Budding Artist

Ali has been taking an art class this year, and she LOVES it!  It's not just a home school crafting class (which would be a waste of time, in my opinion.)  These classes are taught by an artist, who has her own studio and is very talented.  The bonus is that the classes are only $5 a piece!  The down side is that we have to drive to The-middle-of-nowhere, MO for them, but in my mind, it is well worth it.  Ali has also met a friend (Alura) there and they have really hit it off.  They have tons in common making art class is the highlight of Ali's week.

In December Ali decided to enter her art teacher's holiday art show.  She submitted four pieces.  Her art teacher wasn't sure which category she was going to put her in (intermediate or advanced) and we didn't have time to actually attend the art show.  A few weeks ago we were notified that she took second place, but we didn't know which piece had won, and in which category.

Yesterday was her first art class of the semester, and she got her big news.  Her "big" piece (she worked on it forever!) had won in the ADVANCED category!  She is super excited!

(Yes, her name is spelled wrong.)

We are so proud of our little artist!

Week One is in the Books!

Our first semester of the 2012-2013 school year sucked.  That's the truth of it.  We had lots of abnormal circumstances and we had to flex a lot.  It just made it really difficult.

THANKFULLY, our first week of the 2nd semester is now over and it was a really good week.  Not crazy, structured, we can never maintain this kind of good.  Just normal good.  Yes, that elusive normal.  Everything got done, the house was in pretty good shape, etc . . .  It felt great!

ALSO . . . I am excited to report that we have decided to take a road trip for spring break!  We are heading out to Phoenix to visit Aaron's grandparents.  We are SUPER excited to see them!  We are also excited to see a part of the country that we have never seen.  (With the exception of Aaron, and he was pretty young.)  In addition to Phoenix, we will also visit the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert, Grand Canyon, Four Corners, and Hoover Dam.  There are about a million other things that I want to see, but time and money are limited.  I keep thinking, "We're not THAT far from San Diego" or "Hmmm  . . . how can we fit White Sands into our itinerary?"  : )  But I am very thankful for all that we get to see.  Only two months away!

Back to Braces!

My beautiful young lady is back to braces! : )  She is doing a two phase treatment, and this is the beginning of phase two.  Her first set of braces was put on when she was 9:

I can't believe how little she was!!

Last night we "celebrated" by have a pre-braces feast!  Hard shell tacos, almonds, beef jerky, popcorn, Milk Duds and Starburst.  Fun times!  Overall, she is excited to get her teeth straight, but not excited about all of the food restrictions.

Happy New Year!

It was so great to be able to be with old friends to ring in the New Year!  This is a long standing tradition of ours, but this year we had to travel to do it.  In November the Alligoods moved to Peoria, IL.  We were sad to see them go, but it sure is fun to stretch our New Year's celebration out over 3 days!

Fellowship Bible Church has a long standing tradition of celebrating together on New Year's Eve.  Ummm . . . conflict?? : )  No biggie.  Jason & Aaron took the kiddos to the FBC bowling party and Amber and I got to stay home and enjoy some uninterrupted girl time!  (That's my favorite!)  For dinner, we all enjoyed a chili supper at FBC, including a game of Pictionary.  We got home around 9ish, put the Littles to bed, then carried on with our usual celebration. Yummy food, Trivial Pursuit, Scene It with the kids and a LATE night!

The "Biggles" ringing in the New Year with some sparkling grape juice!

Love them!

We've been taking this picture since they were ten.  What a hoot!

Silly Emma & Karis

Can you tell that we are exhausted??  Amber had a strict "No unnecessary sleep" rule.  We were determined to not waste a single minute.  Sleep would have to wait!  Needless to say, the first thing I did once we got home was take a four hour nap!

Happy New Year!

Christmas 2012 Recap

I'm really bad at remembering to bring my camera to all of our Christmas celebrations!  The sad thing is that I have a small camera that I affectionately call my "purse camera."  The idea is that I will always have a camera with me . . . but it is rarely in my purse.  : )  Oh well, here is what I have for this year!

Our first Christmas is with our immediate family.  We celebrate on Christmas Eve, and I LOVE it!  I love staying at home, hanging out as a family, staying in my jammies all day long.  It's my kind of Christmas!  

Bella even joined them in the picture!

The first present that was opened was from Aunt Sandy!  She passed down a ton of Leanna's old American Girl stuff and they LOVE it!

Here they are, getting ready to start in on other presents.  After this, I put the camera away.  I wanted to enjoy watching them without having a camera in front of my face ; )

On Christmas we were with my parents.  My Grandparents and my cousin, Katrina came down from Wisconsin this year.  It was great to see them, but I have NO pictures.  (I might be able to snag a few from my mom though!)

On the 26th, we were home in the morning, then celebrated the House family Christmas in the evening.  Again, no pictures.  We were SO thankful this year because Grandma House was having a really good day.  She even saw Aaron, hugged him and called him by name (that's a HUGE deal these days!)  So, that was quite a Christmas treat!

On the 27th, we celebrated the Patton family Christmas with Aaron's parents and siblings.  We enjoyed brunch together, then opened gifts.  Nice and relaxed.  And of course, I have no pictures.

On the 28th we were able to just be at home, which was great.  We took down Christmas decorations and started thinking towards our trip to Peoria.

On the 29th, we hit the road!  (More on this trip later). That evening we did our "Pattigood" Christmas and I DID have my camera! 

Emma opening her gift from Karis.  Matching BFF necklaces!

Ali scored big time from Mrs. Alligood's yarn stash!  Tons of super cute yarn!  That will keep her crochet hook plenty busy for a long time : )

I'm not sure whose children these are.  I made "BFF" t-shirts for them this year.  (FYI:  "The BFFs" is the name of their "band")  Aubrey got the socks for Christmas this year and very graciously shared them with her friends.  They also decided to "dress up" with their interesting choice of pants.

And Christmas wouldn't be complete without a silly picture. : )

I hope that you all had a great Christmas!

On the Road Again!

Our crew is on the way to Peoria, IL!  Very much looking forward to some refreshing time with old friends!

It is Alive!

Okay, I definitely deserve the lame-o blogger award.  It has officially been 2 years since I have updated.

Well, I've decided that I need to make an effort to resurrect my blog. Mostly, I want to be able to keep all of our far away family in the loop.  Let's face it . . . life in the Patton family is never dull . . . there is certainly MUCH I can write about.  It's the whole TIME thing : )  There just isn't a lot of it these days.

So, I've decided that I'm really going to make an effort to update at least once a week.  Some of my posts might be one-liners or random Julie-isms . . . but that's okay . . . that's just how life happens.  And the good news is that I can now post from my phone!  We'll see how that goes.  But, if you're out there and reading this . . . comments would be great!  It's nice to know that I'm not writing for no one.

I'm not even going to attempt to recap my past two years.  I'm not even going to recap my last year.  Honestly, it's been rather on the rough side, and I don't want to whine and complain. (That is actually why I opted out of my annual Christmas letter this year.) I'm thankful for the grace that God has extended to us and I'm really hoping that 2013 will be a great one!

So, for now I will leave you all with some of our pictures from our Florida vacation this year (You can click on each picture to see a larger version).  Enjoy!

Ali - age 12

Emma - age 10 (at the time - age 11 now)

Julie - age 6

Megan - age 7 (at the time - age 8 now)

Nutjobs

Love them!

 He's my favorite ; )

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Patton family!  

Another year has passed, and we are so thankful for the ways that God continues to bless our family.

Julie is now 5 and we jokingly call her our shy one.  She is always talking and definitely keeps us laughing.  This year Julie began kindergarten, and she is definitely a smart little cookie.  She has recently discovered that she can breeze through her chapter books very handily, and she thinks that is pretty awesome.  This was also Julie’s first year to play organized soccer.  She has been waiting for her turn for two years now, and really loved it!

Meg is now 7 and is in 2^nd grade.  She is my girlie who greets the world with a smile.  She is full of laughter and never in a hurry (for better or for worse!)  She is also still our “skinny minny” who is perpetually pulling her pants up.  Unfortunately, Meg’s year has been full of tummy pains that we are still wrestling with, but it seems that we are making some progress in that area and we are very thankful for that!  One milestone for Meg this year was that she scored her first goal in soccer!  She was super excited about that one!

Emma is now 10 and in the 4^th grade.  She continues to be our athlete.  Given a choice, she will always choose playing outside or helping dad out in the garage over reading or crafting.  This year she celebrated her 10^th birthday with a Hawaiian themed pool party, and she loved that!  She would happily swim every day during the spring, summer and fall.  (It doesn’t bother her if the water is too cold – or too hot.)  Right now Emma and I are reading through the Percy Jackson books together, and we are both enjoying that! 

Ali is now 11 and is in the 6^th grade.  She continues to be our bookworm and our artist.  This year she took a fashion design class at a nearby church, and that was one of the highlights of her week!  The other highlight of her week has been youth group at our church.  We welcomed a new youth pastor and his wife this fall and Ali is crazy about them both (So are Aaron and I!)  It has been such a joy to watch as Ali absorbs and applies the teaching that she is sitting under on Wednesday nights!

Aaron and I celebrated 12 years of marriage this spring!  (I’m not sure where time has gone.)  At the end of May we took a family vacation with our good friends (the Alligoods) to the mountains of North Georgia.  It was such a treat to vacation with some of our favorite people!  In September we were also able to take a week and go to Wisconsin for a visit with my extended family.  I continue to home school our girls, and (most days) I really love that.  Aaron has now been working at Boeing for 8 years.  This year has included a lot more work-related travel for him.  That’s definitely not his favorite (or mine) but it should be a few months before he has to go again.  The Patton family was in 7^th heaven with the sporting world this year!  A Packers Super Bowl and a Cardinals World Series were the perfect package!

All in all, it has been a great year, though I’m not sure how it managed to fly by so quickly.  As we are in the middle of Christmas craziness, we purpose to focus on what we are truly celebrating.  "Fragile finger sent to heal us, Tender brow prepared for thorn, Tiny heart whose blood will save us, Unto us is born, Unto us is born."  May your Christmas be a true celebration of our Savior!

Aaron, Andrea, 

Ali, Emma, Megan and Julie Patton

School's Out for Summer!

Yes . . . It's that time of year again!  I'm singing Alice Cooper : )  It feels GREAT to be finished and enjoy a summer off!

Papers are graded, grades are tabulated, hours are logged and everything is bundled up and ready to be put away!

Recital & Project Fair

Our year is finally coming to a close! We finished up last night with our Spring Recital & Project Fair.

Ali played:

"Malaguena"

"Clementine"

"Tango Staccato"

"Hedwig's Theme"

Emma played:
"Grandpa's Clock"

"When the Saints Go Marching In"

"Harp Song"

"Edelweiss"

This year we studied Missouri history and each of our kids did a presentation on a famous Missourian.  They did their oral presentations on Wednesday night, then after their recital they stood by their presentation boards and answered questions.

Karis as Laura Ingalls Wilder

Aubrey did her presentation on Walt Disney and dressed up at Minnie Mouse

Ali as George Washington Carver

Bekah did her project (and website) on the Salem Witch Trials

Megan as Laura Ingalls Wilder

Emma as Daniel Boone

Jonah did his project on Mark Twain and dressed up as Tom Sawyer

Blake did his project on airplanes

They all did a really awesome job!  They worked SO hard and we are so proud of them.