Bowling Sierra

We got the kids a Wii for Christmas. This is how Sierra bowls. If I tried to do it that way, I wouldn't even hit one pin.

Baby doll by Fisher Price

We bought this baby doll for Addison for Christmas because she fell in love with it. Now we're going to have to take it back. Can you hear it saying, "Islam is the light"?

This is what a homeschooled baby learns

This is what our schooling was competing against the other day. She's discovered the pencil sharpener.................and loves it.

Happy Birthday, Sierra

Sierra's other cake decorated according to her instructions.

Zach said that it looked like Dora was doing splits in the mud.

Cake and presents. I bought five presents from the dollar section at Target and put one in each bag so she felt like she got a lot.


Sierra with her opened presents...
an erasable board, a wallet, sock slippers, paint by number set, and a cup.


Yesterday was Sierra's actual birthday. We had a small celebration at our house for her complete with another cake and $1 presents from the Target dollar section. She was thrilled.

It's Wednesday, so it must mean it's time to update. I'm sorry about not being able to write as often, but school and housework are keeping me pretty busy lately.

Tomorrow will be my third child's birthday, so we celebrated it this past Saturday. That day turned out to be quite eventful. The night before a tornado had passed through the area, and my husband's cousin's house was damaged. Though quite traumatized, everyone is ok. We went over there after the party and helped move things out. Later that evening we went to my parents' house and visited with my aunt and uncles who were up here from Texas for a couple of days. As I said, it was quite an eventful day but also good.

Right after blowing out the candles

PRESENTS!

The tornado stricken house. You can't really see it from this side, but the far end pillar is completely missing, and the far side of the roof was gone. It also took out part of an upstairs wall inside the house.

Cracks like this are all through the house

The girls playing snakes and ladders with my uncles. Dumb me forgot to take a picture of my aunt.

Another Typical Day

One of the kids left the water running in our slowly draining sink. Of course I didn't know about it until I heard the baby splashing and having fun.

Around Town........Well, a Town Close By

No comment.

Bad advertising. I took this at the Wal-Mart fishtank.

Fall has officially arrived in our neighborhood making a beautiful backdrop for some pictures I took of the kids. More pictures will probably be taken because of the absolutely beautiful weather today and tomorrow.

Not only does the weather bring a chance for beautiful pictures, but it also brings a lot of festivals to the little towns in our area. We had the opportunity to go to the festival held in our town last weekend. There was a whole lot of good looking food, art, and other items of interest, but we ended up spending most of our day in the Kidz Zone. I think everyone had a lot of fun.

I was taking this picture more for the fall colors than of the kids.

This ride lasted WAY too long, but the kids loved it.

This was a pirate show the kids loved watching. He used a horse whip to break these spaghetti noodles.

Sometimes I Wish I Would Say More

The other day some Jehovah's Witnesses came to my house. At first I wasn't going to answer the door, but you know how it is with kids. "Mama! There's someone here!!!!!!!!!!!!" So, I reluctantly opened the door. The men at the door were more than happy to give me their literature, but when I tried to give them mine, they acted like it was poison. Finally, one of the men took it. Now, why would it not be okay for them to read what I have to say??? It would at least help them know where I'm coming from and be better able to argue against my beliefs if they wanted to.
Anyway, this group of people does not believe that Jesus is God. Since Jesus is the whole means for our salvation, this creates a problem. I quoted John 1:1 to them. It says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." I told them that the Word is Jesus, and that Jesus is God; but I failed to connect the dots from the Bible where it says in John 1:14, "And the Word was made flesh (Jesus here on earth) and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." If those verses don't say that Jesus is God, I don't know what does.

This is too good to not stop everything I'm doing to blog this little blurp.

Our son is ALWAYS wanting to sell something. He inherited that trait from some place other than his mother or father. His latest greatest scheme is to draw pictures and color them in order to sell them so he can buy an expensive toy for himself one day. Today I was outside cleaning out my husband's truck, and Zach comes out to me exactly as pictured above. After getting permission he went around to four of the neighbor's houses selling his merchandise and made three dollars. Considering that's how much he charged for one picture, I didn't think he did too bad. I told him to lower his price, he might sell more. The toybox held his pictures, and the bucket was for his money. The string holding the toybox around his neck came from a pretty basket holding our baby's items. I thought that was pretty creative of him.

I took this the other day.

Sometimes I'm Thankful for........

......my husband's redneck roots. The holder for our handheld shower head broke the other day, and my husband fixed it so we can take showers until we have time to go get another shower head. Since this is the bathroom that is waiting to get remodeled, I wonder if we should go ahead with a really nice shower head. hmmmmmmmmmm.

Church Picnic

playing football

just about everyone there

Ready to bob for apples

tug of war

Family Fun

Here's some pictures from the most recent family fun times. Last week we went to look at toys at Target and somehow once again ended up in the Halloween section. Who do you think the afro looks the best on? Obviously, Addison doesn't think it looks very good on her.

For family fun tonight, the kids asked Spencer to pull out one of his toys from childhood. After a run to Wal-Mart to get some fresh paint, we ended up with the black, orange, and gold whatevery you wanna call ems. The kids thought it was fun.

I have tried every way I could think of to get this picture turned the correct way, but the stupid computer won't work with me.

See what happens when you twirl a smiley face?

Some other blogs

I thought I'd mention a few blogs of interest. My mother-in-law has started one that has pretty good reading in it. You can find it at http://www.whatifyoucouldtoday.blogspot.com/. If you are interested in my humble opinion, I have a blog about items that I have come across that I think are good or maybe not so good. That blog is at http://www.letmetellyouabout.blogspot.com/ The final blog of note is one that my mom is just now starting for Jewish people. It's to be found at http://www.israelspromise.blogspot.com/
Happy reading!

Answer to Prayer

I meant to write this about two months ago, but for some reason had not gotten around to it. It's funny how the Lord will answer the smallest prayers. It's His way of telling us that He cares about everything. As I was saying, a couple of months ago I was supposed to play an offeratory for a special service at church. There was a part that I was really nervous about, and when I get nervous, I mess up 10 times worse. So, my prayer was that the Lord would help me through the tough part. He did in the oddest way. Right before I got to the part of the offeratory that I was nervouse about, our pastor got up and started talking to the congregation. (He NEVER does that.) I was able to gracefully pull the offeratory to a halt. How's that for an answered prayer? Others thought it was strange that the pastor would do that, but I was just thankful.

It's been a little while since I've written anything but for good reason. We have started back homeschooling, and that takes quite a bit of time. After the school day is over, we try to find time to straighten the house, and do our regular activites. I guess blogging has somehow fallen out of the "regular" activities category.
I did want to share this though. I have decided to teach the kids a little bit about money for their Bible class. There is a pupose in this. Whenever they get money, they treat it as nothing important, and I hope that notion will be changed quickly. One of the lessons I taught them was about tithing. I started off with a lesson on how Abraham tithed to God. The next day was a little more serious. I read to them in Malachi where God tells the children of Israel that they had robbed Him because they did not tithe. I went on to explain that we are robbing God when we as Christians do not tithe. My little girl just fell apart when she heard that. She sobbed, "Momma, I didn't know I was robbing God!" It made me think of what a great example for us. We should have just as tender of a heart toward the Lord as she did...true remorse for our sins, and a sincere desire to fix the problem.

Addison's First Birthday

We have started back into the world of schooling which takes up a lot of my day. We are on a decent schedule and the kids are getting ready to take their first set of tests.



We have been out and about doing things though. One night, the local community college had a type of open house along with games for the kids. They loved the biology lab the very best. That's not a good sign for me since science is my weakness.

Do I use this eye........

or this eye?

In a race to see who could pop the balloon first

Spencer and I being stupid, and no, we're not Democrats.

At the kitchen table working on a lamp shade piece so that the $2.50 lampshade we got would fit on our lamp. He ended up cutting his nice work pants with the dremmel, so I don't know that we actually saved any money getting the cheap shade.

Around Town

All gas $3.99 a gallon. Would you like regular or premium?

Our Newest Computer User

It's not unusual for Addison to get into this position. We have to keep an eye on her........and on our computer.

Labor Day Weekend

We took an impromptu trip to our state zoo. The kids had a great time staying at a hotel; and after getting over their fears, they even enjoyed visiting a different church. After a whole day at the zoo, 2 hour trip home, a stop at Chic-Fil-A with play time included, the kids were still wanting to play putt-putt. So, we all got our little creative minds together and set up a one hole putt-putt range in our back yard. It was enough to make the kids happy. Now they are asleep before their normal bedtime. WooHoo!

Cute playground at the zoo.

" Eeewww" is what she said when I propped her up by this bumble bee.

Brittany and a bear.

Sierra on the merry-g0-round. She was delighted to spend some of her money to ride this.

Some good sleep

Finally, all four of them looking at the same time even though there's a hand on the side of the photo. That okay, I can crop it.

Giant land tortoise.

Mud Pie Cafe in the KidZone at the zoo.

Neat leaf slide.

Checking out how the ball rolls. Yes, Zach is supervised with that hatchet. We used it help make our course.