Happy New Years Eve

We would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

You know that it will be a good New Year's Eve when you look out your windows in the morning, and see this...Granted, it was thicker when I opened the curtains looked and looked out at 8:30 this morning. Yesterday, the fog went away for a couple of hours, but came back in full force by 3:00 pm.

We haven't sat down to make our new year's resolutions yet, but we will. We just need to remember to write them down, that way they are set in stone, and that means we have to accomplish them, right?

Your a Mom when...

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Dear Jimmy!

Happy Birthday to you!

Today is a very special day in the Stamps' household. Six years ago today, a little bundle of JOY entered into our lives.

James Davis Stamps was born on a cold and rainy day. He arrived to our little anxious family on December 30, 2002. He weighed in at 7 lbs. & 11 oz.

Here are 6 things that we LOVE about Jim...

1. He is always making us smile & laugh

2. He is loving and caring towards everyone

3. He is EXTREMELY ticklish (which Pappa Loves)

4. He loves to pretend... what an imagination!

5. He loves to give hugs & kisses

6. He completes our family

Jim wanted to have a reindeer cake for his party that we celebrated with most the family here to help for his special day. Thank you James, for making it easy for me to decorate your cake!

Merry Christmas a little late!

We hope that all of you have enjoyed your holiday season.

We had an enjoyable Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve, and Nat's family on Christmas Day and through the weekend. We had a housefull, 7-14 people where at our home this year. Everyone enjoyed their homemade gifts that we made. I think that this is a tradition that we will continue to do. The kids had a lot of fun making all of their cousins gifts. Me, I already have gifts planned out for next year. Nat, he got a late start, so there were some IOU's in his gift giving, but I can't blame him, who would want to work with wood in the DARK after working all day, so, technically, he only had a couple of Saturday afternoons to get the work done. What a PROCASTINATOR! (I can call him this, he said it first!)

This is a picture of my dad with an ear flap hat that I crocheted for him.

This is the wooden spoon display that Nat made for my mom.

This picture is of the kids as we celbrated Christmas with my folks.

Letters to Heaven

I got this email from a friend, and thought I would share it with you all.

Our 14 year old dog, Abbey died last month.

The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying that when Abbey got to heaven, God wouldn't recognize her, and could we send him a letter? I told her that I thought we could, so she dictated these words:

Dear God:

Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick. I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her. You will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.

Love, Meredith

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven...

Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps on the front of the envelope to get the letter all the way to Heaven. That afternoon, I drove Meredith to the Post office and watched her drop it in a letter box..

A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I was certain He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed,

'To Meredith,' in an unfamiliar hand.

Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, 'When a Pet Dies.' Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:

Dear Meredith:

Abbey arrived safely in heaven. Having the picture was a big help. I recognized Abbey right away... Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by. Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you. I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much. By the way, I'm easy to find. I am wherever there is love.

Love,God

Betcha might have a lump in your throat or a tear in your eye after reading this. It's nice to know that there are still a few nice people in this crazy world we live in.

We have been very busy & that's why we haven't posted (if you can call it that). We thought our computer crashed, but luckily not, we just had a virus that wiped out all of documents that we have saved to the hard drive (IE: ALL pictures (quite a few hundred), all of my recipes, etc.), you name it, it was lost. Luckily, a friend of ours came over and got us back up and running, but in order to get rid of the virus, he had to totally ERASE everything on on the hard drive. I LOVE knowing people who know a thing or two about computers. But, while we haven't had a computer, let alone, one of my stay at home, homeschooling mom outlets, the internet. How can one survive without it after having it for so long? Well, somehow we managed, barley! These are some of the things that we have been doing: making Christmas presents, and more Christmas presents, and even more Christmas presents, oh, and cleaning the house as well. I forgot what my kids bedroom floors looked like. I would post pictures of what we have made, but that would just SPOIL the SURPRISES, but I will give you a little glimpse of what some of you are getting this year... Keep looking, I know it's here somewhere... Yes, I found it, here it is...

Shh! It's a secret until Christmas. You have to wait for Christmas morning to open up all the presents that we made with love, just for you!

Candy Canes & The True Meaning of the 12 Days of CHRISTmas

This is a beautiful legend of the candy cane. As you watch, do not click on anything (except "START") as it will automatically flip for you. http://www.angelrays.com/fla/legend.html

There is one Christmas Carol that has baffled me for years on the meaning. What in the world do Leaping Lords, French Hens, Swimming Swans, and especially the Partridge who won't come out of the pear tree have anything to do with Christmas? Well, I found out this morning because a friend sent it to me...

From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meanig known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.

-The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ. -Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments. -Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love. -The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John. -The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament. -The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation. -Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit--Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy. -The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes. -Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit--Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control. -The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments. -The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples. -The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.

So there is your history for today. This knowledge was shared with me and I found it interesting and enlightening and now I know how that strange song became a Christmas Carol...so pass it on if you wish.'

Merry (Twelve Days of) Christmas Everyone

Here Comes Santa Clause, Here Comes Santa Clause...

Our wonderful city, Roseville, gets into the spirit of the season. Each year, the city, police & fire depts get together & take Santa Clause all over town. Since we are a bigger city, the Santa Clause parade lasts about a week, doing certain areas and routes on different nights. Tonight, we had the privilege of just going up the street & around the corner from our house, on this very cold night, to see Santa Clause and his sleigh, being paraded around town with police car & motorcycle sirens blaring in the calm quiet night, along with the BIG (ok, not the biggest one in town, but the second biggest) fire truck blaring its sirens as well.

Now mind you, they don't advertise this around town, just on the City website, so, those who didn't know about it, sure got a WAKE UP call, when Santa and his crew came around. Literally, if I didn't know better, I would have thought that there had been a MAJOR accident. I would post the video that Nat took, but since our desk top computer took a nose dive and our laptop isn't set up with the correct equipment to do such needed things, such as post pictures and videos... If you are in the area of my hometown, here is the link to see when he's coming to your neighborhood http://roseville.ca.us/services/neighborhood_santa.asp

Counting My Blessings

We recieved a very special blessing yesterday in the mail. It was the gift of $200. This generous gift came with a card. We have no idea who sent it to us, but they sure knew that we could use the money. Upon opening up the card, and saw that my prayer was answered, brought me to my knees crying. Before I go on, let me tell the story how this came about...

I had a dream sometime last week about our upcoming ELP trip to Fort Ross for the Russian Fur Traders. I dreamt that I was talking to someone (whom I can't remember) about Fort Ross, and I said that I was hating the thought of telling my kids, husband, and everyone else involved, that we have to back out of this trip due to the fact that we didn't have the funds to do so. (bear with me, this dream is fuzzy to remember.) That is all I remember about the dream. On Sunday, as I was gathering our checks for tithing, I was prompted with, "When you pay an honest and full tithe, blessings will come your way." The whole day, my dream was in my thoughts. I remember feeling like I was carrying a heavy weight on my shoulders all day Monday, just trying to figure out how I was going to let everyone down. We went to our ELP meeting on Monday night, finishing up all the final details and getting the cost per child (around $50 per child). My heart just sank. I have been diligently trying to save all the extra cash we had, just to pay for this, but every time, something came up and we needed that money. Forgive me, I am in tears while writing this. I did find some donated material @ the meeting, snatched up some to help off-set the cost of our costumes (hopefully I can make 5 costumes out of it). Yesterday came, and I was feeling very gloomy. I was hating the fact that I needed to speak up about not being able to attend ELP this time, and I knew that I needed to do it very soon. Needless to say, I was getting depressed (not a good thing for me). All I could do was pray to Heavenly Father about it, and leave it with him. Then, Charlie brought in the mail, and I found an envelope with no return address. I opened it, and my day got a little brighter with the sight of our first Christmas card of the season. I opened up the card, and saw the $200. My mouth dropped to the floor, and I was overcome with the Spirit. I have no way of knowing who answered my prayer, but I would like to say, THANK YOU. Nat was trying to figure out who we knew from the area of the postmark, and the handwriting. I have to admit, I was a little curious too, BUT, we are not meant to know who our Angel(s) are. I know that our Heavenly Father lives and that he is always looking after his flock. He knows when each and every one of us are in need, and will bless us in our time of need and everyday. I know that Christmas time is generally the time that everyone tends to give more and be more thoughtful of others, but I would like to challenge everyone to be more giving and thoughtful throughout the entire year.

Where have I been?

I promise, I'm not hiding out from you all. I have been very busy these past few weeks! We are doing a 'modified' school schedule this month so we can get prepared for Christmas. We have been busily working on handmade presents for everyone in the family. I am kicking myself in the butt for not getting pictures of what the kids and Nat made for our family who live in North Carolina, I think of it now, that the package has already been shipped off. We have decided to make homemade gifts for everyone this year, due to the fact that we are on a very TIGHT budget, and with the economy... it just made more sense to do this. We have had so much fun doing this this year, we will probably turn it into a tradition for every year.

I do have other Christmas gifts to post, that are for other family members, but once again, I can't until they have them and opened them. Well, I do have a couple of pics for some of the gifts we sent, but I will not post those until I am sure that they received the package and have opened it. But as far as the projects that I have been working on, here are a few (these are for my kiddos). I am working on a pair for Charlie, and will post a picture when I am done with them. I am planning on making them all matching hats and scarves as well. (For those of you who don't know me, I am a knitter & crocheter, as well as many other needle works too.)

These Fetchings are for Mareal (fingerless gloves)

These are fingerless gloves for Jimmy.

These are Charlies fingerless gloves.

Happy Belated Birthday to Me

On the 2nd of December way back in the day, a little girl was born to my parents. Her name to be... Nicole Odette Davis. She weighed in around 7-8 lbs. She had dark hair, brown eyes and had long fingers and toes.

I had a good, but very busy birthday. We started the day up in Meadow Vista for the kids homeschool classes, then at gymnastics. We got home where I was able to cook dinner and open up my presents from my loving family, then the best part... CAKE (which my dearly beloved husband made for me @ 5 am). I received a soap carving shaped in a heart from Mareal, and some stuffed animals from the kids stash from the boys. Later, I received the movie 'Goonies' (I laughed, I was just talking about this movie the day before), and a Mortal & Pestle from Nat. My husband is the most thoughtful person ever. He remembered a conversation that I had with my MIL the month before about me wanting to have one, and made a point to find one for me.

(this is a similar one of the one that I recieved!) It is made out of marble.

I enjoyed my day. I am now a 30-ish year old woman. Funny, I don't feel 3_. I feel like I'm a lot younger, then I'm remember that I am a MOM and my oldest is 9.5 years old.