A Busy Weekend

Whew! Am I glad that weekend is over...now we can slow down a bit. :) Cliff & I went to his work Christmas party on Friday. Saturday afternoon, Autumn had her winter show for rhythmic gymnastics and Wynn also had his Christmas sleepover that day for Beavers. Then, on Sunday (before I returned from the sleepover with Wynn), a friend came over to start painting the walls of the hallway and staircase as the walls are so high and I really had no idea how "I" was going to do it. I don't have pics from the party but I must say that Cliff sang Kareokee (not bad I must say) and I danced some. (Probably a good thing I don't have pics of that! :)!) I also don't have pics of the painting as it is still in process, instead I'll post pics of when it is done. However, I DO HAVE pics of my kids and their w/e activities.
AUTUMN: (sorry I didn't get the pics edited yet, hope they are not too dark)






WYNN:


Making Christmas crafts


Rolling out their personal pizza crust


A little bit of tomato sauce then toppings


It's done & looks good...Let's eat!


Storytime around the campfire


Breakfast time - making breakfast burritos


Stick the tail on the beaver

Blog Party

You are invited to a party that is having a very special blog giveaway. Go to Tamara's site and read about her story of three years of blogging and the story of the angel bear she is giving away. It really touched me - don't forget your box of kleenex. And while you are there leave a comment to encourage Tamara too.

Free Candle

Yup another giveaway! :) Vanilla Spice, that's the one for me. Which one is your favorite? Go to this site and check them out and enter yourself in the giveaway. Don't forget to enter your name and mention you heard about it from me. Good Luck!

Walking With The Dinosaurs

I know that I'm kind of late getting these pictures posted. Especially considering the show was Nov. 30th. No excuses, I'll just get to doing that right now cause when I give my word, I do WHAT I say I will (just not always WHEN I say I will) *embarrased smilie*



This is my gang anxiously waiting for the show to start.








Liam showing off his dinosaur shirt. "Soft & Fuzzy"..."Boy is he in for a surprise!"










No Picture Available (mine didn't turn out) - The Triassic Period. The environment was very harsh, with deserts and dry wilderness. There was no grass and no flowers. There were no dinosaurs at the beginning of the triassic but many amphibians and reptiles. At the end of the period, the first sauropods appear.





The Jurassic Period - The continents shift and the climates worldwide become wetter and warmer. The deserts retreat and are replaced by lush forests and vast open fern prairies.






The Stegosaurus - at 9 meters long and 4 meters tall, this is one of the most easily identifiable dinos.







Mass fire burning and killing all the vegetation









Rain has put out the fires but there is no vegetation so many of the herbivores dinosaures died out.


















The Cretaceuos Period - the continents continue to break up and there is more bodies of water forming and the sea levels were high. In the skies, the Pterosaurs were common. Dinosaurs on land continued to diversify and dominate the landscape. New species of herbivores emerged and new carnivore groups developed.




For the first time, flowering plants appeared and became the dominant flora.


















Here comes mommy T-Rex! That little guy in the corner would be her baby that the other dinos are cornering...

















Mommy T-Rex and baby. T.Rex was one of the largest terrestrial carnivores of all time. It stood approx 4-5 meters high, was about 12-15 meters in length and roughly 6 tonnes in weight. It was one of the last dinos to exist prior to the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. It's not certain what caused the demise of the dinos but the most widely accepted explanation of the mass extinction of animal and marine life at the end of the late Cretaceous is the collision of a meteor into the earth.

I Can't Believe It...Actually I Can!

What an ordeal that was! This used to be where we had a sliding patio door. It was soo cold in the winter, we had to put plastic inside and outside because until then you could feel the cold air radiating through. We got it changed to an insulated garden door with brass grills to match the rest of the windows. Sounds easy enough, right. NOT! When the installers started removing the frame of the old door, part of the wall started cracking and falling! Needless to say, the guy inside yelled to the guy outside to "STOP" and said in a confused tone, "This isn't supposed to happen!?" When you build a door, you are supposed to have a header that holds the wall up and THEN the frame is inserted. There was no header so the door is all that was holding the wall up. So they just inserted it temporarily and came back with all the tools/items they needed two days later and constructed a header, put up new drywall and inserted the door correctly and sealed it. This picture doesn't actually make it look too bad, but you can see where the piece about 3'' high is above the door that was replaced. Sooner than later I'll have to get around to painting that part of the wall white like the rest. The guys kept apologizing but I more than understood. In fact, I just shook my head and told Cliff, "Now you have another (true) story of the peculiarities of this house." Honestly, we have come across so many goof-ups of when this place was built or renovated - windows, plumbing, structural just to name a few. On a positive note, we were lucky to get the door changed just before the snow came to stay.

Ta - Da!

After checking several stores and not being able to find a microwave (who would have thought...), we finally went to Home Depot (one of my favorite stores:) ). The problem then wasn't IS there one, but rather WHICH one. Well, we finally decided and there it is on the left. It is a combination microwave/convection oven. I must admit I've never used a convection oven and so was a little hesitant at first but Hubby thought this would be easier as well as more energy efficient. I'm open to trying new things, especially if they make things easier for me in the long run! :) Have any of you ever used a convection oven? Are there certain things you prefer baking or cooking in it? I'll have to let you know how it goes.

In other news, my mother, my kids, and I went to attend a Saturday evening service at Church Of The Rock, yesterday evening. A boy who is in Wynn's grade 1 class and his family attend so it was nice to know someone there. The kids really enjoyed and so did both I and my mom. I enjoyed the music, the service, and the mood/environment. My 4 year old daughter and her friend were dancing in the aisle during Praise & Worship and all the kids enjoyed the kids ministry. I'm hoping to go back this coming Saturday and there is also a home-group near where we live that I would like to find out more about and hopefully attend. More than anything, I would really like to go as a family (moi, Hubby, & kids). I think DH would probably like it. He grew up in the Catholic church and now doesn't have much to do with church. He does not agree with the Catholic teaching but whenever he's gone to a more charasmatic church with me, he has been uncomfortable and for lack of better words, "freaked out". The pastor and the congregation are of a younger generation and I think he may feel more comfortable getting back into the church setting here. Last night's service was on Acts chapter 1 and us being "Transformers" It was very good and the pastor was very down to earth, real, and in his own way - funny. Here is a joke for you - (Q) What do you call a transformer's sister? (A) a transister :D.

Prayer Basket

Tamara at Training Hearts is having a giveaway for a prayer basket. It is such a creative idea and I know that my prayer life is lacking so thought maybe this would be a cute way to make it more fun. All you have to do is leave a comment with your email. Check it out!