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!

October 14th

Do you see this wonderful boy!
He is a tornado! One minute he is this sweet...
and the next my house looks like this!

5 little monkeys oct 11

Brantley's favorite song/book is Five little monkey's jumping on the bed. Charlie decided that she would make monkey puppets for Brantley tonight for her homework. I usually let her choose what kind of homework she would like each night. After she decided this she said, "But Mommy I don't know how to draw a monkey." Since I am artistically challenged, I gave her to book to look at. She did such an awesome job. I am so stinking proud of her. Her monkey's are just the cutest!

October 11th

I always try for this great picture of the two kids. It never turns out the way I want it too. But I usually get some really great shots.

October 8 (I'm a little behind)

Here is Charlie's first "homework" assignment. She had the best time!
So did I.

Playdate w/ Kinidi

Kinidi is one of Charlie's friends from Pre-K. Kinidi's mom just dropped her off at the house. She doesn't know me. Or am I just a nut case who is too over protective?
We had a great play date. The girls played tea party. They had pink lemonade and apples w/ caramel. They also made fire crackers. Charlie learned the hard way that she is to ask her friend if she would like to do something instead of telling her. We had a great time. I got very sad listening to my sweet little girl giggle.

treasure hunting and steps of faith

Today we went geocashing. Super fun especially when we don't have a GPS. It makes it a little harder but a lot of fun. We have the best time putting things in the bag! This is Dusty's new thing and we are having a blast. Now Charlie and I have a job. We need to stamp a bunch and mode podge them so that they can be our "treasures" to leave in the "box."

I also am working on my "devotion" for my Ruth bible study. I am always amazed at what God shows me and yet when I am asked to do this I panic. What if I don't get it right? How can it be wrong if it is what God has showed me? And still my insecurities shine. What if I say the wrong thing and someone thinks I am stupid?

Here's to a leap. What do I go and do...I apply for a year long "design team" place with Faith Sisters. It would be to complete their Life stories challenge for this year. I don't know if I am their style but I put in my application. How crazy is that? I have no idea when I will hear anything. We'll see. If so, it is just one more thing that God has gone before me and taken care of .

So out of it

I decided that before I go to bed tonight I am going to

1. fold and put away laundry

2. clean off the flat surfaces (tables and such)

3. download pictures

4. begin my assignment for bible study

So I pulled the laundry out (5 loads that Dusty washed on Friday), began cleaning off three tables, and put the sim card in to begin the download (369 photos). Now I know that I am out of it. There is no way I will be able to get that many photos edited and saved to disk before bed tonight. I guess this is proof that I have been really off since this summer. Alright God, what do you have in store for me?

My LIfe Story

I am going to try to complete this year long challenge at faith sisters. Come join me in the fun.

http://faithsisters.com/forum/index.php?topic=11486.msg111171#msg111171