Camping with the Kids

So we just got back from our first camping trip with the kids (my seventh with Carey). They had a great time, but both were so excited to get home. First thing we did when we walked in the door was give the kids a bath. We were all absolutely filthy with dirt and smelly with smoke. We left on Monday after lunch with the van loaded to the max. I believe there were about 10 bins full of clothing, food, camping accessories, not including the tent, ice chest, pillows and blankets ... lots of blankets. I prepared for a cold night in the tent, which was a good thing considering it got down to 32 degrees on Monday night. Soooooo glad that Carey's Dad gave us that camping heater as a Christmas gift many years ago. Thanks Al!

Everyone did fairly well through that first night. Miss Victoria made a bee-line for me before she fell asleep. She buried her head in my chest and fell right to sleep. The only problem is that is how she wanted to sleep ALL night. Not very conducive to allowing me to sleep. But that didn't matter much since I was literally freezing. Carey and the kids usually get very hot when they sleep, but I on the other hand fall asleep at night with socks on, an extra blanket and usually cover my head in the winter time. So needless to say, I was so very very cold on that first night and slept about 4 hours ... not much fun. Then we all woke up to no camping breakfast (the best part of camping if you ask me). The Coleman stove that my Dad gave us that they bought 30 years ago broke. So the kids ate a cereal bar and yes, Doritos for breakfast. Then we all piled in the van, including the dog, and drove to Cleburne in search of a new stove. Found a replacement part for the ancient stove and we were back in business.

The rest of the trip went well. I can probably sum it up best in the following list of likes and dislikes about the trip:

Like - That Riley called them snoodles instead of s'mores.
Dislike - Packing all those bins with two kids at my ankles all morning.
Like - Seeing Victoria warm her hands by the fire.
Dislike - Freezing that first night.
Like - The food was so yummy. It also helped that Carey did ALL the cooking and most of the cleaning.


Dislike - The dog was with us. Need I say more.
Like - The fire in the morning and at night.
Dislike - Giving Victoria a shower in the public shower stall. She disliked it also ... very very much.
Like - Not having to fix my hair or put on makeup and getting to wear jeans and sweatshirts.
Dislike - The 10, seriously 10 loads of laundry to do when we got home. I even washed Victoria's diaper bag.
Like - Playing word games with Riley. He is just so smart and witty. Makes me laugh that guy does.
Dislike - Feeling dirty all the time.
Like - Being with my family with no tv to watch, house to clean, work to do.

Cereal bars and Doritos for Breakfast.

Riley loaded up his stick with marshmallows.

This was about 6AM on Tuesday. She woke-up a bit early,
so we watched a video until the boys got up.
It was just a tad bit cold ... only 32 degrees.

Going for a hike with Daddy.

No nap ... she fell asleep eating dinner that night around 6PM.
So we decided to warm by the fire.

We went to Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, TX.
Riley was bummed that we didn't get to see any real live dinosaurs.

Victoria is ready to go ... home!

In the Market for a New Bible Study

Well, I finally finished my study on the tabernacle by Beth Moore - A Womens Heart: Gods Dwelling Place. I HIGHLY recommend this study. It made me fall in love with Gods word and hunger for Him daily. Anyway, I am in search of a new study, which desperately needs to be in my possession soon. I find that if I dont pick up and start a new study after I have finished one, then it gets harder and harder to have my daily devotional.

So, I am asking those of you that are in the Word to recommend anything that you have done that you just loved.

(I apologize for the no apostrophes in my post, but every time I type one, my computer wants to find something ... so aggravating!)

I DID IT!!!

I finally did it ... I was able to put Victoria's hair in pig tails AND get a picture of her doing what she does best ... SMILING! The little angel smiles all the time, except when there is a camera around. And if she is smiling when there is a camera around, she is too busy to stop and pose for me.

I must admit, Daddy is much better at fixing her hair than I am. It is so funny to see these huge man-hands with these little rubber bands and barrettes trying to gather up these thin wispy hairs on this tiny little head. But he does such a better job than me. I guess I need alot more practice. And the real key is distraction. If she isn't focused on you fixing her hair, then it isn't too bad. She really can't stand for anyone to even touch her hair, which will have to change. When she is sitting there playing, I get up behind her and just run my fingers through her hair, gather it and just play with it. She can't stand it. She bats at my hand to quit and makes her stop it grunt noise. It was so funny the last time I tried to fix her hair. She was shouting "DON'T, DON'T!" which was so cute and sounded more like "doe, doe." I didn't even know that she knew how to say that word yet, much less use it in context!

Reading to His Sister

This is what I found my little darlings doing yesterday morning before we took Riley to school:

Election Day

Not sure of today's outcome ... but read this for much needed Peace.
The LPM Blog: Psalm 118:24

Our Happy Halloween

We started off the Halloween celebrations with Trunk or Treat at old church on the Sunday evening before Halloween. We had alot of fun and it was soooo great to see our long time friends over there. We miss that church dearly. It is the church where I accepted Christ at age 9, the church we met back in 1991 and got married in 6 years later. So many treasured relationships at that church!

I let Pops and Gigi borrow (haha) my 1965 Mustang Fastback
to use as there trunk. They got this car for me when I was 16.
Love it! Would drive it all the time if it had seatbelts in the back,
airbags and got better gas mileage.

The ballerina with Pops and Gigi (or a pumpkin and skeleton belly).

Get a load of this motley crew!
My older bro Kevin (on the the ground with the black wig)
brought his GF Shannon and her boys.

Later that week, we went to the Pumpkin Patch here in Saginaw and picked up our pumpkins and did a little hay maze with Riley.

Grandpa and Grandma sent a package from Michigan (love getting those!!)
with these pumpkin decorations. Too cute and so much fun to do!!

At school that week, Riley had dress up day on each day for drug-free stuff. Anyway, he was able to dress-up on Friday as his favorite storybook character. He picked out Curious George, but I didn't want to scurry around all week trying to get together a monkey costume, so I talked him into being Obi-Wan Kanobi. He jumped right on that. So we got out his costume from last year and he wore that to school on Halloween.

Riley so very precious. And then there is Victoria ... in all her splendor.

The only memories I have of Halloween as a child are the ones when my parents dressed up (and the one where I got a nose bleed like 30 seconds before we walked out the door). I can't remember what I was from year to year, but I can remember some of their costumes. I think it is just so much fun to go all out for your kids on some things. So this year we put a few decorations outside, made some Halloween cookies and I did dress up on Halloween. I dug around in some of my high school and college storage bins and found a shirt I wore at the HSU All-School Sing in 1996 when we performed our Hillbilly show. So, I was a hillbilly with pig-tails and freckles. Riley liked it when I picked him up from school and was all dressed up. I forgot to get a picture with me and the kids ... oh well.

It was finally here, time for Trick or Treating. Riley drove from house to house in his John Deere motorized tractor and Carey pulled Victoria in the wagon. We only did about 8 houses or so before Riley called it quits. He was so very sweet walking Victoria up to the door. However, he kept leaving her behind after he got his candy. "Go get your sister, Riley" was repeated every time.

Indiana Jones and the ballerina are ready to go.

Riley helping his sister trick or treat from house to house. I will never
forget the image of him holding her hand and walking up to the houses.
It was just absolutely precious.

The haul.

Fortunately for us, Carey and I were able to snatch most of the chocolate. There are some perks to this parenting stuff.