Time Flies...

Shae's month home has gone by so quickly. I can't believe she leaves tomorrow night to start her second semester of college. Weird.
We have enjoyed having her daily presence in the house so much. I have LOVED having her go to spin class with me in the mornings especially. One morning on our way home from the gym, we got the most beautiful glimpse of Mt. Shasta.

It was illuminated by the sun while the rest of the valley was still blanketed with fog.

We kept saying how beautiful our little city is and how thankful we are to live in such a place.

We also admitted that it is nice to "see" the snow in the foothills and on Mt. Lassen and Mt. Shasta...but so nice that we can enjoy it from afar!

Scott has had his fill of snow at camp this week as he prepares for a Jr. High retreat this weekend and he LOVES to remind me that "You don't REALLY want to live where there is constant snow..."
I don't know. I'd still move anywhere in "the south" tomorrow.

Another thing I have enjoyed so much is the gift my girls gave me for Christmas. I have been a fan of Tyler candles ever since I got my first whiff of the Tyler "High Maintenance" candle at my SIL, Lisa's house in Dallas a few years ago. Since they are made in Tyler, Texas and were unheard of in California, I bought 5 candles on that trip and I am sure Scott had a cow when he had to pack them!

I'm happy to say that Redding now has a few places that carry these wonderful candles. The BEST part is that there are so many OTHER Tyler products now too!
Shae and Anna got me candles, hand soap, dryer sachets and ....LAUNDRY DETERGENT! (which is expensive, so they got me the little one). I bought unscented laundry detergent to mix with the Tyler to make it go further, and I am only using it for...

My sheets! Oh gloriously "high maintenance" scented ironed sheets! Ahhhhh.

Tomorrow is our "goodbye" day.

I wonder how Lindsay is gonna do saying goodbye to Shae again. She has gotten used to having her big sister around. She insists that Shae sit beside her (and by "beside" she means that the chairs must be touching).

I don't think Shae has minded, the conversation is usually pretty sweet.

"From the fullness of His grace, we have received one blessing after another."
John 1:16

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Save Your T-shirts!

Most of us have lots of t-shirts that we can't bear to get rid of because they hold so many memories for us.  Our friend and faithful camp cook/ babysitter/ house-sitter (among so many other things), Shannon, made this awesome quilt for Scott and me last year out of all the old shirts from our camp summers!  Isn't this the most wonderful idea?! {I don't know how she found so many from SO LONG ago!}

The last 3 summers we have been ordering pink shirts for the girls, so I have been saving those......hope she's up for another project soon! 

Making Progress

Shae took art during her senior year of high school just to fill her schedule. I really didn't expect much because she has never been a coloring or arts and crafts kind of girl. So, I was blown away when she brought home three really good pencil drawings of shoes!
I have had them in my closet waiting to be framed for so long. I checked on having them framed...ouch! That idea was quickly thrown out the window, I can't believe how much it costs to have something framed these days!
So, Michael's to the rescue! I got three frames, with mats, for $5.99 each!

Shae was so excited when she came in from a long, very busy Christmas Eve shift at Bath and Body Works to see her art hanging on her wall!

Poor little {third child} Anna has had NOTHING hanging over her bed. I waited and waited for TJMaxx to get more of the big wooden or wire letters to do her initials...but they haven't had those in forever and there was no way I was ordering them from Pottery Barn (now that I don't have a hook up with a discount!)
Pottery Barn kids had some precious framed pictures of vintage Barbies that we loved for $36.00. Uh, no thank you.

I was tickled pink when I was on a date with Scott to Costco (yep, that's how we roll on date nights, we even shared one of those the almond covered ice cream bars on our way out!) and I found a Barbie calendar with vintage Barbie pictures in it for the wonderful Costco price of $7.49. I put that baby into may cart faster than you could blink an eye!

I went to another one of my hot spots, Ross, and found three silver frames (that I debated painting white...should I?) for $6.99 each. Anna and I picked out the pictures of the Barbies who were wearing pink, cut them, put them in the frames and there you go! All three for the price of ONE at PBkids!
(we have some Barbie pictures in other colors left if anyone might need one, just let me know!)

My main goal and new catch phrase for 2011 is Simplify. I refuse to be a prisoner of my stuff. Good thing I married Mr. Organizer. He has been all too happy to "assist" me in shedding my excess "stuff" and organize what is left. It really does feel good to pass things on to people who may end up loving something that I no longer need.
Now, to shed some of myself... :)

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Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010 was a different Christmas for us. It was the first one since our girls were born that we were without Scott's parents and his sister, Laurie. Gordon and Dottie went to Dallas to be with the other 1/2 of the Luff Clan and stay at Laurie's new house! I had to explain to Lindsay that Grandma and Papa do have OTHER grandchildren.

Christmas Eve dinner wasn't the same at all with just the five of us..but we cooked some steaks and opened our annual matching jammies.

The girls wasted no time getting cozy.

Shae pulled out the Pioneer Woman Cookbook and whipped up a little something. She may be able to hook a man one day with her Mac 'n Cheese making skills!

Anna spent most of her Christmas Break right here with Shae's iPad.

Christmas morning was fun, and we didn't even have to get up at the crack of dawn...Anna woke everyone up around 7:30.
Scott got me a Deadliest Catch T shirt. He thinks I am a Deadliest Catch junkie. What~ev~er!
{I will admit that I have watched every single episode now that we have Netflix :) }

Lindsay absolutely loves everything she ever gets. She is so refreshingly thankful for every little thing. She flipped out over the Sid the Science Kid and his buddy Gabriella dolls that Shae gave her.

Shae hit a homerun with her Dad, too. She made him some "Scott Luff Airlines" appointment business cards on Vistaprint! So cute!

One of Anna's favorites was the Justice snuggie from Texas cousins, Cooper, Hannah and Jackson. She has also VERY MUCH enjoyed a gift that Hannah actually received...a cell phone! Lots of talking and texting for those cute cousins now!! {thank you Brian and Lisa for letting Hannah finally have a phone!!}

Lindsay's best gift by far was the new "block box" and PINK blocks her bigDaddyboy made for her!!

Christmas Day was spent coloring,playing with blocks, finding homes for new things, and organizing closets.

I was thrilled when Brad and Beckie offered to have Christmas dinner at their house! Scott cooked a de-lish Prime-rib, I made some rolls and a salad and we headed over to see those cute boys.

Lindsay LOVES to go to "Austin and Gavin's" house. We don't see them very often because we all have busy schedules but they live about 2 minutes away from us!

The boys got trash trucks with real trash cans for Christmas and they were really really into showing us how they worked.

They also hold their status as "cooler than us" because they have a Kinect now! We had a ball trying to dance! {my "inner Baptist" comes out in Zumba too!}

The absolute highlight for Lindsay was when Austin said, "Hey "Winds", can I sit on your "wap"?" He could never know what that really meant to her.

We ended the evening by singing Happy Birthday to Jesus and blowing out His candles :)

Our vacation was full of fun and friends! The Cardwell family came back through Redding on their way home to Orange County from Oregon and were able to come for dinner again!

How thankful we are for good friends.
Lots of Shae's friends were home from college so they stopped by for dinner too!

Here are the uh, mature, college kids posing for pictures on the computer!

And, lastly, there truly is HOPE that Shae truly will "snag a man" at Liberty when they catch wind of her cooking skills AND her sewing skills.....she fixed her own pants! WooHoo!!

We are truly blessed and humbly thankful for the blessings God has seen fit to bestow upon our family. What an honor to be called a "child of God"! Happy Birthday, Jesus!

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Happy New Year!

After we spent our entire Christmas vacation at home (literally!) we decided to take a little New Year's Eve trip to one of our favorite cities... San Francisco!
{helpful hint...if you do not own a personal dvd player per child, it is WELL WORTH every.single.penny.amen.}

Miss Liberty University kept busy allbyherself in the back seat with her iPhone.

We got to town and headed over to the {sketchy} Bart station in Oakland to ride right into Union Square. {we didn't touch a thing, especially in the elevator that smelled like tee tee!!} It is the way to go for sure...fast and you don't have to pay to park, let alone FIND a parking place on New Year's Eve!

Christmas money in hand, off we went to the beautifully decorated Nordstrom Centre at Union Square.

The cable cars were so festive!

The Mall was VERY busy and so beautifully decorated.

We walked amongst the fun crowd to take in all the sights.

We even "left our hearts in San Francisco" !

Union Square had the most magical light display. So "California".

I couldn't believe how cold it was getting, and poor Lindsay jsut could not get warm.

The girls wanted to try ice skating , so I tried my best to keep Lindsay warm and answer her one million questions as Scott was taking pictures of the hilarity of our girls on ice skates. It was a riot watching people cling to the sides of the rink and even funnier when they fell!

Anna did not enjoy it one single bit at the beginning. I thought she would take the skates off and quit but she kept at it.

Shae was a natural,

and Anna finally got it! We were so proud of her for NOT giving up!

By the time we left, Lindsay was a popsicle and VERY tired!

She had a melt down as we waited for the Bart..it IS very scary being underground with all the noise and wind the trains create {especially when you can't see very well}.

Somehow Daddy always makes things better.

The next day we drove to the Vacaville outlets. Oh mercy, they are gooooood ones! Coach, JCrew and Juicy Couture took all of our Christmas moolah, but everyone was happy with what they took home.

We made one more stop on the way back to Redding... Pinkberry frozen yogurt!

Lindsay was very satisfied with her selection. It was "written" all aver her face!

We look forward to what is ahead in 2011!

Happy New Year!

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