Snow Days! Record Snowfall in One Day! It's been wonderful!

Now I know, some of you live in areas where you get snow every winter and lots of it.

For us, that is NOT the case.

I've told many that I would really like to live in one of those places that gets snow all winter and experience a REAL snow at least once. Some of them nod with understanding, others think I'm crazy. My sister who now lives in OH said I could come and winter w/them because it appears they're enjoying a "real" winter for sure!

For now, I will remain where I am and will enjoy the beauty that God has surrounded us with.

Our day started Thursday with snow falling and I could hardly believe it when the snow FELL ALLLLLL DAY!!! and was STILL FALLING when we went to bed and apparently continued until about 2 or 3 a.m. We measured the snowfall a few times throughout the day on our picnic table and when we went to bed we had about 7" and Friday morning measured close to 8"!!! Amazing!

(our first reading - not quite 3")



The children were out in the snow twice Thursday for about an hour or so each time and again Friday morning - this time for close to 2 hrs. - they were just about FROZEN when they came in...they all took warm showers and got into cozy "snow day" clothes - you know, sweats and sweatshirts, slippers, that sort of thing. Thursday after their first outing, they all got warmed up, dried off and came to the table for hot chocolate and later some dark chocolate brownies - mmmmm. We called an official "snow day" when CKB came home from work early due to the road conditions worsening and potentially worsening more as the day went on. It was a wonderful day! Here are some pictures from the day...notice the amount of snow increase throughout and the fun and joyful expressions on the children's faces as they enjoyed their time in the snow! Miss Baby thought it was cold when I took her out for a moment and let her feel the snow - she touched it, pulled her hand back and tucked it under her stomach and would not reach out again :) Smart girl - that stuff is cold! I added a few comparison shots as well of the backyard and the front.


Thursday a.m. - not even completely covering the grass yet!


Miss Baby checking out the scenery...


Hey Mama...what IS that stuff?


The crew ready to go have some fun!



The fun begins!
Watch out Miss A!


I'll get 'em next time!


Hey, me too!


Wait a minute....is it the girls against the boys?


Notice the increase of snow on the table...the children were told to leave the table alone so we'd be able to measure the same place each time...and remarkably they all remembered! :) (in the end, when the snow had stopped falling the next day, we let them play with that snow too :) )


Hmm, maybe I'll try building a fort...


May the biggest snowball win!


Oh, Ma-maaaa.....(no cameras or children were harmed in the taking of this picture)


Yee-haw - this is fun!!!


A view out the front....take note of the amount of snow on the van to compare w/a later pic down below...


birds in and around the tree next door...


who me? walk across the street messing up the pretty snow to take a picture of the front of the house? Nah....oh wait, you see a trail...hmm, I guess you got me...


I feel a bit like I'm in Narnia!


Hmm, more accumulation! (just under 5")


Nightfall Thursday night....check out that table now!


At about 8:30 p.m. we had just over 6"


Friday morning - we were just about at 8" (the official tally was 9" for our area)


Ah yes, the table...isn't it lovely? This is early Friday morning.



A wider shot of the back...


Time for Miss Baby to check out the white stuff....brrrr!


I really like this shot - it looks like Miss Baby and I are in a very deep snowdrift....and me w/o my jacket...hmm.


Hmm, the cars are a bit more covered now and yes, CKB's is home :)


What's that? You see my footprints again....?


That's all folks! The snow is now almost all melted away....I'm finally getting around to posting this and it's Sunday evening. This morning we still had a good bit on the ground. We can't wait 'til the next snowfall! How about you? :)

A Proud Homeschool Mom Moment

After reading some of William Shakespeare's works over the past few weeks, I was thrilled with a conversation with Miss E this morning - it went something like this:

Miss E: Mama?
Me - Yes?
Miss E: A lot of the moons of Uranus have names from Shakespeare's plays!
Me - Really?
Miss E: Yes!
Me - (mental note - look this up later)

:)

Later, I looked up "Moons of Uranus" and was happy to see the following:

Uranus, the seventh planet of the Solar System, has 27 known moons,^[1] all of which are named after characters from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.^[2] William Herschel discovered the first two moons, Titania and Oberon, in 1787, and the other spherical moons were discovered in 1851 by William Lassell (Ariel and Umbriel) and in 1948 by Gerard Kuiper (Miranda).^[2] The remaining moons were discovered after 1985, either during the Voyager 2 flyby mission or with the aid of advanced Earth-based telescopes.^[1][3]

It does a Mom good to see the fruits of her time and labor with her children - let me tell you!
Miss E has a poster of the solar system on her wall and apparently had been perusing it again.

February Snow!

Upon awakening this morning we found this beautiful sight outside (well, the snow, not all the stuff in the yard!) - the children can't wait to get out and play in it after breakfast!

Miss E's Tea Party Birthday!

Moments before the tea party was scheduled to begin, I zipped back to our bedroom to try to get Miss Baby down for a nap - moments later Mr. A bursts in hollering something about something...then I hear voices outside the bedroom as apparently some of our guests had arrived...I sighed thinking there was no way Miss Baby was going to nap w/all the commotion, but laid her down anyway in her pack 'n play and hoped for the best.

The stage was set:

Beading stations were set up and ready to go:



The tea table was prepared - place cards in place - tea cups ready and waiting....


Guest of honor ready to welcome her friends - food at the ready for tea time...


The boys were occupied...


Let the party BEGIN!

All of the guests arrived in their tea party finery and the beading began! All the girls set out to make their bracelets because, well, you know you have to look fancy for a tea party! Look closely in some of the following pics to see some of their creations - my one regret was not getting a picture of all the girls' bracelets - oy!


Mama.....quit taking pictures please and tie my bracelet for me....oh mamaaaaaaaaa.....


In progress....at some points we had PLEN-TY of beads lying around and I wondered how clickety clackety the vacuum would sound later....but amazingly there were hardly any beads on the carpet when all was said and done - great job ladies!


Tea time!!

Teapot cake...can you guess what flavor the icing was?


Birthday girl blowing out the candles....


Game time - "pin" the teacup on the saucer....remember, look for bracelets!


Look at those adorable nails, ring and bracelet - she was ready for the party!


All the young ladies....a special prize to anyone who can match all the sister pairs - there were 2 from each of 5 families at the party (no fair any of y'all who came to the party giving an answer!)


It was a VERY crafty birthday - perfect for Miss E - she was so excited about everything and hasn't stopped crafting since! Thank you again to all her sweet friends (and their moms and dads!) We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends for our girls (and boys!).





Happy 9th Birthday Miss E - you are a wonderful blessing to us all!

A year without Wal-mart - 2009 recap

Well, we made it through the year. I have a confession to make...I missed Wal-mart...a little.

There were a few exceptions made throughout the year that CKB and I agreed on and he then went to Wal-mart to pick up some things like a twin bed frame for Mr. A to match the one we'd gotten there for Mr. E. Also, on a trip to a smallish town, CKB went to Wal-mart for some tools and car things he needed. Then, as Christmas approached and I was sooooo tired of looking at Target, CKB and I decided to make a few little trips to Wal-mart to see what other options we might have - hey, we were shopping for FIVE children ya know!

So...to sum it up...

1. we lived w/o Wal-mart pretty well and could've done w/o it completely w/o much consternation at all
2. the children still got sick - so it's not just the carts at Wal-mart after all ;)
3. when I went to Wal-mart for the first time in '09 around Christmas I was disgusted w/the one I used to shop at - it was dirty, the people were rude (not the workers, the people in there), the parking lot was filthy, it was not a place I wanted to be and do NOT plan to ever return to that location again
4. it's just as easy to buy extra stuff at other stores as it is at Wal-mart - 'nuf said.
5. some of the "other" stores would do well to get larger carts (and wider aisles) - some of them do NOT work with baby seats at all (hint hint Hobby Lobby, Michael's, Dollar Tree....and others, you know who you are!) and people at Kohl's WITHOUT any children...why are you taking the carts w/child seats leaving none at the front for those of us who really need them? hmmmm????

So...try it, you might like it...or don't.

I wonder what we should do w/o this year? Target? Too late.

I'd like a year w/o fast food or eating out, but I don't dare think we could manage that with our crazy traveling lifestyle...but then, who knows...maybe we could...if I could find a nanny to watch the children 1 day a week so I could do extensive grocery trips and have brain time to plan menus for weeks at a time and go to the store alllll by myself and actually remember everything on the list (yes, even w/a list in hand, I still forget things)....maybe we'd try it then...but then I'd have to give up hot mocha coffees from Mickey D's and, well, I just don't know if I could do it!

Bathing beauty!

Little Miss Baby had her first bath in the big bathtub the other night and I just love her expression here. Look at those chompers she's been busy growing lately! She now has 8 confirmed teeth that are through the gums - poor girl - they've given her a little trouble coming in, but all in all, it hasn't been too bad!

Where are y'all from?

Every once in a while I like to look and see where folks are coming from that land on our blog. Some of them are friends and family, I'm sure, but others just happen along to visit our fair spot in cyberspace.

Just in the past 24 hours, we've had visitors from:

Canada
Mexico
Paris, France
Kuwait
South Africa
Germany

and in the good ol' USA, from the following states:

TX
MO
IN
OR
SC
NV
TN
WI
MT
MI
AZ
VA
MA
NC

But, no one, sniff sniff, said hello or hola or hallo, guten morgen? or even a big "Howdy!" It's so...quiet...around here.

We have...or are getting....pipes!

Stopped by the house site today on my way home from having lunch w/CKB and the children, and we are getting pipes! Whoo hoo! They were working away at the site when we dropped by and the children were extremely excited to see something happening. You can't really see them, but there were probably 6-7 guys working away on the site and about 3-4 work trucks parked all around. That little digger was zipping all over the place digging trenches while we were there and the workmen had placed some plywood here and there to make "bridges" which the children thought was really neat. I took a quick picture and then moved the car down a bit from the site to let the children watch for a few mn. before we headed home.

Miss E is 9 today!

Today is Miss E's 9th birthday!

9 years ago today at 4:39 p.m. Miss E came into the world and has been such a blessing to us ever since.

This morning she asked for blueberry pancakes and bacon....uh...no eggs...what's your 2nd choice? Biscuits. Uhhh....still don't have eggs...hmm, IHOP has them....after quickly loading everyone up, we headed out and splurged a bit on breakfast today. Maybe I can get it together in time for the next bday! (excuse the poor pic quality - I took it w/my phone...)



We plan to have a little family celebration tonight and this coming Saturday Miss E has 8 friends coming over for a birthday tea party! Stay tuned for pics!

Miss Baby is one year old!

This is the day that Miss Baby was born, a year ago!


You guessed it :)

Today was filled with fun preparations for a family birthday this evening. Cupcakes were made, then later they were frosted, and finally decorated.



Presents were wrapped.

Schoolwork was done in short bursts here, there, and yonder as the children had to constantly come to see what I was up to.

Piano practice was squeezed in before and after Miss Baby took her nap.

We zipped off to piano lessons after I frosted the cupcakes and decorated them after we returned.



Miss Baby feasted on KFC mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese tonight. She wasn't as interested in her cupcake and ice cream as we thought she might be, but she did taste it. I think she might've gotten too full at dinner! No worries, we still have cupcakes left over!

After opening some presents, she played a little while and then headed off to bed. It was a good day. Our wee one is a year old already. The time just flies by. It doesn't seem possible that she's one, yet she's getting so big and learning to do so many new things. She has 6 teeth now! She's crawling, pulling up and cruising and will no doubt be off and walking/running before we know it.

She loves the attention she gets from her brothers and sisters.

She's our sweet, wonderful Miss Baby and we love her very much!

Happy Birthday sweet one!

This is the day that...

Hint #2 as preparations continue around here....




and #3...

This is the day....

Can you guess what's going on around here today?

Here's a hint....


Stay tuned throughout the day for updates!

Progress...

Today was the day slated for the house to officially begin...so I had to drive out and see what was going on, of course. :)

Here's what we found...preparations for plumbing to go in soon!




Lovely piles of dirt... soon, a house will be there - I can't wait!

House - footprint!

It's so nice to see something coming along on the lot - we now can see how the house will sit on the lot. Soon, very soon, they'll dig the trenches for the pipes, the foundation will be poured and then things will start moving along at a pretty rapid pace! I have a feeling I'll miss getting pictures of every step, but maybe I'll happen to go by at just the right times and catch everything....maybe!

Doors, doors, doors - concealing the school stuff and keeping wee ones out at the same time!

As I mentioned before, we will have a room dedicated to schooling (ie, a place for all the STUFF). We will no doubt still school all over the house as we tend to do now, but at least a lot of the stuff will be contained and have a place to go when the schoolwork is complete for the day.

On that note, I'm considering some options for that room....and yes, it'll have a door!

The room will be one of the bedrooms and will be off of the open area at the top of the stairs. No doubt I will be spending some of my time in the open area/playroom/gameroom/whatever we decide to call it when we settle in, with Miss Baby while the other children work on things that don't require my immediate supervision. One other thing I'm excited about is the ability to close the door so the older girls will have a quieter environment to work in when they're completing their work after the younger ones, ie, the boys, are done for the day and hoopin' and hollerin' (playing for those of y'all who don't know what's involved in "hoopin' and hollerin') all over the place.

Now, a few thoughts about this door - it'll come as a regular six panel door, like so:



I'm seriously considering changing this door for a few reasons.

1. Even my children aren't perfect (ha ha) and I suspect a bit too much chatting going on behind closed doors if I'm in the play area outside and that door is shut - which leads to schoolwork taking FOR-EV-ER to be completed.

2. I'd like to be able to peek in on them w/o distracting them from what they're currently working on.

3. I'd like to be able to peek out if I'm in the room helping someone w/something and I leave Mr. A and/or Miss Baby to play for a few moments (and yes, there will be a BIG, STRONG gate at the top of the steps and this won't be happening much, if at all, until Miss Baby is much bigger!

So....I've come up with two options so far.

1. A door like this with glass panels I can see through. I'd probably add a roll down shade on the inside in case we ever needed to actually use it as a bedroom with company or some such...or even curtains or something.



and

2. A door like this - I just learned it's called a "dutch door" and I remember these from days of watching Mr. Ed (they call it a "stable door" also) and maybe even Donna Reed had one of these on her house for the back door....hmm. They come with glass panes on top or solid, not sure which I'd ultimately choose, but the ability to keep the top open or closed is very exciting - the bottom would act as a built in baby gate - whoo hoo. I like it. They're also touted for increasing ventilation, say on your laundry room....oh CKB....can I have one there too???



Thoughts? Other suggestions? I have a few months to think about it, so bring 'em on!

Accountability

I've been meaning to take new portraits of the children for...months..and still haven't gotten it done.

My goal for this week is to finally get it taken care of - for myself and my dear, sweet husband who needs pics for his desk at work so the people there will believe he has 5 beautiful children :) Also, for the grandparents so the children don't stay eternally young in their wallets - you know what I'm talking about. The pic on my mantle of Mr. A is from when he was 9 mos........oops. Now, Miss Baby is 11 mos. I think I need to update them, don't you?

Ok, now I have to follow through, right?

Off to get a handle on clothing for each one.....that's the fun, I mean, hard part!

And, a pic of all 5 of them together......oh boy!

The big reveal! The long awaited surprise! A new year....a new........

HOUSE!

The big announcement I promised is that we have signed a contract to build a house!

We have our lot picked out - we have chosen tile, flooring, etc. and we had our pre-construction meeting with the builder last Friday!

Yay!

After almost 4 years of renting, finally we have made a decision, chosen an area and will be buying a house. We are sooooo excited. We are very thankful that things are working out as they are. We will have more room, more bathrooms (yay!) and a dedicated room for schooling again - hooray!



Here's our dirt...isn't it lovely??????

We think so! Stay tuned for updates during the building process - we're told the house should be ready the end of April or so. We hope so since our lease is up the end of May on our current residence! The timing is just right, the house feels right for us - we praise and thank God for his provision for our family and we can't wait to invite friends and family over after we move in!!!

It pays to search for coupon codes!

It wasn't that long ago that I didn't know about coupon codes for online ordering.

After I discovered them, it made it VERY hard for me to justify ordering anything online WITHOUT finding one. I have to have some sort of discount or I just feel like I'm being taken advantage of!

If you haven't discovered the world of online ordering and coupon codes - it's time you did!

I placed an order today for some clothing - I wasn't happy with the total of over $100 so I started a search - I googled "company/catalog name coupon code" and came up with a bunch of links, then I started looking at them. I came across one for 15% off my order, then found one for 20% off. Yay!
Then, I looked at the checkout page and saw a little note next to the code box that said "enter another code if you have one" and thought hmm...maybe I can do better and began a search for a code to get rid of that nasty shipping charge of $16.99! And guess what, I found one! Well, sort of. I searched and searched and didn't find any that weren't already expired. Then, I searched my emails - yes, awhile back I'd signed up for email promotions from this particular catalog/online catalog and especially around and preceding the Christmas shopping rush, I'd received a ton of emails with codes for this percentage off or that percentage and free shipping, etc. I noticed that the free shipping codes didn't seem to have a rhyme or reason, ie, the most recent three were "52", "91", and "68" - on a whim, I decided to try "53" and guess what? It worked! So, my total is now well below the "over $100" I started off at (no worries CKB!) and I'm much happier about my purchase! Whew! It takes a little time - I usually don't spend too long doing this - time is money, you know - but it's worth taking 5-10 mn. to see if you can find a discount code before just plunging ahead and checking out with no discounts at all!!

:) Happy shopping!

Another long weekend

CKB had to work again today - Saturday. It was another long day. Makes you thankful for what you have had and helps you look forward to hopefully having it again soon. He thought he would be in from about 9-2, but it ended up being about 5 or so before he was done for the day.

We headed out for dinner and to spend a little time together before the day was completely over and took the children to "Planet Smoothie" - interesting place - the children all chose their own flavor combinations and seemed to really enjoy them. And yes, that was their dinner - a "crazy dinner" as they would call it. Miss Baby had other fare for her dinner - she's not quite ready for a "crazy dinner" at this point. :)

No pictures today....I was too busy just trying to keep up with Miss Baby and keeping her from tumbling down too often. She is sooo busy pulling up on everything and showing me what still needs to be baby proofed for her!

Hope you had a good weekend!

Little Miss - pulling up and moving on out!

Well, aside from a CKB-less weekend, we managed to have a little fun. I took some time to take some photos of the children as they were hanging out on Saturday at the house.



Little Miss Baby is on the move - she is pulling up like crazy - and yes, suffering from a few falls and bumps along the way, but she recovers very quickly when it happens.






The rest of the gang were enthralled with watching Miss A play a new game - unfortunately this one can't be played by all at the same time...hence the photo you see below....do your children do this? Can they really see enough on those little screens...anyway....


Miss Baby wanted to know what all the fuss was about....

Weekend? What weekend?

This past weekend, if there was one, that is, I'm still not sure....the calendar says it was...hmm....anyway, this past weekend was short/not really a weekend/ and just about anything else you care to say when it feels like you didn't have one.

CKB had to work.

All day.

The children weren't up when he left.

They were in bed when he got home.

Errands still needed to be run.

I was tired.

Still am.

Sunday was our Madisonville weekend.

Did I mention that I'm tired?

A church family friend died Friday and the visitation was in Navasota Sunday afternoon.

Yes, that's another hour away.

We happily went, of course, but that did make for an even longer drive home Sunday afternoon.

It was AFTER bedtime for the children when we finally got home.

Miss Baby was NOT happy.

Yes, I'm still tired.

Weekend? Where did you go? Why weren't you there for us? We needed you and alas, it's Monday again somehow.

What did you do w/your weekend - something fun? exciting? Our weekend was ok, we just missed having CKB with us Saturday and are a tad tired from all the driving Sunday. How about yours?

Getting my groove back...

Ok, first of all, did I ever have a "groove" to speak of? I don't know. Should I tell Miss Baby that 11 months ago she "threw off my groove"? (anyone w/me on this reference....anyone....I think I heard a pin drop....ok, moving on)....of course not, our lives changed yet again when little Miss joined our family, and for the better! Just now I am getting back into the swing of things with feeling like I can take a little time now and then to do something "crafty". Yes, as you age, it takes you longer to get "back into the swing of things", I've found...if you ever do, that is!

As a child, I always had about 100 irons in the fire craft-wise. Ask my Mom, she'll tell you.

Ok, you're back? What'd she say? Yep. That's what I thought. I didn't always finish all those projects either....what? Mom told you that, too? Thanks Mom!

Well, things haven't changed much...you saw this the other day, right?

Ahem.

Well, now, my sweet friend Courtney has got me all pumped up about sewing again...I know, the crayon incident of 2008....you missed that? Read all about it.....here. But, I must get the sewing machine going again...I must! And, Courtney will forever know how much I care, because I have to unearth a mountain of stuff to attain sewing machine access before Wednesday morning when she comes over to sew...yes, Wednesday morning....maybe I should be cleaning....

So, I am riding to the aid of my friend to help her with her first, I think, clothes sewing project - yippee! And, thankfully she didn't choose something with pleats or tucks or some such horror for her first project - yay! She chose pants. Pants, I can do. But these aren't any ordinary pants, mind you...she had to have a challenge :) They are pants with a big ol' out of this world, fun-loving ruffle at the bottom! And no, they aren't for her. They're for her beautiful little girls...and mine might get some if their Mama takes the time to make them some...we'll see. They should look something like this, but in a fun print!

So, stay tuned...super fun pants are coming soon!!!

The city mouse and the country mouse - which one are you?

New Year's Day we were on vacation and the day took us to the aquarium in downtown Dallas, of all places. We had visited the area before and been to the aquarium at Fair Park and not been very impressed and thought surely a city the size of Dallas would have something better to offer.

Well, they do - the Dallas World Aquarium - a hefty price tag, but enjoyable and a wide variety to see there - it's not your ordinary aquarium, I mean, come on, what other aquarium has a jaguar?

Anyway, back to the title up there - we parked in one of the downtown lots near the aquarium and proceeded to start reading all the different signs about how and where and who to pay for parking. Yikes. They could make it a little more complicated...I wish I had pictures of the signs. Don't do this, make sure you do this, etc. etc. etc. The signs were contradictory and a tad confusing. We don't frequent the downtown areas of large cities often...can you tell?

Well, as we headed to the sign to squeeze dollar bills into the tiny slot next to the number for our parking spot, we were intercepted by a friendly guy wearing an orange vest and some sort of badge on a lanyard around his neck, quoting the price for the day and so forth. We paid him for the parking and then, shortly after...we knew we'd been had. ARGH. CKB was not happy. I was not happy either, but what do you do - chase the guy down and tackle him, risking your life possibly for 5 bucks? Well, maybe, but just in case it got ugly, the children didn't need to see that, so...No. Instead, we paid for parking at the sign and got our ticket for the dashboard and went on to the aquarium. Did I say, argh? ARGH!!!!

During this time, we watched the guy saunter off to another lot at a pretty rapid pace....ARGH.

After the aquarium visit, we were navigating our way out of the downtown area and on to other sites when we noticed there were lots of folks walking along w/folding chairs....people were selling cotton candy...we were about to be in the middle of a parade or something - yikes - as we were almost to the interstate, the police were barricading the very road we had just come down - help! We made it out alive....the cat didn't get us too badly...and we're back in the country now...

So how about it, are you a country mouse or a city mouse?

WIP, UFO, whatever you call them, it's all about the yarn!

Remember this? Well, so do I....and I'm ashamed to say I haven't touched it since....I still want an afghan/lapghan made from the yarn, but at the moment I'd be thrilled if I could find someone who would make it for me instead of me plugging on for eternity and never finishing it!

Know anyone who's a fabulous crocheter and might help me out? I have tried searching ebay and craigslist in hopes of finding someone who lives in the "area" that I might contract to complete this project, but so far, no success.

So, for now, the yarn mountain lies in wait, in a big green...or is it blue...tote in my bedroom....taking up space, but not in a nice, warm, snuggly way like I'd hoped it would be by now.

Do you have any unfinished projects from last year (or, ahem, the year before) lying around...waiting?

What do you do with old Christmas cards?

Now that Christmas is over, I'm faced with the annual dilemna of what to do with the Christmas cards....keep them? toss them? figure out something to do with them that's "crafty"?



I'd like a crafty idea....anyone have one to share? The picture cards are great to keep around for awhile and I can't imagine anything crafty with them...at the moment....but the ones w/Christmas scenes and images of winter wonderlands and such - I'm thinking something can be done here.....anyone?

And for those of you who sent us a card and didn't get one from us - please don't be offended in the slightest - I just couldn't get it together this year! I was even holding out hope that I'd get a New Year's card out, but, well, that hasn't happened yet either...forgive me?