Mady's Art Progressing

Christmas @ Our House...

was CRAZY! OK. I could go on and on about the day but I will spare readers and let those of you interested know I have added a link to YouTube where you can view short snippets of the day. These of course are all taken from my point of view.

Some of my favorite things this year were:

Meeting my cousin Danniell from Michigan for the first time!
The framed puppy drawing from Mady!
All the family having the best Christmas ever!

When I opened Mady's drawing I just couldn't help but tear up. Mady has been taking art classes for a couple of months. She seems to enjoy it a great deal and I know she has learned more than I imagined she would. The puppy drawing Mady gave to me was a drawing she had done in the art class. When she showed me the drawing after class the day she had done it, I realized you can "learn" art, it's not ONLY a natural talent. I was truly impressed by it. So when I opened the box Christmas morning and saw the framed puppy drawing I couldn't help but tear up with the thought of how much she has learned...and grown.

I can vividly recall the Christmas Mady was 2 in a room piled with pink gifts that Mady never seemed to come to an end of. She ripped the gifts open as fast as she could, threw them down without any comment and on to the next one. That year she was given a Barbie Power Wheels Jeep, yes pink, which she seemed scared of. It wasn't until Niki was 2 that we got our money's worth from it. This year Mady was given some personal grown up girl gifts for Christmas. I can't believe she is growing up so fast. Mady is the sweetest, most tenderhearted, thoughtful little girl I know. I hope I am doing all I can to encourage her to continue growing in the same way.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas tree oh Christmas tree

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!Thou tree most fair and lovely!Oh Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!Thou tree most fair and lovely!The sight of thee at Christmastide Spreads hope and gladness far and wideOh Christmas tree, O Christmas treeThou tree most fair and lovely!


I know this picture is blurry, but I enjoy the way the lights appear. It makes me think I am looking @ the Christmas tree in the background of something, or as a memory.

My husband picked the tree-it is about 3 feet shorter than I would have liked, but he gets an A for effort. The girls decided to stay with Brother Beal and Pam tonight so I put all the lights and other decor up and they can decorate the tree tomorrow when they return home. The boys seemed to be mesmerized by the entire episode, they wanted to eat the lights??!!!



This is Ezra one day this week playing with Niki's baby stroller, and a baby, she doesn't play with much any more. Later, I pulled out Mady's old stroller for Luke but he wasn't as interested as Ezra.

I decided to change our page a bit. I think if we want to have some friends from other countries we need to show them what we do around here in Texas. It will also be a great way to add in some history for the kids. The plan is to post more of the local things that we really take for granted but that people from other countries maybe interested to see. I know we are becoming a global village and cultures all over are mingling more, we still have our differences. Hopefully I will be able to highlight these interesting points.
As for unschooling, well I like to think it is going well. We really don't think much about school any more, we just live our lives. The kids are flowing right along. Mady and Niki have both asked for something more structured though. I have tons of book. I suppose I will try to make more efforts to ask them what they want to do instead of just letting them make their own daily course since that is what they say they want.
Niki is learning some guitar from Brother Beal and Mady is creating some beautiful art in her classes. She is shy about showing it to me so I haven't been able to post any of it yet.

So today since I only had half the usual number of children (!) I tried to list some of our Christmas traditions so we could make our paper chain and write our traditions on some of the rings. I was stunned to see just how many traditions we actually have. There are actually so many that we have one for every other day in December, but we usually do several over the weekend.

1) We spend one entire weekend (usually Thanksgiving wknd) decorating the house inside and out.
2) We make cookies and truffles for everyone. The truffles never look right but if you love chocolate then they are the best chocolatey Christmas treat ever.
3) We watch all the old Christmas cartoon specials: Rudolf the Red Noised Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman along with current cartoon favorites.
4) Volunteer
5) Make paper snowflakes!
6) Make homemade Christmas ornaments usually something with the pine cones we collected on one of our spring time trips to east Texas.
7) Listen to corny Christmas songs and sing along @ the tops of our lungs while we wrap presents.
8) Drive around the city looking @ Christmas lights.
9) Attend The Nutcracker
10) Attend the Annual Christmas on the Square here in our town.
11) Write clues for the scavenger hunt Christmas day. (We hide the one best present for everyone.)
12) Write to Santa
13) Make our paper count down to Christmas chain
14) This year we are attempting to add a Christmas movie marathon

So, there will be plenty to post about in December! I am felling more Christmas-ee by the minute.

Fabulous 50's Band

Today I took Mady and the boys to ride horses with a friend while Niki played @ Nenaw's house. Everyone had a good time. The boys were able to explore a new place while Mady rode the horse, and everyone knows it is always fun @ Nenaw's! Mady and her friend had so much fun they decided they didn't want it to end & have moved the party to our house tonight.

Tonight was also 3rd Friday so we went to watch the Fabulous 50's Band play @ the 21st Century Club here in town. The girls like to dance while the band plays. This was a special event though since it was a benefit to help a fellow musician with some unforeseen life changing events. The building was packed front to back and the band put on a performance worthy of a small town newspaper review! They collected a good deal of money for the family and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Tomorrow the we will be preparing my moms lasagna recipe for her birthday dinner on Sunday while the girls go to the circus with Pam. To top off the day all the girls in the family are going to meet our Aunt Heidi for the first time! Then Mady has requested that I drop her off @ her friends house after all that! Isn't life sweet? I know, the last few posts I have been sniveling about problems posting pictures to the web, man if that is all I have to worry about, life is grand!


I suppose it is high time I posted some of the research I have read about unschooling so anyone reading this blog doesn't think I am completely off my rocker! I will gather up some while I wait for one of the boys to tire of watching me type and post it tomorrow...if I find the time! I feel so fortunate to have such a close family who are interested in celebrating life together.

I also need to post some of Mady's art work. I want to gather up several pieces and show her progress. I always thought art was a natural talent, but apparently if you like to draw enough and are willing to learn technique, anyone can draw and move on to create their own pieces. She is truly loving her art class. I hope she will continue to follow her passions all her life. On to the research!