Look out American Idol!

I finally caught my baby doing a little singing, he gets very camera shy, but this time decided to show off a little :) Proud mommy I am!!

I also captured his updated drumming abilites, :) he'll be the new addition to our Rock Band! Taking after mommy on drums, and D can be guitarist taking after daddy!! We are now addicited to Rock Band and we will be challenging Tim and Amanda soon to a duel!! :) Hope everyone has a great New Year! Talk to ya next year!!!!

Christmas pics

Check out our Christmas pics here

D got a hole in one of his new socks today at school.

D: " mommy I got a hole in my sock and the elves didn't know it was there"
me:" oh no"
D: "we need to take it back to the north pole"
me: "but I don't know how to get to the north pole and it's far away"
D: "just get the Christmas map and follow how to get there"
me:" oh why didn't I think of that!"


HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

A Great Christmas

Well we had a wonderful Christmas at our house. The boys were very excited to go downstairs and find all the presents that Santa had left at our house. They started to rip right into the presents and I had to stop them saying, hey wait we need to see which ones are for each of you. They couldn't hardly wait. B kept opening presents and then saying'" I want another one", I think he really enjoyed opening all the presents. D loved all his presents too, except that Santa didn't bring a tanker truck. Fact was: Santa and all the elves just couldn't find one this year.

Thanks to all the family that came and helped us celebrate the special day. All the food was great.

Christmas eve was great too with chocolate martini's and apple martini's and shots of Bailey's. Tim brought over his PS3 with his new Rock Band game. WEll needless to say we rocked out till 3am!!!!!! Yes we were exhausted at 630 am when the boys jumped out of bed. But the game was really fun!! We kept switching around with who was the singer, guitar player and drummer. I have to admit I liked the drums the best and totally rocked out for my first night at the game. I think we'll be playing it more often with Tim and Amanda, although they have the advantage of practicing at home since it's their game. But lots of great fun!!!!!

Thanks to my hubby for my digital photo frame! I love it, now I can keep current pics displayed and change it whenever I want. I love it!

Bummer to have to go back to work the day after but oh well. I think next year I'll plan better and take a few days off if possible.

I'll post some pics this weekend from Christmas.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!! WE did!! Missed ya mimi and grandaddy J, wish you could of joined us!!

Dec 25th, 2007

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

:) :) :)

After our usual evening ritual of pigback riding into bed, my sweetie D said "mommy turn around" so I did and he starting rubbing my shoulders......."now daddy won't have to do it"

:) :)

What a sweetheart!!

O CHRISTMAS TREE, O CHRISTMAS TREE

I forgot to post my tree pic. Thanks to my friend for the bow on top. I had a shining star but it kept leaning over and was aggravating. I'm not much of the decorator but this is my attempt. Next year I think I might let the boys decorate their own little tree in the playroom. I will let them put whatever they want on it......let me guess....Hot Wheels!! :)

{4 days till Christmas!!}

Can you believe it!! Only 4 shopping days left! I am ready I think. Although the tanker truck I searched high and low for was broken in the box! Mom tried to exchange it and of course there were no more in the store!! Oh well, I think he'll enjoy all the other millions of toys! hee hee

Busy night tonight....work happy hour, short trip for a few items from the grocery store, home to make treat bags for a few coworkers and cookies for school parties tomorrow. Also some chocolate covered pretzel goody bags for the neighbors too!

I am getting very excited about Christmas.
I am planning a game and cocktail evening the night of Christmas eve for Tim and Amanda to join us (since they can practically walk home!) It should be fun before Santa comes!! Although Amanda will get to enjoy chocolate milk in her chocolate dessert cup instead of Baileys and then some sparkling grape juice for her to toast with!! :) As far as the martini's I haven't thought of a replacement for those for her yet, maybe just more sparkling grape!

They are calling for some light precipitation on Christmas(what???snow???) I doubt it very seriously but we'll see what happens. Looks like at the least we'll have a cold and dreary and drizzling rainy Christmas like last year! At least someone will be able to try out their new Spiderman umbrella...........

Clash of the choir anyone??????????? I started to watch it just to check it out. It started out a little slow but whoa!! Patti LaBelle's choir was absolutely wonderful!! I think I'll watch the last few episodes just to check it out.TIVO is great, so that when the choir sounds terrible I'll just fast forward through it!!:)

That's all for now.. hope everyone is getting ready for Christmas. Enjoy the holiday and time spent with family and friends!!

Creative snacks

Here are a few of my recent creative snack attempts. The chocolate mice were easy and delicious, the PB&J sandwiches were easy just using Christmas cookie cutters(thanks to Dee for the Gingerbread man) and the snowmen......well let's just say you won't be seeing anymore of these. They were quite the chore to make and I don't even know if they would be edible after all it takes to mold them and everything....but they are cute to look at. I still have them in the refrig and will prob display them for Christmas dinner. I 'll post the pics now and I'll have to post the recipe for mice later, I am already past my bed time.

I had a busy day finishing up my last minute shopping. I found the only "tanker truck" left in the store and ****** it if it's not broken inside the box. D has been telling me over over that he wants a tanker truck from Santa. Mom's gonna take it back for me tomorrow and see if there just happens to be another one show up on the shelves...let's keep our fingers crossed.

Thanks to Dad and Dee for the lunch today, I just love those subs!

Well short and quick this time...................GOOD NIGHT!

Pics from our trip

Click here to see some pics from our Mobile trip. I can't take just one picture, so there are many!!

Trip recap

So, we had a really great time on our trip home!! The boys handled the car ride pretty good. Thank goodness we had two movies for them to watch! Make that 1 ! D must have watched the Cars movie oh about 50 times, with a few minutes of Toy Story here and there. I don't know how they can watch the same thing over and over and over and over. Oh well, it helped to keep them content anyway. The boys had a good time at Mimi and Grandaddy's house. Mimi is learning that Bry will repeat just about anything said. "daddy in bathroom for 1 hour!!!"" It was so funny! Then he just kept repeating "1 hour, 1 hour, 1 hhhhooouuuurrr" I thought I was going to cry from laughing. Thanks also to Deb and James for the bday cake. D was very excited that he got to eat cake on my bday and sing to me. He helped me blow out the "one" candle. That's right, it was my first birhtday!! :) :)

Saturday we met our friends with twins and a 3 month old at the park. It was a good time of fellowship, the kids playing soccer and us cooing at their new baby girl. She was adorable of course!!!!! The weather was absolutely perfect, almost borderline of being hot, but very comfortable. B really liked the baby and kept kissing her on her hands, it was very sweet! He really seems to like babies (other people's that is) none on the agenda here!!
Next we headed to visit family. Uncle Lewis always has many musical instruments lying around. D decided to pick up the trumpet(don't know if he's ever seen one) and practically starting playing it. It was amazing!! He even was able to make some noticeable real keys and he knew how to work his fingers on the buttons(I don't know the exact name of them). I tried to run and get the camera to video, of course by then he was almost done, but I still captured a few notes. D seems to be pretty musical, he has played (not professionally of course ha ha) the harmonica, drums, keyboard, and now trumpet! Very cool, must of been all the loud music I played for him when he was in my tummy!! Cousin Alexis also helped the boys have fun with the hula hoops. Even daddy tried it and couldn't quite get it going, it was hilarious, but he did enventually kinda get the hoop going:)

Sunday we headed to a friend's whom I haven't seen in many years. Her house was beautiful as were her 3 boys( I know, but they were beautiful boys). Her husband planned a really cool treasure hunt for her 3 and my 2 boys. They tied bandanas around their heads to be pirates and searched for the hidden treasure. It was really cute and the boys loved the chocolate treasure at the end! I hope they can make it up our way to visit one day, hint hint!

Then we headed to the beach to play in the sand alittle and the boys collected a few shells. On the way back we stopped at a little go cart place. D got to ride with daddy in a go cart! WOW, he was scared a little at first but then really enjoyed it. Next he rode all by himself! Yes, I was TERRIFIED!! My heart was pounding and my eyes were almost watering, I'm such a wimpy mom!! He did really great though and "won the piston cup" He did have two other boys on the track with him and he wouldn't let them pass, it was very cute! I think because he's so tall for his age, he was one of the youngest to ride. He just barely made the height requirement. B did great watching his big brother and entertaining himself with sticks on the ground and sticking his head through the rails to watch his bro ride!! Next year though, he'll probably realize what he's missing and it'll be harder to keep him content until he's big enough to ride.

Thanks to Mimi and Grandaddy for the hospitality! The boys really enjoyed the visit and so did we! The food was great as always too!! Although, I guess next time Mimi will have to make chicken salad for the boys!! :) I'll post pics later of all our fun!!

No shopping last night, the weather was terrible. Oh well, it saved me some money! I think we'll go this weekend and finish up. Santa will be here soon!!!

More shopping

Heading out tonight for a few more items needed for gifts and I should be pretty much done! Yeah! As long as I can stay out of the stores and not buy anymore gifts!!! I'll try to get my past weekend trip blogged on here tonight if I don't stay out too long shopping with mom. She gets the senior discount tonight, so gotta take advantage!! :)

we're back

Yes, we made it back safe and sound. Lots to blog about but no time at the moment. We had a great trip!! Weather was a balmy 78 degrees!!!!!!! Wonderful!!!!!!! I'll post more in the next few days with pics too. Happy Humpday tomorrow!

wonderful day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE....HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!
Thanks sis for the Kohls' gift card,
Thanks mom for the slippers (hee hee, great fit) and the adorable snow globe for the boys to fight over,
and my honey for my wonderful BOSE ipod dock (just what I wanted!) Pics to follow:


Packed: check
Gifts wrapped: check
Christmas treats made and packaged: check
off to work and then outta here: CHECK!!!

A good message

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.

During their visit, conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in their work and lives.
Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups; porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite bone china - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the alumni had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said, "Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.

What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... and then you began eyeing each other's cups. Now consider this: Life is the coffee; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The type of cup one has does not define, nor change the quality of life a person lives. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us.

"The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything."

God brews the coffee, not the cups... Enjoy your coffee!
Live simply.
Love generously.
Care deeply.
Speak kindly.
Spend time with God over your coffee.

Love December

I truly love the month of December. All the great decorations, Beautiful light displays, gift ideas and times spent with family and friends enjoying the holidays. The month is going so quickly already and it's only the 4th day. I put up the Christmas decor inside and out, (pics to follow) and have almost finished my Christmas shopping! I am making cookies and chocolate covered pretzels this week for our trip to Mobile on Friday. Found a great new recipe too here that I am going to try. There are other cute ideas on this blog too! But, few ingredients and very cute for the holidays, easy to make of course!!



Before:









After:



Little Holiday Pretzel Treats



Ingredients:Bite-size, waffle-shaped pretzels

Hershey's Kiss or Hershey's Hug

M&M's candy

Step 1 Heat the oven to 170º. Set a number of bite-size, waffle-shaped pretzels (one for each treat) in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, then top each pretzel with an unwrapped Hershey's Kiss or Hershey's Hug.

Step 2 Bake for 4 to 6 minutes (the white chocolate will melt more quickly), until the chocolates feel soft when touched with a wooden spoon. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and quickly press an M&M's candy into the center of each Kiss.

Step 3 Allow the treats to cool for a few minutes, then place them in the refrigerator to set, about 10 minutes. Place handfuls of the candies in clear plastic bags and tie on colorful ribbons.





I also found these really EASY to make cookies in a magazine I bought the other day, very simple, few ingredients(seeming to be the theme) and taste great too!!

Peanut buter and chocolate Pinwheels:


1 18oz. roll of refrigerated peanut butter cookie dough
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 18oz. roll of refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder


In large mixing bowl combine peanut butter dough and flour, use wooden spoon to mix well and divide in half. In another bowl combine the sugar cookie dough and cocoa powder, mix well and divide dough in half.

Between pieces of wax paper, roll out one portion of peanut butter dough into a 12x6 in rectangle. Roll one of the chocolate dough portions to the same size and place on top of the peanut butter dough. Press down gently to seal.

Tightly roll up dough, jelly roll style starting from long side. Repeat with the other dough portions. Wrap rolls in plastic wrap and chill 1 hour or until firm enough to slice

Preheat oven to 375. using sharp knife, cut rolls into 1/4 in thickslices. Place slices 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake in preheated oven 8 to 10 minutes or until edges firm. Transfer cookies to wax paper to cool.



We are heading south to visit with family and friends since we are not going down for Christmas itself. I hope the weather is fairly nice so that maybe we can head to the beach for some photo ops of the boys on the sandy beach at Christmas time. We plan to see a few friends that we haven't seen in awhile(years for some) it should be alot of fun! I can't wait. Boy have times changed: from hanging out, no kids, dinner out and even a movie on the same night, drinking to "Roxanne"---Lesley! and all the stuff from the old days. Now it's 6 adults and 7 kids, and then 4 adults and 5 kids! Wow how our families have extended! Simply marvelous!!!

Going to work on some baby shower details for Amanda too while we are there. We will be returning next month for her shower,looking forward to that!

Thanks to Dad for the early Bday lunch! I can always eat Chinese!! Thanks for the waffle maker too! I can't wait to use it and make some homemade waffles for the boys!! For any of you out there that have had these make it yourself waffles at a hotel, they are fabulous and I am excited to make my own! Love the idea of the cool whip and strawberries Dad, hope to make them soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DEE ! Hope you also enjoyed the Chinese and like the boots!!:)

Tomorrow= packing for trip and wrapping gifts to take on trip

Thurdays= making lots of pretzels, and cookies and above treats.

Friday= we're off to visit :) :)

nOt sO SuRe

I don't know what's wrong with my layout but the header pic won't display all of a sudden, wierd!!

Had a great day, nice weather, put most of the Christmas decor out and had our built in finished in the garage! Our friend Mark that did out kitchen island bar came by and built us a locker type built in in our garage. I love it! I can't wait to paint it. He put two lift up panels on the seat too so that we have a built in toy chest, LOVE IT! THANKS MARK!
I'll post more pics once I get it painted.

Before:

After:

NO not Mickey!!

Well..........................drama again!! The other night while my honey was out of town I heard some rambling, digging, chewing ect in the ceiling of the gameroom(attic above). Oh no! I figured another rodent. I heard it again the next night. Well I started to head up the stairs to the attic to check it out and then came to reality...I AM NOT GOING UP THERE!! What if it was something other than a tiny mouse, like a rabid squirrel or raccoon or something! Yes I was a chicken! Needless to say I got the great news today! My husband (sweetest that he is) put the mouse traps in the attic(the ones i was supposed to put) and within 10 minutes he had caught the little mouse. Thank goodness it was a mouse. He said he had heard it up there so he put the sticky traps out. The mouse was a sucker for the peanut butter in the middle of the trap. Sounds cruel I know, but it's alot more reassuring that he won't be sneaking around other parts of the house looking for snacks. Of course, I just wonder if there's more. I will think on the positive side that he's the one lonely mouse that wandered off and ended up in our attic. Let's think positive now!!

D had a pajama party at school today. He was so excited and told me how he loves pajama parties(even though he's never been to one..hee hee). I let him pick out what to wear and it's apparent he has not much fashion sense at this point except to wear what he likes. He picked his Bob the Builder pj top, with Spiderman pj bottoms and his Lightning McQueen slippers. What a site, he did look just adorable though I have to say!

Oh yeah, thanks to mom for the help while my honey was out of town. The boys loved all the playtime!

I have gotten some of the Christmas shopping out of the way. Only a few more items to get! We are going to put the tree up this weekend, that should be alot of fun!! We listened to kids Christmas music on the way to school today and we heard the song " All I want for Christmas is a Hippopotamus" D told me that you don't just get one thing , you get "alot of toys!" I say oh really?! :)

B has been doing much better at school. We haven't had any no no reports lately , thank goodness. I think he is starting to adjust to the new teacher now. The other night he was so cute singing "row row row your boat" in the bathtub. He really likes to sing alot. He even tries to sing..."this ole man, he plays one, he plays......" you know the rest! He does a pretty good job. A few of the words get jumbled but you know what he's trying to sing!

Great work news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got my hours changed, yipee!!!!!! I now will only be working 3 days a week again and only one day till 5pm the other two I'll leave at 4pm. I am so excited. This should be a lot less stressful for all of us! I am already planning where to take the boys on my day off. The weekdays are much better for going to those busy kid places.!!

Well, that's all for now. I'm not sure what's up for the weekend yet, we'll just play it by ear. HAPPY FRIDAY to all!!

My little chefs..

There's nothing like home made rice crispy treats. I actually like the store bought better but the boys had a wonderful time. D was simply amazed that we could make them at home, he thought you only could get them at the store:) We personalized them with some candy sprinkles too!

We had a great Thanksgiving with all the family. It was great to see everyone and taste some new recipes. I must get the coconut creme pie recipe, I loved it!! The old recipes like the famous crab dressing were wonderful too!! Thanks to everyone for their help in cooking and bringing great food! Now that the eating is over, at least for a month, I must get back on track. My clothes are getting a little snug. It always goes on 10 x's faster than it comes off!! Terribly!!

I'm going to try to get some Christmas decorating and shopping done this week. The holidays have come so fast this year, I am way behind on my plans!! It rained all day today pretty much. I would of liked to have gone a few places today but the rain kept us inside. I did get to download the boys a few more songs for their own playlist on my ipod. They wanted 'who let the dogs out', "wipeout", you've got a friend in me from toy story, and I also got the Dora theme song. I loaded a bunch of kids Christmas tunes also to get them in the holiday spirit. Just as I was thinking of some more songs my internet connection went down so I'll have to finish later, but at least I got a few more for them.

Here's a few pics from our cooking feature: rice crispy treats!

Family

After the serious pic, we had the adults do a fun pic....here ya go! Say cheese!

The holidays are wonderful times of sharing with family!

Great holiday

Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving!!

WE DID!!

Cold, wet feet!

YUK! Heavily raining this am when I dropped the boyz off for school. There was about a 5ft wide stream in the parking lot that I had to jump through(of course I couldn't make it over- especially with a child on the hip). To top it off I had to jump through it 4 times! It was raining SO hard that I told the boyz one at a time so that I could hold the umbrella with one hand, and the other hand holding them on my hip and trying not to get drenched. I didn't get very wet, but obviously my feet didn't fare so well. I arrived at work 10 min late and with wet sock, shoes and feet! We do have a dryer here, BUT I was informed that NO personal items could be put in the dryer! Whatever!! So I did run down to Walgreens to get some footies to wear while my shoes try to dry out. Almost like having slippers on at work:) Lots of fun..

Home this afternoon to visit with my sister in laws family. They arrived this am from Albuquerque. We haven't seen them since D was only 6 months old. I sent over a basket with snack bars and cereal bars and such for them if they get hungry. Amanda has had alot to do with getting the house ready, job hunting and resting I'm sure with her now 6 months along with child. I hope they enjoy the snacks and I put a few "kid" items in there for approx 7 yr old Hannah. :) I know the boyz will enjoy playing with her. I have quite a few food items to prepare for tomorrow. I want to try to do as many as possible this evening so that I can relax and go over and visit in the am without having to worry about cooking. Just enjoy! Looking forward to the grandpa's putting together her nursery furniture too. Can't wait to see it. I'll have to post pics. She doesn't have the bedding yet but when she does I'll add it here for you to see. We are going to try to narrow her down to a day to for the shower also. I can't wait to help out with that, how fun!

Well to all those traveling for the holiday BE SAFE! Hope everyone enjoys all the great food and fellowship for the holiday too!! HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!

Weekend pics

Here are a few pics from last weekend.. You can click on them to see them a little larger..

Crazy? No just not thinking...

So I'm not crazy, just lost my mind a little. I normally am off of work on Mondays, but I volunteered at work to work for the other girl while she is off. I didn't realize that it was going to be the Mon. before Thanksgiving. I guess I was thinking Turkey day was the last thursday of the month. None the less I am working, yuk!! I only have about 1 million things that I would love to be doing today, like shopping for new shoes and finishing up my grocery shopping for Thanksgiving and cleaning and organizing a few things around the house. Oh well. I'll check the calendar better next time!! And to top it off I think it's like 70 degrees outside :(

D did really well at his TKD testing on Friday. He was very shy though this time. I think it was because none of the other little kids from HIS class were there. They haven't been going long enough and weren't ready to test. He was hoping to see his old classmated Jonathan who had moved into the bigger boys class last time, but he wasn't there. The master had to call his name like 3 or 4 times before he realized he was supposed to go up and get his belt. Everyone laughed as he ran quickly up there to get his belt, he was so happy to get it.! There are no classes this week but next week he'll be in a new class. I hope he does well with the little bit older kids. I am very proud of him!

We went to the park Sat. Mike and his brother went riding on some mountain bike trails and I took the boys in the bike trailer and we went to the playground. We went around the corner and saw some horses. The boys were pretty scared and wouldn't hardly get close enough for a pic(hence my blurry pic when I post it). They were excited to see a John Deere tractor sitting in a field so we went closer for a photo op. D was in pure excitement! This park was really nice, we had never been there before. We then rode around a huge pond, where they have paddle boats and canoes. I told the boys maybe next time.....Then I got out the boys big wheels and let them ride. M was putting the other bike stuff away while I walked with them. Well I learned a pretty big lesson.......As we went in one direction I let D ride pretty far ahead because I could see him and there seemed to be no harm. Well as we turned to go back towards the car, I again let him ride ahead. I was staying back with little B. Well D got farther and farther away and I realized that I could barely see him and that the parking lot and a crosswalk was ahead. I pretty much panicked. I didn't see M and they were too far away for me to yell, B was going so slow and I didn't know what to do. I decided to start running to look for D, since I couldn't see him now and I was panicking about the cars. I figured I'd just leave B a little behind and come back to get him....I felt I needed to run. Well as I ran a little I noticed M standing there with D. My heart almost stopped in relief. I went back to get B(not far behind) and we went to the car. M knew I was shaken and really didn't say much to me. I told him, I learned a lesson today in a quick way. What I thought was just letting him ride a little ahead turned into a bit of a situation that became scary. Needless to say, I won't let that happen again, my mind starting thinking all kinds of bad things. Eventhough it turned out well, I got a pretty good scare.

Well that's all for the moment...back to work!

Yipee....

Yeah! Mom bought a new car! Now she can pick up the boyz again:) She called to get Mikey's help to get a good deal and luckily he was home. She went to TKD to meet the boyz and D got to ride to our house with her. The prob was she didn't have Bry's car seat in yet so he was very upset that he didn't get to ride with Granny too. But now in the future he can again, yipee!! I am so happy and so are the boys.

Tonight Dev has his 2nd TKD belt testing. I am very excited.. Uncle Tim and Aunt Amanda will be there along with Aunt Jen, Pearl and Papa and Grandma Dee and of course mommy and daddy and bry! I am so happy to have soooooooooooo much family around to share in the joys of the boys growing up!! It's so wonderful. I'll be sure to post some pics and maybe even a video! Happy Friday!

Free Rice

This link is from Susan's blog. I tried it out and it's pretty fun and it is addictive. You don't have to enter any personal information to play. Check it out and see how many words you really know the meaning of while donating Free rice through the United Nations. Click this link to try it out. Dee.....how many do you know?? Brain teaser for sure!!

No-No reports

AGHHHHHH! Not 1, not 2, but 3 no- no reports for my little angel! B got in trouble the other day for fighting, pushing, hitting and spitting. WHAT?! Not my angel! He has been under the weather and kinda fiesty but still, that's kinda over the top. I do have to say he had two different teachers that day and not his usual ones. I don't know. But of course we talked to him about being nice to his friends and praised D for doing so good at school. I hope this doesn't continue, I can't have a little bully! I think it really was an unusual day for him and the fact he has had the cold crud like me, who wouldn't be grumpy!

All else is chugging along. Amanda and I are starting to plan and get ready for the great feast next Thursday. We are having it at their new house. Her family will be in town too, so we'll have about 18 family members. GREAT! It should be alot of fun. I am digging through all my recipes deciding what to make. I love it when all the family gets together. I haven't seen her parents since she got married. D was the ring bearer at 6 months old. Adorable I have to say so myself. They have never seen little Bry in person. Her sister's little girl has grown up quite a bit too and they have a new little baby. I am looking forward to it alot!

Here's a great recipe if you want something that's healthy and even tastes great too! I made it a couple of weekends ago and I'm going to make it for the work potluck on Friday. It's pretty easy to make and it's best if you make it the night before.


ITALIAN VEGETABLE SALAD
5 cups fresh broccoli florets(1 large bunch)
5 cups fresh cauliflower( 1 small head)
4 plum tomatoes, chopped ( i used a few regular ones and just chopped into pieces)
1 medium cucumber, peeled and sliced or chopped
1 medium sweet onion, thinly sliced
1 cup sliced fresh carrots
2 cans (2 1/4 oz each) slice black olives, drained
1/2 cup pimiento stuffed olives
1 bottle (80z) Italian salad dressing
1 bottle (8oz) Creamy Italian salad dressing
2 cups (8oz) shredded mozzarella cheese part skim

In large bowl, combine first 8 ingredients. Combine salad dressings; pour over vegetable mixture and toss to coat. cover and regriferate (best overnight or can be at least 4 hrs). Stir in cheese just before serving. Yields 14 servings.

Busy week

So the week went by so very fast.
Monday.. I didn't feel very well we are passing the cold and runny noses around but I convinced myself into some much needed winter clothes shopping. I guess because I wasn't very into it since I didn't feel well....but I actually liked everything I tried on the first time and it all fit except for one pair of pants that I just took a leap and hoped I might could squeeze into (NOT). Then home for much needed rest and off to Taekwondo practice with Dev. He was a little distracted prob due to the lollipop I let him have before class.Oopps. I learned my lesson.

Tues. Much of a blur. I long day at work. Home to eat dinner and then play with the boys, baths and bedtime. Oh yeah I did put a wonderful porkloin in the crockpot. It was from Sam's and preseasoned with Cranberry and Pomegranite. It was delicious!!!

Wed. My hubby went out of town. So late night at work then pick up kids and hurry home to eat and bathe. Mom did come by to visit and help out a little. She forgot the milkshakes she was supposed to bring the boyz but made up for it with a hot wheels car each. Yeah, now we have 102 million:) the boys love the cars!!!!!!

Thurs. Another long day at work. Dad and Dee agreed to pick up Dev from school since Mike was out of town and take him to TKD. The class is at 430 so I can't obviously take him since I work til 5pm. They did a great job and even gave him a "car candy". He told them that I said it was OK. ha ha. Thanks Dad and Dee for doing that. I didn't want him to miss a class since he has belt testing next Friday. I'm excited. AFter this testing he will be able to move up to the bigger kids class on a trial basis at first. We have to see if he'll just fit right in or be overwhelmed and distracted. We'll see.

Friday. USual day at work. I spent the evening catching up on Tivo'd shows of Dr. Phil and Oprah. I watched her show with the Osmond's . I didn't know if I'd like it when I first started but it turned out to be a very interesting show. I watched quite a few shows and then turned into bed early with some Nyquil on board. I still have this annoying hacking cough. Mike went over to his bro's house and they worked on their remote control cars. We are heading over to Dad's on Sun to help him with a new car that he bought. He doesn't know the ropes so they will help him out.

Sat. Took Dev to his first movie at the theater. We started out with a small shopping trip at Kohl's then to have pizza. Then at the movie of course he had to have the works for his first trip right?! We got popcorn, a big cup of fruit punch and some MnM's. He really enjoyed seeing the "Bee Movie". He did great with only one potty break! He didn't like all the previews though, he kept asking when the movie was going to start! I thought the movie was cute but not a big fan of Seinfeld. Kinda wish the main Bee could of been someone else but oh well.Bry stayed home with daddy and had one on one time. Bry has also been sick with the crud and has been unusally cranking and slightly defiant. He even got a no-no report at school this week for fighting. I know.....terrible. But the (girl) he was fighting with gave him a few battle wounds to go home with. She wasn't going to put up with it:)

We booked a cruise with the boys in April. It leaves from New ORleans and goes to Cozumel. My mom and his parents are going along too. It should be a fun family cruise. I really wanted to go to the Bahamas, since we've never been and have been to Cozy but the flight to Orlando area would of cost us more than the cruise. Anyway it was a longer cruise too and we figured we'd try a closer and shorter one first with the boys to see how they do. We took advantage of a one day promotion through our travel agency. See link to right. The cruise was 250-300 per person for us and his parents and the boys were only 170. Can't beat that I say!! And we got a two category room upgrade also! The ship is bigger than the one we took out of Mobile last year. There are three swimming pools and even one shaped like Mickey Mouse's head for the boys. Should be alot of fun. I know it's several months away but with the holidays approaching I know it will be here before we know it.

Happy Weekend to all..

I've been tagged..

Susan, so here's my list...

Here are the rules which must be posted on your blog if you are tagged: 1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

1. I love the sunshine, the great outdoors, it just makes me feel great!

2. If I rewrote my career path, it might would be in accounting. I really do like working with numbers.

3. I love to hear my boys say "mommy" it just melts my heart. But....by the 100th time in a ROW I start to tune it out..ha! Don't we all.

4. If I could go one place in the world for a vacation, I would love to go to Europe.

5. My first airplane ride was on my honeymoon.

6. My name is NOT Patricia, it's just simply Tricia.

7. My favorite color is purple.

I know my list isn't that exciting but there you go. I would love to play along but I only have one blogger I could tag and that would be Dad. So yes Dad, I tag you!:)

A FABULOUS FIND!! I am so excited about this green wagon I got from a garage sale yesterday. It was only $5. I have been wanting a wagon for the boys for quite awhile but didn't want to pay the 50-100 bucks for one. So occasionally when I hit some garage sales I always had an eye out for one. Well this time I found it!! It was kinda dirty but hey, all clean now and the boys love it. I think this afternoon we might head over to Uncle Tim and Aunt Amanda's with a wagon of some baby pass me downs and the boys to ride of course too! Oh yeah, Congrats on their expecting a baby ................GIRL! Yippee!! Just what D wanted. I asked him what did he want their baby to be several months ago and he said a Girl. So he got his wish:) How exciting for them. Can't wait to find out the name they pick! I'll keep you posted on that!

Took the boys yesterday for their Christmas pics and 2 and 4 yr old pics. They had some taken at the school but blah! They weren't worth the over priced money. So I went back to my fav picture place Portrait Innovations. They do a wondeful job because they take about 60-100 pics! Yes, that's right! So when you have the little non picture taker(my little B) Then they have a better chance of getting a good shot because they take just candidly with some posing. The great part too is that they will zoom, rotate, crop or whatever needed to the pics. Here are some of their 2 and 4 yr old pics and of course you'll have to wait till Christmas for that one :) They are the raw pics from a CD that they gave me of all the shots. So these are not zoomed and fixed but you'll get the idea. Oh and the pics were ready in about 15 minutess..What else can you ask for? Then we did a little shopping and then ate lunch at Cheeburger Cheeburger. The food was OK if you ask me but the boys loved it just because it was a Cheeseburger :)

Mike is really enjoying his bro being here. They get a chance to hang out finally. They went biking yesterday am with a neighbor of Tim's. I think they had a great time, but Mike found out he is a little behind on the biking skills, but this gives him the chance to revamp and bike a little more like he did BK(before kids) and wife really ha ha!

Well that's all for now.

Trick or Treat

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! The boys had a great time trick or treating. Even Bry was saying :trick or treat and thank you:) I have already sorted out the candy for when they get up tomorrow. There's the: trash pile, the lollipop pile, the back in the pumpkin piles and of course the for mommy pile :) This will help save them wanting the candy I don't want them to have and to scale down the huge pile of sugar we have! They came home with a huge bag just from school before we even went out tonight. Thanks to mom for dinner and the company while trick or treating.

Here are the pics of my SUPER HEROES!!

Susan, I haven't forgotten that i was tagged and plan to do it for my next post:) I also want to post two great recipes...but I'll be back with that. Good evening to all.

Total fun

Check out my pics of the boys with toys. The boys talked my dad into getting his own truck too! Click RC fun with the boys to see the pics!
Also here are some pics of Bry's 2 yr. birthday party: See my pics
I have been tagged, I will get to it soon I promise!

Don't take anything for granted

If you have a few moments and you didn't see this on Oprah or anywhere else you must take the time to click here and watch this video! Be sure to click the link that says watch Randy's last lecture. It will take about 10 minutes or so of your time and the message he has to give is one of inspiration and motivation at the same time. Don't take one minute of your life for granted....live each day to it's fullest and don't focus on the negative; instead redirect that energy and make it positive to live the best life you can! This speech by Randy Pausch really touched me and I hope it does the same for you!

Busy, but fun weekend!

We had a busy fun weekend. Fri was Dev's fall festival at school. It was alot of fun. There were quite a few parents their to help. I was in charge of the bowling. They had made bowling pins out of 2 liter bottles with some beans in them for stability. They rolled a BBall to knock them down. It was neat, but I didn't think about how many times I was going to have to pick up the pins...... The kids had a great time and were sugared up by the time I left. Not sure if they really took naps that day or not:)

Sat am. me and D headed out to a water bday party. It was at an aquatic center that had an indoor water park of sorts. It was great, it had sprayers, and water dumping buckets and the water was only 2ft deep at the most. D like it and his friend Harris was so glad that he came. I might have to find out what the winter hours are. It is open to the public and 4 and under are free!! It would be a great winter fun activity!!

Later we had Bry's 2 yr bday party. It's a week early but that way my inlaws could help Tim and Amanda move and be here for the party. B had such a great time! He was really shy though when everyone sang Happy birthday to him. He caught on quickly to opening the gifts with D's help of course. I told B to show everyone what he got and then after every gift he held it up for all to see:) How cute! I don't know anyone was fast enough to catch a pic of him blowing out his 2 candles:) He blew them out so quickly like a pro, I don't think anyone even had their camera ready, hee hee.Thanks to everyone that came to his party. We really enjoyed it and it was wonderul having so much family around to help celebrate! The weather was wonderful too. Just in time, because is has been raining everyday since then!

Congrats to Tim and Amanda who are officially moved into their new house. I even let the boys ride their big wheels over there the other day. They loved it, the trail is a little rocky so I had to push a little, but on the way back they did much better! I am so happy that they are so close. Amanda made green chili and we went to pick some up and dropped them off some leftover bday cake. We are glad they are here. Also a BIG CONGRATS on the baby news. They found out the sex of the baby. I won't spill the beans incase everyone doesn't know yet....but Congrats to them!!!

Last night I had such a great one on one time with my baby B! Mike took D to Taekwondo and B and I just sat on the floor and hugged and played and laughed without interuption. It was so wonderful, we have been saying we wanted to plan more one on one with the boys and it was so wonderful. I really think B enjoyed it because he just hugged me about a million times. Of course he is my cuddler of the two but it was still so very nice! It's just the simple things that you sometimes have to slow down and absorb what's around you. The days get so busy with routine and feedings, and baths, dressing and off to school so quickly. I am a little(alot really) stressed with my new hours because they are so long and I am missing my purely play time with the boys. I am sad when I think about how we have to rush them out in the mornings and have little time to play in the evening. I am trying to give myself time to adjust but I don't think this is going to last very long. I know kids are only small once and the little things and the bonding time will pass so quickly, as it already is day by day. I have been going over all the options in my head and all the alternatives... I will let you know when I decide what to do. I have a feeling it won't be long because I am already feeling such sadness with each long day that passes.

And......my wonderful hubby knows how I've been feeling and sent me such beautiful flowers to work today. It was such a suprise and so very touching to me! He is so wonderful and just sent them to "brighten my day" Of course it worked!! Thank you so much for thinking of me and truly brightening up such a gloomy day! I love you baby!! I have made a slideshow with pics from the weekend but I'm having trouble getting on my page. I will post it as soon as I get it to work right. Meanwhile, here's a pic of my beautiful flowers!

fun weekend

Oh yeah, my tribute to Walter

This is my tribute to Tim and Amanda's dog Walter................

Twins right??!!!!! :) :)

My attempt at creativity...

So I thought I'd be brave like the lion...hee hee. D has his fall festival tomorrow and I've volunteered to bring cupcakes. I wanted to make something fun, so I checked on one of my fav sites Awesome cupcakes to check for some ideas. I found this adorable lion

Looks pretty easy right???!!!! Ha... after multiple attempts, mishaps with the icing tool (it wouldn't work well *****$#%@!#%@!) I tried to use a plastic bag to put the icing on.. well it exploded and luckily landed on a cupcake. Thus, I have one pumpkin cupcake! :) Verdict is that I half way succeeded! I think the kids will like them anyway. I had fun! I can't wait for D to wake up in the morning and see them!This is my 1st attempt:

My 2nd attempt:
My 3rd attempt:
The finished product:
At first my new job wasn't going to allow me to take a few hours off to go to D's festival. I wasn't happy at all. then they suggested that I could trade days with the other girl, therefore I worked Mon. and am off tomorrow so that I can help at the school. Thank goodness. They are having multiple activities for the kids and food of course! I am looking forward to it. I just hope my job doesn't stay so strict with out any flexibility....that won't work for me at all!! We'll just have to wait and see.

Tim and Amanda are closing on their house here tomorrow also. We are very excited for them. We will actually be able to walk to their house! They plan to get a pool so that's even better that we'll be able to just pack a bag and walk on over! Even a few drinks on a summer night and we won't have to worry about drinking and driving......just drinking and walking! My in laws are due to arrive in town tomorrow to help with the moving in. I have decided to move Bry's bday party up one week so that they won't have to drive up again next weekend. I am doing the Barney theme! I have bought a few decorations, and I was going to order a cake but I've decided to stretch my creativity again and make my own cake. I'll post pics. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, should be interesting!

Bry tagged along to a bday party with Dev and I to Chuck E Cheese for one of Dev's classmates. B was pretty scared at first and didn't know what to think. Of course after some observations of big bro putting money in machines and tickets popping out he caught on fast. He just liked to put money in and collect tickets even though he had no idea what they were for :) gotta love it! I was a little nervous about taking both boys there by myself(Hubby had a meeting). But they did excellent and I was very proud of them. It was easier than I thought it would be keeping up with them in the commotion of all the other kids running around. They are such good boys!!!!!!They both had a wonderful time and were exhausted when we got home from the sugar rush, dancing with Chuck E and playing all the games.

My husband and brother convinced my dad into getting an RC car. Very cool! He needed a hobby, right Dee?! I can't wait to see him driving it! They'll probably have him into the helicopters and boats soon! Watch out Dad!:)

Amanda is doing good with the preggo. She goes to the Dr. next week ( my OB here) I think they will be sheduling her an ultrasound. I can't wait to find out if we are going to have a boy or girl cousin for the boys! Very exciting. She'll prob have a baby half the size mine were. She's tiny! Almost 5 months along and just barely a pooch going on.......yes I'm a hater!!! hee hee

Got my little piggy today that I ordered for a cousin and his wife that just had a baby girl. A friend of mine gave me one when I had B, then I just gave one to some friends that had a baby boy. This was the first girl piggy I've ordered from her and I must say it's simply adorable. The woman that hand paints these piggies is in her 70's!! She does an amazing job! I love the personalized gifts... here are a few pics....the detail is amazing.... I know they'll love it!

That's all for now.... more this weekend! Happy Friday to all!!