Gymnastics

L finished her gymnastics class last week. She was in it with seven other 3 year old children and had a wonderful time. She did a good job of listening to Ms Katia and staying on task. She really enjoyed it so we plan to sign her up through a local gymnastics place. Here are some videos of her over the weeks.

A Quiet Birthday

Thursday was M's birthday. He hates to make a big deal out of his birthday and would prefer we treat it like any other day. I have a hard time with that so I always find some way to celebrate it. This year we went more low-key. The girls made cards for him and we wrapped his gifts in a blanket and a shopping bag. He seemed happy with it.
We got him some target clays and a bluing kit. After opening his gifts we headed to Roadhouse for a nice dinner using a great coupon ($10 off an order of $20 or more). No dessert though because earlier in the day I dropped off a dozen donuts at his work and he had three. He was still over-sugared by dinner time.

Dance Recital

I signed L up for dance class through our local parks and rec center. She attended classes once a week for 5 weeks lasting 30 minutes and learned both tap and ballet. Here are a couple of videos at her dance recital last week.

At the end of their last dance they were to go get their daddy or mommy and dance with them. Here are a few pictures with her daddy.

Here she is with her teach.

Here she is doing some ballet pose.
Not sure which one.

She enjoyed the dance class but said she liked gymnastics better. I think she does better at free style dance than at choreographed dancing. I will have to find the video of her dancing to music in our living room, it's really cute.

Pumpkin Patch

My girls each got to go on a field trip to the pumpkin patch at school. L went with her preschool and picked out a cute little pumpkin after going on a bumpy hay ride. I was unable to go with her because of a conflicting appointment, so I took some pictures of her with her prize pumpkin when she got home.

K's trip was this week and I was able to chaperon. There were three first grade classes with a total of 90 kids on this trip but it was pretty well organized. We went to a local farm where they taught us about apples before getting to sample one off the tree. We had Golden Delicious and they were tasty.

After eating our apples we put the cores into wooden boxes which are later fed to the cows and then we went in search of the perfect pumpkin. K found hers pretty quickly and then helped her friend, Hannah find one for herself.

The teachers had a little schedule all made up that told the classes where to go and for how long so it wasn't so chaotic. Our agenda was a class picture followed by apple cider and then playing in the hay maze. It was a fun afternoon but I was happy to get back to the school after riding on the bus. It always makes me so sick when I ride on that thing, I don't know how I survived when I was a kid.

Facebook Junkie

Hello, my name is N and I am an addict. I first joined facebook three years ago when a friend invited me to play a game on it with her. It was a fun way to waste time while my three year old had quite time and my baby slept. From there it slowly bloomed into a way to stay connected with far away friends and family as well as close ones. Then I started adding pages. Coupon website pages, crafting blog pages, scrapbooking pages, etc. It's a great way to stay updated on things I am interested in, but the time it takes is incredible!

Lately I have realized that I am a total junkie. There are times when I want to look up something or send off a quick email but I stop off at facebook first. After realizing an hour has passed since I sat down, I quickly power off the computer forgetting to take care of the item I originally got online to do. There are days when I am checking facebook all day long, only leaving my seat to feed the kids or run them to school. It has become completely ridiculous and I definitely don't have the extra time for this these days. On the days where I don't even pull out my laptop, I get so much done. However, when I get online the next day it takes twice as long to catch up on all the posts.

My husband recommended only going online for 10 minutes at a time, but COME ON!! I can barely get through the first page of posts in that time. So then I tried just looking at my close friends posts and the coupon posts. That has been better but I feel guilty for not reading all of my "friends" comments. I have thought of deleting people who aren't really my friends, but everyone on my account is someone I deal with at church or an old friend whom I like to keep updated with on their life. There are some of my friends who are seldom on facebook or not at all and they get along fine. I hear all about how they are doing when I see them at church or on girls nights out.

So now I wonder if I should just get off facebook altogether. The new layout helps push me in that direction because I really don't like it. It was much easier and more simple to navigate the old way, but alas, there is nothing I can do about that. So tell me, am I the only one that feels like a junkie? What are your thoughts?

Free Time? What's That?!!?

I thought for sure once school started and we got on a schedule I would have more time to get things done. However, now I am busier than ever and have had no time to update my blog or any of the other things I wanted to get done. Here are a few of the things we have been busy doing in the past month or so.

My hubby and I got away for an afternoon to do some target shooting. It has been way too long since I went and we ended up staying out for four hours having a great time.

We shot shotgun shells off of bowling pins.

And shot other target.

K has started up the fall season of soccer and has had four games so far. She started out kind of rough but is getting the hang of it again and is really going for the ball at times. Other times she seems happy just to chase the ball down but doesn't kick it once she is there. She has great potential and is a fast runner but isn't as driven as some of the kids on her team. As long as she is having a good time, I try not to care. I don't want her playing soccer in high school anyway, so I'm not pushing her too hard in this sport. It's just a way for her to get out and learn to play as a team and have fun. Here are some of our best shots of her during the games.





We have been canning fruits and veggies from our garden and the local farms. We love canning stuff to stock up for the winter months. We canned 15 quarts of salsa, 5 quarts of tomato juice which we use as a base in soups, and 7 quarts of homemade spaghetti sauce all of which came from our garden. We also canned 9 quarts of homemade chili and 9 quarts of peach pie filling. After all that, we dehydrated 24 pounds of pears which filled 6 quart jars. My girls eat the pears like candy. It's a healthy and tasty treat.

Our first crop of tomatoes.

Our second and third crops.

We also bought 30 pounds of bacon from Zaycon foods for $2.89 per pound. If you haven't heard of them, you need to check them out. They have amazing deals on meat and produce. We also have ordered 120 pounds of 100% natural chicken with no added hormones, additives, or artificial ingredients for $1.49 a pound. All of their meat comes to you fresh from the processor. You just divide it up the way you want and then freeze it. We will can 40 pounds and freeze the rest. MMM, look at all that bacon...

We also took a trip to Bahmah's house last weekend. The girls go pretty much once a month but we seldom do it any more and thought it would be fun for a weekend getaway. We listened to Uncle Luke play football online at Pamona College. He is their quarterback and he was amazing! We also played games and rode bikes. It was nice to hang out with my wonderful mom-in-law and relax.


These are just the things that have been filling our weekends. During the week I am running my girls to school, dance class, gymnastics, and soccer practice. I go to the gym while my youngest is at preschool on Mondays and Wednesdays, while on Tuesdays I just take her with me while I attend a power class. On Fridays I help out in K's classroom at school while L is in preschool.
I have about 2 hours every afternoon after L's preschool and extra curricular activities to play with her, plan dinner and get chores around the house done. Then I am off to school to pick up 6 kids and drive them home. We eat dinner around 4 and then it's family time, baths, homework and bedtime rituals.
This doesn't include the time I use to do my very busy calling at church or the weekly church meetings I attend. I have been falling into bed exhausted every night at 9 or 10 for the past month. It's great that I am sleeping better, but not so great that I am unable to get everything done I want to get done. I keep hearing there is a time and season for everything. Unfortunately, I want to get it all done RIGHT NOW!! But hey, at least I am finally updating my blog, right?