Year in Review.

2009 had flown by.  I don't know where all the time when but it was a good year, but crazy year.

We started renovations on our house in Benton.  It is almost done!! Steve has some work to do downstairs in the den.  He has to paint the closet and the closet floor, and the floor where the washer and dryer go.

Micah went from diapers to being potty trained!  Yea!!!  We still have accidents, but over all he is doing a great job!

Steve and I celebrated our seven year anniversary.  It has been an amazing journey with him  and I wouldn't want to make it with any body else.

We have all turned another year older.  I really wish the boys would slow down!  They are growing entirely too fast.

We went and had a fabulous camp with the kid in our church!

We made our yearly camping trip with our friends that live in Oklahoma.  The boys love it so much!

We got the privilege of renewing a couples vows! I will never forget that experience. It was awesome!  I will always be grateful for being apart of the ceremony!

I know that 2010 is going to have a bunch of things in store for us!  I am excited to see what it is.

I want to strive for a better relationship with my Savior!

To become a better wife and mother.  I know that my husband and kids would enjoy that.
To cherish more moments with each of them.

Just enjoy life more!

Plus I want to loose weight which is what I say this year.  I think this year Steve and I are both very committed to it!

I pray that everyone has a blessed 2010!

Candy making solo.

This year was my first time to make candy all by myself.  Growing up we alway made candy but momma and my sister always did most of the work.  I just made cookies.  I love making cookies.  I always gave it to my friends for a Christmas gift. I decided it was time to do it myself,  Plus I decided that I probably wouldn't get any if I didn't make it myself. 

So I the first thin I made was muddy buddies.  Which in all honest was the best thing because it was easiest.

Then I made Turtles (some people call the texas millionaires).  Now here is where it got interesting.  They stuck to the wax paper.  It took me forever to peel the paper of the back with hot water. 

I didn't get a picture of the finial result.  I was not happy with these little things. 

While I was waiting for the caramels to chill.  I made the peanut butter balls.  I also made some white chocolate dipped pretzels. Sorry I didn't take a picture. 

I think that since this was my first time that this was a success.  I think I will start earlier and hopefully do more next year. SSSSSHHHH!  Don't tell Steve.  Ha! 

What was your Favorite candy to eat or make around Christmas time?

 

Micah's 3rd Birthday!

This adorable young man had a 3rd birthday among all the craziness of December.  What was I thinking having a December baby!?!  It is so hard to have a birthday party for him among all the festivities of December.  All you December babies out their understand what I am talking about.

We decided to meet up with some friends of ours in Texarkana the day before Micah's birthday!  I completely forgot to get pictures.  I felt really bad.  We took him to Chuck E. Cheese.  Where a kid can be a kid.  They all just loved playing there.  You can go to their website and register to get coupons.  It is well worth it!

Then the actual day of his birthday we just had a small get together here at my house and celebrated his birthday.  He was so excited about it.  He leaned over at one point during the evening and said "When are they going to sing happy birthday to me?"

I made his cake this year!  I got the idea from this blog !


It looks like a rainbow.  Everyone loved it!  It is a the pretties cake to cute into.  I even showed it to some teenagers and they LOVED it!



It was a lot of fun to make and not that hard.  My top layer is bigger than the rest because Steve was making me paranoid about not having enough cake for everyone.  We ended up having half a cake left.

Seeing this smile makes it worth it all!


Time is going by so fast!

Fumbly Bumbly Angles.

This year was the little kids turn to do the Christmas program and the teenagers helped.  It was absolutely the cutes program.  It really had out people rolling in the floor laughing.  The kids did a great job.  If you are looking for something to do next year.  I would definitely recommend this one.

Levi was Joseph!

I am a little bias, but he looks so handsome and big sitting up there.


Here are the fumbly bumbly angles.

They played there parts really well.



Micah was the baby angel. Ms Nette had to make him get up there.  This is the look she got after she did it.



This is classic Micah look.  I am glad i capture it! ha!  Even if it was the prettiest look.  Everyone worked really hard!  It turned out great!

Gingerbread house that I just thought I was going to make

This year I wanted to make a gingerbread house with the boys because they are both finally at an age where they can both be involved.

Come to find out I would be the one to decorate it with the boys.  Steve would be the one to decorate it.  They couldn't wait on the mom.

I do have to say though that my husband did a great job with the icing and the boys with the candy.



The all neat and orderly side is Levi's and then the not so neat and orderly side is Micah's.

Cowboy Christmas

Okay so I am really behind on my blog post.  I kept thinking everyday I would do it tomorrow.....well, and you see where it has gotten me...

So every year the community does what they call "Cowboy Christmas.  Basically they do a parade (which we missed this year, because we forgot about it.)  They have booths set up with different venders.  They had a buggy ride (which we didn't get to do either), hot chocolate, bounce house, train ride, face painting, barbeque, cake walk, and singing from people from the area.  It is so fun, but very cold.

Here we are waiting for the train ride to start.  It was one of Levi's favorite parts.  He still just as fascinated with trains.


It is really neat train.  It is pulled by a tractor that they have made look like a train.


We were so thankful that they had a fire for us to sit by and get warm!


Levi and Micah didn't know what to do with the heat hitting their face, so they were pulling their hoods over their face.  This picture is bad but it describes it all.



They just had so much fun!



This train is a cute idea also.  It is pulled by a four wheeler.




Isn't the town Square or Circle whatever you want to call it pretty with all the Christmas Lights.

Thanksgiving.

I don't know about you, but I hate making decisions about where we are spending the Holidays.  This is how it usually goes down we spend part of the time with one family and then the other part with the other family.  It gets really crazy!  Then we have to remember where we spent each part for the pervious year.  It is just too much for me.  I just want it to be fun and even for everyone.

This year it worked out quite nicely we spend Thanksgiving day with Steve's family.  Then we spend Thanksgiving evening with mine.

While we were at Steve's mom's house I decided to try to take some pictures of the boys.  Between her and Steve's brother they have 13 acres.


Here is my precious Micah

I think that this one is one of my favorite of the boys together that I took that day


It is so difficult to get a good picture of them together.


I am not sure what Levi is doing in this picture.

I can tell you this, I am so utterly in love with my little boys!


I am very blessed and very thankful for my little boy!
I am thankful for my husband too!
I am thankful for my Lord!
I have an abundance of things to be thankful for!

Trunk or Treat

This year at church we did Trunk or Treat.  Basically people open up their trunks and people candy and treats of any kind to hand out to kids.  This was our first year, but it was a lot of fun.

My kids were Mario and Luigi.

Levi ended being Luigi.

Micah was my little Mario

We also had Super Girl and Bumble Bee.

I some pictures of the other kids, but my camera messed up.

We had a great time and the kids had a great time.

Picking out pumpkins, train ride and photo time

Next we went to let the boys pick out their pumpkins.  The little pumpkins came with the cost of entrance fee.  I can't tell you many pumpkins they picked up.  I don't think I ended up with a photo with their finale pumpkin.

They were really excited about picking out their pumpkins.


We stopped along they to try for a photo op.  It didn't turn out too well.

I don't really understand what is up with Levi's face.
Then they went on a train ride.  It was John Deer train ride, which made it even better!

Next I tried for some more photo op.

This one is my FAVORITE of Micah!

Here is one of Levi

Here is another one of them together.

I sure do love my little boys!

Hay play and carousel

Next we went and did the hay play which looked like oodles and oodles of fun.  It was basically a big square lined with bales of hay.  Hay also cover the ground and hidden in the hay were small tiny little pumpkins.

They had slide up for the kids to slide down in to a hay pile.  They zoomed down the slide.  I think they could have played there for hours.







Next we went and did the carousel.  It was really cool.  There was four sits facing each other in circle. there were ropes on that tied it to the pole.  then they spun it around the pole and the rope wrapped around the pole.  Then they let go and they went around around around.  until the rope started wrapping again.  They continued this several several times.

Micah loved it


I don't think Levi was too sure about it.

Pumpkin Patch

On the day that it wasn't raining last week, we took the boys to a pumpkin patch.  We went all the way to Malvern, because we didn't know were another one was.  We didn't get to go last year, so this was a new thing for the boys.  It ended up being a really great trip for the boys.

The pumpkin patch had a little petting zoo that the boys got to go in.  They loved that.  They don't get to see and touch animals very often.  There was a a Lama,

a miniature pony, ducks,

(the ducks name was AFLACK... thought it was funny) baby ducks,


chickens, sheep,

 goats (the goat was funny it wanted to petted every time we would pet something else), chickens, and rabbits.  Micah actually tried to pick up a baby chick but pecked him so he quickly changed his mind.

They asked Levi and Micah if they wanted to sit on the pony and they wouldn't.  They weren't too sure about it.  They are a little sheltered when it comes to animals and sitting on them.  We live in the country, but are still city in some things.
I will post more on our day later.  It is getting late and I am getting sleepy.