Good Intentions

I am aware that last week has come and gone and I did not update my blog as promised. I do have a good excuse though...I promise!!! Actually, right after my post last Tuesday, I ended up going to the emergency room. Several doctor appointments and a week later, I'm scheduled to have my gall bladder removed tomorrow morning.

I've spent the last few days tying up loose ends and trying to get everything ready for Christmas before my surgery.

I'll leave you with a few pictures from the last month and a promise that I will try to do better with my blogging in the new year!

Hunter & I went to the Arkansas vs. Mississppi State game with some friends (MSU fans!) Clay had to work, so Hunter was my date for the day. We had a great time!

I think he got it right!

I had to buy a new tree this year because we didn't have room for my old one. You can't really tell from the picture, but it's actually black. I know what you're thinking...but I love it! Even Clay likes it!

The boys baking cookies...how cute are they!?!

I think this was the beginning of the downslide of my diet this month!

We had some new family pictures taken for our Christmas cards this year. I had such a hard time picking...I loved them all!

Is It Tuesday Already?

So Saturday I left a post saying that I was going to get caught up on my blog that day....well, seeing as how it's already TUESDAY, I guess that didn't happen.

Seriously, I don't know what my deal is. I've just had a serious lack of blogging motivation lately.

I've been spending too much time studying for finals...Christmas shopping...helping out at the kids school...Christmas shopping...decorating...wrapping Christmas presents....did I mention Christmas shopping???

This week...I promise. It will get done!

Attention Please

Today is the day that I finally decided to catch up on my blog. Yes, I have a months worth of blogging to do in one day...but I'm going to do it.

Stay tuned....

Showin' Up the Old Men

Yep, that's what Hunter did this weekend. Opening day, he kills one at 8:00 and then another at 8:45. Not too bad....especially since Daddy or Papa didn't get one!

While they were out hunting, Ty and I hit the road and went shopping. We went to Holiday House and then I think we hit every store in the Commons! We managed to buy a few Christmas presents and the rest of the decorations for the Christmas tree (I'll have to tell you about that later...we're going to do something a little different this year). We were exhausted by the time we got home Saturday night.

This is how Ty entertains himself in the car. He takes pictures and videos with my phone. lol

Clay gave me an early Christmas present Friday night...I haven't taken any picutres of it yet, so I'll tell you all about later!

Happy Veteran's Day

Veteran's Day is a special day set aside to honor the millions of men and women who've served their country in the military. All over America people who care gather together to honor veterans, those men and women who served to protect our land, sacrificing their own dreams to preserve our nation, keeping America the land of the free for more than 200 years.

My Papa served in the military from 1943-1946 during WWII. He was a military policeman. While I have always been very proud of him, I have to stop and think on days like today, what life must have been like for him during that time. I think about all of the things he had to sacrifice in order to protect our country.

This is a picture of me and the boys with my Papa last year on Veteran's Day.

I think Veteran's Day is my Papa's favorite day of the year. He gets to dress up in his military uniform and talk and reminisce all day about his experiences in the war. And he also gets to be on t.v. Every year channel 11 goes to Ed's Bakery where my Papa and all his buddies have coffee every morning and interview them and talk about what Veteran's Day means to them. It is a great honor for him and he loves it!!!


Just an interesting side note I found:
This holiday was not always called Veterans Day, it was established in 1919 by President Woodrow Wilson as Armistice Day because World War I ended on the 11th hour of the 11th month of 1911. It wasn't until 1945 that Congress changed the name for this holiday.

How Long Has It Been?

I have become a major slacker these days in the blogging department. I have a good excuse though...I mean I AM taking 20 hours...that's 7 classes right now. It's not like I have an abundance of free time on my hands!

Actually, because I have been so busy with school lately, we haven't done anything exciting. Other than going to school daily, I also had to have 22 hours of outside field experience, not to mention the countless (25...of course I counted them!) papers I have had to write. I am happy to announce that I am now officially finished with my field experience and I only have 2 more papers to write this semester. (Then I can breathe for a few weeks!)

*************************************************
Let's see...where to start...

A few weeks ago Clay and my dad built a box stand for Clay and the boys to hunt out of. It's one of the nicest box stands I've ever seen! I guess that's good though, because apparently someone has the idea that I'm going to be going hunting with them this year! :) He even bought me (yeah, right) my own gun!

Here's Ty and Hunter with their cousin, Billy Wayne. Just fyi...Billy Wayne just turned 6 this summer (yes, that means he's younger than Ty and bigger than Hunter!)

******************************************

A couple of weeks ago we had a house guest for a few days...

Archie stayed with us for a week while mom and dad went on vacation. Needless to say, Archie and Charlie did not get along very well. Charlie is used to ruling the roost around here and he did not appreciate having to share the attention with someone else! I think Charlie got more exercise that week than he has his entire life! That dog chased him all over this house. We loved having Archie, but I think Charlie was ready to see him go!!!

*******************************************

Here's a picture of Ty with his friend, Niles, at their Halloween Party at school

After the Halloween festivities...just me and my Momma's boys

**********************************************
Clay started back at the Fire Department full time a few weeks ago. That's taken a little adjustment getting used to again. He loves it though and that's all that matters! He had to work on Halloween...but the good news is he got to go in his first fire that night! He was so pumped...he even has a scar to commemorate the experience...the ceiling fell down on him and cut the side of his face (he's fine).

**********************************************

I decided to take the boys to mom and dad's neighborhood to trick-or-treat this year. We only ended up going up and down their street, and the boys had to stop off once and dump their candy becuase their buckets were overflowing! Needless to say we have been on sugar overload this week!

The Evil Warlock and Wolverine

***********************************************

And on one last final note...I went for my third check-up last week since starting my weight loss journey and I lost another 7lbs. Woo-hoo!!!

It is so nice to be able to get up in the morning and put on anything I want to and it actually fits (and looks good)! I haven't felt this good since before I had my kiddos. I'm not trying to brag about my success, becuase Lord knows I have failed many, many times, and I still have a loooong way to go. I just want to encourage anyone that is in the same boat I was in and let them know if I can do it, they can too!

(Sorry if I sounded a bit like a Jenny Craig commercial!)

Pumpkin Patch

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

What a Wonderful Weekend

The weather this past weekend was absolutely perfect! As someone who despises hot weather, I was super excited to get up Saturday morning to temperatures in the 50's. Love it! Clay went to the deer woods for the day, so the boys and I decided to take advantage of the cooler weather. First we went to ArtsFest downtown. They had several booths set up promoting different "arts." They had rock sculpting, painting, crocheting, pottery, and some others. The only thing Ty wanted to do was pottery. He had to have his try at the pottery wheel. He did a really good job! Hunter was going to go next, but after he saw how dirty Ty was, he opted out of that one!

They even got to make something with some dry clay. It was a lot like play-dough. They could make whatever they wanted and take it home. Ty made a cup and two pumpkins and Hunter made a jack-o-lantern. They couldn't wait to get them home so they could dry and then paint them!




After ArtsFest, we headed to V-Town for an open house at the volunteer fire department. We enjoyed lunch, the boys got lots of goodies, went through all of the firetrucks, looked at the Air Evac helicopter, and of course....

The bounce house! Doesn't this look like brotherly love to you?

When we got home, this is what we found in the yard beside our house. These cows have been getting out almost everyday. They belong to the boys' friends that are always over at the house. Usually, their friends will chase the cows back into the fence. Well, the friends weren't there, so Ty took it upon himself to do it. I so wish I would have had my video camera charged at that time. It was the funniest thing you've ever seen, watching Ty running after the cows, "mooing" at them. Then Hunter decides to join in, and one charges toward him and he thought he was about to die. I was luaghing so hard, this was the only picture I ended up getting.

After corraling all of the cows, we headed to this sweet little girl's birthday party. The boy's had a blast! (even if it was at a cheer academy!) After the party, we headed to my grandparent's house for dinner.

We rounded out the day by watching the Hogs game we had recorded from earlier in the day. Do you know how hard it is to go through an entire day trying to avoid hearing the game or hearing anyone talking about it??? Well, we managed and good thing because it was a great game.

Wooo....Pig Soooie.....Razorbacks!

Just as some proof...occasionally I do let my children participate in messy activities inside the house! (Notice this is only Ty. I had to wait until Hunter left. There is no way I could have let both of them try to paint at the same time. It would have been everywhere!) Hunter's jack-o-lantern is still unpainted and will have to wait until Ty goes somewhere! =)

It's Finally Here...

Fall that is!!! I am l.o.v.i.n.g. this weather! Fall has always been my most favorite time of year...I love the colors, the smells, the weather, and of course the decorations. I couldn't hardly wait until September 22 to break out my pumpkins, fall leaves, and mums!

Of course September 22 wasn't only the first day of fall, it was also the first day of the fair and the parade. This year was a different experience for us. I have taken the boys every single year to the parade, but this year, they were supposed to walk in the parade with their boy scout groups. Clay ended up having to work and I had class, so the boys couldn't walk with their groups since we couldn't be with them. Clay is a member of the volunteer fire department where we live, so some of his friends offered to let the boys ride on the firetruck in the parade with them. Well of course they loved that idea! My boys would much rather "ride" in the parade than "walk" in it! (smart kids, if I do say so myself!) I was in such a hurry that day that I forgot my camera and when I was dropping them off, I had left my phone in the car, so I couldn't even get a picutre with that. Am I a horrible mother or what!?!? My kids' first time in the parade and I don't even have a picture to commemerate it!

Later that week, the first grade at Ty's school had their annual "Birthday Party." Since the kids can't bring cupcakes or goodies anymore to celebrate their individual birthdays, the first grade has one huge birthday party so they can celebrate everyone's birthday for the entire year. It's just like a regular birthday party...balloons, streamers, banners, cupcakes, ice-cream, goodie bags and games. I'm the head room mother in Ty's class, so I got to do all of the decorating and planning. Clay was off that afternoon, so I made him come help me decorate (you know he loved that). Who else was going to help me hang the streamers from the ceiling though? You know I'm too short (even standing on the desks, thank you very much!) The kids had a blast. We lit a candle on everyone's cupcake, sang happy birthday and then they got to dig in! When they finished with their snacks, I had set up a pin the tail on the donkey game and birthday bingo. Again, I was so busy that I hardly got any pictures. Just a few while the kids were eating. I wish I could've got the pictures of them playing pin the tail on the donkey...it was so funny!

In other news, I took my Praxis I test this past Saturday and........I PASSED!!!! Yay! Just one more thing I can mark off my list! I have an interview next month to get into the College of Education and then I can focus on getting d.o.n.e. !!! Midterms are next week and I couldn't be happier. It's hard to believe that this semester is halfway over! Just four more semesters to go. Woo-Hoo!!!

Also, went to the doctor for my two month check up yesterday...only lost 5 1/2 lbs. this month. Not too extremely happy about that. He assured me that this was just a "plateau" month and I should make up for it next month.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Get out there and enjoy that beautiful weather like we're going to!

GO EAGLES!!!!

Nesting???

Ok folks...I don't know what has gotten into me lately. If I was pregnant, I would call it nesting, but I'm not...so I'm not sure what it is. When I got home from school Friday afternoon I had an urge to clean out my closet. I've cleaned out my closet many times before, but nothing like this.

If it was too big, too small, or hadn't been worn in the past year or so, it got tossed. I have such a hard time getting rid of nice clothes that I think I may wear again one day, but it had to be done. We have a very small closet where we are living now, and my clothes were jam packed together and the rod was sagging in the middle and about to break.

These are all of the empty hangers when I was finished. There are Seventy...yep, I counted them. And there were only four there when I started.

You would think I would have stopped there. But, to the contrary. I woke up Saturday morning with an overwhelming urge to rearrange my living room. Which led to a massive cleaning of the enitre house. You know when you move furniture that hasn't been moved in awhile and you see all the dirt and dust under it??? Well, that just pushed me over the edge. I moved every piece of furniture in our house to sweep and mop under it (we have stained concrete floors throughout our house), cleaned baseboards, took down blinds and curtains and cleaned them. And did I mention that while I was doing all of this I had anywhere from 8-10 kids running in and out of my house? Oh yes, that has become an every Saturday occurence now. My two boys, four brother and sisters from next door, another brother and sister from down the street, and occassionally, their two older sisters.

Anywho...that's beside the point.
You think I would have been worn out from all the cleaning, but I started in again Sunday. Sunday afternoon after church I decided to clean out our desk and reorganize. Now that was a chore. Trying to decide what could be thrown away and what needed to stay. I feel so much better now though. Don't you just love the way you feel when everything is organized???

Just Like Daddy

As if I wasn't having a hard enough time with my boys being so "grown-up", I walk into the bathroom the other morning and find this...

He was so proud of himself! This has become a part of our every morning routine now!

This is totally unrelated, but I just had to share my new purchase with you...

How cute are these??? Everyone knows I can't pass up a cute pair of shoes...no matter how much I really don't need them. But they're rainboots that look like cowboy boots!!! Everyone needs a pair of those, right???
And just so you know, I've been doing my rain dance this morning so I can wear them today!