Wednesday, October 27, 2010

FALL Family Hoe Down


Last night at the girl's school we had the "Fall Family Hoe Down". There was a hayless hay ride, petting zoo, pumpkin pie eating contest, cotton candy, snow cones, popcorn, a cake walk, etc. The kids had a lot of fun. When we had our PTA Board Meeting I volunteered to help with the decorations for the "Pumpkin Patch" we were going to have. So I bought the scarecrow pictured above and Paul and I got together and made the pumpkin patch sign. Paul cut the wood and arrow for me. I painted the arrow, letters and picture. We had fun making it. We were so happy with how it turned out that we are planning on making more in the future. Our PTA Vice Pres. asked me how much I would charge to make him one. I told him he could go ahead and buy the one we had there and asked him how much he would pay for something like that. He told me $20.00 and ended up buying the sign from me. I really didn't expect to sell our sign last night. Our VP does a pumpkin patch with his family at their home on Halloween and wanted the sign to have for his patch each year.

Monday Eve Pumpkin Carving





Monday afternoon Nicole came home with a BIG surprise from school....a PUMPKIN. Her class had a guessing contest and she WON. The children had to guess how many pumpkin seeds were inside the pumpkin and she guessed 350 which was the closest guess to the correct amount of 390 something. Since she was the closest she got to bring home the pumpkin. So we carved her prize on Monday night. The kids had FUN!!



Green Meadows Petting Farm










On Monday I was able to go with Michelle's 1st grade class to Green Meadows Petting Farm. We had so much fun! The children were able to pet baby chicks, baby ducks, big ducks, goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits, guinea pigs, milk a cow, etc. They went on pony rides, a train ride, and a hay ride. At the end everyone who came was able to pick a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. It was a FUN day! By the end of the trip, as you can see above, I felt like I could crawl into bed and take a nap. :)

Over the Weekend

We had a really FUN weekend past! The girls got to spend Friday night over at their cousin Audrey's house for her 8th birthday and WE made some new friends, the Hoggard Family. We had a nice dinner and nice time with Keith, Angela, and Carson. Our boys played so well together too. We hope to get together with them again real soon.
This past weekend we were also able to go to our niece, Audrey's baptism. She looked so PRETTY! WE love being able to get together with family for these special events. It was a nice Saturday afternoon/evening in Daytona.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

My Life As a Mother, Wife, Cook, Janitor, etc. :) or in other words I am needing to RAMBLE...Hope it makes sense

I am up so early in the morning. Can't sleep and have so much running through my brain. If you choose to read on go right ahead. This is more for my benefit and may not make much sense.............Yesterday was one of those days when I thought I would lose my mind. The girls are in school during the days and the boys are home with me. I love my children to pieces, but they can also drive me mad. In the morning I had to go purchase some things. The store that we went to has lots of drawers and as the woman was helping me with my purchase my boys preceded to open and SLAM every drawer in the place. I was trying to carry things and run after my 4 year old and 2 year old. When I entered the dressing area with them, they both started to scream and cry saying they wanted to get out. I was in the middle of changing while they were trying to open the door on me. The story goes on. What should have been a 20 minute trip ended up being an hour trip. I wanted to SCREAM!!!
I have days where I feel happy and I have days where I feel down and don't get much accomplished. So those of you who have been to my home on a regular basis know that it is far from perfect (the way that I would like it to be :) ). I am working towards that perfection though. I believe that there is an importance in having order in my home. A good portion of the time it can look like a hurricane went through it. On occasion there is organization and when there is I am so very happy and stress relieved. When it is upside down I want to pull my hair out and scream and I become less of the mother I would like to be. Life for me, like all of us, is full of daily struggles. But on rare ocassion I soak in those blissful days that are so few and far between. Those days when my children listen right away, when every room in the house has order, when everyone's clothes are put away, when I have dinner ready at a decent hour (preferrably before 7:00). I really believe that our thoughts have a lot to do with the happy state we could be in. Therefore, instead of getting frustrated about the amount of laundry I have to do for 6 people I have been training myself to think more positive about it. To try and love every minute of it. To realize that my children will grow up faster than I realize. You might think I am crazy, but laundry is starting not to be a bother to me. It is something that brings me joy and satisfaction now. Almost to the point that I think one day I will miss doing laundry for the masses. Did I just say what I think I said? :)
Now if I can just get a grip on the rest of my home and be more positive about it. I am starting a project right now where I am taking on each room in the house. This project will probably take me a couple of months. I am working on purging and simplifying. For example when my grandmother past away, I received alot of her yarn she used for knitting, etc. and thought I would take on that hobby as she did. A year has past and I have not made one single thing. So I have decided that I will donate the yarn to maybe a nursing home or hospital or something, somewhere where it can bring enjoyment to someone instead of letting it sit in my closet and doing nothing with it. One day when I really take on that type of project I will buy yarn.
I am so far from perfect and know that I can't be, but have this perfect image in my mind of who I want to be and the potential I know I have. Maybe if I stop being so hard on myself my home will fall into place and so will life. I truly love being a mother and wife. I am just plagued with negative thinking. I took on the laundry battle and WON. Now for the rest of my life and home. One day at a time, changing the way I think and do things. That is what it is going to take.

Monday, October 18, 2010

FALL and Our Weekend










Matthew and Ana :)

Have I ever mentioned that FALL is my favorite time of the year. I LOVE the changing colors, the cool crisp air, pumpkin patches, corn fields/mazes, the holidays (especially THANKSGIVING...It is my favorite meal of the year :)......I LOVE cooking, baking, AND eating.)
I stock up on Hot Chocolate, Apple Cider, Marshmallows, and graham crackers. AND my absolute favorite.....SPENDING TIME WITH FAMILY.
This weekend we were able to spend some time with family because our nephew, Matthew, got married to his beautiful bride Ana (another Latina in the FAM-YEAH!!) Can I just say that OUR nephew and my husband Paul have GREAT taste :). My sister-in-law Marilyn did a beautiful job with the reception. I have never seen the gym area in one of our churches look more beautiful. I had our camera already to go, but left it at home and we were already in Tampa. So, I am hoping that the family will start sending pics of the Open House here in Florida so I can post them.
It was a wonderful weekend!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

A Little Time for some Fall Creativity

It seems like it is not very often that I get a chance to be a little creative. When I do get the chance I feel GREAT! I had a few moments this past Saturday Morning to add to my Fall Decor. Below are the things I did. Very Simple and Easy! The popcorn idea I got from another person's website....I wish I could remember who, but I thought it was FUN. My children have loved it. They are depleating the stash very quickly. I will post the rest of my Fall Decor later.
ENJOY!!





A Weekend Past

BEWARE....the pictures you about to see may raise the stress levels of some mothers (I know they did mine) :). Please proceed with caution!






I realized that I had not done a post about the first weekend in October. We had such a wonderful weekend. Our church had its General Conference and we were spiritually fed from Saturday through Sunday. I didn't want it to end. We started off the weekend washing our car all together as a family and ate some YUMMY food. It was a wonderful family filled weekend....minus the aftermath. The pictures ABOVE show how the children had free roam of the house and they also show that I took a BREAK :)!


The children had so much FUN


Then Blaine decided he would just soak in the bucket for a little while. He had so much FUN in there.
The children raced leaves that they had named down the drain. It was too fun to watch.
I had made a bunch of chicken salad, a fruit salad, and a pasta and cheese salad the day before. So we had some good, already prepared food for our laid back weekend.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Oh What a Celebration!

This past weekend could not have been more enjoyable. We were surrounded with family, good friends, and our little girl's birthday celebration. We had told Michelle that she could only invite 2 friends for her birthday (next year will be her big party when she gets baptized). She has 2 very good friends at school, Jasmine and Kyndall. Jasmine could not make it and Michelle was devastated worried that Kyndall might not be able to come. We told her not to worry that she could invite another person so she chose a friend of hers from church, Samara. So everything was okay again. She had 2 friends coming, her Mima, her Papa, and her Uncle Chris. We had a lot of FUN celebrating Saturday afternoon. We all enjoyed lemonade, kettelcorn, gumballs, and chocolate cake. The children ran around the backyard playing and Michelle enjoyed opening her gifts. We are so happy she had such a wonderful day!



ICE COLD LEMONADE!!!

The birthday girl with a very bright mid day sun in her eyes.
Some of our little group putting their party hats on.
Kyndall and her beautiful Mom and little sister.
MMMMmmmm CANDY!!!

Chocolate Lovers Delight Cake from Publix--did I mention how good it was? Michelle saw this cake a few months back and knew she wanted it for her birthday.

Blowing out her candles. There is a cute story to this, but it can only be seen on video. Maybe I'll figure out how to post it on here.


She was sooooo happy the whole day!!
Daddy cutting the cake!!

OPENING GIFTS

Tison enjoying his gumballs. (I absolutely LOVE his dimple:))

Blaine's 1st piece of gum....a gum ball.....one after the other.....and he did spit them all out.

Mima reading Michelle's card