Wordless Wednesday

Monday Musings

I baked a cake for a friends baby shower.

I love baking but it is not really the time of the year to get too carried away. It was 112 degrees outside when I seriously thought about skipping out and heading down to pick up a Costco cake. I am glad I stuck with it though. It turned out pretty cute, I think :-)

Grandpa and Grandma Cookie arrived and promptly got to playing and teaching the young ones. So grateful that they had a safe trip and are here to visit. :-)

Too cute! We were at our Pool Day with our Homeschool group and Mini Chip was getting tired. He built his own bed and tried to take a nap :-)

VBS Wrap-up Night's singing made the boy's eyes open and make him appear awake, but that doesn't mean he had to act the part. But Daddy sure makes a great recliner to safely check out the noisy business from. 

Mini Chip is plain pooped from all the learning, playing, and sweltering temperatures.

The big kids (including Mr. Cookie) swimming with Grandpa Cookie. After swimming around for a bit, Grandpa informed us that he had never been in a pool before. WOW!! The girls sure had fun showing him how fun it was to get a little excercise in! :-)

Grandma Cookie receiving singing lessons from the littlest one.

Sometimes random pictures turn up on my camera... LOVE IT!!

Oreo hanging out with her best buddies at Pool Day>

Beef... It's what's for dinner

So, we bought a beef, cow, freezer meat... whatever you call it.

It always amazes me how much there is and how little there is. Decisions and me... :-) I tend to be able to see two or more sides to things. Sometimes this makes me look wishy-washy I think. Sometimes it makes me look compassionate. Sometimes it just doesn't matter.

Either way, what you see here is actually half of our beef.

We took Grandpa Cookie to see Mr. Cookie's jobsite. The kids can never stop themselves from playing dressup even there :-) Lol.

Advent Time

As a child, I celebrated Advent with my mom and siblings. I can tell you that I have the memory of the candles in the wreath and a peaceful feeling and that the candles were pink and purple.

This year I have made our own Advent wreath. The candles are not colored the same as when I was a child but we are celebrating Advent just the same. We light a candle every Sunday of Advent and read specific verses from the Bible about the Old Testament prophecy and the New Testament fulfillment of that prophecy.

Also, each one of the kids have made an Advent calendar and together we are reading this book: Jotham's Journey.

It is a wonderful and fun book. We truly look forward to reading it each day. The story is very entertaining and exciting even while it teaches us things we did not know and reminds us of things we did know about this awesome time of celebrating Jesus birth.

Celebrating,

Mrs. Cookie

Umm, Where's October? Part 1

I'm pretty sure every year comes standard with one, but this year it seems to have disappeared!

So, I am going through my pictures to see if I can find it...

Turns out it was a very good month!

It started out fast... Nate's new Corvette...

SWEET!!!

It was fun to drive!

We traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico with some friends...

Played games, acted silly in the mirror...

and went to the Balloon Fiesta and saw the special shapes balloons take shape!

WOW!!!

It was SOOO good to be chilly too!

This balloon owner asked us if we wanted to climb into his basket... ummm, YUP!

You REALLY have to see this in real life...

the pictures do nothing for the massive size of these balloons!

Off to Killeen, Texas... VERY long drive.

 But TOTALLY worth it!

 We really do love traveling, especially when at the end is someone so amazing and wonderful!

 Spending some time with Dad.

One of the greatest things about homeschool...

 It doesn't matter where you are.

 We LOVE homeschool!

This boy LOVES his Daddy's watch!

 It fits him well... well someday! :-)

 Snack time.

 LOVE THE KISSES!!!!

 It is a great adventure God has led us to...

Sweet!

 Aren't they just so awesome!

 Little man so proud in his little boots and overalls.

Such a happy boy! He is just such a joy!

Drove back to Albuquerque, New Mexico...

 Starbucks sword fighting...

 We stayed with friends in Albuquerque. While we were there we were able to visited Old Town... very fun!

 Oreo and her best buddy.
This family is simply wonderful!

We learned that we REALLY love New Mexico food...

Sopapillas with honey and Green Chili...

Mmmm, MMmm, MMMmmm!

Even Miss Chocolate Chip loved the sopapillas with honey!

Back in the car for the trip back to Phoenix we were blessed to see...

 Snow capped mountains!

Breathtakingly beautiful!!

 SNOW CAPPED MOUNTAINS!!

 We had only heard about them and saw pictures in books.

I think I need to make this a two part finding October post...

See you in Part 2!

Hugs,

Mrs. Cookie

Sweet, sweet girl!

This is such a sweet girl!

This girl is truly exceptional!

Just so you know, it is just after 12 noon as I am writing this post!

She has been very busy!!

She first cleaned both bathrooms, by herself without my asking her to, while I was working with Mini Chip. She then proceeded to pick up Mini Chips toys, dust, and vacuum the family room while I read her read-aloud to her, more chores that I did not ask her to do. She finished school before she made lunch as she usually does on Wednesday. This time though, she wrote a sweet little note to each of us and hid it in our water glass!

She has blessed each one of her sisters, her family, and especially her mama today in her own special and wonderful way!

And she reminded me to be grateful for my wonderful, thoughtful, sweet daughter.

Thank you Chocolate Chip Cookie!!

Green!!

GREEN HAIR!!!

All of the girls have seriously green hair from all the hard water in the pools we have been in down here.

Seriously Green!

So I loaded their hair up with tomato paste...

Nope, I'm not kidding :-)



Seriously Red!

  

let it sit for spelling and read-alouds...

sent them through the shower... three times...

and voile!!

Three Beautiful Golden heads once again!!

Thank goodness!
Mr. Cookie was right! It was REALLY green and I needed to do something about it. I see them every day and I knew that their hair had turned a little, but it wasn't until I saw the immediate change that I realized how VERY GREEN their mops had become.
Yet another Arizona experience... :-)