The Results

Here are the final results of our ornament venture. Most of the paint and marker stayed on the ornaments, with the exception of Harrison. We think he mistook his face as an ornament at one point. If you are brave enough to attempt this with your children (which I highly recommend), here is the recipe to use:

1 2/3+ cups warm water

1 cup salt

4 cups all purpose flour (not self rising)

Combine water and salt, stirring until salt is desolved. Add flour. Move dough mixture to a firm surface. The dough will be very stiff. Knead dough until all ingredients appear to be well mixed and smooth (this take a fair amount of endurance ;) ), then knead it some more. On wax paper, roll dough out using a rolling pin until dough is smooth and no more than 1/4 inch thick. Cut your favorite shapes. Use a the end of a straw to cut a circle in the top of the ornament to put a ribbon or string through. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Flip ornaments 10-15 minutes into baking. Bake the same amount of time on each side. Allow to cool on flat surface. Once cool, decorate with paint.

Dough Ornaments

This was a first for us - making dough ornaments. As crafty as I am (or least told I am), I am not very creative. The girls and I have been in Tupelo since Monday enjoying a little time off from school, a little R&R (as much as you can get with 4 kids in the house) and just getting in a little family time. One of Kerri's friends, JoLynn, graciously invited ALL of us over to join her and her 2 children to make dough ornaments. It was a house full to say the least. This was also a learning experience for all of us as well, but a very fun one. It took a couple of attempts to figure out the specifics to get the dough just right. We got a lot of laughs out of that. We hope to get them painted later today and ready for the Christmas tree. Here are a few pictures from our venture.

Sarah (JoLynn's daughter), Alyson, Kristi and Natalie cutting our first ornaments ...

a few kink's to work out as our first batch appeared to have a bad case of cellulite

Alyson working her dough...it had to be the smoothest with all the elbow grease she put in to it!

Natalie's own unique creation...??? Don't know that this one will make it to the tree. We may hang on to this one for Halloween next year ;)

Hailey and Harrison weren't in to the spirit of things just yet...

...however, mom was able to coax them into at least cutting one ornament each.

Thank you JoLynn for a memory making day!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you! I know I am a day early (a rarity to most who know me) but I know tomorrow morning will be a busy one so I didn't want to miss the opportunity to go ahead and get it out there. I encourage you to take a moment and take note of how fortunate we are and thank the One who is responsible for that. I know we all have our moments when we think nothing in our life is going right and we have it so hard. Truth is, we have it so good. If I was really serious about it and sat down and tried to make a list of all I have to be thankful for, there wouldn't be a book big enough to hold it. Thank you Lord!

Christmas Pictures

Well, I have been chastised for falling behind on my posting so I will do my best to catch you up.

I am so relieved to say that we accomplished one major task for the holiday season - Christmas card pictures. For those of you who take your self to the brink of insanity to do the same, you know exactly what I am talking about. Who would think (unless you have small children) that it could require insurmountable patience along with over 150 pictures to get just the right one (hopefully). However, I must brag tremendously on my children this year - they were real troopers and cooperated beautifully. Mind you, I had given them a lecture, threatened them and I am sure I had a ruler (for spanking) somewhere in the van. I can also attribute the successful day to help from my parents. They came down and brought lunch and spent the afternoon with us, which included a trip to the local park for the pictures. Debbie brought her camera so we basically double teamed them and it all went very smoothly.

It even enabled us to get a few family pictures in.

A great picture of Frankie and the girls.

We also got a few candid/action shots.

"Trouble" is on the way!

Halloween Fun!

Check out our Halloween fun!

Natalie (Gabriella) and Alyson (Cheetah girl) getting ready for their night of fun.

Our first stop was at Aunt Kim's house where we were greeted by Madison (an old spooky woman).

Next we visited a few houses in our own neighborhood because the girls were so excited that they were able to go trick or treating at our neighbors houses.

Lexie and Natalie joined forces as Sharpay and Gabriella.

After hitting a few houses locally we attended a Fall Fling at a neighbor's house where lots of fun festivities were planned including food, a bonfire, scavenger hunt and hayride.

Alyson the mummy compliments of Maggie and her parents in the mummy race.

One last look at Happy the pumpkin.

Thanks for joining us! Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

***** HAPPY HALLOWEEN*****

Alyson singing in to the pumpkin

The "Before" pumpkin

Getting ready to 'gut' it


"That looks like a birthday cake"



"Yuck"

Fabulous Fall Weekend

The weather was gorgeous and absolutely perfect - pretty much textbook for the events we had planned. Our full weekend started Friday evening as the four of us and Natalie's friend Lexie went to see High School Musical 3. We all enjoyed the movie and despite it being the premier night, the crowd was not terribly bad. Then again, they did have the movie showing in 3 different theathers.

Alyson, Judy Lynn and Natatlie

Saturday was "wrapped in Maroon and White" as Jack Cristil would say. It was band parents day and since Judy Lynn is essentially family, we were invited to take part in the festivities along with her biological family ;). The band did an exhibition show for everyone (they didn't perform at halftime because of homecoming ceremonies) and that was followed by a wonderful BBQ lunch. We were allowed to 'march' to the stadium with the band and then split off and did a little browsing until game time. There was definitely a stiff breeze with cool temperatures as the sun began to set but what else would you want at an October football game? Although I am not a cold weather fan, the weather was certainly made to order for the day. MSU played a good game and came out on top. I must say that the highlight of the game was when the girls made the Jumbotron! It happened very quickly. I wasn't actually watching the screen but was facing that direction and saw a a very brief image of a child on the screen. I glanced at Mary Grace Crenshaw (who was with our group and sitting next to me) and said "I think that was Alyson!". She gave me the same bewildered look and said "I think so too!". The lady behind us said the same thing. I found the camera that had found Alyson and it was still pointed our direction with the light on (they had put a video on the big screen). I encouraged her to keep cheering with her pom poms and maybe they would get her again. Sure enough, as soon as the video was over they put her back on the screen - this time for a little longer. Not to be left out, Natalie outfitted her with a couple of finger bunny ears. Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough to get any of it recorded.

Natalie and Alyson practice to join the band

Marching to the stadium with the band

Sunday afternoon we participated in the Reformation Ride and Rally with the local church we have been visiting. The ride portion of the event is an 11 mile bike ride down Hwy 45 to Clarkco State Park. Again, the weather was beautiful - much warmer this time. Frankie, Natalie and I rode our bikes and Alyson hitched a ride with another church member who traveling in her truck taking pictures of the group and handing out water. Natalie took a small spill early in the ride and scraped her hands a little but was a real trooper and finished out the ride - all 11 miles of it. Alyson was a big help too - handing out water to some very thirsty bikers. We arrived at the park to the smell of grilling burgers, hotdogs and sausage. We had plenty of time to relax, visit and let the kids play before time to eat and time for a devotional. All in all - a great day. I don't have any pictures but Deirdre (Aly's chauffer) is going to burn me a disc and I will share the pictures with you when I receive them from her .