Boys, Boys, Boys

We're so excited!

My cousin and her husband just had a baby boy!

My sister and my brother-in-law just found out they are having a baby boy!

And my brother and my sister-in-law just brought home their baby boy!

We are so excited for them all!

O Christmas Tree

Every year I can remember, my Grandparents have had a live Christmas tree.

This year, Grandpa let us go with him to find the perfect one.

The kids got all bundled up.

And loaded up in the pick-up truck with my Grandpa.

We finally found a place that looked promising so we started our search for the perfect tree.



There were some that suggested very tall trees... and some that suggested very small trees....

And finally we found the perfect one.
Check out that saw! And my Grandpa with some of his Great-Grandkids.

We (I use the term "we" very loosely here) put lights on, decorated it and then vacuumed several times.

And there it is.

In all it's glory!

Makes me want to start singing.... 'O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree......

Merry Christmas!!!!

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!!!

Gingerbread Houses

Okay, so they were actually Graham Cracker Houses. But we applied the same principles.

I saw the idea at Smockity Frocks and thought it was brilliant.

I made up the houses a couple hours before we started so the royal icing would dry and the structures would be solid enough for the kids to decorate.

We had a selection of yummy Christmas candies to decorate with along with several selections of icing for the glue.

And we all had fun and I think they turned out pretty cute. The kids really had a great time with them and they were not that hard to assemble.
Her goal was to get as much candy on the roof as possible. It was quite a site to behold.His goal was to do enough to make a presentable house without having to add any more candy than necessary.
His goal was symmetry. It was all about perfection.

I think this is one new tradition that we really liked and will try again next year.

And if you happen to live in my area and want to try these tonight or tomorrow, I've got half of all the decorating supplies left and you are more than welcome to them, just let me know! We surely don't need all the extra candy around here!

Merry Christmas!

Who was that masked man?

The kids loved their capes. The oldest wasn't for sure if he was too old for it or not....unitl we got home. They've all been wearing their capes morning, noon and night. It's been nothing short of a superhero fest. Which makes all the agony of the sewing worth it. I think.

But next year, if I decide I must be creative and sew something for all the kids, I'm gonna start a whole lot earlier!

Sew Tired

So, they are finished. And so am I.Quite exhausted here, if I do say so myself.

The supercapes and masks were a little more intense than I anticipated. I think next time, I'll just buy them on etsy. No I won't, because I have this compulsion to do things myself. But I'll sure think long and hard about it.

For the boys capes, I appliqued with satin emblems and letters.

For the girls capes, I was wanting to do a princess crown in the background and thought the satin would be too tricky, so I used felt.

All in all, I think they turned out pretty cute. Just as long as you don't look too closely.

The necks were a nightmare. Sewing curves with satin is something that I am going to avoid at all costs in the future.

Well, I'm off to finish packing.

My sister and her family are flying in to Oklahoma tomorrow so the kids and I are headed up to see them, then drive to Missouri to visit Grandparents with them and my parents, then turn back around and head back to Oklahoma for our family Christmas next weekend. And yes, I know that was a run-on sentence. But that is how I feel this next week is going to be. So I'm keeping it.

Have a great week!

Crazy Sewing

So by request of Mrs. Troop, I am posting pictures of the baby quilt I made before Thanksgiving.

I wasn't for sure how it was going to turn out because I was using such an eclectic combination of fabrics.

I loved the colorful oval dot fabric and picked the rest of the fabrics to go with it. I was even able to incorporate some vintage popcorn chenille fabric which I adore.

I backed the quilt with a pink chenille and I think it turned out pretty cute. At least it is original and they won't find any others like it. So there's that.

And now I'm off to my next project. Superhero capes and masks for Christmas.

I need to have these done by next Monday and so far I've just got one mask and one cape done.

Wish me luck!

Spinach Dip

I am currently in the midst of a sewing project.

So I've got nothing.
Except a Spinach Dip Recipe.
Which I have had several requests for.
Because it is wonderfully delicious.
If I have to take an appetizer to a fellowship, this is what I take.
Because it is just that good.
So here it is.

Spinach Dip
10oz Frozen Chopped Spinach
1 cup fresh Parmesan cheese
3 oz Philadelphia 1/3 Less Fat Soft Cream Cheese

(don't even bother to make this if you are going to use an off-name brand of cream cheese or even the fat free cream cheese. they don't mix well and it's just not worth it)

3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp Tabasco
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp pepper

Thaw the spinach and squeeze out the juice. Chop spinach up nice and good. (I know.. it's chopped spinach.. but humor me). Mix all the ingredients. Bake in an 8x8 pan or double the recipe and bake in a 9x13 pan.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.
Serve with blue chips, crackers or in a bread bowl.

Enjoy!

Thankful Thursday

So, I had a brilliant idea. Okay, so maybe not so much. But I was up several times in the middle of the night with sick kids. By the time I got everyone all medicined up and tucked back in it was 4:00am.

And I couldn't go to sleep.

Nothing is more maddening than not being able to go back to sleep when you are absolutely exhausted. So after I prayed for everyone I could think of and after I had come up with a name a God with every letter of the alphabet, I started thinking about my Thankful Thursday post.

I decided it would be a brilliant idea to link all the things I am thankful for to previous posts.

Why?

I have absolutely no idea. But it honestly seemed brilliant at 4:30 this morning. And since I've got nothing else, here it is.......

1. Thankful that I didn't buy 500 pansies seeing as how almost half are now beheaded! (see how nice this thankful thursday thing is?? instead of being bitter that the rabbits are eating my pansies, I'm thankful that I didn't buy more. I just need to keep telling myself that.... I'm thankful I didn't buy more.... I'm thankful I didn't buy more....)

2. Thankful that it's too cold out for snakes. Although I'm sure I wouldn't have a pansy problem. I'm not for sure which is worse, a 4 1/2' long King Snake who eats rabbits, or rabbits who eat pansies.

3. Thankful life has not been this chaotic lately.

4. Thankful it is too cold for camping. Don't get me wrong, I love to camp. But I think I'm GOOD for a while!

5. Thankful my daylily collection is happily growing in Texas. Thanks for your help dad!

6. Thankful for my dad, whose birthday was this week! Happy Birthday dad!

7. Thankful we have found a violin teacher here that we absolutely adore! The first one that I had set up lessons with refused to teach my children on the size violins we already had (which our former teacher recommended), was priced too high, and expected the children to be virtuosos by the time they are 8. It just wasn't working for us. But we adore the teacher we have found. It really is a blessing.

8. I'm thankful for a thoughtful husband who always keeps me amused and who we all love and adore.

9. I'm thankful for all my friends and fellow mothers who are in the trenches everyday fighting the good fight!

10. Thankful for the snow we had last year in Georgia, because it's looking like there is a good chance we won't be having any in Texas!

Okay, that's all I've got. I'm off to take temperatures and wipe noses. Good times.

Have a Thankful Thursday!

Boys, go build a snare for your Mama

We're havin rabbit stew tonight!

(yes, that is one of my beloved pansies, the third one pictured below)

Pansy Envy

Hello.

My name is Lori.

And I have pansy envy.

I have a neighbor who just put out about 500 pansies in her front yard. And I gaze longingly at them every time we drive past. In fact, my 7 year old now says as we are approaching the pansy laden home, "Mom, just don't look."

They are absolutely beautiful. Not just the color, but the sheer quantity.

But I've decided that I must move on with my life and just be thankful for the pansies I have. Which are beautiful pansies. Just not so many of them.

These are the pansies I went with this year. There are some yellows, Burgundies and some mixes. I fell in love when I laid my eyes on this particular one and I picked the rest of the colors to coordinate with it.

Every fall I buy pansies for my front flower borders and coordinating chrysanthemums for the 2 urns on my front porch.

In the Southern states, pansies are usually considered to be annuals because they are not very heat tolerant. I usually pull mine out in the late spring/early summer when they get leggy and then replace them with my summer annuals.

Which is why I don't have 500.

Because my proposed garden budget has yet to be approved.

Now, if you plant the chrysanthemums in the ground, they are usually perennial, which means they come back every year. I plant last year's mums in the backyard flower borders.

But the pansies are just so pretty that I find myself justifying buying them because they are pretty and they do last until next summers annuals go in and they are pretty much the only flowers that last through winter.

My husband thinks I should try to grow several hundred from seed next year so we won't have to spend very much and I can have as many as I want.

I'll let ya know how that one works out for me.

Thankful Thursday

1. Thankful that I'm not going to have to buy snowboots for the kids this year. Apparently. They are currently outside in shorts and barefeet. I'm thinkin' we may not be having a white Christmas in Texas this year.

2. Thankful for faithful friends who provide much encouragement.

3. Thankful you don't have to pay-per-minute to be on Facebook. Because I've spent way too much time on there this week.

4. Thankful that my husband has a good job with a good company. We have had several friends and acquaintances in the last weeks and months who have lost jobs. It is something we do not take for granted.

5. Thankful that there is a guy coming by today who is supposed to repair or replace everything the moving company broke or lost.

6. Thankful that our God is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and that he knows what has been, what is, and what will be.

7. Thankful that this is the last week for Upwards basketball. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the program. But 2 nights a week of practice (one for each boy) and 2 games on Saturdays is getting a little old. I'm glad we did it and I'm glad it's over. I'm contemplating a non-game sport for the Spring. Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Okay, that's all I've got for now.

Have a Thankful Thursday!

I spy with my little eye...

a woolly bear caterpillar.....

Guess who spied two?

and she's not a bit proud of herself....

Folks believe that if a woolly bear caterpillar's brown stripe is wide, the winter weather will be mild and if the brown stripe is narrow, the winter will be severe.

Looks like Missouri should have a nice mild winter.

Which also might explain why we haven't seen any in Texas.

Do they have winter in Texas?

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

My favorite thing to make around this time of the year is Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread.

One of my friends in OKC first introduced me to Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread. I have to admit, I really wasn't too keen on it just by the description.

But then I tried some.

And I was in love.

I have tried several recipes over the years from friends, and books and online sources and this is the recipe I am now using. It makes 3 loafs of Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread.

Ingredients:
3 Cups White Sugar
1 (15 ounce) Can Pumpkin Puree
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
4 eggs
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon Ground Cinnamon
1 Tablespoon Ground Nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray Pam in 3 Loaf Pans.
2. In large bowl, combine sugar, oil, water, eggs and pumpkin. Beat well. Blend in flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt. Add in the chocolate chips. Fill the loaf pans 1/2 to 3/4 full.
3. Bake for 45 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean. (it really depends on how your oven bakes)

Wonderfully. Delicious.

Randomness

I was tagged by Mrs. Troop to tell 7 random things about myself.

So, um, here they are.

1. I adore playing music. I can play several instruments including the piano, oboe (college orchestra), bass drum (high school marching band), tenor sax (college jazz band) and flute if absolutely necessary. I've recently started playing the violin (I use the term "playing" very loosely). I really enjoy it and can play several songs and several hoedowns with my Grandpa and Mom who also play the violin. Although I'm pretty sure my Grandpa would say that he plays the fiddle. I've attempted to play both the guitar and the banjo but I just never really got it.

2. My brother and my husband have the same first name. Which is odd. But not as odd as the time I was dating my husband (obviously before he was my husband) and my brother was dating a girl with my same name. That was really odd. And I must say that I adore the girl he married who does not share my same name.

3. I love to play games. Especially nerts. It's a card game that I learned at college. On my hall we would all be in our rooms studying and then someone would yell down the hall "NERTS BREAK!!!!" and we would all grab our deck of cards and go play a couple hands for a study break. I am always up for a game of nerts.

4. I collect daylilies. The actual plant. I have about 34 varieties and around 300 plants total. Which is really only a problem when it comes time to move.

5. We've moved 3 times in the last 4 years.

6. My brother and sister and I used to all ski slalom together. Those were good times. We would do all sorts of tricks. It was great fun. 7. I know the Order that most insects belong to. It's nerdy and quirky, I know. It's because my college Zoology professor was an Entomologist and we had to do an insect collection and have 12 orders and 100 insects. After that much quality time with all those insects it was just kind of hard not to remember facts about them. I passed this on to my children this last summer when we studied insects. It's rather amusing when my 4 year old tells a neighbor that the butterfly they just found is in the Order Lepidoptera or not to step in the ant pile because ants are in the Order Hymenoptera and we don't like insects in Hymenoptera because they sting. How's THAT for randomness.

Okay, so that's it for all my randomness.

So I'm going to tag my sister Good Life Girl, my friend Laura J. and my best Georgian friend Georgia Mom, to tell us 7 Random things about them.

Good luck with that.

The Grand Tour

Actually it was the Grand-Parent tour.

We took off last week for Oklahoma and Missouri to see our 5 Grandmas and 2 Grandpas. We had a wonderful visit with them all. But I am just now getting caught up with all the laundry and chaos that one generates when gone from one's house for a week-long trip.

Our first stop was to see Grandma G. She prays for us every day. And she read my blog every Sunday!

Hi Grandma!

We went out to lunch with her and Aunt S. and then went to a park and let the kids play.

Our second stop was to see my husband's 94 year old Grandma M. She had 5 flats of pansies that she was putting out when we drove up. She loves to garden. She is the only woman on earth that my husband may love more than me. We then drove up to see my Grandma D. She like to play the dominoes game Mexican train.

For quarters.

She actually keeps quarter jars in her cabinet for all her children and grandchildren that come to play with her. My brother and sister-in-law's jar was really full. Hmmmmm........We then went down to the farm to see my Grandpa and Grandma A for a couple days. The weather was so nice that we didn't really stay indoors very much. I realized when we got home that I only had a few pictures of them together from this trip. My mom is with them and she qualifies as the 5th Grandma we spent time with.

I remember the first time my Grandpa met my husband (while we were dating). He checked in his mouth to make sure he had good teeth and then had about 10 questions to ask him. He's a funny guy, that Grandpa of mine.

And my dad (the other Grandpa on our trip) spent most of his time on the 4-wheelers with the kids. There is no place they would rather be than on the 4-wheeler with their Grandpa.

So that's what we've been up to.

Oh, and we left our daughter with my parent so she could spend the week with them. As we were driving away, I started to feel sad that my baby was staying behind and then I heard one of my boys say to the other.... Can you believe it? We have EIGHT-GIRL-FREE-DAYS ahead of us!?!

But don't be fooled. They really have missed her. And we have too. She comes home today and we'll be so glad to see her.

Although it has been a lot quieter around here this past week.

Family Night #1 - Go Hawaiian

We had our first Family Theme Night last night. I got the idea from Whittaker Woman. She does one once a week and instead of just having a family night, she makes a theme with it.

I thought it was a brilliant idea.

So we tried it out.

My goal was to come up with something that would be easy to do and wouldn't cost much to decorate with. We chose a "Hawaiian" theme because my daughter just got several grass skirts and leis for her birthday and we seemed to have some other fun things around that would go with that theme. The kids have also been really wanting pineapple lately, so I thought it would be fun to tie it all together.

Here is our table decorations. We used the pinapple, papaya, kiwi, shells, a sand bucket, a volcano and Nemo to decorate.





The kids and I made tissue paper and pipe cleaner flowers. They were fun and easy to make and we decorated all the chairs and table with them.

The kids also thought it would be fun to put the leis around each chair to make everything look even more festive.

We had pineapple, kiwi and papaya for dessert. My oldest son and I looked up Hawaiian parties online and found some games to pick from. He thought limbo would be fun so we played that while listening to hawaiian music.

Okay, so it wasn't officially Hawaiian music. It was the music from the VBS Outrigger Island.

But it worked.

Limbo limbo limBO

how low can you go....... how low can you go....

The highlight of the evening for everyone was the volcano. We already had the volcano from a science experiment a couple years ago. So we just added 2 tsp of baking soda in the volcano and then they slowly poured red tinted vinegar in with it.

It was almost as exciting as watching fireworks.

The kids got 2 turns each and they all say that was their favorite part of family night.

We ended the evening with all of us dancing to music.

Or if you graduated from a Baptist University, we were "functioning" to the music.

The kids really had a great time and we made some fun memories. I think the most important part was letting them help plan and decorate so they felt that it was their family night.

So there you have it. Our first themed family night. I think we are going to try to have one once a month.

You should try it. It's fun!