Interesting Stuff...

Ryann decided to coat her cup in "baby". She calls her yogurt (yo baby brand) "baby" because there is a picture of a baby on the container. This is what happens when you are not watching closely enough.
Sandy faces off with the vacuum. She was flipping out, barking and jumping at (and away from) the vacuum. It was too funny. Finally, Steve put her outside until I was done. She came back covered in mud (thanks to recent rain). So much for cleaning the house by tomorrow.

A Wedding...

Our pastor's daughter got married today! It was so sweet, he has 5 daughters (and a son) and this is the first one to marry. The groom is one of 7 boys, the 2nd or 3rd to marry. They have been going to Bible college and now the groom is in semenary. They hope to be missionaries in India.

It was such a sweet wedding, I was crying before the grandparents were seated (note to self, bring tissues to EVERY wedding, especially when pregnant). I was under control through most of the message, but everytime the dad/pastor choked up, so did I.

The vows were beautiful, traditional but memorized not repeated. He promised to lead her in the Lord and she promised to submit to his leadership in the Lord. They were so bright and beautiful saying them. I think I was squeezing the blood out of Steve's hand.

The reception was lovely. My favorite part was the slideshow of them growing up (almost together).

I love homeschooling and being a part of the homeschool community. There were kids dancing, really ballroom dancing, some with their brothers or sisters (because they love each other and like to be around each other). Most of the young people take dance lessons once a week and some of them got together earlier this week to practice for tonight.

I'm happy for the couple, but more for myself as the mother of the bride is our bread making guru and she's planning to teach some classes, now that the wedding is over.

Ryann's First REAL Haircut

Well, I have cut her bangs a few times, but this was her very first "professional" haircut. This place is geared for kids: cars to sit in, movies to watch and video games to play while getting their haircut. Ryann did so well, not a tear. She did try to stand up a couple of times, but sat down again when we told her too. She was so patient!

Christmas Afternoon-Evening

We went to my parents' house after a quick lunch and waited for my sister's family to get there. They had a flat tire, so Steve went and got their kids (they live near us and he had gone back home to get a couple of things we forgot).

Dinner was fabulous! The rolls took longer to bake than I expected, but I can fix that next time - they tasted great! I gorged myself on the dressing, usually it's the potatoes (mashed by me this year), but the dressing won out. Everything was great, Mama.

We all got great gifts and I'm look forward to enjoying the next few days with dh home

This is my mom's "crystal/glass" tree. Beautiful, as always.

Here are all the stockings. She has made most of them.
Kyla and me, opening our stockings.
Ryann and Daddy watching the train go around Nana's tree.
Can we now get back to normal? I didn't think so. Now, I can think about the coming baby more and focus on getting everything ready for her.

Christmas Morning

Here's all the stuff, dog included. The kids picked out their bikes last weekend, but we decided to put them in a picture incase they think they got gypped. Sandy didn't really want to pose so Steve rubbed her tummy until I snapped the picture.

Stockings first!
Wake me for the good stuff.
A little Christmas chaos.
Hokey Pokey Elmo needs some breakfast.

I hope your Christmas was a nice as ours (so far).

We go to the grandparents' for more presents and dinner. I'm making rolls, I hope they come out okay (I have store-bought as back-up).

Christmas Eve

My in-laws sent us a package with lots of goodies and I could not resist cooking this pasta on Christmas Eve. How cute is that? Of course, we can't eat pasta without garlic toast. I use butter, olive oil, garlic powder and italian seasonings. The kids love it...the kids? who cares? I love it.
The cooked pasta: Christmas trees and stockings.
I cannot resist putting pictures of my messy darling.
After dinner, we went to church and Steve played djembe and orchestra bells.
Then we went to my parents to open our pajamas with my sister and her family.

Two Years Ago...

...two amazing things happened:

1. It snowed in Houston, TX

2. (more amazingly) our sweet Ryann was born.

She came to us at 1:51 a.m. on Christmas Eve. The snow came a few hours later.

Getting all the attention.

She was amazed that we were all singing to her, kept looking around at my dad and her uncle.

Here's the little domestic engineer in her new kitchen.

Tearing into the presents.

Thinking of a Title is sooooooo hard...

I finished the pb-balls last night while Steve was at band practice. I don't like them, maybe I didn't get them crushed fine enough, but I felt like I was eating sand. They taste good, but I won't make them again until I get a new food processor (I am not holding my breath).

Dh has the day off, so he's taking Brendan to see Eragon and I will take Kyla to see Charlotte's Web when they get back. We started the day with Morning's Kolaches (if you don't live in Texas, I'm sorry for ya) for breakfast. Then, we told the kids that we have some things to do and Brendan had to be ready by 10a.m., but we did not tell them what. I can't wait to hear about Eragon and see Kyla's reaction to going to see Charlotte's Web.

Well, I need to get the girls ready (myself included). God Bless You!

Oreo Truffle Balls

It has been quite rainy here today. As close to snow as we'll get this year, I bet. It does snow here, just not very often, and only on amazingly special days (some of you know what I mean).

We finally dipped the oreo truffles and I took some pictures for fun. All 3 kids got in on the action. Kyla stirred the almond bark, Brendan helped dip (Kyla did a bit too) and Ryann...well, just look at the pictures.

Before...
...after.

Ah...the satisfaction of a job well done.
I have started the nutter butter balls, but only just.

Time Off

We are taking this week off from homeschooling (probably shouldn't, but you know how it goes).

We have almost all of the presents wrapped.

We haven't done a lot of baking, but I did start oreo truffles and need to dip them. I hope to make nutterbutter truffles (mock peanut butter balls anyone?) and get them all dipped today. I would also like to make some treats for Sandy, I've seen several recipes for dog biscuits and one that includes baby food, I do have a bone shaped cookie cutter, but will probably make discs or ovals.

My dh seems to be getting sick, he's got a lot of drainage and is so tired. He thinks it's an allergy to the dog, but I think there must be something in the air. Pray that the antihistimine starts working soon. I hope he's not sick over Christmas.

Brendan was grounded from books until today and is making up for lost time. He's such a reader, I don't think there are enough good books for him. He's growing too fast, we are almost eye to eye (YIKES!). Finding gifts for him is getting harder and harder, he's not a little boy anymore :-(.

Kyla learned about Santa this year and is now asking some questions, like: "Who ate the cookies? Who drank the milk?" I think she knows, she just likes asking. She wasn't broken hearted about Santa, the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy being fakes. (We've decided not to go through all that with Ryann, Tara and any other kids God blesses us with).

Ryann has been walking around in her sister's shoes (literally) carrying a gift bag and saying "bye-bye". She also enjoys putting things in the bag and taking them out again. She is growing so independent. She won't let us feed her yogurt anymore, so we have to put a little in a bowl and let her finish it, then add more until it's gone. She also wanted to stop sitting in the booster seat at the table, but we had to stick to our guns for now. Right now, she wants to brush her teeth and I'm not ready to go back upstairs.

Sandy is chewing a lot. She likes stuffed animals and shoes, but hasn't successfully destroyed any yet. But we did have to lay to rest a small wooden doll and a few legos. She's so energetic! Steve walks her every night and she's more wound up when they get back than when they left. We have to gate a doorway to keep her from tearing around the house knocking the Christmas tree branches.

I should really start my day and walk away from the computer for a while.

The Week in Review

Well, it has been a while. I've been lazy, I guess. I'm sure all 3 of you were starting to worry.

We finally got the tree finished, I let the kids and Steve do it. They had fun. The tree looks really good too. We hung our stockings on the bannister and I put my Christmas collectables on the shelves in the entryway.

We took the kids to Toys R Us on Saturday Morning and let them pick out their new bikes. We decided that they would pick out the one's they really liked and we could see them sit on them to make sure they were right. Steve put Brendan's together on Sunday and will be putting Kyla's together soon.

Sandy is officially ours today. The PAWS lady came by and we did all the paperwork. Here's a picture that I took this evening.

The baby has been very active and I have had lots of heartburn. Other than that, everything is going very well.

Take care and God Bless.

Shower-Time

We just took the kids star-gazing in hopes of catching some of the Geminid Meteor Shower. We took them out to eat, then gathered up the dog and some hot cocoa and headed away from town. We just went down some country roads until we found a place without any bright lights nearby and parked (in the middle of a deserted road). The kids didn't know what we were up to, so they were surprised when we stopped, they kept asking "are we there yet?" and we just didn't know to answer them.

Well, I saw atleast 6 and Steve saw about that many also. It was hard to figure out what you were looking at because (atleast for me) your eyes play tricks on you. Brendan claims to have seen many, Kyla only one, Ryann fell asleep in the van before we stopped and Sandy sniffed a lot of stuff.

It was really neat. It's so sad that kids today don't have the attention span to enjoy stuff like this. They were bored fairly quickly, Brendan did try though. Steve and I would love to live out in the country away from the city lights and be able to enjoy star-gazing anytime and on our own property.

Christmas Ornaments 2

They were just too cute not to show you. The 2nd one, Kyla embellished with paint and impressions.

We plan to do some with salt dough, but I'm not holding my breath. Dh forgot one box of ornaments in the attic, when those are down, we will finish decking the tree.

Sandy is settling in well. I think she will be happier when Ryann's ankle is healed and we aren't all so cautious of her. (Ryann twisted her ankle last Friday and is slowly recovering.) Right now, Sandy is cleaning Ryann's booster seat from dinner.

Speaking of dinner, I made gumbo for the first time. I'm sure it wasn't the best, but I used 2 or 3 recipes (my sister's takes 5 hours and the label on the roux was only about 1 hour, I think I spent about 2 hours, not including cooking the chicken). I have to say, I think it was pretty good, Steve liked it and that's what really matters. I look forward to making gumbo again, especially when it's not a spur of the moment idea.

Well, I really should be working on the Christmas cards. Steve has Pride & Prejudice on, so this is a good time to work on them.

TTFN & God Bless You.

Christmas Ornaments

We decided to decorate our CHRISTmas tree with non-breakable ornaments this year, so Kyla and I are making some.

The first batch is out of cinnamon, applesauce & white glue. Very sticky! We rolled them first on parchment paper, cut them with cookie cutters, then we pulled all the dough away from the shapes and started over using wax paper. The wax paper did not work as well, but we are now out of parchment paper. Maybe, I can pick some up later.

After dinner, we are going to drive through Bethlehem City. No, not in Isreal, but at a nearby church. They set it up in their parking lot and you drive through. I think it will be cool! And yes, we plan to take Sandy, our new dog!

Sandy......Paws?

This is our new baby...um...I mean dog (the baby will be here in March). Well, we are fostering her this week and if all goes well, she'll be ours next week. She's part Lab and American Bulldog, about 5 months old and so sweet! We've shown her all around the house and yard (atleast the places we want her to see).

Steve & Brendan are walking her right now. He really misses walking Blaze, our greyhound who died last year.

So, the new dog's name is Sandy and she's very good at cleaning the kitchen floor.

It's the MOST wonderful time of the year.

Well, I hope you read the sarcasm in that. It's only the 5th and I'm looking forward to things getting back to normal already. Actually, I know that I have it pretty easy and that I choose to keep it that way.


I do love Christmas and am awed by the wonderful gift of that tiny baby who would lay down His life for our sins. WOW, I would be impressed if He was mere human, but this was GOD, Creator of heaven and earth! Hard to take in, huh? It can be for me.

Anyhow, why do I think I was so busy? Just because my kids were in a nativity play. It was a great play, but was never in my plans to start with; so every rehearsal made me crazy, especially the ones when I had to bring Ryann along. (I am so greateful to my mom for all her help in that.) I also sewed their costumes (in about 2 days) and do not really want to sew again for a long time (but I will). Posing for the camera.

Kyla saying her lines.

Brendan enduring his part.