Looking back I notices that I never posted our Halloween costume pics!!!



Little Bo Peep..... ..has lost her sheep!!!
Flame On!!

My All-Stars!!!

Here is my little blond cheerleader!! The funny thing about her cheering is that from the time she was 2 years old we have dubbed her as the "blond cheerleader" type. She is easy going, endlessly happy, giggly, sweet, carefree and yes sometimes a little...well BLOND! I wouldn't have it any other way though, she has such a gentle sweet spirit. To be around her is to want to hold her or tickle her or listen to endless chatter (and yes it is endless)! She is only 4 years old, but because she is HSed (and does a K level curriculum) she was allowed on the team!! So notice how small she looks!
Here is pic of Carson getting his head in the game (pardon the HSM pun hehe)! He is so funny because he LOVES running back down the court, he LOVES dribbling the ball down, he LOVES passing the ball off as soon as possible!!! He freaks when he gets to the mass of people and gets rid of the ball as quickly as possible (yes even if to the other team!!) He is very short (like shorter than girls 2 years younger than himself!!) He was guarding the tallest boy on the other team and he still talking about it!! With Upwards it is a Christian org. so they have prayer, devotion, memory verses and they receive a star at each practice and each game and this game he got the star for Best Defense (on the tall kid!), last game was Best Effort.
This was a cool action shot! Maddee's stars were for Christlikeness and Most Spirit!!

Plymouth Pockets

Here are some pics from our Plymouth unit we have been working on. This first pocket is Coming to the New World. Each pocket has different activities, some activities I let all three children complete, if it includes a lot of writing Carson does it and the girls like to do the coloring and pasting. We also do a word wall. Each pocket has 4 vocabulary words that the children learn and we have reviewed each week.

This was soo sweet!! Each of the children colored a storage trunk and on the inside were three things they would have taken with them to the New World. Below is Carson's....
toys, clothes, game boy, books and his SISTERS!!! How sweet is that???????

Madelyn shows you the Mayflower Compact, and the rest of the New World Pocket.
Building a Village Pocket
Home Sweet Home Pocket-The kids made a diorama of the keeping room.

Okay I know it seems weird to be studying Pilgrims in January, so let me explain! We love Evan-Moor Pockets. We began the Plymouth Pockets in November so we could line them up with Thanksgiving...so we are still finishing this unit up. The children have learned so much!! I like digging deeper into a subject and stretching it out. I know the way I learned most Science and History subjects was more of a "dip off the top"..we skimmed through the same topics each year...and it never felt thorough. Some refer to this as the spiral approach (think about plants, water cycle etc) so I am trying to lean a bit more into the immersion approach.

More pics to follow....

Here are a few pics from my cousin Katie's boyfriends graduation party. We are SOOO proud of him! He graduated with a degree in business management from University of Louisville. I am pretty sure he is the first in his family to graduate collage...how awesome!!

This first pic of me and my girls!!! The funny thing with this pic was that I was posing with my older daughter Madelyn and Annie saw us together.....and ran and jumped up in the chair with us!!!

Here I am with my dear hubby, not the best picture of either of us, but I take what I can get! It took some doing just to get him with me and mom to snap the pic...notice the un-centeredness!!!HEHE
Here is my dear Katie! I never had a sister and was actually the only cousin, grandchild etc until she was born. I was about 9 years old and I have adored her ever since! My first daughter was named after her. Her full name is Kathryn Ann-Elizabeth and my daughter is Madelyn Ann-Elizabeth!! Here she is with John and Madelyn of course!

Mom! I am calling the police...can I really do that???

This was Carson's reaction after watching American Idol tonight! He wanted to call the police on Simon!! He said "Mom he is the meanest meany in the world! If I met him I would punch him in the nose for hurting peoples hearts like he does!"

It was so sweet, that's my boy! Awwwwhhhhh!!

Here are a few of my recent pages (nothing spectatular in comparision to Teaques) my goal is to begin my 2008 album by February. For 2007 I have been working in all 4 albums simutaneously (I know I sound nuts!) and I am to August in all of them!! So if I can keep sneaking off to the basement I should be able to finish up!!




The black & red spread title is Daddy Daughter Day. They went to a Louisville Football game and got 2 footballs signed by all the players. Paul said it was so cute because the players all melted when she looked at tehm with her big blue eyes holding the football!Ahhhhh!









I need a title for this one (so please help if you have any ideas..ahem TQ!!) The paper collection is a hostess set from Stampin' Up!

Sweet moments...

Teaque these are for you! We always talk about the sweet moments my children have, so sideways and all I thought you would appreciate them! These are pics of the kids as they exchanged gifts for one another. We let them each choose a $1 item from the dollar tree for each sibling. It was so cute because they actually put thought into each gift. They were much more excited about seeing the gift they bought getting opened..versus opening what they got!!! We will make this a yearly tradition for sure! They each jumped up and down and hugged and screamed with delight!!


The older two also each bought me a gift. It was so sweet because Carson got me colored index cards, "because I always use your paper mommy, I wanted to make sure you had enough...and I got the pretty colors!"

Madelyn chose me a box of stickers...."so you can use them in your scrapbook to decorate the pages". It was SOO SWEET!

Here are some pics from the rodeo Friday night. I had fun playing with my new lense, although the lighting was the tricky part!!

Okay ...not her best picture but again she was not in the mood!!! If you notice this pic has a blue tone..ughghgh For some reason when my camera is on P mode I get this blue tone...Cannon says it is the WB, but not figured out how to fix it yet!!

My dear Annastyn was an exceptional "model" today, usually Madelyn is my "people pleaser, make mommy happy, likes to be photographed etc".....so thank goodness my other child was in the mood! I was working on catchlight from the snow on the ground. It of course is not perfect but decent.