christmas visit

we had a great visit from my parents this weekend...took them down to DC to see some lights and sights. we saw the national tree...


the white house...

and the world ward II memorial...

and just had lots of fun walking around, grabbing a bite at Cosi and enjoying a tolerably cold winter day in the city.
thanks for visiting mom and dad!

christmas

ahh christmas traditions...here we are a few weeks ago getting our tree with the Sohns in the rain at home depot...you can't beat a good tradition! and for ours being all wrapped up, it turned out a really nice, full, even tree...

growing up so fast

so tony is growing up so fast. today i came home from school to find that he had made a bubble nest. in case you are unaware, he has made it for potential eggs to be safe and sound in. we have already given him "the talk" (told him that there are lots of other fish in the sea) but didn't realize he would take this to heart so soon. of course, though he may not yet realize it, he will likely never meet a female betta in his life. i feel strangely protective as a parent to withhold this part of life from our tony, but we feel it is for his good (and the female fish's good since he would probably eat her afterwards). and so he sits under his bubble nest, wanting and waiting for those eggs. should we tell him?

another addition

so with the help of some good friends, steve and jordan, we were able to pick up this new ping pong table that we bought off of craig's list. rob and i have been wanting one for a while and finally decided to go for it. here are the hardworking men:



meanwhile, tali, hemi, and i talked upstairs. Here are the little ones before they went to bed (Tyler and Siena):

And finally, the opening games: Steve and Hemi


and us...and we played doubles too, but there was no one to document it!!


let the fun begin--hope to see our friends enjoy this new toy with us!

meet antonio

on sunday, we celebrated our 5th anniversary of the day we got engaged...that dream-like day in venice. we decided to expand our family in celebration and so we brought antonio home with us. his friends call him tony. here he is---i love his velvety tail! sometimes when i look at him, he stops and just looks back at me. it's so cute. yea!!!



here's tony's new home:

fall hike

here's a pic of a hike we (rob and i and ryan ward and al who works with rob) took. we are overlooking the potomac river and west virginia is on the other side. this is our go-to hiking spot...we love it!

at last...

So finally after five years of chin wagging and $175 of donations from my extraordinarily generous care group, the Ascaso Dream espresso machine came home to my kitchen counter. Let me say that espresso has been a significant gift from the Almighty and screams of intelligent design. In particular, the dark, rich, crema laden shots that I've pulled from this beauty are delicious and quite consistent. Even pods taste great with this machine, which comes with a pod adapter.

This machine was on sale for about half off at my local Sbucks and so I asked the manager if he could go any lower on the price ("you have not because you ask not") and he typed in some numbers and let me know that he would drop the price another 25%--that was over $100 more off. At this moment, I was thinking the same thing you are, "What a good God."

fall is coming

the changing of the seasons is always a reminder of how fast time is going...the summer is over, i will never be 27 in summer again.

profound, i know. but how crazy is it that we always think that way? "time is just flying! "..."the summer just flew by"..."it feels like it was just may yesterday"...

i like what i think i've heard a few times...i think i read in "a severe mercy" (a great book i would definitely recommend) and i am sure randy alcorn has said this...we feel the passing of time is so fast, so unjust because we were made for timelessness...we were made for "forever"...heaven, where we don't feel the effects of aging and nearing death.

in heaven, time will be forever and we will not care if it keeps going, because there is no end. praise God there is heaven. and i get to go!

Coffee and Little ones

here's a vietnamese coffee we like to drink: it's basically sweetened condensed milk and espresso is dripping through the fancy little things there. it's very good.

here is sarah and adam's new bundle, kathryn ruth. she is a little peanut!

here's an update on gavin, who is now 8 weeks, i think.

here's me with kathryn (aka kate):

MAINE

So we went to Maine for 5 days to celebrate our 4th anniversary...here are just a few pictures.

Wells Beach: our first stop over the Maine border

rob wanted me to take this...

on a harber just outside of acadia national park in the morning...

a new friend we made...

what i decided i could never eat...at least not while it was watching me.

a view from one of our hikes where we stopped for a few hours to have lunch...

Bay House Singles Retreat

Well a singles retreat to the bay house will no longer be official without a picture on the dock...

we had a great time this weekend, the first time there during the summer. For part of the day on Saturday we took canoes to the sandbar, which was pretty cool.

here are the boys (minus dave who left early) in their boy band pose...

and the girls...

and of course a silly picture...you can never go wrong.

my newest nephew

so we left the family reunion picnic early to make it back in time for the birth of Steve and Jane's 3rd boy...only to find that when we arrived, it seemed it would be taking quite a while. well, shortly after rob and i visited with janie, the nurse came in and said...uh oh...looks like it's time to go...(or something like that)...so despite what anyone says, i think baby Gavin Robert waited for his uncle rob and aunt mary to make his grand entrance!!

here we are at 10cm..


Janie and baby Gavin


the new family...3 boys!! wow.


explaining to colin that the baby is no longer "mommy's tummy". might take him a while to get that.

an eventful weekend!

first of all, here is my newest nephew on my side...my oldest sister Jenny's 8th child, Bryan James. WHAT a sweetheart. always quick with a smile, especially for me of course....

first event: decker family reunion down in lexington, VA, along with good family friends from China, the Bennetts.
Here's my whole side of the family including my dad's parents:

Here's the original nuclear family that I grew up in: Jenny, Me, Mom, Dad, Sylvia, Naomi

and here are the Bennetts: Elan, Jing, Kim w/Angie, Ray

a girls weekend

a few weekends ago i went to visit sylvie in her new house in lexington, VA. we had 3 of our nieces over for a sleepover on saturday night...more details on sylvie's blog, (sylviadecker.blogspot.com). here are a few pics.

my mom's sister was also in town...it's always good to see aunt carol!!!

this is just a cute one i had to include...our youngest niece, maggie, with sylvie.

my new toy

so i got a sewing machine for my birthday...and i decided to take my free weekend between classes to try it out. i took some old curtains and some stuffing some from old pillows and voila....



too many pillows??

charlottesville

rob took me to charlottesville for my birthday weekend!! it was awesome. i had never been before. (first we stopped by the gray ghost, our favorite VA winery) here are a few shots...the cheese and fruit plate was a birthday gift from the hotel!! it was so yummy.