Welcome to my home

I finally put up my Christmas stuff. It's nothing to shout about, but I'd thought I'd share anyway, since we don't get a whole lot of visitors.

So come on in! My stockings are actually hung in the hallway, and not over the fireplace. Kaylee is a bit put out about that one, but I didn't want to put nails in my mantle to hang this cute board. Yes, if you're counting, there are 7 stockings. We had to put up a stocking for Coal. He is family after all. (Plus, when you buy your stockings at the dollar store, it's not a big deal to throw in an extra one for the dog).

I made this snowman a couple of years ago. He's been loved a little too much. Every time I turn my back the little girls feel the need to pick him up and dance with him.

A few dollar store Christmas signs:

We put up our big tree in the family room, since that's where we spend most of our time, so I put up my cute little alpine trees in this corner in the living room:

Here's the family room. I completely gave free reign to the kids and let them put up all the ornaments on the tree. Needless to say, we have a lot of ornaments that are all clumped together:

Here's a bigger view of the family room. Complete with a cute little black dog:

Thanks for coming to visit!!

When Sophee gets angry . . .

Last month Sophee's teacher let her borrow this book:
Or maybe she specifically sent it home with her for a reason. Hmmm. Possible.

Anyway, we read the book that night. It's a cute book. Basically the story line is about a little girl who gets really angry when her sister takes a toy away from her, and how Sophie runs and runs until she finds a nice little spot to calm herself down. Then she goes back home and everyone loves her, etc. It was a nice 'warm fuzzy' moment book.

So we finished reading it, and were gathering up blankets and things for bed when my Sophee says, "This book should say 'When Sophie gets angry, really really angry . . . She beats her sister up'!"

Yes, maybe her teacher did mean for her to take the book home and read it.

If your little boy loves hot wheels . . .

You really have to check out this site! It's a tutorial on how to make a 'car cozie'-a place for him to keep and play with all his cars. It's so adorable. Go check it out.

Look what I made!!

We recently had a 'Super Saturday' craft day at our church for anyone interested in making some super cute crafts. I was in charge of coming up with some fairly inexpensive things for the ladies to make, so here's what I did, a simple way to display the proclamation (only $2):

And some temple blocks for $5. If you're interested in printing some temple pics out just go here scroll down until you see 'temple printables' then click on it. They have a bunch of different temples to choose from, and a lot of them also come with the saying 'Families are Forever':

The following pics are of things I just made, that I wasn't in charge of. Obviously they are way too cute of projects for me to come up with.

Here's a festively decorated star. I love stars and have quiet a few scattered around the house to add to my "Texas Decor" (as my sister says):

"Home Blocks". Inside the 'O' it says " . . . is where our story begins" :

I love this next one. Our Homemaking leader actually found this online here. It comes as a kit that you paint, then assemble. It was the most expensive item that we offered-at about $28, but I think that's an awesome price for such a durable nativity set!! The metal pieces are already cut out and sanded for you. I love that I now have an 'almost' indestructible nativity set. I say 'almost' because, as my loving SIL pointed out, with my kids there is no such thing as 'indestructable':

And last, but not least, some seasonal blocks. It's a set of 3 blocks that you can rotate for different holidays:

Aren't these just the cutest projects you've ever seen?

Halloween

This year for Halloween Kaylee was a vampiress. This is her at the church carnival. She claims she couldn't smile because of the fangs, but I think it had more to do with the fact that I was trying to get a picture of her while she was 'hanging' with her friends.

She also got ready at her cousin's house, so she wasn't in the group shot below.

Audree was little red riding hood, Josh was a storm trooper, and Sophee was Snow White.

Going Camping!

Last Thursday afternoon-after I finished up with my Chemistry lab-we loaded up the van and headed to the mountains to do some camping and get some much need rest & relaxation.
Here we are, on our way-we even took Coal.

Dad decided that we were going to stay in a little cabin, instead of a tent, which worked out really well. Flushing toilets, running water, now that's my kind of camping. Here's the cabin, it had two little rooms-one with double bunk beds, and the other with a little kitchen and table:

By the time we got there it was already about 5:00 so Kory immediately started the fire and we cooked our dinner. The kids were really thrilled about roasting hot dogs and marshmellows over the fire.

Shortly after we got there Sophee asked me, "So where are all the animals?". To which I replied, "I don't know honey, they don't just show up as soon as people get here". Not even a minute later she walks outside and yells, "They're here! The deer are here!" Sure enough 2 deer had wandered into the camp and got within a few feet of us. The kids were pretty excited and got a little rowdy, which quickly scared them off.

Later on they came back and I was able to get a couple of pics. Here's Kory with one of them:

We only saw 1 male deer, but he didn't stick around for very long. The second night that we were there the kids fed a couple of female deer some bread right from their hands.

We went on a couple of little hikes around the camp and found this teepee. The kids thought that it was pretty cool:

We spent a lot of time sitting around the table playing games and doing puzzles-no electronics for us, even our cell phones were dead.

Sophee:

Audree:

Kaylee:

Joshua:

My pictures seem a little fuzzy. Maybe that's because it seems that there are always some grubby little hands all over the lens.

Anyway, we had a really good time just taking it easy-and the weather was completely perfect! Even if we weren't totally 'roughing it'.

Pumpkin patch . . .

. . . sort of. As much as a pumpkin patch as you can get in the desert.

Anyway, my kids had all of last week off due to Fall Break. I, unfortunately still had to go to school, so we were pretty limited on the activities that we could do.
Last Monday morning my SIL calls me on a whim and talked me into going to Vegas with her.
We took the kids to this little pumpkin patch that was in a casino parking lot. They got to ride some carnival type games:
(That's Kaylee up front next to the #4).

Audree, Josh, and Sophee in the bounce house:

Sophee coming down the big slide:

Audree coming down the big slide:

Feeding the goats:

Posing for some cute pumpkin pics. Sophee:

Audree:

Kaylee:

And Josh:

It's only been 2 months

Okay, I realize it's been awhile . . . and I only have 2 college classes. I should be able to keep up with running the household and only taking 2 classes right? Well, maybe, if it weren't for the fact that one of those classes is Chemistry.

Chemistry is not my forte.

Chemistry is like learning a totally different language.

Chemistry is butt kicking hard!!


Okay, so there's my excuse.

Please note that I have taken the time to put up 4 new posts below!
Now I'm good till the end of the year, right? Or at least until I'm done with Chemistry. If I survive!!

Sophee has finally lost it!

. . . her first tooth, that is.

She's been waiting for this for at least a year now, thinking she'd never lose her baby teeth.

Once she figured out that her tooth was a little loose she started wiggling it non-stop, and it came out a day later!

Check out the new toothless grin. So cute!
She is so proud of herself, and the dollar that she got from the tooth fairy.

Cousins come for a visit!

Back in early September my sister and her husband took a much needed vacation to Vegas, and we got to spend a few days playing with 4 of our cousins. It was so much fun! You would think having 8 kids in the house would be chaotic, but they all played together so well, that no one ever bothered me, or whined to me about being bored. Meal time, on the other hand, now that was a little crazy, but we had such a good time.

My little nephew, Joel, was quite fascinated with the doggie door. This was his access in and out of the house, as he could not open the sliding glass door by himself. (Just a note: I would have gladly opened the door for him, but this was his preferred method).

Just checking out how it works:
Pushing his nose up againist the glass for the picture.

And making his escape.

Sophee, Jessica, and Lacey decided that they needed to make Audree a birthday card, so I got out some 3 x 5 cards that I had bought on clearance and some crayons and handed them each a card to color then went off going about my business of cleaning things up.

A little while later Kaylee came and found me to tell me that the girls were 'totaling wasting all the 3 X 5 cards and making a huge mess at the table'.

I told her that it was okay, since I only spent 35 cents on the whole pack of cards, and if it was keeping them entertained for that long that it was well worth it.

Here are just some of the creations they made:

A closer look:

Then girls then proceeded to use a kleenex holder that I had in the bathroom as a mailbox to deliver all the letters. I thought it was quite cute, and it kept them entertained for hours.

Who can beat that for only 35 cents?

Anyway, the kids had a great time and can't wait to get together with their cousins again!

Audree turns 7!

Just a few days before Audree's birthday we took her to get her ears pierced. She's been wanting them pierced for awhile now, but just worked up the nerve to have it done. She was super brave, even though there was only one lady working there, and she had to have each ear done separately. She picked out gold heart earrings with a diamond in the middle.

What a cutie pie!

We just happened to be watching my sisters kids for the weekend, so we took them all to McDonalds then came home and opened presents.

Then had cake. Audree actually requested that we have cinnamon rolls for her birthday so we had those for breakfast, then I went ahead and made some cupcakes for after lunch. What's a little extra sugar on your birthday? Those are some plastic rings on the cupcakes.

Then, with the money that she got from both sets of Grandparents I took her to the store and she picked out this:

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!