Halloween Preparations for 2012

I started a little craft group with my Best Friend Courtney Green and we invited a few ladies that we wanted to get to know better.  We wanted an opportunity to make some great crafts that we could take home and use for the different seasons and just to have some fun items to use around our house.  

 This is the banner that we came up with to make.  We all started out with the same triangles and then went from there with our own style and likes.  I like the end result of my banner and I put this away in my Halloween box to use for next year. 

 I went to the Sierra Sands School Audio Visual center and cut out enough parts for the kids to make their own skeletons and then we hung them up with the Halloween Banner.   

 It was pretty fun to watch the kids try to figure out which bones went where and it is a good thing we were just using brads to put them together and not gluing them. 

 Caris had to take this arm apart because she forgot to put a bone in, but the kids had a great time putting them together and then adding their own little touches.  

Putting up the Loft Bed

Back in October of 2012 the girls finally picked up their room enough so that they were able to start putting together the Loft bed that Grandma Matlock had gotten for them before she went up to live with her friend in Auburn.  

 Laying out all the pieces to make sure everything is there and then they will start putting it together.  This was not only a test for them to see if they could put the bed together but also to see if they were able to work together as a team and get it put together.  They started to fail at the team part until I went in to help them but it was a learning experience for them all.  

 Yay the bed is put together and now Tanwy no longer has to sleep on the floor on a mattress.  And now this give Dylan something else that he gets to climb on and swing off of.  Just what I need another piece of furniture for him to fall off of and bruise him self up on.  Oh the joys of having boys.

Tawny the little Cook

Tawny has started to want to lean how to cook and I could not help but take some pictures of her cutting onions.  It was to funny to pass up.  I will keep these and make sure to bring them out of retirement when she starts dating and I want to show the boys what a great girl she is and how great a cook she wanted to be.

We all know that when you cut onions, sometimes they are strong enough to make you cry.  Well I guess we got a really potent batch the last time we were at the store and they really made you cry.  So Tawny got our her swimming goggles and went to work using the Food Chopper to cut up the onions she was going to need in the dish that she was making.  Way to go Tawny and think on your feet.

You know I start out the year with good intentions of keeping a blog and keeping family updated on how we are doing down here in Ridgecrest.  Then life seems to happen and I forget to get on the computer and blog about my family.  Now my family means the world to me but time just seems to get away from me.  I was looking at the last time I blogged about anything and it is has been almost a year since I was on here.  That is a long time.
This is kind of like writing in your journal, you start out strong and then petter off. Well I am going to try and start again.  So here goes.

Pool Time

After work yesterday Chris decided that he was ready to get in the pool and the kids jumped at a chance to be in the water with their Dad.  Fun was had by all and even Dylan was getting into it.  He has started jumping into the water from the ladder.  I think he has finally learned to hold his breath so that he doesn't swallow water when he goes under.  Then last night Chris started throwing him in the air and it was pretty cool to watch.  

Then Tawny wanted Dad to throw her.  She is a little big to be throwing around anymore lol.  But he tried anyway.  This picture looks pretty funny.  I am glad I was able to get him throwing the kids around.

Of course Caris had to get in on the fun too.  

Dakota did not want to participate last night so it was just Dad the girls, and Dylan.  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Matlock for the pool.  It has been the life saver this summer.  It has been good to have so that the kids can go out and cool off and be out of my hair so I stay sane.  Caris has been telling me for the past two week how long until school starts.  Now last year I would be chomping at the bit to get them back in school and this year they are starting a week earlier and I am not in such a big hurry to send them back.  Yes we have had out days where they have gotten on my last nerve.  But we have had more fun than not this summer. 

When school starts this year it will be just Dylan and I for one more year and then he will start kindergarten.  I am not sure what I will do once I don't have any kids at home during the school hours.  Ever since Grandma Matlock has been living with us we have been working on the kids to help them take over some of the responsibility of cleaning the house.  Besides they are the ones that make a mess of it to begin with.  So we are working on chore lists and just the other day I was listening to something and I am going to change the chore list to their job list.  Then hopefully they will take a little more pride in the job that they do and once they are out in the world with a real job they will know how to behave and how to make a good impression with the work that they do.

My girls........aren't they beautiful.  Tawny has learned a new way that she likes to have her hair.  So I guess she and Shalynn will be braiding her hair every night that she has a shower before she goes to bed.  She said the only problem with it is that it takes forever to undo all the braids.  

I do have to say that I happen to like it and maybe she will actually keep her hair down some of the time instead of putting it up in a ponytail all the time.

Pampered Chef Fall Launch

This last weekend I was able to go down to Anaheim with Sheryl Rhodes my up line Director in the Pampered Chef for the Fall Launch.  I have never been able to go to a Pampered Chef meeting like this before and it was a lot of fun.  The only downside was that I had to get up really early and leave Ridgecrest at four in the morning so that we arrived in time to register and find seats before the meeting started.  

There were only three of us from Ridgecrest that went but it was pretty awesome to be there at the meeting and to be able to see all the new Fall products before they are released to the public.  There was also a lot of good information shared for helping us keep our businesses running and how to make it better for ourselves and for those that we share the opportunity with. 

 I would really like to make Pampered Chef work for me and the family so that we can have some extra money that I can put away so that we can go to family reunions and do other fun family things.  

There are over 40 new products making their way into the catalog this fall.   I can't wait to share them with all my family and friends.

Diva Dylan?

Yesterday after swimming in the pool with the kids, Tawny was responsible for getting Dylan showered and then dressed again in his clothes.  So everything is going along fine and then she walks out with Dylan and he has a towel on his head like us women like to wear so that our hair dries a little faster.  I thought it was so cute so we had to get the camera out and take pictures.  He will look back on this and laugh I hope.

Let's hold the towel on so it doesn't fall off

A monkey towel for a little monkey.  He has totally gotten braver with the pool this year.  Grandma Matlock bought him a little floatie and he jumps into the pool from the ladder all the time now and just starts kicking around the pool.  It is good to see him so relaxed in the water, now we just need to work on getting him to hold is breath and go under the water a little bit.  

 Look Mom 

Yep there he went jumping into the pool again.  Chris and I just have to make sure that the ladder is out of the pool once the kids are finished swimming.  Dylan like to climb on it and we are a little afraid of  him getting on the ladder and falling in when no one is watching him.  He is such a treasure that we do not want to loose him or any of the kids.