This picture was one that I was so sad when I saw how dark it turned out. My photoshop job isn't perfect but I am pretty happy with how it turned out.
Everything has been typically crazy here, I am sorry that it has been so long since I last posted. I figure someday I will get it all together and figure out how to manage my time so I can get everything done that I need to.....I hope.
Since I got my new camera I have been trying to teach myself photoshop (well gimp, because Matthew won't let me install photoshop until we get a new computer) and I thought that I would post some before and after pictures just to show my progress. I am using a picture from Christmas time that I took while trying to get one for my card.
Before
After
Black and White
I have tons of skating pictures so there will be more than one post.... In December Elizabeth trained for the Christmas Show. She participated in two different numbers. Charlie Brown and How the Ginch Stole Christmas. The Charlie Brown number was other skaters at her level. Her character was Pepermint Patty. She enjoyed it but really didn't get the character. In the "Grinch" she played Cindy Lou Hoo. She loved being Cindy. Here are some pictures from the practices.
Here are some pictures from when Elizabeth's class did the all school mass. Some kids had speaking parts and others carried candles or the offerings. Elizabeth had a speaking part and she did wonderful. I was so proud of her. Every day I am amazed that she is getting so BIG!
For the past few years I have been trying to talk Matthew into a fake Christmas tree. They just seem so much easier. No needles and it doesn't die. Matthew of course wants no part of a fake tree. In the spirit of fairness I went along with the live tree as long as I could find the perfect tree. Off to Lowes we went...I swear next year I am looking for a tree farm. A salesman made the mistake of trying help us find a tree and about 30 trees later (Matthew left me to chase after the kids at about tree number 5) this is what we came home with. It was a really pretty tree. Matthew put it in the stand outside and my neighbor named it the Griswald tree. lol
So the week after Thanksgiving I found a puppy in the trash can. Ethan and I had been at Elizabeth's school working on a project so we didn't get home until about 10 AM. I heard a puppy whinning and I knew that my neighbors didn't get a puppy. After a little explorering I found her accross the street in the trash can. I didn't know what to do so I took her home. I couldn't just leave her there. Fast forward a few days and a little girl approaches me asking me where I got the puppy. I tell her the story and she tells that that it was hers. I ask to speak to her mother and the mother refuses to talk to me. She tells her daughter just to tell me to keep it. The only good thing to come from that is I found out that she is half black lab and half german shepard. We have been trying to find her a home but we havent had any luck. Matthew is not amused. Here are some pictures from that 1st week that we had her and some more from earlier this week.
Here are some cakes that I made for my neighbors. They have twin girls who just turned 8. One cake is Hello Kitty and the other is Spiderman. It is amazing how well the phrase "completing each other" means when you consider these two little girls. They are opposites yet they really do complete each other.
It has been a really long time since I have last posted. My only excuse is that the time between Thanksgiving and New Years just flew for me! For some reason everything crept up onto me this year. The month was really good but REALLY busy. I am going post all the updates in separate posts because I have tons of pictures! Have I said how much I love my new camera. I adore it....The only issue is that I take so many pictures and it takes me forever to sort through them all.
We were suppossed to go to Ohio for Thanksgiving but Matthew came down with a bug. We thought that it was the beginning of the flu but luckily it passed by mid-day Thursday. I was sad to not get to go home but it was great to have a few days that we didn't have to run around anywhere. We just had a relaxing few days, which was wonderful! We didn't do black Friday this year but we went on Saturday and got almost everything on our black Friday list! It was great, I love the fact that they basically ran the sale for two days. I would say that I am about half way through Christmas shopping. I am trying to get it all done in the next few weeks, so I can enjoy the season with my kids. 
Here are a few pictures from the Thanksgiving celebration at Elizabeth's school.
Last week was cowboy week at Elizabeth's school. They spent the whole week studying cowboys and how they lived. On Thursday a parent in his class brought a few horses to the school so they could learn about how to care for them. Friday was the grand finale where the kids could dress up as a cowboy for a parent lunch and a rodeo. I am not sure if I have mentioned this but each kindergartner has a 4Th grade buddy who helps them with different projects. I think that they meet once a week but I am not sure. Elizabeth's buddies name is Sydney and she adores her. For the rodeo the buddy teams made stick horses. The 1st race was a relay with the kindergartners racing across the field followed by the parents. All I have to say is thank GOD Matthew was there. It was such fun though. The second race was a relay with the buddy teams. I was a great day!
Elizabeth and Sydney
Mrs Natcher in the middle of the race.
Elizabeth with her pony.
Ready to Race.
Daddy and Ethan racing.
Ethan had a great time. He loved the horse.
So I agreed to make my neighbors Sweet 16 birthday cake. I used her invitations and came up with a few sketches. After she picked one I had two weeks to sweat it out. It was my 1st cake covered in fondant but I think it turned out pretty good. I had a few inexperience mistakes but over all I am happy with it. You'll have to excuse the pictures as the cake was in the garage. The one sucky thing is I have no voice. I have sinus drainage so my voice is gone...Last week was cowboy week at school and I will post pictures from that in my next post. Have a great weekend!
So yesterday morning as we were getting ready Matthew reminds me that we only have 50 days until Christmas. WHAT? Where has the year gone? It seems like yesterday I was whining about not having a Christmas card design and it is already that time again. (Just in case you were wondering..UGH no I haven't started my cards yet) So I ordered 5 Christmas gits on-line. It's a start right? Elizabeth is the hard one for me. She wants everything she sees but she is not really drawn to anything. Right now she says that she wants this princess chair.
Now I haven't seen this in person but it is $70.00 for a plastic chair... Santa is cringing. SO now Matthew and I have the dilemma of, do we buy the chair that we are almost certain is junk so that Elizabeth gets what she asks Santa for or do we spend the next few weeks trying to talk her into something else. It was much easier before I had to fill Santa's huge shoes. So that is where I am with Christmas Shopping right now.
Now the one thing that I would do tomorrow if I could is start decorating. Now of course that would require a clean house. Which I am certain that I won't see until my kids are in college but I still would love to put the tree up. I already have a list of new decorations that I want to make. Hopefully my creative brain comes out of hibernation this year.
The kids love Halloween. Elizabeth was Jasmine and Ethan was a "Ductor" ie train conductor. We started off the festivities this year by going to the Ghouls of Grassmere at the Nashville Zoo. We went the Friday before Halloween and it was COLD. We saw the best costume there. A women was about 6 months pregnant and she was dressed as a oven. She had taken a box and covered it in tin foil and cut out a opening and drew a bun on her belly. So she was a "Bun in the oven. The best part was her husband was the chef! It cracked me up. Then Saturday night Ethan got sick all over our bed. After about 6 hours of getting sick he finally settled down. I will be so glad when he is old enough to give me some warning. 
Halloween Day was crazy this year. I spent the day at Elizabeth's school getting ready for the party. I did the crafts and the games for the party. We got to decorate the room while the kids were at lunch and having recess. When we were finished the kids all came in and we helped them change into the costumes. Then we trick-or-treated around the whole school. We went everywhere..it was great fun to see all the older kids fuss all over the little kids. It was also really nice because Ethan was able to trick or treat too. I am not sure how I would have survived, if I would have had to keep him back. Trick or treating took over an hour so we didn't have much time to do the class party. 
The party was pure chaos. The kids eating snacks and running around. I have always respected what teachers are able to accomplish but after trying to keep things going I now know that every day we should send our teachers a huge "Thank You!"
That night we went to Tina's to trick or treat. We had lots of fun riding around in the back of the trailer. Elizabeth loved getting to see Bracey and Ethan was thrilled to go to "Tinas". It was a really nice night not to cold and not to hot. All and all a great Halloween.
THEN...Of course we topped it off with Elizabeth waking up in the middle of the night with a stomach bug. Yep she caught what Ethan had. So we had another long night. I do feel so blessed that she is old enough to run to the bathroom. We had a lot less clean up with Elizabeth. So that was Halloween 2007 for the Webb Family....
This week Elizabeth got her new skates! She is really excited to have the white ones....
I always thought that when both kids were in school I would have time to get all the things done that I never had time to do. Well I was WRONG! Yikes if anything life has gone into warp speed. Sometimes I turn around and I can't believe that another week has passed. Someday maybe I'll learn how to manage it all. 
Elizabeth---
School is going really well for her. Last week we got her 1st report card and she got excellent marks. The two things that we need to work on are keeping her on task and writing her numbers. I am so proud of her. She loves school. Even on the weekends she wants to go to school. In September she turned 5! I still can't believe that she is already 5. I find myself just looking at her face because she has grown so much. When I see the pictures from even a year ago I am in awe of how much older she looks. Her birthday party theme this year was butterflies and she had a wonderful day. Having a birthday at the beginning of school year is good because it gave me a chance to get to know some of the other parents. In October Elizabeth started taking Figure Skating lessons. We started with a private coach thinking that we would switch to group lessons once she had the basics down but we love the coach. He is great with her. Elizabeth adores him so I think that we will be staying with the private lessons. We might add the group lessons on top of the private ones. Matthew and I don't have a plan yet. 
Ethan---
Started Mothers Day out the 1st week of September. The 1st week went really well and then he figured out that I was leaving him. He started crying when I left and would cry on and off all day. It was really stressful for me. This last week we are finally back to him only crying a little when I leave and then being happy for the rest of the day. On Friday he even cried because Elizabeth had school and he didn't. I will truly feel blessed when he runs in and completely forgets who I am. He can count to 12 and it cracks me up when Elizabeth gets mad because he takes over and counts for her. He is not very good with his colors yet...Everything is PINK....Matthew swears that we will have lots of therapy bills.
So that is our kids in a nutshell....Next time I will do a quick update on Matthew and I...
Have a great Monday!..
A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
I have been tagged by Candice
Six Facts/Habits about myself
1. I don't like to watch movies or read books over and over again. Matthew can recite movie dialogue off at the top of his head it drives me crazy.
2. My favorite part of Christmas is wrapping the presents. I love to decorate the packages. Christmas Eve I am typically in awe of all the pretty presents.
3. I am afraid of the dark.
4. I have way too many interest. I *like* to do so many things that it is hard to become really good at one thing. Maybe someday I'll be able to nail it down to 1 or 2 things.
5. I LOVE the Internet. It is amazing all the things that you can find on-line.
6. I am addicted to diet coke. Sigh :)
