Happy Holidays!

Christmas mode started the day after Thanksgiving! Secretly I've been listening to Christmas music for about a month! First on the "holiday to do" list: Decorate the tree! Daisy thinks that some of the ornaments (the ones that look like cookies) are there for her to eat. She keeps trying!

How'd it go?

Hey everybody! How did your Thanksgiving meals turn out? Did anyone celebrate in a "non-traditional" way? Any meal disasters? Do you have any creative uses for leftovers? Do you enjoy the third-degree when you visit my blog?

I have to say that our Thanksgiving meal was quite a success! Everybody pitched in and everything (except the potatoes, see below) turned out delicious!

It seems that every year it is a juggling act to get all our Thanksgiving  dishes cooked AND ready at the same time. Not enough oven space, not enough cook-top space! You know?

Well, we figured it out this year. We had a place for EVERYTHING and we timed it perfectly so all the components of our feast were done at the same time! (does anyone use the thesaurus to help come up with different words to use in your posts? more 3rd degree!)

For the past 5 years, DaddyO has been in charge of the turkey. In previous years, it was cooked on the grill (excellent way to keep the oven clear). This year he cooked the turkey in the rotissere. DaddyO said this was the easiest way to cook the turkey. No basting involved, no going outside every five minutes to check on the turkey.

The yams were in the toaster oven.

The ham and the green bean casserole were in the oven.

The stuffing was in the crockpot and the potatoes were in the pressure cooker. I almost destroyed the potatoes! After the potatoes were done cooking, I asked DaddyO to drain the water off of them and I thought he had already done that when I started putting the flavorings in to the pan. I didn't notice the water was in there until I started mixing them. DaddyO, THEN, drained as much of the liquid off as possible, but I couldn't add any more butter or sour cream without making the whole thing a waterie mess. Needless to say the potatoes were not the most delicious part of the meal!

The only thing that was cooked on the stove-top was the pot DaddyO used to make turkey broth for the gravy.

We also had some delicious salads (no pictures) and rolls, and VERY delicious homemade (by my Mom) cranberry sauce that had pomegranites in it. I also made a very yummy pumpkin-ginger pie. I got the recipe from Myra at Happy Housewife Living Life. Hmmm..........I'm hungry. I think I'll go look for some leftovers!

One MAJOR problem with our Thanksgiving...........I DID NOT take ANY photos of any of the family members at our get-together. Every.Single.Stinkin'.Year. I tell myself I HAVE to get pictures of the people and every year I don't get it done! I'm too busy with preparing the meal, then too busy eating the meal and finally, too stuffed sitting on the couch scratching my very full belly to remember to get my camera out! Maybe next year! This is the only picture with an attendee in the shot. And only because he was standing by it when I took a picture of the the "set" table.

I did take pictures of the cute place cards the kiddos made for everyone. Atleast I'll have some photographic evidence of who was there! Good Grief!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!
I will be spending time with MOST of the people I am thankful for. I will be missing a few! And eating A LOT of delicious food!!

What Would Your Children Say Wednesday

Today when the kids got home from school, all they could talk about was how excited they were that it was Thanksgiving.
I said "I don't know why you guys are so excited, you don't even like Thanksgiving food!"

Bailey said "I know Mom, I'm a Human Bean. I don't even like Thanksgiving food!"

Funny Boy!

Wordless Wednesday

WW - Yaw! Yaw!

Jury Duty + Vampires = A Great Friday!

I'm afraid/thrilled that my jury duty service was not worthy of a True Story Tuesday (recommended by Rachel) or a Thank You Very Much (weekly therapy provided by Kmama) post. Here are the very boring details!

Thursday afternoon I called the jury duty number and found out that I had to report to the court house by 8am Friday morning. Because I have "driving on unfamiliar roads" phobia and "fighting for parking" paranoia, I left the house at 6:30am. This meant that DaddyO had to get everybody fed, dressed and off to school all by himself. He manages these types of tasks very well on a regular basis but not usually with a time limit. There were a few bumps and 2 of the 3 children left for school in tears. (both bawlers were suffering from "that's not how Mommy combs my hair" syndrome).

I enjoyed a peaceful drive, listening to the new John Mayer CD, and arrived at the court house at 7:20am. There were 3 other cars in the parking lot! Once inside, I set off the metal detector and had to remove my belt. Of course the pants/belt combo I was wearing did not make for a swift removal of the belt. I had to tug and pull in front of security guards and everyone else waiting to be screened. I felt like I was undressing in front of everyone!

After papework completion and some waiting, we were led  in to the court room about 9am. I was all ready to perform my "nursing a baby" song and dance! The judge thanked us for showing up (we had a choice?) and let us know that they had been working on details that morning and a jury was no longer needed for that particular trial. She said that we lucked out because the trial could have lasted through Thanksgiving. My fellow potential jurors and I all cheered and ran as fast as we could to our cars!

I was on the road home by 9:15am and DaddyO had the rest of the day off! I arrived home just in time to lay Daisy down for her nap. I don't usually wake up at 5am so, after checking in on some blogs, I joined her in slumber.

After nap time, DaddyO, Daisy and I went to lunch. I had been having a nagging feeling about something ALL day and after hearing from Kimber, decided I NEEDED to see New Moon!!!

The original plan was to wait for the New Moon madness to calm down and see it on Monday but I just couldn't wait. I picked up an ecstatic Lily at school and we raced leisurely drove to the movie theater. We arrived about an hour before the show started. We got some snacks and went to wait in the line that had already formed in front of THE theater. After about 2 minutes we were let in to the theater and got perfect front row seats (the ones with the railing in front of you that you can rest your feet on). We BOTH loved it!

And that's it! My very exciting uninteresting Friday, brought to me by Jury Duty!

Thank You Very Much!

There were no sleep filled nights this week to help me get out of my therapy session! If you could use some Thank You Very Much Therapy or if you find it theraputic to hear about other people's problems, hop on over to Kmama's The Daily Dribbles.

Let's get started, shall we?!

To Bailey, Thank You Very Much for removing the bar of soap from the shower after I told you not to. I was not happy the next morning when I had to decide between leaving the warmth of the shower to find soap or having to shave my legs with shampoo! FYI   I did not get out of the shower!

To the rain, Thank You Very Much! We have been waiting for you to show your face for over 2 months! Why why why do you decide to show up as soon as Lily's soccer game starts? It is not convenient or fun to keep 3 kids warm and dry while I watch my oldest child attempt to play sports. And so you know, Lily does not have windshield wipers on her glasses and you are making it very difficult for her to see where she is going let alone try to kick a ball, thank you very much!  Oh, and  thanks a lot for raining enough to make us cold and damp but not enough for the Referees to cancel the game!

Once again, Thank You Very Much to the flu! I appreciate you making Daisy sick now and ruining any chances of  her sleeping through the night. For cryin' outloud, GO AWAY!

Whew! I needed that!



p.s. I have jury duty tomorrow and will probably need some serious therapy next week!

Wordless Wednesday

WW - The Move 2004

Fall Food

I have been waiting for the weather to finally cool down so I could make some "warm you up" food. Over the weekend it finally happened! Highs in the 60's means we are freezing (try not to make fun or be disgusted! It is a shock to go from the 90's last week to this). I found this recipe on Becky Higgins' blog and I thought I would share. Just in case you need some warmin' up!


Creamy Mushroom & Chicken Soup

Get your husband to take care of this:
1 medium onion, chopped
1 lb mushrooms, sliced (I only used one carton)
3/4 c sliced celery
3/4 c chopped carrots
2c quartered baby red potatoes
1c chopped yellow squash
*You can add/subtract any vegetables

You will also need:
6 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
6c chicken broth
1 1/2 c frozen corn kernels, thawed
2 tsp thyme
2 c light cream
3/4 c grated Parmesan, plus more for garnish if desired
2c chopped cooked chicken

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until tender, about 6 minutes. Stir in the four, salt, and pepper and mix until smooth. Gradually add the broth, then turn the heat up to medium-high and bring the soup to a boil. Add the mushrooms, celery, carrots, potatoes, squash, corn, and thyme. Reduce the heat and simmer the soup, covered, until the vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.


Add the cream, Parmesan, and chicken. Heat the soup for an additional 10 minutes, but do not let it boil. To serve, ladle the soup into a bowl and sprinkle it with more Parmesan, if desired. Makes about 15 cups.

Delicious! Daisy and I had some leftovers for breakfast this morning. Poor girl isn't feeling well and I think the broth felt good on her throat!

I hope everyone is having a great Tuesday!!

The BEST Blog Award EVER!!

Lily presented me with a blog award yesterday. I have to say that this is the best award I've received yet!

Whenever the kids tell us they love us we say "I love you more!" We usually go back and forth arguing over who loves who more. Lily made sure she got the last word in that department!

I love you Lil!

Wooden Photo Blocks

I received a request to show how I made these photo blocks:

I thought this would be a good time to share (christmas gifts?). Please forgive my tutorial skills! It is very possible that there is a different/better method for making these, but this is how I made mine.  I got my pre-cut and sanded wooden blocks at a local scrapbook store all ready to use. Then my Mom requested some grandbaby blocks but the scrapbook store had gone out of business. My step-Dad bought a piece of wood that was 3.5" square and 8 feet long (we didn't need that much for 6 blocks). He used a neighbors table saw to cut them in to 3.5" blocks. Then he sanded them and gave them to me for the decorating part.

Selecting which photos to use was the hardest part for me. Once I was able to narrow it down to 4 pics of the older kids and 1 or 2 of the babies (we will add more as they get older), I resized each photo to 3.25"x3.25" and placed them all on one 12x12 sheet in PhotoshopElements and had them printed at Costco. There is also a great website that prints MANY different sizes of photos (3x3, 4x4, etc) Scrapbookpictures.com.

Once I got the pictures, I cut all of them out and used mod-podge to glue them to the blocks. I like to use a sponge-brush and paint the mod-podge on to the block and then place the picture on top. When I would paint the picture it would curl up and it was hard to get it on the block. While the glue is still wet, there are sometimes bubbles on the pictures but once they were dry everything was flat. I glued 4 pictures on the sides of the block and put scrapbook paper on the top and bottom.

These are all four sides of Lily's block and the scrapbook paper on the top of another block

When the mod-podge dried, I sanded the edges of the photos with sand-paper.

Finally, I painted a coat of Aged Varnish over every photo and paper to give it an aged look. *Aged Varnish is optional and you could just paint another layer of mod-podge over everything.* The Varnish also gives the wood a bit of a stained look.

I have seen a book/magazine that has instructions on how to make these blocks, but I can't remember what it was called and haven't seen it at the craft store for a while. Please let me know if you need any other info to make these for yourself!

Thank You Very Much!

I had a list of people/things to thank today, but all I am going to say to them is "Bless Your Hearts!"

All of my aggravations were forgotten this morning because of this sweet girl:

Daisy slept through the ENTIRE night!!!!!!!!!!!

She went to bed at 8pm and when I woke up in a panic at 6am, she was STILL asleep. I really hope this is a sign of things to come! That she is just going to figure it out on her own with no training/baby torture!

A very sincere and heartfelt Thank You Very Much to Miss Daisy!
Keep up the good work Baby! Sleep tight!!

I will save my therapy session, courtesy of  Kmama at The Daily Dribbles, for next week!

Wordless Wednesday

WW-Feet Up, Enjoying a Book

Asking YOU a Question Blog Hop - Help! Teacher Gift Ideas

If I hadn't been dealing with cute little sickos for a week and if I wasn't so tired, I probably could have come up with a truly profound question. However, I really would love some ideas/help in this area:

What are you giving/have you given for teacher gifts (christmas, end of the year)? I especially need some help with PE Coach gifts!

Thank You Very Much!

It is time for my weekly therapy session. If you need to get some aggravations off your chest, head on over to The Daily Dribbles. Try it, you'll like it!

To the flu shot, Thank You Very Much for doing such a good job at protecting us from the flu. Lily and I are both sick today with symptoms that YOU are supposed to prevent. I guess I can look forward to the entire family NOT being protected by you!

To the flu, Thank You Very Much for making me feel like crap. It is so sweet of you to make me sick while my kiddos are sick so I have to take care of said sickos while feeling sick (how many times can you use the word "sick" in a sentence?). Thank You So Much, FLU, for keeping me up all night, so instead of having an elaborate and witty Thank You Very Much Post, I have to go take a nap instead!

Thank you Kmama for allowing me to yell at my imaginary friends. I do feel better having given them a piece of my mind (what's left)!

Recycled Wednesday

I am feeling a bit under the weather today, so I am going to re-publish a post from last year. Back then, only family members were reading my blog. This is one of my favorites!

A Musical at the Oswald Theater
The other day the kids put on a play for me. It was called "Thunder Mountain"

Lily was a princess who lived on top of the mountain and she was waiting for a prince to come and marry her.
Ashton and Bailey were cowboys "Smith" and "Big"
They had horses and little pistols.
The first musical number was Smith and Big singing about how they were going to marry the princess:

"I'm going to marry the princess" sang Smith

"No, I'm going to marry the princess" sang Big

"No I am"

"No I am"

"No I am"

"No I am"

Lily had music from her piano playing and she would whisper the words to the boys before they sang.

Then both the cowboys raced up the mountain to ask the princess to marry them.

Next the princess sang about how she couldn't marry the cowboys because she wanted to marry a prince. And she was sorry but she wasn't that "in" to horses. Lots of singing "I'm sorry!" over and over! Eyes closed, arms outstretched.
The same music as the cowboys' song played on the piano, just different words.

And that was the end. I really had to contain my laughter! They did a great job with very little rehearsals. Oh, my silly kids!

This is just a silly picture, not from the performance.

 
For more funny kid stories, visit Marianne at Family American Style.

Wordless Wednesday

WW - Three Wise Monkeys