Eight Years.

 Remembering my Mom today.

Wishing she could see me as a Mama and be my guide these last eight years.

Playing Catch Up.

Christmas morning with The Little Girls was magical.


Christmas with The Bottings.

 

  Christmas at The Sattler Ranch.

 

 

  

 Finding random moments of quiet to look at my Christmas present...

 
...work on Jackson's family portrait...

...and meet up with Michelle for some drink at Zia's.

Jackson came over and we spent the day in our cozies, 

playing outside in this unseasonably warm December weather.

 Is my Goo already big enough for the baby swing? 

(commence tears about time passing so quickly.)

In This Moment.

The Little Girls are snuggled tightly in their new sleeping bags from Grandma and Grandpa. The Goo is softly snoring. "Santa" has come and there is peace in our house. Tim and I are sitting here on the couch catching up and enjoying the quiet, remembering how we moved into this house 10 years ago today. Tonight we had our first carolers, The Watt family. I can't wait to hear the girls' giggling and squealing when the sun comes up. Merry Christmas.

Peace.

 Last night The Goo and I shared a sweet snuggle while Tim and The Little Girls did yoga.

That is all.

Blue.

This blog is not intended to be a forum for all Botting owies, but lately it seems as such. It has been a rough six months for all of us, we've each had our uphill battles with physical pain and unexpected doctor's visits. This little ditty was the result of being distracted while cutting a bell pepper. I don't know what made my stomach sicker; Tim's driving on the way to the hospital, or the amount of blood in the sink basin while trying to bandage it. All I could think of was Dan Aykroyd playing Julia Child on Saturday Night Live.

 And now that this is healing up quite nicely, I have some sort of sinus infection which I am sure is a result of not properly taking care of myself post-surgery the way I should have. I am looking forward to and yet dreading my Dr. appointment this afternoon.
My only wish for this coming New Year is less trips to the Doctor/Hospital and fewer if any medical bills.

Tim

Dusty

Savannah

Ivy

Goo

Christmas Tree Gang.

A couple of weeks ago we revived our Christmas tree tradition with Rebekah and her family. Last year we were snowed out, couldn't make it home. Finding our tree with Hannah and Taitan is surely one of The Little Girls' favorite outings all year.

 Running through the forest to find the perfect tree.

 Taitan and Hannah cutting their treasure.

 Rebekah, Taitan, Hannah and Jason.

Tim chose for us this year, he doesn't mess around. We found our tree in 10 minutes.

Lego.

 

These 3 window displays occupy the store front of Out Of This World toy store in Mendocino. I asked the shop keeper who built these scenes and she responded, "a 40-year old Lego fanatic that lives here in the village." She also said he used no kits or plans, just his own pieces and a few special order pieces.

 This was actually remotely controlled to be a down-hill ski race. I watched twice, both times Captain Jack Sparrow won followed shortly by Sponge Bob Square-Pants. Harry Potter came in dead last.

 This was uniquely clever...Occupy the North Pole. 

I was intensely motivated after seeing these art pieces, I ran in and bought The Light House. I had explicit directions and the box declared it easy enough for 8-12 year-olds and even then it took me longer than I thought and made me feel overwhelmingly idiotic. 

The other day the girls dropped it and it shattered in the hallway. I spent an hour putting it back together. Now they have to ask before touching it.

The Cure/Time, Part 2.

 

 

 Nothing marks time passing like seeing your children grow and watching the sunset. Hands down my favorite moments in Mendocino were spent doing just that.

The Cure, Part 1.

Tim threw his back out a few days before my surgery and so it was serendipitous we had planned to go on holiday with my brother's little family to our favorite spot to R&R- Mendocino/Fort Bragg. Bandaged and broken we loaded up the Botting Bus and headed for the coast. 

 Sunrise, first morning. The Little Girls had no idea we were staying on the ocean. Literally on the ocean. The bluff/backyard of the property we rented was maybe 20 feet off the deck then shear cliff to the sea. The sparkling water and waves were quite a distraction.

 Jenny and Jack, Jared in the background.

 Looking for whales.

 Relaxing on the deck.

 These dominoes kept Ivy busy all morning.

 Train time.

A Jack on the Rocks.

 The Goo. The light is so magical at the ocean.

 From the deck of our house.

Playing Flower Princess on our bluff.