Happy New YEAR

We will be enjoying our next few days relaxing in warm/hot springs in Idaho. Hope you all enjoy your holiday and have a safe and fun time. Happy new year. Here's to a great 2011!

There it goes.

Christmas came and went. Now it's on to new years. HEre are a few shots from the weekend.

Christmas Is Coming

Ready or not here it comes. I still have two packages to mail. They may have to be New Years gifts. Also I am quickly putting the finishing touches on a few gifts. Lots of baking happened at our house and making to go right along with it. If only we still had a few weeks to finish everything that we still have on the list of "to do's" Oh well. I guess that's where prioritizing comes into play. Christmas will still get here on the 25th ready or not. Merry Christmas

Deck th halls with Danish Pastry

Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas with our a ring or two of Danish. A lot of my family traditions include lots of good food. Thanks goodness we had a lot of people to share Christmas with this year. Now that Christmas is really upon us life is settling down and we have just come to realize that on Christmas Day we will be all alone the two of us. Maybe a day at home maybe a day on the road.

O holy night

we picked the perfect night to see the lights at temple square, we took the train so no one had to park, we looked like a big crowd so people moved off the sidewalk for us, the weather couldn't have been better for December. The unperfect part was, it was super crowded at dinner because of some basket ball Ute and BYU game, temple square was way past the limit of people it should have on it and they all wanted to be right with us, and trying to get 21 people through the lights all together wasn't going to work so we broke into small groups and picked a meeting time. We all made it and we enjoyed the heck out of being together as a family

Caroling Cousins

Don't worry we really didn't sing but we did laugh and get really loud and talk and enjoy one an others company. We got together to enjoy dinner and visit. It's the busy time of the year and yet we still made time and got together. We invited the Aunts along this time which was a lot of fun. Life gets so busy that we don't always get to spend as much time visiting as we would like so I am thankful that we did get to see each other one last time this year.

Deck the house with lots of jolly

Here it is. Shots of our 2010 Christmas house. These are at least my favorite parts. Because I did the decorating this year I only put out my favorites. I guess that's fitting because we are having a back to basics Christmas this year. Focusing on what is important. Don't worry we have filled up the calendar with what we want to do this year and we have left a few spots for new things to try for added Christmas Cheer. With that said we are reflecting on what the season is all about and trying not to get so wrapped up in the commercial side of Christmas. So sit back and enjoy your virtual tour of the Garcia's house....



Don't feel left out. We start the month off right. Adorning our table with our favorite place mats.

Our card basket always starts the month off with these two cards on top. They are the last Christmas card I got from my mom in 2006. They always start on top just like I just opened the mail. It's always fun to break out the decorations and find these two cards waiting for me.

The top shelf is the angel and creche' shelf and the middle is the continuation of the village. It out grew the mantel last year.

Here it is. The Christmas Village. I usually put this out at Thanksgiving time but I was a bit slow this year. Next year the village may take over the buffet for the season.

Here are the two Christmas trees. This real tree is the most beautiful tree I have ever had. Maybe John had better be in charge of choosing them from now on. We contemplated the artificial tree this year after going out on a cold day to choose our tree, but once we got it home and inside and smell it as soon as we come home, I threw that idea out the window at least for one more year. The second tree is our palm tree in the corner with multi colored lights on it. When we lived in St. George the first two years this was our tree because it was fitting for the area.

And of course you can't forget the mistletoe. Christmas wouldn't be complete with out it.

Merry Christmas to you all. This has been a great year and we are anxiously awaiting 2011.

Happy Cookie Day

Today is national cookie day! What better way to celebrate than to help 4 little kids make cookies? We tried to stall them long enough to get a few batches done before breaking out the cutters but they were pretty smart and soon figured out that we were busy in the kitchen and they should be helping too.


Trust Pablo to figure out if he used the end of his rolling pin he could shoot cookies out of the end of it like a marshmallow gun.

Ruth getting ready to make a double batch of pumpkin bread...Yummy

Kids with cookie dough. They can't wait to get their hands on it and they also love to cut many things out of dough. There is always a first for cookies.

Note the safety glasses. You can never be to safe in the kitchen.

Good work kids!
Julia helping cut and roll, cut and roll

Ready or not we are cookie ready.

Duke, Don't eat the pie

Many years ago I was living with my niece and nephew and their mom. We were going to have Thanksgiving dinner. That way we could each work a morning shift and then come home to eat. Wednesday we headed to the store after a long day at work. It was snowing and the world looked so nice, quiet and cold. Hilary grabed her work shoes on the way out the door. They looked great with the pajama's we both had on. I think it was about 11pm or so. We got to the back of Smith's standing in the dairy section with a little finch that had come in to get out of the cold. We were standing there trying to figure out what kind of whipping cream to buy. If you don't know that is a hard decision that could take a matter of minutes deciding. When it was time to continue on our shopping trip Hilary looked at me very seriously and said, "I can not take on more step." Thats just great we haven't even gotten every thing we need and now she doesn't want to walk any more. Well after a good laugh and a pep talk we finished our shopping went home finished our pie baking and went to bed. You see, come 5:00am we were both heading out to work. When we awoke we franticly searched the kitchen for the pies. They were no where to be found. Just then the black lab headed to the back yard with his tail between his legs...He had taken all of the pumpkin pies to the back yard and had his very own dinner.
The other day when I had pies in the house I was worried of a repeat. If you look in my house for pie you better be looking in the fridge or up high. No dogs allowed.

Garcia's are...

G- Greatful for each other
I- Involved in Life
V- Valued by others
I- Interested in family and friends
N- Never having a dull moment around here
G- Guitar playing fools
T- Trying new things and making each other laugh
H- Happy to help you
A- Adverture seeking induviduals
N- Nearing another big winter with smiles and readiness
K- Keeping true to what brings us together
S- Super excited for a new year with more adventures to start soon

Hope you are all enjoying a great TURKEY day with family and friends that you love.

Joyfull hearts day

Happy anniversary to the man of my past, present and future. Thanks for the wonderful year we have spent together. Here's to another 25.

A few of my favorite things

This post requires a bit of a preface. You see this activity actually took place a month or so ago. Right after it was done I sat down and wrote the following blog. I never posted it because it made me cry every time I read it. Last night when I was cleaning out my blog in box it kept staring at me. I finally opened it and read it again. Wow. I made it through and wasn't really sure why it has sat around for more than a month. Other than it isn't really finished and I was going to post a few photos of my favorite things I brought home. I have not taken pictures of any of the things I have but I have put them away or put them on walls. So here goes. Sorry the ending is non existent. Maybe that means some day I will finish. Maybe I won't.

The past weekend we spent Saturday collecting, sorting and cleaning up my Dad's old house. It is still very hard to go to the house and not find my Mom there. She always made "home" a special place and made anyone who went there feel specail. So, now she has been gone for a few years and Dad has moved on to bigger and better things, it's time to take a bull by the horns and be the boss. If you have ever had to do any part of this task before you know the emotion that comes along with it. Loss, hate, anger, saddness, happy, memories and mostly a bunch of confusion. Thank goodness I didn't have to do it all alone. I am lucky that I only have one set of parents and when my in-laws are gone it is not my responsibility to make and keep everyone happy. So after we finish with this task my job is 1/2 finished. Thank goodness because I don't ever want to do it again. So, after cleaning stuff out of the old house and finding the stuff that we think the kids would like to keep we made everyone piles and then I was faced with the task of putting all my pile away at my own home.

This is the task that kind of keeps me running. If you know me you know that I really like to have "homes" for everything that comes in my home. That doesn't mean my house is always perfect by any means but I do like things to be put away. So now I am torn. Do I display everything that I have from my Mom's house or do I store it so I can charish it and keep if for a long time.

That has been the question on my mind this week. I love having the memories of my mom and love to share those things, but part of me wants to bottle it all up and keep it just for me when I want to see those things.

It's raining

leaves that is. I am not sure why when we were looking for houses a big yard was on my list but it was. I have to remember while taking care of it that it's what I wanted. I have been working hard on keeping the leaves picked up this year. Last week end we raked up the back yard. I mulched and composted as much as I could but you see, last year I did that and I didn't pull any compost out from that pen last year. I am afraid you can make more compost than you can use.

I guess one reason that I wanted a huge yard was that is what I knew growing up as a child. I remember mowing and raking and planting and weeding and growing and flowers and fruit trees and melons and I could go on for hours. When I was a child I knew that I had chores to do that helped on the plantation but I didn't realize how much work my mom and dad put into the mix also. Me having to mow the yard on Saturday was nothing to speak of. Never mind fertalizing, edging, weed eating.

Now all of that ends up on my shoulders. I think I am convinced that having a xeriscaped yard it the plan for me. I am not sure that Bella would like so much rock and plants but maybe we could keep a dig spot just for her instead of the whole back yard.

That would solve the issue of yard work but what about those darn leaves. Say noting of the pine needles. Those are every where this year. I also had those growing up as a child and the smart mother I had would give us all of the garden tools and turn us loose under the trees and have us build citys and houses using the fallen needels as walls or streets. We would turn the blanket of needles into rows and piles. Sneaky way to get them all gathered up then it was easy to just rake and dump.

Maybe we could figure out a way to burn pine needles to run our cars. I think I'll start working on that.

"The first snow fell"

And I wasn't even in Utah. My first snow of 2010 hit me on October 25th while driving home from Paige's. As we climbed the Sierra's the snow fell. There were a few places that had more than this but by that time I was driving with two hands and didn't feel much like taking a photo. After we left the beautiful state of California, there was no more snow. I have been back in Utah now for almost a month and am still waiting for snow. They keep telling me it is coming but I'll have to see, I mean shovel to believe it.

Soup's on

Family Fun this month was at Matt and Amy's. Brinley and Elise were great hostesses. Sushi for starters and then bread in flavored dipping oil, shrimp and then on to SOUP. Amy out did herself and made three soups. They were all wonderful. Now it's got us thinking that we should make another edition to the cook book...so start your recipe gathering.

Pumpkin passion for dessert was just that and Carol brought raspberry and strawberry rhubarb pies. I was stuffed when we headed home. Thanks for making our night so enjoyable and all of the laughs. Family = FUN.

Projects Dos

So, if you follow frequently you know that a few weeks ago all of the Israelsen sisters got together to assemble quilt tops. Boy were we crazy. Thinking that we would be able to assemble three tops in four day. Well, we learned that it is ok to take some time to make a quilt top. I learned that I don't have what it takes to make a quilt top in one weekend. I also learned that quilting takes time. If you get to tired things don't go right. After being home for a few weeks I decided it was time to look at the rows I brought home with me. Tada!

In less than one hour it was all put together and laying on the floor in my entry way. Now, here I am at the next big step... Do I want to quilt it? It really should be quilted, like the good ole' days. Tiny stitches in cool patterns. Do I want to tie it? I know my attention span even better now than I did three weeks ago. I have tied a quilt before so it isn't over whelming like making the quilt top. How many people do I know that would LOVE to help someone else quilt for an afternoon? Not that many I would guess. Do I really want to PAY someone else to sit with a quilting machine and stitch in my quilt? That would mean they would have the chance to see all of the mistakes, errors, oooooooppppss I made. So after the quilt top was done, I was thinking I needed a hobbie. I thought, perhaps I was going to be maddley in love with quilting so I would want to do it again and again and when I was borred I would have somehting to do. Well, that didn't work out for me. So yesterday I was hanging out with my knitting husband and hands me a crochet hook and yarn and says do this it's easy. After about 100 atempts and three long hours of going around say 30 stitches, I threw it down and said I hate it you knit if you like I don't. John pointed out that I just let yarn get the best of me. Well Sunday morning was more time just hanging out. John points out to me that the reason I had such a hard time yesterday was that I missed a stitch. Oh my HECK. I tried it his way in 10 minutes I was three more rows into the POT HOLDER.


Things learned:
I can't read instructions in english let alone ones in CROCHET.
If I want to succeed I just need some one to tell me I can't. Then I will
Yarn dries my hands out more than winter.
With two of us crafting in yarn I need a second income.
Happy Crocheing

You're not spoiled...you are a dog

Bella has had a bit of trauma. Dad started working nights, we went camping a ton, mom went on vacation, dad stayed home. Mom took her to a new house and didn't bring Dad. When we all finally made it HOME this is where you could find Bella for most of the time. I guess dogs don't understand vacation like humans do. Don't tell LaRee she's sleeping on that quilt.

Sleeping Over

Sage found Ampa's remote first thing. He does know how to use them so take note and stand back. I think he is another spanish station watcher.

Telling stories to Ampa on the bed. Skyler has pretty much figured out the whole world.

The famous M and Sky shot. We can't be with the camera and not have one of these. It was the screen on my phone for a long time. Sky would check to make sure it was there.

Making funny faces. This is just before I gave the 4 year old the camera and ended up with PJ shots:)

Boy's and the TV. There is only one who wouldn't look at M for a photo....

Skyler and Sage make Grandpa's day by having a sleep over. Friday was a big day full of Doctor visits for Grandpa Great. Skyler and Sage were champs and spent the day with Grandpa and M shopping and enjoying being in Salt Lake.

Happy Halloween

We enjoyed taking these little goblins out for an afternoon of treating before returning them to their rightful owners.

Cheaper by the Dozen

When I was a little girl and growing up I had a cousin a few years older than me. We would ride our bikes up to the old barn and play on the tractors. We would dream of how our lives would be when we grew up. I always remember her telling me that she would get married and have 12 children. I only remember this because I thought that she was crazy. I came from a family of 7 and that was a lot I couldn't even wrap my brain around 12. I don't really remember how I planned my life to be I knew I wanted twins and I think it was 4 kids. Some girls some boys and for sure a red head. We thought we would live close to each other and that our children would grow up together. Funny how you think you are in charge of your life at certain parts.


Sunday we had a chance to see each other and visit. Life changes, you realize that the things you dream and the things that happen are not always the same. Things you want really bad never happen and things you thing you can't live through do. You make it and never really take time to look back and remember how much you thought it would never happen.

She has three cute little boys and now has a little girl. Much like the family her dad and mom got to raise.



It was a lot of fun to visit and get reacquainted. Some things in life change but there are a few things that stay the same
FAMILY

Gene's genes

This past weekend Paige, Lori and I got together to have a quilting fest. Ok, I know that sounds a little out of my league but Paige and Lori are all over the sewing aspects of our genes so I tagged along. In planning the trip we talkied about how much fun sewing our quilt tops would be and how cute the jelly rolls are. I thought it sounded like a lot of fun.

I guess in my small mind, my idea of sewing a whole project in one weekend consists of a shirt that took three hours tops. I had no idea that one or three of us could sew for 72 hours non stop. That may be egxaderating a little but not to much. We would sit at the machines and feed cloth threw until our backs ached and our hands were numb. We did get a little R&R after the sewing hours and sitting in the spa. Early in the mornings I would hear the other two planning their sewing day anxiously waiting for me to awake so the machines could be brought out.

I learned a few things this weekend.

1: Do not try to sew a complete quilt top in one weekend.

2: I did not get the genes that think that sewing is fun and relaxing.

3: If you do plan another activity like this plan on eating out every dinner and fix quick lunches so you don't have to waist time fixing lunch.

4: It is a lot of fun to spend a long weekend with SISTERS no matter what activity you do.
For the most part I stayed with sewing. I did howver take the most breaks out of the three of us. Stay tuned to see the rest of the photos