Carlye's viola

Carlye has been practicing for regionals.  They are given a couple of pieces of music, and they have to learn 3 or 4 excerpts from each piece.  Carlye enjoyed this piece so much that her teacher asked her to play the entire thing with her as a duet.  This is Carlye's first time to play it, so there are a few mistakes, but I thought that it was still a beautiful duet.  Enjoy!

Arbonne

My family has incredibly sensitive skin - and eczema - which makes buying any type of product for my family EXTREMELY difficult.  Carlye is getting older, and starting to think about makeup.  Nathanael is getting older, and starting to have problems with acne.  I'm getting older and starting to get bags under my eyes, age spots and wrinkles!  All of these combined together had me start looking for a better product for my family.  I found Arbonne - and no, I'm NOT selling it!  But I'm so in love with this product I have to tell y'all about it.  Arbonne is an all natural, gluten free, completely clean product and it is phenomenal!  I have noticed a huge difference in my face and skin since I started using it 5 weeks ago.  I just ordered the acne line for my kids, so I'll let you know how that goes.  I LOVE that what I am putting on the largest organ in my body is now as good for me as what I'm trying to put IN my body.  Crazy fact - did you know that in the US we have only banned 4 ingredients from being used in cosmetics?  The European directive (which Arbonne is under) bans 14,000 (or was it 16,000?) ingredients from being used in their cosmetics and facial products.  How crazy is that!!  

Anyway, I had an Arbonne party at my house on Friday night, and I had so much fun with the table decorations.  I love fall, and since Halloween is over I was able to pick up Fairy Tale pumpkins and fall flowers for $3 a piece!  That made it so much fun to decorate!  We had pumpkin muffins, fruit cups, veggie cups (dip in the bottom, veggies on top) and chocolate covered strawberries.  I served Mom's Spiced Cider because it just really made it feel like fall.  It was a fun evening.  (I know the colors are odd, I think it was the lighting when the picture was taken)

Today I am thankful for warm baths and rest.  I have had a yucky stomach ache since about two o'clock this morning, and it is so nice to be able to take a bath and relax.  What are you thankful for?

First day of Hunting Season

Today was the first day of hunting season.  Carl, Nathanael and Noah dutifully awakened before the crack of dawn so that they could head up onto the ranch and take part.  Nathanael has been practicing with his bow, because he desperately wanted his first deer to be shot with a bow.  However, he couldn't quite get the poundage up high enough, so Carl talked him into shooting one with a rifle.  They saw some BEAUTIFUL deer this morning and this evening, but they were never able to get a shot that Nathanael was comfortable with.  Knowing my boys, though, they will keep trying.  There's a large white tail running on the ranch right now, and Nathanael really wants it to be his.  I don't have any pictures from today, but here's some hunting pictures that I didn't post over the last couple of months.

Carlye holding her Axis skull mount.  For those of you who missed it, she shot this at 185 yards with a 30-06 from our front porch.  She's frowning because she wants her Uncle David to help her make a wood base to hang it on.

Sam and Carlye on the first day of dove season.  Sam was teasing Carlye about being a girly-girl, and she informed him that she doesn't know of any other girls that will stick their finger up a birds bottom  and tear it's head off.  Dove hunting is VERY glamorous......

Carlye, Boston and Noah with the aoudad that Carl shot.  We've been eating the meat, and I have to say that - even though it tastes great - it is hard to wrap my head around the fact that I'm cooking aoudad.

3 of the best looking kids I know.

Sam, Noah and Nathanael showing off their quarry.

Another one of the old pictures I found in my closet.  Carlye, Sam (both 6 yrs old) and Nathanael (4 yrs old) with an axis that daddy shot.  

Today I am thankful for warm blankets and soft beds and days without alarm clocks.  I'm thankful for cooler weather, changing leaves and yummy apple cider.  What are you thankful for?

Today

Noah - Will Treaty (Ranger's Apprentice); Lili - Phil from Duck Dynasty; Carlye - wore a Batman shirt with a cape; Abigail - Mrs. Kay from Duck Dynasty; Nathanael - Gilan (Ranger's Apprentice)

Sam was at his football game.  He plays for the Ingram Warriors!  Go Sam! (They won)

Chloe - Cat Woman; Carlye, Noah, Colton - Thor; Nathanael, Cassie - Tiger

This week when I talked to my little sister I told her that I would start blogging again.  I'm not promising that it will be interesting or valuable in any way, but I will blog every day for the month of November.

I have absolutely no reason to post this picture, but I found it when I was cleaning out my closet, and I think that it's adorable.  I'm so glad that Sam and Carlye are still best friends.

  I'm too tired to talk about anything that's important, but I will say that today I am thankful for my family.  Cliche', I know - but true nonetheless.  I am so blessed to have a husband who will come and rescue me multiple times in one week because of car malfunctions.  Including: hitting a curb and exploding my tire (I did this on my birthday), leaving the radio on while vacuuming out my car and draining the battery, and locking my keys in the car not once - but twice - in one week.  My husbands slightly worried about me.  However, I assured him that I came this way, and really I have been doing much better these last few years.  I hear Tetris helps with memory - maybe I should play more......

What are you thankful for?

Carl

It has been an eventful month.  I always have so much to blog about, and not enough time to blog it, but this time I'm going to focus on Carl.

He's been having - for lack of a better term - a lump in his throat for several weeks now.  He's gone to a nurse practitioner and our doctor, both of whom referred him to a specialist.  The specialist ran tests, and one came back positive for a form of staph.  They put him on an antibiotic and nothing changed.  They put him on a stronger antibiotic, and still nothing.  THEN they put him on a Metro-Dos pack.  While he was finishing up the steroid and the antibiotic they decided to do a CT scan.  We went in on Thursday, put the contrast dye in his arm and did the CT.  As we were walking out of the Ambulatory Care Center (ACC) he started complaining about itching.  We drove 2 minutes down the road to eat lunch, and as they were seating us, Carl started picking his shirt off and almost trying to take it off.  To make a long story short - he was breaking out in hives and having an allergic reaction.  I called the ACC and they told us to go to the emergency room immediately.  After we arrived they gave him a Benadryl shot and observed him for an hour.

Fast forward to the next day.

We went to the dr to get the results for the CT scan and discuss the reaction to the contrast dye.  First of all, Carl has a swollen lymph node and his blood tests came back normal, with the exception of his calcium being high.  Dr says the lymph node is not pathological in size.  However, he wants it to go away over the next month.  If it grows or stays the dr says he's going to 'stick a needle in it' so that we can see what's going on.

Secondly, he said that next time Carl is given contrast dye he has to have a steroid and Benadryl before it happens.  Carl reminded the dr that the had been on a steroid (the Metro Dos pack).  The doctor then told us that if Carl hadn't been on that he would have died.  He can NEVER have contrast dye again - he said we need to put it on every chart and paper that we ever fill out.  Yuck.  I'm so SO thankful that everything turned out ok.

So that's it in a nutshell.  We are all doing great, but it has been a VERY exciting week!

Some new things......

The summer is coming to an end, and there are SO many things happening.  On Monday, Carlye had her braces put on.  Poor thing has a cross bite, an impacted tooth because her mouth is so incredibly small (that there is great hope of bringing down), and an underbite.  She's going to do a full year of braces on top, then the bottom ones will be put on.  He's hoping that if we apply the right kind of pressure with elastics while she is growing that she won't have to have surgery on her jaw when she is older.  Ignore the horrid garage in the picture, but here Carlye is modeling her braces and her headband that Aunt Jodi made her.

Nathanael's puppy is doing well.  The evil cat scratched him on Saturday, and after a swollen eye, a vet's visit and some antibiotic and eye drops he is finally well.  His name is Radar Hunter 2, and all of us are completely in love with the little scamp.  Here are some pictures of him laying on the air vent - apparently he is highly intelligent.   :)

I have been trying for a solid week to upload the video of Nathanael and Lili's string concert, but it just doesn't seem to be happening......Here's a picture of them, though!  I loved their camp shirts.  They say, 'Sometimes you just have to take a stand' and it's a picture of a stick person carrying a music stand.  If I can ever get the video to load I will put it on here, because I thought that the Allegretto did a phenomenal job for their first concert - and with only a week of rehearsals!  It's going to be a good year musically, I think!

The night before Mommy and Daddy left we watched Avengers (Noah's favorite movie, 2nd only to the Star Wars Trilogy).  I thought that it was so cute the way that Noah cuddled with Daddy on the couch.  The kids have been very sad today with Grandma and Grandpa gone!

What we've been up to

 Mom and Dad have been visiting us for the last week.  It's been fun having them here, and we have been BUSY!  Noah's favorite thing to do with Grandma and Grandpa is play games - he especially loves playing Star Wars Monopoly with Grandpa!

My washing machine became incontinent this past week.  Thanks to the foresight of my husband (and a Lowe's warranty) we now have these beautiful babies in the house.  I'm so thankful - it's incredibly inconvenient not to have a clothes washer with this many people in one house!

Carlye has been at Laity Lodge Youth Camp this week.  I'm pretty sure she's having fun.......

Nathanael's dog came home this week.  He is a Brittany, and he is amazing!  We have so loved having him here.  Our only problem is the barking at night.  However, I think that is to be expected when you are used to being with 8 other dogs and all of a sudden find yourself alone in a strange place.  His name is Radar Hunter II.

Here's another picture of Carlye at LLYC. 

I wonder if she told them that she shot a trophy Axis with a 30-06 at 185 yards?