Just checking in...

Our year...so far...

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Summer Harvest

91 qts of corn
16 pints of corn
4 gallons of pickles
15 half pints sweet pickle cubes
15 half pints dill pickle cubes
6 qts tomatoes
16 half pints peach jam
12 half pints canteloupe preserves
2 half pints blueberry jam
at LEAST 100 watermelons...
one monster watermelon weighing in at...
37 1/2 pounds!
Whew! What a wonderful harvest! The kids and I really enjoyed the garden this year. William loved watching our honey bees at work, while Virginia Rae loved picking eating the tomatoes, and Jeremiah, well, he just liked walking around looking at everything and occasionally eating a watermelon or two! Yes, we really had at least 100 watermelons. We even got a few surprises, some were yellow! The kids loved that!

Here are a few pics from the summer. I sure hope to catch up soon, but school is getting ready to begin again, so maybe I will catch up once a week at least. Virginia Rae is starting kindergarten and William will be in 5th, Jeremiah...he will be "messing" in everything! He is so annimated, I would love to have a video camera on him constantly.

I really am coming back!!!

Hello there! We have been very busy lately! Spring and summer are especially busy for us, as we have to plant the garden, weed the garden, keep the lovely deer away from the garden, tend to the bees, and harvest the garden, and last but not least can the garden! I love country living...the best thing, my kids do too...be back shortly, I promise!

Did I mention I'm learning to make sourdough bread??? Yummy...
Here are a few pics from the garden, more later...

God has truelly blessed us this season!

Making McSwain Memories

As I told you last time, we took supper to the McSwain's tonight. Paw Paw and Paw Paw's house! Jeremiah calls them both Paw Paw! Anyway, I thought these needed to be posted now and Easter pics next time. Just because, well, just because! These turned out so good. Unfortunately, I have came to the sad conclusion, that I will not be getting many pictures of William from now on. He is starting to show his "fanny" when I pull out the camera. I told him he would be sorry one day, but well, he is 10, and knows everything! LOL! Not funny to this Mama who loves to take pics! I would love to take photograhy classes, but that would require a new camera, which, for lack of a better word, ain't gonna happen anytime soon! Anyway, when directed to get on Paw Paw's lap to get his pic taken, Jeremiah climbs on Grandma's lap, how cute is that??
I made this dress for girdle mcgee, and she loves the twirl, but I have go to fix the front, look hard, you can see her red and pink panties! This is not, her 'Rapunzel' dress, I will post it later with the Easter pics. Hope all is well with everyone. Please keep Alabama and all the other states hit by the tornados in your prayers.

I love Grandma's wink in this one!!

Making Memories...

We decided a few Sunday's ago, to 'just go fly a kite'!! The kids a a ton of fun flying their cheapo, $1 kites from 'the Walmart'! I will let the pictures tell the story...hope you enjoy! We love making memories with our family...

Later on that day we went to the river bottoms to help watch Granddaddy take care of the bees, honey bees! Yum, Yum! We decided we would just relax and swing a while...William ventured over after a while, and never got a sting. He had them crawling on his hands and it didn't bother him one bit. Takes that after Daddy. Anyway, here are a few pics from the swinging. I just have to get to the McSwain's and take a few pics to post with them. Maybe this weekend, when they get home from their 'mini-vacation' and Aunt Emily's.

Aren't big brothers the greatest? Well, this one is for sure!!!

I couldn't resist this one!

PawPaw's 'tracky'! I just thought William loved tractors when he was this small! Poor Jeremiah talks about them all the time! "Daddy drive tracky, I sit daddy's lap. Daddy key, paw paw's tracky." They grow too fast!
Stay tuned for pics from egg dyeing, Easter outfits, "Rapunzel" dress, and a mini-tutorial, (you can use this one next year for Easter!) I'm too slow to have it ready for this year! LOL!!

Undefeated...four years running!!

As you all know, William is in Cub Scouts. Has been since 1st grade. Well, on the 11th, we had our anual Pinewood Derby Race. It just gets better every year!! When we get there, we have to weigh in the car, check it in, and 'patiently' wait for the race to start. This year, we only had 6 boys racing. Race went well, and rather quickly. That didn't calm the 'nerves' of the boys mama's! I get so nervous every year, you just don't know how your son is going to react to being beat! Anyway, as we raced this year, once again, Wiliam had to race one of his best friends, Wes. Every year, it ends up, Wes and William in the finals. This year, another little fellow was a contender for top spot. Wes, well as always, he just keeps on racin'. And the cool thing, they remain friends through it all, every year. Did I mention that William is undefeated?? For four years?? Cool huh?
Wes has crossed over to Boy Scouts. A time that is quickly approaching William. He could have crossed over in February with Wesley, but he only likes 5 pins earning the "Heavy Shoulder" Award. He is determined to earn that!! It is an honor to earn this award, it states that the Webelo, (cub scout in 4/5 grade) has earned all 20 possible pins.
Back to the race...
We got down to the last of the race and it was Wes, William and another little guy. The last race was actually a photo finish! We all got out our cameras and compared pics, to determine the winner. In the end, William's car was about 1 to 2 inches ahead, but it sure was close! Now we go to the District Race. This is May 7th. William won first place there last year, and went on to the Piedmont Council Race and took 5th place there!!!
He has a trophy from every year. This year, he talked Ray into buying metals, so, he now has three 1st place trophies, and a gold metal from Pack 22, and a 1st place trophy from the district and a 5th place trophy from the council. He may not be into sports, which is perfectly ok with me, but he sure has the trophies to show off!!
Here are a few pics from the evening of the Pinewood Derby...

William's is the blue one in the lead!!!

I sure am proud of this little, growing boy! I love you William!!

Catching up...

I thought I would be better at this "blogging" thing than this...I'm going to have to work a little harder at this! Where were we when we last got together...? Oh, yes, now it's time for the details of Jeremiah's 2nd Birthday! But first, let's catch up on the in between birthday, ordeals...

One week after Virginia Rae's party, Jeremiah starts running a fever, very high fever. William starts coughing his head off, again, only been off antibiotic 6 days! Take Jeremiah and William to the doctor on Tuesday, Jeremiah, RSV, William, bronchittis, again. Yuck! Two days later, Virginia Rae at the doctor, bad cough and runny nose, no diagnosis, but start antibiotic just in case it is RSV starting. After a few days, Jeremiah's sky starts getting bluer! But not the other two, they both have to start different antibiotics, and after about two weeks, their skies were much bluer also...

Hey, wait a minute, maybe that is why I am no good at this blogging! I love every minute of this fun filled, crazy, busy, tripping over toys, still no sleep at night life. Wouldn't take anything for it!

Now for Jeremiah's special day...

What a sweet little one, he is the happiest baby ever! He wakes up smiling and usually goes to bed smiling...
Jeremiah likes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, but because of the theme song, he calls Mickey, 'D-Dog', you just have to hear the song for the connection!! LOL! He also calls hot dogs, 'd-dogs', thus the reason for having hotdogs at the party! I found the idea for the cake from pictures posted on the internet. You should have seen the icing before it dried...pink and purple! The cake pops...were a total hit! If you haven't heard of them before, or better yet tried them, you can find the recipes and ideas, here. They are a little time consuming, but well worth the effort in the end. Follow my advice, bakerella's advice, don't double the recipe! You will have cake pops take over your kitchen if you do! Can you guess, I didn't listen, just had to double that recipe...
As I said in the previous post, I just had to make him a birthday outfit. So I got busy and tried my hand at applique. Worked out pretty good, I must say, so I tried something a little more complicated. The hat! Turned out cuter than I expected, and yes, he loved it! I didn't even have to make him put it on for the pictures!
We had lots of fun at the party. He enjoyed all his presents, and fun with all his family and friends! Thanks to everyone that came and enjoyed this day with us! Here is a special smilebox just for you Jeremiah! Hope you enjoy...

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Wow! What a crazy month!!

I have so much catching up to do...we have three birthdays in the month of February...Virginia Rae the 19th, mine is the 20th, and little bit (Jeremiah's) is the 28th.  I also had several baby gifts to complete before planning the first party.  So.....to catch you up...

Our scout executive and his wife had a baby boy - crocheted a hat for him.
Austin and Keri adopted the sweetest little girl - crocheted a hat for her. (forgot to take a pic. of it!)
A friend from scouts is having twin girls - crocheted two hats for them. (forgot to take a pic of them!)
My best friend from High School had a sweet baby boy - crocheted a coccon, hat and mittens for him.
Virginia Rae needs should have a new dress for her birthday party - crocheted a dress - too big - hanging in the closet for later.
Virginia Rae needs is getting a new dress for her birthday party - which is a Pinkalicious Party  - go through my cloth stash - whip up a dress with matching pants!
Jeremiah needs something new to wear for his birthday party - applique Mickey shirt with matching hat!
Charlotte has a birthday coming - created a new pattern - can't reveal that one yet.

Now with all this getting done, we still have 4th grade and preschool and little bit messing going on!  But somehow, we got all we needed to get done, accomplished.  But then, William gets bronchitis. YUCK!! Virginia Rae gets a cold....yuck!  But with prayer, William starts improving, some, and Virginia Rae's cold gets better.  So the party planning begins...after thinking we had came up with an original idea of our own from Virginia Rae's favorite book, I look on the internet for ideas, and Surprise!  There have been tons of Pinkalicious parties, so I used the help. 

PINKALICIOUS PARTY! 
If you haven't read the book, it is a must!  Especially for girls!  Pinkalicious eats too many pink cupcakes and turns PINK. After going to the doctor, she is told to eat a steady diet of green to return to normal.  She just has to have 1 more cupcake, and turns RED!  Now she eats her green foods, turns normal, only to wake up the next morning and her brother is PINK!!

Our menu was...pink cupcakes, to match the ones in the book, pink popcorn, pink punch, pink finger sandwiches, pickles, broccoli and what else...PINK decorations were everywhere!  Our kitchen looked as if I had spilled Pepto all over it!  But it sure was fun seeing her face when whe saw the cupcakes I had recreated, "Mommy, they are just like the book!"  worth it all!!!  Until, she informs me, an hour before the party, "Mommy, my favorite color is actually PURPLE!" (and yes, she uses the word actually a lot!)
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My newest 'creation'

I have a friend who's mother crocheted all the time and once told me that she was going to have a crochet intervention for her mom...did you ever do that JME?  If not, you may have to invite me to it...this is my newest project.  I finished this sweater Thursday and Jeremiah loves it!  The pictures aren't the best, but, nonetheless, he likes the sweater.  Now the challenge is to create one, without the monster, to fit William.  He wants one to match, minus the monster!  I am working on a dress for Virginia Rae for her birthday, a "Pinkalicious" Party!  I will send pics of it later when complete.  Anyway, I got the pattern for the sweater from a shop on etsy.  The shop is anjibeane. 

Boy have we been busy!!!

You know, winter has always been my favorite time of year, until all the sickness comes!  I just hate all the viruses, and colds and stuff that comes around.  We all had the yucky virus week before last, except Virginia Rae.  I guess because she was fighting off a cold, she didn't get it, Praise the Lord for that, cause it was awful.  Poor William, got in WalMart, and lost everything he had eaten for two days!  Poor housekeeping ladies, I tried to get them to let me clean it up, they wouldn't hear to it.  Now, we are all fighting off colds!  My niece and nephew both got the flu vaccine, and got the flu last week.  Been out of school all week with it.  Later today, or tomorrow, I will post a picture of the sweetest sweater, I made it for Jeremiah from a pattern I got on etsy.  Now William wants one too!  Hope all is well and talk to you all soon!

What a fun day!

Today we spent the day with our Cub Scout Pack, Pack 22.  Our pack is small, and seems to be getting smaller and smaller...but nonetheless, they are a really good group of kids.  We visited Hendrick Motor Sports Complex and had a wonderful time!  We had a great tour and after visiting with daddy a little, we visited the Stewart Haas racing complex.  Not near as 'complex' as Hendrick, still a very nice group and very friendly group of people.  Hope to talk again tomorrow, and soon, hopefully I will add a free tutorial or something fun!!  Have a great evening and Oh!  look what I learned today.....     =^.^=

McSwain Happenings!

First, let me say I am not a writer!  I am starting this blog to keep our families, from west coast to east coast, in touch.  We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!  Loved the snow, except the messy melting part!  The kids got new sleds from my parents for Christmas and actually got to use them on Christmas day. 
William is 10 now and in 4th grade.  I homeschool him and he loves it.  I enjoy watching him learn so quickly and really get into some good discussions.  He likes science, and reading best.  But is really good at math, he amazes me sometimes at how quickly he comes up with answers, and the way he comes up with them!  I can't believe how quickly time passes by.  It seems like yesterday, (cliche', I know) that he was so small and I thought then I could never love him or anyone as much, but boy was I wrong!  My love grows for him daily, as does my love for Virginia Rae and Jeremiah!
Virginia Rae is three, and learning to write her name and learning the alphabet and counting.  She loves, loves, loves to do her "schoolwork" everyday with William.  She enjoys her kitten, Whiskers, and wants him inside with her all the time.  But, mommy just won't let that happen!  Nope, no inside pets, unless its a fish, and they don't make it long at our house!  She also loves to play on the computer, and likes being read to.  She likes to help cook and mop!  Too bad she won't like the last one when she can really do a good job at it!
Jeremiah is 1, and loves playing with playdoh and playing with Whiskers, and William's kitten, Cheddar.  He likes to do anything to "help".  He is so proud when he comes in from helping his daddy or granddaddy feed the dogs or carry in firewood.  We can't go by my parents driveway without him crying for granddaddy.  You should have seen him the week daddy was off work!  He and William thought they should live there!  He likes to visit "paw" and "paw", yes, that is Grandpa and Grandma.  He calls Faye, 'paw'.  He likes to play with her when we visit, and sit on her lap.  He is two steps behind Ray everytime Ray comes in the door and can't stand to see him go out the door! 
They are all three very loving and sweet children.  We have been so blessed!  Hope to post again soon, just not sure how to do this just yet, but I'm learning!