My big brother in the news.....

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/pages/ContentDetail?contentId=6596142

We are all so proud of my brother Darryl who is living out his dream of flying planes! Look at him, he's a Lt. Col. in the USAF and he isn't too macho to dance with his wife at our famiy reuinion! What a guy!

I am so proud of all my brothers and sisters. Love all 7 of ya!

I'm not a baker......but look what I made!

Ok, I am not baker but look at these beautiful scones! They were so easy to make! And from scratch not from a mix! http://www.joyofbaking.com/SconesCoffeehouse.html here is the recipe! I also made a lemon glaze, not too sweet though and put it on 1/2 the scones. It was delicious!

Gavin scarfed his down and he has never eaten scones b4 because the only thing I bake are chocolate chip cookies! He had his with hot cocoa. Blake thought they were alright (he mostly tastes things and spits them out except sweets of course) but I have a feeling darling daughter Mimi will love them with tea or cocoa too! Jeffrey is not that adventurous! Just the normal frosted mini wheats and chocolate milk for him. I know that's a lot of sugar.

If you love scones like me, give this a try.

A Day in the Life......

Mostly my post is about a cute little troublesome two year old who is always on the go and always busy busy busy! A few things he has been up to lately are: taking a Sharpie all along the white banister upstairs and then to his sisters door way and then all over the wall and then on the light socket! His next weapon of choice was baby powder...shaking it all over the black hutch in the dining room otherwise known as "Antiquing" around here. And once more just for fun, he has a new favorite condiment- Ketchup! It was all over his face after dinner tonight. Then for more fun he helped mom make chocolate milk shakes. He loves to be the one to push the buttons!

This is my puppy dog! (Looks more like a cat to me.) I hosted a bridal shower this past weekend and Mike took the boys and Camryn stayed here to do girly shower stuff with me. They ended up going to the mall and having a great time rock wall climbing and Blake and Gavin got thier faces painted. Don't know what happened to Gavin and why he didn't get a picture. Probably because he ran right upstairs to get back to his addiction....the x-box. No, since there were still some ladies in the house he bolted! Isn't he cute?

Time Out For Women

Self portrait of Karen and me. Better than nothing! Karen really is smiling! Look at those beautiful blue eyes of hers!

Two weekends ago, I had the opportunity to attend Time Out For Women in San Diego. What an incredible experience! I really have never done anything like that b4 and I have to say that I have been missing out! My cup was overflowing. The music by Cheri Call and Kenneth Kope was amazing!!!!I felt the spirit through all the presenters there. I took away from it how to be a better mom with out the GUILT! How to keep my personal standards high and to help my children do the same. I almost felt like I had stepped back to those Young Women years. It was a great day. Thanks Karen for going with me and for driving both ways!! I highly reccomend it to anyone out there. It was a great Mother's Day present. Thanks to my hubby for taking the kids all day.

La Brea Tar Pits

We had our first official field trip as a homeschool family a couple of weeks ago! We headed out to the La Brea Tar Pits and the Page Museum. We were pleasantly surprised when Dad decided to come along. It was an easy drive down there and the kids all had a great time. I have to admit that I never saw tar bubbling up out of the Earth before! It's pretty cool how we have all of these fossils just waiting to be dug up right in the middle of the Wilshire District! The kids are standing in front of a skeleton of a Mastodon. I think it is a relative to the Elephant. It was a great day!

Homeschooling!

As I stated briefly in a prior post, we are now a homeschoolin' family! I know, I can't believe it either sometimes. I had been thinking about homeschooling since last October and didn't know why! It just kept popping up in my head that it was something that I needed to really ponder on. Finally Mike and I made the decision to homeschool this past March. We are now in our 4th week and feel like we have ironed out most of the kinks and we are all starting to adjust to being with one another a lot more! We are having a great time learning together and being closer as a family. Don't get me wrong, going from 3 kids in school all day and only a toddler at home to all 4 kids at home all day was a huge shock for all....but little by little day by day we are all finally in a routine and enjoying it. It's not easy being everything to everyone all of the time, I am looking forward to a spa day here really soon! I love my kids so much and feel so blessed to be their mother.