Ten on the Tenth!

(on Tuesday!)

The idea is to take ten photos on the tenth of the month and share it, documenting a day of your life and the ordinary moments. There is beauty in the ordinary.

Here we go for the fourth month! Yay! So, come along on our journey of the ordinary day...

1. School days start a little early around here (too early if you ask me)! Lunch and snacks for school... this is actually one of my least favorite morning tasks and I love the one day a week Zoey buys her lunch. Something about the monotony of the task, I guess. Even if I vary the food... weird.



2. Here I am lacing up... BUT, I didn't actually go running today. Tuesday I go to spinning class, and just wear my running shoes.



3. I know I do a skype shot every time, but this will be the LAST time, so I had to do it again!! I am thankful that Ross can skype most days!



4. Picking the kids up from school.


5. We headed to the car wash after school to wash off some of that salty gunk and snow/dirt. Why, thank you Mr. M & M...


6. I couldn't decide between the next two shots. The warm sunlight streaming in was so wonderful (for warmth and light) that I wanted to capture it this way...



But his sweet face just needed a spot here too...


He often plays with whatever on the ground like this and I love it.

7. I haven't cooked much at all while Ross has been gone. Well, not how I used to anyway. We basically rotate a handful of meals and call it good. I keep it as simple as possible in terms of side dishes too... I basically cut up fruits and veggies. We had tacos tonight, and apples:)



8. Zoey does Tae Kwon Do one more day a week than Max, so tonight we dropped her off...


9. And headed to Kroger for a couple of things! My helper, who has to take books with him everywhere...



I love one on one time with them, and realized it is something that has been lacking while Ross has been gone.

10. And because I have done it before... check out the progress...



We still don't know when he will be home, but he has a date to leave his camp, so that is exciting!!

And while we were having our day... on the other side of the globe...

Someone was driving in this craziness...




And doing some work here...



not here, though...


I leave you with a little whisper of inspiration as well... I saw this earlier in the week and have been thinking about since...

Random Catch-Up

Here are my Christmas gifts for the teachers this year:

Source: eighteen25.blogspot.com via Jill on Pinterest

I had a lot of fun with just the color coordinating and stuff, and photographing the finished product.

Here is Max playing with a Lego game called Heroica. On-line they have directions on how to play and it actually goes through an animated game scenario. Max set up his game to be like the one on line and went along with their scenario. It was neat to watch.



One evening I told the kids that they needed to clean up all the dogs in their rooms. They ended up on Max's bed. Well, he must have went to bed that night without removing one of them! This is how I found him. And he stayed like that until morning!



Right before Christmas the kids had a Tae kwon do belt testing and ceremony. Here is the ceremony... I video'd the testing for Ross, so no pictures.


Max getting his Yellow Sr Belt


And Zoey is Green now!



Zoey is part of the Black Belt Club, which is why her uniform is Red. She learns weapons and other skills as well.

And she received an end of the year award. She was "Most Consistent" Nice job kiddos!


And, we spent Christmas in Arizona as well. I didn't take any pictures. I just hung out with my parents and the kids and tried to soak up as much sunshine as possible. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for everything. This is all I have...
Christmas Eve before going to Mass, and then right before Christmas Eve dinner!





the end.

Gingerbread Men

Well, I thought that with this post, I would be all caught up for the new year, but I forgot about a bunch of pictures on my camera... Oh well, press on I guess.

With Ross being gone, I wasn't quite in the mood to be all festive, in fact, I wouldn't have even decorated if it weren't for the kids. I didn't let them know though, and I tried my best to just do what was normal and keep the traditions as best I could. One thing I cut corners on was the gingerbread house! Ross usually project manages that whole ordeal and I stand back and take pictures. I found the gingerbread men at Trader Joe's and was all over that. Each kid could just do their own thing without any help from me! And I could still just stand back and take pictures. Take note how Max is eating in most of the pictures... it seems he was more interested in sampling the decorations!

Here is Zoey the elf who did a majority of the house decorations!


Getting started... first samples...








Hmmm... better taste these before I use them...




this sprinkle got stuck on my thumb, so I better get it off...


Hey Zoey, what candy do you have that I can eat?



Stay away, mister!


Fine, I'll just finish off what's in my bowl here...



And the finished product! Can you guess who they belong to?

This is the tropical one with the fruit hat...


And this guy... well, lets just say he was made for a different purpose...