Pumpkin Carving

This Saturday we (and by "we" I mostly mean Nathan) got around to carving Makaela's pumpkin! I have this thing with the sliminess of pumpkin innards, and I thought with my current pregnant state, it might not be wise for me to try and gut the pumpkin unless we wanted to clean up more than just pumpkin innards :) I suppose that's enough, if not too much, said :) So, I was the designated photographer and Nathan and Makaela gutted the pumpkin. Since she seems to have no fear of anything, I figured she'd have no problem with the feeling of the pumpkin innards, and she didn't. She had fun pulling out pumpkin seeds when they weren't slipping out of her hands :)

Dada got busy carving the cutest ladybug on the face of the planet into her ladybug--all freehand!! We found a cute picture online to mimic and Nathan did an AWESOME job!! Here are pictures and a video of the festivities :)

Probably more excited about eating and sitting on top of the

table than the actual pumpkin and the task at hand :)

Assessing the situation

She saw mama cut the top off the pumpkin, so she decided to

pick up the knife and "cut it" herself...saying "cut it, cut it" :)

her latest "smile" :)

Getting the template on the pumpkin

helping dada clean out the inside

Picking up the seeds off the table

Back up to the table for some more action!!

Working hard and Hardly working--which is which? :)

Checking out the progress

Hard at work

checking out the candles inside

hm...what to think about this whole pumpkin thing??

The proud maker, and proud owner :)

Showing off her pumpkin :)

The finished product--way to go dada!!

Family Pumpkin Patch Trip

Here are a few pictures from our trip to our local pumpkin patch. It was a fun little place here in Port Orchard with 2 patches of pumpkins, and 1 patch of small sweet pumpkins to make fresh pumpkin pie. There was also a "hay castle" with a few slides for the kiddos and a trail through the woods following a little story. This particular farm allows you to come toward the beginning of pumpkin season and choose your pumpkin, personalize it, then the pumpkin grows with the personalization in it. Kinda fun thing we will have to keep in mind for next year :) Anyway, I forgot the camera so these pics are from my phone, and because we were using my phone, we couldn't get a clear picture of all 3 of us :)

A friend of mine who works for Deere says this one is probably from the 80's!!

In the Hay Castle

Sliding down with Dada

The wagon ride probably would have been much more fun (at least for dada)

if the handle of the wagon wasn't broken :) but we made do :)

She loved this rocking horse! She was rocking so hard she was

close to tipping herself off the front side!!

Sweet girl and dada in the pumpkin patches.

Ocean Shores

A few weeks back we headed over to the coast for the day. Still enjoying nice weather here and taking advantage of the sunshine!! We had a lovely day enjoying the beach and the warm weather! Much to my surprise, at Ocean Shores, you just drive onto the beach and park!!! That seemed a bit crazy to me, but normal to everyone else, I'm sure :)

Makaela adjusted well to the sand this time around--she actually loved it! She had so much fun wandering around and she even had fun playing in the water! We had heard it was supposed to be a little on the cool side, but still pleasant, so we didn't take our suits, but I bet Makaela wished we had! She ended up pretty much all wet anyway and she had a blast in the water with Dada!

We also found a fun little park to play at for a little bit and Makaela enjoyed swinging and playing on the playground set and going down the slide! Such big girl things she can do now!!! Here are our pictures from the day. We've really treasured these family times together and are looking forward to many more!!

Adventures in Washington

We live in such a fun place! It's not often that when we drive around we don't mention how thankful we are to be here living in this wonderful place!! God has packed this place full of His beautiful creation and we get to enjoy it all the time! How wonderful!!!

A few weeks back, we headed to Seattle for the day. My dearest friend and roommate from college, Emily, was visiting and so we thought it was a great excuse to head to the city for the day. Of course, even after I had talked about it, I still forgot the camera so we don't really have any pictures from the day accept what we got on our phones. But we had a great time! It's so fun to live just a quick ferry ride away--it eliminates the hassle of a car and parking and all that. It doesn't eliminate the tired feet at the end of the day, but its worth it and so much fun!! Makaela had a blast and she even took a nap in her stroller! This was a huge blessing to us and made the whole day much more enjoyable and endurable :)

Last weekend, Nathan, Makaela and I headed up to Sequim to take in the sight of the Dungeness Spit. The weather has been beautiful and we've wanted to take advantage of all the fun and relatively close things to do before we get into the busy fall. It was such a fun and wonderful day!! I found myself basking in the blessings God has showered on me and us. Despite me being completely unworthy of all of these, my God is still so gracious to me and blesses beyond description. What an awesome God I/we serve!!!

Makaela had a great time riding on dada's back in a carrier and checking out the seaweed. She didn't so much enjoy the sand on her hands, but she got used to it eventually--nothing a little brush of the hands wouldn't fix :) Here are a few pictures from our adventure. Tomorrow we're headed to Ocean Shores which I hear is beautiful!!

California Vacation

We just recently enjoyed a vacation to California to spend time with our families, to spend time in the sunshine, and to eat at In-N-Out :) We flew out Sunday after church and landed in San Francisco. We promptly made a stop at In-N-Out to make sure we got the trip started off right :) Having been on our diet, however, we were diligent and we did order our burgers protein style!! Still tasty although messy :)

We spent the first few days with Nathan's family down in the Antelope Valley. We went to the beach our second day there and had a great time! School was still in session so the beach was VERY quiet which was so nice! It was pretty chilly which was also nice as we weren't exhausted from the sun when we left. It was too cold to go into the water though, so we did just a quick dip of the feet. Makaela did NOT like this at all. I can't blame her. It was pretty cold. She also wasn't a fan of the sand sticking to her. The sunscreen was a little sticky on her legs which made the sand stick to her which consequently made her stand with one leg up in the air trying to get the sand off :)

We stayed with our good friends the Ash's while in the AV. They have a son who just turned 1 at the end of May and he and Makaela had a mostly good time playing together. Most of the time they were together it was nearing time for them to go to bed, but the times they were awake they had fun. We also enjoyed our time with them being able to hang out a little almost every night.

We enjoyed time with everyone in Nathan's family and were thankful for the time we had with each of them. We even got to see Nathan's grandma on his dads side, and grandpa on his moms side--an added treat!!

Friday we got to have dinner with some dear friends from school and we treasured that time very much. We finished off the night heading down to my family in Granada Hills. We spent one full day with my entire family before we all had to go our separate ways for various commitments. Then we spent the last half of our trip with my parents and sister in Visalia. That was a great time of relaxing and chillin--doing very little which we absolutely loved! We got in a few (and by few, I really mean only a few) good hands of pinochle with my parents.

Our trip was such a refreshing time for us and we are so thankful for the time we had to go away. We came back prepared to hit the ground running and we did!! God has been so gracious to us in providing for us and allowing us this time with our families. As our family hopefully grows in the future, we know those trips will become a lot more effort so we are thankful for the ease of time we have with them now.

Now we are springing into the fall (and yes, I did mean fall. Our fall church things really start in the summer) and preparing for Christmas and for the choir year ahead. We're excited about the upcoming season of ministry and looking forward to how the Lord will teach and grow us through these next several months!!

Dear Sweet Husband

I will put up a post with pictures and Videos of Makaela as soon as they are all finished uploading :) I just have a few things I wanted to mention.

1. I love my dear husband so very very much!! He is so sweet and thoughtful. I find myself often praising God for him, but especially yesterday. I'm so thankful for him and his job, and I'm so thankful that he loves his job. He had SO much to accomplish yesterday with both choir and band practice approaching quickly. Makaela and I arrived at church around 5 with dinner as we do every Tuesday, and he was trying to pull things together for rehearsals. He said he was running "very behind" but he was still able to finish things up (with a quick 5 minutes to inhale dinner to boot!!). This may seem like such a trivial thing, but what I'm getting to is how encouraging it was to see him working hard, all be it stressed out, but with a good attitude and in a manner that was pleasing to the Lord. And when all was said and done, he led both the choir and the band in productive, diligent, and God-honoring rehearsals. What a blessing to see him finish so well given the business and stress of the day. Thank

you Lord for encouraging him to have you on the forefront of his thoughts and actions in everything he does!!

2. I love my dear husband so very very much!! Monday was my birthday and in his sweetness and love for me, he got me a pair of aquamarin

e earrings that have a little diamond as well. They are so beautiful and I love them and appreciate that token of his love for me.

3. I love my dear husband so very very much. He rocks. Thats all :)

Disneyland

Nathan and I got to spend one whole day together--baby free--at Disneyland! A sweet man from our church had some tickets that he wasn't able to use so he passed them along to us so we could use them while we were down there! I hadn't been to Disneyland since I was 8 or 9 years old! Can you believe it?? Nathan had been more recently than I, but it had still been quite a while for both of us! Nathan's sister watched Makaela for the day and we got to enjoy some time to ourselves. We of course picked the busiest week as well as the rainiest day to go! But we still had fun and as it turned out, the rain dried up after the first 20 minutes or so we were there.

We were able to hit most of the major rides since we didn't have Makaela with us. The day went as follows:
Drive Thru Starbucks on the way down (a necessity I tell you!!)
Early lunch (first thing we did there after buying umbrellas :))
Ride, Ride, Ride, Ride, Etc.
Head over to California Adventure
Early Dinner
Ride, Ride. Yes, only 2 rides at California Adventure. The lines were VERY long, but we had a blast standing in line. We did some people watching, had a lot of laughs, and had some really really great conversations. Man oh man do I ever love my sweet husband!

Here are some pictures from the day. Thanks to Eric Horton for the tickets! We had a blast!

Christmas

Christmas was an extra special time for us for several reasons--it was our first one with Makaela! It was also an extended vacation for us (12 whole days!!) and it had been quite some time since we had a vacation. As a side note, in the process of moving up to Washington, there was no break for Nathan/us. His last sunday at Wayside was July 25th, and his first sunday at CRCC was August 1st, so we used that week in the middle to move up and jump right in. Needless to say, after the craziness of the fall, we were so excited about our upcoming vacation!!

All of our flights went off without a hitch! Makaela did great! It always ends up being a long day for her as there are several hours of time at the airport/in the plane when she can't be crawling around, followed by several hours in the car to get up to Grandma and Grandpa's house. But we made it, and she was extremely excited to have the freedom to crawl around everywhere! We spent the first 4 or so days with my family in Visalia. We had a great time together. Christmas Eve Day was filled with preparations for our big mexican meal we do every Christmas Eve with our cousins/aunts/uncles etc. This year we all got together at my parents house and had a great time together! We've started an annual gift exchange which always prooves to be a blast and hysterical! It's similar to a white elephant exchange in its rules, however, the gifts are not white elephant gifts. This year there were 17 of us and we are all grown (except for the grandbabies) so we have tons of fun! Christmas Day was a low key morning in which we opened stockings, had a nice big breakfast, got ready for the day etc. We read the Christmas story together from Luke 2 followed by the opening of presents! My mother was a busy little elf this fall preparing lots of fun things for everyone! I think she was the most excited about present time because she was so excited about giving! We got some wonderful things and Makaela was spoiled!!!

Early the following week we headed down to the Lancaster area where we spent several days with Nathan's family. We stayed with some friends in Rosamond, but we were at his sister's house every day. Tuesday evening we spent with Nathan's dad and brother. It was good to have some face time with them as we hadn't seen them since we moved. Wednesday will be in a different post because we went to Disneyland!! Thursday, Friday, Saturday we spent with Nathan's sister. We also got to see a few friends at different times on those days. We are so thankful for the time we go to have with them down there.
New Years Eve Eve we did Christmas with Nathan's family. As it turned out, it was just Nathan's mom, sister, brother in law, the kids an us. We had decided to do gifts for the kids only and they had a blast playing with some new toys!! We enjoyed some more mexican food (Thanks Troy!!) and played a few games.

Our time down there was extremely precious to us and we were so blessed to be able to take such a long vacation. We treasured our time with our family and it seemed to go so very fast. I'm sure that our time with family will always go by quickly.

Moving right along--before the computer screen goes crazy--

Christmas 2010 Letter

Seasons Greeting Dear Family and Friends,

The Fogde's decided that as we approach our 3rd Christmas as a family, we should start sending a Christmas letter. It only took us (and by us, we mean Leanna) 3 years to make it happen. A lot of changes have taken place in our family that we wanted to be able to share with those of you who may not know.

Our most significant change came in February 2010. Our precious blessing Makaela Rose was born on the 11th of February at 11:48 pm. She weighed in at 7 pounds 15.8 ounces--so the doctors just bumped her up to 8 pounds even. I thanked them for giving the appearance of having to work harder for an 8 pound baby versus a 7 pound baby. She has been a tremendous joy and blessing in our lives, and she has spoiled us rotten! Usually it's the other way around. She is preparing to celebrate her first Christmas and we are so excited to see how she will react to gifts etc. As with most babies, she will probably be more interested in the wrapping paper than the gift inside :) Our time with her is flying by, and it's hard to believe that in just 2 short months, we will be celebrating her first birthday!!

The next significant change came in Nathan being approached about a position as a Music Pastor at Christ the Rock Community Church in Port Orchard, Washington. We had served at Wayside Chapel Community Church in Rosamond, California for a little over 2 years. The Lord in His perfect sovereignty called us to minister in a different church, and as we prayed about the opportunity, the Lord continued to reveal His will to us. Just 2 very short months later, we found ourselves all packed up heading north. Every intricate detail was perfectly orchestrated by our Lord--who else could perfectly provide renters within 2 weeks, provide a home for us to rent (sight unseen), and get our house all packed up--all within 4 weeks, I might add!! Praise be to our Savior for His overflow of grace, love and provision!! It has been so wonderful to be part of this church and to see the bride of Christ functioning the way God designed.

Nathan is very thankful to serve in a church and to be employed in a role where he is doing what he loves to do. It has been his heart's desire to serve in a music pastor capacity, and the Lord has certainly blessed him in that role and job. He is grateful for the relationships he has developed with the other pastors as well as other guys in the congregation. He is also grateful for the opportunity he has to shepherd people at the church, as well as being discipled himself. What a blessing it is for him to go to work knowing that he is serving his Savior and doing what he loves!!

I (Leanna) am blessed to be a stay at home mom. The Lord has been faithful to provide for our needs in such a way that allows me to stay home. What a wonderful blessing!! We certainly know that is not the situation for many people today, so we are especially grateful for the Lord's provision in that way! I serve in music ministry with Nathan, and the Lord has decided to stretch me in the role of accompanying the choir. So far, it has been a good learning experience (it always is when the Lord wants to grow you) and I'm even enjoying that role :) I recently became an Independent Consultant for a company called Homemade Gourmet. I'm enjoying using that as an opportunity to get together periodically with ladies from church--and of course we are enjoying eating their food!!

This Christmas, we are eagerly looking forward to the time we will be able to spend with our families. We are going to be visiting them for just shy of 2 weeks!! What a wonderful and relaxing time it will be after the busyness of Christmas in a church music ministry. We love it, but we also love the break after it all is done. We have been so reminded of the joy we have in Christ, and are so thankful for God's sovereignty in sending His Son to earth to live as a man--to live a sinless life as an example to us, and to ultimately bear the wrath of His father for our sins. What a blessing it is to know Christ. We look forward to spending this season reflecting on and celebrating all that He has done and given us.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth." Ephesians 1:3-10

All our Love,
Nathan, Leanna and Makaela

Her onesie says "this is my little black dress" :):)

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

Christmas decorating came early at our house this year--and by early, I mean before Thanksgiving. Thats right--with the snow so peacefully falling on Monday, we couldn't resist the urge to pull out our Christmas decorations. Besides, since we're going to be gone for almost 2 weeks over the holidays, we figured the sooner we put them up, the more time we have to enjoy them. So here is the Fogde Household all ready for Christmas :)

This year, we also decided to invest in an artifical tree. We thought it would be a little silly (as much as we love Christmas trees) to get a real one that would just die while we were gone. So, while we don't have the smell of Christmas trees in our house, it still feels very much like Christas :)

Winter Wonderland

So, way back in November (which feels like it was way back) we were forecasted "few snow showers". If by few, the weatherman meant a few inches, than yes, few snow showers :) Enough to keep us house bond for a few days as the snow and ice piled up making the roads a little too tretcherous for us to brave. Nathans mom was with us, and due to the weather he ended up staying home a lot more than he had planned. Also, due to the weather we didn't get to go out and do much fun sight-seeing, but hopefully next time she comes there wont be a snow storm.

The snow started falling Sunday right after we got home from church and continued to fall through Monday night. Monday night also found us with no power (which we understand is a very common thing up here). Our power was out for several hours, but came back on sometime in the middle of the night, thankfully. A good portion of the homes where we live were without power through Wednesday and even Thurdsay!! Thankfully ours came back on so quickly. It was a fun adventure to say the least :)

Here are some pics :)

Trip to Cali

Last week Makaela and I enjoyed a short, busy and fun filled trip down to California. My parents were very gracious and they got me a ticket to come down and see them...and so they could also see Makaela :) We had such a wonderful time with them! It was far too short--but I'm sure it will always feel like its too short. Makaela actually got to see most of her aunts and uncles which was so much fun! She even introduced some of them to Chick-fil-A. She's such a good niece :) She also got to play with her 2 cousins on the Board side. It was so much fun to see her interact with them now that she's more interactive. Emma is 2 1/2 and Addy is 6 months and she had fun with them--for the most part. Toward the end when she was real tired and probably ready for some sense of stability to life again, she did not enjoy her cousins playing with her. She definitely had only child syndrome--but we aren't planning on changing that for a little while yet. For now, she will just have to learn to play nice with the kids around church and hopefully Christmas will be better! We are so excited to be back down there in just a month and a half or so! Time will fly, we are sure and we are eagerly anticipating time with both of our families!! Here are some pics and videos of our trip :)

Makaela Loved the Star Music Toy at Grandma and Grandpa's

Spending time with Great Grandma Helen

Grandma and Grandpa with their 3 grandgirls. Waiting for some boys to come along.

Ahem, Nathan Board needs to get on that :)

Hangin with nana Karen at Chick Fil A

With Auntie Alicia. She's providing grandbaby # 8 and girl # 5. Girls are winning :)

Makaela lovin' on herself in the mirror. Her face is a combination of squealing excitement with screaming frustration out of tiredness and lack of stability/schedule. Fun times :)

Uncle nate--He's the one who we're waiting on for some nieces and nephews :)

Darren's two girls Addy (6 months) and Emma 2 1/2.

So, here Darren and I decided to try and get a picture with all 3 girls. We have 1, Emma, who will sit still for a picture and smile at the camera. We have 2, Addy who is learning so much that she is enthralled with everything around her. We have 3, Makaela, who is faster than the speed of light and to get her to sit still without crawling to me for a picture is a miracle. Darren got a different angle of this shot, but I think for now we both failed at getting on with all 3 girls looking at us smiling that wasn't blurry :) So for now, this is as good as it gets.

One last thing, a video of Makaela with the star toy at grandma and grandpas. :) Thanks mom and dad for the trip and can't wait to see you at Christmas!!

Washington Home

Ok, for all you family out there who have been wondering where we're living, here it is. Some pictures of our home. Lots of the walls are still blank, but we do have things on the walls in the family room because thats where we spend the most time.

I thought I should start with Bella--I know you've all been missing her so much :) She has adjusted to washington quite well, however she doesn't love the drizzle. She goes from window to window looking for where I am in the house so she can beg me to be let inside :)

One view of the master bedroom (if you walk in the door the bed is to the left)

Another angle of Master Bedroom

Standing by couch looking toward doorway into kitchen.

We decided to use that corner as a play area for Makaela so we have

one of those big foam alphabet puzzles spread out and all her toys there.

Looking into the family room. We just got that sectional from a family on craigslist. It was a pretty good deal...needs a little cleaning up but was a good deal for the condition it is in :)

This is the guest room where you can stay if you come visit us :)

Office/catch all room :)

Makaela's Room

Kitchen--they painted it red which matches our dishes very nicely :)