My daughter got married today!

I can't believe it! Donna and Stephen got married tonight! Gosh time just flies by so fast! Yesterday she was a baby on my hip, today she is a wife! Or at least it seems that way. I'm a little in shock, I think. It happened so fast. It was a very small private ceremony. Her dad married them in the church she grew up in, with me and her grandmother and his Aunt and Uncle as witnesses. They are already headed off to their honeymoon!

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The Girls Working On Their Barbie House

They had fun painting the shelves for their barbie store!

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Our Barbie Mall

I have been inspired to make the girls a Barbie house, actually a Barbie mall. We have been watching lots of videos on YouTube how to make everything Barbie. It started out with a bookcase my mom gave me. Originally it was going to be a house but then we decided that we wanted it to be a mall.


This is the bookcase turned on its side. Shane said he could build me 2 shelves splitting it into 4 rooms. The top is going to be a food court. I think we will put a rail on the top.

This room is our pet store. The other half will be a toy store. I still have a lot to do on the pet store. It needs trim separating the printed paper from the solid paper. I'm thinking white ribbon. and I need to paint the shelf hanging on the wall and we still need to make some more cages, toys and shampoo bottles.It's coming along pretty nicely though.

Close-ups of the pet store. Oh I need a cash register also.

Our fish tank. We love it!

The rabbit cage. We have 4 rabbits but the kids took 3 off somewhere. We still need to make the water bottle but I need a straw. All of this was inspired by myfroggystuff. You can watch videos of her making everything on YouTube. Super Awesome!

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Riding Lessons

The girls are learning to ride a horse. Here are some pictures of Booger, Colton's horse, and the kids riding him. Pap is leading them.

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Christmas Through The Years

I was looking back at some old pictures and I thought I would post them because it's fun to see how much the kids have grown and changed.

2007

Lacey, Kyle, Donna, her friend Danielle,Ashley, her friend Kelsea, our dutch exchange student Tess.

Christmas morning.

2008

Donna, Lily, Danielle, Kyle, Ash, Kelsea, Lacey

One with me and Shane.

 

2009

Lily and Lacey at the mall

Noah, Lacey and Lily on the train.

Kyle and Noah on the train.

Noah,Kyle, Ash, Kelsea, Danielle,Donna, Lily and Lacey in front of the tree.

The tree Lily wanted. :)



2011

Colton, Lily and Lacey in the front, Kyle, Donna, Shane, Me and Ash in the back.

2012

At the mall.

Kyle, Jordan, Ash, Donna, Stephen, Lacey and Lily in front.

We are getting soooo OLD! LOL.

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We Are officially On Christmas Break-YEAH!

Our Christmas break started officially yesterday. I am soooo ready for a break! I had to force myself to school last week. Christmas is not for school-it's to bake and cuddle on the couch and watch movies and make crafts and look at lights and go to Christmas plays and all that. We plan on taking the whole month off and not starting back until January 7.

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Getting Our Christmas Tree 2012!

We went Saturday to the Merket Christmas Tree Farm to get our tree. This has been our tradition since I was pregnant with Kyle. Before we go to the tree farm we drive to Marshall so the kids can ride the train. Then we go get our tree. This year was super fun. The weather was perfect not at all cold. Donna invited her fiancee and Ashley invited her boyfriend. Becca and her family followed us to the farm in Shane's truck.

At the mall.

Riding the train.

Kyle at the mall.

The tree farm has pygmy goats.

This picture cracks me up! Poor goat. LOL!

Ashley and Jordan

Noah and a goat.

Becca's little girl Hannah.

Lily holding a goat.

Our Tree!

Lacey and Lily

Donna and Stephen.

One with Santa.

When we got home I cooked a big pot of spaghetti, put on some Christmas music and we decorated the tree. I had made up some puppy chow and sugared pecans and I bought some cookies so we had plenty of snacks. It was fun. We made some good memories.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I am thankful for my family and friends, I'm thankful that I am healthy and loved. I'm thankful for all my blessings and for forgiveness and mercy. I'm thankful that God loves me and that He is still in control. I am so thankful for America, for freedom and for our great history. I'm thankful for the human race, I see so much selfishness and hate, pettiness, hypocrisy and racism. But I also see so much love, goodness, courage and resilience  I see hope and true honor, humility and acceptance. I'm thankful I'm part of humanity. So to all my friends, family and fellow humans- Happy Thanksgiving!

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Pecans! Pecans! Pecans!

We are over loaded with pecans! Me and the kids went to my sisters house and picked up about 5 1/2 gallons of pecans. Now I gotta figure out what to do with them all. I thought I would shell them and freeze them but after shelling pecans for 3 hours I had less than 4 cups of pecans and that was me, Shane and Kyle shelling them! I really want to put a bunch in the freezer but man I'll be shelling pecans for the next 9 months at this rate. I read a suggestion that said to boil them for about 15 minutes before you shell them and that did seem to go faster. So if ANYONE knows a better way please, please let me know. It seems a shame to let them go to waste. I read that you could freeze them unshelled, I may end up doing that. Next year I want to buy a pecan sheller!

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Things Work Out- by Edgar Albert Guest

 

Because it rains when we wish it wouldn't,
Because men do what they often shouldn't,
Because crops fail, and plans go wrong-
Some of us grumble all day long.
But somehow, in spite of the care and doubt,
It seems at last that things work out.

Because we lose where we hoped to gain,
Because we suffer a little pain,
Because we must work when we'd like to play-
Some of us whimper along life's way.
But somehow, as day always follows the night,
Most of our troubles work out all right.

Because we cannot forever smile,
Because we must trudge in the dust awhile,
Because we think that the way is long-
Some of us whimper that life's all wrong.
But somehow we live and our sky grows bright,
And everything seems to work out all right.

So bend to your trouble and meet your care,
For the clouds must break, and the sky grow fair.
Let the rain come down, as it must and will,
But keep on working and hoping still.
For in spite of the grumblers who stand about,
Somehow, it seems, all things work out.

Edgar Albert Guest

I have to admit I've been a little down this week, finances are tight, war in Israel, companies closing, more people out of work and on and on and on. I know God is in control. His grace is sufficient.


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Frugal Friday-Update

Whew! This has not been a great week! Shane got another pay cut, several people were laid off at his job and his hours were cut as well! We are trying so hard to stay on budget and get out of debt so this is really aggravating and frustrating  I'm glad that we have our budget in place, this pay was really tight but everything was paid. I had to really tighten up our grocery budget so I bought another 10 pound bag of chicken and got 5 meals out of it! Plus I have an almost endless supply of eggs, so we are eating a lot of eggs lately, egg salad, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, and omelets. I'm getting about a quart of milk a day from Mandy so all this is helping our grocery budget. I know everything will work out but, I'm glad we are pretty much done with Christmas. I spend a lot of time looking for ways to lower our bills, I cancelled our family text plan so that saved us $30 a month and I cancelled Lily's Pre-K which saved us $15 a month. That's really all I could think to cut. I know I could get a job (maybe I could?) but I don't want to have to do that right now. I have some clothes and books I'm going to try to sell on eBay. I gotta say this though, We went to an animal auction yesterday and i seriously almost bought a horse! They sold a pretty little brown mare for $20!!! And sold her baby for $10!!! That is crazy ridiculous and it was all I could do not to buy them! Afterwards though I thought I should of gone ahead and got them I'm pretty sure I could of sold them on Craigslist for a profit. Anyway that's my report this week, hopefully next week will be better.  If anyone has any ideas how to live a little more frugal please let me know.

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Happy Birthday Donna!

Today Donna is 19! How am I old enough to have a 19 year old daughter? 

She recently got engaged. This is her fiance Stephen.

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