merry christmas!

my aunt asked the peeps in the family to put together holiday home tours, so here is the link to ours:

navalta holiday home tour 2011

(disclaimer: i made the font and spacing a WHOLE lot cuter, then skydrive somehow sucked it out!)

anyhoo, we've been so glad for the weeks building up to christmas. we've been reading a story a day that each have a hopeful, christmas-y message, and it's been nice to remind the kids (and ourselves) about why we're here - to learn and to serve.

we're thankful for Jesus Christ - for His birth, His life, and His Atonement.

with Him, all things are possible.

merry christmas!

rising star

well, giveaway day was certainly exciting, but we had another exciting time - kalei's christmas recital!

this is the more laid-back recital, where the kids can use their sheet music, if needed, and can dress "casual." (and the parents can, too - woohoo!)

here is kalei with her christmas piece:

what can i say - she's awesome!

we're so proud of you, kalei!

giveaway day is here!

we have a winner!

Cricket said...

I love making all my family - sister, niece, in-laws, husband and kids etc all pillowcases for their present to open on Christmas eve. But I also love to embroider, so I have been using little embroidered pieces in zip pouches and embroidering cloth bracelets, too. Those are my three favorite things.

I would love to give your scraps a happy home.

congrats, cricket!!

(i've sent her an email - if i don't hear back in a few days, i'll pick a new winner.)

thanks to everyone who entered - i hope you all have a very merry christmas!

does anyone else have that song, "it's the most wonderful time of the year" running thru their heads? :)!

anyhoo, on with the good part! i'm giving away a u.s.p.s. medium flat rate box packed with fabric and scraps. :)! there's some denyse schmidt, lizzy house, tula pink, lecien, fig tree quilts, alexander henry, michael miller, and more... a boxful of goodies just in time for christmas! also, i'm throwing in a fun egg cup pincushion - handmade by yours truly. i just love giveaway day - be sure to go and check out the other giveaways here!

this giveaway will be open until friday, december 16th at 5 p.m. (i'll ship anywhere in the u.s.) to enter, just leave a comment and tell me your favorite gift to make.

good luck!

missing the rubber stamp...

james called me from his office wednesday evening with some surprising news: he had a letter in his hand from the provost saying his sabbatical application had been approved! WOW! we weren't expecting to hear anything back until january or february! what happens now is that the application goes to the president, who takes it before the board of regents for a vote. my understanding is that, like promotion and tenure, this is merely a rubber stamp, all the important deciders have already decided. so it looks like we'll be hawaii dwellers for 6 whole months next year! i really can't wrap my mind around this until after christmas (only 16 days left to get things accomplished!), so there might be another post in january about this with many more exclamation points, but for now i am quietly amazed and excited - yahoo!

coming soon!

it's that time of year again - giveaway day at sew, mama, sew!!

be sure to check out their listings of giveaways on dec. 12. i'll be participating again, and would love it if my dear family and friends actually entered! plus, they're making it a week-long event, so there will be plenty of time to enter all the giveaways - it's one of the best events of the year, so mark your calendars now!

belated costume-y goodness

hello!

i realized that we never posted a photo of the final halloween results. after much debate (kalei originally wanted to be a vampire - the thought of those big vampire teeth and the resulting drool grossed me out, so i encouraged her to think outside the box), we decided on a fireman, pirate queen (complete with eyepatch), and the return of the red power ranger!

not to be outdone, i joined the kids in costume!

(i thought it was hilarious that my kids didn't know who i was! they just said, "you're a..... doll?" apparently, you have to be above a certain age to know who 'raggedy anne' is.) anyhoo, here i am with kawelo and taralie - don't you just love her costume!? she's the head teacher of our seminary team-teaching-duo - she's amazing!

the kids brought home a huge haul of candy and had tons of fun, and i won an award for cutest adult costume. good times!

one step closer....

james found out this morning that his sabbatical application was unanimously approved by the university's sabbatical committee! from there, it will move on to the dean, then the provost, and i'm not sure if there are more steps beyond that. we are so excited that this might be a real possibility to spend 6 months next year living in paradise! (i hope i'm not jinxing anything by writing about this... not that i believe in superstitious stuff... but i'd better go throw some salt over my shoulder or knock on wood or something, just in case.)

aloha!