Christmas

Christmas eve we made our annual trek to my parents house to visit, eat and open gifts. There aren't too many little ones left anymore. They've all grown up and have little ones and Christmas celebrations of their own. My brother, Ray and his family didn't make it this year because of the bad weather. I was hoping to get a picture of my two brothers and myself together, just because it's been a while since we had one taken. Maybe next time...

Christmas day our kids were all here. Randi, Jed and Becca, and Charity and Paul all came just before lunch, and Nicki, John, Andre and Drake came later.

We had a good Christmas, and it's so much fun to watch the little ones open presents!

TOO cold!

Randi and I were supposed to go Christmas shopping today, but it's too cold. And the roads are snowy and icy and slippery! So.... hopefully we will be able to go on Wednesday. But I got all my Christmas cards done and sent out today!

Sewing projects

Here are some things I've been working on: I made two of each of these. The alligators are for Andre and Drake, and the cats are for Tabbi and Becca. Shhh... they're for Christmas, so don't tell!

These are some things that I have for sale at the Becca Boo-tique http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5506700&order=&section_id=&page=1

The Birthday Cake

I forgot to post a picture of Tabbi's birthday cake! It's the princess and the pea. I read the book to them while they ate and they were all VERY quiet and listening intently.

Tabbi's Birthday

Tabbi turned 5 on the 5th. Her golden birthday. So we had a party for her and her friends. There were 7 children. And she had so much fun! First we had the kids all put a handprint on totebags to take home, and squares of fabric that I will make into a quilt for Tabbi.

We played a couple of games, ate cake and ice cream, and opened gifts.

Then we got out the "rice box". I filled a long plastic ''under the bed storage type" box with 10 pounds of colored rice and lots of toy dishes and plastic spoons. It was a hit! All seven kids sat and played for quite a while (with no arguing)!

Oh Christmas Tree...

We put up our tree on Black Friday, right after we bought some new LED lights. Tabbi couldn't wait to get home and decorate! Here is a picture of Nathanael and Tabbi in front of the tree. (Not that you can SEE the tree back there! LOL)

Thanksgiving Day

Randi, Becca, Charity and our friend, Daren joined us for Thanksgiving dinner.

Charlotte's Web

Randi and I took Tabbi and Becca to see the play "Charlotte's Web". Tabbi was totally enthralled by it all. Becca did good for a while, but she started to get antsy toward the end. Tabbi's friend, Ambrosia, was there,too. The two girls sat on the edges of their seats the whole time. They really enjoyed it. Tabbi wants to go to more plays, so looks like we will be buying more tickets in the future.

TIMBER!

Bernie and his brother Steve cut down the big tree by our garage. Nathanael counted over 100 rings. We should have enough firewood to last a few days now!

Bernie is 50!

Bernie turned 50 on Sunday! We had a party for him Saturday night at the Depot. Had a great turn out and everyone had a good time. Becca and Tabbi helped him open his gifts.

Playing some music! Nathanael is singing.

Time to blow out the candles!

Mice!

We have started a book club in our homeschool group for some of the older kids, including Nathanael. This month we read the book "Redwall" by Brian Jacques. (It's about mice.)Tomorrow we are having our meeting about this book and Nathanael made a snack to go with it. Aren't they cute? And chocolate! YUM!

Here's Nathanael with his trayful of mice.

Weathershield is closing for three weeks!

Last week we found out that Bernie will be getting layed off from his job for three weeks! The week of Thanksgiving he will be off, and the two weeks of Christmas and New Years. Guess we'll have to watch our spending for a while. Who knows what will happen next year, too.

Kittens

When we got home from church on Saturday we had a surprise. Tabbi found two kittens in the garage. Rocky had been gone for most of the summer, only coming home now and then. She must have had these two kittens sometime in September and has brought them home now. They look about 4-5 weeks old. But they are wild! We brought them into the house to try to tame them.

Birthday Boys!

Sunday we went to a birthday party at McDonalds for our two grandsons. Andre turned 3 and Drake is 2.

Christian Activity Center

Our church group has rented a building! It is an old Train Depot. We are tentatively calling it a Christian Activity Center. We had church services there last week for the first time. We are planning to use it for music concerts and jams, bible studies, family movie nights, game nights, etc.

MORE Applesauce!

Randi came over yesterday and we canned the last two bushels of apples. 55 pints! And we sliced and froze 64 cups of apples for pies. What a day! No wonder my back hurts!

This is Randi and a BIG bowl of applesauce!

Here I am! Slicing apples for pie.

Applesauce and Grandsons

Yesterday we went to Randi's and made applesauce. We made 53 pints from 2 bushels of apples. We have 2 more bushels to do when Randi comes here tomorrow.

Today I am watching my two grandsons. I was up at 4:30 and went to stay with them until they got up at 7:00. Then I brought them to my house. Bernie had just left for work and Nathanael was watching Tabbi. Our son-in-law, John is having surgery on his shoulder today. So the boys will probably be here most of the day. Drake is an angel and Andre is a challenge, to say the least! :) So say a prayer for John, and maybe one for me too! :)

Happy Birthday!

Sunday we went to visit my parents and wish my dad a happy birthday. He is 72 now! His mom was there for a while too. She is 95! Happy birthday, Dad!

Field Trip

On Friday, I took my son and daughter to a homeschool field trip. We went to a Christian campground where they have nature classes. Nathanael had three classes. The first was called "Wet and Wild". The kids were given waders to wear, nets to catch water creatures with, and trays to hold their critters. Nathanael caught some minnows and a giant water bug. They got to see the water bug eat one of the minnows! Ick! The two classes he went to in the afternoon were boating, and archery. I didn't get any pictures because I was with Tabbi, but a friend promised to give me some of what she took.







The classes that Tabbi and I went to were a "bog walk" in the morning, and "Trees are Us" in the afternoon. First they took us on a hayride to the bog. Then we walked along the board walk on the bog. We got to see wild blueberries, cranberries, and pitcher plants. And jump up and down on the bog. It was like a trampoline! In the afternoon we went on a scavenger hunt looking for different leaves, bark, etc. Lots of fun!







These are pitcher plants. They fill with water and drown insects for lunch! :)


















Tabbi and her scavenger finds.

Two days with my kids!

My two oldest daughters were here yesterday and the day before. On Tuesday they came over to help me, and my son, clean out our cabin/storage shed. It was a MESS! The cabin also gets used as a hunting shack come fall, so it needed to be done. It took us only 2 hours with all of us working. That surprised me; I thought it would take much longer.

Yesterday they came again for "Game Day". We have game day once a month at our house. We are all avid game players and this is a fun time for us. We played "Settlers of Catan", "Loot", "Skullduggery", "States and Capitals" and "Slueth". The hardest part is trying to watch all the little ones while we are playing games. We have four between the ages of almost 2 and close to 5! The almost 5 year old, Tabbi, is my daughter. My grandsons are Drake; almost 2 and Andre; almost 3. And my grandaughter Becca, will be 3 in February.

A new venture!

Ok, here I am starting something that I'm not too sure about! I like what I see in other people's blogs, so I thought I'd try it myself! I am hoping to post some things about our homeschool and our band, Family Ties. Let me know what you think!