Narnia and Ladybugs

I am so excited to be starting the "Chronicles of Narnia" book series with my eldest. I have never read it, nor have I seen the Narnia movie. I never was asked to read it as a child, and it never made it to my list as grew older. When the Narnia movie came out a few years back, it peeked my interest. After some thought, I decided to wait a few years and so that I can enjoy delving into the books with my eldest. I am so glad that I waited. It is so much fun reading it for the first time together with my daughter. We are almost done with the "Magicians Nephew". Great book. We are so enjoying it! We stop at the end of each chapter and discuss what happened and talk about different Biblical truths we see in the story. The story is so entertaining and so deep!

Our next book is The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. We can't wait to read that one. :o) Then, I will finally see Narnia!

Pictures from the past week

Siblings watching their Big Sis play tennis

Look who got found the hose while I was working outside

The boys played football after church this past Sunday. Our church has an awesome field as part of the property. A few weeks back, a few guys started playing a game of football after service. We joined in this week.

This brought back so many memories from our years at Grace Church. Back then, it was common for us to stay after service on Wednesday nights for basketball or kickball. We even had a ladies walking group for a time. Such great memories!!!!!

We bought some Ladybugs for our garden!

They are super for natural pest control. Seriously, they have a big appetite! They can eat 50-60 aphids(common garden pest) per day.

I was so excited to find them at a local store. It was a surprise find.

When I asked for the ladybugs, I was very shocked to see him take them out of the refrigerator. That was just so strange to me. Apparently, this is a good place to store them.

I am learning so much :o)

Our little princess loved to pick them up and put them on a plant.

Fun at a park

Ice-cream date at Coldstone Creamery

Growing too fast!!!

We now have some cushion around the bottom of this slide. He is climbing on everything, including this slide.

Christmas and New Beginnings

A glimpse of our Christmas

The Guys and the Gals on Christmas Eve

The yearly Grandchildren picture

Our beloved Nanna

She'll be 94 this month!

Family Picture

My parents, 3 siblings, and their families

For some unknown reason, I don't have any pictures of my Hubby's side of the family with whom we saw on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

We can't believe that our #3 is now going to P.E.

I told him a few weeks back that he would be starting, and boy was he excited! He got a Cars lunch box for Christmas that he could not wait to fill. :o) He fit right in! He loved palying the games, followed instructions pretty well, and even got in a bit of wrestling with a new friend.

So sad

So sweet

So exciting!

Group shot after 3 hours of fun :o)

Random shot with his class

Loved watching him jump hurdles!

They are practicing for the annual Track Meet that will be in February. He was so cute trying to get over the hurdles.

Cookies and Birthdays

Hubby and I had a laugh today while driving home from a shopping adventure.

We played a game where I read posts from Facebook(without telling him who wrote it) and he told me who posted them. He only got 1 wrong :o) The style of writing and topic for each person really gave it away. One Facebooker has very political, annoyed posts. Another Facebooker posted a lot of scripture and inspiration. An old high school friend posts a lot of comments about what is going on at her salon. Another high school friend posts a lot of sassy, hilarious posts. :o)

On to another topic that is very important(to some anyways).

I'd like to offer an apology to all my friends and family who are who have a pet peeve with bad grammar. My Christmas card has a pretty elementary gramatical error on it that I did not see until I had mailed out my last card. So please extend me some grace and just ignore it. And while I'm at it....ignore all my gramatical errors that you find on my blog too. :o)

Tis the season to make and decorate cookies!

Mimi had a Decorating Party for her grandchildren...

and crafts too.....

We had our own ginger bread decorating party.

Look who is 10!

I say this with sadness and joy.

Sadness for the speed at which the last 10 years has gone by.

Joy for what is to come! Each new season brings its own joys!

Look who.........

...climbs up on boxes, stands up, and then proceeds to climb on the couch

...who stands on a bench and then claps his hands

..who loves to take a bubble bath

...who is a cute Little Brother!

12 days

12 days since my last post.

I do not mean to leave such a gap, just been so busy.

I really do want to post more.

Not because my posts are so wanted by my audience. :o)

But for other reasons.

-I love to posts pictures for those who do not get to see us that much. Like Mima who lives in another state. The pictures I post, keep her in the loop of what the kids are up to and gives her a glimpse of their lil' faces.

-These pages are a way of journaling for me. I am preserving the past with words and pictures.

-I love sharing reviews of homeschool stuff, books, or recipes.

I have received great ideas reviews from other blogs. Hope to bless others too.

-At times I feel led to write about whatever is on my heart.

Still loving tennis.

She's had a few very chilly night practices!

Here are a few things from our garden. I am so excited with what if growing!!

Do you see my lil' tomato? I can't believe I am finally seeing one grow. We've planted tomato seeds twice. Both times they grew into healthy little plants. And both times they died before I saw any fruit. Once from freezing tempters and the other time I just was not putting in time to properly care for it(right after I had a baby). So, this time I decided to start with a baby plant instead of a seed. Seedlings take time and need more care. Time is something I do not have to give to a plant :o). We've been growing these plants for a few months, and they are all doing so well.

Cilantro

Broccoli

(we ate it soon after taking this picture)

Tomato!!!!

Boxing

My eldest is turning 10 on the 22nd!

We brought her and her Besties to a fair to celebrate.

We started out with dinner at Olive garden

Off to the Fair!

Look at those smiles!!!!

Those smiles were all turned upside down when the birthday girl tripped and fell on a metal floor. She landed on her face which left her bloody, bruised, and missing half of her front tooth. What a night:o(

Thankfully, she is doing well. The cut is healing very nicely. Lip is no longer swollen. The dentist will be putting in a crown for her next week.

Lessons Learned

Thanksgiving was a really nice time, full of good food, wonderful family, and great fellowship!

Christmas is right around the corner.....wow, how time flies!

We decorated our tree last week

The boys are loving their fake mustaches that a friend blessed them with.

Thank you Christina!!

This morning, the older 2 got to enjoy an NFL Junior Training Camp.

They enjoyed playing and we enjoyed watching. :o)

It was a bit chilly!

Every time a good play was achieved(or even not achieved), the boys had to run and plow into each other for congratulations. So funny watching them and their excitement!

This is her "do you really need to take a picture of me?" look

So, on to a few lessons learned from this past week. Some are new lessons and some I am revisiting.

1.Do not take your 5 kids and 2 dogs in the back yard for Christmas pictures without any help. I pray that my neighbors did not see/hear the chaos going on. I did have a good laugh afterwards, and even regreted not getting it on video.

2.Do not waste time trying to get 2 dogs to sit by each other for a picture, even if I had the cutest little vision in my mind of what I wanted it to look like. Oh well.....

3.Do not think that your boys are the only ones who love to wrestle any and everywhere they go. While at the training camp this morning, I had to avoid a few sets of wrestling boys while I walked. I felt at home :o)

4.Do not let your son forget his jacket when he will be outside in this chilly weather. I ended up giving up mine and spent 3 hours shivering as I watched him do football drills.

5.Do not eat one lil' snack at night...it will lead to more!!