3.15.13

 

 

 

What do you do on a warm spring afternoon?

If you are MY kid, you...

 

 

Put on your prettiest bathing suit...

Throw a couple of water balloons...



And spray your biggest brother with the hose!

 

Sounds good to me!

-Kerry

Snake Pit!

Now that we have just over a year left in Texas, I feel the need to get going on my LIST. That is, my list of places to see and do while we are here- my list of "real" Texas experiences. Which explains how we found ourselves surrounded by rattlesnakes. Thousands of rattlesnakes. Angry, rattling, rattlesnakes.

Every year in Sweetwater, TX, thousands of rattlesnakes are rounded up for the aptly named Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup. This is apparently a huge event- with a parade, a carnival, bouncy houses for kids, hundreds of vendors selling whatever you can imagine, and... of course... there are snakes.  There are pits of rattlesnakes everywhere. We watched rattlesnakes being "milked" of their venom:


Sorry for the terrible picture quality. We forgot our good camera. Here you can just barely see that there is a man, holding a rattlesnake, and what he is doing is "milking" the snake of it's venom. The boys thought that this was awesome.



Also, for $20, you could gut and skin your own freshly killed rattlesnake, AND keep the skin! No, we didn't do that. And Owen lost his appetite watching this being done.

Here, these lovely ladies have been handed a freshly killed snake (still wriggling) and they are hanging it on hooks so that a customer can come gut and skin it. Those hand prints on the wall behind? Those are hand prints in snake blood. Yep.

Oh yes. My sweet baby with a fresh snake skin. See how he's leaning away from it??

Oh, boy, what else did we see? There was a man who got into one of the pits (with protective gear, thank goodness), and there must have been 500 snakes in there with him. He basically riled up the snakes so people could see them attacking his boots. I lost my appetite at this pit...


It was gross. It was overwhelming. The smell of thousands of rattlesnakes is not a pleasant smell.

We had a great time. :)

-Kerry

Jacob's 6th Birthday

Oh my! My "middle" baby is 6!

Jacob is my comedic relief throughout the day... I never know what is going to come out of his mouth! He is loving, sweet, funny and smart. This kid- what can I say? My life would be a lot less bright without him.

Jacob is the absolute "man's man". He loves cars, trucks, airplanes, sports, and all things cowboy! I will say that as much as Texas and I don't see eye to eye, this is the perfect place for this rough and tough boy to have been.

So- his birthday. He woke up to find balloons hung on his bedroom door (our family tradition), then I brought cupcakes to his class at their snack time and all his classmates sang "Happy Birthday"to him. After school, he came home to find a pile of presents on the kitchen table, but mean Mom made him wait until Dad came home to open them... The suspense about killed him!

I think the wait was worth it, because he said that every gift was his favorite one! After gifts, we went to Applebee's for dinner (yuck! But his choice!) and he REFUSED DESSERT after dinner! He said he was too full... I am starting to wonder if there was a mix-up at the hospital 6 years ago... Hmmm. I'll have to look into that!

All in all, he had a great 6th birthday. A BIG thank you to those who sent gifts and called him, I can say for sure that you all helped make his day so much fun. And now... the pictures!

Anxiously awaiting Daddy's return home... Let's get unwrapping!

Birthday door balloons!

Money is always a great gift!

"I love this one SO MUCH! I want to hug it!!"

This one is for Grandma Lissa... look at that face!

Yee-haw! He was super happy with the vest and chaps from Mom and Dad- he even wore them to Applebee's!

I sure love this kid. I'm so glad he had a great 6th. :)

-Kerry

8.27.12

Freedom!!


Oh whoops, I mean... 1st day of school!

This year, I have a 3rd grader and a Kindergartener... can you believe it??

Sweet brothers... "Now, act like you like each other!"

Kinder-boy

3rd grader

And, they're off into the morning! Love them!

*After School* WOW- a big day indeed! He lost his 1st tooth on his 1st day of Kinder!! The tooth fairy will be visiting someone tonight....  :)

Now, you may have asked your self... "What did the girls do all day while the boys were gone?" Well, we put on dress-up clothes and vamped around, of course. Duh.
 

-Kerry

8.15.12

Yeah. Believe it or not, he's actually playing "Doctor" with the kids... not "Guantanamo Bay Torture Room".

08.01.12

Oh, hooray for August! The countdown is ON for back-to-school! The kids go back on the 27th, and this mama is seriously ready for that day to come. I have been #1 tour director / referee / nurse / punching bag / 24-hour cleaning lady for 2 whole, long months now, and while I love my kids, they need school, and I need them to go to school.

In other news, another finished quilt! This was my 1st commissioned quilt- the woman picked the fabric and the size, and I created this for her daughter's new "big girl" bed. :) She's picking it up this afternoon- I really hope she likes it.

Add caption

Close-up of the square

Detailing on the back- I did a "pebble" pattern on the borders, and a swirl inside each square

I don't think I've shared this with you all- this is my baby. She's a Singer 301A, "born" the same year as my dad, 1951. I do all of my sewing on this machine- and she is phenomenal at machine quilting! XOXO

The Long Awaited Picture-Filled Post

Apologies.

It would seem that I have a knack for filling my plate just ever so slightly too full.  As if having all 3 children at home full-time during the summer wasn't enough, I also picked right now to create a home business (a small quilting shop on etsy.com, a website that promotes handmade items). I was also given the opportunity to be a (large) part in a local twice-yearly children's consignment sale- this is an event that I feel very strongly for, and my role for the next sale in September is helping working moms and first time consigners prepare their items for the sale. Oh, and add my role as a commitee member for the Goodfellow Combined Spouses Club (our military spouse's organization at this base).

Phew. I'm pooped even just re-reading that...

I'm convinced that all I need is just a bit better time management skills, and it will all come up roses. :)

Enough about me. Let's get to what you're really here for. Without further ado, gratuitous cute pictures of my awesome children...

Owen chilling out in the pool at Uncle Todd's house

California girl...

Kids' Choice- we visited the wax museum... not as cool as they thought it was going to be, I believe. They were, however, impressed by Dorothy and gang. Sorry about the really terrible picture quality- it was dim in the museum, and it appears that the Tin Man reflected the camera's flash. Dang Tin Man.

Kites in San Francisco!

Carousel on the pier in San Francisco!

Board walk in Santa Cruz- we spent a couple of fun days here. Jacob wasn't big enough for the "big kid" rides, but he really enjoyed "helping" Evelyn.

Owen and cousins on a big kid ride. Hold on, Owen!

Daddy and Owen getting ready to ride the Big Dipper- an all-wooden roller coaster, and a family tradition. Owen was quite proud to finally be old enough to ride. :)

I am realizing that I didn't nearly have as many California pictures as I thought that I did. It appears I'm just as awesome a picture taker as I am a blog writer. Hm.

On another note, after talking to my aunt and grandparents the other day, I wanted to include a couple non-kid pics.  I have been working really hard lately, and I am proud of what I've made. Since the start of summer, I've sold 2 quilts online. This is amazing to me. Here's a peek at them:

The first one to sell- this one began as lark... I pulled some scraps out to try out a block I saw in a book.

I love this one.

Close-up of the quilting. I love how it turned out and how the swirls compliment the pinwheels.

Labor of love. I think I love quilting so much because it's so nice to complete a prjoect and just have it stay... completed. Unlike cleaning or child raising, am I right??