New tricks!

Remember that little monkey I was telling you about who likes to climb in the bathtub? She wanted to show you her new trick.

Click HERE!

The makeover continues ...

I painted my kitchen last week. It's a lovely light blue - fresh and clean and bright - and I love it! My cabinets are dark brown, neutral tile - so I was thinking red accents. Especially after I hung that picture back up and saw the red awning and loved it next to the blue.

Well, lo and behold, wall decor was on sale at Hobby Lobby and I made a few little purchases.

I already had the flowers and the navy thing they're in. I think David got those for me for our first anniversary. (I've always loved red). The LOVE plaque reads: Love bears all things, believes all things, endures all things. LOVE it. :)

Then I discovered these lovely things and had to control my excitement in the store. Can you see the light blue coming through with all the brown and red??? These were made for my kitchen!!! The Micah 6:8 plaque is not just a great exhortation, it has light blue little paisley things on it! The next one says, "Christ is the center of our home, a guest at every meal and a listener at every conversation." The kids and I did our devotion this morning over that topic ... and it's going to be a reminder on my wall! The last one is Isaiah 32:17, "The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever." What a powerful verse! I also bought a big wooden spoon and fork - I couldn't resist. They were 1/2 off!!!

My sister, Amanda is coming over tomorrow to help me hang everything. Needless to say after all those exclamation points, I AM SO EXCITED!!! And after watching HGTV all weekend, I'll be moving on to the next room soon. :)

I love my kids!

When we first moved into the house we're in now, Hudson was Adelle's age. I can't believe he's six!

Oh my goodness! Pierce is all blue eyes and cheeks and little chicklet teeth.

Alayna the little princess who loves her braids and bows and ponytails and polka-dots and anything that's light, sparkly pink.

Adelle, my little doll-baby and happy little monkey is nine months old!

Can you tell who eats more sweet potatoes?!

Book Review

We take a trip to the library once a week and check out a few hundred books and five movies (that's our limit). I pile them all in my Akins tote bag that I got for free somewhere. It's pretty handy. I usually carry Adelle on one hip and cart the books around on the other arm. By the time we leave I'm usually sweaty and out of breath, but we're in pretty good shape for the rest of the week.

My kids have always loved to be read to, but since Hudson is reading so well these days, I usually have him read to Pierce and Alayna. We recently found these graphic novel history stories and he LOVES them! Our library has lots of them and I grab a handful every time. They're written sort-of like a comic book with lots of pictures. Be careful on your choices. I learned that this time when I grabbed a handful and one of them was about the Donner Party - that's the story where they get stuck in the mountains and eat each other (might not be appropriate for a six-year-old!). Thankfully this was one of the stories David read to the boys and he's good at editing!. The anniversary of the California Gold Rush is February 28 and I was way excited to find that story!

This one is just fun and there are lots of these. You can spot things in the town or in the house or in the sea. The list is long. My four year old loved this one. It's great for counting and for something to do while the big brother is doing math an the teacher is occupied!

Videos and Pictures

What?! Two posts in one day?! I know, it's unheard of. I'm on a roll.

Adelle on the changing table babbling

Boys Sledding

papa was the first to dig and navigate the hole - he's our hero!

Pierce thought it was pretty awesome.

Hudson helped dig from the inside.

Alayna thought it was beautiful, of course. :)

Cool Breezes ...or blowing snow

I love this blog. It's like I'm writing a letter to all my friends and family once a week. Is that cheesy? I used to be a big letter writer - until social networking took over the world. Anyway...What happened to Terrific Tuesday? I got busy, that's what. Actually, I watched Notorious (Ingrid Bergman Carry Grant - it's a good one) and took a little nap while the kids were out. Then I picked up the house and typed up the menu for my clients, then went to Lowes and bought THE PAINT.

When we moved into this house the kitchen/dining area was an minty/aqua blue, white cabinets, blue drawers with little white knobs decorated with a pink rose and age-old dark brown laminate floors. It wasn't horrid, but it definitely wasn't my style. I painted the cabinets chocolate brown and installed brushed silver knobs. The walls I painted a warm green - not too minty, not too olive. Perfect, in my opinion. ;) However, over the years with the addition of three more children and the wear and tear 6 people can put on a house, the kitchen started to look a bit dingy (that's din-jee as in grimy, soiled, dirty, not ding-ee as in ditsy, clueless, silly, mindless, etc!). After recovering my chairs I felt the need to redecorate my whole house. However, have I mentioned that I have four children, and we home school? Yeah, extra time is something I don't have too much of. So, we'll start with painting the kitchen.

The color is called Cool Breezes. It's a lovely white/blue and will really help brighten everything up. Painting, especially in main rooms, usually has to happen at night when the kiddos are asleep. Otherwise they want to "help." I'll post before and after pictures when I get this project done - my goal is by the end of next week.

In other news, I'm memorizing some verse with a friend of mine. Check out Beth Moore's blog . She issued a challenge at the beginning of the year to memorize the verses that she posts on the 1st and 15th of every month. In January of 2012 she's having a conference in Houston and everyone who keeps a journal of their memory verses can get in for free. It just so happens that my friend is moving to Houston this spring, so it's goal of ours to memorize and meditate on our verses for a year and then meet again in Houston for the conference. I'm so motivated and excited - and you should join us!

We've gotten A LOT of snow in the past couple of weeks. It's blowing more snow as I type. I actually love being snowed in. I love that my family is all together, my pantry is stocked, David picked up a bunch of movies and we still have electricity! Our local schools have been out for almost two weeks. My poor children don't get snow days. We've done school in the morning and played in the snow in the afternoon - perfect. My dad built a sledding mountain and dug a three way tunnel (is he incredible or what?!). Sunday, after sledding and playing in the snow with Papa, we headed to the grocery store to restock. David ran in while the kids and I stayed in the car. Alayna and Adelle were asleep and the boys stayed busy counting the security cameras mounted to the top of the store and making up some secret super-spy agenda about every person entering and leaving the store. I was thoroughly entertained.

Time to hit the books. Have a lovely day!

Love,

Alyson :)

Still Running

The kids got jolly ranchers from my boss at the Y. Thanks boss. So I explained that they should not chew them because it's bad for their teeth. They could suck on them but be very careful. Hudson asked, "Why do we have to be careful?" Because you could choke. "What would happen if we did choke." We we're driving right by the fire department so I said, "I would have to drive you to the fire department and they would give you the Heimlick (who knows how to spell that?!). "What's the Heimlick?" I answered, "Well, they would wrap their arms around your stomach and pump really hard until the jolly rancher flew out of your throat." Then I just decided to go for the big scare, "You would probably throw up and you might get some ribs broken." Oh my goodness, what a terrible thing to tell your children! Hudson answered, "I will never eat Jolly Ranchers for the rest of my life!" Pierce said, "Or you could just be careful." Ha!

A few days later Hudson got some Starbursts at church. Every one wants my children sugared up except me! After lunch, when I was unwrapping them, Hudson asked, "Are these kind dangerous?" Yes son, all candy is dangerous.

Well, we've been snowed in for a week. Maybe longer. I don't know. I've lost all track of time. Thankfully our school routine has kept us busy and the kids have been way into digging tunnels in the snow. It's like the Great Escape in my back yard - secret tunnels and bunkers everywhere. What else are supposed to do with four foot snow drifts?!

For some reason, our little town is incapable of clearing roads. We're supposed to get more snow tomorrow and even more on Tuesday or Wednesday. Could we please get some driveable surface before the whole of this lovely little town goes insane?!

In other news I went out to do some laundry a couple of days ago (after my husband informed me that he was on his last pair of undies - I don't usually wait that long but it's been freezing and my washer and drier are in the garage, poor me!). Low and behold the washer would not turn on. Lots of buzzing, no water, no good. All of my facebook friends gave some great tips, so David put a space heater by the washer and by that afternoon we had a lovely little creek bed running through the garage. I think it's safe to assume something is busted. Well, we had to have undies so I picked through the laundry and gathered all the socks and underwear and brought them inside to my sink. Let's just say I'm so glad I was born in this century and that I'm not Amish. Hanging towels on the line is one thing. Washing and wringing out socks and underwear for 5 people is not my idea of a productive morning. At least the drier is still running. And the children are still running, so I'm also thankful that my coffee pot is also still running.

We'll be finishing our February bulletin board today and playing in the snow and risking our lives as we venture out on our treacherous roads in an effort to save our sanity. I'm making pizza tonight and cinnamon rolls for tomorrow's breakfast. It's a busy day folks!