A Wonderful Mother's Day

What a much needed fun and relaxing day I had. Perfect way to celebrate Mother's Day. Woke up to Dave and the kids preparing breakfast. They made the most delicious pancakes I've ever had, scrambled eggs, chocolate covered strawberries and Natalia prepared my favorite cup of coffee.

Immediately after, the kids presented me with gifts. Natalia gave me some bath salt she made in her science class and Carson made me a paper flower arrangement along with a sweet card.

The night before Mother's Day, Natalia and Dave were plotting...

Come to find out, this is what they were talking about...

Aww, how thoughtful! My own homemade Kindle! Natalia was able to keep the secret, whereas Carson...well, let's just say he has to earn his way back into Daddy's circle of trust!

But, guess what!? Later that morning, before church, I found a real Kindle under my pillow. I couldn't believe it!!! In reality, this is my Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Birthday gift. Apparently, the kids didn't know about this surprise (you know, can't really keep a secret just yet). So, I asked them all to sit on the couch because I wanted to read to them from my "Kindle". I wish I would have taken a picture of Natalia's face when she saw the "real" Kindle for the first time. She could not believe that I actually had a "real" Kindle in my hands! She could not even talk. She was so surprised. Needless to say, I have not been able to use it yet. She got to download the very first book and read it all day long.

After church, we went to Papaw and Grannie's house for lunch and then we got to relax at home and at the bookstore before we went for a special dinner at Carrabba's!

Easter Weekend

We really don't have any traditions for Easter which makes it kind of nice.  This Easter, my parents were able to come to Beaumont for the weekend.  It was a treat for all of us!  When my parents are in town, the kids get to do a lot of things we don't usually do with them and Dave and I get some time off  :0).  

This year, I decided to make the Easter Cookie Story with the kids.  It was getting late (past their bed time) and I was so tempted to say "forget it, we'll do it next year", but I couldn't.  Natalia and Carson kept asking me if it was time to make the cookies, so we made them and I'm glad we did.

 

The Easter Bunny brought the kids rain  boots, some Easter eggs with money (BIG hit!) and, as always, a Chocolate Bunny (which is a MUST at our household!) 

  

And you are NOT going to believe this, but I have no pictures of the family on Easter Day!  Now, what happened?????  I have no idea why I didn't take a picture of at least the three of them with their Easter clothes on.  I don't know!  Well...the boys wore jeans because Carson decided that he doesn't like to wear khaki pants and NO button up shirts for him.  Oh and no pastel polo's either!  I mean, is he old enough to decide what he is going to wear?  I don't think so, but to tell you the truth...that's one battle I DO NOT want to fight.  Dave tells me I fight way too many battles so I'm trying to back off a little and that is one I really don't care enough about to fight.  Natalia, on the other hand, was wearing a beautiful and I mean BEAUTIFUL dress Grannie made for her.  The only picture I have is this one :0(

I mean, how pitiful is that?  This photo was taken at Lowe's.  Look at my poor Dad, he was so tired!  My parents had taken the kids to the bookstore after lunch while Dave and I stayed home cleaning the carport.  Right before dinner, I met them at Lowe's to buy some items for the guest house we are building on the back of our house.  ~Thanks Mom and Dad for helping us with the kids!  

Hope you had a marvelous Easter!

Love is in the air!

Valentine's Day, what a sweet and romantic day!!!!  (Ha- NOT!!!!)  It was fun, but not quiet and romantic!

Woke up early that morning and got ready for the kiddos.  Dave made yummy heart-shaped chocolate chip pancakes.   

After breakfast, we headed to Lowe's where the kids were able to built a little jewelry box. 

Later, we went by Grannie and Papaw's to deliver little Valentine's goodies the kids had made for them.  Natalia made a bookmark, Carson decorated a heart and Luke made a heart with beads.  Right after that, it was time to get busy for that evening's dinner.  

Like I said earlier, it was not quiet and romantic, but it was a lot of fun.  This year, we decided to invite a few families over for dinner.  I cooked Smitten Kitchen's meatballs and spaghetti.  I highly recommend this recipe.  Everyone seemed to like it very much.  Lindy and Lucy brought the bread.  Lucy helped me by cooking the spaghetti and then, she stayed and helped me clean all that mess up! (Thank you soooo much Lucy!) Heather & Dru brought a fabulous salad, Matt and Elizabeth brought the drinks, Kristi and Brian were in charged of the paper goods and Brooke and Eric brought some beautifully decorated chocolate covered strawberries.  And last but not least, Dave made the delicious  Chocolate Pot O'Creme.  Very Yummy!  Another recipe we highly recommend.  Sorry don't have any pictures of this exquisite dessert.  Brooke took a picture of one that was eaten already.  As a matter of fact, if you want to see more pictures of the party, that's where you are going to find them.  I guess, I was a little preoccupied that night and didn't get many photos :0(.  

There were 9 kids under the age of 7!  Overall, they did great and had a fun time.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

December is such a busy month, but a lot of fun. Here are a few things we did this December:

We decorated for Christmas.

This year, it was Natalia's turn to place the star on the tree.  

She did a good job, don't you think?

We went to the Christmas parade in Beaumont. 

Wrote letter for Santa

Went to visit Santa

Luke asked for a real gun.  Natalia and Carson asked for roller skates.

Played with water, even though it was 50 degrees outside! 

Luke was outside, unsupervised, for only one minute...

The kids loved the advent calendar.  Each day, during the month of December, they opened a door and found chocolate and a Bible verse or a truth relating to the story of the birth of Jesus.

Decorated a Gingerbread House.

Lot's of fun and what a mess too!

Enjoyed some snow (that's another post)!

Made treats for Santa two days before Christmas, of course.

We also took MeeMaw (Dave's grandmother) to see Christmas lights.  Dave has taken his grandmother to see Christmas lights ever since he got his driver's license at 15 years old.  That means he has been doing this for 19 years!  Except now, he has added a few more passengers :0)!  Our favorite house this year, was one on 105 and Major.  We turned the radio to 103.5 and enjoyed the show.

What a fun time we had!  

Black Friday!

This is the first time in my life that I've gone shopping the day after Thanksgiving.  Grannie, Susan, Elizabeth and I were deciding when and where to meet the next morning when Natalia said, "I want to go too!"  I don't know why but I said, "okay".   

After only a few hours of sleep, this is what Natalia looked like at 6:30 AM on Black Friday...

Once Natalia had some Chick-Fil-A for breakfast, she woke up a little.  We had a great time.  She did better than I ever expected!

A Dad's Attempt at the Thanksgiving Story

As promised, click here to watch the video about the Thanksgiving story.

Thanksgiving Feast

So...after the corn kernel feast, we decided that that was not going to cut it so we headed to Grannie and Papaw's house.  Boy, did we have some food.  We had so much to choose from.  It was also good to see Papaw's side of the family.  After visiting, eating, playing frisbee, playing with sand and some fighting, of course, the day ended with Carson going to Solomon's house for their first sleep over, some football and Natalia spending the night at Grannie's house. What a great day.  The only thing missing for it to be a perfect day was having my parents here.  The good thing is that we were able to go and spend a few days at San Antonio with them this week. 

Anybody up for some giblet gravy?

Enjoying good food and company

Don't let this picture fool you...they were saving room for dessert.

Natalia eating her THIRD piece of pumpkin pie. Her favorite!

Is time for some frisbee!

We are thankful to God for friends and family....and good food.

A Pilgrims Breakfast 2008

What a day!  This morning, we started by eating breakfast.  Dave told me that he had a special thanksgiving breakfast so we were all excited and looking forward to see what he had up his sleeves.  Well, I went to the kitchen and this is what I found!

Seeing the kids expressions was priceless when we put this in front of them.

They were to eat these three corn kernels while Dave read the story of the Pilgrims!  Each Pilgrim was alloted 3 kernels of corn per day.  That was their food for an entire day.  Luke ate them right away and then said, "Daddy, me still hungry!"  Carson ate them all and Natalia would have nothing to do with them.  (She doesn't like corn at all.)  --It was so funny to watch them trying to figure out what this breakfast was all about!  ~Leave it to Dave to come up with something like this...I video taped it but have not been able to get it downloaded to my computer.  I'll post it once I figure this thing out.  Here are some pictures in the meantime though...

Halloween 2008!

I know, it has almost been a week since Halloween and I'm just getting around to posting about it, but that's just the way it goes when you don't have internet at home - so bear with me...

It was a very enjoyable evening.  We ate an early dinner and then we were off to "trunk or treat" at the old Academy parking lot.  First Baptist Texas had activities and lots of candy for the kids. It was fun, seeing people you know and playing all the games.  

Carson's cup of tea!

I don't think Luke knew what to expect!

Natalia and her friend from school

Later, we drove by Grannie and Papaw's house to show off the costumes and to get more candy.  As expected, Luke fell asleep on the way to Grannie's house.

When we got home, we thought the kids were going to go straight to bed, but we were wrong.  There was so much going on on our street, that Carson and Natalia decided that they were not done trick-or-treating, so we walked down our street.  Natalia said, "mama, this is my favorite way to trick-or-treat because we get to talk to people we know."  Funny, she never mentioned anything about ALL the extra candy they were getting.  

After knocking on every possible door (where the porch light was on), we headed back home.  As soon as we got inside, we heard the door bell.  Didn't quite understand - our porch light was off.  Finally, to my surprise, the kids decided that it would be fun to "sell" our candy.  Anyway,  they truly enjoyed this part and I did too!

Natalia and Carson "selling" candy