Family Pics 2018

Sibling Pics

Anna Pics

 

Lasa Pics

Noah Pics

Josh and Kimmie Pic

Family Pics

Love having had these done without dropping a couple hundred dollars for them and without having bought a SINGLE piece of clothing to do this session.  Just used what we had and called it a day.  And it turned out a GOOD day! Hooray for low maintenance family photo success.

2018's Last Words

Word gatherings from my last few months' readings... faves in bold as always. 

• descant - talk tediously or at length
• apposite - apt in the circumstance or in relation to something
• argot - jargon or slang of a particular group or class
• atonal - not written in any key or mode
• interlocutor - a person who takes part in a dialogue or conversation
• dipsomaniac - a drunkard or alcoholic
• anomie - lack of usual social or ethical standards in an individual or group
• parlous - full of danger or uncertainty; precarious
• quiddity - a distinctive feature; a perculiarity
• libertine - a person who behaves w/o moral principles or sense of responsibility
• peripeteia - a sudden reversal of fortune or change in circumstances
• miff - annoy
• striae - a linear mark, slight ridge, or groove on a surface
• plangent - (of a sound) loud, reverberating, and often melancholy
• suzerainty - overlordship
• cachet - the state of being respected or admired; prestige
• oriflamme - a scarlet banner or knight's standard
• avuncular - relating to an uncle
• consanguineous - denoting people descended from the same ancestor
• hoyden - a boisterous girl
• decoction - the liquor resulting from concentrating the essence of a substance by heating or boiling, especially a medicinal preparation made from a plant
• denizen - an inhabitant or occupant of a particular place; or a foreigner afforded certain rights in the adopted country
• nostrum - a pet scheme or favorite remedy, especially one for bringing about social/political reform
• postern - back or side entrance
• ululate - howl or wail as an expression of strong emotion, typically grief
• purblind - slow or unable to understand; dimwitted
• mordant - (of humor) having/showing a sharp, critical quality; biting
• peregrinations - a journey, especially a long or meandering one
• calumny - the making of false/defamatory statements to damage someone's reputation; slander
• gestalt - an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts
• codicil - an addition or supplement that explains/modifies/or revokes a will or part of one
• funerary - relating to a funeral or the commencement of the dead
• perforce - used to express necessity or inevitability

Lion, Witch, Wardrobe @ HPAC

We know a few people performing in this play in town this holiday season, so we scooped up some tickets, booked a sitter, and got ourselves there.  It was a fun outing!

 

 

Our sweet Kellin was part of the ensemble, her first time performing. She was so beautiful and so great!  We were proud of her!

Lasa adored her three hours with Siara, whom she has now dubbed her "bess fwend." 

Thankful

We enjoyed another at-home Thanksgiving this year, just barely getting out of our pjs that day, if we did at all!  We took the whole week off school for the occasion. And it was such a treat to look forward to having Emily and crew come for an overnight visit the day after Thanksgiving. The weather was wonderful all week.  We feel rested and happy and ready to roll.  Thankful.

Everyone chipped in making a dish for our Thanksgiving feast.  Noah did stuffing, Anna did our smothered green bean recipe, I did deviled eggs, Josh did turkey and mashed potatoes, Lasa danced around in her apron offering help.

Chilling with football and board games ... mostly because Noah was grounded from video games that day. HA!

Leftovers that night - Yum again!

And settling in after Lasa went to bed to teach ourselves how to play Ticket to Ride finally.  Fun game!

Emily and crew came the next day and we didn't stop to take hardly ANY pics of all that activity and fun.  What is wrong with us???  Emily spotted me the few she did remember to snap while we "attended" a street hockey game between Noah and Jack. ;)

 

The bigger cousins all savored every single minute together - playing with the bunnies, doing obstacle courses in the back yard, legos, board games, video games, movie, snacks, card games, sleeping over, wrestling, bounce house, nerf gun battles, and all the gabbing, gabbing, gabbing.  We grown-ups all tried our hand at Apples to Apples with the kids and then a round of Ticket to Ride and stayed up late talking. 

Also - Emily (and her assistant, Brooklyn) wandered the greenway with us to take some family pics for us for this year.  They turned out plenty great and I have already created, ordered, and picked up this year's Christmas cards.  Ha!  Attaching a few favorite outtakes here. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope your Thanksgiving was a restful and heart-filling blessing to your family as ours was for us!

Hair Ventures

Trying my hand at more cornrowing (dutch braiding) knowing I just have to keep practicing to ever show improvement.  And this was good improvement!  I cornrowed the top two sections instead of the whole head this time.  Much more manageable.  I read recently that the smaller the section, the easier it is.  Duly noted! Will do smaller next time.

 

Flat twisted the front section that had worn loose from the day's 'do.  Came off pretty ok!

Tried a half up/half down 'do one day with a new product which promised to reduce shrinkage of her sweet curls.  It did not do so.  Sighhhhh.  When her hair dried, it was half this length again and mostly sticking straight out.  Gonna look into some hair growth oil ... It's just gonna need to grow a lot more to actually loooooooook even a tiny bit longer.  Ah, curls. 

Then, with those same parts, I twisted them into bantu knots another day.  Kinda funky, but it grew on me all day the more I looked at it.  Fun and playful 'do.  Looks like something that you'd see in the latest Star Wars movies ... which we love. Ha!

 

Thinking about getting the girl an appt at a salon for her second ever cornrow style.  Maybe right before we head to FL so I don't have as much hair to manage while away from home and our normal hair routine. 

Cams and Cranks and More

As we chug our way through our study of inventors for science and history this year, we have worked through simple machines and compound machines.  Most recently, we have covered cams, cranks, springs, torsion bars, and the like.  My good friend Amy, who uses the same curriculum with her kiddos as I do, set us up our own personal field trip today at Newton Nissan in Gallatin.  It was an enrichment activity to have an actual car technician show us cams and cranks in use in a car.  And since Amy's husband works there, he was able to hook us up with just such a tech.  We saw all that and more - friction, lubrication, transmissions, emissions, pistons, spark plugs, hydraulics, all that good stuff relating to our studies. Sweet!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also sweet, they surprised us with goodie bags of sweets and Nissan merchandise - cups and tshirts!  Most interesting was how not into it Noah was 😏 and how very attentive Anna was - asking such astute questions.  🙌🏻  The last shot shows a view from the showroom ... that's my Toyota staring back at all the Nissan staff.  😬