The Art of Bartering Among Siblings

Since the girls are getting older they're catching on to the art of bartering. With little to no money available to them, they are creative. Mostly they offer to do each other's chores for one another.

After trying a ton of different systems for chores around here, we've settled on something that's easy for everyone to keep up with. Each week we write down the chores on a sheet of paper, fold it up and they pick one. Now this means that you have a one in four chance of getting the exact same chore (Sassy doesn't do chores at our house since she's here so infrequently). Sadly for Beanie, this has meant that for the last 3 weeks she's had the dreaded "Cats" chore.

Now all that really means is that you are responsible for feeding, watering, and cleaning up after the cats for the week. The worst part of the cats is doing the cat box. I don't think anyone truly likes to clean the box. The good thing for her sisters is that she's tired of doing it also, and as an added bonus she was gifted money for Christmas. This means right now she's paying for someone to do her chore. Spunky Girl was quick to volunteer today. Eagerly cleaning out the boxes to earn her money.

Spunky was given a bank that counts her money as she adds it for Christmas, and she's trying so hard to surpass Nanners total. :) A little sibling competition is alright. ;)

Lake Day

 We packed up the kids and a ton of gear to head to the lake for the day. A couple of coolers full of food, sunscreen and beach towels and we were on our way. The kids had a blast splashing around in the water all day. We spent nearly the entire day there, and they were exhausted! So much fun! 

Cousins ready to explore

Yummy in her tummy!

Sunshine & Cheetos - what a girl wants!

Silly Girl!!

Beach Combing with Daddy

Splash Time!!

Conquering his fear of water!

Memory Monday

Nanners was chosen to be the Herald Angel for our annual Christmas play at church, and as you can see she took her role very seriously. She loved evey minute of it, and I love watching her blossom into the young lady she's becoming. It's amazing what a difference a year makes!

A - Z blogging challenge - G

G is for...

Godly Girls

As parents of girls we are in a constant fight to not only keep our girls safe from general harm, but safe from the constant barrage of things that are telling them they need to be sexy, or they need to wear make up to make themselves pretty. They have to dress a certain way in order to have friends or for that matter that they have to have a boyfriend period. I for one get sick and tired of seeing the ridiculous media images that people seem to have found alright floating around the world. The scantily clad models, many of whom I'm old enough to be their mother, in push up bras and pants that say "sexy" across the backside. Have you ever had the experience of taking a tall 11 year old shopping for a swimming suit. It's awful! We end up having to buy her a racing suit for a swim team, which while they are fine looking, when she just wants one in her favorite color and she deals with wearing black every. single. year. it's tough to keep your chin up about it. We have rules at our house regarding clothes for our girls, some of which include no spaghetti strap tank tops or dresses (unless they have a shirt under), no halter tops, if you lift your arms and I can see your belly then it's too short. Of course there are more, but off the top of my head these come to mind. We always check our girls clothes before they are allowed to leave. Spunky Girl is well known for wearing mismatched clothing and her own crazy style shining through brightly, but at least I know she's all covered up. Perfect example that you can be beautiful and stylish without succumbing to the latest "sexy" clothing craze.

31 Day Photo and Post Challenge - Day 21

Day 21 - Something I like about myself There are lots of things I like about myself, I suppose.

While I'm sure some people will always disagree with me I think I'm fun, friendly and fabulous! LOL!

No seriously, I have learned a lot over the last year, and I've taken back my old opinion that sometimes it's fun to dance in the rain and run against the wind I buried deep down when I thought I wasn't doing it right.

It doesn't matter what other people think about our family. What matters is that we are happy, healthy and love one another.

If Spunky Girl wants to wear brown polka dotted leggings with a red and black floral dress and her favorite pink snow boots one day, I can now let her. I'm not saying I'm not gonna laugh too, I'm just saying that I've learned to let things like that go. With my first 2 girls they never left the house without looking just so. Matching dresses with matching Mary Janes and their hair was done in perfect little bouncy pigtails. Over this last year I've learned to let the girls dress themselves, help out around the house more - even if it's not done *my way* and take people up on those offers of help. Overall what's that mean? Well to me it means that I've hung up the Super Mommy/Wife cape and I'm just me now. And you know what - I like that about myself! Besides I never got around to sewing up the matching spandex tights (do Spanx fit under those things?) and mod podeging the perfect glittery boots! ;)

31 Photo & Prompt Challenge - Day 2

Linking up to It's Gravy Baby's 31 Day Photo and Prompt Challenge

Day 2 - the person or people that make your world go round

Easy peasy! I love these people, they make my world spin round and round and round!

These pictures were from our trip to Disneyland in September. We had a blast and can't wait to go back!

Sleeping in Class Already??

The other day Nanners was supposed to be rewriting her story. I came back to check on her about 15 minutes after she started and this is what I found. Apparently she made it about 2 sentences in and decided a nap was in order.

Holiday Card Exhange

Over here, at Couponing to Disney (one of my very favorite blogs - ever! oh and she's a Bama girl too, so that makes her even better), Kristin hosted a fantastic holiday card exchange. Now why would I give my personal address to a bunch of strangers, ummm, they're totally not strangers - duh! I talk to some of these same people everyday, lol! Other than that, we love getting mail. Okay, good mail that is!



So, basically, we all email Kristin our addresses, and she grouped 20 people together to exchange cards with. My girls have had the best time receiving their cards. When the mail man comes they run to the door, screaming "MAILLLLLLL", on a side note I think we are the highlight of his day, lol. Who else can say that they bring smiles to a whole families faces 5 days a week? Besides, the cute girls screaming about his goods has to make his days right? Alright get your minds out of the gutter people - geeeeeez! I meant his mail goodies!



We have looked up all the towns that our cards came from on the map, and talked about how far away they all are. When they included all their families names, we talked about how large their family was in comparison to ours and other fun things like what awesome monuments their state has. Awesome way to incorporate some quick learning in when they weren't looking.



Overall this has been the most fun, and we can't wait to do it again!



Thanks Kristin!!

Officially Joining

Near our home there is a little white church that we drove passed quite regularly. We talked off and on about joining it. We never did. We decided that since The Boy was raised Christian and I was raised Catholic, we'd allow our children to decide the religion that they felt was best for them. We attended both services, at one or two different churches. We never really felt like we belonged anywhere though.

You see things are a little different for us, and we understand that. First of all we have 5 beautiful children, add that our relative young ages and the fact that we each had a child before we began dating plus sprinkle a little "we weren't married when our children we born" on top and you get quite the "you're not good enough to be here cause your a sinner" pie. We ate several helpings of that bitter dish before backing off completely. We just kinda figured that as long as we did the things that we believed were best, that we were raising our girls with the morals and beliefs that we laid down and felt were proper, things were bound to turn out okay. We have friends that both attend church regularly and some that don't attend at all. We have friends of various faiths and some that are Atheist. We purposely exposed our children to a variety of religions so that when the time came for them to make their choice they would be making an informed choice. Not everyone agreed with our approach, in fact almost no one did. We didn't mind, we're kinda used to that.

Eventually, my mom, (Grandma), moved to our area, and began attending the little white church. We dropped her off diligently each Sunday and picked her up after service. This went on for months. Finally one day I decided that I wanted to go with her. I can't explain why, I just knew that the day had arrived and I wanted to go. Something urged me to get up, get dressed, and walk through the doors of the little white church with her that day. The girls and I went. The Boy decided that he wasn't going to go. Alright, was this really okay? Yep, you know why? We'll I'll tell ya - NO ONE should push their beliefs on another person, and this includes your spouse. If the Lord wanted him to attend, he would tell him so. He would bring that same feeling to The Boy that I had felt. The one that would urge him to walk through the doors of the little white church.

About a month after the girls and I started attending church, The Boy and I had our marriage tested in a way that is indescribable. Terrible things were said and done, our faith was tested like it had never been tested before. People we knew and people we didn't know prayed for us, and we truly feel that those prayers brought us through that awful time. Now don't think that we came through unscathed, because we didn't. We did however come through it stronger and more prepared for life's trials and tribulations.

Fast forward months down the road, and our family now fills a pew at Cottage Way Christian Church. Our little white church. The one that is filled with people that we have grown to care about, people that make us feel welcome and care about us too. A few weeks ago, we stood as a family to make the good confession, and join our church family, officially. So today and many more Sundays to come you will find us filling a pew at our church. You can't miss us, we're the one with all the little blonde girls. *wink*

50 Little Known Facts About Us

So many of the blogs I read are doing this right now, I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and toss mine out there too. Yep, totally copying them. ;) Okay not totally since I'm doing the family, and they did themselves. I'm boring, I don't have 50 things about just me. :)

1. My favorite color is emerald green. For some reason most people think it's purple, I have no idea why though, I don't even own purple stuff.

2. I lived in the south until I was 9, and there are times when I miss it. Don't get me wrong, I don't miss the bugs, humidity or other nasties but I do miss it.

3. I've been on the West Coast for practically ever now, and still root for a southern college football team - ROLL TIDE!

4. I give my kids cupcakes or left over pizza for breakfast when they ask for it, simply because it's easy.

5. I almost never shave my legs.

6. I don't wear shorts. See #5

7. I love to write. It's my thing, which is why it's so hard to understand when other people don't like it.

8. I strongly dislike math - I mean STRONGLY. Not in my top 10 favorite things to do for sure.

9. I love making list. Seriously it's like an addiction, my husband laughs at me.

10. I love shooting families, but don't like weddings. I know, weddings are "money makers", but they are also incredibly stressful and make my stomach hurt.

11. I didn't start driving until my husband and I started dating. I was 20.

12. I've known my husband nearly half my life. (HOLY COW!)

13. I sometimes get a little joy out of the stupid comments I get when people find out we homeschool.

14. I get that same joy out of the stupid comments they say when they find out how many kids we have.

15. I don't think that we are a "huge" family. Seriously, there's only 7 of us.

16. I would totally have another child if my husband wanted to. Without question, I would do it.

17. I didn't drink on my 21st birthday.

18. I got into my first car wreck before I had my license. Yes, I know, bad. No one was hurt, except my car that was purchased one month to the day prior.

19. I'll totally look you up on the internet to see if I can find anything else out about you.

20. I have no sense of direction. None. It's really bad.

21. The Boy has an amazing sense of direction and always knows where he is.

22. The Boy also was born and raised till 8 yrs old in the south.

23. The Boy took the blame for my 1st car wreck. Ouch, yeah, he did. LOVE HIM!

24. I only dated one boy that didn't have blue or green eyes, ever. Seriously that was one of my things. The Boy has beautiful blue eyes.

25. I moved out of my mom's when I was 15.

26. I met The Boy a few months later, online.

27. I cried when The Boy told me he was moving away when I was 16, even though we weren't dating.

28. I dyed my bangs pink and blue stripes when I was in 7th grade.

29. I have a crazy obsession with fun socks. I only wear fun socks, but I don't like them because they're too thin so I wear regular Hanes under them.

30. I didn't want any boys. I mean it, and I don't care if it sounds mean. I truly only wanted girls. Of course I would have loved my son greatly, but my girls are my world. Love them to pieces.

31. I wouldn't mind a boy now. Seriously, I know. It took a long time, but I'm now ready for a boy. Problem is The Boy is done now.

32. I wanted to be a nurse before I had kids. I love medically stuff, lol - like that technical term!

33. I'm a little freaked out that I haven't accomplished my "list", you know the one that you set for yourself. I had one that I set for myself to finish by the time I was 30. I'll be there in a few months. The list isn't complete. I'm trying not to stress about that one!

34. The Boy would make a fantastic football coach. I'd totally move to a smallish town (hey a girl has to have options on where to shop and let's face it small towns have very few options) to let him full fill that one.

35. I never wanted to be a stay at home mom. I love it now. At least on most days.

36. Beanie broke her nose when she was little. How - jumping on her bed. She hit a shelf that was above it and the shelf fell on her nose. I'm guessing the little toy she was trying to get to wasn't worth it.

37. I don't think that all babies are cute. I said it. Hey I'm not being mean, Baby Big Girl look quite alienish when she was born. Totally had to do the if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all thing when I seen her the first time.

38. I would love a big ol' plot of land so I could have all kinds of animals. I want chickens, The Boy says no.

39. I'm super crafty but can't for the life of me figure out how to crochet or knit.

40. I have the attention span of a goldfish. It's okay, you can laugh. I would.

41. I sometimes have to hold back a laugh when the kids get hurt in some stupid way. It's a little mean, but sometimes it's super funny. Of course I see if they are alright first.

42. I blog because I suck at baby books. Never even bought one for Baby Big Girl because I knew I'd never use it.

43. I love swimming in the ocean.

44. I'm a cold person. I wear thermals almost everyday from November until March under my jeans.

45. The Boy is a hot person. It's practically unheard of for him to wear long sleeves.

46.

Nanners can do the splits. Both ways. She's been able to for as long as I can rememeber. She just did it one day because she seen a lady on TV do it.

47. My girls still sit and play dolls together. Even the big girls play. They of course are usually the Mom's or whatever else the leader is, but they play.

48. My girls love shoes. I have no idea where they get it from, but they adore them. The Boy doesn't understand why they have so many.

49. I once let Nanners and Spunky Girl eat peanut butter and jelly for dinner every single night for a month. I knew they'd eventually eat something else. The Boy called a stop to it after a month.

50. If we could do it again, The Boy and I both agree we would rather not have as big of a ceremony and take a double honeymoon instead.