Halloween costumes and school parties

Bam Bam and Pebbles

Bam Bam and her precious little baby kitten.

Don't attack me girl....... LOL

Aw my precious Mary, she forgot her baby Jesus.

Bam Bam beating up her (his) dad.

Last nights projects

Well, I was up until after midnight last night working on the projects for today. Yesterday was so slammed with soccer, Kevin's hair cut, picking up Kevin's wrestling shoes, picking up the girls costumes and family dinner night.......... I was going non stop. Below are some photos of what we worked on. I was really missing my big kitchen when we were baking (I told Mike I was missing my counter space and double ovens and he said we can move back if you want, it's just sitting there..... I said NAH the barn house is fine, I'll deal with the one oven for now, for the view. LOL)

K, so in this photo it looks like a big turkey leg (LOL) but this is Katie.uhumm I mean Bam Bam's Bat. It was white with skulls on it which gives it that bumpy look but Katie didn't want the skulls so she had me get her brown paint and she painted it up herself.

We moved the decorating project to the kitchen table. They had frosted most of these and we had 48 more baking in the oven.

The girls are separating the twizzler into strings and breaking them in to LEGS.

The finished product. Not exactly what we were looking for because they are supposed to have black frosting but I got this spray frosting stuff and it said black but turned out more of a gray color. My cousin had made these in the past and Katie remembered it and told me everything I need to pick up for her.

These are trays of the cupcakes.... I mean SPIDERS.

Andrew's Birthday is TODAY!!!

Isn't he just the most handsome FOUR YEAR OLD you have ever seen? YES he is four TODAY!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Andrew, Happy Birthday to you!!!

If he were typing on Auntie's Blog he would say "It's by birthday! It's my birthday!!, Hey Hey Hey Auntie, It's my Birthday!"

Happy Birthday my precious little nephew! I love you to the moon and stars and back!

FOUR YEAR SURVIVOR

Here is to thanking GOD. He has truly blessed me. Today is my four year anniversary of being a Leiomyosarcoma cancer survivor!!

I'm praying for four more! =-)

Wedding Tomorrow

So Christopher, my son Kyle's best friend is getting married TOMORROW. He is marrying his girlfriend Kailey who is Kyle's girlfriend Megan's best friend. Below is a photo of Christopher and another photo of Kailey and Kyle. I don't have a photo of Christopher and Kailey together.
They are getting married at the court house. Chris is in the Army (just graduated boot camp) and they have to leave on Monday so he can get back. He was supposed to be here until December but they called him back early. So now they have pushed the wedding up to tomorrow. Wish they would wait but congratulations to them.



Kyle (being a dork) and Kailey at school last year.

Christopher (I cut Kyle out because they were being too big of dorks in this picture to show him).

Pumpkin patch

We went to the pumpkin patch and Cornfield Maze. Below are a few photo's. The kids had fun but there was hardly anyone there. It was crazy how slow they were. A friend of ours got us tickets. The girls picked out pumpkins and we went through the cornfield maze. There were animals to look at and a little playground area.

Katie and Kevin looking at the minature horses.

Katie liked to read about the animals and especially thier names.

They were sooooo friendly. It was really cute.

Isn't this different! Looks like he has his halloween mask on. Really neat.

I really liked this little guy. He had these feathers off of his feet and just really pretty.

Kevin was putting a leaf up to get them to come over to him. They came right over as soon as they saw what they thought was food. They were really cute. I wish we had real food for them.

Kayla peeking around the post looking at the Peacock. It was sooooo colorful.

Katie and her pumpkin checking out the Peacock.

Katie put her hair thru the hole because she wanted to act like it was her beard. She was really cracking herself up!

Kevin had to lift Kayla up so she could reach to put her face in the hole.

Pumpkin Patch and Cornfield Maze

This is actually at the exit of the cornfield maze. They were so excited they made it out in good time!

Here the kids are walking through the cornfield maze. Trying to find the exit.

Kevin saying "Take the picture already mom" LOL

This is a lookout spot in the maze, so you can try to figure out where the exit is part of the way through the maze.

Kayla checkign out the corn on the stalks and having a good time.

Katie, Kevin and Kayla still in the cornfield maze.

Scrap Shack

Hey guys!!

I just wanted to give you a link (it will be kept on my blog as well). http://www.scrapshacknc.com/



A really sweet friend of mine owns this store. It's in North Carolina and it's called the "Scrap Shack". It is an ADORABLE store!! I had a chance to scrap there last year when I was there. If you don't live near there and can't make it in to check it out in person don't worry...they have a store online .


If you are into NASCAR this is definitely the site you want to get your scrap supplies from. They even carry #88 Dale Jr. paper and the designs are EXCLUSIVE to their store.



Take a peek http://www.scrapshacknc.com/ . Have fun and let me know whatcha get!

Music

Wow! It took me forever to get it to work but I finally got my music up on my blog! Wooo HOO.. yippeee... Very excited, if ya couldn't tell. LOL

Today was a pretty good day. I worked on seeding pomegranates so I can get the juice and make jelly. That time of year again already! I can't believe it is almost NOVEMBER! This year has gone by so quickly. Halloween next week, then Turkey Day and BAM it will be Christmas.. (My favorite Holiday)

The kids go back to school tomorrow, they have been off for a week. This week flew by too! They stayed a couple days at my cousins house and had a great time.

Well, Kevin is at Youth Group and it is over in about 10 minutes, I better go get him. Have a great night. I'll post again soon.

Tip of the Week

Have a "Family Night" once a week. Ours is Thursday nights. Everything Thursday night everyone is required to be home. It alternates each week as to who's turn it is to be head of the family night. We rotate from youngest to oldest. If it is your turn you pick what meal we eat for dinner and which board game we play. It is best NOT to do a movie because we have found playing the board game we do a lot more talking with each other. We sometimes invite my parents over and the kids really get a kick out of that also. The kids look forward to it very much and they always remember when it is Thursday night. Sometimes it ends up being a late night and we occasionally will stress because of school the next day but if it goes too late I let them sleep in and I drive them to school the next day so they don't have to be up as early to catch the bus. Family night is very important to us and the only regret I have in regards to family night is that we didn't start it sooner, when my boys were younger. The boys are now 18 and 15 and they love family night. I picture my children being out on their own and married and still coming over for family night. One can only hope! Try it.....you will LOVE IT!

My Hubby

Here are a couple pictures of the last tower (Monopole) my hubby and our team members installed.






Doesn't he have such a terrible view to look at at this site? LOL



There is the monopole and the dishes all installed. He had to go back to the site to do a few things the next week and on the way down it had snowed and people were sliding all over and off the road with horse trailers. They were out hunting and not expecting snow. My hubby didn't get home until 3am because he stayed until he helped everyone on the pass. One person called him an "angel". awwwwwwwww..... Love him!

My Brother

Congratulations to my brother Blake! (Brother in law actually but I think of him as my brother not an outlaw)

He worked his tail off and yesterday he got news that he made it! He will be a pilot for Southwest! He is already a captain at Skywest but he wanted this so much and he EARNED IT. When my sister called me a screamed outloud! My daughter came in wanting to know why I was so happy! He is such a good husband, father and provider for my little sis and my nephew. And of course he is a great brother. I love you tons my brother from another mother! You rock!

My day

So the potatoes with spinach dip and some artichoke hearts and cheese was good! I wouldn't say I'd enter it in a contest but we all liked it. Yeah!

Tonight I need to make something quick and easy because we are all going to a Halloween place called Hobbs Ranch and we want to get there pretty early (like 6ish) and it's about an hour drive from here so we'll have to leave 5ish. Hopefully this will work with Mike and Kyle's work schedule. Not sure what time they will be done working today. But 6ish is our goal.

Might do some cheese and roast beef quesadillas.(sp) They are easy to grab and take with us, if Mike and Kyle have to meet us in town, I can keep that warm in foil for them, and they can eat it on the way. It is soooooooooo expensive to eat there!

Some good friends from our bible study class are trying to get us a free tickets. Her husband works for a TV station so he is pretty sure he can get us some tickets this morning. FINGERS crossed.

I'm taking the kids to the pumpkin patch and corn field maze either today during the day or tomorrow.

Tomorrow night I have a Princess House party in town and Mike leaves for hunting in Idaho tomorrow.

I'm thinking of letting the kids have some friends over on Friday night or Saturday afternoon. I'm thinking of letting the girls invite friends over and make Halloween cookies and let Kevin (and Kyle if he wants) have a few friends over and BBQ. It is a bit too cold to swim in the lake now but they can hang out and find something to do. In fact they should have a few friends over and set up tents and camp out on our property somewhere. We could even do a little bon fire here close to the house and roast marshmallows and they can hang out there and talk. I'm going to have to think this thru. Mike wont be here...maybe I should wait for him to get back for that. I don't know.... I'm rambling now.

Have a great day!

Spinach Dip

So I was cleaning out my fridge today and I have Spinach dip in there that expires after today. I hate to throw it out, hardly any was eaten....... So I have decided I'm going to experiment. I'm going to put the spinach dip in a pan, heat it up, add a little bit of milk to thin it out a bit, then I'll add some cheese I have until it melts. Then I'm going to cut up potatoes and put them in a casserole dish and stir in the spinach/cheese mixture, top it off with a little more cheese (cuz you can never get enough cheese right?) and bake it. If it isn't any good, then I wasted some potatoes and cheese but if it is then I made a fun recipe and didn't waste the spinach dip.

I have spareribs and honey BBQ sauce going in the crock pot. It smells so yummy!

I'm down to my very last diet soda and with my $25 a week challenge I figure I wont be purchasing any soda this week. Soooooooo no problem, I am making sun tea! I actually do love tea, so it's all good. =)

I'm off to finish entering in my budget online. (My Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover) I love that guy!

Hugs,
Steph

20+ day Meal Plan

I went through my cabinets and I thought I'd post my Meal plan that I have so far

Meat loaf, salad and mashed potatoes
Hamburger gravy over potatoes or biscuits
Chili Beans, corn bread and fried potatoes
Mooseghetti (spaghetti), bread and green beans
Enchilada's, salad, beans and rice
Stew, bread
Vegi Soup and bread
Chili dogs, pretzels
Beef (moose) and Bean burritos, rice
Chili Verdi, beans and rice
BBQ (moose) sandwich
Roast, potatoes and vegi
Steaks (deer) potato, vegi
Hamburgers, mac-n-cheese
Sloppy Joe's, vegi
Goulash, vegi
Chicken, pilaf, vegi
Chicken noodle soup

I plan to rotate these dishes along with doing a breakfast night...Chocolate gravy and biscuits, Pancakes and sausage, etc. once a week (my kids are very excited about this) and doing a left over night once a week, or when we are able.

Hope this gives some ideas.........Wish me luck!

Grocery $

My little sis said she is starting to clip coupons. Well, this got me started in trying to save "grocery" money........So I've been surfin' the web looking for meals to make with hamburger meat. Money saving ideas. Well, I don't have "hamburger" meat but I do have Moose meat that is ground up like hamburger meat. My husband "The great hunter" has filled our freezer with Moose, deer and wild boar. So I have a lot of ground moose and sausage. Anyway, I came across this challenge last week and I decided to take. It is $25 a week for 6 weeks. I'm on week two right now. So far so good. The idea is to use up everything you have in the cabinets that just end up staying there and not being used. The $25 is for milk and perishables. With a family of six the $25 will be difficult but I figure even if we don't make it the full six weeks I will have at least cleaned out my cabinets and saved money along the way. But I'm committed to try hard. With a freezer full of meat this will be very helpful for me.

So last night I put beans (dried, I have a big bag in the cabinet) in the crock pot (love the crockpot, my little sis got me a crock pot cook book too!) and let them go all night. This morning I will add ground moose, sausage and I have onion in there and some diced tomatoes I will add also. I don't have peppers and some of my usual things I add, but I'm sure it will still be good. I plan to make cornbread to go with it and fried potatoes.

I was cleaning out my fridge and I have carrots and celery that needs to be eaten before they go bad, so I'm going to make either vegetable soup OR stew, haven't' decided yet. In fact I may do stew one night and soup another. I actually am sure I have enough vegetables to do both.

I'll keep you posted and let me know if you decide to take the challenge with me! I'm excited!

Soccer Photo's

Well, I got to the soccer field and took out my camera to get some great action shots of Katie running around the field.........and NO BATTERY! I was sooooooooo upset. I had taken my battery out to charge it the other day and I left it at home! Forgot all about it. ughhhhhhh.... Bad Mommy.

The games went well. Katie's team came in 2nds (lol.....oh wait I guess in soccer that means they lost).... It was 1 to 3. But they were having fun. Kayla's team won. (they are undefeated so far) They are having a blast. I'm so glad they played this year. It is their first year of soccer.

I'll try to remember my battery for my camera next time. They don't have games this coming Saturday because school is out for the week.

Have a good one!

Soccer type again today!

Good Morning everyone! Well, I'm still sick. My cold is hanging on and I can't seem to shake it. I almost skipped my Bible Study class last night but I decided against it. I'm so excited about the study we are doing I decided to just sit on one end of the sofa and not get too close to anyone. This morning I was wondering if I made the right decision. I need to leave here by 6:45 at the latest because Katie has a soccer game at 8 and she has to be there at 7:30 (and it takes us about 30 minutes to get there) and she stayed the night at her friends house (last minute idea) last night and she didn't have her soccer stuff with her. By the time my bible study was out it was too late to take the clothes to thier house so I'm just meeting there there this morning for her to be able to change there. I got up extra early this morning so I could still sit and enjoy my coffee. The warmth feels so good on my throat.

I'll be sure to post some more photo's of thier games...... I better go get ready to roll out the door.

Happy Saturday!!

Kayla has a game at 12:30 (has to be there at noon). So we will have a laps in time

My turn to be sick

Well, I guess it is my turn to be sick. It's been coming on the last couple days and it is HERE now. My head is stuffed up, I have a fever and my throat feels like a cheese grater was used on it.

I didn't get out of my pajamas until about 15 minutes before it was time to go get the girls from the bus stop. Not because I was relaxing in bed........ nope because I started cleaning from the time they left for school until I had to get dressed to pick them up. I'm in a slower pace of cleaning today but for some reason I picked today to start deep cleaning. Went through all of the boys clothes and sorted them all out and nice and neatly. Refolded and put everything away. Dusted thier room and made thier beds. This is not something I normally do since they are 15 and 18 but today I was in the mood. I also cleaned out my bar "junk" drawers and cleaned off my "catch all" buffet. This all took a lot more time than I expected. I didn't even get my bathrooms or kitchen cleaned yet. But my baseboards and window seals are done. I want to do the same thing with the girls bedroom but it wont be today.

Katie has soccer practice tonight and tonight is family night. So the evening will be spent eating dinner and playing a board game together (after Katie gets back from soccer practice). It will be a late night but it is my favorite night of the week!

I better go get my rugs out of the washer and hang them up (I have A LOT of rugs and I've managed to wash them all today) I'm excited about that, but I'm waiting for them all to dry. With this warm again (darnit) California sun, it isnt' taking long. (We went from having a fire going the other night to turning the air on in a matter of two days.

Have a great one!

Saturday's Soccer Games

It was a busy day today. Here are some photos of Kayla and Katie's first soccer games along with today's photo's of Kayla's 2nd game. She was more aggresive this time instead of being so polite and allowing everyone to go ahead with the ball. She didn't want to cut them off or anything. It was too funny. Today she went for it a little more. She was chasing the ball and taking it and heading towards the goal. They all did great teamwork. It was lots of fun! They won (again)! YEAH! They were so excited, high fiving each other on the field. It was too cute.

This was Kayla's very first soccer game! She was so excited to play. This was her kicking the ball in from the side lines for her team.

Katie was watching Kayla's game......waiting for her game to start. I had to leave because I had a Princess House party I had to go do and I couldn't stay for her game. I took this photo before I left. She didn't have a game today, so I'll have more pictures of her next weekend.

This was today's game of Kayla going in for a goal. She didn't make it, in fact she ended up knocked to the ground in this play but she tried her best.

This is the shot of Kayla right before she went down. lol

You can't see much in this shot because I zoomed in on her, they were right by me near the sidelines. The ball was coming towards her but I was too close to get a good shot, I put this one on my blog because you can see her so well. =)

After the game today we came home for a bit and then the girls and I headed to dinner and movie. It was two other mom's and myself. We had 11 kids with us! The kids had a blast and so did we. We saw Beverly Hills Chihuahua. It was so funny. I had to laugh. Here we are sitting there watching these dogs TALKING to each other and when this one part comes up where a pack of chihuahua dogs come together to save these other two dogs and they all start barking and save the day..... my friend says LOL "This is not realistic" YA THINK. LOL She is such a crack up. I'm like "Ya, the dogs talking, that I can buy, but when dogs start running in packs and barking, I mean come on, we must draw the line there" What a crack up. She is such a bust. I'm not sure who had more fun us or the kids.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. Have a great night!

Towels

How many of you have multiple children and those precious children leave thier towels on the ground after bathing?? I know most of our children are perfect little angels who do everything they are asked to do but occasionally our precious babies "forget they did something".

Now you know it's your children who left the towels on the ground but when you ask whose towel it is it...... Well, lets say it becomes clear that it wasn't your children afterall. No it was dundanannaaaaaaaaa "Mr. Nobody". Mr. Nobody has visited our home way too often. As the CEO of my household (lol) I've decided that I need to work hard to limit his visits.

Problem: Mr. Nobody's towel left on the ground after bath time.

Solution: Each child picks out thier favorite color. You purchase a couple towels in each of the colors they chose. You explain to them that when they take a shower/bath they are to make sure they use thier color of towel. Now when "Mr. Nobody" decides to leave a towel on the bathroom or bedroom floor you can easily tell by the color of the towel exactly who Mr. Nobody is.

Hope this helps!

Tip of the Week

When sitting down at the table for dinner our family has a tradition of "Best and Worst". We go around the table and everyone (including Momma and Dad) gets to share what was the BEST part of their day (and why) and what was the WORST part of their day (and why). Everyone has to sit quietly and listen and wait for their turn.

This is not only great for learning patience, listening skills, learning more about thier siblings (and our children) but everyone enjoys sharing and we as parents often learn things that maybe our children never would have shared with us!

Try it out and let me know whatcha think!

Flu update

So my oldest (Kyle) has a virus that apparently was brought over on a boat from Japan! When there was a huge fire here people came over to help and there is now a (new to us) virus. They gave him medicine and expect a full recovery! WONDERFUL news!



My daughter (Katie) was tested for strep throat. She looks like she has a strawberry on each side of her throat, on top of the flu bug. She was given medicine as well and we will get the test results tomorrow.

Just wanted to give you all an update!

Flu Time!

Tis the season. To be scarry? To gobble? To be Jolly? Well.......all those sound great, but in our house it is the season to be sick.

I had the flu about two weeks ago. The end of last week my oldest son (18 years) came down with it. And yesterday my daughter (10 years old) called me to come get her from school because she has it. I spent most of my day yesterday nursing her and doing loads and loads of laundry inbetween.

When my oldest son got home from work he informed me that he thinks he still has the flu. He said his stomach is cramping off and on and he has other more serious symptoms. I'm like "OKAY, this is information I NEED before three days have gone past PLEASE". So this morning, while babying my daughter, I'm waiting for the doctors office to open so I can call him about my son.

It is double hand washing duty around here and I'll be washing our bedding daily as well.

Saying a prayer that my son is ok, my daughter gets well soon, my other daughter (9 years) doesn't get it and my other son (15 years) doesn't get it!

I'll keep you all posted.

Happy Haunting!
Stephanie