Christmas Eve

My mother in law went to Israel in November and bought us all scarves.Nana sent me the Hello Kitty blanket and I like my niece's Straight Pride shirt..... :)

Funny Faces

My Amelia. :)

Ice Skating

I took the girls,my nephew and Greg ice skating today for Christmas break :) (Clint wouldn't let me skate due to me being accident prone)

Christmas Shopping at the Beach

Destiny's friend Greg(the one with the red hat) loves the beach almost as much as I do so when I went Christmas shopping 2 weeks ago I dropped his friend and him off at the beach while I shopped and then we had lunch together and hung out on the beach some more.Please be praying.Greg and Destiny like each other but he is a very new Christian so they aren't dating yet......

Oh my...

She's only 7. For now, right?

And here's a new healthy-eating idea that my friend told me. It's the "S plan": you eat no Sweets, Seconds, or Snacks, EXCEPT on days that start with an S. I'll let you know how it goes. (I tried on a pair of pants I'd not worn in since May...and I could not button them. So...."S Plan" here we come.)

Thanksgiving

I've missed blogging here! This pic is from the day after Thanksgiving. I took my in-laws and my parents (all history lovers) on a personalized historic tour of Baltimore with Zippy Larson--she's 79 and is her own fascinating tour guide company! We had a blast--and learned SO much!

One year ago

November 20,2010 was the first time we hung out with Ray and I took him to Portland .So this year we took him there again for our anniversary :) 

                                            

Plagiarized Snack

I saw these on our Kenya teammate, Holly's blog around Halloween and then made them for a birthday party for a 20-something friend of mine. I think they are hilarious, and was surprised to find that apples and marshmallows taste good together!

Roseburg Oregon

We spent the weekend with my sister and her husband...she spoils us.It was a good time :)I love paid holidays!

Oh boy...

The "I'm so sassy" pose that makes Alan and me shudder. We've been casually telling the girls that sassy's not really a great quality to possess...tell me I'm right about this!

My Little Superstar

Amelia won these glasses in music class for good behavior. Being naturally shy and quiet is an advantage when the competition is for having good behavior!

Worst part of being a mom

Just wait until a young man likes your daughter...which isn't too big of a deal until she likes him back......I think I'm getting a lot of gray hair these days :/

The Breakfast Club

So here are MY girls--a few years behind Becky but honestly I'm glad to have her going ahead of me in the teen department. You can tell it's really entering the fall/winter season...eating breakfast while it's still dark.

It's good to be back on the blog--don't know why I was blocked out!

My girls

This is one of Destiny's senior pictures my niece took.A friend of mine took some pictures of Rainey also.

My friend visited Nana

They have these high tech photo booths in Japan.My good friend and her mom stayed with Nana for a week earlier this month.I was so jealous!

She turned 7 on Sunday

I can hardly believe it. Evelyn Grace...seven!

Pumpkin carving

We hadn't carved pumpkins for along time until Nana came last year but the teens are so into it we had another pumpkin carving party this year :)

She's Almost 7

Evelyn's actual b-day is Sunday. We had a little party last Friday for her and a few friends, & my brother's kids spent the night. I can't believe she's almost seven!!

Firemen's Pancake Breakfast

When the kids were little we used to always go to the annual firemen's breakfast.When I saw the sign for it this year I really wanted to go even though the kids don't want to get up that early anymore Clint and I went :)

Football season

We bought season tickets to watch my nephew Levi play college ball at Linfield.

At the mall

We had to go last week at the last minute to buy Baltimore Ravens shirts for the girls to wear on "Purple Friday" at school. While walking through the mall, the entrance to this store was irresistible. I don't even know what store it is, but the few times I've been to the mall, those chairs have been filled by very tired-looking men surrounded by bags.  I assumed their wives/girlfriends were inside shopping & they'd been tasked with watching the stuff.

My girls

Last week a friend was planning a 16th b-day party for her daughter and wanted to use her Mac computer to take "photo booth" type pictures during the party. So the girls & I took a little trip to the costume closet at my school and raided it looking for fun stuff the teenagers might enjoy wearing for their photo booth pics. I have no idea whether the teenagers enjoyed the stuff, but we got a kick out of picking through everything!

My 44th birthday celebration

Since I'm starting work on my birthday we went to Red Lobster today.It was a fun time with my family and Ray :)

My baby got her permit

Just one more to teach how to drive and then I am DONE :)

New Hair Dos

Destiny loves braiding hair.This is her creation she did on her cousin last weekend.

I'm back!!!

This is our 6 month old great nephew Lain at my swamp people birthday party...he likes the Crayfish!

When Your Dad Plays Music for Parties...

...sometimes he brings home balloons! This monstrosity came from the grand opening of some new computer store. Alan tried to bring home two but they wouldn't fit in the car! t

Last firepit party of the season

We had a pioneer rally at our church this weekend.Two of my brother in laws are preachers and came for the rally so we had a big Gash Bash on Friday night.Here are a few of my nieces and nephews.

Street Fair Fun

One of Evelyn's classmates invited us to their street fair--AWESOME! Everything was free, including face painting and photos taken at an adorable old-fashioned booth. A few wigs & feather boas was all it took to lift Amelia's spirits (Evelyn had run off w/her classmate), & now we have these sweet pictures of the two of us.

By MySELF!!

She insisted on working SO hard to independently tie that little bow on her shirt. I wish she'd put the same attention into brushing her hair. :)

Chopped off

About 2 weeks ago I got a new hair do.Does it make me look like a banker?lol

More sunflowers!

We like them, too--and couldn't believe how tall they grew! (Sounds like I'm talking about my kids, doesn' it?) Our next door neighbor gave me these fragile, spindly little seedlings--that grew into these!

Book time on Mom & Dad's bed

Our girls are in a stage of playing ALL the time--it is so exciting to see them making stuff up, creating little dollhouse or stuffed animal worlds, and reading piles of books just for fun. :)

Destiny's 1st car

Destiny saved up her money all summer and just bought this 1992 BMW wagon :)

Sunflowers

Sunflowers make me feel happy inside :)

Help

This is 1/4 of our basement. It kinda grosses me out to post this. My dream would be for it to be empty so my kids could have someplace to ride their scooters and roller skates when it rains. :) Why does it feel so daunting to get rid of stuff?