Who owns the snow?

 

So I have the greatest conversations with the kids... 

Sweet daughter- "Mom, look at all this snow". 

Me " Do you know what snow us made of?" 

Girl "Yes, ice/water, but it is so much. Who owns all that water? It must be expensive!" 

Me with the best answer I could come up with - "GOD". 

They are so much fun!

Pulling teeth...

 So glad yesterday is behind us. 

Took M (8yr) to the dentist to pull two very NOT loose teeth for orthodontist reasons. She has had it done before and it was no big deal....no tears, just a little sore. Not yesterday! It took 1 hour and 45 minutes, a LOT of shots, happy gas, tears, and more. Finally, playing Jamie Grace music on my iPhone calmed us down slightly. She is very sore! The roots to the teeth are HUGE! The fairy better pay good for these. 

Miss M and Mrs "Wrussell" our sweet adopted grandma/neighbor.

On a happier note, blessed to get to spend time with all three of my guys this am for an (Early!) breakfast. I love when I have time with the big guys. What mature young men they are...I am one proud momma! I love you Joseph and Joshua.

 

2012 in Review

It has been one year since my last post.  All year I have contemplated how much of my kids personal identifying information that I wanted available on the internet for anyone to see.  I just could not come to a peace about everyone knowing their names, birthdays, etc.  I also couldn't find the time to address the older blog posts where I freely gave out that info.  Well this Christmas break gave me time and opportunity for a new plan of action for this blog.  If you know our family, you will know who the 'characters' involved are.  If you forget, a picture and their internet name are listed to the right of the blog.  Thanks for bearing with me as I searched for a peace about how to share our family safely.

This year we has brought...

March:  Miss Creativity turned 9 along with her good buddy HL

April:  Little Man, Blessings second son was born and spent 1 month in the NICU.  Praise God he appears the picture of health now.  Sweet blessing!

May:  Miss Musical turned 7 and requested a pirate party...  Pinterest to the rescue.  I had a great time making the hat and decorations.  What a cute Jolly Roger she is!

June:  Princess celebrated her 1st birthday in Pinterest style.  We had a small but decorative party.  Her cake and pics were done by two great girls in the E. Family.

July:  My anniversary gift grandbaby Leelee turned 4.  We had fun at her birthday bash, princess style.

August:  Jojo hit the big 16!  He has a permit...just waiting on mom and dad for the license.  Practice, practice.  He also attended Quest this year and started votech for Electrical.  Busy year for Jojo.

September:  Little Fairy celebrated her 5th birthday princess style too.  She had everyone dress up and do 'princess' type games.

November:  My Blessing is 22 now.  She still lives about 2 1/2 hours from us so we don't get to visit often.

December:  We count our blessings with all our family!  We hope you had a Merry Christmas from our family to yours.  Remember Christ IS the Reason...

Cool J Man's 18th Birthday

It's official...we have raised 2 to adulthood, only 5 to go(!) When I think of homeschooling I remember we've done it for 18 years with only 18 more to go. Children are such a blessing. They keep us young chasing them and become our friends as they get older.

J man  is now 18! What a birthday week...he drug the celebrating out for five days. On Friday night we had his party, complete with a volleyball cookie, volleyball cupcakes (thanks for the help D!!), and LOTS of chocolate doughnuts. While I was out running errands I got a call "Mom, Dad and I decided we need you to buy 1000 chocolate doughnut for the party tonight!", my reply "hmmm...a thousand you say? I'll see what I can do". I stopped at Sams and showed up with two cases of chocolate and one of powdered equaling 216 total. That plus the 48 cupcakes, gallon of ice cream and huge cookie were plenty of junk food.







Where's that ball??

All our friends bless us with a quick group shot (or 5!)

We are cracking up as My beloved runs, dives, and slides right into our picture...


Our dear friend A found her knight in shining armor at the party (ha!)...


J man  went on to Sunday being sang to at church. Monday receiving birthday texts starting at 4:45 AM(!)and cards/gifts from grandma and Leelee. Finally on Tuesday he received all his chosen birthday foods. We had eggs, bacon and hash browns at 5 AM and Chicken Enchiladas at dinner.

What a blessing and joy to know our child has arrived at adulthood, loves the Lord, and chooses to follow HIM.

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." 3 John 1:4

My new addiction...in a positive way!

I have always loved to CRAFT. I come by it naturally...from the time I was little my grandma D and I were making something together. Her specialty was EVERYTHING! She refashioned clothes out of necessity, before it was popular. She sewed, did ceramics, plaster paris, quilling, floral arranging, oil painting, and about anything she could make with a glue gun. Some of my favorite stories was listening to her going to the dump, salvaging furniture...junk...to bring home and recover.
As I took out my Christmas tree this year, tears flooded my eyes. There were the bread dough Raggedy Ann ornaments, the hand painted, ceramic Santa Clauses, the tree skirt, and so much more that Grandma made. It reminded me of a place she filled in my life. My buddy, my craft partner. She is missed! I haven't crafted as much in the years she's been gone. However I recently met a new craft buddy...

Pinterest

...while this buddy can't meet me at my house, she does have some awesome ideas to share! I am loving the inspiration to just make and do again. Life is fun when you're dreaming what your next project will be. I may be dreaming big, however I have been doing too! Here's some things I've made and done from Pinterest:

Fun snowmen handprint ornaments with the whole family...

http://momscraftyspace.blogspot.com/2010/12/five-little-snowmen.html

A comfy, new baby carrier for free...

http://monkeysewmonkeydo.blogspot.com/2010/03/make-your-own-moby-wrap-tutorial.html

Finished both my big girls fleece blankets, loved this edge, tried it, but didn't end up using it...

http://nebraskaviews.blogspot.com/2011/09/easy-no-sew-fleece-blanket-edging.html

I am still using the idea...still thinking...still dreaming...still looking forward to my next project.

Let me know if you'd like for me to invite you to follow any of my Pinterest boards. I'd love to hear what you are making.

Traditions

Our holiday traditions are putting up the tree together, setting out our handmade nativity set, and in more recent years has been reading the Jotham's Journey series. We started with Jotham, read Bartholomew the second year, and now are starting Tabitha. These books weave a fictual character through Israel at the time of Christ's birth.

One tradition of Christmas pasts was to make 'reindeer' aprons with the children. Kim, Josh, and Joe each let me trace their hands and feet, then paint them brown to form the reindeer head. They would wear these aprons as we made sugar cookies and when we set up the tree.

The little girls were so excited to find these aprons in the Christmas box. They wondered who they belonged to. I said a special 6 year old, 4 year old, and 2 year old made them...They just can't imagine that their 'big' siblings were ever that size! Now they would like to make some for themselves...

((Remember these??))

Another tradition we've had for the last 5 years was 'Dirty Santa'...I mean real Dirty, trash pile Santa Exchange. We would gather our trash up, wrap it, and gift our dear friends the Elliott Family with it. Thankfully they didn't mind and were wrapping their trash up for us. We each brought our unmarked, wrapped gifts(a rusty old boat, wild pregnant cats, broken computer monitors, and even a few indescribably weird things). Next, we would draw numbers, choose gifts, then steal the 'best' ones for ourselves. All this in the name of Christmas(!)

This year we have decided the game needed new rules AND a new name, thus the Nutcracker Exchange was born. A much more dignified name, don't you think?? We will be exchanging food items, junk food, homemade food, yucky food, and delicious food! It should be a lot of FUN! The best part for us moms?? When Christmas is over, there won't be stuff to store. We'll enjoy eating all the presents, unless it's yucky, I guess.

The girls and I enjoyed another new 'tradition' this year. Our Keepers of the Faith group made pillowcases for the residents of the Sterling House. Each young girl ages 5-15 made one to share. We went and sang 4 songs, starting with "Jesus Loves Me" and ending with "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". Each girl went around visiting with the residents and giving them their gifts. Our girls were even asked to sing again...Miss K, Miss M, Miss A, and I gave an impromptu concert with "Higher Ground". The residents just cried and hugged the girls, saying this was the best program they had ever had.

Our family has a few more fun upcoming Christmas events, then after settling down for a long winters nap, we'll start looking toward 2012...

May your Christmas Season be Jolly and may you remember the true meaning of Christmas. A babe in a manger who died for you, a lowly sinner. We are blessed!

Resourcefulness- just an introspection...

This is not one of those post on what is going on with our family or what we've done lately. This is one of those 'just because' I got inspired kind of posts.

Resourcefulness has a nice definition from Character First: Finding practical uses for that which others would overlook or discard. My definition: Being too cheap to waste anything.

Just this week I was making no-bake cookies and used all the oatmeal up. The empty bag was a thick waxy paper...which with the use of some scissors quickly became a huge sheet of wax paper. I LOVE saving a dime or dollar using what I already have. I seriously should have been born in the depression era with my saving tendency. I so enjoy it when groceries are a few cents a piece, hence my great excitement for couponing.

I also love the feeling of remaking something to be useful. Just this week my dear friend Steph and I remade skirts to outfit her kiddos by following Tamy's instruction. On that note, Tamy is one smart lady ((thank you friend for all you teach me!)) She is a very resourceful person using up what she has on hand all the time. She's shown me how to make gifts using scrap fabric, so we are using up our fabric to make pillowcases to take to the 'old-erly people', as my Miss M calls them, for Christmas. (Each year our Keepers group blesses the nursing home residents with pillowcases). My obsession with being resourceful includes using fabric passed on from others ((thanks once again Cheryl!)) for this worthy project.

I'm trying now to think what I can do for Christmas while being thrifty...last year I gave my girls a basket of groceries (even though my dear friends laughed at me saving trash!) I saved various boxes and containers, taped them shut, and we've played grocery store all year with this free gift.

I've spent sometime this week patching clothes up for another friend too. Trying to help her be resourceful. It's been awhile since I had hand patched denim jeans. My little guys used to wear their pants patched, but not now...

I save all my printer paper and print my coupons and junk on the back of the used sheets. Surely this saves on our paper bill.

The opposite definition of resourcefulness is wastefulness...which I never want to be guilty of. It is important to be a good steward of all God has provided our family. However being a good steward also means passing some things on. I can NOT horde every item that comes through my door any longer. I am letting things go...even things I might use again. I'm ok that I shared my newborn baby girl clothes with a young single mom or my maternity clothes with a friend. When I need them the Lord will provide more of what I need, that I am confident of.

I'll leave you with one of my favorite little poems:

Use it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
or do without!

Another October....

October was a busy month with no time to blog...not that November is much better I'm just up early today with a few spare moments to catch up.

We had three big things happen in Oct and a lot more little ones that escape me.

~~Family Camp 2011!!~~

We went on a week long camping trip with the Elliott and Chatham families to Big Sandy. We were very blessed to have Abbie and Charity join us. With all the trip craziness, we're just glad they are still our friends afterwards! We ate TONS of powdered doughnuts, learned to like iced coffee, had a great time at volleyball and rapelling, rock climbing and relaxing...you can figure out who did what!?!

We had sickness and sunburns, saw a few bike wrecks, lost more things than I care to remember, then found a few in the strangest places. Over all we were very blessed to have a week of FAMILY AND FRIENDS~~

~~ Fall Break~~ We took the opportunity of Josh being out of school to have his wisdom teeth removed...ouch! He's recovering nicely now. I forgot to take any pictures of his chipmunk cheeks, however a nice mom wouldn't post those anyway.

~~Birthday Fun~~Then the last week of October I celebrated my 37th birthday. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time does go by. Somewhere between being a 'young' mom and today I must have blinked...and now I have grown children! Although I never planned to be young forever, I didn't plan on it going this fast either.

I am so incredibly blessed by each of my children and a husband who is wonderful! I praise God daily for them...

Joe's 15 now...time to celebrate late!!

I think this post was much longer, but somehow it disappeared into cyberland.  All in all Joe had a blessed 15 birthday!


Eat, play volleyball, and fellowship where high on the list for Joe's birthday party. Here's all the girl attendees...what did you do with all the guys??? They had a great time with great friends! Thanks to all who came.

A Dog-on good birthday party - Miss A is 4!!

Miss A was very blessed on her 4th birthday. One of her gifts was her own black baby...wonder who gave that?? Why our very own triplet friends! I love the expressions as she opened it from all the girls. The conversation was pretty humorous too... Clay "that baby looks dumb" not much into babies is he?? Camie and Emma" she has pink lipstick on...wonder why she's wearing that?" You have to be a black kiddo to think up all those things,  Miss A thought she was perfect! She's become the new favorite around here!!

This was another special gift (they all were!!) She got a new pet shop from her brother Joe. She looked around expectantly to tell him thank you. She is Joe's best buddy!

We played pin the bone in the dog's mouth.

All our friends who made it to the party...

Elliott, Smith, Lowe, and Toombs families, plus Fairy's niece Leelee.

Playing Doggie Doggie where's your bone.

We also played Musical Paw prints (like musical chairs!)

We ate dog treats and puppy chow (chex mix). We had a bone cake...strawberry, chocolate, and sprinkles. Each flavor made by a different girl at our house. I iced it and made it to the party without ruining it. I was impressed!