Playtime

These are the cutest pics I wanted to share with you. Ashley loves sitting on daddy's lap while he plays guitar and then Ashley with her brothers helmet and sword. So cute. Also one of her playing with a new toy she got for Christmas. :D

Christmas Day

We had our very first real Christmas morning at home where the kids

looked forward to waking up to a surprise in the morning. It was pretty awesome. They didn't even wake up till 8am! LOL. The picture you see of my feet on top of a box, is of Charles putting together the truck for them at 3am Christmas morning. It took us several hours. I'm showing you my view of sipping hot cocoa watching him do all the work. LOL! My sis, Jodee, sent some gifts down from South Africa and the kids loved that. Like the fridge magnets where you can dress the girl in different outfits on the fridge. That is really neat and

cute. Thanks Jodee! I also found out I finally get to be an aunt on my husband's side! I'm can't wait to hold the little one. I absolutely love all my niece and nephews and love being an auntie. :D I hope you had a great CHRISTmas! We got to celebrate Christmas Eve in God's house the night before. A great way to bring in Christmas.

Extreme MEAN Parenting

I was at an appointment today and as I was sitting in the waiting area, I unfortunately got to observe a grandma with her grandchild. This grandma was probably around 45-50 and had her grandson sitting with her while mom was taking care of something. I saw her son reach over to push my daughter's play stroller. He was probably 2 years old. The grandma snatched him up, spanked him, and started calling him a "faggot". All for pushing a stroller. Then he started to cry and she kept calling him a sissy over and over. Then she said she was going to tell daddy what a sissy and faggot he was. Good grief! She just kept yelling, "shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" I couldn't believe my eyes and ears. No one said anything. I think we were all just shocked and staring. I hope his mommy isn't like that with him. I really felt for the little boy.

Christmas Season

For Christmas my hubby got me a long awaited laptop. Since Ivy destroyed my laptop, have greatly missed it. However, I still do not want internet at home and I wait to go on the internet till I am somewhere where they have Wifi. I’d rather just keep it that way. That way I’m not tempted to write constantly because that is what I love to do. :D So I write stuff during the week on my laptop and then transfer it later with the pictures onto my blog when I can use Wifi. Works for me! So much is going on. Such a beautiful and wonderful season. I also just celebrated our 10 anniversary. We love how our anniversary is in December because it’s such a romantic season. I love how much more joyful people are in this season. I know there are the grouch’s out there but sometimes even the grouches lighten up! LOL. That’s the magic of Christmas.

Friend's Bday Party

Yesterday was Ivy’s best friend’s birthday so we headed to McDonald’s and had yummy cake and gave her the cutest little present. I loved collecting Cabbage Patches growing up. In fact, Charles’ mom passed down his to our kids from when Charles was little. J Let me say, those are durable dolls. LOL. Charles tells me stories of what he used to do to his little sister’s dolls. Thankfully my kids take really good care of their toys. I’m serious! They get really upset if something happens to them or if they accidentally break. They have toys that are several years old because they take such good care of them. That’s totally awesome. One time we had a huge collection of GI Joes till a boy came over and tore all the arms and legs off. We had about 30 of the little guys destroyed. Now they don’t make those anymore so I’m bummed we can’t buy them.

Quit Acting Like a Chicken!

Seriously. Well, just being punny. Almost every time I go to my garden, I found now about 6 chickens in it, eating the leaves off my vegetables. There is a gate in between the chicken pen and my garden. So, if I don’t feed them fast enough each day, they just fly over and help themselves to the garden. So, I said, “that’s it” and I went into the house to grab my scissors. Now catching chickens is another thing. They freak out and run. So I have to be slow and sneaky. I had 10 chickens to catch so I could cut their wings. I only cut one side, their flight feathers, so if they try to fly, they’ll go off balance. If I cut both sides, they could just flap their wings harder and sometimes still make it over the fence. So after I cut one side on a chicken, I would gently throw it out in front of me to see how it flew. Yup, they can’t fly. I have really enjoyed raising up chickens and I am thinking about making money from it. I have sold a few to friends. None of mine are mixed either. So, finally I found something that I really enjoy doing make some money from it.

Our Christmas Photo

To my blogging buddies.... I hope you have a Merry CHRISTmas!!!

Ivy Girl

Ivy grows fast! Wow! She is 3 1/2 now. My boys have been loving their new school and I have been really impressed. When Ivy turns five I think I'll start taking turns homeschooling the kids. Especially since I will want another child someday. Hopefully not for another year but I'll welcome any little ones God blesses me with. :) They are all so much fun and make life so much more adventurous. :D

Having Fun in Garden

Wow! My garden is doing well. I'm definitely going to expand it. It's way too small. The tomatoes are way overtaking everything. I use miracle grow on it every few days and I have like 20 tomatoes growing on it. My corn is doing well. Some stuff you can't see yet because I just planted. So I think I'm eventually going to take all that out and take another part of the yard and make a much larger space for a garden. You see my new duck? That's Daffy? The yellow one (turning white). :D Hee hee. Okay, so this week we've been doing a study that we'll get paid for. All we are doing is testing vapor rub for a week and we get almost $700. Awesome huh? Especially before Christmas. :)

Sweet Holy-days!

It has been such a neat month, a closeness together. Since ridding of the extras in our life. My days feel longer, more sweet things, things that matters most, cared for. :) I spend more time with my kids, in my garden, or being more involved in other things. It's been pretty cool. My hubby and I have never spent more time together. Now we really have no excuse to say we don't have enough time to read our bible and pray! LOL. I've been able to read more which has been great. I know I talk about this a lot, but it's meant so much to me that I don't know if I even want my internet back at home. I will be getting my laptop fixed so that when I take the kids to McDonald's once a week, I can hook up to their Wi-fi for an hour while watching them play. :) I just don't want it at home. I'm an information lover. I love to look up everything that I am wondering about. So, if I'm in my garden and I want to learn about something, I head for my computer. Or if I'm with my hens and I need to learn to clip their wings, I go straight for the computer. Or I'm cooking and I decide I'd like to try something new, I go straight for the computer. Argh! I love to learn about things all the time. However, it can get excessive. I'm sure lots of people aren't like that.... but I am. So, I decided to play it old fashion and stop being hooked up to everything. I haven't had a TV for years so that's not an issue. If I did, I'd want to watch information shows! Ha ha! (Like about the Duggar Family, John and Kate Plus 8, Baby Story, Trading Spaces, What not to wear, etc. Basically TLC.) Those shows are all ways of learning about things. So, it's good I don't have a TV at home! At first it was hard because I kept wanting to go look something up on the computer and I'd head for it. Now I just keep a list in my mind and the next time I go to the library, I remember to look it up. :D I hope all my blogging friends are doing awesome and I'm going to sit and look you guys all up soon. I miss you guys too! Merry CHRISTmas!

Library Haven

Getting rid of my internet has been wonderful. I love it! Let me count the ways:

-My house stays clean! (Huuuuge bonus right there)
-I get to visit the library once a week to use their computer. (Plus check out a good book)
-Did I mention that my library has a cafe where I can sip coffee and be on their computer?
-My husband and I play boardgames together now.
-I don't have to reply to emails everyday.
-I tend to look forward to phone calls now when before I felt "chased down".
-I look forward to being more involved in ministry now.
-I can read my bible and pray in the morning rather than feel that pull to check my email first.
-There is no "dangers" that my family could fall into while being on the internet. It's scary what my boys stumbled upon by accident one day while I was right there. By the time I could shut it off, it was too late, their little minds had been violated.

I could go on and on! I don't think I'm going back. "Killing my internet" has been the coolest decision we have made in quite some time.

I'm sitting at the library in their awesome Cafe using the free computer while sipping my morning coffee. My kids love it here because they have kid computers downstairs where they are monitored carefully and I can hang out close by in the toddler play area. My girls can play with toys while my husband checks out books. It's just a great place. :D

"Christmas"!

That's what Ivy said as soon as she saw the first Christmas lights go up. "Christmas"! We will definitely have a smaller Christmas this year but I am so incredibly grateful that we have each other and most importantly our hearts are right with God. Material things are not what matters most, but our Lord Jesus and each other. This year, I really feel the importance of putting souls first. Not "buying, buying, buying". I feel like I am waking up out of a deep slumber. Thinking only of myself and what I can buy next. I pray that my little ones can understand the importance of the real meaning of Christmas and what critical times we are in. There are "hallowed walls" being built made up of false promises, but Christians know better than to be seduced. Hopefully. I think slowly people are waking up to what really counts. Our hearts before God, and family. Careers, money, cars, fame, material things, they all are temporary and it is like feeling a bag with holes in it. It doesn't all really matter. When my kids shout "Christmas", I hope they know it's more than being about "Santa" and "toys". :D

My Internet

You know, I decided to shut off our internet since it seems to be on a lot. So, it has actually been very fun! My hubby and I play board games almost every night, if we are not at church or visiting friends. Yesterday we hung up Christmas lights, put up the tree and decorated the house. It's been great! So any blogging I do or emailing is done at the library. :D Since I love the library, it works out great. We don't have a TV either so we don't waste time on that. I love all the time we having together as a family. And...oh goodness! My house is always clean now! Ha ha! I will share some pictures soon of our fun decorating stuff.