Snow Day Fun

We got about 6" of snow (on top of freezing rain/sleet) on Tuesday of this week, so schools have been closed.  What should we do with our time while we're housebound?  We were able to entertain ourselves pretty well....

We played in the snow a little bit...

Then we made snow ice cream!

  



Max used a straw to get the very last drop!  :-)

ThAnkFuL For...

(Note:  This is a duplicate posting from my 365 photo blog.  I just love the idea so much I wanted to share it here too!)

We are trying to make our kids more aware of things/people around them...and hopefully, not to take things for granted.  I read a post on Becky Higgins' blog last year that really inspired me, so I decided to try the same thing with our family.
I put a piece of poster board into a simple (cheap) black frame and hung it on the wall.  I used some scrapbooking sticker letters to spell the word "THANKFUL", and wrote 2011 under that.  I assigned each person in the family a different colored sharpie and told them they could write/draw whatever they are thankful for on the poster.  We just started this earlier this month, and it has been really fun reading what everyone has written so far.  We plan on leaving this poster up all year (hopefully it will be over-filled!), and replacing with a blank poster for 2012. 
I encourage everyone to do a similar project with their families!  (be sure and send me a link to your photo!)

Snow Day

We awoke to lots of snow this morning, so schools were closed.  When it stopped snowing, we ventured out to play a little.  The kids really enjoyed riding their sleds.  Fun times!

Park Play

Yesterday was such a nice day (after frigid temps and snow earlier in the week). We dropped the dog at the groomers and then surprised the kiddos by stopping at a park for some fun. We all had such a great time (even mom went on the slide with Max). :-) I forgot to take my big camera, but happened to have the little camera that I received @ Christmas (specifically meant to carry in my purse).   So glad I had that camera!

 

  

Emily's Gotcha Day #13

I've been looking back through photos to see what I've missed blogging about...found one very important event.  In late November 2010, we celebrated Emily's 13th gotcha day!  Thirteen years...WOW!  Thirteen years ago we were given the unimaginable privilege of having sweet Emily as our daughter.  I'm sitting here laughing at myself as I type this...wiping tears from my face just thinking about how much I love this girl.  OK so to stop the crying, I'm just going to post some of the pictures I took of Emily's travel group during the gotcha day weekend that we hosted!  :-)  I'm such a sap....

SIX PEOPLE / TWELVE TIMES - Number 1

Tara Whitney (photographer extraordinaire) came up with a fabulous idea last year of taking a photo of her family once a month.  Thus the idea of 6 people 12 times.  Her blog link is http://tarawhitney.com/justbeblogged/

I am going to do my best to follow Tara's lead.  We are also a family of 6, and we rarely have more than one photo a year with all of us in it at once.  We haven't had professional photos taken since...well, I can't remember when!  For our Christmas cards, we always just set the timer on the camera and race to sit down.  Even though I truly dislike seeing photos with *me* in them, I'm moving forward with this project anyway...hopefully, the kids will appreciate this someday! lol 

So, here's our first "6 People" shot of the year.  This is actually one of my pics from my project 365 photo blog, but I'm also using it here anyway.  Yes, it was taken using the timer again, but we're ALL in it!  

December Recap

I'm getting old so I can't remember everything that I *should* have posted, had I been doing a good job of blogging.....soooooo, this is a quickie recap from the last part of December.  Bear with me...this could get long and boring as I find photos to post!  :-)
*     *     *
Claire auditioned and made the cut for her school's choir and swamp band.  They call themselves the swamp band because their mascot is a gator.  The only instrument in the band is one of those plastic recorders that schools use to teach music...but they sound really good anyway! 

Choir (chosen from a student body of 900!)

Claire's swamp band costume

I helped out with our church's Children's Choir this fall.  Our program was "A Shepherd, Sheep & a Savior".  We dressed all of the kids in shepherd costumes for the play, and they looked adorable!  One of the kids' favorite songs was "Stinky, Smelly Sheep"...so cute!

My little shepherd, Claire

I did quite a bit of online shopping for the holidays.  Several items were packed with the foam "peanuts".  Max was playing with some of the packing material and noticed that it stuck to his hand.  I showed Max how to rub the peanuts to make them have more static.  He had the best time playing and making them stick to him (love his little peanut beard!).

We all had a great Christmas.  The kids got pretty much everything they asked for.   We drew names again (among the older 5 of us...Max just isn't old enough yet) and *made* an item for the other family member.  Randy made me a beautiful photo frame; I made Randy a CD calendar and a year of memories book; Emily made 3 bookmarks for Allyson; Claire made a journal and bookmark for Emily; and Allyson made 3 cute bottlecap necklaces for Claire.  This is one of our most fun traditions, and the kids always LOVE making something for another family member!


The "post gift-opening" mess!

My four fab kiddos (and a crazy looking dog)

Emily brought home one of her art projects from the first semester.  It was a self-portrait, and I thought she did a great job on it. 

Claire and I helped bake Christmas cookies at church for a fundraiser.  We were selling cookies to help with the expenses of children's camp this summer.  Allyson will be going to youth camp, but she even helped us for a bit. 



Better?

OK Sherry and Jennifer...is that better? 
Sherry, so glad to see you're blogging again!  I'm bookmarking your blog.
Jennifer, I lost your blog addy when my computer crashed, so I'm headed to bookmark your site too!
Thanks for the input ladies!

Blog Makeover

I woke up WAY too early this morning (4 a.m.!).  Since I couldn't sleep, I played a little on the computer and gave the blog a makeover.  I'm still not sure I like the design, but I do like the colors.  I combined several papers for the background - now I'm thinking it's just too busy.  Maybe I need to scale it back to just one patterned background?  Thoughts????

A New Year

Once again, I've gotten behind on the 'ol blog.  To be honest, I just haven't felt like logging on and writing...we've just been way too busy during the holidays.
I'm still trying to decide if I even want to continue our family blog.  (I *did* put a new picture of the kids on the header though.)  :-)
My new life word for 2011 is "CHANGE" which involves so many different areas of my life (& one being less computer time!).  Not sure what direction I want to head with the blog...tune in to see if it goes down the drain! LOL

Black Friday Ads - Cricut Lites

Those of you who really know me, know that I am addicted to all things scrapbook related. :-) Yep, it's a fact...I have an entire room dedicated to this wonderful, memory craft. Sooooo, when Joy at Obsessed with Scrapbooking put up a giveaway, I just HAD to jump in. :-)

Joy's post features the new Cricut Lite cartridges. These new babies will be up for grabs on black Friday at Wal-Mart! I'm sure I'll be out at midnight on black Friday with all of the other crazed scrapbookers to try and snatch a few cartridges. I just hope I come home with both hands attached! Be sure and stop by Joy's blog to get a peek at the new cartridges!

Two By Two

Max likes to play with his breakfast cereal. On this day, he was stacking his Honey-Nut Cheerios in little rows...two by two.

These are the sweet little moments I want to remember....

30 Days of Giveaways

The Ni Hao Y'all blog is doing a fabulous 30 Days of Giveaways...just in time for the holidays. Head on over to their blog to check it out and register for the prizes!

I've tried numerous times to add the cute little blog button here from their website, but blogger is failing me today. :-(

Halloween / Trunk-or-Treat

Treat bags Claire and I made for her class:

The costumes:

We recycled some of Emily's previous costumes for Allyson and Claire -a detective, and an artist. Mr. Max was a handsome king. Oh an Emily? She was just a teen! :-)

Halloween has come and gone...a fun time was had by all. Our kids have never done the "house to house" kind of trick-or-treating...it's more like "cubicle to cubicle". We have always taken the kids to daddy's office where they walk the hallways and are given way too much candy from all of the staff. It's a huge event every year with hundreds of kids.


All of that candy-filled fun is followed by trunk-or-treat at church. We have participated in this event for many years...don't even remember the last time we gave out candy from home! It's a wonderful way to reach out to the community. This year, we had over 4,000 people come through!!


We waited too long to work on our trunk display, and couldn't think of anything really creative. At the last minute, I thought of something the event organizer had said during church - that we should get "plugged in" to trunk-or-treat...so I went with that theme! We made a giant outlet and plug, then added signage and some lightning bolts. It was simple, yet effective! We even won a prize in the creative category!! :-)

And these are a few of the other displays:

Honor Society

Emily was inducted into the National Jr. Honor Society last week. This was her second year in a row for this honor (often difficult to achieve since they require so many points for extra-curricular activities). We are proud of our girl. ;-)