Candy Corn, Anyone?

It's no secret in this house that around Halloween there is plenty of candy corn to be eaten! It's Christopher's favorite seasonal candy (with Reese's being his all time favorite, so much so he named his daughter after this peanut butter and chocolate attachment). Last Friday while making pizzas for our Friday Night Pizza Night (yes, we still do them and now we have added grilling our pizzas) Christopher mentioned that he loved candy corns so much he wanted to make a candy corn pizza...jokingly. Gavin picked up on this and surprised us with the sweet treat above. What a thoughtful little boy!

The Out of Towners and Housework

My brother Jarom, his wife Chelsea and their 19 month old son Hudson are coming for a TEXAS visit! Yeehaw!! They will be here tomorrow night and we couldn't be more excited! Unfortunately, my obsessive need for thorough and deep cleaning that must take place at my house before a visit has overcome me! I like things to be neat, tidy and organized most days, however, I do not enjoy doing it! Except for vacuuming or laundry! I don't know why, but those are actually fun to me!

I suppose if I didn't have to persuade remind Christopher other family members to help out here and there, it wouldn't feel so overwhelming at times and I just might have the attitude that "Housework Rules"! Because the rewards of a clean and orderly house are so sweet! Unfortunately, that is not the case and I most likely will be all alone in my deep scrubbing adventures!

At this time, I am taking care of a 3 month old 5 days a week (have been since August) and I just don't know where I'll find the time before our guests arrive. We've all seen what Caden can do while I'm busy cleaning or tending the baby! I just might resort to the above! (If only it was that easy!!!)

At this point, the above just might be my motto! Are you scared Chelsea?

Because heaven knows we don't need those "crabby mommy powers" unleashed!! That just isn't good for anyone!

P.S. If you couldn't tell, I really had fun google image searching vintage housework spoofs. I liked so many and was able to actually use many! While searching I ran across this short article which states that husbands create 7 hours of extra housework on average each week! I'm gonna have to agree with that, at least in our household. Although I have a few lucky girlfriends with husbands that do NOT qualify...in fact they probably eliminate at least 7 hours each week! LUCKY!!!

In my husbands defense, (cuz I know he'll be pouty about this post b.c he really does pride himself for being an outstanding husband...and really, he is...he's just a little absent minded when it comes to housework) this article was pretty good and an interesting read. It states 5 reasons wives do more housework than their husbands. It pretty much summed up my husband! I love you my goosey!

Reese's MDS Open House

Reese had her very first Preschool Open House at MDS and boy was she excited to share her first school experience with us!

Cheese! I still look cute however, don't ask me to ever actually look at the camera. Haven't you learned that in the nearly 4 years of my life?

If you do happen to catch me looking at the camera, you are sure to get some sass! Reese ready for school! She looks so grown up! Where did my baby girl go?!?

Later that night we headed down to Reese's school (Gavin's former school) and got to tour around her classroom and see all the work and fun she has done thus far in school.

Reese showing off her "Family Tree". ¿Recuerdas?

Caden, often without shoes, was left to his own car finds for shoes once again! What is it with us forgetting to clothe this child's feet! ¿Recuerdas? What can I say? He's our 3rd child! Fortunately, Gavin's rain boots were under the car seats! In this picture Caden kept pointing to the fish and call them all "sharks" because there were two plastic ones at the bottom as decoration.

Gavin could hardly wait to visit his old teacher Mrs. Wiley and see old friends. MDS is a private school for Preschool, Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten. A few of Gavin's classmates stayed at MDS for Kindergarten.

Gavin and his good friend Kaleb. These two both had Mrs. Lewis (Reese's Preschool teacher) as their Preschool Teacher! We really couldn't have asked for a better teacher than our beloved Mrs. Lewis.

Look at how much Gavin's grown up since that first "Meet the Teacher" Mrs. Lewis Preschool days of 2006! Crazy!

I caught Reese and her BFF Madison chatting away and cutting paper while Christopher and I were left to find her artwork around the classroom ourselves. These two have known each other since they were 8 months old! Hard to believe they are now 4 YEARS old!

Caden of course was playing with Cars if not with the fish, I mean "sharks"!

I wish I had more pictures of the actual artwork Reese had done, however, against my better judgment, I left the camera work to Christopher. So sorry, Gma and Pa, that is all! After the Open House we headed on over to the local Cici's Pizza where MDS was having a fundraiser there. Cici's donated 10% of its sales to MDS! You can never go wrong with all you can eat pizza buffets!

Good times, good times! Don't you dare look at the camera, Reese!!

Caden thought he might need to spicin' up the his pizza a bit with some PEPPER! What can I say, he's a two year old! No stopping him!

We tried to convince him he would NOT enjoy this heavily peppered pizza, however, he ate it! Just to spite us I'm sure! No one is going to tell him he can't do something!

Of course, there was a lot of this face with him salivating all over the place and downing many a glasses of drink!

Reese lovin' on her Daddy! Such cuties!

It was also free ice cream day at Cold Stone Creamery, however, when we arrived there was a SUPER DUPER long line (just before 8pm) and there was no chance of us waiting forever for a 3oz scoop with 3 kids ready for bed. Soooooo, we headed out to our favorite soft serve Chick-fil-a!! It was a fabulous family night out!

It's Coming...

...and I couldn't be more excited! Our most favorite time of the year, is here!!

A Little Confession

Just before I went to bed last night I confided in Christopher a confession of the heart. You see, I had been counting down the days (or years) until Gavin started Kindergarten. I was even thrilled, while most other moms expressed disdain, over the fact that in these regions of Texas they only offer full day Kindergarten. So, from 7:40 am to 3:15 pm (or 7.5 hours) I knew Gavin would be busy learning and I would be busy trying to get housework and errands done with one less child.

My little confession is about my little man. I miss him. Gavin. I miss him bad! For the last couple weeks as I drop Gavin off at school I've caught myself sluggishly moving along in the drop off line just to watch Gavin walk away and disappear into the building. This week it has been a little worse because my heart actually aches a little while saying good bye and watching him leave. Am I backwards? Shouldn't things be getting better as time goes on, not worse?

I guess I never fully realized just how much fun we had together every day and how much his presence was a joy to me. I took him and our time for granted! Now, we just have a few precious hours between dinner, homework, extra curricular activities, etc, to be with each other. I guess this is where the saying "quality time vs. quantity time" comes into play, huh? I really need to make every moment count.

I'm glad he loves school and comes home happy and eager to share what he's doing while at school. That way I can be a small part of the school portion of his day. I've also signed up with the PTO (I know, AGH!) and am a room parent to his class. This helps.

It also helped me see Christopher's perspective. He has to leave for work every day, all day, and therefore has just those evening hours to interact with each of the kids and love on them. I need to count my blessings that I'm able to be a stay at home mom (and I'm happy to be one...most of the time) and that Christopher and I share the same feelings when it comes to family. Family is all that matters in this life and we will continue to make it priority number one! Good thing we enjoy being together!

I LIKE YOU, LOVE YOU, & MISS YOU, GAVIN!

Holy Smokes, Batman!

We just love the Lego Wii games that have been coming out. First it was Lego Star Wars Trilogy followed by Lego Indiana Jones and now it is Lego Batman! (Check out the website for fun games!) You can only guess who's burning the midnight oil once again! Only, now there are school nights that keep him from being up too late. We just can't get enough of the Lego games. For me, Lego Star Wars will always be my favorite to play, however Gavin has declared this Batman game is his favorite hands down! Lucky for me, Gavin let's me play with him and not get annoyed with how slowly I pick up on things. He's been known to get highly impatient playing with other people who don't catch on right away. (Am I right Pa, Julia or what?!)

I asked Gavin if he wanted to be Batman now for Halloween and he replied, "Noooooooooo! I just like the game, not the character!" Well, alrighty then! I guess we're doing a Star Wars theme again. This family can't get enough Star Wars, that's for sure!

What to do for Halloween?! I will save that for another post, another day. I must sleep now....

Day in the Life of a C-Bear!

I can't keep up with this child!! The following all transpired within a 2 hour (or less) time span. What's a mom to do raising these wild boys!!?!?

Crazy time inside a storage bin. Of course, this is after putting it on the couch upside down first to then jump off of it nearly breaking his face...and my laptop! The storage bin is cracked and virtually useless at the moment as well! While cleaning up my Apple (laptop) from turning into applesauce (ha! is it sad that I have to laugh at myself?) under Caden's beastie feet, I return to the kitchen to see what he's up to now!

Oh, not much! Just another day of playing around with a gas lighter and scissors! Always the over achiever! Can't settle for one destructive or dangerous device, he must have his hands FULL of mayhem in the making! Just look how happy he is to be cutting up my hot oven pads and then attempting to torch them with his flame throwing lighter! I send him into the other room to play with some trains. The distraction didn't last long.

What is this kids fascination with potatoes!?!? (Was it those few years I spent in hell Idaho come to haunt me?) Remember THIS POST? He had potatoes lined up and was throwing cars at them! He must have been re-living his bowling fantasy from last week when I caught him doing this:

Lining up all the bottles from the fridge on to the window ledge and then throwing other glass bottles at them!

What?!? We're outta BBQ sauce? Thanks, Caden! Can we please go back to playing trains and kill a half hour before we have to leave to pick up Reese from dance?

Harmless picture? Minus the utter chaos of our train get up (Caden insisted a tornado had to come through our town EVERY time I got it set up!), notice what Caden has in his left hand? That would be a screwdriver! Might as well be an ice pick!

He was trying to eat his raisins with it...like it was his fork, if you eat raisins with a fork that is! I just don't know if he actually managed to stab holes in my carpet!! My anxiety checks n balances are telling me to just not go there!

Then we had another one of THESE moments! Only this time is was with our hand sanitizer. So, I needed to strip him down and wash off the most of it as I could because I've heard "stories" about how kids get drunk off the stuff! I don't have a picture of this because by this time my camera battery was dying from so much use this morning!!! Also, because I give up! Caden is such a handful and I really need to get him involved in some type of programs! Mommy and Me someone?!?! He just has soooooo much energy and a need to be entertained 24/7!

He's the baby of the family and plays the role well! At least he still plays along with me when I want all the hugs and kisses a mommy could ever hope for! I just need some magic pill to give me the energy to keep up with this child's antics day in and day out...b.c it never stops, all day long, every day! You may think I may be exaggerating, but I'm not! Moms of boys, are you with me?!!? Secrets to share?

Oreo Recipe

Okay, a few of you have been asking for me to post the recipe that we used for our Homemade Oreo cookies. There a quite a few types out there, however, this is the one we used with our own modifications:

Cookie:

1 box chocolate cake mix (we use devils food)

3/4 C butter or shortening (we do 1 stick real unsalted butter, 1/4 cup shortening. the more shortening you use the more crispy the cookie)

2 eggs

Mix those ingredients together and make nickel sized balls (they get really big!). Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

Filling:

4 oz cream cheese (we use light or non fat)

1/4 C butter

2 C powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

OR:

Use vanilla or cookies n cream ice cream (slightly softened for molding purposes) and freeze them! YUM!!! My favorite!

Now, go make yourself up a batch so you can stuff your face while watching all the premier first episodes to your favorite shows this week!!

Homemade Oreo Cookies

Last night for our FHE (Family Home Evening) activity and treat we made homemade Oreo cookies. They were sooo good, but even better the next day frozen! Yum!

Say, "Creamy filling"!

Your typical homemade Oreo cookie!

Christopher was quite the cookie hog!

Just take a look at the "double stuffed" Oreo's Christopher made!

As you can tell, Caden's did the Oreo cookie crumble treat! That was just as good!

Reese wasn't pictured last night, but she was doing what she does best with any Oreo...leaving to the cookie and eating all the stuffing! What a delicious evening!

Be Someones Hero

Become a donor. A friend of mine introduced me to the National Marrow Donor Program. This site is designed to allow people to sign up to become bone marrow donors. Because "on any given day, more than 6,000 men, women and children are searching the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Registry for a life-saving donor like you. These patients have leukemia, lymphoma and other life-threatening diseases that can be treated by a bone marrow or cord blood transplant. For many of these patients, a transplant may be the best and only hope of a cure."

Cancer is no stranger in my family. My Uncle died in his early 20's of leukemia and all 3 of my living grandparents are currently fighting a number of cancers. Now, ever since my dad was diagnosed with lymphoma, I have felt so helpless! I hope by signing up with the national registry, I can be a donor to someone in need. If you think about it, if you were sick or dying, would you want someones help? If my dad or any family member were to ever need a transplant, I hope I would be a match. So, here is my chance to maybe be a match to that someone.

If you click here today (please do!!), you can sign up free of charge. Typically there is a $56 fee which is associated with all the lab work that goes into typing your marrow for a possible match. However, NASCAR has been doing a sponsorship and paying all donor fees from the 7th through the 22nd. I know that doesn't leave much time, but I just found out about it myself and signed up this past week. Please take a moment and consider becoming a donor. If you would gladly accept a bone marrow donation on the behalf of your family if one of your loved ones was going through this...please register. Thanks!

Also, don't let this information end with you....even if you can't (or choose not to) register, please give someone else the opportunity to do it. Finding a match that is not in your immediate family is 1 in 20,000, so the more people that are registered...the better. Thanks again!

I've been seeing a lot of this face lately...

...and it makes me laugh everytime! Why must he constantly try my patience?!?! I will give him extra credit however for being so consistent. There is something to be said about knowing what to expect. Why is it that my children keep teaching ME this lesson? Shouldn't it be the other way around...me being consistant will bring about expected behavior...the good kind?!?! It's something I'm working on and yet I fear will take years to master and by then my kids will have all grown up on me. Just don't say I didn't try while in your therapy sessions! HA!

Ultimately, if I start being as consistent as my little man, Bear, I just might stop seeing the above adorable face. And let's face it, it is funny and how can I refuse kissing upon this face every time he throws me attitude with it!? It makes it so worth it all! Thank you Caden, now may I have another?

My newest love affair:

I have long awaited this day! After a year of constantly fixing our old vacuum, replacing parts, being electrocuted (yes, I'm serious) it finally gave up the ghost and needed to be replaced. I convinced Christopher 2 years ago that we needed a Dyson. But, I had to wait until it was truly needed. The wait is finally over and I couldn't be more happier to be vacuuming ...EVERYTHING! I've always had an obsession with vacuuming, at least twice a day! Now it is more like 4 times! When it arrived to our house, Reese went looking inside the box and said, "mom, your vacuum looks like a robot"! I loved it!

Just like most of our other household appliances, this baby is refurbished as well. I paid well under 60% off for my newly refurbished Dyson love and I'm glad Christopher is as happy with the results as I am. The first thing Christopher noticed after I used her for the first time was "wow, I can't believe how soft this carpet feels". Yes, it is truly amazing and I'm in heaven! It sure has made me realize how much dust and mite had settled at the bottom of our carpets and our carpets were indeed not even close to being clean before my Dyson arrived. Now I'm sure Chelsea, Stacy and even my dad will ask...what took you so long?!!? (I have long since coveted theirs!)

Late Night Photo Booth Hysterics

Christopher, my silly and oh so lovable husband and I got silly one night and played around with my Mac's Photo Booth.

We did make some seriously funny pictures that I would post, but since this is a mostly family blog, I wouldn't want to traumatize a few readers! I mean, my blog is rated PG by this site. (What's your blog rated?) It did progress from PG material to a little PG-13 and then, well....SO not where you want to go, right?!?! They were NOT in bad taste, but we did some "how not to kiss" pictures. It was hilarious. We had fun and I got a great ab workout from laughing so hard. I'm so glad that after 10 years of knowing each other and nearly 8 years of marriage, he still can make me laugh like no one else! I love you my goosey love! Loooong time (said with my best asian accent!)