Fun visit with Grandma, Uncle, Auntie and cousin!

My mom, brother, sister in law and niece all came over the week of Christmas and i got a lot of cute shots, yet another slide show but after all we're so cute who could resist. We had a great time, too!

Our Christmas Pictures

Sit back, relax and enjoy some fun pictures from our Christmas morning!

Morgan's Birthday Cake

Don made Morgan a "Morgan Barbie 9th Edition" birthday cake for her birthday, he carved the dress by hand it decorated it so cute, for some reason the colors on film look almost red and blue but it was purple and bright pink. She loved it and Don had a great time making it.

Happy 9th Birthday Morgan

My mom gave Morgan some of her old costume jewelry, so lovely!

I can't believe my little baby is 9 years old, it seems like just yesterday she was born and we were excited to bring her home on Christmas Eve and here it is 9 years later, makes me sad but I am so proud of the girl she has become. She loves Little House on the Prairie, Anne of Green Gables, along with Star Wars and Indiana Jones, she's all girl and at the same time a tomboy. She loves wearing dresses while playing out in the dirt with the boys! Don and I got her an American Girl Doll for her birthday and my mom made the two of them matching outfits in the Little House on the Prairie style. I have a funny feeling she'll be wearing it as often as she can. Love you Morgan, you make your Daddy and I very proud!

Snow

Out our back door on Friday morning.

Morgan making caramels, yummy

Our first snow fall, my poor roses are now trimmed back.

We've had some unusual weather as it sounds like most of the country has had. Public schools here were closed Monday, Tuesday, and Friday which didn't effect ours obviously since we homeschool. I had a couple extra kids because of it and of course they all wanted to play outside but we had little droppings in our yard that hadn't been cleaned up, well I'm sure you catch my drift. I took the week of Christmas off because of Morgan's bday and family visiting. We are so excited for our visit from my mom, brother, sister in law, and my niece. I have been baking away as usual, we've made three batches of caramel, 12 dozen chocolate chip cookies and I have peanut butter cookies in the oven. Don asked me to take some to his coworkers this next week so baking away I go! We finished our Christmas shopping today and now it's on to wrapping, I hate wrapping presents but it sounds like Don is going to help which should make it much more enjoyable. I am so excited about some of the gifts but will share after since the kids read this blog. Hope you are staying warm and safe this weekend, and my prayers are with everyone during the holidays for peace among family and friends.

Fun Bath Pictures

All of these pictures are rated G, Ty wanted me to take some action pictures in the bath and I got some cool ones!

Storybook Land

COLD Weekend!

Okay I'm all for cold weather when I'm inside but we weren't this weekend. We headed to Storybook Land which is indoors but not heated and then church on Sunday. We limited our outings but man it was cold, my body is so not used to these temperatures anymore. Last night we headed to a local store for Don to try on a pair of workboots and when we came out we found that it was snowing, lots, as of this morning it's still on the ground and with temps still in the mid 20's it looks to not be melting anytime soon. Public schools are closed today so I have a full house, we have already made caramel, magazine folded christmas trees, sugar cookies that we will decorate this afternoon, and I'm trying to find more activities since we have Ben droppings in the back yard so playing back there isn't a great idea, gross. Anyhow I took some cute pictures that I'll add in a slide show. Hope you all are safe and warm.

Christmas pictures

I took a few pictures around the house this morning of some of our Christmas decorations. We can't go completely all out with the ages of our kids and the daycare but I love how warm the house feels. I am definetly in the Christmas spirit this year!

Update

I seem to be doing a lot of updates lately not just regular posts, sorry. We had the free Home Depot kids project on Saturday, they made art easels to display their art on, it was fun, and we got there just in time, they ran out of projects right after we got there. I took my camera but unfortunately forgot to take any pictures. We finally put up our tree on Sunday, it was a lot of fun the ornaments are kind of hung all together in certain areas but I'm leaving it, the kids had an awesome time and I love looking and seeing what they see as beautiful. I'm going to be sad to take all of the decorations down the house feels so cozy and warm. My first venture into candy making happened yesterday, I finally made caramels and they were a huge success. It was a lot of work wrapping them when I was done but I have had tremendous positive feedback from the people who have sampled them, they were even compared to See's candy yummy. Don is continuing to stay busy with work, thank God for providing a job with employers who value him and keep him busy. He just reached his six year mark with the company and I am so thankful he has stuck it out with them. I know he doesn't neccesarily enjoy the job I know he does it to support us and I am thankful for that. School is going well for the kids I am thankful that I get to teach them at home. Ty is beginning to read we can actually tell him a word and he can sound most of them out to spell them amazing how quickly he's caught on. Morgan is doing great with division and multiplication, it's hard but so cool to see when she gets it. Cale is still loving penmanship and breezing through everything else it seems. Brock is still a bruiser, he is talking a ton more and imitates us a lot. Anyhow, I'm posting some pictures of our tree, enjoy!

Busy day in the kitchen

Cale and his slicked down hair making blueberry muffins

Ty making apple cake

Decorating the jars

We've been so busy today in the kitchen. Cale made blueberry muffins for breakfast, Ty made apple cake this afternoon, and then tonight after dinner we decorated some jars and filled them with Ginger Spice Bread Mix for the ladies that watch the kids during bible study on Thursday mornings. Tomorrow is our last day of bible study until January so decided we wanted to give them a little something as a thank you for all they do. Morgan wants me to note that it is not daycare they sing, do bible study and crafts! I know almost nine year olds and seven year olds don't need daycare I guess, maybe she doesn't realize I do daycare for kids that age, oh well weirdo. Oh and the kids are wearing the aprons I made them out of the extra Christmas fabric, I know it's a little Sound of Music but they look adorable and the kids love them.

Picture Update

This is the fabric I used to make curtains for our back sliding door, don't you love nativity toile, Don even picked it out.

Our freshly painted kitchen, all organized with gingerbread man valance over the window. You can't tell but the paint it a very pale blueish, grey, we are working on pictures, etc. to finish the dining room but that will wait til after Christmas, we are decorating for that this coming weekend Yeah!

Our dining room and "office" with full view of my curtains.

I made cinnamon rolls and they tasted awesome, just had to share a picture aren't they purdee?

We have GeoTrax trains that are usually put away because of the daycare but we got them out Thanksgiving and they made for hours of play, it was good to see them play together well for long periods of time.

I'm still alive

Wow I just realized that I haven't posted in a week, I'm a slacker I guess. Don had four days off for Thanksgiving and we had no daycare kids until today so we painted the dining room and kitchen and I made some curtains and valances for the house to decorate for Christmas. I am going to post some pictures this afternoon once the kids are down for naps, etc. Just wanted to pop in hoping someone is still reading this blog =). Hope you had a great Thanksgiving, I know I have a lot to be thankful for.