It's About TIme...

For Levi to loose his first tooth considering he is almost 8!!

But unfortunately I think there will be a gap for quite some time as this tooth was knocked out! On Christmas Eve Gage and Levi had a collision and once we cleaned all the blood we found one of Levi's teeth to be very loose and a second was wiggly! I told him not to wiggle them because his adult tooth was not ready to come in yet and he would be toothless for a while. Well, that didn't stop him and within a few hours he had the loose one out. There is no sign of his adult tooth yet but thankfully his other front tooth has gotten tight again.

What is it with BOYS and BRUISES????

As a mom of three very active boys I usually see lots of little bruises on my boys. But this week all three of them have very deep and large bruises somewhere on their little bodies!

We will start with Little Levi...
We had gone out to eat just before Christmas and he had his leg wrapped around his bar stool when he fell off the stool. Of course, his leg was still wrapped around the bar stool when he landed. It immediately bruised! He wouldn't' bare any weight and I thought he had broke his leg! Thankfully it was just a severe bruise that starts at his knee and runs almost to his ankle. This pic was taken a week after his fall and it looks SO much better!

Hayden got a new scooter and of course with any new toy there comes a few falls. He landed on his scooter and got this 4 inch bruise.

Gagie got a Hi Tide for Christmas and was thrilled to try such an extreme toy. I expected a few falls the first day but there weren't any. This fall was on the third day and it also immediately bruised!

My poor kids look like they are being abused! All three bruises are very deep tissue bruises and they are very sore! I will be thankfull when we go back to little bruises.

Christmas in the Great Britian

In the 1640's The Puritans banned any and all Christmas celebrations throughout all of Great Britain. But in 1837 when Queen Victoria assumed the throne she restored the Love of Christmas to all of Great Britain. The Victorian era has had the strongest impact on Modern Day Christmas

In 1843 Sir Henry Cole wanted to send Christmas Greetings to his loved ones. He commissioned J C Horsley to create a card showing a family sitting around the Christmas table enjoying Christmas Punch. The Christmas card was sent to 1,000 of Cole's friends and family. The custom of Christmas Cards immediately caught on.

In 1848 Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert had a Christmas tree placed inn Windsor Castle. The boughs were all candlelit. The London News ran an article with a photo of the Royal Family gather around the tree. After the publication it became much in vogue throughout great Britain to have a Christmas tree in one's home.

One of the most famous Christmas stories was written in Great Britain in 1843 by Charles Dickens. A Christmas Story was an instant sensation. It was from his desire to awaken society to the right to happiness to all human beings, despite thier circumstances, that the story sprang from.

Boxing Day is December 26, and all of England is closed this day. After spending 7 "Boxing Days" in the UK I still didn't understand the holiday until reading this book. The most popular belief is the 26Th of December was the day the church's alms boxes were opened to distribute money to the needy.

Many other Christmas Traditions also originated in Great Britain such as Wassailing, Mince Pies, Plum pudding, Mistletoe, Yule Log and Caroling.

Christmas Around the World...

by Chuck Fischer

Master pop-up artist Chuck Fischers most glorious creation yet, featuring Christmas in France, Germany, Russia, Latin America, Scandinavia, Great Britain, Italy, and the U.S. Includes removable booklets and a functional advent calendar.

Last year my dear friend loaned me this amazing book to look through. So, this year as I was thinking about what to do for our last week of school before Christmas break, I remembered this book.

We went into Books A Million searching! I looked for about 20 minutes and was about to gather the children so we could leave. As I was walking to the Kids section I started praying, asking that if there was even just one copy I would be able to find it! I ended up looking right at the book, totally out of place! I was thrilled. It was the only one I could find.

This week we are reading a country a day.

Laundry TIP

After spending 7 years in England using an itty bitty washing machine that took 2.5 hours to wash a load of clothes I can really appreciate my HUGE American washer!! In England I had to wash 3 loads of laundry a day AND my Dryer was in my Detached garage! I hated Laundry!

But since moving into my house I love doing laundry in my Big Fast American Washer!! I now do laundry once a week and it is only 5 loads. I LOVE IT!! Some people say that my laundry excitement will wear off but I don't think so!

However, a few weeks ago as I was sorting socks I thought to myself, this is the one part of laundry I dread!! Socks make me crazy! I have had the kids sort socks before and it is always an adventure to pull a fresh pair of socks out the drawer because you never know what you will get! So, I do the socks!

But my thoughts took me back to a conversation I had with a dear friend before leaving England! She told me that each other her kids have a lingerie bag and they put their dirty socks in the bag through out the week. On Laundry day she just throws the whole bag in the washer and dryer and then hands it to the kids!! I thought this idea was so brilliant that I went out and bought lingerie bags immediately! But during the move I had forgotten all about the bags.

So, a couple weeks ago I searched the house to find the bags!! It has been great!! The kids are now responsible for their own socks! I LOVE IT!!!

Thank you so much for the great idea Mrs. D!!

The Person you Need is...

So, today after school Levi was watching "Nanny McPhee". I happen to love this movie.

Levi whispered in my ear "The person you need is Nanny McPhee". We laughed and giggled and I asked "Levi do you know who we need?" His immediate reply was "The person you need is Nanny McJesus" I busted out laughing at him!!

There is never a dull moment with my little comedian.

Awesome Views

As I have said before I truly believe that our house was built just for us! It is so prefect for us! But what is even better is yard we have! We have woods all around our house and we even have a small creek! Up until a few weeks ago we couldn't get to the creek because the bush was so overgrown. Now the boys spend their days at the creek!

So we have a great house, a great yard AND great views!! Here are a few shots from around our house.

We have the most amazing sunsets that we can see right outside our front windows. I love the star that is peaking through these two trees.

Fall was SO beautiful here! The colors were so rich!
























Our yard is also filled with Holly! It is so pretty! I wish I could bring some inside the house!

Homeschool Fun

We are studying Cultures and Climates this year and we are having a blast! Every few weeks we "Enter" into a new country to study it. We crossed the Atlantic a few weeks ago and we are studying Europe. This is especially fun since we have been to some of the countries we are studying! One of my favorite school activities is when we have "Friday Family Fun Night" and we cook recipes from the countries we are visiting.

We are studying Germany right now so Friday night we had Bratwurst with sour kraut and German Potato salad. Gage totally enjoyed the sour kraut but Hayden and Levi didn't like it! After dinner we decided to add a little French to our night since we had not yet made Crepes from a few weeks ago. Altogether it was a great European meal.

Glasses, the first of many pairs.

A friend of mine just found out her 5 year old daughter needs glasses. This made me think of when Levi had to get glasses. He was just 4 when we found out he was legally blind. It was so painful to hear such a grim diagnoses for your child. But I thank God for Medical Technology!! Levi can see great with his glasses which he has on ALL time! He only takes them off to sleep and to wrestle with the brothers. He even tries to get in the shower with them on.

When he first got them he looked so different with them! Now, they are so much a part of him that he looks different if he has them off!

I look forward to the day that he will be able to get contacts! He has the most amazing eyes and it saddens me that they are hidden behind glasses.


Here is a picture of the day we went Glasses shopping! This was the first of pair we tried on and it was the pair we bought. Little did I know this would be the first of MANY frames we would buy! The boy has gone through more then a dozen frames in just over 3 years.

One year at Thanksgiving , my mom went to my sister's house for the traditional feast. Knowing how gullible my sister is, my mom decided to play a trick. She told my sister that she needed something from the store. When my sister left, my mom took the turkey out of the oven, removed the stuffing, stuffed a Cornish hen, and inserted it into the turkey, and re-stuffed the turkey. She then placed the bird(s) back in the oven. When it was time for dinner, my sister pulled the turkey out of the oven and proceeded to remove the stuffing. When her serving spoon hit something, she reached in and pulled out the little bird. With a look of total shock on her face, my mother exclaimed,'Patricia, you've cooked a pregnant bird!' At the reality of this horrifying news, my sister started to cry. It took the family two hours to convince her that turkeys lay eggs! Yep..................SHE'S BLONDE!

Though this didn't happen in my family, I could SO see it happening!!

I hope you got a good chuckle out of this one!