let's get ready to rumble!

in this corner we have Mayden Rae Speer: age 6 weighing in at 52lbs and measuring 46 inches tall! The nurse mentioned that despite being overly anxious about the possibility of a needle (which she did not receive) she seems "very mature for her age". it's so nice to hear good things about your kids, isn't it?! She has 20/25 vision in both of her eyes which is good to hear since there was of some concern last time we had a visit.

and..... 

in this corner Cameron Jude Speer: age 4 weighing in at 34lbs (he'll never get out of that "baby" car seat) and measuring 39 inches tall! Cameron passed his vision and hearing tests with flying colors. He was praised for his ability to concentrate during these tests (which blew his Mama away but apparently other 4 year olds don't sit still long enough to do them well) He got 4 vaccination shots and 5 stickers (like that makes up for it lol)

speaking of games

It's probably weird, sad, wrong (insert your own adjective) that i'm this excited about storage. But, I am.

so we recently got a hold of a larger bookshelf and decided to stash it in Cam's room and move all the kid books there. That freed up his little bookshelf to go to Chris. I inherited our shared bookshelf and left May with a small empty one. 

yes, we each have our own bookshelves! (plus and large one in the hallway!)

So what's an empty bookshelf to do?... turn into a gameshelf, of course! Yay, we found a perfect spot for all the kid games in May's room. Just in time since we got quite a few new ones for Christmas this year. 

Winter is for....

games!

Merry Christmas Chickies!

so about a month ago through the power of Facebook I came across this video:

naturally, I though this was a genius idea. and one I had to steal..... 

I started by cutting the top of our tree off and plopped it in the coop. interesting indeed, they were curious and stayed nearby for the nearly 1 hour of coop trimming I did this afternoon.

I added some bits of tree everywhere throughout the coop area. they didn't seem to mind and welcomed the change of scenery. 

I probably could should have broken down the branches a bit more. this just shows my lazy side... perhaps if i had better clippers....

anyway it sure does smell much better back there now!

Magazine Christmas Tree

I wanted to share this awesomely cool Christmas decoration idea with you! Mayden started this at Girl Scouts this year and brought it home to finish. It's basically just folding pages of a magazine until you get a tree shape and then decorating it. for real directions go here.

It made the perfect centerpiece for our table this year! I think we'll make more in varying sizes next year.... so fun!

Christmas 2011 & year end review

Halloween was my last post so I'm thinking its about time for a new post :o)

We've all been extremely busy over the last few months (and year, really) but that's a good thing right? Have you been keeping track of things over at Adia Speer Photography? That's where I've been hanging out a lot lately.

sooooo to sum things up:
Homeschooling = fantastic! met lots of homeschooling friends in the area this year and that helps more than you know! May is writing well and reading even better. She's able to read level 2 books pretty easily which is wonderful! Cameron is finally coming along with his speech and color recognition!
Knitting = learned how to make hats and I love it. excited to get more creative with it.
Sewing = on the back burner due to knitting
Reading = I'm in the middle of two wonderful series. The Hunger Games & Twilight... both teen fiction but both really page turners.
Photography = I learn more and more everyday. I feel like my skills are always improving and I'm focusing on perfecting my post production of images. The biz is really taking off and I'm ready to turn it into a legitimate small business next month. Never in a million years thought I'd be a small business owner but here I go! Stay tuned for a complete ASP makeover soon.

find more Christmas pictures here

Halloween 2011

trick-or-treat!

so we have little bo peep, her sheep, an ice cream man & pippi longstocking. 

they made out well.... to say the least!

May's favorites: Tootsie pops & gobstoppers 

Cam's favorites: lollipops, whoopers & startburst