Isn't he cute...when he's sleeping :) We have this little rocking horse and Tristan fell asleep on it. Ryan collected all the pillows and bean bags and put them all around him so he wouldn't cry when he fell off. Just had to slip this one in.

So, update continued...

The love of my life turned 48 this year. Neither of us can believe that in just two years he will be 50. I'm sure everyone who has turned 50 has felt the same way. What's hardest to believe is that I will be married to a 50 year old - lol.

We continue our Terry tradition: Mom and Pops came over with the ice cream cake. Mom, I know you're reading this, our kids our going to grow up and remember how much they loved this tradition and will probably continue it themselves with their own families (as long as Dairy Queen stays in business :).

Rachie turned 5 in October. We went to Itz. The food was horrible, but the kids had a BLAST. Rachie asked for a doll house, which she got, but we haven't put it together yet *blush* - and we again had Grandma and Grandpa over for cake and presents. The picture above of the 4 "Littles" dancing has become a Terry family tradition as well. After EVERY movie, as soon as the credits roll, they all get up and dance in front of the T.V. I think Morgan started this one. It's the cutest thing you've ever seen.

There will be an update Part 3 coming soon. So much more to share about more birthdays and hunting season and other trips. Hopefully, it doesn't get too boring, but this is mostly for my memory anyway *wink*.

Three months!!!

Three months goes by faster than the wind blows! I've neglected a little duty here. I have so much to share I hardly know where to begin. One thing is certain, I must add the great tool of keeping a precious log of the Terry family back into my daily activities.

Over the last three months I've gotten off all my routines. Vance's business is slow so I've focused on ways I could earn money to help out even if it's just a little bit. I've picked up some more classes at Villa and that's thrown off quite a bit because I do that in the evenings. So, basically it boils down to home schooling as usual during the day, but having to prepare approx. 2 hours earlier for dinner, etc. The house has been neglected as well.

Here's my promise to myself and my family...I'm getting back on the FlyLady bandwagon, I will be using my timers and checklists, etc. Since I've been working out a lot I've got quite a bit of energy so I know I can do it physically - I heard Dave Ramsey say the other night, "The best motivation is self-motivation." There aren't any motivational speakers out there that can get you do get it together. So, physically I've got it down, mentally I'm getting there and spiritually I'm praying every day that God directs each step -everything else will fail without this part!

So, here are some pictures and a little story behind each one to get us up to day. Let me know what you think.

One of the neatest things that happened over the last three months was a trip to California to see my family. I couldn't have asked for better weather (especially for November). I so loved seeing my dad and Rachel and my sister Sarah, by brothers Stephen and Jonathon and James and Joey. I got to see family that I haven't seen in 20 to 30 years...Uncles, aunts, cousins, second cousins, family I've never met before...we packed a lot in just a week.

Today we went to an Assisted Living Center and visited with the residents there. This is something we used to do a lot when I was young and living with my dad. We would go every Sunday after church to visit the "old folks" and sing and my dad would give a little message. The kids were a little uncomfortable at first, but I plan to do this more often. The residents absolutely loved the kids.

Another big milestone was Glen turning 12. I don't even know what to say it's so hard to believe. He's turning into a wonderful young man. Thank you, Lord for the blessing you've given us in Glen. This year he will be preparing for his manhood ceremony which we will have on his next birthday. I bought "The Dangerous Book for Boys" for he and Vance to go through together this year so they can make some memorable moments together. Grandpa bought him a real "man's" knife and Grandma bought some young man's clothes. Soon he will cross over from boy to man. It tears at my heart a little.

Well, I was going to do more, but I'm tired. Will post more tomorrow. 'night all...

It's snowing again today. This time a bit more seriously. It must be hard to be a weather person in Colorado Springs. More often than not, they get the weather so totally wrong!

This week they said that we would have rain and it would be cooler (they got that part right). None of the stations said anything about snow. In fact, they said it would be in the 60s all week.

Don't get me wrong. I love it. It helps everyone to focus on school and things that need to be done around the home.

Ha! As I'm writing this the sun came out and I can already hear things melting - just in those few seconds. What a great place to study weather. I think that's what we'll do for science this week: weather.

First Snow!

Today is September 21 and it is snowing. Just shy of the First Day of Autumn it is obvious the season has drastically changed. Yesterday's weather was almost 80 degrees.

I love days like today. It makes me want to watch a British film, drink tea and do a puzzle. We've lit our harvest candles and the house smells delicious. I think I'm going to make cookies and brownies later.

The kids are so excited and can't wait for their favorite time of year to be in full swing. God has truly blessed our school year so far. Every child is learning and enjoying being at home in school. Every once in awhile, Will will ask to return to regular school, but Glen and Ryan did the same their first year.

For today, everyone is in a good mood, helping around the house and getting school work done. It's also nice to have Vance home - even if he has been on the phone all day. This kind of weather puts him in a good mood as well.

Here's a picture of our front yard currently...(it's hard to see, but the snow is almost sideways)

Vance is finally back from his hunting trip. He got back on Thursday night and spent most of the day Friday getting ready for his next hunting adventure and taking Ray to the airport. Saturday he was gone all day hunting antelope. He shot one this morning. Thank you, God! I have to admit I'm already a little weary of hunting season and there's much to go. I'm sure I'll share some pictures soon.

For now, I have a picture of the kids from their second week at AWANA. Kael and Morgan earned their vests and bags by reciting their verses. We worked on them all week. "God loved us...and sent His son." I John 4:10. They also had to remember the Cubbie motto which is "Jesus loves me" and "While we were sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8. Everyone recited all their verses and received their awards. Glen and Ryan are working hard on their own to earn extra awards. Will went even further than we practiced and Rachie didn't clam up this week. I'm so proud of all of them.

I also have a picture of our latest harvest. I made homemade salsa this weekend with our garden fresh tomatoes and onions. This is the first year I've been somewhat successful at gardening. I have a long way to go.

I'm also including a photo from our latest nature study outside. Let me know what you think...:)

Today was full and productive. I started the morning off in the usual way...wishing I had gone to bed earlier, but how is that even possible when Tristan wakes up around midnight...then being greeted by Rachie, Kael and Morgan way before I want to get out of bed...I'm sure I'll miss these days when they're gone...

We started school this morning with music...all seven kids singing away. Yep, even Tristan. I tell ya, that kid loves to sing. When you start to even hum or whistle he breaks out in a long stream of "Ahhhhhs". I've been teaching the kids old hymns and it's surprising, but they don't even know the song "Jesus Loves Me". At our church we're always on to the latest and greatest and we seem to leave behind the old. Vance reminded me recently that we really need to teach our kids not only old hymns, but even the old simple songs we used to sing in Sunday school like "Do Lord"...remember that one?

For a short school day we got a lot done and I was happy with what the kids learned today. I then got half the kids baths and it was off to Grandmas. I had to go to the bank, pay taxes, get payroll done and Will had a testing appointment at the library at 2pm. Grandma and Grandpa were gracious enough to watch the "Littles" while I did all these errands. This made my to do list extremely more successful :).

We got home about 4pm and that was too late to get the kids down for a nap so I started dinner and put in a video we got from the library. For the most part they were good, but still a little cranky from being so tired. I put them down to bed around 7pm and went to my Salsa class. So, everything worked out well...only they'll probably wake me up at 6am instead of 7am this morning.

I'm thinking that Vance should be back tomorrow or Thursday...

Second post for today...

I know I just posted, but I forgot I had some pictures I wanted to share. Some are of our Nature Studies for school and there are some pictures of when Aunt Andrea came over and brought will a birthday pie and some cool "Thing" fists for a birthday present. There's also a cute picture that I took just tonight of the twins sitting peacefully together: a rare occurrence.

Does anyone know what these are? I've been calling them horse's tail, but I'm pretty sure I'm wrong.

On one of our hikes we came across this tree stump with a carved face in it.

Vance's birthday was Saturday. I think this is the first time he's ever been away on his birthday. The kids are really missing him. It's hard not to even hear about where he is and what he's up to. I don't know how those military wives do it.

The weekend went OK. Saturday rained most of the day so we all stayed inside, watched movies, read books and I did a puzzle. I love to sit by the window when it rains and listen and do a puzzle. I think I got in about 2 hours of quiet rain/puzzle time before the "Littles" woke up from their naps.

Sunday was a little bit more busy. Mostly we prepared for the first day of AWANA. This year I have six in AWANA. Everyone is in different classes except for the twins. I'm thankful they're in the same class. Still, drop off and pick up was a little difficult. Tristan was a good boy, though and that helped things. I popped him in a little umbrella stroller and we walked all over the church dropping off people into their different classes. The best part about this was that Tristan fell asleep in the car on the way home and I had a full two hours to clean the house all by myself. I can't remember the last time that happened. I got the surface cleaning done so that when you walk in you get a sense that things are clean and organized. However, there's still a lot more to do.

Sunday evening Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner. Vance had bought quite a bit of chicken on sale before he left and I gave it a good frying. So, we had fried chicken, mashed potatoes and corn and some chocolate chip ice cream for dessert. The weekend went by fast and I feel good about it.

We all have the sniffles. That's all it really is. My nose is running non-stop, but I feel ok. It's the same story with everyone else.

Today, was also a good day. Monday is a day off of school for Glen and Ryan so I can work personally with Will. We got a lot done in just two hours. I think this is a good strategy. I should pick days where I can work one on one with each of the children. After all, I have seven days a week and seven children. Makes sense...

...so looking forward to Vance getting home...missing him terribly...

I Need to Post More

I know my memory is fading and I need to be more careful with these late hours. There's so much that can be done while everyone is asleep and I tend to waste it. I should blog, I should scrap book, I should journal, do data entry and accounting, return emails (which I do most of the time), study for the next week of schooling, write songs...there are a million things I could be doing - why is that I want to spend these valuable minutes either watching T.V. or reading blogs and Facebook?

Today was the first full day of Vance being gone - oh, I hope and pray that he and Ray get their elk - Please, God!!! I know it won't stop him from going on his big trip in October, but at least he'll be happy for a year and he'll cut his hair and beard :).

Anyway, we started off the day by going shopping. I thought if we went early enough the kids would be in a good mood. Our first stop was Hobby Lobby. I wanted to pick up some more Autumn decorations and maybe some fabric for some easy sewing projects for me and the boys. The minute we walked in disaster struck. I put Tristan's carrier on the shopping cart and turned for a split second and Morgan got on the side of the cart and knocked it over throwing Tristan and his carrier and piling the cart on herself. Screams ensued. Thank you, God no one was seriously injured. In fact, I see now that those carriers are ingenious inventions. Tristan didn't get a bang or a scratch. He was just scared out of his wits.

As I tried to go down the aisle where the items I wanted were, there were two ladies who looked like they were going to spend their entire day in that aisle. Don't people know they need to get out of the way when they see a woman with seven children in tow. I can just imagine what people must think.

So, I finally get my decorations and head down to the opposite end of the store where the fabric is located. I must have said "Hold on to the cart" and "Don't touch!" about a million times. In the fabric dept. Rachie pulled a marble table top on top of herself. That was it. To the check out counter we went.

As we began to leave the building, I found it hard to believe so many cars would not stop to let us cross the parking lot. Again, if you see a woman with seven children standing at a curb - stop! But, I guess it was a good thing we didn't cross because just as we were about to, the lady from the check out counter came out and said, "Do you have another little girl?" I had forgotten to count...Morgan was still inside - rrrgghh.

Off to Sam's. Incredibly, Sam's was a much easier adventure. The geniuses that the people at Sam's are...they set up a seating area that looks like a living room where a T.V. plays a kid's movie all day long. Today it happened to be the new Curious George movie and the kids haven't seen that yet. I left all of them there except for Tristan and they didn't move an inch the whole time I shopped.

I got everything I needed from Sam's loaded all the kiddos in the car and went to Wendy's - drive thru, of course. After home and lunch and unloading it was nap time for "the littles" and time to start school for the three boys. It went well - so far, school this year has been wonderfully successful.

I have no idea what I did from the time school was over and 5pm, but before I knew it it was off to the gym. My 5:30 spin class went well and I had just enough energy to come home, make dinner, watch a short Disney flick with the kiddos and then it was off to bed for the younger five. Glen and Ryan stayed up with me until about 9:30 and even did a few little chores so they could have some ice cream...I've been killing time ever since.

GO TO BED, RACHEL!!!! and that's what I'm gonna do....Good night!

Update

I finally got around to editing some of the pictures we took for our little August birthday get together. Grandma and Grandpa came over and brought...you guessed it...the Terry family favorite and now traditional ice cream birthday cake. It said "Happy Birthday August" for all the August birthdays: Pops/Poppa/Grandpa, Will, Kael, Morgan and Tristan.

Grandma and Grandpa brought toys and clothes and books...such great gifts. Will got a special gift from Grandpa...his own fishing pole. As you can see in the pictures, he could barely contain himself. The kids were really excited and it was a great night. It's hard to believe that Tristan is one (I've said that before). It still hasn't sunk in that I no longer have a little baby. I'm learning to enjoy all the stages of my children's lives, though. Good stuff. Lord, help me remember that when I feel like my head is going to explode with frustration. :)

Enjoy the pictures. Love to all...

Backpacking

Vance and the boys went on a backpacking trip almost two weeks ago now with a good friend of Vance's - Rob and his son Conner.

I wasn't sure how Glen and Ryan were going to do with those heavy packs, but it seems they did alright. Ryan had some rough spots, but all in all they had a really great time. In fact, Ryan is writing a school paper about the trip.

Vance is gone again this week. He left on Friday and should be back by Wednesday. Then he leaves again with his friend Ray who is flying in around the 11th. I really need to figure out how to get adjusted to handling all the kiddos on my own. I feel a bit out of sorts and very short fused. I'm afraid to pray for patience because I know that will only make things worse :). If you're reading this how about you pray for me.

After watching Forrest Gump today I'll say, "That's about all I have to say about that."

Tristan is ONE

Tristan is ONE today!!! I can hardly believe it. I think I did what I set out to do and that was to savor every moment of this first year. Even while I was trying to take it all in it went by just as fast as every other child, but at least I have more memories. The twins' first year was a blur and that is so sad.

Tristan was such a good boy today and really all we did to celebrate his first birthday was to take a bunch of pictures or rather Ryan took them. Here is a Picasa photo album totally unedited, but cute nonetheless.

Love to all...

They are Three

It's really late and I'm exhausted, but I wanted to share a little about the day.

Kael and Morgan are three years old! We had a little celebration tonight. I made a cake and bought a new cartoon video. They both love those old Disney cartoons. You know, like The Reluctant Dragon, The Prince and the Pauper, The Three Little Pigs, Johnny Appleseed, etc.

We also started home school today. It was very successful. The last few weeks I've been putting a lot of work into creating my own curriculum and schedule. I hope it continues to go well.

Add to this day a trip to Sam's with all the kids and me having to teach a Salsa class tonight at 7:30 and I'm done - you can stick a fork in me...

So...good night.

A couple of days ago the boys went for a walk to get the mail and saw a large deer just resting in front of one of our neighbor's sheds. They came back home and got the camera. This particular neighbor has junk all over his property. It seemed weird that out of all the properties in our area this beautiful deer would choose this site to lay down and rest.

Speaking of resting; Vance came home yesterday pretty tired, but since he knew he had to go back out to help his friend who locked his keys in his car, he just laid down on the living room floor. Of course, when an adult gets down on the floor that's kid territory so it didn't take long for most of them to gather around.

I'm posting this on my What's for dinner...? site as well, but I just had to share. I bought "The BBQ Bible" about a month ago and have been barbecuing and smoking ever since. Grandma and Pappa got to enjoy this one with us on Sunday. Smoked pork spare ribs, potato salad, coleslaw and baked beans. Yum!

New Appliances

BEFORE

















AFTER

We got our new appliances this week. I'm so happy to be able to use a gas stove again. It makes cooking so much easier when you can adjust your heat levels immediately. I love the look of the stainless steel. It's going to be difficult to keep little hand prints off of them, but I don't mind.

What do you think?

Here are some random pictures of the Terry Family Summer over the last few weeks. This picture is of Ryan jumping off a swing at the little play area at our pool. He wanted to see how high he got.

This last weekend we celebrated my birthday. Grandma and Pappa came over to watch the four littles and Vance and I and the boys went to see the second Transformers movie. I wasn't too impressed, but the boys had a blast and it was nice getting out. After we came home, Grandma and Pappa had bought my favorite - an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. I don't think I'll ever get tired of those things. Here are some pictures from last night. Including a real cute one of Tristan. Do you get the candle set up?

Here's a picture of my new car. I love it. It has a bunch of bells and whistles. I ran into a fellow Mary Kay rep this weekend at the movie theater and she just earned the new Cadillac. It's the same size and shape as my car except mine is not pink - I just earned mine in a different way. I love selling MK, but I'm glad I'm not a director anymore.

The rest of the summer should be a bit more relaxing. Now, it's time to prep for the next homeschooling year. I will have four this year. I'm looking forward to it.

Short Update

I really need to update this blog, but Vance lost the new camera. It's been almost a month since I've put anything down here. The last entry was the beginning of all our sickness. We seem to be coming out of it now.

We've had a Fourth of July party with almost 80 people, then the following week had the worship team picnic with about 80 people. We've bought a new car, new stove, dishwasher, microwave. Vance finished the complete remodel of our bathroom downstairs. It looks great. I'll have to post pictures when I find the camera. I took before and after photos.

So much to share and update and so little time. I'll just have to schedule it in :)

Fishin'

The day that Vance went to pick up the boys from their camp, he and Pops and the three went fishing. Will caught the first fish just minutes after they cast their poles. We had fish that night and on Monday night as well. I had a bite :). It was good, but I hate picking through the bones so I made myself some chicken. Something I probably never would have done when Vance and I were dating. Hopefully, he wasn't too disappointed.

If you're interested in seeing my boring blog about what we eat for each meal, just go down to the bottom of this blog on the right-hand side and click on view my whole profile and you'll see all the blogs I've created and you can click on "What are we having for...breakfast, lunch and dinner?"

The picture of the boys and Gunner on the rock is a duplicate of a picture we have three years before. I found it when Vance showed me this one. The boys and Gunner are all in the same order maybe even on the same rock. I'll have to scan it and post it soon.

Today, June 12, 2009

This is the first day this week that we didn't wake up to cloudy skies. It's absolutely beautiful. They say the rain storms are coming later, but I wanted to take a break from cleaning and get outside to enjoy some sunshine.

There are purple flowers blooming all over our property. I've never seen so many. No doubt, a product of all the rain we've been having. Some of the plants we planted last year are back with a vengeance. It's great to see so much growth and so much color.

Vance left early this morning to pick up the boys from camp. I can't wait to see them and hear all their stories. He took my camera, but I was able to find my old one and take these beautiful pictures.

Happy Anniversary to Homemade Salsa

This week marks one year since I created Homemade Salsa - a blog to friends and family who were interested in what the Terrys were up to.

My very first entry was about Vacation Bible School. This year MSC started a week early so we already went through that this year and I don't have any pictures to post - except for their group pictures - which did turn out pretty cute.

My second entry was about Father's Day and a little tribute to Vance. It's been fun looking back and reading what we did a year ago.

On this year anniversary I started a new blog. This one is for myself and something I can keep up with daily. It's called "What are we having for...Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner". Yes, extremely boring, I know, but, like I said it's for me. Once I've entered what we've had for each of these meals for a whole year I should never run out of ideas again :). I'm also putting what the weather is like during each of those times of the day. This a little glimpse into my personality. I love being able to look back over the years and see what the weather was like on that same day.

Anyway...Happy Anniversary to the Homemade Salsa/Terry Family Blog!

Lots of pictures...I've got to explain this last one before I go any further. Rachie set this up in our living room. She just got a bunch of random items and made and circle and played in it for an hour at least. I just had to take a photo because I've never seen anything like it before.

All the other pictures are of our trip up and back from taking Glen and Ryan to Eagle Lake Camp. I'm sure they're having a blast, but I am definitely missing them and worrying about them.

The theme was Eagle Lakopolis and they had all their camp counselors dressed in 20s costumes. They even had a little band on the top of a rock as you drove in welcoming you with 1920s music. The boys loved it. When we finally got to the parking lot there were about 15 to 20 of the counselors and they cheered loudly as our van passed. It looked like they put a lot of thought into making sure the kids felt excited about being there.

Enjoy the pics...