New Year's Eve

Wow, it's hard to believe another year is almost over. To think we started the year as a family if 8 and are ending it as a family of nine. Alot can change in just one year. I'm thankful that this year has been a good one. We've had our ups and downs through out the year but the good has far outweighed the bad. Let's hope the same can be said of the upcoming year.

We are going to be heading to church for a New Year's Eve party here in a little bit. Be safe if you are out tonight and I hope everyone has a Happy New Year. .

Unconscious Mutterings - Week 204

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Resolution :: New Year's
   
2. Happy :: Sad
   
3. Bubbly :: Hot
   
4. Kiss :: Hug
   
5. Leather :: Lace
   
6. Fancy :: Plain
   
7. Pages :: Book
   
8. Stupid :: Smart
   
9. Apologize :: Sorry
   
10. Secrets :: Hide
    

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Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt Theme: New

This is a picture of our very first baby chick. He was born October 1, 2006 and as you can tell, he's brand spanking new...he's less than a minute old in this picture.


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Friday Feast #124 - 12/29/06

Appetizer
How do you usually celebrate on New Year's Eve?
Up until a few years ago we never did anything. Then we started going to a New Year's Eve party at a friends house. This year we are going to a New Year's Eve party at the church where our oldest son attends youth group.

Soup
Name one thing unexpected that happened to you in 2006.
We started raising chickens...just a few so we'd be able to have some eggs. We hatched them from eggs which the kids thought was so cool.

Salad
Where was your favorite place that you visited in 2006?
I don't think I went anywhere exciting this year.

Main Course
What resolution is your top priority for 2007?
I don't generally make resolutions but I'd like to do a better job of staying in touch with family and friends. This was my 2006 resolution as well and I did okay with it but I'd like to do better this year.

Dessert
Using just three words, describe 2006.
Achey, Tired, Sleepless...hmm, does it sound like I was pregnant and had a baby in 2006? LOL

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It's Done

Christmas is over...the last of the decorations came down today. Everyone seemed very happy with what they got. Our big family gift was a chess table with chairs. The chairs were on backorder at the time we placed the order so the chances of us getting them by Christmas was slim. As it turns out, the table and chairs arrived the day after Christmas which worked out well since we'd gone to Andy's sisters for Christmas day. Here's a pic of what he new tableand chairs look like. My parents bought us really nice chess pieces to go with it.


Andy and the kids gave me a gorgeous Last Supper piece made out of olive wood from Bethlehem. I love it!



My parents gave us some cute decal people so now my car and our big van have little people on the back of them. I'm especially excited because Andy wouldn't let me put the fish on my car...he said if I can't fit all the people in my car, I can't show all the fish. You see I didn't let that deter me from putting all the little people on my car. =) The first picture is my car, the second and third pics are of the van.


I also got a digital camera from my parents which I'm very excited about because it now means I don't have to constantly try to get the other camera from Andy everytime I want to take a picture. The above pictures were taken with my new camera...I'm still trying to figure out how to get it to work the way I want...and it took me way to long to figure out how to get the pictures transferred from the camera to the computer but I finally figured it out. I'm also getting a swivel recliner glide rocker with money that my in laws gave me. My other gliders have bit the dust so they all getting tossed out once I receive the new one. I'm very excited about it.

Andy got a new coffee pot, a new George Foreman grill (we wore the other one out) from me and the kids. From my parents he got a big toaster oven. I'm not sure what he's going to use his money from his parents for but I'm sure he'll come up with something...I heard rumblings about a tiller. ;) His mom also got him the exact same George Foreman grill. What are the odds. LOL

The big things from us for the kids was... some PS2 games for the boys, Kenzie got a softball glove and ball, Bekah and Andy got T.M.X. Elmo, Kearsyn got some bottles...poor girl got something practical. LOL From Andy's parents...Alex got a guitar (now to work on getting lessons), Connor got a metal detector and binoculars, Kenzie got a keyboard, Taylor got a karaoke machine, Tyler got a boxing bag, Bekah got lots of clothes and Kearsyn got lots of diapers and some toys. From my parents, Connor got pool balls with the Eagles (he loves) and the Colts (he hates but my mom loves) emblem. Alex got pool balls with the Ravens (he loves) and the Redskins (he hates but my mom loves...see a pattern yet. LOL) emblem. Everyone got chess pieces for the new table and they got lots of different family type games.

My mom always makes something for us for Christmas and this year is was people made out of pieces of her porch railing when she redid it. Aren't they cute?

Merry Christmas!

May everyone remember the reason for the season. God Bless!

Gingerbread House

This is our first attempt at gingerbread houses. We had to cheat this year because I waited too long and had to get preassembled houses. The kids had a great time decorating them though and want to turn this into a tradition for Christmas Eve. Next year I might get daring and attempt to make my own gingerbread, that way we can attempt to build the houses ourselves.

Unconscious Mutterings - Week 203

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Terrify :: Scare
   
2. Month :: December
   
3. Throat :: Swallow
   
4. Invasion :: of the Body Snatchers
   
5. Nail :: Hammer
   
6. 12 :: Months
   
7. Bicker :: Fight
   
8. Thomas :: Edison
   
9. Sibling :: Rivalry
   
10. Delude :: Mislead
    

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Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt Theme: Lines

Lots of lines in this picture of the suspension tower of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

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Homeschool Piano Recital

We had a piano recital today at our house with a couple of other homeschool familes. It was alot of fun and as Mary was leaving, she said this should be an annual event. I think that's a wonderful idea! They came bearing cookies and fudge and dutch ornaments to hang on the tree. You can click here if you'd like to hear some of the songs that our kids played.

Friday Feast #123 - 12/22/06

Appetizer
What is one of your Christmas traditions?
Setting up my Christmas village and nativity scene and getting together with family every year.

Soup
Who is the easiest person on your list to buy presents for?
My dad...he loves gadgets and tools so if you buy something along those lines, he'll be happy.

Salad
What is your favorite Christmas scent?
Pine...I love the smell of a fresh pine tree. Unfortunately we don't get a real tree anymore due to all the kiddos but I used to love it when we did.

Main Course
If you could give a fellow blogger a Christmas gift, who would it be and what would you give them?
I would give Tammy peace...she sure deserves it. (((Hugs))) sweetie!

Dessert
What's something on your Christmas wish list this year that you need (not just want)?
There isn't anything that I need...I'm already more than blessed with all my wonderful children and a loving DH...but I would love to have more sleep if there was a way to get it. ;)

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Financial Aid

We finally got around to filling out the Parent Financial Statement (PFS) that the Gunston school gave us when Andy and Alex went to the open house last month. The PFS is submitted to the School and Student Service for Financial Aid (SSS) which processes the information and will then send a report to the schools requested and to yourself detailing how much they think you can afford to pay for schooling. We received the results back today (about 2 days after filing the forms). Boy, filing electronically is great. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they calculated what we could afford to pay for school at pretty much what it costs us for the homeschooling supplies for Alex. Of course, this doesn't really mean anything because it's dependant on how much financial aid the actual school can give out but it's nice to know the school won't (or shouldn't) be expecting us to fork out an arm and a leg because we can't. So, since this report says things are still within our means we'll go ahead with the next steps for Gunston which would be submitting an application for the school. Then he has to take a standardized test...like the SAT but I can't think of the acronym for the one he has to take...so he'll do that either in February or March. Then, assuming he got accepted into the school, we'd have to see how much aid they could offer us to see whether it's really doable or not.

We got new insurance cards for all the kids showing their new pcp except for Kearsyn which is the one we really need. They only put 6 cards in an envelope so I'm assuming the one that has her card in it got separated from the other envelope. I wish it would show up as the others got here a few days ago. I figure I'll give it til after the holidays and if we haven't gotten it by then, I'll have them send another. I know her pcp got changed because I can view the info online so worst case scenario, if she gets sick before we get the new card I'll just print that page out. Updating to say that we received Kearsyn's new insurance card today, 12/22, so we are all set for the new doctor. =)

We finally got our refund check from the over payments to the specialist office for Alex & Kenzie's broken collarbones. I called the beginning of November to request it so it took about a month and a half for them to get it to us.

Today we did some house cleaning since we are having a small piano recital here tomorrow. Will be fun to listen to the kids playing.

I've made up all my days for work where I was short on leave so now I'm free until Jan 2. Yay! I was even able to help with a couple of programming modifications that they needed done so my timing was perfect for this make up work.

Bekah is doing so well with her sign language. She walked up to me today and did the sign for drink and then milk to let me know she was thirsty and wanted a glass of milk to drink. How cool!

I unpacked all my regular clothes and boxed up my maternity ones the other day. Anyone want to take bets on how long they'll stay boxed up? And Andy, you stay out of it! ;)

I was able to get most of the presents wrapped today while the kids were over at a friends house practicing for the recital tomorrow. Still have a few more to do but shouldn't take long...finding the time without the kids around will be the problem. And trying to do it at night it's that easy because that's when Kearsyn is at her grumpiest.

Evaluation Report

I forgot to update about the meeting we had last week to go over Bekah's evaluation. The report said what we already knew...that her developmental levels other than speech were where they should be or above level. She was 26 months when she was evaluated and all her scores came in 28 months - 33 months. This was for cognitive, social/emotional, adaptive/self help, gross motor and fine motor skills. Her speech evaluation showed her at a 20 month level (instead of 26) which just barely qualifies her for their program. They're going to come to house twice a month to work with her and also to show us things we can do with her during the times they aren't here. I'm still totally impressed with how quickly she can pick up sign language and she now has quite few that she uses regularly like more, please, thank you, mess, shoes, coat, milk and drink.

We went to my parents yesterday to celebrate my dad's and Kathy's birthday. It was a nice visit although the boys/guys spent most of time in front of the tv watching the Ravens game. LOL Afterwards, mom took Connor to go see Eragon. Alex had seen it with his youth group on Saturday and really enjoyed it. Kenzie was so upset that Connor got to go to the movies with mom. Never mind that Saturday afternoon, she'd gone to birthday sleepover party that also included going to Build a Bear workshop, getting smoothies and pizza and then going out to Fisherman's Restaurant for dinner.

I tried doing some work today but it didn't go very well as Kearsyn was a complete grump today. I'm not sure what was up with her but she sure wasn't happy. It was also a very late night last so that didn't help things any. It was beautiful outside today so we took outside for a little while. Andy swung with her on the swing while I jumped on on the trampoline. I'm going to be so sore tomorrow...as Andy so kindly said, I'm no spring chicken anymore. LOL Oh and speaking of the trampoline, the younger kids have been banned from it after Tyler tried to hang himself on the top of the enclosure net. He got two huge scrapes on the underside of his chin around his neck where he flew up and got his neck on the top of the netting that is supposed to keep him in the trampoline. Guess that only works if you aren't trying to jump higher than the netting which is what Kenzie and Tyler were trying to do.

Tonight we went to the Christmas party for Alex's youth group which was at the youth group leaders house. What a gorgeous house it was too. He made half the house from trees that he'd cut down from his own property. How cool is that? The walls, flooring and ceiling were left the natural wood that had been made into planks (no bark on it) and he had a loft area with a cool spiral staircase. I know Andy and Alex are hoping to get invited over when the weather gets warmer (that sounds funny since it was 68 degrees today) to shoot paintballs since the guy owns 15 acres of wooded land. How fun! The kids did a huge Yankee Trader game and it was such a hoot watching them pick a present and them steal presents from each other. The biggest kid there ended up with a girls bag with lotion in it. It was hilarious! The gift Alex unwrapped was a great hot chocolate set but someone eventually stole that from him. He ended up having to go back to the pile and unwrapped a big box of bubblegum which he was just as happy with and no one tried to steal. The hot gifts of the night were a lava lamp and the hot chocolate set. The kids got really into it. Bekah made a new friend and it was fun watching them "playing" cards and putting out poker chips. They sure start young. LOL

Unconscious Mutterings - Week 202

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Hardball :: Play
   
2. Sleepless :: in Seattle
   
3. Graduation :: Present
   
4. Presents :: Christmas
   
5. Toe :: Big
   
6. Lotion :: Baby
   
7. Snicker :: Jeer
   
8. Eve :: Adam
   
9. Investment :: Plan
   
10. Pain :: Hurt
    

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Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt Theme: Annoying

This is a picture of my very annoying family screaming, which is what they seem to do best. And yes, even my hubby is included in being annoying...he's sometimes worse than the kids. ;) Luckily I love them to death so I'll keep them around. LOL


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On Our Way

I called our insurance company Wednesday and had the kids pcp changed to the new dr, so effective 12/13 they are now patients of Dr K. I figured since insurance thought they were his patients, I'd better drop off the registration paperwork at his office so I ran over after dinner to turn that in...plus it gave me a chance to get a look at the office. What a nice trip that was, 5 minutes and I was there. I got to say hello to Dr K. as he was passing through the office on his way to see a patient. I had a nice chat with the office manager while turning in the papers and filling out another form for her so now they are officially patients there. So far so good. Let's hope it stays that way when we actually have our first appt in February. I was talking to the office manager about the shots given during the 4 month visit and Kearsyn will be getting another 4 shots and an oral vaccine and then at 6 months, she gets another 4 shots and an oral vaccine. Good grief...doesn't that seem like an awful lot of shots for someone so young? So far she's had 9 shots and an oral, so by the time she's 6 months she'll have had 17 shots and 3 orals.

Alex is very excited about tomorrow as he gets to go see Eragon with his youth group. Connor, on the other hand, isn't quite as excited because he wants to go as well but he doesn't know that his mommom is planning on taking him to see it. She's not sure she can do it this weekend...but one day soon she will. Kenzie is going to a sleepover birthday party tomorrow so she's looking forward to that. She's going to be eating at a nice restaurant...I'm kind of jealous cause she'll be eating better tomorrow than we will. LOL Wednesday is my dad's birthday, so we are all going to my parents on Sunday to celebrate. My sister and her DH are coming over so it should be a nice time.

So far I've worked 5 out of my 8 makeup days for work. I was able to redo two of the reports so that my boss could review them over the weekend...he loves to work on the weekend. The rest of us hate it because we know come Monday that there will always be a list of things for us to do. I only have 3 more days to make up and I'll be glad when they are done. I'll work Monday, Wednesday and Thursday next week and then I'll be done working until the new year. Of course, that means I'll actually have to start going back into the office on 1/2/07...wow, hard to believe it almost the new year...which I'm so not looking forward to...but I know everyone there is. ;)

Friday Feast #122 - 12/15/06

Appetizer
What was your very first job with a paycheck?
I assisted a family friend in teaching computer programming at a day camp.

Soup
Did you ever lose something really important to you?
Not that I can remember so if I ever did, I've long since forgotten about it.

Salad
What is the best Christmas present you ever received?
As a child it would have to be the year I received the game Merlin. It was the only thing I really wanted that Christmas and my parents hid it a the very back of the tree to torture me. LOL

As an adult, it would be the year I received my mother/child necklace after having our second child. I wore that necklace everyday until the pendant finally broke a couple of years ago, at which point, my hubby bought me a new one...not the exact style...but one I love just as much...and I wear this one everyday just like the other one. =)

Main Course
Tell about a favorite "hang out" place for you and your friends when you were in high school.
Because my friends in high school lived from one end of our county to the other we did most of our hanging out in the band room at school, whether or not we actually had something band related going on.

Dessert
Name something that always brings a smile to your face.
My kids

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SBQ - Finishing

Today's SBQ was suggested by Carol and is:

Do you have any good internet links to tutorials for your favorite
finishing techniques that you would like to share?

Here are a few sites that I use...

• Tips and Tricks - has some good finishing techniques about 3/4 of the way down the page
• Cleaning, Mounting & Framing - a great site on how to clean, mount and frame cross stitch
• Fabric Finishing Techniques - has a number of different ways to finish fabric

New Doc

We're going to take the plunge and try a new pediatrician for the kids. We've been talking about it for awhile now but haven't been able to find someone close to us that wasn't part of a big practice. Plus it's a big step as we've been going to this dr for 8 yrs...ever since Kenzie was a baby. But we currently have to drive 40 minutes to get to their current pediatrician which is getting to be a bit much with all the kids, plus it requires us to drive across the bridge and in the summer that can get a bit tricky. This new dr is only 2.5 miles from our house so getting there will be a breeze. They have good hours...a couple of days they have late evening hours and they also have Saturday appts. I was a little nervous, though, because he has a name I can't pronounce so I was concerned that we wouldn't be able to understand him but he sounds like a very nice man. I got to talk to him for a minute when I called up to make an appt. And come to find out, I didn't need to worry about having to pronounce his name...everyone just calls him Dr. K. LOL The office manager was very pleasant and didn't even get mad at me when I called back 5 minutes after making the appt to change it. Sheeze, I just can not keep track of all the kids schedules. LOL I'm hoping we are doing the right thing cause we are having to make this switch with Kearsyn first and she's due to have shots at her next appt so that will be a pain with her current dr if we don't end up liking this new dr but from all indications so far, that shouldn't be a problem. Let's hope so at any rate. I'll let you know on 2/14...hmm, it just occurred to me that's Valentine's day...as that's when her appt with the new dr is.

CSC 12 Days of Christmas Exchange - Day 12

Today is the final day for the 12 Days of Christmas exchange and I received a really cute 3D Oklahoma magnet. Thank you so much for all the wonderful gifts, Santa! It's been an awesome exchange! I'll come back later to edit in your name but that will have to be after Miss V figures out who her Santa is. LOL