:) :) :)

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!