Legos and Tutus

Our friend Mrs. Angie makes wonderful cakes for baby showers, birthdays and pretty much any celebrations. We were visiting for a play date and she had some leftover icing which she generously gave to Jordan. He was so excited and wanted to make a cake immediately. At first he said it was for his friend Andrew but then decided it was his birthday cake but I assured him it wouldn’t last till March and that it would be better for us to eat it now. He made it pretty much all by himself too.

He poured, he stirred, he cracked all the eggs, he frosted, he sprinkled, he picked the candle.

He said he wants a green cake for his birthday and that he wants a swimming birthday this year. He has already picked out some floaties and a floatation vest at Academy Sports for this swimming birthday!  Perhaps Trey will have to go to a meeting somewhere where we can all go and stay at a hotel with a swimming pool for this special boys Swimming Birthday!!!

As for now Jordan had a fun time making this Just Because cake, sometimes you just need cake:)

As most of you know, Trey has become quite the hunter this year providing our family and many others with deer meat and wild boar meat. One of the favorite things to make with the deer is home made jerky. We have been doing it in our smoker and sometimes putting in the oven some more but it just isn’t getting dry enough so a good bit of it molds before we can eat it. So we finally got a Dehydrator!!!! Trey is so excited too. We first tried a batch of fruit which thrilled the kiddos as they got to slice them up and put them on the trays. Yeah for healthy snacks!!! We even have a pan to do our own fruit roll ups!! all we have to do is puree the fruit(s) of our choice and let it go:) The bananas didn’t turn out too good this first go round they ended up being tiny black disk that the kids wouldn’t get near. Maybe we should have read the helpful recipe directions first?  We’ll keep you posted on the jerky results.

An amazing adoptive Mom named Amy D. penned this. I just loved it so I emailed her and got her blessing to post it here. It has touched my heart along with so many others already. I hope it touches yours as well!

Twas the Night before Christmas–for the parentless…………

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the land
there are parentless children, with no toys in hand

No stockings to be hung by the chimney with care
no hopes for a family soon to be there

Their beds are not snug–but cold and quite bare
there are no goodnight kisses–no one to care

While we in our homes, laughing in delight
all settle down for a Merry Christmas Eve night

When in the dreams of the orphan–what always appears
is a family to love them, to care and hold dear

As you stare at that child–your heart beats real quick–
for you know in your heart that sweet face will stick

I can see you exclaim as you hold your child tight–
Thank you Lord for this gift–you got it EXACTLY right!

98% of the year Trey is a very clean cut super smooth shaved man, but during hunting season (deer) he grows his beard out. This year he just let it grow wildly for a while but eventually trimmed it up some. As a wild fun treat for the kids he allowed them to all shave off a section of his face!! Oh my goodness, the roars of laughter were the best part about the whole event. The kids had a blast and I FINALLY had my sweet smooth shaving man back!!:)

Trey and Elijah were gone on Elijah’s hunting trip for his 12th Birthday leaving me with the rest of the gang. We had a slow morning with monkey bread then headed off to Lowe’s for their kids craft day! Today’s craft was making a Gingerbread House-out of wood, nails and stickers of course.  The kids love going to the craft event and getting to use  a hammer all by theirselves, however it is much more helpful having Daddy with us at these events as one has to read the directions and “help” assemble the craft for the 3 younger ones. It simply seems like we are there forever building not just 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 but 5 of these things!!! Well, not 5 today but you get the picture. After making all 4 of these lovely Gingerbread houses we headed to the bookstore and then out to lunch. It was quite a fun filled Saturday!

No this isn’t a Get Lost post to my viewers. . . we really went hiking.  Saturday was a gorgeous day so after Trey opened the garage for bike repair and maintenance we loaded them all up (bikes and kids) and headed to Oak Mountain State Park. The boys have been asking forever to go to the BMX track there. The track was full of riders on this beautiful Fall day. They all spent some time doing the track, even Mommy and Daddy took their turn racing the boys and I must gloriously declare that I beat my trash talking Mom bashing 11-year-old!  One point for the Mom who hasn’t sat on her bike in well over a year:)  Of course he proclaimed “cheater” but the truth is just skill baby, skill! After doing the track we ventured into the canopy of changing Fall leaves. Mary decided to hike it and so off we went discovering the trails, bridges and jumps made from logs, branches, 2X4’s.  The boys loved going over the bridges with water. Trey and I enjoyed watching the children enjoying the outdoors and their chatter of what we’ll do next time we come back and what would be really cool to do. The park is really nice I don’t know why we don’t go more often.  I of course eyed photo shoot options after options and was thrilled to come to a bridge where I could get a nice shot or two unfortunately my battery was DEAD so I was only able to get one shot, it isn’t the greatest but it’s all I my poor tired battery could handle.

Thanksgiving morning Trey, Elijah and Morgan returned from their short hunting trip without any deer. The younger kiddos decorated our homemade table runner with thier Thanksgiving art. They had a great time doing so and we had a one of a kind table decor. We had a table full of food that was enjoyed by all. Trey’s fried turkeys were soo delicious! We enjoyed our meal and then relaxed watching    sleeping  while the Cowboys played. There were lots of games played in the front yard and fun around the fire pit as well.  We hope you all had a thankful Thanksgiving with the ones you love, we sure did!

Well we have been in a dilema for quite a while now over our family room design. We have looked for new furniture with no conclusion on buying anything and the task has mainly been frustrating due to our family room layout. Ya see we have our front door, two tall windows, the stairs, the fire place, a column, an opening to the kitchen and a window opening to the kitchen. We basically don’t have any walls for furniture placement oh and then there is the TV console which we swap back and forth from one corner to the space between the two windows.  To help our future furniture have a better home we decided to get our TV a new spot. The result is more than I expected thanks to Mr. Keith and Trey’s fabulous talents!  Now that our TV is up and out of the way the room is nearly a blank canvas for our future napping spots. For now we have only the one couch and the kids actually really love all the wide open space to romp and stomp. Perhaps we’ll just get a few big pillows for the floor and call it a day!