Karis' reading award and Brayden's winning run!

What a proud day for this momma!

Karis came home from her last day of school today and had received the highest MAP reading score!  This is a test they take several times a year to determine where their reading levels are.  I was so proud of her because she has struggled with reading some this year and has worked really hard!  She has bounced back and forth from an A to a B and then pulled off straight A's this nine weeks and then got this award too.  Way to go Karis!  Mom and Dad are sooooo proud of you and all your hard work!

Brayden had a game tonight and played great!  Everyone played really hard and it paid off because we won!  Brayden's forte is batting and although he likes the field, it isn't as much fun as batting.  

Karis with one of her buds Kennedy on the team.  I tell her mom all the time that she is way too pretty to be playing baseball ha!

Brayden hit great tonight and had several triples but the last bat he had a triple and it was the winning run of the game!!!  We were tied going into our last bat and when he came in to home, it ended up being the last play of the game.  We won!  I am surprised I have a voice today!  I was so proud of my boy!  I got it on video check it out...

As an added bonus, as the game was over we looked over the field and there was a huge rainbow!  It was beautiful and I was on cloud nine!  An awesome reminder of God's blessing over us!

And just a funny on Lucy...the other night we were at Walmart walking passed the refrigerator section and we were all freezing and had goosebumps.  She apparently forgot what they were called because she said, "Mom, I am freezing!  I got the chickmunks!" (chillbumps) We have laughed over that for days!

Karis 1st grade art

Karis brought home her work from art class from this school year and I wanted to document her little art pieces.  She LOVES art and hopefully she got her dad's artistic abilities and not her moms because I can't draw a stick person, seriously!

And this is her class picture from this year....

I can't believe she will be a 2nd grader in just a few short days!  

Animals, Books and Friends

This afternoon, our friend and worker at the camp found this lovely Copperhead and brought it to show us after he killed it...yuck!  Luckily it was down by the lake and not near our house.  The kids thought it was the coolest thing!

And on the same day, our friend Mitch was fishing out at the lake and he came back with a cooler of fish to clean and eat but among all the fish was this cool fish.  If you look closer it has a smaller fish (bluefin) in its mouth.  You can see the tail sticking out and it has just been half swallowed.  Isn't it so cool?!

Today Karis got her first chapter book at school from the library and she was SOOOO proud.  She kept saying, "I didn't know I could read a chapter book!"  She was reading it proudly in the car!

Lolli offered to keep the kids this weekend so we gladly said yes! :)  My mom is so wonderful about getting the kids and letting us have breaks.  I appreciate it so much and am so thankful for her.  I hope I am able to do the same with my grandkids some day!

But Friday night Jay and I went to our friends' house Chris and Tabitha to have dinner and hang out.  They also have 3 children: Trinton, John and Ella.  We enjoyed loving on their kids since ours were at Lollis.  We had a blast and appreciate their honest friendship. Sorry for the horrible iphone pic...

Totally random but there is a great article HERE on "If you want to date my daughter"...hilarious!

Awards, crafting and weather

Friday Karis had her 9 weeks ceremony at school and she was very proud of her awards and we were too! She got an award for Honor Roll (All A's and 1 B) and Perfect Attendance.  She already had her ribbon/medal from last nine weeks but she got a star pin to add to it.  

Way to go Karis!

Brayden and Lucy were proud of her too!

Friday night our hubbies had a conference so the kids and I went to Paige's house to hang out.  Then Mari-Morgan came home with us to spend the night.  Saturday I decided to work on a few crafts that I have been wanting to do off of Pinterest.  So Saturday morning off we went to some craft stores to get some supplies and spent the rest of the day working on them.  The girls all picked out some things to paint as well. :)

Sunday morning I snapped a few before running out the door...

Last night Lucy was putting on pj's and it was over her head and then she said, "I am getting married!!!!"  (like a veil) haha 

This weekend's weather has been CRAZY, or this whole season, to be exact.  It has been exceptionally warm for January and not even a threat of snow yet.  On Friday it was in the upper 60's and then by the next day it had dropped 30 degrees.  It was cold Saturday!

And these crazy temps caused all of this Sunday night.  After 9 we started hearing the tornado sirens and knew we had to get kids up.  They slept right through ALL of it crammed like sardines in the closet!

Oh and Lucy was freaking out there was a fire out the window...Jay was starting the grill haha!

OH!  I have to show you this new product for all of you who are allergic to peanuts/peanut butter.  Trey's mom is going on a gluten free diet and found this Wowbutter/Soy butter.  It tastes like peanut butter but is 100% peanut free.  Unfortunately neither of my kids that are allergic to peanuts don't like it but I LOVE it.  Give it a try!  

On a more serious note, today is the 4th anniversary of my best friend Amber's car wreck/death.  I do miss her so and long to just talk to her.  So very glad she is in Heaven and I look forward to the day we meet again. 

I am still working on some of the crafts I have been working on this weekend.  Pics coming soon!!!

A little bit of everything

For some reason I just can't seem to get back into my routines.  Blogging has taken a backseat lately as I have seemed to just be "busier" than normal.  We have also had some much bigger fish to fry per se the last few weeks and higher priorities have taken a front seat.  However hopefully very soon things will be back to normal. :)

This post is gonna be so random because I am behind on blogging so I will do my best to keep it all from sounding jumbled up.

Karis came home with her report card this week from last semester and we were so proud she got all A's and one B!  Comprehension has really been tough on her this year with all the new requirements but she worked really hard and her hard work paid off!  

I took this the other night when Lucy was eating her "bedtime snack," which my kids think is necessary for survival, and had on her new coat Lolli got for her.  It looked funny seeing her sit there eating a popsicle in her pj's and winter jacket ha!

I have made several new recipes this week and have enjoyed most of them.  Our family's favorite restaurant is no doubt Kyoto, or any Japanese steakhouse.  The kids love the food and so do Jay and I.  Karis especially loves the onion/mushroom soup (not sure the official name for it...miso soup maybe?)  However I found some "Kyoto" recipes on Pinterest and thought I would make a meal of them.  Here is the soup before cooking, very easy and it was a hit!  You can find the original recipe here.

 Oh and you can find the fried rice recipe here...also yummy although didn't taste exactly like Kyotos.

Lucy came to me the other day with this baby in bed and told me her baby had had "section".  I don't know if she meant "c-section" or "surgery" because I am sure she has heard me say both numerous times (I had 3 c-sections) but either way I laughed so hard.

When I was cooking the other night, I tried out one of the ideas I got off of Pinterest.  Cut up your green onions and put them in a water bottle and freeze them until you need them then just shake them out!  Worked great!  No more green onions going bad in this house!

This has been a fun week for my babies....alot of firsts for them.  Everett started crawling officially, got his 2 first teeth one right after the other, starting waving bye-bye and got his first hair cut and Hazel cut her first tooth on top, said "Mom-ma", started clapping and waving bye-bye, and had her first emergency room vist (thankful she was ok!).

These three are being their sweet selves along with a few moments of "terrible twos" haha!

Landon's new thing is to "roar" at everyone...makes me laugh.

Not sure if this look was a "look" or a "stare" haha!

Sweet Trey...he and Brayden have played so well together lately and are really enjoying playing with one another.

It barely snowed one day this week and we weren't really expecting it.  It just flurried for a while and nothing stuck (and the sun was out!), but it sure was fun while it lasted.  It has been a weird winter so far, exceptionally warm on days.

I have been following this certain blog for a while now and I read this post and it put me in organizational heaven.  Seriously I can't stop thinking about it and wanting to re-do/re-organize my whole house.  LOVE.  IT!  Check it out HERE and please do so, you won't be sorry!

Here are a few videos I took this week too...

Brayden breakdancing

Lucy shaking her hair like Justin Beiber

Cool video