Happy New Year's Eve!!!

We are suppose to go to some friends tonight, but Anna woke up with a little bit of a cough and runny nose yesterday morning so plans are still up in the air. I started immediately on the medicine...she has never ran a fever or anything and seems to be feeling fine this morning other than the occasional cough and "my nose is running out" comment. I think it is just allergies but I don't want to be the parent that my child got the other kids sick especially with it being close to school starting back up. Luckily, if we do end up going these friends live just a couple of miles from us so we won't have to worry about traveling far and dealing with everyone being out on the roads.
So...whatever your plans are I hope everyone has a Happy New Year and most importantly is SAFE!!!

WW: Making Cookies with Daddy!!!

Merry Christmas

from our family to yours!!!

Celtic Woman-O Holy Night!!!

WW: Meeting Santa!!!

Sneak Peek!!!

I know I have neglected the blog for a few days, but have been busy trying to get things around for Christmas. We are having Bob's family her on Saturday night and mine on Christmas Day...so that means getting everything cleaned up and projects finished!

Here is a sneak peek at what I have been up to the last two days...

More to come!!!

Thanksgiving 2009

We actually didn't have our family Thanksgiving until Saturday at our house! My mom works third shift so time she would get home and we would do Thanksgiving on Thursday and then she has to go to work again Thursday night it wouldn't leave much time for her to sleep so we usually just do it the Saturday after so that we aren't rushed and mom gets some sleep!

So, on Thanksgiving we went into some friends that we have had since High Schools house for lunch and had Thanksgiving with them and his family. They fried a turkey, which I had never had but was wanting to try and it was delicious and all the fixings! Everyone brought things so there was plenty of yummy food to go around.

Then on Saturday it was my mom, twin sister, brother, my grandparents, Bob's grandma, and us! My mom did the Turkey, Gravy made after she got to my house, and a frozen Cranberry Salad, my sister made Sweet Potatoes and a Green Bean Casserole, but not your typical GB Casserole, my grandma made desserts that consisted of a Pecan Pie, Cocunut Cream Pie, and a Strawberry Rhuburb and brought frozen home grown corn, Bob's grandma made homemade rolls and brought fruit cake, and I did the ham, Mashed Potatoes, Stuffing and a Pumpkin Cheesecake!!! For the most part this is what our traditional Thanksgiving is every year and it is sooo yummy!!! It is alot of food but we all divide the leftovers up and then we have meals for a few days or put it in the freezer. Then after lunch is over with the girls usually do the dishes, but this year we made little brother get in on the action and help dry dishes...lol! He thought he could get out of it by popping us with the towl...lol, but instead he just got in trouble...ha ha! Oh the good ole days!!! Then after everything is divided up and and the mess is cleaned up we sit around and chat and sample on the desserts as we want!

I always enjoy having family get togethers and I think a good time was had by all!

This is the only pictures that I got for Thanksgiving! I forgot to take my camera on Thanksgiving and I was to busy eating and enjoying time with family on Saturday and didn't really think to take any pictures! These pictures were taken Saturday night of Anna in her new outfit that Grandma got her! I thought it the colors and the little leaves on the outfit were just right for Thanksgiving! The barrette in her hair which is hard to see in the pictures is a pumpkin that I made.

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and now I am ready for Christmas!!!

Best Christmas Lights Display

I have seen this one before! How I would LOOOVE to do something like this on our house...lol!!!

Amazing Grace Techno - Computer Controlled Christmas Lights from Richard Holdman on Vimeo.

Straight No Chaser

I received this as an email today and thought I would share! I thought they were pretty good. Make sure and check out some of there other stuff...I thought it was good also!!! Enjoy!

New Blog!!!

I started a new blog that is going to be for my crafting/hobbies! I decided to start a seperate blog so that I had a spot that was just for "journaling" family stuff and one strictly for "journaling" projects. I am just getting that blog up and going so bare with me while I go back through my pictures and projects to get past stuff posted and I have several new ideas in the works. You can find a link to my new blog The Country Girl Crafts on the right side bar. Hope you Enjoy!!!

WW: Tea Party!!!

Sugar Doll Award

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! I am now playing catch up on my blog reading and on my blog.

I received the Sugar Doll Award from a fellow mommy blogger Ginger. She is a loving, caring, and a very involved army wife and mommy to 1 beautiful daughter and has a son on the way in February! Her blog is one that I check on a regular basis and enjoy. Go check it out!!! Thank you very much Ginger for this sweet award and for thinking of me.

The rules are to write 10 things you are Thankful for.

I am Thankful For...

1.That I know the Lord. I have gotten away from him in the past, but since the birth of our beautiful daughter I have brought him back in my life. Even when I doubted him he was always there and he has shown that.

2. My loving husband. I married my best friend and even though we have some trying times I wouldn't change it for the world.

3. For my beautiful, but ornery daughter. We waited 4 LONG years for her and now I don't know what I would do without her.

4. For our health.

5. For my mom. Even though we have had our differences she is always there when I need her the most.

6. For my twin sister and my brother. I know that I can always turn to them also and they have always been there.

7. For our extended family that have always been supportive and there when needed.

8. My true friends that are there for the good, bad, and the fun.

9. For everything that I have...house, food, vehicles, etc. I am thankful because during this time I know that there are several that don't have much or anything.

10. Life. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Now I am going to tag these 2 blog friends~They have alot to be Thankful For this year.

momments with love~http://momentswithlove.blogspot.com/
home...Hands full, HEARTS full, Quiver full!~http://www.kellerfamilyof9.com/

Congratulations!!!

Chance to Win A Gypsy!!!

The Gypsy Spot is a newer blog and they host Gypsy Challenges and are trying to get the word out to get more people to come visit there blog and create! In doing this they are giving away a Gypsy (retail value $299.99)!!! So go visit their blog and Good Luck!

Fall Festival 2009

Our home town, which is only like 10-15 min. from where we live now host a Fall Festival every year from Friday-Sunday! The Fall Fest usually consists of Friday: City Wide Garage Sales, Friday Night Football, Wrist bands for Ride-A- Rama, some kind of "teen dance", of course all the vendors, and other little events through out the day and evening. Saturday: Several events going on through out the day and evening, Parade, craft fair, carnival, vendors, and the "Street Dance", which this year was a Local that has made it pretty big Logan Mize!!! Sunday: A local church will have worship in the park, ice cream social, and rewards handed out for all the events throughout the weekend. It is usually the first weekend in September but this year they moved it to October 23-25. Some of the reasons I heard for this change was because here in KS it is usually still pretty warm if not hot the first part of Sept., that date also falls on the opening weekend of the State Fair, and they wanted to book a different carnival and they weren't available until the later date. Anyways, it ended up being a beautiful day!!! It had been freezing all week and garage selling to say the least was a little chilly!

The parade started @ 10 and by then the sun was shining and there was just a little breeze. We actually got by with wearing just our sweatshirts! My twin sister came for the parade also and Anna loved it! After the parade I had told a friend that I would help with registration and stats for the Soap Box Derby event again, so we headed off the get set up for that. After that was over we ended just heading home to get some lunch and Anna was in need of a nap!

Bob and I don't usually go anywhere to often that we don't take Anna with us, but this night my mom had offered to watch Anna so that we could go into the "Street Dance" for awhile and seeing how it didn't even start till 8 we wouldn't of been able to stay long if Anna would of went. So, we went in and grabbed supper at one of the pizza places there in town and then had a nice night with some friends. Fall Fest is always a nice time to catch up with old friends! It seems like that is a time when people that are around this area come home!

Here are a few pictures that I got at the parade! I wasn't able to get any pictures of the Soap Box Derby because I was to busy trying to get people signed in, keeping track of times and making sure I didn't mess up the bracket!!!

*Anna getting candy!*
*Friend from high school and her son, my twin sister, Anna and me-This picture was taken on my friends camera phone...not a very good picture of me or Anna (not sure what she was looking at)!*

WW: First Ice Cream Cone!!!

Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader-Halloween 2009

We started off the evening by going to one of my sister-in-laws to drop off my nephews candy buckets...I try to do something small for the little ones every year and then we went by grammy's to show her Anna's costume and then we headed into town. A neighboring town, actually the town I grew up in and the town were Bob and I went to school about 10-15 minutes from where we live do a Trick-or-Treat Street. Downtown they have a Hamburger and Hot dog feed complete with chips and a drink for donations starting @ 5:30 and a parade from the school down the street to downtown, which we missed because we were running a little behind. Lets just say when mommy says you might want to lay down and take a nap because we are going to have a busy evening you might want to take my word for it! When it came time to get dressed Anna was getting sleepy and was fighting to get dressed! But after we got dressed and she realized what we were going to do she was all better...good thing or it might have been and even longer night!!!

After dinner from 6-7:30 all the businesses downtown and even some from around the rest of town line the streets and you walk down each side of the street and get your goodies! One of the local banks was doing a "Hunted Cellar" in the basement of the bank and we walked through it. It was set up pretty good! It was really dark and had strobe lights going and it was almost like a maze and there were people jumping out at you and you had no clue they were even there! I ended up in front of Bob and Anna and Anna was walking with Bob so I couldn't see her reaction, but I never heard her yell or anything. When we got done I asked Bob if she got scared and he said no that she just looked at them weird and after the first one she kept looking all over trying to find more and watch for them. I asked her if she liked it and she said "yes and it was scary"...lol!!!

After leaving we went to one of the churches in town and did there Trunk-or-Treat, which there is like 3 churches that do them but Anna's bucket was so full we decided to skip the rest. We still needed to go by a couple of friends houses, so by the time we hit those her bucket was completely full.

We hung out at one of our friends house for a little bit and Anna helped pass out candy and it was so cute because every kid that came to the door she would chat with them and ask about there costume and then she would tell me when she was done that "that was her friend!!!" After we left there we went by another sister-in-laws house to drop off my nephews candy buckets that I made and then hit my brother-in-laws house on the way home!

All in all we had a good night and Anna had fun and that is all that matters!!! We usually go to the pumpkin patch, but with the weather here and just the way things worked out we never made it, but my brother-in-law had some pumpkins that he planted in his garden this year and sent a small one home with Anna, so she was thrilled and at this age she didn't really know different!

I took a few pictures...sorry my camera has been acting up lately and after it starts getting dark it really does some funky things! Really need a new camera! I know a friend of ours took some pictures so when I get those pictures I will do a little update! But for now you get the point...

*Halloween buckets I made*

*Anna and Grammy*

*Trick-or-Treat!!!*

*Daddy and Anna Trick-or-Treating*


*Downtown-This was @ the end of the night when the crowd was thinning out! This was a sea of people @ the beginning of the night, but didn't get a picture!*

L/O Family Reunion 2009

October 9-11, 2009 was the family reunion for my Bob 's mom side of the family! It was the first reunion in about 17 years I am told. A little info: Bob's mom passed away in 1997 of breast cancer, which is who are daughter is named after! Well...her first name and her middle name is after me and my great-grandma! We had names decided from the very beginning whether it was a boy or a girl...sometime I will have to explain that and how Bob and I started dating, even though we went to school together!

OK back to the point of this post...sorry! Bob's grandma passed away in 2006 and Bob's aunt passed away just a few months ago. With the passing of Bob's mom and aunt it leaves 1 sister and 2 brothers and unfortunately it took a funeral for me to meet one of his uncles and some more extended family and for Bob's family to see each other after several several years. But that day brought about the decision to have a family reunion that got scheduled and held in a few short months by one of my sister-in-laws!!!


We rented a house in the town that we live...this house was a doctors house located outside of town in the country on several acres and a pond and when it sold the people that bought it turned it into a "Lodge" and rent it out for events! It worked out very well because it is huge and has a very open floor plan and we had several coming from out of town and this gave more time for visiting and hanging out together verses everyone having to rent hotel rooms and be split up! It has like 4 or 5 rooms but with all the open room we could very well put down air mattresses if needed...which they supply for a little extra fee! Talking about things they supply that are nice and we didn't have to worry about having to rent was table and chairs (had enough tables and chairs set up for like 75-100 people and there were still more in the storage room if that gives you a clue how much they supply) and pretty much anything we could think of...it is set up just like a house with all your appliances including washer and dryer and any kitchen utensil you could possibly need for a weekend! They also provide eggs, bacon, and milk for the weekend! They also had a ping pong table downstairs for the kids to play! I believe we ended up having like 70 some people show up. We had planned on about 100 some but with work, illness going around, and other last minute obligations I think we had a really great turn out!!!


Friday night we went down to the Lodge and we had pizza and visited with the family that had arrived from Texas...we had decided not to stay at the "Lodge" because we didn't live to far away and we had some other events that we were trying to fit in also...busy weekend!!! Saturday was the main get together at noon with a potluck dinner consisting of everyone bringing a main and a side and I think it worked out really well and there was more than enough food...I brought BBQ meatballs and a family favorite PePe Salad, or I have also heard it called frog eye salad! Saturday night we just had leftovers and I had brought loaves of bread for Sandwich stuff for anyone that was still there. Then on Sunday morning we got up went to church and then went back out and did some more visiting, had some more leftovers, said goodbye to everyone that was traveling back to Texas, cleaned everything up, and then came home caught the end of the KC Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys game and just relaxed after a long but enjoyable weekend...by the way the Cowboys won in overtime...Go Cowboys!!!


Here are a few pictures...didn't get very many I kinda forgot...to busy chatting!!!

WW: Family Picture!!!

Two Year Old!!!

This is what I found after I walked into the bathroom after Anna was in going potty...




Guess I should have none better than trust a two year old to go potty by herself!!! Usually she does just fine...lol!

*after I took the other pictures Anna decided she needed to get her camera and take a picture also!*

What Happened to Fall...

This is what the weather in my area has looked like.







It has been drizzling and about 48 degrees the last couple of days! I don't like it...I want my Fall weather, I am not ready for winter yet!!!

WW: Daddy's Hand

I Know, I Know...

OK...I know I said before that I would be back soon...well life has just been happening! I have several posts in mind, but I just haven't had time to sit down and write them! I am working on getting some things done such as a lot of cleaning, organizing, and yard work since it has been absolutely gorgeous here! I hope to have it all finished up in the next couple of days and then I plan on getting caught up here too and not feeling guilty about it because I have other stuff that needs to be done! Also, I am making some changes to my blog so hopefully there will be no problems!!! Thanks for your patience and I promise I will be back soon!!!

WW: Playing in the Hay!!!

WW: Walking in the Rain!!!

MIA!!!

I have been MIA!!! I have lots of updates that I need to get posted like...4th of July, Harvest, Summer Updates, and looking back I realized I never posted Easter...so we will see I may do a very belated post on our Easter just for my memory...lol!!! But, this will probably have to wait until after this weekend as I am trying to get things done for our 10 year Class reunion for Saturday!!! It is hard to believe we have been out of high school for 10 years...it doesn't seem like that long and some days it seems longer...lol! Then I will have to blog about that...the list just keeps getting longer and longer...

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Paulin...

A is a friend that we went to high school with. He got married on Saturday, June 27, 2009 to S Lehman and DH was the Best man! So...we headed to Girard on Friday, June 26, 2009 for rehearsal. We were suppose to leave shortly after lunch, but that turned into 2:30 due to DH and his brother, M trying to plant.

So, we were off and made a hurried trip down! Girard is a small farm town so the closest place that has any hotels is in Pittsburg, which is a college town! We originally were planning on getting there a little early so that we could get checked in, change our clothes and have time for DD to run around for a little bit after riding 3 hours before going to the rehearsal and then rehearsal dinner afterwards. Plans changed seeing how we didn't end up leaving until later and we reached Pittsburg a little after 5:30 and it was about 15 min. or so back to Girard and DD and I still needed to change our clothes and rehearsal started at 6:00. A was still at the hotel with his parents so he waited for DH and DH rode back with him while DD and I got checked in and changed our clothes and then we headed to rehearsal a little bit later.

Rehearsal went good and then we went to dinner at Rockin K which was very good. The place was kinda in the middle of nowhere and it reminded me of a old saloon that you would see on those old country western movies. Very neat, unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the rehearsal or dinner. Dinner consisted of BBQ, salad, pickled beets, corn, and HUGE potatoes with the fixins...delicious!

After returning to Pittsburg after the rehearsal DH and I took DD swimming for a little bit. We didn't have much time because under 18 was only allowed in the pool until 10 and it was about 9:30 time we got back to the hotel, but oh well DD still had fun until it was time to get out. Then she pouted some because she didn't understand why she had to get out while other people were still in!!! After swimming we went back up to our room while DH went for a little bit to hang out with another friend from high school that came down for the wedding also and A while I got DD to bed. JR and his family happened to have a room at a Motel across the street from ours.

*Hi Mommy!!!*

*DD pouting*

The next morning we got up and got around and went down to eat breakfast. Shortly after JR took DH back to Girard because he had to be there at 10:30 for pictures and the wedding didn't start until 2:00 and we didn't have to check out until 12:30, so DD and I stayed at the hotel and DD took a nap while I got around. I knew if we went with DH at 10:30 that DD would be done for by the time 2:00 came around...she's two!!! So, dd and I checked out at 12:30 and slowly headed back to Girard for the wedding.

The wedding was very nice!!! DD did ok...she just didn't understand why she couldn't go see Daddy he was after all just standing up front...lol! She kept telling there's Daddy, I go see Daddy and then would try to crawl under the pew to go see him, but we made it threw without any major blow ups!!! The reception followed at a hall just around the corner.

*Pictures from the Reception*

*DD and S twirling*

*JR, A, and DH*

*DD and Daddy*

After the reception which ended at 6:00 we headed home! About halfway home we ran into a storm that consisted of heavy rain and wind and some hail. After we drove out of that it was smooth sailing and we made it home around 9:00.

*The aftermath of the storm*

*DD on the way home...plum tuckered out*

It was a busy but nice couple of days and DD and I spent Sunday recuperating while DH was back at planting again.

Congratulations A and S!!!