Funny Ailey

Ailey was snuggling with me the other day and she said, "What if my mouth were on top of my nose.....then my nose would talk!"  Haha!

Funny Brea

She can fall asleep anywhere!  Notice the bottom of the cast...yeah, the cast shoe is missing and she just peg-legs it wherever she needs to go.  Whatcha gonna do?!

Brea's Castatrophe

Well, the day after we got the trampoline, things got out of hand and Brea's leg got broken.  Yeah.  So, we went through Christmas and on right after new year's before she was able to be seen to get a cast put on.  Thankfully, the break didn't go all the way through the bone and she only has to wear her cast for 4 weeks. :/

I had just finished changing her diaper in this pic, so she's waiting patiently to get up. :)

All I want for Christmas is a trampoline!

Betcha didn't know lawn chairs could be used this way...

Best.Present.EVER!

I think I have waited long enough to blog about this....I didn't want to right away because I tend to be strange about certain things (no comments from those who think me strange in all things! ;) and I wanted to just keep this close for a while I think.  A while back, I really felt God pressing in for me to be a worship leader of sorts.  At the time, I could play a bit of hand drum and I do mean a bit ;) and the tambourine and shaker and that's about it.  Good accent instruments, but lead instruments. :)  I tried to learn guitar 7 years ago when we lived in Hawaii with no success.  I was attempting to learn left-handed because I am and its more comfortable that way for me, but it really never panned out.  So fast forward to the recent past and God leading me into a place of amazing worship of Him and I picked up the guitar at the end of June, playing right-handed and have been going ever since.  Its been pretty fast-paced and I can play pretty much any song God puts on my heart.  Now, I will tell you that I can't bar to save my life...anything with Fs and Bs I steer clear of, but the great thing is I can just transpose it into Gs, Ds, As, Cs...you get the picture..stuff I can play.  I think there will be a time where I will really try to get proficient at playing chords I can't play right now....maybe. ;p  I also want to learn more about the instrument and all the technical terms and all that rigamarole, but I'm okay with that being a little at a time for now.  I also don't strum "normally" or play "normal" rhythm, but the songs sound the way I want them to and that's good enough for me!  Anyway, its been a very interesting so far and I'm loving that I can play while worshipping any time I want.   Its pretty neat!  God has just been so purposeful and gracious in equipping me this way and I'm really very honored and blessed!  I'm very excited to see where He takes me in all of this.  

Okay, now where my new guitar comes in is this...Sam has seen what God is doing with me with worship and he decided to full on equip and support me!  My husband is so great, people!  Seriously fantastic!  So buying me a guitar that is more suited for me was his opening move of empowering me:

Isn't it purdy?!  This is what Sam bought me for my birthday.  He actually bought it for me at the end of August and my birthday is not until November.  He wanted me to have it to play when I and several of the ladies of our home group were asked to lead the worship portion of a special service at a church in Copperas Cove.  I just love that about Sam!  He dreams bigger for me than I do!
Our friend Mel has a Big Baby Taylor and she let me play it and I just fell in love with it.  The wood and the feel of the guitar...just lovely!  I was totally smitten.  Add to that that she introduced me to Elixer Nanoweb strings...Oh, MY!  They feel slicker 'n' snot and they are truly lovely to play!
We had gone to San Antonio to visit and as usual, and with much gratitude from Sam and I, Juan and Donna sent us off on a much needed date while they spent alone time with the kids.  Sam decided it would be fun to go to Guitar Center there and just look to see what we could find.  They had a Big Baby in stock and I took it down and strummed on it for a minute and then... Sam found a MINI Taylor!  Oh, yeah!  I have very squatty hands with squatty fingers and short arms and it is difficult for me to play a full-sized guitar, so we wanted a smaller one for me.  Anyway, we ended up being able to get the same model at our Guitar Center here in Killeen.  I love it!  Plus, though its small, Sam can still plunk around on it and when the kids get older, if any of them want to learn, its the perfect size for that, too.  Its along the same lines as a travel guitar, but it has a full-bodied sound just like a full-size.

And yes, I did bling out my pick guard.  It was necessary, I promise!

Today's pictures brought to you by the letter F

Zekes and Lerlu are learning the letter F and they made a frog and also a fox....here is the artistic process in action:

this is super blurry and completely out of focus, but still conveys the idea...this is what Brea looks like on Blue's Clues a.k.a. crack for babies.

My Husband is A-Mazing!

We are gearing up to start our school year in a couple of days and I had an epiphany...well, of sorts.  The kids usually end up all bunking in the same room, so I thought to myself that it would be nice to turn the other bedroom into a homeschool room.  As usual, I'm flying by the seat of my pants trying to get it done and I've been toying with the idea of a triple bunk bed for a while.  So, Sam went to help our friend move this morning and when he came home, he found me eye deep in pondering how I could possibly turn the boy's current bunk beds into a triple bunk.  Didn't want to spend any money, you see.  Just wanted to use what we had on hand.  He said I was crazy.  He's starting to come around to my upcycling obsessiveness.  Well, after much collaborating together, we came up with a plan and we (read mostly Sam) went to work on it. :)  Poor man is now pooped, but looky at what he built!

The kids are giddy with excitement!  They are loving it.  We have a few more boards to add after some more money gets allotted for this project.  I'm also going to put up curtains on rods for the two lower bunks and a tent for the top.  We had all that wood on hand and the two upper bunks are the same metal bases from the previous bunk beds...Now, I need to figure out what to do with the head and foot boards from the other bunks.... ;)
I so wanted to paint the kids' room today.  I have some paint out in the garage and was sorely tempted, but I figured I could get to that another day.... I might paint the school room first since it will be mostly empty for a split second before I start setting up shop in there...  All I know is that it will feel better in both rooms once the unfortunate colors get hidden under much more soothing neutrals.  I think almost 3 years is enough time spent with those colors. :)

Galveston: A trip, part 1

WARNING!  Picture overload!!

So, we went to Galveston on a whirlwind mini vacay.  It was faabulous dahling...  Actually, it was fun, but two things to know for next time.  We need a larger space to stay and we need to stay longer.  Having said that, here is the picture deluge:

 Our trip on the ferry...we saw dolphins twice and I got zero pics of them :/

 Our rendition of The Birds!  Aaaah...seriously, who knew you could have such fun with seagulls flying overhead threatening to drop poo bombs upon your head? ;p

I think the ferry was a highlight for the kids, for sure.

 We stayed on the far eastern part of the island at The East Islander.

 The deck walk that goes out to the beach.

 The kids are really fish in disguise.

 Brea and Ailey's footprints

Happy Zekes!

Well, hello Frida Kahlo!

 A wave cometh...

 Up and down the beach

 And I'm in some pics!

That's a whole lotta man, right there!

Part 2 coming soon...ish!

Zekeyism

A few mornings ago, I made some hot tea for the kids after their breakfast and I overheard Zekey, in contemplative thought, saying, "There are real hiccups in my tea."  He, Braden and Lerloo were all trying to make hiccup sounds.  Apparently, the culprit for all of the "real" hiccups was the tea.  Gonna have to watch out for that tea, I guess. :)