December Festivities

We had a nice day today (12-20)visiting Oma, Grandad, Aunt Martha and Kyla today! We met in Canton and had lunch at a great little place called Canton Square Bakery and Cafe. If you are ever in Canton it is worth a stop. It is right across from the court house. Poor Max was sick so he and David could not come.

Since we would not be together for Christmas we met in the middle and exchanged our Christmas gifts to take back and open on Christmas day. I wish I had my camera.. there were so many great photo ops there at the courthouse with the Peanuts characters and other Christmas decorations. The kids are going wild with excitement!! But I can't put the gifts under the tree yet because Joshey has been ripping them open prematurely

Oh that reminds me....I need to send out Christmas cards. It's probably too late to get there by Christmas. I am so bad about that. I don't think I did it last year. I printed out a cute picture last year but never mailed them. Maybe I could put them in this years late card. HA! When will I get it together?!! Oh probably when the kids leave the house. Or at least when Joshey is about 5...I keep telling myself.

After we left Canton we decided to go make a quick trip to the zoo and take advantage of our season passes. The weather was in the 70's today...perfect for zoo walking! We all had a great time. The kids were disappointed that Santa was not in his workshop(Even though they have seen him twice already this year), but they did get to make some cute Christmas tree ornaments there.

We have had lots of festive holiday merry making this month, going to several Christmas parties, looking at light displays, and visiting Santa. Here are some pics of the kids visiting Santa at the courthouse.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=154180&l=285c2&id=1384546354

We have really been enjoying listening to Handel's Messiah this year. I sang it each year in High School so I have fond memories of it. I think it is becoming a Christmas tradition..(smile)..It is so fun to see Callie dance around the house singing, "For unto us a child is BOR, hu, hu, hu, hu, hu.... N. If you have heard it you know what I mean! I have it on a playlist on youtube so we can watch all the parts together here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=DDDEEC5BDB4BFFE5

Christmas is just in four days and I still need to buy some last min. gifts!!!

New Creation in Christ!

On December 7th we celebrated Callie's baptism! Justin and I are so thankful for her desire to follow our Lord's example and be baptized. It was in the 40's when we left the house that morning and our church has an outdoor baptistry...so it was COLD but memorable. Thankfully the water was heated. Memaw, Pawpaw and Uncle Mike were there, along with our church family, to witness the event. We went out to eat afterwards to celebrate!

Before she was baptized Justin and I gave her a little cross necklace to commemorate this special day. Now she can look back on that and remember that she was baptized wearing it and perhaps pass it down to her daughter on her baptism day. Too precious!

This was such a beautiful day for our family and I will always cherish it in my heart. It was so special to us that Justin was the one who baptized her! As I watch my beautiful daughter's faith continue to blossom, I am humbled at the important task we have as parents to teach them about the Lord and his ways.

To view more pictures of this event click here to go to my facebook album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=154331&l=e4365&id=1384546354

Part 1

Part 2

The last four months.....

Oh my goodness....it has been 4 months since my last blog. Isn't that horrible. So if there is anyone out there actually reading this I thought I better update. So I pulled my cyber rear over here and actually logged in to do it.

I would like to put a plug out there for facebook. I have recently joined and absolutely LOVE it. It is so fun and easy to find long lost friends and family on there. It is also very easy to stay connected and communicate with all of them. So much easier than reading through a million blogs all the time. Anyhow I only accept people that I know as friends on there. So if you know me...search for my name on facebook.com.

Now for my update:

In August James had a wonderful swim party with a giant water slide thanks to Daddy:

Justin also took James for a Father/Son camp out to Caddo lake this month. They both had a wonderful time. Justin took some gorgeous pictures of the Lake!

I have to brag about how beautiful my flower garden turned out this year!!! Thank you Oma for all the wonderful seeds. I am hooked now and have to plant them every year!

October was a fun filled month:

Fishing with Daddy at Lake Gladewater

We went to a neat festival in Jefferson called Buckskins and Bar-B-Q where they had old time reenactments. We then had fun walking around Jefferson looking at the sights and eating ice cream at the old general store!

The kids went on a camping trip with my Mom and had a lot of fun.

Justin and Callie went to a Father/Daughter dinner at our church.

Halloween was especially fun at our church's festival called Farm Fair. James and Callie were both leopards and Josh was Tigger. MEOW!

In November we met some friends in Shreveport. The kids had fun playing at Chucky Cheese and we had a nice visit with our friends. We also walked around the Shreveport river walk area for a while. Here is a picture of the kids in a neat indoor botanical area.

We just had a wonderful Thanksgiving time visiting with family. My family was here at our house for Thanksgiving day and then we went to Dallas on Friday to be with Justin's family for the weekend. The kids really enjoyed playing with their cousins.s!I just learned to crochet hats! Doesn't she look cute?

This school year is off to a good start. We just completed our term 1 for the year. Our year is broken down into 3, 12 week terms. We are now in the midst of doing an Exam week where we review what we have learned during the first term.

Callie and James really enjoyed the home school soccer that they participated in the first part of the year and are really enjoying their violin lessons. I am also loving the lessons because I am learning along with them!!

And last but not least... today was Justin's birthday! We went out to eat and came home to celebrate with cake. My Mom, Step-dad and brother were here to help us celebrate. We put on a little violin concert for them for entertainment. "I can't believe I'm 36!! "

Today in real time.....

Well I think I have finally caught up with all the major stuff I wanted to put in the blog from the past couple of months. I had some of the posts from June sitting in the draft folder and forgot about it. Just call me the "once a month blogger" I guess.

Let me tell you about what a lovely day we had TODAY...yes today..not last month. We went over to some friends house for a play date and got to play with their chickens! The kids had a blast and got to see some freshly laid green and blue eggs. I am so jealous. I wish I could have chickens. My friend gave us some of the eggs and I can't wait to eat them. I know they will be good because we sometimes buy fresh farm eggs from a lady I know.

Then we came home and I let the boys swim in the kiddy pool for a while. I was looking in our storage shed and discovered a little nest with 3 small eggs in it. I'm sure the nest must be very old but we are going to keep it open just to be sure. The kids got all excited and James would not leave it's side and started talking to the baby birds and planning how he was going to catch worms for them. I've been trying to look up what kind of eggs they are on websites and in books but am still not sure. They are very small white with brown speckles. They kind of look like cardinal eggs, (I think).

Then later James discovered a live Cicada that had just come up from underground. We picked it up and put it in a little box and got to watch it come out of its old shell. It was such a thrill for them to see the fresh green cicada come out and unfold it's wings! Of course I would have taken pictures put my batteries are dead. Arg!

I also had another thrill today...I got an email from one of my best high school friends! We have not talked is SO long. She now has two cute boys and I'm so happy to be back in touch with her!

Swim Class

As I told you in a previous post...the kids had a blast at their swim lessons this year. Here are some pictures.

Happy Birthday America!

We had the best time on Independence day. We went to a picnic put on by a family from our church. They had a big blow up jumping slide, a train to ride, live music, and a great fireworks display. Poor Joshey did not like the fireworks. They were SO loud, he just held onto me and covered his ears in terror. Callie & James were right up there close to the front loving every minute of it!

Backyard Beauty!

Here are some pretty pictures of scenes from our backyard . I have been really pleased at how my flower garden has taken off. I never knew zinnias could grow big and huge almost like sunflowers....my little baby zinnias that I started from seeds. I also planted some morning glories all along one of the fences and they have just taken over. It is so fun!

I just love dragon flies and we have so many bird friends that visit our bird feeders. Above you can see our friend named Welcome Robin. Everyday we see many hummingbirds, cardinals, finches, sparrows, blue jays, and chickadees. I really want to get pictures of all of them.

Our vegetable garden has done pretty well. Our tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, spinach, and green beans did well. We also had some corn come up. It was really sweet but not very pretty. The ears were underdeveloped. My sugar snap peas got eaten up by something. I planted some Swiss chard late that is now starting to get big. It is so pretty like rhubarb. I've never even eaten it before.

Republican Convention

In June I went to the Texas Republican Convention as a delegate alternate. It was an interesting experience. I did get to vote a couple of times on the last day when some of the delegates went home early. Besides learning more how the political process works I would have to say the highlight of the trip was hearing Ron Paul speak and having him sign my copy of his new book!!!



Notice in the above picture I am wearing a shirt that says "The GOP Rules...Let's follow them" which means: Let's follow the GOP rules. After I got home I thought that people might have taken the shirt to mean, The GOP is cool...let's be cool like them. The whole point of wearing the shirt was to point out that the GOP has a hard time following the convention rules and we want to change that. However...they pulled the same "good 'ol boy tactics" If you're interested in what I'm talking about see the Fair Convention website.

Dr. Paul with his Sister-in-law

I'm sad that he dropped out of the race, but he has started a new organization called Campaign for Liberty in which he plans on spreading the message of freedom and supporting like minded candidates.


Now I am left with the problem of who to vote for in November as apparently Texas does not count write in votes. I have really been considering Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party. Everything I have read so far sounds like what I believe in. Some have been considering Bob Barr of the Libertarian Party, but I have heard some negative things about him that I will have to investigate further.

I no longer believe that I should vote for the lesser of two evils but should whole heartedly vote my conscience. How else will we bring about true change in this country and let people know that we have a mind of our own and can think for ourselves?! Of course I am not stupid to think that a third party candidate could actually win at this point in the game..not when the media and the other two parties do everything in their power to stifle them. But maybe one day.....that is what we have to work for. Or maybe the Republican Party will actually be changed by committed people who will bring it back to it's roots of liberty. Either way is fine by me.

Joshey's Zoo Party

In May my sweet little Joshey turned 2 years old! We celebrated with a party at the zoo with family. He has really blossomed over the last couple of months with his talking skills. It is always such a miracle to me to see their language skills develop. It's like one day he woke up and he could imitate anything you could say and then started with the 2 word utterances and now he is saying little sentences. I think having a speech therapy background makes me analyze it more than most people would. HA!

He is definitely in the "terrible twos" getting into everything and making those little messes everywhere. His favorite words at the moment are: "NO!" and "My turn!" Sometimes he and James get into some screaming fights but other times they are the best of buds. It is so cute to watch when he and James are off playing and talking to one another!

Hello World!

Well I am so behind with my blogging. We have been really busy with a lot going on. Some people slow down in summer but we have been even busier it seems. We are still schooling this summer except when we go out of town. I have found that I have so many interruptions during the school year that we end up taking several unintentional breaks and so I am having to keep plugging away so we can finish 1st Grade before we start 2nd in September! But I have found that I actually like schooling through summer. The kids don't get rusty on their skills and we can enjoy more vacation time when the weather is really nice in the fall and spring.

James will be an official Kindergartner this fall as well! I can't wait to make a big fuss over him and make our trip to the store and stock up on fun fresh school supplies. I always remember liking getting new school supplies for the coming year....pretty folders, colors, markers etc.

Tomorrow the kids have their last day of swim class!! Woo Hoo! They have been going for two weeks and I'm tired of taking them up there. I hope I remember to take my camera so I can get some shots of their last day. They have had a really good time and I can tell have increased their skills!

We were so exhausted today after all our running around that we all ate supper and fell asleep at 8:00! Then Josh woke us all up at 1:00 and I could not go back to sleep so here I am at 2:30, luckily everyone else went back to sleep. So maybe I can get caught up with my blogging :)

Choir Concert

At the end of May Callie and James had their homeschool choir concert. They both had a great time being in the choir this year. Here are some pictures and video clips. I hope all you grandparents enjoy!!

I had some better clips than this but I could not get them to download. Oh well!

Picnic Fun

A couple of weeks ago the kids and I went to a wonderful Ron Paul supporters picnic. We had the most wonderful time. I wish Justin could have come but he had to be on call that weekend. Callie has been begging me to ride a horse her entire life and she finally got to. Josh did too but James was so enthralled with the little kitten that he did not seem to care too much about the horse ride. Here are few pictures. My batteries died after only a few shots. ARG!

Sadness

Our dear sweet cat Tiger got run over by a car one week ago today. Justin left for work in the morning and saw him laying out in the middle of the street. He said it had just happened because he was just out there and he was not in the road. We all loved Tiger so much. He had really become a part of the family. We recently started up our evening walks around the neighborhood and Tiger always went with us! He would walk right beside us the entire way. It was the cutest thing. It was such a joy having him run around the yard with us when we were outside. He loved to have his belly rubbed and would purr loudly anytime he came near. He always slept on a little cushion on the back porch and would jump up on the window ledge every morning meowing to be fed. He will be greatly missed! I have vowed that I will not have another cat as long as I live in this neighborhood. We live on a very busy street and the cars just speed down the street.

We buried him in the backyard next to Gracious and we decorated his grave with pretty flowers. We said a prayer over his grave thanking the Lord for the sweet time we had to spend with Tiger. James insisted that we kneel down by the grave as we said the prayer. Later he asked me if cats go to heaven and I told him that I'm not really sure. The bible does not say specifically if they do or not, but wouldn't it be wonderful!

Right before we left on our trip to go to West Texas, Tiger got into a fight with some animal and got all scratched up. I doctored his wounds the best I could but they later got infected anyway and so I took him to the vet and had him neutered while we were there. I gave him antibiotics and he was feeling better in no time. That was my birthday present, spending the money that we really could not afford, getting him better. And I would have done it all over again for such a sweet cat.

Callie drew this picture the day before Tiger died