Back to Blogging

Hello! I had gotten away from blogging for a while. With homeschooling, church, getting ready for winter, and my hubby looking into a new job, it has been kinda crazy. But old man winter has set in and the days seem to be slowing down. We are all in the Christmas spirit. The tree is up and decorated along with the house, we are baking up a storm, and the snow has come and layered the countryside in a magical winter wonderland scene. Winter is always a slower time for us and I enjoy the less hectic days that comes with all the cold quiet whiteness of winter. There is something so peaceful about the snow when it is falling ever so gently to the earth. It blankets everything in its beauty of white and the silence settles in all around. It is one of my favorite times of the year. So, that said, here are some of the highlights as of late.

My 3yr old turned 4. She is very eager to tell you or shall I say SHOW you she is four now by proudly holding up 4 fingers and saying, "Soon I will be 5!" Whoa, slow down kiddo! You just turned 4! She is such a happy little girl with her strong personality and joyous vibrant energy she brings many smiles and laughs to our family. (A few yells as well, but we won't go there.) I am so happy that we were blessed with her. Here is a pic of her with her presents. She loved her little fur real kitty that purrs and walks!

She is as wild as ever and was very excited because the day after her birthday she got to dance in the Nutcracker Ballet. Both my younger girls take tap and ballet this year and the studio they dance with puts on a performance of the Nutcracker at the local college auditorium. It was a great experience for the girls and the really enjoyed it. The show was really wonderful and the costumes, dancers, and sets were excellent. I really enjoyed it. I know it is something they will always remember. After seeing the show my oldest daughter expressed her desire to take ballet now. I know my hubby will be ecstatic to hear that! :) Here are some pics that I took before the show.

Here is my 4yr old in her beautiful costume. She was one of the Gumdrops and was so cute up there doing her Gumdrop dance with all the other adorable 3 and 4 yr old's! She loved being up on stage of course and was not the least bit scared. Why does that now surprise me?

I snapped this picture of my 3yr old, the little girl I used to babysit (in the middle), and my 7yr old. My 7yr old was an Angel in the show and also looked beautiful up on the stage performing her dance!

Here is my 4 year old posing. Parents of Gumdrops had to stay with them before the performance due to their age so I have more pics of her than of her sister. Luckily the mom of my daughters friend was able to get lots of pics of my 7 yr old for me.

We also received a new addition to our family in the form of a miniature pincher whom my hubby found along the roadside half starved in a very remote part of New Mexico. We are not sure how he got there and our only guess is that someone dropped him off. He is a lively little pup whom my children love. They have named him Jack and he is like a little jumping jack! He is hilarious to watch in the snow as he leaps through it like a deer. The kids are really enjoying him and are very glad to have him. Here he is with my 7yr old whom he sleeps with every night.

And of course we had our first big snowfall. Needless to say that after I took these pictures we received our second big snowfall in the form of a small blizzard. It is downright FRIGID outside, but we are warm and toasty by our wood stove and enjoying yummy homemade bread and lots and lots of cookies and other baked goodies. We can eat all we want to as between shovelling all the snow and hiking down to our vehicle we burn off all these extra calories we consume. :) My son has discovered he actually enjoys shovelling snow with our new snow shovel. We will see how long that lasts. But for now I am enjoying it. Once the frigid temps go back up we will head outside to try out the new sled my son got and enjoy some yummy snow cream! Until then we are huddled up inside still doing schoolwork, playing games, and cooking up good things to eat. So until next time. Merry Christmas! and Stay warm!

Crazy Hectic Autumn Days

It has been C R A Z Y hectic here for the past few weeks. Football is winding down which means more games then ever. We have had other fall activities for my teenager come about and we have been busy getting everyone where they need to be. My hubby came home and between getting his truck fixed, going to get his dad, and the kids activities we did not sit still a single day. It was busy but fun, and we greatly enjoyed having him home. We did take time out to do something that his dad loves to do and that is fish at the trout pond. All the kids went except my oldest who does not like to fish. They had a ball reeling in those nice big fish. The only problem we had was when we got back home, none of the kids except my son wanted to eat any. My 3yr old said she wanted the fishy to go back home to his family because they missed him and that is why she would not eat any. :) I was able to use my hubby's nice new camera and took all the pictures of the trout fishing expedition. Here they are...



Here is my hubby helping our 3yr old reel in her fish. It was one of my first pictures with the camera. They get better. :)




Here she is with the fish she caught! She was so excited when she and daddy pulled this in. Look at that big smile!




Here is my 7yr old with her big catch. She did not want to touch the fish when it was alive, but later after it was deceased she was just fine with picking it up and showing it off. Go figure. I guess the wiggly live fish was scarier than the limp dead one. :)


I believe my son caught the biggest fish that day. He was extremely proud of his catch! Look at the size of that FISH!


Then my hubby caught a fish. He did not want his picture taken but I told him he had to. :)



Then it was Granddaddy's turn. He just grabbed a pole and sat right there and fished. He was the smart one. : ) He caught a fish right away and here is my hubby netting it for him.


He did get up for his picture with his second catch. He knew he had caught a pretty one and I wanted to make sure I had a good picture of it. We enjoyed having him come and stay with us and we wished it would have been for a longer visit. The kids were sad when he went back home. They liked having him here.


The next activity was later that evening. My son had his but football game at ASU. Talk about excited! I took this picture of him in front of "the rock" that is outside the stadium.

Yes, he is crazy and yes, he does take after his mama in that regard! :)

He was so very excited that his daddy was gonna get to see him play in an actual game. Here he is blocking his opponent.


All the kids had a great time playing on the university football field in the big stadium. It was a memorable moment for sure!

And of course, what would my blog be without a picture of my crazy girl? She got right in front of the camera as I was trying to take a zoomed in picture of her brother.

She is such a cutie pie! I could just eat her up! She had a good time at the big stadium.

I will post another post later in the week of our activities since my hubby's home time. Right now I am trying to get ready for my oldest daughter's birthday. She turns 15 this Friday. I cannot believe that! Where did all the time go!

Our Time Together

We have been going strong in our homeschooling and our extra curricular activities. My youngest has decided that SHE needs to do schoolwork too, so we have gotten some books and she has been attending school with us in the mornings. The other morning during our devotion time my son put his chair next to her and was showing her where to find the scripture we were looking for and then read it with her with her saying the words out loud after him. It was so precious.

He is such a great big brother! I tell my kids that I gave them the best gift I could give them and that is their siblings. They really do get along very well with only occasional gripes. I hope it continues on through the years. I know that my sister is one of my very best friends! Love ya Sis!

Then we decided that the weather was to nice to sit indoors so we took our lessons outside and then decided to construct a Tee Pee in our yard since we were studying Native Americans in history. This is the outcome of the kids hard work. They gathered the wood for the frame, measured it, and then my son cut it to length. They then tied it together at the top and used pine branches in lieu of buffalo skin for the covering. We were going to use a tarp, but a friend of mine suggested the pine tree branches and we thought it was a great idea. Thanks Melissa! :) It is still up and the girls are having a lot of fun playing house in it.

The next day the girls decided to play dress up while I was doing laundry. They used my garden hat and my sunglasses along with some other stuff they found lying about. They were adorable in their outfits so I had to grab the camera and take their pics.


Here is my 7yr old who started the dress up game. She said she was a movie star. ;)


My 3yr old then wanted to wear the hat and sunglasses and became fussy when her sister would not give them to her right away. This is the face she was making when when she finally got the hat and sunglasses.


Then she made THIS face and told me to take her pic. What a crazy girl!

And of course what would my blog be without the football talk. My son had another game this past Saturday and they won! At least the weather was nice for their victory!

He has a very important game coming up where his team will play on ASU's field. He is very excited and is hoping that his daddy will be able to come home to watch him. I think he is going to explode with excitement before the game day arrives. :)

Busy Weekend

We had a busy football weekend. My son had games Thursday and Friday nigh and then another game on Saturday. It rained for all but one of the games. Did I say rain? I meant poured! So this is what we were doing while most people were snug and warm at home.

Luckily my two little girls were well prepared for the yucky weather. The picture is so blurry due to the rain. My oldest one has this look on her face as she is contemplating her next move. Did I tell you how much fun they had? Oh, I didn't? I am sorry. Let me tell you how much fun they had splashing in the mud puddles which, by the way, got anyone within a 10 foot radius wet and muddy, FUN! Oh, and did I tell you how much fun it was to stick their hands and sometimes whole arms into the downspouts that came off the building that housed the concession stand and at one point even attempting to DRINK the yucky water while their mother lurched at them while frantically screaming out NO! ABSOLUTELY FUN! Or how much fun it was to slide along the bleachers thoroughly cleaning them of all water while also covering every inch of their bodies with said water so they soaked themselves to the bone in spite of their moms attempt to keep them dry? FUN! That is not all the fun stuff we did, just the highlights of our time! But in their defense it IS hard to stay still and out of trouble for 2 hours while their brother and other boys run around on the field after some ball while jumping onto each other. Silly boys! :)

Needless to say I did get to watch some of my sons game. He played well and was very wet and slept extremely well this weekend. Oh, the girls slept well to. In case you were wondering. ;)

We did manage to take some time off from football and on Sunday evening we took a trip to the playground to relax and have some drier fun. They had a lot of fun riding around the track and then we played a game called "graveyard" which they had learned that morning. Of course there was the mandatory swinging and teeter tottering and climbing on all the equipment. I just take this time to relax and enjoy them. It is by far my favorite time with them. We are usually by ourselves due to the time we go and can just enjoy ourselves. It is a great way to start a new week, or end a week, whichever you prefer. So here are some pics.

Here is my 10yr old and my 7yr old riding around the track. They come up with all types of creative games to play while doing this. I won't go into details here. :)


Of course my 3yr old had to join in on all the fun and games. She loves this big wheel that she has and I think the wheels are gonna fall off it before she gives it up. She has a big girl bike complete with training wheels, but prefers to use this. She loves to have me follow her around the track and occasionally lets me pass. Her favorite game is red light green light. There are a LOT of red lights. I think she just likes making me stop unexpectedly while she cackles her little laugh and takes off racing away yelling, "green yite"!

Then the girls played restaurant. I think her shirt says it all about these two and their weekend adventures. :)


Then sister went off to play with brother so it was just me and the little one playing restaurant. She asks me what I want to eat and when I tell her she tells ME what I REALLY want to eat and makes it. She can be a bit bossy in her game, but look at this face! She such a cutie pie! How can one resist? I can't. At least not on our playground outings. But when we are home and the daily grind is happening? You betcha! Have a great week!

Football and Fall

We spend the majority of our evenings at either football practice or football games. This is my son's second year playing and he is really getting the hang of it. I can see improvement as the season goes on and he seems to enjoy it. It is a juggling act keeping my 3yr old plus my 8yr old entertained for the long hours of practice and even longer games. We just make sure we pack lots of snacks and some fun toys and they seem to be content. I enjoy watching him and cheering him on when he is out on the field and his 3yr old sister enjoys cheering for him too, regardless if he is on the field or off on the sidelines. :) She is a good little cheerleader. If another dad hollers out at his son she will holler to her brother. It is funny at times. She will not even be looking at the field and still yell out to him. She is so cute. It makes our evenings hectic and we often eat out of the crock pot, but it is all worth it in the end. Here are some pictures from tonight's game.









Here is my son in all his gear. Sweaty, tired, and happy after his game. He should sleep well tonight!





Here is my silly little girl making faces during her brothers game. She is quite the comedian.

Busy Fall Season Has Begun

It has been awhile since I blogged anything about our days. That is because once school begins our lives kick up into high gear. Our days are filled with school, football, dance, and church. There is little time for other extra curricular activities. It is a short season of busyness, one that I do not especially look forward to, but tolerate due to the shortness of the season. So in the midst of all our busyness we decided to take a break after dance class the other day and go hiking. This is a great way for us to spend time together while enjoying nature. It is one of our favorite ways to regroup. We love to stroll along at our own pace exchanging stories and commenting on all God's beauty that we see. We decided to take a different path than we normally do and our "short' hike ended up being 3 hours long! The only downside was I had to carry my tired little 3yr old over half the way as she was tired out from all the dancing she had done earlier. Thankfully there were not a lot of hills to contend with along the way. We enjoyed our new trail and have agreed that we need to go back to check out the other trails that we have yet to explore. So here are some pictures of our travels.



This tunnel was hidden behind a bend in the trail. My kids love to go through these tunnels and call out to hear the excellent echos they produce.


This is what most of the trail looked like. It was a wooded trail with very few open meadows. We saw only a few people jogging along at the start of our hike and then we saw no one. It was like we were the only ones in the woods. This was peaceful yet a little unnerving being we did not know where we were going and time was moving along toward darkness.


Thankfully we made it back out of the woods before it got dark. My oldest daughter lined up this shot and took it of her siblings. I thought it came out rather well. She enjoys photography and usually I just hand her the camera and let her do her thing along the way.




I wanted a picture of all of them so I lined them up and snapped this shot. I have a lot of appreciation for photographers when it comes to lots of children and getting there picture taken in a group. :)




We have also enjoyed doing some of our school work outside so we can enjoy the sunny autumn days. What you cannot see in this picture is the leaves that were gently falling to the ground. My 3yr old loves to run and catch the leaves as they float down. She amassed quite a pile of them on this beautiful afternoon.



We have also enjoyed the peaches, pears, grapes, and apples that grow in abundance in our yard. Here she is enjoying a juicy peach. You can see the telltale signs of the juiciness on her shirt. It was very "yummy" :)



Here is my little stinker bug making a yogurt mustache. Oh the things she thinks up....She is such a silly girl. Her favorite saying has become, "MOM! YOU 'CARED ME!" whenever I catch her doing something she is not suppose to be doing and yell out her name. She says this while holding her chest with one hand and laughing with her hand over her mouth with the other hand. She is a mess. Literally. :)





She also is a wonderful creator of play dough food. Here she has made a tray full of food for me to eat. It looks yummy doesn't it?


So that is a small snapshot of what we have been up to. So until next time...Bye Bye!

Playground

We spent the morning in church enjoying a great message and then helping out in the infant room. We then spent the afternoon together at the house. This evening it was back to town so my oldest could attend her youth meeting at church. My youngest two fell asleep in the car on the way to town so my son and I parked in the back parking lot at church and proceeded to use my handy dandy new phone to browse the Internet for how to make a boomerang. We found instructions and then found some cardboard in the trunk and something to cut it with (don't ask) and made our boomerang. Guess what? It actually works, well sort of. We plan on actually printing out the template now that we are home and trying it again. It did fly up and come back to him, but I think once we make it more specific (as in having actual scissors to cut the boomerang shape out of the cardboard) that it will work a lot better. My youngest two woke up once we finished flying the boomerang and we went on to the playground. It had been a rainy afternoon but had cleared up this evening so we had the whole messy playground to ourselves. It was great. We played some and then I walked around the walking track while the kids played in the sand box. As I walked I thought of how someday they will be all grown up and I will not have these wonderful evenings at the playground to hear, "Mom look at this!" or "Mommy, here are some flowers I picked for you!". I watched them playing and I thought of how hectic life gets and how sometimes I get focused on things that take my attention away from them and how I can't get this time back with them. Sometimes it takes quiet introspective moment to make you see just what is important in life.

Here is my 7yr old after she made her crab house in the sand. She was covered in sand and had a wonderful time creating this. It was worth the vacuuming it will take to clean up the mess in the car.



Here is my 3yr old enjoying the slides. She found a secret way to get up these slides and enjoyed going up and down them for most of the time there.

Here is my son holding his boomerang. You cannot see it in the picture very well as it does blend in some with his shirt. He ended up walking around the track with me and then decided to run around it.

We decided to make this our Sunday playground time every week. Sounds good to me!

Summer wrapping up

This is the last week of summer for my oldest as school starts back up for her next week. She is so excited. She has a new school to attend complete with a new laptop which is mandatory for her to have. I am not so excited about the mandatory laptop that they are giving all the students. I do NOT want to have to pay for the thing if it gets damaged, but it is not optional so I guess there is not much I can do. The school is beautiful and should be large enough for everyone and is more out of the town so I like that. She only has 3 years left. I cannot believe it. It will fly by I just know. She is already telling me how she will be old enough to get her permit soon. I told her its Daddy's job to teach her to drive. Good luck honey! heeheehee

We have been busy harvesting more of our garden. The corn is delicious and I have already put up 50 ears and we have many more to go. We will be putting up more tomorrow as we are trying to put it up as we go along. I also put up some sweet pickles which my 3yr old says is "yummy".

My son is officially signed up for football and is already practicing. He wants myself or his sister to go out and throw the ball with him each night. Luckily the younger 2 girls can play outside together while we do these "practices" as he calls them. I am sure we will be getting a call next week telling us practice is starting up. Then the following week my 7yr old will start her ballet/tap class. I had to put her tap and ballet shoes up as she was putting them on everyday practicing all around the house. I told her she was going to wear them out before she even starts! She will get into her dance outfit and put her little sister in one and they dance all around the house. I feel like I have Angelina Ballerina living with me!

My hubby has been busy looking at trucks to buy. I guess the correct term would be "tractors" as it is a big rig. He finally found one he likes and will be making his purchase in a few weeks. My son cannot wait to ride in "daddy's new truck!" I am just looking forward to him coming home!


Now here are some pics.


Here is my son throwing his football around with his sister and I. He has grown over the summer!


Here is my 3yr old riding around on her 4-wheeler.

then:

I look behind me to see her doing this!

"Look ma, no hands!" No wonder I am tired at the end of the day!

Ramblings

It has been a busy summer. The garden is doing well so I have spent time canning beans, relish, and now peaches. Next week I will be freezing squash, picking blueberries to freeze and hopefully putting up some pickles. Soon the corn will be ready and that will mean a corn shucking party in which my kids all shuck the hundreds of ears of corn and have some friends over to help with it. I have taught another VBS in which I had 12 3yr olds and they were the best. This was a church that had VBS for the first time and they were very successful and had 146 kids attend! It was the best VBS I have ever taught at. They were very well prepared and the kids all had a great time. I have also been busy getting my school supplies for homeschooling. Ebay has become my good friend in that I am able to get the kids books sooo much cheaper this way. I finally have them all gathered up and we are looking forward to starting back to school next month. My oldest is looking forward to going back to school and they have a new HS that they finished so it will be all new to her. Exciting to say the least. We attend orientation next week for it as she starts back the week after. Next month will be the start of school, football season, and dance classes. Whew, fall is a busy time for us but it will be a lot of fun. Now for some pictures.

"Peek a boo, I see you!" My oldest took a pic of her sister hiding in a tree.


Here is my 3yr old swinging in her new pretty little dress. I love hearing the swish swish of her dress brushing against her legs as she runs through the yard. We have been playing outdoor games in the evening after it cools down and she looks so cute running around with her pig tails flying out behind her!



This beautiful butterfly was found after he came out of his cocoon. They had discovered the cocoon and had been watching it and came out one morning to see the butterfly had emerged from the cocoon and was drying out his wings. He jumped right on my sons finger when he put it down beside the twig the butterfly was on.

This was the last picture of him before he flew off to join the rest of the butterflies flying around the gardens. My son went and took the cocoon so he would have it for his collection of nature items.

Tenth Avenue North Concert

Tonight we attended a Tenth Avenue North concert that was in town. They are a Christian group that I hear a lot on K-Love and other Christian radio stations. They are an excellent band and play some of my favorite songs like "By Your Side" and "Love is Here" and many more. If you are not familiar with the band you can find them at: http://tenthavenuenorth.com/

They really performed well and their songs have great messages behind them that really move you. Even when they spoke to the audience they had a message for you. It was just a very good concert. This is my second Christian concert and I prefer them over any other concerts I have been to. The kids all were every excited to see them including my 14yr old. They got up and danced and clapped and sang along to the music and had a wonderful time. Even my 3yr old enjoyed it. My oldest took her brother and cousin up front so they could see the band up close which they really loved. It was a wonderful way to end the day!

Pool Time!

A friend of mine who has two children that I used to babysit and our good friends of ours invited us to spend the day with them on Tuesday at the local pool. We had never been and we decided to accept her invitation and go. It was excellent! The pool had many fun things for the kids including a water slide! We spent 4 1/2 hours at the pool just enjoying each others company and the lovely cool water on such a hot and humid day. Everyone went down the water slide including me with my 3yr old as it was the first thing she wanted to try. It was a big hit with all the children. Here is a picture of my son splashing into the pool after coming down the water slide.



There were a lot of people, but you still had plenty of space to swim and it was not too crowded. I was greatly pleased with this new fun outing and will be taking my children back soon. It was a great inexpensive way to enjoy a hot summer day. My kids are already asking to go back. Here is my daughter and her friend enjoying the shower tower in the pool. It also had buckets on top that would fill up with water and spill over onto you as they became full. I discovered that the hard way while I was following my 3yr old out of the pool. It was a shocking yet pleasant surprise! It definitely cooled you off. You cannot see the bucket tower in this picture, only the shower part. This whole area was enjoyed by young and old alike.


We had a great day and look forward to returning for another day of fun in sun! Especially since we are in the middle of a horrendous heat wave.