I finally finished Ashley's hat today. She picked out the yarn and she has been helping to make it. (and that is why it has taken so long!) She picked out the thinnest yarn and wanted to be able to wear it in the winter. So I had to make it doubly long and double it up. Don't let this picture full you. It is just the best picture of the hat. She 'was' grumpy about not getting the one french fry that she wanted, but as you can see in the other pictures that didn't last too long. Now I need to make Mason's hat out of the yarn he picked out.

Here is my pirate today.

And here is my Australian named, German lovin', Chinese speakin' Cowboy.

Ashley has been trying to do everything possible to make money to put in her piggy bank. Tonight she even took a bunch of hats and went out on the front porch to try to sell them. She was disappointed no one came over. She enlisted the boys to yell "hat's for sale! Get your hats here!"

Today I got my haircut. I like it. Of course it NEVER ever looks like I ask her to do it, but it still looks nice. I just tried to take some pictures of myself. They are not very good, but it will give you an idea. I hope y'all have a great day! I've lived here long enough that I've earned the right to say y'all!

I'm afraid to blink.

I just look at these pictures of my kids and I'm afraid to blink. They are so sweet and precious! On the way to church on Sunday, Ashley would read the numbers on the speed limit sign (4-0). Then Austin would interpret, "Dad go 40 miles per hour". And Mason would give directions, "go straight, straight, straight, curve, straight, turn left....."

I just love them so much!

Mason was my cooperative one Sunday- even though he was jumping around a lot, I managed to get quite a few of him.

He was playing around in this photo saying, "Here's a newspaper" It just reminded me of the old movies I've seen of the young boy yelling, "Extra! Extra!"

That will need to be my title to that layout.

And here is Ashley and Kiki.

I got this dress for Ashley a few years ago. I couldn't resist! She looks like a little lady in it. The store was going out of business and the price 'whatever it was' was amazing. So now it fits her and I just think she looks adorable.

SIStv

UGH! What happened? I can't get onto my favorite website tonight.

My favorite website is SIStv.

Well phooey- I guess I should just go on to bed then!

Aussie's Big Day

Today was Aussie's big day! After over a year of asking to go to Chinese school, he finally got to go today. He was SO excited! He yelled up to Daddy. Hurry up, we don't want to be late for school! He loved it. He came home and asked me for bacon in Chinese. He learned a whole page full of new words and made a Chinese lantern. I'm so excited he is doing this, he has wanted it for a very long time!

Also yesterday Aussie told me he wanted to go back to Chuck E. Cheese. He wanted to get another ring, so he could save it to ask somebody to marry him. He said that his ring was very special to him, but he thought that his wife would like a purple one. Now all you young ladies out there...I have to say he does have his eye on one special girl. :)

blinds

This is for my Mom and Hollye:

This is the before picture.

And this is the after picture. I thought it would be SO expensive to replace...but it wasn't bad at all!

Inlaws visit and yummy treats.

Hello my friends! I'm back to blogging.

My inlaws came to visit last week. We had a great time. Although, I think all we did was EAT and shop. My MIL always brings yummy chocolate everytime she comes. It is so DIVINE and I just can't stop myself from eating it. (Gayle you are probably thinking maybe I'm telling you not to bring it anymore....NO no no...maybe just a little less next time.)

Mason LOVES to cook, so I told him that Nana was a good cook and that I bet she would help him make something. So Nana, Mason and Ashley made the best Chocolate chip cookies known to man! Yes more chocolate...It's a wonder I didn't go into a sugar coma.

Papa played with the kids. He would grab them and they would try to run away. As soon as he walked in the door...Ashley said, "Don't EVEN think about it" and ran off. It was a game they played all week long.

Monday was Greg's birthday. We went to Ginza- a really yummy Japanese restaurant! We got Ashley to try a lemon. That is just the greatest face!!!

Later we had Ice Cream cake.....OH delicious! The kids helped Greg blow out the candle. Austin reminded him to make a wish and Ashley said, "Make a wish that we will be best friends forever." (something like that).

They left Tuesday morning and we are trying to get back to a normal routine. We got caught up with LOST and got to watch it real time tonight. It is fabulous! If you don't watch it...you should borrow the Seasons and get caught up! It is THAT exciting! And last night I actually got to scrapbook a page. It's another Scrapjack. You can see the original here.

I wanted to get an Oreo moment with Papa while they were here; but seriously we had too much sweets to justify getting out the Oreos. So I had to supplement with my wonderful husband, whom I found out doesn't even like Oreos. What kind of man is he? I thought I knew him! Anyway, my kids had never had an Oreo cookie dipped in milk.

Booya!

email down

My email is down! It's driving me crazy!

I'll get back to blogging as soon as I get this situation fixed!

Bible story

Greg was reading to the kids last night and here is a little story from him:

I was reviewing the Bible stories we've read this last week. I asked the kids if they remembered who this man is (pointed to picture in their Bible story book). Aussie correctly said, "Jacob." I asked them who was his father who he tricked. The kids said "Isaac". I asked, "And who was his brother who got angry at him? Jacob and..." Ashley piped up, "Seesaw!"

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope all of you have a wonderful day!

Giving

Many of you know we had some BAD storms around here last week. We were spared once again and we thank God!

Sunday morning, we were sitting around the table eating breakfast and Ashley said, "Today I'm going to take bacon to church."

Greg and I glanced at each other with a confused look.

Me: What do you want to bring?
Ashley: Bacon!
Greg: Why do you want to bring bacon to church?
Ashley (OH how I wish you could have heard this! {think Duh?}): HELLO?
Greg and I looked at each other again and smirked.
Ashley: Hello? It's for the poor people and for the people who lost their homes in the tornado.

It was so funny and yet so sweet! Greg explained to her that we needed to take something that wouldn't go bad, like a canned food.

And writing this reminds me of when they were collecting food for the people who were affected by hurricane Katrina. I let them pick out any food items out of the pantry to give away. Austin picked a can of asparagus because he wanted to give the people "trees". The picture on the front of the can apparantly looked like trees to him.

Children really have a heart of gold and we can learn so much from them.

cat/love language

Aussie was singing a song in "Cat language". He was playing with Kiki and she started getting angry and began growling at him.

Aussie was upset and said he thought he must of said "stupid" to her in cat language.
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Today Greg was getting ready to leave for work. Mason came up to him.
Mason: I want a Daddy hug!
Greg picks him up and hugs him.
Daddy: Well, I want a Mason hug.
Mason: Two hugs are better than one!
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I have REpressed Perfectionism- Hurry someone recommend a Psychologist who can bring these feelings out of me so I can get my house clean. :)

Roar layout

I thought I would have a little fun and try out this Scrapjack challenge. What you do is look at a layout they pick out for you and then you pull out inspiration from it and create your own layout.

I thought it was fun! You should try it. Go here to see the challenge.

CAT

Today on our way to school we saw some people working on the road, with the typical CAT equipment. A conversation broke out in the car about wondering what they were doing.

Austin shouted, "I know what they are doing!"

I said, "What do you think they are doing?"

Austin said, "Remember when we were looking up CATS on the computer and this website came up and it wasn't about cats it was actually about Catapillar machines? Well I think they are looking for catapillars.