A different path

Hello Friends,

It has been forever since we have visited with each other.  

School is out and a lot of changes are in store for us this next school year.  I will share those with you in another post.

I am excited to get back to blogging.  It has been a nice break but I have missed everyone and missed catching up with all of you.  I am looking forward to blogging again and keeping you up to date with what we are doing.

When we last visited, Darbee had just had her tonsils out.

She healed nicely and has not had any problems since.  We are so thankful that is all over with and there will be no more trips to the ENT. She was given the all clear!

She finished first grade and we have been enjoying our break. School was out for us mid May so we are well in to our summer.  We are enjoying lots of doing nothing and quite a few play dates.

Darbee made lots of new friends this school year so we have quite a few friends to keep in touch with during the summer.  She is enjoying seeing her friends and I am enjoying chatting with the moms.

The weather hasn't been too hot yet, so we have enjoyed a lot of outside time too!

Papa made a tree swing for Darbee and it is her favorite!

I will be back soon and update more.  Just wanted to hop on and say hi and let you know I am still around.  

Until next time....

It's been a long time....here's what we've been up to!

Good evening! It has been a long time since we last visited. We have had a lot going on here at our house.

First of all, we had a great Christmas. We were all happy and healthy and that was enough. Darbee got some neat toys and we had a ball playing with everything. Her favorite was a Polaroid camera and an electric ride on scooter. That thing will fly!

On Dec. 29th, Darbee had surgery to remove her tonsils. After six cases of strep since August, it was what needed to happen. Poor thing has been on an antibiotic for months. The surgery went well but the recovery was rough! Most days were a lot of this.

I felt so bad and so helpless. Getting her to drink was nearly impossible.

I was so happy when she finally ate a little and felt like playing some.

 Thankfully now she is back to her happy playful self. 

We celebrated New Years at home since she was not feeling good. We had noise makers and party hats and champange glasses with juice. Darbee also had a confetti gun that she got to shoot in the house ONLY because she couldn't go outside. I am still finding confetti in my living room. Haha

Darbee's American Heritage Girls troop had a mother/daughter banquet a few weekends ago. It was a lot of fun! They had a silly winter dress up booth...we had fun at that!

Good Mommy news!  I got hired at Darbee's school! I am working as a teacher's assistant 1/2 a day for now on the two days she attends school. I love it!  I just love her school and am so happy to be a part of it. Last week, I helped out in the first and second grade science class. They are studying volcanoes and were building ones out of clay to explode. 

This past weekend, Darbee, Nana and I took a girls trip to Pigeon Forge. We had such a good time.

We shopped in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.

Darbee has a rock project due at school in a few weeks, so we mined for gems to get some neat rocks. That was a lot of fun and she is ready for her project!

We had fun at the arcade too! I love these getaways with just us girls. Such fun tomes and great memories!

We are back in the groove of school after Christmas break and surgery. We are learning about pronouns, the Turks and Constantinople, ten frames and ordinal numbers in math and volcanoes in science. So much fun!

I enjoyed visiting with you again! 

Until next time....

More Santa Fun

Good evening! I hope you all are having a fun weekend.  Are you ready for Christmas? I am not finished with my shopping. Still a few treasures left to buy. 

We have had a fun weekend here. Our elf, Jingle Bella has been visiting each day and luckily so far she hasn't made a big mess. 

She was found one morning reading a new Pinkalicious Christmas book to some friends. She brought her a neat foam gingerbread house to put together and decorate. 

Another morning, she decided to make her own puffy paint ornament. These did not work by the way. They would not pull off of the wax paper.  I had someone suggest doing them on clear file folders.  She said they peeled easily off of those.  We will try them again. 

We made our math lesson festive on Friday using red and green cubes for our game. We just have two more weeks of school and we are out for Christmas break.  I can't wait!

My husband's work hosts a breakfast with Santa each year. Darbee always looks forward to it. It is catered by Chic-fil-a and lots of fun. She had fun making Christmas crafts and talking to Santa.

She made a pinecone Christmas tree.

She also made reindeer food for Christmas Eve night. I am sure those reindeer will love all of the glitter she put in. Hehe.

I really like these gift tags she made. I think we are going to make more of these at home to put on our presents. What a cute idea and super easy!

Santa was great. The tree is always beautiful!

Even Ms. Clause took time off from her work to come and visit.

We enjoyed a fun afternoon shopping with Nana afterward and went to a Christmas play in the evening. Whew! Such a fun time of the year!

What is your facorite activity you have done so far this holiday season? Take time to make a special memory. 

Until next time.....

The Winning Name Is....

Darbee loved all of the names and loved that you all were going to choose a name for her new elf.  Thank you to all of you who commented and came up with names.  She read all of them and decided to name the new elf......

Jingle Bella!!

Congratulations Cindi!  You are the winner.  Please e-mail me your info and I will get a little something in the mail to you.  

A Fun Holiday Craft

Good evening! It's been a fun day here at home. Darbee woke up with a sore throat. AGAIN. The first thing I did was check her throat and sure enough, I found white spots. What does that mean? Strep....again. This is the 4th time since August. Enough!! She has surgery set for Dec. 29. We are just trying to make it till then. Luckily, her doctor is on top of things and aware of what is going on. She called her in some medicine without me having to take her in. Thankfully, it just started and she doesn't feel bad and isn't running a fever. I am just praying she will stay well for Christmas.

Thank you to all of you who have commented elf names. Miss Darbee will choose her favorite tonight and I will announce the winner tomorrow. 

We worked on school work this morning and finished up this week's assignments. I can't believe the school year is nearly half over! I still couldn't be happier with our choice. It is the perfect fit for our family.

After our work was done, we tried a new recipe for microwave fudge. It turned out really good and was so super simple! 

Then we tried a new craft project. We made puffy paint window clings. I found the link here.

http://club.chicacircle.com/puffy-paint-window-decorations/

It was so easy. We printed out the patterns and taped wax paper down over them.

 We traced the designs with the puffy paint and added our own special touches.

Darbee loved this! She did such a good job. The hard part is waiting for them to dry overnight.

I can't wait to peel them up tomorrow and put them on our door. I will be sure and post a picture. 

We had such a good time making these. 

I hope you all have had a good Friday and are looking forward to a fun weekend. 

Until next time....

Need your help

There is no excuse. I am a slacker! I have missed visiting with you all and have promised to do a post a day through December. 

Our elf retured yesterday! 

Darbee has waited and waited for this day. The package was sent straight from the North Pole!

When she opened the box, she was totally surprised. Our old elf, Elmer was in there but he brought along a friend. A new elf in training. A GIRL elf!! 

You see, Elmer has a hurt arm. He returned this year with a festive colored sling and a note saying he will now reside permanently on lur tree. He will oversee the new elf and be here to answer anybquestions she may have but he will not fly back to the North Pole each night. He will take a rest this year. 

Ournew elf is so cute. She even has earrings!

She is already up to mischief. This morning, she had packed Darbee's lunch.

What a lunch huh? 

We just have one problem. We can't figure out a cute name for her. So...we are asking for your help. 

Come up with a catchy name and leave it in the comments. Send your friends over to visit and have them leave a comment and become a follower too. On Friday, Darbee will choose her favorite name and that winner will receive a prize. How fun!

I hope all of you are having a happy holiday season so far. 

Happy October!

Good morning!  Happy October!  I can't believe it is October already!  This year has flown by.  I am not complaining.  I love October.  It is a super busy month for us with lots of birthdays including my mom's, Darbee's, my dad's and MINE!  It is an exciting month.  I am ready.

The weather is cooling down a tad bit here and I am so thankful!  I LOVE it.  We have already got our fall activities underway by visiting the pumpkin patch and the county fair.  We have so much more fun ahead.  Can you tell this is my favorite time of the year?  

We have already been busy. 

School is going GREAT.  I still absolutely LOVE it.

I cannot tell you how much I enjoy having her at home and being able to teach her.  It is such a joy each day and I am so thankful for this opportunity.

They had college day and she was so excited not to wear a uniform.

She loves going two days a week and I am so glad.

It makes things MUCH easier that she loves it so much.

The county fair came and Darbee wanted to enter some of her artwork as an exhibit again this year.

She chose five things to enter. She won 4 blue ribbons and 1 red.  She was happy.

She is already making plans for what she wants to enter next year.

We went back to the fair another night for rides.  I have a little dare devil.  She wanted to ride everything!  She had a blast.

She even had fun playing several of the games this year.

Thanks Papa for the stuffed animal! :)

She met a clown too!

THen it was time for our local high school's homecoming game.

Darbee LOVES going to football games and really loves the homecoming game.

They have a parade the day before.

She got a little bored while waiting for it to start. 

But...she was so excited when it finally got to us.  She got a ton of candy and saw all of the football players and cheerleaders.

There was a pep rally afterward on the court square and of course we had to go to that.

She absolutely adores the cheerleaders and looked on in awe as the homecoming court was introduced.

Friday night was the homecoming game.  She asked me to make her a Cougars shirt and how could I say no?

She couldn't wait to get to the game and see all of the girls in their pretty dresses.

It was a fun time.  

So...can you tell we are enjoying fall already?  Whew!  I can't wait to share all of the fun times ahead with you.  We have a fun weekend planned and a big birthday surprise for Darbee the next weekend.  I am so excited.  

I hope you are enjoying your fall season so far.  

Until next time....