We’ve had a nice weekend of relaxing and working. 
Mostly my relaxing and Dan’s working.  Ha!

Things that our family members have done this weekend:

* played at a  friend’s house.
* read a book at the elementary school for Read Across America.

*Had a church yard sale.
*Read a lot about restaurants at Disney World.

* Booked a Disney vacation.
*Watched Up for the first time.  It’s about time!

* Tried to not cry during Up.
* Slept on the floor in the Living Room.

*Played a lot outside.
* Took a major nap on the couch. 
 
*Baked cookies.
*Taught Sunday School.

*Enjoyed a great worship service.
* Washed a sink full of dishes… several times.

Plus much more!  I’m praying for a good week and that the 2.5 hour nap that Luke took and all the cuddling that he did and the fussing he did about his mouth doesn’t mean he has strep throat!

1. After a beautiful weekend with temps in the 60s, it snowed on Wednesday! It didn’t stick, but it did put a smile on certain children’s faces. J You can barely see the snowflakes, but they are there!

2. My fried egg t-shirts are starting to look a bit more like a flower.

 
I’m still not thrilled with them, but the kids in my class will make the shirts look better, right?

3. I took a picture of D3’s homework that he was working on in my last post. Hope you can read it. He had to write a sentence with each of his vocabulary words.
I found it rather entertaining. J

Have a great weekend!!

I’m in a total blogging slump. I’ve had nothing to say for the entire month of February. So sad I’m sure. J My camera broke last month and I swear I don’t know how to blog without a picture. It’s part of my extremely visual nature. We’ve got to get a camera pronto! We’ve missed such good pictures opportunities- like our Brad Paisley concert last Friday. It was awesome! See…

It’s really him, I promise. This is what he looks like through a camera phone. And we were only 2 rows back!!! We had 14^th row seats, which we were super excited about and when we got there, we saw that the stage jutted out right beside where we were sitting. We had the best seats ever, it was great!

Miranda Lambert opened for him and she was really good too. Super spunky. Here she is:

It’s really her, I promise.

We also took a picture of ourselves… out… without children… at a concert…

It’s really us, I promise.

Yep, my next step after pressing post here is to go find a camera.

Then maybe I will have more to blog about.

Or not.

We’re still dealing with car drama around here. Totaled cars, rental cars, lost titles L, trying to figure out a car payment etc….. While it’s a major inconvenience I am trying to remind myself of all of my blessings. The poor people of Haiti would love to switch situations with me right now.

The situation in Haiti is so sad, but thank goodness for those that are giving aid to that country. The United Methodist Committee on Relief, or UMCOR, is a disaster relief agency that is immediately dispatched to troubled areas throughout the world whenever tragedy strikes. They are in Haiti now and a wonderful part of the Methodist Church. You may give to UMCOR by clicking their logo below.

On a much lighter note I took the boys to the park yesterday because it was finally warmer than 32! They had a blast. The poor guys have been cooped up inside for far too long. I was so proud of Luke. He actually navigated the park by himself and went down the spiral slide no less than 20 times. Bless his heart he has always been scared of the big play equipment at the playground, but not anymore. Ha!

The rest of my week would probably bring tears of boredom to your eyes, so I’ll end with a yummy recipe that we had this week. I make it every now and then and it’s so easy and yummy.

Easy Chicken & Dumplings
3-4 Chicken breasts
2 cans Cream of Chicken soup
Flour tortillas (around 5 large or 10 small- I just eyeball it)
Salt/Pepper

Boil chicken and shred. Put the chicken back into the water and add cream of chicken soup, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil.
Tear up tortillas into pot and boil for 45 minutes – 1 hour.
Add a stick of butter a few minutes before done.

That’s my mantra. I can’t decide if I’m in denial or being positive.

I have cookies baking as I’m sitting here writing (and a mess of laundry and dishes, but we won’t talk about that). I have a work Christmas party tonight and am taking cookies and a little gift to that. It’s always a good time!

Our Christmas cards are finally being printed and I need to pick those up this evening.

Daniel’s hair is super long and the boys need their second dose of flu shot.

My Christmas and birthday shopping (both boys birthdays are in December!) is almost done. J

Luke has his birthday snack at school on Tuesday and I have a co-workers birthday on Tuesday as well. That means food and a present for my co-worker and cupcakes for L’s class.

Thursday is Daniel’s actual birthday! He wants his usual Red Velvet Cake for this occasion. He is going to be 7 and I can’t believe it!! It is also my class Christmas party as well as Luke’s and that night is D3’s Christmas program.

Friday is D3’s class Christmas party. I don’t know what to make of this one- something was said about “healthy snacks.”

Saturday I’m taking the “basic skills” class in order to get my teaching certificate for this lovely state and then either Saturday or Sunday afternoon (we still haven’t decided!) we’re taking D3 and a couple of friends to a pizza place for pizza and games.

Then Monday D3 has a dentist appointment and we’re having a Christmas Open House for church leaders at our house.

Then it’s Christmas Eve service, Christmas Eve festivities, Christmas Day! and two days later Luke’s birthday.

I am so thankful for my MP3 player and Christmas songs this year. I’m sure I’m driving my family crazy with all my Christmas music listening, but it’s really helping to stay somewhat centered. December can be so busy, especially with two December babies, but it is such a special time and I don’t want to miss it with my To-do list!

I will not be stressed…. I will not be stressed…

The Christmas music is playing and L is watching Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas as we speak. Christmas spirit is alive and well at our house!

L made a Christmas countdown yesterday at school, so we’ll be using that to keep track of the days.

There’s a sweet little poem attached to the star at the top:

Little Star shining bright,
How many days ’til Christmas night?
Jesus’ birthday will soon be here
Thank you God for your son so dear.


He also made this adorable manger scene.

I just love it! He can tell you all about the blanket and the baby Jesus and that it’s almost his birthday. He is learning so much in his wonderful preschool class this year!

The boys have itty bitty Christmas trees in their rooms and we will go get our big tree later this week. We’ll add a few ornaments to their trees as well. I tried to take pictures, but they didn’t turn out.

Now I have to get my Christmas cards in order. I tried to take a few pics of the boys last night for the card. I really should have started this earlier! I’m sure it will turn out, I just have to get a move on!

I hope you all are enjoying this wonderful season!

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given…” ~Isaiah 9:6

My mind is bouncing around like crazy lately! So, here are some completely random thoughts:

• I think Luke has grown up this past week! He has started going potty all by himself, starting building with D3’s small Legos, and he played a Dora computer game today all by himself and scored like 200 points! How did he get so big?
  

  
  

• I’m trying to get together a list of gift ideas for the boys for Christmas and their birthdays. Both boys’ birthdays are in December, so it can get crazy!
  
  
• Loved the Country Music Awards last night. They really put on a heck of a show and we love Taylor Swift around here.
  
  
• Our new loveseat and sofa came in! I really like them.  
  
  The Living Room is starting to take shape finally. 
  
• I just paid $93 so I can take a “basic skills” test in December! Ugh! I’m trying to get my Teacher Certification here and I have to retake some tests that I took (and passed) in college. I think I might break out in hives at the thought of trying to do mathematical equations right now.
  
  
• I love Project Runway and am happy with the top three! Go Carol Hannah!

• Tomorrow is Friday! Woot!
  
  

  Happy Friday!
  

  
  

This past Saturday was perfect pumpkin carving weather! It was cool out, so the boys and I got our pumpkin and started the jack o’ lantern.

Daniel + a knife= scary image.

He did great though, and cut an opening at top of the pumpkin.

Ignore my rusty old outdoor furniture. It really needs painting or replacing!

Ewww…..

Scooping out pumpkin guts. J

This would be the first time in his 6 year old life that he actually touched the pumpkin pulp.

The boys were over messing with the pumpkin before all of the pulp was out and started drawing with chalk!

So, I carved alone. We chose Mickey Mouse this year.

We might do another that’s a traditional jack o’ lantern… or we might not.

The Great Clean up of ‘09 is underway. At least we’re attempting a great clean up. After a week of nasty sickies, this house needs some major cleaning!

I stayed home from work yesterday and tried to make it to the top of Mount Laundry.

It was awful! I almost made it, but I’m still not quite there.

Now Dan’s got this bad boy going in the other room:

I finally got to go back to work today! I was so happy. I really can’t stand being cooped in the house for days on end. It really does not do good things for my mood. Just ask Dan.

It was nice to get back to good ole’ circle time and centers, and coloring and playing and writing our names and making cute fall pumpkins and leaves.

By the way, I just checked google images for a kiddy pumpkin picture and this pulled up:

How cute is that? I might need to do this craft in my class.

Anyway, tomorrow brings grocery shopping and busting out the steam mop. I love that thing by the way.

I think it’s going to take me a week to catch up after having a sick family for a week!

Have a great rest of your week!

I love the nice cool mornings we have been having and my new dining room table.

I do not love the fact that B showed out at D3’s school the other day and majorly embarassed me!

I love that we are going to a great consignment sale next weekend and the Auburn game today!!

I do not love getting up at 6:00 on Friday to get D3 ready and to school, when the rest of us have the day off.

I love the fact that I’m part of a Beth Moore Daniel Bible Study and that BooMama had a Diptacular yesterday.  Yum!
 

I do not love that B cries any time I drop him off anywhere.

I love that D3 is finally warming up to his new school/1st grade and that we may be going to the beach at the end of the month!!

I do not love the fact that my kids get up at 6:00 on Saturdays!!!  Momma wants to sleep in!!

I love that the fall is coming up soon and we have a long weekend!

Have a great one!