Where Have You Been???

We started the month off with an invitation to Sam's birthday party. Notice "Spidey" sneaking up to help the damsel in distress and then courageously throwing his body in front of the speeding vehicle.

One of Jenn's little beauty's.


Wow! What is it?





These next two pictures are in reverse. This is the "after"



This is the "before"








Another of Jenn's little beauty's.





Mark's new little hobby--He is building these shed's and he is doing a fine job if I do say so myself. I am picturing a big house on 10 acres of land. You can do it, honey, just keep practicing on these little buildings and think BIGGER.

We went to see Christmas lights on the river with our Suzanne Lulanne and had a blast. They had face painting, balloon animals, and Christmas card making. It was such a festive evening and it was all free. What more can you ask for?

Diva

Princess Sabree


Spidey!

Have you ever seen such beautiful face painting? And, she did it in record time, I was impressed.

This is how we socialize "homeschool style", aren't they beautiful?

This was my Christmas project this year. Can I make a nice gift for my friends that they can use and enjoy without breaking the bank? Still some work to be done.

These beautiful artifacts are the pottery that the kids made in the mall last week. It was really fun and very messy and very very expensive. But, for a once a year thing, spending $25 to make a dog that you can purchase for a dollar at the Dollar Store is not too bad, right?

I painted the living room AGAIN. I loved the yellow, but it just did not go with the rest of the house, and I really missed the red. It's my favorite color. But, the room is so dark and gloomy when it is all red, so I compromised and only painted one wall red and the other three taupe with sparkles. I like it. Please ignore the huge pile of pillows and blankets on the couch, we had just finished building a tee-pee.

Our Christmas party at Co-op was a hit. Who can resist some cake, gingerbread houses, singing, and most of all celebrating the birth of our Lord.

This candy was not harmed in the making of these gingerbread houses

This is the girl's piano recital. Sadly these are the only picture's that I have because I was recording it with this camera and my brain did not process that I might need pictures to go with the video. Live and learn. Notice the lack of glasses on one older daughter? She is an official contact lens wearer. It is so nice to see those beautiful blue eyes again. Or are they green? No, blue. No, green. They are changing as fast as her mood.

This was supposed to be a surprise. We had planned that the kids would wake up Christmas morning to find this in the back yard---That was until the delivery man came to the door to deliver it and announced (in a voice loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear) that he had a TRAMPOLINE for delivery.

Kids came flying from every room in the house to see the "box" that it came in. I was about to send it back after seeing them bounce off the walls in excitement. Who needs a trampoline with this kind of energy?

So, needless to say, we set it up the next day for them. What difference does a week make anyway?

Mark was putting all the springs on, when it started to pour with rain. So, we abandoned the project until the next morning, upon which I went out before he arrived thinking to myself, "Won't he be surprised if I have all the springs finished by the time he gets here?" So, I grab a spring and pull--heave--pull harder--once more with all my might PULLLLLLLL, but that spring did not budge more than an inch. It was at that moment that I realized the awesome strength of my husband. Wow! He is a superman, literally--leaping over tall buildings, lifting cars with a single arm--okay, he can't leap over a building, but, I still wonder about the car.

Seviann had her first scrimage of the season. She is doing really well and seems to really love this sport. Notice our teams great uniforms compared to the other school--yes, we sadly are the team wearing mismatched t-shirts and shorts. Where are our uniforms? The boys team was short a couple so they borrowed the girl's uniforms for a few scrimages. Something seems a bit skewed in this scenerio, doesn't it?








Well, that is a fraction of the month's activities caught up. To say the least we have been keeping ourselves quite busy around here, but I would not trade a second of it for life before homeschool. God is good.

Thank you, Lord for your blessings.

Weird science

The frog's "before massacre" picture

Let the annihilation begin

As you can see by how far back the scalpel is, Sabree was just slicing open his skin. "Dissection? Aren't we just supposed to get to the organs?"


At last some bones appear

Complete internal anatomy. "OOOH! YUCK! Do we look like this on the inside?"




"Lungs, check. Heart, check. Stomach, check. Pancreas, check. Wait--a "pancake", why do we have a pancake in our body."

This is so cool.

The first snow

Believe it or not, it is snowing. The kids were so excited about our miniscule flakes that they put on the snow attire, found the sled, and played like there was 6 inches of snow on the ground.

It's great to be a kid!

Describe Me

Last night, Seviann was telling me she would like to re-paint her room, so I asked her how she wanted it painted. She said that her friend's mom surprised her by painting her room in a scene that described her.
So, she says, "Mom, what animal would you use to describe me?" I was caught off guard, as I have never thought of what animal describes any of my children, so I told her one of my favorite animals, "A beautiful horse galloping through a meadow with it's head held high to enjoy the wind, full speed ahead, and every now and then, she stops to rear up and buck just for mischief."
"How would you describe Sabree and Briley?" "The same horse, only different sizes and color, some a little more full of mischief than others, but all beautiful and enjoying the wind."

Then, I asked her, "How would you describe me?" She says, " I would describe you as a vacuum cleaner, because all you want to do is clean everything all the time!" I couldn't help but laugh out loud at that.

Pictures from the trip

Poppy and the kids

Nanny and the kids

Little Poppy (Mark's grandfather) had his 94th birthday while we were there.

The kids made him a fabulous puzzle picture frame, while I attempted to crochet my first scarf. I found out that crocheting can be very addictive and is a great stress reliever.



We stopped off to see our Suzanne "Lulannie" on the way home.

My nephew and Briley. I remember when Briley was just that small, now he looks so big in comparison.




Ashton is so fast and on the go, it was hard to capture a good picture of him. So cute!

My brother and Ashton, Ashton is the image of my brother at that age.

We had to find a much needed periodic "play" stop to let off some energy. 3 kids cooped up in a house with lots of breakables or babies does not equal a good day without a looooong run and exercise spell.

Briley reading the paper with Papa. He had to do everything just like Papa.

My "fancy" mother. Sabree told her she was a fancy Nana, but she liked fancy people, so it was okay.

One of my best friends from college came in town while we were there. What a wonderful treat to see her. We love you, Aunt Jenny. (Briley is ready for one of those much needed play stops.)

Grand finale---The BABY--Ali.

Cuddle, Cuddle. Can you see a future babysitter?

Precious.

She is such a petite little thing, yet any picture that I took never captured her true look. So beautiful.

It was so wonderful to see everyone. Thank you, Lord for allowing us to enjoy such quality time with everyone.