Kimberly G

Beach

2010-06-16T12:26:00.003-04:00

We've gone to the beach a few times this summer. Our beaches are still nice and clean. I hope it stays that way but I'm not sure how it can with all the oil pouring into the gulf. Braden has always been a big fan of the beach. He loves the sand and LOvES body surfing.

This year is the first year that Ashlyn has really enjoyed the beach.She's still not ready to surf but she will let the waves splash her and she's all over the beach. I spend most of the day chasing her down.

Zoo Friends

2010-06-13T20:45:00.004-04:00

Last month we went and spent the day at the zoo. It was a good day. Our zoo isn't that big but it's big enough to spend the day. I've misplaced some of my pics though. There is no telling were I saved them to. I'm not the most computer savy girl.

More Disney Days

2010-06-11T16:16:00.004-04:00

We went to Epcot the first day of this year's Flower Festival. The topiaries are just amazing. Some of them weren't fully bloomed yet but they were still amazing.

Awww Stitch. I love Stitch we have had pictures taken with him several times before but he holds a special place in my heart because he was the first masked character that Braden was friendly with. Now of course, Braden is getting to big and "cool" for pictures with most characters but he is still all about Stitch. Which just makes him even more special to me.

Disney Days

2010-06-11T15:48:00.003-04:00

Our first trip to Disney this year was in February and it was freezing. We all had layers and layers on but we still had a blast. Above is Braden singing in the rain. He doess this every trip to Hollywood Studios. It never seems to get old for him.

Ashlyn loved the new Pixar parade.

Doug was fun! And Ashlyn received a surprise phone call from Goofy. He just called to wish her a happy birthday. I love Disney.

My favorite part of this trip was Ashlyn standing in the ruby slippers in front of the GReat Movie Ride. Those were some pretty small footprints.

School play,Awards and Graduation

2010-06-11T15:04:00.005-04:00

Hello. Remember me? Facebook has really killed my blogging mojo. Here's a few of the most recent activities in our family.
Braden's first grade class wrote an original play "Ms Chicken and the Strawberry Milkshake". It was really cute and I'm glad I was able to go and watch. Braden got this new patches at the last Cub Scout meeting. Now I just have to figure out where they are suppose to go.

At the first grade award ceremony, Braden got the class clown award. That's not really what the award was called. I think it was called the funniest in class but if the red nose fits....

My baby is a preschool graduate! Their ceremony was really cute. There was so many kids that I couldn't see Ashlyn during the program but she gave us our own private graduation performance.

She's going to kindergarten. Kindergarten here she comes. She might take a train. She might take a plane. She might take a yellow bus. She's going just the same. Going to kindergarten. Kindergarten here she comes.

Sad Goodbyes

2010-02-05T16:01:00.003-05:00

For those of you who pray.... Please pray for my stepfather and his family as they say goodbye to these three beautiful girls and their mother. It's a very sad time.

Ashlyn's Bakery

2010-01-28T13:53:00.003-05:00

Santa brought Ashlyn an Easy Bake, a cupcake set, and an ice cream sandwich maker. We had so much fun playing with them. And she looked pretty darn cute in her chef's hat and apron.

puppy love

2010-01-23T21:57:00.002-05:00

Every now and again the kids seem to really like the dog. Usually it's when someone is grounded from the tv and video games. Luckily Ariel doesn't care

Happy Birthday Ashlyn

2010-01-23T21:40:00.002-05:00

Today Ashlyn had her 5th birthday party. We had about 18 kids in the house! It wasn't bad at all though. The kids played well and things went smoothly.

Her favorite part of the day....playing tag in the yard. It's always the simple things that they are the most impressed with.

Christmas

2009-12-30T09:27:00.004-05:00

Our house could pass for a toy store now. My kids got so many gifts that it is really obscene. Ashlyn's favorite gift was Khi-lan (or however you spell that) doll that talks and moves. Santa brought that one for her. Braden's favorite gift of the night was Tech Deck Dudes. He has asked for them for two years and finally he got some. Mike's grandmother got him a big playset and Mike's parents got him 3 or 4 dudes to play with it and then Santa brought 2 more dudes. I think he has around 13 of them now.

My favorite gift that Braden received was Superhero Chutes and Ladders. We have played that silly game over and over again. My favortie gift that Ashlyn received was her Tinker Bell sweat suit becuase it's cold here this week!

Hope everyone had a merry merry merry Christmas.

All Plugged Up.

2009-12-23T12:03:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Traditions

2009-12-23T09:13:00.004-05:00

We have a few family traditions that we look forward to every year. One is going to Macy's and mailing our letters to Santa. Another is picking out our stocking ornaments. Every year we buy a new ornament for our tree. We started doing it a few years ago because if I picked out all the ornaments we would have a tree full of red balls and clay Santas.

Ashlyn, in true princess fashion, picked an Ariel the Little Mermaid snow glob ornament for her stocking.

Big surprise that I picked another clay Santa for my stocking ornament.

Last year Mike's cousin bought him this LT ornament. So he was very happy to use it this year on his stocking.

We wanted to get a dog or puppy ornament for Ariel's stocking but the two stores we went to didn't have any. Of course now I see them everywhere. So the kids settled with a reindeer to decorate her stocking.

Braden has quite the nutcracker collection going. We already have a couple ornaments on the tree and he has his nutcrackers in his room year around. This years nutcracker is covered with glitter. It looks pretty at night when the Christmas lights shine on it.

Another Christmas tradition for us is gingerbread ornaments. They are super easy to make. The dough is made of applesauce, ground cinnamon, and a tiny touch of good ole' fashion white glue. Super simple and the kids love lOVE LOVE making it. I pour all the stuff in the ziplock bag and let them mush it around until a ball of yummy smelling dough forms.

fa la la la

2009-12-18T13:37:00.002-05:00

With Christmas comes Christmas programs and concerts. Ashlyn's class sang "Must Be Santa" but I think that most of the audience would agree that Ashlyn sang the song while the rest of the class chimed in as back up. She nearly fell of the stage a few times because she was so animated. Silly girl.

Braden's class sang "Jingle Bells" and " Jolly Old Santa Nick" at his concert. I had a hard time seeing him. The bad part about being the tallest kid in your grade is that you always get stuck in the back. He didn't care. He was just happy to wear something other than his school uniform for a day.

Christmas with Nan & Greg

2009-12-18T12:33:00.003-05:00

We started celebrating Christmas a few weeks early. My mom and Greg came for their annual December visit. It was a very yucky cold raining weekend. The rain did hold off for a few hours for the Christmas parade. The kids and the dog are always so happy when their here and so sad when they leave.

ummmmmm.

2009-11-23T13:59:00.002-05:00

Sometimes there are no words to explain......

Star Athletes

2009-11-23T13:53:00.003-05:00

Baseball is offically over! I think the whole family was ready for it end. Braden had games 3 nights a week and Ashlyn had a practice one night a week and a game on Saturdays. That's a lot of baseball.

Braden got his trophy at a team pizza party Thursday night and then Ashlyn got her's Saturday a league picnic. They both are very proud of their trophies and I'm very proud of them for playing.

More Halloween

2009-11-23T13:35:00.002-05:00

This year Ashlyn decided very early that she wanted to be Dorothy from the Wizard of oz. We bought her costume early in September at Wal-Mart.

Braden took a little longer to decide. He briefly wanted to be a zombie, a vampire, and a few other things. Finally I convinced him to be a mummy but in true Braden style he had to put a twist on it. So he asked for a pharoh hat to go with it.

The mummy part was easy- an old tee shirt and shorts, an off white bed sheet, and big bottle of tacky glue! The hat took me a little longer to figure out and I didn't actually make it until the night before but it must have turned out ok because Braden was happy with it. I just cut up a stretchy blue shirt and glued it onto a piece of cardboard and added some gold glitter.

All in all Braden's costume took me about $6 and 10 hours to make. Ten hours to make and he wore it for a wopping 3 hours. Oh well, he looked cute.

Halloween time

2009-11-10T17:13:00.004-05:00

Braden was able to dress up at school this year BUT they had to dress as a favorite storybook character. Braden wanted to be Peter pan but the costume i made looked a little more like a Robin Hood so we went with that.

Ashlyn didn't get to go to school on Halloween because we were fighting head lice. She missed out on her first school party and she was really cute in her Dorthy costume.

Puppy Party

2009-11-10T17:03:00.002-05:00

Once i had a little puppy and now we have a huge 80 pound dog. Ariel turned one year old November 3. She's a good dog. If we could just convince her that she's not a lap dog, life would be good.

More cakes

2009-10-30T21:42:00.003-04:00

It has been a busy month for cakes in our family. I made my in-laws a cake, Braden a huge robot cake, And then I finished it off with a German Chocolate Cake. Yummy. I can't wait to start the next class.

Happy Birthday Braden

2009-10-30T21:29:00.003-04:00

Braden's 7. I hate it. Seven sounds so "big" boyish. It's sad that he has grown up so fast. This year's theme was robots. I decided to make the cake and it was quite the task. It took me all day but Braden loved it so it was all worth it. It was dark chocolate cake with banana buttercream icing.

It's always stressful wondering if any kids will come but we had a good turn out. Two kids from his class, 1 girl from tutoring, and 2 boys from boy scouts came. After adding in little brothers and sisters we had a house full--10 kids not counting those who live here. We had kids in every room of the house. It was GREAT.

Cub Scout

2009-10-30T21:08:00.002-04:00

Braden is a cub scout. Other than washing the uniform, I'm clueless about the whole thing. Mike has taken full responsibility for this activity. They have already had their first camp out and from the pictures and the stories Braden had a great time.

He earned his archery and target belt loop. It's probably a good thing that I didn't go because I don't know if my nerves would have let me arm Braden with a bb gun or a bow and arrow. That just has ER written all over it. He did it without medical attention need so I guess he wasn't half bad.

Swing Batter

2009-09-30T14:52:00.002-04:00

We have our first week of baseball game under our belts. Ashlyn only likes to bat. She is really cute too. The batting helmet is so big that she looks like a bobble head at bat.

She's not that in to fielding but there is only one boy on her team that is into it. I think at one time every player had a parent on the field with them herding them out of the outfield or tearing them away from their sandcastle masterpieces. It was really fun to watch them play. You never know what a 4 year is going to do.

Braden had a blast at his first game. I was worried but he jumped in and enjoyed himself. He spent some time on the pitchers mound and behind the plate. We are living baseball right now. Braden has games on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday and practice on Wednesday night. So four days a week he's busy and Ashlyn has practice on Tuesday and games on Saturdays.

We don't even like baseball.

cake

2009-09-21T21:04:00.002-04:00

Mike signed me up for a cake decorating as an anniversary present. I think I've made 5 cakes so far but I haven't taken a picture of all of them.

So far in class I've learned:
1. icing taste better when you don't know what is in it.
2. icing is really a pain to clean off of bowls, spoons, etc.
3. making icing without a mixer is great for sculpting arms and eating icing is great for filling in saddlebags.

I only have 2 weeks in my beginner class. I'm planning on make Braden's birthday cake. I hope I can pull it off because if it's not perfect Braden WILL tell me.

Hey batter batter...

2009-09-21T20:54:00.002-04:00

swing batter. We signed Braden up to play tee-ball this fall but when we arrived for his practice Saturday we found out that he was playing coach pitch baseball. The league had to combine the tee-ball team and the machine pitch team into one coach pitch team because they didn't have enough players signed up.

The only problem with that is Braden has never played before so he is completely lost. Mike took him outside to work on swinging. We have been practicing on a tee so when they started pitching to him Saturday, he was clueless. But Mike said that by the end of their little practice session tonight he was making contact so I guess that whole timing thing is coming.

Play Ball

2009-09-16T21:41:00.002-04:00

Ashlyn had her first ball practice. She is the only girl on her team and the only girl that I saw playing period. She spent most of the time dancing with her shadow and playing in the dirt. She was almost shy tonight which is very odd for her. Maybe next week she'll be more involved or maybe she and her shadow will perfect the waltz.

Razorback at heart.

2009-09-16T21:28:00.002-04:00

I don't think there is anything to really say about this one.

Fairy Tale Ball

2009-09-16T21:16:00.002-04:00

I must say that Ashlyn goes to the best preschool ever! Last weekend they turned their main building into a Fairy Tale Ball. We had to sign in on the scroll and then we preceded to go to the dance, pictures, face painting, crafts, story time, and the bounce house.

We were standing in line for the carriage ride when the sky opened and it began to down pour. She was not happy at all. So she didn't get to ride the carriage or the pony but she still had a great time at her ball.

This is she and Joshua listening at story time. Joshua is her best friend but I think there may be a little romance in the air.

Discovery Launch

2009-08-29T18:16:00.001-04:00

Last night, for some reason I stayed up way late. At least late for me now a days. At 11:30, the news switched over to the shuttle watch coverage. So then of course I had to wait it out and watch the Discovery go up. Night launches are beautiful. The sky glows and changes colors. It's an amazing sight and last night is supposedly the last night shuttle launch. I'm glad I saw it.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Veggie Tales

2009-08-29T09:54:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago, our church had a veggie tale night complete with the new movie, balloon animals, face painting, and of course the cafe was fixing kid friendly meals and snacks.

Mike had never seen a veggie tale movie before and I think he laughed more than the kids. It was a fun night.

Play Ball

2009-08-29T00:44:00.003-04:00

We (meaning Mike) decided that Braden and Ashlyn should play baseball this fall. So we looked around and Braden will be playing tee ball and Ashlyn will be playing wiffle ball. It will be interesting to see how we will manage being at two different parks each week.

Before we dropped the $150 in fees we ran to Dick's and bought a few things to see how interested the kids were. So far so good. They have fun out in the yard playing. I just hope it continues after practice and games start.

Ashlyn Started VPK

2009-08-13T13:54:00.002-04:00

Boo Whoo Whoo! Actually no tears were shed Tuesday when Ashlyn started VPK. It was hard to feel sad because she was so comfortable and happy. All the other kids stayed close to their parents when they walked in. Everyone except for my child who promptly ran to the center of the carpet and began twirling like a ballerina. Then she started saying "Come on friend.Let's play."

She's been having fun. Yesterday she came out crying so I was braced for a bad report. She didn't get one. She was crying because she didn't want to leave. Today, however, one of her teachers ask me to talk to her about sitting quietly during circle time. Apparently they had a hard time reading the story because Ashlyn was busy entertaining.

I'm sure it was the teacher's fault. She should have picked out a more interesting story, preferably one with a pink cover and fairy pictures. It works for me.

Back To School

2009-08-12T15:31:00.000-04:00

First he goes to 1st grade and in just a few months he will be 7! I hate the way those two things sound. They both sound to...to...to big boyish. Braden's first day of school was Monday. He's in Ms. Bennett's class. She seems very stern and after 3 days, I think Braden is a little scared of her. She is an older lady with long gray hair that she wears in a bun and nothing on her face but a pair of old school glasses. Everything about her reads Pentecostal grandmother. I don't know for sure that she's goes to a Pentecostal church or that she's even a Christian but that's the vibe I get from her. I would give her the motto...."this is right, that is wrong, do the right NOW and then give me a hug."

Water Wars

2009-07-22T19:49:00.002-04:00

What's summer with at least one water war, right? Mike divided us up, 2 against 2, but it didn't really matter because once I stepped onto the grass it was 3 against me. I don't even remember what the teams were. It about 1 minute for Mike and Braden to have me soaked from the top of my head to my toes.

It took a minute for them to soak me and a minute and half for me to surrender and hightailed it into the house. I guess Ashlyn became the next target because I wasn't even out of my wet clothes yet when I heard her yelling "I lose too!"

So the girls changed and watched the boys battle it out from the safety of the kitchen. I'm not sure who won but Mike sure looked intense and Braden was all smiles.

More Arkansas.

2009-07-14T14:27:00.010-04:00

Even with full week in Arkansas we still were not able to do everything we wanted to. It didn't help that I was sick the entire trip. Even though I was sick I did still take almost 300 pictures. Here are a few from the trip.

My kids get so excited when we go to Arkansas because of Chucky Cheese. We see the commercial on tv but we don't have one locally. The only time we go is in Ft Smith.

The trolley ride is really cheap and was pretty fun. Braden got to ring the bell as we crossed streets. We didn't know that it was a tour though. We thought it was just a little ride on the trolley. So after we got off of the trolley to look at different trains and the trolleys they are restoring we were all starving. We missed lunch.

I haven't been to the Ft Smith museum since was a kid. Our school went on a field trip one year. The kids of course didn't really care to read and look at the exhibits but they had little dress up areas in a few parts of the museum that the kids loved!

A trip to the museum wouldn't be complete without a root beer float from the soda fountain. Braden and Mike both got root beer floats. Ashlyn doesn't like root beer so she went with a coke float. They were really good.

Mom and Greg took us to the Alma Aquatic Park one day. We had been there before but it was like 5 years ago. They had added another water slide called the toilet bowl which Braden was to be flushed down!

We made a quick stop at the Huckabee center. We didn't have long because it was closing. Next trip we will have to give ourselves more time to check things out.

Fish Tales

2009-07-13T14:20:00.003-04:00

One night someone got the great idea to go fishing. Neither of my kids have been fishing even though they each have a really cute Shrek fishing pole. So we loaded up and off we went to Modean's (gotta love Arkie names) pond.

Ashlyn was the fish master. As soon as Dad handed her the pole she caught a pretty good size bass. Not bad for a city girl. Of course she would not hold it up for a picture but she was happy to pet it.

A couple of days later we were visiting my grandparents and Papa asked her if she caught a fish.
"Just a wittle one. Two wittle one." she said.
"No, no, no. That's not how you tell a fish story, Ashlyn. I explained. "When someone ask how big your fish was you hold your arms out really wide and say It was this BIG!."
So now when someone ask her how big her fish was holds her hands out wide and says "THIS BIG!". She's learned the all important lesson of how to tell a fish tale.

I don't remember if Dad or Mike who showed Braden how to cast but it only took a few tries and he did it. And it only took a minute for him to have a fish. Mike helped him get it in and Dad took it off the hook. Then he tried to hand it to Braden so I could take the ever important "first fish" picture. Braden gave Dad the best "are you smokin' crack?" face I've ever seen. (he made me proud. ha)

There was no way on God's green Earth that Braden was going to touch that fish and he certainly wasn't going to put his finger in it's mouth. So Dad put the hook back in it's mouth so I could take a picture of him with it.

Then it was time to throw it back in. Braden started screaming "NO NO NO. It has a hole in its mouth it's going to die. It needs medicine." Of course Dad threw it back in the water and Braden stood on the bank waiting for it float to the top. After a few minutes he was satisfied that the hole in it's mouth must be better since the fish wasn't dead and he was ready to try for a second one.

The problem then was that since he had caught a fish on his first try, he was sure that he was an expert. He was slinging that hook all over the place. He looked like Goofy doing the perfect cast.

No one was hooked and they both caught a fish so it was great evening.

that picture is Dad showing him how to hold the fish and Braden giving the "are you smokin' crack" face.

4th of July

2009-07-11T21:41:00.003-04:00

It's not the 4th of July without new shirts, swimming, bar-b-q, and of course fireworks. It rained part of the day so things were a little slow but Mike, the Canady boys, Braden and Ashlyn found some swim time.

Actually I don't think swimming is the correct word to describe it. It was more like a water body slamming marathon. There was water everywhere. They were jumping and wrestling. Poor little Ashlyn looked like a lost little boat in the middle of a hurricane.

Last year we had a trip to the ER because Braden busted his chin open. This year I thought we were going to make it through the night without any accidents but Mike had to continue the tradition. He learned the hard way that shoes are a good idea when lighting fireworks. He stepped on ...something and burn the bottom of his foot. He acted like it was no big deal but when I saw him hand over his toys to the boys and soak his feet in the pool, I knew that he was trying to be cool.

He had a couple big blisters on the bottom of his foot and was in a lot of pain. He had to wear badges on it all week long but he seems to be all better now.

On the Hill

2009-07-02T14:46:00.003-04:00

Coming to Arkansas is really for me. It's my chance to see my family other than my mom and Greg who come to Florida often. So this trip we made it a point to see friends and visit the hill.

The greatest part was that the kids were so into it. Braden was asking questions and Ashlyn was doing cheers the entire time. Mike was in hog heaven.

Braden also got a basketball players's autograph and a hog nose. Ashlyn got pom poms and a pink hat. The summer is a great time to shop on campus. We got hats and tee shirts for $5. Braden got a hog hat too. It cost a little more than $5 but he was so cute!

Farmer Papa

2009-07-02T14:21:00.003-04:00

My Papa JD lives in a little house in front of my Dad's. The first day at my Dad's, Braden disappeared. He wasn't in the camp trailer, in the hot tub, on the four wheeler, in the garden, on the porch swing, or in the pasture. He was at Farmer Papa's, that's what Braden calls him.

This trip Papa JD talked Braden into eating a blackberry and what do you know Braden liked it. Wooo Hoo! To bad he didn't have any spaghetti or mac-n-cheese growing in that garden. Dinner time would be a lot smoother.

The Bot

2009-06-22T11:15:00.004-04:00

When Mom and Greg came down for Christmas, Braden drew up a set of instructions for a robot and gave them to Greg. Greg is a really good sport! He designed and started the robot for Braden and him to finish during this trip. What make Greg a GREAT sport is that he took all of Braden's critiques and criticism. Braden is a tough customer but he really does love the robot and is taking care of it like it is made of gold.

Day 1-- Atlanta, GA

2009-06-17T09:36:00.002-04:00

We were up and around Thursday morning EARLY! It was 5:30 when we left our house. We got to Atlanta around 3,only 2 hours after the baseball game started. Mike was more than a little frustrated and wanted to scrap the game plans BUT I insisted (and we had already paid for the tickets).

Our seats were of course way up in the nose bleed section but we had a great view and the kids had a blast. Braden liked the hot dogs the best and Ashlyn liked the cheers and chants.

It started to sprinkle towards the end of the game but we figured we would just watch the last batter. We had just spent the whole day in the car so none of us in a hurry to jump back in. That was a big mistake. As soon as we cleared the awning above us the sprinkle turned into a full blown thunderstorm. Since we were on the top deck, the only way down was to walk down stairs or a ramp out in the middle of the rain and lightning. We spent 45 minutes plastered to the side of the stadium,along with all the other crazy people who waited till the last minute to leave, ankle high in water and praying that the lightning wouldn't strike anything close.

It finally did stop raining and we were able to take a few pictures around the stadium before they started locking up. Turner Field was a really neat place. I'm not sure how it compares to other stadiums because I'm not a baseball fan and haven't visited very many. It was fun though and it definitely beat another 10 hours in the car.

Playing in the Rain...puddles.

2009-06-08T16:45:00.003-04:00

Today it rained which is not odd in sunny Florida. It's normal for an afternoon shower most days. The thing about today's shower that was odd was that in less than an hour we had a flooded street.

It didn't stay flooded long. In fact it drained within 30 minutes but my kids had a lot of checking the mail. They've already made plans for the next time. I'm sure I overheard something about a mermaid and a pirate ship. Crazy kids.

Books Say A Lot...

2009-06-04T13:46:00.003-04:00

Ashlyn and I have gone to the library from time to time while Braden was a school. With summer in full swing, the library will probably be a weekly trip. It kills a few hours and it's free (as long as I can remember to return the books and movies by the due date).

Today as I was unpacking our books I noticed that the books we picked really "show" us. Braden checked out: "Bats at the Library", " Bats at the Beach", "Bone Soup", and "Dinosaur Dinosaur". All subjects are kind-of creepy. Braden has a dark side. I'm sure a goth stage will rear its ugly head sometime in our future.

Ashlyn picked out: "Princess Abigail and the Wonderful Hat","The Girl in the Castle", "Alice the Fairy, and "Shoe Bop!" So she wants to be a princess and she really likes shoes--diva in the making!

I, however, just finished reading the book in the picture. I loved it. It explained a lot about slavery in America. This trip I got "Spy Girl", "Treasure Hunt", and "We Bought A Zoo". I'm going to the read the Zoo book first.

What do my choices say about me? I like non-fiction obviously. Not one book is fiction. I guess that shouldn't surprise me since I'm a reality show junkie! I think it also shows that I'm a little nosey. I like stories that let in on the private stuff, you know the juicy stuff, the dirt, etc..

Shameless Plug

2009-06-04T07:18:00.002-04:00

I haven't done this much but....if you haven't visited my esty shop check it out! Friday is going to be Free shipping Friday. www.whoopiggie.etsy.com

Yucky Face!

2009-05-31T07:42:00.003-04:00

I kicked Braden,Ashlyn, and Ariel outside yesterday afternoon to play in the backyard while Mike and I cleaned up our ceiling fan projects. They were outside for about 10 minutes when Braden came running into the kitchen yelling that Ashlyn was bleeding.

Now Braden has a tendency to over react when it comes to blood. He'll get a scratch that has blood at the surface and he'll declare that he's dieing! So I wasn't really worried. Then I got to the patio door and saw Ashlyn's face, hands, and shirt covered in blood. I still wasn't really worried. I thought she has nose bleed. The smallest bump on the nose and Ashlyn has a nose bleed.

I got a towel for Mike to look at it and that's when we realised that she a cut her face. So we loaded up and drove to the ER. It was Ashlyn's first visit. By the time we got there, Mike has stopped the bleeding. By the time we were called back to a room she was her happy normal self.

Then the PA came in. She was fine with him coming in and looking at it. Then he returned and without numbing it or giving her something for pain he started pushing and squeezing on it to try to close it while he glued it. The nurse who came in afterwards told us the glue burns when it's applied. She was pretty still while he did it but by the end she had big tears in her eyes and she was done with that man. I felt so bad for her because I know it hurt.

While we waited for her discharge papers, she wanted me to wipe off the liquid stitches. She doesn't like the way it feels on her lip. She didn't understand that it doesn't come off. So I got the bright idea to take her to the bathroom so she could see it. I forgot that she hadn't seen it before. That's when she got really upset. She told Mike that "Everyone is going to see my yucky face. and we're going to Arkansas in 2 day." We spent the rest of night reassuring her that she was still as beautiful now as she was before.

She's not buying it.

Last Day of School

2009-05-28T08:32:00.003-04:00

This morning Braden left for his last day of Kindergarten. He was really excited. Another day at school of all play and no "boring" stuff and a pizza party too. Things don't get much better in a 6 year olds life.

Memorial Day

2009-05-26T08:33:00.003-04:00

After a lazy morning we went over to Mike's parents house to swim. What is more American than swimming on Memorial Day? We couldn't think of anything! It was perfect. Yesterday was the first day all week that the pool had been clean and clear because of all the rain we got last week. It wasn't too hot. It was a fun afternoon.

Ashlyn's New Look

2009-05-24T15:55:00.003-04:00

Today was the day! We put it off for 4 years and 4 months. Today was Ashlyn's first hair cut. We could have just trimmed off an inch and called it a day but we decided to really go for it so we could donate her beautiful hair to Wigs for Kids.

Kindergarten Grad!

2009-05-23T22:10:00.007-04:00

Friday morning Braden officially became a kindergarten graduate. His school had a small program Friday because the original scheduled program was after school was dismissed for summer. Someone forgot to check the calendar I guess.

Since it was during regular school hours it had to be short. The first groups eats lunch at 10:45 so everyone had to cleared out the room prepped beforehand. They had one little poem read, followed by handing out diplomas (which took awhile since there are 4 classes), then the kindergarten's sang "tomorrow" complete with hand gestures. Afterwards every one's lunch was ruined by cake and juice.

It was a great morning but a little sad. Time flies by too quickly.

some new cards

2009-05-20T08:52:00.002-04:00

Ok so life has been zooming by at our house without anything really interesting happening. We all are just trying to get to summer vacation as quickly as possible. It will be here soon.

We've been spending the weekends working on the house. I'll have to take pictures later of all our finished and soon to be projects. I love my house!

I haven't been making any scrapbook pages because my stuff is still in boxes all over the house. So, I've been making cards here and there. Here are some of the Father's day cards I made. I've sold 2 of them on etsy already. I guess the other might be Mike's card.

coolest balloons ever!

2009-05-14T09:59:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago we went to Publix and they were raising money for.....I don't even remember anymore. Anyways they had balloons and face painting. Both of my kids decided on balloons.

Braden's fish and fishing pole might be the coolest balloon I've ever seen. It was awesome. He had a blast with it too. He pulled his comforter into the floor to be the lake and then gathered ever sea creature and duck from the playroom to live in his pond. So Braden!

2009 Athletic Awards

2009-05-05T08:41:00.002-04:00

Yesterday when I picked Braden up from school he said "Am I going to the soccer awards tonight?". Soccer awards.....Ooops! I do vaguely remember that phone call. Last night was the Athletic Awards at his school. Mike didn't even get to come because he was picking Ariel up from the vet. Braden played intramural kindergarten soccer. I'm using the work play loosely here but he did get a certificate for playing.

On the walk home he said, "Now that I have an award I'll never have to play soccer again!" I guess soccer really isn't his sport.

New Toys

2009-04-27T08:05:00.002-04:00

Since last weekend was the draft, our family didn't do anything. The only exception was a trip to Burger King and Publix. WOO HOO....yeah, no really! So I thought I'd post some older pictures today of the kids playing with their newest toys. Mike's parents went on a cruise earlier this month and brought the kids back something fun from Mexico.

surprise trip

2009-04-24T11:00:00.005-04:00

Saturday we were surprised with a phone call from Mike's parents informing us that his grandmother had passed away Friday night. So we dropped everything and headed to Arkansas for four days.

The funeral wasn't until Wednesday afternoon so we were able to visit with some of my family early in the week.

One of Mike's families favorite restaurants is George's on Grand Ave. We haven't been there in years of course since it's been almost 2 years since we've been in the state. Braden was very happy with the portions.

haircut time?

2009-04-15T09:14:00.002-04:00

Mike and I decided about a year ago that when Ashlyn's hair reached her bottom then that's when she would get her first hair cut. It is already there when it's wet. Thankfully for me it curls up when it dries so I have a little more time before I have to face that.

more Easter PIcs

2009-04-13T08:32:00.005-04:00

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T18:11:00.002-04:00

Happy Easter! I love Easter. It has all the fun and excitement of Christmas without the two months of stressful shopping beforehand. The Easter bunny hide about 30 eggs around the front yard this morning for the kids to find. It took Ashlyn a few minutes to realize how everything worked but she soon was in full egg hunting mode. Braden was the winner though. He found 2 more eggs than Ashlyn. She was so close to a comeback.

For lunch we went over to my in-laws house for ham and another Easter egg hunt. We were hoping to swim this year but the water was just too cold. Maybe next week we can go for a dip.

I'll add some more pictures tomorrow.

Egg Decorating 101

2009-04-11T21:17:00.003-04:00

I was so excited to dye eggs today. It's one of my favorite things. It's always so much fun. I was a little nervous being that we are in a brand new house. I could see a bowl of red food coloring being dumped on my light brown carpet. But nothing like that happened. It was very uneventful today. Almost to the point of being disappointing. Both kids used spoons to dip the eggs. It was neat and clean. Usually they both are blue up to their elbows. I never thought I would say this but I missed the mess days. It was more fun that way.

Ashlyn did not remember dying eggs at all. She was totally confused. At first she was trying to crack the eggs into the dye. I couldn't believe she had no memories of doing this before since she's always surprising us with memories that seem impossible for her to remember. It just took her a few eggs to get the hang of it.

more space center pictures

2009-04-10T19:52:00.006-04:00

acting like they like each other

2009-04-08T08:24:00.002-04:00

We have an empty lot next to us and it is a great backdrop for pictures. This is just the kids before church a few Sundays ago. They look like they like each other, at least for this moment.

6 months

2009-04-08T08:12:00.004-04:00

Her is my "little" puppy at 6 months. She weighs more than Ashlyn. She is wonderfully housebroken, eats 3 cups of dry food and 1 large can of food EVERYDAY, will eat any book left within reach and since she's so big everything is in within reach. She loves for the kids to chase her so she often steals one of their toys so they will. Right now her favorite snacks are hot dogs, bread, and whatever Ashlyn is eating because she always shares.

She really is a good puppy. She's just a puppy and acts like a puppy.

spaced out

2009-04-08T08:04:00.005-04:00

Braden has had a space themed room for a few years now. I thought when we moved to the new house that he might want to change it but thanks to his new favorite movie, "Wall-e" he was more than happy to stick with it. So I've been working on it off and on for the past month. His bed...I mean space ship is almost done being painted. I still have to sand down and paint the drawers. I painted the wall mural to look like your looking out into space. I still have more stuff to add to make it look like the inside of a shuttle but here is where it stands today.
Why didn't I make his bed before I took the picture?

more beach pics

2009-04-07T13:32:00.003-04:00

I took a lot of pictures at the beach last weekend. Here are a few of my favorites.

Easter Bunny Pictures

2009-04-07T09:02:00.003-04:00

One of the great things that my mom done every year for the past 3 years is sent my kids Easter outfits. She brought them out this past weekend and how perfect that Wal-Mart was having free pictures with the Easter bunny. So we went out to take their first picture with the Easter bunny. We've never done it before because Braden was always a little freaked out by the life size Rabbit. I don't blame him though. He does look a little freaky!

Rocket Launch

2009-04-07T08:49:00.003-04:00

Friday night we went to the beach to watch the rocket launch. This is the first time we've gone out to the beach to watch a launch (rocket or shuttle). Usually we watch the coverage on TV until they start the countdown and then we just walk outside in the front yard and watch it take off. But since Mom & Greg were with us this time we decided to check out the beach for the launch.

It was really neat and I'm sad that we never went out to see the shuttle during a night launch. When the shuttle launches at night the show is amazing from our front yard. I can't even imagine how awesome it must have been from the beach without houses and trees blocking parts of the view. The rocket formed a glowing ball that darted across the sky. When the shuttle launches the whole sky turns orange and then a glowing ball emerges out of the orange and darts up across the sky. We might never have the opportunity to see one. Not only is the shuttle about to retire soon but NASA has said that they are not going to be doing anymore night launches as a safety precaution.

When Nanny & Greg come....

2009-04-06T22:08:00.002-04:00

When Nanny & Greg come to visit we always seem to run ourselves ragged trying to cram in as much fun in the 2 or 3 days as we can. This past weekend was no different. We started of the weekend by going out to the beach Friday night to watch the rocket launch. It was a really neat to see it appear over the water and float up across the sky. I wish they could have seen the shuttle launch. It's by far the coolest thing I've ever seen.

After watching the rocket launch we all were in a space mood so Saturday we loaded up and drove out to the cape to the Kennedy Space Center. My kids love the space center as long as we skip the bus tour. It's just too much time in the bus for them.

Sunday after church and pizza we headed back out to the beach for a few hours. This was our first weekend at the beach this year. I learned this weekend that the best time to go is in the evening. It's a lot less crowded, much cooler, I don't have to worry about the kids leaving little lobsters, and the lighting is perfect for picture.

New House & New Adventures

2009-04-06T15:41:00.002-04:00

It's been a few very crazy months. First I must say that I LOVE my new house. I'm so glad Mike got bored one afternoon and drug me around town looking at model homes. It resulted in a great move!

We've been busy working in the yard. First we dug up the sod in the front of the house and made a bigger flower bed. It looked so good. That was about a month ago now it's starting to show signs of my green thumb or lack thereof.

Warm January Afternoon

2009-02-05T09:13:00.002-05:00

There's only one thing to do on a warm January afternoon....PLAY OUTSIDE! Ashlyn loves being outside, barefooted and in the dirt. She can be quite the little tomboy. I took these pictures a few weeks ago. I only wish that it was nice and warm today. It was in the 33 degrees when I woke up this morning. Thirty-three degrees is not Florida weather.

Valentine Day Cupcake Baskets

2009-01-30T11:27:00.003-05:00

With some help from Braden, I got all 12 cupcake baskets cut-out, glued together, and decorated in just a few days. Unfortunately since then Braden's class was split into the other kindergarten classes so we'll have to do some editing.

MIA

2009-01-29T11:43:00.005-05:00

I know! I've been MIA this year. Life has been so crazy. Mike and I really jumped into 2009 going 1000 different directions.

The biggest thing is of course that our little girl is now 4 years old. To celebrate we went spent the day in the Magic Kingdom. We went to the Bippity-Boppity Boutique so the kids could get a birthday make-over. They were thrilled to go somewhere inside Cinderella's castle.

Ashlyn's 4!!!

2009-01-26T07:05:00.000-05:00

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

2009 already?

2009-01-01T11:04:00.003-05:00

I can't believe that 2008 is already over and 2009 is here. Last year flew by at our house. We rang in the new year....in bed. Mike's parents and brother's family came over for the evening. Randy and Sally left around 8:30 to get Ava to bed. Then I started feeling bad so it was an early night.

I made the picture montage of everything we did over the past year. You'll see that there were no Arkansas pictures in this years review. But that will be different next year. We are currently working on our plans to go home as soon as Braden gets out of school.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A very Merry Christmas

2008-12-28T16:35:00.004-05:00

Well the Christmas season started out rough with Braden being sick. Christmas Eve he was running a fever so we called to let Mike's family know that we were going to be staying home. No one was happy with that decision so we at the last minute we decided to make a quick appearance. Our quick appearance last a few hours but we all seemed to have fun and we've had no word about anyone else getting sick.

Ashlyn is no going by Hannah Montana most of the time. Santa brought her a drum set and a Hannah Montana microphone. Nan and Greg decked her out earlier this month with a Hannah Montana dress up set and Nana and Papa gave her the Hannah MOntana guitar. We've been very entertained this week.

I think I picked out the worse picture of Braden to post. He got the huge Nutcracker, a robot bank, several sets of legos, and a Clue Jr game from Santa. I think his favorite gift was a Space Fighter Robot that Ashlyn picked out for him. It walks and may be the loudest toy ever made.

I hope all my friends in real life and cyber world had a great holiday too!

Florida Christmas

2008-12-22T10:44:00.003-05:00

We went to look at Christmas lights Saturday night. I didn't have many pictures turn out. Christmas lights are so hard to photograph. Anyways here is one of the few pictures that turned out and I thought it was very appropriate for a Florida Christmas.

Today is sunny warm but we're not enjoying the great weather. Braden is sick. He got sick late last night. We were hoping that he just over did the cookies but he got sick again today. So he was sick on this birthday and now Christmas. I hope tomorrow he's feeling better and can enjoy Christmas.

Marshmallow Monday

2008-12-22T10:27:00.003-05:00

We didn't make any muffins for Muffin Monday today but instead we are making these yummy treats. Nothing says holidays like large amounts of sugar and chocolate!

We made these a few days ago for Braden to take to school. They are cheap, quick, and not that messy. Braden made most of them all by himself. He had a little trouble rolling them in the sprinkles but he was able to do the rest without any help.

You need: large marshmallows, stick pretzels, chocolate ( I bought a bowl of Baker's Dipping Chocolate. It doesn't get more simple than that. You pop it in the microwave for a minute and start dipping. If you have left you can but the lid back on and store it in the refrigerator for later.) and sprinkles of course.

Braden starting pushing the pretzel sticks into the marshmallows while I melted the chocolate and then we dipped them into it and rolled them in the sprinkles. TA DA! Yummy snacks for the holidays.

They would be really great to pair with some hot cocoa mix and give as a gift.

Gift Tags

2008-12-21T08:31:00.002-05:00

Jennifer at MBI posted a challenge to use scraps of wrapping paper to make tags for your gifts. Well, I tried but I just couldn't get the wrapping paper and my cardstock scraps to work together. So I just made some tags with my cardstock and pattern paper scraps instead.

If you take a look at the top picture of Randy's picture, you'll see the paper is all wrinkled. Braden did that. He said it made it special wrapping paper. We wrapped Uncle Randy's and Mrs. Sudhoff, his teacher, in the special paper. The longer I look at the more I like it. I think it would look really cute with a burlap ribbon and bow. You know a weathered on purpose look.

It's A Girl!

2008-12-19T09:01:00.006-05:00

With all the excitement and pictures from the cruise, I forgot to tell you that our new baby is a girl! She's 6 weeks old and a total doll. She's a catahula/german shepherd/shar-Pei mix. She looks like a shar-pei with little wrinkles instead of deep ones that pure breed shar-Pei has.

So far things have been going really well. She was an outside doggie before coming to our house. Everything in the house has scared her at least once-tv, dishwasher, vacuum.....! But she's starting to come around and claim this place as her own.

We stopped on the way home from the port Monday to pick her up. We really wanted it to be a surprise though. So Mike used his god given ninja skills to sneak her into the car, keep her quiet in the car, and then sneak her into the house and under the tree.

The amazing part is that both kids were surprised. Ashlyn went to sleep in the car so that helped and Braden was so tired that he didn't catch on. I told them I wanted them to pose for a picture by the Christmas tree when we got home. While they were doing their best "Cheez", Mike came in the back door and put her under the tree.

They both looked at her for a minute like they thought she was some kind of toy dog. After a few seconds Braden's eyes got big and he yelled "its a dog!". He's been in love ever since that moment.

It's taking Ashlyn a little more time to warm up to her. Ashlyn loves her name, Ariel the little mermaid puppy or Ariel for short. Ariel is a little hyper for Ashlyn. Ashlyn wants to sit and pet her and Ariel wants to wrestle and play tug-a-war with Ashlyn's hair. Once she gets a little older and mellows out a little, I think Ashlyn will be more fond of her.

Pirate Parade

2008-12-18T08:41:00.002-05:00

The kids finished their first cruise with a pirate parade around the ship. It would have been my favorite part of the cruise if they hadn't participated in the talent show. The talent show was just to hard beat though. It was my favorite part.

Day 3 --Day at Sea

2008-12-17T14:15:00.005-05:00

Day three of our cruise was planned to be our beach day at Coco Cay but the weather turned on us. So instead of kayaking and building sandcastle we spent the day at sea. The ship had tons of stuff planned to try to keep us entertained. My favorite had to the be kids talent show.

Both Ashlyn and Braden participated. Ashlyn's class did a group dance which she finished with "Thank You Thank You" and blowing kisses to the crowd. She got a gold medal (everyone did) for her wonderful performance.

Braden's class didn't do a group thing. Some kids did gymnastics. Several did hula hoop tricks and a couple sang. Braden's first choice was to be a clown but since I couldn't make a small clown car for him to use....yes he really did want me to whip that up during lunch.... he settled for telling a few jokes.

His jokes were : "Why did the rooster cross the road?" "To Prove he wasn't a chicken!"

A Jason Tidwell original "Have you ever seen an elephant in a cherry tree?" "No! They're pretty good hiders!"

And then he finished it off with a classic knock knock joke.

Day 2 -Nassau

2008-12-16T08:59:00.004-05:00

Our first port of call in the Bahamas was Nassau. The rest of our group went on another tour but Mike and I decided that the Fort & Pirates Tour would be the best one for the kids. Braden seemed to really enjoy it. Ashlyn was too tired to give it a real chance.

The tour was a driving tour and it was quite the experience. I only saw one street with traffic signals. The rest of the time the drivers would honk and go at intersections. I quickly realized that I needed to look out my window and not pay attention to the driving.

The best part of the day was the pirate museum at the end of the tour. It was really neat. Braden loved it and actually retained some of the information that we learned on tour-- (pirates would eat rats while out to sea, a lot of pirates did keep parrots but they didn't make people walk the plank).

We visited 2 different forts during the first half of the tour. Ashlyn and I missed the second one because she was napping in the bus. Braden and Mike really enjoyed the second one. It had different rooms to visit the first fort only had some canons on display.

Life On The Sea

2008-12-15T20:44:00.002-05:00

Life on the sea is a GREAT place to be!!! We got back this morning from our first cruise. We went on a 3 night cruise to the Bahamas. It was so much fun even though the weather turned on us and our second port of call was canceled.

Our first day was rough. We boarded at noon and the activities for the kids didn't start until 8pm. That was a long time to entertain 2 little kids. We learned quickly that our closet (I mean stateroom) was not the place to hang out. So we went up to the 12th deck to hang out even though it was cool outside. We were so excited that we didn't even notice.

I have a lot more pictures to share but I'm too tired from my vacation right now.

Face to face

2008-12-12T08:35:00.003-05:00

Last weekend Santa was at our local Wal-Mart store. I thought that Braden would say something about him not being the real Santa since he had a wig and beard instead of the real thing but he didn't even notice.

I did notice that this will be the last year that Braden sits on Santa's lap. He was way to big. Next year he will have to stand next to him. I snapped a few pictures of them talking to him but Wal-Mart took pictures and printed them for FREE. I love FREE! Their pictures were a lot better than mine because of the angle.

Ashlyn asked for a talking Darby and Braden asked for.....a dancing nutcracker....WHAT? He wrote out a 4 page letter for Santa but he didn't ask for anything on it. He asked for a dancing nutcracker.

Good Luck Santa! :)

Santa Letters

2008-12-10T10:26:00.005-05:00

Last weekend we went to Macy's to mail our letters to Santa. Our store had a cute little set up with a desk and some paper and pencils next to the mail box. Braden saw the commercial a few weeks ago and said "That mailbox goes straight to Santa. We have to go there Mom." So we did and they mailed a copy of their letters to the big guy. (I stashed the originals away.)

On Braden's list this year was Star War Legos, Funkeys, Tech Deck Dudes, Planet Heroes, and lots of surprises. Ashlyn asked for the Talking Darby, Barbie styling Head, a boy Barbie doll, and all the Sleeping Beauty items ever made.

Icing Wars

2008-12-09T20:11:00.002-05:00

My mom and her husband Greg came down for the weekend for an early Christmas. Mom had a wonderful plan in hand. We had a gingerbread house decorating contest. The boys vs the girls. It was so much fun. I think our house was the best but the judging (Braden) favored the boys house.

It was a lot of fun. It was cheap (less than $10 for each kit) and it was a fun and messy way to spend the evening.

still decorating

2008-12-01T16:26:00.002-05:00

We bought a few new things for the yard last weekend. Braden picked out the purple penguin and Ashlyn picked out the giant ornament. She surprised us with that one. They had a Santa and a Snowman but she went with the ornament.

Traditions

2008-11-30T20:57:00.003-05:00

Every family has traditions. One of our traditions came to be because I insisted that we have plain matching stockings. Mike hates them. So to compromise, a few years ago we started buying a new ornament to hang on our stocking to make them more personal.

We bought this year's ornaments at Old Town Pottery (one of my all time favorite stores!) over the weekend. Ashlyn picked out several ornaments before she finally settled on the glass angel.

She did demand a new stocking this year. I bought these 4 stockings when she was just a baby. Braden decided which color went each person. Ashlyn has had the green stocking the past 3 years but she was not happy this year when I unpacked it. She threw it down and demanded a pink one. Since we didn't have a pink one she settled with the white.
Mike hasn't changed his ornament in several years. He likes his charger Santa so he's been hanging on to it.

I picked out a new clay Santa. I like clay Santa ornaments. The first year Mike and I were married we had no ornaments and no money. I found some packs of ornaments at a dollar store and that's where the collection began. I try to pick up a few every year and of course I always pick out a clay Santa for my stocking ornament every year.

As much as I love clay Santa, Braden love nutcrackers! He begs for new ones to play with every year. So I was not surprised at all when he picked out this nutcracker for his stocking ornament.

Oh Christmas Tree!

2008-11-28T21:35:00.003-05:00

Earlier this week we broke our normal tradition and put our Christmas tree up before Thanksgiving. Our tradition has been to decorate the Friday after Thanksgiving but we just couldn't wait it out this year.

It was a pretty quick process this year. Our tree has been set up with it's 1100 lights in the corner of our garage all year. We covered it with this blue moving blanket thingies to keep it somewhat clean. I was so scared that a strand of lights would not light after a year in the garage but each little light is twinkling.

Our tree has the same assortment of clay Santas, homemade gingerbread men, white plastic snowflakes and red balls every year. We lost a lot of our red ornaments last year so I replaced them. Braden decided to do a little extra decorating on his own. He added batman stickers to each red ball and all kinds of pictures and toys to it.

Fall Fest Fun

2008-11-23T09:57:00.002-05:00

This was our first weekend without soccer. We didn't have a hard time finding something to do. Braden's school had a fall fest Saturday afternoon that entertained us for a few hours.

I think it's safe to say that the bouncy houses was the afternoon favorite since we did that twice. We also went on a hay ride, played some games, dug for treasure in a hay pile, and checked out the police car.

Hope y'all had a good weekend too.

Feathered Friends

2008-11-21T19:22:00.003-05:00

We had some feathered friends visit us today. I'm not even going to pretend to know what kind of bird they are. I do know that they were huge! They were way taller than Ashlyn.

November Kit and FREE SHIPPING

2008-11-21T12:00:00.003-05:00

Here is this months kit at MBI. I love love love this kit. I bought a few sheet of the star paper when it first came in. It's double sided so it would make a great one sheet mini album.

The kit includes:
2 sheets of Star Spray textured cardstock by Daisy Bucket Designs
1 dark tawny Prismatics cardstock
1 light tawny Prismatics cardstock
1 Heidi Swapp Bling Circle Frames,
1 Star Kissed paper tag elements by Daisy Bucket Designs,
1 yard blue rik rak,
1 yard blue/brown stripe ribbon
one bag of coordinating embellishments including flowers and brads.

It's only $8.99 and since it's Friday it's Free Shipping!!! To get the free shipping type in the code FSF112108 at checkout. Even if the kit isn't your style you can still take advantage of the free shipping.

Kelly's Great Crayons

2008-11-21T09:08:00.002-05:00

Happy Friday!!!! I'm so glad the weekend is finally here. This week has seemed to drag on and on and on.

My scrappy friend Kelly from MBI made these great crayons with her kids recently. I love this picture! If you have a bunch of broken crayon pieces around this may be a great little project. It's also a great way to help the kids practice sorting and colors.

This is the link if you want to see the instructions and some more photos!

Well Hog Dog!!!

2008-11-20T13:36:00.003-05:00

I didn't have anything to post today (or this whole week really). It's been cold this week so we have been snuggled down on the couch.

I still wanted to post something though so I went back a few folders and HOT DOG! I found a picture that I don't remember taking and it made me chuckle. I wonder at what age hot dogs become a less exciting meal option. I know I don't dig into mine like that anymore. Maybe I should experiment with new toppings.

3-2-1 Blast OFF!!

2008-11-19T09:21:00.003-05:00

A few nights ago the shuttle launched. I love night launches! The sky turns all shades of red and orange. It's very cool to watch.

One vote for Ojama

2008-11-14T20:31:00.003-05:00

Braden's school voted on election day. They had these cute little voter registration cards and polling booths with curtains. (I've never voted in a booth with curtains.)

A few nights before the vote we asked Braden who he was going to vote for. He asked us which one was McCain and which one was Ojama. Mike and I didn't even try to keep the giggles in. It was too cute.

Then we had the strangest conversation. We told him that Obama was the African American. He had no clue what that meant. I was totally taken aback. It was a conversation that I never saw myself having. I'm glad that Braden has such a diverse group of friends that he doesn't notice skin color. Everyone's color is the same in his eyes.

During the parent/teach conference, his teacher mentioned that the class discussed the importance of the election and that Obama was the first African American president. Mrs. Sudhoff said no one in the class knew what an African American was. Shocking since there are African American students in the class. She said she got answers like "it means he wears brown shoes" and "he doesn't eat candy".... Gotta love kids!

At the end of the day Braden cast one vote for Ojama!

Still here!

2008-11-14T16:19:00.004-05:00

We are still here! We were without Internet for a whole week. I was shocked at how much extra time I had without the net. (hmmmm may be a new year resolution coming to be).

While we were out of touch.....

Mike and I went to our first parent/teacher conference. Mrs. Sudhoff said Braden was "head and shoulders above the rest" when talking about imagination and creativity. We knew that already. I'm pretty sure Braden lives in an animated musical! You know like Marry Poppins.

She also said he's very emotional. Yup! We knew that too. We came up with a calm down corner for him and he has a chart to reward him for staying calm instead of melting down to a blubbering cry when a certain someone says "I'm not your friend anymore!" (which happens at least once a day sometimes a lot more.)

He's doing well in class. "E" for excellent in everything except Math. He only has a S+ in Math because his geometry score is lower. At least once a week he forgets to the do the work because he's busy drawing monsters and zombies out of the shapes. They're really great monsters and zombies but he ends up with a 0 for the day.

This is a picture from the Halloween party. They had play-doh that smelled like pumpkin pie. I don't know how many times I caught kids trying to sneak a taste. Braden didn't try it. Now if it had smelled liked pizza....it might have been a different story.

Cinderella's Castle

2008-11-02T19:20:00.002-05:00

How many different colors can Cinderella's castle be? The fireworks were awesome on Halloween and the lighting was even cooler. For each villains song the colors changed. Sometimes there would be creepy eyes on the side of the castle, sometimes pumpkins would flash onto it. It was really neat!

Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party

2008-11-02T17:56:00.002-05:00

We decided to do something new this year for Mike's birthday. We went to the Magic Kingdom to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!! I was afraid that we would have some melt downs since it was so late (7-midnight)but everyone was on a happy sugar high!

We didn't do many rides (only 3) and we only stood in line to see the Drizella and Anastasia. There were more villains out and about but we just didn't have time to see them. Their lines were pretty long. It's not easy finding villains on regular Disney days.

There were several parades, an amazing firework and light show (more pics of that later!!!) and a villain music show that we went too. All of them were fun and the kids loved them!

One of the rides we did ride was the Haunted Mansion. How could we not ride the Haunted Mansion on HALLOWEEN!!! As we were leaving the ride we saw this couple sitting on a bench next to the ghost hearse. They were not Disney employees but their costumes were GREAT and they had a Zero! So Mike ask them if we could take a picture with them since Jack Skellington is one of Braden's all time favorite characters (if you couldn't tell by his choice of costume). The couple was nice enough to do so and we got the photo of the night!

We also started a big buzz and people were lining up behind us to take a picture with them.

Cat in the Hat

2008-10-31T09:29:00.003-04:00

Braden couldn't wear his Jack Skellington costume to school. They had to dress as a story book character excluding monsters, ghost, goblins, ghouls, etc....

I wanted him to be Peter Pan for school. He would been so cute with his red hair and freckles but he was not happy with that suggestion. So a make-do Cat in the Hat costume won.

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T09:09:00.003-04:00

It's Halloween! I think I might have stretched myself a little thin today. I still have to finish up the grab bags for Braden's class, pack for Disney, have a birthday lunch with Mike, volunteer at Braden's class party, then we're on the road to Disney.

I hope I don't forget anything.

Here's some pictures from last night. We planned to go to the pumpkin patch again this year but we just ran out of the time. Yesterday at Wal-Mart Ashlyn picked out a couple pumpkins to decorate. They are slightly square shaped.

The movie "Spookly the Square Pumpkin" is one of Braden & Ashlyn's favorite Halloween movies. So they were very excited to have square pumpkins and since we waited until the very last minute to buy them they were only $1.50 each.

As you can see in the pictures we didn't carve this year. It's so messy and I just didn't have the time to devote to it last night since I was busy taking in costumes. They kids just used Sharpies to draw on them. How sad is that? I feel guilty that I didn't help them carve them or even paint them. I'll have to make up for it next year.

4th 4th tag

2008-10-30T16:46:00.005-04:00

My scrappy friend Tonya has tagged me with a 4th 4th tag. To fulfill the tag, I have to open the 4th folder in my picture files and post the 4th picture in that file along with a description and/or explanation of the picture.

I'm so glad Tonya tagged me. I was just thinking that I should post something but ....... all I had was STRESS today. Nothing good to read or interesting to share (not even to my mom-HI MOM!)

Here's my 4th picture from my 4th pic file.

Oh Tae Kwon Do. I'm so glad that is over!!! Braden hated every minute of it. I had to drag him (sometimes literally kicking and screaming) twice a week across town for the 30 minute class. So much for Mike's dream of having a MMA star in the family. It just didn't happen.

The 6 month contract ended the day of testing. Since we knew that he was not going to continue we saved the $70 testing fee for the new belt and just called it quits. So he never moved beyond a white belt. Even though he knew his strikes months earlier and could have passed the test very easily.

Now I need to tag someone to see their 4th 4th. I tag..... Kelly, Leah, Mrs. B.