Million Dollar Smile

Almost two years ago, Karlie visited the Ortho for a braces consultation. Since we were headed to China at that time to get Jolie, it was decided to put those braces on as soon as we returned. For the past few years, Karlie has lived with the pains of braces.

Last month Dr. Nia gave her the good news that they were coming off in December, just five days before Christmas. What an awesome Christmas present.

Our appointment was at 930 this morning, for braces removal, retainer fitting and a cleaning. IT was a long appointment. I played with my phone until the battery died. Finally she came to the waiting room and we waited for the retainer, then she practiced putting it in and out. then we were on our way home.

Look At That Sweet Smile. Dr Nia said that smile looks like a million bucks. Her dad agrees with that in more ways than one.(justkidding). She'll be wearing a clear retainer for a while, but the braces are off. 

Hallelujah!

Good Christmas Reads

Do we not look totally charming and unposed here?

I have lots of Children's picture books. Having been a preschool teacher and Sunday School teacher for a few years, a momma for 20 and a homeschooling momma too, I have quite the collection of kids' books. Of course, Christmas being my favorite, I have a lot of Christmas choices.

The other day, Shek and I had packed up my book tote with all of our Christmas books to take to Sunday School. I grabbed that packed bag and told Jolie to pick out one or two to read before bedtime. I knew which one was her favorite last year, and I wondered if it would still be her pick this year, and it was.

Jolie's favorite is Mary Did You Know? Since it's a song, we sing it when we read it. 

Here she is singing her favorite book...Don't you love her makeup? She applied it herself!

  When I started to read, the big kids piled in the bed too asking for their favorites. I was touched to see my seventeen year old girl grab her childhood favorite and then my 11 year old grab his. I told Karl he should take our photo, but I rethought that because I really did not want a blog post with a photo of us in our pjs, or should I say me in my pjs. 

Family favs:

Shek's pick is Silver Packages by Cynthia Rylant

Karlie's Pick is The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg

Jolie's pick is Mary did you Know by Mark Lowry

Mom's pick is Piper's Night before Christmas  by Mark Lowry(it rhymes)...but mom really likes them all.

So last night, we "posed" with our favorites. Some of our  favorites are pictured above. I don't know which is Zach's favorite. I am sure he has one, because he is all about those family traditions we do each year.

Shek loves Silver Packages. He loved trains as a little boy, maybe that's why this is his favorite.

Shek insisted that I post this photo. It really sums up how interested they were in posing for my blog post photos. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Reading y'all!

A little fall fashion

My girl is into  the fashion. I do believe she could be a host on what not to wear? I can tell ya hey, don't wear that, but she can actually put something together that will make you look good and accentuate your positives. ME, I just simply say, "Man! Those people need a full length mirror!" or is that a comment that I hear my  Honey say all the time. LOL

This past Sunday evening she was in the fall fashion show with the other Pure Fashion girls. They are all about being hip and cute, and as Karlie likes to say, "without hanging it all out!"

So I took my camera, and would you believe, I didn't get great photos, I am hoping to snag some off the purefashion facebook page.

This is the outfit she modeled. The first fashion show is fall fashions from your own closet. This was her choice and it made all the modesty guidelines.

This is Ale. She is one of the consecrated and she's in charge of purefashion.  We all love her. 

Pure Fashion is a faith based group for young girls teaching modesty and closeness to Christ, servant spirit. It is run by the Catholic church, but they allow other faiths to join in. It's great to see all different faiths coming together.  This year, Karlie is not the only Baptist. We all have JEsus in common!

At least I got her on  the way back up the runway.

I made her pose for me after it was all over.  There was also a drawing for a 50 dollar visa gift card. They called out MY ticket number and I won. I am saving it with my bday money for a treadmill. 

We had fun watching all of the girls in their fashions, but my girl was my favorite!

IT's my turn

At Soccer practice the other day, Karlie said, It's my turn to be on the blog because the last few times it's been about Shek. SO I told her that I had to have photos, so I started snapping photos. SO now it's Karlie's turn.

It's my turn next, mom.

 Smilin' with shades

This is my favorite!

Karlie carries a BIG purse...inside she has E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. in it. She has snacks, and even water, deo, makeup, you know it she's got it. Comes in handy when we get hungry.

She's probably laughing at me, not with me. but at me. My family tends to laugh at me quite a bit...

fountain fun

I loved this fountain and took several photos. I even messed around with the settings on my camera...I really don't know what I'm doing, but tried a few different things, and then edited it in picasa cause that's all I've got...yea, yea, pathetic i know, but it's all for fun.

I can still feel the spray.

Two of my cuties enjoyed the fountain too.

Can we just go somewhere...

This sweet girl has been waiting patiently for a car to drive.  Being 4 ft 10 inches, my large Titan pickup is somewhat intimidating to  a beginning driver. We've been looking for sometime for just the right car and believe me, WE have looked high and low. My hubby and I have checked every ad for affordable used cars for a while now. Since cra2ed list from craig's list has be disabled, Karl even made an app  to locate specific types of cars, mileage etc. I just wish he could have made the app to separate the crooks from the honest folks. :)

This is a fun car to drive. 

 We are excited to finally find a nice safe car for Karlie to drive. I hope Karlie has many happy and safe years driving this car.

Red White and Blue

Today is the 4th of July...and Shek came down bright and early dressed in his patriotic colors. I put him in charge of setting the table. He cut a few hydrangea to put on the table, and placed all the paper products in a pattern...and then smiled for the camera.

We had bbq grilled chicken, corn on the cob, broccoli salad, and hebrew beef hotdogs...and mom's new Healthy Homemade ice cream.

3 eggs separated

28 oz low fat sweetened condensed milk

12 oz fat free evaporated milk

2 Tablespoons vanilla extract

1 pinch salt

8 oz sucralose no calorie sweetener

16 cups plain unsweetened almond milk

 

instructions

separate eggs

beat egg whites until stiff.

add condensed milk, sucralose, evaporated milk, vanilla, salt. blend ingredients together.

Pour into freezer.  Add almond milk to fill line on freezer.  Freeze according to freezer directions.  My freezer is a 5 quart one so this recipe was designed for it.  If your freezer is smaller, adjustments to ingredients will be required.

Some friends of ours invited us over to swim in their pool while they were out of the town. When the kids heard the word POOL they were all in. So after lunch with the whole family minus Zach, (he's away leading worship at a church camp), we went swimming.

Karlie!

Jolie splashes!

Shek loves the floats!

 Laughter is the best medicine!

Woo hoo... I actually caught a jumpin' photo...

Dad teaches Jolie how to load the water gun and 

Splash her big brother.

We had a great 4th...hope you and yours are having fun and making sweet family memories.

tooth fairy visit? NOT

Not to thrilled for a little surgery of the mouth

Karlie was a little anxious for her surgery this morning, but came through fine. We're glad it's over...and hey she was excited to get a milk shake even if she had to eat it with a spoon instead of straw...

My fashionista

This past weekend was the last meeting for PureFashion for the year. The girls met to wrap up the year, watch a video presentation of their recent Belk fashion show, have icecream and pass out awards. The party was hosted by one of the girl's moms. It was a beautiful gated subdivision that reminded me of Savannah. I felt as if I had been transplanted to the historic sections of Savannah. Awesome, place!

Here's a group photo of the girls.

Pure Fashion is divided into several groups of girls, and those girls get to know each other really well, and they also have peer group leaders. Karlie was voted by her group leaders as Most Fashionable in her group.

She was  also awarded

Miss Pure Fashion
and we were very surprised...
She was thrilled...

Pretty cool!

Here she is posing with her sister and her awards` in the beautiful neighborhood.

 It was a great year at pure fashion.

Cupcakes in the house?

Everyday during 'school' Jolie likes to watch youtube videos on my iphone of none other than cake decorating tutorials. Sometimes I wonder if she wants to be the next cake boss. So today, while at the grocery store I snagged some cake ingredients when no one was looking and brought it home. Because baked goods are so tempting to  us and especially me, I don't bake cupcakes, cookies, brownies...etc very often. SO, when I told Jolie she could make cupcakes if she got Karlie to help her, she was extremely excited.

Jolie loves to taste the batter.

 Jolie is definitely a taster when she bakes.

 Cupcakes are smile makers.

The girls made rainbow cupcakes. At our former church, Karlie made cupcakes for the girls' in her core group. I remember that she watched a rainbow cupcake tutorial too. There's something about those cake DIY videos that makes you want to DIY.

 We made homemade blue icing, to match "Cinderella's" princess dress. Cause Jolie still thinks her momma is Cinderella...so actually the blue matches me because I am Cinderella. GOT. TO. LOVE. THAT!

Yummy! It's nice to break the rules and have  some cupcakes up in the house...sometimes.

PureFashion Show Highlights 2012

Today! Was! The! BIG! Pure Fashion Show that is the highlight of the year for all the girls, leaders and families involved with the group. We spent the whole day at the Forum, as Karlie had to be there bright and early this morning to get ready with the rest of the girls. Each girl had their hair and make up done prior to the show, as well as getting lunch...just a whole lot of fun. We window shopped till lunch time while the girls were making the preparations for the day.

PureFashion was highlighted on The Forum Sign

Two of my sweeties paused while we window shopped. It was rather cool and windy this morning and I was thankful Shek brought and extra jacket. Jolie was very happy to borrow it, since her momma had dressed her in a sleeveless top.

Jolie likes to pose with everyone...don't ya love my shades I saw them on pinterest.

Shek said while I was busy with my camera and instragam photos, that Dad tripped on the steps while Jolie was on his shoulders. He said, he basically just landed gracefully on the top step and had a seat, and Jolie never realized that he tripped up. Thank goodness the fall was not bad. God IS good!

This is the definition of PF in the PureFashion Program
It's an international faith-based program, headed up by the Catholic Church, but other faiths or welcome to participate. I am glad that they let us Baptists join in the fun.

It was a very nice day for an outdoor fashion show.

Jolie poses with Gam when she and pop arrived to see the show.

We got first row seats to the runway.

Mrs. Brenda Sharman, founder and spokesperson for Pure Fashion.

 Karlie hits the runway.

 Yes, you can look cute, hip and happening, and MODEST all at the same time.

 It's refreshing to see a group of 40 girls in this group wearing cute fashions with out showing all of their parts. I know guys are wired differently than girls....and seeing "parts" effects them differently than girls, but to be honest with you...the last thing I want to see is another woman's /girl's cleavage, or hiney...

Cover it up!

Every woman, and young girl should follow the PureFashion guidelines for dressing modestly yet fashionable.

More models

Karlie headed back up the run way.

The final walk through.

Marie Miller sang. Really loved her personality and songs. 

We bought her cd and Shek got her to sign it. 

She said she had been homeschooled, and was thrilled to hear that Shek is homeschooled too.

 It's always encouraging when your dad hugs you and tells you how proud of you he is.

Karlie and her PF friend. 

 After it was all done, We headed for pizza, Karlie's favorite. Gam and Karlie pose after we eat some really good pizza.

Today was a fun-filled day.