Sunday, January 25, 2009

Christmas with Granny

We celebrated Christmas with Artie's family at Rainbow Lake Pavilion again this year. I love it there. It's so big and roomy for all the children. I don't have to feel like they are about to break anything and they have a fun time.



Here is Bobbie with most of her grandchildren. Here they are with the older girls - Amber and Brooke's husbands. Yes, out children do make up over half the picture!! Hey, when you're good at something - don't you think you should stick with it? :-) Matt (back row left) is the best to see here. He lives in Florida and we don't' get to see him that much. He's grown so since I've seen him last. He kept the kids mesmerized with money and card tricks.


Emily got baby furniture from her grandmother. A crib, stroller and high chair - just what she was needing!!

The little boys all got big trucks full of matchbox cars - what could be better. They play for hours on their car rug in their bedroom lining up all their cars and picking houses.

The big kids played their swap game.

and then the adults got their turn. I got a lamp for my living room and Artie got a gift certificate for Canyon River restaurant - which we enjoyed very much... It was a lovely evening.

Christmas Morning

Before the children are awake....

The stockings
Here they come...


The only thing Terry asked for was - Hungry Hungry Hippo.
Bobby wanted a leather coat - isn't he a little young to be asking for a coat for Christmas?

Stephen had as much fun with Hungry Hippos as Terry did.
All the little boys got new animals. They were cool - from Planet Earth - and each had a DVD that showed their animal in it's natural habitat.
Terry - penguin
Bobby - Jimmy the elephant
Stephen - Oscar the chimpanzee

The boys all got building things - Tinker Toys, Magnext, Lincoln Logs - and bicycles - they are at such a fun age.

Emily had a doll Christmas - she got a new girl doll and twin babies. She also got a kitchen so she can cook for them. She's so good in the real kitchen, it won't be much longer that she plays with a toy one... I want her to stay little as long as she can.
Emily also got this beautiful book - Little Mommy. It went well with her whole doll theme. I love this book and had it when I was little.


Brenda got some Jonas Brothers and Family Force Five music. A camera and her favorite - a phone with unlimited text messaging. See how fast they grow up - no dolls or babies or kitchens...
Here she is with a Jonas Brothers poster for her new room.
Troy (have we lost our minds?) got an electric guitar. He keeps it in his hands most of the time. He is currently learning his scales.
It was such a fun morning. God is always so good to provide for us.

Icing Cookies for Santa



Christmas Eve PJ's

Every year the kids get one present to open on Christmas Eve. Usually it's Pj's. This year we couldn't disappoint.



(2008) (2007) It's fun to look back and see how the girls have grown from last year.

Brian wasn't with us for Christmas Eve this year - but we still made sure he got his pj's - you can never be to big for monkey pj's...

Friday, January 23, 2009

Christmas Eve Chili




















Eating our Christmas Eve Chili while watching the Nativity Story. The children didn't make it through the movie this year. It is such a beautiful movie, I think next year we will have to watch it before Christmas eve.

See that present under Emily's dinner??? Looks like maybe a Christmas Eve present...




















Stephen's maybe a little bit excited?


Elmo was in his Christmas Spirit too!!

Christmas Eve

Here are the Christmas pictures. This is our church's Christmas Eve service.


Iman, Brenda, Emily, and Emily


Artie and the boys

Bell Ringers

Bobby and Stephen were bell ringers for the Salvation Army with their wolf pack. They took an hour slot in the middle of the afternoon and it was freezing that day!!! People felt sorry for them out in the cold and seemed to give even more money. They took turns and when it wasn't there turn they waited in the warm door way of Belks. (They have about 5 layers under their boy scout uniforms and jeans.)


Christmas Parade


Stephen and Bobby in the Christmas Parade

Wold Pack 53



Emily (wearing a do-it-yourself hair-do) and Terry (very cold) watching the parade.






French Braid


Brenda's working on her French braiding. She's getting good ~ (a lot better than her mama!)

Swagbucks

Search & Win

I signed up with swagbucks today. Looks pretty cool. I found the site through a blog I like - economic endeavors.

Here's her description of Swagbucks:

"First, it's simple. You earn "Bucks" for something that you're probably already doing - searching the internet. With one click you can install the Swagbucks search bar on your toolbar in Firefox or IE, and when you do a search, it'll give you your results from Google or Ask.com.

By using Swagbucks for your searches, you can earn "Bucks" randomly. On the very first search I did, I earned 2 Bucks! In the first two days, I was up to 14 Bucks, just by doing my normal searches that I would have done anyways, with or without being paid.

You don't need a lot of points to claim a prize, either. With only 45 Bucks you can get an Amazon gift card, and with 50 Bucks you can get a giftcard for Starbucks. There are other prizes as well (DVDs, XBox games, an iPod shuffle, etc.), but gift cards are all I'm interested in.

In the past 2 months, I have earned a $50 Best Buy card (for Hubs for Christmas) and 5 $5 Amazon gift cards. And I consider that free money, since it was earned by doing nothing but searching the internet, which I would be doing anyways.

Another perk is that Swagbucks offers incentives for getting your friends to sign up. You earn every buck that your referrals earn, so if you have a blog (like me), put a referral link on there and promote it! It's a win-win for you and your readers, they get paid for their searches, and you get paid as well."


You can also check out her Christmas shopping using her Swag Bucks too. Pretty Cool~~


So, I'm trying it out. We'll see how it goes. If you's like to try it too, please use my referral link here to do so.

Emily's School Program

Here are some of my catch-up photos. This is Emily's school's patriotic program. Emily is on the top row in the middle in a blue shirt. It's kinda hard to see her, but here is a close up.





Here is Emily and her daddy. What a cute date he makes!! He rushed in from Charlotte to be there for her.








Monday, January 19, 2009

Friday, January 09, 2009

On their way to Boy Scouts



Bobby, Stephen

Mama's Spaghetti

This is my all time favorite recipe ~ my mama's spaghetti.

It was one of the original 4 meals I could cook when we first got married and has remained a staple to this day.

My new favorite past time is Facebook. I have loved getting in touch with some long lost people in my life ~ one being my Jessica ~ the beautiful little girl who lived with us high school ~ my daddy and his wife had custody of her then. One of Jessica's memories of that time was my mama's spaghetti (along with me listening to Tina Turner!!) :-)

So here is the recipe...

10 oz tomato paste
20 oz tomato puree
3/4 t oregano
1/2 t red pepper
2 bay leaves (remove before serving)
3/4 t garlic
1/4 t pepper
3/4 t salt

1 pound browned and drained hamburger

vermicelli

French bread

Combine first nine ingredients. Add in a can or two of water it get it to your desired consistency. Cook on low for several hours.

The longer it sits the better it is, great leftovers!!!

Serve over vermicelli topped with Parmesan cheese with a side of French bread.

As our family has grown we began doubling the recipe - today we triple it. Sometimes it is enough for Artie to take a bowl to work the next day, but sometimes they will it every bite of it!!

Jessica, hope you enjoy it. Let me know when you try it!!

The Littles coming home from school

Emily
Bobby and Terry
Terry and StephenElmo begins barking as soon as he hears the bus rolling down the road. He can hear them way before I can. They are always so excited when they run in the door. School is a great place to them and they are learning so much!!

This is the way Dollie spends her time while Emily is at school - propped up reading a book waiting on Emily to return.
Terry's kindergarten nap towel

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Blogging?

It seems as if it has been forever since I've been on my blog. We been so busy with the holidays and my grandmother being in the hospital that I just haven't had time to sit and write. I am trying to recover from that!!

Mostly this blog is an online way for me to keep a family journal for our girls to look back over, so over the next couple of days I will be back tracking to fill in some of the gaps.

It's been a good day here. Over the past couple of weeks all the children have been/are switching bedrooms. Brenda and Emily just finished painting their room today. What a project that has been. This is the first time Brenda has really painted on her own and I think she now appreciates all the painting Artie and I have done in this house. :-) She and Emily are moving into Troy's old room which was painted a dark Army green. Kilz - the one coat paint - took four coats!!! I've ended up spending over $100 just on the silly paint!! Tonight she is going to be working on cleaning the floor - can you believe there was a little spilled paint even under all the plastic we had down? Tomorrow will be cleaning windows and then hopefully moving furniture. Brenda can't wait to get up there and hang some Jonas Brothers posters on the newly painted walls!!! Plus the room is twice the size of their current bedroom and twice the closet space. Each girl will have their own walk-in - currently they have no closet. (These old houses are definitely wanting in the closet department!! The girls have been using a nice pick shelf/closet from the ABC Distributing store for things that need to hang and bags and shoes and belts and stuffed animals. It was definitely time for a switch!!)

I'm cooking on one of my new Christmas presents. Artie and I got a big George Forman grill on the day after Thanksgiving sale at Wal-Mart. We have loved it so far. Tonight we are cooking pork chops.

All the children go back to school on Monday. I think Artie and I might just sleep the whole day!!! :-) He doesn't have to go back to work until Tuesday, so one day alone will be so nice!! I will miss everyone when they are gone but will enjoy getting back into some type of routine.