A little bit of baking involved

Well, one of my New Years resolutions was to blog more frequent, and so far I have not followed through. :( But it is still a goal!

I will start off first with a puppy update. I think that we are past the honeymoon stage... We started off with Meko pretty much potty training himself. I think in total, we have only had maybe 10 accidents in the house. Otherwise, he is going to the door to tell us when he needs to go. He still has not learned to bark...YEAH!!! And as a puppy, he really is great! But, this weekend, I caught him pulling up the carpet. I almost threw him across the room...I didn't...I was able to take a breath...but oh my goodness, he is lucky. So tonight I am off to buy something with an apple bitter taste to spray on the area. Hopefully this will help!

We have been working the last couple of weeks on a 'Creative Cooks' for our 4H group. Bayle is still too young to compete but they are letting his age group still participate. And this will be Taylor's first year competing, and we are still way behind on being 'ready'. Taylor has chosen to make chili as her dish and to dress her table as if she were eating in a log cabin. She is having quite a bit of fun decorating and making things not to matchy matchy. And Bayle has chosen to make brownies in the shape of Dragons to which I do not know how I am going to pull it off. But the competition is this Saturday, so we still have this week to prepare and do a couple of test runs. And the hubby is happy about that because it means extra brownies hanging around for him to taste test! So wish them luck!!

MomDot Christmas of Dreams Day 5

MomDot Christmas of Dreams Blog Party is hosting a party for the next few weeks. Its so easy to get caught up in our own blogs, that sometimes we need to find a way to interact amongst each other.

Sponsors: Day Five Blog Party Question is Brought to you by Baby Pop and Chic Covers

Today, make a blog post about what you do to give back during the holidays. Do you volunteer your time? If so, please tell us where. What do you do to teach your children the true meaning of the holidays?

I do try to teach my children the true meaning of Christmas. Growing up, my mother had a manger scene that we would put on the mantel right after Thanksgiving. As we put each piece up, she would explain their 'purpose' in the birth. A few years ago, she sent the manger to me and I have put it up every year since. Taylor and Bayle love to help place the figures as we discuss the story.

One thing that we are doing this year, is taking three of the kiddos out to buy a present for the forth. This way they can feel that they are participating by giving to others. My brother and sister and I did it while growing up, and I remember taking every second to find that 'just perfect' gift and then seeing them open the gift on Christmas morning!

A couple of weeks ago Bayle brought home a book order form and very quickly explained that this was not for him, but that he could get a book for someone else. So he definitely is getting the 'giving' spirit!

We can no longer spell it out

Actual Conversation

Me: Taylor's waiting out in the car. We are going to run home so that she can change and then go to the movie. What are you boys thinking about doing?

Hubby: I thought we would go to a movie too, but (spelled out) B-O-L-T is not out yet.

Me: Oh...

My smart thinking 1st grader: Bolt?

Hubby: (looks down at him stunned)

Me: So no more coded conversations in front of the kids anymore...

The good...the bad...and the ugly

The Good~

The weekend was awesome!!! To start, I got my own room! Usually, they have us staying in a dorm like building and there are 2-3 gals in each room with 17 rooms total. We all share a bathroom and showers. Not really that bad, but there is no privacy. This time, when I went to check in, the lady stated that the dorms were full and they did not want to open a new one, so they were putting me in a 'motel style' with my own double bed, bathroom, and locked door. It was definitely a nice change, but I do believe that I will be in the dorms next time! I have too many stupid horror movies about 'camp grounds' to stay alone. lol
Anyway, I finished 21 pages and even won some awards!! Here are a few pages. (I won't show them all, but I will add them to the link on the left side)

This first page won for a monochromatic page (shades of the same color).It then went up for a vote for page of the weekend and it came in second!!! The journaling is what won it, although my kitty is pretty cute too!

The Bad~

During my weekend away, the Hubby also had work obligations that he had to take care of. So most of last week, was spent calling family to see if anyone could help with taking the kids to games, and keeping them for some of the weekend. My brother offered to take Bayle to his football game. But I guess Bayle still thought that Daddy was going to show up, and somehow I would be there and when he realized that we were not, he was very depressed and was not really into the game. The coach pulled him aside, even my brother tried to pump him up for the game to no avail. He is a lot like my husband in this regard, but that is for a different post.

The UGLY~

Okay, here it goes...I hate, dislike, distain, loath my picture being taken. (Kind of ironic when I love pictures soo much). Anyway, I went back and forth on whether to post this next picture or not. I wanted to go in and fix the colors and the skin tone. Take the bags out from under my eyes. But I decided that...this is me...on 4 hours of sleep I might add...but this is me. Small eyes, all the wrinkles... And it definitely fits under the 'ugly' portion! :) So here it is...this is me on Sunday afternoon before heading home. Oh...and it's my new hair too. Yuck!!! I am much better in person!