Wordless Wednesday

My Montage 12/26/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

Christmas 2010

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Our Week In Review....

It's Monday and Daddy has work off. We're having a lazy day. Watching Hallmark Christmas movies and getting some wrapping done. I thought I'd catch up on my blog.
Here's our week in review....
We took Daniel Boone, his siblings and Finley's ugly baby to pick out a tree.

The girls wanted a flocked tree and the boys wanted just a plain green one. We thought about getting half the tree flocked and leave the other half. Daddy said No. I thought it would be original and would make everyone happy.
Next year girls will get their way!
We will get a flocked tree:)
We loaded our tree on our clown car. Ugh, this car has got to go! It's so small for us, but we needed it for the road trip. I'm hoping we can trade it in this year.
I also need to get Landen some new pants....he must of thought it was going to rain that night.
That's what I get for letting the kids dress themselves.

Last weekend we had these fun people stay the night at our house!

Minus a few big kids...but we still had a full house! These are friends from WA. We call them the Big "D" family.They have a dozen kids. I'm not exaggerating when I say dozen. Really, they have 12 kids! They are on their way to Texas from WA. We are one of their stops along the way. Fun times! Justin and I really look up to Laurel and Jim. We spent most of our time talking about raising kids. Laurel has a ministry site and Jim is a pastor on one of the islands in WA. They are asked to speak at many conventions and church retreats etc...but we got them to spend the night at our house.hahaha What a blessing!

The first night we had Pizza and salad. Why did I think only 5 pizzas would be enough!???
For breakfast we did a buffet style. I just set out bagels, cereal, breads and scrambled eggs and told everyone to just help themselves....
Farrah got caught red handed digging into the coffee cake!

For lunch we had pulled pork sandwiches and macaroni salad. The kids played football and ran around outside before they had to get back into the big 15 passenger van headed to Houston. Jim and Laurel's son was getting married. The first of their kids to get married!

We enjoyed our visit...and guess what? They need a place to stay on their way back home....
So we get them again!
By the time I got all the towels, sheets and dishes washed from their 1st stay they are already headed back.....but we don't mind at all...we are honored and excited to have them!

Boys against girls again....
Just like we couldn't decide on a tree, we couldn't decide on a movie.
So, the girls went to see Tangled and the boys went to see Narnia.

The boys loved Narnia and us girls loved Tangled! Now the boys actually want to see Tangled and us girls want to see Narnia. We will have to wait until it comes out on video.

I gave Farrah one of her Christmas presents early...the costume and wig.
She was in heaven!!!!!!!!

She danced around and flung her pretty hair.....

The boys movie started 20 minutes before ours. They didn't get snacks but us girls couldn't watch a movie without popcorn and candy! So when they were gone we snuck to the concession stand. hehe
That's what they get for not letting us get a flocked tree;)

We do a major cleaning once a week. Daddy and Finley vacuum.

We made Orange clove ornaments....smells so good! Oranges are from our orange tree!

We live really close to the mountains...after school we headed up on a hunt for snow. No snow yet! Will have to go back up this week!

Baked cookies at Great Grandmas!

One of Daddy's customers gave us $100 to Outback Steakhouse.
We told the kids they could get whatever they wanted...
Austin tried ordering the $30 King Crab. We explained to him that when we told them they could order anything it didn't mean scan the menu and get the most expensive item on the menu! He was just so excited he got to order from the "adult" menu he couldn't help himself!
We enjoyed a nice dinner and thanked Daddy for all his hard work!

My nephew Colton's birthday was Saturday so we got ready to head over to my brother's. They live on a street where they have Christmas light contests. My brother won best decorated house!
The girls got dressed up for their cousins party.
I told the girls to go stand by the tree so I could take their picture.....



Austin spent the night a Great Grandma's and went Christmas caroling, while Faith spent the night at Aunt Brianna's. I only had 3 kids to get ready. Farrah actually got her hair roll brushed..which never happens. I barley have time to roll brush my hair.

Farrah loves when I roll brush her hair and tirl (curl) the ends:)
Farrah also likes to cut her little sisters hair when Mommy isn't around. And....paint the bathroom pink with nail polish. All while Mommy is trying to bake cookies for a Cookie exchange. (yes, I'm writing these down so that I can remember all of this later and laugh!)

Finley only has bangs on one side and tons of different layers all around. I can kind of hide it with big flowers. ugh! I could cry, but it's just hair!

It's memories and she's still cute!

Lil stinker!

I gave them a talk about cutting hair. I'm so glad they didn't cut off her locks. Look how long her hair is getting....She says she is trying to grow it as long as Tangled.

I can't believe Christmas is in one week.
I let the kids decorate the tree this year.....It looks SO hideous!!!! But they love it and had fun decorating so I lied and told them I loved it too. I had to leave it.
Oh, memories!!!!
Someday I will miss the messy hideous tree, the pink painted bathroom, and the bad haircuts!

Silent Night!!!!!!!

Silent Night...

Why yes, yes it is!

"Wow, you guys are good!"

Last weekend we decorated the house. The girls destroyed my mini Christmas village while I was trying to set it up had just a lovely time decorating the inside of the house...
Last year while in Virginia we visited Williamsburg. Williamsburg at Christmas is beautiful!
It inspired us to decorate with a more naturalistic style.
So we gathered what we had around the outside of our house and decorated the inside:)

While the boys hung the lights and got a good lesson on making sure you check the lights to make sure they work before hanging them!
Hehe..

We took a trip to go see Santa...FYI don't go to the ghetto mall in San Bernardino. I'll keep it at that. He fell asleep while the kids were talking to him. I played it off and told the kids he was really tired getting ready for Christmas.
Finley was scared of him, which I don't blame her. He wasn't a very convincing Santa. She cried and didn't want to sit on his lap. So Santa suggested I sit on his lap and hold Finley.
No thank you Santa.
This visit was worst than the year we took the kids to visit the Santa that couldn't speak English.
Ho. Ho. Ho. Feliz Navidad
I guess that's all he really needed to say...but he wasn't convincing AT ALL. ha!

It gave us all a good laugh and a visit the kids will never forget!
Santa fell asleep!

Landen was cool and didn't have a problem telling Santa what he wanted...
The cool look faded real fast when Santa asked if he had been a good boy.
You should of seen the look of panic across his face....

Finley ended up sitting on big brother Austin's lap and felt safe.
She asked Santa for a barbie car, barbie house, barbie clothes, barbie shoes....this was when we first saw Santa start to dose off.
Another FYI, don't go visit Santa after 5pm . Santa is over it....he's tired and could care less what you are rambling on about. He drifts in and out of sleep and just nods his head.

Landen asked for a gun. I think that's when Santa woke up with wide eyes.


If Santa wasn't sleeping he would of heard that Landen wanted the Nerf N Strike Recon CS-6 not the Stampede ECs or the Spectre Rev-5 but the CS-6 Blaster.
Got that Santa?!

Finley should of asked for socks that fit:)
Actually, all the kids should of asked for socks. They don't need more toys just socks;)

Farrah ran right up to Santa and gave him a big hug. Sat right down on his lap and started putting in her requests.
Listen here Santa...
I want need a princess bike with the baby carrier on it so I can carry my babies. I want need the princess helmet to match....she went on and on about the stuff she needs....

Faith...oh sweet Faith. She just asked for a Snuggie.
And in her sweet voice...." maybe a reading light in my stocking if it wouldn't be too much."
I told her, "Faith honey, your 9 years old not 69!"
That's what she wants more than anything...

Ok. won't argue that:)

A couple months ago Faith found out about Santa. Faith has been in lovvvve with Santa. Not just a December love but all year long. So much I didn't have the heart to tell her. We don't really push the Santa thing but go with it. It's fun. Well, Faith went to her Tuesday school and started talking about Santa in class. All the kids in class started laughing and making fun of her. My heart broke. We talked, hugged and I went and gave those rotten kids a piece of my mind both cried. We had a good long talk. She said, " I don't need Santa or the Tooth fairy, I have Jesus and I know he's real."
It was a great talk the two of us had.
Then a couple days later out of the blue she said, "How did you get my piano in the house and under the tree without me knowing?"

She started thinking back on past Christmases...then laughed, "Wow, you guys are good!"

After our visit with sleepy Santa we went out to dinner.

Then came home and Landen played Santa....

Ho. Ho. Ho. Have you been a good little girl?....

Then Daddy put the kids to bed while this sleepy Santa snuck out to do some late night hunting shopping.
Because, we are good like that;)

Let me bring you up to date.....

With a ton of pictures...36 to be exact!

Our school room is almost done.

Did I mention we have a fireplace in our school room:)?

Since we usually wear PJ's, tutu's or old costumes to "school" it's nice to have the fireplace on cold mornings.

Football is over:(

Actually the kids aren't in any sports at this time.

We are waiting until after the holidays. Farrah and Finley want to take Ballet. Faith wants to take ice skating. (yikes!) I want Landen to do gymnastics since he master a cart wheel at 3 and can now do a front handspring. He just wants to play football and nothing else. He can't wait to get out there with his older brother. Most days you can find them both in full pads just going at it in the backyard.

The Ducks didn't win a game all season. Finally on the last game they won!

I took a few boys home the other day after practice...and I thought I was gonna die!

stinky!!!!

They sure clean up nice:)

They ended the season with a banquet. The cheerleaders cooked for them.

We decided to have Thanksgiving at our house after all....

The kids got busy making napkin rings....

err...I mean busy making a mess.

We cleared out our sunroom and lined tables for everyone to fit.

Our thankful tree....We are all so thankful that in one year we have made a full circle.

Traveled the US and back home safe in a new house.

God is good!

The kids made hats for all the cousins....... Finley didn't like hers:(

My sister and parents drove up the night before and stayed the night.

My parents stayed in their 5th wheel. They got a good taste of how we lived the last year.

My Dad woke up and didn't realize where he was for a quick minute.

I remember doing that so many mornings...I would wake up and think, "where am I?" Oh, yes, Walmart in Maryland. LOL

The kids enjoyed helping cook....

Austin crying cutting the onions...Faith thought it was so funny!

All the lil pilgrims....

While the turkey was in the oven my sister took some family pictures of us...

Down the street from our house are these beautiful tree's....

Thanksgiving is over and now onto Christmas....

The kids performed for the senior community where my Grandparents live.

Finley my lil helper....wardrobe change.

Daddy took an hour off work to help me back stage:)

The kids had to change really fast...Daddy did a great job.

From Mary to Wiseman in seconds! Yes, I made him practice. We had many dress rehearsals at home.

They had programs made up with the kids names on them.

They got to eat a special lunch and the ladies at the park gave them stockings filled with goodies.

Watch out Donny and Marie....

I love that Austin can be a stud out on the field but will dance with his sister on stage too!

My cast!

I was so worried Landen and Farrah would forget their lines or mess up...

It turned out perfect.

It even brought tears to many of their eyes.

The kids and I prayed before the performance that we would have fun and that it would bless the people watching.

We had many people come up to us, even one lady who only has a few weeks to live.

She said she was so blessed by the kids. She doesn't have much energy but was happy she musterd up enough to come out that day and watch the kids perform.

There was about 100 people....

And what do you know, my kids love the spotlight!

They sang their little hearts out and did an amazing job!

One lady asked where they get their training. ha! She just couldn't believe they are homeschooled. Little ol' me (with no masters in education) could put this together.

I did tell her I was in SAG. ha!

And...that these two don't need training they are a natural on stage!

I couldn't be more proud!

Mary did drop baby Jesus on his head and Finely did walk out on stage picking her nose...besides that the message got across and it was a beautiful performance:)

After the play the older kids went shopping with Grandma for Christmas PJ's and the little ones went with me to model for Beary Basics again.

Farrah lives for being in front of the camera....

Can you tell? She's 3 people! Where does she get these moves?

The photographer, Stephanie said, "I thought you were a pretty conservative Mom!" ha!

I am...I guess the fur coat brought out the diva in her!

We were working with no nap too!

Farrah's famous pose...the finger to the cheek and hold.......

Finley about had it with Farrah stealing the show....She literally pushed Farrah against the wall and started doing her own poses.

Move over big sister.......I'm the next top model. ha!

They soon decided to model together:)

Beary Basics is having a 60% off sale. Head on over to their facebook page and message Stephanie. Most dresses are $20 and fur coats are $35 reg $60. While supplies last.

I hope you are all enjoying this special time of year....

We are...Clark (my name for my husband around the holidays)and the boys hung the lights last weekend. The girls and I decorated the inside. We took a trip to see Santa last night(Santa fell asleep while the kids were talking to him. I'm not kidding! Either that or he was drunk. I'm not kidding!) I got some late night shopping done. Writing out Christmas cards and getting a tree today.

Ok, I think you have had enough of us and all these pictures! Thanks for stopping by to visit the blog.