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!

A time of thanks..

Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for all that the Lord has done in our lives. I have a lot to be thankful for this year-my husband having a job in an otherwise tough economy, having the freedom to homeschool, my son's amazing recovery from his accident a few months ago, and so many more things. I could fill up this entire blog and still have more to say! Unfortunately, I find that I often take these things for granted and don't remember to give thanks to God as much as I should. To help my kids remember all that God has done for them, they each made a tree of thanks. They write down what they are thankful for on each leaf and then stick them on the tree. Each one holds about 25 leaves, so they had plenty to write down. It was great to read all the different leaves after they were done, listing both little and big things. We displayed them so everyone could have a chance to see!
In getting in gear for Thanksgiving, we decided to make some yummy pumpkin muffins. These were a big hit, even to those who think they didn't really like pumpkin!

Each of the kids also decorated their own Thanksgiving cookie, complete with frosting and fall-colored sprinkles. Very creative they were!

On Thanksgiving morning, as tradition would have it, the kids decorated the Christmas tree while watching the Thanksgiving Day parade.

The kids also played pin the hat on the turkey during some down time.

We had a wonderfully yummy Thanksgiving feast, which I failed to get a picture of. But it was tasty! Unfortunately, we had a sick child this year, so were unable to share the great meal with any guests. After the meal, when all the food was settled, we had a dessert of caramel apple pie, made by my 10 yo daughter and me, and this turkey.... Okay, it's not an actual turkey, but a carrot cake with cream cheese icing, in the shape of a turkey! It was my first time making a turkey cake and it was pretty fun!

We had a very blessed Thanksgiving. I hope yours was, too!

Little dude's birthday

Yep...today my little guy turns 2. My baby! I can't believe I'm saying that, as we always seem to have another baby in our house by this point. But as it is, we don't, so he has to stay a baby for a while longer for me, and this whole birthday thing is just messing that all up! I let each of my kiddos pick their birthday theme. His choice? Puppies! He loves, loves, loves puppies. The kids and I did a search for a cake that most resembled what he wanted and came up with 101 dalmatians. It was a little more involved in making it than I thought, but I think it came out pretty well. He loved it, which made me smile..makes it all worth it!

He got lots of presents from family, which he was a little unsure of how to open at first.

But once he got the hang of it, he was on a roll!

Of course, he needed to take a little snack break with some M&Ms

Then finally onto the cake. He needed some help from Dad blowing out the candle, but it's official.....hes's 2!!!!!!!!!!

Grandma's visit

We had the wonderful blessing of my mom visiting from Arizona last week for 4 days. It had been over 6 months since we had seen her last, so everyone was looking forward to it! Being that it wasn't a very long visit, my kids took it upon themselves to pack as much as they could into those 4 days! Of course, Grandma arrived with a bag full of gifts..one of which was personalized little purses for all the girls (they love 'em!)

They spent some down time looking through photo albums and remembering all the fun times they spent together!

The visit wouldn't be complete without baking some yummy cookies with Grandma. They actually were very yummy-I had to sample one...or two...okay, maybe three!

Oops..this one is sideways, but you can see that they put Grandma to work giving hairdos! They also like to take their turn fixing Grandma's hair, though we just make sure it's not right before we plan on going anywhere. :-)

Here's the final group picture of everyone together--please don't ask me why the big kid in the back just couldn't brush his hair.

We had a great time with her-it went too fast, but all the kids got some great bonding time with Grandma, creating some wonderful memories, which is how it should be!