Too cute!

When I saw my cute little guy had fallen asleep while reading, I just had to take a picture! Picture is kind of grainy, since it was dark and I had to use a low light setting. Sorry

Background story: I promised him that when he could read chapter books without our help then he could get his own lamp. I just got some lamps for the girls and he really wanted one, so we came up with that arrangement. I thought I was being all sneaky, knowing that he is pretty far away from being able to accomplish this goal. However, he has been working on this book for a while and is determined to finishing reading it so he can get his lamp. How cute is that!

Snow, Snow, and more SNOW!

No we are not in Utah, although you might think so when you see all the snow we have been getting lately. :-)

This was the view from the upstairs room looking out over our van around 10 this morning, when the snow really got going.


Here it is around 1:00 when the flakes got really big and started really coming down!

This was at 4:00 today. You can't tell very well, but it's still snowing in this picture.

You can see the tracks left in the snow by Elizabeth, who was having a lot of fun out there!

Here is the view from a different window upstairs. Erik's car had only been out there for about 2 hours.


And finally here is the road in front of our house this morning.Here it was this afternoon.

We are all in the house staying warm, and enjoying our time together.
Next week we are suppose to be in the 50's so all this snow will soon be gone. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Just wish we actually had the snow gear to enjoy it!

The camera says otherwise.

I was sitting here looking at my sad, neglected, un-updated blog, and thinking, "I thought we did things, but I guess not, since I have nothing to update!" Then I thought, maybe my camera will help me remember the things we have been doing...of course, that is under the assumption that I actually remembered to take it with me!

But once again, it is my camera to the rescue...reminding me that we do indeed have a life!

Here is a picture Jordan made in school, that he is obviously quite proud of:

Isn't he so cute!

Any ideas what the picture is???

Give up??? Hint: check out the the BLACK CHARACTER's EARS.

Here are some pictures of the kids with their cool face paintings from an army activity that we went too. Of course, I forgot to take the camera to the activity with me, but at least I got these before they were all smudged!


Here are pictures from our last snow day here in Kentucky. It actually snowed enough that I wished we had boots and the right kind of gloves to make a snowman. Unfortunately the snow wasn't snowman building snow.

Here is my sad attempt to protect Elizabeth's feet.

She was the only one that wanted to get out and brave the cold. Not only that, she was also brave enough to go out regardless of what she looked like when I was done making her Mukluks. Lizzy with her best friend.

We cleaned off the driveways and sidewalks, before retreating back inside to the warmth. I miss not having the right kind of winter gear when we get snow.

This the kids attempt to clean off the van. I had to scrap this off the next morning when it had all frozen over.


Next is documentation of my attempt to clean up and organize. First I started with the kids linen closet. I was getting tired of looking at it every time I put away clean towels.
Before:
So I organized it and cleaned a few things out that we no longer needed.
The after is in two sections since I had to back all the way into the bathroom to get the full shot and it was occupied, so...
After, bottom view:
Top view:
As much as I LOVE all the pictures and stuff that my kids make for me, realistically I cannot keep them all, especially not when we move every couple years. SO...I take pictures and then dispose properly and carefully of said treasure.
Here is something that Elizabeth made for me this Christmas:
Here is an up close picture of the cute things she said:

She is such a sweetie!

Last of all there were a whole bunch of the most recent projects that I have started working on, or have just aquired so I can make them pretty!
You will just have to wait and see the finished projects. But here they are in all their half-finished glory.
These are 2 of the things I got at a thrift store for 50 cents. I know!...they got hit extra hard with the ugly stick, but just wait and see and they will be pretty again!

So thanks to my camera, I have documentation that we do indeed "have a life"...kind of. Thank goodness for my camera! Now if only I could remember to take it places with me, I could bore you guys more often!

Christmas Eve Play

Take 1-
Kids didn't really know what to do, and we kind of forgot something, but it's still funny.


Take 2-
Kids did a lot better, but just leave it to Jordan to be...well...Jordan!


**Sigh** Kids are so fun!

Catch Up Time Again

Let's begin with Thanksgiving!

We had a bunch of friends over and had a great time. Once again, as always I get busy and forget to get a bunch of pictures, but I did get some. Here is the table without the plates and stuff. With the flash.

Without the flash, you can see the decorations better.

You can see the new glass decorations things that I made. I love them. You can use them year round, you just put stuff in that applies to the holiday at the time.

Here is everyone waiting to start, so you can kind of see my pathetic attempt to put name cards and utensil stuff on the table. Oh and we went super fancy with the dishes this year, but with so many people it's just easier!

Here is the Thanksgiving Spread. There is a picture from each end of the counter, so you can get the full effect. Once again we forgot to get a picture of the dessert. I always forget to get a picture of the desserts, just believe me when I say they were wonderful!We had a great time with friends, and were grateful to have so many wonderful friends around when Family is so far away!

Later that evening, this is what I found outside.
What a fun way to finish a wonderful day!

After all the Black Friday shopping, we decided to set up the tree. At the same time Erik wanted to set up his late Birthday, early Christmas present, his new TV. That required us to move the entire living room around a couple times trying to find an arrangement that would work, and we also had to get rid of our old entertainment center and I had to refinish a new one.Here is the old entertainment center, all ready to move out.

For old times sake, I had the kids climb into it like they use to when they were little!

After we got the room rearranged, we started putting up the tree. The kids love to help their daddy put the tree up.Almost done.

Here is the finished entertainment center. To see more about that click here.

Jordan also got to meet Spiderman at the PX.


And of course, it wouldn't be Christmas if I wasn't making a whole bunch of crafts. Here are the finished products of the crafts that I did. If you want to see more of how I did them you can click here to see the process on my other blog.
Family gifts
I actually made 20 of these personalized soaps.
You can also kind of see my fun glass things that I decorated with Christmas stuff behind it.

Jewelry hangers for my nieces.

Christmas decorations for Family and friends.

The star decoration was the only one that got a finished picture. The other ones weren't quite finished and then I forgot to get a finished picture before I shipped them off. I also made a tile for someone, but didn't get a picture of that one at all. Oh well.

And Finally... A Christmas Card holder, that I made just for fun and because I needed somewhere to put all the cards!

Now onto Christmas!

Christmas Eve we spent with some friends of ours the Douglasses. We played games, had a wonderful dinner, and then attempted to reenact the story of the birth of Christ from the Bible. Here are the kids all dressed up. They were super cute.
Oh yeah, I also made the angel costume that Lizzy is wearing.

Then after we went home we opened our new PJ's.
That night it began snowing. We got a White Christmas!
Christmas morning was a little crazy and I only got videos, but after the chaos had calmed I got a few pictures.
We finally got a Wii, and lots of fun stuff to go with it...as you can see. The kids are thoughly enjoying the Wii, and so are Erik and I.

Before New Years the girls got a late Christmas present. They each got their own rooms. We had to give up on the playroom, for many reasons, so we turned it into Elizabeth's room.
Here we are cleaning out the closet and sorting out toys to donate.
Here is Karlee in her new room, and she is quite proud of it as you can see.

Here is Elizabeth's new room.
Wish I had some before and after pictures, but this is all I have. I think that gets us up to date. Sorry it took so long. Hopefully I will do better in 2011.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.