Family Shopping Day

It was time for our annual family Christmas shopping, lunch and trip to visit Santa. The kids each draw names at the beginning of December and then they do extra chores to earn up to $15 to buy a gift for the sibling's whose name they drew. Then we pick a day in December for our family shopping.  This year we went to see Santa first.  We have gone to Bass Pro Shop for several years now and I am glad we went the week before all the schools are on break!  It is a win-win for everyone as Jay loves to walk around and look at everything and the kids love the rides and games.

Freddy hid in the car so he could be sure and go with us.

After our pics we went to lunch at one of our favorite places and doesn't break the bank for our family.  It's called Cogburn's and we get wings and fries.  Love their fries!!  LOL  After lunch we went shopping we divide and concur and got it done in just a couple of hours.  No pictures of either too busy eating and shopping.  LOL

The Gladiators

Today was the big day...the state competition.  Joshua's Gladiator team was competing against 62 other teams from around the state.  The competition was held at ASU's school of engineering.  It was again an all day affair.  Joshua rode with one of the other boys to get there on time.  I had to rest some before heading up their.  I have been fighting off a head cold and Jay is out of town.  I did stop on my way in and get them all Krispy Kreme donuts.  Since it is 12-12-15 they have buy 12 get 12 free.  The boys were very excited to see me!  HA! 

Their team had to complete their 3 runs and once again give all their info and present to the judges.  These events were spread throughout the day with the closing ceremonies happening at 4:30pm. In the three robot runs the boys placed 25th out of the 62 teams.  So the top half!!  Our boys worked hard and gave it their all but they did not win.  However, they were very good sports and are already talking about next year's competition. The good news was though it was another homeschool team (of who we know) that won first place!

Here are some pictures of the day.  We were glad that the robot runs were live streamed over you tube so Jay and other friends were able to watch.  

Teen Christmas Party

Anastasia wanted to have a Christmas party so we decided to have one for the teen group from 

Co-op.  I was brave enough to schedule it even while Jay was out of town.  Ha! There are 20 kids in the class and they were all able to show up.  It was really a lot of fun, they are a great group of kids.

Each person brought a gift and we had an exchange, white elephant style.  Everyone was being so nice and no one was stealing until about half way through then they finally did.  It was funny!  Then we played one more game and the rest of the time was spent just hanging out, eating yummy food and roasting marshmallows. There was a lot of socializing going on for a bunch of 

"non-socialized homeschoolers."   ; )

We definitely enjoyed the evening and will host this again.

Just FYI

Just in case you are curious my blog serves as sort of a scrapbook for me until I actually get back to scrap booking some day.  I want to look into making my blog into a scrapbook!  : ) 

 So I will post current stuff but you can also scroll back some and you might see new posts (older happenings) as well as I attempt to catch up.  I like to post things in chronological order. My goal is to stay current but also work on older posts. Enjoy!

Christmas Decorations

The weekend was spent getting up all our Christmas decorations and beginning all our different countdowns until the big day!

And the stocking were hung by the fireplace with care.

All of these Christmas animals make sounds and we are crazy enough to get new batteries for them each year.  Watching Jadon's excitement and the time he spends playing with them is worth it!  : )  You are only young once at Christmas time.

Freddy our elf has been visiting and he even brought us some yummy treats!


How many ways can you count down.  LOL  We have a Jesse tree, a magnet calendar, our advent story book and a nativity scene.  For the nativity scene they add a piece each day.....stars, animals, angel, wise men and then of course Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus on Christmas day.