Sparkles

Sparkles skating rink does a homeschool day every month, and this month, a friend of ours asked if we were going to go. I had told my kids I would take them, but kept forgetting about it - so her question reminded me about it. My kids were very excited to go and had a great time learning how to skate! Oh, and I took all these pictures while skating myself, so they aren't quite as good as they could have been!

The sign painted on the back wall - I loved the way it looked when they did the black out skate!

Clayton quickly switched from regular skates to inlines and he quit falling quite so much! 

Cheyenne loved skating!

Cheyenne and her friend Sarah Kate.

Paige skating with a help. She liked using this! (But sadly I didn't get any other pictures of her.)

Cheyenne getting comfortable with skating.

Clayton taking the turns cautiously.

Clayton getting in a groove.

Shelby got off the playground at the very end to try skating. She was being goofy, saying "Look, I'm not falling!"

And then plopped down on the floor! 

Shelby skating in the middle of the rink (where the kids with helps were supposed to be).

365 in 2015 - End of Week 53!

It's the final week! I'm so excited to be done with my 365 project. I can honestly say I learned a lot, although I wish I had turned my camera to manual mode far sooner than October. I think I still have a ton of room for improvement - especially since I still can't figure out how to capture pictures in my house in the evening because it's far too dark. Anyway, I'm excited to move on to other things, even though I want to continue learning more - just at my own pace without feeling pressured into a schedule. So here's my final five pictures of the year!

Some crazy dancing ensued while making dinner Monday evening. This was one of those times where my house is so dark, I have trouble capturing things better. I chose this picture because it had (at least part) of my three dancing kiddos. 

A self-portrait in the mirror on the carousel at the zoo. We wanted to go one last time before the end of the year!

We finally got around to cutting down the dead tree in our yard. We weren't sure exactly how it would fall, but we didn't die (as Clayton so elegantly screamed after it fell and missed both us and the house)!

"Mommy I picked you these beautiful yellow flowers!"

While enjoying our neighbor's fireworks, Shelby wasn't so sure she wanted to be holding a Morning Glory!

365 in 2015 - End of week 52

This is officially week 52! But my first week was only two days, so I have five days left of my challenge. I got a new camera lens for Christmas and have enjoyed playing with that as well. I'm hoping to end better than I've done the last few weeks!

Cheyenne's new dress (and matching one for her doll!) that she got from Grandma for Christmas. She was so excited to get up and get dressed for church! 

On Monday, my two big girls each lost a tooth! Paige lost her first tooth, and Cheyenne lost her third! (Yes, my kids are on the later side for losing teeth!)

Tuesday morning was insanely foggy when I woke up. I quickly got the kids up and out so we could take some pictures. This was one of my favorites!

One of many pictures we took at Freeman's Mill Park. 

Paige playing on the porch with my umbrella one rainy evening.

Jon's new apron. He'd mentioned wanting one with Kiss the Cook on it, and I thought this one was funny!

One of my new ornaments made by Mary from The Old Well House. 

365 in 2015 - End of Week 51

It's getting so close to the end of the my 365 project! I can't wait to be finished, and yet, I kinda (but only kinda) want to continue. I'm looking forward to working on learning more - without the pressure of feeling the need to take constant pictures of get them on here. Anyway, here's my pictures from last week!

This is an extra picture from the end of the week. I still mostly miss Sundays, so I just try to plug in an extra picture from later in the week. I thought this was neat!

My girls before their award ceremony Monday evening.

We went to a friend's house and decorated gingerbread houses on Tuesday. Clayton was quite proud of his and just how fully covered it was!

A pretty day at Mamaw's house always leads to tree climbing! Cheyenne got higher than she's gone before, and of course Paige is as absolutely high as she can possibly get in the tree! 

At school Thursday, I didn't see Shelby in the nursery. I asked Sophia where she was and she said that Shelby was in the box. I took the lid off and found her all curled up inside!

I skipped Friday, so this is from Saturday. We had Christmas with Jon's dad and stepmom. Shelby sat right down next to Grandpa and started "reading" her books. 

A self portrait....of sorts.

365 in 2015 - End of Week 50

Ah, I'm caught up with these (until tomorrow anyway)! Once again I didn't take many pictures last week, so most of these are from one day. That seems to be how I've been doing recently. And how I foresee myself taking pictures in the future. It won't necessarily be a daily thing, but I want to be able to know what I'm doing when I can and want to take pictures. I still need to learn how to better manage taking pictures indoors in low light situations (at night). Mine tend to be too grainy. Something to work on though!

My newest peppermint soap from Apple Valley Natural Soap. I loved all the bubbles!

Jon's dad Otis and his sisters: Annette and Maxine.

Paige

Shelby

Cheyenne

Clayton

The kiddos!

365 in 2015 - End of Week 49

I'm moving into December pictures! So excited to be finishing up this project soon! I still have more to learn and want to learn more, but I'm at the point where I want to do it at my own pace, with other (different) projects thrown in between (like more sewing!). These are from the week of November 29 - December 5. Continuing with the thankfulness theme this week too. 

Silliness: Paige's new fashion style - tights on the head!

Cuddles: Shelby's cuddle time with Daddy.

Reading out loud: I wrapped up twenty-five books to open and read every day. Counting down to Christmas!

Little helpers: Paige helping decorate Mamaw's little tree. I just love the scarf on her head!

Beautiful colors: God's amazing artwork one evening!

Volunteering: I was so excited to get to work at the Operation Christmas Child warehouse this year! It was a very neat experience and I hope I can go back next year too!

Christmas memories: Cheyenne and Paige dressed up and ready for the Buford Christmas Parade (it was a chilly morning) with their American Heritage Girls troop! It was a sweet time together with our troop!

365 in 2015 - End of Week 48

I finally got a few minutes to work on another 365 post! I was hoping to get stay on top of these as well as catch up with my other pictures (I'm still working on July!), but I doubt that will happen. Oh well, life is more important than sitting behind a computer! These are from the week of November 22nd-28th. Continuing with the thankfulness theme.

Big Smiles: I love seeing my kiddos have fun and enjoy themselves! It's always a joy to see their beautiful smiles!

Determination: Paige was working hard to get this thing to move how she wanted it to!

Laughter: Shelby went to giggling when I asked to take her picture.

Christmas trees and decorations: We put our tree up before Thanksgiving this year because we were going out of town on Thanksgiving day for the whole weekend. I love having our tree up and decorated. It's so beautiful!

Visiting family: We went to Aunt Maxine's house in Atmore, Alabama for Thanksgiving. We had a great time visiting with everyone!

Family pictures: I love getting pictures of all of us! 

Beautiful scenery: The morning view at Aunt Annette's farm.

365 in 2015 - End of Week 47

I'm a couple weeks behind posts for my 365 project. I just couldn't seem to get excited about doing the rest of November's pictures. I figured out why while I was doing the ones for this post (from the week of November 15th - 21st): I just didn't take very many, and I only liked a couple of the ones I did take. I'm still posting them all here because I feel like I need to and I'm so close to the end! I am definitely ready to be done though. One thing to note is that I have kept my camera on manual mode almost exclusively since October! I've learned more and more things the more pictures I take and I really wish I had done that earlier this year! As will be obvious with this post though, I still have a lot to learn!

Fun Fabric: I found this lovely Christmas print at Joann's and decided to make a tree skirt out of it! This is the first Christmas I get to use it! (I made it in July, but never took pictures of it.)

Comfy spots for homeschooling: The kids needed to watch a short video for their history class. They enjoyed laying on the bed to watch it! 

Sharing: The girls played so nicely with Cheyenne's glowing art board! The took turns coloring on it and creating different people. 

Baby love: Paige loves her cousin Patrick! And I just love those smiles! 

Sweet moments with friends and cousins: The kids enjoying a sweet moment at co-op on Thursday! 

Windows: I was just extremely thankful that this thing was not INSIDE my car. Have you seen those stories about people jumping out of their cars or something crazy like that? Yeah, that could have been me! (You should have seen how I acted with it on the outside!!)

Naps: Shelby decided she needed one on her own. Which is why she is on the floor....behind Jon's chair. Notice she put her skirt on backward! :-)