From our Family to Yours.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
We want to wish all of our family and friends a very Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

We hope you have a fun, safe, and joyful Christmas with your loved ones.

Love The Rogers Family

Jon, Sarah, Katelynn, & Lauren

~{Happy Holidays}~

Thanksgiving was a wonderful time to spend with family. We went to Jon's grandparent's house in Haines, Oregon and met up with other family there to celebrate and have a wonderful Turkey Day. The food and company were both wonderful, what more could we ask for :) Kathy, Jon's mom, pointed out something ...why does it take hours to prepare such a wonderful meal but only minutes to eat it?

With Thanksgiving out the back door and Christmas coming in the front, it is now officially "legal" to listen to Christmas music. Although, I have to confess I started a few weeks before Thanksgiving, I even used it for my workout music a few times :) I love the feeling of the holiday season and the happiness that everyone else seems to feel too! We are having sort of a "homemade" Christmas this year which will be nice because it's not really the amount of money that was spent on the presents that counts, but the love and effort that went into making each other happy.

Happy Holidays to you all!

Love

Jon, Sarah, Katelynn, and Lauren

Kids!

I told Katelynn we were going to go swimming at the YMCA today and this is what came marching down the stairs and announced "I'm ready to go MOM!"

If you can't tell, those are brown snow boots (from two years ago...just a little small) with furry trim on the top and fuzzy little pom-poms. The other key thing here is that her suit is on backwards. That's right! We are in the middle of November and she wants to walk over to the YMCA, which is next door, in her swimming suit and snow boots. A girl after my own heart!

Waves on a Beach

Have you ever had one of those days or weeks where you have feelings of gratefulness wash over you like waves on a beach. They keep coming, one after another, calm and peaceful and even strong and more direct at times. I have been experiencing those waves lately...or maybe it is that I am recognizing that they are there, calm and refreshing. I don't think these thoughts of thanks are Thanksgiving induced...although not a bad idea.

The most frequent thought I found myself having is my thankfulness for a healthy body. The more I take care of it, the more I realize how wonderful it is to feel good, healthy and active. And it seems the more proactive I become in taking care of "me", the more aware and sensitive my inner spirit is to what my needs are and the needs of those around me are, which in turn motivates me to continue to be healthy.

It just feels great to be healthy!

~Sarah

Halloween Birthday Girl

Lauren turned 1 on Halloween and here are some pictures from her first birthday. We wanted to be near family so we spent the weekend at Jon's parent's house near Seattle,WA. We got to celebrate Lauren's birthday and Katelynn's first real Trick-or-treating.

I made two cakes, a chocolate covered cake just for her to get into...the chocolate frosting for the MESSY factor, and I made another two layer cake just to try my hand at making "fancy" cakes...It was a lot of hard work! But it turned out cute and worth my time :)
This is a little book Lauren absolutely LOVES. We saw it at a US Born Book party. There is a little mouse that you slip through the slots in each page to follow the cute little story about the "Mouse in the House". She squeaks and squawks when you read it to her because she likes to see the mouse pop up in the next page :)
Cute little dress from Grandma Rogers.

Lauren's little Ladybug cake.

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY LAUREN :)

Look for Trick-or-Treating pictures in next post

Two new family pictures!!

Check out the two new pictures just below of our little family of 4. We took some similiar pictures in the same spot almost a year ago. Sarah was still pregnant and Katelynn was 2 years old, my what a year can do!!!!

My Little Family

My little family

Above pictures taken Oct. 10 at a park

along the Columbia River,

Washington side.

Pictures taken September 26, 2009

The leaves are starting to crunch and the air is a little brisk in the morning...fall is here! I'm excited about warm apple crisp, snuggling up in a cozy blanket to watch movies, hot chocolate (herbal tea is more my style), PUMPKIN PIE, and sleeping with socks on :)

Lauren will be turning 1 on Halloween...I can't believe that a year has gone by so quick!

Here is a video of our little "Lou" from today.

HAPPY HARVEST!

Pictures of Lauren

Here's some up to date pictures of our little's one, Lauren that so many have been wanting to see--Grandma especially!! So loves that thumb so much. I tryed and tryed to keep that thing out of her mouth but no good. Enjoy!!

Katelynn is our little jumper. She just wanted to jump and jump so Sarah strapped two pillows on her with her belt and Katelynn went wild.

On Memorial Day we went down to a lookout point that over looks the Columbia River Gorge. The building is called "Vista House" and was built in the very ealy 1900's. We are on the Oregon side of the river, the other side is Washington.

These are my girls! Lauren loves that thumb and is almost a year old!! Halloween is the big day!!

Family Hike

A few weeks ago our little crew took a Saturday afternoon hike to a beautiful place called Bridal Veil Falls located in the Columbia Gorge just outside Portland. We picked this hike because it is only a mile and just right for little legs (i.e. Katelynn) to make it without having to be carried. The woods were beautiful and it was a sunny warm afternoon...ahh, summer :)

I saw these tree leaves glowing from the sunlight shining through them.

It was cooler in person :)
Katelynn sitting on the observation deck by the falls. She is such a sweetie!

Jon packed Lauren and she loved being out side. She is 9 months and doesn't have much hair. She has been called a boy several times despite being dressed in pink...
(Jon was quite the pack horse, pretty handsome and muscly)

Katelynn and I at the top of the hike looking at the falls.

It was a pretty place to spend our Saturday. We are looking forward to other hikes this summer.

We have found various other places to make our weekend trips to around our area and it has been very rewarding. Just this last Saturday we found a really nice paved path through a dried stream bed or gully and took our kids for a stroll, Katelynn's favorite part were the ducks we saw swimming in a pond by the path.

So far this summer has been treating us wonderfully:)

More family adventures to come soon!

All Dolled Up!

Just wanted to show you all what I made this weekend. Teryn, a friend of mine has a little girl Katelynn's age (Claira) and she has made lots of fun little outfits like this for her, she let me borrow one of the little dresses/cover-up to make one for Katelynn and this is how the first attempt turned out.

Katelynn blowing kisses.

Lots of fun...and a cute little girl!!

This was easy to make and just right for the hot weather we have been having. I also made this little skirt for a birthday gift for for Claira because we missed her birthday back in June. I have other projects in the works so stay tuned :)
Those skirts and dresses aren't as cute as this little face, Katelynn {Kiddo} and I had fun "playing" in my make-up... what a darling.

Awesome video of Christ

I just happened to find this on youtube the other day. This is my favorite hymn, I've always only liked it with a full choir and orchestra because it delivers so much more power but I really like this version and the pictures are amazing! They are all photos taken, you can go to reflectionsofchrist.org to learn more and see some behind the scenes stuff, they show how they took the picture of the angels. You can even buy the pictures. So watch the video and enjoy but get ready to feel the spirit, I'm just telling you. My favorite picture is the picture of Christ in white at about 4 mins. What do you think has anyone seen these pictures before? I guess they do traveling exhibits.

~{ Summer Time is Here }~

Summer is here and we have had wonderful weather here in Vancouver the past two weeks. The zoo does a Two Dollar Tuesday once a month where adults get in for only $2.00, so we took advantage of the fine weather and went with some other friends only to find that everybody else thought it was a good day to go to see the animals too~ so it was literally a "zoo"! Because there were so many people we had to park a few miles away and take a shuttle bus back to the front gates and then wait in a long line. I know, a little crazy but Katelynn loved the bus ride and we got to see a tiger, giraffe, penguins, polar bear, elephants, and a bald eagle with an eight foot wing span!It was loads of fun but we were ready to head home after a few hours.

The zoo was just the kick off to the summer. Katelynn is now taking swimming lessons and doing good, she had one day where she didn't want to get into the water but the next was better and now she loves playing in the water.

Katelyn is just a cutie!!

Here are some pictures taken on Father's Day. What a hunk of a man I have :) He has been working out a lot and getting big muscles...I'm not complaining.

These are my two little darlings. Katelynn is almost three and a half although she acts like a four year old and is a "little mama" to Lauren and keeps her out of stuff.

"Lou Bug" as we call her, is almost eight months old, has four teeth and is all over the place. Her favorite thing is to pull herself up to a standing position and is now learning to travel around things while standing. Yeah, I'm in trouble. She has teeth and is almost walking at only eight months. Ahhhhhhh....

Robinson Crusoe and New Card for 2S4Y

After some long stressful months of having my honey jobless, it is about time for me to get back to some normal things in life such as creating beautiful cards and reading good books. Thankfully Jon got a job a few weeks ago and little by little the stress is unwinding. I am finding a renewed thankfulness for what I have and what I continue to be blessed with. I am reading "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe and enjoying it very much and there is something about the character of the shipwrecked "Robin" ~ that's what he calls himself ~ that changes as he spends years and years in solitude not knowing what lies ahead for him. He comes to appreciate what he has and recognize the mercies from a higher power that had spared his life and provided for his basic needs. I'm in the middle of the book and have still to find out how it all ends.



I bring up my reading adventure because while Jon was jobless we didn't know how long it would be until we were rescued from our struggles. The past few months have shown me that when I am thankful, truly thankful for what I have, no matter how difficult my situation, the more I am able to see the bigger picture and realize just how blessed I am, even in hard times.



Now that I can enjoy some "me" time, I started making cards again. This card is for Laura's sketch #26













This was fun to make. Hope you enjoy!!

Ok, Ok here are the much wanted pictures!!

This was a funny site. She loves to play with her wipes, she likes the crunchy sound the plastic makes and they were just outside her reach and really wanted them so she tried reaching out her hand.

She's only just turned 6 months and this is already starting! She likes to work out like her Daddy.
Please pardon the gratuitous nudity but it's just too cute. She is so close to crawling and she hasn't yet even mastered sitting up.

We went to Chuck E Cheese. We got some gift cards from my sister and brother-in-law and Katelynn loved it. She rode the rides and played the games and got a lot of tickets for some really cheap stuff that she no longer plays with. We went twice and she had fun, except for the time she got lost in the crawling tubes and couldn't find the way out. All of a sudden I look up at the tubes to see her bawling and scared. It is so loud in there that she couldn't her me telling her where to go. When she got out she never wanted to go back in those again!


This is at Vancouver Lake. It's a pretty big lake outside the west side of Vancouver. Katelynn enjoyed digging in the sand with her sticks and was having fun until she went to the bathroom right there on the beach. That was the end of the lake trip! We were only there for maybe a half hour. Oh well now we know where it is and we'll go back again, next time we'll bring a change of underwear though.