My House and My Dad

When my dad comes to visit, Jerrica thinks it’s to snuggle her.  She always crawls up on his lap or by him to snuggle.  She LOVES Papa! 

However, I think that my dad comes to visit so that he can do projects for me…..

He came and built beautiful bookshelves in our loft on each side of our window seat.  I LOVE how it looks!  You are awesome dad!  I know my mom is really wanting to see pictures, but I’m waiting for the finishing touch.  I will post pictures soon….

I have tried taking one room at a time, and deep clean, paint, and do projects in them.  That’s why I have been so busy and so broke!  Nathan’s room we “teened”  up with a new leather headboard and soccer wall art.  The pics are of him, and then he had made the gold shoe in art last year.  They had to take a shoe and glue five objects on it before they spray painted all of it.  Nathan was quite proud of his project.

The room seems older and more “Nathanlike”.  I should have taken pictures of all the walls and the cornices.  I really like the grays, blues and black combination.

 

I have checked off quite a few rooms, but there are so many more to go!  Thanks again mom and dad for all your help.  You too Stephen!!!

San Diego Trip

Kaylee and I took a little weekend trip to San Diego. 

A trip that we won’t forget anytime soon! :)

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving by ourselves (Kaylee and I had to fly out THAT afternoon).  The girls made fancy place settings for each of us.

We started our holiday puzzle.  It’s a tradition for us.  The puzzle is a 1,000 piece Disney character puzzle.  I thought we would start it for Thanksgiving and then pull it out to finish, during the Christmas holiday.

Thanksgiving was wonderful for the simple fact that EVERYONE helped.  Each was assigned a dish to make and then everyone just pitched in until everything was cleaned and put away.  It was so nice to have the older kids help!

Ashley’s Birthday

My Ash is now SIX!

 

She wanted a Raggedy Ann cake this year.  So we pulled apart licorice and did her up.  I knew she wasn’t one of our “best” cakes.  However, when my boys got home from school they asked why I had made a “Medusa Cake”.  Ugh…. I try though!

 

Ash always has such an energy about her.  She has a fun sense of humor,  always quick with a compliment, and has such an infectious giggle.  She loves to play pretend, ride her bike and draws a million pictures a day!

We love you so much and are so lucky to have you in our family!!!

Bark

Ashley still cracks me up.  I caught her feeding Shadow (our dog) a bowl of bark from our mulch.  When I asked her what she was doing she replied, “Mom, Shadow needs to eat this bark so that HER bark can get louder.”  That girl of mine is always thinking!

Paint Chip Turkey

I don’t know where time flies so quickly, but it does.  I have been busy keeping up with the kids.  I have also been really busy trying to deep clean each room.  Each room has projects that need to be done whether it’s caulking, painting, building, redecorating … I have been doing it.  I can’t believe how fast and inexpensive some of these projects have been, and what a difference it makes in the room.  Why do I wait so long to do these?!?

Jerrica follows me around from room to room helping me.  When I picked up some paint last week, I also let her pick some of the long color chips to make turkey feathers.  I drew the shape on the back of each and let her practice her cutting skills.  She cut out ALL of the feathers, talking nonstop as she cut.  Gluing them all on the turkey brought even more smiles.  Scissors and a glue stick are pure happiness for my project girl.

Anyway, all is well.  I’m just trying to get this house all deep cleaned.  Thanks for all the sweet emails and phone calls checking on me.  I AM alive, somewhere in all of these house projects of mine.

Randomness

I took a look at the calendar for Saturday and had some serious anxiety.

This is the family calendar that everyone writes on when they have an upcoming event.  We had SIX games, a swim meet, dance rehearsal and a Fall social.  It was WAYYY busy, but I enjoyed every second of it.  I love watching my kids.  I love seeing how much they enjoy their activities.  I love how different each of them are. 

Our apple witches shrunk and DID get scary by the end of October. 

A few weeks ago,  I cut out a couple of silhouette haunted houses for the little girls to draw characters in the windows and doors.  I smiled when I saw Ashley’s in by the Polly Pockets’ houses.  It WAS the haunted house as they were playing.  There dialogue was cute as they were opening and shutting doors scaring the Polly Pockets that would visit.

I’m going to miss Ashley’s Halloween drawings and her “BOO!”s that she has been making non-stop.  I guess it’s turkey drawing time now.

Last week  Jerrica and I pulled out the Thanksgiving decorations.  It’s Fall decor, but I save it for November to have something new after Halloween.  I decided to buy a few Fall flowers for a bouquet.  The flowers were half off and I couldn’t resist the pretty colors.  I really enjoy flower arranging.  There is just something about how each little sprig adds to the finished bouquet.

One more bit of randomness.  We had a lesson Sunday on “Being Comfortable, being Uncomfortable”.  I keep thinking about what he said.  The guest speaker spoke about when we are upset or uncomfortable about a situation, we immediately try to remedy it and try to get back into our comfort zone.  However because we are trying to jump out of the  “uncomfortable” as fast as we can, we fail to listen to another or learn from the experience because we are too busy trying to make it “right” again.  It’s OK to be uncomfortable.  Relax, listen and learn. 

I always get my mouth going or an email flying to rectify something.  I know I need to be patient a little longer.  I need to listen a little bit more than I do.  I need to show a little more love, even though I’m uncomfortable.  It is then that I will grow and BE comfortable.

All of that probably doesn’t make sense because I can’t express myself. AND all of it can be taken out of context, BUT it makes sense to me  and I want to remember it THUS I include it here on my blog!  :)

Harvest FHE

We had a harvest lesson for family home evening a couple of weeks ago.  It was a perfect lesson for all of us and fit the season.

I told a cute harvest story to begin.  Then we discussed how people desire a lot of different talents and different types of education.  The key word is desire because some never follow up to attain their goal.  It’s like pouring over a seed catalog and choosing what you want to grow.  Then once you have made your selections and have the seeds, they aren’t planted but just sit there waiting.  You must take necessary steps to grow a plant.  You need soil, water, light, weeding, fertilizing…  It is the same with our goals and dreams.  You can’t just pick out what you want to do and let the list sit there.  You must take the steps to achieve it.  I then challenged them to outline and plan in detail what they need to do to reach their goals.

I then gave each of them a little reminder for their bulletin boards in their rooms.  The boys’ reminder was pretty much a pumpkin seed glued to a magnet.  Yet, it’s still a reminder for them. 

We also discussed how many times we see others’ harvest and don’t realize all of the planting and cultivating it took for them to achieve that.  There is definitely hard work involved!

We really can’t harvest our reward if we aren’t planting and nurturing today.

Games

We enjoy a good game around here.   There is just something about strategy, winning, cheating, laughing, snacking,…. that makes it so much fun.

The kids always beg for me to play.  I think it’s because they know they can beat me.

Today, my good friend, Trenya gave me a list of their favorite games.  I’m getting antsy for Christmas and some new games that I CAN beat my kids at.  Thanks for the suggestions Trenya!

Do any of you have a family favorite?

Halloween

Another Halloween has past.  Kaylee couldn’t resist switching back to a witch for yet another year.  This girl has been a witch every Halloween for a decade now!  She sure makes a pretty one…

Rebecca embraced the cheerleader character.  She had a little too much energy for me that night. 

Jerrica couldn’t let her older sisters have make-up without putting a little on herself.  I was taking a picture of Kaylee, when I heard Jerrica say, “you want a picture of me with my “lickstick”.  How could I not want a picture!?!

Ashley WAS Little Red Riding Hood.  She could’ve skipped for hours from house to house if she didn’t have us with her.  Here she is, just seconds before knocking on her first door…

AND don’t even think that a Big Bad Wolf could scare her…

  Because we found one trick or treating, AND she was NOT scared…

I took the girls Trick or Treating with Kim.  I think we have been going together every Halloween for a decade now.  Kim is so funny.  Her comments keep me laughing through all of the trick or treating.

The boys ditched us for friends.  I REALLY don’t like them growing up so fast.