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It has been a very busy day. Actually it has been a very, very busy few weeks. On Friday, I took the girls to the George Washington Carver Memorial in Diamond, MO. We had a very fun day. There is a hiking trail, and a museum, and even a model schoolroom. It was very educational, and so much fun to boot. On Saturday the girls had their first Soccer games of the season. I think that Vanessa's team won, and Vallerie's team lost, but I am not sure. The games were at the same time and I had to split my attention between two fields. Both girls played very hard and had a lot of fun. In the afternoon, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Mooney's. My mom and I spent all afternoon peeling and coring apples, a bunch of apples... I mean like a TON of apples.  After peeling and coring our apples, we cooked them down and made applesauce, lots of applesauce, I mean, like a TON of applesauce... OK, maybe not a ton of apples, or applesauce, but a lot.  If you are counting, that is 16 cans of applesauce and 6 cans of salsa. Then today we had a party for Darin's birthday. It happens to coincide with the beginning of Football season, so it has become an annual tradition for us. I spent a lot of time cooking today, but it wasn't too bad. I still had plenty of time to visit with everyone. On a side note, have I mentioned that I enjoy painting? I like to paint murals. I have also dabbled in some pictures for my family. They are all very kind, and say that my paintings are good, but I think they are just being kind. My paintings are not too bad (you can tell that my fish are fish, and bunnies are bunnies), but I am not sure about good, not yet anyway. I need some more practice. Anyway, here are some murals that I just recently finished.  These guys are in the girls' bathroom.  This is in my laundry room. I am not sure what is wrong with my birds, but their wings are all messed up. I may go back and fix them later, but at this point I am the only one that really looks at them. I also need to attach some clothespins to the line so that the clothes look like they are attached. Sorry there are no pictures of the kids. I haven't had my camera out at all lately. I will try to have some new pictures of the girls next time I post. Blessings, Abby |
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The other day I was ready for something new on our menu so I decided to try one of Stephanie's recipes from this website. I decided to try the Chicken Cordon Bleu. Darin and I thought it was pretty good. First gather your ingredients.  It doesn't take very many ingredients to make Chicken Cordon Bleu. Pound out the chicken flat.  All I had available to flatten the chicken was a pot. It worked alright, but make sure that you put the chicken in a Ziploc bag because things can get messy.  Be careful where you are swinging the pot.  Roll the piece of chicken around a piece or two of ham and a piece of Swiss cheese. Place in the crock pot and repeat until all the chicken is in the crock pot. Take a can of cream of something soup and pour over the chicken. Cook on low for 6 - 8 hours, or on high for 4 -5 hours. I served mine with a side of rice, but noodles would be good too.  This was Stephanie's picture from her blog. I forgot to take a picture before we ate it all. I hope you enjoy this as much as we did. The pictures (except Stephanie's) are compliment of Vanessa. Isn't she a wonderful photographer? Blessings, Abby |
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We have been having such a good time with our schooling. Vanessa and I have gotten into Lap booking. Vanessa's first lap book was about the country of Hungary. We learned so many interesting facts. Then we took some of what we learned and put it into a neat little package called a lap book. For those of you who are not familiar with lap books, let me educate you... A lap book (when I refer to it) is a file folder (in this case manila, but after visiting an office supply store, hopefully some other color) that has been refolded and a bunch of mini-books put inside. Each mini-book has an interesting fact, or many facts. Lap books are hard to explain, and a picture is worth a thousand words, so here you go. Closed...  Open...  The proud artist with the flag which is glued on the back...  Another activity that we did was make Hungarian Goulash. It was quite delicious. Unfortunately, Vanessa and Vallerie did not agree with me. They took only one bite. Vanessa did most of the work for this dish. Cutting onions...  Posing for a picture...  We cooked it in the crock pot, which took hours and hours. So what is a body to do while we wait? I know! Let's play school! "I'll be the teacher"  "Read this word Vallerie"  "OK, here is your homework Vallerie." What a fun day! Blessings, Abby |
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It has been a while since I posted anything about my garden. It has kind of taken off and has a mind of it's own. I haven't gotten much of a harvest from it yet, but I am hoping that my tomatoes will ripen soon. There are a bunch of green tomatoes on my plants. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I will be posting some pictures instead of trying to describe how my pumpkin and watermelon plants have taken over my yard. Do you remember what my little pumpkin plant looked like?  So little, so cute, so easily uprooted... Look at it now...  This is only part of the plant. I am not sure how to get the whole plant into one picture. It has taken over part of my yard, and even went through the fence. You can see it climbing the fence in this picture. Not so easily uprooted now, huh? One thing that I had not realized about pumpkins, is that as the vine grows it puts down little shoots, like roots, into the ground to anchor itself. Remember how neat my garden use to look?  Look at it now!  This is from a different angle, but you get the idea. The plants have grown out of control, the weeds have taken over, and apparently, I have been harboring some kind of tall weed. I thought it was a seed that I had planted, but everyone is now telling me it is not what I planted. The plant is as tall as me, and I am not sure what to do now. You can see it in the back of this picture with Vanessa. It's the tallest plant. The good news is that we will have pumpkins, and tomatoes, and we have had lots of jalapenos. I haven't seen anything on my pepper plants yet, but I have hope.  Isn't it cute. It is smaller than a dinner plate right now, but give it time, and I bet it will be huge. Blessings, Abby |
Okay, I had promised a few days ago to post some pictures of the girls doing school... I did take a few pictures of some finished projects for your viewing pleasure. The first few weeks of school we are going to make a puppet for each letter of the alphabet. Vanessa is showing off her Abby Alligator for letter "A", and Beautiful Bear for letter "B".  Here is Vallerie showing off her puppets. I think that she named her alligator Abby too, but the bear's name is Barry Bear. After being good for the pictures it was time to goof off a little bit, because everyone was feeling silly.  Vallerie  Vanessa  Vanessa and Vallerie Blessings, Abby |
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Okay, I know that you were expecting some cute pictures of my adorable children, but not today. I have been planning a birthday party for Darin and am going to be making most of the dishes in the crock-pot. When I was at Wal-Mart the other day and found a crock-pot at a very reasonable price. It came with a "little dipper". It is so cute. I had to enclose some pictures.  This is the new crock-pot, still in it's wrapping.To put it in perspective here is a picture of the Little Dipper next to a can of soup.  Isn't it too cute? It is for dips, and fondues, and sauces and stuff.Darin was laughing at me when I took the pictures. I told him if he had a blog he would be taking pictures of his tools too, so there. Blessings, Abby |
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We had another busy day today. Actually, come to think of it, it has been a busy week. The girls and I have been busy doing some school. Mostly playing with dominoes and making paper bag puppets. Our goal is to make a paper bag puppet for every letter in the alphabet. We are up to the letter E. I know I promised pictures of our school day, but I never remember to take the pictures until after our school is over. Maybe my coffee doesn't kick in fast enough... We worked ahead yesterday so that we could go to Silver Dollar City today. Unfortunately, it didn't end up being a good day to go to Silver Dollar City. The one show I particularly wanted to see wasn't having a show today. And the weather didn't cooperate very well either. As soon as we parked our van it started to rain. As we were waiting in line for the tram to the entrance, it started pouring. We saw the Veggie Tales show, and I thought we would be ok, but again it started raining, hard. We decided to wait it out so that we could go to the rest of the shows we were interested in, only to find out that one of them (the magic show) didn't have a show today. We beat a quick path to the exit. The rest of our day was fine though. The kids took naps, and I rested. Darin, wonderful man that he is, took us out to dinner to Rosie Jo's diner here in Ozark. It was absolutely wonderful food and atmosphere. A great ending to a not so great day. Blessings, Abby |
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Today was the first day of school, if you can call it that. We colored pictures, played with dominoes, visited with friends and ran some errands. It was a very productive day. Then, this evening the big girls went to work with their daddy. They helped Uncle, Grandpa, and Daddy pull electrical wire. I will post some pictures tomorrow of the fun we are having. Blessings, Abby |
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We have been having a very fun summer. The girls and I have been listening to a lot of books on tape. Here is a list of the books we have listened to so far: A Little Princess Eight Cousins Alice in Wonderland Through the Looking Glass Because of Winn-Dixie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I think our next book will be Peter Pan. We have been playing outside on our bikes. Darin and I invested in a couple of bikes for ourselves and a trailer for Tori. It has been a fun activity that we have been able to do all together. I have found a neat website. This lady has made a new years' resolution to use her crockpot everyday for a year. There have been some really yummy recipes. www.crockpot365.blogspot.com We are going to start school on Monday. Darin has decided that he would like to teach math. I am going to start the girls with some pre-school type stuff for Vallerie. It will be a good review for Vanessa too. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment.  Vanessa is imitating Amanda from "Because of Winn-Dixie". Amanda was always "pinched-faced". Vallerie is riding her bike. I love the look on her face. She is trying not to smile because she knows I am taking her picture, but can't help herself. Tori is trying on one of her sister's hats. She is very happy with herself. She was able to put the hat on her head all by herself.Blessings, Abby |
 This is the table.  This is the bed.  Here is Tori in the bed.  Tori was tired of getting her picture taken and wanted to get out.  She likes the table and stools the best. She can get onto the stool by herself.  Thanks Great-Grandma W., Great-Grandma M., Grandma and Grandpa M., and Grandma and Grandpa E. We spent Tori's birthday money on the furniture. Blessings, Abby |
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We had a wonderful, relaxing Fourth of July. We were going to attend James River Assembly's "I Love America" celebration, but we couldn't talk my dad into it. So instead we went to my parents' house and had our own "I Love America".
Here are the girls with Mom. Go ahead, say it, "She's looks too young to be a Grandma!"
Tori is wearing some ear muffs. We were trying to capture this really cute smile she had, but as soon as I got the camera she wouldn't smile, just gave me rasberries.
Vallerie wearing her pink hat.
Vanessa wearing the pink hat.
Tori wearing the pink hat.
Here is the family picture. I got our t-shirts at Wal-Mart. I didn't think that Darin would like a pink shirt, so he got blue.
Vanessa is lighting a smoke bomb.
Apparently a yellow one.
Here is Vallerie lighting a smoke bomb.
Apparently, a blue one.
Did I mention that Vanessa has lost another tooth?
Vanessa is trying to get Vallerie out of the way. Darin had a interesting contraption with a can, bucket of water and firecracker. Vanessa was very worried about Tori's safety. What a good big sister!
One last picture of Vallerie. Blessings, Abby
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In case you didn't hear, the big girls took swim lessons in June. They had a blast. Unfortunately, I only remembered my camera on the last day.
Here is Vallerie striking a pose.
Here is Vanessa striking a pose.
Here are my good girls waiting their turn on the kickboard.
Here's Vallerie on the kickboard.
Vanessa's turn on the kickboard.
Here is the whole class practicing their arms.
Vallerie waiting again. Who says waiting can't be fun?
Vanessa is floating on her back.
This was everyone's favorite activity. The idea is to pull yourself under the water through the hoop. This is Vallerie's turn.
This is Vanessa during "play time", also another favorite activity. Blessings, Abby |
Ok, I meant to post some more pictures of Tori and her big girl bed, but I haven't taken any pictures of her in the bed though. Whenever she is in it she is going down for a nap and I hate to break her routine just to get a few pictures, or she is waking up and screaming (maybe I should post that picture ). Anyway, all that to say, I have not forgot about my blog or my faithful readers, life has just not cooperated. I will post some pictures of our 4th celebration, and maybe even some pictures of the girls and their swim lessons.Blessings, Abby  |
I love these pictures of Vanessa and Tori.  Vanessa is such a good big sister.Blessings, Abby |
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Well my baby is one! It is hard to believe that it has been a whole year since she was born. A good friend of mine just had a baby a couple weeks ago and it has been interesting to compare the difference the first year makes. From being a helpless infant to a chattering toddler, how quickly they grow. I think it was said best when someone said that the days are long, but the years are fleeting.
We had a birthday party with all of our family on Friday night. It was so much fun. We had been at White Water all day, so we were very tired, but I think that Tori enjoyed herself.
Blessings, Abby |
Everyone is enjoying their dinner.
Tori is opening her first present.
She got lots of help from her sisters.
Look how well she is walking!
Isn't her smile precious?
The birthday girl is enjoying her cake.|
Not snow, but hail. We had a brief thunderstorm that lasted only ten minutes, but reaked havoc. The hail only lasted about 60 seconds but I am pretty sure that my pumpkin plant is not going to recover.
The rest of my plants might recover, but we'll see. The rest of the yard flooded quite badly. This is a picture of the hail. This was one of the biggest pieces.
This is a picture of the clouds that rained down the hail.
Exciting Father's Day, huh? Blessings, Abby |
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Okay, I'll admit I have been a little sentimental about my baby turning One. Just so you don't think I have forgotten about my other children, here are some pictures devoted to them.
Blessings, Abby |
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What happens when five adults are sitting around the dining room table talking about shaving their heads? And when the wives really don't think that their husbands really would ever shave their heads? And so the wives call their bluff? And then the husbands (or brother) call the wives bluff?
That's right, three shaved heads. Mom and I didn't think they would go through with it, but they called our bluff. Blessings, Abby |
Posted in Gardening
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Here are some more pictures of my beautiful garden.
Here is Vanessa with the garden. Vallerie didn't want to be in the picture.
This is one of my watermelon plants.
This is the watermolon plant next to my huge pumpkin plant. I spent all day cleaning out our little bed around the front. Here is a picture of the bed and all of the bulbs I dug out.
I have lots of bulbs to plant this next fall. I am having fun with this whole gardening thing. I have never really worked in my garden or flower beds, so I am really having fun. |
Posted in Tori
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Here are some pictures of my precious baby. I can't believe it has almost been a year!
Here she is practicing that ever important skill, walking!
Look how proud she is of herself.
More Walking!
Happy girl! So proud of herself! Blessings, Abby |
