A new sheriff in town?

Look who borrowed big brother's sheriff outfit!

A merry Christmas

We had a great Christmas at our house this year, with the extra special blessing of Grandma visiting. We started off the morning with present opening-quite a task with 10 kids and 3 adults! The kids received many things they wanted, like an American Girl doll...


A ball (quite the cool gift when you're 2!)



Baby dolls...

And the highlight of the morning was our 6 year old new little sheriff, complete with guns, hat, and boots!

After present opening and playing, we watched a run of the Christmas story and then sat down to a huge turkey meal, cooked lovingly by my sweet husband. It was delicious! We topped it off with a dessert of apple pie and carrot cake. I found this cool edible image to put on top of the cake to celebrate Jesus' birthday! Yum! I hope you had a blessed Christmas, too!

My little girl is 5!

My little Christmas Eve baby is turning 5 tomorrow! Wow..i can hardly believe it. I went into labor on that day 5 years ago in., of all places, Walmart. I don't know what was more amazing-that she was actually 2 days early (not a typical thing for me at all) or that I was actually in Walmart on Christmas Eve-what was I thinking? The past 5 years with her have been a joy-she has such a sweet heart and is my little blessing. She is truly on her way to becoming a little mommy. We decided to celebrate this past weekend. Her birthday request was not a party, but a dinner out at Wendy's . I can't remember the last time we ate there, so I'm certain that she never had. She was pretty much looking forward to having a giant frosty. With another child sick, we weren't able to actually go to the restaurant, but instead, went and picked it up and brought it home-just as good-and yes, she loooooved that Frosty! She then opened her gifts and got several things, like this cute little dress..


A princess doll....



And a tinkerbell watch...

Finally, we ended the party with cake and ice cream. What cake could be more fitting for my princess than a crown cake?

Happy birthday little munchkin!

A busy month!

December is super busy, which is why you haven't seen much activity on here! It seems like we've been running from one thing to the next, or just so busy doing things here, there's hardly a minute to rest-not how I want to spend such a special month, but this week will start a gradual slow down for us, so we can focus on the true reason for the holiday. To give you a small recap of some things going on the last couple weeks, my 9 yo daughter had her band recital. She has been playing the flute the past few months. Though she found it wasn't something she was too interested in, she did enjoy learning it and improved greatly! Sorry for the sideways picture, too, it just will not let me post it straight!

The kiddos did some cardmaking with a friend...lots of fun, since girls love crafty stuff! They were very creative and ended up with some nice cards to bless others.

This week, the kiddos made Christmas cookies and churned out a bunch of them! We had tons of frosting and sprinkles, and some very artistic minds!

The final product...yum! And they didn't mind sampling them either! :-)

So there's a recap of the last couple weeks. Throw in our regular homeschooling, activities, tending the house, mailing off christmas gifts, christmas cards, and wrapping presents, and you've pretty much got the idea! I will enjoy every minute of our 2 week break. I think I need a nap!

Birthday girls

It's December...our officially crazy birthday month (3 of our kids, 2 relatives, and Christmas!) My 11 and 8 yo decided to celebrate together, but this year they chose to forgo the party and use the money they would have spent on the party to buy some things. We give our kids a strict birthday budget to use how they choose, whether it be a party, going out to eat, or in this case, just taking the cash! Well, the big gift this year was an American Girl doll from Grandma for each of them. They have been drooling over these for months and were absolutely shocked when they opened them! Sorry for the sideways pictures-they just won't come up right side up for some reason...

They had a castle cake (for my 2 princesses of course!). After making the cake, my daughter requested I put their ages one it. no problem, except I piped on a 7, instead of an 8. I was thinking 7-11 in my mind, which I thought was pretty cool. Yep, except she was turning 8. So I scraped it off and managed to get a somewhat crooked 8 on there!

Here they are blowing out the candles after a happy birthday song!

Happy Birthday my 2 sweeties! You are growing into two beautiful young ladies!

Little colonial kid

We're studying the Revolutionary War in homeschool right now-a great period of history, with so much to learn and so many great leaders to learn about. I love it. We read over the Yankee Doodle song, very fitting for the time period, and came across a phrase about hasty pudding. Hasty pudding? What's that? Well, it turns out it's a meal eaten quite often during that time, especially by the poor, as it was very cheap! It's pretty much like a porridge, cooked slow over the heat. We decided to make it and cooked up a great cornmeal hasty pudding! I didn't know what the kids would think, but most of them just loved it. My little guy just kept gobbling it down. See how excited he is in the picture! He would have done great during that time period, I'm sure. My little colonial kid!