A Post From Kayleigh

Hey, my name is Kayleigh. This is my first time on my Nana's blog. Just a couple of weeks ago ME and part of my family went to NC, Great Wolf Lodge. In my words it was BEAST mode:3 My brother and cousins favorite part was all the slides. It was an indoor water park. My favorite ride was the "Tornado". The first time I rode it my behind fell through the little hole in the raft..by the time the ride was over, the only thing you could see was my pony tail and my lil' footsies(: My Papa would give each "Grandchild" at least $10 for the arcade.!!!! You just got to luv that man. I at least rode the tornado like 20 or 30 times. AWESOME.! Oh yeah, there is this big bucket thingy. It fills up like, every 5 mins with water. One time when the bell started to ring, (That Means Its Almost Full) I ran as fast as I could and got there just in time. I slid and was now on the floor when the bucket let the water down. Oohh.. >: Well I have to go. That's my phone ringing(:



Bye :3

Here are some pics of our trip.

 

Here I am with my brother McKane and my cousins Owen and Ellis. Santa, here we come.

 

McKane and I.

 

All 4 of us waiting.....

 

For THIS!!!!

Happy New Year

This is a really quick layout I did this afternoon to give to Emily, Kayleigh's other grandmommie. She completed this resolutions sheet and I just added a picture of her. Emily was thrilled!

One of my goals this year is to share more layouts with family and friends. I have been pretty negligent in sharing my creative talents. I have decided to do at least one layout a month for Kayleigh's other grandparents and her Dad, my mom, and Paige. All they have to do is buy an album and I will fill it for them. One down, 3 to go for January. They might all be similar so I won't be posting each and every one. Don't want to bore you. I will be sharing some of my December Daily album in the next few days. As soon as I get it finished. It's almost done. It's fun documenting the busy days of December.

 

 

 

 

You can pick up your own copy at: She has one for kids and one for adults.
http://thirtyhandmadedays.com/2011/12/new_year_resolution/

She has one for kids and one for adults. I'll be filling mine out soon.

Home For the Holidays

Here's Aunt Penny with her niece and nephews. I don't know who has more fun, the kids or Penny. She got to spend the month of December here while on break from teaching in Guatamela. She is enjoying being with family and seeing all her long lost friends. She went with us to Great Wolf Lodge the week before Christmas. I will post pics later of that trip. We had fun UNTIL the trip home. It took so long with the rain and accidents. Except for that, I think everyone enjoyed themselves. McKane's teacher bought me a frame for my birthday and it says "Home For the Holidays" and this is the picture I put in it.

 

I love this picture, McKane is becoming quite the little checkers champion. It might be because it's his game and he changes the rules to suit his needs.
For example.....you are not allowed to double jump.
A king can double jump if it's his king.
Your king cannot double jump.
I asked him why that was and he said it was his game! So he could change the rules. He really studies the board before he moves his piece, it's so funny to watch the wheels turning in his head. We did have to have a lesson on game rules.

I will try to update my blog more often in this new year. Speaking of blogs, how do you like the new design? New year, new blog, new posts. Life it good. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and made many memories. Happy New Year!!

Until we meet again.

Happy Thanksgiving

Today was a wonderful day spent with family. We ate until we couldn't eat any more and then we ate some more. Here's a recap of our wonderful day.

Of course we all had to do our "thankful cards" we guessed who wrote each card. Even the kids were involved. Too cute!

The children's table was outside and so bright that Ellis needed sunglasses. It was such a beautiful day.

Paige, Greg and Austin joined us.

Autumn and Robert had to hurry and eat to be at another Thanksgiving meal at 3....the sacrifices we make for family!!

Our wonderful hosts. Amy hosted Thanksgiving, I will be doing Christmas in Alabama.

After we stuffed ourselved, the sale papers appeared and here is Ellis showing us what he wants for Christmas.

While waiting on the sales to start we decided to go see this movie. Kayleigh and Aunt Amy went to see "Twilight" while the boys and I went to the fun movie. Then we walked around Atlantic Station and found this.....

Don' these little guys look sooooooooooooo excited??

That's all folks. We enjoyed our day and missed Penny being with us but she will be here for Christmas. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and spending time with those you love.

Name Art

I received a housewarming gift today from my Alabama BFF (thanks Karen) and it is AWESOME. Let me share.....



It's our last name.....she went around our beloved campground and found the letters that spell BLACKWELL. How cool is that? Here's a closer look.....


B and L

A and C (the C was ivy growing out of a tree)

K and W

E (really cool tree)

L and L (the last L is actually our dock)

I think this is one of the neatest gifts I have ever received. Now I just have to find a spot worthy of it in my new home. Thanks again Karen, you are the best!!

Alabama vs Auburn ~ Sorry Georgia Fans....

First of all, a disclaimer to all my Georgia friends who are Georgia fans. I am not turning my back on Georgia, but I just finished a project for McKane's teacher and thought I'd share. Evidently there is a HUGE rivalry between Auburn and Alabama. The school has a reading contest between Aubie (Auburn tiger) and Big AL the (Alabama elephant). McKane's teacher rescued two plastic trash cans-turned robots from the trash heap and asked me if could do something to them to represent the mascots. I sooooooooooooo wish I had taken a "before" picture so you could really appreciate them. They started out blue, red and yellow. I spray painted both cans, one orange and one gray. Then downloaded coloring pages for each mascot. Out came the glitter, crayons, markers, ribbon, mod podge and VOILA!!!! Here is what we ended up with. I took them to her today and she was thrilled! So glad my talents are being recognized here in the great state of Alabama. Oh, while reading to the kids today a story about things found in the rain forest, we talked about oak trees. I asked the children what came from oak trees and one little boy said "Okra!" How cute is that? All kids are awesome no matter where you find them.

 

My Adventures in Canning

 

It all starting with a partridge in a pear tree.......I mean a pear tree. Mike's brother in Alabama has a pear tree so Mike decided he wanted some pear preserves. I do not care for pears myself but hey, if he wanted to make some, who was I to stop him. So he goes to his brothers house and brings these back to me. Mr. Harlon is our resident know it all at the campground. I do not mean that in a bad way, he just knows a LOT of stuff. So he came by while Mike was gone and brought me all this canning stuff and told me what to go buy at the store to make the preserves. He said "You ARE doing the cooking aren't you?" News to me I said. I told him I didn't even like pears. So, I went to the store and got all the stuff and read thru the recipes and peeled about a million (little) pears. Did I mention I don't care for pears? Anyway, after all was said and done. This is what I ended up with.

 

24 Pints of pear preserves.......AND I DON'T EVEN LIKE PEARS!!! I hope they turned out good, I will never know because, well, you know.

 

I have this many more pears to do something with. I wonder if horses or cows like pears??? I could get rid of them tomorrow.