First Day of School

My babies from first day of school. 2 highscchoolers...eeek

2 days in a row....woohoo

Updated Family pic this was taken at my 40th birthday party last month.

I got Matt the shirt for Christmas...he needed it lol.

Can't tell the full degree of it in this pic but Braden is towering over us now. Last measurement was 6 foot and growing!

Update...I know shocker

I got on my blog to look back because I was trying to figure out how old Braden's dog is (11 by the way). I spent hours and hours going from preschool on and on. I am so glad I kept this blog. I don't update it often (or at all) but after going back for hours and seeing it all I want to do more. I will have to uploads some pics soon.

Brittney is having a fun summer, she has become very good friends with Quinn Loftis she is a author of YA paranormal romance books, Brittney has been her assistant  as well as babysitter for her son. Lots of fun for my reading crazy girl. She will be attending some YA book cons this year with Quinn to work as her assistant. She has been sponsoring a little girl from Indonesia and she is enjoying that. She attended world changers in June putting siding and replacing windows on houses. She also got to attend church camp at the beach in Alabama. So fun full summer and it isn't over August will be taking us to Disney!

Braden will be going to his first ever Church camp next week it is in Lousiana I will be going with him as a counselor for the girls so I will be close if he needs me. He is doing well.

Lots and lots to catch up on but for tonight this will be it.

Knocking the dust off

Dusting off the blog to start documenting our new food journey. We are going towards a more plant based nutrition. Britt is having the hardest time with it so far. Lots more work lots of chopping. We watched the documentary Forks Over Knives and then Engine 2 Diet. We are going to get to meet the guy that started the Engine 2 Diet on Tuesday while we are in Austin for Braden's doctors appointments. I hope to be able to ask him lots of questions. I will be trying to blog more I miss it and I like being able to look back. The other day I had to look back because we couldnt remember how old one of our dogs was. So yes I want to keep it up. I will be sharing my tips and recipes that I like and my recipe flops as well. Hoping this makes a big difference with my arthritis and health as well as Braden's health. Matt is making a good go of it too proud of him!

Time for Learning!

All who know me know that I love homeschooling the kids.
I love the days when we get around have a full day at home all attention
is on the schoolwork. However those days don't always happen.
There are doctors appointments, errands things that have to be done
and sometimes that means I can't sit right there and I can't
be as involved as I want to be.

THANKFULLY I have found a website to help me feel a little more accomplished and
best part...kids love it. I was hesitant at first it is a monthly payment but
once I saw how in depth the site was and how much the kids were getting involved in it I gladly pay the payment! The website is http://www.timeforlearning.com

A great thing about this site is it isn't just for little kids. Brittney practices and enhances her Algebra on the site! Help for Algebra yeah life is good!!! :)

Random Acts of Kindness

We had so much fun doing our "Random Acts of Kindness" we will definitely do it every Christmas but also planning a Summer version...maybe even a Christmas in July kind of thing. We picked up our partners in kindness and headed off. We had made notes before hand saying: IT’S FOR YOU!
This is not a joke we placed this here for you!
We believe in giving not just receiving!
We just want to spread joy and kindness this holiday season!
Hope you enjoy this small random act of love and kindness!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

My friend and I sat in the car and the kids did everything they went in and talked to who they needed to presented the items. The only time I even got out during the day was to snap a pic with the fire truck.

The kids took some pics but of course didn't get a pic of all. This is what we did:
Candy Canes on ATM's
Randomly passed out candy canes to patients at the Cancer Center
Randomly passed out candy canes in town
Paid for order behind us at McDonalds and Starbucks
Chew Toys to Humane Society
Wreaths to Nursing Home
Quarters on vending machines all over town
wreath to an elderly lady
Laundry soap and quarters at laundrymat
donuts to fire station and police station
general stuff like kids held doors open at the mall for a long time just wishing people a Merry Christmas


Dropping off dog chew toys at humane society


We bought some laundry detergent and attached a bag of quarters, note and bow and dropped off at laundrymat




The kids putting coins on vending machines. They hit the entire mall putting on soda machines and kids toy machines





Posing with fire fighters after dropping off donuts



Taking wreaths into nursing home


We placed these on several ATM's thru town


Brittney taping a candy cane onto an ATM

Married!

My baby brother is now married...of course he is 32! Thought he would probably not marry but now he is and I have a great new sister and niece to love as well.
Here is a quick snapshot of Bride and Groom with Britt and Braden

This and That

Pic of the kids from Halloween. Britt is such a good big sister not a lot of 13...eek now she is 14 would dress up as a power ranger with their brother but she did.


Very busy around here. I have went back to work just 15 hours a week but amazing how much that 15 hours affected our schedule. It is 3 afternoons a week which works well so we can do our school time in the morning.

Brittney turned 14! I still can't believe it...also can't believe I didn't do a birthday post will have to go back and do a belated one. She is growing up into such a great young woman. We have had a really rough time the last few weeks with a family we have been good friends with for years and the adult stuff leaked over to the kids it has been hard watching her have to deal with it but she continues to impress me.

We are getting ready for holidays and my brothers wedding that will be happening soon! Sure to be busy busy but as long as we are all together busy can be fun!

Brittney's concert turn!

Well I am a party animal! 2 concerts 2 different states in a 3 day period!

Last night was Taylor Swift with Brittney her two best friends Brinnlee and Emilee.

Having trouble putting pics on blogger but I am dumping lots on flickr and facebook.

Concert was awesome!

Braden's first concert!

Well I give up trying to load pics so I will just dump them all in flickr in a minute!

Over the years Brittney has been to several concerts. I never thought much about it Braden never asked and never got that into bands. That changed when Big Time Rush (a band/TV Show) he loves the show and started asking about concerts. Brittney has been to several so I really wanted to do this for him. I found the closest they would be to us would be Kansas State Fair (about 6 hours away) we decided to go for it.

I am so glad we did. He had the opportunity to bring a friend but he just wanted him and I. Which made me happy. We headed down Sunday morning early stopping for breakfast with my brother. After checking into our hotel we headed to the fair. We didn't know who was opening for them and even after hearing Hot Chelle Rae's name we still didn't know. Until they started performing Braden was thrilled we knew 3 of their songs and had listed to them on radio disney on the way.

Then it was time for Big Time Rush! I had more fun watching Braden who is not usually that into things. He clapped, waved his hands, jumped and yelled. It was great. We crashed at a hotel for the night before driving back early Monday morning.

On the way home radio disney was having a contest he asked if he could call in. I said sure but I have seen Britt call for hours at a time and never win so I wasn't expecting much. All of a sudden he was the 23rd caller winning a halloween pack with a new dvd movie and a chance at a grand prize. He was so excited. One call and he won! I used memo on my phone and recorded the radio when he was on it. He said it topped off his already perfect trip!

Back to school!

We started back on August 1. The one thing about home school you can make the schedule work for you. I wanted to start early so we can take an extra long Fall/Christmas break with my brothers wedding the weekend after Thanksgiving, then a slew of stuff before Christmas and then actual Christmas I wanted to have some leeway for time off.

I now have a 6th grader and 8th grader...eeekkk.

Harry Potter Party!

To celebrate the last movie of Harry Potter we decided to have a party. I know my kiddos are getting older and before long wont want these theme filled parties so I enjoy it we had a big party for presidents day, ground hogs day...lol give me a hint of a holiday and I can turn it into a party! This was also the first Harry Potter movie Braden had seen in theaters he had been too skittish before and would watch them at home later. Well I finally got him to read Harry Potter (a miracle indeed!) and then we watched all the movies and listened to the last book on cd. He was pumped for Harry Potter so I wanted to celebrate that too! I didn't get many pics of the games we did a creature hunt, muggle quiditch, we had fortune teller drinks, pin sock on dobby qoute and spell contests.

Lots of fun foods



The entry way was the platform 9 3/4 train station wall you have to walk thru to get the hogwarts express


After the party we went to see the movie which was AWESOME of course not as good as the books but still awesome in it's own right!

Fun Fathers Day Dessert

Super easy I just made brownie mix and cooked them in muffin tins after cool crumbled up butter fingers (coals) then black icing piped (grill) then carmels (steaks), hot tamales (hotdogs), gummy life savers on toothpick (kabobs) dab of black icing for grill marks

Wrapping up vacation

Tomorrow we head for home! Been a wonderful vacation. I just don't think you can beat a Disney Cruise for value and service. I have went on Carnival and twice on Disney and Disney is just far and above. Even if it was just Matt and I with no kids I think we would still do a Disney cruise. Very good.

The trip started rough with Braden getting stung by a jelly fish while we were at Beach but thankfully he recovered quickly and we boarded the ship as planned the next day.

I will post more pics they are all on flickr (on side bar) here is a fav of us 4 from Pirate night

Catching Up/Keeping Up

Update blog has now been on the to do list for 3 weeks figured I needed to do that.

I use to be so good at blogging I have just gotten out of the habit but I intend to get back into it.

Right now getting ready for our big family vacation going to go with our good friends the Sweets on a 5 day Disney cruise. This will be our second cruise but new ship (The Dream) and with our friends we are looking so forward to it! I plan on posting some of my cost saving tips and planning tips (after we get back to crazy before!).

All in all things are well here hubby is traveling SO much right now with work but thankful that he has a good job so I am okay with that (or I try to be okay with it). Working on what curriculum I am going to use for home school next year I know the summer will fly by so want to be somewhat ready.

Well that is my catch up post for now...vacation pics will probably be the next update and then hopefully back into blogging more regularly.

April Fools Day Food!

GRILLED CHEESE FOR DESSERT (Yummy cake)

CAKE FOR DINNER! (Yes when it's meatloaf and mashed potatoes)

SPAGHETTI FOR DESSERT (yummy when it's cake!)

simplifying!

Working on my word of the year "Simplify"!

Having a yard sale this Friday. Really trying to simplify lots of areas in our lives. I quit one of my attorneys that I work for it was a tough decision but SO MUCH less stress definetly a simplifying step.

Working on clearing out stuff we don't really use and need.

Trying to be home more with the kids. Do more family activities.

I like having a word that I am trying to incooperate in to my life in lots of areas rather than making a list of resolutions that I never follow thru with.

B

B

That's the type of flu Brae tested positive for yesterday! We are keeping him down and trying our best to keep from being admitted to the hospital. So thankful because 2 years ago we would already have been admitted. It shows how much stronger he has gotten.

Praying we all don't get it. I am flatly denying that I have a sore throat because if I deny it then it will go away. We are all on Tamiflu.

Changes

Big changes at our house.

The word of the year is Simplify! I chose to try to add this word to our life instead of new years resolution.

One of the largest changes is I am no longer doing freelance paralegal work. I have been working for a very demanding lawyer for about 7 years it got to the point that the stress and pressure was no longer worth the financial rewards. So after an extremely stressful event and talking to hubby I quit. The relief is beyond imagination so great not to be dreading the phone ringing all weekend, etc.
One of the other attorneys I do work for is retiring in April so I will then officially be homeschool mom and homemaker!

Hubbys job pays our bills but my work brought in the vacations and extra so may be finding ways to supplment and definetly going to be watching the budget.

I think it will all be worth it. Already I feel better. I know home schooling will be easier without the stress and workload.

Currently working on simplifying the house. We even rented a storage building for a few months so we could take boxes and boxes of stuff for yard sales to it and keep cleaning without me looking at the pile of boxes in the garage and freaking out over it and deciding to have a yard sale before I am ready. So as of now yard sale date is Apr 1st lots of SIMPLIFYING to do before then!

Looking forward to being home more being able to give the kids my full attention! Changes...I think this one will be beneficial for us all.

Ice ice baby!

I have been so wore out that I was wishing for a day to stay home.

Be careful what you wish for....day 3 stuck in the house because of ice!

I don't care if I have to have ice skates I am leaving this house tomorrow.