Starting Early!

But not really, because Thanksgiving is already past for us. I'm really not FEELING the Christmas thing yet (though I must say that yesterday DID feel like Thanksgiving, which is so cool!), but James has had the Christmas music going, Katie is wearing the Christmas sweater that she bought at the thrift store a few weeks ago, and it's only a matter of time before the boxes of decorations start piling up in my living room waiting for me to get to work. So I thought I'd go ahead and beat everybody else at putting up a Christmas template. But when I looked for one there really wasn't a lot of new stuff and nothing was really jumping out at me. So I made this one and I love it! :-)

These are the new pictures we had taken last week. If you need family pictures taken and have a Portait Innovations near you, DO IT! They have a $9.95 special and that package is tons better than what you get at Sears and the other places like that. They're fast and professional (our photographer took 148 pictures, I think--in no time!) and when you're done you sort through them (it goes way faster than you'd think), pick out what you want and *ba-da-bing* in 20 minutes your pictures are READY TO TAKE HOME! Right then! No waiting for three weeks and trying to find a day to go back and stand in line to pick them up or paying for them to be mailed to you and all of that stuff. You get dolled up, go down, pose for pictures, pick out what you want, and TAKE THEM HOME WITH YOU! (That's the part that really sold me on this place--it's FANTASTIC!!!)

We usually alternate each year; a family picture one year, a picture of just the kids the next. This was the year for the kid picture, but our family picture last year was kind of dippy because the lady at Sears (where we used to go--but no more!) botched 'em up and Katie was sort of lost in the shadows. So we had a family picture taken as well and it turned out great. LOVE this place! Anybody that can get Joe and Sam both being still and smiling a the same time and not punching each other in the nose (that only happened a time or two in between shots--HA!) over and over again is a GREAT photographer. One of my favorite poses (which we didn't order, of course) was when the lady asked Joe what his girlfriend's name was. It was a clenched fists shaking in the air, eyes closed and lips pursed saying "Ooooooooohhh! STOP THAT!!!" sort of reaction that was truly hilarious--and the full impact was captured by the camera. HA! :-)

That's all for now. Gotta hand the computer over to Katie for school. But let me be the first to say MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! (Even though I don't really feel it yet...)

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's too early to be saying that to the rest of you, but our Thanksgiving WAS today--so I can't help but say it! I'm not going to take the time to stay up and write all about it, but I tried something new tonight and thought I'd see how it works, so here goes!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Hope it works! I'll "really" blog again soon.

Just Random Things

I'm wearing one of my $4 denim skirts that I bought at the thrift store last week. I LOVE IT. It's a really great one and it makes me very happy that I found it.

We've just discovered that even without cable we get several channels on the new TV. Most of them we've already blocked, but we've kept the ones that will enable us to watch the news at night... and Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune! Ha! Ah, yes...

James bought me a La-Z-Boy yesterday! Wa-Hoo! We've got several purty little wing back chairs and they're okay for sitting and visiting in... but not for lounging in. We've been on the lookout for a long time and finally yesterday he found this perfect, like new little blue La-Z-Boy on Craigslist for $50. Wa-Hoo! I scrubbed it up and we got it into place, then James was checking out the new TV and while flipping through the channels we discovered that Wheel of Fortune was on. We called the kids (who were THRILLED--they love it) and James and I each sat down in our recliners, pulled little lap blankets over ourselves and watched Wheel of Fortune... Just like all the old people in Sun City! Ha!

As for the kids, this is pretty much what they've been up to lately...

School, school, and more school. Sam was busy making thank you cards for the birthday gifts he received. That's why his shirt was on the table--he was drawing a picture of it and needed to copy it just right. He's GREAT at that sort of thing. Although he's not so good at other things...

Yesterday when we were rearranging furniture to get my new chair in it's place I happened to move one particular piece of furniture and discovered a little pile of candy wrappers. Hershey's, Reese's, and a couple of others--the little bite-size ones that we bought about a month ago. I immediately knew the guilty party and hollered out the door for Sam to come inside. He walked in the door and I pointed to the wrappers and asked if he wanted to tell me about them. His eyes showed shock, then fear, then resignation. He just looked at me real pitiful and sighed and simply asked how bad the punishment would be. He said he didn't do it all at once; he had stolen the candy over several days and stashed the evidence. ~sigh~ Dopey kid. You know what I don't get? If I was going to steal candy, I would stuff the wrapper down deep in the trash--not under furniture where it would eventually be discovered! Not that I would steal candy, of course... ;-)

Right now the crowd is taking turns their baths and anxiously awaiting the brownies... while watching Jeopardy. :-)

Uummm... what else? Joe had some unfortunate encounters with his school principal yesterday morning... but it made for a very productive day of school yesterday and again today! That means I've been able to get sooooo much more accomplished with my day because he's been done with school by about 1:00 each day. It's been great! The house is nice and clean, I'm all caught up on the laundry and ironing, I've been able to get some "extra" stuff done, and it's just GREAT. Of course, I can't take all the credit for the clean house. I'm not sure what has happened to James, but he has been Super Husband the past day or two. He's been cleaning the house and taking care of little odd jobs all over the house (most of which would fall into MY job description) and taking care of meals and all manner of wonderfulness. He brought home this Welch's stuff from the grocery store the other day called Super Juice, so I told him to just keep on drinking that stuff! Ha! He's been sooooooooo great.

Guess what?! We've got company coming!!! Wa-Hoo! Hector & Erika and Amie and Tayde are coming to join us for Thanksgiving. Okay, so it's not actually going to be ON Thanksgiving, but we're going to HAVE Thanksgiving while they're here. We've been wanting them to come visit for a while and I'm so glad that it's working out right now so we can show them how you're SUPPOSED to celebrate Thanksgiving. In Hatch they have tamales and enchiladas and... well, all of the things they have every other day of the year! They have turkey as well... smothered in green chili, of course. So I told them that there is NO chili allowed and I'd show them what you're SUPPOSED to eat on Thanksgiving. They'll probably be sooooo glad to get back to Hatch when it's all over with! Ha! It should be a lot of fun. They're coming on Saturday and will stay until Tuesday, I think, so we'll have "Thanksgiving" on Monday. I can't wait!

That's about it. I've got an ABM service to work on tonight and some other church stuff that I've not been able to get to yet. So right after Wheel of Fortune and the brownies that James just whipped up (!), I'll have to get busy on something productive. G'night, all!

FINALLY!!! The PICTURE Posts!!!

A whole slew of them! I knew I'd never get caught up if I didn't just make myself sit down and do it all at once. So here is what we've been up to for the past month. I don't know how many posts or how many pictures there are... If you want to start at the beginning, scroll way down to the post entitled "Texas Trip." That's the first one I posted. Then I worked myself up to date. I realize the only person who really will make the time to read everything is probably my Mother (thanks, Mom--you know I did this for you, right??? 'Cause I love you so!), but the rest of you can skim through the pictures. Enjoy!!!

Oh, yeah. Forgot to post these initially, so I thought I'd just add them here. This is what my wonderful husband did to find the perfect spot for the TV.

The TV concealed...


The TV revealed!!!
Is that cool, or what?! I LOVE IT!!! James is so amazing!!!

Sam's 6th Birthday

I already wrote about Ladies' Retreat, so I'm skipping that part of the Colorado Trip. James visited the Salida church while we were at Retreat, then over the next week or so we travelled around and visited the churches in Pueblo, Aurora (in their new building--how exciting!), 'Springs, and Craig. Somehow, I only took pictures while we were in 'Springs. Maybe because that's where Sam had his birthday!

That's right, my littlest is 6 years old now. CRAZY. He LOVES Isaac, so it worked out well that we happened to be staying with the Hays when his birthday rolled around. Of course, he's pretty fond of Isaac's dad, too. There's something about being in the same room with Brother Dustin that immediately gets Sam into trouble--a strange sort of magnetism, I guess. But he has a blast... until he ends up IN trouble instead of just MAKING trouble. (Usually only a matter of minutes.) Sam had requested cupcakes for his birthday this year, so this is what we ended up with. :-)
He didn't even spit. Too much. (I hate that part of birthday parties!!! Who thought that up, anyway?!)
The cowboy shirt from Grandma and Granddad...
The MUCH LOVED dart gun from the Hays... that's already been taken away several times! Ha!
The tambourine...
And all 6 presents at once: he's a tambourine playing, drum thumping, dart shooting, cowboy clad Spiderman. Whoa!!!
And there is just SOMETHING about a superhero suit. The MOMENT he pulled the mask on he went flying across the couch to attack Brother Dustin. Ha!


And here he is with his best bud, Batman. :-) I love it when Sam gets a chance to be with Isaac. Isaac is such a NICE kid and Sam gets along so well with him and never gets into any trouble at all. (Until the Dad gets home, that is...)

It was a good birthday and he had lots of fun. Good thing, 'cause the poor kid was SICK all day the next day! He only got up off the couch three times all day long--to run to the bathroom. Lucky for me he MADE IT to the bathroom each time! He was feeling better by the following day, so that was good. We had a chance to go to Ghost Town and we didn't have any trouble at all on the drive up to Craig.

As Usual...

Brother Dustin performed his duty excellently... His duty, of course, being to provide perfect pictorial opportunities. :-) It's sad, though. Somehow since he has received this Church-wide appointment I feel constrained and unable to take the liberty I otherwise would to elaborate in such a public place as a blog on what these pictures are really ABOUT. I still feel free to POST them, just not expound upon them. Ha!

Ghost Town

There's this place in Colorado Springs that's pretty small, really, but very neat. It's an indoor old ghost town sort of a place that has all sorts of neat antiques and authentic... old stuff! Don't know how to describe it, actually. They've got an old washing machine that was on display at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and some sort of a generator that was used to light Boston before it was used to light the fire engines in Colorado Springs 100 years ago. Way cool. We went here with the Hays before we headed out of 'Springs--sort of the "party" part of Sam's birthday.
The kids testing their aim... on the machines that actually worked!
Aleah being very Aleah. Ha! She cracks me up!
Lillie making the most of her ride.
Father and son... Don't know HOW that kid got so cute, I tell ya'.
We had a hard time finding a good place for all of the kids to pile up for a picture. It seemed helpful to confine them all to the watering trough.


Here's a picture of Sam in his new cowboy shirt that Grandma Vicki made him. It fits PERFECT, Mom--so cute!
And here's Sam and one of his most favoritest friends in the whole world, Isaac.
The Moms.
And... ~ahem~ ... the Dads.

Of course the still shots are almost just as good!
Especially this one. HA!

The Drive Home

How can I not post these??? ~sigh~ I don't know how it's possible, but I seem to love and appreciate Colorado a little more with ever trip we take there. I particularly love THIS drive. These pictures were taken between Montrose and Durango. I think it's where heaven touches the earth. ;-)







And this is a natural hot spring just north of Durango. The formation there is sort of soft and spongy feeling and the water is really, truly WARM. --Up there in the mountains where all the other water is ICE COLD from the snow run off. It's amazing!!!

Puzzle Day 2009!

Okay, so this picture wasn't actually taken on Puzzle Day... it was taken a day or two later when we had what really SHOULD have been Puzzle Day. But we got a little skift of snow on a Monday or a Tuesday and I quickly declared Puzzle Day '09 because we were getting ready for our Colorado trip and I knew I wouldn't have time for a day off on Wednesday or Thursday before we left! Anyway, this was taken during the week that Puzzle Day occurred. :-) And this is the only proper way to start off Puzzle Day--with James' homemade hot chocolate! YUM!!! I grew up on the little packets, but I can't make myself drink that kind of cocoa anymore now that James has got us spoiled so. I don't know what all he puts in there, but it's fantastic!

On the day (or two?) after Puzzle Day when we got enough snow to do something with, Katie happened to be the FIRST one awake. That NEVER happens--she is NOT a morning person!!! But she saw the snow out her window, hopped up, threw on her snow gear and headed outside to have some "all alone" time before the boys woke up. She was so excited to have a snow day all to herself!



This was taken later in the day when there wasn't much snow left on the ground, but it was still coming down. They're trying to catch flakes on their tongues, of course. I know who the real flakes are though...

McCalls' Pumpkin Patch

Okay, mark your calendars! NEXT OCTOBER (that's as specific as we can get) we are planning a Church of God Homeschoolers trip to this place and we fully expect all of the homeschoolers in The Church of God (at least the ones in our Region) to travel how ever many hours and miles it takes for you to come join us. No problem, right?! This place is only open to the public on weekends and it is COVERED OVER with people (wa-a-a-a-a-ay too many for my taste!), but they schedule homeschool groups during the week. So let's do it next year, okay?! Okay!!! :-)

The kids started out at the duck races. They had to pump water as fast as they could to try to get their duck down to the end.
They've got lots of animals, but I thought this was pretty cool. Although there were none on it while WE were watching (naturally), the goats actually like to climb the stairs and go up and over this thing. Crazy!

Hay stacks to climb on...

This dude was shooting pumpkins with the cannon...

You can pan for gold here. And if you can see behind the silo, there is a big black pipe coming out of the top of the hill. That's the top of the slide...

And the BOTTOM of the slide...





This is where you go to launch little pumpkins and gourds--James thought it was great.

Joe, as usual, had his own method...

For the men who are bored by the REAL fun, they've got chess...

This is a GIANT jumping pillow. Never mind the words on the green part. They just say no jumping on the edge--everybody is really allowed to be up there. ;-)

Love this picture--it's so THEM. :-)



They also had go-cart tracks, but for pedal cars. It would've been so fun for the kids (or adults, probably!), but the line was way too long and nobody felt like standing there for half an hour when we could be doing other things.

Joe enjoyed playing in the corn box... until he looked around and realized he was the only one over age 4 in there. Ha!

I've wanted to do a corn maze ALL MY LIFE!!! I finally got the chance and then... well, I made the mistake of going with James Horne! SO FRUSTRATING!!!

It started out well enough and everybody seemed to be having fun.

Sam thought it was cool to find some corn still on the stalks.

To make a long story short, James is not a maze kind of a guy. He doesn't want to waste time LOOKING or SEARCHING for anything--he's just not built that way. He's a GET-IT-DONE kind of guy, so after about 10 minutes of wandering around through the maze he began directing the family THROUGH the corn and back towards where we came from. We finally exited... through the entrance. ~sigh~ How embarrassing. He's such a cheater!!! (Another reason I need some other people to come to this place with us next year--I don't want to do the maze with JAMES again!!!)

After all of that, we took a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch. I've never seen anything like it--acres and acres of pumpkins! So cool!

Here's everybody in search of the perfect pumpkin... I love the colors in this picture. :-)

Here's Sambo with his selection. A perfectly round little beauty that was still half green. It was cool!

This is James with Katie's selection--the one that looked like it had been cinched up with a belt. :-)

And the kids with their pumpkins on the ride back to the farm.

We had a terrific time and are already looking forward to next year when we can go on a day when nobody will be there but us and the Clarksons and the Smiths and the Hays and... ;-)