scrapping

I actually have gotten to scrap! My room is clean. My things are put away and I am scrapping. I have made three wall hangings. And completed my first Design Team layout (it won't be posted until next week). I am so excited about that endeavor. I am also working on finishing my prayer cards for me and for husband. I have a big list of things I want to accomplish this year. I wonder what will get done and what will just fall to the side.

Brantley update

Here is B's update! He is still a blanket baby. He loves his monkey. We had to move our couch to give him something to climb on. It has kept him off the kitchen table (well, a little bit). He finds pens everywhere. I found him one day laying on his stomach writing. I tried to get a picture. It didn't work too well but Charlie and I had a great time trying to get a good one. He is such a silly little guy. He spent 45 minutes one day pushing his diapers up and down the hall. Do you see that little tongue of concentration? It just makes me laugh.

Nativity

Here are a few pictures of the tiny nativity that I got from Hobby Lobby last year. Each of the beginning days of our Advent Calendar we had a piece hidden inside the box. Charlie was so excited to see what piece of the nativity she opened each day. She had a very special place for her Nativity. She kept it in her window sill. I loved going in each night to find her playing with it and moving all the pieces. One night she had baby Jesus over in the corner away from all the other pieces. When I asked her about it she said (in true Charlie fashion) "Well, all those camels, sheep, and donkeys are making too much noise for Jesus to sleep. He just had to get away from them." I love this girl.

Gingerbread house

We love this tradition. Well, my family loves this tradition. I always buy the house but make Dusty decorate them. In the last three years he has gotten pretty good at the houses. This year he opted for a village. It was great. Charlie decided when she saw this house that it must be an outhouse. Every village needs an outhouse. How funny is that? I love my family.

charlie

Charlie update: Charlie loves to dress up. We find her most late evenings or mornings tucked snuggly under the Christmas tree. She loves to go to sleep under the tree. Who knew sleeping on cold, hard tile would make a kid so happy. I have to laugh at the toe picture. Every time I take my socks off Dusty laughs at the fact that I have to get the fuzz from between my toes. I thought it was hysterical that my daughter does the same thing even though I have never done it in front of her. Just one more thing that makes me chuckle. She is so much like me. One of our advent activities was to make felt gingerbread cookies for her play kitchen. We had so much fun.

Advent Calendar-Activities

27 Days till...Draw a nativity
26 DAys ... Make a ring toss.
25 days...Make and play with Gingerbread play-dough
24 days... make felt Gingerbread cookies
23 days...Make a Christmas Geocash
22 days Watch a Christmas Story
21 days Make a Christmas alphabet book
20 days Journey to Bethlehem
19 days Read "A Special Place for Santa"
18 days go look at christmas lights w/ Grandma
17 days Build a gingerbread house
16 days make an angel *
15 days Make a gumdrop tree
14 days Watch the nutcracker ballet
13 days Make a jingle bell bracelet
12 days.. Go look at Christmas lights
11 days Make a set of Christmas story dice and tell Christmas stories *
10 days Make puppy chow *
9 days Build an I Spy picture using Nativity pieces
8 days Watch Charlie brown Christmas
7 days Make hot chocolate w/ marshmallows
6 days..Make Christmas cookies *
5 days Make fortune cookies *
4 days Go on a Christmas light scavenger hunt
3 days Go geocashing and leave a nativity piece *
2 days Make gingerbread cookies
1 day Make reindeer food. * (Charlie got some for school)
All * items are the ones that we did not get done. Sometimes life just interrupts the best laid plans.

Advent Calendar

I have always wanted to be one of those mom's that counts down the days till Christmas. Last year I just never got my stuff together to actually do it. This year, I did. We have had the most fun. I am still not successful at doing something every night but we have done a lot more this year. Here is our calendar. In each box was a card to tell us what to do as well as a piece to Charlie's windowsill nativity set. (Brantley has managed to de-head most of the figures. I'll have to find a different set for next year.) I also wrapped all our Christmas books. The kids will open one book each night to read before Christmas.

still behind--Nov 28th Dressing the tree

Here is our tree. We had he best time decorating it. Brantley was beside himself with excitement. The tree has not faired well. We have lost several ornaments to B this year. He loves to take them off the tree and say "GO!" right before he throws them.

HOw great a friend I have!!!

This is Charlie's friend, T. He is a lot like Charlie. His mom and I are friends. She is the best photographer! This week at cubbies this was their gift to us. How great is this?!

Faith Sisters!!

I am so stinking excited, petrified, and "wondering" what God has in store for me. I was chosen as one of 25 members for the My Life Story Challenge design team for Faith Sisters. There are some amazing women who scrap there. I am feeling very blessed but really wondering what God has in store for me.

Go here for the details:

http://faithsisters.com

Join me in the fun of leaving a legacy for your children.

Cousin's party

My father in law with B. He sure loves his marshmallows!

I just love these pictures of Charlie. W has a hayride with bon fire, hot dogs, apple cider, hot chocolate, chili, and smores every year for his birthday. We love this party. It is such a great time to spend running around with the cousins.

I can't get over how small B is especially against the tracker tires. W's parents don't want him to have any more "toys". I don't know if they have found a way to be successful at this or not. Every year on Charlie and Brantley's invitations we ask for no presents and every year everyone brings them. W's invitations had this request as well (a first), but they said that if you must bring something bring a hat and gloves for the Rethread project. What a great idea! I think next year I will choose a charity that gives school supplies since the kids birthday's are so close to back to school.

After N left

B was sad that he missed the tea party so he had one of his own. The pink does not phase him.

November 8

Another playdate. This time with N. Charlie and N made cookies. These are not the kind of cookies that you eat. They are made out of bakers clay. After the girls made them we cooked them for an hour before they painted them. I know I am a horrible mom. The only kind of cookies I make with Charlie are the ones that will not make me gain weight.

My job

This is probably one of my favorite things about my job. We took advantage of the beautiful weather and took our story outside. I love reading to kids. Children's literature is something I just love. So if you ever need a gift idea...a kids book just makes my day. ( Just on a side note) I can tell in this picture that I have lost 28 lbs since having B. YEAH!

November

I can not believe that I am actually getting to post November things in November. I have just felt out of it lately. I didn't do all the things that I normally do with the kids in October and because of that I have been down on myself. We usually go to the pumpkin patch, haunt the zoo, storybook forest and carve a pumpkin. This year I just didn't have the time, money or motivation. Because of it I am beating myself up. I know that in five years it is not going to matter but it matters to me. I want my kids to remember that I did fun things with them. I want them to know that they were loved and that I spent time with them. Charlie has gotten really good at making me feel like a horrible mom. I know that years from now it will not matter. I want to be a parent and not a friend but let me tell you her "prayers" have been pretty painful lately. Things like "Please make my mommy not yell at me. I don't like it when she yells." (conviction) "Why does my mommy always ignore me and not pay attention to me? She is always doing laundry or dishes or on the computer." (conviction) But the night she said this prayer I was not checking email or playing on facebook. I was making the clues to a scavenger hunt and putting the activities together for her advent calendar. And, she was watching Charlie Brown. That kid loves tv. But that didn't make it any less convicting. I know that she does not mean for these prayers to be heard (and if she does, I'm in big trouble) but it doesn't make them any less biting. I need to get thicker skin I guess.

Halloween 2

I don't often blog about Dusty. I should. He is a great husband. This is one thing that we disagree on. I hate Halloween. I just really don't like anything about it except the ability to "dress up." He loves it. It is his favorite holiday. He loves scary stuff. Can't you tell? this is our front yard. He works so hard on it. He is very proud of it. Charlie loves it as well. I hate it! But there is very few stuff that Dusty truly enjoys. So this is one of those things that I just grin and go on wishing that it were different. Dusty and the kids have a great time setting up his "super scary" grave yard.

Halloween

Do you see these ducks? B did not want to give the duck back to get the candy. He loves Ducks.
This is part of his tantrum. We were across the gym from the duck pond and this is still what he did. I had to just take him out of the gym to distract him enough to forget the ducks.
Here is my second purple people eater. He hated the hat more than Charlie did. I never could get him to keep it on. We went to the carnival at church.


Here we are going trick-or-treating w/ Brandy Cox the 5th grade teacher at SJN. Her kids are about the same age as mine. She was wonderful to invite us to Norman. We went to her house where we had pizza. Lundyn and Creed were great fun for us to play with. Both girls were princesses. Creed was a pirate.

My artist

When B comes into my classroom the first place he goes is my easel. This is the first time I have ever let him paint. He needed a shower but he sure had a great time!

oct 24th play date w/ Kinidi

So after Kinidi left, we played in the laundry basket and made mummy dogs for dinner this is how my kiddos looked! I just love my sleeping babies!