First up, I bought some Lego scrapbook paper [it is even bumpy and has the lego logo on each dot] in red, blue, yellow & green. I made banners to go all over the place by cutting the paper into 6×8 dot blocks. Then I cut up Kristopher’s Lego calendar from 2011. Then I just sewed the papers together on my sewing machine. Easy Peasy and so cute! I used a couple of the larger pictures from the calendar on the walls. Balloons hanging from the light over the table are fun. I put Legos in clear glass containers on tables to decorate as well.

In the living room, I set up this little table to greet guests. I wanted to have each boy sign the card, get a name badge and guess the number of Legos in the vase before doing anything else, but as guests were arriving I got sidetracked and they all ended up doing this in a bunch. It’s much easier to do that sort of thing with adults!

On the wall in the kitchen we also had “Bob”, who had lost his arm. He was drawn by Kristopher and playing that game was completely Kristopher’s idea. He did a great job with the drawing, but he didn’t win. Going first was not advantageous…with the arms the boys just felt for the previous arm and then placed theirs. So the farther down the line the better your chance. Try to make your arms flatter if you play this! Ours were curling up on the hand end. :)

I found a “favor pack” of Lego build kits that came with 4 each of 2 different designs. We had a little contest to see who could build their’s the quickest. The winner got a prize. While they were building they were very serious and it was completely quiet around that table. Totally different than the rest of the party! So funny to see the difference between the kids when they had something to work for.

After all the games I let the boys play for awhile, while I cooked some pizza and finished setting out all the food. My goal was to make Lego pizza like this blogger did. Mine was fine, but the pepperoni’s slid around during the cooking and so the pieces didn’t exactly look like they were supposed to. Still we had small rectangular pizza pieces with round circles. Good enough, right?! I also purchased the silicone Lego molds and we had Lego ice and Lego shaped chocolates. Some of the chocolate men went on top of cupcakes. I made a second cake since I didn’t know how many people I would end up feeding. For that one I used this idea and put marshmallows on top to create the Lego look. Not exactly how I pictured it either, but still a hit. To make the cupcake stand I hot glued some candle stick holders to the bottom of one Lego board and then set it on top of a larger one. The Hot glue peels off easily and it made a cute display. That gray board was actually mine when I was little. :)

Kristopher wanted to blow out his candle on a special cupcake, not on the big cake, so I just wrote 10 on one of the cupcakes. We prayed and then sang to him before eating any of the food. I had ice cream, but forgot to get it out…

After gorging on sugar, it was time for a little present opening. Kristopher got a lot of cool gifts. Several Lego items were included (how could they not be?!) and he got the two things he was most hoping for as well. It was fun to watch all the kids gather around him while he opened his gifts. They were practically on top of him. During this time he said some of the funniest things. He said he could barely breathe because everyone was so close. When he was done opening everything, someone asked him what he wanted to play with first and he replied, “before I play with anything, I want to clean up this mess!” My boy is so funny. This mamma is thankful that he wanted to clean it up though, less cleanup for her!

Near the end of party-time this fellow showed up:

He sounded like Kristopher and he had the same outfit as Kristopher, but he looked a bit older than 10… Boys will be boys. ;)

Everyone left with a little goody bag, containing a Birthday Lego man and some Lego soap, bought on etsy.

He had a great birthday party and tomorrow we are looking forward to a quiet day of church and celebrating his and Kody’s birthdays with a nice dinner and, you guessed it, more cake! Back to talk about how I can’t believe 10 years has gone by tomorrow…

*sorry the pictures aren’t that great. My good camera quit working back around Easter and I’ve been using our old one. It doesn’t zoom, drains batteries way too fast and is just not good enough for taking quality photos of moving children. I’m hoping to get a new one soon, somehow!

The mail today was awesome! And, I wasn’t even here to get it. So, when I got home I found waiting on my porch a beautiful chore board from Back40Life. I had been wanting one of these for a couple of years I think (since the first time I saw them) and decided to use some of my birthday money to get one. They did a beautiful job and I love the way it turned out!

I didn’t want to spend the extra money to get the wooden hang tags, so I was just going to make my own. Then I saw this free printable (from Biblcal Homemaking) in the colors I was having my board painted. Can we say perfect timing! I printed these on regular paper and then used my handy dandy laminator to make them sturdy. Plus, I can use a dry erase marker to make the chores more specific. For example, one says “wash the walls”. I can add “kitchen” or “your bedroom” before hanging it. Then I punched holes and they are exactly what I wanted! I love it when things come together!

We also got the box of 200 prints for $2 that I ordered from snapfish. Since we had the laminator out we did a picture of each of the kids. I thought these would be fun for a break during lessons to draw on with dry erase markers too. We’ll see what we can add to their faces. ;)

Now hopefully chores and downtime will be a little more fun. Haha, who am I kidding? At least they’ll be cute!

Anywho, we arrived in Pigeon Forge around 6:30 Thursday evening and thought we’d be at the house we were renting by 7. We were wrong! The house was a part of Chalet Village and it was literally at the top of the mountain. First of all we turned off at the wrong place because we recognized a street name from our directions. Turns out my directions were wrong because I had the wrong address for the house. So, we drove all over the side of the mountain and finally got to the house at 8. This was after a bear had run at our van. Poor van, it was tired by the time we finished that crazy night. When we finally arrived, we walked in to see my dad and sisters cooking dinner and the smoke alarm going off. It was one crazy scene! We had the luxury of cooking since it was a house and it was so nice to be able to do that instead of go out for every meal. With 7 children between the ages of 2 months and 9 years that gets difficult and expensive! After dinner we did a little belated birthday and father’s day celebrating and then everyone was exhausted. We had the shortest trip of everyone. My sisters had been traveling since Monday to get there.

Friday my dad and sisters and Nick were going white water rafting and taking Tiffany’s kids. Kristopher had told me at home that he might want to go and I had said no and listed all my reasons. Well, I changed my mind and thought I’d let him go if he wanted, but he didn’t want to anymore. Taylor did though, so she loaded up with all of them and it turned out to be her favorite thing on the trip. I can’t believe it! After they got home my family, my dad and Tiffany’s kids went into Gatlinburg to visit the Ripley’s Aquarium and then to find some goodies to take back home. We stopped to get pretzels and fudge and candy. It was hectic and crowded, but still just as pretty as I remember. I just love the little creeks that run through town and how the buildings are mostly old mountain town looking ones.

Saturday, all but Erica, Nick and Alexandria (their baby) went to Wonder Works. I didn’t really enjoy it. I think it would be a fun place if it wasn’t as crowded and if my kids were older. I held Kyler the whole time and Kody dealt with Kameron and Taylor. The three of them were really too young and too small to do anything there. Kristopher had a good time and I think Kody and I might have enjoyed some of it if we hadn’t been holding little people. All in all, I think it was a waste of money and time to go there. Kristopher did go up on this spacewalk thing that was pretty cool. He was a little scared though and everyone else from our party who went up was pretty scared too. About half way through the museum Erica came and picked Tiffany and I up and we went to the outlet mall, leaving my dad and Kody with 5 kids in that wild place. They met back up with Nick and Alexandria and took the kids swimming too. It was fun to go to the outlet mall for awhile even if we couldn’t buy much. I wish we had one closer. It’s always nice to get good deals!

Sunday we just kind of hung out at the house since we were exhausted and it was stormy part of the day. When it cleared up we went swimming for awhile and grilled our dinner. It was a nice relaxed day. Things were getting a little tense near night. Nothing like family to bring up your past (that you seriously don’t remember) and make you wonder at the person you were.

Monday we got up and everyone packed up their cars and then we took family pictures and headed out. We had to stop in a Chick-fil-A on the way home though! It was a fun vacation and I’m glad we got to do it. I had anticipated it being a lot more difficult than it ended up being (with a new baby) and for that I was so happy.

Now we’re back to life as usual and getting ready for VBS and then school!

1. We bought a van. Finally, after a long search we found a van that I really like. We were to the point where we had to get something or things were going to get ugly! The winner was a 2003 Ford Windstar (picture below) and I really like driving it. I took it in to have the oil changed and some recall things tested and had to leave it overnight. While it was at Ford I was given a newer van to drive and I feel silly, but I’d rather have my older one! I guess the thing I like most about it is the adjustable pedals. I had trouble reaching them or sitting comfortably in other vans we looked at. The kids are also excited about all their space. We got it on June 8 and already took it on our first family vacation – fun stuff! The best part of the whole van story is that we were able to pay cash for it! It was just the right amount and we offered what we had and they took it. It is so nice not having a payment and knowing that it is ours. Now, if we could just pay cash to get rid of our credit card, wouldn’t that be awesome?!

2. We’re doing the summer reading program at our library again. I guess we haven’t been very excited about it this year and we haven’t had the time to read very much. It seems like there aren’t as many programs this year either. They did seperate the kids from the adults this year and I really like what they’ve done, I just can’t find the time to read! Right now I am working on “The Help” and it is excellent. I want to stay up late and just finish it, but I am so exhasuted that I can’t make myself do it.

3. We went on a family vacation last week with my dad and 2 sisters and their families. I will do a seperate post about it soon. While we were there we celebrated my 30th birthday and my sister, Erica’s 26th birthday. It was fun and Tiffany bought/made me a button to wear… I was pretty excited to turn 30 and am also excited that Kody and I will have our 10th anniversary next month. I do not feel that 30 is old and I am perfectly happy to say I’ve left my twenties.

4. Kyler is now 11 weeks and 2 days old. He’s getting to be a chubby boy. He’s still a sweet perfect baby and I just love taking care of him. I’m so afraid I’ll forget what it’s like to hold a snuggly baby and it makes me sad. I wish I could somehow capture what it feels like to remember forever!

5. Kameron broke his collar-bone in May and had to wear a brace for a month. He is still healing, but is able to do everything normally now. There is a big bump where it broke (the callous that is holding it together) but he doesn’t even seem to remember anything happened.

6. The two oldest kids went to camp this summer. Kristopher actually went away for a week, with a group from church, to CentriKid. He had a great time and it sounds like they all got a little wild. I know he was happy to be home though. Taylor did a soccer camp in town for a week and had fun. Since I had my first child I’ve wanted to be a soccer mom and I think it’s funny that it’s my girl who loves soccer. I’m glad she has something she really likes though. There are so many things I’d love for the kids to get to do, but we have to pick an choose wisely for our time and money constraints. I do wish I’d signed at least 2 of them up for swim lessons. I say it every year, but I’m getting nervous now since they can’t swim and it just seems like we’re around more water all the time. There’s also a robotics camp at Murray State that Kristopher would love, but it’s so expensive for one week! Maybe next year…

7. My garden this year is not in great shape. I had big aspirations, but having a baby right at planting time via c-section was bad for it. I’ll take a baby over a garden any day, but all we have managed to plant so far is potatoes, tomatoes and buberries. I still have hopes to plant green beans and maybe some other things, but am not sure if I will get a chance. So, if anyone has ANY vegetables or apples you want to give away I’ll take them! Next year hopefully I will be able to actually plant and work in the garden so tha it gets out on time and hopefully the weather will cooperate.

8. Because I like a even number, I will end on 8. I am currently getting all my curriculum ordered and ready. We are trying to get a new school table too. I am looking at the round ones like our church uses. I am hoping to be able to get one before we start in August. We are going to do a little bit of easy stuff in July and start back with our full curriculum by mid August. I decided that we started to late last year with all the breaks we ended up taking. I am also looking at a more structured day for us, since I think maybe we didn’t do enough this year. We’re still getting the hang of it, but we do still like homeschooling our children. I will say it makes it easier to have the support of our family and friends and the help from other people when we need it. I don’t think I could do it on my own without that group.

I hope this post finds you well and having a wonderful summer!

Animal: horses
Advice: Don’t get stressed out and upset over small things, big things aren’t really worth it either!
Album: I really like Casting Crown’s Christmas album, “Peace on Earth”. I can listen to it year round and it makes me smile.

Best feeling in the world: Love
Best weather: Temperatures around 70 with sunshine – I need the sunshine!
Band: I was the “band cheerleader” in highschool- a lot of my friends were in band and both sisters were, but I was a cheerleader, so (I think) I dubbed myself that. I enjoy watching drum corps and marching bands still.

Candy: Give me some Godiva and I’m a happy girl!
Color: Blue!
Continent to visit: I can’t say I really want to go anywhere – I’m not a traveler.
Cheese: I like a good expensive cheese – favorites from the store are smoky sharp cheddar and Vemont sharp white.

Drawing or painting: Neither. I prefer other crafts. My kids like to paint though…a lot.
Dog breed: I’ve always liked the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, even with their heart problems. But I’m going to have to say that we most likely won’t ever have a dog. Just not a dog person.

Eyes: My eyes are brown and all of my children’s eyes are brown. I love beautiful eyes on any person – they draw me in.
Everyone’s got: something going on in their life – remember that you aren’t the only one when you interact with people.
Ever failed a class: Yes, Chemistry at UK…I never went to class and guessed on the tests. That makes you fail.

First thoughts waking up: Praise God, it’s Monday!
Feeling: Sad right now, but hoping for a better week.
Favorite Movie: Lord of the Rings trilogy. I could watch them over and over and I can quote most of each one. What a great story.

Greatest Fear: dying a scary, painful death
Goals: Love God more everyday and serve him in a manner that would be pleasing to Him.
Good luck charm: You can’t have good luck, you can be divinely blessed. :)

Holiday: Christmas, including all of the activities around Christmas.
How do you want to die: Naturally, peacefully, in my sleep.
Hot or cold: Depends on what it is. I prefer to be warm myself.

Ice cream: fresh peach ice cream from one of the Peach orchards in Georgia.
Instrument: I can’t play, but I am hoping Kristopher will get back into piano soon – love hearing it.
Irrational fear: water, drowning…we try to stay away from water as much as I can keep us away.

Jewelry: I like necklaces. Don’t have much jewelry because it’s expensive and I don’t care enough about it to spend money on it!
Job: Mommy, Housewife, Homeschool Teacher, Crafter.
Jokes: I’m just not a joker. I don’t get most of them and I don’t tell them.

Kids: I love children, especially my three and one on the way. I sometimes have trouble interacting with other people’s children though – I wish I was better at that!
Keep a journal: I don’t journal anymore, but did a lot when I was younger. Don’t have time now! I guess you can count my blog as a bit of a journal, even though I don’t write as often as I would like.

Love: God is Love.
Laughed so hard you cried: yes
Learned: I have forgotten more than I’ve learned. At least I feel like I have. I am continually learning, though, and I believe you should always try to learn more. If you don’t know everything you should keep learning!
Lost: way too many souls.

McDonald’s or Burger King: neither! Chick-fil-A or Wendy’s or Culver’s. I fact I will always choose anywhere but McDonald’s or Burger King.
Marriage: Is a wonderful thing that to many people give up on way too easily. It’s not an institution, it’s an agreement with God.
Musical: I love musicals! When Kody and I were dating we went to see Fosse in Nashville. It was great!

Number of siblings: 2
Number: 17
Nuts: Cashews and almonds are my favorites, but I’ll eat any of them.
Name that comes to mind first: Kyler. We’re still trying to come up with a baby name and this is my favorite so far.

One wish: That I could keep my children safe always.
One time I…: thought life was way too hard and that I couldn’t do it anymore. Now I know that I can’t do it without God to help me everyday.
One word: supercalifragiliciousexpealidocious ;)

Perfect pizza: I’m a fan of BBQ chicken pizza, from California Pizza Kitchen.
Pepsi or Coke: Caffiene free Coke
Pet: We have 2 hand-me-down fish. The kids really want a kitten, which I would be fine with, except Kameron is scared of all animals.

Questions: “Why?” is one I’ve heard many times a day lately…getting kind of tired of it!
Quit: Quitters never win, unless you quit smoking, which I highly reccommend. I wish we didn’t have so much wanting to quit around here.
Quiet: I’ll take it!

Reason to cry: I cry when my feelings get hurt, and lately they get hurt pretty easily.
Rude: I don’t like it when other people are rude. Sometimes I speak without thinking first and I’m sure that I’ve been rude too. I try really hard, now, not to be.

Song: Right now the songs from Mamma Mia are in my head, even though I haven’t watched it in months.
Sleep: I like a lot of sleep, like 10-11 hours if I can manage it.
Salad dressing: I try to eat a variety of dressings. I really like salads with their own dressings, like the Strawberry Walnut salad from my friend Penny or the Wilted Leaf Salad (with hot bacon dressing) from my Nana.
Slept outside: I enjoy camping…without small children. :)

Time for bed: I prefer 9 or 9:30
Thunderstorms: I’m not really a fan, but rain is good now that I’m a gardener (or trying to be, don’t laugh).

Unpredictable: I like a good plan. I think I am pretty predictable, but life is not.
Uncool: Most of the time I feel pretty uncool, but I always have. I really want to be one of the cool kids though!

Vacation spot: Well, I’m not a traveler or vacationer. I prefer to be at home. If I have to go somewhere though, I will pick a place that has lots of fun places to go, like aquariums and museums. I will pick a place that isn’t near water and I will pick a place that has pretty scenery. I like hiking and nature. Is that picky enough for you?
Voice: I think my voice sounds like a child’s when I hear it recorded. Otherwise I like it and I think I sing pretty well, but I may be wrong – which is why I don’t sing in front of people much.

Weakness: Perfectionism.
Worst feeling: Letting someone down.
Water or land: On land – see the irrational fear above.

X-rays: I would rather not have to get any – radiation is bad.
Ex’s: Almost everybody has them. I wish I could erase one from my memory.

Year it is now: 2011
Yellow: I want a house with yellow siding. I like yellow in other people’s houses. I like a bright yellow shirt in the summer.

Zoo animals: I love to go to the zoo! I really loved it when the Lousiville Zoo had the visting Koalas when I was little. They are my favorite wild animal.

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas! I thoroughly enjoyed my Christmas morning. I was able to wake up before everyone else without an alarm and take a nice shower. Then I made a yummy breakfast of Orange Pecan French Toast Casserole, Scrambled Eggs and Bacon with hot tea and coffee. I think it’s the best Christmas breakfast I’ve done! (even if the kids weren’t impressed with the french toast…) Then I woke everyone else up and the fun started! We always eat breakfast before we open stockings or presents and the kids have always been okay with that. While we ate I let them open their sibling gifts. I like to do that on Christmas eve, but they got so much at Kody’s family’s get together that I skipped it. They enjoyed their little presents from each other. :)

When breakfast was over, it got a little wild! We usually take our stockings back to the table (to minimize the mess), but this year Taylor got to the stockings first and hers was a little too high to reach so it fell and she just sat down and started pulling stuff out, so we stayed in the living room. It was kind of funny to see her go through hers so fast and the boys slowly pulled stuff out. Kristopher wanted to do his little sticker book immediately and play with all his little things and Kameron stopped at every piece of candy to try to get someone to open them. So, stockings took awhile. Taylor was the most excited for presents and in the biggest hurry this year. She was bouncing and loud and ready! Anyway, the kids usually do a great job of passing out all the presents under the tree before anyone starts opening and it didn’t happen this year. After each person had a couple they couldn’t wait and they just started opening. It was chaos for sure! Eventually they all got all their gifts and they were all happy with what they got. Kody and I didn’t really do anything for each other, but we had fun playing with all the kids new toys.

Later on in the day Kody’s parents came over and we had a big dinner of roast with carrots, potatoes and onions, stuffing, sweet potatoes, ham and bread. It was good and I was very stuffed when it was over, but not too stuffed for apple pie! I was really wanting one this year and while I don’t think apple pie screams Christmas, I still made one.

Kody and the kids also made a birthday cake for Jesus. After all Jesus is the reason we celebrate! Thank you Jesus, for my life and for every wonderful day you give me with my family and friends. Thank you for all that you did to ensure my place in heaven some day. Help me to be all that you want for me to be.

The handprints are Kameron’s hands, Kristopher and Taylor picked what shapes they wanted to give each person and I just made snowflakes for giving our friends or keeping for ourselves. I am a snowflake fan!

We just have to add ribbon through the holes and wrap them up very carefully and then they’ll be on the way to their recipients (who I’m pretty sure don’t read my blog anymore, unless I tell them to). I hope they like them!

Like last year, the kids decorated their own tree upstairs. The colored lights were burnt out when we got our stuff out and so they got white this year. It seems like we buy new lights for the trees every year – so wasteful. Why can’t they work longer? Here are some pictures of them decorating their tree:

My kitchen is pretty much the same as last year. I bought one new plate on sale at the end of the year last year, so the silver and white one is new. I also made myself a full Christmas apron back in July or something crazy like that, so I added a picture of it. Maybe sometime there will be a shot of me wearing it! Here are my kitchen decorations:

My living room has changed a lot this year. My father in law is building some nice built in bookshelves to go along my back wall. I was pretty sure I wanted a contrasting color on the wall behind them and thought a robin’s egg blue would be lovely. Then at the Christmas Bazaar that I participated in, in November, I bought a pleated fabric tree. The color was just the color I wanted, so I went to WM and what do you know? They had the perfect ornaments there to match. So I took the ornaments to the paint section and matched a paint chip and now my living room is all matchy matchy! I painted a wood chair, three frames and the back wall the nice blue color and then put out all my matching Christmas decor. I also ordered more of the fabric that was on the tree to go around my big tree as a skirt. I like this idea since I can change it up and reuse the fabric for something else if I want to use a different color scheme at christmas! The cabinet bottoms of the built ins are up, but the shelf tops aren’t in yet, so you’ll just see a blue wall behind some of my decorations. We are doing the Usborne Advent book again that the people pop out of. the gold ornaments and candles don’t really fit in in this room anymore, but for right now I didn’t have anywhere else to put them. I think eventually they’ll go in our bedroom on a dresser top/table. The green tree was also a must have on sale item last year. Not so sure it fits in in the living room now either? Pictures of the living room:

I got my peppermint soap and cute snowman towels out for the bathroom. Love these, from my secret pal last year, but didn’t take pictures of the bathroom. Trust me, you don’t really want to see it anyway! I’m not a very good bathroom cleaner…

Hope you all have had lots of fun decorating your homes for the season. I always love to see my stuff for December. I like to change it up (I get bored pretty easily) when January rolls around though. I’m just glad that this year my home is starting to feel more homey and welcoming. I hope that others will agree with me on this!

The spring started off great. I thought about a garden again and expressed that I would love to have a spot for one to anyone who would listen. Then my secret pal from WOM gave me such a cute little basket of goodies mostly related to gardening. Just look at the cute notebook, too. This was a perfect gift for me (so I know my secret pal knows me pretty well!)

Then, last week our neighbor Mr. P came over and broke up the ground for us. Here is our beautiful spot of dirt. Of course I took pictures – this will be our first garden!

After that was done, I sat down and said what next? I had no clue where to start. So my husband called his dad, the master gardener, and he came over Sunday afternoon. He told me how to plant so that plants wouldn’t shade others and what to do to get straight rows and told me how to plant the seeds and what I shouldn’t put close together. He showed me how to use the tiller and how to make a hill…and he and my husband did a lot of the work, but I did help… See:

I learned so much and I hope that all my plants grow and are fruitful. Here is the first row – tomatoes.

We planted tomatoes, corn, green beans, green and banana peppers, cucumbers, decorative gourds, cantaloupe, kale, broccoli, zinnias & wildflowers and made a seperate garlic bed. I recorded all of it in my new, pretty notebook:) There are many other things I’d eventually like to plant, but I think if this stuff grows I will be having enough fun. I can’t wait to make pickles and can tomatoes out of my own garden!

As it grows I’m sure I’ll show more pictures. If you haven’t tried gardening, you should. Just find someone who knows what they’re doing and learn everything you can from them. If I hadn’t had that my plants would have just been thrown all willy-nilly and who knows if I would have gotten anything! (I guess in gardening there is always a chance you won’t get anything – so I still might not – but here’s hoping!)