Peace in our Hearts, Joy in our Lives

The holidays are a funny time of year. We expect to be able to attend more functions in one month than we usually do all year. We redecorate our homes, buy and wrap gifts for everyone we know, and bake, bake, bake until we start to feel half-baked ourselves.
Suddenly we find ourselves dazed and confused in the checkout line with the words “Silent Night” blaring in the loud speakers.
In the midst of the crazy times this season, and in the coming year, we hope you will take a minute to reflect on a miracle. There is Peace on Earth; His name is Jesus. Jesus came to earth with a mission—to save us from our own destructive selves. His gift to us was taking our punishment for us, enduring the consequences for all the things that we did wrong. But it doesn’t end there. He not only gave us a ticket to heaven for our future home, but true peace in our hearts now.
God’s peace is the calm that fills us in the midst of the storms. In the middle of our greatest pain Jesus is the comfort that guides us through.
May your hearts be filled with true peace this Christmas.
Love, Rory, Jennifer & Cecily

Card Tricks With Daddy

Rory loves to do card tricks. He is always looking for a new audience. Here is a video of Cecily sharing a few tricks with her daddy.

Santa Baby

Here is the whole family paying our yearly visit to Mr and Mrs Claus

Hmmm... not going to smile.
Who are you again?

Snow Babies!

Here are Cecily and Charlotte enjoying their first snow fall.

Their fun was short lived and so was the snow.

I'll be home for Christmas

We had a fantastic time going to see Jen's mom (and many friends) perform in First Christian Church's rendition of I'll be home for Christmas. It was awesome, they had a great live orchestra, awesome sets, and an all together spectacular performance. We had a great time. It was also fun to catch up with friends from First Christian. Here is a video of the Quackenbush Sisters...

Here is mom (Beth) looking very pretty after the performance.

Here are Beth and Mary-- fellow Quackenbush sisters.

Beth made their outfits, including her own hat.

Beaver Fever!

In celebration of dad's birthday, and as an excuse to get together with friends-- we had a party!

It was fun to get together and watch the Beavers beat the Ducks! For Dad's birthday present we got him and Cecily matching OSU T-shirts. Dads says class of 1977 and Cecily's says class of 20??

Cecily also got to wear her official OSU cheerleading outfit. Mom got it for her with the help of our friend Tamzen who is a professor at OSU. She looks so cute in it... wouldn't you agree?

In order to match the theme of the event, we have been collecting Orange and Black desserts and party accessories. Halloween made this pretty easy.

Dad has a thing for Hostess "Desserts"- Here is his very own "Birthday Cake" made up of his favorite Hostess variety-- in the theme of his favorite team.

Here are Rory and Cecily with Matt and Charlotte-- the hard-core Duck fans. The little girls had fun keeping their dads company during the big game.

Deck the Halls

Cecily has had a lot of fun discovering all the decorations that come with Christmas! She was a big helper to mommy and daddy as they decorated the house!

Here is Cecily discovering the "Kissing Ball." Kissing Balls are big traditions in Rory's family. Rory's mom has a kissing ball for most holidays- and just like mistletoe, if you get caught under the ball with someone -- you owe them a smooch! This Kissing ball was made for us by Rory's mom, it features geometric shapes and kittens... two of Rory's favorite things.

Oh, Christmas Tree. After last year we decided that with Jen's allergies being what they are... it wasn't worth the misery of having a real tree. Thankfully we were given this beautiful tree this year, and the fun thing is... this will be our tree for years to come. (Thanks to Julie Coury!)

"How do the lights get tangled every year? Here let me help you!"

We enjoyed some festive holiday chai. We like to make them using our handy dandy espresso maker. Jen's mug is the snowflake one, Rory's is Sylvester. Rory loves his Sylvester mug, Jen doesn't like to use it because the mug isn't soothing enough, how can you relax with a cat looking at you like that? Rory does not use his mugs to sip relaxing tea, he mostly enjoys hot beverages loaded with sugar...and he loves cats.

A mug that brings sugar and cats together... you can't go wrong!
Here is our daughter showing off how useful her eight teeth are.

Here is an artistic shot of the holiday decorations. This one is of our special snow globe. Jen got to pick it out-- it's from her Aunt Toni as a wedding present. She chose this one because she liked the little family, it reminded her of the Hartshorne clan growing up, and thought who knows? - She and Rory might have a little family that looks like this one in the future. Based on the snow globe... one kid down... two to go??? (We'll see)

Cecily in the Christmas boxes. So much fun!

Here mommy let me help you take these back off the tree!

Our decorations have a red and gold theme, and we especially like stars. Rory really likes stellated icosahedrons (stars made from a certain geometric shape), so we collect them.

Thanksgiving Celebrations

We are happy to report that we had an excellent Thanksgiving celebration with family. Our Thanksgiving was a three-part event, and surprisingly did not involve much turkey at all!
Thanksgiving day we started out at home... (Which looking back on it, if we hadn't had that time at home together I don't think the rest of the weekend would have gone as well.) Rory and Cecily and I enjoyed watching the parade together, and we ate baked brie and summer sausage with crackers. We also got a head start on Christmas decorations.
Thanksgiving evening we met Rory's family in Tacoma, and enjoyed a lovely feast at CI Shenanigans. Their buffet was quite the spread. The basics were available, but the seafood definitely stole the show. I got so distracted by the clams and salmon that I forgot to pay attention to the turkey. It could be said that Rebekah enjoyed a few chocolate dipped strawberries, but that would be an understatement!

Here is CJ investigating Grandpa Cliff's watch.

On Friday we headed up to Everett for a feast at Aunt Susan and Uncle Michael's. It was fun to get together- both Josh & Dorothy and Becky & Phillip were there. (Neither Cara and her Phil or Darren could make it-- so we missed them). It was funny because-- Becky is a science teacher, Dorothy is a Math teacher, Rory was a math major and is a math tutor/teacher, and Josh is a doctor. What happens when you get so many math and science minded people in a room? Naturally they start doing a scientific study that involves graphing something. Their graph helped them determine the rate that the roast was cooking and in turn were able to determine the exact time that the roast would be finished. Their hypothesis was correct, and as we sat down to enjoy the meal at the exact time estimated a jubilant Dorothy raised her fork and exclaimed, "Math wins!." A good time was had by all!
Here is Josh and Rory testing the chair to see how comfortable it would be for two guys to sit on an antique bench that happened to be placed directly under a counter.

It looks quite cozy.

Mommy and Me

I am making a conscious effort to make sure that we have pictures of me too. I am usually the one taking all the pictures, but every once in a while we remember to take some. Here are a few recent ones.

Ready for my close up!

Well, Here are a few more pics of CJ. I think she looks a lot like her Auntie Cara in the first one and then the third one reminds me of her Auntie Genesis. At any rate they make me smile.

Look at me go!

Here is our almost walking baby. She has entertained the thought of crawling, but the girl is determined to walk. She has pretty good balance, but needless to say has obtained quite a few boo-boos with all her practice steps. Maybe I'll be getting a walking baby for Christmas. Ready or not here she comes!

Bath Time!

Splish Splash I was taking a bath!

The Dread Pirate Roberts

Here is our very own pirate. What do you think of his hook and peg leg?

Bedtime Bandits!

Cecily and Jen got to stay for almost an entire week out in Yelm with Rebekah, Jimmy and Austin at the beginning of November.

It was a bonding experience for all and we were glad we got to do it!

These pictures were taken of Austin and Cecily having story time before bed. They totally crack me up!

Just Yesterday

Here are some sweet and funny moments we thought you might enjoy!

The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe

Here we are representing a fine literary work at the church where Jen grew up, First Christian.
It took a little explaining, and required that we all stand in a line, but people got it, and seemed to like it. The lion definitely had the best costume (Nana Beth made it for her). We didn't have to explain that Cecily was a lion. We did however, have to remind people that SHE is a girl. My costume... the witch was a bit tricky. People thought I was Queen Susan the gentle. But no I was Jadis, Queen of Narnia. The problem was that I could not be too scary, and I had very limited resources. I remade this dress out of a wedding dress I found in the local thrift store. All the material I gleaned from the scraps in my mom's sewing room. And I had to do all sewing by hand. So a little was lost in translation, but I was trying to look like a snow queen. I just turned out looking like a nice snow queen. The Wardrobe was a large box that Jen drew an adapted version of the wardrobe on.

It was funny because every time a sugar high super hero walked by Rory they felt compelled to kick or punch the box. It was pretty funny to watch all these little boys walk by and automatically hit the box on their way past.

Rory felt a little confined standing in the box all night. He said it was a good social experiment. I have never seen him stand in one place for that long, especially in a social gathering.



Our little lion sure likes to walk around. Looks like she lost a bootie... surprise, surprise!

Grampa Noel was all ears. Cecily is telling him a good story.

The wardrobe got thirsty. Here he is getting a drink.

Look at all my cute teeth!

The Wardrobe was playing mini golf. Look at him parting the Red Sea with this five iron.

The Lion and the Snow Queen pause for a picture. Looks like someones getting tired.

The dress before it became the gown of the Snow Queen.