It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Santa mailed the younger kids letters to remind them he would be here soon, and to be good. Todd is starting to worry a little bit. I heard him telling the others "I try to be good! I'm only naughty sometimes!" hehehe... he cracks me up!!

It has been a busy holiday week! Today I took the kids to a ballet recital that several of Faith's friends were in, and then we went to a concert at the church tonight. Sometimes I don't feel like we are ever home anymore! Here are some shots from this week.

Beth and Todd curled up in the chair together to watch TV while I was cooking dinner last night. They both looked so tired!

It snowed yesterday, and although we didn't get as much as was predicted, the kids still found enough on the cars to make snowballs. Can you tell that Kyle just hit a brother who wasn't paying attention with a well-formed snowball?

Even the dogs enjoyed playing in the falling snow with the kids. Sammy got right up on the car and sat in the snow that Faith was trying to gather up!

There was one who wasn't that interested in playing in the snow. Chet realized I was making fudge for a cookie sale at church today, and while his siblings bundled up to brave the cold, he got caught scraping the extra fudge out of the pan!

Here are pics from the parade last weekend. The kids' float won first place in the church sponsored category!

The weather keeps fluctuating from warm to cold, and it is wreaking havoc on my lungs. I am sick again, and this time it has settled in my chest. There is still a lot to do this month, though, so hopefully I get over it soon. I haven't even really begun my shopping yet because I haven't had a chance to get into a town that has more than one store!! Ah well... that is what the last minute is for right?

Locks of Love, a race with a cow, and some misc shots

Faith cut ten inches off her hair yesterday to give to the Locks of Love foundation. She was so thrilled with how long the ponytail ended up being. She has a cute cut, and she can still pull it up in a headband or clips if she really wants it out of her face.
What she really loves is how it flips up in the back now!
These are the kinds of moments where I am glad I usually have my camera with me. Beth and I were driving down our dirt road when I looked in the rearview mirror and saw one of our dogs chasing a cow out of our yard. She ran behind the truck and I caught the first shot in the side mirror. Along with the dog chasing her, the neighbor's horses joined in the race as we passed their fence, and I am sure she thought I was chasing her in the truck as well. Poor cow. She probably won't be back soon to eat the grass.

I was playing with some flash modes today, and shot this one of Beth with her bedhead when she woke up from her nap. She opened the door and decided it was too cold to come out and join me.
This is one of the few shots of Jack where he doesn't look bright red... I will have to use this mode more often with him!
And here are some shots of some of the animals. I had to laugh at the black cat's photo... it is blurry but her expression is priceless... "Are you taking my picture??"

And this is another picture I took of one of our almost naked trees. I took this one with the bench under it for scale. It is very wintery outside today, and you can see that in this shot. It should be snowing this weekend, and I can feel it in the air.

Emails to Santa?

Apparently, my kids aren't writing letters to Santa this year... they are emailing them. I received this email tonight... lol.

Hey Mom

This is all I want for Christmas

1 PS2 console

2 Used guitar Hero controller

3 Guitar Hero 3 legends of Rock

4 PS2 memory Card

5 Transformers the movie game

Its not that much. I love you.................please Ive been a good boy :(

The grass is greener in our yard

I snapped this one of some of our naked trees the other day. Just ignore the ugly garden in the bottom corner... I still need to get that cleared out! It might be spring before we do, though, because it is cold out there! We might have snow tonight, and we are under a severe weather alert. I love it, but it is chilly!

This is one of the cows who loves to sneak through the fences and eat our grass. We really don't mind if the neighbor's cows come visit because it is less mowing for us, but I do think they are a little silly. She gets on this side, then realizes she can't get back and starts mooing for her baby, who can't get to her either... lol... so some mornings we wake up to a lot of cowtalk outside our bedroom windo.
I didn't get Thanksgiving pictures taken much because I was so busy. A couple of ladies came and helped me cook a huge dinner for some people in our area who had nowhere to go for Thanksgiving dinner. We ended up with 50 people at the dinner, and then we fed 106 more with the same dinner a couple of nights later. It was a really rewarding experience, and the kids had a lot of fun being there. Our friends and their kids came to help as well. Here is a shot of Todd and his bestfriend Talon goofing off while they waited for their food. One of our cats, Princess, simply adores Kyle and wants nothing to do with the rest of us. She wasn't even sure she wanted me taking her picture, but since Kyle stayed put, she did too.

We got our tree put up the other day with the four youngest ones. Matt and Chet were off at some friends' houses visiting, so we waited until we could all be home to finish decorating it. We should finally have all the decorations out and up tomorrow.


This is our new tile floor in the living room. In fact, I grouted that section of the floor... :0)

My little girl turned 10 today...

and she was so excited about it. Since they are out of school for Thanksgiving, she got to come to work with me today. Her party will have to be next weekend since most of her friends are busy this weekend, but we had cake tonight anyway. Happy birthday, Sweetie... we adore you!

She was in a play last Saturday with the High School drama club, and she just loved every minute of it. Her part was small, but she took it so seriously and got to be friends with a lot of the other kids during the practices. My shots from the play itself did not turn out well, but here she is taking her bows at the end.

Matt is in the Drama Club too, and worked as a lights operator for this play. His football schedule interfered with practices, so he will have an acting part in the spring play.

Jack is going hunting for another deer in the morning. It has been snowing off and on tonight, and it is expected to be about 20 degrees when they leave in the morning, so he went out tonight and got some head gear to help him keep warm. Sitting in a tree in the cold and hoping a deer comes out isn't my idea of fun, but he is looking forward to it. I hope he does catch a deer, though, because the jerky is so good!

On Sunday we went to Josh and Mystery's house for an early T day dinner. Here is a shot of Todd enjoying a turkey leg. Tomorrow we are cooking a community dinner at the church, and even though it will be a long day, I think it will be fun as well. We are supposed to have between 50-100 people there... lots of turkey!!

I was married to a man in brown....

for a week... :0) UPS men are my favorite... lol... they always bring cool stuff and never bring bills or junk mail. Jack started there as a temporary seasonal worker last week, but yesterday he was hired full-time and begins on Monday (woooooohooooooo) so he gave his notice and turned in that wonderful uniform today. Sigh.... at least I have pics!

We took Beth out for an ice cream cone the other day. I think it is too cold for ice cream, but she feels it is a treat for any occasion... lol.
Todd came home with a headband he was really proud of yesterday. "My new name is Braveheart!" he proclaimed. I have to laugh at how the sun is shining through his ears in this shot.
Matt and Chet got started in Boy Scouts again last week, and tonight they are camping with their troop. Jack went with them to make sure they got set up okay. He took pics of them starting to put the tent together, but none of them with it done. Chet was really excited about it... this is his first campout. They will have one every month, and Jack will usually go along with them, but he is leaving at 4:30 in the morning to go hunting. Look out Bambi.... you are featured on several upcoming meals... lol.
After he got back from setting the boys up, he crashed on the couch, and Beth went to sleep on her daddy pillow. I love how they have their arms the same way.
I didn't get to take autumn pictures last weekend. We ended up being too swamped! Tomorrow is a busy day too... Faith and Matt are in a play, Jack will be gone all morning hunting, I have church commitments in the middle of the day, and we are going to a neighboring town for a Christmas parade and lighting ceremony in the evening. It should all be fun, but busy!

It has been getting cold again, and it is entirely possible we may have snow on Thanksgiving... I hope so!

A week in review....

Chet seems to have begun to stabilize again. His immune system is still way down, but his other counts have come up again. I feel like I can breathe again. We are still heading to St Jude's to discuss the treatment programs they have and what they think might be a good route, if any, to take with him, but now that the immediate crisis is over that can wait until a school break so he doesn't miss any classes.

These are black walnuts still in their hulls. The kids have been hiring themselves out doing misc yardwork, and today they went to the house of a couple we go to church with to gather walnuts, and they get to keep the money from selling them. They filled the back of the truck about half full. That black stuff is wonderfully sticky, and gets all over everything without coming out easily at all. There are about 15 walnut trees in the front yard, about as many in the back, and lots more in their pastures, so the kids will be going back to get more. The younger guys got bored pretty quickly, but Chet and Faith worked for two hours straight gathering them up and dumping their buckets in the truck.
They wore gloves to keep the black stuff off their hands. Then they took the gloves off and smoothed out the walnuts in the back of the truck, which essentially voided the whole point of wearing gloves in the first place.
Jack and I took some pictures of each other at different times this week. He snapped this one of me Sunday after church. I dyed my hair the other day and was going for a red look, but it has already toned down to a brown again.
I caught this one of him when I was playing around getting ready to take soccer team pics the other day. I was playing with a black and white gradient over the photo, and I really don't like how it washes him out in the top of his head, so I need to play with it more.

Ladybugs are out in droves right now. We get in the car, and they are all over the seats, the windows, and this little one was walking along the side mirror. I sit on the porch, and they fly in my hair, crawl up my legs... ugh. The kids love it, though. They keep gathering up cups full of them and want to bring them in the house. NOOOOOO! I tell those ladybugs they need to fly home... lol... their house is on fire... lol.
Matt was at drama practice the other day (he is part of the stage crew) and the other kids were out playing in the yard. They pulled their huge teeter totter out, and played on it for about an hour. About halfway through they called me to get my camera... they wanted pics. They are typical siblings in most ways... they bicker and complain about each other, but I thought it was really heart warming to see them all working together and having fun. Beth was trying to mimic Todd to make the peace sign... lol... she didn't quite make it.

Todd saw me taking Beth's picture and had to climb into the shot. He is the hammiest of my hams.

Matt's last football game was last Thursday. These are shots of him from the game.

Unfortunately, they lost the game... badly. But overall they had a good season, and I have really enjoyed seeing these boys improving their game. The difference that two seasons makes is incredible!
Jack called me out the other day and asked me to grab the camera. He wanted me to shoot this weird looking spider. I went back in to get my long lens because there was no way I was getting too close to this freakazoid. I have no idea what that orange house on its back is, although I am assuming it is an egg sack of some kind. It was marching straight towards the house. Ick. It is one thing for the kids to try to sneak frogs and ladybugs in to "give them a good home" but I absolutely draw the line at pregnant orange spiders setting up house in my home. ick ick ick.

We are heading out tomorrow to take Kyle to a free baseball clinic, and then watching him play in two games afterwards. Matt and Faith have drama practice tomorrow as well.