It's Halloween!

This year, we decided to try to make our Jack-o-lanterns a little different.  This allowed the kids a little more involvement in the pumpkin carving this year.

Will was able to carve his pumpkin out this year.

  I was a little nervous, but he did great.

We realized real fast, that if you are going to carve 

a pumpkin, to use big spaces.  Tink's face

was a little harder than we thought because of

the tiny detains.  

Collin was the smart one, he used gloves 

to scoop out his pumpkin. He too was able to

carve his pumpkin out by himself.
My babies are growing up.

Cool!

I told the kids this year that we were not going to be able to buy costumes this year.  I thought they would be disappointed, but they were excited about making them.  Faith loves Tootsie Rolls. So she picked this idea from another website.  Sorry, I didn't save the site, just the info.on how to make it.  

{A side note, don't use spray paint on felt.  It doesn't take}

(I just noticed that I misspelled Tootsie on her costume.- oh my word! Oh well.  No one said anything about it the whole night.)  Will decided to be a Bible & Collin wanted to be Luigi again.  We could not find the hat that went a long with it, so we made one.

Collin climbing the rock wall at our Harvest Festival at church. 

Will climbing the wall.

Faith & her friend Jacob in Jail.

I was planning on dressing up with a wig.  I realized too late that I couldn't get all of my hair up in it.

So my hubby decided to wear it to church. He said since we paid for it, someone should wear it. Hee! Hee!

We had a great weekend.  Oh the candy our church gave out.  We may have enough to last until next year.

26 Days of Thanksgiving

I am so thankful for our sweet little girl, Faith.  She is the icing on our cupcake. 

She loves to learn, pretend, read books together, sing, cook, play dress up, have tea parties, play with frogs, turtles, worms, lizards, and to go fishing.  Anything the boys can do, she thinks that she can do.  She is very independent, but still enjoys snuggling.  She loves playing jokes & being silly.  There is never a dull moment around the 'Buck home.

She loves Jesus so much.  She talks to him all day long.  She loves to pray for others. 

Thank you Lord, for my amazing family.  I am blessed far beyond what I deserve.

27 Days of Thanksgiving

I am so thankful for our 2nd son, Collin.  He had a little rough start in the beginning, but God healed him & he is thriving.  Praise be to God!  

I am thankful for his tender heart.  He can't stand to see his brother or sister hurt -  he'll do any & everything to make them smile.   He is an energetic, funny young boy that loves life, his family, friends & his Lord.  He loves making up crazy jokes, wrestling with Daddy, fishing, building things, guns, cooking, painting, dreaming, telling what- if-stories  & snuggling.

One of our special things that we like to do together is to watch Mary Tyler Moore late at night when everyone else is asleep. (But don't tell the others. :)  I loved watching it when I was a child too. 

He brings so much joy into our life.  What a blessing he is to us.  So glad that God gave him to us to raise for Him!

28 Days of Thanksgiving

I am so thankful for my 1st born son, Will.  He asked Jesus into his heart at the tender age of 6.  He loves His Lord!  He has started many talks about spiritual things with me.

What a wonderful ray of sunshine he is in our life.  He is very mature for his age.  Which is good and bad.  I don't want him to miss out on being a little boy.  Thankfully, he does still enjoy playing games, pretending & snuggling up with his Mama.  At times, he likes to be alone to read, crochet or just to ponder on things.  He enjoys fishing, shooting guns, inventing things, playing the piano & singing.


I am so blessed & thankful to be chosen by God to be his Mama.  It is my prayer that he will continue to grow closer to the Lord, have a tender heart for others & always live for Him.

29 Days Until Thanksgiving

I am so thankful for a faithful, devoted husband of 14 years.  He is a wonderful husband, provider, and daddy. I enjoy thinking about all the memories we've made, the good times we've shared.   I'm so thankful for all the good things that he's done for me & our children.  I love spending time with him.  He is a very intelligent man (both books smarts & common sense).  When there is a problem, he usually can fix it.

So here's to 14 x 5 more years together.

30 Days Until Thanksgiving

For the next 30 days, I'm going to list what I am thankful for.

My Salvation

We moved churches when I was 6.  In order to join the church we had to be saved.  The church where we came from didn't really talk much about salvation.  So when the pastor of the new church asked me if I knew Jesus, I said yes. I knew who He was.  I don't know if I understand his question at the age of 6, but I said I was saved.  I got baptized & then joined the church with my family.

For the next 9 years, I thought I was saved & going to heaven.  It wasn't until I was 15 years old at a youth camp that I realized that I didn't get saved when I was young.  That I was lost & going to hell.  My youth pastor, Todd Roof led me to the Lord.

I have made mistakes over the last 21 years during my salvation.  I am so thankful that I have a God that is loving & forgiving.  To walk with Him is the most wonderful thing in the world.  The last couple of years have been some of the hardest years, but it has also been some of the sweetest years.  I have seen my Lord's blessing, seen how the hardships have molded me & truly known what it means to leave something in God's hands & let Him handle it.  Rejoice in the Lord alway & again I say rejoice.  The circumstances may never change, but to have joy in the Lord ~ there is nothing like it.

God's in The Little Stuff Too

Today, we were looking for gloves to go with the boy's costumes. We prayed all the way there for us to find them & for them to be cheap. Then, I found a $5 coupon for Party City. We get there & find white gloves for $.99 & pink gloves for Faith for $.53. (Will's was $5.00) The kids and I were saying out loud: "Thank you, Lord. Praise the Lord." We got some crazy looks. :)

Chop - Chop

My sister - in - law had a few trees cut down.  An older gentleman at our church was going to get the wood.  Tony said that he wanted to show the boys how to chop wood & to help out an older saint out.

Tony showing the boys how it's done. 

The boys thought it was so cool that he could cut

the wood in two with just one chop.

Collin had a lot of fun.  He was able to chop some.  

The axe was still a little too heavy for him.

Look at the big stump Collin cut through.

(Okay, here's a little secret, Tony actually cut it, but Collin finished it off.)

But since a picture's worth a 1000 words, we won't say anything different.

Will did really good.  

Get ready....

Chop.....(see the crack going through the wood)

Oh yeah!  Victory!

 

Faith had fun trying.

I tried too.  I realized real fast that it was 

not a job for me.  So I just stacked the wood.

 

Faith loved helping me stack the wood.  

She said "I feel just like Laura Ingalls helping her Pa."

 

 Mr. Hallman was so thankful that he didn't have to chop the rest of the

wood.  What a great lesson in servanthood as well as how to survive

on the land.  Well at least one of the many lessons of land survival.

Little Snippets

My kids love to invent things. They invented frozen shampoo cubes. I was wondering why my shampoo was very low after I just bought it. Now I know. They want to sale it. So if you are in the market for frozen shampoo cubes, we've got them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The kids & I were reminiscing about when they were born.  Each one laid in my lap as I told them of their birth.  Thankfully, all 3 were C-Sections.  When I was telling Collin about his, Faith said that she remembered when he was born.  I told her that she wasn't born when Collin was born.  She told me that she was there - she remembered & that I did not.  We discussed it for a few minutes.  She never did understand the fact that she wasn't there.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The kids had earned some money with their Daddy & Papa last week.  The money was burning a hole in their pocket.  Yesterday, we went to spend a little of it.  Collin got 3 small toys & 2 candy bars.  When we were leaving the store, he said, "3 toys & 2 candy bars, I'm in heaven."   Unfortunately, that heaven didn't last long. Faith found one of the candy bars & ate them without asking.

It was a great teaching tool.  We learned how material things don't last forever nor are they were we put our true happiness.  We also discussed how Heaven is eternal.  When God gives us little teaching tools along the way - it makes them so much more memorable .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Rock Quarry

This is the first year that we have been on so many field trips.  It has just turned out that way.  I have to admit (please don't tell the kids) that field trips are far better than a day in our normal routine.

The Rock Quarry

 

 The rock quarry that we went to has been around for 150 years.  

Amazing!  They are projecting to close it down in 25 more years.

They dig up about 3,000,000 tons of rock each year.

 We loved watching the big machines scope & dig. 

The tour van went over the scales.  Looks like we need to go on a diet.

This company was so generous to us.  They gave us goody bags 

with t-shirts, coozies, foam rocks, helmet flashlights & coloring books.

What do Michelangelo & Alumni Marching Band Have in Common?

    Nothing really, we just enjoyed them both in the same week. Hee Hee!

 Michelangelo's Masterpiece

During our home school co-op, we learned about Michelangelo. The kids got the chance to paint the way he painted the Sistine Chapel.  It wasn't very long into the project when we started hearing: "my back hurts, my arm hurts, I just dropped paint on my face."  They got to experience first hand, just a small fraction of what Michelangelo had to endure for his Beautiful Masterpiece.

Collin (top right) ~ Will & our sweet friend (bottom Left) painting their masterpieces.

LHS Alumni Marching Band

 

 Tony & Jason posing for the camera as they get ready to march on the field.

 

 Tony is on center line.  This is the 2nd year that the alumni band joined forces to play for the game.  

They only practiced for 30 minutes before the game & sounded amazing.  They blew the LHS Band away. 

 

What? You can't tell which trumpet player is my hubby?  

I'm hurt. :)

Tony is the second trumpet from the right.

Sweet Claire is the beautiful clarinet player in front of all the trumpets.

I hope she still can hear after 2 1/2 hours of trumpets playing in her ear.

 We were sitting behind, 2 big boys, Tony & Jason during the game.  

Needless to say, we didn't see much of the game.

 

  

Mr. Steve playing his trombone on Faith's head.  

Thank you Mr. Steve for all the hard work you did

to reunite this crew for an awesome performance.

So I guess to answer the Title question: (What do Michelangelo & Alumni Marching Band Have in Common?)  Enjoyment, Beauty & Old.  Hee Hee!

MercyMe - Bring The Rain

USS Yorktown

 Our homeschool group went on a field trip to the U.S.S. Yorktown.

 If you know me, you know that I am very much afraid of bridges over water.

  (It's strange, I'm not afraid of water and I'm not 

afraid of heights, but put them together & it's scary.)

Thankfully, the family we were following took another way & we only 

went over the "small" bridge.  It wasn't very small.

The U.S.S. Yorktown was an 888 foot aircraft carrier.

It served in WWII, Korean War & Vietnam War.

.

 We had a lot of fun spending time with friends

Our tour guide was wonderful.   We learned that if you 

saw 1/2 Japanese flag that it meant that 2 fighter planes shot 

a Japanese plane down & they shared the victory.

 On top of the aircraft carrier.

:Fighter Faith:

 The USS Clamagore Torpedo Submarine was Collin's favorite to tour.

These halls were so small.  The men that fought on this sub had to be fit.

This is one of  the door ways.  Collin couldn't even stand up.

Pilot William reporting for duty.

 Collin: "Now this is what I'm talking about."

 Collin & Faith sitting on "explosives". My fearless, dainty little

girl talking about how cool it would be to see it blow

up a ship. Oh my!

"Briefing time" before we take off.

10-10-10 Celebrating 100 Blog Posts ~ This & That

YAY!!!  100 Blog Posts on 10-10-10.  I've really enjoyed writing & recording memories of our family.  Looking back over the year's posts, I've been reminded of God's many blessings.

This & That

 We are starting to work on Faith's Tea Party/Fishing Party for her birthday.  She loved the "pink curlies."

Tony found a wasp's nest.

This one fell out.

We found "Squirrely" in our driveway with his back broken.  

We tried to nurse him back to health, but he only survived 4 days.

The kids hung this up while I was in the bathroom.  They thought it 

was so funny to "scare" Mama.  Then Faith was hiding in the washing machine 

& jumped out to scare me. 

Always something interesting going on in 

the 'Buck house hold.