Pallets pallets and more pallets

I have an obsession with Pinterest. Everything I cook, bake, and create is from Pinterest. Recently Randy has caught the fever and has been creating things and getting ideas from Pinterst. He is super creative so he doesn't need much help but he has made some super cool things as of late. I love things made from reclaimed wood (pallets) and since Randy found 6 pallets recently he has been making things from these pallets. Here is a picture of a bar he made in our garage and a shelf he made for the inside.

Advent Day 3

John 3:19

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

It is so humbling to realize that Jesus coming to earth is a blessing for some and a curse for others. If we know Jesus we have been called to recognize His light but those who have not known Jesus have chosen darkness instead.

During the Christmas season we see our neighborhood come alive with lights and decorations. As we look around and enjoy the lights I want to take time to thank " THE light of the world" for choosing me so that I do not have to live in darkness.

We colored candles today to signify light, and are making them into Christmas ornaments. Autry has been busy masking new ornaments all day we now have a ty fighter, Yoda, General Grievous, and Mace Windu.

On a completely different note, other fun activities included killing our chicken who wasn't producing eggs. Fortunately I was at work when this all happened. I had already told Randy that I wanted no part of the butchering, not that I have a problem with it I just can't handle those kind of things. I love the idea of living off the land but when it comes down to it I am kind of a wuss. I always tell Randy that there is a reason that I was not born in a previous century, I just couldn't handle it. I can barely get myself to eat our chicken's eggs. The first time I collected the egg and it was warm I wanted to throw up. I Sound like such a sissy admitting all of this but I guess it's good to be honest :). Anyways, the chicken was killed tonight and here is a video. You can't really see anything in the video, I pit it on here because hearing the kid's reaction is the funny part.

I will download the video tomorrow because my blogger phone app isn't letting me put on a video.

Advent Day 2

24 days until Christmas! Claire and Addie ask constantly if it's still going to be Christmas tomorrow? We are all loving this Christmas season.
Today was super busy with errands, and on top of that Randy and I have been having boughts with the stomach flu so needless to say we didn't get to our advent calendar but the activity was decorate the tree and we got that done. It may have happened right before bed buy we fit it in and that's the important part.
When you are looking through the pictures you will have notice our new collection of Star Wars ornaments made by Autry. They come complete with Luke, Leia, Chewbacca, Han Solo, and the Millennium Falcon.

Advent Day 1

We had a fun filled day of getting out Christmas decorations, house decorating, and getting our Christmas tree.

Today we talked about Isaiah 11:1-2

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,The spirit of counsel and strength,The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. (NASB)

The kids and I talked about how Isaiah uses a tree to symbolize the coming of Christ. I told the kids that everytime we look at the tree we can remember that Jesus came to earth to save us from our sins.

Some of my favorite moments of the day where Addie over and over again asking on the way to the Christmas tree farm, "are we at Christmas yet?"

Second, today I told the kids that because we have a little terrorist at our house(Gibson), we are going to limit the amount of ornaments that we put up (I would like to say this is a good training opportunity but I have had so many ornaments broken since we've had kids, I really want to protect the ones we have) and we are going to make a lot of ornaments to put up this year. Autry got really sad and began describing all the ornaments that we HAD to have up. I conceded and said that everyone could choose three, including myself. I ended up choosing five. I love how sentimental Autry is about traditions! This reminds me of being a child and not letting my mom forget a single tradition ever.

Also if you look close at Gibson you will notice he has purple girl pants on, there was a small leakage problem and I wasn't about to let that stop me from getting our Christmas tree!

Here are some pictures of the day.

Advent Calender

Our Advent Calender

Jumping back into the blogging world

With the start of Advent I am jumping back into the blogging world. I have been putting of starting the blog back up because I felt like I had to get us all caught up on everything that has happened in the last 6 months. I realized that that is never going to happen so I might as well start up again so that my children have some sort of record of their growing up years.
I want to start by documenting our Advent celebration. I have activities planned for almost every day and I want to record most if not all of it on the blog. Last year I made an advent calender, and this year I am putting it to real use. To start off tomorrow we are going to get our Christmas tree! Stay tuned for a fun filled month preparing to celebrate the coming of the newborn KING.

Book Review

Money Secrets of the Amish:Finding True Abundance in Simplicty, Sharing, and Saving.
by Lorilee Cracker

This book provides a look into Amish culture and the ways that they have survived the economic downturn. The author translates ways that the Amish saves money and makes it practical for the average American family. Every chapter ends with a practical tip. Some of the biggest takeaways that I got from the book were buying used, using self discipline to avoid self indulgence, and being content with what you have.

I found this book a quick, enjoyable read (I sat down and read it in an afternoon). The author writes in a way that is easy to understand and represents the Amish people very respectfully. Although my husband is already very frugal in our life (I decided that he could easily be Amish), it was a good reminder of why we should try and save money. This book is simple and practical. I know basically nothing about the Amish and would have enjoyed learning a little bit more about their lives apart from their frugality. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants some light reading while still learning something very valuable. I think every American household could learn from the simplistic way that the Amish lead their lives, I know I sure did.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Brooks and Maverix

This last weekend the kids and Randy and I were able to meet their new cousins for the first time. They are so itty bitty! It was so much fun, I can't wait to go down there in the end of June to see them again. However, it is a little bit crazy that our family has now grown from 4 kids to 6 kids. Family gatherings are only going to get crazier from this point on.

Easter

Easter Egg Hunt

Its Time for Yankees Baseball!

This was Opening Day Ceremonies, each team was announced and each player was announced by name.  

This is probably one of my favorite pictures ever. 

Playing shortstop. Autry told Nana before the game, "I am going to have to play outfield today and no one every hits it to the outfield but its okay I will just look at Gibbys the whole time." A quick sidenote: Autry hit it to the outfield twice. :)

I never thought I would be rooting for the Yankees but alas here we are. I would have to say that his is the cutest darn Yankee there ever was!