The Roath Family Christmas Exchange List

Names: Who you buy for:
Vickie- Kelly wants mixing bowls
Mike- Emily
Carrie- Cate
Lee- Chris
TJ- Vickie wants candles from Yankee candles Orange/mango or Christmas
scents or Bath and Body Works gift card
Meghan- Mike wants either a gift card to Home Depot or Texas Roadhouse
Jeff- Carrie wants a cardigan sweater size small any color
Kelly- Lee wants i tunes gift card or Frank LLoyd Wright calendar (@ the
mall)
Rick- John
Lynn- Jeff didn't request anything, but like video games and movies (Best
Buy Maybe?)
Chris- Lynn wants gift card to Sephora, Borders or fresh scented candles
Cate- Rick wants a gift card to Outback, Red Lobster or size M hoodie
Emily- Meghan Wants a gift card to Old Navy or Borders
John- TJ wants a gift gird to Old Navy or Borders

OK guys - if you haven't gotten back to me by now, I had to get this posted, so I can go on my trip and I won't be back until the middle of December. If John isn't going to be at Christmas then just let Mike or Carrie know and we'll adjust the draw. I won't see many of you for Christmas, so have a merry one and eat lots of turkey for me - love you guys!

My Craft Shows

Hey all - I wrote about my craft show and about my business on my Whimsical Creations blog, so if you want, you can click on my blog to the left of this post to find out how I did. It's been a while since I updated on the family, so here goes. Natalie just cut her 9Th tooth yesterday and 10Th tooth today, which to some may seem like no big deal, but for her it's huge! Most toddlers have their full set of 16 closer to 13 or 14 months, but Natalie is almost 19 months and she eats more than any child her age and can barely chew her food! We joked that for Halloween she was our Jack-O-Lantern. We are so happy for her. She is speaking small sentences now, but you really have to know her to understand her. It's cute though to finally have her communicating with us. I just wish she would stop her whining! This weekend she finally started watching TV. Bella at one year-old would sit and watch almost an entire episode of Sesame Street, but Natty just realized the TV does more than turn on and off and it was cute to witness. Bella was watching cartoons and Nat walked past the TV and then stopped, sat down, then layed down and put her hands behind her head and watched the rest of the show. I couldn't believe my eyes. This week we finally had to put a lock on the pantry doors. All day long she cries because she is hungry and if I don't feed her every half hour or sooner, she brings me cans and boxes from the pantry to let me know what she wants. I was getting so frustrated. I hate locks on the cabinets, but it had to be done. The other cute thing that happened in the last month was Natalie wanting to hold hands with Bella when we pick her up from pre-school. It brought tears to my eyes. Bella has been getting ready for her Christmas pageant at school and she has a speaking part that she's practicing and I can't wait to see it. She started Awana this fall as well and she is now in the cubbies class. It focuses on the kids learning Bible verses and she gets patches on her vest if she learns enough verses. She got three already and I'm really surprised at her memory. She retains the ones she has already learned and gets ready for new ones. I was never great at memorizing, so I'm pretty proud of her! She still loves school and her best friend Isabelle and she'll be in her first ballet class this winter. She talks about that a lot. We leave for our Australia trip in one week and I'm already worried that I'm going to miss the girls too much to enjoy myself. Please pray for our safety and for the the girls. Please pray for my friend Shannon who will be caring for the girls - she'll need it - they are so busy!

Halloween 2008

Hello to all the friends and family who tune in to read about our crazy family! We had a great Halloween at the combs household. Bella had her Fall Harvest party at school on Friday and I helped out with that. The kids were so cute. Thanks Shannon for watching Natalie Jane for me, so I could attend. Bella was so excited that she couldn't sleep during nap time, but she was still in a good mood for trick - or - treating. Natty on the other hand was a bear. She didn't want to pose for pictures in her costume and she wanted me to hold her the whole night. She did pretty good when we walked around the neighborhood. Thanks Aunti Shannon for coming with us - you made Bella's night. She was so proud to have you there. Both girls had so much candy it was falling out of their buckets! We walked for almost two hours. I did get to hand out candy for 10 minutes or so and it was nice to actually be in a neighborhood this year. I was pretty happy about that. This past weekend I did my first craft show and made out pretty well. This Saturday is the next one, so please pray that it goes even better than the last one. I'm even getting orders off of my blog store, so thank you for all who have been shopping - I really appreciate it. We leave for our trip in 18 days. Please pray that I'm not too anxious about flying for so long. I'm not worried about the sitting for 18 hours, but I am worried about crashing to my death. I don't want to orphan me sweet girls. I don't usually worry like this, but I would like to actually look forward to my 10 year anniversary without anxiety.

My stained glass blog store is now open!

Hey friends and family - I finally have my blog store open and running. I have projects posted that are up for sale and I can also customize those pieces to your liking in terms of color and size. I will be at Holy Cross Lutheran Church for the next craft fair on Nov. 8 SAT from 9-5. I would love it, if you can post this blog site on your family blogs, so others might take a look as well. I am getting orders by word of mouth, which helps tremendously. I'm trying to make this more of a career and hope that it will work out accordingly. Thanks for all your support - take a look, even if it's only for fun:)

Post Family Farm and more Post Family Farm

Bella had her field trip to the pumpkin farm this week and she had a blast. She got to go on a trip through the barn and see all the animals and got to pet a baby chick. Next she got to ride the pumpkin train, then we went on a hay ride where we stopped and we all got to pick a pumpkin. They had hot, fresh pumpkin donuts and cider and then the class put on a small pumpkin play. Bella was the pumpkin seed. Her favorite part was being able to spend time with her best friend Isabelle. She just adores her. My parents came up for a visit yesterday and the girls were so excited. We had a good time and we miss them already. Today we were back at the farm for our annual church small groups get-together. The kids rode the pumpkin train, played, and we went on another hay ride. We had more donuts and cider at the bonfire and then we called it a night. The best part of the evening was watching the kids reactions on the pumpkin train. Carlie was the cutest! What a babe! They were so proud of themselves. Natalie rode with Bella and she thought she was queen bee!

The Wedding

Well, Aaron's sister's wedding was tonight and all in all it turned out very nice. When we got to the church we realized that neither Aaron or I grabbed Bellas' dress, so Aaron had to go back and get it and was gone for an hour. The three hours we were at the church before the wedding getting pictures done, Natalie was throwing herself on the ground and was crying. She only wanted me to hold her and I was trying to get Bella ready and keep her from destroying her hair and dress. When it was finally time for the wedding, Bella had the hugest melt down of her life, because she wanted to sit with her cousin Ashlynn. The pastor had to come and get me from the front of the church, so I could settle her down. I think that conversation with my daughter took ten years off my life! I was determined not haggle with her or give her any altumatums. I finally got her settled down telling her jokes - she's the joke queen. I was very busy drying her tears and blowing her face dry. She walked down the isle without any problems or reservations, but she was very slow in dropping the leaves - a lot of people giggled. She is a very meticulous little girl. She sat next to me pretty well during the service and only whispered loudly a few times. Aaron was a groomsman and he looked handsome in his tux. The reception went very well and we had a good time. We all got a kick out of Bella's dancing. She looks like Elaine from Seinfeld when she dances - complete with some interesting faces:) - see photos. Natalie was a wreck with cutting 8 or more teeth all at once, but she did very well at the reception. Aaron is getting ready to leave early tomorrow morning to train his students how to survive in the woods and be a real army guy. Thanks for all of you who prayed that today would go smoothly. I'm just glad it's all over with!

Two Little Ghosts

Let me just say, that today was a very bad day! Bella who I always say is my easy, mostly compliant child, (except for the water issue) was awful today. I'll only share a couple of the naughty things she did today. UrgH! Bella decided that she wanted to act like Natalie, so I find both girls putting every pair of their shoes in the dog's water bowl, even Bella's new brown shoes. Water was every where. Natalie got into a bag of bird seed I had sitting out and Bella somehow broke her TV. So, I thought I would be nice and give her the TV from our bedroom, because we hardley ever use it. So I'm walking up the stairs with a giant TV in my arms when I smell a strong whiff of baby powder over-coming me. Then I see a streak run past me into the bathroom (Bella hiding) and a white cloud of dust coming from the nursary. After I put the TV down, I find Natalie sitting on a rubber-made container full of her next size up clothes completely covered in baby powder and she's rubbing her hands through it, it's all over the floor, the rocker, her teddy bears, the dresser, the stool and all of her toys. Bella had pushed the container up to the dresser to get the baby powder down and when I asked her what she was doing she replied "Natty and I were playing ghostists". Can I just say I don't think I'm ever getting that smell out of her carpet!