Meet Sebastion

This December, we have had the pleasure of an elf from Santa visiting us. He has been received so dang well. Kameron was so dang excited when he got here! Sebastion, our elf, arrived in the netting of our Christmas tree we cut down.

The first night, he brought 2 new friends for the kiddos to play with along with a story about them. The kiddos love them and have taken them everywhere with them!

The second night, he ate all of the kiddos left over Halloween candy. He only left a ton of empty wrappers and 2 empty bags.

The third night he must have been hungry because we found him sitting on the coffee maker fishing in our fish bowl. He had taken a straw, a ponytail and a hook from the tree and rigged a fishing pole. Kameron decided that he had to leave something out every night for him.

Kameron made a snow angel yesterday in the snow that Houston got. Sebastion must have seen it because he wanted to make one too so he got my flour down and made himself a snow angel. He also ate the cookie and drank the milk that we left out.

I have been having so much fun with this elf! I can't wait for the rest of the month, I have some great things planned!!

Halloween Advent Calendar

I was searching the web about a week ago with my SIL gathering ideas for our annual Halloween party. As we were searching, I came across this idea for making a Halloween advent Calendar. I loved it!! It was so dang cute and I so wanted to make one. I started collecting the boxes and painting. I didn't realize I wasn't so good at painting until I got the boxes in the house and saw brown on sides or fingerprint marks where I had moved it around and smudged the paint. I finally got the painted right and started decorating! I love em!! I have been having so much fun with it. I can't wait to get them all filled with fun treats and things to do. I didn't know what I could put them on, the boxes were bigger all together then I expected. I knew I didn't want to paint our biggest cookie sheet, cause we really like it and use it tons. I was walking past the fridge and "ding" a lightbulb went on. So, our calendar is on our fridge. The black boxes stand out so nicely on the white fridge!! I don't have all of my boxes finished, but I am working on that have 15 of them up. I am going to get the others finished up tonight and tomorrow night. Lovin it!

Today, being the 1st, they are going to get a candy and a mini card that says we get to decorate for Halloween. We are going to put out the few decorations I have and then rake leaves to fill some pumpkins. But before we fill the bags, we are going to have a leaf pile treasure hunt!! I'm going to hide goodies and let the kiddos try to find them. It is going to be so much fun!! I can't wait lol.

T-Ball

Kameron started t-ball this fall. It is loving it! He keeps telling me that he wants to hit a home run, but he isn't used to hitting off of a t, so he is working on that one lol!! He looks so dang cute in his uniform. So cute!! They have played 2 games so far, and in both of them, the teams just went through their rosters and everyone got a chance to bat. At the latest practice, they were getting people out, so I am guessing that they will start playing more closely to the rules. It doesn't matter to me, because Kameron is having a blast, and that is what counts. It lasts until the end of October. I'll try to get a few more pictures up as he improves over this next month!!

Labor Day Weekend

Our Labor Day weekend was anything but a labor free weekend. We were moving everyday of that weekend and several days into the following week. We fed friends from church on Friday, had more friends over on Saturday for BBQ, games and some Rockband!! Sunday my parents came to visit and Monday we went to see Adam's mother. We ended up going up to where her dad was born and going out on the small lake in her husband's boat. It was a lot of fun for us. The kids and Adam had so much fun, and that made it a good day for me. I didn't have to talk much, just enjoy watching my family have some fun on the water. Kameron and Kaydence both went out on the tube at a slow speed with Adam. They loved it!!!! Neither one of them wanted to get off. They were full of smiles and they were waving at the boat. Adam also took a shot at kneeboarding. I wasn't sure if he was going to be able to do it, but he sure did. Hopped up there the first try and was going strong. He tried to do a trick, turning around in the water, but didn't make it and we lost him. Circled back and he tried a few more times. He was doing pretty good. We had gotten up there later in the afternoon, so the boat wasn't too long of a ride, had a quick dinner and headed back home. Tuesday brought Science lessons and a visit to grandma's job. On Wednesday, we took a field trip to the local animal hospital and AWANA was that night. Kameron had learned the Bible verse and was able to get his vest and little AWANA book and bag. He was super excited about that! Thursday we went bowling with our homeschool group and Friday was supposed to be a park day, but we got rained out!!

Saturday, just a few days ago, Adam and I marched in Fort Worth, protesting big Gov., way to much spending, the health care bill, and those stupid czars. It was raining the whole day, but we had fun and it felt great to be apart of something meaningful. I was asked about my shirt a few times, and when I told people we were homeschooling, I was told that it was great! One lady was homeschooling too, another her daughter was doing it. One couple knew of a family that homeschooled and their kids were doing great, college at 16 and 17. It made me feel great to hear success stories!! Hopefully Washington will take note of the people that came out and actually attempt to listen to what was being said and expressed. I can't even understand how Congress is going to vote on something that so few of them have read. 1017 pages??? Are you kidding me?? I think if they all read the bill, that they could see that it is doing more then is being said, and not doing other things that are being promised. Such big irrational changes are needed, and if we slow down and think, we can figure out better and smarter ideas. To actually think that insuring that many Americans won't add anything to our debt is probably one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. I was shocked when he said that. I'm proud to be an American, and I don't want to see this country go astray. I want my kids to enjoy the same freedoms that we enjoy. Pray for this country, that it doesn't fall apart at the hands of unseen people with their own agendas. Pray Hard!!

Visiting Nanny's

We finally made it up to Nanny's house. It always seems like there is something else getting in the way of our trips up there. But, we were finally able to go, and man it was worth it. It is so nice to get up there to relax and visit. We had such a good time. We went to the Colorado River, played in the water, waded to a section that breaks up the river and looked for rocks and sea shells and watched the kids float down a small ways with the current. We took walks, rode around everyday in their Mule ( a large golf-cart type 4 wheeler farm vehicle) looking for deer and checking out the cattle. We played games, read some Marley history, and spent lots of time visiting. It was a great visit. We all had a good time.

When we left on Thursday, we drove back over to Austin to visit Adam's Aunt Tanya and her daughter Ashley. That was a great visit too. We shared pictures, played with the kids and visited. We don't see them often and the kids loved playing together. Ashley couldn't wait for Kameron to get to her house. It was a great 4 days, and I can't wait for our next trip!!

Check out my other blog for more of our trip!

Curriculum Clean Out

I found this site the other night, searching late, and was so excited. It hadn't started yet, but I finally remembered to check back today and it is way cool. It is called the Curriculum clean out and basically people are giving away homeschool material by way of a drawing. Each blog that is having a giveaway has different ways of entering and some of them have ways to earn extra entries. Check it out, it is til the 15th of August for most of them.

Curriculum Clean Out

Busy Busy Busy

We have been so busy this past month, getting the new storeroom/pantry/washroom/school room ready. There has been so much sawdust and paint and clean up. Dad built tons of shelves for a whole 9 foot tall wall of books. I'm super excited to be filling that up. I have a picture of the school area, which is where we have been dedicating the most time to get it ready for the school year. We did our first day today, using the new workboxes I have been working on implementing and it went great. I absolutely love this system. I wanted to share this picture, and I've got to run so I will post more later. You can see our school happenings on my other blog:

Here we Row

Blueberries, Fishing and the Children's Museum

We finally got to go blueberry picking this year! We went with some friends and family and had so much fun. It was really slim picking, but it was great nonetheless. We plan on going back again to get another batch, before the season ends. We enjoyed making blueberry waffles and blueberry muffins.

We went to Lake Livingston State Park and went fishing as a family. We packed a picnic dinner and headed out. We fished from a pier and it was so much fun. We were there about an hour without any bites, but when we moved to the other end of the pier, we started getting some bites. They were smaller fish, but it was still a lot of fun to catch them.

Last summer, at the Community Center in our town, we went to one of their summer activities and received a free coupon to the children's museum. It was so packed, but fun. They had so many things to do and see that we couldn't even do it all in one day. I would love to go back soon, and hopefully we will be able to. Kaydence got cranky towards the end so we headed out but it was great!

I'll finish adding pictures in a bit, blogger is taking forever!

Great American Scrapbook Convention

This past weekend, I took a road trip with a friend of mine, Wendy. We went to Arlington to go to the annual Great American Scrapbook Convention. It is a weekend full of classes, crops and all the shopping possible, devoted to scrapbooking! It was awesome. We left Wednesday afternoon, and we came home Saturday morning. It was great. We volunteered some, (they reimburse you), shopped like crazy, and spent 6 hours at a organized crop. All of this was on Thursday. Friday, we stayed at her mom's house and scrapped off and on all day. It was great. I had so much fun and look forward to next year.
I was bound and determined to get pages completed at this crop. I've been to a few, but haven't ever really gotten many pages done, usually it is about 2. This year was going to be different. I spent about a week and a half, pre-planning pages. I put the pictures into baggies, added embellishments that would work good, picked background colors, found letters, stickers, anything I might want to put on the page and added it all to the baggie. So I went semi prepared to the Convention. So, I completed 32 pages in about 20 hours. I spent 6 hrs Thursday, 8 on Friday and about 6 on Sunday scrapping. It has been great! I feel so good. My next project is going to be birthday invitations for Kaydence's birthday party. It is coming up quick. It is going to be a birthday/Fourth of July party. I'm making a double sided invite. I'll post the pictures when I get em done!! Here are the layouts that I got completed! They still need their journaling, and a few need the titles, but I will add those today or tomorrow and put them into their albums! Hope everyone had as good a weekend as I did!!

Sprinkler Time

Summer is most defiantly here. It was time to pull out the sprinkler and let the kiddos play. They had so much fun!! It was great to see them all playing together and having a great time. Kaydence was a little hesitant at first, but once she got the hang of going over the sprinkler, there was no stopping her. They sure enjoyed themselves. I just couldn't resist posting the last picture of them crashing!!!

On Saturday, our first tomatoes from our garden ripened and turned red. There were 2 cherry tomatoes!! Lorie ate one and said they were good!! Yeah!! We were successful! On Sunday, the other 2 almost red tomatoes were ready. We have had 4 tomatoes so far and should have a bunch more very soon!!

I made this card for my sister's Mother-in-law. She sent me several different plants and flowers on Memorial Day and I wanted to tell her thanks. I learned to make this stair step card and used some of my new paper from Stampin' Up! Isn't it awesome paper. I can't believe that I have been a demo for over a year and had never bought their paper, it totally rocks!! (I also used it around my colored pencil holder)

Lawn Mowing 101

Mowing the yard is always a hot chore. Inevitable actually. Well, unless you want to live in weeds taller than you. But, since most people don't, mowing the yard is a fact of life. Kameron has been asking to mow the yard since last year. I don't know what it is, but he wants to help mow. Adam has been wanting to convert one of the mowers so that Kameron could use it. This evening was it. Adam fixed a mower so Kameron could help and he loved it. You would have thought that we bought him a brand new toy instead of giving him a lawnmower that works best for him. It was great. He was so proud and excited.

On another note, I've been getting ready to go to GASC and have been prepping pages. I was reading online about scrapbooking storage and found this super cute idea. The awesome part about it was that she had attached a pencil sharpener to the side of the bucket she used. It was great so I used mine and presto!! Here it is:

Today is also my brother-in-law's birthday, so I wanted to tell say:

Happy Birthday Kort!!

Happy Quilting

Every year, the square dancing club we joined has a huge fun fest. They ask for donations from each couple for the country store that they have. It is their way to raise money for the year. I decided that I wanted to make a quilt. A very dear friend, Shelly, taught me how to make a rag quilt so I decided to go with that one. I bought the material on Sunday, after church, so I could get it made by Thursday. I got almost everything cut out Sunday. I worked on it Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to get it all assembled and ready. I was still trying to get the edging around it when I should have been leaving tonight to go drop it off. I made it in time and they decided to use it in their silent auction. It made me feel good that because they all seemed to really like it. I really liked it too! Adam told me that he didn't want me to donate it because he wanted it here. I plan on making another one for us soon! I love how the pieces go diagonally across the quilt.
I love quilting. I really enjoyed this, even though it was a long process. I love the finished result and I love quilts. I have one that my grandma made and one from my great-grandma. I love them!! I have always loved having a quilt to wrap up in and I'm going to be making a few more with the material that I have here. I am going to have my grandma show me some more ways to make the quilt so I can have different varieties around. They will go awesome with the quilt rack that I found at a resale shop!! Hope everyone is doing good!

Easter, Anniversaries & the Beautiful Outdoors

Easter was great. The day before, we had the annual family Easter party. It was so much fun. Everybody brought food and eggs for the kiddos to hunt. We played games, the men played flag football, and lots of visiting went on. It was so nice. Easter morning the kiddos woke up to a visit from the Easter bunny. Kameron got a bowling set and Kaydence got a bubble machine. I then went to Church with the kiddos, and then we went and spent some time with Adam's family.

On Sunday, the 19th, we celebrated our 6th Anniversary. I can't believe that it has already been six years!! It seems crazy that time has gone by so fast. We have had some ups and downs, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. We went to the International Festival and we had a blast. It was featuring Ireland, so Adam, of course, had to try some Irish beer and we sampled some Irish cuisine. We were there for the better part of the day and had so much fun. We bought a few things for the kids. I ended up with 3 dozen roses for my Anniversary. I LOVE roses!! He brought some home for me after he got off work and when we were at the Festival, he bought me 2 dozen more. These are really special because they are wooden! There are 3 different colors made into a beautiful bouquet that I put in a vase on my night stand.

We have been wanting a picnic table for some time. I always had one growing up, and have wanted one for our family. We have been pricing them for the last few years, and always end up passing because they just seemed too expensive for a dang table. So, last week, Adam and I designed us a table that we wanted. We wanted a table that would seat lots of people and that would work good when we had friends over. We decided on a octagon shape. In the middle, Adam put a bucket with a hole to hold drinks. We will be able to fill it with ice and add drinks and they will be right there at the table with us. One of the best things about it was the price, we were able to make it from scrap wood and pallets that we had around the house. So all in all, it cost less then 10 bucks to make!! Around the area, we put stakes, to hang a canopy. We are still working out the details on that one to work right. We love it, this weekend, hopefully we will be able to get our first use out of it!!

We hung a hammock, and to do so, we had to relocate my clothesline, but it all works out good!! I finally found a bird feeder that I love that is squirrel proof. We have a few others, but the squirrels keep eating the food, I'd like to see them try now lol. And finally, my first flower bloomed. I have had some roses bloom, but my first flower that I planted from seed bloomed and they are beautiful. Thanks for sticking in there with me, I know it was long, I'll try to do better about posting more often!!

Weight Watchers and a Bit More

I have been wanting to join Weight Watchers for a while. At least once a month, I looked at the site and contemplated joining. I love the idea of tracking my food intake and pretty much everything about the program. LOL. So at the end of last month, Adam and I were talking again about how much I wanted to do it. So he said, "Go for it!" I went online that night and signed up. I love it!! I thought that I would like it, but I didn't expect me to love it. I am diligent about tracking my food, drinking more water, and taking my vitamin. I am totally loving this. I went to my first meeting last Saturday, and then my second one last night. I did awesome!! I had told myself that I would be happy if I lost 2 lbs, but I lost more then twice that!!! It feels great. I have more energy, and I just feel better. I know it isn't because I lost that weight, it is because I have been eating better and drinking water. This week the goal is to get more active, so I'm starting the morning off right by walking on the treadmill. I'll post little updates on my progress as the weeks go by. I hope to be able to lose about 2 lbs a week, so we will see.

On Sunday, March 28, I was coming home from my cousin's ward and hit a dog. It was a huge brown lab, and it caused me to swerve off the road. I flew through the ditch and managed to get back to the edge of the road. I was so scared. Kameron and Kaydence were with me. Several cars pulled over, and once they saw we were okay, they went on. One truck waited with me. When they got out of the car, he told me that he was shocked we didn't flip the car. I couldn't imagine flipping in our little car. We had to take the car to the shop, where it still is getting fixed. It caused over 3,000 bucks in damage. Thank goodness for insurance! We are all okay, Kameron and I had a little seat belt burn, but nothing major. We know that we were being watched over, and I am so thankful for that. Hopefully my car will be ready soon, it's been a week and a half.

We bought a new couch, well, new to us. We found it on Craigslist. It is a cream colored, leather sectional with two reclining chairs, a pull-out bed, and a chaise. Let me tell you, we bought a ccccoooouuuucccchhhh. This thing is huge. It filled up a 16 foot trailer. Packed it tight. Adam can lay at one end, I can match up my feet and lay on the other end. That doesn't include the two recliners or half of the chaise. It is awesome. At first, we worried that it would be too big, but it is perfect now. We absolutely love it. We got the best deal ever for it. The people said that they paid 7,000 bucks when they bought it, which I can totally believe.

My camera is full, so I've got to clear it so I can take some pictures, and I will post them when I can.

Hope everyone is doing good. Be safe driving, I have some close friends who have been in an accident lately and my heart goes out to them. Hope everyone is fairing well during these troubling times, pay attention to things around you, and do your best to plan for an emergency. Try to stock some extras of things you use a lot, and have plenty of water. Until next time........

Midnight Sun

So, as I finished up watching Twilight last night for the 2nd time, I got to thinking about how the progress was coming for the 2nd movie. I searched on Dogpile for New Moon movie and was brought to Stephanie Meyer's website. I looked around and found this. Midnight Sun. It is the story from Edward's perception. It is so good so far. It looks to be the whole book, but it is just a draft, but I'm reading it and loving it. Hope you enjoy!!

Twilight

So, the books have been read, the big-screen has shown the movie, so what's left? That's right, it's time for the movie to be released on DVD. And just not any DVD, if you go here, Target, then you can get the 3 disk deluxe edition with an I-tunes download so you can take it with you on your I-pod. I am so excited about that lol. I am gonna love having it with me to watch when I've got a few minutes to kill. Woooohooooo!! The third disk has like 45 minutes of bonus material not seen before, so we will see if that is any good. I'm not going to pre-order mine, I'm going to be at Target bright and early Saturday morning to get my copy so I don't have to wait! Wish they were 24 hours! So who else is going to be getting their copy on Saturday??

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

3.5 Posts Deep

As you are reading, keep on going lol. I posted 3 different entries and added pictures to one of them. Happy reading!!

Grow Baby Grow

Last year we planted a garden. It was a decent size and produced well for our knowledge and skills. This year we have educated ourselves and expanded our garden, by more then 5 times we had it last year. I couldn't get a full picture of it either, I'm going to try climbing on a ladder, to get a full view of it, so we will see. We planted a ton of things. It is going to be so good if everything grows. I'm so excited. This has really been Lorie's and I project, with Adam offering advice and labor every once in a while. We planted tomatoes, peas, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, bell peppers, hot peppers, banana peppers, basil, green onions, yellow onions, cilantro, parsley, chives, eggplant, bush beans, pinto beans, mint, strawberries and a few other things that I can't think of right now. Lorie, help me out and tell me what I'm missing :) Lorie saw an idea of turning an old tire inside out and we got Adam to cut the tire and turn it inside out. We spray painted them and used them to plant some beans. We planted the peas and cucumbers along the fence and have 3 rows of tomatoes. Can't wait to can and freeze tomatoes and stop buying them at the store!! I also planted 4 bushes of blackberries along one side of the property, I so can't wait for those to be ready to harvest. Yum, jelly, ice cream, and frozen berries, so excited!!! Here are a few pictures, I'll explain what each one is so you know what you are looking at.

This is the back part of the garden. The back row is the peas and cucumbers along the fence. The small timbered row is our strawberries. Then tomatoes and some yellow onions. The stepping stones are a tree that we lost during Ike that Adam cut up to use as stepping stones.

This is a close-up of our yellow onions. See how they are already doing good, it's been a month since we planted. They aren't very big underneath, but we can use the top as green onions while they keep growing.

This is some of the peas growing on the fence. Almost all of them have grown up enough to grab onto the fence to start climbing.

This is the front area of the garden, looking at this picture, on the left, are 3 more rows of veggies, and on the right are the tires with the bush beans and a few tomato plants we have left over.

This is the tire with pinto beans growing. They are doing awesome. Please excuse the white dust, it's seven dust. We've been fighting some stubborn ants and hopefully this will be the end of them. They've gone from the bed to the tire and hopefully this is it.