Till after Christmas

We had our Christmas program at the church
last night and, thanks to the Lord, all went well.
I shall now go on Christmas vacation sooooooo
good bye till after Christmas when I shall post about how our family
celebrates this special holiday.
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!!!

A thought

As we enter into the VERY hectic Christmas and new year
time, I was thinking that amidst gift shopping , decorating ,
cooking and such, it becomes very easy to forget the real reason for Christmas.
Many people now a days even try to forget
the real reason we celebrate Christmas !!!
I think that this Christmas season we should purpose in our hearts to
make sure that Christ and His birth are
the center of our celebrations.
One can still give gifts to their family and friends, celebrate with family,
and the rest of the stuff one does. But, don't forget that it is
because God sent His only son to be born in a manger that He might die on the cross for
us, that we even have anything to celebrate.

!!!Merry Christmas to all!!!

Oh Christmas tree...

Oh Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches.

In our family we usually set up our
Christmas decorations on thanksgiving (or before)
but as our fake tree has deteriorated in our basement, we decided
to buy a real one.

I picked this tree at Lowe's and everybody liked it
so we brought it home.

First, we had to rearrange the living room
completely.

Second, we had to decide where to put the tree.

Then we added lights, ribbon, and red beads.

We have 2 sets of decorations, one is for a fancy tree
with white lights, gold ribbon, pearls, and gold and green ornaments,
the second is for a fun tree with colored lights, plaid ribbon, red beads, and gingerbread and
candy ornaments.
We decided to use our fun tree ornaments this year and this is
what it looks like.

I hope you enjoyed!!!

Also a special thanks to the photographer,Caleb.

A special dress

My mother recently made a beautiful
jumper that was meant to be for her; however, she was not
satisfied with the way it fit her so she gave it to me.

It is, believe it or not, a denim material
with a velveteen design.

This picture shows the velveteen design.

I cant wait to use it for my piano recital on Monday.
Thanks mom!!!

Our Thanksgiving-part 2

On the 27th most of our relatives came over for a delicious
Thanksgiving feast.

There was plenty of food, Cuban and American style.

There were Aunts, Uncles, and cousins
galore!!!

My great grandmother was there as well.

Isn't she adorable?
This is my youngest cousin (I think) Ana Keyla.

I thank the Lord for my family!!!

Our Thanksgiving-part 1

As my dad is a pastor, our family celebrates Thanksgiving
more than once. So to start, on the 26th we had a
special celebration at our church with plenty of food,
testimonies, and (drums start rolling) a Thanksgiving PLAY!!!

Mr. Carver speaks to the pilgrims.

It was an all homeschool cast and as I was the
oldest homeschooler in it I wrote, and directed it.

Priscilla Mullens takes Mr.Carver some soup while a
pilgrim chops wood with all his might.

It was rather nerve wrecking but, thanks to God, it
all went well.

Singing the Doxology at the feast.

These pictures are actually of the rehearsal so the scenery
in the back isn't right.

The Franco actors.

I made my dress, Haviland's dress, half of Victoria's dress,
and all the white add-ons.
Over all it was a very nice experience and I look forward to doing
more plays in the future.

Till then...

For those of you who check my blog regularly
I will not be posting again till next week as I know that I will
be very busy with Thanksgiving and such.
I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving!!!

Fun family pictures

After posting faithfully for a week
(my dad had his computer here almost all week!!!)
I wasn't able to post for a while, but I have now found the
time to blog and shall do so. I wanted to share some funny
family pics with ya'll, I hope you enjoy.

Oh brother!!!

Scary!!!

A pretty common sight.

Who's bubble is it?

A "mommy" moment.

Ahhhhhhh!!!

I like this crib better than mine.

Dressed up, like a bug.

Not very lady-like.

If you happen to notice that almost all of these
pictures are of Victoria it is because she is the one who does the funniest
things in our family, and probably is the most photogenic(almost).

A week in feminine dress - day 7

Today is the last day in my week in feminine dress,
but I would like to say that my mother, sisters, and I always dress like this.

We are going to attend a baby shower today so I am wearing a
black and white checkered skirt that my mother made.

To go with it I wore an eyelet blouse.

I wore my black shoes and a special clip headband.
I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into modest, feminine dress.

A week in feminine dress - day 6

As today is our cleaning day I chose to wear an outfit that I could
do the cleaning in.

Once again Victoria decided to get in the picture.

I wore a dark brown corduroy skirt and an olive green
corduroy shirt.

I also wore gold ballet flats and my hair in a twist.

A week in feminine dress - day 5

This morning I felt rather cold, so I decided to wear
a warmer outfit.

It is a dress that I made a while back that didn't fit on the
top. I added a merino wool sweater that my mother
acquired for me at a yard sale.
I wore my black shoes from yesterday and
my hair in a pony-tail.

A week in feminine dress - day 4

As today is Wednesday and we have
church I figured I might as well wear
another thrift store find which I also payed $2 for.

A little stowaway.

It is blue and white stripes, and is really quite comfortable.
I also wore a pleated navy blue skirt, and black shoes with a small heel.

I put a bendable white headband in my hair.

A week in feminine dress - day 3

As today was sunny I decided to wear one of my favorite
outfits.

doing my devotions.

It is a baby blue polo that I bought for $2 at a thrift store!!!
If ever you need to buy a new clothes article, don't rush to the
mall and pay a fortune for a couple of shirts!!!
This shirt is from Aéropostale, now if I had gone to the
actual Aéropostale store I would have had to pay about $20 for it,
soooo I saved $18 on this shirt!!!

I put on a tan paneled skirt from Hamricks,
my brown shoes from Wal-mart, and my hair in a half pony-tail.

A week in feminine dress - day 2

For today I wore a lime green striped dress.
However, it had short sleeves so I slipped on a lime green shirt.

I wore brown shoes from Wal-Mart that are made of
a rubber sort of material that are soooooo comfortable.

I did my hair in 2 french braids and tied them
together with a lime green ribbon. I put on my everyday glasses to match.

P.S. Lime green is not my favorite color, everything just
happened to match :).

A week in feminine dress - day 1

Daddy and Caleb are finally home and I can now use my daddy's computer.
I wanted to do a week in feminine dress to encourage
other ladies to dress femininely and modestly.
We live in an age where femininity and modesty is
looked down upon and scorned. The fashions demand that
one wear whatever it says to wear, even if it's the ugliest
thing ever. One time I was speaking to a friend and she
told me that the only reason she wore "crocks" was because
everybody else wore them. We must not let ourselves be blinded
by fashion and the sorry excuse of "everybody else wears it", we must
follow what the Bible teaches and what God wants us to wear.

~She makes coverings for herself; Her clothing
is fine linen and purple...
Strength and dignity are her clothing.~

For church on Sunday I wore a cashmere and wool
blend sweater that my mother found at a consignment store,

a cream ruffled skirt that I bought from some friends
which was an XL, so I had to pull the elastic to fit me,
And some brown high heels that Jessica gave me.

I wore my hair in a twist. I also wore my "Church'
glasses.

Tagged

I meant to post about something else but it just so happens that
my daddy left for Indiana early this morning and he took his laptop
with him. As our computer wont register my pictures I will take Sarah at 'as lilies sewing'
at her word and consider myself tagged!!!
Here are the rules:

• Put the link of the person who tagged you.
• Post the rules on your blog.

• Post six random things about yourself
• Tag six or so other people at the bottom of your post.

• Leave comments on their blog to let them know that they have been tagged.
• Let the person who tagged you know when you've written the post.
  

So here are six random things about myself:

1. The first time I was ever in a wedding I was 3 years old and not at all prepared to be in a wedding. Well it just so happened that I had to wear ballet slippers and they wouldn't stay tied . In the middle of the ceremony I noticed that my slippers were once again untied, so I went sat down on the stair of the altar and commenced to tie my slippers.
   

Sadly to say for me, I pulled my leg so hard that I fell backwards creating
quite a commotion!!!
2. I love Pecan pie but can not manage to eat pecans by themselves
I feel dreadful, to say the least, when I eat plain pecans.
3. I like altering recipes to my personal taste and thus creating
a special and unique taste.
4. I have an amazing attraction to skirts!!! Skirts are so feminine!!!
(as long as they are long and aren't skin tight.)
Skirts are also quite easy to find at consignment stores.
5. I greatly enjoy playing the piano, but greatly
dislike practicing with a metronome.
6. I have had my elbow pulled out of socket by accident.
2 of my brothers were playing with me and one of them was holding my arm,
I was pulling away and my elbow popped out of socket. We lived an hour away
from Greenville then
and had to drive all the way there to get to our doctor.
When we finally arrived he popped it
back into place and thankfully it has never happened again.

Now I will tag Ashley at A country maidens lane
Sharon at Vintage inspirations
Paula at Rose cottage by the lake
Janna at The joy of home
Shannon at A maidens musings
Cheri at A joyful handmaiden

A finished project

Well as you can see we did survive last week!!!
Now if you remember I was going to tell y'all about a project from
Virginia. We celebrated Haviland's birthday while we were
there and I gave her a Knitting set.

At first we didn't understand how we were
supposed to use it but we finally figured it out and well this is what
we made.

It's a hat!!!
It was so easy to make and I heartily enjoyed it. And
the yarn is so fun and warm. Isn't she beautiful?

Packing

I'm so sorry about the lack of blog posts but we have been in Belton as we
have SOLD our house!!!!
Well the buyer is actually renting-to-own but we still have to move everything
out, have a big yard sale and much more. Please pray that we will survive this week!!!
(well if we have survived other busy weeks we should be able to survive this week. LOL)

Home at last

After a rather busy 5 days in Virginia we are back
again. We arrived Monday evening and have been getting back on schedule.
I can not post about my project which I accomplished in Virginia as
I will be leaving soon for an eye doctor appointment but will try to soon.

On the road...again

Isn't it strange that this blog is called Happy life at home
yet it seems we are always on the road to some conference or other?
Maybe I'll rename it Happy life on the road (wink, wink).
Well we are off to Hampton, Virginia to help at a conference.
We are all looking forward to it as we all have many
friends there. We shall return on Monday and I do believe this will be the
last trip for a little while at least.

Rainy days

Well before I begin I would like to explain my prolonged
silence. We have a computer that will not
download any of my pictures, so I have to use my
dad's computer. However Victoria likes to break the
keyboard which is very hard to fix so my Dad doesn't bring his
computer very often which makes it very hard for me to blog.
I am sorry for not being able to blog more often.
Now for the interesting part, on rainy days none of us like to go out,
so we usually stay home and my Daddy prepares
one of my favorite meals.
Rib soup!!!!
Alright so that may sound a little funny to you but it
is sooooooooo delicious I know all you guys would
just love it.

Start with a big pot of boiling water add plenty of cow ribs and chunks of meat.
Add 1 big cut up onion and salt, adobo, garlic powder,
cumin, mojo criollo,
(which you can find in the international section at Wal-Mart)
and hot red peppers flakes according to your taste.

It should look something like this. Let the soup boil until the
meat is tender and gets the taste of the seasoning.
Add cut up squash, zucchini, corn, cabbage, and yuca
( we buy ours at publix).

Now your soup will look something like this.
Of course don't forget the cilantro!!!

Cook until the vegetables are tender.
Taste and make sure that it is seasoned correctly.
(I must say my Daddy looks sooooo handsome in his
John Deere apron.)
Serve and enjoy!!!

The soup will be a little spicy when you swallow and will create
a warm, tingly feeling of satisfaction in your stomach that is so nice
you will want more and more.

Bethany, where are you?

I'm right smack in the middle of a very busy family!!!
Amidst soccer for one, piano for me and another,
cooking, housekeeping, living, etc. etc. etc. etc. I'm
very busy.
I have been thinking that I may have to decide to blog certain days of
the week and then do it!!
I will try to post soon about one of my favorite subjects;)
But you will have to wait and find out what that is.
Thanks for being sooooooo patient with me.

Finally, a blog post

Well, well, well, guess what I'm doing?
BLOGGING!!!
We started school this week and as blogging counts for
composition, here I am.
Our trip went very well.
We left on Monday around 11:00am.
After a relaxing drive and delicious lunch we arrived
at the hotel at 5:00pm.
The baths and general getting ready began immediately.
We left for the church around 7:00 and arrived
around 7:20. There were 2 services and plenty of
special music. We arrived back at the hotel rather late and went straight
to bed as the church was going to take all the
pastors kids to Carowinds an Abigail, Haviland and I were going.
We woke up at 6:30 Tuesday morning and left the Hotel around 7:10.

When we arrived we were greeted by this
jolly fellow.

We went on a lot of different rides some small, some big

and on some you got soaking wet.
We left around 7:00pm, stopped to
eat dinner, and finally arrived back at the church.
We had to wait quite a while longer before being
able to go to the hotel as the sermon was still going when
we arrived.
All the pastors and their families were invited to go
bowling the next day.


The rest of the week was spent going to and from the
conference.
The first few days of the conference there was
a group of young men that sang specials.

The pianist played Very well and it was neat to watch his hands
fly up and down the keyboard.

The group left early Thursday morning and
so I was substituted in for the offertory Wednesday,Thursday
and Friday (the group was there on Wednesday but as it wasn't
planned for me to play Thursday and Friday I played Wednesday as well).
On Friday night the sermon was about surrendering your life to God.
many made decisions that night.

Thus the conference ended. We stayed at the church till 2:00 in the
morning saying goodbye to all our friends.
The trip back on Saturday wasn't that long and we
arrived in good time to go and eat dinner.
We dropped Abigail off at her house and then
went home where we were greeted by Shiloh and Caleb (he went to camp that
same week).