Some Beautiful Teens!

Elena had a few of her friends over last night. I was up at 4:30 to check on them and,yes, I heard talking and giggling. I'm not sure if they got much sleep.

Gee,I sure like Elena's friends. Each one of these girls I think so fondly of.




As I was lying in my bed last night I realized we had 18 children under our roof!There was a time moons ago when the idea of that would have sent great waves of panic through me. But now there was,once again, that little plea to God "Lord,if you see fit we still have room for many more...please..." I know,insane isn't it.




Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

The Happiness of Life...

There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.
~ Robert Louis Stevenson

A house full of kings and queens



A little 'chalk talk'






Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

Aren't Brothers Great

I walked into our fireplace room this evening and this caught my eye. It was a serious conversation Joel was having with Alan about clay. See Joel was mixing different clay colors together and creating all new colors. He was giving Alan clay mixing tips. I thought it was so sweet. Joel was being so adult like in his conversation and it looks like Alan is studying Joel's mixed clay.




I wanted to get a candid picture from this angle and in doing so noticed that the conversation was a little more one sided than it appeared to me at first. Joel did not notice one bit. This time with Alan made his evening and put his brother high on his best friends list.



Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

Christmas Day at the Krause's

This year we did something that I do not remember ever doing. We spent Christmas Day afternoon and evening with friends (meaning non blood related friends). We were all set to have our quiet (quiet?) Christmas day enjoying each others company when some friends invited us to spend the day playing,feasting,and hanging out with their family and a few other families we knew from church. Wow what an absolutely stress less great time we had! It was a blast and all the kids really enjoyed themselves. The food was great and the company even better!

Of course, I failed to get many pictures and the few I managed to get are kind of lame but share them I must!

After dinner we adults played a game called Buzz Word. It is a very fun game. It was the men against the ladies and I believe we ladies won both games. I can not take much credit for helping the ladies win though. I got antsy and left the table a few times. It was my secret ploy to hide the fact that I am not a quick witted person when it comes to games.




Lily brought a few of her Christmas gifts to the party. She loved all the space that was available to her to push her doll stroller around.



Cute little Sweet Pea received a lot of attention!



Now I noticed this quilt on one of our host's beds and secretly took a picture. Isn't is beautiful!? I should ask her the history behind it someday. I also think I want to put it on my list of quilts to make someday.




Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

A Visit From the Man in Red

The wait is almost over kids because here he is!!!



A hug from Anya sets things out right



another hug from Lily who doesn't do well with strange guys in funny red outfits



Santa's helper Grant passing out gifts



just had to toss this one in because it was cute



A Merry Christmas from us to you!!





Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

Where is He Anyway!

Christmas Morning

I think they all have ants in their pants.

Where are you old man in red with the sack of gifts!

Naomi, Ekie, Anya,Elena,Josh,and Nolan all waiting with smiles



Alan,Naomi, and Ekie. Hey were is Odell?



Joyce



Grant and Cyrus



Lily,Joel,and Grace



Where are you Santa!

Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

Hurray!!!!! I Am Back At It!!!!

After about seven months being totally computer less we have a computer!!!

It is almost too hard to believe. Ha! I started in May doing a blog experiment as you probably read a few posts down but just a few days after my experiment started our laptop bit the dust. I did not think it would take us all this time to be able to buy a new computer but it did. Lots and lots (did I say LOTS?) of unexpected expenses trumped the purchase of our little buddy here. After a few months of the kids and I grieving and going through computer withdrawals things were not so bad. I actually did not mind the computer/blog break. I then thought I would just keep up with pictures and then back post everything but within days of our computer breaking so did our two cameras! Blah! Maybe God was telling me something? Actually, I know he was. (Maybe I'll share some of that at another time) Well,as a few weeks ago I am also back behind the lens of a new camera so I have a few back posts to share but our whole summer and fall are stored only in our memories.

Anyway, I did do some blog thinking over the past months and thought maybe blogging wasn't me anymore. I really do not have much to write that is worth others reading anyway. Besides maybe blogging is so 'yesterday' and most everyone I know is Facebooking. BUT I just very much enjoy reading my own blog (I always have been my greatest fan) and writing about our days. You know "count your blessing name them one by one. Count your many blessings and see what God has done". It has been good for me to pull out the nuggets that happen throughout my days because some days the nuggets are SO tiny it is like panning for gold in my bathtub!

What encouraged me to continue blogging was this beautiful little Chinese proverb I read a while back:


A bird does not sing
because it has an answer.
It sings because it has a song.

I LOVE that saying!!

I do have a song!

My song is my life.

Sometimes it is soft and sweet. Sometimes it is pretty out of tune and hard on the ears but I do have a song. So my blog is my song sung to The Lord and my family and to those who might care to hear.

Ok! Let the blogging begin!!!!

P.S Just a FYI The posts between My October 17th post and this one are my back posts.

Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

Another Christmas Project!

I am SO behind with the fun Christmas projects I wanted to do with the kids this year. It is almost Christmas. I just need a few more weeks! At least I am not embarrassed to continue our Christmas projects into the month of January...

Well at least we did our clove and orange ornaments this evening. Actually these cute little Clementines were on sale so I thought they would be perfect!

Our supplies. I greatly underestimated how many cloves we would need. Oops. No time to get more. We will make do.



Odell(9), Naomi(8),Grace(6),Josh(9),and Anya(8)



Anya,Joel, Ekie(9), Lily






Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

A Very Busy Day!

Today was a very busy day!

It started with a children's Christmas program at church



and then in the afternoon was time for our

5th Annual Frye Caroling Party!

I stupidly forgot to take pictures of our actual caroling party so here are a few random before pictures.

Picture of the chairs all ready for our caroling guests I took last night



Before the guests came Lily was eyeing the treats as I set them out on the table




We had a lot of fun and a lot of people came to carol,visit,and eat! Mrs. Shaffer took this picture of some of the carolers.



There was a group of us who stayed back in the warmth of our house to chat and eat. So those of you who are not fond of the cold or caroling come anyway next year! Stay in the warm house with me and the food!


And a friendly note to the neighbors: please answer your doors next year!

Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

Nothing Like the Smell

of cloves and oranges around Christmas time.

I thought I could sneak in a few minutes of time alone to make a sample of an orange and clove Christmas ornament that some of the kids would be making later this month. I did not want anyone watching or 'helping' because I did not want the project to be not as exiting when the time came to do the project with the group. Well, it seems that Joel and Lily have a 'sense' that I want to be left alone for a bit and go hunting for me. In the end though, how could I refuse the help of two eager little children!

Joel working hard



Joel working hard and Lily being cute.



Anya (8)snuck in to see where Joel and Lily disappeared to and just in time for a picture of our sample ornament.



Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

Happy 45th Jeff!!

You are a great husband and father!!

We love you!!!

You work hard and sacrifice so much for us!

You deserve way more than we can give...

But we hope you had a special day anyway!!!



A few cooks hard at work stuffing shells for Jeff's birthday meal

Alan (13)



Joel (6) and Lily (2)



A very hungry but happy guy!


Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

A Few More Random Christmas Projects

Here were two more Christmas projects we did earlier this month. I do not have pictures of the kids actually making these ornaments but thought a sampling of their efforts was worthy of sharing.


This first one we do every year. It is the good old egg carton bells. I think we have a zillion on our tree just from this year. I decided to toss most of last years to make room for this years bells.




This second project turned out very pretty. Christmas start ornaments.I think this picture features Grace's,Ekie's, and Nolan's.





Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

A Camera Test

Our two cameras broke within a week or so of each other last spring which left us with a whole summer and fall of picture less days! Finally we scratched up a little extra to get a new one. It is not a top of the line model more like bottom of the line but a camera none the less so I will not complain. We actually remembered our yearly reports to AoH will be do soon and the reports need pictures to accompany them so a camera was moved to the top of our need list.

Here are our first test pictures

Goofy dad



Lily (2) wearing a jelly face quite well



My two wild ones Lily and Joel (6)



Nolan (11) Very handsome eyes on this boy




Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

Our First Project

Here is our first Christmas project of the season!


Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

Our Countdown to Christmas Begins!

Here we go with another Christmas countdown! The year has gone very fast!

Just a little background~ every day in December up until Christmas day Jeff puts a little treat in a paper cone for each of us. This year I decided little stockings would be better than the paper cones. The paper cones kept ripping. We could also use these little each year. I also thought it would be cute to hang the little stockings like this instead of our mini tree.



Hey, it seems my little stocking is missing! That Lily seems to think she has two stockings of treats...Hers and mine!
Good thing she is so cute!

Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy