Snow , glorious snow!-

Well, it snowed Tuesday and boy did we make the most of it! The boys were biting at the bit to get outside right after they woke up and saw all the snow.




It wasn't supposed to start snowing until 9 am, but by 8:45-ish the ground was already covered. Nice.:) The boys bolted out the door right after breakfast and engaged in a little practice round of snowball fighting...they were getting warmed up for later.

We started on a snowman that Braden and Zekes helped me with while Ailey sat in the snow for a bit enjoying herself, until....the snow melted and soaked through her suit. Zekey also added to her misery by pelting her in the face with a snow ball. That's some sibling love, right there!

She tolerated sitting in a chair for a little while longer, but then she was DONE! Then Sam got to come home early because they closed the base down! Woohoo! Don't you just love Texas?! Any "extreme" weather and everything closes down. ;) Sam and the boys went back out and finished our snowman. The boys and I then proceeded to go out and walk around our little neighborhood. We happened upon some neighbors building a ginormous snowman and we totally wanted in on that! Three snowmen later and it was quite time for a snowball fight! Yeah! The boys were so funny! Then some more neighbors came out and played and we had even more fun. After all of that, it was time to head back home because Sam had some hot chocolate waiting for us. MMMMMmmmmmm. Zekes went down for a nap and Braden continued to play outside for quite a while. (Totally takes after me wanting to play in the snow. I LOVE snow!) We ended the day with taco stew and chillin'. I am still sore from that snowball fight....:p

Braden did it!

He finished his Kindergarten Hooked on Phonics program!!!! He finished the main part yesterday and then finished the last of the deluxe version, which includes extra books. Way to go Braden!!!! Here are pics from yesterday:

Here are the pics from today. We had a party and everything!:

Thoughtful gifts

Sam came home a little late this evening because he had stopped at Lowe's to buy me a few presents. Now, some may say, "Lowe's?!", but I assure you he couldn't have bought me more thoughtful gifts. Here they are:

The items on the left are for caulking and the items on the left are for removing wall paper. :) Oh, the fun I will soon have with our unsuspecting bathroom....

He also got me this beautiful orchid! I love orchids even though they can be a bit temperamental.

I kept mentioning that I like the ones in the little pots at Lowe's... Those daffodils popped up in our backyard and my sweet Braden picked them and brought them in for me. There is no telling what is planted in our yard. Its gonna be a lovely surprise to see what grows.

The heart of the matter

God has really been dealing with the state of my heart lately. I have had to revisit areas of issue of said heart that I thought had already been corrected and given to God's control. Apparently, without being very conscious of it, I had slowly taken control back and my heart was becoming a rather yucky place again. Pride, rebellion, bitterness and martyrdom had seeped in and made themselves right at home there. Reminds me of those Mucinex commercial. Ew! So, thankfully, God started showing me that all that mess was in there and that I was not only giving it a home, but embracing it at times. Gross! First, He allowed a situation to crop up where bitterness and martyrdom were exposed. I hated every moment of it, but I had to come to the place where I had to truly let God be my defense and I had to really examine what it means to truly do things "as unto the Lord". I'm not saying I have this down pat, but the outcome is that I was doing things under condition and God wants me to labor in love...UN-conditionally. So, yucky heart, its time for you to GO!

Green Police

Apparently, this was a commercial during the super bowl, but I saw it via Karen Hancock's blog Writing From the Edge 2. Its so stinkin' funny. (Vaness, I know that you will appreciate it if you haven't already seen it;)

Look at the lovely bracelets!

Yes, I'm posting about another giveaway, but look!

Can you blame me?! Isn't this bracelet so so pretty?!

This one is my favorite:

Well, this is yet another giveaway that I found on Bloggiveaways. The creator of these beauties is Kim Smith and its being hosted over at Whimsical Creations. Check out her stuff, too! She has some of the cutest little things in her store....for instance:

This is a Valentine Terrarium. What a nifty idea! All I have to say is I want one!!!:)

Here is the link to the bracelet giveaway: http://melaniescrafts.blogspot.com/2010/02/kim-smith-charm-bracelet-giveaway.html

Organic kids makeup giveaway

Okay, so I know I just posted about another giveaway, but this one relates to the tutus and butterfly wings I've been interested in. I know many of you had play makeup when you were little and I was no exception. :) The stuff I remember having the most was that tinkerbell play makeup. There was the fingernail polish that you could peel right off and the fake eyeshadow and lipstick and then to top it all off, the stinkiest, strongest, longest lasting perfume....yeah. (You know, every now and then I catch a whiff of that stuff when I am out and about...peew!) Anyway, I came across this Luna Organics organic kids makeup on BlogGiveaways and thought how neat it was. If you are interested, you can click here to enter. Maybe, I could have a whole outfit for Ailey....or maybe I could fit in it all? :)

Stinkin' Cool Giveaway!

Lookee at what I came across! This is a winner's choice giveaway between either the FUJI INSTAX MINI camera or the SLR SLOOP CAMERA BAG:

I'm seriously in a quandary as to which one I would like most! That camera bag is awesome, but that little camera would be so fun! Anyway, click this link to enter: http://www.creaturecomfortsblog.com/home/2010/2/3/giveaway-fuji-instax-mini-camera-or-slr-camera-bag.html

Ailey's 11 mos stats

Ailey went in on Wednesday to get her second round of immunizations....I know, we're behind, but its been nice to just take it easy with all of that.... Anyway, she cried for less than five minutes, which I'm glad of and even gave the nurse that immunized her a smile as she left the room. :) Here is where she is so far:

as of 2-3-10 she was 28.25" and 17.4 lbs

Homeschool progress

Braden is doing soooo well with homeschooling! He's just such a sponge! Anyway, way back when I said I ordered My Father's World curriculum and I even got it all sorted and my mom GREATLY added to the cache of books that were needed and so for a time it was ready to be used. The problem I then faced was the lack of space to use it in. It has lots of hands on projects and things and every time I tried to do one there were two other sets of grabby hands thwarting efforts.;) So, I just decided to stick with the Bible readings and Hooked on Phonics until such a time as we could make the project stuff happen. Well, that time has come. I've gotten it out and we even started on some of it yesterday. The curriculum has me teaching Braden the 100 chart where he counts to 100. I decided to combine it with a little finance info, so I got out 100 pennies and had him count the pennies and place one on top of each number as he went, then I got out 5 pennies and a nickel and told him that they equal each other and then 10 pennies and two nickels and a dime and so on and so forth up to $1 equaling the 100 pennies and other combos of the other change. He had no problem getting all of that and he remembers it all! So amazing. Anyway, I even went so far as to explain tithe to him and hopefully we'll be putting that into action soon. Still want to get him that money savvy piggy bank....really need to remember to do that soon.....

Oh, and since it has taken so long to really get started on the curriculum, I've decided to not concentrate on the reading aspect at all since he is getting that from HOP and just going through the math and projects and reading all the books. I'm confident that at the rate he goes and as much as he enjoys projects, we will be done by May. He's almost done with HOP, so I think for the remainder of the "semester" I'll just have him reread all of the stories in it and add on some other beginner readers that Memaw gave him. Yay! Then, it will be time to get everything ready for next year....oh, boy!

Butterfly Wings

So, I've been seeing all these really cute butterfly wings for little girls and, of course, my curiosity as to how to make them myself got piqued. Off I went on my usual maniacal research quest and found a very informative DIY youtube video (even though it is Halloween themed, the directions are fabulous, oh and the video itself is most creative and not at all boring:) -

Here are the written out directions from the same author of the video:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://images.nextnewnetworks.com/4110_blog.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.threadbanger.com/post/3058/diy-fairy-wings-howto-and-bonus-costume-essential&usg=__76tF2o49n4veAA3QTB9eShFTUOk=&h=267&w=400&sz=26&hl=en&start=23&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=WIAtSWj-ctZu4M:&tbnh=83&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhow%2Bto%2Bmake%2Bfairy%2Bwings%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D21%26um%3D1

SO, I do believe I will be attempting this in the near future. I mean I have a plethora of wire hangers and ribbon and old pantyhose and glitter glue and embellishments and paint.....you know I could go on and on!

I also found a very neat crown pattern in my wings wanderings, as well.... I don't think Ailey will have any shortage of dress up paraphernalia! Now, I need to look up some DIY boys dress up stuff. Then, I need to clean out my old trunk really well (it smells like really strong, stinky moth balls! ew!), repaper it and maybe outfit it with some compartments for the different costumes. I like the idea of setting it on its side and putting a hanging bar in it as well....oh, the ideas I have running through my head! I'll have to document this process once I have a space to start it in....i.e. a cleaned out garage, whenever that will happen!