Mikki's Blog

New Camper, More Camping, plays, & a BIRTHDAY GIRL!

2011-11-22T14:43:00.001-06:00

We took the plunge and sold our itty bitty RV and got a new camper. We really enjoy camping. Time slows way down and we really enjoy our time together hiking, playing cards, sitting around a fire (although the burn bans are just now being lifted so we can enjoy that part of it this year), just messing around. We are definitely spoiled and it is a mini home away from home with pretty much all the luxuries at hand.

These are pics from my phone of the inside.

It has a bunkroom for the kids (although of course Clara ends up in our room as such happens at the house too. LOL) We have our literal “bedroom” as it only fits our bed at the other end of the camper. The bathroom is super nice to have instead of hauling your stuff off to the public showers. We also have a flat screen TV with surround sound (which I could do without). This is used late at night or when the weather is bad. We are supposed to be camping!

We have already taken it on two weekend trips. Christian and I had to cut our visits short as he had rehearsals for his play on Saturdays. So we both headed out on Saturdays when Clay, Clara, and Cullen had headed out on Friday and got the extra night. We are looking forward to heading out for longer camping trips soon! Here are a couple shots from our past 2 camping adventures.

Note Clay peeking out from behind the tree in the background….so my Clay!

We love hiking and this was some steep climbing!

This is my view! Cute hiney, plumber’s crack!

Clay takes up most the slack when some of us get tired!

This past weekend Christian had his first performance with his new school. He did great along with all of the other cast members.

Last, but definitely not least, our girl turned FOUR!! I cannot believe Clara is 4 years old! She is growing way too fast as kids tend to do. She is intelligent, funny, stubborn, beautiful, loving, thoughtful and a BIG Daddy’s girl! & need I mention again intelligent and beautiful to top it off!!

I think she was about 2 weeks old in this picture. The happiness & thankfulness I felt for the blessing of Clara then was overwhelming and it has only grown in leaps and bounds over the past 4 years. I am so thankful for the blessing of Clara!

We had a small get together at Chuck E Cheese’s. She loves that place and that is where her and Daddy go to when they go on dates together. Mommy likes to skip Chuck E Cheese’s as often as I can…why do kids love that place so much?!? Yuck! This year she wanted a bike with a helmeck (helmet), pink puppy dog, and a baby doll. She got all that and more!

I didn’t do too well taking pics of everyone. Meemaw & Pawpaw, Matt & Candy, Taffy & Papa, Clint, KK, & Pierce, and Jenna & Tim with Josh and Ivy came out to celebrate. Clara really likes Ivy and talks often about her. We met in gymnastics class and have since made good friends. I just love her Momma. They are a great family and a joy to be around!Clara was not so sure of Chuck E….so these were great strides in overcoming the fear. Clara got her bike on Friday and has been enjoying it ever since…especially enjoying strolling through the house.

***Yes, again sorry I am cramming so much in one post! Maybe one day I can stay on top of this blog thing!

Arkansas Picture Overload & Beginning an Adventure!

2011-10-22T22:37:00.001-05:00

My brother and his family made the move from Boston to Arkansas! After 3 months we were finally able to take a weekend and go visit. We had a fantastic time. We arrived Friday night. Saturday morning we woke up to watch Jake and Luke play football games at Razorback stadium!

Here is Clara enjoying her view!

Jake is in the black helmet….setting up the play.

Mike coaches Jake’s team. I did not get any pics of Luke’s game…I am a bad aunt and forgot my camera for the first game!

All the guys….but of course Clara has to be in every pic!

On Sunday we went to Devil’s Den. It is a great state park that is great hiking and has the neat advantage of some great caverns to explore.

Clara’s favorite spot!

We loved Devil’s Den so much that the Funder5 returned on their way home and spent another 3.5 hours there on Monday!

Love my fam being silly posing for the pics!

I love this pic of Cullen & Clara holding hands!

I want to explain the pics below. We found this really cool rock formation and we all ran to explore it. I was back trying to get pics and the magnitude of it cannot be captured in a photograph. Anyway….beside the point….if you will notice in pic #2 below Christian is up on the rock….look above his head at the top of the pic and you will see a black mark, spot, circle-type shape. It looked out of place to me so I zoomed in for a closer look……

This is what I saw….a HUGE swarm of wasps. Needless to say…we were OUT OF THERE and FAST!

I cannot wait until we can make it up again to hang out with Mike, Case & the boys. It was great that Meemaw and Pawpaw made there way up too along with Matt & Candy. I look forward to more time together, air hockey tournaments, hiking, and loving my family!

Since I have not posted in a LONG while….sorry again! I will update on a few things going on with our world. The boys are doing well in school and the transition has gone well. Cullen loves it but Christian feels he might be able to spend his time in a way that better suits him. He is thinking he will choose homeschooling again next year along with starting college and beginning to get credits towards his degree. He also wants to have more free time (instead of an 8-hour school day) to have a part-time job and focus on his hobbies of free-running and theater. He is thinking he will choose a career in theater/acting but we are not sure what that looks like as of yet. I am looking into something called College Plus and we have an appointment to speak with a counselor. I am hoping we can have a better idea of what this will look like for us and if it is a route we are going to go. It is basically getting college credits by testing out of classes using the CLEP or DSST tests.

We have also made a HUGE step and leap of faith into the realm of foster care. We are getting closer to being licensed. We have done the paper chase, taken the 3-week, 2x a week PRIDE classes, taken the psych meds class, finished SAMA training (restraint class) today, and CPR/first aid/blood-born pathogen on Monday night. After that we have fire inspection, home inspection, and then we will work on the homestudy process. We are hoping this will be somewhat quicker since we got licensed with this agency before choosing private domestic adoption and God blessed us with Clara. So they have a basic homestudy on us already that just needs to be updated. I am excited and terrified of what is to come. I know God will equip us to handle anything he throws our way but do not go in blindly. I am well aware that our hearts are sure to be broken but am also aware that we cannot even fathom how much so. I do know that our hearts are to be broken for the least of these. We have a glimpse of what we are walking into because we have friends who foster and have many more joining in the journey but we still are clueless as to what it will look like for us. I am passionate that God has called us and will equip us to provide a loving, safe place that will provide stability for these little ones that were not blessed with parents equipped to parent at the moment. I also pray that we can somehow be a light to these parents in their growth to be the glue and backbone for their family. I pray that they can learn through the tough times that are coming and can love these children in the way God so desires for them. If they are found incapable of parenting and there is no birth family that steps up for these kids then we will be faced with the decision whether or not we will be the family for the children or whether God has a special family waiting just for them. I do ask that you will pray for us as we start up this adventure…pray for protection of our hearts & these children, pray that these parents will step up and learn to be great parents, pray for understanding in what is a very difficult thing to understand, just pray for His wisdom and guidance in all of it.

2011-10-22T21:26:00.001-05:00

First Day of School

2011-08-24T16:55:00.001-05:00

I am actually going to try again with the blogging thing!! Well, the boys started their first day of private Christian school today. Christian is in 10th grade and Cullen is in 6th grade. Cullen has never been to school other than a bit of preschool early on. Christian I pulled out of school when he was in 3rd grade. They started soccer with the school about 3 weeks ago so they knew a lot if not most of the boys around the age. This helped a lot. I was so nervous for them. I want this to be a positive move for our family. We feel led in this direction and that this is what the boys need at this stage in the game. They said their day went great. I had such butterflies in my stomach when I was in line to pick them up. Christian’s favorite part of the day was an explosion the teacher set up in Chemistry. Cullen’s favorite part was history. It sounds as though his teacher has a love for history and will really pass it on to him. YEAH!! We will see what this school year has to hold. I pray that this experience will grow them closer to the Lord and will really start a fire to build a strong relationship with their Savior!

So….what about Clara. She had a tough time with the boys gone but not as tough as I expected. She said she wanted them home a couple of times but we kept today busy with things I had put off. We did some laundry, worked on the printer since I had not printed off our letter “U” stuff for the week (figures it would mess up and then the computer it was saved on). After this was fixed we had lunch. I am trying to focus on different lunches again and offering more options. Today consisted of whole-grain crackers with walnut pate, pickled asparagus (she loves the stuff! She had eaten 2-3 of them before the pic was taken), bowtie pasta with peas to dip in the hemp nacho cheeze sauce, and carrots. Sorry about the quality of the photo….cell phone pic. You can find the recipes at this link http://veganandsoforth.blogspot.com/2010/05/muffin-tin-monday-dips.html She has great vegan options for lunches…especially school lunches.

After lunch we got the dogs all bathed and groomed. She also had time to get her Letter Factory DVD watched. We then had to leave to pick up the boys from school. On Wednesdays they get out at 2. The other days of the week 3. Clara and I will be able to focus on her learning and one-on-one time together. Thursdays we are planning to start up park days regularly which we had not gone to b/c the bigger kids got bored since there were not a lot of kids their ages. Clara is excited. Tomorrow we are meeting at the splash park. We will be starting gymnastics back up Sept. 12th and she is looking forward to this also. I am going to try and focus on a Charlotte Mason approach to teaching. We are going to try and focus a LOT on nature study with a bit of “schoolwork” mixed in as she enjoys “doing” some school too like letter study/worksheets. Along with reading a lot more with a focus on living books. I am excited for what this school year holds for our entire family! Again…I am going to try and start posting more frequently!! I stink at blogging but I love looking back at it like a scrapbook……so I guess I need to keep at it!

My 16-year-old, young man & more

2011-05-30T16:11:00.002-05:00

Well, I now have a 16 year old! I am a little late but did not want to leave out my oldest child turning 16…that is SIXTEEN!! He got his permit on his birthday! What can I say about Christian: A bright, caring, loving, free spirit. He loves theater and friends. At this stage in the game he is trying to get more freedom but we, as parents, struggle with finding the right mix of what that looks like. It is tough to give up the reigns a bit to a boy that is turning into a young man whom I am VERY proud of!

Pierce looks all innocent and then you see Clara…she looks like she is going to bite your head off! Cracks me up!

A group shot of the cousins!

Love this pic of my Mom taking pics! Having fun!

I also have to add a brag! I finished my 2nd triathlon! I actually placed in the Athena group (big girls over 150lbs). I have signed up under Athena b/c I thought I have had no chance in competing in my age group. Well, this time I would have actually placed 2nd in my age group. That is exciting! It will probably never happen again…LOL! I am hoping to do the next tri in July.

Clay and I actually stayed the weekend all alone for the tri!! Let me repeat myself…all ALONE!!! =) I took the dogs to the daycare/kennel even. The kids stayed with Meemaw and Pawpaw. Cullen went to Taffy & Papa’s house Sat. night b/c him and KK got to go to the Ranger’s game with them. So, again, Clay and I camped Fri & Sat. night just us. It has been a long time since it was just us and it was nice. I enjoyed the brief bit of time just thinking of myself. We went on a 15-mile bike ride Saturday to see what the ride was like for the tri with friends Gina & Clint who were also doing the tri. At the last minute, Clay decided to do the tri also. So all 4 of us headed into town to packet pick up and then head to Academy so Clay could get something to wear in the tri. We then went over to Ghengis Grill and ate. We then had an evening around the campfire before calling it a night. Sunday we woke up to a VERY CHILLY morning for a triathlon in May! It was a GREAT time. We are hoping to pull off another Clay and I camping trip for this upcoming tri in July. It is nice to have a peace of mind that the kids are having a blast and are safe while Clay and I enjoy each other’s company.

We have had 2 great opportunities to celebrate Africa! Friends of ours are in the process of adopting a little girl from Ethiopia. Their friends threw a great Blessing party to inform and help raise funds for their adoption. They had wonderful Ethiopian food and it was quite the experience. The next night our good friends threw an African dinner party last weekend. It was so much fun!! I actually did not get pics of the food…go figure! But we had a blast!! The kids played tug of war, chase African style calling the chaser a lion, played singing games, etc. Sil, a wonderful lady from Ghana, cooked up some great African dishes! Some of the ladies even provided some African clothing. Below are some pics of the fabulous time together.

As you can see a lot has been going on and again I have gotten behind in blogging. Hopefully I will blog again soon!

Happy 60th Meemaw & PawPaw

2011-04-21T15:58:00.003-05:00

This past Saturday we celebrated Meemaw & PawPaw’s 60th birthday with a surprise party. Candy, my sis-in-law, came up with the wonderful idea of throwing a surprise party for both of them. Stuff like this is very much out of my comfort zone but since it is for my fabulous Mom & Dad….why not! It turned out fantastic! We invited them to meet us for dinner at a quaint little restaurant and then said we would come to our house afterwards and play cards. Little did they know that we had also asked their friends and family to join us in the surprise!

My parents are great gifts I cherish given to me by God. They have been supportive, caring, and loving throughout my entire life. They continue to be great examples of Christ’s love in their marriage together. I am blessed beyond measure.

Here are some pics of the evening!

I made Italian cream cupcakes along with dulce de leche cupcakes.

We put old photos and recent on the tables.

Matt & Candy also got them a strawberry cake and carrot cake. So there was plenty of sweets to go around. =)

Candy “the party planner” and Meemaw!

Jean got Mom this glass. It is an inside joke. Years ago before Lil knew Mom & Dad she made a comment that Mom must be Dad’s trophy wife (2nd or 3rd wife) b/c she looks younger than Dad. In reality Mom is only a couple weeks younger. Lil really stuck her foot in her mouth and is reminded of it to this day…=) & Mom is Dad’s first and only wife might I add!! This was hilarious!

Christian made a great card for both of them. It had all the prices in ‘51 and today’s prices. Very clever idea and Mom and Dad loved it!

Mom with her sister, Betty.

Of course a pic of my great kiddoes! The party was a great success and a wonderful way to celebrate two fantastic people! I am thankful to Candy, for the great idea and helping make it possible! Happy 60th Mom & Dad! I love you guys. I am thankful that God blessed me with two dedicated, loving, devoted, hard-working, Christian parents!

Catch up again…camping!

2011-04-13T14:34:00.001-05:00

Well...I am AWFUL! I just stink at keeping up with the blog! I am going to give it another go and try to be more consistent. Life is really great around here but also very busy! School is going well and we seem to be on track. We will be doing summer school as we have not accomplished as much as I would like. I also want to focus on some weaknesses outside of the regular school year. The planning can be a bit stressful but a lot of me enjoys seeing what our next year will hold.

This past weekend we went camping. Friends of ours got their first camper. We had planned to camp out Thursday through Sunday. Well, Clay got us up there and set up but Wanda was having problems trying to tow the camper. She had never towed anything before and they got a BIG camper! I ended up by myself with the kids Thursday night. Clay had not planned on taking off of work on Friday so he had to go back into town Thursday night so he would not have to get up so early and drive to work. I was not real happy about not having transportation but we made do. Clay left work early Friday and Wanda & family finally made it in the evening. They ended up having to get air brakes put on the truck so they could tow the trailer safely. So after a rough start, we had a fantastic weekend of camping! The kids had a great time hanging out, riding bikes, exploring, playing in the lake, hiking, and hunting down our letterboxes. We ended up finding 5 letterboxes. It adds so much more to your camping to be able to do a scavenger hunt type of activity. If you want to learn more about letterboxing and/or go to www.atlasquest.com Here are a few pics from the trip. Evan and Clara playing in the lake. From left to right: Evan, Chandler, Christian, Clara, Cullen, and Levi.

Clara always passed out on our hikes.

Love this shot of Christian up in a tree. He is growing up!

Playing games and cooking smores around the campfire.

Daddy & Clara are definitely a pair! They are so wrapped around each other’s finger…Daddy more so than Clara. It is an honor to watch the bond these two have. Nothing like a Daddy and his girl!

We are already looking forward to the next trip! We just love it!

Jill Heupel Cutest Pet Contest!!

2011-01-13T16:32:00.002-06:00

I would love to win this contest. So I decided to blog about it to up my chances!! To find out more look here

An Eagle & a canine good citizen!!

2011-01-11T12:22:00.001-06:00

The other day Christian took a photo of this in our backyard! Isn’t it beautiful! I hate I missed seeing it in person but just like his Momma…..he grabbed the camera to capture the moment.

I have been slowly making progress with Mya’s training. She is now almost 10 months old. She is still ALL puppy in the house but out and about she really is proving that she will mature into a fantastic girl! On Wednesday the 5th I took her to take her CGC (canine good citizen) test. The test consists of 10 items.

1. Accepting a friendly stranger. Mya did great with this. Although protective, Mya does not seem to know a stranger…or at least when I say it is okay….the love pours out!

2. Sit politely for petting. She struggled on the slick floors but did GREAT!

3. Appearance and grooming. Evaluator inspects the dog, combs/brushes lightly, and examines ears and feet. She did really well considering she does not get brushed. I constantly pick her feet up, mess with her mouth, ears, tails, etc. Don’t want her to be surprised by anything.

4. Out for a walk which includes maintaining control of the dog and a left, right, about turn, and stop. Mya usually does fantastic on lead. She really listens to me when she knows she is working. The key is to remind her she is working and keep her in that mode.

5. Walking through a crowd. She breezed through this. She was more interested in the treats and toys in the aisle. ;)

6. Sit and down on command and stay in place. Mya did very well. I am proud of her especially since our training has slacked lately in this department.

7. Coming when called….see above. She could have done better in my opinion but did enough to pass this test. ;)

8. Reaction to another dog. Two handlers and their dogs approach, shake hands, talk and move on. Dogs cannot react poorly and show more than casual interest in each other. Mya was more interested in the handler (shocking,really). This was the lightbulb moment that I need to keep her in a working mode and not slack that we are being casual. I made her sit b/c when she didn’t she felt free to sniff the other handler and showed too much interest. When sitting and strictly working she completely paid attention to me and what I wanted. So good lesson learned and she still passed this section.

9. Reaction to distractions. The evaluator threw a heavy metal bowl onto the floor. The dogs cannot act scared, aggressive, or in any other unfavorable way. Mya breezed through this section. She is not a skittish girl!

10. Supervised Separation. Mya struggled with this a LOT! I had to go out of sight for 3 min. and leave her with the evaluator. We will continue to work on this. She is a big baby and wants to be with me when she is out and about. The evaluator was a bit lenient and allowed us to pass this last section of the test! =D

Mya overall did fantastic and PASSED her test. When all the paperwork is done she will officially be Hillco’s My Little Darlin’, CGC. Well, actually I don’t know if they do that anymore but it means a LOT to me. It gives me a reward in the middle of our training and encouragement to continue on. I hope to compete in rally and/or obedience with her. I have also contemplated using her as a therapy dog. I think it would be great for her and others along with my children going and taking part in it also. Maybe my next update will be her getting some points in rally on our way to her becoming Hillco’s My Little Darlin’, CGC, RN (rally novice)!! =)

Taking part in obedience and to enjoy it with a dobie has been a dream of mine for many years. Although I think I jumped the gun by getting a dog too soon b/c I could not wait any longer, I am thrilled with Mya and I hope I can make enough time to continue through with our training and my goals for us. It is tough making the time with being the Mom, wife, teacher, housekeeper, chauffer, chef, etc. all the while trying to get myself back into top physical shape. When you throw in a big puppy you remember just how much you already had to do!! =)Regardless, I just love that big goof ball!! I am proud of her and myself too. ;) Here is a pic of Mya and I with the evaluator, Tina. She is a really neat lady! (not a great pic of Mya or me but it documents the moment!) I have to throw in that Cullen went with us and he was so GREAT! He took video and pics for me to see what we could work on and how we looked working together. The evaluator did nothing but compliment what a well-behaved, polite young man he was. She said I was training them both quite well…LOL!!

I will try to post today or tomorrow the celebration of my middle kiddo turning ELEVEN!! Life just flies by!!

Christmas Catch Up

2011-01-10T15:45:00.001-06:00

Again….I am playing catch up! Uggghhh!! I always feels so bad when I don’t update the blog regularly. I really want to print this off and keep it as a scrap-type book of our day to day life but it is turning out to be playing catch up and a month-to-month view of our life. I guess that is better than nothing though. LOL! =D

We had Christmas with Clay’s parents at their house. We had a white elephant Christmas and it was a BLAST! We also played a Farkle tournament. Of course, Santa came for the kiddoes and big kids as well.

Clara got a great dress from Clint and Cindy…she is a princess! This pic cracks me up b/c she cannot stand in those shoes. She started to fall back and caught herself by catching Taffy.

Mike & his family came in right before Christmas. They made a visit to Arkansas to see if it might be a potential home state for them soon. We shall see….I am praying it all works out and they move much closer. Would rather drive 6-8 hours than have to plan to fly to see them. My kiddoes sure enjoyed hanging out with the boys. They spent a night with us before we headed back to Meemaw & Pawpaw’s for Christmas. They played hide and seek and did not stop!

Clara even was in on the game with the big boys!

After we made it to Meemaw and Pawpaw’s we celebrated Christmas! We changed things up a bit this year and I feel they will be changed back to the old traditions. Whatever works for me b/c I enjoyed seeing everyone, being together.

Jerry & MoMo (Morgan)

All the grandkids together in their Rangers shirts…Go Rangers!!

Pawpaw explaining white elephant. It did not go over so well with most of the fam. =(

All the girls…trying to make this a yearly pic. My Mom, Candy, myself, and Casey!

We saved a bit for Christmas morning. The kids lined up to see what Christmas brought them.

Smoothie King Cookies and free smoothies of course were stocking stuffers!! Clara on her Sesame Street couch. The boys got Ipod Touches…well papers that told them they could pick out what they wanted to make sure they got the Ipod they wanted. Meemaw and Pawpaw with the kids showing off their lovely pics of my beautiful children!! LOL!! What better gift could you get!?!

And I will leave you with this lovely pic of Clara’s plumber’s crack in front of the beautiful, warm, cozy fire at Meemaw and Pawpaw’s! Love this!! She is so tall and skinny it is hard to buy pants for the girl that fit right. They are either too big around the waist or too short! Look at her cute little hiney!!

I will try to post a couple days in a row to catch up!!

More Camping Adventures!

2010-12-13T11:05:00.002-06:00

We went away this weekend on another camping trip. We LOVE it! We have so much fun just hanging out together with no interruptions, going on hikes, playing on the playgrounds, and other fun adventures we can get into…I mean find. =) It was a beautiful weekend. We hesitated going b/c there was a chance of rain and it was supposed to get COLD! Well Friday and Saturday were wonderful. Saturday evening it started getting cold and Sunday was beautiful too but got pretty chilly. Overall, It was a perfect weekend for camping. I did discover that my weeny dobie needs to have a jacket. She was pretty chilled the whole time, even in the trailer. We haven’t turned on the heat yet in the trailer….Clay tried b/c Mya seemed so cold but we couldn’t get it going. Clay thinks we need more propane. We really don’t have much desire to run the heat (A/C too) b/c it is noisy. The best advice was given to us….get heating blankets!! They work wonderfully and you feel all toasty and comfy snuggled under it sleeping while it is freezing outside. But that didn’t help Mya any. The dogs kennel inside the trailer so they are sheltered from the cold. The dogs kenneled together on this trip and I think they enjoyed the extra warmth. We even covered Mya up with some extra towels. So next camping pics might include Mya in a stylish winter jacket….LOL! Pathetic, huh?!?

We really enjoyed this state park. It was beautiful and more hiking trails than we could walk in a week! We arrived at dark and knew we were by the water but the view when we woke up was very nice!

This was Clara’s “fishing pole” she made. She kept saying, “shhh, I’m fishing!”

Clara and I found a secret passage to the lake. She then showed Daddy and the boys when they got back to camp.

When the boys went off hiking on their own they found a great surprise! A fantastic rope swing! We all tried it out except Clara…she will have to wait a few years! She wanted to go so bad!! The water was really beautiful and it reminded me of Arkansas.

My 3 monkeys!! Christian is at the tip top…..He can climb anything!

The campgrounds had a great playground!

Clay and Christian had a contest to see who could climb up the rock wall with no hands the fastest….Daddy actually won! We were all blown away that he beat Christian!

Clara all bundled up on Sunday! She has footed PJs on and then her outfit Candy and Matt got her for her birthday! We had a blast! Ready to go again!

I also had to add that we found our first letterbox on this camping trip. There were supposed to be two hidden but only one was intact. It is such a fun time to follow all the clues and end up with the "prize"! I took this pic with my phone so not the best.

Somebody is 3! & Thanksgiving too!

2010-12-09T19:53:00.001-06:00

I am doing it again….lumping multiple things into one post. Why do I stink so bad at blogging? Uggghh! Anyway…here goes!

My baby girl turned THREE on Nov. 19th!! She was also sick on top of it. So we had a family party planned but canceled it so we wouldn’t share her sickness with others. We had a quiet little party just the 5 of us. We had a good time celebrating the blessing of Clara! The girl LOVES Smoothie King (she calls it Smoothie Came) and asked for a smoothie along with the vegan cookies they sell. How bad are we…we had no candles so a baking/cookie stick did the trick. She was in heaven with her smoothie and cookie!

Taffy and Papa Dave got Clara the play-doh set and the cutest PJ’s! They sent them home from work with Clay so she could open them up on her birthday.

Clara loves all things teeth! She will probably be an orthodontist or dentist when she grows up. I bought her some toothbrushes. This was her favorite present.

Notice in this pic she has not put down the toothbrushes yet!! and when inspecting the other gifts, YEP! Still holding the toothbrushes!

I am including the pics of Clara opening up her gifts from Meemaw and Pawpaw (out of order) b/c she opened them on Thanksgiving but it is still part of her birthday.

This is an AWFUL pic b/c of the flash but Meemaw had gotten this for Clara 2 YEARS ago!!! It is a china tea set. It is beyond sweet and the cutest thing! Clara liked it!

Meemaw also picked out the sweetest book called The Little Teacup that Talked. It made me cry! She also included a book Little Girls Bible Storybook for Mothers and Daughters.

I cannot believe my girl is THREE!! Life flies by so fast! She is smart, funny, thoughtful, stubborn, and beautiful! She loves to do her schoolwork and will ask to do it. She was getting her hair trimmed the other day and while sitting in the chair she asked to do schoolwork when we got home. ;) She got her first professional hair trim on Tuesday. She was not too thrilled with the experience but was thrilled when Sirmunia did her nails after we finished. She loved it!

Saturday, the 20th, Clay and Cullen headed out to Houston for Cullen’s purity weekend. It came up so fast. Clay did a great job of planning it. He got VIP tickets to the Toby Mac concert. They got to go backstage and do Q&A session with the bands, and a tour of the center. I gave Cullen my camera and had high hopes for lots of pics……these were all I got!!

If you want to know more about purity weekends here is a peak of Christian’s purity weekend post here. I go into more detail of the lessons used to teach how important it is for our children to stay pure for their future spouses. Cullen is much more quiet and reserved about sharing about his weekend. I pray that he protects his heart and chooses his friends wisely. I pray that he will choose a spouse that is Godly. Cullen said he had a lot of fun but getting anything else from him is like pulling teeth. =(

We also enjoyed a great Thanksgiving. Taffy (Clay’s Mom) had a kid table set up to have a drawing contest for being thankful. They had fun. Then we all played Farkle! We had a BLAST!! We then went to my Mom and Dad’s and enjoyed dinner with my Matt, Candy, Mom, Dad, GG, Jerry, and his daughter, Melissa, and her 2 girls age 3 and 4 months. There is so much to be thankful for! We are so blessed!

Christian got to drive the boom lift my parent’s neighbors had rented to trim trees. He had a blast!

Here are some pics of my 3 year old!

Here she is eating a tomato at the boys flag football game. We had bought them at the farmer’s market before the father/son game. She got hungry and asked if she could eat one of the tomatoes…she ate it just like an apple but ended up sucking all the seeds right out of it!!

More Camping & Clara’s Preschool

2010-11-18T16:59:00.001-06:00

We are having so much fun camping! We took a 2-day trip this past weekend. It was a great time. It is nice to slow down, talk, have devotional time around the fire and genuinely enjoy each other’s company.

I tried to take some photos from the inside but it just looks junked and crowded and it really isn’t. This is Mya in her bed and her kennel in her little corner. You can see that she is just in the “hallway” that leads to a door on your right which is the bathroom and then on to the boys “room” at the end of the RV. Our bedroom (Clara too) is at the opposite end of the RV. The word bedroom literally means a queen-size bed….=) This is a pic of Clara showing you around. She is standing with the fridge on her right side and the stove/sink on her left side. Rustie is in his kennel right next to her.

Here are the boys climbing the dam wall of the lake. We were on a hunt for letterboxes. Letterboxing is very similar to a scavenger hunt but you are looking for a particular object that people hide different places. There were supposed to be 2 boxes hidden at this location, but there were not there anymore. They will need to be replaced. It was still fun looking for them and knowing we found the secret location they were once at. We will definitely continue letterboxing on our camping trips and on other occasions too. Isn’t it beautiful!?!

Well, my girl is going to be 3 (THREE) tomorrow!! I cannot believe how fast time just flies by. I have started searching for a preschool program that will focus on a Biblical foundation and go out from there. I want to really teach Clara to have God’s word in her heart. Since I was such a young, immature parent with the boys this was really lacking and still is. As I mature in Christ, He opens my eyes and shows me my shortcomings so I can pick up the slack and be on par where He wants me. I really desire for my children to have a personal relationship with Christ and to call on Him for everything. I want them to search out a strong, Christian spouse who has a heart for God. In the meantime, it is our job as parents to equip them and not just want this for them but to provide the opportunity to learn these things and to watch us put it into action too. If we do not do this for ourselves our children will not see the importance in it. I am really pleased with this blog . She has been an inspiration to me. All the ideas below came directly from her blog since I don’t have a creative bone in my body.

This is our small board with our shape, trait, color, state, animal, and our letter on it.

Here are a couple of pics from Clara’s work today. My baby girl is very sick right now but just keeps trucking along.

This is our board with what we want to learn for this unit of the Letter L, number 1, and sight word “see”. It has our Bible verse and a tangible way to use this verse in her daily life. It also has a song. This unit’s verse is Matthew 5:16 “Let your light sine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” I love that she gives you a tangible way to teach your child how to put this verse into action. obey Mommy/Daddy, be kind to others, learn about God, tell the truth, share, show love to others, be brave, and tell others about Jesus. How great is that!! Our song is This Little Light of Mine.There is a small book at the top left. Here are some close ups of the pages. There are all L words and one of them and it also use our sight word “see”. Clara loves it!! She has read it a few times today.

I have also ordered a few other things that will be coming. As I incorporate them I will try and blog about it. It will also hopefully hold me accountable.

Old Fashioned Family Day, Adoption, & Camping!!

2010-11-09T10:44:00.001-06:00

Oh, why! Oh, why! Can I not at least blog once a week!! I am, once again, going to blog about multiple different things because I have not made time to blog! Enjoy the book! Over the years our “celebration” of Halloween has dwindled. It seems very strange the customs that we embraced because “everyone” does them. People dress their children up strangely and present them at strangers doors asking for candy or whatever they are giving out. I find myself wanting to cover my children’s eyes to protect their hearts and minds from what visuals are around. This year we celebrated Old Fashioned Family Day at our church. Well, at least Christian, Clara and I. At the last minute Clay and Cullen got invited to the #3 World Series game and of course could not pass that up! Meemaw, Pawpaw, Matt & Candy went also. Pawpaw called up on Thursday night and said they had 2 tickets left. The two sport lovers in this family jumped at the chance and the rest of us….well were just fine missing out. =) They had a GREAT time!!

While they went to the baseball game Christian, Clara, and I headed out to our Old Fashioned Family Day our church puts on. Christian made a homemade apple pie. It was FABULOUS!!

I made a pumpkin pie. It was not fabulous but it was good. I also made chili for the chili cook off. It is ashame the vegan chili didn’t place (figured) but that would have been pretty funny to tell ‘em it was vegan!!

Notice there are no pics of Christian. He took off and I did not see him much. He had a great time with his friends. I also have slacked on taking pics! Clara and Christian went on a hayride. There were sack races, seed spitting contests, face painting, and also arm wrestling contests. Here is a pic of Tracy and Stephanie wrestling it out for first place. ……Stephanie took first!!

It was a good time. Maybe next year we will all be able to hang out together! I missed us all not being together as a family.

I could not leave these photos out! Clara loves dressing herself and she gets into EVERYTHING!! Here is a pic of her in a newborn onesie that Aunt Candy got her when we brought her home from Utah! It says I was worth the wait! She is also wearing the infant pants her birthmom, Tierra, gave her as a baby shower gift. She was cracking us up! I cannot believe my baby girl is about to be 3!! She is growing up too fast!

On to another exciting note!!! This month is national adoption month. Our city celebrated it Friday with an adoption day. Kara’s family finally had the honor of adopting Kylie into their family “officially”!! WOO HOO!!! It is so amazing to watch God work beautiful things out of such ugliness in this world! Kylie has been with them almost since birth! She finally has a family that will love, support, care, nurture, lead, and guide her in Christ! I know Kylie is a pretty lucky girl but I know how this adoption thing works and Kara and her family are blessed by having such a wonderful little girl picked just by God to be their daughter! The day started with making it official in the courtroom along with I think 13 other children that day. Here is a pic of the new family together in the courtroom! Baby K became Kylie Rebecca! Kara had her dressed so cute! She had her name on the front of her shirt and her last name on her bloomers! Baby P has been with them for a few months now (not sure exactly how long) but maybe one day she will be a permanent fixture too! ;) Below is a shot of the whole gang…the social workers, attorneys, judge, grandparents, etc.

Daddy & Daughter!! Locke could not have had a bigger grin on his face!

After the courtroom proceedings the city had a “party” at the adjacent church. They had a craft table set up that Clara would not leave!

Here are some shots of her artwork, a monkey! Christian could not make the trip with us because he had class that day. We missed him!

We have entered the camping zone! I think we are hooked forever!! We bought a bumper pull trailer! It isn’t exactly roughing it as it has AC/heater, bathroom, microwave, stove, 2 queen beds and the booth to eat at turns into a bed too along with a seating area for 2 that turns into a mini bed. Clay went and got it Saturday and I picked up the boys from football and we headed out to get prepared for our first QUICK camping trip. We went to Caddo State Park! We had a BLAST! It was such a slow, peaceful time. We are trying to get another trip up this weekend. This is a pic of us in front of the RV. I finally used the timer on my camera.

We hung out by the fire, roasted Tofurkey dogs and had smores. We went on a night walk and also played cards until almost midnight!

We woke up and went on another walk to see the views in the day time. Caddo feels like you are in another world! It was beautiful and peaceful. Can you tell by my excitement that we loved it? We definitely were not ready to come home on Sunday. Even though it does not look like it, Christian had a blast too. I think that teenage attitude that “I hate pictures” has snuck in. =(

This is a pic I took sitting in my chair around the fire…how can you not be happy surrounded by God’s glorious artwork!?! So, we are HOOKED! We love talking about all the places we are going to travel to in our trusty, used, but new-to-us RV!

It has been busy, busy around here but again…I will make the statement…I will try to post more often!! =D

Gymnastics Class for the kids & a She-Retreat with my Mom!

2010-10-11T16:26:00.001-05:00

I know…I stink at coming up with catchy titles to my blog posts. Oh well, at least I am blogging!

It has been BUSY!! Last week the kids started their gymnastics class. Our homeschool group organized a class during the day time for just homeschoolers. It is nice to be able to have all 3 doing their classes at the same time. I have to stay with Clara in her class because of her age. Good thing they want this b/c Clara would not have done the class without me holding her hand anyway. We are making strides in independence! It is so strange to watch such an independent little girl turn into a quiet, worry wart that won’t leave her myself or her Dad or brothers easily at all! BUT we are making strides in the right direction. Cullen is still staying with Clara in her Sunday school class so we can go into church. We feel it will be soon when she will stay alone but until she feels comfortable we are leaving it up to her. She will grow out of this……so we will keep on keeping on. Here are some shots from class. You can check out Youtube to see pics of Clara on the balance beam and the bouncy trampoline too. I will try to fix it so it shows up on the blog.

(these pics are all from last week’s 1st class) Today she finally slid down the slide without holding my hand.

I liked this shot. All 3 kids in it if you look close enough.

Don’t you love Cullen’s form? =D

The other day Clara came in and had dressed herself. She really did a great job of matching up her outfit. There was only one problem…..she forgot pants. =) She then wanted me to take pictures of her. She cracks me up!

Isn’t she beautiful!! She is just growing way too fast! I cannot believe she is almost THREE YEARS OLD!!

This past weekend I had the honor of spending time with my Mom at my church’s women’s retreat. It was called the She-Retreat. We focused on being Faithful and not Fickle! It was a WONDERFUL TIME!

First it started off with making cupcakes so I could have dessert on the retreat and so the boys could take some to a birthday party they were going to. Let me tell you…these dulce de leche cupcakes were GREAT!! MMM, MMM good! I am making them Friday when I have Mom, Dad, Matt & Candy over. I also made chocolate to be on the safe side just in case the caramel ones did not turn out. I have to say that the woman in charge of food at the retreat was an angel!! I called ahead of time and got an answering machine. No one ever called me back. I then decided to call a day or so ahead and just see if I could reach anyone. Well, I got an answer. She said I needed to talk to Chris because she was in charge of the kitchen. This lady was amazing!! She was so thoughtful. I figured before I got a hold of anyone I would be taking all of my food or fasting for most of the retreat. She told me exactly what her plans were for cooking. Went down the whole menu. She told me to bring my butter, veganaise, and the homemade ranch I make myself. She already had soy milk. This woman made a point to search me out at our meals. She laid my cupcake out on our little dessert plates like everyone else had on the table before we were seated. She pulled the polenta before adding cheese, she pulled the potatoes so she could put my butter on mine, made me special roasted veggie soup, etc. She would ask if I needed anything else, if I had enough, if I liked it. She was an angel that made my retreat just that much more special. I told her that she will never know how much it meant that she went out of her way to make me feel special and not like I was a burden.

I asked my Mom to join me on this retreat. We just don’t get enough one-on-one time any more without interruptions. It was priceless to have spent this time with her! We went on the zip line together . Check out my Youtube site for the videos of us going down the zip. It was so much fun!

We went horseback riding together. I thought I got a pic of Mom in front of her horse but I guess I did it with just her camera.

It was FANTASTIC!! This was part of our bunkhouse. It was a great time of fellowship, worship, learning, and growing together. I was able to get to know more ladies at our church and I am starting to feel more plugged into our somewhat new to us church. I left with the desire to get more plugged in and to grow myself spiritually and to not stop learning His word so I can know His will for me in all things! I want to be faithful in EVERYTHING and fickle in nothing! As we learned……My faithfulness matters!!

Cowboys and a Triathlon!

2010-09-24T15:57:00.001-05:00

Last week we went on a homeschool field trip to Cowboys Stadium!! Clay took the day off of work and Clara spent a great day at Meemaw and Pawpaw’s house. The field trip was geared towards middle and high school grades. Here are some pics. The stadium is AWESOME! I am not much of a football fan but I enjoyed the tour.

The screen is HUGE. It weighs as much as a gassed up loaded jet plane with luggage and passengers on board.

Cullen & Christian in one of the sky boxes.

I loved this pic. Have times changed or what? Now you pay somthing like $30 just to stand at the game not to mention paying for parking too.

I thought it was great they had a #19 out as that was my Dad’s number too along with my brother, Mike’s number. My Dad had a small run playing with the Cowboys back in his day. Pretty neat to think of him playing on the Cowboys.

& of course Clay had to put the jersey on and give his dislike of it. He is a 49ers fan through and through! Although he cannot stand the Cowgirls he enjoyed the tour and the awesome stadium.

After the tour we grabbed lunch at PF Chang’s and headed back to Meemaw’s to pick up Clara and head home. It was a great day but a LONG day!

I had to throw in these pics of Clara “doing” Christian’s hair today. She loves, loves, loves to “do” hair. She wanted me to do her hair more after we finished her veil style today. It is such a God send that she enjoys it! I love that she wants to look in the mirror at her hair when we finish and says, “Cute, cute!” After she finished Christian’s hair she said, “Cute!”.

I also have to add that this past weekend was the TRIATHLON!! It was one of the best feelings to cross that finish line!! I have to admit I cried a bit….if not more than a bit. ;) I really owe a great deal to my wonderfully, supportive hubby! He is just amazing! He was a great coach and trainer! I cannot wait for my next triathlon. God is truly amazing and His grace is just unending. I am still in amazement that He allowed me to pick myself up from the addiction of food and blessed me like He has. I am hoping to do a 5K in January and possibly a bike ride on top of that. We will be continuing with the training. I never thought I would enjoy activity like I am. It is so satisfying to be following in His will!

Playing Catch up!

2010-09-10T15:32:00.001-05:00

In August my best friend growing up, Kirsten, decided to take some time with the little ones . We went to the zoo. Hayden is just a few months older than Clara. We all had a really good time.

Doesn’t Hayden looked thrilled? =)

This was as close as Clara got to the birds and then she was not having any more of it. She was ready to get out of there! They were freakin’ her out.

Hayden, on the other hand LOVED it and could have stayed in there all day….(so could I).

This summer went by way too fast! We have had some great times in the pool, lake, neighborhood. We are really loving the new place. It took us a while to settle in but it is great here! I have continued training for the triathlon which is September 18th. Despite the foot injury I am training by swimming in the lake, riding the bike, and doing triathlons that we set up here in the neighborhood. I have accomplished a whole tri here in the neighborhood of a 650-yard swim, 14.5 mile bike ride, and 3.1 mile run (walking most of it in my case). I am really fearful of re-injuring the foot before the tri. I will try to run a lot more of it in the tri and if it breaks again….well it will heal. ;) I am hoping to come in around 2 hours. We plan a tri tomorrow morning and just light workouts the upcoming week b/c you don’t want to be run down for the real thing! I cannot express how great I feel despite having had the hurt foot and now fighting off a cold. I was sick about a week (first time in well over a year) and now just fighting the chest crud that came with it. My body is changing and I am LOVING it!! For those that fight their weight I know you understand…it is amazing to feel your butt, thighs, legs….everything just shrinking. I just rub my thighs, hips and butt and realize I am getting down to just one butt now….LOL! Good stuff! My clothes fit completely different and my weight continues to go down. I feel physically and mentally wonderful!! I hope to post some type of pics up of the tri if I can get any.

This Labor day weekend was great! Sunday we went out to my parents and Kirsten and Hayden went with us. Matt &
Candy, GG and Jerry were also there. It was a great day!!

Kirsten and I got brave and decided to have some fun! We went innertubing! It was a BLAST! The most fun I have had in a LONG time and let me tell you something…..a year ago physically I would NOT have been able to do it (or I would have died from exhaustion or hurt myself)! I remember the last time I tubed it was difficult to get myself up on the thing when I fell off. It was so much fun and a great way to get in some exercise. We fell off over and over and stood on that thing to see how long we could keep our balance. Kirsten said she was hurting so bad the next day. I was fine! Ha! but I definitely slept good that night.

Also …..guess who had their first experience on the TUBE! Clara and Hayden!! Hayden got on first. Beside having to convince his protective Momma that he would be fine I had no doubts that boy would jump on and have a blast! What surprised me was that Clara wanted to get on it. She is so reserved and cautious when it comes to things like this. She had a BLAST!! I think she could have stayed on it all day long. They both did great!!!

Daddy started them up making funny faces.

They had a BLAST!

Cullen took this leisurely ride and wanted to make it more exciting. He would hang off the side, ride like a surf board, etc. Then Hayden got the hang of trying to be like the big boys by pushing Cullen off. It was hilarious!

As we were leaving Meemaw and Pawpaw’s house we set up some good bye photos. I don’t know how it started but I had to get a pic of it. Clara hugging and kissing Hayden good bye! Clara and the boys stayed behind and Meemaw’s to spend the night while Hayden and Kirsten rode back with us. So the good byes ensued.

We started school this week and it has been going well. Clara is wearing panties now. She is not potty trained completely but definitely headed in the right direction. I still have to remind her to go to the potty or else we have accidents….but we will get there. We wear diapers only to sleep in. And speaking of sleep….guess where my big girl is sleeping (for the most part)….HER BED!!! She has doing pretty good. She still tries to come in our room and sleep on her pallet or she will then sneak into the boys room and climb into bed with Christian. We are catching it and sending her to her bed. She is doing really well and I see a light at the end of the tunnel….LOL! I thought she would be sleeping with Clay and I forever after we moved here. If it were up to her she would!

I will try to post more often but life has just been very, very busy! But no excuses….whose life isn’t busy??

Until next time…..hopefully sooner rather than later!

Girly time!!

2010-08-05T12:47:00.001-05:00

Since the boys are off having a blast in the north, Clara and I are having our girly time together. I will admit…this age 2-3 is a HARD time for me. I don’t handle, “No, I don’t want to”, whining, etc. that comes with that age frame very well. I never thought I would have a girly girl….but that she is. The other day we experienced our first pedicures together. Clara really liked it. She was bummed that she did not get to do the lotion/massage and bath for your feet. ;) Next time I will make sure they let her do it. Since it was the first time I was not sure how she was going to handle it all. She went first and then I got my pedi on. She did well waiting but did not like that she missed out on those few extras Mommy got and not Clara. After the pedis, we ran into a couple of stores. Clara really likes to shop! Maybe she will help me become a shopper. I mentioned to her that we were going to Target and she squealed with delight at the top of her lungs and said, “TAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGEEEEETTTT!!!!” I wish you could have heard her. A few ladies in the store we were in started laughing and said everyone feels that way about Target…LOL . When we arrived at Target Clara proceeded to ask for “Clara shoes?” She likes her shoes too!! We did not get shoes that trip but she handled the let down well.

Enjoy the shot of her precious, precious toes! They are pretty pink with a pretty little white flower on her toes. She is proud of them! I look forward to many more Mommy/daughter pedi days!

Big Bad Musical & New Addition to the Family

2010-08-02T08:46:00.001-05:00

Well, again it has been too long since I blogged. I have too much to try and cram into one post but I will try.

Christian was involved in a play with the children’s theater. It was a great play. It was a musical and comedy in one. It was a combination of all the fairy tale characters. The Big Bad Wolf was on trial and ultimately it was up to the audience to determine if he was innocent or guilty. It was GREAT! Here are some shots. We also had the cast party over here and I think everyone had a great time.

This past Wednesday I finally added an addition to our family I have been wanting for many, many, many years. I have always LOVED dogs and have had an involvement with them whether it was through work (vet’s office, dog groomer), dog rescue/fostering, training, etc. I have always dreamed of doing competitive obedience with a Doberman. I love the breed, their dedication, loyalty, intelligence, and of course their looks. Well, life has always gotten in the way of me taking the time to work on this dream. The kids’ upbringing and education are my #1 priority but I have also decided I need to have something just for me too. A time I get away even if it is just a couple hours a week and focus on a hobby for myself. Okay….now….introducing……Mya or her AKC name is HillCo’s Devil Woman! I know…I know…not a fan of her AKC name but I am hoping that one day it will look like this HillCo’s Devil Woman, CD RN WAC CGC (etc, etc. not sure how all the titles work but you get the idea) The titles after her name will be accomplishments we have made together in obedience/rally, temperament testing, etc.

She is almost 20 weeks old. In that picture she looks like such a grown dog but she is still very much a puppy. Here are some puppy pics of her and her litter mates.

Here are some the day after I brought her home…meeting everyone.

I will probably have to post her ears for another month or so and then we will be finished with that. She is a real sweetie with a fantastic temperament. She is very calm and well behaved for a puppy. She is doing pretty good at housebreaking and will get there soon enough. She is just great!

On another note, my boys will be gone for over a week! They left early Saturday morning. They are traveling up north with my Mom and Dad to visit with my brother and his family. They are making some stops in Kentucky (to visit some cave), Niagara Falls, and also New York City. When they get up to Boston they will also be traveling to Vermont to enjoy a 4-day Christian concert/event while camping in the mountains of Vermont. I am kind of jealous but oh, so happy for them! I miss them so much already. They will be back next Monday or Tuesday. Please keep them in your prayers for safe travel there and back and a blessed time together with the Meemaw and Pawpaw and their cousins, aunt, and uncle.

Injury, Discouragement, and Moving Forward

2010-07-23T00:08:00.001-05:00

Well, Friday evening my foot started aching/hurting. I came to the conclusion that I probably have a stress fracture. You talking about discouraging. The one time in my life I have really gotten into and enjoyed the fact I am treating my body better through exercise and I go and do too much at once. Man, does that sound like me….;) I have stopped the running and took some days off to take it easy. I have kept up some swimming. I have lost track of what days I have swam but I have gotten some good ones in. My longest was today at approx. 800 to 1000 yards. I also rode the bike a little over 2.5 miles. I think the bike is going to be the hardest for me in the tri. At least it did not hurt my foot so as much as I might not enjoy it I will be able to work on it and build up how far I can ride. At this point 14.5 miles seems like FOREVER away!!! I am just trying to stay encouraged and have the attitude that I will do my best and I will only get stronger. I don’t have long to train as the tri is in September. At this point, I just want to complete it….I just keep telling myself that…but the competitor in me wants to do better than just complete it. Clay has offered to stay behind and complete the tri together but I hate holding him back. How great is he! God has blessed me more than I could have ever dreamed of or prayed for! Well, that is it for the tri-training update.

On another note, Christian has been working on another play with the children’s theater. The shows start tomorrow night @ 7, Saturday at 2 and 7 and Sunday at 2. We are watching tomorrow night. Matt, Candy, my Mom & Dad, GG (my grandma), Jerry (my Dad’s brother, my uncle) along with Amy and her son Kyle are going to watch it. Afterwards we are coming back over here to play some volleyball!! I cannot wait!

Cullen also did a week long academy at the children’s theater last week and he did AWESOME!! I was so proud of him. This was his second time and he really improved. He enjoyed it and I was thrilled that he would like to do more of them. I need to get the pics off my phone (b/c I FORGOT my camera) and try to post them here…not sure how to do that though. We shall see.

That is it for now…..until next time!

Triathlon….Here I come!

2010-07-14T13:36:00.002-05:00

God is truly amazing…. AMAZING I tell ya!! First he heals me of a life-long eating addiction through veganism and healing my body of depression, anxiety, and lowering my blood pressure to as low as it has ever been, losing 30 lbs over the year instead of gaining 20 or so as I had been doing in the past years. He has given me energy I never thought I could have, and a true happy, peaceful feeling about my health that I cannot remember ever having. He has also basically taken away Cullen and Clara’s eczema. Cullen’s asthma is history! Our family is hardly ever sick and if so it is minor. Well, God has gone and done it again. He has given me the hope and energy to attempt a triathlon in September. I am hoping to use my blog to document my activity to encourage myself to continue on this physical health journey and hopefully be an encouragement to others. God has a tremendous sense of humor and I can see Him laughing at me right now. I had always said I would NEVER do a triathlon and have even given Clay grief over his riding his bike so often and working so hard. I feel badly I was not as encouraging and uplifting as he is for me. I continue to work on that weakness of mine! I just pray that God continues to push me to be a better me and to treat myself as He had planned!

This week thus far I have:

SUNDAY: I rode my bike 5 miles, walked (ran a bit) of a mile, and swam almost 200 yards in the lake. We are going to try making one day during the weekend our tri time. Where we work our way up to the triathlon. (for those of you that don’t know what a tri consists of like myself for so long it is a 14.5-mile bike ride, 3.1-mile run, and a 650 yard swim!) I am going to do my best and that is all I can do! I have to again say how AWESOME my husband is. He is so encouraging. He did the mini-tri with me (he set it all up for me…I thought I was only going on a bike ride) and encouraged me. He would say things to encourage me especially on the bike ride when I thought I was going to DIE!!!!

MONDAY: I ran 1/2 a mile and walked 1/2 a mile and got a good swim in.

TUESDAY: I completed almost a 1-mile run (I started out walking). Then got a 10-minute swim in.

I am hoping to make a complete 1-mile run tonight. It will be the second complete mile I have run in my life. This time feels totally different than the first time I ran a mile which was probably 2 years or so ago. It was one of the best feelings I have had in my life but I felt like I was going to DIE…felt awful…just awful!!! I knew it was only God b/c at that time my body was full of JUNK and I am surprised it was still functioning for me. Only God can make something (like the human body) that can be treated so horribly, horribly bad for so VERY long and can still keep on truckin’. It will catch up with us though in the form of cancer, heart attack, strokes, diabetes, depression, anxiety, MS, taking drugs to combat all this stuff we could prevent with diet and so many more awful things. Then once you start treating it the way it was meant to be treated it heals itself!!! This time I felt great doing it but just tired. I have convinced myself for so long that I cannot do it that I have believed it. No longer! With God I can do all things!! He is an AMAZING God, I tell ya!!

Clara singing Happy Birthday!

2010-07-05T14:13:00.000-05:00

We have a little actress on our hands! She cracks us up! She cracks herself up too....LOL

Some of June! Awful, worst blogger award!

2010-07-05T13:27:00.001-05:00

Okay, so I deserve the worst Blogger award! Life has been very busy!! This move has been a tough one! We are slowly but surely settling in a bit more. I have had some wonderful help with a decorator, who is now a new friend, help me get things together. We will soon have the main areas of the house painted and we are going to go ahead and do our bedroom too. I have really struggled with the feelings of sleeping in someone else’s bedroom. I am ready for it to feel like our bedroom. The living room/dining/kitchen area is finally beginning to feel like ours. We are getting closer and closer to finished.

We made our annual business/fun trip to Oklahoma City. We had a good time. We usually are set up in a foo-foo hotel and we have not been too fond of the one for the past few years. They moved us to the Hampton which we LOVE! We have had a wonderful experience with Hampton and we have preferred it ever since. When we were in our adoption process and God was waiting for to place Clara in our lives…we had the opportunity to potentially adopt another little girl. Her name was Denaya (where we got Clara’s middle name from…Denae) . We went to Louisiana to take care of Denaya and waited out the 5-day period for birthmom to sign relinquishment papers. We even waited another day. Long story short…and heartbreaking….birthmom changed her mind and decided to keep her baby. It was a really sad story and it took her 8 hours to find a ride to pick up her baby. My heart still breaks for her and her young family as she had 2 other children already. She lived in a chaotic, violent home as we were told. When we met her she was just broken. We hugged her and told her we were not mad and it would all be okay. It was one of the hardest things I have gone through. Denaya will be 3 in August and I think of her and her Mom often. I pray they have a blessed life and that they can rise beyond what they have experienced in the past to have all God has planned for them!

Anyway…I veered off course. During the terrible time of waiting for Denaya’s Mom to pick her back up the Hampton was so supportive of us. They set us up in their lobby area which was set up like a living room. They made the kids cookies and were such gracious hosts during such a terrible time of loss for us. This Hampton in Oklahoma City was no disappointment!! It had the coolest pool we have ever seen in a hotel. It was completely set up for the kids.

This pic is misleading….Little Miss Clara was too scared and ended up not going down the slide. I was shocked!

As you can see it was pretty neat! They had little explosive dynamite set up in the deeper part. There were handles on the side of the pool you pushed down and it would cause a water explosion in the pool. It was really different and fun! Oklahoma was a neat trip. We made a trip to 105 Degrees which is a raw restaurant. It was a neat experience but one 2 year old was exhausted and was not feeling it was time for a dining out experience. All in all a good and memorable trip to Oklahoma City.

We have had many paddle boat outings and kayaking outings. Christian caught the first fish.

There has been much more fishing. The boys have learned if they use the catfish food and put it in their nets they can catch lots of perch. Daddy has taken the whole gang out for a fishing outing.

We have seen more wildlife…. baby turtles, baby birds, baby ducks, rabbits, etc. We visited the beaver home on the other end of the lake too. It is neat to see how they do that. Not so neat when they eat the rope holding your anchor. LOL =)

This is a shot of baby ducks….and not a good shot. Sorry!

A sunset in the backyard…

For the 4th we spent time at Meemaw and Pawpaw’s. The kids spent the night before over there. Clay and I went to dinner and a movie. Saw Eclipse. I have to throw in how sad I think it is that people think this movie is appropriate for preteens and teens. The unhealthy relationship between the main characters rivals obsession and the lust exhibited in the movie is sad. It is definitely not material younger children and teens should be exposed to during such a learning time in their lives. They should be learning of healthy relationships that their parents exhibit and not exposed to such confusing feelings of lust and false impressions of what love is. Okay…enough ranting there.

We enjoyed our fireworks at the lake with Meemaw and Pawpaw along with Matt & Candy. We even had drop in visitors with Candy’s brother & wife and their kids and Candy’s cousin and his wife and their kids. I did not take any pics this year but the fireworks were the best yet. They even had a firework that exploded into a smiley face….How cool is that? I hope you all had a safe, fun 4th! I hope to be blogging again soon! I also hope to have a video of Clara singing Happy Birthday up soon on Youtube. She cracks me up!! She loves to sing and she actually did it for the camera this time with her acting talent involved too. Speaking of singing too….Christian got a part in the play “"The Big, Bad Musical”. It will be a busy month of getting him to rehearsals, performances, and we will be hosting the cast party but I cannot wait to see him perform!! Congrats, Christian!!!

Hope to Blog again soon and not bombard you with so much stuff!!! =)

Moving, moving, kinda moved??

2010-05-26T23:43:00.001-05:00

(warning: long-winded but lots of pics to make up for it!)

Well, Sunday we made the move into the new house…..kinda. We started sleeping here anyway. We got our bedroom furniture, couch, Clara’s bed (which she will now not sleep in), and the washer dryer in. We did not get that working until the next day or should I say Clay did not get that working. He had to change out plugs, etc. This is our 5th house. This has been the most difficult move of them all! It still saddens me to know that there are people out there that just don’t care how you feel or what you think. When we first saw this home the yard was short and not overgrown, the pool was very nice looking and clean, the house was spotless, etc. Well, we buy it and give some people a few weeks to do nothing and that is exactly what they will do!! The yard hadn’t been touched in at least 3 weeks, the pool was all kinds of out of whack, the house was filthy, they even left us a present in one of the toilets. To think these people wanted to lease the house back from us. I even was trying to convince Clay that it was the right thing to do since these people needed the money to buy their other home in which they wanted to build a pool. We said no, thank goodness!!! They moved into a temp place until their home is finished. I would hate to think what they would have done in a few more weeks! GROSSS!! I am sorry for the venting but it is so frustrating. Someone cut themselves while they were moving and they just left the blood splatters/puddles all over the school room tile floor for us to bother with. They left junk behind for us to throw out or just didn’t double check before they were leaving. There were 2 PODS parked in the driveway in front of the garage, no less! They also have not had their mail forwarded b/c there is no where to forward it to. HELLOOO!!!! How inconsiderate can people be?!!?? I guess we got a good taste of it with this move. Just really frustrating. As if there is not already a lot to do with moving anyway.

We still own our other home but have a contract pending on it. We are praying this week goes smoothly and the inspections go well. We are beginning to get a bit concerned as they have not had the inspection as of yet and no appraisal either. It would be nice to sell it this go around but God knows what the cards hold. He has the best plan! I do know that whoever moves in is getting a spotless house and a freshly mowed, weeded, hedged, sparkling, clean pool to enjoy after they haul all their stuff into it! =)

We are beginning to see the light at the “moving” tunnel. There is still a TON to do but we have most everything over here at the new house now. The kids are loving it.

We are enjoying the wildlife around. They feed the ducks everyday. The Momma duck and her babies hang outside my kitchen window and I get to see them a few times a day as I wash our many dishes….;)

This was a tiny, baby turtle I caught sun bathing on a stick.

Here is our soon-to-be other Momma duck on her nest under our fish feeder. There looks to be about 12 or 13 eggs in that nest. We would love to see all of them make it through.

This was a new find of Christian’s today. Do you know what kind of bird this is?? She has laid her nest on the ground. You can walk by the nest without ever knowing…..but if Momma bird is there you will sure to figure it out. She dances around almost acting injured to lure you away from her nest. I am so glad Christian found the nest with 4 eggs in it. The yard guy came today and he would have mowed right over it. :( I am assuming the backyard did not get much action before we moved in as these birds thought they had chosen a quiet place to nest. We will try to be patient and somewhat quiet until all hatch and are safe.

This is Momma bird dancing around with her tail flailed trying to lure us away. Christian took the photos of all the birds but the nest of duck eggs. Good job he did!!

We have also enjoyed (or should I say the kids have enjoyed) the pool of course!! Daddy and I have not made it in yet but plan on it this weekend.

Christian is holding Clara over the fountains…she wanted to be like her brothers.

Loved this shot of the boys!

They are lovin’ jumping off the upper level into the lower level! Looks fun..cannot wait to try it!

Too sweet not to share with you all!

On another note….Cullen got braces!! I don’t have a shot yet but will soon get one up. Please say a prayer for him. He is really, really uncomfortable. He is one tough kid so I know if he is having trouble eating he hurts! Today seems a bit better and I know tomorrow will be a little bit better and so on. I keep telling him it will get better.

Sorry such a long-winded post with lots of pics….but it has been a while. Wanted to update you on how things are going!

Meemaw’s 59th, Strawberries, & More House pics

2010-05-03T15:02:00.001-05:00

April 27th was my Mom’s 59th birthday!! We celebrated by going to Outback and then coming back over here for some vegan Velveteen cupcakes and some talk. Didn’t fit in cards this visit because it had already gotten too late. I gave my Mom a date for us two to get together at her house and go kayaking together. I cannot wait for us to cash this in together.

Sorry the pics are blurry. I have been working in manual on the camera but inside at at night it can be tough to do it on my camera. I ended up setting it to Auto. Meemaw getting her cupcake with her candles on it.

This is GG. She is my Dad’s Mom. She and my Uncle Jerry were able to make it over too. Clara had to blow out the candles too. I love my Meemaw….she is truly the best Mom anyone could ever ask for. I have learned so much from her and am truly grateful that God blessed me with such an amazing family!! Happy Birthday Meemaw!!

Last week we made it to the strawberry farm. We did not stay long because a certain 2-year old did not find it fun walking in the aisles to pick strawberries and was just not having it. ;) We did make a stop and ate lunch with friends. It was a great visit and needs to happen more often! Here are a few pics of the short visit to the strawberry farm. We got enough to freeze and have been enjoying Christian’s homemade strawberry lemonade! Excellent stuff!!

Today was inspection day on the potential new house. Everything went smoothly. We are having the septic inspected tomorrow. Hopefully that will go smoothly as well. If all works out then we will be moving in around June 15th!! We are so excited!

Here is a shot of the pool. The best way to explain this area is the middle yard. You walk in the front door of the house into this yard.

This shot is looking back at the front door after you walk through it.You then walk through the door and walk into this. The two black marks in the wading pool are fountains. They just were not turned on at the moment.

I am looking forward to having a space large enough to have family and friends over. There will be room for everyone!

Okay…I know. This is one of the things I am looking forward to most. Finally having a gas stove again! I have so missed the gas stove I used to have. I cannot wait to make my first dinner on it!! God willing!

I will be able to see what all is going on from the kitchen. I can look out one side of windows and see the pool and the other side see the lake. At my sink I can actually look out a window while I do dishes and see another side of the lake (canal really).

Clara is posing in the master bedroom.

Clara is looking forward to baths in the big ‘ol tub! She is not the only one….=)

This is something we are looking forward to enjoying during the winter. A fireplace while we enjoy the view of the lake.

Christian is hanging out in the rocking chair. This is the view of the water from the side of the house. It wraps around on 2 sides of the house.

Clara in the rocker too!

Backyard view

This is part of the master closet. This just cracks me up!! How can one person have so many shoes!! How can 2 people have this many shoes. I joked with Clay that it will end up being our library….LOL I said it jokingly but it might just really be. =D

Hopefully everything will work out smoothly. If not then it is not in God’s plans. We will be happy to stay where we are also. I will try to keep you guys posted.

New House?? Moving?? Sneak Peak….

2010-04-26T10:29:00.001-05:00

Well it is chaotic around here!! Why, did we want to move again? Oh, I remember…here is a sneak peak. We are trying to work out details to see if this might be our new place to call home. It has a little of everything we want but we have to see if it is in God’s plans.

Our house is on the market as of almost a week ago. Sunday we had 2 people come and see it. Let me tell you if you have not gone through this….moving while trying to home-school 3 kiddoes and having one of them a toddler nonetheless is not easy!! We are here all the time so on top of just trying to keep it picked up it also has to be “show” ready at the drop of a hat. We have been hard at work doing things you always put off. The whole house has been painted. I started painting and got one half done and then said I was not doing anymore. We hired someone to do the entry way, living/dining, and kitchen. I then picked it back up and finished off the other end of the house. So at least it is nice and clean and ready to go for summer if we should stay right here. Which won’t be a punishment either! =) It is in God’s hands. I forgot how much I don’t function well with things thrown up in the air and unsettled…..ugggghhh! I am praying that within the next few days things will be determined whether we are movin’ or stayin’! Please pray for our peace of mind and that God’s will be done!

PawPaw’s 59th and Adventures in Newark

2010-04-13T22:08:00.001-05:00

Saturday was my Dad’s 59th birthday!! We celebrated with my grandmother, uncle, brother and his wife. We started with dinner out and then headed over to our house for some birthday dessert and cards. My mom made her famous carrot cake and I made Coconut Lime cupcakes. I have struggled with baking since changing over to vegan because it is hard to make baked goods taste as good as my old cupcakes. Christian snubbed his nose at the chocolate chip cookies I have been making so much to sub for other desserts we cannot have. He talked me into trying cupcakes again. I used the recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. It was the first time I was pleased with cupcakes I had baked since becoming vegan. They were good!! Even the non-vegan people ate ‘em up. I cannot believe my Dad is one year away from 60!! Life is really flying by way too fast. We had a nice evening playing cards and celebrating his life. He is a fantastic father and grandfather!

They really were yummy! I will definitely be making again!

Christian was planning on taking a blacksmith class in Newark, TX. So we decided to spend the night Sunday night to avoid such an early drive on Monday morning. We got to eat at our favorite little Vegan place for dinner Sunday night. It is so nice to be able to eat whatever you want and not have to decipher what is “acceptable” and what isn’t. Just a nice relief and change of pace. We woke up early Monday and still had about 45 minutes of driving left to get to the workshop. Christian and another man were the students for the day. It made me nervous to leave my kiddoe with 2 grown men. I had read about the ministry and was very pleased with what I had learned but I was still a bit nervous. I met Kathy, Chuck’s wife, before I left. She was such a sweet woman. Christian was so excited for his day of blacksmithing and learning. The workshop lasted from 9-5 or so. Christian was worn out when I picked him up but he LOVED it!! He cannot wait to buy more blacksmith equipment and begin learning more. If your kiddo is interested in blacksmithing, Chuck, is definitely your guy. www.stoneplace.org We were just thrilled with the opportunity and the ministry that he provides. His wife was just a sweetie too. Here are some pics I took of Christian towards the end of the class. I also took a pic of his finished projects. He made a key chain and a decorative hook. I just am so proud of him. I couldn’t help but sit back and watch him and just beam with pride!! I am just so thankful God chose me to be his Mom.

The finished products….He also made a poker (tool to use in the fire but did not get a pic of it)

While Christian was in his class the kids and I headed over to a state park. It was a new park and was really neat. We enjoyed ourselves. We ended up hiking 3.7 miles….let me remind you with a toddler in tow! Actually I held Clara most of the time. I had not planned on bringing the kids but plans changed. So I was not too prepared with what activities we were going to do while Christian was in his class. I had worn sandals that are definitely not meant for hiking. The hike was long, hard, exhausting but so worth it!

All in all it was a very long, long but productive day. I am still exhausted from it all….=)

Easter…this and that

2010-04-13T16:40:00.001-05:00

I am an awful blogger! I just don’t make time to sit down to do it. I promise I am trying to get better or at least think about being better at it a LOT! =)

We made another trip to the Daffodil gardens and Amy took this pic of us. Clara was not in the mood for a photo shoot at all!

Clara is loving playing football with the guys. She loves to huddle and make her plays and then clap when they break. The first shot is a look at Clara ready or Daddy to say, “hut, hut!”

We had our first swim of the season. It was a quick swim because they were freezing but they wanted to swim. They had fun in the probably 15-minute swim. Christian has not made his swim yet as he was not here. Katelyn and Dalton joined in on the swim.

Now, a quick glimpse of Easter. We went to Meemaw and Pawpaw’s house to celebrate. The boys enjoyed their first innertubing adventure of the year!! They also enjoyed helping Clara hunt her Easter eggs. I am trying to upload a video so you guys can hear her hunting the eggs. Her excitement is hilarious!!

Meemaw blew bubbles for Clara. She had so much fun chasing them and trying to catch them.

The boys were all about helping her find the loot!

I am going to try to post more soon!!

A month, really???

2010-03-16T00:11:00.001-05:00

Well, I cannot believe that it has been a month since I have posted. Life just flies by! This is a warning! This post has a massive amount of pics! Sunday we visited a Daffodil garden. It is over 1000 acres and almost 30 of them are covered in Daffodils. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! We are going to try to make it back Friday for a picnic with friends. I hope it works out. Here are some shots from our visit. The pics really don’t do it justice. Absolutely wonderful in person!

This was my attempt at trying to get all 3 of them to sit still for a pic. Clara just was not going to cooperate

Got some good ones of the boys. So I will throw in a pic of Clara I got at a soccer game we went to this month.

Hopefully I can do a better job of keeping everything up to date. We have enjoyed a soccer game, walks in the wonderful spring weather, a visit with Clay’s grandfather, Kyle’s 8th birthday party at Pump It Up, playing at the park, another trip to Sci-Port, and I am sure I am leaving out plenty. I have been waking up earlier which is a huge accomplishment for me. For the past 2 weeks I have felt much more accomplished at the end of the day. I even find myself feeling guilty for being able to sit down. Homeschooling done, house clean, dinner done, now what?? =) We also had the kitchen, schoolroom/dining room, entrance way, and living room painted over the past week and a half. So now I have the boys’ rooms and the bathroom to paint and the whole house will have a new coat of paint. We did away with boring beige and now have brown sugar in our bedroom, a light, airy green in the hallways, 2 bathrooms, laundry room, and the newly painted areas are inviting ivory (very pale yellow). So the house feels and looks clean and cheery! Bye, bye boring beige!

Well, that is all I can think of for the moment. I will try to keep this blog more up to date with our life so I can have it documented better and if any of you actually enjoy reading it you will actually have something to read! =)

Big Girl Panties and a Blizzard!!

2010-02-12T01:10:00.001-06:00

Where do I start? We have been having a lot going on. Nothing really different than the norm but still a lot.

Tot school has been hit or miss as I struggle to make time. I saw on another blog that someone had let their toddler practice cutting their own food. I decided to let Clara try and she really did a great job and enjoyed it very much. I gave her a butter knife first. I then gave her our Pampered Chef cutter. As you can see in the pics she was very supervised while doing this. Another activity we did was place colored pom poms out and try to sort them by color into the tray. Clara struggled with this but loved just placing the pom poms in the tray. She is starting to catch the words of the colors but I don’t think she has realized that they are the colors of the objects. It amazes me how quickly she is catching on to so, so very much. I have not done a Tot Food in a while so I decided to throw one in. The plate pictured contained raisins, tomatoes, garbanzo beans, and avocados.

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I meant to post sooner but Clara got the cutest pair of shoes. She has gotten many compliments on them and she loves them too. They are pretty glitzy and only a young one could pull these off. They also light up when you stomp them. Here are some pics of her showing them off.

OK….look close at this next pic and I mean look real close. Do you see anything different?? Come on I know you can figure it out??? Clara is wearing big girl panties!!

My baby girl is wearing panties now during the day and using the potty with a large amount of accuracy. She has had one poo poo accident. The poo poo will come later. She screams with delight when she tee tees in the potty. She cannot wait to empty her tee tee into the big potty and look out to anyone who tries to flush it for her. =) Her reward is that she gets to wash her hands and get sickers. As of today though, she has just been pleased with the fact that she tee teed in the potty. She still maintains the scream of delight! As of Monday night she came in when I was on the phone with Clay as he was on his way home from work. It had been a long day and those of you with toddlers know what I mean. Then top that off with struggling during the day to get our schooling done. Clara has been getting into EVERYTHING lately! She wants to do everything we do. She is smart as a whip! Well, anyway back to the story. Clara walked in while I was on the phone and said, “I tee teed in the potty!” At first I thought, “great…she got into the big potty AGAIN!” Well, she was not wet and she was not naked….so, what could she possibly have meant. Well, she meant that she went into the bathroom, pulled down her pants, took off her diaper, tee teed in her potty and then pulled her pants up. She then proceeded into the kitchen to tell me about it. My big girl did this all by HERSELF!!! Here I had tried and tried and finally just let it go while leaving the potty in the bathroom. Well, she knew when she was ready. Since this happened Monday she has been wearing big girl panties. Today she even took a 3 hour nap and her diaper was dry. She peed a LOT in the potty after that and her squeal of excitement was even more so that time. =)

On another note….we have snow!!! We have a LOT of snow ……for Texas anyway! =)

Christian sat her on top of his giant snowball and she got a kick out of that.

See Clara with her hands over her eyes. She was cracking us up. She wanted socks on her hands like the boys did. She would run around the front yard and cover her face so the snow wouldn’t get in her eyes. She just makes us smile!

Look how much more snow we had gotten this evening. As I type it is still just snowing away. I LOVE it! Although it is messy and cold, snow is the most beautiful site there is. Snow can make anything look pretty. We have gone on two walks today to enjoy the snow. One we took after lunch and then another one tonight. I am hoping that I have more snow pics to show you guys tomorrow. I think this is the most snow I have seen in Texas since the early ‘80s. My dad built me an igloo. It took every last bit of snow in our front yard but he made me an igloo! =)

"Food" for Thought

2010-02-07T21:06:00.004-06:00

I wanted to share something that came over me last night. Most of you know that I stopped eating meat/dairy around July which is approx 6-7 months ago. When I first stopped I felt led by God that meat/diary was something that I should not eat and was not overall good for your body. Thus, I automatically wanted to protect my family from the things I was learning too. Clara was easy as she is just 2. She eats most anything. For snacks she asks for potatoes/sweet potatoes, avocados, and will bring me cans of beans from the pantry. Cullen followed along well and I could not believe how easily he jumped on board. I figured he would be the toughest to convert. I also have to brag on my other two guys. Clay has really followed suit and has kept his ears open and learned a lot. He has not had meat in over a month!! He still eats minimal amounts of dairy in the form of cheese and ice cream. Christian, on the other hand, has done well coping with the big changes in our life but they have not been very easy for him at all!! If we are having family functions or go out to eat he still really, really wants his meat.

Well, as the vegan voyage has progressed it has changed from just a healthful decision to a moral one as well for myself and Cullen. I have learned of how animals are treated before they end up on our table. I am not okay with supporting that. Last night we were talking over veggie fajitas at a Mexican restaurant. Christian was saying that Jesus ate meat. I agreed with him. I do not believe it is necessarily wrong to eat meat but I do think how the animal was treated before it lands on your plate is of great importance. I, personally, do not think Jesus would sit down at the table with me and dive into a 12-oz steak knowing it had been injected with hormones, antibiotics, stood in inches of its' own filth, and treated inhumanely, etc. I do not think Jesus would be okay with the way we have come to treat the animals He put on this Earth for our benefit. I think we need to open our eyes and be aware of all that is going on around us. If you are interested in educating yourself about your meat supply and where it comes from watch the documentary Food Inc. You can also view, for free on YouTube, the documentary Earthlings (very graphic and heartbreaking) The link is to part 3. I think there are 10 parts.

We by no means eat healthfully all the time. We eat too many chips and have ice cream too often. I overeat still to this day and need to work on it. By being vegan you are by no means cutting out all the foods that can be bad for you. A vegan can be someone who exsists on sodas and bags of chips alone. I do try to make my food choices count but I am human and fail miserably some days. It just weighs heavy on me that we need to watch who/what we are harming in the search to put meat on our tables.

I would love to hear your comments, thoughts, etc. on the topic. Please share!

New Family Pics

2010-02-06T17:29:00.001-06:00

For Christmas Candy and Matt bought us all a session with Michele Jones of Picture This! She travels to you to take pics! She is great!! I am so happy we had the opportunity to get all our pics taken together. These pics were taken Dec. 26th in mom and dad’s back yard. I thought they turned out fantastic!

Thanks Candy and Matt for such a fantastic idea! The memories are priceless! Words alone cannot express to you enough how much my family means to me. What a great Christmas present!

Our 5 Food Staples

2010-02-04T09:52:00.003-06:00

Okay...so I was tagged to share with you all the 5 food staples we must have on hand at this house all the time. You can go to Faydra's blog here to see what she put and what others have put in the comments.

1. Potatoes/Sweet potatoes on hand. We put them in the microwave for a quick dinner. We use sweet potatoes for snacks, sliced in stir frys, etc. Nothing like throwing together a quick potato soup when you don't want to cook.

2. Almond butter. We use almond butter in all things. We use raw butter. Almonds have more calcium than peanuts. I put almond butter into a lot of things for added calcium and protein. I put it into smoothies, quinoa (super grain) breakfast cereal, sandwiches, etc.

3. Rice milk or soy milk. We use it in smoothies, cereal, pancakes, soups, you name it!

4. Nuts. Raw almonds, cashews, pecans, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, etc. I used nuts/seeds in many of my recipes. We also like to snack on them. You can make a nut pate (salad like tuna or chicken but skip the meat) in the Vita-Mix with raw sunflower seeds and almonds with a bit of lemon juice, garlic, onion, celery, etc. You can top salads or eat on a sandwich or with crackers. It is really good and great for you! Clara and I like it. The boys are not too keen on it.

5. All types of Noodles. We use rice noodles for the most part. Curly noodles for lunches with pasta sauce and nutritional yeast flakes for added Vit. B12. Rice spaghetti noodles for you guessed it spaghetti. We also use Thai rice noodles with our stir fries and peanut butter noodles.

It was very difficult to narrow it to just 5. If you asked on another day I would probably say something different.

As far as favorites but aren't necessarily a necessity we like Kidz Clif Bars. They have too much sugar though. It is difficult to find an easy to take with us snack bar that is dairy-free. We also keep jarred roasted red peppers on hand. We throw these in salads and Clara eats them like candy! The boys don't like 'em though so they are not essential as far as all of us liking them. Another one I left out and we eat almost daily is avocado and/or guacamole. This is the quick something I can give Clara and she will down a whole avocado! =) We love them! We eat them plain, in salads, on burritos (that we have a LOT), etc.

Well...let's hear it. What are your 5 staples??? Please re-post back to Faydra in her comments and post them here too.

Sleep Over....=)

2010-01-30T21:12:00.002-06:00

Last night Christian, Cullen, and CLARA spent the night with Meemaw and Pawpaw. This was the first night Clay and I have had alone in over a year and a half. I am so excited for Clara and Meemaw and Pawpaw. It is like a little light switch went on and Clara was ready to stay with them. To be honest, I think she wanted to stay longer. They had a great time. She went to bed last night at 10:30 easily but wanted to be up with every one else. They played games. Clara took a nap with Pawpaw in his chair today. This girl LOVES her Pawpaw. My dad has a shaved head and she just LOVES rubbing Pawpaw's head! She even rubs her sleep cap at night and says "Pawpaw's head". She loves him to pieces. It is so wonderful to watch them together. The boys have always been Meemaw's boys so it is neat to see Pawpaw get a piece of the action too.

Since Clay and I had the evening together ALONE we went to dinner together. We then met Matt and Candy at the movies and watched two movies. We watched Edge of Darkness and Lovely Bones. I liked Edge of Darkness besides the bad language and violence. Lovely Bones was.......well lets just say it wasn't good but it wasn't bad. It is definitely a renter. I was expecting so much more. Disappointing really. Beyond that we had a great evening being togehter. It was a very nice evening! Now that Clara is comfortable leaving us and spending quality time with Meemaw and Pawpaw I hope to enjoy an evening out with my wonderful hubby more often!!! =)

I will ask for prayer for a very young lady of 19 who has had a little girl. She is living in a homeless shelter and is just not stepping up to the plate for her daughter. We found out today that the baby was admitted into the hospital with a fever and congestion. Please pray for her health and pray for her mother's maturity in Christ. She says she loves her daughter but love is so much more than words. Loves is an action. Loves is something you see and not just a word you hear. My heart aches for both of them. The mom has grown up in the foster care system and from what I have seen she just does not know what a "family" is. She relies on everyone around her to take care of her and her baby. She calls people she has known for a month or so family. I feel so sorry that she was cheated by not having an appropriate Christian family to grow up in and now is doing the same thing with her daughter. They are constantly in my thoughts and heart. I want them to know "family" so badly and prosper the way God wants for them. How do you teach someone that love is an action. God showed us His love by teaching us His ways and for sacrificing himself on the cross for our sins! He did not just hug us and "say" He loved us. He showed us on a daily basis .....second to second! Again, please pray for them!

Field Trip to Sci-Port

2010-01-21T16:57:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we packed up to head out to Shreveport. We met Wanda and the kids at Peking and had lunch before getting to Sci-Port. We have never been to Sci-Port before so we were excited to have a fun day together of play and learning.

This was going through the moon walk. It was really neat inside.

Here the kids are trying to get their balloons and other crafts to float in the air stream

Here they are learning how the flow of a river (Red river) changes the landscaping.

Here is a shot of the baby alligators. Clara was soaking it in.

This was cool. You pushed a button and it pushed you to the top. Cullen loved it and then he added Clara and she could not get enough!

In this exhibit you cold ride a bike to see how many watts you could produce to power any given item.

Clara even gave it a try.

Clara, Chandler, and Brennan are learning about pulleys.

Here is baby James laughing it up!

Chandler and Christian trying to figure out circuits!

After this water exhibit, Clara was drenched and so was Lammie. She decided Lammie wanted to play in the water too! It is amazing how quickly a 2 year old can get into the stroller and pull out her Lammie! Lammie is safe and sound and is even dry now after the incident! Must keep a better eye on Lammie…cannot lose him!

Here is Baby James taking it all in again! He is so laid back!

This is the tornado exhibit. Clara thought it was pretty neat! She even climbed into the middle of it at one point !

I think Cullen was ready for his turn!

Here is the final shot when we were leaving. Brennan, Evan, Cullen, Chandler holding Clara, Baby James, and Christian. Little did we know that tornado weather was heading our way as we made it down to the Boardwalk to sneak in some quick shopping!

We went to the Boardwalk and barely made it before it started pouring! We made it to The Children’s Place, Stride-Rite, and Shoe Rack. The lady at the Shoe Rack told us they were going to close the store because they had been hearing the sirens and had spotted tornadoes. I looked at her like she was crazy and said, “so you are going to throw us out into the storm??” Needless to say, we stayed and did some more shoe shopping. Cullen had gotten a pair for his birthday so Christian and Clara got a pair this time around. I will have to get a pic of Clara’s shoes. They are called Twinkle Toes and light up! Too, too cute!! Christian’s shoes are “handsome” shoes and he did good after he FINALLY picked some out! We ended up making it home safe and sound. We went past an area on I-20 that looked like we had missed the tornado by probably 20 minutes if that long. I have never seen so many police cars and clean-up crew trucks. The debris along the road was scary to say the least. It looked as though someone had picked up the road signs and crumpled them like paper! Trees and branches were all along the road. I think they had cleaned that part of the highway and were working along the side roads when we made it past. It was quite scary. We did make it home though after a very long day of fun and learning. I was EXHAUSTED!! Clara was too as she crashed as soon as we got in the car to head home after a juice box and fruit chew. =)

Here are some school pics from today. Clara colored the letter ‘B’ blue today with a marker and dot to dot painter. Later in the day we used stickers that started with ‘B’ and placed them on our paper. Can you tell Clara was proud of her work??

Homeschool Confessions!

2010-01-18T16:52:00.001-06:00

I wanted to share a pic of Clara and her new “mad” face the boys have taught her. I love it when they “teach” her such useful stuff. Actually, you know, I do love it. I love that they love to be together, play together, and teach each other! She can also make a silly face and we are working on the sad face.

Also a note that she is wearing her Princess and The Frog pajamas that Aunt Candy gave Clara for Christmas. I had not tried them on her because they were a 3T. I decided to wash them and give them a go. Well, you guessed it. They fit with a bit of room to spare but definitely not too big for sure. This is Clara’s new smile when we tell her to say “cheese”.

I will be honest and say that it can be very difficult to home-school. I love my kids but there are some days I just find myself not being the mom that I want to be. I am short with them and do not treat them with the patience they deserve. I have really handed my last few days of schooling to God and have to realize that when I try to do it all myself I will ALWAYS fail miserably. I know that when I give my days to God from the very second I wake up and then continue handing it to Him throughout the day it goes so smoothly; not easy, but smoother. I love having the honor of teaching my children, but often I don’t act like it. I need to remind myself to slow down, breathe, and realize this too will be gone too fast. I want to cherish the moments I have with them reading on the couch, teaching how to finish a pre-algebra problem, putting words together to express yourself in writing, and so many other things we do in a given day. To learn what God’s will is in their lives and to learn how to live it out as HE sees fit is my purpose as a mother. What other more important thing could I do with my life besides raise my children in the way of the Lord and protect their hearts as they reach Christian maturity?

I have decided that I need to blog more about what we do with our schooling. Today I decided to take some photos to share too. I had realized that I needed to do more schooling with Clara. She tends to run around here just doing as she pleases while I focus on the subjects we must fit in with the boys. This is cheating Clara and also not a good way to be training her. So, I must make time to “school” Clara while also keeping her occupied well while teaching the boys. This is a shot of Clara in her kitchen. She likes to cook us some strawberries, oranges, broccoli, etc. She will bring them to us while we are doing school at the table. We will act like we are eating it all up. She loves it! She will then go back and make more.

Here is a little photo album of our day today. Clara started the day with the letter ‘B’ and a worksheet on brown bear. She painted with brown paint. She really enjoyed it. Later we pulled out a sheet on ‘b’utterflies. She did dot painting on it. Cullen helped her with a few puzzles too. Cullen got his math and science done by himself. Christian and I focused on strengthening our pre-algebra skills. He took 4 tests today and tomorrow we plan on taking 2 more and working on strengthening our weaknesses. Cullen worked on how to write a letter and what the parts of a letter are called. We then curled up on the couch and started The BoxCar Kids book 1. Christian and I have read it before but you can never read a good book just once. I have really tried to make it a priority to read out loud to the kids and have them read to me. This is something that has been weak in our household but something I feel is so very important. (so then why do I cheat it??) I am going to try and use my blog as my accountability partner by documenting what we are getting done. I know it is Martin Luther King Jr. day. I told the boys that MLK would not want us to cheat our education and that we were going to get some schooling done today. =)

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I hope you all don’t think I am awful for spilling my guts. I just know that the reason I started my blog, besides keeping Tierra up on our day-to-day life, I also wanted to help others as other blogs help me. I do know from 6+ years experience homeschooling that some moments are just much more hectic/chaotic than others. I also know that there can be some glorious times spent growing together. I will just continue asking God to lead and guide my every day. I pray for His wisdom in educating my children. I pray for guidance down the paths we need to travel. Although I never get to “clock out” from my career I would have chosen no other! I have the best co-workers and I need to remember that on a day-to-day basis. =)

Martin Luther King Jr. "I have a Dream"

2010-01-18T12:46:00.002-06:00

I remember reading Shawna's post about Martin Luther King Jr. last year. I think I shared it with you guys last year too. Shawna has such a tremendous talent in her writing. I could not say it any better than Shawna has written it and I again want to share this with you all. Here is a link to her post here. Please read it and think of the wonderful man. "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools" I am thankful for a day to stop and remember a man who has helped make it possible for my family to be just that.....family!

New Year’s Eve and Great Wolves!!

2010-01-10T22:30:00.001-06:00

We spent New Year’s Eve at our usual location….Meemaw and Pawpaw’s house! We had extras this year with my oldest brother, Mike, and his family being in. Matt and Candy also graced us with their presence this year!! I really enjoyed New Year’s Eve with all of them. I wish we could do it every year. I was just grateful to have my big brother in from Boston for a good time together. Here are some shots from NYE.

Clay, Mike, Pawpaw, and crazy, uncle Mattie!

Uncle Mattie and Clara goofin’ around

I cannot tell you how much fun we had takin’ these pics! We goofed around quite a bit. Meemaw, Casey, me, and Candy!

After we rang in the new year we headed home for a quick night’s sleep and off we were to Great Wolf Lodge the next morning. Meemaw and Pawpaw had gotten us Christmas presents to all stay there. We had a blast. As an extra special treat Meemaw and Pawpaw got Cullen the Wolf Den Suite for his 10th birthday (was on the 6th)! Here are some shots of the kids enjoying it. The wolf den was set up like a mini-log cabin within our room. There was a set of bunk beds along with a flat screen and video games.

I tried to get the best shot of the outside that I could but as it was narrow right there I had no room to get farther away. This was looking inside the little cabin part.

I think Cullen liked it……they all really did!

Here are the kids all geared up for the indoor waterpark. I got much grief for making them wait out for this pic! It was worth it though. I do not have a lot in the waterpark as it is no fun to lug the camera around while trying to play in the water. We had a BLAST!!!

Here is Pawpaw, Cullen, Clara, and Candy in the wave pool.

I’ll be honest….The waterpark was very chilly the first day. It was not as enjoyable as usual but the next day was MUCH better! The water was warmer and the temp inside the building was much better.

The evening we were there we had bought a game for all the kids called MagiQuest. It is somewhat of an interactive scavenger hunt throughout the hotel. It is an 8-story scavenger hunt and I was the only grown up that participated. I must say that it was the most fun I have had in an extremely long time while completely wearing myself to a complete exhausted state! =) AND I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!! Plan on it the next time we are there. We played that game for hours until 11 p.m. and they shut it down running up 8 flights of stairs to find our clues and solve our quests. It was so, so much fun! The boys had a blast too! I was worried when the game first began. At the beginning it was quite confusing and we were tired already from playing in the waterpark. Cullen and I were to the point of giving up when something said, “let’s just keep trying!” I am so glad Cullen did not give up. As Cullen said it was the most fun we have ever had together! It was a great example of what patience and never giving up will get ya!!

Well….that was our NYE and weekend wrapped up. We also enjoyed celebrating Cullen’s 10th birthday together with a dinner just the 5 of us. It was a small birthday but we celebrated it in style eating our Asian food and dining on homemade peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate buttercream! I cannot believe Cullen is in double digits. Life just flies by……literally it feels as though it has been a second and my babies are a year older! Sometimes I wish I could hit pause but I know God has so much planned for us in this life and I am so incredibly blessed to have been given my precious family to share it with!

On a side note…..Candy I am extremely ticked off that I am just now learning about Microsoft Live Writer to do my blog posts. I think the reason I have not been posting so much is b/c it was so dang hard to post pics and really….the pics are the best part of my blog as my writing skills are rusty and I just don’t take time to try and be witty and inventive with my posts. So….Candy….big razzberry to you!!!!! =<….. (can you tell that is a face with a razzberry blowing it at you!) I am just grateful you finally decided to share your secret to making blogging much easier and a lot more productive!!!

More Christmas Fun

2009-12-30T20:18:00.004-06:00

Okay...since i have trouble with uploading the pics and loading them in the proper order I am going backwards. The first two shots are of Clara's new do for the New Year at Meemaw and Pawpaw's and Great Wolf Lodge on Friday!! YEAH!!! We are hanging out with Mike, Case, and thier boys, and Matt and Candy at Meemaw and Pawpaw's tomorrow night to ring in the New Year. We are then off on Friday to Great Wolf Lodge. Meemaw and Pawpaw gave us a night there for a Christmas gift. We are staying in the Wolf Den Suite as an extra special treat for Cullen's early birthday present.

This is how Clara' tries to open her presents. Teeth are her great tools!

Mike and Casey with their boys; Jake, Luke and Mac are in town from Boston. They got in early morning 26th. They will be flying out on Saturday after our excursion at Great Wolf Lodge. It goes by way too fast. They are all spending the night over at our house tonight. All the boys are piled up on the pull out in the living room watching Star Wars. Clara just went to sleep but was right there in the middle of them until the end.

This is a pic of how all the boys reacted when they found out they were getting to play MagiQuest at Great Wolf Lodge. It is a game where you use wands to find clues. I guess it is somewhat like a scavenger hunt.

Here is Christian with the his FX lightsaber. It was the construction kit he wanted so badly. He can take it apart and create over 100 different lightsabers with it. He was pleased.

Here is Cullen with his box 'o' money from us. He could not make up his mind what he wanted. He would say one thing and then change it to something else. This was what we came up with so he could decide how to spend it all.

Clara got a baby doll stroller and playpen. She loves it. She strolls around her babies and stuffed animals. I have since caught her climbing in the playpen. I hope it holds up.....=)

We had a great Christmas celebrating the birth of our Redeemer. I look forward to the new year and what all God has in store for us. I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours!

Turkey catch up and Christmas time is here!

2009-12-21T21:02:00.008-06:00

Here are some shots from our Christmas with Clay's side of the family last night. I was able to get some of the pics in order but I could not get these pics to move to the right spot after I downloaded them. I am so aggrevated with Blogger....uggghhhh!!! One of the reasons I have not been posting lately. It has gotten very difficult to blog and put the pics in the order that I want them in.

We started back up and old tradition of white elephant. They use to do it when Clay was a kid with the adults. It was a LOT of fun! Here is a pic of Cullen with his kiddie Snuggie he got and Taffy in her Snuggie she got. Clara has a green blanket she stole from Taffy that came with a stuffed polar bear she got. Clara got to take it home...;) I also got a blue Snuggie. I will add that I LOVE it!

In the Santa bags the kids get they had the neatest present in it. There was a book that was really a secret treasure chest and they had filled it with $1 bills. The kids LOVED it. The looks on their faces was priceless.

Here is a pic of the kids with their Santa bags before they dove in. Clara got a little baby doll that crawls and makes sounds. She was not sure what to think about it. She was scared of it for a while. She loves babies but when they move it takes her a bit to get used to it. She also got a Tickle me Elmo which she is just now not being scared of today. She likes to tickle him with still quite a bit of precaution. =)

Sorry I did not post about our Thanksgiving festivities. We had a great Thanksgiving both at Clay's parents' house and my parents' house. Here is a snapshot of Robin (Clay's aunt, Taffy's sister) and her first grandbaby, Judson Pierce. He is a cutie!

Here is a shot of all the ladies with Jampa. From top left Bonnie (Taffy's sister), Jampa, Kathy (Taffy), Me & Clara, Kristin (Dustin's wife which is Clay's cousin) and Robin (Taffy's sister & Dustin's mom) on the bottom is Cindy (Clint's wife, Clay's brother) and Katelyn.Here is a group shot of all the guys with Jampa. From the left at top Papa Dave, Clay, Christian and from bottom left Dustin (Clay's cousin) with his first son Judson Pierce, Jampa (Pierce Joseph), Cullen Pierce, Clint (Clay's brother) with Pierce David, and Bob (Bonnie's husband which is Taffy's sister)Here is my girl all dressed and ready for Christmas! I had to throw this in.

Last night we went to Clay's parents to celebrate Christmas. We had a really great time. Taffy and Papa Dave did the tradition of the santa bags for each grandkid. Here is the best shot I could get of all the grandkids before they dove in. Judson is enjoying his first Santa bag as it is his first Christmas!

I hope to be posting pretty soon with the Christmas festivities with my side of the family.

I pray that you all have a blessed Christmas celebrating the true meaning of this season. Forgo the stress that you may put on yourselves and remember our Savior's birth. He was born so that we shall celebrate eternally with Him in heaven.... forgiven!! Thank you God for the most precious gift we could have ever received, Jesus Christ, Your son!

Leaving Utah

2009-11-23T23:45:00.003-06:00

Notice Jewel's bunny ears above Tierra.....=)

Today was our last full day in Utah. We fly out at 10:00 tomorrow. So we will wake up, be sure we are packed up and head out. During the day we went and played at the park in the snow. We also went and had Japanese food and headed over to the Olympic Oval. It was neat to watch the speed skaters practicing. After hanging out there a while we headed home.

Clay had promised to take the boys to play laser tag. We decided to head over and I dropped the boys off for the laser tag and I went and picked up Tierra to head over to a couple of ladies' homes that were close to her and have been a huge support system through her church. It was nice to meet some ladies that I know mean a lot to Tierra. They were so thrilled to meet Clara and see how beautiful she is just like her birthmom! After we made our rounds to the homes I dropped Tierra back off at home to pick the boys back up from laser tag and get some pizzas to prepare for the evening. I took the boys home and then headed back out again to pick up Tierra and family. Tonight was our last time together for a while. We got some really good photos and had a great evening hanging out together again.

I know I might talk about this a lot... but I have to. I am so very grateful for the relationship we have with Tierra and her beautiful family. God has blessed us so dearly by bringing them into our lives. My little girl is now 2 years old. She is beautiful, talented, intelligent, thoughtful, and the light of my life. These traits that help make Clara her wonderful self are shared with Tierra and her family too. I am thankful to look at my beautiful daughter and say..."wow, that was a look Jewel would make!" or "She has Tierra's eyes!"....etc. etc. Our family can never say thank you enough to Tierra for choosing life for our Clara and then entrusting us with the most precious gift EVER! We so enjoyed our time here in Utah! The week has flown by and we will be heading back to Texas tomorrow to get back in the swing of life there. It was nice to slow down and remember the blessings that God has bestowed upon us and share them again with our expanded-extended family!