2 more pictures of the Pumpkin Patch

One more of Sara and her cheeser grin!

Here is one more picture of Anthony at the Pumpkin Patch.

The weather

It finally got cold here in Texas. And boy did it come quick! Aaron opened the door to take Caleb for a walk the other day and he made me go outside to feel how cold it was. lol I love cold weather, it sure beats the Texas heat!

I love chilly evenings. I just bought some pumpkin pie candles and they make the house smell sooo good. Anthony loves hot chocolate and I have a huge container of it from Sam's Club so I think I will surprise him tonight and make some up for us.

Pumpkin Patch 2007

Yesterday we took the kids to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch. We go there every year and alwyas have a good time. This is just a few of the pictures I took. There are way too many to put them all on!

Central Park

Me and my friend Ashley took the kids to the park today. We brought Caleb along with us to play catch. He was such a good dog at the park. I want to get one of those ball throwers to really fling it and see how fast he can go to get it.

Aaron's day off

Yesterday was Aaron's day off so we went to storage to dig out our winter clothes. Our stuff has been all packed up in there since April so it was kind of nice to see it all again...I miss my stuff. I had totally forgotten that I had a 12 place Christmas setting that my mom gave me for Christmas last year. And a punch bowl! lol

We also grabbed the kids tv out to put in the bedroom and let them watch movies. I cannot believe how many dvd's we have! It seemed like every box I looked in had another movie or 2 in addition to the one's labeled with dvd's. Now my place is a wreck and I need to get it all straightened out and organized. I am qickly becoming the queen of organization living in such a small space with so many of us for so long!

We are going to attempt to decorate this week for Halloween but it's pretty cold outside so we will have to see how that goes. I've gotta go clean now so I can do school and take the kids to the park with my friend Ashley. Maybe burn off some of their energy!!

making costumes

Today my mom and I drove all over the place shopping for costume stuff. I was desperately looking for orange tulle and JoAnn's in Lewisivlle had it. The one in Hurst didn't have it the last time I was there so I didn't ahve much hope of finding it. Walmart had the sparkly purple tulle I needed so EMma is getting an orange and purple tulle skirt for her witch's costume. I also got the white fur I needed for Sara's puppy costume. Hopefully I can get it all done tonight and be ready for halloween.

My mom and I also checked out what we wanted to get the kids for Christmas. My kid's are very spoiled when it comes to Christmas but they are great kids so they deserve it. I always had good Christmas' growing up and so I want them to have the same. My mom wants to get Sara the cutest baby doll. It's a Baby Alive doll ($50!) and she really eats and drinks and yes, it comes back out! lol I think it's cute and Sara will really like it. They even have pouches of food and juice mixes you get for her.

Well I've got to get busy making that tutu for Emma! I love my girl's....they are beautiful and I am so lucky to be their Mommy!!

soup

Tonight for dinner me and the girl's had grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. The soup was so darn good I had to post about it. It's one of those Tom Thumb Signature brand soups...we had Tuscan Tomato & Basil Bisque. Doesn't that sound fancy? lol

I love Tom Thumb's soups and this is the 3rd one I've tried. The other 2 were Fajita Chicken & Toasted Corn Chowder and Cravin' Crab & Sweet Corn Chowder....they were just as good as the tomato.

I still have yet to try: Fiesta Chicken Tortilla, Baked Potato Soup with Bacon and their Smoky Cheddar Ale (that one is only available for a limited time).

The tomato is just a little spicy but absolutely delicious. They run from $4-$5 but it's totally worth it. Me and Emma both had soup and we still have 1/2 a container left.

So there is my food blog for the day since we didn't do bentos!! lol

saturday saturday

So this is what my hand looks like today. It looks all purple and it sooo tender.
We were supposed to go do stuff today.....Log Cabin Village, trip to Frisco for kids dna kits, Butterfly Flutterby in Grapevine....I decided to do none of it today.

We are going to the park. It is such a nice day I can't stay inside. We have to swing by Aaron's dad's house to pick up the kid's coats and maybe try to find Rachel's apartment. I keep losing her phone number, but I know where she lives. Maybe see if they want to go to the park too. I don't know.

I just want to enjoy my Saturday...go to bed early and head to church in the morning. Soudns like a nice weekend to me!

a quote to iNsPiRe

"People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway."

~Mother Teresa

I have good kids

As I was cooking dinner tonight I had the front door propped open and the neighbor from upstairs knocked and asked if my kids could help him. His car had broken down and he had a bunch of tools that he needed to get up into his house. So Emma and Anthony volunteered and worked for 40 minutes going back and forth taking his tools upstairs. How sweet they are! I am really proud of them. The guy gave them $20 to split. I told him it wasn't necessary but he insisted that they really earned it. My sweet babies. Emma is excited because she has been keeping her eye on a little pink horse from Mardel and now she can buy it!

my friday

So this is what my hand looks like today. It hurts if you touch it. Sara was sitting with her feet on my lap and her little Converse scraped across it and it burned so bad!!

This morning Emma had an appointment at the public school to be tested for learning disorders. I did not realize that it would take 2 hours!! Me, Anthony and Sara just sat in the office bored for the entire time!

We aren't used to be up so early and Emma only co-operated for so long so the diagnostician decided that she wanted her to come back next week in the afternoon to try testing again. Next time I am bringing stuff to keep the kids busy.

We went to Walmart and I got Emma a super cute Ratatouille book. It's a 2nd level reader but I love the story so I went ahead and got it. I don't know why but I LOOOOOVE the movie Ratatouille. And for only $3, who can pass up buying the book?! I can't wait to sell Bare Foot Books!!!!

For dinner I am making beef stew. It was chilly out earlier and I'm sure it will be tonight too and that's beef stew weather! The girl's are going to help me make dinner and some cornbread with honey butter! For dessert we are having apple cobbler and peach cobbler. The cobbler is a generic one....just fruit on the bottom and a yellow cake mix mixed with some Sprite poured on top. But it's good and I want some peaches!!

I had planned on going to storage today to pull out our Halloween decorations and winter clothes but I am sooo tired!! Maybe Sunday. I want to relax on Sunday so today is our cleaning and laundry day. The kids have no choice but to help, especially since my hand is hurt. Plus I want to go to church this Sunday.

I can't wait until November, then Aaron will have a shift lead at his store and I might actually get to see him every now and then! lol He is doing so good and I'm so proud of him...just miss him :(

I burned my hand

I was cooking some chicken cordon bleu (mmmm) and I accidentally touched the back of my hand to the hot oven door. Ouch it hurt soooo bad!! I wrapped a washcloth with an ice cube in it for 2 1/2 hours. It would not quit burning!! It's still all swollen although the red area is smaller....just right across my knuckles...guess I can't do dishes for a couple of days, oh darn! lol

Yesterday's excitement

The laundry room here is in the next building over from us. There is a little sidewalk that goes in between the 2 buildings and our apt. is really close. So yesterday I am doing laundry and Emma and Sara decide that instead of staying inside and watching tv they are going to come find me. They knew where I was, they've done this a million times before...everytime I tell them that if they want to come with me, then come with me, don't come find me!

Anyways, they are standing by the laundry room door and I have my back to them folding sheets. Emma says "I'm going home" I said OK and finidhed folding 1 sheet and 1 sdleeping bag..that quick! So I am walking home and Emma comes back to me and asked where Sara is. I said, didn't she go home with you? And Emma said No. So I go in the house and call for her, look around for her, nothing. our place is tiny, not a lot of places to look.

Now I knew right when Emma had said that to me it was serious because the girls are ALWAYS together. They never go anywhere or do anything without each other. So I walk back to the laundry room and ask the people there if she is in there...no. So I start walking back to my apt. and a lady walking asked me what was wrong and I told her I couldn't find my daughter. She had seen Sara when the girls had first come to the laundry room.

So she starts looking and I go back home, check again, call my friend Ashley who lives here and asked her to help me look, then called 911. I told Anthony to go to all of their friends and look for her. And Emma was with the lady who had asked me what was wrong.

So the 911 operator picks up and asks what my emergency was and I said "I can't find my daughter", she asked where I lived and I told her. I think she could hear it in my voice that i was about to loose it and she asked me to calm down. Then she asked me to describe Sara. My response? She's little, she's only 4. So descriptive right? She thought it would be best to ask me questions and have me answer them. So I answered her questions and was like, ok I have to go outside and look for her. But she wouldn't let me get off of the phone!! She said that she needed me to stay on until the police got there.

So in the meantime, the lady our looking for Sara came back once and said that they couldn't find her, call 911...I told her I was on the phone with them. Then she came back again and said that someone had seen her at the pool area so people were checking there. I told the operator that to get to the pool you have to cross the parking lot and there was no way she would have done that. No way. So I pretty much sat on the phone in silence. Everytime I tried to talk I would start crying again.

My front blinds were cracked just a little and I saw a little head run by. Now right outside our door are the stairs...then I saw her little teal shorts go running up there. I threw down the phone and ran outside and called her name and there she was! I yelled that I found her (apparently nobody heard me). So I took her inside and told the operator. She said to stay there because the police will want to talk to me.

So I step outside just as everyone came up and said they couldn't find her and I told them that I had her. That lady who helped me just started crying. Since I was inside I didn't know that 1/2 of this place were looking for her!! Our apt. faces another building and apparently the parking lot was full of people. The police told me that there were people everywhere. How cool is that? People here really are awesome and there are so many kids, everybody cares.

So I asked Sara where she had been and she said that she had been upstairs at her friends house. What?! I asked her if she heard people calling her name and she said yes. Well...why didn't you answer? I don't know, sorry. That was the response I got from her. Ring her neck that child! I talked with her about it last night and she promised that she would never do that again. What surprises me is that she did it in the first place. She never leaves Emma's side....just goes to show that even when you think you know your child, maybe not as much as you think...if that makes sense!

October bentos

I picked up some Halloween cookie cutters for the kids bento lunches. Here is Anthony's shaped like a ghost with some applesauce and cheese.
Sara got a little pumpkin, cheese and cheddar bunnies.
Emma got the last of the strawberries, cheese, applesauce and 2 little sandwiches.
Friday is our Cooking Day or school and we are making little pumpkin shaped sugar cookies. We have so much going on with school, art and crafts and activities....there doesn't seem to be enough time for anything!!

Another tooth!!

Sara lost her 2nd tooth today. I don't have the best pictures of her but you can still see where it came out. She thinks that she is such a big girl now. I promise that I won't wash this one down the sink! lol

Emma's Witch Hat

Emma wants to be a witch for Halloween again. For the 4th year in a row (she's only 7). I saw this pretty witch hat at Walmart that had black tulle and black flowers with black feathers. It was so pretty but it was also $10! So I decided to make her a hat myself!

What is actually kind f neat is that I asked all 3 kids if they wanted me to buy them a costume at Walmart or make them a costume and all 3 want me to make them a costume. Well isn't that flattering? I have been making their costumes for the most part since they were little.

My mom bought Emma a really cute witch hat from the 99 cent store. The cute part was this black spiderweb material that hangs down from it. So this is what the hat looked like before I started.

The spiderweb fabric.

I cut off the orange band that went around the hat. Then I added purple tulle, orange flowers, feathers and some spiders. This is the front view of the hat.
This is the side view. It looks so cool when the hat is on. And even though the blue feathers are indeed blue, they blend in with the purple tulle really well. I think it's the way the camera picks up the color that makes it look so bright.
Don't the colors just pop?!
Emma wearing it, with her head down. I cannot tell you enough how much I love this hat!!

Now I also made Sara some puppy ears for her costume but I want to make little puppy bows before I take a pic. She is going as a black and white puppy like Caleb. And Anthony is going as Zabuza from Naruto.

a new obsession

I love books. I love to read. I find that I rarely have time for it anymore, but when I get a chance I pick up a book and read as much as I can before the kids find me and distract me.

So I was browsing around the Homeschool Blogger site at different blog and came across a book giveaway. The book was from a publishing company I had never heard of before so I decided to check out their website. I was in heaven!!

Their books are beautiful!! Some are whimsical and I love whimsical. The illustrations are magnificent. And the best part is, you can actually join up with them to sell their books!

Now if you don't homeschool, you are probably not as familiar with people selling books from home. Tons of people are signed up to sell Usborne books and that is great because they are fantastic books. I enjoy them, my kids enjoy them, you totally get to learn while having fun.

But these books don't have a lot of sellers and that is a plus. I love the idea of getting in on something before it blows up in popularity. We were all over organic stuff and then boom!!! It was everywhere and now everyone is so eco-chic.

I won't sign up to sell until February, but I am so excited. These books speak for themselves in their beauty and quality and it's easy to sell something you are passionate about. I'm not giving up my etsy shop or my hair bows and other stuff. Not at all...this is just going to be an extension of that. I mean, I tried to stay away from making stuff until after the holidays and I just couldn't stay away and listed some stuff on etsy! lol

Back to books.....I really enjoy reading to my kids and in my line of work, it's a must. So why not? Right? Right!

Finally, here is the link to the website so you can see these awesome books I have been rambling on about :)

Bare Foot Books
http://www.barefoot-books.com/us/site/pages/home.php?rep_code=US-A000377""

Household Binder

I have never been a super organized person, but after living in tiny places the last 6 months, I have learned how to organize everything!!! I have seen a lot of women that use household binders but a lot of what they have in their binders won't work for me. So here is my plan for mine, and I will update later when I have pictures, but I', still putting it together and it will take a bit.


Here are the categories and sub-categories that I wll have in mine:

• Cleaning Schedule (downloaded from www.MotivatedMoms.com)
• Menu
• Regular Calendar (for Dr. appts, holidays, birthdays)
• Homeschool Planner-Anthony & Emma's lesson plans, Field Trip Planner, Themes for the Month Calendar
• Book List for me
• Book list for the kids
• Curriculum finds/Ideas
• Websites for me
• Websites for the kids
• Address Book

The Themes for the Month Calendar is for arts and crafts activities. I always run across cute arts and crafts projects I want to do wit the kids but I lose them, forget about them or just don't prepare enough for them. This way, all of our activites go on a calendar for the month, corresponding to a different theme for each week and I can be ready.

I can't wait to get it all together and then I will take pictures and post them.

phone pics

I was looking through our phone pictures last night and found this one. I had totally forgotten about it. A couple of months ago Emma drew me a rabbit. Can you guess what the rabbit is holding? My first guess was a cigarette which made me bust into laughter...but no, that is the rabbit's carrot. Which do you think it looks like? lol

Colts 2004

Here is Emma dressed up for Bubba's football game. All od us were there, but I can't get the other pics to load right now. Isn't she cute? She is about 4 here.
And here I am! I think that Anthony took this picture of me sitting around waiting for the game to start!

Sara 2004

I came across these old pictures of Sara from 2004. These were taken in November, right before she turned 3. Doesn't she look beautiful?!!

other blog

I just posted slideshows of our field trip to the Fort Worth Zoo's Homeschool Day. I post all of our field trip's over there instead of this blog, so don't forget to check it out! You can click on the link to the right that says Cortni's Homeschool Blog and it will take you there!

Bear with me

Over the next few days I will scrapbook all of my photos on Smilebox. Yes some of these are old photos, but what a great new twist to them! I love it. Most of fall 2006-Feb 2007 were on the laptop and I can't get the disk to work in this computer so I can't do anything with them. As soon as I can, I will do those too!

If it shows a red X in the box, go ahead and ckick on it anyway and it will take you to the scrapbook.

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Smilebox

I came across a cool little tool (there was an article in this month's Family Fun magazine). It's a website called Smilebox and you can create online scrapbook's, postcards, recipe cards, etc.

So I decided to try it out and this is my first creation. It's from a camping trip we took last year. Tell me what you think!

Click to play Make your own Smilebox

Crossing Over

My sis in law Nicole goes to Northwood University and they have this Crossing Over ceremony where they become "Knights" (the school mascot) and it was last night so me and the girls went.

Of course it was also the TX OU game (we lost) so I had to dress them accordingly! For Sara that meant the largest hair bows I could make! lol You can tell who is my girly girl and who is my tomboy!

So here are the girls with Nicole in her dorm room.

Here is Nicole just after she crossed the bridge and became a Knight.
Her with her friend Keenan dressed up for the Homecoming dance.
Sara and Nicole
Nicole with her friends about to leave for the dance.
We had fun. We stayed late and the girls started getting cranky bu I'm glad that I went. In a couple of weeks they are doing a haunted forest and I'm leaving the girls home for that one! lol

losing weight

I am finally starting to notice that I am losing weight since I quit drinking soda. yay! None of my pants fit right anymore. They all try to fall down!! I can feel that my hips are not as big as they were before. I can actually take my pants on and off without un-buttoning them.

I need to weigh myself to see how much I have lost. I just need to change some eating habits (I don't eat horribly, but I skip breakfast too much and eat late in the day). It's pretty exciting since I have gained so much weight in the last 7 years.

I want to lose 130 pounds by next Christmas. That is only 8 1/2 pounds a month. That isn't bad at all. I am hoping that I have lost about 10 and I would be right on target. Considering how much my pants are falling off, it has to be close to that! yay

say it in signs

Our October

Our fall is getting so busy! We just had a field trip to the Ft. Worth museums this weekend (Log Cabin Village, National Cowgirl Museum, Ft. Worth Museum of History and Science and the AMon Carter Art Museum). On Thursday we have the Ft. Worth Zoo Homeschool Day.

Today we are making matching shirts to wear on our field trips. We are the Knights and our colors are royal blue and white. We match Nicole (my sis in law) and her school colors. This Saturday is Nicole's Crossing Over ceremony where she will become a Knight at her college, Northwood. They are having a medieval type feast and the girls are wearing their field trip shirts with matching hair bows (and I think I might make Sara a tutu...hehehe).

Here is the list of our events for October:

Oct. 4- Ft. Worth Zoo Homeschool Day http://www.fortworthzoo.com/school/homeschool.html
Oct. 6 day- Aquarium Field Trip http://www.dallas-zoo.org/aquarium/aquarium.htm
Oct. 6 night- Crossing Over ceremony @ Northwood
http://www.northwood.edu/crossingover/
Oct. 9- Lego group
Oct. 10- Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch Homeschool Day (maybe) http://www.sharkarosa.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=51
Oct. 13- Archaeology Fair @ Farmers Branch Historical Park http://www.ci.farmers-branch.tx.us/ParksRec/PDF%20Files/2007%20Arch%20Fair%20Flyer.pdf
Oct. 14- Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch http://flowermoundpumpkinpatch.com/home.html
Oct. 16- Anthony's preteen group meet @ the park
Oct. 20- Maize Days @ Log Cabin Village http://www.logcabinvillage.org/
Oct. 21- Boo at the Zoo (Dallas Zoo) http://www.dallas-zoo.org/default.htm
Oct. 23- Lego group
Oct. 24- Flower Mound Pumpkin Village http://www.flowermoundpumpkinvillage.com/index.html
Oct. 27- Halloween in the Park @ Farmers Branch Historical Park http://www.ci.farmers-branch.tx.us/ParksRec/Specialevents.html
Oct. 31- Halloween (which I am making the kids costumes for, so that will keep me busy on the days we don't have activities)

Can you see how busy we are this month! And those are just the activities we are doing, not to mention all of the schoolwork to do! We are even doing 2 different pumpkin patches! I'm excited though because last year we weren't part of any homeschool groups and didn't go on many field trips. So far this year is way better than last year in every way!

made it through the weekend

Whew what an exhausting weekend! I have been dehydrated and not feeling good this weekend, but I feel so much better now. I think that a lot of it was the fact that when I drank soda, I always had one, and I stayed hydrated. Yeah, contrary to popular belief, soda will keep you hydrated, maybe just not as much as good old-fashioned water, but it still will.

So I quit drinking Sunkist 19 days ago and picked up drinking more water. Just now I don't always have one attached to my hand like I did before, so I haven't been getting enough fluids. And we've had a busy schedule and an all day field trip, so I was just pretty worn out.

We were supposed to try out a new church this past Sunday with my new friend Heather I met at Lego group but I was just too tired. She was super cool about it and we look forward to going this Sunday. We have been going to Valley Creek Church in Flower Mound for 9 months but it just wasn't fitting for us anymore. It has grown so much since we started going and it just keeps getting bigger. http://www.valleycreek.org/

A smaller church is more the right fit for us. So we are going to visit Metro Bible Church in Colleyville/Grapevine area. It is a small non-denominational church and we are pretty excited to check it out. The kids are looking forward to being in a smaller Sunday school class and from talking with Heather, they do things more like the First Baptist Church that we were members of in East Texas. Here is the new church we are visiting: http://www.metrobible.org/