Passing on the toys...

Kids found a stash of my old cars I had when I was a kid. (Yes I still have them). I played with them a lot and some meant more to me then others. This picture shows the more favorite, most used, and most recognizable. The king of the bunch and the one that always won in my car battles was the mongoose dragster in the front center. Time to pass them on to the kids and let them make memories.

Jeff

When Clark found the bucket of cars it was like Christmas morning.  I had to convince them they were Daddy's and not his.  He just loves cars and I love that he gets to share his daddy's cars now too ;)

Sharla

Obstacles!

At our local co-op I am in charge of one of the P.E. classes.  Last week we made an in door obstacle course.  It was pretty awesome.  The kids had to maneuver themselves through the strings without making them break.  We ended up doing a team round, a speed round, and a no touching round.  It was fun to see the kids move their bodies! 

What they looked like waiting on the other side ;).  

Happy P.E.!

Biking and Mudding

The other weekend Jeff took the older kids on a bike ride.  There are some local parks that are connected by paths that make a really nice place to ride.  Jeff loaded up his truck with kids and bikes.  Everyone had a great time. 

 On the way home Jeff took the kids driving through a little mud field.  They LOVED it!  It is fun to have a nice old truck that's still good enough to go off road :).  The bikes were a little shaken up, but otherwise we just ended up with lots of mud on the truck for memories.  Later that night Jeff took me through the mud.  It was seriously crazy!  

Here is the left overs on the truck.

The kids were out for recess riding their bikes so I figured it was a good time to get photos :)

Mhari

Grant, Talmage and Sandra... the big bikers!

The mud went all up in the wheel well.  The driveway is still littered with mud/dirt!

I'm glad Jeff took the time with the kids and helped make some awesome memories!!

Family Tree

My sister-in-law asked me to paint a tree on her wall in her living room.  It has been a while since I've done any art projects, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to help her out. We talked about what she wanted and looked through pinterest for ideas.  Then day came to paint the tree...

This was the wall originally.  We were still deciding on which corner to use so the bookshelf had been unloaded.  We used the one on the right.  I penciled the tree onto the wall to get spacing and then we started filling it in with the grey.

Here is the first layer.  The branches are all outlined and it's all the base color.

The next step was adding highlights.  

Once the highlights were there I added in the shadowing and really tried to make the tree feel more 3 dimensional with the highlights and shadows.  I think it turned out well :).

Tiffany later added their family names (which I had made for them several years ago), and family pictures.  I love the way it turned out!  They will keep adding photos to it too!  It was a fun project!

Zoo fun

A few weeks ago we took a field trip to the zoo with our cousins.  It was time to get out of the house even though it was a little cold.  Here are some fun pictures of our day :)

Owen and Talmage

Sandra and Ella

Grant, Mhari and Bree

I love this sign... so cool :)

Checking out the huge salt water crocodile!

Fun art 

Turtle

Sandra and Ella were snake charmers!

petting the snake

Lunch time!  During lunch there were these little kid ride things.  All of the kids played and played.  Free entertainment (since we didn't give them money to put in them).  There was no one at the zoo... we took over the eating area.

Tiffany and I :)

The squirrels are pretty friendly.  I think they are used to being fed by the zoo visitors.

Penguins!

It was a great day, even if we were a bit cold.  This was opening day for the Fort Worth Stock Show, which is probably why there was no one at the zoo :)

Every Day Life

I decided it was time to do a post about our daily routines.  Now, I could do an hour by hour account, but I'm just going to summarize the events.  Of course there was crying, dirty diapers, fighting, and plenty of non photo worthy moments.  I did not document them, but that is part of our life and I want to mention it in case anyone thinks my kids look so happy all of the time ;).  Maybe I'll do a day of all of the sad moments during a day... the kids hate when I take pictures of them when they are whiny.  Maybe they won't whine so much?  Anyway...

Here are all of the kids up and eating breakfast.  This is about 7:30 in the morning.  

Just couldn't not get a close up of the baby ;).  She is growing up too fast! (Oh and I cut her bangs... no more baby wispy hair).

School has started (8 am).  The kids are working on their assignments.  Here is Sandra smiling for me ;)

It's Mhari's turn to work with Mommy.  She is doing her math work.  She does pretty well with her school work.  Everyone gets time to sit with me for individual lessons that I have to teach (math mostly), but otherwise they can do their work independently.  

Clark and Lorna playing during school... distracting us, but always cute!

Grant having some nook time while he waits for his turn with mom

Talmage focused.  His stuffed dog"Watch" got to join him that day.  I think it's sweet that he still loves stuffed animals :).  

During quiet time the girls were playing in the toy room.  Sandra has been working on her lincoln log towers.  The boys were probably reading or playing fun games on the nooks.  

Oh and Clark and Lorna still nap :).  I love nap time!

Wednesdays we go to 4-H.  The kids got to make a Linus blanket.  It was fun to see them work together and make something to give to someone in need.  

Here is Talmage, Sandra, and Mhari tying the blanket together.

Mhari, Grant and Clark

The rest of the evening was getting back home to eat dinner before the boys went to cub scouts.  I take them since I work with the Webelos.  We worked on our scientist activity pin and our fitness pin.  By the time we get home at 7:30 it's time to get ready for the next day since we go to a home school co-op.  Really we get home and join whatever Daddy is doing with the girls.  He was watching the A-Team so that was our entertainment until bed time.  I think Wednesdays are one of the craziest days of the week.  Now that Sandra gets to attend Activity Days she gets to come with us twice a month too.
  
I'm sure as the kids keep getting older and we let them participate in sports and such my life will just get busier.  They are all growing up and will be gone before I know it :(

Happy New Year!

We spent New Year's day playing outside enjoying the beautiful Texas weather!  We had a nice time throwing the football around.  Jeff was throwing to the boys and girls for a while.  I got to take a turn with my Chica, but mostly I took pictures ;). 

It was a nice day. 

Talmage

Sandra and Mhari

The boys out in the col-de-sac

Daddy

Cute bug

Jeff was teaching the boys running plays.  It was fun to watch them figure it out and actually start catching the ball!

Talmage's turn

Happy New Year!