happy birthday dad!

We love you so much and can't wait to see you tomorrow.

Happy Birthday!

chicken parmesan pizza

Just wanted to share another quick and yummy dinner that was a hit with our kids. Enjoy!

Chicken Parmesan Pizza

loaf of garlic bread
8 chicken strips, cooked and cut into pieces
1 cup pizza sauce

1 1/2 - 2 cups shredded mozzarella or pizza blend cheese

basil, fresh or dried

oregano

olive oil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425*

Cut garlic bread in half and lay butter/garlic side up on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes until lightly browned.

Spread pizza sauce over bread. You may not use the entire one cup of sauce.

Arrange chicken strips over sauce. I bought the wrong kind of chicken... these were basically glorified chicken nuggets. Now I know. :)

Top with cheese, basil and oregano. Drizzle with olive oil.

Bake another 5 to 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

swagbucks

Have you guys heard of Swagbucks? You can join for free and download the search toolbar. Basically, you earn points while doing what you normally do... searching the web.

You can cash those points in for prizes and most importantly (to me, anyway) earn gift cards to places like Amazon, Itunes, Target and Paypal. :) There are a ton of things you can get. Be sure to check it out!

minnie to the rescue

May 2008

Rough. Doesn't even begin to describe what my weekend would have been like if it weren't for my mom. With Kyle gone since Friday morning and not back until tonight, things would have been a bit tricky if she hadn't shown up.

Because she was here... I was able to focus on my big boy who was sick, sick and rub his achy legs whenever he needed it. Embry and Ellie were happily kept at a distance in hopes of not catching the yuck. My house is not the disaster it would have been otherwise. Books were read. Bottoms were wiped. Beds were made. And one little princess got her nails painted Sleeping Beauty pink.

Thanks Mom.

Thanks for rescuing me again and again.

Love you.

fruit gobbler

I've made this turkey guy the last several years for the kids (Family Fun's fruit gobbler). I had Hayes help me this year, seeing that he is really into patterns and buildng these days.

Fruit Gobbler

You'll need:

bosc pear (head)

melon (body)... I like the texture of a cantaloupe

cubed cheese (beak and tail feathers)

grapes (tail feathers)
red pepper (snood, feet and side feathers)

raisins (eyes)

bamboo skewers

toothpicks

Stabilize the melon body by cutting a shallow slice off the rind to form a flat base. Using two toothpicks, attach and stabalize the pear head to the melon.

Cut a cheese triangle beak and red pepper snood. Attach both, along with raisin eyes, to the head with sections of toothpick.

Cut red pepper feet and set them in place.

For tail feathers, skewer cheese cubes and red grapes, then insert the skewers as shown. Hayes had fun making different patterns and I got over my need to make it perfect... the different patterns actually turned out really cute.

Pin pepper side feathers in place with toothpicks. Addition of a  yellow and orange bell pepper, or even carrots would make it look even more colorful.

And there you have your turkey.

Gobble. Gobble.

picnic in the park

After a drive clear across town and a failed attempt to feed the ducks ("Please don't feed the waterfowl" grrrrr...), we shifted gears, grabbed dinner and took advantage of a beautiful November day.

shopping with my girl

The boys went one direction this evening and the girls went another. Kyle took Hayes and Embry to see Astro Boy while Ellie and I hit the mall. We have a few birthdays this month so we took advantage of our girl time to shop!

We looked at jewelry, purses, boots, perfume... she ended up with her own lip gloss, which she reapplied every couple minutes. She was so proud. I watched her as she would catch her reflection in the mirror and just flip her head from side to side and smile. There's a mirror in the Gap that has her little lipgloss kiss. :)

She flirted with the boy cashiers and had her first m&m cookie from the mall. She forced me to buy a pink hoodie instead of a blue one.

I love our girl time.

trick or treat!

Buzz, Woody and Jessie wish you a Happy Halloween!

pumpkin party

We had our friends over to eat and carve some pumpkins (uh hem, have the daddies carve some pumpkins). It's always fun having a houseful. Thanks everybody for partying with us! And, thanks Katie for being so on top of the picture-taking. :)

And because this just makes me laugh...

crescent roll apples

Wanted to share this yummy recipe I made tonight. I hardly ever make dessert... just ask my kids. If they actually eat their dinner and earn dessert, it quite possibly could be fruit snacks or marshmallows.

I love the simplicity of these apples. I guess I love the taste even more. :)

It could definitely be paired with some ice cream. Oh yes, definitely.

Crescent Roll Apples

Serves 8

1 8 oz. can crescent rolls
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and quartered
1 6 oz. can frozen apple juice concentrate, thawed

*Unroll crescent roll dough, and separate into triangles. Spread butter evenly over dough. Stir together sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle evenly over butter. (I just used the cinnamon sugar mixture from the store.)

*Wrap each apple quarter in 1 crescent roll dough triangle and place in a lightly greased 13x9 baking dish.

*Pour apple juice concentrate evenly over rolls.

*Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly. (I cooked for 30 minutes and covered with foil for the rest of the baking time because the tops were already golden.)

pumpkin patch

good news and the not-so-good news

Let's start with the good news, shall we?

I had Hayes' parent-teacher conference this morning. It's always fun to hear someone say your boy is as neat as you think he is. :) He is doing really well and is learning so much. Up until recently, he has pretty much resisted every attempt I have made to get him to color, draw or learn. Now, it's like a switch has been flipped... he is always wanting to draw and he is eager to teach me the things he learns in school.

We were at lunch a couple weeks ago and he was drawing on the place mat. I looked over and he was writing all of his colors! I knew he could spell these words in a song that he sings, but write them down? So cool. It's truly a joy watching this little guy learn to read and write right before my eyes.

And now for the not-so-good news...

Embry's skin testing with the allergist didn't go as I had hoped yesterday. No, more like didn't go as I had prayed and trusted God for it to go. I felt good going into it, knowing that I had handed this over to God and trusted that there would be healing, or at least progress in his resistance to his food allergies.

But once the little spots on his arms started to swell up and I began hearing things like, "Okay, I'm stopping the test (half-way into it) because of the significance of his reaction." and "Honestly, I haven't seen a peanut reaction of this size in a long time," the doubt began to creep in.

I have to be honest about being disappointed. I was really expecting good results. But even though I am the mommy and believe I know what is best for my baby, God's the one with the ultimate plan. And I will keeping trusting that there will be healing in that plan... not in my time, but his.

thirty three

masterpiece

This is how our mantle looked for over a year. Lonely and in need of a friend. I just couldn't commit to anything... the things I did like weren't exactly in the budget. So I decided that Hayes and I would make our own masterpiece. :)

I bought a canvas and some paint at Hobby Lobby (when the art supplies were on sale, of course) and we went to work. Hayes did most of it. I just tried to clean it up a bit.

We shall call it "Transportation."

So there you go... an inexpensive way to create with your kids and bring a little fun to your decor. And when you're ready for a change, you aren't out a huge amount of money. Just grab a new canvas and an eager little artist and create another one.

just like daddy

"I've got my scratches on, just like Daddy."