BLISS

bliss - n : complete happiness : joy syn. - blessedness ; blissfull - adj.

I really love this word. Complete happiness, joy and blessedness is where I am right now. I can feel it deep down and I am so grateful that I am at this point. I know I am here, because I have felt it before and there is a great peace with it. I have a beautiful life with a wonderful husband and beautiful boys (don't tell them I used the word beautiful). I picked the word bliss over content because content gave me the impression of settling and I know that I haven't settled for anything less than what is God given and a blessing.

To celebrate this, I received this ring for Christmas and will wear it everyday. I ordered it from Beth Quinn (link on sidebar). She had the most beautiful jewelry. I also received one of her vintage necklaces that I will post a picture of later on. I am also going to do a little scrapbook of pictures that are blissful to me. I will share those pictures as I take them.

I started this last year after reading this by Ali Edwards. I really needed something to focus on after our big move. My word last year was ACCEPT. I might not have accepted our move completely, but I do believe that focusing on this word, especially when I was down, did help me to eventually "accept" that we were here and to make the most of it and that is what has led me to Bliss.

I have lots of goals and dreams for this next year that I will share with you over the next couple of days. I am also getting close to my 100th post and want to give away something special to one of you.

Thank you for sharing your lives, art and families with me.

Hugs,
K

Edited: Sorry my links don't work to Ali, I don't know what I typed in wrong. You can find her blog by googling her name. Will try it again later. Time to get off work.

A Gift

We exchanged names at work for a gift exchange and this is the picture frame I made for my friend. She has a two year old little girl and is always taking pictures of her. She said it and the candle I gave her were her two favorite gifts. Wow! What a compliment. It always feels so good to make someone else happy.

The paper is from HL and is flocked. I love all the new flocked papers. The ribbon is a red velvet.

Have a Fabulous last day of 2008! Will be back later.
Hugs,
K

Silly Boys

We had lunch on Friday at the little 5 & Dime Drugstore that we went to a couple of months ago. They have a FUN toy section. The boys played around with the hats. After lunch we went and did some Christmas shopping. The boys enjoyed spending some of their Christmas money. Thanks to their Grandparents! It was a FABULOUS day.

Hugs,

K

Santa was here!

Here are some pictures of Christmas Morning. The boys are waiting at the top of the stairs to come down and see if Santa stopped by. We had a fun and relaxing day. Tucker kept telling me " it was a great day and how nice Santa was to bring him what he asked for". The other two were pretty happy too! I had the camera on the wrong setting so some of my pictures are blurry.

Wally (chokit yab -what Tuck use to call him when someone asked him what kind of dog he had) wanted in on the festivities too!

Have a wonderful Monday.

Hugs,
K

A little late

but I hope you had a very Merry Christmas!

Here are a few pictures of our house decorated for the holidays. I meant to post before Christmas, but had so many other kids activities I wanted to post. I love all the pink vintage ornaments, but with boys I have always decorated with bright red and kelly or lime green.

The little tree with the red polka dot background (curtains that need to be made) is in the window by my kitchen sink. The little red frame/stand is from The Dove's Nest in our downtown district. I hung a vintage ornament with ribbon from it. I also placed Tuck's gingerbread house up here.

I love all the lights, and wanted to put some on our mantel, but didn't want to use the artificial garland so I put green boa on top of the red lights.

Last year we threw away our artificial tree that we had forever. That Christmas it was leaning and half the lights weren't working. I guess it didn't appreciate the moving van that moved it here. This year we didn't want to pay the astronomical prices for a new artificial tree, so I bought this little white one at the Dollar store and next year it will go in the window above our front door. I think it will be great. The boys decorated this tree themselves with all the ornaments they have made or received through the years. You can see the bottom right is very crowded! I just didn't have the heart to move anything. They are very proud of their tree.

Will post pics later of the boys opening presents.

Hugs,

K

Present Protection

We are so lucky in our house that we have this massive army of Star Wars Clones to protect our Christmas presents. AND from what we have heard, a few more on the way via Santa Claus (that's Tuck emailing Santa at the North Pole)!

Hugs,

K

Pretzel Hugs

Here is the recipe for Tucker's famous Pretzel Hugs. We took these to kindegarten last year the first time we were assigned snacks and the kids loved them. We took them again for the Christmas party. This year everyone requested Tuck bring them when he had snack. They were requested a second time for the Christmas party.

Preheat the oven to about 250

Lay out pretzels on a wax paper/parchement paper lined cookie sheet (with sides is best). On top of each pretzel place one Hershey Hugs Kiss. These can be white with brown (Halloween) or white with red swirls (Christmas).

Place in oven for just a couple of minutes. I find it best to just stand there and keep an eye on them. If not, I have a tendency to get side-tracked and end up with a huge mess of white chocolate (hence the waxpaper/parchement paper makes for easy clean up). You want the kiss to get soft, but not melt.

Remove from oven and place two - three holiday colored M&M's (plain). We use the Halloween ones for Halloween and the Christmas (red and green) ones for Christmas...obviously.

Then place the cookie sheet in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Remove and place in air tight container.

It's a tasty salty/sweet combination and very easy...Enjoy!

Hugs,

K

Little Christmas Cheer

Friday I took off since it was the boys last day of school before winter break. Tucker had his Christmas party and as room mother I was in charge of the festivities. We decorated foam Christmas frames, ate hot dogs, chips/dip, cookies, played musical books for lively book exchange, passed out Tuck's famous Pretzel Hugs (recipe to follow) and magic reindeer food. It was a fun time by all the sugared up, excited beyond belief little 1st graders! That is his teacher, Mrs. Thompson. We love her!!

After all the boys were home from school we took them to Target so THEY could finish up their Christmas shopping and then we had dinner at Olive Garden before Tuck's basketball practice.

Saturday we had two basketball games. Keyto won his and Tuck's team only lost by 2 points and it was a great game. Keyton's team still doesn't have uniforms, so hopefully after the first of teh year I will have some pics of him. Tuck and I then went to Wally World in search of a Gingerbread house. After much inquiry and digging we found one...thank goodness! He looks foward to this every year and does a great job.

We have a buddy spending the night so I'm off to get their pizza ready.

Hugs,

K

COZY

It is a very very foggy Wednesday night. I could barely see the cars in front of me on the way home from work.

The boys and I are having a cozy night in. No basketball tonight! There's a fire in the fireplace and this yummy chicken and rice for dinner. I thought I'd take a picture for those of you who might want to try and find it. I got it at Walmart in the open freezers where the corn dogs are. My boys (except Tuck who doesn't like rice) love it. It is really good. There are two big packages in the box and you just pop the bag in the microwave. One bag would feed 2-3 people easily. It's a good, quick comfort food and... Dad, it has peas in it, and I ate them!!

Feeling a little homesick tonight, so just want to tell all my family and friends at home that I am thinking of you and miss you. Love ya

Hugs

K

PS. Dad, you really need to go to the side bar and click on The Pioneer Woman link. She lives on a ranch and posts the most amazing recipes. I have cooked up some of them, so they aren't too complicated. She is pretty funny too!

Something Creative

I wanted to post pictures of the clipboard I did for my Aunt's birthday back in November, but never got around to it. It is very slow today at work so I decided now is a good time.

I have seen these everywhere, but on another blog called Jane's Apron, she uses vintage dress patterns to alter hers and since my Aunt is an amazing seamstress, I wanted to do something similar. I found some old patterns at an antique store here in town. The gold button is from a collection I received (and once again I thought I had turned the picture and I hadn't, so I had to post it right).

That is my Fabulous Aunt and myself at her birthday party. She is an amazing wife and mom who raised some great kids, loving grandmother, awesome cook, extremely talented seamstress and a very creative scrapbooker. My boys love her as much as I do. I admire and respect her so much!

A Little Basketball

Saturday Tucker had his 2nd basketball game and this time they had their jerseys! Whoo Hoo! Did they look snazzy. Tuck is so proud of his. We are just keeping our fingers crossed his shorts don't fall down when he is running. The smallest size they had was small. I pulled 'em as tight as I could, but they were still pretty loose!

Anyway...he did really well. I left during the last quarter to see Brando off to Houston for baseball, but Brent was really proud of Tuck. He really hustles out there and you can tell he is giving it his usual 125%! Oh, and they won!

Keyto also played and his team won. He got busted in the lip guarding one of his school buddies that was on his team last year. It was swollen and purple yesterday. They don't have their uniforms yet, so when they get them I will post pics of him.

Brando played baseball in Houston. Brent and I couldn't take him so he went with his coach. This won't happen again. Two huge huge things happened while he was there. First, on Saturday, the first ball, first pitch, first play of the game he hits a HOMERUN over the fence! How cool is that???? So amazing and very proud of him.

Second, in the last game on Sunday, he got hit in the back of the head (helmet on) with an 80-90 mile an hour pitch. Oh my gosh, it about killed me when I heard this. He seems to be doing okay. I looked up concussion on internet and he is showing no signs. I may go ahead and call Dr. today and make sure there aren't some tests they might want to run. Needless to say, he won't be going on any out of town trips to baseball without us EVER again. He did have a great time and I think he enjoyed the independence except for the two happenings above.

That first picture is Tucker learning to text with Brent's new phone. He has been sending texts to all of us telling us he loves us and we had a fun weekend. So Sweeeet!

School has been delayed today. TWO HOURS! Of course we didn't find this out and until Keyto and I are completely and totally dressed and ready to go at 6:00 am. Can't they go out at 5:00 like they do in Lubbock and let you know a little earlier??? So, Tuck and Brando get to sleep in a little. I know Brando needs it after this weekend. It is pretty cool here in that the school has a recorded message that calls you and tells you about the delay. I guess because there are hundreds maybe thousands of schools around here and to sit and wait for it to fly across the TV screen is crazy!

My mind is going wild with all the possible things I can get accomplished in those extra two hours so I guess I better go get some of them done!

Have a super wonderful warm day!

Hugs,
K

The Polar Express

Friday night Tuck put on his Pajamas, grabbed his blanket and bear and headed back to school. It was Family Movie night! We haven't been able to attend this event in the past and it was all we heard about last week. He was so excited. The movie is shown in the Cafeteria on a huge screen. Popcorn, drinks and hot dogs are the meal for the evening. Santa was also said to be seen in the Library, but we didn't make it in time (Keyto was dropped off at his Band Christmas party).

It was a fun evening...kids running everywhere, standing in front of you oblivious to who might be behind them actually watching the movie, drinks spilling under the pitter patter of bunny slippers, popcorn going crunch...yes it was fun for all!! I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

When the movie was over Tucker (on his own) went up to his principal and told her thank you and bye! He is such a sweetie!! I hope the people in his school realize just how special and unique he is.

Then it was home to bed for a very early basketball game at 8:00 am! Pics to follow of that.

Brrrr! It is freezing here. I have three little/big boys here keeping their fingers crossed school is delayed or canceled due to ice tomorrow! We'll see...

Night

Hugs,

K

CONGRATULATIONS & BEST WISHES

to my Dad and his new bride Renea. We wish you a lifetime of love and joy!

Love ya,

Kerri, Brent and all the Boys

2008 Ornaments

We always get the boys an ornament each year to add to our hodge podge tree. I have never had a themed tree. We enjoy unwrapping the ornaments every year and remembering where and why we picked that ornament. A lot of our ornaments are also handmade by the boys at school or art class.

This year we stopped by our favorite Christmas store while we were at home and picked ornaments for ALL of us!

Tucker's is a soccer trophy. Soccer is his favorite sport.

Keyton's is a Kansas basketball. Brandan thought Keyto should have had ESP and KNOWN this was the one he was going to pick, but Keyto must have missed a brain wave because he got it first!

Brandan's after much deliberation and searching is a Yankee Baseball jersey, which actually fits him better since he loves the Yankees and Baseball.

Brent's of course if UT Football. Perfect!

And Mine is a blinged out Baseball. I have always said if I was going to have all boys I would find some way to incorporate the color pink and or bling! I love it, wish they made it in earrings!!

Have a happy day!

Hugs,

K

p.s. I'll explain the tree in the next post!

Christmas Parade

Saturday we got back from a soccer tournament just in time to pull over and see our small town parade. It was nice and short, unlike the ones from home where people enter just to drive their car. I think it would have been great for more of the school organizations to have been in it like the younger bands, all sports, etc. We really enjoyed it though. The cheerleaders were hollering and throwing Brandan candy. Don't worry though, he was COOL (as in Joe Cool) about. Gosh I hope he doesn't read this today!

Have a great Wednesday. Brrrrr! It is freezing here.

Hugs,

K

Festival of Trees

Keyton was one of a few who was asked to perform at the Festival of Trees Friday night. The community (schools, classes, grades, organizations, churches, businesses, etc.) decorate trees and then donate them to be auctioned off. The money goes toward the R.O. Teachers Educational fund which I guess is used for scholarships. The trees are on display for 3 days along with visits with Santa, baked goods for sale, and crafts for the kids.

I'm not really liking the photographic opportunities these band events (remember football game pics?) provide. Keyto, playing the trombone, is always in the back and hard to see. Tonight he had his Christmas concert at the school and this time I couldn't even see him unless the girl next to him leaned back and moved her instrument and Keyton leaned back (which is totally not going to happen while playing). Sooo, no pics from tonight, but they did an awesome job.

Night,

K