Bella's Dog House

The Kids wanted to build Bella, their Aunt Julie's dog, a dog house for Christmas.  Here is a beginning stage..

Two Experiments in Foods for the Bull Fam--

 When in Russia, the girls went to school with many kids from different cultures--that had some scrumptious foods that the moms made from time to time.  If I had one regret that I can mention from Russia-it was not spending enough time with the different moms around me.  I have always said that I would try my hand at a "Kim-bob"--spelling???? .  So, here it is.  The girls and I love them, the boys can pass.  I want to do this again sometime.

 

 The second thing that I experimented with was my barbecue tacos, like On the Border's Brisquet tacos.  The only difference was I used turkey instead of meat.  I fried up some skinny onions --with my own batter!!  They were yummy!!!  Everyone who ate them agreed...even Matthew!

 

Mark's Birthday--October 8th

 Deep conversation!

 Mark and his cousin Grant---they are 6 months apart and play a lot together!!

 Thanks John!!  I have the ideas, buy the stuff, but John does the party!!

 Who wants ice cream???

 Uncle Brent loved the first time he saw Matthew "inhale" cotton candy, so he brought some just for Matthew to the party!!  Thanks!  Matthew loved it!

 Mimi and her kiddos!

 Mark got a crossbow from Grant's family.

Mark loves Star Wars, so I gave in and went all out with the theme!  We made light sabors ...blue ones, had a pinata and just plain had a blast!!

Fun Info about the Readers of my blog!

Countries in order of how many readers read my blog!
How fun to see where people are reading from...

United States	534
Russian Federation	125
United Kingdom	8
Honduras	4
Belarus	3
Bahrain	3
Germany	3
Japan	3
Serbia	2
France	2
Portugal	2
Netherlands	2
Finland	2
Israel	1

Our life in Longview

 This is our tradition photo...in our new room

 Katie at her desk

 Mark and Matthew in deep discussion at the kitchen window

 Matthew at his starfall post!

 Mark is stationed in Mimi's living room for school

 Melissa is in the study for her school.

 This is the start up screen for school at BJU

 Katie was caught looking upset, but really is just pensive.

 John took us on a hike to where he worked this summer.

 This is where he cleared some brush

 more clearing

this is a possible house place in the area he cleared for his parent's land.

Fall Hayride!

Aunt Mary's

 We had a get together at John's Aunt Mary's and were able to visit with a lot of family after being gone for a year.  We made homemade ice cream and even the older ones took turns churning!  Aunt Cathy brought her new puppy and my kids loved holding it!

Horses

 

This summer we started horseback riding lessons at the Turnbow Ranch in East Texas.  Horses are very therapeutic and since we are in warm country, this is what we are doing for our physical activity for the kids.  Mimi wanted to help with this and we are so very grateful.  We have all four of the kids riding for now and their cousin Davis does lessons too, on a different day though.  They have to curry and brush the horses before riding them and after.  Sometimes, they have washed them down too.  They also get to scoop up the presents that their horse leave them in the barn!  Ms. Martha, Ms. Cindy, and Mr. Monty help with the training.