Creativity

Kelci, at Crafty Mama Creations, did a craft swap recently that I am taking part in. Well, I was surprised to get my gift in the mail yesterday! Heather made a beautiful apron for me, I adore the fabric!!!! Seriously, I have somehow missed these prints, but they are so perfect for me! Thank you Heather so so much! Can y'all believe that she hasn't sewn in 10 years?! She did a fantastic job, look how cute the big brown ric rac is! My 3 older girls are in love with it, they made sure I wore it while cooking dinner tonight : )





I snuck some pictures of my girls today. I love when I see them doing things like reading or sewing instead of watching tv, it makes me happy. Don't get me wrong, they do their share of watching tv and playing computer games LOL



Sydney has been designing dresses for her American Girl doll, I am truly amazed at how good these dresses came out. No pattern at all, just her imagination. Here is the one she made yesterday. This design is so cute, I may have her help me make one up for her and the other girls.



Isabella decided to try making a nightgown for Ava : )
When she says *cheese* she sticks her tongue out lol

Look how much my green beans grew in one day! Seriously, this is one day's growth, I took the first picture yesterday morning and the second one this morning. Amazing!

Summertime

It is now unofficially summer, I love this time of year, for the most part anyway(I could do without the extreme heat in July and August). Because I homeschool, this is summer break for me as well as the children. 3 months to just be lazy and enjoy the long days. I have more time to enjoy my hobbies and to enjoy my family. We probably won't be able to afford our yearly vacation to the Alabama coast, gas and food prices are just too high, and going higher ::::sigh:::: Feeding my family costs a small fortune, and our 15 passenger van is far from fuel efficient. I am really thankful that we have a pool in our backyard, we can have our own summer fun, without any extra money : )

We were truly blessed with this pool. My dh did some work for a guy who just didn't feel like taking care of his pool anymore, so told Chad that if he helped him move the deck to his house, we could have the pool. It was alot of work for dh to take down and then reassemble the pool, but it was so worth it. We did have to buy a new pool liner and pump, but for around $500, we have a huge pool for the kids! Then, his uncle decided to take down his pool and told dh that he could have all of the wood from the deck. Dh had built this deck for him years before. So, God also blessed us with most of the wood to build a nice deck. My children and several neighborhood children enjoy it all summer long. Once the heat really starts kicking, it is the only way to enjoy being outside.

Here are some pictures from Memorial Day, my Mom and Dad came over and we barbecued and relaxed, while the kids swam. And of course, we had watermelon, you have to have watermelon for Memorial Day : )







My babies having fun.....



This is how my big girls play on the new swingset. They climb on top and sit there and read, here is Isabella doing just that. I can't imagine how much pain I would be in if I tried to do that LOL



I am not doing very well with the post a day in May LOL It is funny how when you start a challenge like this you are all gung ho, but when you get to the end you kind of run out of motivation. I really did enjoy pushing myself to post more often, however. I don't think I will be able to keep doing a post everyday, but I do hope to keep posting more often than I was. My goal is going to be at least 3 times a week, hopefully 4. I know I have enjoyed reading everyone else's more frequent posts : ) I hope y'all have enjoyed mine. I know years down the road, I will enjoy looking back on these posts, blogs are our modern day journals.