Ultimate Blog Party 2010

Hello and welcome! I'm excited to jump into the action of the 5 Minutes for Mom's Ultimate Blog Party 2010!


My name is Kathy and I am a Christian wife & SAH Mom and I live in beautiful New England ~ I'd tell you exactly where, but then I'd have to shoot you ~ so for now we'll just keep that little fact incognito, OK?! I grew up in Canada and Florida and went to Bible college in Iowa where I met my amazing husband. So I've sort of been all over and am happy to say that I love where I am now and am thankful that the Lord brought me here.


I have been married to my wonderful husband Bob for 13 years. He is truly my best friend. Here we are at Bible college about 14 years ago - wow, we look SO young!

Here we are on our wedding day in November 1996.

And here is a recent picture of us from Valentine's Day this year.

We fellowship at a wonderful Bible church and I am involved in a MOMS ministry there. Our church and church family are one of the top reasons why I would never want to move away from here!

We are blessed with 4 precious girls in our home ~ two of them furry and two of them lovely little girls. My husband is SO outnumbered in our home! Our oldest 'girl' is Casey, our yellow Labrador retriever. She is 11 years old and is one of the sweetest dogs you'll ever meet.

Our oldest daughter has been nicknamed 'Hope' {for the purpose of privacy in the blog world}. She is 8 years old. Hope is smart and athletic and thoughtful. She loves sports, books and music.

Our youngest daughter is nicknamed 'Joy' and she is 7 years old. She certainly lives up to her nickname and is constantly joyful and happy and smiley. She loves to play and be silly and do anything her older sis does.

Our newest addition is our puppy Gracie. She is a golden retriever/ brittany spaniel mix and she is just adorable! We've had her for about 3 weeks now and it's been challenging getting used to a puppy again ~ but it's also been incredibly fun and rewarding! {lots of snuggles and puppy kisses ...}

We are a close-knit, homeschooling family. We take a lot of trips together and put a high value on family time. My husband and I love cruising ~ we have been on 8 cruises {5 before kids, 2 w/out kids when the girls were younger and 1 with our kids last year} We love the Carribean and our favorite destination is Bermuda. We love outdoorsy stuff like hiking, biking, the beach and swimming in the pool.

As I mentioned, we are a homeschooling family. I can honestly say that this is a path I never imagined we would take - but am so extremely blessed and thankful for the freedom to do it. This is our 3rd year and each year we enjoy it a little bit more and more. I still have a lot to learn and I still question whether I'm doing all I should be as their teacher ... but the beauty of homeschooling is learning right alongside the girls and seeing the joy in their faces when they learn something new.

I have a lot of hobbies that I dabble in ... nothing that I am really outstanding at ~ but many things that I enjoy and have fun with. You'll see that my blog is a mish-mosh of a lot of little things. A lot about my family and our adventures. A little about homeschooling. And a little about all these other hobbies that I enjoy. It's really just a reflection of my life as a wife and Mom.

Some things I enjoy are:

Decorating my home ... from painting rooms to re-arranging furniture to finding thrifty ways to decorate.

Baking and sharing recipes .... I love to bake {a little too much I'm afraid!} and am always interested in learning new recipes to try {especially healthy ones!} Gotta balance all that sweet goodness, you know?!

Sewing and scrapbooking ... scrapbooking is one of my favorite things to do, I just need to make more time for it! Sewing is something I've only done a little of ~ mostly just simple curtains for my home and some quilts for my daughters. If it's a straight stitch, I can handle it!

I also work part time at a Flower Shop that my friend owns. Floral design is a wonderful creative outlet for me! I love that I can enjoy it part time and still be home with my girls full time.

I am also trying to learn to be a better photographer as I love to take a TON of pictures!

And that's pretty much my life and my blog in a nutshell ... I'm glad you stopped by and look forward to checking out lots of other wonderful blogs over at the Ultimate Blog party ... why don't you join in too??

FYI ... there are hundreds of prizes to be won just by simply participating in this fun blog party ... I would be ecstatic to win ANY of them ... but here are some of the ones I'm especially excited about #7, 11, 18, 22, 27, 31, 32, 35, 37, 39, 48, 49, 52, 55, 59, 61, 71, 72, 73, 78, 84, 87, 88, 91, 95, 100, 105, 107, 112, 113, USC#3, USC8, USC15, USC32, USC33, USC36, USC37, USC40, USC41, USC44, USC63. IF YOU GO CHECK OUT THE BLOG, YOU'LL SEE THE WHOLE LIST OF AMAZING PRIZES ... I think it's kinda funny that I'm most drawn to the Amazon.com gift cards - I'm such a book nerd!!