This Thanksgiving

I am very happy to be going away to visit our family this Thanksgiving, we have four children and we usually have a gathering at our home but this year we are going to be on the road books on CD and video games and any other entertainment we can find for the kids because when they get bored they tend to fight and complain about anything and everything...

We hope that the traffic is not to bad and that our five hour trip down there will be safe so keep us in your prayers... : )

We have quite a lot of family and friends in the Military that will be very missed this year and we want to let them know we love them and are looking forward to them getting home safe and sound...The picture has my step brother Robert Lee, he is in Iraq his family is in Fort Hood TX,

It will be the first year in a long time we haven't cooked a turkey or made a ton of pies and deserts. I always was worried about my kids messing up someones house or walking in with dirt on their shoes but I have just decided life is to short to worry about things like that and just go with the flow have fun and visit our loved ones and enjoy the short time we have together because we so seldom can find the time to do such things with the ones we love so very much. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving this year!

My Kids Picks this week For Giving Handmade Gifts http://http//www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5496150&section_id=5316936

I have tried to teach my children from the earliest of ages that Christmas is more than Getting it is much more special to Give from the heart...

My Two Oldest Boys Love to help me pick out little gifts for their Grandparents every year, and this year has only one exception...Etsy and Handmade gifts are at the top....

Every year we do a little basket full of goodies for gifts, this year we are making felt bowls and filling them with lots of fun items, Top on our list is Handmade Soaps, and the Coolest thing we already found and purchased for our Grandpa that is a Retired Veterinarian - Now full time Rancher, is Insect Repellent Soap, From Mommys Little Helper....

This soap smells fantastic and I plan on buying more of this soon...Also we purchased from the same shop....The lemon grass Irish Oatmeal Soap, It is beautiful and a fantastic price for handmade soap.

I am really thankful for my family today

Yesterday was really crazy, I had lots of orders to get packed up, I was so happy about that: )

My daughter needed to get to school to usher at the school play so I took her and my husband stayed home with our three boys...yea..again...( I really was happy not to take them, the little one doesn't do well at things like that yet...)

Anyway the Play -You Can't Take It With You- Was Amazing! The Drama Kids were fantastic actors and actresses, I was very proud of them all! ...can't you tell : ) Then the next funny thing that happened ...

I took my daughter out for a burger at a restaurant and the waitress thought we were a "Couple" So ...my daughter was mortified...but I was almost complemented... isn't that funny, when I took the check and told her she was my daughter the lady was embarrassed and looked really confused too...
Oh I wonder what adventures await today...

ugg...House Cleaning Is the only thing I see scheduled for today...FUN!

On This Rainy Day, A Little about My Town

I love the sound of the rain on our metal roof, we live out in the country outside of Bentonville.

We have beautiful lakes and Rivers, Campgrounds and Trails to hike, and as a photographer I love the vast amount of nature we have within a few hours of our home....

Bentonville, Arkansas is the home of Wal-Mart, and my husband happens to work there too...He is in the Aviation Department and he really does like his job. We are very lucky in many ways as the area provides excellent education in the public schools. The Walton family is building a new Museum Called Crystal Bridges devoted to North American Artists http://www.crystalbridges.org/ that will be Opened in 2010, I am really excited because they have had a mock up model of it and it looks amazing. We have needed something like this in our area for some time. We usually go to Tulsa and visit the museums every summer with our children. They really do enjoy the Gilcrease Museum - The Museum of the Americas the most of all the Museums we have taken them to and when we go to Tulsa they ask if we can go there.
This is another great link to the Gilcrease
http://www.gilcrease.org/virtual.aspx
This is a link to our town
http://www.bentonvilleusa.org/