Family Time

I've been MIA a bit on my blog. We've been busy around here.

We've had Christmas break movie sleepovers at home. Santa brought Will a skateboard.... praying for no broken bones. You can see Kate in the background, the teenager is most interested in trendy stuff.

My little cowboy is growing up.

So is my littlest baby. She finally started walking at 17 months old. Scooting and being carried is much faster than walking. She's a smart one!

Madeline showed off her acting skills in the church Christmas pageant. She's the little lamb with the baby stuffed lamb in front of her face. My girl got shy, but she was so darn cute!

We took a family trip minus the baby to the symphony to see the in real life Von Trapp family singers. Our favorite movie is The Sound of Music. They were amazing!

Madeline made muffin tin crayons. Sporting her favorite shirt. My "vintage Jennifer" strawberry shortcake shirt.

We're doing homeschool pre-school this is one of our projects.

I had the honor of attending a mother/ daughter luncheon at my oldest daughters high school. I'm so proud of the young lady she has become.

I might not be busy blogging but I'm busy around the house.

We are working on some new projects on our country house:

we refinished the barn floor

painted the downstairs barn walls

ripped out some front dead landscaping

relocated a frog farm from the koi pond to the big pond

I'm very anxious to do some big projects like my kitchen and library. For now we have a big empty room that functions as a running track for the kids!

Fall Fun

Life with 4 kids is seldom boring. Mostly we're busy going from one activity to another or working on the property.

Each Tuesday we make a trip into our old town for gymnastics and lunch with Daddy. Here's my little gymnast. Will's turned into a pumpkin head.
We spent or family night out at our barn. We carved pumpkins and hung out by the fire.

This is our 2,400 sq ft bonus building/barn. It could be a charming house. We laugh and say it's where we will live when we get old. One of the kids can move into the main house.

We have big plans to finish it out for a guest room, home office, shop and entertaining space. Our favorite part is the huge deck out front which overlooks our pond.

Our little country girl Caroline.

It's not Texas if we're not playing baseball. In between watching the Rangers world series games we were watching our favorite ball player. His nickname is "homerun Will". My dude has some serious skills. Since we moved to an ultra competitive city he's improving daily. I love to see the joy in his face while he plays.

I've fallen in love with drinking out of mason jars. I ditched the old glass cups.

I don't know what happened to my city husband but he's seriously wanting to buy a big tractor. He was checking them out at the state fair. As you can see Will thinks it's a good idea. We have a new search on Craigslist for tractors.

Our open living room and catwalk have a sniper you have to be careful of. He's a sharp shooter with a nerf gun. I know he's coming if I hear screaming girls.

We are enjoying out time at our new home. It's a dream come true to have some land to roam.

Honestly the first couple months I thought.... what have we done, I want to go home. After time I'm loving it. I don't do well with change but now I pull up and breathe a sigh of relief, I'm home.

We laugh we still have a home in the "city". Our old home didn't sell during the selling season so we put it up for renter. We have renters in until the end of the school year. Not sure if we will sell or continue renting it out. Rentals are in high demand so the extra $$ is nice.

Summer Fun

My husband and I made it out for a date night... at the Texas Rangers game. We were not frugal we enjoyed it from an air conditioning suite. I think this was the only time I went outside.

We've had many adventures this summer. With a family of 4 I'm all about bargains. We took a bike ride to the park and grilled hot dogs. It's was a ton of fun!

Every evening we ride bikes in the cul-de-sac with our neighbor kids. Sadly we are both moving. We'll miss them!




Sweet little girl loves playing in the water in the back yard. I call it old school fun with a slip and slide and a water hose.

Vacation Bible School has been the highlight of the summer. There is nothing like hearing my children sing praises with friends. I got teary eyed each time I head "How Great Thou Are"

It's always an adventure with us!

We're making up for lost time. Remember last summer I was on bedrest.

Family Playdough Night

Every Sunday night we have family night. I've written about it before. We sit at the dining room table and eat off the nice china (even if we have burgers).

After dinner we play a game, watch a movie or do a family activity.

Last week we headed into the kitchen and had play dough night. It was a hit and a ton of fun! Look at some of our fancy creations.
This is going to enter in our rotation schedule.

Everyone enjoyed it! Caroline even tried to taste it.

You can also make your own play dough, check out this recipe.

I will be taking a bit of a blogging break with the summer a few days a way.

We've got vacations, and honestly I'll have 4 kids around the house that leaves very little computer time. When I get on the computer I check my email.

What's Up

Nothing going on with the house, except all the one's we like keep going under contract. Hey, if you have a house you want to sell have us like it and it's sure to be gone within a week!

My silly girls have been doing a lot of playing together. My oldest daughter made her high school drill team!! YEAH!!!

We've made several walks down the street to the park. Will is becoming quite the football star. Watch out Tony Romo...

Spring time weather is prime for grilling. I love the smell of burgers on the grill.

Speaking of burgers and meat... a good friend of ours

(Jason, shout out) told us we had to watch Food Inc. All I can say is we are now spending top dollar for grass fed beef, free range chicken, and organic milk. So long Frugal Jen!

We had a wonderful Easter.

As you can see Ariel even made it to church with us. Madeline thinks she is growing fins (her toe nails). She insists we paint them purple like Ariel.

Easter Blessings

Easter Sunday is one of my favorite days of the year. It's such a beautiful service after a long 40 day Lenten season (The 40 days prior to Easter). As a Catholic convert (I was raised Baptist) this is a special time for fasting, reflection and preparation. We all need this time in our life.

Little Miss doing some egg hunting at home. These two were so thrilled to wake up, get dressed and see some treats waiting for them.

The trio after mass. This as good as it gets posing 3 kids.

This lent was a difficult one for me. I made a priority to really take time for myself and reflect. It's quiet times with God that you realize areas that need improving. Wow, I prayed for a transformation and I had no idea the junk that comes out during that process.

You might have noticed my lack of blogging or change in posts this had to do with my inner changing.

I hope to become the wife, mother and friend I've always wanted to be. Sometimes even as a 30 something mom we still have childish ways we need to let go of. I pray daily for my strength and for God's will to be done.

Boz the Bear

Sometimes I have to pinch myself because of the way things work out.

I've been having some issues with the Disney shows.

A while back I was watching a show with the kids and some very inappropriate issues were being brought up. We are huge Disney fans but this really upset me.

The closer I looked the more I saw "agenda's" being put in front of my children.

I've been saying some prayers for discernment as a parent and wondering if I was being "overprotective".

Low and behold my prayer was literally answered when these 2 DVD's showed up for me to review on my blog. Thank you mom select!

We discovered Boz the Bear.

We sat down and all watched the Christmas DVD on family night. Disbelief, this completely portrayed the kind of family, children and environment I would create myself.

I HIGHLY recommend these DVD's. My children have been watching them everyday. We've enjoyed them so much I bought more for Christmas. Finally another Christian series other than Veggie Tales (which we also love)that I can feel completely comfortable with my children watching.

Have any of you discovered Boz the Bear?

Happy Thank You

Happy Thanksgiving was translated into Little Miss language as "Happy Thank You".

She sang it like Happy Birthday all day long. My big and little girl.

Madeline taking Will down while watching the Texas game.
Me and the girls braved the shopping crowd on Friday.

We hit Kohl's and found some great deals. The line was wrapped around the store.



Then went to Wally World for my weekly grocery trip. We did venture over to the electronics. I couldn't believe at 10 am they still had great deals on flat screens.
Nope I didn't get one.... not on the list this year.

Tuesdays Tip- Pop!

I am a girl who loves easy prep foods. I have NEVER make Jiffy pop until Sunday....

Remember we have family night every Sunday.

This time we chose to make fun popcorn and watch a movie.

Let me share.... here is the jiffy pop warming up

Everyone anxiously awaiting, this is family fun!

Pop, pop, pop... it was kinda scary and loud to use newbies.

Finally all done, it was the best popcorn ever!! Really it was better than movie theatre popcorn.

We had our popcorn and a movie. Madeline had the first choice of Veggie Tales for 30 minutes.

We put her to sleep then the big kid movie. Batman on VCR tape (garage sale find).

We put the tape in and what do we have ..... a home video NO Batman.

Frugal Tip #2 ALWAYS CHECK THE MOVIE CASE BEFORE YOU PURCHASE

I'm just glad it was a wholesome tape, can you imagine how it could have been?

Concert on a Budget??

I took my daughter to her first concert... The Jonas Brothers at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. This thing is huge!

You know I have to save money let me share...

#1. I bought the mid-priced tickets. Really the seats are just as good.

#2. I got Kate a shirt ahead of time at Justice for $2! They were selling them at the show for $50!!

#3. I did splurge on some souvenirs, a poster, a program and a necklace.Here we are in our cheap seats!

Our seats seemed like front row because of the huge screen.
Since I saved $$ I parked far away about a mile to be exact. So we waited around and walked around after the concert. Can you believe parking was $40 close and we still paid $20 a mile away.

I had a great time with my daughter! Sometimes events like this are worth the splurge the memories are priceless.

Thrifty Thursday- Staycation?

Play tourist in your hometown! Sunday we have family day this time we played tourist. We headed out to Bass Pro shop for some boat browsing. Look it's like we're on vacation!
We worked up an appetite and headed over to Rainforest Cafe a super tourist spot. Can you believe this is the first time we've eaten here?

So much fun! We even had a coupon for $10 off!

Of course you have to have the touristy dessert... the volcano.

Check out your city's local attractions and pretend to be tourist for a day. You will find you can have lots of fun close to home.