Glad I wasn't in charge of the turkey! :)

I'm tired of seeing my crafty party invite!

So... here are a few pictures from the big family visit:

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Paige had fun playing volleyball with Nan and Aunt Letti.

Rub-a-dub-dub..... 4 cousins in a tub.Finally got to see little Paisley again. I had fun fixing up her curly, curly hair. Loved spending time with Cousin Casey too!

Livee watching the family softball game with Miles and his "best friend Cole"
Cute picture of Zoe. I'm pretty sure this was the game winning hit, too! :)

Crafty Party at my house..... You're Invited!

Friday, November 20th @ 6:30

Fun Crafting *** Yummy Treats

Good Friends

Project #1

Seasonal Blocks $15.00

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All six sides of the blocks have a different saying. Not shown is FALL with a leaf and also PEACE. I chose to paint my blocks all black with one accent block in a different color. You can do yours like that, or solid black, or each side a different color. You can decide that once you start painting.

Sweet snowflake.

Project #2

Christmas Advent Calender $10.00

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We had a few issues trying to do this one. But, we have it all figured out now, and it's going to be a such a cute little project.

The Plate is about 12 inches and comes in different colors. Red, gold, or silver (which I love!)

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Cute little snowflake magnet.

There will also be a 10 inch clock that we will have available. We don't have a picture of ours yet. I'm sure you have all seen pictures of them out in blogland. Ours will be black vinyl with roman numerals. You can paint the background any color. The price will be around $15.00. I will try and get a picture and final price up as soon as possible.

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We will also have a couple different $5.00 projects ready to craft. We won't have pictures of those. You will just have to come to find out what they are.

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If you would like to come just leave a comment with the projects you would like to do and how many of each. Please respond no later than next Monday the 9th so that we have enough time to get all the materials together. You'll just pay for your projects on the 20th. Thanks.

Also, Mona will always do custom vinyl orders too. Check out her blog here.

Happy Halloween!

"Pippi Longstocking"

Cutest Little Pirate Girlie

"Jasmine"

I don't know what happened but somehow Livee missed the photo shoot. I made her get back in costume tonight, and still this is the best I got. Darn cell phone camera! :)

Arrrgh!

Thanks Kellie for bringing your camera and getting some cute pictures of my kiddos. I'll be asking Santa for a new camera for me this Christmas. Nothing major, just something that takes clear pictures. I've been good! ;)

It's so nice to have my handyman back.

Look what Craig built for me last night:

Okay, I love all my pampered chef stones. But I hate storing them! Finally Craig solved the problem with this custom cabinet. Yeah! I think it took him about 15 minutes. He is so great!

poor paigee

This picture cracks me up!

You would never know it now, but Zoe was feisty when she was little. Sometimes even just plain mean. She was a determined little girl. And strong! If she wanted something, she was going to get it anyway possible. Paige was 2 years older and bigger, but Zoe could take her. (sorry, Paige) Of course she wasn't always like that, she had her sweet moments too. I'm just glad that it was a phase and the sweet side won out!!!

Love ya Zo.

:)

Fun Pictionary Night.

Last night was my turn to host Pictionary and it was so fun! We had lots of crazy costumes, lots of good food, and lots of laughs. I need to get a picture from Amelia of all of us girls dressed up. I will post that later. We even had a costume contest. The winners were: Scariest - Cindy as a baby. Funniest - Cousin Kellie as Snow White (not sure why that was funniest?) and Most Creative - Amelia as a bunch of grapes.

Here are some of the prizes that Celeste and I made:

All of the blocks were made from a $3.99 2x4 and paint that we already had. We also used Colleen's cricut to cut out some vinyl. They were so fun to make, and we made 10 prizes for $4.oo. Can't beat that!

October.

I love October!

It's cooling down outside.

Pictionary Costume Party.

One more month to Family Reunion.

Halloween.

Halloween Candy.

Adorable kids in cute costumes.

What's not to love?!

Stuff

Just a quick update on what is going on with our family.

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Most importantly, Craig is back!!! We are so happy to have him home again. This has been a rough year, being apart from him so much, but we did it. He still is not able to work on the railroad, but we are so thankful that he has something to fall back on.

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Paige is an "awesome" 7th grader and is loving life. She is just so happy all the time. I am glad to have such a good tween. She likes YW, she has good friends, good goals, and she makes good choices...most of the time. :) I did get a call from her principal, the first week of school. She said she had Paige in her office that day for dress code violation. ??? Here is her offending outfit:

Zoe is just so cute and fun. Last week she went to 5th grade camp and was gone for three days. I got a little teary eyed when I dropped her off. She seems so much smaller and younger than Paige was when she went. When we picked her up on Friday, she couldn't stop talking about how much fun she had. I'm glad that she got to do that. She has lots of good memories. She also recently had the medieval torture device taken out of her mouth. (her expander) She is very glad to have that thing gone. She still has her braces on for another 6 months or so, but her teeth are already so straight and even. I love this girl and her beautiful smile!
Livee and I got some extra bonding time last week. On Sunday night she came down with a fever. On Tuesday I took her to the Doctor and he said she had the flu. On Thursday we took her back to the doctors because her fever was still high (103-104) and she had a really sore tummy, he ended up sending us to the E.R. because he suspected appendicitis. After a long day there, we found out she had a UTI. Poor thing had a double whammy with the flu and the infection. Finally on Saturday her fever went away for good. I'm glad she is feeling better, but I did like all the snuggle time last week! She is doing really well in school. Her reading is great, she is super good at math, and her printing is improving every day. I'm so proud of her!
While Craig was gone he got a picture or two of Miles after he had been dressed up by his sisters. Daddy was not very happy! But he really didn't need to worry. This kid is all boy! And so much fun. He talks non-stop, and I love all the big grown-up words he uses..... actually, never mind, usually, yesterday, instead, Netflix, ..... but it's funny because he uses them correctly. So cute!
I love my family, and I am so happy that we are all together again. Hopefully it lasts longer than a few weeks this time!
:)

I miss this guy!

(the big one, not the little one)

Happy Birthday Miles

You're 3!

Yesterday was Miles birthday. But he didn't think so. Grandma Charlotte came over on Saturday with a cake for Paige and Miles. And then let Miles pick out a new birthday toy from the store. We had some family over for dinner and banana splits, and of course we sang Happy Birthday to both of them. That was his birthday. Not yesterday. The girls would say it's your birthday, Miles. He would say, No, I already had my birthday. Silly kid. We went to Lake Grapevine for a little while. Then we came home and made waffles for dinner. He loved it. Cousin Kellie is making him a cake this weekend, so we didn't do one last night. But, that's okay. Colleen brought over the yummiest, warm from the oven peach cobbler. Perfect ending for Miles perfect 3rd un-birthday.

Happy Birthday Paige!

Paige's birthday was on the 2nd, and she's 12 now. It's so crazy that she is not in primary at church anymore. She's with the big girls now. Time seriously flies! She is such a good, happy girl. And I love how she isn't afraid to go out and try something new, even if it's a little scary. I love this girl. And isn't she just so cute too?! :)

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crazy fun new clothes from uncle cody and aunt celeste

and, since daddy's away and mom gets to pick the presents..... a phone* cousin kellie's super fun cake for the party

all the girls
treats

We had pizza and cake at our house and then we ended the party at Grandpa Perk's and Grandma Carol's house with swimming and a movie. The girls had so much fun. Paige said that it was the best birthday party ever. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

*j/k Daddy was definitely included in the phone present. After a "little" convincing, he was all for it. :)

A snake in our backyard. And Miles got bit...

... by some kind of spider. Not the snake! I don't know when it happened, he didn't complain at all. While we were eating dinner I noticed that one of his ears was really red and swollen. I called my on-call nurse across the street (love ya' Colleen) to come check it out. We gave him some Benadryl and marked the swelling and redness to see if it gets any worse. It's still not bothering him at all though.

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Cody came over tonight to mow the lawn (thank you. thank you. thank you.) and while Zoe was in the backyard helping him she saw a snake. Cody took care of that for us too, thank goodness. After it was no longer a threat, Uncle Cody and Rowdy had lots of fun chasing the screaming girls and a "screaming like a girl" Miles, around the yard with it. Lot's of fun!

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I am so lucky to have such a great nurse and snake wrangler living so close to me. :)

Thanks you guys!

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I do have some pictures to share of all this stuff, but can't get them to download right now. I also have a very cute video of Rowdy terrorizing his cousins with the super scary man-eating snake, that I will try to post tomorrow.

bump! set! spike!

Paige will be trying out for the 7th grade volleyball team in the morning. She is a little nervous.

Please send her some good bump-set-spike vibes.

:)

Go Paigee!

Hip Hip Hooray... It's the first day!

(sorry for the bad picture. it's from my phone.)

I now have a 2nd grader, a 5th grader and a big 7th grader. Yikes!

They were so good this morning. They woke up right away. They were all happy.

No issues at all.

I think it is a sign that this is going to be a great year!

Happy Birthday Gramma Charlotte!

We Love You!

Miles' first sewing lesson with Nan.

See his little finger pushing the "button that makes it go."

He has no idea that Nan's foot is doing anything under the table. :)