christmas 2008: part two.....

It's that time of year again.

The Rosson Family Christmas party.

We were at my uncle Stan's this year in Madera. We had a small crowd but so much fun. We did the usual food thing, an ornament exchange, a "brag" time to catch up on each others' lives, and lots of general chatting.


Charleigh loved her Disney ornament....right up until my Aunt Melva stole it from her....

She had a great time playing with my cousin's daughter Katie.....
Tracy and Dalton admiring their ornaments......until Josh stole them..........

We're looking forward to next year......

busy little bee.....

For Christmas this year, I've been sewing. A lot. See, we decided back around mid-summer that this year we would make "homemade" gifts. My mom and aunt thought this was a great idea. I was on board pretty much and my cousin Candice thought we had lost our minds. Well, Christmas arrived and guess who the two were to make their gifts? That's right. Candice and me. Well, technically my mom too, but I was kind of the ghost seamstress for her gifts.

Let's start with mine. I went for the Christmas quilt/blanket option........

my mom's.......



my aunt Sandy's.......

my cousin Candice's........

my mother-in-law Joanne's..........

(thank you Lorie/Colleen for the Yellow Brick Road pattern)

And now for my mom's gifts....aprons..........

Sandy's Four Corners Apron and Candice's retro apron........

my SIL Karrie's ruffle apron from Strawberry Patches, JoAnne with Four Corners and Cabria with another retro apron design.....

(95% of my fabric came from F&M....I love that place!)

And last but not least came a 9-square blanket for my newest nephew Gideon who is due to join us sometime in the middle of May.......

It was lots of work, but so worth it in the end. I love, love, love to give gifts and it was so fun to see how much everyone liked their stuff. I'd love to say that I get a break for awhile now, but that is totally not true. Next up.....Charleigh's blanket and curtains for her newly redecorated big girl room......

christmas 2008: part one.....

Since I have been so lame about blogging lately, be prepared for LOTS of blogs in the coming weeks to get caught up. For now, let's start reviewing the wonderful Christmas we had. There was so much fun and festivities that it will definitely need to be a multiple parter, but first, for the fun new toy Mommy got..........


it was completely unexpected......


I cried like a baby when I opened it......


I am currently driving my family crazy with it........



any guesses?



I'll give you a hint........


Here's a picture from Christmas morning............

and here is one from Christmas evening............



Know what it is now??

That's right....I have joined the Digital SLR club! In a completely unexpected twist Christmas morning, my mom and dad gave me a beautiful Canon Rebel XS. It has barely left my hands since then. Granted 9 out of 10 pics are totally blurry and need to be deleted, I don't mind one bit. As a matter of fact, I tried to pull a Ralphie and sleep with it but Josh halted that idea. Oh well, it'll be there in the morning...........

now introducing.....

Boston Scott Saunders
November 27 2008
7:34 a.m.
6lbs. 8oz, 20 in.

Our new nephew is here! Cabria (Josh's sister) was due on Monday the 24th and when we left town Wednesday with no baby here yet, we knew that little Boston would choose to come while we were gone. And he did! We woke up Thursday morning to find out that he had just gotten into the world about a half hour earlier. We decided that we did not want to miss seeing him so at 3:30 that afternoon we left Charleigh at the coast with my family and took off for Bakersfield. Talk about a whirlwind trip. We were back in Pismo at 8:45. But it was sooooooo worth it. There is nothing like a newborn in the hospital. Mom, Dad, and baby are doing great. Congratulations again, Larry and Cabria..............

witnessing a miracle.....

There are no other words for it. For those who claim that miracles no longer happen, they need only be introduced to this family. I first found MckMama's blog through a prayer request on Angie Smith's blog in late July. At that time, MckMama was 23 weeks pregnant with her 4th child and had been hospitalized due to his severe tachycardia. Severe as in his heart was beating 300 times per minute. A couple of days prior to when I found her blog, she posted this about where their situation was:

"I am so sorry to have to tell you such awful news," the wonderful, kind perinatologist bent down, held my hand and put her other on my tummy. "I don't think your baby is going to make it. He is in heart failure and it's way too soon to take him out and give him a pacemaker. He would need to make it to 32 weeks and there is a 95% chance he will make it no where close to that point. I am so, so sorry to tell you this, but your sweet, sweet baby will probably be still born. I am so sorry."

Please pray for a miracle. Please pray for that 5% to belong to our baby. Be still and know that He is God.

Since that time, our entire family has followed Stellan's journey from what doctors deemed to be certain death, to what can only be described as divine healing from God. And today, after 14 weeks of ups and downs, we are among the many praising God for the following words:

Stellan
entered the world this sunny fall morning
at 10:19 am, CST
weighing 6 pounds, 10 ounces
and measuring 19 inches long

Details on exactly how Stellan is doing as well as photos of the sweet baby will be forthcoming. But, let's just say that Stellan got a 9 and a 9 on his APGARS and the NICU team has yet to find a single thing wrong with him...

Happy birthday, sweet Stellan. You are God's miracle to us and you are finally here!!!!

Please visit their family site to read more of this incredible story. For now, it's enough to just stop and give God all the honor and the glory for this great miracle He has done!!!

things that rock.....

Anytime your 2 year old references Kilamanjaro Mountain, it's a good day.


More to come on Charleigh's verbal stylings......

babies, babies, everywhere.....

I came on here to check up on all the blogs this morning and what do I find? Lots and lots of babies!

This girl and this girl are having them.

This girl just had hers.

This girl still hasn't had hers.

This girl's isn't doing as well as he has been.

It's so fun to read about all the new little lives that are on their way. It makes me miss this little face......

worn out......

Life is so exhausting when you're 2.......

in trouble......

I did something recently. Something for which I got into trouble with my family. Something I told no one about and therefore did not ask permission to do. Something I do not regret.....

Want to know what that something was?

I got a new kid. Didn't know that was possible? Oh yeah, it is. It was so simple too. All I did was take this little girl into the shop.......

and voila! I left just minutes later with a brand new kid. Just look!

We miss the old Charleigh, but just look how cute this new little girl is.....

you never know.....

who might be watching the happenings in your backyard........

the aftermath......

Yesterday we went on the last summer hurrah Barbie had planned at Pump It Up. We have never been there before and truthfully, it was little overwhelming. Charleigh loved it, but having forgotten my camera, I have no pictorial evidence of that. All I have to offer is the photographic aftermath that was her run-in with a rude little boy who hooked her face (mostly her nose) and proceeded to basically throw her off the ladder. This resulted in lots of tears and a little bloodshed. Grrr.....

i won, i really won.....

As a person who NEVER wins at anything, I was more than excited to find out that I won this girl's giveway. Who would have guessed? And all for throwin' up some embarrassing pics of my kiddo. Nice.

In other Thompson related news, we went to their house Saturday night for some dinner and racing fun. Along with the 4 of us, Kurt and Alisha came too. *Sidenote: I really like K&A. We first met them on 4th of July and they are great. They were so friendly even though they knew no one really and it was the same Saturday. I love when you meet people that make you feel comfortable when you first meet. * We have talked off and on about watching a race together and we finally pinned down a date for Bristol, baby! The company was good as was the racing. See Barbie's blog for a picture of our adorable kiddos enjoying watching the race, er, I mean, Barney together.

And note to Barbie:

While I concede that Denny will never be this pretty........

it has been a much needed upgrade from this......

to this........

bloopers.....

Thanks Barbie for such a fun idea! Now I have a reason to actually use the random blooper pics I have stored all over my computer........

the goofy "cheese" face, I have hundreds like this.....
proof that potty training and photo shoots don't mix,

thank you Miss Lorie......
there are not even words...........

a good helper......

My kid can be so funny sometimes. I know that sounds biased because I'm her mom, but I really think it's true. I present the following case as an example:

*a little back story to understand the rest*

Seeing as how we have a 2 year old around here, there are times that instructions by us are followed by "no" or silence and a frown from her. So, much of the time when I tell Charleigh to do something I will say, "Charleigh, you need to (fill in activity)" and then I say, "Yes, Mama." To which she repeats "Yes, Mama" and 99% of the time does what I've asked.

Monday night around bedtime we told her that it was time to pick up her toys. She proceeded to walk over to her Woody doll, bend down and say "Time to pick up toys! Okay? Yes,Mama" (to Woody) then answered herself "Yes, Mama"

The pictures are a little hard to see, but she then picked Woody up and used HIS hand to pick up each and every one of her toys. Every couple of minutes she would proudly exclaim "Woody's a helper!!"
I'm telling you, this kid is a crack up. It took about 4 times as long as usual to clean up the living room because Woody is not as good with the motor skills as Charleigh, but it definitely provided endless entertainment.
I just love this girl!

cousins.......

...well, sorta. We recently stopped by Larry and Cabria's house to see their remodeling work and talk baby fabric. Our nephew is still "cooking" right now so Jake the dog is the only kid at the house. Charleigh loves Jake and spent much of the time laying on the floor like this just staring at each other. Every so often she would rub his nose and he would take his front paw and rub her arms. It was too adorable for words! The rest of the time she spent "sweeping" the floors.....

why we love davi......

Two Words: Tea Staining

Thank you, Davi!

a night out......

A few weeks back my awesome Mom surprised Josh and I with tickets to the Mercy Me concert. To be really honest, we were mostly looking forward seeing David Crowder Band, but were glad for the others also. So on that Tuesday night we left Charleigh at the house with some friends and headed out for date night.
As soon as we got there we ran into Barbie and Justin, as well as Julie. This was fun for so many reasons. First off, I have somewhat blog-stalked Brent and Julie for months now. I'm not really ashamed of that, I mean, we go to church together, I've just never met them. And now, a chance to meet. I'm always a little nervous when I meet new people, so I can't tell you how relieved I was when Barbie introduced us and Julie says "Oh yeah, you're Charleigh's parents. I look at your blog." Woohoo! Instant ice-breaker!
From there, it just got better. While visiting with some old friends, Barbie comes running up to me and asks if Josh and I might want to use some extra meet and greet passes that Brent had. Uh, do you really need to ask??? So we walked over, met Brent, thanked him for the hookup and met the bands. So much fun. And then we got to enjoy an amazing concert with two great couples. Thanks to both the Thompsons and the Laus for making it such a wonderful evening.........

with MercyMe

with David Crowder Band

her first wheels.....

To be completely honest, we have had some major duct-tape days around our house this week. (for explanation see me or this girl) And just when it feels like Mama's head is going to explode, I come home from my nightly walk to see this................

and my heart melts completely. I guess we'll go ahead and put the duct-tape back on the shelf for now................

*Please excuse the squeaky wheel. This is the same trike I rode as a child.*

flagged.....

A couple of days ago, I logged in to make a new post and found out that my account had been FLAGGED! It says that it was flagged by the system as being a "spam blog". Upon reading the error message I found out that it was most likely a false positive (duh!), but still. Errr. The best part was the the description of a spam blog says these types of blogs "can be recognized by their irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text...." Ha! I know that I do not have the most intelligent or entertaining things to say, but that's a bit much, don't you think? :) Anywho, I had to submit an account review request and things are all fine now so hopefully I'll start posting some more regular and relevant items............

girls' weekend.......

Well, not really. It was actually a MOPS Steering Team retreat, but it sure felt like a girls' weekend. After months of pestering, I mean, politely asking, I finally gave in to Rhonda and agreed to be part of the team. There was a planning weekend scheduled for mid-July and to be perfectly honest, I was kinda dreading it. I didn't know anyone going besides Rhonda and really didn't know what to expect. The day before we left I found out that my cautiously social friend was going with us which made me feel better, but still nervous. As it turns out, I had no need to be. All the girls there were AMAZING. We all just clicked so well. It felt like we had been friends for years instead of just meeting that weekend.



To top off the great time of fellowship and fun, we were able to plan out what I think is going to be a great year of MOPS. I joined mops for the 06-07 year, but was not wildly impressed so I ditched last year. This year however, after praying for God to bring some activites into my world to become involved, the doors to MOPS swung right open. *Apparently I forgot to put the "I'm not crazy about MOPS" stipulation into the prayers. But then again, God is pretty hilarious about that stuff.* So after (reluctantly) joining in, I am super jazzed about the coming year. I'd love for those of you in town to join us! If you're interested, let me know and I would gladly give you the info...........

such the fashion plate.....

Let's hope these skills improve with age.

so long, Smoke....

It was a sad day for the NASCAR fans in our family as we learned that Josh's driver Tony Stewart will be leaving Joe Gibbs Racing to co-own a smaller team. We're bummed because now we are left with tons of black and orange stuff that we won't need as well as our drivers will no longer be teammates. Now, as Josh says, we will have to be enemies. Oh well, the stable of drivers left at Gibbs isn't looking too bad.

We still have my driver........

this guy.....who is currently first in points for the series.....

and all signs point to this guy taking over Tony's spot....he's only 18 but is supposedly some kind of genius at racing....

Oh well, we'll see. For now, I guess it's just a good luck wish for Tony!!

fun with TeeTee.....

Kids are funny sometimes. First, she named my aunt Beach. Then, she decided that my cousin Candice should be known as TeeTee (not sure how it would be spelled, but that's how it sounds). Anyways, these two are awfully fond of each other. While camping over Memorial Day they decided to have some fun with the camera.....

She thought she was pretty cool with her foot on the fire ring.
There were like 10 of these shots, check out the dirty kid!
This was just to show her super-cool butterfly.