Thanksgiving Feast

Cooper's class invited the parents to join them for Thanksgiving lunch last week. What kind of parent passes up pie with their baby?! Not us!



Abigail was able to join us also, since her class meets for lunch during the same time.


Cooper was thrilled to have us all with him.

Chocolate Deluxe

At the beginning of the year, I set out to paint and decorate one room per month. Ha! It's November, and we've completed three bedrooms and one bathroom. Oh, well it's better than nothing.

The first room we painted was the master bedroom. If I had endless free time and energy, I would probably re-paint this, as I wasn't entirely pleased, but that's not going to happen any time soon.

It's probably too dark for most people, but (as if you can tell) I LOVE chocolate brown. And, it serves another purpose of helping Daniel sleep. He works a night shift half the time, so the dark walls combined with the black-out drapes help him sleep during the day even though we have a large window in the bedroom.

This scripture writing on a wooden box canvas was my attempt at being creative.

On another side of the room we have some wonderful family photos to display, courtesy of my friend Allison in South Carolina. She's so talented, and I'm so grateful to her for these images!

Just outside of the master bathroom is a sitting area. I'll be honest and tell you that these chairs are more often used as clothes drying racks than their intended purpose, but it was a nice thought.

Also in the sitting area is a collection of items from our wedding: our engagement photo, my bridal bouquet in a shadow box frame and our wedding guest sign-in book, which was actually a framed and matted wedding invitation. I know the red doesn't even begin to match the room's decor, but it's the sentimental effect that I appreciate.

Now, I'm off to enjoy my clean room!

Showing our Holy Spirit!

A few weeks ago was homecoming at Abigail and Cooper's school, and they followed the usual routine of spirit week with each day having a theme. The first day was completely forgotten by me, and Abigail was sorely disappointed in my memory lapse when she showed up with her usual chapel uniform on Monday morning and everyone else was dressed for Bling-Bling Day. Oh, well. She and Cooper looked a lot less silly than those other rascals. But, I came through the rest of the week.

Tuesday was Tacky Day when everyone dressed in mis-matched clothes. Fortunately, I checked out the week's agenda in the school newsletter instead of following Abigail's interpretation that she thought it was Khaki Day, which sounds similar to Tacky Day, but doesn't pan out to the same type of outfit.

Wednesday was Cartoon & Superhero Day. Thanks to our plentiful collection of dress-up clothes, Abigail and Cooper jaunted off to school as Dora the Explorer and her cousin, Diego. I couldn't get Abigail to wear the wig with her costume, but the two of them were pretty cute.

Thursday was color day, with each grade level assigned a color and the kindergarten class was assigned red. Abigail opted out of the boring red t-shirt that we saw on most of the kids and just sported her cutest red outfit.

My favorite day of the week was Friday, which was Spirit Day. We're new to this school and don't have any school t-shirts yet, so the kids opted to show their best Longhorn spirit. But, it was my favorite day because of another interpretation that went awry. When I told Abigail it was Spirit Day, she replied that she should wear a shirt with a cross or Bible on it because she didn't have anything with the Holy Spirit on it. Oh, my goodness, that gave me the biggest laugh I've had in a long time! I had to explain to her that spirit can refer to many ideas and not just the Holy Spirit.

Annie, Get Your Gun!

Last weekend we celebrated my father's birthday. We've lost count with what year this was in honor of, but suffice it to say that I know he's older than 40 and younger than 80. That leaves you with a good estimate, right?!

Aside from the steak dinner, we gifted him with a solution to one of his problems to honor the day of his birth. No, it wasn't a hearing aid or man girdle...

Dad has a squirrel and bird problem in his back yard that has become too much of a task for his dog, Spice. We gave Dad a bb gun so that he can more successfully tackle the problem.

Cooper, being a true Texas boy was very interested in Grandad's gun, and Grandad had no problem sharing with him. (Believe me, we're going to have to set down some boundaries for Grandad after this experience.)

Rest assured, it is just a bb gun and it was firing nothing but air. But, you can be very afraid in that the first thing Cooper did was take off chasing his sister with the gum aimed at her until Daniel grabbed him and put a stop to the chase. Very, very, very stern words were spoken, and the gun was placed back in Grandad's hands.

Pumpkin Patch 2009

I told you I would be back! I apologize for the unbelievably long absence, but this month has run over me like a freight train. I'm hoping to get some semblance of a normal routine soon, which includes getting back to daily blogging. I have a lot to catch you up on! For starters, my parents came to visit last weekend and we spent all of Saturday at a pumpkin farm in Marble Falls.

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We kicked the day off by posing in many of the stick-your-head-through-the-fake-scenery walls. The kids thought they were so silly! I wish I had known they were so easy to entertain. I'll start buying posterboards and cutting holes in them and letting them paint on their own scene of fun and just take pictures after they create. It will be much cheaper than traipsing all over Central Texas to experience all the fun. Ha!


But, the hands-on fun is more my style. We got our hands dirty by painting pumpkins. Poor Kelly Ann ended up helping a random kid seated with us at the table. I think she little girl thought Kelly was an adult just observing, but she was really there to paint her own pumpkin alongside the other kids.

Abigail and Cooper were especially excited when they took off on a hay ride to the other side of the farm. They told us all about going through the wooded area and seeing the many scarecrows and ghostly decorations.

While they were on that side of the farm, they stopped at the flower fields to pick a cup of flowers.

Unfortunately, Abigail is not a future flower bouquet arranger, but instead took interest in only the sad flowers. I was looking forward to having a fresh flower arrangement like I saw the other kids coming back with. Instead, she came back to me with this pitiful arrangement of wilted and dead flowers.

Ma and Pa Kettle joined us in the fun as well!

We did get some cups of goat food, but Cooper was more interested in getting the poor goats to eat leaves and sticks off the ground. Every time I turned around he was sticking something else through the fence.

Fortunately, we did get to feed our own faces and it wasn't with leaves and sticks. We feasted on some delicious homemade pumpkin ice cream. It was soooo yummy! It was the first time I've thought that the pumpkin blizzard at Dairy Queen may not be as disgusting as it sounds.

Before heading back home, the kids took in one last adventure on this train pulled by a tractor through a corn field. Too fun!

I Promise I'm Coming Back SOON!

In the meantime...

Brrr.....

Something strange happened last week... It got cold! Daniel and I were both off work last Tuesday, and the kids were out of school, because it was parent/teacher conference day at school. We breezed through our conferences early in the morning and then headed out for a day of family fun. What was planned to be a trip to Dallas for the Texas State Fair, quickly changed to a local day of trying to stay dry. The entire state was dreched in rain (thank you, Lord!), so we made the best of a leisure iHop breakfast and a 3-D matinee of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. However, while we were in the theater, the weather turned nasty and we ventured out into a very chilly day. Thus, the rest of our day was spent at the mall because my children have very few fall clothes that fit. Cooper didn't even own a jacket. Serious sales at Macy's and The Children's Place fixed that problem, and we set off for school on Wednesday in long sleeves and jackets. The bad mother award was narrowly avoided once again!

But, it's Texas, so the temps were back into the upper 90s by Friday and the short sleeves and summer clothes have been in back full force since then. Usually, the kids where their Longhorn gear on Fridays, but last week, Abigail rebelled, that stinker. She did, at least, wear it for the game on Saturday, and she's much more adept at showing off her Hook 'em Horns sign than Cooper is, so I let her slide this time. Ha!

Also on Friday, I spent my lunch break with the kids at school. They both have weekly chore charts and are working hard making beds, cleaning floors, taking out trash and various other activities, so we get to have fun with rewards every week. One of those happens each Friday when Daniel or myself takes lunch to them at school. It's fun to see them in their school element with friends and teachers. They are growing up and have their own world away from home, and I love seeing them in that element. I'm so thankful that we have jobs that allow us to spend time with the kids at school. And, I'll take advantage of that while they are still young enough to want us to hang out with them.

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