Moving On UP!!!

Today the Sonora Intermediate had their annual awards ceremony and Madalyn did amazing.  We are so blessed to have a sweet, kindhearted, artist, intelligent child like her.  She isn't totally perfect and she is for sure a PRE-TEEN that sometimes I would like to kill, but for the most part she does pretty darn good.

She won the Law Enforcement Memorial poster contest.  Each child from 3rd-5th designed a poster in art class for this contest.  Half of the posters were distributed to the police station and the other half to the sheriff's department, each one picked their Best of Show winner, which included a $10 gift card to Alco.  I haven't seen the poster but she described it to me and it sounds wonderful.  Sheriff Joe Fincher said the station said that she was hands down the winner.  In case you didn't know, art is Madalyn's passion.

She also received an award for Perfect Attendance.  This is the first time she has had perfect attendance usually she gets almost perfect attendance.  She received 10 free pool passes as a reward.

Madalyn loves to read but Madalyn also loves TV.  Sometimes it is real hard for her to make the right decision but usually she does which is why she has excelled so much.  This year she set a personal goal of 105 AR points which is way above the school's goal of 85.  She exceeded her goal and ended up with 111 AR points.  She received an awesome gold medal for her achievement.

Oooo's and Awww's are welcome too.  I made this dress for her to wear today.  I am so proud that it looked so good on her.  She loved it as well.  It doesn't get any better than that:)

Spring Break 2012

We are addicted to skiing.  We did so good at Christmas that we decided to go again for Spring Break.  After some research we decided to go somewhere within driving distance and settled on Angel Fire.  We loved that it was also ski in and ski out.  Each year we go to Ruidoso it is a pain to load the car each day to head up the mountain and then unload it all to ski.

David has been skiing since he was a little boy so he is much better than us.  I had attempted skiing many times over the last 10 years but in recent years I have really focused on my technique.  I can say that I am a good skier.  I can keep up with David just fine.  Madalyn is a cautious kid but that seems to have helped her.  She started off slow but now she is skiing like a professional.  She is still cautious but she will at least attempt it all.  Weston, on my sweet Weston...this kid is literally good at everything he tries and skiing was no exception.  He had only skied this past Christmas break for a few days.  He went to a day long ski school and then had 1.5 hour private lesson.  Well, that was all it took.  He was skiing down blues like he had been doing it forever.  He just lets himself go...which is great but also scares the crap out of me.  I have to look away a lot because I am so afraid but he really seems to know how to handle himself on the mountain.  His instructor at the school he took during Spring Break had them prepared to do a black run, a black run, a black run...yes, I repeated myself on purpose because I am far from ready to do a black run.

Here are a few pictures from our trip.  It was a blast and we highly recommend you try out Angel Fire.

I am a seamstress

I am a seamstress might be a bit of a white lie.  I am sewing and loving it.  About a month ago Mrs. Diann Keller gave me 6 hours worth of sewing lessons at my house.  I had already purchased a sewing machine so I knew I had to make at least one thing.  I was worried my one thing was going to be a $130 dollar (cost of the machine) mini pillowcase.  This was not sew...I mean so.  I made a cute little summer skirt that looks adorable and I am even proud enough to wear it. 

Since then I have made a dress for Madalyn, one for Averi (my niece), shorts for Weston and a few more.  Here are a few of my creations in the last few weeks. 

My second creation, a dress for Madalyn.  It was a tiny bit big but we fixed that with a little shirt underneath.  She was so proud to wear it to school.

I made this adorable dress for my my blonde hair, blue eyed niece.  She wore it this past weekend and it is perfect for her.

Weston loved the outfit I made him for school a couple weeks ago.  He picked out the fabric while we were at Hobby Lobby one day.  He was so proud to wear this dinosaur creation.

My masterpiece...this dress I recently finished and it is for Madalyn to wear to her Award's Ceremony next week.  She told me it is her favorite dress ever.  I thought it was because I made it but she said it is because it is the most beautiful dress she has ever had.  It is far from perfect but I was able to hide enough of the flaws so no one will know.

Today I finished the shorts that Weston will be wearing for his Award's Ceremony.  He picked out this very preppy argyle fabric and I am sure he will look SOOOOO handsome.

I am having a blast making all these clothes and I have so many more to make for me, the kids and my niece.



All Grown Up

My baby, Weston Keyes Fisher, turned 5 this past Friday. My heart is so happy, yet so sad. He has left the little boy phase and entered into a whole other dimension. I just can't believe that my last child is growing up so fast.

To know Weston, is to know what it feels like to laugh, really laugh. He is so funny without even trying and even sarcastic when trying. He is actually mature for his age and has the most amazing language skills. He is in the early stages of ready and is happy to try to sound out and spell any word I throw his way. Weston has a gentle heart and is wonderful with kids younger than him. He is so compassionate and loving. If you don't know Weston, I am sorry, he is amazing and will grown up to be something amazing. Actually, he will likely invent something. He already has several ideas that are truly genius.

Here is our skinny man with his Hulk hands. He and his Daddy do lots of boy boxing and we thought these would be fun.

Weston had a Spiderman themed party on Saturday which included a rock climbing wall and a Spiderman jump castle. The cake table had a huge vinyl Spiderman backdrop that I ordered online. It was a huge success. Here are some of the pictures of our days adventures.

I swear he climbed this thing a million times. I tried it twice and boy was it a workout. I think we got our money out of this rental.

All the kids, and even a few adults, loved the jump castle. It was big enough for lots of kids to enjoy at once with very few injuries.

The young ones loved the bubble machine we placed in the yard. I had to fill that thing several times. I hope you can't get sick from eating bubbles cause they kept popping them in their mouth's. Crazy kiddos:)

Blue velvet cupcakes with red frosting and chocolate spiderwebs made by Cakes in a Cup in San Angelo, Texas AND they were YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weston's sparkler candle burning out and everyone was ready to dig in.

It was hot so some had to relax in the shade for a minute and catch their breath.

Last but not least, we had a pinata, which broke on the 4th hit but the kids didn't care, they just wanted what as in the pinanta.

I would call the entire weekend a success!!!! I am not sure how well I will handle 6 but I have a whole year until that happens.

I am so very proud to call this young man, Weston Keyes, my son!!!!!!!!

First Year 4-H

Let me start by saying that she did her own work on this project with David's guidance.

Madalyn worked so very hard from the beginning. The two of them visited Joe David Ross to select her two wether and doe kid angora goats. After stepping into the pens Madalyn knew the 3 goats she wanted and there wasn't any changing her mind. Mr. Ross was really impressed with Madalyn intuition and it obviously paid off as you will see below.

The goats were still young and fairly wild, therefore Madalyn had to train them to show. She worked with each one. There was some fear involved but after she shed quite a few tears she finally had them all trained; Sweet Pea, Mr. Curly and Hairy.

Madalyn particpated in the location stockshow and did very well with all three goats.

For the next few weeks she worked on keeping the goats trained and also worked their hair, which can be very overwhelming. Finally, the day arrived for Madalyn to show in San Angelo. She was able to show all three goats and did extremely well with Mr. Curly.

There are three parts to the angora wether goat show....first they show the hair on the goat (we placed 3rd), then they show the goat after it has been sheared so the judges can see the goat's structure (we placed 5th), and lastly they test the hair's micron and weight (we placed 1st). The score from the last past put Madalyn in 1st place for the Wether Angora Goat competition. Overall her points put in the 2nd place but in the Championship Drive her goat just didn't compare to the medium and heavy weights. Bummer! She ended up third overall.

This is fantastic and especially shocking for her first show. We tried to explain to her that this wouldn't happen each year but we sure were excited that this happened this year.

Below is a picture of Madalyn with her winning goat, Mr. Curly.

What a fantastic learning experience for all of us!!!

Stimulate Me

There are days like today...more often then not. My body is so worn out from all the back issues but what can I do. I am at the mercy of my condition each and everyday.

In just a few weeks I will test out what what I have been told is my last option for pain management, a spinal cord stimulator. To simply explain, it is an electrical box they install that keeps the pain sensors from reaching my brain. My body will still be in pain, I just won't know it. It is not possible to relieve all the pain so we are hoping for at least 75%.

In December we tried to have the temporary stimulator installed but after 3 tries it just wasn't possible, I have too much scar tissue around my spinal column. On February 3 I will check for surgery for the surgical trial and then hopefully on the 9th I will have the permanent stimulator installed.

After all my issues I am optimistic that this will work for me, it has to work, I have no other resources to help gain a sense of normalcy physically.

Christmas in Fredericksburg

What a wonderful time of year!!!! No matter where you are or who you are with, Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, especially when you are celebrating the birth of Jesus.

One magical place to be is Fredericksburg, Texas. It seems that every weekend this little country town is crowded and full of excitement. It was no different this past weekend except everything was done up in Christmas style. We celebrated Christmas and exchanged gifts with my parents too.

It was one of the most fun weekends we have had in a long time and I thank my parents, David and children for making it that way. We also were able to experience a full weekend in our new home. It was lovely and we truly enjoyed it.

Oh, how blessed are David and I...I can't even explain the amount of love we share with our family and how truly blessed we are each second, of each minute, of each hour and every day:)

What a hat? It goes well with My Dad's jacket though.
Maybe a little too big for Madalyn.

Do you see who I see? The lollipop kids.

Oh, a Gingerbread man and woman. Aren't they adorable? I could just eat them up.

Our favorite, ice skating outdoors IN TEXAS! We had a great time and they open it every year.

Isn't this gorgeous! This is what I love about this town, you never know what kind of magical things you might see.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!