Happy birthday, Todd!!!!

Today is my baby boy's 5th birthday.... sob! He is getting so darn big!! We love you, Todd! Quit growing up so stinkin' fast!!! (he is so funny... everytime he puts this shirt on I can hear him laughing as he gets dressed. He loves that it says "my sister did it")

He wanted his picture taken with Superman while we were out there this morning.

I have pics from the weekend to share, but they are all in reverse order... LOL We had Todd's party yesterday afternoon before my mom and Bob left. Then he and Elijah spent an hour playing with his new race track and Spiderman motorcycle before it was time to leave.

Yesterday morning we all went to church together. I was taking a photo of the kids with Mom and Bob, and a man offered to take one of all of us. Chet is almost as tall as I am now. When did that happen??

On Saturday, Mom, Jessica, Faith and I went to town... literally. We headed down to Springdale to buy some groceries and other goodies.

We bought a few groceries. It is a good thing we took the back seat out of the Expedition... we needed every inch of room the truck had to offer!! (See my lovely new breadmaker in there? I am going to start playing with that this afternoon!)
Mom, Bob, and Jack all got in Friday night. There was a wreck on the freeway (sadly some of our local teens were killed in it... it breaks my heart) so their arrival was later than planned, but it was still so good to spend the weekend together. Mom is coming back in a couple of weeks, and I can't wait to get to spend more time with her.
Just a couple of shots from Matt's last game... I love the one of his coaches talking to him.

Here he is walking off the field for the last time this year. Turns out I was wrong about that break from sports... LOL... basketball starts next week.

Here is Faith's number 1 team after they got their medals.

I am getting things together to get ready to head to Sacramento this week. I am looking forward to spending a few days in a big city again! I need to see if Sac has an Ikea... LOL

Proud Mom

I mentioned the parent teacher conferences yesterday. Then I didn't get a chance to get back online. Sorry, Mom. Anyway... I have never sat down at one of these before and had a teacher nearly make me cry!!! Chet's teacher started out by saying' "I have to show you something," and then she set this paper in front of me and said, "He did this all by himself."

He spelled it by himself. He made his groupings by himself. My little guy who has struggled and struggled to get sounds, and connect sounds to make words, and has cried over the battles he has had to try to learn to read and write did this ALL BY HIMSELF!!! I am getting teary again... I am so stinking proud of him!! And I love his teachers... such wonderful ladies!!

I got all of the kids' report cards, and they are all doing well in school, even with a couple of trouble spots here or there that are being worked on. Chet brought home the highest GPA, and has more A's than anybody, so we celebrated that as well.

I have been cleaning, and hanging art, and doing laundry, and getting rid of misc stuff today. Tonight I took the kids to their last soccer and football games. Matt got to be part of his team's final touchdown tonight, and Faith's soccer team came in first in their division. Myself... I am doing the happy happy happy dance that I have a break from sports for a few weeks!! (I will post those pics later... they aren't uploaded from the camera yet.)

By this time tomorrow night I will be visiting and talking with my mom, and I cannot wait. I have lots to do before she gets here tomorrow, but I don't really care if it all gets done right now. I am just glad we get to spend the weekend with her.

My dryer is buzzing again... maybe I will get the laundry all done before sunrise... LOL.

Window Shopping

I have discovered that I love window shopping online! Fashion Bug sent me a postcard today with boots 40% off, so I had to go look. I do love boots... LOL

I found these


And these


Jackets are on sale too.

I like this one (so cute with the last pair of boots)I just can't decide if I like pink or camel better!



And for the first time in my life I really need to get long sleeved shirts. I like these
for layering. Is it wrong to want one in every color?

I love this one

and this one (That would be a fun accent on a page.)

Anyway.... it is time to stop daydreaming and get back to work. I got all the bathroom cupboards sorted this morning. Now I am back to the laundry labor. Check back later if you would like to see the latest on Chet... :0) Yesterday I had parent teacher conferences, and as soon as I get my scanner plugged in I have the best thing to share!

the end of the season

This is the last week of Matt's football season. He plays his last game on Thursday. I was very unhappy (and rather annoyed) when I saw the professional team photos they had done. They were $12 a sheet, and blurry. So I bought the one of the whole team, but I told Matt I would take my own shots of him individually. Before his game today, he had me to come to the field house to take these of him. I am much happier now!!







Tomorrow is Faith and Kyle's last game of the soccer season, and Thursday will be their team photos. I will be bringing my own camera... LOL Tomorrow is also parent teacher conference day, and all the kids are bringing home their report cards. The day promises to be busy!

I spent some time this weekend giving Johanna's store blog a makeover if you would like to go check that out. I was there today, and she and Sheri have really done a lot in their store to make it look nice. If you are in the NW Arkansas area, you should go check it out!

Jack will be home this weekend, and he is bringing my mom and Bob with him. I have a ton to do to get ready, but I am so excited. The kids can't wait for them to all get here. My mom is getting me a bread machine this weekend... oooohhhhhh.... I cannot wait. I do love my kitchen gadgets!

Oh... I also went and tried on jeans tonight, and not only am I down to the smaller size, but they aren't even tight. Made me feel so happy! I cannot wait to join the community center and start using the weight room and exercise room everyday to see what happens then!

Anyway... I should get some sleep. Have a good night!

Autumn Splendor

I absolutely love fall in Arkansas! The colors that are blanketing the Ozarks right now are spectacular!! I knew I wanted some fall photos, so this afternoon I loaded the kids up and we went to get some. I let Tony come along with us too, so I got some shots of him and Jessica together. We really had a great time. I took over 300 pictures, some posed, and lots of the kids as they were playing. We found a clearing near Eureka Springs that was flat, had lots of trees, stumps, and leaves, and we just stayed there for more than an hour. The only thing I don't like about these kinds of pictures is that while the scenery is gorgeous, the nature of the afternoon sun coming through treetops leaves a ton of awkward shadows to try to work around. I tried to avoid them as much as possible, but some shots were just too fun to try to pose everyone perfectly for and ruin the spontaneous moment. They haven't been cropped or adjusted yet, but here, in no particular order, are some of my favorite shots from today.






















Looking for a job near Eureka Springs??? This sign just cracks me up everytime I see it. (Apparently the position has been open for a while..... hahahaha... this has been here since we moved here.) I sent a copy of it to Leno to see if they want it for the Headlines segment.
Hope your day was beautiful too!

Angel Food Network

I was just going to show you the pictures of what the kids and I did today, but then a new challenge was added to the colorblog, so I went ahead and scrapped them. I decided to share the page with you instead... :0) The challenge was to use black and white with a little bit of one color... I changed it a bit and used black and blue with a little bit of red. The chipboard stars are painted, covered in corrugated paper, and dry-brushed with paint a little bit.

We got up this morning and did a really good scrubbing of the house... fingerprints of the walls, cleaned the fridge, vacuumed all the weird spots, etc. Then we went over to the church to help distribute the Angel Food orders. They were all good, but Todd really impressed me. He sat his little four year old self down in his chair, and he didn't leave his post for three hours! He has never had an attention span that long! I think it is because he literally had a continuous stream of people to talk to as he handed them their bag of beans.

Then we came home, had a quick dinner, and spent the evening just kind of goofing off and not doing a lot of anything. So I went ahead and scrapped, and now I am going to go scrap some more. Maybe... LOL

In the Pink

Blogger is giving me fits right now, so I can't add the image here yet. I made a page for the color challenge over at the Autumn Leaves Colorblog. I will come back later when Blogger is in a better mood and add it, but if you would like to see it in the meantime click here.



Rusty Pickle records paper
Fancy Pants pink paper for journaling
(Can't remember who makes the pink paisley)
Fancy Pants swirl chipboardBasic Grey bookplate chipboard
Basic Grey letter stickers
stitching, buttons, flower, photo corners

TFL!

Immunizations

I forgot to add these blocks that I made for the last feature at ScrapVillage. These block sets are some of my favorite things to make! If you want to see close-ups of each block, or get a supply list, they are in my gallery here at ScrapVillage.



I needed to take Matt in to get some booster shots today and get a full copy of Jessica's immunizations for school, and while I was there I decided to go ahead and start getting Beth and Todd immunized. There are about a million different opinions about immunizations, and just as many reasons for why people have those opinions, but after Chet was one of the .03 percent of the population to have a near-death reaction to an immunization, I decided to hold off on any further shots for my kids until I was able to do better research and feel better informed about the shots. So now they are getting the rest of their immunizations, but only one at a time, and I will not be getting them the live chicken pox vaccine. They were not so thrilled with my decision... LOL

Beth was fine at first, but admittedly, she had no idea what was coming. The happy-go-lucky smiles lasted until needle met skin, and then she was just so broken-hearted.



With Todd, however, there are no happy "before" pictures. He heard me give the charge nurse his info, and he piped up with "Why are you signing me up for shots? I don't want a shot. We are here to get Matt shots, not me!" The bench I was sitting on to hold Beth had these cubbies underneath, so he decided to hide under there in the hopes we would forget he needed a shot too. No such luck.


After I pulled him out, and talked him into holding still, he got his shot. When the nurse told me to bring him back next month for he next one (she was awesome about understanding my reticence to combine shots, and was extremely cooperative and pleasant!) he said, "I am NOT getting anymore shots." I said, "well, not today" to which he replied, "Not today, not tomorrow, not ever!" Later as we were buckling back into the car he said, "You let her hurt my arm so I cannot buckle my own belt." I have a feeling that it will be a long, long time before Todd forgives me for today! LOL
I got home from picking the kids up from school, and I found Scarf and Superman sitting like this on top of my decorative ladder on the porch. Aren't they cute? I think they use the ladder as a way to stay up off the ground away from the dogs, and away from the open ground in the yard when the hawks are circling overhead.

I just got done finishing laundry and picking up the house so it will start out clean tomorrow. I am going to go read a book for a while now. Have a good night!

Nice weekend

We had a pretty good weekend. The girls and I spent Saturday scrapping. I only finished the three pages in my last post because I wasn't really feeling too creative. I started this page that night, but I didn' like how it was coming together. Yesterday after church I looked at it with fresh eyes, changed my papers and went a whole new route, and I was really happy with the end piece. I bought these big square frames when we first moved here, so I went ahead and framed this layout and now it hangs in the living room. I painted the mat green, added brown to distress it, and then stamped the corners with a stamp I found at Hobby Lobby.



Here are close ups of the top and bottom to make it easier to see.



Faith got to help Pastor David ring the Sunday bells yesterday.


Jessica and Matt and the rest of the high school youth sang at both services yesterday. I looked up and saw Jessica's profile, and she looked so much like she did when she was little that it choked me up a little.


Yesterday we had a cloud blanket over our part of the Ozarks. This is part of the view when I drive into town. I love how the ponds and lakes steam when it is cool, I love how the mountains and valleys roll together, and I love the fall foliage we are getting. It is just so pretty up here.


The big news of the week is that Beth has FINALLY decided to potty train! I haven't had to change a diaper in four days, and there have only been a couple of accidents. WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO! I have been changing diapers for almost 15 years straight.... I am so happy!!!



Anyway... it is a cool rainy day... the kind where you eat soup and drink hot cocoa, and I am going to snuggle on the couch with Todd and Beth and enjoy it. Hope your day is great!