The women on my mom’s side of the family gathered together for our 2010 Girls’ Weekend.  We had a great time relaxing, talking, shopping and enjoying the scenery.

This year we honored Aunt Tootsie with a Tootsie Roll party!

We barely had the table ready in time for her arrival! We were thrilled to have found a fun set of party decor.

Aunt Tootsie’s daughter, Kandis. My pretty cousin. The first cousin.

Aunt Kathy took this pic. I hate to have anyone missing. Mom had us all make a jar of exfoliate. It made our hands silky smooth.

Aunt Kathy is in this one, but Mom is now missing.

Here we are relaxing in front of the country home we rented for the weekend.  We were so far out that none of us had cell phone connections, the gravel road was completely flooded in one direction,  and when outside at night there was literally no light – at all. It was odd to those of us accustomed to light pollution.

We had a blast spending a couple of days in a quaint little town in the middle of wine country. Great shopping and good food were big hits, of course! Kandis, Aunt Punkie and Mom posing showing off their new rings.

I had to get in on it, too!

Ok, so we were all pretty excited over our jewels!

Aunt Punkie was totally in her element when we stopped off at a winery with live music. We had fun watching her dance!

She found someone else to be her partner. A nice, random lady

Aunt Punkie and Kandis ended the weekend perfectly.

There was so much I didn’t capture in pictures. I was too busy relaxing and having fun.

I’m looking forward to next year.

Domino sleeping on the way down!

Our good friends, Robin and Larry, invited us to travel to Branson for the weekend. The highlight was of course, Silver Dollar City, a wonderfully clean and friendly theme park. It was a blast.

Anjelia was rather attached to Larry for the weekend. Robin and Larry were brave to invite a family of six on a get-away weekend!

Elaina and her daddy.

I enjoyed the ginormous Flemish Giant bunny!

And Anjelia liked the little goats!

The girls were curious about the old school house. Kinda wish things were still this way for my kids.

The girls loved the roller coasters. Elaina jumped on the barn swing with Lydia and my blood pressure went up. This thing is a beast of a ride. Elaina and I both survived the experience! Jessica and Olivia were roller coaster riding machines. Lydia was brave and tried them all. Larry bought the video of Lydia riding Wildfire, a 66 mile per hour ride with five upside down loops. Her expressions are hilarious the entire ride! I was proud of them all for being brave. Anjelia loved the Powder Keg. It starts by going from 0 to 60 in two seconds! Pretty daring for a six-year-old!

Our family at The Landing. It was beautiful. Would love to see the fountain show at night.

We toured Marvel Cave. It is a one hour walk underground! Very cool. It’s amazing that there are gorgeous water falls underground! The girls got to see some bats and lots of beautiful formations.

A big thank you to Larry, Robin and Olivia for sharing their bring-a-friend tickets with us! We had a great time spending the weekend with your family. Thanks for the memories!

James and I on our nineteenth anniversary! It’s amazing how deep a relationship can go and I know we haven’t even scratched the surface yet compared with people who have been married two to three times this long.

I enjoy taking pictures of James’ kitchens. I especially enjoy doing so when he is in the pic! With the kids in school I have had a little more freedom and have gotten to tag along a few times. My job is to take pics of the various kitchens!

It’s been such a blessing having his office at home in our basement. He now has his very own man-cave!!! It’s a dream come true for him! (I doubt very many men have guinea pigs and rabbits in their man-cave! hehe!) They are good for stress!

I celebrated my birthday yesterday! James gave me the best gift; he took the day off to spend with me!

We started the day with swim team pics.

(more…)

We had soooooooo much fun attending a local tax day, tea party! This grass roots gathering of 5,000 peaceful, polite and patriotic citizens was hosted by a local radio station. We were surrounded by average citizens, children playing with their flags and veterans proudly holding signs. Last night, a  show on MSNBC, filled with perverted sexual inuendo, mocked these citizens. I was shocked! The culture war going on in this country is very disturbing.

(more…)

Yesterday, Lydia celebrated her eleventh birthday! In just one year she’ll move up to the youth group at church! Yikes! Lydia is a very thoughtful, generous young girl. She can be surprisingly selfless for a kid her age.

(more…)

Jessica had braces put on her teeth two days before her birthday

Jessica is now a double digit kid after turning 10 this weekend! It’s Tuesday and I am beginning to feel back to normal after her slumber party, birthday bash Friday night! Jessica had six girlfriends over for her sleepover. Ten kids made the night a busy blast! The girls settled down and seemed to be falling asleep at 4 am only to be up and going strong at 8! I know they would’ve stayed up all night if I had let them. I wanted their moms (my friends) to still like me the next day!

(more…)

(more…)

My Lydia Grace turned 10 on Sunday!

Lydia wasn’t feeling well. I took her to the doc today. They did x-rays of her abdomen and couldn’t find any problems, so she’s on medicine to help with her stomach pain and nausea. Hopefully she’ll be able to go to school and enjoy her day tomorrow.

Happy Valentine’s Day! As with most of the holidays, I enjoy the time through the eyes of my children. This last week has been filled with Valentine box crafting. Jessica and I staged a photo shoot of her guinea pigs. We took quite a few Valentine-esque photos of the piggies. She taped them all over her box, inside and out, along with a number of red hearts. It was quite a tribute of love for her pigs.

Lydia’s box was topped with a Littlest Pet Shop disco scene, complete with a working disco ball! Elaina and I made a really cute monkey box and Anjelia did a bunny box, of course. I wish I had pictures, but I’ve all but given up on my camera. I miss taking pictures.

Speaking of pictures. . . I tried to take pictures of my homemade noodles! Yes, I made homemade noodles for the first time. Unfortunately, I have no documentation. They turned out very yummy. (Thank you Robin, for teaching me!) I was proud to serve them for James’ sis, Christie, who visited us last week after seven long years! It was so good to see her. She recently returned from being deployed to Iraq and we were thankful to have her home! I also had the honor of having James’ Aunt Kathryn over. I’ve missed these ladies!

Jessica has fallen in love with the music of John Denver. She has the BEST of teachers this year and Mrs. R plays John Denver music during class. Jessica borrowed her teacher’s cd so James could put the music on her MP3 player. Too cute!

Do you remember your Valentine boxes? What kind of music did you like in grade school?

Elaina spent days in front of our fireplace with a fever. Landon was right by her side the entire time.

Despite the bitter cold, I hope you have a warm and cozy, love filled week!