So, I'm biased...Beautiful Niece Esther!

Sweet little Esther is my niece!  She's a beautiful baby!  My younger brother's first wee little one!  Isn't she adorable!  I loved holding her(especially when surrounded by pillows!), babies can get your arms a little tired!  We love our new niece!

Baby Naomi!!!

Naomi is one of the sweetest babies that I've seen!!  She is our good friends' first little one.   The best part, for my girls, is the holding!!  They love baby Naomi and when Naomi opens her eyes, we hope she grows to love the Bulls!

Field trip time

We went to the East Texas Oil Museum(the 6-8th grades) and they reviewed what they learned a few weeks back.  I'm not a big fan of field trips, never have been---even with home schooling.  Usually, I am glad that I took the kids and went, but the first part--planning and going is not my favorite.  Even after this one, I can't say I'm glad I went.  It was a great museum, but without a guide, it was not much other than visual.  I wish I had learned it all over again!  It was neat to see the history of East Texas though.

Painting...

 John wanted the boys and girls to pick out their room colors...so we ended up with spider-man red and blue and....lime green!!!

Brick is all done!!

This is the back view of the porch...and the steps down into the backyard.  The brick we picked is so different than we expected.  (We had a house here in Long-moo picked out---asked the brick companies about it, and they told us what brick it was---well, evidently, if the brick we have is the brick that we saw on the house---the brick varies A LOT!--which is highly likely with this brick) The mortar was wrong also---don't know how that happened either, but it's like God used these mistakes or differences to create a new look and we love it.  When life deals you lemons, rest assured, you can make lemon pie!!!
Texture on the walls is done!!!  Painting begins on Friday!  I cannot believe it's really happening!!
The kids are picking their colors.  Wait for it...lime green for the girls, spider-man red and blue for the boys.  Oh my!  

Science Cell projects

One of my classes that I teach is life science.  These are some of my student's cell projects...they just amazed me.  One of the requirements was they do these without parent help(except if they had to get supplies.).  I encouraged them to use what they had...one of them made a cake cell, one used toothpaste in her project, my own daughter made a duct tape cell.  All but one of the projects were for sure student done...one of them, I don't know for sure.  The questions about why the student made the grade they did tipped me off to maybe some special interest from a parent involved in the project.  But, I could be wrong!!!

More brick!

 I know it's a mess in front of the house, but the brick is up!!

The brick ledge on the front porch was the highlight of my day!  Teaching this year has been interesting.  It's more work than I could ever imagine and the emotions that go with teaching...unbelievable.  I've had a roller coaster week, but I am grateful for a lovely house and a great family.

Matthewism...

Matthew came in after cleaning a room and said, "I have two ideas!"...I had to take a picture!!!

Exciting---Brick and Dry wall!!!

Our brick!!!  mortar may dry lighter(or so I've been told)...I love it!!!  Brick is called Old River, I think.

our room---or at least the ceiling!

our fireplace and built ins!!

our living room...
That's all for now...I didn't go in many rooms...they were working hard and I was told that if anyone got in the way, they probably would be hit by dry wall.

Baby Girl!!!

My new niece!!!  How I wish I could be there for her birth!!!  Our class voted on whether she was going to be a boy or a girl...the girl votes won!  We didn't know the sex of the baby, so this birth was extra exciting!!!  Mom's doing well and I think Dad is proud to be a papa and proud of his wife!

Mark is turning 9!!

 Snuggled in mom and dad's bed!!! 

Mark is turning 9 on Monday, so he had a few people (2 cousins and 2 friends) over to celebrate!

Mark opening presents...

Mark wanted a lego man/Batman cake...so here was the end result.---he told me how to decorate it, and I did it...my ears heard a bit different than he meant, but he was so grateful...it was sweet to watch.    Notice the dead lying down lego---and the robber next to him...Mark's idea!!!  I made some candy lego men...some multi colored, some yellow, red, green....they were tasty and cute!