Samplers.

I've taken up making little samplers. I used to embroider a long time ago, but recently wanted to make a few pieces for around the house. Here's what I've come up with so far.

      This is my first one. I didn't have a pattern or anything. 

This is the second one I did. I wrote on it with pencil to make the letters similar in size. It's from Matt Maher's song Hold Us Together.

This is the most recent.

This is the latest one....My mom bought me a sign that had this expression on it.

First Pumpkins, Now Christmas in August.

Us at about 7 and 5 Christmas Eve, the jammies were our gifts :)

I've been thinking a lot about the way we do Christmas. Christmas in my house growing up was a HUGE deal. Mom would always say "it's not going to be that big this year" and every year she pulled it off. We didn't get much through the year, so Christmas was a hoopla. We opened on present on Christmas Eve and got up early on Christmas. We weren't allowed to see the tree until dad covered our eyes and brought us into the room. I'm dead serious we were 19 and 17 sitting in the hallway waiting for them to "get up"...We would yell "Mom Dad wake up it's Christmas". Now when we were little, we thought they were really asleep. Then we learned they were just mocking us. Dad would have to make his coffee before he would come get us. Then the big reveal!!! Then we would have to wait while they poked through the gifts, "hmm this one says Andrea" "wonder what this is for Justin" Then we would have to wait until dad finished the coffee. FINALLY gift time! We did one gift at a time, no free for all in my house, watching as each person opened their gifts. And it was wonderful. We would even stop halfway through for bathroom breaks and the second cup of coffee for dad.  Also Rowlph would join us on Christmas Morning. He's my mom's stuffed puppet that she go on Christmas many moons ago. Oh and stockings, let's not forget stockings!

Christmas Morning 1991

Excuse my sour expression, I'm sure my brother woke me up too early. Here we are 19 and 17, my last Christmas at home. See Rowlph is on my lap.

I held those traditions up in my house. The kids have to wait because as my mom told us "if you see the gifts before we show you, they'll disappear". They get one gift on Christmas Eve, usually a gift that someone sent to them.  The kids line up in the hallway and get their reveal at the top of the stairs. Rowlph is waiting near the gifts. And one by one we open gifts. After gifts are done, then they get their stockings.

Christmas Eve 2009 Awesome hats.

Christmas Morning 2009, the big reveal!

Shane with Rowlph 2009

Here's the big difference in my childhood and that of my own children. My kids get gifts all year long. From  Nanu and Granddaddy, from Aunt Brandy and Aunt Jermaine (don't ask, or do it's a funny story), Aunt Stephie and the random things that come in the mail. Christmas is just a mass of toys that get played with for 5 minutes and then get into trash bags a few months later.

So here's my plan for this Christmas. My friend Heather does this great gift giving idea. Something to read, something to wear, something to play with, and something to share.So basically four gifts. I'm almost 100% sure that this is what we're going to do this year. Instead of buying mass amounts of stuff, we're going to think about each kid and get specials things for them as individuals. They are only going to get older and the things they want will get bigger and more expensive. If we change the way we do things now, it might be helpful later. I also want to impart more tradition into the season. More volunteering, more handmade gifts for friends and family, more love to spread.

As for gifts, here's what I've got so far. For the something to wear, each kid will get new jammies and a new shirt. For something to share: Jackson wants a fish tank, Sam a board game, and I don't know about Shane yet. I'm looking into learning games for the Wii. For something to read: Sam, easy readers about trucks. Shane: a chapter book about racing or football. Jackson: Easy chapter books about animals. Something to play with: For Shane: I've found a great art kit in a carrying case, also a few sketch books. Jackson: He loves those scratch magic things. I found a set on amazon with extra paper. Sam: I think playdoh, he's a playdoh maniac! It's just that more thought will go into each gift. Also they go to dollar tree and pick out a gift for their brothers. We also do Dollar Tree for gifts for Nanu and Grandaddy, they are always a hit! :)

We also will be doing the shoeboxes for the Operation Christmas Child. I hope to start collecting things for the boxes soon. I'd like each kid to be able to do their own box.

In case you're wondering about any foster children. Social Services is rather awesome for that. They set up a Angel Tree for the kids and then invite them all to party with their families and Santa is there, games, food and a gift. The other gifts are in black trash bags and given to the parents to wrap and give at Christmas time!

Pumpkins In August???

So when we planted the garden, we used soil from the compost. We planted two rows of tomatoes, two rows of peppers, beans, and peas. The beans and peas died like usual. My hubby has a vengeance with the beans and peas and corn. He plants them every year and every year they die! Well anyway, the tomatoes were mutants, over 10 feet tall. Yum! Next to the row of shiny red vegetables we noticed a vine growing. It was growing away from our produce so we let it go. We tried to figure it out. Squash, watermelon, cucumber, pumpkins???? All of these things were in the compost. It grew over 20 feet long, leaving the garden through a hole in the fence and growing on the wood pile. Lots and lots of yellow flowers bloomed, but then they would fall off. Finally something sprouted, a little green ball, but before we could figure it out what it was, it died. At last, another one sprouted. It lived and grew into a green baseball. So now we were between pumpkin or watermelon. Low and behold it was a pumpkin. The boys picked it last night, so in the middle of the summer, in the dog days of August, we will be having pumpkin seeds tonight!!!

To Infinity and Beyond.....

So I had to clean my monsters room. This is the after! I dumped every toy they had into a big pile in the middle of the room and proceeded to sort them all out. Sadly, I had just watched Toy Story 3 and was not a fan of tossing the little plastic army men. I had them in a pile to head to the trash can in the sky, and had a change of heart. I gave them one last warning, if they want to stay they had to march their little plastic selves into their basket at night.

The nice new organized closet!

Another view of the completed room.

This is the basket that was removed full of trash, broken toys, randomness that grows in a little boys room. I hate digging under their beds, you never know what moldy gross thing you will find!

Fake Fort Fun

So I have to confess. I hate forts. I have a strong dislike for things that purposely make a mess. I tolerate art projects. I'm just not a fun mom in that way. If you want to go outside and drag every toy we own, by all means, go ahead. If you want to pull out my freshly folded and organized blankets to put them over some chairs, well, I hope you enjoyed mommy, she's entering the asylum. I just don't like to be unorganized. A fort to me is an 'on purpose' mess. I'm all for my kids having fun with their toys. I'm okay with putting a blanket over the table, maybe. But dragging chairs into the living room, blankets galore, and of course you must add the toys. By the time the fort is all set up for enjoyment, they find their selves bored of it.

All that to say. Today the two older boys were out doing a service project. This left poor pitiful Sam to play all alone. That is until the baby woke up. The next thing I know, my little princess has pulled off the "comfy" blankets out of their hidey hole cubby. Sam wants to make a fort. So I sucked it up and made the kid a fort to play in. All was well until clean up time...minute 45! Oh well, I tried.

The start of the 'fun' when little Miss pulled everything out. With Sam cheering her on. (yes, I know her face is showing, but it's blurry)

All that work and he wants to watch TV, you don't want to know what's under there!!!

No it's not a fort, but another version of random mess making that kills me! I love for them to have fun, it's the clean up I hate!

Rocking 29!!!!

So I turn 29 today. The last year of my twenties! It's insane how fast time goes. My twenties have been amazing! Starting just 6 weeks after I turned 20, I got married to my amazing husband!

20--(2001-2002) involved getting married and having a baby! Shane Russell was born in April of my 20th year. I gained an enormous amount of weight with him. My husband still made me feel like a princess :) Also my crazy friend Brandy was also having a baby, just 4 months earlier.

21--(2002-2003), we celebrated by taking Shane to see Lilo and Stitch, which is still my favorite Disney movie, and touring the Living Museum before it was cool, and eating at Fudruckers. :) We moved out of our little apartment and into our own home that year. As 21 drew to a close, I was pregnant with Jackson! 

22--(2003-2004) brought another pregnancy! Jackson entered at 10 pounds in March of my 22nd year!. 

23--(2004-2005) had two chubby adorable babies and one amazingly hardworking husband! That was a long year. Towards the end of year 23, I joined the playgroup which changed my life. 23 ended with a very surprising pregnancy.

24--(2005-2006) and enter Sammy. Sam was born in December of my 24th year. He was a mess from the beginning. Jaundice and under lights for 10 days, RSV and in the hospital. Loud and and demanding with the biggest brown eyes and eyelashes for days! It was a rough few months. Playgroup was my lifeline! I was meeting some amazing women who would in time become some of my best friends.

25--(2006-2007) whew what a wild ride for my early twenties. I had three little boys, some amazing friends, and my wonderful husband of nearly 5 years. I also became an aunt in my 25th year. We also started our homeschooling journey this year! I became an aunt this year to my beautiful Breanna Danielle!

26--(2007-2008) started normally enough, closed out with Johnny getting the much anticipated promotion. This led to the stressful fun of selling, buying, and moving. With three young kids.

27--(2008-2009) life in our new house was amazing! Kids are growing. Life is grand. 27 started our new life with a church. We decided to take foster care classes. As 27 was ending we were becoming approved to be foster parents.

28.--(2009-2010) 6 short weeks after turning 28 we received our first placement in the form of Jay. Our home was alive with love, noise, and fun! Two months before the year ended we received our second placement of our beautiful A, a sweet little girl. 28 had been the favorite so far. I became an aunt for the second time to Elaina Brooke! We were sharing love with other children. Our own children were flourishing! I had my circle of amazing friends, fantastic family, wonderful kids, and my loving husband.

29.--(2010-2011) Starts today! I can't imagine what this year will bring...I have plans of course, trips to go on, places to see. Things to do before I turn 30! :) But only time and God will tell what's to come. I can only hope and pray it's filled with as much love and happiness as the past 9 years. Thanks to those who got me where I am today. My parents, my husband, my kids, and my friends. I would be no where without you all. (Especially my parents, cause you know, without them I wouldn't even exist) :)!!!

Random Randomness.

Our Eclipse evening was quite a night. A few of us seem to be missing the pure joy of the Twilight premiere. We're probably going to to something a little different next year for the Breaking Dawn premiere. We still had a great time. 6 hours in the theater!

My next night however! We went to the IMAX for a Twilight themed dinner party. We were having a great time and my friend started to not feel well and she fell. We ended up in the E.R. and we were scared to death! She's going to be okay, just needs lots of rest from a skull fracture!!!! It's insane.

After getting home from all that I had to take Little Miss to her visitation with her 'mother' only to find out that she will get a visit with her 'father' as well. Thankfully my kids were with me, I was about to lose it! As it was I cried most of the way home. Her father is incredibly abusive towards her mother. He's a complete drunk and has a court record three pages long. (as does her mother). He did say he knows he has no chance of getting her and that he just wanted to see A. He brought his 19 year old daughter who had never seen her little sister before. But still the social worker had to physically take the baby out of my arms. I just froze, it all triggered within me at that moment. She is mine! So needless to say, we're going to fight for this one! Every close family member to them has a court record. The only decent relative is in West Virginia and by the time that would go through it would be over a year. It would be detrimental to A to leave after that time. She is a very clingy baby! Little Jay was a happy go lucky kid. His family really wanted him and they were all good people. (even his mother, she just needs a lot of parenting classes, he is in his grandparents custody right now). This family is totally different. The county where A is seems to want to place A with us. I think they will make that recommendation. I even hope to get to talk to the one family that wants her and explain how terrible it would be on her, and they are a foster family, so she has to know! It's going to be a long road, but I'm going to fight for this baby! She deserves a home where she's loved.

So all that to say, it's been a rather emotional week. I'm thankful for the three day weekend. Not really sure of our plans yet. There's a parade tomorrow that the Cub Scouts will march in, maybe staying for fireworks! I do still want to get to the theater to see a second showing of Eclipse. Praying for my friends speedy recovery! She needs so much help and rest!