Christmas

Cole wanted to watch a Christmas movie tonight, so after much discussion we watched a VeggieTales called The Toy that Saved Christmas. Cole picked up on the fact that Christmas is really about Jesus, and his birthday, so that's a good thing.

Then sometimes when you think everything is going great, you realize you made a mistake and it hurt someone. You didn't mean to do it, you didn't even really think about it, but it happened. How do you fix it? You can say I'm sorry, but it's really not going to do any good.

For me, Christmas is about Jesus, but it's also about being with family.

Hope you are with yours!
Love,
Misty

It's Official!

Well, I did it! I officially have a Master of Science degree from the University of North Texas in Library and Information Science! Woohoo!

I have not even mailed out my Christmas cards yet...they are doubling as graduation announcements in the interest of saving a little money! So you will see them soon!

Cole had a great birthday! We went bowling for his party, and the kids loved it!

Cole rang the bell at Wal-Mart for the Salvation Army for his Clover Kids group (4-H for little kids). He had a great time. What a wonderful lesson for him about helping others. He loves the Clover Kids, and we are learning so much to get ready for 4-H.

The Rock Hill Christmas Tour of Homes was a success. My mother loaned me all her decorations and her time to help me decorate, and made several visits. She painted this amazing old wood door that my equally amazing husband and father-in-law created a table out of to go behind my couch. My house was beautiful thanks to my mom! She's an amazing lady.

Cole and Lucy have had an wonderful Christmas so far! Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma for the visit and the gifts. It was great to have my brother and his family and stepsister and her family here at our house. Wyatt's family Christmas was last night. Their Uncle Phil made Lucy a rocking John Deere Tractor, like a rocking horse only a tractor...it is beautiful! Really an amazing gift! and Uncle Phil and Aunt Mel bought Cole a real gas powered four-wheeler! He is so excited...mom and dad are a little nervous. I did feel better though knowing that it has a remote control engine kill switch for mom and dad to hold while he's riding it. He told us after he rode it a little bit, "i've got it figured out now!" Oh no you don't!

Lucy is so close to crawling...and so happy! She wants so badly to be mobile, and I know she will be soon.

Santa is bringing a Wii and Lucy gets a music play table.

My kids are healthy, we both have jobs, a beautiful house to live in, and our family is all good...we are so blessed this Christmas!

We are planning to camp in our trailer for the first time since moving out of it! Definitely for Spring Break, but maybe a couple of weekend trips before that too.

Remember the reason we celebrate the season...the Christ...in Christmas!

Love to all,

Misty

P.S. I will finish Principal certification this summer! School's not over yet, but the worst is over!

On the home stretch...

Christmas is getting closer and I can see the light! It's green, for UNT graduation! If I can make it through this killer website design class I am taking then graduation is on for sure!

These pics are of Lucy at home, and Wyatt and Cole at the Monster Truck races in Kilgore.

Kids are doing great! Cole scored two goals and played like a champ in his soccer game last Sat. This Clover Kids 4-H stuff is great, but wearing us out already! Two field trips to farms the last two sundays, and collecting cans and who knows else is coming. It's good for Cole to participate in this type of stuff though, and I am learning alot about livestock! Did you know cows have 4 stomachs??? I had no clue...

Cole lost his front top tooth just in time for school pictures. Can't wait to see those first school pictures!

COLE CAN READ! It is incredible what he has learned in just a few weeks. He is way ahead of the other kids in his class (no surprise!) and we are proud as peacocks. He wants to read all the time and writing on his own some too. Wow...when he did get so grown up?

Lucy has two teeth on the bottom coming in at the same time. She is taking it much better now that they actually broke the skin. We have found new daycare for her (an answer to prayer) and she will start when we go back to school in January. I can't wait for Thanksgiving break (a whole week off) and then 3 weeks and it's Christmas break (2 weeks off!)! See what I mean by the home stretch!

Hello again!

I know, I know...where have I been?

I am taking 9 grad hours this semester, plus Interning as a Principal. and I have 3 kids. oops sorry, a husband and 2 kids. and I work full time. and I have a huge house that is always dirty. Why didn't someone tell me that when you have 1 more kid your laundry like triples? That is some kind of weird math!

Wyatt has been a doll (mostly) about helping out around the house and with the kids so I can do all this and keep my sanity. Although it is slipping a little daily...

Cole is doing great in Kindergarten.He loves his teacher, and she is really great. He is a little fountain of knowledge every day, telling me all about what he is learning. This week it's all about the calendar. "Momma, did you know that there are 12 of those things like December in a month?" Cole, there are 12 months in a year. "Yeah, that's what I said." Too cute!

He has lost two teeth now and has two grown up teeth to replace them. The first tooth he didn't want to give up, it took us two weeks to talk him into leaving it for the tooth fairy. He got $5 because the tooth fairy didn't have any change...and it was the first tooth after all. Second time, no problem!

We have played 2 soccer games so far, and Cole scored 2 goals last Saturday. He has started Karate class on Friday nights. He loves it, and it is amazing how he pays attention and does what he is supposed to. Wyatt wanted him to take it for his temper,

and I think it is working!

Lucy is sleeping all night for the most part. She is also TEETHING! Cole's teeth all came in about the same time and it never bothered him. Not the case with Lucy. Her gums are swollen and you

can tell they hurt when it's time to take a bottle. Doctor says to give her Motrin so that's what we are doing. She also is taking Claritin now daily for allergies, just like her momma. So we are expecting that first tooth or two to pop up any time now.

She laughs all the time, but no one can make her laugh like her big brother can! It is incredible, the amount of loving adoration already in her eyes when he is around.

Wyatt is working all the time. We have our goats...they are gradually getting used to us. They like Cole the best though. Next is chicken coops and chickens.

Cole and I will go to our first Clover Kids 4-H meeting this Sunday. Luckily, they only meet once a month...whew! But it will be great experience for him to get ready for real 4-H, and we already have friends who want him to help them show some animals at the livestock show.

That's all I know for now. Might be a long time before the next post...but hopefully after Christmas things will be a little slower for me. I will only be in 6 hours of grad school then! LOL. :-)

Love to all,

Misty

Summer's almost over!

Sorry it's been a while...really busy like ALL THE TIME!

Cole is very excited to start kindergarten in 2 weeks. He is also excited to start soccer again.
Lucy pretty much sleeps all night now. I am not sure she is over her ear infection, but her 4 month checkup and immunizations are tomorrow anyway, so I am going to ask him to check her ears. We ran out of her medicine, because we wasted some the first few days trying to get her to take it! She is persnickety.
But she is adorable and laughs so much and smiles any time
her big brother talks to her. It's pretty cute.
Wyatt is working all the time until they shut down paid overtime.
He is picking up t-posts today to set for fence for the goats.
We are going to raise goats now...lol.
Don't really know how that happened, but
we have 2 goats that a friend is keeping for us and
he is building fence to bring them home. Then he will start
to work on the chicken coops for chickens of course.
We eventually want a calf to fatten up and butcher,
might be next year on that.

I am getting ready to go back to work next Thursday!
Where did the summer go?
It turns out I was an elective short of graduation, so I
have to take one more class this fall, then graduate
with the Masters in December. I am also taking a 3
hour class from UT-Tyler and 3 hour Internship as
Principal while I do that. Fun, fun, fun! I don't really
want to be a Principal any time soon, and I will be a
librarian for a while, but to get a promotion I will
need mid-management certification and a Master's,
so now I will have both! I will finish the Principal
certificate next summer.

Here are more pics of the kids.
I know you want to see them!
Misty

Weekends...sigh...Not enough of them!

Just finished a week of Vacation Bible School at church. Cole loved it, he was ready to go every night. The kids learn songs and do crafts every night besides the bible lesson. Cole made up his own dance moves to one of the songs and performed it front and center stage this morning in church with all the other kids doing it 'a different way'. Much laughing ensued...lol.

Quiet week at home doing college work and getting ready for a garage sale Friday and Saturday. Figs are ready and I am going to attempt to make jam or jelly.
I made 14 jars of hot sauce/salsa yesterday from free tomatoes and peppers.

Lucy is sleeping all night most of the time now, at least until about 5 or 6 in the morning. Can't complain about that, sure beats 2 am. No kind of schedule in sight though. She just doesn't want to eat lately...unless SHE wants to! Sigh...just not like her brother.
I am going to give Cole a practice school lunch this week. Get him used to taking his lunch and eating it by himself, opening packages, etc. He hasn't had to do any of that.

More later. No real pics yet. Wyatt has been working all weekend on the dozer and clearing brush from our place. If you have seen it, it looks quite different right now! Will try to take pics tomorrow and post those.
Love to all,
Misty

Vacation

We had a great time in San Antonio. It was hot, but we all managed. Cole had an absolute blast at SeaWorld, even though there were so many people there! I never thought about other people being there on July 4th. But the fireworks were awesome!

We even stopped to buy Cole's school clothes in San Marcos. I LOVE SCHOOL UNIFORMS! Man, it was so easy. No fussing, pick up five shirts and five pairs of pants or shorts and we are done! Cole is enrolled and ready to go to Dixie Elementary in Tyler.

He is asking me already when does soccer start, so I guess we will do that again. Miss Tamme says she will coach one more time...but she is having a baby at Christmas time so that will be it.

This fall season they will actually begin keeping score and the coaches cannot be on the field anymore. Should make for good times!

We are loving our new house...obviously! We have loggers here right now, just taking down pine trees and dead trees. We are keeping all the oaks and such. Should make it a bit clearer though.

Lucy sleeps all night sporadically, but more often than not. She is one fussy baby when she gets sleepy, and I bought baby food today. She has taken a bottle every 2 hours all day. She won't take more than 4 oz. at a time. So I decided we are going to start baby food a couple of weeks early. I'll keep you posted how that goes. She is holding her head up all the time now, and loves to look around and be able to see. She loves for someone to talk to her too.

Hope you enjoy the pics. I don't know if I have any new ones of Lucy, so I will try to take some this week.

Misty