Me Again!

HI! It's me again! You know, the one who never visits, writes or calls! I've dropped in for my yearly visit to check up on all you people and reveal a little of my life happenings.

I hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving with your families.  I did the usual thing...ate until I was stuffed and then ate some more.  Needless to say, my "diet" has dissolved into a pile of ashes. But I plan to pick that back up.  I'm starting a new workout routine from Les Mills called Body Combat.  Very fun mixed martial arts type of thing.  Here's a link if you'd like to check it out! Body Combat

The weekend after Thanksgiving, Josh and I went on a cruise! We needed some couple time and this was a first for us both to go out of the States together. (Actually, Josh's first time out of the States at all!)  We left from New Orleans on the Carnival Conquest and spent 7 lovely days at sea and in ports of call.  We visited Isla Roatan, Belize City, and Cozumel.  We enjoyed all of them! Cruising was something I wasn't positive I would love, but I would definitely do it again!  Here are a couple photos from various places.

Now, it's almost Christmas time!! The cruise and a brand new camera, that I took all my photos with, were my Christmas and Anniversary gifts (and probably Birthday next year as well! Ha!).  The kids are very excited, as they are every year.  We have a gamer in the house, Gabe, and so we decided to buy everyone a Wii system this year. That should be fun for all of us and satisfy the gaming cravings Gabe has. :)

School is going well.  Gabe has really taken off with his reading skills. I'm very proud of that. Jasmine, on the other hand, she prefers a great deal of attention and isn't currently concerned with reading as well as Gabe does. Totally different personalities!

Marshall will be turning 4 in January. He has requested a Toy Story cake this year.  I should probably get busy on the logistics of that.  Gabe will be 7 in February.  He has decided on an Angry Birds cake. I DEFINITELY have to get moving on THAT.  I try to make their cakes for them every year but they seem to be getting progressively more difficult.  I wonder if that's planned......

I'll post about the Birthday cakes when they come around.  Okay, I'll TRY to remember to post about them.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Our Summer

Alex tends to think that a camera pointed in any direction is meant for her. This is the result. 

 We made a trip to the beach.  These three loved it. Alex wasn't a fan.

They all love to get dirty when it cools off in the evenings.

We've had birthdays! Jasmine turned 5 in May.

Alex had her first birthday in April.

 Yes, it's been quite awhile since I posted here. Yes, I know you're not surprised. Yes, we did have a nice Summer, thank you for asking. :)   School has begun! We are currently on our second week and have no complaints thus far. 

First day of 1st Grade

It's been so nice chatting with you! We'll have to catch up again in another 6 months or so! ;)

Catch Up

So it's time to play catch up again! Yes, folks! It's time again for the yearly blog update! I know you've been waiting on the edge of your seats for this. *snicker*

And soooooo.......................


In January, Marshall turned 3! Yes. *sigh* He now has that little boy look instead of the baby boy look. He's certainly the fearless one of the four. If it seems like a good idea at the time, he'll give it a go. I do not look forward to ER visits that seem inevitable.

In February, Gabe turned 6! He and Jasmine(who will turn 5 in May) are in Kindergarten this year. It has certainly been an adventure. They have both done well in school, although I've been less than happy with the curriculum we used. (*ahem* Abeka) We'll be trying something different in the next school year.

We started a house! The footers are poured and Josh is working on the retaining wall now. He's putting in an enormous amount of hard work, and we are thankful. :)

I started trying to lose weight and get into shape last September. So far, I've lost 21 pounds and I don't know how many inches. It's nice to fit back into some clothes that have been sitting in my closet.

Alex will be turning 1 in a few weeks. This year has really blown by me. We call her Smiley sometimes because she's just full of them. She loves attention and there is no shortage of that from anyone in this house. She learned to clap yesterday. I must say, she's quite proud of herself. No first steps yet. Pulling up and walking down the couch, yes. I think she still feels unsure in her footing, so she mostly just leans forward instead of stepping forward.
I'm in no hurry here Alex......it won't bother me if you stay a baby for a little longer. :)

Music creations!

Wanna make some music? It's addictive. I warned you.

http://safe.tumblr.com/safe/video/2509512839/500

Catching Up

I was informed by a friend (ever so nicely) that I do not update my blog. This, unfortunately, is truth. I'm quite sure that "thinking" about updating it doesn't count for anything. So! Here is a new blog post filled with all the things I could remember since my last post...ahem...3 months ago.

1. Gabe lost his first tooth.
This wasn't as big of an event as I expected from him. The tooth was already quite loose when he told me about it, but he wasn't interested in wiggling it on his own to make it come out sooner. His reply to that suggestion was "It will come out on its own." For some reason, he began to think he wouldn't be able to talk if his tooth came out, but I assured him that it wouldn't make any difference. After about two weeks of waiting, it finally came out while brushing his teeth. He was happy with the money exchange for the tooth.

2. Alex is discovering she can get up on her knees. I'm not sure whether to hope she crawls soon or not. At this point, she rolls everywhere she wants to go.

3. Valerie has stopped milking until after she kids in March. I'm glad for this break because it sure isn't fun to milk when it's very cold outside.

4. Next week is Thanksgiving. Yay! Food! (I've been on a diet. Can you tell?)

5. I've learned, from a genius friend of mine, how to make Artisan bread. This bread is SO incredibly easy and tastes like heaven. I bought the book after trying the basic bread recipe that was given to me. (Artisan Bread In Five Minutes A Day)

6. In October, we made a trip to Louisianna to visit Global Wildlife Center. Gabe and Jasmine has such fun feeding the animals! It's a bit like a safari ride in a long covered wagon. The animals come up to the wagon to eat from your feed cup.

7. Josh and I went to see "The Help". I absolutely LOVED the movie and recommend it.

8. Josh and I will be celebrating our 10th anniversary in January. I'm still looking for ideas on something special to do for that occasion.

9. Isn't it sad that I can't think of more than 8 things to write about from the past 3 months?

10. I'll blame it on a lack of properly functioning brain cells.

Neat little website.

RainyMood.com: Rain makes everything better.

If you just need to hear the sound of rain. AAAaaaaahhhhh....peaceful. :)

First Day Of School

After milking Valerie this morning, I noticed one of the goats had her head hung in the fence. Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence. Also unfortunate is the fact that THIS goat loves to work against your efforts to help her, which in turn makes me want to leave her there for the rest of her life. However, being the kindhearted person that I am, I did walk ALL the way around the fence, and I DID spend 10 minutes heaving and pulling and smashing my fingers to finally free her fat, horned head from the tiny fence square she shoved it in. Yes, the picture you now see in your mind is quite funny. However, I have to say that at the time, I wasn't laughing. No, more like calling her unkind names, all of which she never understood and won't help in preventing her from doing the same thing all over again tomorrow. *sigh* Animals are not my forte...and yet, we have so many. Go figure.

Today was our first day of school! We all made it through unscathed. In fact, the children didn't want to stop. I have a sneaky feeling this enthusiasm may not survive the full 170 days. ;)