NEW YEAR.....

since SOMEONE, i won't mention her name (kathy) was sick of reading 'blah, blah, blah' on my title page, i'm here to change it!!!!!!
let's see. i wish i had some earth shattering news to share but unfortunately for you, and me, life has been pretty quiet here. the boys are still off school for Christmas break.while they would NEVER admit is, i think they're all ready to go back. i mean, how many games of the wii can one boy play in a day. (try 12!)
we are all a little stir crazy! the weather has been crappy so not much going on in the yard.......
tonight, new years eve, we are ringing in at home. we were invited to a party but decided to spend the evening with the boys. well, jack ended up going to his best buddy, kaidens for the night. the other two have spent the evening playing Lego, monopoly and watching, yup, you guessed it....SPONGE BOB. what an idiot.(sponge bob, not my children).we did have dinner out with friends. we hit the mexican restarant at 5. old people time. our time with them went too fast as time tends to do with great friends. rye and i spent the rest of our evening checking emails, eBay and face book. and of course, eating as much junk food as we can before the diets start in the morning.
3o more mins. i think we can hang on. i'm a night owl so this is all great and fine for me. some others in our house are hanging on by a thread....
we are wishing you all a great new year!
well, there you have it. i should have maybe titled this post.'BLAH, BLAH, BLAH'.
what do you have to say about that WUBBEN? :)

blah, blah, blah from traci .......

i hope this finds you all well after the holiday rush. i am saddened and yet, somewhat relieved to be done with the hustle and bustle of it all. we had a fabulous time with family and the Best part of it all, SNOW!!! it's been years since we've had a white Christmas. growing up in Michigan, i think the love of the white stuff is in my blood. snow started falling a few days before Christmas and lucky for us, it never stopped! i spent MUCH time (is that proper english?) at my window, watching the flakes fall. there is something about being 'stuck' indoors. thankfully, we didn't have anything really pressing to get out for. church, however, was cancelled on Christmas eve which was a bummer. that is always a special service for us. Christmas eve night we had the likkel clan over. it was a special treat to be able to welcome the newest member to our family, elijah calvin grant black. our niece taya, husband ross and their kids(isaiah & elijah) were able to come from Arkansas. after almost a week on the road, blizzards galore, they made it to us safely. it's always a good time wherever the likkels are involved.
Christmas morning we spent opening gifts with the boys. they all got what they wanted. star wars Lego and webkinz. my husband was also, as usual, so good to me. i crabbed about my camera long enough. a new camera, simple point and shoot, for me. rye got the Bourne Trilogy. if you haven't seem the movies, GO RENT THEM. (or borrow ours). Christmas day, afternoon, my family came over. as always,a good time. we even had the privilege of 'skyping' with my sister and family. it was incredible. for those who don't know what skyp is, it's basically video conferencing. we can both see each and talk, LIVE. since they are not able to make it here during the holidays, it was almost as if they were here. so, once again, Christmas is here and gone, all too quickly. our prayer is that you,too,were able to slow down and remember the the true meaning of Christmas,celebrating our Saviors birth.
i uploaded a bunch of pictures. forgive me...they go on and on. not to mention the fact that i had to put TWO slideshows up because i couldn't remeber how to do it properly. (amy, i was totally paying attention but somehow it slipped my memory! AAHHH) i normally don't 'do' scenery pictures but let me tell you, that snow was prettier than i remember it ever being.
so, there you have it. blog updated. glad to have THAT checked of my list....

Christmas Day....

merry christmas to you and yours...belated...

dear ones..
it's been 6 whole days since i've posted. tomorrow friends...i will do my best to post some new pics and the latest happenings in the likkel household...
thanks for checking in...

12 years and going strong....

baby jack turns 7!!!

A Beautiful sight....

Pressure

oh no, here comes the pressure! now that i have officially started sending (handing out to church friends and family. i'm dutch) out christmas cards, WITH our blog address on it, i am finally forced to be more faithful in updating this. i will do my best to give updates every few days. i know that there are a few of you out there who actually read this daily, so this is mostly for you. :)
today we had our annual christmas program at church. the boys did great! they even asked sam to sing in a small group at the last min. so that was exciting. i have some video on my camera so i'll work on seeing if i can figure out how to put that on here. it was a blessing to see those little ones up there singing their hearts out to Jesus. yup, i even shed a tear. (kathy, you too? :) i know God was pleased by the sweet sound this morning.
ryan and i had a great weekend away. we were able to get away overnight on friday. we spent the evening shopping downtown and then dinner with our dear friends, tim and tammy. we made a big dent in the christmas to-do lists so the trip was well worth it. the trip home was quite eventful. a ton of snow in north seattle and bellingham. i think we hit 25mph coming thru samish. crazy amount of snow. sadly enough, very little fell here north of lynden. our boys woke up to green grass and showed MUCH disappointment in that!! my thoughts are, if it's going to be 25 degrees and blowing,(which it is!) it may as well snow. much to the boys dismay, there will be NO snow day tomorrow.
off to do some laundry.
have a blessed and WARM sunday!

still a newbie.....

ok, so i don't have this all figured out...i guess two slide shows are better than one, right? i'm too tired to figure it out tonight. in the mean time...here are some 'old' pictures. again, give me some time to iron out the kinks!
have a great weekend! i'm off to seattle to shop and relax with my dear husband!

a blast from the past...

GIDDY!

i am giddy, and i mean, downright giddy. for the first time ever, i get IT! my dear, dear friend, amy showed me all the features on blogging!! she walked me thru every step (i'm a visual learner). yes, she spent all morning here. amy, thank you. AND, to boot, she even brought me a coffee! go figure. so, let's see if i can remember some on the features that she taught me. yea slide show, here i come! :)

Stay tuned...more to come!

ya, ya, ya people. i have not forgotten you. i'll be back to update in a few days. don't give up on me! :)

Dale Turns the big 40!!

last night we celebrated our friend, dale's 40th birthday, with a surprise party!! we had such an amazing time! i think we had about 45 of us and amazingly, not one of us let on to him that this was about to happen! kath, his wife, my dear friend, did an incredible job keeping it a secret. she even was able to get his whole family here, all from out of state!!! wow!! we love our friends! can't hardly believe the '40th birthdays' are starting already! 40 isn't as old as it used to be! :) The Birthday Boy


Kath and Rye
Good Friends

Oh Bec!

The Kids get in on the action

Tam and Tim

Hot Wally

A Cheryl Creation

Kathy and Her Dad! Too Cute!

sam and jack, spying/listening under the bathroom door....waiting for max to start singing in the shower!!! :)

one of my favorite things is to watch my boys, all 4 of them, play a game of sunday afternoon football. these pictures are the best....rye still in his sunday best! :)

how sad that i only had one picture of amsa. i'll look at getting some more! below is her sampling the cupcakes!!! :)

celebration for amsa!
on sunday night, my small group throw a 'baby' shower for our friends that just adopted little 6 year old amsa, from Ethiopia. they were able to share their story with about 200 (my guess) people and then we had a party afterwards. they have an amazing story to tell and this little one is precious, beyond words!! they have touched so many lives, including mine!! although she's only been here, in america for about 3 months, i love her already!!

sorry, i have yet figured out how to work the 'slide show' to post my pictures. in the meantime, bear with me. here are some (yup, more to come from my sister's camera) favorite pictures from our trip to Michigan. these are some of my favorite people.....i need to run but will do some more explaining when i get home this afternoon...

people i love, prices i love to pay and precious, precious memories....