Our Trip

Yeah!! The harddrive for our desktop finally came on Monday and Mark has been getting the computer put together bit by bit. (Bad pun!) :) Anyway, now I can post pictures! So therefore, here is our trip. I am putting a lot of pictures in the albums, so beware! :) (That way family members can get what they want.)

Wednesday was Dustin's thirteenth birthday! Happy Birthday, Dustin!!!! We celebrated with him at their towns new Chick-fil-a. :) So the following are the picture of his party and playing games back at Mark's parent's house.

Dustin's Birthday

Then of course, the next day was Thanksgiving! My father-in-law's brother and family from Idaho (Uncle John and Aunt Shauna) and sister and family (Aunt Teresa and Uncle Buddy) from Tennessee were there. We had a great time seeing everyone!

Thanksgiving Day!

Friday, we went to the Homestead Craft and Children's Fair. This has been a tradition for my family for about ten years, whenever we are in Texas for Thanksgiving. We really enjoy going, seeing the crafts, buying yummy foods and other things, and visiting with the people there. It is so refreshing to be there and enjoy a time of Thanksgiving. Most of Mark's family went on Friday, so we were able to enjoy some more time with them.

Homestead Heritage Craft and Children's Fair

Saturday morning, we visited the Texas Ranger Museum before returning to the fair to finish shopping and see more of their demonstrations.

Texas Ranger Museum

Snowflakes!!!

I found this on Better Homes and Garden's website! It's so much fun and a great stress reliever!! :) Make your own snowflake!!

PS~ When you finish your snowflake, leave the number in the comments so we can see it. Warning: these get addictive! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! Tomorrow, we are headed up to visit Mark's family, his dad's brother and sister are headed in with their families, one group from Idaho and another from Tennessee! I know we will have a great visit. Then Friday we are headed to Homestead Heritage for their Thanksgiving Fair. We go there almost every year, and enjoy it so much! Wish y'all could come! :)

Fiesta!!

This fall, our church offered Spanish classes. Dr. and Mrs. P. recently moved from Florida and they offered to teach - she taught Spanish and he taught English every Thursday night. The "final" was a fiesta hosted at their home on Saturday. :) We had a fun time, eating all the great food, visiting and hitting the piñata. (I am posting a few of the pictures here, but I will hopefully be posting a Picassa album later - our main computer is sick and waiting for a hard drive to arrive.)

Our hosts: Dr. and Mrs. P in the center, his parents on the left and Bro. Ron on the right.

Some of our classmates enjoying the yummy food!

Faithie really liked whacking that thing!

Gracey trying a hand at it.

Angie

Me (Angie and I wore our "ponchos" to the "fiesta!") :)

The cheering squad!

This picture of Angie is so cute! :)

I love Gracey's pockets... and the twinkle in her eyes!

(She knows that Mommy won't let her have that much candy!)

Faithie has learned to play peek-a-boo! :)

She is soo much fun!

A New Class!

All interested parties welcome!! Come and learn to knit!

We will have great fun and learn something useful! Our current project is dishcloths. Right now we are learning two basic steps, casting on and the knit stitch. The next step will probably be binding off. :) This teacher isn't quite sure yet, but the lesson plans are subject to change according to students' needs. (As all good teachers should be, right?) :)


Because of current space demands, the class is located in my parent's house. I think the "school" needs to add more classrooms. :)

Holiday Shopping Carnival

I've never taken part in a blog carnival before, but this one looks like fun! Basically the idea is to list five out of the ordinary gifts that can be given for Christmas. I don't know about you, but I was hoping to have Christmas gifts all bought/made by the first of December. Hmm, it doesn't look like that is going to happen. Maybe you have some people you just aren't sure what to get them - thus the carnival! (For links to other ideas, click here.) Now to think of five of my own ideas...

1. The Gift of Literature - give someone on your list a beautifully bound book of one of their favorite classics! Even if they already own the book, who wouldn't want a display copy? :) And don't just think new, perhaps this person on your list loves old books and would enjoy an older copy, beautifully bound.

2. The Gift of Time - I know this isn't very original, but what busy person wouldn't appreciate your gift of help, perhaps in the busy time before the actual holiday? You could help a busy mom put up Christmas decorations, drive someone to do their Christmas shopping, or offer the help of house cleaning. The possibilities are endless!

3. The Gift of Giftwrap - we end up spending money on a bunch of paper that ends up being thrown away... what about making the wrap a part of the gift? You could wrap the gift with a set of cloth napkins, a table runner, or a scarf. Or perhaps just embellish the bow, a hairbow or scrunchie for a young girl on your list, or a Christmas ornament, or small picture frame with a favorite picture.

4. The Gift of Reading - this is more for the younger person on your list. You could buy them a few picture books and then record yourself reading them aloud! (on cassette or even using an mp3 recorder and burning a cd!) Not only is this a great gift for the child now, but something he or she will treasure for a long time. I have a cassette of my grandma, great-grandma, and my aunt reading to me. (I was actually present during the recording process, which adds to the humor and enjoyment even now!) :)

5. The Gift of Your Talent: many people I know have some kind of hobby. How about using your hobby to gift others. What is something you are good at?
Cooking? Make a batch of Christmas cookies for friends/family on your list. Or how about a meal? It isn't much harder to make a double batch of your evening meal... this could be a great help to someone who is really busy!
Scrapbooking? You could make a set of notecards. Or how about a scrapbook page layout - the reciepient need only add the pictures? Or even a small scrapbook, complete with pictures.
Knitting? Of course you know that would be me! And I have mostly finished some of my gifts, but still have some to go! (Sorry, still top secret!) But last Christmas I did scarves! :)

Well, I hope you have enjoyed my little list! Maybe it will help you with those last few people on your Christmas list! We have only one month, one week and six days 'til Christmas!!!

New Blog!!! :)

Angie, my sister, started a blog! She has been wanting to do it for a while, and we got it together last night! I think she will really enjoy blogging. I know I have! :)

Also, I thought that some of you might like to check out my latest post over on my other blog: Time to Bloom. It deals with how we react to our thoughts - something each of us can think about. :)

Simple Gifts

Sometimes we are in such a hurry with daily things, that we miss the little gifts that God sends our way. When we got home from church yesterday afternoon this picture perfect gift was waiting by my front door:

I didn't move or even touch it, just went and grabbed my camera! Isn't it beautiful?! I think God cares so much about us, that He enjoys giving us little things that He knows we will enjoy and thank Him for! Fall is one of my favorite seasons, but I enjoy each season as it comes along. It seems like over night all the leaves have started changing. I enjoy traveling around and coming upon a tree decked out with magnificent color. I hope you are enjoying fall where ever you are!

Here is some more fall color that just cracks me up! This is our little Japanese Maple tree in front of the house!

The color is beautiful, but I hope the rest of the tree catches up soon!! :)

Happy Fall, Y'all!!!