th. The day after Christmas.

Me, my sister, her husband, his brother and my girls went to WalMart, and after that we went to pick up their rental car. And then we went to Costco.

While we were in Costco shopping and getting ready to actually go home, the lights went OFF. Yup! The lights in Costco while we were in there actually turned off. But a good thing was that they had those generator things that turned some light on... not much and most of the store was with out lights. But you at leasst could see where you were going. I was very very impressed with how people behaved themselves. No one pushed any one out of their way. No one started screaming or running around crazy like some people do. Everyone was very calm and simply just turned around and started going to the check out. No one even told us to do that. It was just very interesting and so nice to see people behaving themselves like people should.

It was pouring rain outside. My BIL and I ran to get our cars. It was thundering and lighting everywhere. I don't like driving as is, and driving in that weather was just simply scary to me.

We got the kids in the car and my sister went with me to keep me sane and through the drive. All the lights were OFF. The island was dark. No traffic lights worked and again people really amazed me at letting people go and taking turns. That is how it always should be.

It was scary driving with out lights but the lights from your car and the cars in front of you and behind you. But we got to our town and it was dead stop traffic. And guess what? I had no gas in the car as is. And yes you guessed it right, I ran out of gas in the middle of the road and all that traffic and no lights. Great! The night couldn't have started any better. All that was at about 6:30pm.

My BIL got a hold of dh and he was able to find us some gas. No gas stations worked because there was no power. We were standing there on the side of the road for a good hour or so. As soon as we got some gas in my car we were good to go.

Got home only with God's help. It wasn't a lot of gas for my kind of car so we prayed that the Lord will get us home and He sure did. :)

We turned the radio on and found out why the power was off and that the whole island was off. They told us that we would be with out power for at least 12 hours. Then they came back on saying that it will be more then that more like 12 to 24 hours with out power. Grrr....

But we had fun, kind of. We played board games in the candle light. I put together my new drawer shelf thing from Ikea that my sister got me for Christmas. We BBQ'd chicken and just had a great time laughing and playing.

Not sure when the power came back on. But when dh got up for work at about 5 am the power was on. I'm glad that we didn't have to be with out power for the whole 12 hours because we had just good food and I didn't want to see all that go bad. Lord knew that we needed all that food to be good... :)

So we had another eventful Friday... What is it about Fridays around here???... LOL:)

I hope you all had a better Friday!
Nadya

I am so Blessed!!!

It took me couple of days to come up of a way to say a Thank you to a very special person. But even know that I'm finally typing this out I'm not sure if I have the right words to express my gratitude and how Thankful I am to this person.

I am Blessed beyond all measures.

Last week I got a package from FedEx. It was a big box and I thought maybe my husband had ordered something for the girls or what not for Christmas. I called him first to ask about it. He said that it wasn't from him. There was an address on the box but no name who it was from.

Chris said to go ahead and open it. So I did.

I could not believe it what I was looking at. I really really cried like a baby.

Some one send me a Cricut for Christmas!!! I've been wanting this little bug for some time now. A sister on ScrapShare read that I wanted one of these. She bought her self another one and God had put on her heart to send me this one.

This is the MOST overwhelming packages I ever opened. :) I am more then Grateful to this person to do something so selfless for some one else. God is so good! :)

I can't believe that some one would do something like this for me. This means so much to me!!!

I really thought that it was my husband but he promised that it wasn't him and that if it was him he'd give it to me at Christmas and not before. :)

There will never be enough of Thank yous!

I am planing on using the Cricut for my ministry at the Church. We do crops twice a month with teachers and other ladies from the Church and community. I bring all of my supplies for everyone to use and this is going to be an awesome addition.

Thank you! Thank you so much!!! Maybe God Bless you and your family!!!!

Nadya :)

My sister is coming today!!!

Woohoo!!!
I'm so excited! My oldest sister with her husband is flying in today and I can not wait!!! :)

I hope that they got on the flight as it was really really icy and snowy in WA/OR over the night. I'm hoping they would have called us if they didn't make it.

They'll be here for a week. They'll be here working but at list I'll get to see my sister. :) I'm so happy!!! This is her first time to Hawaii....

Woohoo!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Nadya

Our last weeks Friday night was a night of happenings...

Here is how our Dec. 5th Friday evening and night went...

Katherine had Christmas program that night at the school. She was so cute. The kids were singing Christmas songs and they had a play as well. It was very well done. :)

I could not get up close to take a good picture. The Christmas program was held outside so it was very dark for my camera, even though they did have those big lights but they didn't help much when you wanted to take a good picture. But at least I have a picture... :)

Here is Katherine and 2 of her best friends... Katherine is the one in red shirt.



After the Christmas program was done Chris helped to put things away and then we went to get some ice cream with the kids. But since most of us felt a cold coming on we decided that it would be better if we got some hot cup of cocoa instead of ice cream. So we went and tried out this new place that was open some time ago. It's called "The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf"....

The girls got each a cup of cocoa. I got White Chocolate Mocha hut and Chris got something else... LOL :) don't remember what he got...

Anyways, so I had to take some pics of the girls. They had a lot of fun. And they were so cute drinking their cocoa.

The girls near the Christmas tree that was in the store.



I have no clue why Sara started to cry. But I think she might have wanted to be out of the stroller. :)











Sara is waiting for her cup of cocoa as well. Chris got her sippy cop from the car and the girls shared their cocoa with Sara. She LOVED it. :)



See her chugging it down. LOL:)



Yup, she sure loved it.



We had fun hanging out as a family. The girls enjoyed their cocoa and it was just really nice.

But our night didn't end there. We went to get some groceries after that.

See this whole time Leda was crying and being really whinny. She said that her leg hurt. She couldn't walk. She wanted to be carried. By the time we got home she was in a LOT of pain. She was screaming on the couch. So I decided that that was it. That we just needed to get her to a Dr. because we couldn't figure out what was hurting her so bad. Nothing comforted her, nothing worked.

So we took her to the ER. And oh how much I dislike going to the ER. The waiting and the staying up and your next day is just ruined.

When we got there and finally saw a Dr. they did some test to make sure that she didn't have bladder infection or other infections. That came back normal. Dr. did some exercising things with her leg and she said that it hurt a lot in the upper hip area. So we were sent to do x-ray of her hip to make sure that it wasn't broken or anything else. That came back normal as well. But she was still having pain. She still couldn't stand on her leg. So the Dr. came to a conclusion that she might have a pulled muscle there. She just need to rest and not walk as much and he gave her something for the pain. Our Saturday ended up being of a lot of sleep for all of us. :) Staying at the ER till 4 am was no fun.

Here is Leda in the ER room.



Leda did very well in the ER. She made friends with nurse and the Dr. She even made some funny comments. :) She was so serious when she asked us if she was going to get a sticker for being there.

She thought that they were going take her bones out when we told her that they were going to take a picture of her leg (x-ray)... LOL :) Poor girl!!!

So that was our Friday night. How was yours? :) I hope that it was less eventful then ours.

Nadya :)

Here are some more of my Christams cards...

They are not all that great by any means... :)

But hey at list I did some cards... right? :) besides I'm just starting at this card making thing...

Hope you'll like them.


















Now I just need to print a picture of our girls and get these cards in the mail... :)

Thanks for looking,
Nadya

Altered 3 Starbucks large bottles for my Secret Santa....

I've been wanting to alter some of these bottles for a long time now. I've seen many that were done and they all look so nice. I had collected about 4 large bottles to alter for my self. But when Secret Santa was done on SS I knew I just had to do these for my sister. :) So I did.

I hope that she'll like them.

I used Martha Steward Christmas stamps.
CTMH ink.
CM tag maker and some Christmas paper.

and other fun things... :)



I filled the bottles with cinnamon sticks,



Macadamia Nut Hershey kisses



and the last one has tons of buttons in it... :) Sense it's for a scrapbooker I know that she'll use the buttons and the kisses... :)



Anyways, hope my Secret Santa sister will like these!!! :)

Nadya

Layout: Growing Up!

I've been in a mood to scrapbook for about two weeks now or more. I've been using a lot of my scrap papers and other left over things from different projects.

This is one of my favorite layouts that I did so far.



I used all kinds of things. CTMH stamps, MM foam stamps, brads, BG paper, LSS paper, CM ABC stickers and more.

Hope you like it.

You can click on the image to enlarge it.

Nadya :)

22 Days till Christmas!!!!!

and counting!!! :)

I'm so excited!!!

My sister is going to be here for Christmas with her husband. Another sister is going to be here right before Christmas. Can't wait to see them!!! :)

Christmas is coming!! Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Nadya:)

25 Days till Christmas!!!!

Yahoooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We can not wait!!!! :)

The girls are so excited!!! And this is going to be our first year to have family here for Christmas. My sister and her husband are going to be here with us. I'm so excited!!!! :)

25 Days!!!!!!! WOW!!! :)

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!

Nadya :)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!!!

WOW!!! Thanksgiving is already here! So many things to be Thankful for this year and just in general.

Today I am Thankful for my family!
For my wonderful husband. My best friend and my prince!!! He is the best husband ever! He is a wonderful daddy. But most importantly he loves the Lord!

I am Thankful for my 3 beautiful, wonderful, healthy and spoiled girls!!! Katherine is going to be 7 in Jan. WOW! She was just born. Leda turned 4 in Sept. and is the most funny 4 year old ever! Baby Sara is 17 month old. WOW! She'll be 2 next year! They grow up way to fast!

I am Thankful for our Church Family and friends here in Hawaii. We have the best Church family! Everyone cares for one another. We support each other in need no matter what. We have a wonderful Pastor who loves the Lord and who is there for you when ever you need. He is there to help you move, he is there to pray with you when you are in need and to celebrate happy moments with you, like visits you at the hospital when you had a baby. :)

I am Thankful for my mom and dad and my sisters and brothers and for my mom in law and sisters and brothers on that side as well. We miss them terribly and wish that we could be with then during the Holidays. But I know that we are still together in our hearts!!! The relationship we have with each other. I miss them very much during this time of the year.

But most of all I am Thankful that Jesus is my savior. I am Thankful that I can talk to him through prayers. Whenever and where I am, I can talk to him. I am Thankful that prayers DO work. He always answers our prayers no matter what. Our family had couple of big prayers answered this year and I am So Thankful to the Lord for that. Our prayers might not be answered today or tomorrow, it might take couple of month, years but the wonderful thing is is that they DO get answered.

God has answered my prayers by giving me a wonderful family. A husband that loves the Lord and is wonderful dad and provider for our family. By giving me my girls. The pregnancy's and more! He answered my prayers by giving us a wonderful Church Family that is there for us.

He is a wonderful and awesome God!!!

What are you Thankful for today?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Nadya :)

How to Cook a Turkey according to First Graders...

Katherine brought a recipe book from school yesterday full of recipes on how to cook a turkey.
Her teacher had asked each child if they knew how to cook a turkey and then she put all the recipes together in a book for parents to have and use if we didn't know how to cook a turkey.

I wanted to share some of them with you. They are so cute and so adorable!!!!

Each entry is different child, I don't want to put their names here.

Here we go.

This one is done by Katherine our daughter.

"Hmmm, I don't know but mommy knows. Get the turkey at Wal-Mart. Take the bag off. Put your hands in it and take something off. Put it in the oven for a little bit. Eat it regular." - Yup! That's my girl!!! LOL:)

Here are some others... they are so funny and so cute!!! I will be putting this book in her school album for sure. So cute!!! :)

"Buy the turkey at a store in Kapolei. It is in a refrigerator that is full of turkeys. Get a string and take stuff out of the neck. Cook it in the oven and then you can eat it."


"Get the turkey at the store. Eat it with a fork."


"I'll go ask my mom. You can buy it at a store. Take off the feathers and cook it in the oven on high. Take it out and that's it."


"Buy a frozen turkey. Put in in the microwave and make it hot. Go wherever you are going to go and take it with you. Put in on the turkey plate and eat it with a fork. Oh yeah, put a foil on it."


"Get it at a turkey farm. Cook in in the oven. Take it out, and eat it with your fork, and spoon, and knife."


"Get it at Foodland. Cook it in the oven at 100* for a long time. Take it out and cut it into little pieces. Eat it with a fork, rice, and gravy."


"Get it at Foodland. Boil it at 92* for 1 hour. Then you fry it. Then you eat it with asparagus and chili."


"Buy it at Foodland. Put pancake syrup, ice cream, shave ice, watermelon, strawberries, chicken, corn, lettuce, squash, pineapple, apples, and eggs on it."


"Get it at a farm. Cook it alive. Burn it until the skin is hard. Eat it with a fork spoon, and rice."


"Get the turkey at Foodland. Cook it in your oven for 6 hours at 80*. Take it out, cut it, and eat it with forks."


"Get it at Safeway. Cook it in the oven at 200* for 70 minutes. Take it out and see how hot it is and eat it."


"Get the turkey at the grocery store. Cook it in the chicken oven at 99* for 2 minutes. Take it out and there's a chicken! Cut it and eat it with fork."


"Buy it at Star Market. Cook it in your house, in the kitchen, in the stove at 100* for 10 to 5 minutes. Eat it with a fork, corn, and rice."


I hope you enjoyed reading these recipes and if you don't know how to cook a turkey you are more then welcome to use one of these fun recipes!!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!!

Nadya:)

Katherine lost her first tooth.

Katherine had two front teeth on the bottom that have been wiggling really bad. Her adult teeth started coming out only in the wrong area. The baby teeth didn't fall out yet so they were growing behind them.

She's been asking when will her baby teeth fall out. All of her friends already had a tooth or two fall out so she was waiting for her turn. Well it came this Sunday. I asked her if she wanted me to tie a string/thread and pull it out she said yes. So we did.

She was very excited!
As you can see...



See the thread.

And yes I took pictures of every moment and up close.



When the first time didn't work, she got scared... We did it the second time and it didn't work again. But it got the tooth so loose that it was just wobbling.


With daddy's help all went well and he pulled it out.

And after that there was a lot of excitement around our house!!!


Finally she lost her first tooth! So happy!!!:)

Nadya

Christmas cards.

Oh boy. So I'm making Christmas cards this year. I'm scared. And really I don't even know if I'll get them done. I'm not worried about it though. If I don't I'll just use what I have.

But it's been fun. I did two so far.. LOL :) yup just two. But hey these are my first Christmas cards ever.

So I hope you'll like them.

I did this one using Martha Stewart Christmas stamps that I got at WalMart. I do have to say that I really don't like how they are not really sticky. And the ink doesn't stay on them very well.




On this one I used CTMH Christmas Greetings stamp set.



Thanks for looking,
Nadya

"Thank you!" card....

Here is a "Thank you!" card that I made for my friend to give out as Thanks you for coming to my birthday cards for her daughter. :)

Used:
CM papers
SU scalloped circle punch
CTMH Puppy Love stamp set.
Brown chalk and ink.



Hope you like it... :)
Nadya

A Pick me UP!!! :)

Couple of days ago I got something in the mail that made my day!!! :)

I was so excited because the post mark said it was from Australia!!! Woohoo! I don't normally get things from Australia but how exciting is that!!!

When I turned the envelop over I saw the address and the name from the person that it was from. Oh, and that made my day even more.

This person has become a very dear and close friend to me through the interent. We have never met in person. We have never talked over the phone so I have no clue what this person sounds like. But we have become really good friends, I think. :) And I hope that this person feels the same way.

We found out that we are going through the same things in life right now. Emotionally and physically. Once we started talking and finding out a lot of things about each other we found out that our days are very the same but just in two different parts of the world.

Lita has become one of my good friends. Someone that I can e-mail or pm through ScrapShare and tell about my day. What is going on and that I need a hug or share something FUNNY that happened. We started to lift each other up everyday, wishing good day to each other and try to keep smiling as much as possible through out the day.

So it was very special to me to find a card that was hand made by my new friend Lita.



Is in it beautiful!? :)

Lita, Thank you so much for such a sweet Pick me up!! :) I love the card and YES it did make me smile!!! I hope that your day is going well today and that your smiling as well!!! :)

Nadya...

I'm getting old...

I found a gray hair on my head this morning!!! :(

I'm getting old!!! WOW! :( Me old!!!! I'm only 26....

nadya

"Thanks a Bunch!" card...

This is one of the last groups that I had to do for a Card swap.

Thank you group:




Thanks for looking! :)
Nadya

Goodie Bags for Leda's 4th Birthday party.

Leda's 4th Birthday Party was back in September.
But I thought I'd share the Goodie Boxes that I did for her and her friends.

We had about 15 kids... WOW!
But I did 19 boxes just encase everyone did come.

I had found these cheapboard boxes for $1.11 each at WalMart craft area... The $1.11 was just for my budget. I had a lot of fun doing them.

I put candy and other gift favors in the boxes and then put them in a plastic gift type bag thing and put a tag and ribbon on it.

I used CM and non CM papers. Lots of pink colors
Pink ribbons and some jewels...
I used CTMH Playful Flourishes stamp set.
Mod Pudge
Super Surface sealer to finish them off.
Sizzlits for names and other shapes.
BG filling set. To file the scalloped edges of the box lid.
CM tag maker and other makers.

Here is what the box looked like to begin with.


This is what they looked like after I was done with them.



Here are some up close:

I did do some for boys. We had 3 boys that were going to be there.




This one is a clear one with out anything on top.




Another boy one. This one was for a 2 year old boy.



Couple of kids couldn't come so I didn't do their boxes.










Here is what they looked like all ready.

Leda with her goodie bag after she gave out other bags to her friends.





I also made tags using CM tag maker. Sizzlits tropical flowers, gift and CM star makers. I did green tags for boys and pink for girls. Used some jewels on them as well. I then stamped "Thank You". Oh and I inked them as well.



Thanks for looking.
Nadya

Oh yeah, my scrap stuff is now safe....

I had posted on SS asking for some advice as far as what I can do to get Sara from getting in to my scrapbooking things. She would get in too stamps, inks, brads and anything and everything that she can get her little fingers in too. She was smart. I put things away, she would climb. I turned things around so the drawers were facing to the wall, she figured out that if you push the top drawer in you can get your hand in the drawer below it.. LOL :) Yup one smart cookie!!!

Oh but was I mad when I had to be on the floor and trying to pick up all those little tinny brads and eyelets off the floor. When I find my cards with ink on them or layouts with marks and tape all over the photos.

So I went for help on ScrapShare. Lots of ladies gave some wonderful suggestions. Couple of them suggested to get a gate.

Well, my corner doesn't have any doors or walls close enough to put up gates. It's an open area that I share with my dh for his office stuff and the girls for their play room. It's kind of like and "L" shape and my end is in the corner at the end of the "L" or how ever you look at it.

Here is a pick of it.... with the girls playing...



Some suggested to get a big gate something like THIS . But the cost of those turned me away...

Two weeks ago couple of friends and I did a garage sale together and one of them had her baby gate for sale for $12. So I got it from her. It worked out great and the price was perfect. Yeah, it's not as big as the one mentioned above... But it works and that is the important part...

Here it is...



now my stuff is SAFE from little fingers... And I'm so happy! I can leave my layouts on the table, I don't have to worry about her touching things... Woohooo!!!

Nadya :)

Thank you! Thank you!!!

Today was a good day with Sara.
She EAT all of her food! I mean ALL OF IT!!! :)
I'm so excited!

Thank you for praying if you did and for sending your good thoughts our way. And for the advise that some of you have given me... :)

I'm just so excited that she eat all of her breakfast and even asked for seconds... then eat all of her lunch and her dinner. I was happy that she eat breakfast and lunch that I wasn't even too worried if she didn't eat her dinner. But she DID!

I'll be praying that we'll have a good day tomorrow as well and that this might be the turn of Sara being Sara again.

Woohoooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

Nadya

Having problems with Sara....

I'm really just upset right now. Maybe upset is the wrong word more like really scared and worried for her. Chris tells me not too worry all is going to be OK. Friends tell me that she'll be fine. But the mama part in me wants to scream for my poor baby girl.

About a month ago she got really sick. Everything was coming out of everything for seven days. She STOPPED eating for two days. She wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink. We did blood tests all came back normal. She got better. She started eating.

But then not even a week after that she started tugging on her belly button and stopped wanting to eat again. She'll eat snack foods, crackers, chips, cookies and anything that is a snack kind of food. But she has stopped and will NOT eat any kind of table food. It started only during dinner time. I took away snacks. Worked for 2 days. Then she stopped eating during lunch. I can not make her eat it. Even if I get some food in too her mouth she just holds it in there.

I can not make her swallow it. We go through this all day long. Now it's also with breakfast. I get excited if she eats more then 3 spoons of oatmeal. I get exited if she eats 1/4 of a PB&J sandwich. She will NOT eat anything at all any more.

Things that she does and will eat for now are:

Bananas
apples
grapes
yogurt
Cheese
Crackers
Chicken nuggets for lunch only if that.
Oatmeal for breakfast only about 3 to 4 spoons of it. before she eat the whole bowl.
1/2 of a waffle for breakfast sometimes.

All that doesn't sound like enough to me.
Katherine and Leda never went through something like this. So yeah, I am worried about her. I don't know what else to do.

I did call her Dr. and they are running more tests. Went in Saturday and had Sara give more blood and we are collecting stool to see if she is having any belly problems.

What I don't understand is that she was fine. She ate everything. I didn't fight with her about food before. She eat like a good baby child would eat. But now she is not and that too me is not normal.

Anyways, I'm just really worried about her. If you can please say a prayer for her that she would get better and be herself again soon. I can tell that this is driving her crazy as well. She gets up during the night now and is not having good night sleep at all.

Here is a pic of her. She LOVES coloring.


and another one... Sara looking at the books...


Sara being funny...



Thank so much,
Nadya