Elf Snowball Fight

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Monday Musings

Today we have had a cleaning/movie marathon day. I bribe the kids with movies to get them to help me clean up and clean out closets and drawers. We live in a rather small three bedroom house so we have to purge unnecessary stuff on a regular basis or it would take over the house! I have to chuckle as my boys are watching "A Christmas Story" for the gazillionth (like my made up word :-) time since getting it out with the Christmas stuff. You know the story about Ralphie and his obsession with getting a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. Well last year, Jack was Ralphie! And Yes, Santa did bring him a Red Ryder, not to mention every other kid in the house got one too! I particularly loved Olivia's, it's hot pink! Anyway, I digress! I was laughing at the part near the end when Ralphie finally gets his gun and his dad is telling him to be careful not to drop the BB's as he is loading it because they will get everywhere. He is so NOT kidding! A few months ago, one of my brilliant children, who will remain nameless, placed an almost full box of BB's on top of the fridge. Mind you, it was not back far enough so that one could open the door and not meet with BB catastrophe. So poor Taylor opens up the freezer door and it sounded like it was raining in the kitchen. It was 4000 BB's falling off the top of the fridge! How long does it take one (or 6 for that matter!) to clean up 4000 BB's, you might ask? A very long time! We were all down on the floor trying to gather up as many as we could, when Jack got a stellar idea! He grabbed his magnet kit that we use for science and started sliding his huge magnets around the floor and you could hear all those BB's going "clink, clink" as they sucked to it. For the next 45 minutes there we all were sliding these magnets all over the floor trying to get as many BB's as possible. We were finding BB's for weeks that had fallen in the freezer, the fridge, under the cabinets. What a mess. My boys now know that their BB's belong outside in the garage ;-)

Olivia the Elf

Our neighbor Mrs. Tammy is always taking our kiddos to fun community events! She is a treasure to have as a neighbor and we love her! She took the kids to the Old Fashioned Christmas held in the Farmers Market this past Sunday. The kids had a great time enjoying hot cocoa, face painting, Christmas cookies, carolers and a hay ride. Olivia came home ready for the Christmas season!

Girls & Curls

Taylor & I spent Sunday night putting rag curls in her hair. A friend of ours sent us an ebook from a website called www.pennyraine.com , which has a ton of how-to-ebooks. and we thought we'd give it a try. Taylor, ever the good sport, let me take pictures for the blog but I was only to post them IF her hair turned out alright! Anyway, below are a few pics of our girls night rolling hair and watching a chick flick!

Taylor looking a little like Raggedy Ann minus the red hair!

The back view ;-)


Here is a curl so you can kind of get the idea. We took sections of hair and rolled it up around strips of cloth and then tied them off. She slept on them and . . .

This is what the finished product looked like the next morning. Isn't she cute!

The back. . .again!

Anyway, we really liked the look. I think we will be doing this more often. We had to laugh because after our movie was done, everyone else was in bed and as we went up the stairs in the dark, Tay scared Ryan! The shadow of her big head made it's way up the stairs before she did!

A Night at the Fox Theater

Mamaw and Papaw Gold gave us a great early Christmas present! We were able to enjoy a night at the Fox Theater in St. Louis to see "Little House on the Prairie, the Musical" starring Melissa Gilbert as "Ma". The kids enjoyed dinner out and a great show! Jack was mesmerized by the 2,000 lb. ball chandelier, and he kept asking how it stayed up there! The kids all looked very nice for their night out on the town! THANK YOU, Mamaw & Papaw!

Jack had to have a picture of the "big ball" so at the risk of getting in trouble, his big sister took one for him ;-)

Happy Birthday Alec!

Today Alec turned 9! Where did the time go? It seems like just yesterday I was rocking him to sleep after those midnight feedings. What a blessing and a joy Alec has been to our family. He is a sweet boy who loves to snuggle! He has a very funny wit about him that leaves us laughing often. There is always a twinkle of mirth in his big blue eyes, and the sweetest dimple when he gives you a genuine smile! Alec, always unobtrusive and easy going! So before you get one more day older, I just want God to bless you as you have been such a blessing to us!

November 27 is a busy day in our family. It is not only Alec's birthday, but also his Aunt Pam, and his twin cousins, Mairin & Teagen. And it is his Pampaw & Grandma Darlene's Anniversary, too!

Here is my sweet Alec!

Alec and Aunt Pam Sharing a birthday hug!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As the Holiday Hullabaloo begins, and before we shove Thanksgiving out of the way for the Christmas season, I had a few thoughts I wanted to share tonight before the madness starts tomorrow! I love the time between Thanksgiving and our Saviors birth. It is my favorite time of year. Not for the commercial consumerism, but for the beauty that God shows us through this season, both in nature and in our hearts. I love the fall leaves and their beautiful colors, the crisp mornings, the smells of holiday baking. It reminds me to be ever thankful to have a Heavenly Father, who cared enough about me to give me all of these wonderful things to see, and touch and smell. I am reminded of the blessings that are my children, as they run and play in the fall afternoons, or as we bake together, share a good book and snuggle up with a nice cup of hot cocoa. I love seeing my children's hearts grow in their love of the Lord. We are by far not perfect, but that they understand that God can and does use us anyway, is a treasure beyond any gift I could receive. So as we all lay our weary and turkey filled bodies down to sleep, and before the shopping frenzy of tomorrow starts, let us be thankful that God loved us so much, he gave us His son, so one day we could be with Him. This is what we celebrate and why this season is so beautiful!

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

May God bless you, and my you be truly listening to receive what He has in store for you in this season of thankfulness ;-)

The Girls Party at Monkey Joe's!

Today we celebrated the twins birthday at Monkey Joe's. Mairin and Teagen will turn 2 on Nov. 27th. My kids had a great time chasing their little cousins around the bounce houses and big slides. Mairin LOVED everything and was on the go the whole time. As evidenced by the following photo!

Teagen was a lot more reluctant to try anything, but once she warmed up she was on the go too!

Aunt Tricia and Alec give us a big "Cheese" for a photo!

Here the two birthday girls wait for us to sing!

Princess Mairin awaits her slice of cake and ice cream! Isn't she a hoot!

Here is Uncle Bobby with a girl on each leg! Notice Mairin in her "Howboy" hat!

Here teagen tries on one of the gifts from her cousins! She loves to play dress up!

The kids bounced and ran their hearts out! They slept all the way home! That's how we measure a good day!

The Leaf Fort

All week we have been raking leaves to the curb for leaf pick up by the city. Alec and Jack have been playing in the huge leaf pile, turning it into a leaf fort! Hours have been spent with great imagination in their fort. I almost hate for the leaves to go, because the boys have so enjoyed them!

The boys adding a tarp full of leaves to their "fort".


Alec and Josiah man the guns while Jack tries to find one ;-)
Jack adding a roof!

Josiah and Alec taking a break after a hard day of play!

Fall is a great time to play!

Fall means leaves! And if you live where we do, it means LOTS of leaves! Our two youngest members of the family love to play in the leaves! Taylor and Ryan helped them to rake up the yard since Alec and Jack were messing up the piles as fast as the oldest two could make them! So here are a few pictures of the little boys having a blast!

An Apple a day keeps the doctor away! Well maybe not, but they sure taste good!

This fall we decided to can our own applesauce. It is so delicious and good for you! We canned 2 bushells of apples and filled 15 quart jars, 10 pints and also made apple butter! It was three days of hard work, but it sure is nice to see it sitting on our shelves!

Taylor mashing the apples through our sieve.

Some pictures of our finished jars! Applesauce is on top and apple butter is on bottom!

Ryan, Are you sleeping back there?

We were riding in the van and the little boys and Olivia had all fallen asleep and Ryan was really quiet in the very back. We thought he had fallen asleep as well, when Taylor turned around and said, "Mom, Look!" So I checked the mirror, and low and behold, there was Ryan, READING a BOOK! He was so engrossed, he read the rest of the way home, a good 45 min! ;-)

Field Trip to the Jack Hanna Show in Rolla!

Today we went to the Jack Hanna Show at the Leach Theater in Rolla. The kids loved it and got to see some really interesting animals. The Theater was very nice and accommodating for us homeschoolers, they reserved the first 5 rows for us! I thought that was really nice of them!

On our way!

Ryan, Keegan, Alec, Jack and Miss Olivia waiting to get into the theater.
Waiting patiently.
This was a 2-toed sloth.

A leopard.

A Cheetah!

An enormous python!

A rare Macaw.

An Arctic fox.

 

"Jack"-o-lantern

We almost had a tooth emergency in our house while Taylor was gone in Nova Scotia. Jack had a loose tooth when she left, and since she is our official tooth puller, he was a little nervous that it might need to be pulled before she got back. He was in luck! Tay helped him pull it out a few days after she got back, what a big Sister!

Jack checking his tooth!

Showing us his toothless grin!

There's the tooth!

We decided that with Jack missing so many teeth right now, we wouldn't need a pumpkin for Halloween, we could sit him on the porch and he could be a real live one!

We all go to work with dad! Part 2

Jack in a box!

Alec working with mom on English.

Jack at the band saw


Ryan helping his dad move channel.

Dad working the fork lift.

Ryan using the skid jack to move "Jack"! Ry-guy, waiting on dad for the next bundle move.

Dad and Ryan - great team work!


Ryan is such a blessing to his dad in the warehouse. Bobby is a great dad, always patient and thorough when teaching Ry how to do things safely. Taylor is also a big help in the office. She helps with the phones and filing. Olivia helps her Pawpaw pull orders and get them ready for pick -up's and shipping. Alec and Jack help with orders and cleaning. It is truly a "family" business!