the first thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

(My sister and her husband are very funny, creative and talented.

This video is from a couple of years ago. Check it out! You wont be disappointed.)

carter wanted a swing

So Brian got the stuff to put up a swing.
He get's excited about projects.
Can you see the beam up there? WAY UP THERE?
I had Erin go stand by the tree
so you could get an idea of how high up the beam has been bolted to the trees.
I'm telling you. When I am upstairs in Erin's room,
I look out her window and the beam is at eye level!
The 2x4 you see nailed to the beam was to help us hold the beam up so he could screw the first bolt in and then we had to use the 2x4 to get the end of the beam to the other tree.
Brian says the higher the more fun.
I still think it's too high.
But, maybe he's right. It'll probably be a blast.
I may have the kids wear helmets when they use it so if they don't swing very straight and they smash into a tree trunk at least their heads will be somewhat protected.
We still have to finish getting the bolts all the way in and then it's flying time!
I'll keep you posted.

picky eaters

I cooked.

Yeppers.

This week I made a meal.

Cream of Potato Soup and French Bread.

The bread is an awesome, easy recipe from Heidi,
my bama friend.
(it didn't look pretty. I need practice on the shaping of the loaf, but I made it myself - from scratch! and it tasted marvelous.)

And the soup was so easy!
That one is from my other friend, Natalie!
Thanks for helping me feed my kids! (kind of)

Try them both. Really. Just do it. You'll be happy.

In a crock pot...

Dump in:

2lb bag of frozen hash browns (cube style)

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of celery soup

2 cans chicken broth

1 med. onion finely chopped

1 - 8oz. package of cream cheese cut into small cubes

Salt, pepper and garlic to taste.

Mix well. Cook in crockpot on low all day.

I wasn't paying attention when she told me she used a can of cheddar cheese soup instead of the celery soup - so next time I'll use cheddar although the celery one was still yummy, just had chunks of celery in it...did not thrill my kiddos.

Which leads me into my next topic - what the title of this post refers to.

My kids! Love 'em. Really, really do.

And I could totally handle if they didn't like one or two things.

All right. I just deleted my rant. Embarassing. Fine.

So they are picky eaters.

There are worse things.

Suffice it to say, I calmed down,

emptied the laundry basket and put all the food back in the pantry.

Then quietly/lovingly told the kiddos that if they are going to be such picky eaters things may be difficult sometimes. Sometimes meals may work out for them, sometimes they may not.

You decide for yourself :

"Will I still eat the hamburger even though those McD guys put ketchup on it when we specifically said 'plain'?"

What can you do.

One thing that stuck in my head from last weekend in Nashville was

"Teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves."

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do that. (What is the punishment? She said you re-teach the principle, but how do the consequences work into it?)

And I'm not sure if it really applies to picky eaters, but...

What do you think?

How do you handle (or wish you handled) picky eaters?

(try the soup!)

piggy back

I just rely on other peopleses fab posts to cushion my...uh...stuff.

(really my brain needs a boost. I can't think of anything interesting to say! Waxing eloquent is not my skill. I must say I am pretty darn fabulous at re-capping movies or tv shows. And I am a pro at enjoying a nice chocolate...or ten. and give me a good book! Nothing will get in my way of finishing that bad boy! NOTHING! That my friends is dedication and attention span. shazah.)

So Wanna know what I'm doing this weekend?

LOOKEE HERE!!!

but please (because you love me) subsititute all positives about yours truly.

xoxoxoxo

love you!

kind of like an update

Wendy's prize for winning the contest is one it's way.

NO I'm not posting a picture...unlike my creative loverly sister, my prizes come from Target.

Still good. Target ROCKS!

...and just for the record, I don't laugh EVERY time my kids fall down. Just when I think laughing will keep them from crying. Couldn't you hear the thoughtful pause of contemplation before the chuckle presented itself? I was thinking what would be the best for HER. I wasn't amused. Not at all. And she didn't cry. My toughy. She was just a little embarrassed but once she looked around and saw nobody else was there she pirouetted her way back into the spotlight of...hmmm...the spotlight of...drrr.

So this is funny. My dear boy, Carter.

Not the stinky one - yet.

Last night when I put him to bed he kissed me and got my nose.

"Oh, I think I missed." he said.

Then I tucked him in and as I was leaving reached over to shut his closet door.

"Uh Mom. Could you open that?"

"What? you want your closet door open?" (who would even want their closet door open?)

"Yeah. Cause then I wont be scared when I have to open it, cause it will already be open."

He's working through a lot of fears right now.

mary

She's a funny gal.
Check out this interesting and imformative post on her blog.
You learn something new every day, eh?

she loves to dance

Erin LOVES her dance class.

She dances all over everywhere like a pretty dancing princess.

She comes to me during the day often and daintily puts out her hand and asks

"May you dance with me?"

Here is a little video clip of Erin dancing during a lunch break at Animal Kingdom.

over the grumps

Grinchy would not quit until I took a picture with him.

He was quite cuddly soft.

Cassy and Seth LOVE these!

and now so do we!

Those braces really paid off...

(there are a lot of fun effects on that picnik web site.

I tried all of them in attempts to make the menu planning for the week go away. It hasn't.)

trick-or-treat

Here we have a hobo and a kung-fu princess.

And this here is a knight and Indiana Jones.

It was a "raid the dress-up box and see what we can find" Halloween.
My only gripe is that nobody was handing out chocolate.
So I have not been gorging on candy like usual,
which I guess is a good thing in the long run.