A look back at 2011

I can't believe another year has flown by. My chitlins are getting older by the second which means I too am getting that much older! AH!! Where's the wrinkle cream?! This year has been quite the roller coaster. Things that have changed our lives possibly forever have taken place. Many being good. So I wanted to take a moment to share with you what our 2011 looked like!

 January~

We started the year off as normal...soccer. Little T's team season team made it to playoffs then advanced to Bakersfield. Big deal for our small community!

February~                                                                                                                                                    

Little T turned 11! We threw her a long overdo party! 26 of her closest friends came to our home to celebrate her. It was a black and white theme. Everything was black and white! Food, candy bar, decorations, and clothing. We even turned our pantry into a photo booth! The kids played minute to win it games. My favorite was the Oreo cookie one. You started with the cookie on your forehead and had to move your face in all funny directions in order to get it into your mouth without using your hands! I almost peed watching them all do it!

March~                                                                                                                                                         

   Noah took me to Glen Ivy to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. We I had so much! I think he enjoyed himself, however he went to completely make my day! I love that my husband is my best friend.                                                                                                                                              

   March 18th we were honored to spend a precious day with Noah's brother. He and his
 fiance said "I Do" in Phoenix Arizona. Noah was one of their groomsman and looked so handsome! Ryan and Katie are precious to us for many reasons...the main one being that they are the God parents of children! Love them to pieces!!

                                                                                    

April~                                                                                                                                                           

Little T qualified in her school as one in five girls that were considered the fastest runners. With that she got to compete in something the school district called the Miracle Mile. She had to run 1 mile. Being that it was her second actually racing other girls, I was a bit nervous for her and coached her to do her best, and no matter what place she came in...it didn't matter. I was proud of her either way! Well that was all thrown out the window when I saw her turning the corner on her last lap in FIRST place! I was screaming so loud. She ended the race coming in second, only two seconds behind her friend that placed first. I was beyond proud!! She's got a competitive side to her that she will not let go of.

A surprise trip to Knott's Berry Farm!

May~                                                                                                                                                          

I got to go to my favorite place..Glen Ivy! I know again!! This time to celebrate the last time I will have a 2 in front of my age.

        

Scooby graduated Kindergarten. That went so fast. I thought I just had him?! I have to remember to not blink anymore...geesh!                         

June~                                                                                                                                                            

We took the kids on a camping trip to San Onofre Beach! What a blast. Our first time tent camping. We loved it. We want to go back next summer! There is nothing like trying to shower yourself and three kids in the dark while its cold! Oh and don't forget trying to stay clear of the skunks! I really did love it!

At the end of June Noah and I headed up to Hume Lake for one week to mentor some amazing high schoolers! A week that was spent encouraging 11 teenage girls and 11 teenage boys, took mine and Noah's relationship with God to a whole new level. I was so moved by everything I learned. I can not wait to spend many more years there if God will have me!

The picture...um well... this is the aftermath of something called " Kajabee Can Can"

July~                                                                                                                                                        

We celebrated three birthdays. First up Noah, then Miss Charlie's! She turned nine this year. She has just grown into an amazingly loving girl! We had 5 of her girlfriends over for a sleepover. They all received a pedicure via yours truly. They watched a movie while giggling through most of it. The next morning we headed over to theatre to see a movie!

 Next was scooby! He turned six just one week later! It does become a little difficult trying to coordinate all these birthdays! We took Scooby and a friend to see our local baseball team. He loved it! He got to catch a foul ball and then got to run the bases when the game was over. I am not into baseball, however there is something different when it is live!

  We got in one last trip to the beach with my aunt and her son. Him and Scooby are only 8 days apart. They were here visiting from Texas. We desperately would love for them to live closer, so when we do see them we make the best of it!

August~                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                      Back to school!
Little T~ Sixth grade
Charlie~ 4th grade
Scooby~ 1st grade

Charlie started something new for her. It is called Sunshine Choir. At our church the kids are able to serve by singing and dancing with the elementary school kids during service. Right before we left to take them to service, I snapped this quick picture of her with her t-shirt on.

Soccer Season Starts! U12 girls...and um Noah and I coached her team! Best part was loving on them!! Noah really did all the coaching. I was their cheerleader!

September~                                                                                                                                                 

God lead me to a whole new adventure! Homeschooling!

Our precious Autumn got married. Autumn is an amazing lady who loves the Lord and has blessed our family beyond measure! We loved the celebrating her big day with her! She looked stunning and her wedding took my breath away! There was even valet parking! Tee Hee, not really but Noah and I managed to get our car valet by the greeters. Funny story, one day I might share!

October~                                                                                                                                                      

Celebrated dressing up and candy! We had a great time with some of our soccer friends. Little T~ A 50's sock-hop nerd. Charlie~ An iPod. Scooby~ Yoshi. Noah~ Waldo. Me~as myself!

November~                                                                                                                                               

The kids enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast a little early at their first Homeschool outing. We all met some new friends and got to learn about the origin of the Thanksgiving tradition!

The end of our soccer season. The girls placed 2nd! So we are now headed to Lancaster for finals! So proud of them. They had the best sportsmanship I have ever seen! We even got to share a little bit of Jesus with them!

December~                                                                                                                                                

Our year is almost through and I am sitting here in awe of the amazing things God has provided our family with.

Love

Joy

Each Other

 and the excitement to grow closer to Him in ALL things!

May God bless you and your family abundantly this next year!

I hope your Christmas was magical! This year was quite different than all our other years. As a family we have enjoyed our tradition of spending Christmas Eve at my mother in laws home with all of my husbands siblings and their families. Then we would head home around 11:30-12 and get our Christmas ready for the next morning. Our family would come over in the afternoon on Christmas day and we would spend the day playing games, enjoying good food while opening presents.
It was bitter sweet for us to start a new tradition this year that was well, unexpected. Without too much detail we needed to start something new this year. So we were extremely delighted when we were invited to an extended family's home to enjoy Christmas Eve. We were able for the first time to go church service at night and be home ready for bed by 10pm.  It was extremely enjoyable and we can't wait for next year. Our family came over as usual on Christmas day and it was so nice and peaceful. Here are some pictures from our day.

All Aboard

Last night Noah and I took the kids on a ride "Aboard the F150" I got this idea from my favorite Homeschooling blog. I printed out tickets and hid them under the kids dinner plates. Once they finished eating they found them. It was one ticket aboard the F150 to see Christmas lights. Earlier I stocked the car with blankets, hot cocoa, cookies, and homemade Carmel popcorn. We had Christmas music playing and drove around a few different neighborhoods looking at the Christmas lights. It was so much fun! Noah even made train sounds as we backed up and pulled in. They had a blast!

Please excuse my pictures. We are in the market for a new camera.


Here's a link for the tickets  http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2011/12/mini-van-express-tickets.html

Bucket List

YAY! Officially done with school. We did not start homeschooling until almost the end of September so we have been playing a little bit of catch up since then through the school we are attending. Little T has three more assignments that she is going to finish up and then three weeks off!

I have been so inspired by Pinterest and by some amazing blogs! With these next few weeks off of school, I wanted to complete some home redos and fixes. I want to be able to teach my girls some basics of painting and decorating as I do these projects. I love that my children learn about American History and decimals, but these things are very important to me for them to learn as well.

I wanted to share some things that I want to redo and share the inspiration that has spiraling through my mind!

First on my list is my laundry room.



These colors

 These curtains...

 Some how make the curtains look like this...

 I am going to attempt to make the baseboards look like these!

I would also like to complete the kids bathroom which I have recently started to redecorate. I don't have much inspiration for that room. My goal for both rooms is to make them complete and design worthy to maybe get pinned ;) And to do it as cheap as possible of course!

The Help

So I just finished watching The Help! Yes literally just finished and felt an extreme urge to get on here to write. And yes it is 12:30 in the morning! First let me say. I love movies that hit me to the core and this was one of them. I felt as though I was living in this movie and trying to picture how I would react! The movie had so much to do with racism, however the amazing message that I recovered from it was in the last scene where Aibileen says "god tells us to love our enemies" isn't that so powerful?! Here's a woman that is treated terribly because of the color of her skin, and yet continues to respect and show love towards those people. I don't know about you but for me, it's easy to love the ones who love me. It is so much harder to love those who don't. Being able to turn the other cheek and show love to people who quite frankly, don't deserve it, is probably the hardest commandment that god gives us.

There have been times lately that I have felt the true essence of the phrase "being persecuted.". The bible talks about the ramifications of being a Christ follower. Until this year I have never truly understood what that meant. Instances where I am verbally put down because of my beliefs. Called names and having a label placed on me because of my faith. It definitely hurts me and my immediate reaction is to lash out and fight back, however I know that by stopping and taking at look at my own actions and not theirs will give me the strength to apologize and change how I have been. Especially if they are feeling wronged by me.

My heart is aching for those women in the story. Even though I have not had to endure a life like that, I somehow think I would not treat others like that either. But do I? Do I choose to get in my car quickly before the homeless person asks for me for money? Do I avoid certain stores because of the "type" of people who shop there? Do I act as if I am too good to do things that our perfect Heavenly Father came to do here on earth? Yes I am guilty of all of this.


I will continue to love you and continue to forgive. I will make a better effort of showing the unlovable more love. It may not be easy but I am here to please one and only one. My GOD.

Bottom line... I am so grateful that I am stepping out to make it known to my world, that I love Jesus!

Christmas cheer!

I can't believe we have less than one week until Christmas, My chitlings are still in school until this Thursday so it kind of feels like Christmas should be at least a couple weeks away. I have all my shopping done except one small gift I need to buy...should be easy. Should, being the key word. Roads alone are full of cars so we will see!

I wanted to share some Christmas decorations that I used this season. Hopefully it will bring you inspiration to be crafty. I am not super crafty but I do LOVE Pinterest and it has given me this brand new excitement for all things crafted!

How cute are these?! My little Charlie girl made these for some lucky family members.

Homeschooling can be quite a bit of a challenge. Now when you add in a little Monkey....it becomes more than a challenge. It becomes almost impossible.

 Not even sure where she found some of these things....

 Every corner I turned I found a new mess....

 Yes this cute little thing made all these messes!

Not to mention she is sitting on my coffee table...not allowed, eating crackers in the living room....not allowed, and giggling about it all......okay that one is allowed!

I have told Noah that I would love to have two more children.......HOWEVER after trying to home school the three kids and then trying to entertain a toddler at the same time....I think I'm GOOD!

Family Pictures

I feel like it has been too long since being able to log in and write. My computer has been down for a few days and now it is fixed and I am antsy to get back to sharing!

Yesterday Noah and I took the kids to get family pictures done. Now for most of you who read my blog know that where we live is not ideal for outside pictures. Let's face it, the desert is not so pretty. So when picking a location, I was in turmoil and stressing about it. I know stressing over a location for pictures is quite silly. But that is how I am. Stressing over the small and also stressing over the big! I have the most amazing friend Jeray who just so happens to be a professional photographer. You can see her website here . http://www.jeraylynn.com/ She is so wonderful to not only take our pictures but to be patient with my anxieties. She suggested a place that she thought I would like. I put my trust in her and she was successful in fulfilling my wishes. I just want things like that to be perfect! Hello...what is perfect?! Jesus, that's it. I could have easily prayed about this "small " thing, however I didn't. Even though the pictures turned out great, I wish sometimes I would just stop and say a prayer. God wants us to seek Him in everything. No matter how big or how little.

As for the day the weather was beautiful, the kids were doing ok. I would say great but Scooby Doo is always crazy and makes life just a little more interesting and that's all I will say about him! So without further ado here are a few of our family pictures......