She's 1!

My niece, Alayna, turned one this weekend! I cannot believe she has been here a year already! Time has flown by!
Her party was Saturday and I made her birthday cake. My sister-in-law wanted polka-dots and wanted it pink and white, other than that I could do what I wanted. The small one with her monagram was her personal cake. I think it turned out pretty good!

For her gift, I made her a dress. I made her a day gown when she was born and would like to make her a dress for each birthday... we'll see! I forgot to turn the picture, so you'll have to tilt your head to appreciate it! It turned out very well. I had a friend from church (thanks Candace!) help guide me a little on it but pretty much did it all on my own.

Close up of embroidered collar.

Brandy made me a cute little bow to match!

Here she is demolishing my cake!!

At my mother-in-law's after the party. Is she not the cutest thing?!?!

Friday Fun!

My mother-in-law and I took the boys to Jekyll Island Friday to ride bikes. They have a great bike trail there. Since the weather was a bit chilly, we stopped a lot to read signs and just pay attention to things we've always sped by on past rides. We stopped at this old oak tree. It was amazing!! It's the oldest at an estimated 350 years old!! It's limbs have grown down and into the ground and back out again! It was so relaxing just to stand under it and watch the moss blow in the wind. If only it had a hammock!!

The boys had a ball climbing. Matthew said this was the 'hugest' tree he'd ever climbed and wants one for the backyard! (we'll work on that grammar later!)

I had to boost Tanner up to get him into the tree! For those of you who know him, you know this was no small feat!!

They were also having an arts festival. I bought a small piece of pottery made by one of Jekyll's local artists. We got to tour exhibits. They had photography, paintings, quilting, beading, and much more! I can't even remember it all now! They had a small band consisting of one guitar, bongos and a vocalist who pleasantly played in the background. There was pottery you could purchase and paint and they fired it for you while you wait. I want to make a note of this date and make sure we go back next year!

What fun we had!! I can't wait to go back. We worked hard all week so we could take this day off but I think we learned more Friday than we would have learned at home!

A Must Read!

If you are homeschooling or even just considering it, I highly recommend this book! We are nearing the finishing gate of our third year homeschooling and I only wish I had read this before I started! It addresses the need we have to conform to others' expectations (a biggie for me!) as well as how our schooling methods are usually a result of how we were schooled. It stresses the importance of really studying your children and catering to their learning style. While it certainly does not encourage a 'throw caution to the wind' approach, it does explain how homeschooling can be fun and how your children can actually enjoy learning. Homeschooling does not have to even remotely resemble organized school to be done effectively.

I know that me having read this book will not make next school year perfect but I do plan on making some changes. I want to be a little more relaxed and just enjoy my boys more. I want them to enjoy learning and not dread their schooling. I haven't quite gotten all the details ironed out in my head yet but I'm already looking forward to next year!

Mi Casa

I finally have pix of our house to share!

A little about our house... Mike is in the steel building business so we have a steel house. I don't think it looks much different than most houses. The best part is that I have my own hurricane shelter!! Being terrified of bad weather, I feel safer in this house than I would anyplace else. The structure of the house is steel (and way over-built according to everyone who worked on it) but from the inside you would never know. We decided to go with the steel sheeting on the outside at first for cost effectiveness, planning to do some sort of siding later. But, we both really like it so it will stay as is.

This is a picture from the front drive. The little add-on looking room to the far right is Mike's theatre room. It is not finished yet but we hope to start on it soon! I can't wait to have '24' parties!!

One of my favorite things about our house has to be the red front door. I have always loved red front doors!



When you walk into our front door, this a view from the foyer into the den. It's a little dark, probably should have turned on some lights!


From the foyer looking straight ahead you see a glimpse of my kitchen, hopefully welcoming you in!

This is my kitchen. My favorite room in the house! Take a good long look, it usually isn't this clean. Being the hub of the house, everything (and everyone) collects here!

This is my den from the kitchen/dining room. It is all very open which is perfect for entertaining. You can hardly see it, but the black upright piano to the right was my great-grandmother's. She had it delivered to her house by a mule and wagon way back when (that's about as accurate as I can get). Don't overlook Lola posing on the sofa!!

This is our master bedroom. The wardrobe to the left was a real glossy white when I bought it. It had tacky green pulls and looked like it was from the eighties. When I brought it home Mike said it was not what he thought I was wanting. I told him to give it time. I stripped the whole thing, painted the inside a light mint green just to make it look cleaner and added new pulls. In the process, I broke the full-length mirror. I sewed a 'curtain' for it from some green ticking in my scrap pile and installed it from the inside of the door and I think I actually like it better than the mirror.

Here is Lola's room. Now, let me explain! When Mike bought her for me the deal was that she was not allowed to sleep with us (Mike is really not a dog-in-the-house kind of person). So, at every previous house she has slept in our bathroom. I didn't want to close her up so we put a baby gate across the doorway. Well, Mike's closet has always been in our bathroom and when he gets up in the morning to get ready for work he has to step over the gate trying not to let her out because she will make a b-line to me and wake me up. So, when we built this house I got to thinking about what I wanted to do with the space under the stairs. I thought, why not? It opens into our room so she will be near me and Mike doesn't have to fight her off in the mornings! She doesn't even make a sound when Mike gets up. She knows she doesn't get out until I get up. Her baby gate is not even installed, we just lean it up in the doorway, she doesn't know! She can see us just getting ready fro bed and she goes to her bed. I think she likes her little space! BTW, the picture on the wall is of my mom's dog!

The entire time we were designing, building and decorating this house the primary thing I wanted to achieve in this house was for it to be comfortable. I wanted people to feel at home when they came in. I have 2 boys! It's just not practical to have a 'museum'. I want them and their friends to feel comfortable running up and down the stairs and in and out the doors. All this to say this...we had some friends from our church over Friday night for dinner. One couple had never been to our house before. As they were getting ready to leave, the husband was commenting on how much he liked the house and how open it was and then he said those magic words, "it's just so comfortable". Enough said.

(thanks Ben, you have no idea what a compliment that was for me!)

13 Years And Counting...

Happy Anniversary!

How fast time flies when you're having fun! In some ways it seems like we were just married yesterday, in other ways it seems like we've been married forever.

I'll spare you the sappy stuff. I'll save that for his card! But, I do want to say that I am so blessed to be married to such an amazing man!

My Superhero

My first video! This is Tanner in his new Superman suit! This was taken at my in-laws a few Christmases ago. I found it going back through my photo files and thought I'd share. Tanner never ceases to entertain!

Painting

I went to help a great friend, Gina, paint last night. They are building a new house and they are painting it themselves! I actually enjoy painting, so I volunteered to help. I remember how busy we were trying to get our house finished and it was hard to find help. We had so much fun, it didn't feel much like work! We painted until almost midnight! We were both covered in sheetrock dust from sitting on the stairs and bending on our knees to paint near the floor. I had paint on my shirt and pants from touching the walls! Once, Gina and I had stopped painting and were talking and I just leaned my paint roller on my shoulder like it was a baseball or something! Paint all over my shoulder! I accidently stuck the end of my extender rod in the gallon of paint! I almost knocked a hole in the wall several times with said rod! Come to think of it, they're probably hoping I don't come back! :)
Gina, you have a beautiful new home and I know you can't wait to move in! Thanks for letting me help you paint!

It's The Little Things...

I got a new birdbath and I had no idea how much we would enjoy it! The boys and I stand at the door or windows and watch them for what seems like hours! This is our cardinal that seems to enjoy our new offering the most. Such joy God gives us in even the smallest of things!

Look at the birds of the air: they neither

sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet

your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you

not of more value than they? And which

of you by being anxious can add a single

hour to his span of life?

Matthew 6:26-27

Catching Up...

It's been a while. Several people have commented that I haven't blogged in a while. I guess we've just been busy getting back into the groove of things after the holidays. School is back into full swing for us now and that takes up a lot of our time. Pretty much our days consists of breakfast, school, lunch, school, prepare for dinner, tae kwon do, dinner, a little play time and bed. That's about it. I didn't realize how much of a break I needed from it all until this past weekend. Our homeschool moms in our group had a retreat. Wow! That's all I can say. It was amazing! We intentionally did not plan anything, which totally went against human nature for several of us. We did nothing but talk. We played a few games and cooked but mostly just talked. We laughed, we cried, it really was therapeutic. I am sometimes intimidated by the incredible organization of some of our moms. While I do not rejoice in their struggles, it is comforting to know that my struggles are not so abnormal after all; they struggle too.


A few other things I wanted to share:

The boys got life-size cut-outs of Elvis for Christmas (from Nana). They are motion sensored and talk whenever you walk by them. It doesn't matter how many times I walk into their rooms, I am always startled by these things! Lola (our shih tzu) hates them. Anytime she goes into their rooms, she barks and growls and carries on like it is about to attack her or something. It's funny for the first 10 seconds, then it just gets annoying. Thought you might like to see them:



Matthew got the G.I. Blues one:


Tanner got a cowboy Elvis. I'm assuming he played this character in a movie.





Matthew got a grappling hook for Christmas (from Grandma). He loves climbing trees. Well, he got stuck up a little too high the other day and couldn't get down. He yelled for me to help him. I told him to sit tight while I ran for the video recorder! When I got back, Mike was trying to help him down. I recorded the rescue. He was up so high, Mike had to get the ladder to get to him. It was quite entertaining!

Here is one of our cats, Lilly. What could she be staring at?

The boys got a new bird feeder for Christmas!

Lilly sits under this bird feeder all day long! She watches those birds for hours. Thankfully she hasn't caught one yet!

I wanted to share the beautiful view I have each and every time I leave my house now. The neighbors across the highway have moved their horses to the field directly across from our house. We have woods between our house and the highway so I don't get to enjoy them from my porch, but it gives me something to look forward to when I have to head out!

It's Been A While...

My computer crashed two days before Christmas and I just got it back. So Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Birthday Elvis!

I hope you had a great holiday! Our holiday was quite relaxing this year. I guess it was because of Christmas falling on a Thursday that seemed to spread everything out a little more and we were able to breath a little between trips here and there. We bought the boys Rock Band for the Wii. I should say we bought ourselves Rock Band. Mike and I have enjoyed it as much, if not more, than the boys! I must say, I am quite good on the drums! I got a new video recorder so hopefully I can post videos now (as soon as I get it figured out, that is)!

Our New Year was unusually eventful this year! We always go to a bonfire/cookout thing at a friend's home and everyone usually leaves around 8:30. We then attempt to stay up and watch the ball drop and fall asleep on the couch. This year, we left the bonfire and went to another gathering we were invited to by a couple at church. We stayed there until after 12:30, making it the first in 4 or 5 years that we have actually seen the new year come in!! The new year affects me differently each year. Some years I feel like it is so overrated. Other years I feel like it's a new beginning. This year I was kind of indifferent. I really enjoyed being with our friends when the ball dropped but I haven't made any lists of things to accomplish this year or anything. They never last (for me, anyway).

Last , but not least, today is Elvis' birthday! He would have been 74. I can't imagine what he would look like or be doing today if he were still here.

So, the Christmas tree is down and gone. The new year has gotten underway. School has started back and life is back to normal (whatever that is).