Belt promotion

Brianna, John & Jim were promoted to a new belt color in karate. They have to test in front of the instructors to show they posses the knowledge of the current belt.

John went from the yellow belt to the blue belt.
Brianna went from the blue to the red belt.

Jim went from the red belt to the brown belt.

They work very hard to their karate and take it very seriously. If you ever have to be alone in a dark alley....I hope you have one of them with you!

What is this?

We're not sure what this is. We found it right outside our back door. It intrigued us and the kids insisted I take a pic. So sure, why not share it with you all.

Election Day

We take our American duty of voting seriously. Don't confuse that with meaning we are very political. We are not at all, more so me. If you every strike up a political conversation with me you'll be met with a blank stare. Jim is much more versed in the subject.

Anyway, we find it very important to teach our children about these important moments of history. We took all 6 of them with us to the polls. We also had 2 neighbor kids with us at the time so they are included in the first picture. Yes, we were greeted with stares, jaws hitting the floor and the like as we walked into the voting place. We're used to it. The election judges themselves were thrilled that we brought our children along.

We took our time in voting. I showed each kid the ballot and how to fill it out. I talked to them about some of the candidates and why we did/did not vote for them. Our children today is the America of tomorrow. Who knows how that seed will grow that we have planted in each one of them.

Family Fun Night

We held a family fun party for our friends to help promote good family fun. We started with a digital dash. That is a scavenger hunt of sorts. Each team/family were given a list of clues and set out to find a take a picture of themselves with each clue. Some where versatile clues and resulted in various different pictures, others lead us all to the same place. Each family raced against the others to see who could complete the list first. Here is a sample picture of one of our clues that said: salute a veteran.

After that we all met back at our house and had a wiener roast. Everyone brought a dish to share so we had a wide variety of yummies to go along with our hot dogs. Of course we had to get a bonfire or two going. Although the weather was very nice, it still felt good to sit around the fire once it got dark. We made s'mores and had a wonderful time. All together we had 7 families that came. That of course means a lot of kids running around. We hope to make this an annual event that we host.

Teach me Father....

I love to capture these moments of Jim teaching John the things of life. In this pic they were rotating the tires. Jim is such a wonderful father!

Halloween

We had beautiful weather for halloween this year. I got inspired by my friend Sherri and we made some of the outfits. Together we sewed 6 poodle skirts, one for each of us and then 2 for each of our girls. Unfortunatley we never got a big group pic. I also made Brianna's cheerleading outfit. Which I completely improvised the pattern to just make it work and I was suppose to add orange ribbon to make it more Bears like. By the end of it all I was just satisfied to have it done. I'm not really a sewer. I should be though, I just never put the time & dedication into it.

Anyway, of course I have pics of my trick or treaters. We took all the kids to a local church for trunk or treat. By time we got home Carmen was getting fussy so Jim stayed home with her while I took the others up & down our block. By time we were done with that Andrew was fazing out so he joined dad & Carmen at home while I took the big kids to some other neighborhoods. We covered a lot of ground and got a TON of candy.

Rollin in the loot

Ladies Retreat

I was able to attend a ladies retreat put on by a local church. It was held out at Camp Summit, which is about 30 min. from town. It's out in the middle of nowhere. We had a guest speaker who did a wonderful job of saying just the right things that we all need to hear. We had plenty of food to eat, all homemade by a couple of ladies. Several of my friends attended as well so there was a lot of good times & tons of laughter. Some of us stayed up until 3 a.m. chatting and playing games. We can find about anything to giggle about when it's the wee hours of the morning.

It was a milestone weekend for me as it was the first time I went away without baby Carmen. She gotten sick during the week (her first ever sickness of broncitus) and had been refusing to nurse. I had been planning to take her with me, but since she didn't "need" me, Jim insisted she stay home. I was very uncertain about the idea, but Jim persisted so I went without her. I'll admit I was worried and even thought about calling home to check in. All went well without me. Jim did a wonderful job and taking care of all the kids and I came home to a CLEAN HOUSE!

Here is my "twin seperated at birth" Sherri. Whenever we are together it never fails that we are asked if we are sisters.

This is a group picture of all the people that sat at the same table. A wide variety of moms in different stages & walks of life.

Just some nature pictures I took. We went out on many nature walks. The weather was perfect!