More Crafts!

I wish I could say that we've been doing something super exciting...no, wait, I don't! It's been great to get some time to relax and get back to normal after last month. Jolee's gotten back into school and is doing great, as expected. We've told her teachers and nurse that she needs to have an imaginary "bubble" around her at all times! If we could send her to school in bubble wrap, we so would. LOL

I've also been enjoying getting back to crafting and making pretty girl things. Here's a few of my newest things.

                             Woven headbands - these would be fun to make in school colors

 These are just a few of the tons of flower pens that Jolee and I got really good at making last month during her down time.

                                     Some loopy flower bows. These are really fun to make!

                Flowers with pretty petals. I'm still trying to get good at sealing the edges on these.

Here's the first of some headbands I'm also starting to make. I always start things by making some that I know Jolee would like. I really like how these turned out. I'm getting ready to start making some that are for older girls or adults.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend and enjoying the beautiful weather!!!

December to Remember!

Hello all! I am sincerely sorry that I've not posted anything recently. We've had a VERY eventful few weeks! December was full of the usual Christmas parties at school and shopping for presents and general holiday anxiety :) But we knew we had one major event that we needed to get through in the middle of the month. We have know for the last several years that Jolee would need an operation to fix the upper jaw in her mouth, but we needed to wait until several teeth came in and others got moved around thanks to braces.

We had begun the discussion with her several months ago, so she knew what to expect. That being said, we were all still nervous. It's never easy knowing that you child is going to have to go through any pain. Luckily, she has a fantastic surgeon at Children's Mercy in KC. It couldn't have worked out any better than it did. My parents live in the same area as the hospital, Jolee is not missing school thanks to Christmas break, and she had the holiday along with her birthday to distract her.

She stayed one night in the hospital, and came home to Nana and Papaw's the next day. We stayed right by her side and tried our best to keep her comfortable. The first few days were the only difficult ones. She was unable to speak, so she would write out what she wanted to tell us. She couldn't walk because of the bone that got taken out of her hip, and that pain was the worst of all. The pain meds made her sick to her stomach, so she couldn't keep any liquids down. Fortunatly that didn't last any more than 3-4 days. After that time, she began making HUGE progress! It's been just over 2 weeks from the surgery, and I can't get over how well she is doing. She is walking like there was never an issue, and speaking almost normally again. She still will not be able to do any sports or activities for several months while that bone heals, but other than that, I am finding myself almost forgetting it even happened!

As a result of all of this, I didn't get many pictures of Christmas. But here's what I did manage to get:

Blast From The Past

I came across this little gem the other day. That's me, back-right, modeling some of my mom's creations back in the day. It made me realize how much like her I am. I had almost all but forgotten that she had a business venture of this sort when I was younger.
I've been brainstorming for the last month or two about starting a small business for me to sell the things that I love to make little girls. I'm not quite sure which direction I want to take it: online, craft fairs, or simply selling by word of mouth around town. There are pros and cons for each. I'm hoping to make a decision sometime in the next few weeks or a bit longer. Several of my friends and family members have said they think it would be a great idea and that they would support me 100%. So, who knows! This year may be the start of something completely new to me!

Veteran's Day Parade 2011

A few weeks ago we all went to the Veteran's Day parade in West Plains. Brady made the decision that we would sit with Jolee's class instead of his :) He sat on Daddy's shoulders the whole time, and especially loved the tractors!

Final Mighty Mite Game

I know it may be a tad late, but here are the pictures from the last Mighty Mite game of this season. It was held at the West Plains High School field, and wouldn't you know it...it was the only game that we won! The girls had a really fun time and Brady and Blake got out and cheered their little hearts out too. I'm going to miss it :) GO COLTS!

Spooky Fundraiser

Last Friday, the kids and I headed over to Jolee's school for their yearly PTO fundraiser, the fall festival. Each grade has a booth. It can be anything...games, food, picture taking, etc. It's so much fun! And this year they added costumes to it! They've changed to school calendar around enough so that we couldn't fit a costume party in at school. So they added a costume contest to the fall festival. It was great getting to see all the kids!!! I'm so glad she goes to a great school that does alot for the students to participate in :)

Jolee and some of her sweet (and scary) friends

Jolee and Haley

Brady and his buddy Blake

His cotton candy is bigger than his head!

Me and my kids - before this picture,I had completely forgotten that I had whiskers on. I checked out the picture on my camera right after it was taken, and, WOW!!!

Brady got in on the "cookie walk"

Brady and I landed ourselves in "jail" - it's a fun cage-like thing they set up. You give a ticket to put someone in, then they use a ticket to get out. The kids LOVE it!

Jolee joined up with us! (Notice our sweet ID number necklaces???)

Hopefully this is the closest thing to jail as these girls will ever get!!!

Brady loved the golf game

Getting his second face-painting of the night - a checkered flag!

Jolee and one of her best friends Kaity

Halloween Parties

I don't know about everyone else, but our Halloween week was CRAZY! I wouldn't have it any other way :)
Thursday was the day for parties at the kids' schools. Brady's was in the morning, and Jolee's was in the afternoon. Lots and lots of running around! I really enjoyed going to Brady's. I was able to stay and watch their morning routine. I LOVED getting to see all of the things that he does and watch him interact with his friends!


Brady was excited to get his picture taken :)

All of the kids looked adorable!

Brady and Luke in their matching costumes

Their both had to sit on Miss Kayla's lap during story time

Best friends :)

Jolee's Party

Brady was so excited to sit with the big kids for their caramel apples!

Me and the kids

Jolee and some of her friends