Thank you Aunt Kat!!!!

I think one of my favorite gifts was the one Aunt Kathy gave the girls. She spent a ton of time and effort (including a lot of skill) to make them these wonderful Holly Hobby dresses. The girls look so cute in them. Good job Aunt Kat, and thank you!!!!!

Getting creative

Devins storage with 5 light sabers

Devin has so many light sabers, I needed a way to store them as well as display them. While thinking about this, I realized a wine rack would be the perfect solution for this problem. I looked online, and found this wine rack at walmart.com. It is the perfect solution. Not only can we now store all of his light sabers, they look good, too.

Christmas

cupcake was the only one to dress up

Devin wielding two of his new light sabers

Paige showing off her new cooking gear

Brooke feeding her new baby

Christmas day was so much fun. We got up with the kids and spent the whole day at home playing with our family. Our big gifts were a go cart, a piano, and a Wii!!! I will have pics coming soon of the go cart and piano. In the afternoon, my mom came over and we opened more presents. Thank you to all of our family! We love all of our presents, and we wish you were here. It was nice to have a day to spend with the family. Jake hasn't had a day off since Thanksgiving, so it was nice to see him. We all stayed in our pajamas all day, and we just relaxed. What a great day.

Our new dog

Jake and Duke playing after we decided to keep him.

We got a new dog! A black lab strayed into our yard a little over a month ago, and he was so sweet we decided to "rescue" him. Actually, we waited a day, and he continued to stay by our house. He is such a sweet dog, and he know sit, stay, as well as silent hand commands. I finally found his owner, and he asked us if we wanted to keep him. He had to move to Kansas City into an apartment, and he couldn't keep Duke. Duke is so great with the kids, and we were already talking about getting a second dog. We are all so excited! It is nice to have a dog that wants to play with the kids. Cupcake is more like a cat. She only wants to have something to do with the kids on her terms.

Brooke's hair

Sassy hair for a sassy girl

I wanna be bald!

Just a couple inches off the back please

Hannah Montana wig? No!!!!



The day after Thanksgiving I saw some blond hair behind our chair in the living room. Behind the chair is where Brooke goes to do things she knows she is not allowed to do. I thought, "oh man! Paige is going to be so mad...Brooke cut up her Hannah Montana wig." Then I realized the hair was to fine to be her wig. Ohhhh was I upset! Brooke cut about 10 inches off the front of her hair! She got to some of the back, but it was mostly still long. The worst was in the middle of her bangs where she left it about a quarter of an inch long...and that went back about 1 1/2 inches. Paige asked her why she would cut her hair...it was so beautiful. Brooke's response was "I wanted to be bald!" I thought I could cut it, but then I realized it was beyond my expertise. We took her to the hair salon, and the lady did an awesome job! It took us about a week to get used to her new look. At dance class, one of the ladies asked if we had a new girl in our class. She just looks so different and more grown up!

Busy Busy Busy!!!!

Once again, I am making excuses for not posting on my blog. I appologize, but I don't seem to have time right now. I don't think I will have time until after Dec. 6th. I am making a video, and it takes all of my spare time. I hope I will have time after I'm done! It is just that time of year. Busy, Busy, Busy!!!!!

Busy Life

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to post anything! We have been so busy, and I can't seem to find the time to blog. I have posted a little right now, and hopefully, I will be able to post more later today or tomorrow. I think I still have some pictures to post as well. Please bear with me as my life seems like it is speeding up rather than slowing down. It is the 15th of November, and I still feel like it should be October!

Rock and Gem show

Last week we went to the Tulsa Rock and Gem show. Brooke absolutely loves rocks, so I thought this might be and interesting field trip. They had a whole section set up for kids, and they had a blast. They got to dig a "fossil" out of a "rock". Devin and Brooke dug out a snail shell, and Paige dug out a shark tooth. Then they made castings of dinosaur tracks. Their last activity was to make homemade geodes. This was a project that had to be taken home and observed over several days. After we finished with the projects, we learned a lot about different fossils and types of rocks. For instance, we learned that a great place to look for fossils might be at Bixoma lake because it had both salt and fresh water. We took a walk to look at the vendor booths, and the kids started to get a little handsy with the VERY expensive rocks. So we decided to leave. Right before we got to the door we saw a booth with $1 grab bags with 10 rocks or gems in each. The kids each picked out a bag, and they took a turn on the "wheel of fortune." Devin won a tree made out of copper wire with little stones for the leaves and flowers. He said it is beautiful and he is treasuring it. Paige won a tile magnet with a picture of flowers made from stones. She is also treasuring it. Brooke won a big piece of quartz (rose quartz maybe?), and she loves it also. All the little rocks and gems from their bags have been looked at over and over. Devin is so excited because he has a piece of granite that is 1 billion years old.

Kids World

On Thursday, we had another field trip to Kids World. We had so much fun. Each child received a passport, and we went to different countries all day. Booths were set up to represent different countries with activities and projects for each child. After the children completed a project and learned a little about the country, they got a "visa" stamp in their passports. Some of the countries we visited were Holland, Scotland, Ireland, France, Russia, India, Taiwan, and many others. There were also booths set up to represent environmental issues, Red Cross, Tulsa Opera, Space, and American Indians. Our allotted time was two hours, but we stayed three hours and still did not visit every booth. We left with the children happy and moms exhausted. It was a wonderful learning experience. I could not find my camera, so I will post pictures as soon as I get some from Jennifer. No pressure, Jennifer!

Brooke wrote her name!

I have been teaching Brooke how to write her name for a while now. She is just now starting to get the coordination to write her letters. We were so excited when a few days ago, with minimum help, Brooke wrote her name for the first time. She was so proud of herself. Now she tries to write her name everywhere. She still gets confused on the order of the letters, but she is doing her best. I didn't have to teach my other children how to write, so this is a very proud moment for me as well.

Christmas is almost here

Today, the kids wrote their Christmas list for Santa. I cannot believe all the stuff they want! We already have some great presents on the way, but I think they want to put Santa in the poor house. LOL This is the second year Devin has questioned about Santa. Last year, we just let him decide what he believed. Today, he told me he thought mom and dad went out on Christmas Eve and bought all the presents. I said "We get all the presents on Christmas Eve?!?" He replied "You get some before Christmas Eve and hide them. I just don't know where you hide them." He has been thinking about this for a couple of years, and finally figured it out! I guess I should find my Truth about Santa Clause book. It is great because it talks about how Santa really was and how he lives on in our tradition of giving presents. This is going to be a great year for Christmas!!!!!!!

Happy Election Day

On Tuesday, we got up and went to vote. We had to wait in line for about 30 min and then the kids got to learn how to vote. We also talked about NOT voting for things you know nothing about. I think they enjoyed it. After voting, I had to work. The kids came with me, and they had a tally sheet to determine if McCain or Obama had the most yard signs. Since we had to go to a bunch of different neighborhoods, they had a good selection. The total tally was McCain-40, Obama-17. I was a little surprised. I thought there would be more Obama signs. We had a lot of schooling that day on the election. It was decided that Paige wanted Obama to win and Devin wanted McCain. I don't think Brooke really cared. At the end of the day we went to Chick-Fil-A for a free chicken sandwich with a "I voted" sticker. The kids got to play in the play area for a few minutes, and they had a lot of fun. It was a long day, but a good one.

Club house

While I was working yesterday, Paige made a club house outside. She loves making things with whatever she can find in the backyard, so she got creative. She even made a flag. Girl, you are so creative!

Halloween

Darth Vader

Snow Princess

Dumbo

Good VS Evil

We had a great Halloween! The kids had a lot of fun visiting Grammy and seeing their cousins. Devin and Kylan got to finally "fight it out" as Darth Vader and Obi Wan. Paige and Makenzie were beautiful princesses, and Brooke was Dumbo. Right before we left to trick or treat, Brooke decided she wanted her face painted with an elephant trunk. I literally had 2 minutes to paint the trunk on her face. The kids had a lot of fun trick or treating in our neighborhood, and I think they even enjoy looking back at how they had the willies scared out of them at the spooky house. They got a ton of loot, and lots of good memories.

Homemade Butter

When we got home from the maize, we made butter. We have never made real butter before, and it was so much fun! We had a jar with cream about half full and we shook it. We shook and shook and shook, and about 15 min later we took off the lid. It was getting thicker, but it wasn't butter yet, so we shook it some more. Finally, daddy took it and shook it really hard for about 30 seconds. We opened the jar and there was a lump of butter and a bunch of buttermilk. It was a lot of work! We ate some for dinner, and it was good. I think we will continue to make our own butter, but I think next time we will try putting it in the mixer.

Corn Maze

Duck water slide
Fun in the corn box

Getting lost in the maze of maize

Paintball

Corn box

Which way is out?

Racing ducks

Cow train

We went to the Maize with our homeschool group, HERO, yesterday, and we had so much fun! It was a perfect day to be out and about, and I even got a little sunburn. We got there around 11am and left about 3:30. We had the whole place to ourselves, so the kids just ran and ran and ran. They wore themselves out. Paige met a new friend, Devin got to see one of his new friends, and Brooke got along with everyone. We had a fire pit, so we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. It was so much fun! I think we made some wonderful memories as well as some new friends.

I have been wanting to make word are with scriptures for years. Please let me know what you think. Thanks!

Ahoy Matey!

Check out all the swashbuckling pirates and prissy princesses. Brooke had a lot of fun at her birthday party. She especially enjoyed seeing James, her best friend from school. She has told us several times that she is going to marry him! Anyway, the boys enjoyed rough housing as pirates, and the girls primped and played dress up as princesses. Tons of fun for a 4 year old!!! My baby is growing up.

Ketchup day update

The day was a huge success! The children loved the idea of eating and playing with ketchup. We watched a video with a guy painting a picture with ketchup and french fries. The children finger painted with ketchup and mustard...they drew tornadoes. We made homemade ketchup, but we didn't like it. I will have to modify the recipe to make it taste good. Overall, it was a ton of fun!

Ketchup day

Today is Ketchup day. We were on fall break last week because Jake had to take vacation or lose it. We have a few things that we should catch up before we start our new school week, so we made catch-up-day which translates into ketchup day. We get to catch up on our work and have something with ketchup for lunch. Today, we are having hot dogs, french fries, and fruit. The kids are really excited about catching up on their work, too! Ketchup day...who knew it only took a little ketchup to make work fun!?!

Baking soda

As many of you may know, I use baking soda for just about everything. I clean, cook, and soak with it. Recently, I heard about using it as a face wash and, loving baking soda and natural products, decided to use it. I have been using it for a couple of weeks now, and I'm not sure what I think about it yet. I love the way it dissolves dirt and exfoliates, but it has also been pulling all impurities to the surface. So, of course, my face has been broke out for a couple weeks. I am going to stick to it, though, and see what the results are after a few weeks. I did some research on the Internet, and discovered that a lot of people swear by it. Tonight, I decided to make a mask consisting of baking soda, tea tree oil, and thyme oil. So far so good. So if you see me with beautiful, glowing skin in a few weeks, you will know my secret. Until then, you may think I'm crazy (like you didn't already think that!)

Mommy's Makeup

This was taken last year when Brooke got into my makeup. She thought she was so beautiful with all that lipstick and powder. If I remember correct, the lipstick and powder were all over the bathroom as well.

Best Buds

This was made with Shabby Princess Promise Collection.

Hip Hop

Devin and Paige had their first Hip Hop class Monday with their cousins. They had a ton of fun. They learned the first part of a dance routine...and it moves fast! The teacher was AWESOME!!!! She had some time at the end of class to teach break dancing, and that was fun as well. I wish I could take this class! Part of what I like is this is classic hip hop. It is not the junk you see on TV, and the music she uses is mostly Christian because she doesn't want to use anything negative in her dancing. I love that the kids have this opportunity to learn quality hip hop and have so much fun at the same time. At the end of class they gathered in a circle to freestyle and show off their moves. We were all surprised when Paige performed a perfect head spin. Way to go, Paige!!!!