Friday, December 28, 2007

Its back! Snow!



I love it... unfortunately, RyLee and I are the only 2 out of 5 who enjoy this white fluffy stuff! *Ü* It began Christmas Day and snowed again yesterday. No rain this time after it stopped! Yeah!

So for now, RyLee and I will enjoy it while it lasts. *Ü*

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Merry Christmas from Koinonia Academy!



Wanting to wish all my blogging and online friends a very Merry Christmas!

Luke 2:8-11

In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. Andan angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Its time to play... Wordless Wednesday!!! *Ü*









If you would like to play, and see more WW pictures... please visit 5minutesformom

Friday, December 14, 2007

A little about my RyLee Kay


This is RyLee Kay. She is the youngest of 3 children. 7 years younger than her brother and 4 years younger than her sister. She loves to cook and bake,she tries to knit and sew too. She loves to work right along side her dad when working around the house. It could be working on carpentry skills, or the old 54 mercury wagon we have. She is my little shadow as well.She enjoys doing everything I do, or tries to get me to do something with her... making cookies or whatever....


She is thoughtful, caring and yet can be bossy and a know it all. She has always been an "I can do it" child. For instance, at 2 we caught her in the kitchen on the floor with a screwdriver and batteries around her taking the back off of her new toy to put the batteries in. Her reaction to us at that moment was "I can do it!" So saying she has initiative is seriously an understatement! She has always been an over achiever.... beginning with walking at 8 1/2 months! Although she is bossy and a know it all at times,she is a delight and blessing. Those are just 2 things we work really hard with her on.


You might be wondering why I'm posting about my RyLee Kay? Today, she went out of town with my mom for a day or 2, and I realized this morning how much I miss her when she is not here. The other reason I am posting about Ry is because the other day... my dog, Gidget ate a bunch of almond rocca, minus chocolate and almonds. *Ü* We had to take her to the emergency vet hospital for treatment because her condition became serious. Gidgets not RyLee *Ü*

Now to give a little background, for the past 3 years this will be year 4 I think. At Christmas we began a tradition of 3 gifts each. 1 of the gifts is a "gold" gift. The gold gift typically is expensive to some degree or its the one "want" gift they have been looking forward to hopefully getting. Well when Gidget was sick and just before my husband took Gidget to the vet, RyLee offered her Gold gift to be taken back to help pay for the vet bill.

Her little heart was crushed that Gidget might have to be put down and she wanted to do and give all she had to help pay the vet so we could keep her. I just thought that was so precious of her, and reminded me how tender hearted and giving this child really is.

We are very proud of her and her siblings, but I just wanted to make known what a special little girl she is.

I am very proud of my RyLee Kay

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Wordless Wednesday

I will apologize now for this not being wordless, but it cant be helped.

This is the face of a guilty dog. What is she guilty of you ask? She is guilty of eating 2, yes, 2 batches of almond rocca.... before I was able to put the chocolate and nuts on it.

I'm not sure if you know whats in 2 batches of almond rocca... so I will tell you. *Ü* 2 pounds of butter and 4 cups sugar. That's it....


Normally this is her " I'm the bad dog" look.... but since it was so much butter and sugar... I'm thinking this is her... "I really don't feel good" look.




To enjoy more WW pictures, please visit 5minutesformom.

Update on Gidget! Well an emergency vet visit was in order. Unfortunately butter can cause pancreatitis in a dog. She had a swollen belly and this was an indicator that she was in trouble. She has been re hydrated and is now sleeping in front of the fire. She has meds she needs every six hours for the next week, but we think she will make a full recovery. Sigh... darn dog!!! She costs more $$ than raising my children!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Lapbook Lessons for free!

I am on a lapbook blog ring. I try to visit a few blogs each week on the ring. Valarie's lapbook lesson blog has announced her new blog called lapbook lessons.It offers free visual information on lap booking and lapbooking helps and resources. The can be found here Lapbook lessons, and is a sister blog to Valaries lapbook lessons. *Ü*

She has some videos on her blog that can help someone new to lap books or anyone who has done it for a while and needs a little inspiration! Here is one of the videos from youtube. It is called Quick Triangle Books.





You can visit either one of the blogs for more ideas and inspiration or, jut go to youtube and type in Lapbook lessons. She has many uploaded for anyone to view. *Ü* Its to bad November is over, she has some cute crafts and lapbook ideas for preschool aged children. A lot of what she offers is for the younger crowd, but you can take the information and make it your own for more complex and or older children's work.

Take some time and browse around. Its a treasure of a find!

Another resource that also has video is called Little Blot spots. and Little junction

Both sites bursting with crafts and lapbook type ideas with children. Again for the younger crowd....

Free Nativity Lap book

Being on yahoogroups good ideas and resources are always being shared. Last month someone posted a link to free Nativity Lap Book. I cant remember what yahoogroup it was though *Ü*

The lap book is so cute! I do not have little ones anymore, but wanted to make it anyway. So Christian and I printed it out,cut, colored and pasted it all together for my 3 year old nephew. I found it for free here ( Nativity Lap Book )

We will send it along with other Christmas goodies, but I'm sure he will love playing with the little cut outs (we laminated them so they will last).










Monday, December 10, 2007

Out of the mouth of babes....

This was forwarded to me from a yahoo list I am on... being the curious sort, I decided to Google.

This youtube video is of a 13 year old boy named Logan. He listens to Christian radio in Nebraska and called into the radio station distraught because he just put his calf down. I wont tell you anymore, I will let you listen to Logan.... Out of the mouths of babes....



I love Google. ( you can read more back ground here Valencia Hills )

PS. Please note the links that show up after the video is over might not be propper.... so please dont click them.

Oh Christmas tree....

Thursday, we finally went and cut down our tree! We were 5 days past our traditional first Saturday of December....but weather played into that one!

The tree farm we have been going to the last few years is only about 10 minutes away and we love the folks their! Family owned and operated.... we love it!





As the kids get older, I realize we may not have everyone here each year, so I soak up all this time I get with them. (Can you tell his heart is into it? *Ü* Hes looking at his cell phone! lol anybody want to tell him we don't get cell reception out here? lol) *Ü*



Bubbie and Sissy...awe....



Well we found the perfect tree! *Ü* Dan cuts it down and RyLee catches it. *Ü*




All 3 kids take the tree to the car....



We drive up to the top of the place and they have a machine that shakes the tree for us.We also go inside a little house to get warmed by a fire and have hot cider. It was pretty cold, so this felt good.

It was a fun day. After we let the tree sit for a bit, we broke out all the decorations, and began to decorate the tree and the house. RyLee was able to place the angle on top of the tree this year.








I love the way the house looks with all the decorations. We light the lights and candles at night, and the room has such a soft warm glow. I love this time of year!

Toaday.....

We woke up late today..... and the morning moved slow, but around 9:00 we began our school for the day. The girls finally began A Christmas Carol. They are both using LL8 to go with it. Both accomplished math, grammar, writing, vocabulary and spelling!

In between the serious stuff, we decided to make some candy bags. We use the frosting bags you can purchase at Joann fabrics or any craft store.



The candy we chose this year... Christmas colored M&Ms, malted milk balls, Christmas taffy and soft candy cane mints. Yum!


We layer them however we want and the close the top with ribbon!



So we took longer with our day, but it was fun for them to break it up a bit. We will hand these out as gifts for their friends and a few peeps at church! It worked out to be about $1.50 cents a bag.... Not to shabby... and a fun craft for the girls...

RyLee also had to make Turtle temptations!




She got this as a gift from my mom a little while ago. You might think that's a strange gift for an 11 year old... but she loved it! RyLee enjoys cooking and baking and will jump at the chance.








tomorrow we get a bit more serious and begin cookies!! *Ü*

Menu Monday



Monday:
Meat sauce and pasta (spagetti squash) salad and wheat rolls

Tuesday:
BBQ Chicken and rice w/ vegies


Wednesday:
Chili and corn bread

Thursday:
Left over

Friday:
Homemade Pizza bbq chicken and a cheese, along with salad

Want to enjoy more menu Monday? Click here Im an organized junkie

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Wordless Wednesday

For more wordless Wednesday visit 5minutesformom

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

December 4th update Getting better and better!














I have wonderful news! The county and ace paving showed up about 12:00today to look over the damage. Hite Center is now one of the few roadsbeing worked on. I just came home and we have trucks, county people,ace paving, new pipes all over the place!
I'm so thankful, and Dan kept saying come on Lisa.... cause I kept stopping and thanking all the workers! LOL I couldn't help it! I was bursting with gratitude! I wanted to cry I was so happy.... how sappy is that?! lol

So we shall see what tomorrow brings! They are telling us they hope to have a working road by tomorrow. What a blessing! Thanks everyone!
Lisa




















Monday, December 3, 2007

update

This was our road...

The video may not show it, but we have lost almost 20 feet of our road.... and if you look at the road and see the crack in the road..... its about another 20 feet of road..... we are stuck my friends!