Sew Much Fun

Recently we invited the Tims and Mashburn families over for a play/sewing day. While the kiddos played, the mommies broke out the sewing machines.

Needless to say, 17 children {all but 3 were 8 and under} spread out all over the house and yard! I think at almost any given time there were children in every room and the driveway!

Candyce had not made a garment with a pattern so she and Jess choose the same dress to work on. I went back and forth between them and helped them get past any confusing parts. We choose an easy pattern but with a round yoke, it wasn't as simple as we hoped it might be.

After lunch the lure of the AC and Smurfs won out over the bikes and bubbles outdoors. I couldn't believe the boys lined up on one couch and left the other totally vacant.

When the morning began, only the littles were still inside so we blocked off the living room so they couldn't escape. :-) Then all the middle kiddos turned the gate into a pen and had a fantastic time locking themselves in it. If we had put them in it, they would have had fits. Instead, they had a blast playing in the "pen".

I don't know how many chocolate chip cookies were consumed during day but Liberty enjoyed hers more than anyone!

Jess with her almost completed jumper {it needed the collar stitched down and it needed to be hemmed). Candyce cheated and packed up her dress without getting a picture. They both did a great job!

I'm not sure how the Duggar family has such lovely pictures on their website because posing 17 children is impossible!

 

We had a great day and are already looking forward to another! There is talk of making a baby quilt next time. :-)

Homeschool Day at the Capitol

 Last week we participated in the Education Alliance's Homeschool Day at the Capitol. We joined over 750 fellow homeschoolers at the Capitol building in Little Rock. Part of those homeschoolers we joined were our good friends, the Mashburns, and some new friends, the Tims. We had a great day.

 After registering and dropping off goodies for our State Senator and Representative, we headed for a tour. The stained glass version of the state seal was interesting to some little girls.

 Part of the tour included visiting the State House and State Senate galleries. Ty had a front row seat and participated well in the discussion by our guide.

 

 The Governor's reception room was beautiful. You know you have more that the average number of children when discussion at lunch turns to how much all three families would love to have the conference table for a dining table!

 We ended our time on at the Capitol complex with a visit to the beautiful golden doors. The doors are made of bronze. The have greatly appreciated in value so much the the public is not allowed to enter or exit through those doors. Griffin was a bit dramatic. It was a chilly, wet day but it wasn't near as cold as he likes to act.

 

A bit of Florida comes to the Mid-South

I feel like I have known Dana for years, she's just one of those super sweet, thoughtful Christian ladies that everyone wants to have as a friend. The entire family recently took a vacation and were coming trough our area.

I was so excited to meet her. I think we both were a little bummed that McDonald's was going to be the best meeting place but we were willing to make it work. Then the Lord worked out something so much better.

Heavy rain hit Arkansas and they were traveling home. The rainy weather was set to follow them all the way back to sunny Florida. Unfortunately, the driver's side windshield wiper quit! How can something like that just up and quit when you need it most!

I knew they Lewis family had a larger than average vehicle {with 9 children, it's a necessity}. It seems little things always go wrong when you don't have the right tools or somewhere out of the weather to fix them.

So I offered Kent's shop. I'm nice like that, I'm always willing to impose on someone else. :) Luckily, Kent didn't mind and thought he might know what was wrong. If he and Tony couldn't figure it out, he was hoping they could come up with a solution that would work until they got home.

See, my sweet angelic sons decided to play with the rear windshield wiper on my van. When I turned on the wiper would barely go up and then fall and point straight down at the bumper.
When it fell off completely Kent realized how to fix it.

Though the Lewis family boys had nothing to do with their van troubles, the problem was the same. After a few twists of the wrench, everything was as good as new.

And the plus side - we got to spend almost 2 hours visiting with this wonderful family. Their children range in age from 17 to 18 months. They have two girls and 7 boys {which really excited my boys - another mostly boy family!} . Even after being cooped in a vehicle, riding in the rain with almost zero visibility - they were so pleasant.

They were extremely well behaved and tolerated Ty and Griffin's tour of the equipment lot. I'm sure they endure a few "know it all" speeches about the various pieces of equipment and maintained a smile on their faces the entire time.

I enjoyed my visit with Dana so much! I only wish the shop was set up a little better for entertaining. I have a feeling that if I started arranging couches and club chairs, Kent and Kirk just might throw me out.

I think Kent enjoyed getting to talk to another "dad of many". I'm hopeful the next time they come through we can hang out without any van repairs necessary. :)

Of course, we couldn't let them head home without outfitting them in Witcher Auctions hats. Isn't Isaac adorable? I think we could put him to work with Madisyn and Ty and our carry-out labor shortages at auctions would be over. :)

It was truly a blessing to finally get to *meet* the entire Lewis family!

Dana also runs a couple of businesses so check her out!

She makes adorable cloth diapers at Wonder Unders and the whole family helps out with Lewis Family Mercantile where they carry everything from clothing to photographic prints to knitted snakes!

Brother/ Sister Set

One of the ladies that I spent half the night with while waiting to meet Pioneer Woman, contacted me about making a set of clothes for her three kiddos. Baby #4 isn't expected to make an appearance until after Thanksgiving so we left him out - this time. :)


Jess has two boys and then a little princess.

I can't wait to see them all dressed up on the big day.

The shirts were a labor of love. I think counting the applique outline and tack downs I had over 40 thread changes! I never dreamed it was so intricate (but I would have known it if I had given it a little more thought - lesson learned).

I hope your kiddos enjoy wearing their new duds as much as I enjoyed making them.

Fame

I'm gonna live forever, I wanna touch the sky FAME

oops did I type that out loud



Anyway



I hope this isn't the peak of my blogging career but I have been mentioned by none other than -


are you ready for this (I'm not sure I am)


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This is probably the most exciting thing to ever happen to my little 'ol blog so I need to build the suspense a little. :)


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THE PIONEER WOMAN


Ree Drummond (whose cookbook is awesome BTW) linked to my blog.

I received a heads up from a friend (thanks Jenn! :) ) and started trying to call my sister. She truly understands the excitement because her blog was linked to as well! We squealed like pimply teens who finally got asked to the prom. This is big. BIG.

I haven't even managed to shower this morning I've been so busy trying to make sure my little home on the web looks awesome for my new visitors.

Welcome Y'all!

When you're a CELEBRITY

you get people to wait a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time to see you!

(should be sung in your best off key version of Brad Paisley's song )


Yes, it's a little early for Black Friday.

A few weeks ago I mentioned to Kent that a lady whose blog I read had written a book. She was coming to Little Rock and did he think I could go see her. I really expected the conversation to end there. He agreed and I called Robin. She thought meeting THE Pioneer Woman sounded like fun.

I arrived at 10 'til 6 and this is what I found. I knew that PW had a huge Internet following but this is Arkansas. Doesn't most of the country think that we're just now getting Internet here?

I NEVER EVER dreamed there would be so many people.

The background looks familiar doesn't it? Been to that bookstore before have ya?

Yes, the classiness of Arkansas showed through as we hosted a New York Times Best-Selling Author at WalMart!

I met up with not only Robin but some friends of hers as well. Angie and Jess helped us pass the time. We talked about everything under the sun. Verses we'd like to have put on the walls (Jess has Psalm 128:3 in her kitchen and you all know my fondness for Psalm 127: 3-5. I would also love to put 2 Corinthians 2:9 somewhere.), Angie's son that makes my 7 year old sound like Amazon Boy, Robin's lack of showing, man child sized newborns, how to solve the problems of world hunger and war and I'm pretty sure we drafted a final version of the healthcare bill (it simply says LEAVE US ALONE!). See we had plenty of time for all of this because we were in line for OVER 3 HOURS!

We also had the opportunity to chat with these great ladies in front of us. One of them gave birth to a toddler as well! They thought Robin looked familiar. I mentioned that she had a blog. LOL I think 99% of the people there have a blog (that's how Pioneer Woman gained popularity). Robin said she was MckMama . I think they bought it for a second until they realized there was no way MckMama would make the journey with Stellan having a procedure the same day.



I do have to say that Henry was a real trooper. Though I think he's counting down the days until he can stay at home with the boys.

Somewhere around this point word got out that Marlboro Man was there. I don't think I have every seen so many women trying to get a peek. It really is a wonder that they didn't call housekeeping to clean up the drool on aisle 3. I think he was almost as much of a draw as Ree. While I'm not in the crowd that's awestruck with MM himself, I did fall for my own cowboy so I see the attraction. :)

Those ladies in front of us also became our photographers. Poor things, they didn't realize they had to work for the privilege to stand with us.

MM signed our books. They're good folk like that.

Because it was now bedtime, I had to talk to all the tired little people at home while holding a very tired little man.


I'm not sure who was more tired, Robin or Henry.

And the moment we've all been waiting for . . . . . I got to meet Ree. She thought Henry was adorable (of course) and said she loved the name. She said she named a pet Henry early in her marriage and then regretted wasting such a great name on an animal.

Robin and I with the Pioneer Woman. I spent 4 hours driving and 3 hours in line for this

While I am glad I went, I will probably never go to something like this again. It was neat to meet the author of a book and I always enjoy getting together with other ladies for some grown-up conversation. But the time away from home for the few seconds of meet and greet wasn't quite an even trade.

For the sake of truth in journalism (you remember when journalist actually told the truth, right? ), you can check out Robin's version of the event here.