A Time to Reflect - 2009

Another blog that I follow started off her blog with a review, Annual Review.  I thought that would be a great idea so that I would have a record of what this year was all about.  Even though I have only been blogging for a few weeks now this will be a way to recap the year.
What I did good last year?  Top 5
1.  I completed my, well our, first year of homeschooling.  We all survived and we still love each other.  This was by far the biggest walk of faith I have ever done.  Jeff and I truly had a calling from God in orderto tackle this big challenge.  But what a blessing to truly turn homeschooling all over to God and just be obedient.  This is huge for me because I like to plan and know what is coming.  With homeschooling you do not.  The fruits of this labor will one day reveal itself to us.  Thank you God for your calling. 

2.  I tried to begin to eat better.  No french fries.  1 soft drink a day.  Water. Water. Water.  Along with eating better comes exercise.  This comes and goes for me.  I did really good for several months.

3.  Tried to listen more.  I am really good at jumping in to talk.  I even try to figure out what to say before the other person even finishes.  Listen and be patient.

4.  Keep my house clean.  This sometimes falls by the way side.  Putting things back in their place.  Each day I took different parts of cleaning and tried to do that one task.

5.  Understanding my husband better.  We are so on the same page right now.  This comes from taking our own time with the Lord.  Devotion and Prayer.  Each of us tried to focus on this more and in turn it has put us walking side by side in the thing called Life.  What fun we have. 

What I need to improve on?  Top 5
1.  Give my kids the benefit of the doubt.  I automatically accuse them when sometimes I need to just say okay and go on.  I am really good at giving speeches:) about how it should have been done.

2.  Rushing and schedule.  Slow Down.  Slow Down

3.  Saying no.  Not thinking that I have to do it all or even be involved in it all.  I feel like if my child is involved I need to be doing something.  It is okay to be the spectator.

4.  Daily devotions with God and Prayer.  Call on Him in good and bad.  Trust and Obey the Lord.

5.  Continue to enjoy my husband.  Take the time to be sure I have meet his needs and wants and dreams.  Sometimes I get so busy with the kids I forget about him.  I think he is big enough to take care of himself and he can do it where the kids need me more.  So not true.

Goals  Top 5
1.  Continue to read and grow in God's word

2.  Learn more about adolescents since I have a "tween" who is fast approaching "those years"

3.  Run a 5K maybe a 10K( who knows)

4.  Go to Disney World for a family vacation

5.  Do a better job with finances

Garrett 11 years old

Seth - 8 years old

Ella - 3 years old

Jeff and I

Ready for 2010!!  Happy New Year

The Room

Well like I said yesterday, Garrett asked for paint for Christmas.  He loves the Pittsburg Penguins (NHL Hockey team).  He wanted the Penguins colors.  We bought a black comforter several months ago.  So that meant the paint had to be the gold yellow color.  The paint is actually Pittsburg Penguin Yellow.  It is way more green than yellow, I think.  So off we went.  It is amazing how many people wanted to help paint.  Even the little one.  Why is that not the case when I need the trash taken out or the mail to be checked or laundry to be folded? 

Here is the mess.  Garrett is the photographer so the picture is a little blurry.

Garrett has one half of the bonus room and the other half is play area.  Well TV, Wii, Playstation ( Game central).  Some of Ella's toys are in one area.  The Thomas Train table is out.  So the room is 1/2 and 1/2

Here is the finished product.  We don't have the pictures back on the wall yet.  The walls were still pretty sticky as we were moving furniture back.

He has a hammack chair hanging from the ceiling that Seth gave him for his birthday.  As you can see in the corner of the picture the Game Center.

His bed came from Noni and Papa.  They bought this bed and furniture when they first got married.  It is such a treasure.  He loves the big bed and the room that he has.  Once pictures are back on the wall, I will do a final picture. 

It is amazing what we found as we moved furniture and the bed.  WOW!  We never knew we had so many lego pieces, hockey pucks, balls, hats, socks, and anything else you can name.  We found it under Garrett's bed.  The challenge is in place to keep the room nice and neat.  Will it happen?

Legos

If you have boys, I think Legos come with the territory.  Our boys could play legos for hours.  It is amazing how patient they are when it comes to building different things.  Both boys got Legos sets for Christmas.  Seth got the Star Wars X-Wing Fighter.  This set was impossible to find during Christmas.  Noni ended up finding it and gave it to Seth for Christmas.  He worked for 3 or 4 hours building his ship. 

By the way, the process of building a lego ship takes up the whole table. 

Seth and the Star Wars X-wing fighter

Seth also got a Lego City police car to build.  He got it for Christmas but early.  The extended family gathering was December 20th.  He build it the next day.  It is a cool set too.

Meme gave Garrett his lego set for Christmas.  Garrett asked for a "BIG" lego set.  His set had over 1,000 pieces.  It has taken him several days working to put his together.  He worked really hard one day then got a little frustrated.  He took several days off.  He finished it tonight.  He asked for the Star Wars Republic Cruiser.  WOW!  What a ship.  Here is the finished product courtesy of photographer Seth.

It has all kinds of secret places that pop open or carry people. 

They both have worked hard.  I hope they leave them together for a while to enjoy all their hard work.  Usually the ships stay together for a few days then become part of the 3 lego containers we have. 

Another thing Garrett asked for and got for Christmas was paint for his room. I will show before and after in tomorrow's blog.  You probably can tell in the picture the mess that is in the background.  It is amazing how much of a mess you must create just to paint. 

Ahhhh!

The clean up to Christmas.  Why does it seem to take longer to clean up than to put everything out.  It has taken me all day.  I still have the tree out.  Jeff has to help me when he gets home.  The tree will fit in our attic still together.  We leave the lights on it as well.  It is not a pre-lit tree.  It will be the last of Christmas decorations.  It seems like I have a ton of space in my house.  Alot less cluttered. 

We went outside to play this afternoon.  I do not like being outside in the cold.  But Ella needed a buddy to go outside with her.  Here she is with her new hat my aunt Peggy gave her for Christmas.  It has a kitty cat on it.  She is hiding of course because she didn't want me to take her picture.

Well things changed pretty soon.

Her hat is soooo cute.  She has a scarf to match.  We haven't done that yet.  She loves to jump on the trampoline.

She also played in her sand table.  This was last year's Christmas gift from Noni and Papa.  

The boys ended up in the cul-de-sac to play street hockey.  Seth got goalie pads for Christmas so playing street hockey is a daily event.  They have a system figured out now.  Garrett pushed the goal up the road.  Seth rode his four wheeler up the street with both sets of goalie pads.

Here is the four wheeler parked

Our friends are amazed.  We have street hockey.  We have ice hockey, of course.  We also have little nets and pads for knee hockey inside.  How did hockey even come to this house?  We live in the South.  Jeff even said the other day.  It is funny how I don't even have a baseball player. 

Ella and I took the boys hot chocolate.

Then Ella took off on the four wheeler.  It is the first time she has driven it all by herself.  She is finally tall enough to reach the pedal.  She did pretty good.  Thank goodness for speed 1 and 2.  She took off in 2 but we caught up with her and changed it to 1.  We can at least wall beside her in speed 1 just in case.

We were all laughing.  Sorry for the shadows of Garrett and me.  Just had to take the picture as she was speeding off.  We were laughing so hard.  She was grinning ear to ear.

Visit From A Friend

It is always the best time of year when I get to see a lifelong friend.  My friend, Leigh, was in town for Christmas.  Last night her husband, Tony, and daughter, Savana, came by for a visit.  I love hanging out with her.  It is amazing how lifelong friends can just pick up where you left off last time.   Ella took a liking to Leigh and Tony as soon as they walked in the door.  She has meet them before but I think this time will be the first time she will remember them. 

The boys love hanging out with Savana.  It became a Nintendo DSi battle.  Which game to play?  DS download was working so everyone could play the same game.

This is Ella and Savana

What a fun visit.  Just wished we lived closer and got to see each other more than once or twice a year.  I think a Nashville trip will be in order soon.  That way we can spent several days together.

This was the boys of the house before they went to church this morning.                                                           

 Garrett and daddy 

Seth and daddy

The boys of the house.  The Weddine name will live on.  What handsome fellas I have surrounding me.  Each one is such a different flavor.

Seth is 8 Garrett is 11 and Daddy is ???

Merry (The day after) Christmas

AHHH!!  The stress and worry and buying and running is over.  Our house slept late today.  How nice it was.  There is no way I can even write about everything that has happened in the pass two days but I will try to highlight all the fun.  This is a new family time that we started this year.  It is called, "What God wants for Christmas?"  It was alot of fun to share and focus on each of the members in the nativity scene.

Mom and dad always come over on Christmas Eve.  They came around 2:30 and the gift fest began. 

 

Ella got a "new" room from meme and papa. 

It is such a big girl room.  She has storage, storage and more storage.  She loves it.  Now she has room for all the toys she got for Christmas

Seth also got a "new" room.  Garrett  ended up with new clothes, game and a huge lego set. 

A tradition on Christmas Eve is to open one present, which is new pajamas.  Garrett is sporting his new pair.

Below, is everyone in their new PJ's.  Ella is grumping again because she had to get her picture made.  This is right before everyone says goodnight and off to bed we go.

Christmas 2009

Christmas morning started at 4:45am for me.  Ella was up several times so by 4:45 I decided to just get up.  I love to see the kids faces when they first get out of bed.  Seth was the first one up at 6:30am.  Not to bad.  He woke Garrett up but Ella was not in the mood to wake up then.  She didn't want to come in the room because we said, "Come see what Santa brought you."  She thought Santa was still in the room.  "She didn't want to see Santa", she said.

Stocking time

We finally convinced Ella that it would be okay to come and see.

Noni and Papa always come Christmas Day morning to see what everyone got from Santa. 

So once they arrive, I cooked breakfast for them.  The eating feast for the day begins.

We eat breakfast with them.  We go to my mom's side of the family for lunch and eat again.  Then it is off to Noni and papa's house to eat supper and open presents.

Is she really smiling for a picture?  She was waiting while all the presents were passed out.  She held onto this one present in her lap.

This is the present opening fest that starts at noni and papa's house.  All the 5 grandkids start on "go" and craziness happens for about 15 minutes.  There are a lot of "I love this",  "Thanks", " Just what I wanted".  It is fun to see it all happen.  All the kids open, then all the grownups open once the little ones are gone to play with the toys.

 Christmas is such a joy to watch through the eyes of my children.  The excitment is priceless. 

ALVIN

Well we saw the new Alvin and the Chipmunk's movie.  It was very cute.  Garrett is getting big enough to understand some of the adult humor that comes in the kid movies.  A busy day for the movies.  Schools out, parents are off of work, and kids need something to do.  We went with Lori, Donnie Ray and Cooper.  There is nothing like movie popcorn.  Everyone wanted to hold the popcorn bucket.  All Ella wanted was Junior Mints. 

We had to take Gabby to get her nails clipped this morning.  She is such a sweet puppy.  We just love her.  She is 18 months old.  She weighs 52 pounds at her last well check.  We've had her 1 1/2 years. 

She looks like the meanest dog ever but she only wants someone to rub her.  She will lay all over you.  She thinks she is little. 

Tonight is caroling at church.  We always receive a blessing by doing this.  It is a church tradition to carol on the Wednesday night before Christmas.  The elementary children go to the nearby nursing home to pass out fruit baskets and sing a few carols to the residents.  It brings tears to my eyes to see the children singing.  What a blessing it is to serve. 

Not much

Today was a not much to do day.  I had a haircut this morning.  No change.  Just a trim.  Jeff always knows to expect anything.  He keeps a count on the number of hair styles I have had.  I bet you can't count them on one hand or even two hands.  Got to keep everyone guessing.  I took everyone with me.  Usually I ask mom to help me with Ella but I thought I would try it today and see how they would do.  Thank goodness for Nintendo DSi.  Everyone did fine.  We had a few errands to run.  We came home.  I had to clean the house so everyone had lunch and then watched or played.  This is what I found as I was cleaning.

Can you see Gabby peeping around the corner?  She had just realized someone was in her bed.  Ella is reading the Nutcracker program.  Meme and Ella went to see the Nutcracker on Saturday.  Ella has talked and talked about it.  Mrs. Bonita, Ella's ballet teacher, is the director of this performance.  Ella was thrilled. 

Gabby had bumped the cage open with her nose.  Ella was hiding because she saw I had the camera.  As I always tell everyone,  Never a dull moment at my house but what a joy it is to see your child doing things other people do not get to see.  I love it.

Tomorrow is the new chipmunk movie, The Squeakquel.  Can't wait to see it.

We are going with Cooper and Lori.  Ella is excited because it has girls.  We love the chipmunks.  I told the boys that the chipmunks were around when I was a little girl.  Can you believe that?

Birthday Celebration continues

Well turning 8 has been a big deal.  I try to only have 1 party but somehow things never turn out that way.  My children end up with a 3 day birthday party.  Today he had two friends from church over to play.  Well Ella was supposed to have someone over a few days ago but she got sick.  So I decided to have her over as well.  What does Garrett do?  Everyone has a friend but him.  Well he invited the sister of one of Seth's friends.  Well what about the other siblings?  I invited them too.  I have 9 children at my house BY MYSELF.  Everyone has called and checked on me.  I know I can be a little crazy at times.  This may be one of those time.  The play day was from 10:00 - 4:30.   They have played hockey, guitar hero, legos, played hide n go seek, roller blades, bicycles, trampoline, ipod really loud, watched the movie UP, and ate nonstop.  I cooked the 1st lunch.  The big kids were still hungry so I cooked some more.  I cleaned up the mess.  Now it is time for  popcorn and movie.  Everyone is below.

1- 2 year old

1- 3 year old

1- 4 year old

 1 - 7 year old

2 - 8 year olds

2 - 11 year olds

1 - 12 year old

TOTAL:  9kids 

Happy Birthday Seth - you mommy is warn out.  Now I have to finish Christmas shopping tonight.  I think I will go by myself. 

Happy Birthday Seth - 8

Well today is December 20, 2009.  It is always fun to think back to the day you were born.  What a great day.  As I look at the boy you are today, it makes my heart so full.  The following are things just about Seth.
*  Huge heart
*  Loves to give hugs to his mom
*  Early riser - 6:30AM
*  Such a giver
*  Very compasssionate
*  Gives 100% at most things
*  Loves playing ice hockey
*  Is a wolf cub
*  Loves viennas (Yuck)
*  Loves Peanut butter and jelly
*  Loves Bojangle's jelly biscuits
*  Is a gamer ( Nintendo DSi)
*  Great at school work
*  Loves to play legos
*  Such a great friend
*  Such a great brother to Garrett and Ella
*  Loves to play (anything)
* Very competitive
*  Has a little temper
*  Is his mom's sidekick
*  Is such a helper
*  Is a pack rat ( always has his pockets full)
*  Very dependable

 

What an amazing boy you are.  We love watching you learn and try new things.  We love having you at home with us.  We love watching you play hockey.  We enjoy hanging out with you. 

We love that God gave us you.  We Love You.

Happy 8th Birthday.

Mom and Dad