Pictures Tell the Greatest Stories…

Once upon a time, there was a mischievous boy named Paxton.

  He was such a good, pleasant little boy, but he just seemed to get himself into messy predicaments.

A LOT.  

  Case in point, yesterday at Hobby Lobby.  If you follow us on Facebook, you already read about this.  Here was my status update:

Oh my goodness, whose naughty child is throwing ribbon spools and watching them roll at Hobby Lobby while mommy’s back is turned?
Oh wait. Mine.
{SIGH}

Yup, that would be my Paxton.  He told me as he cleaned them up that they were “Truck Tires”.  I made him apologize to the clerk and got out of there asap.  My other kids NEVER did this kind of thing, I don’t even know where to hide when he does this stuff.  Someone on Facebook suggested I hollar, “Where are your parents?”  Haha, I liked that one! 🙂

 

   So on the particularly lovely day that this next story takes place, Paxton and his family were spending some time together walking around the Fairgrounds.

  They had a lovely time, but before he knew it, it was time to head home!  

   While Mommy was helping Avery with a mini crisis in the car for TWO STINKIN’ SECONDS, Paxton found an opportunity to meander over to a giant mud puddle. 

It was a lovely puddle.  And it seemed to be calling his name…..

Hey Paxton….

Paxton!

PAXTON! COME HERE!

“Are you calling meeeee, Giant Mud Puddle?”

I mean, WHAT is a boy to do?

Oh wait, that’s right….

WALK RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF IT WHILE DADDY AND UNCLE DAN WATCH.

 You all, I am all about Puddle Parties, but not in nice clothes away from home! 🙂

Pictures tell the greatest stories, don’t they?

~T

10 on 10

Welcome to 10 on 10! Where I take 10 photos {ha!} on the 10th and share them with you on the 11th day of the month.  I only do this when a) I know I will be home a good portion of the day and b) when the 11th doesn’t fall on Weekend.

Here are the instructions:

Take a photo every hour (for ten consecutive hours, if possible) on the tenth of each month. Document a day of your life and find beauty among the ordinary moments. Then share your beauty on the 11th! Please be sure to use the photo below on your blog post, and link back to mine, so we can all share in the fun.

The gal that I originally linked up to, is no longer blogging her 10 on 10’s, so I am a lone ranger. If you ever want to try, follow the instructions above, add in this picture to your blog post, then share in the comments section, so we can all visit you!

If you are interested in seeing past 10 on 10’s you can go here!

Good Morning to my Sunshines!

Uh, it’s pretty safe to say, that SPRING has left the building as of last night!!  Nothing like going from 74* to freezing over night.

Good thing we didn’t plant yet!

 Nap time projects included, getting Creamy Colorful Ham & Veggie Soup made, packing up some homemade whole wheat rolls and making this Strawberry White Chocolate Lasagna for a family from church with a NEW precious baby boy!
This recipe is coming, I want to tweek it a bit, but its one I made up based on a non strawberry, totally chocolate one I saw go across facebook last week.  It’s photographed, now I just have to type it out and schedule it.

I had an appointment after that, so Great Grandma came to babysit.  Here they all are, up from naps and playing “Thief” with her.

  My mom brought Destiny home from school. She was struggling to remember all her afternoon chores, so here is the reminder that lives on her locker….

By the time I got home from my appt. and supper delivery, the evening just flew, so no pics were taken, Oops!

But here is bedtime….

I was going to get a pic of the boys too, but look who woke up when I snuck in….UH OH! Time to get outta here!

I love how he picks which toys can sleep at the end of his bed…..

A little snack while I blog, hot tea and Dale’s famous popcorn.  🙂

Happy 10 on 10!

~T

Spring Break 2013: Florida Road Trip

  Dale and I are still on the mend from our year of tragedy turned triumph. I know it, because we still get weary of life and its demands more than we used to.  We had been hoping for some time away from life these past few months, and wouldn’t you know, the Lord provided!  🙂

  Dale’s grandparents, who he lived with on the farm all during high school, needed someone to drive their truck from Florida back home. {They are Florida Snow Birds.} So, they were gracious enough to fly both Dale AND I to Florida to help them load the truck and drive it back. 

  We were so excited! Everything was going well until the night before our flight, I realize I can’t find my wallet.

Which means I can’t find my ID. 

Which means I can’t fly, right!?

   I tore our luggage, my car and our home apart.  OH MY WORD.  No wallet.

What was I going to do? 

  After many, many tears, and much research on Google, I packed an old Drivers licence in my maiden name, my birth certificate, and my SS card, all with my maiden name on them. THEN, I threw in our Marriage license because it showed I was indeed the Tonya Ferguson on the ticket after all. 

  You better believe I barely slept a wink from 12-2 worrying about it, and we got up at 3 am to get ready to go. {YAWN!}  Praise God, they were satisfied with all my ID’s and let me on the plane with no trouble at all, just a joking hint that it’d cost me my cute earrings to get on the plane.

PHEW.  

Know where my wallet was?

At Target.  

Where I had run errands the day before with all 4 kids and somewhere in the commotion of coats and bags, left it in the cart.  

Target, where I had JUST been that night, only hours before our trip, making a return with Dale.  Never even guessing my missing wallet was behind the service desk counter, turned in by some nice lady the day before, trip cash and all!  

Seriously, what are the odds?!    But at least it was safe and sound!

5 hours later, we were in Sunny FLORIDA!  {not so sunny, more like COLD, but oh well!} That didn’t stop us from being lazy in the sun!

 

  While we were there, we stayed at my Dad and Drea’s home.  They live close by to Dale’s Grandparents, small world, right!? 

  It was QUIET there with no kids, and we were able to go out to dinner late at night and everything! Just like real grown ups. 

Haha! It’s been a while since we’ve been able to do that. 

We had a great time and got some much needed shopping done for all of us.  They have the BEST bargain stores there! 

Great food, great company, just an all around amazing time!

  Before we knew it, Grandpa’s were packed up and ready to fly home, and our short little trip was up.

  On the way out-of-state, we stopped in at my brother, Chad and sis in law, Lauren’s home to kiss on my sweet baby nephews, Colby & Brayden.   They are getting SO big!

Then it was back on the road again, this time 5 more hours upstate {Florida is SOOO long!} to surprise a life long friend at her Beach Wedding! You may remember Kris & Melissa from their engagement session I shared recently.

  We caught sweet Melissa off guard.  She came over the wooden bridge towards her groom and the beach wedding location and her jaw hit the floor.  She told us later, she almost cried. That made our long drive totally worth it!
It was such an honor to be able to be there to witness their I Do’s.  Only the Lord could work out the details to such perfection, that we’d be there not only the day of her wedding, but able to make the time of her ceremony as well. 

The wedding photographers contract said no cameras at the wedding, so I only have a few of the before shots.  It was such a beautiful wedding!!!!! I snagged what I could before packing the camera away.  I didn’t want any trouble!  

		Wedding VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

  Long before we wanted to leave, it was time to hit the road again, this time for 16 more hours of driving.  All went smoothly, until we got into some bad weather in Texas.  We just rode it out a bit at a gas station, and praise God it passed quickly without the hail they predicted!

  We spent a grand total of 22 hours of travel and poor, poor Dale drove straight through so we could see the kids before school started up the next day.  He took 2, 45 minute naps. I was blessed to sleep in 3 hour increments in the back seat of the truck.  Poor guy, after we got home and played with the kids a bit, he crawled to bed at 5 for a nap, and slept until 7 the next morning!

  Oh, I almost forgot to tell you.  This is so exciting!  A friend of ours from here, has some BFF’s down in Florida that do photography. 

  So, knowing all we had been through these past few years, she made a couple calls, and got us hooked us up with a Couples Session on the beach!  {squeeeee!} 

  The following photos are taken by Drea, she and Dad hung out and watched our shoot.  Before you go, I want to share some of my favorites with you…..she did a great job capturing moments even though we totally were looking at another photographer the whole time!

We had so much fun, with some serious, intimate shots…..

 

And NOT so serious moments in the mix! 

We call this next photo, “Parents of 4”…..

And let’s not forget some Beach side planking with a little Ta Da thrown in…..

  In all seriousness, this opportunity was a big deal to us.  You have to remember, the last time we were there, Dale re-proposed to me on the beach, as we were fighting for our marriage after “the truth”. 

2 years and a whole lot of healing later, it was so amazing to have a photo session on the beach in honor of all that had taken place.

Mel and Jen were so fun to work with, I wish I had thought to get a photo of THEM! They were such sweet girls, and we all had a blast! Even though it was WINDY and super cool out.

  Check out this next shot, we were trying to get our feet tangled for a shoe shot, it was so not easy!  

  Drea did such a good job capturing all the little moments during our photo shoot! 

I will have to wait to share the pictures from the actual shoot until I get the disk and release from the photographers, but I just HAD to share some of these today too. 

  I am proud of how far we have come.  It’s been a long, long weary road……..

  But God is so, so faithful to walk with us every step of the way! ~T

 

 

Winter Wonderland

  If you follow 4 little Fergusons on Facebook, then you have already seen the following photos, but there are a lot of you that haven’t, so these are for you. 🙂

We have had a very dry last few years, this year was proving to be no different….we barely have had any snow. And if we did, it melted right away!  If it is going to be brown and dead and cold, we need snow to brighten things up at least once a month, right!?

Right. 

I had nearly given up hope of ANY big snows this year.  Oh well, Spring might as well come. I packed up all my “Let It Snow” winter décor and THEN……..

Then they started forecasting this BLIZZARD! YES!  I should’ve packed up my décor a month ago!? lol  🙂

  They were predicting 2 days of snow!  Like 16 inches worth!  I prayed soooo hard it would come. The kids joined in my plea. When we woke up……………..

  It was Snowy Heaven. 

Big fat flakes falling most of the day.  No school, no work for Dale, just 2 days of fun in the snow and cocoa by the fire. 

Oh man, we LOVED it!

  There was even MORE snow by day 2.

Here are the photos from our days at home:

  I headed out to help Dale with chicken chores. He was super sweet and made a path for me to follow.  Except, I think he forgot how much shorter 5 foot 3 legs are than 6 foot 1 legs.  I hollered at him that these steps were TOO BIG! 

He said, “I am already taking steps half the size of normal up here!” 

  Needless to say, even though he took smaller steps and I made it out to the coops, I did NOT end up helping him with chores. 

Probably because I had my camera in hand?! 

Maaaaaaay-be.

I ended up walking the whole property before heading back in.  I could hardly walk it was so deep, but it was worth it! 🙂

After quiet reading time, we let the big kids go outside. 

Poor little Peanut, she couldn’t walk and kept falling down.  She’d just sit there so quietly in the snow, watching everyone else have fun.

Daddy came to the rescue

She soon came in, but not before playing in the cool “Fort” the big kids discovered under our evergreen tree.  It really was like a little snow house under there, so fun!

You know, I used to want to move somewhere tropical SO bad!  But days like this, I am thankful to live in a place that sees ALL four seasons in all their glory.

 

 Bringing you Winter Wonderland-Midwest Style…..

~T

PS  Guess WHAT!? They are forecasting 12-16 MORE inches today and tomorrow.

WOO-HOO!

 

Let It Snow

Oh the weather outside is frightful…..

They are forecasting 10 inches of snow {16-18 in some areas} and I sure hope they are right! We have 14 inches this morning!

But the fire is so delightful…..

And since we have no place to go….

Let it Snow

Let it Snow

Let it Snow

Speaking of cold and snow.  I’ve been wanting to tell you about something.

Here is the BEFORE:

This is the 1930’s style fireplace we tried to heat our home with. 

30% efficiency,  $150-250 gas bill depending on how hot we could keep the fire all day.

{If you wanted to be toasty warm, you stayed RIGHT by the fire!}

DURING: Mr. Do It Yourself saved us $900 by installing the fireplace insert himself, woo hoo!

Hour 5 of the Installation Process:

What? No more smiles, Mr. DIY?

AFTER:

We now heat our whole house with this fireplace insert.  It is listed to heat 2000 square feet.  That means the heater hasn’t been turned on once!

87% efficiency, $25 a month gas bill. {for heating the water heater}

YAY!

  Our house went from an average of a nippy 60* in the side rooms and a drafty 71* in the living room, all winter long, to a warm 71* in the side rooms and a toasty 76* in the main living, dining and kitchen areas.   {We shut bedroom doors now, to keep the main rooms warmer, plus, I think we all sleep better in a cool bedroom with lots of snuggly blankets.}

With this wood burning fireplace insert, we are going through a third of the amount of wood, too because it burns hotter, slower.  Meaning Dale loads the wood bin the morning and I can keep the house warm all day without heading out back to refill it. It lasts until he gets home in the evening!

Why, oh WHY, did we wait 10 years to do this?! 

  If you have a fireplace and you are interested in heating your home with cozy, wood heat, we highly recommend a Regency Fireplace Insert, we sure love ours. 

Now, like I said earlier!

LET IT SNOW…….  🙂

~T

Birthday Fun & Layered Ice Cream Cake

   I told you on Friday, that sweet Tylan has been waiting 6 WHOLE MONTHS, for his turn at a birthday!  All 3 of his siblings were born in the summer, AND he had to endure the girls’ two half birthday celebrations at school yet, too. 

FINALLY, his turn came!

  The rule at our house for the Birthday kiddo, is you don’t have to do ANY of your normal chores, the other kids have to do them.  They get to pick the food we eat, and the cake they want for dessert that night.  They get 3 gifts, just like at Christmas, that are opened before dinner.  Oh my, was he ever on cloud 9!

  He received a wooden marble works set, a stomp rocket and a bike from us.  {Someone gave us this bike for free. What a blessing!} 

  From other family members he received $6, Target gift card and new roller blades, which he insisted on wearing to dinner.

  Speaking of dinner:

Tylan LOVES Mac & Cheese.

LOVES IT!

Not Mom’s homemade, nope, the boxed stuff.  Bleh.

  Ok, buddy, good thing its your birthday, cause this is a special treat!

  I told him we needed to make his dinner selection a bit more filling, since Great Grandpa Beckler got to come home from the nursing home, and others would be joining us.

So we turned 2 boxes into Mac & Cheese Lasagna, click picture below for recipe.  With served this with regular Mac & Cheese on the side.  Now that is a high quality meal right there, folks.  OH, and a big tossed salad so we had SOMETHING healthy!!!!!!  🙂

He got to pick 2 desserts, one for his school party, and one for home.

For school he picked Dirt & Worm Cake, which I will share the recipe for in Post 2 for today.  I loved hearing him whisper to everyone, “Don’t worry, it’s not REAL dirt.”

For home, he picked a childhood favorite of mine.  Ice Cream Cake!!! 

It’s very simple actually:

Bake an Angel Food Cake, cool then divide in 3rds if its round, 4ths if you do 2 loaf pans like I did.  {discarding or consuming the extra layer}

Have your birthday boy or girl select TWO kinds of ice cream, allow them to soften just a bit for easier moldablity.  {ice cream combo ideas listed on recipe}

Fill as pictured above, trying to keep cake level.  I used over half of both ice creams.  Then cover the whole thing in Extra Creamy Cool Whip.  Freeze until serving.

  Soooo simple, but soooo good!  Printable recipe here.

Time to sing and EAT!

  Our Florida family even got to sing Happy Birthday with us, via Facetime!

  Ty says it was the best day EVER!

~T

Florida Family

  

We were so honored to get to host my baby brother, Chad, his lovely wife, Lauren and my two DARLING identical twin nephews, Colby & Brayden at my house for a week!

Last time they came to visit us, which was over a year ago, I took this: 

Needless to say, things were a BIT more lively this time around……Meet Colby and Brayden

   That means 4 adults and 6 kids in a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom home, and you better believe we used EVERY square inch of it.  🙂

  Chad and Lauren were oh-so privilieged to use the boys bunks beds, and we squeezed 1 crib mattress and 1 porta crib into that room with them.  We moved the kids out of their bathroom and gave them strict instructions to use ours all week.  Then, we moved the boys “room” to our closet.

  Now before you panic that I am putting my children to bed in a closet, let me show you a photo and remind you, that when we added on, I was VERY specific in the dimensions of my walk in closet.  It’s bigger than their bedroom and easily fit 2 cots, and all the other stuff we have to store in there!

  It was a great week, days full of play time with the boys, and keeping 6 kids happy, napped and fed turns out to be a pretty full time job in itself. The grown ups stayed up each night until 11:30 talking or playing cards, which was all fun and games until 5:30 am rolled around and the boys were waking up with Dale’s alarm.

  Here are the photos from our week together: 

  We had several visits from Great Grandpa and Grandma, Nana was here every night, Aunt Viv was in town from Oregon and little David, who was due the same time as the twins this summer, even brought his mom and dad over for a visit one evening so he could meet his cousins. 

We even Face Timed Aunt Gena in Phoenix in case she didn’t get back in town in time to see the boys…..

I don’t know WHAT the mommy’s were doing behind my head, but it sure musta been strange!

  Check out these proud Aunties and Nana!

  And how about a proud Great Grandpa & Grandma, with their SEVEN grandkids!

Sweet babies

Meeting the Chickens…..

  Family shots:    

  I wouldn’t be Aunt Tonya, if I didn’t get some photos of the boys while they were here.  Thankfully, we had some crazy, totally random warm spell, so we were able to go outside for a mini shoot.

  Oh my SWEETNESS, I miss them already!!!!!

~T

 

Back to Life, Back to Reality

    I have the song stuck in my head today: Back to life, back to reality.   Ugh.  Winter Break was great and I am SO sad to see everyone back to school and work routine! 

  I think I enjoyed this break extra much, because after a busy end of the year push, I am all caught up on photo editing for the Season.  That means I am actually enjoying taking photos of my own family again. {This is something I want to take into consideration next year when taking sessions.} 

  After all the Christmas Celebrations passed, we had lots of time left to just enjoy each other before the break was over and Daddy had to go back to work.  We didn’t make any big plans, just hanging out, reading, doing crafts and playing games.

We introduced the kids to the game Guessturesthat my mom has from back in the day. They still make it, so it must be a keeper.  It was so fun!

  There was lots of Lego building and Lincoln Log constructing over break.

Thank you Sock Bun, for making it look like I have time to curl my daughter’s hair!

Wednesday night church party:

Dale decided to teach me Texas Hold ‘Em over break.  Lets just say I kicked some booty!  I like Beginners Luck!  
Second and third night we played? Not so much beginners luck leftover, bummer.

The girls got this cute kitchen for one of their Christmas gifts from us.  After they went to bed one night, I decided to play a trick on them.

I had their Dolls trash the kitchen and raid it of ALL it’s sweet things!

 Oh such NAUGHTY little girls!  I think they have tummy aches.
My girls thought it was pretty stinkin’ hysterical!

  We went to the library for new books, and I even got some!  I spent a few quiet nap times with a bowl of soup and a super good Christian fiction.  Oh, how I have missed reading a grown up book!

  There was plenty of time for Crafts after 2 days of beautiful snow, YAY!  I will share more about this particular snowy day craft another day.  

There is always time for a chapter book before bed, this time it’s The Mouse and the Motorcycle. 

And lets not forget all the Plays that were put on!

Tomorrow will feature 4 frosty little Fergusons, from our snow day fun!

~T

Christmas Break: Part 2

  This is post 2 for today.  I KNEW WordPress was going to be grumpy at me for all those pics! I just had to try 4 times to get it to stick.    It is so important to me to document all these special moments, because I would still love to someday print off these blog posts in a book for my kids.

  Anyhow, for the 2nd time ever, we had a quiet Christmas at home on Christmas day. We LOVED it!  We used to have to have everyone dressed nice, food prepped, presents opened and never played with, to be out the door by 11.  This time, we had a leisurely brunch and Birthday party for Jesus, followed by the Christmas story, presents and PLAYTIME!  After nap we headed to be with the family.  It was just right!

  If you follow us on 4 little Ferguson’s Facebook page, you will already know this story, but I sent out an SOS for uses for Rhode’s Rolls.  Dale and I had gutted and cleaned out our huge chest freezer, and for some reason, one basket got left out…..OF COURSE, it was the Rhodes Roll basket, so the next morning he brings in 3 BURSTING bags of Rhodes rolls for me to quick figure out what to do with.  You all were so helpful!  In the end, I made a double batch of these yummy Bierocks, some Pigs In A Blanket for lunch, and a Cream Cheese Tea Ring for Jesus’ Birthday party the next day.  This suggestion came from Liz, over at that Skinny Chick Can Bake. She has such great recipes, and this one did NOT disappoint!  It is SO pretty and not too sweet, either.  Well, hers is so pretty, mine was NOT. 

  Go check out her post for the recipe, I think you will want to make it!

Holiday Cream Cheese Tea Ring by That Skinny Chick Can Bake

The kids played while we cleaned up the kitchen…..

Then it was time for the Christmas story.  Destiny was proud we used her Bible this year.

Things started off well and everyone sat quietly….well, kind of.

After a brief talking-to by Daddy, and a punishment of sitting on their hands to learn to keep them to themselves, story time continued…..quietly this time. 

Next, Tylan shared the Symbols of Christmas, that he made in school.

Look Mom, J is for Jesus!

Present time! 3 for each kiddo, just like Baby Jesus….and I am proud to say, nothing required batteries this year, so it was a peaceful Christmas. 

Oh, forgot Paxton’s tractor flashlight. Guess it needed batteries, but everything else did not.

Thanks to some Dog loving friends of ours, even Sophie had a present under the tree this year.

About this time, Destiny noticed our cat, Stripes crying at the window.  She felt it was such a shame he couldn’t join in our Christmas fun, so we let him in for a bit.  He was in Cat HEAVEN, Sophie was NOT impressed, but they did end up napping together for a bit.

   Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good night!
{New Bible story book from Grandma Esther}

  Tomorrow is Weekend Potluck like normal, but on Monday, I will share some photos of the fun things we did on our break, and the first good SNOW of the season!!!!!

Hugs, T

Christmas Break: Part I

  I have my babies home for 17 WHOLE DAYS this Christmas Break and I absolutely love it!  Yes, its noisy, yes, pre-vacuuming, the carpet looked like I hadn’t swept in a month, yes, there are moments of sheer chaos that can make me lose my cool, but overall? I’d keep them home with me ALWAYS.  Bonus: Dale takes the week off before Christmas and through New Years since no one really wants to see their insurance agent, so we got to enjoy him home, too! 🙂  It’s ALWAYS more fun when Daddy is home!

  We had several Christmas celebrations and events that I am sharing with you today via a bazillion pics. 🙂  I know, I know, you aren’t surprised! 

~T

Destiny and her cousin Brooklyn, singing solos in Sunday service.  They did fantastic!

Preschool Christmas service, my little shepherd boy only made it as far as my aisle.  He then feel asleep on Grandpa’s lap.

Christmas with my side of the family…plus, my Uncle and Aunt from Phoenix were in town!  It was fun to see them, and Great Grandpa got to come home from the Nursing Home to be with us, so it was extra special!  My kids LOOOOOVE to go to Uncle Dan & Aunt Gena’s house!

Siblings minus one

Grandpa’s buddy

Uncle Dan’s infamous “swing”

I told Great Grandma, Nana and Aunt Gena, NO TOYS this year!  So they were clever and thought of really neat gifts for the kids.  Nana got us an early gift of Adventure In Odyssey Cd’s for our trip to Georgia.  Great Grandma got the kids pencil sharpeners, erasers and a neat chair stacking game, and Aunt Gena made coupons for the kids to go see The Music Man play with her when it comes to town. COOL!

On the eve of Christmas Eve, we always have Dales dad and siblings over.  We made a delicious Coke Ham, so easy and so yummy!

Uncle Mike got Paxton this HUGE Sock Monkey to add to his collection of bedtime friends.  He LOVED it!  “Beeg BEEEG Monkey,” he says.

Ty and Avery have a built in cousin friend about the same age, so they had soo much fun playing together.  The boys played with the race track and the girls, well they musta been having fun, because we didn’t see them much!

All this playing is hard work!

Time for a Christmas movie before heading home….

All the cousins in jammies!

  Next up, Christmas evening at Grandpa Kirk & Grandma Eileen’s house. Grandma Eileen picked up these darling horse marionette puppets for the kids. They had fun dancing them around and making them gallop on the kitchen floor.

I didn’t get another shot after this, guess I was having too much fun laughing until I cried, playing Loaded Questions.
I am telling you, that game is HYSTERICAL for a group, I highly recommend it!

That’s enough pics for this post!  Head on over to the next post of our Family Christmas.