Around the house

I went to Hobby Lobby with a gift card that I received for Christmas. I found some new things for around the house:
2 plate racks for the kitchen (I put 5x7 framed pictures of the kids in them for Christmas)

I also found these prints on burlap for the kitchen at Hob Lob.

See the "sugar tongs" above (top utensil in the bottom print)? Our boy calls those the "evil claws."

See below how they're on burlap...love that stuff!

Here's how it all looks by the window in the breakfast area of the kitchen (kinda dark, but you get the idea):

On another note, I've said before...since I'm a Kindergarten teacher...I want a portrait of each of our children in Kindergarten. We had a 20x24 print done on canvas. We got it framed and hung. When I bought the frame, I went ahead and bought two frames-one for each of our children. Well...I wanted the frames to "wear" the same...so I wanted to hang them both at the same time. So...as you can see...I had a 20x24 poster print made of our girl (that explains the difference in appearance below). Hubby and I attached the poster to foam board to put in the frame. Now....when she gets in Kindergarten, we'll just take the poster out--and put the canvas portrait in it's place!

Oh...and look at the CUTE frame that my sister gave me for Christmas-love it!

My sister said..."This was the quickest photo I could put my hands on for the frame. I wanted one of just the kids, but I guess you and (Hubby) can be gifts too!" Oh me!

All the decorations are snug in their bed---except...

Well...the Christmas decorations are all back snug in their bed--in the attic. No sign of Christmas decorations around here except...
All the Christmas cards with pics above our doorway:

All the non-picture cards on a card wreath by our back door:

I can never bear to take down the Christmas cards that we receive. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Christmas card time. I love checking our mailbox all December long, and now...I'll leave the cards up to enjoy them a little longer! Hubby usually makes me take them down by....ummm...February.

4801 jingle

When I was growing up, there was a muffler shop (or some kind of car repair business) that had a jingle for their commercial. "That's 48-0-1, that's 48-0-1, that's 48-0-1 Buuuuuuuuuuu--ford Hiiiiiiiigh-way." Well...today we drove by 4801 Buford Highway...so I had to take a picture.

We had the kids singing the jingle over and over too. It's just that kind of jingle--the kind that sticks in your head years later, and you can't forget it no matter how hard you try! We were in Sam's Club, and our boy was singing it over and over. Another guy overheard him singing and said..."I haven't heard that in years."

How about it...does anyone else out there from Atlanta remember that jingle?? I have a feeling that 4801 Buford Highway has seen a lot of changes since the last time I heard that jingle on the radio:

Christmas Day Music

I'm posting 2 videos of ways we spent Christmas day with music in our family.
Our girl organized 4 generations to dance to "Almost There" from "The Princess and the Frog"...great-grandmother, grandparents, aunt, and our girl!

Our boy played a few Christmas Carols on the piano for everyone:

Secret Santa Treat

At school, the faculty could participate in a Secret Santa Gift Exchange. We did three $5 gifts and one $20 gift at the end when we revealed ourselves. My Secret Santa surprised me with Bulldog stuff and lots of fun stuff to do with the kids. One of the gifts was a Snowman Rice Krispie Treat Set. As soon as I showed it to the kids, they were ready to start making them--especially our boy. So...yesterday was finally the day to get going on them. Here are the results:
They even came with edible watercolors! Well--they look cute, but they tasted...um...interesting. Have you cooked up anything interesting lately?

Christmas Fun at "The Fishy Place"

Today we took the kids to the "The Fishy Place" for free Christmas activities.

Cookie Decorating:

Car Racing:

Laughing with reindeer--how fun is this picture?:

Checking out Santa at his work shop:

Not bad for free!

Fruit Salsa Recipe-Yum!

I had this fruit salsa at a party last week---yummy! Try it:

Fruit Salsa and and Cinnamon Chips

2 kiwis, peeled and diced
2 Golden Delicious Apples, peeled, cored, and diced
8 oz. raspberries (I used frozen)
1 lb. strawberries (can use frozen)
1 Tbs. brown sugar
2 Tbs. white sugar
3 Tbs. Fruit preserves, any flavor

Chips:
10 ten inch flour totillas
butter flavored cooking spray
2 cups cinnamon sugar

Directions:
-mix kiwis, apples, raspberries, strawberries, both sugars, and fruit preserves; cover and chill for at least 15 minutes
-preheat oven to 350.
-cut the tortillas into slices
-coat one side of each tortilla slice w/ butter-flavored spray, arrange on cookie sheet and sprinkle with desired amount of cinnamon sugar, spray again with cooking spray
-bake for 8-10 minutes, allow to cool for at least 15 mins.

Ready for the Tooth Fairy

Tonight I was out getting a few gifts for people at school with our son. Well...
*L*O*O*K* what we found...

It's the PERFECT Tooth Fairy Pillow for our dog-loving boy! Can you believe it....it's a dog with a pocket on the front?!?!?! OK tooth...you can come on out now...we're officially ready for the Tooth Fairy!

On another note, check out these CUTE ornaments that we're giving to special people around school:

Here's how I wrapped them...clear bags, red paper stuff, snowflake decoration, red/white polka dot ribbon. They make me happy to look at them!
OK...last day of school before Christmas break...here we come...we're ready for you!

Finally

Our boy finally has his 1st loose tooth! He'll be 7 soon, and we were beginning to wonder if his teeth would ever fall out!

Tonight he wanted me to help him floss his teeth, and when I did I saw one of his bottom-front teeth sticking out slightly further than the other. I reached...wiggled...smiled...and said..."You didn't tell me you have a loose tooth." His eyes got big with surprise and he said..."I didn't know I had a loose tooth!"

Now that boy is seeing dollar signs...he's been hearing about this Tooth Fairy...and he's ready for her to leave some cash under his pillow!

HO HO HO

Merry Christmas!

Rotten Egg v. Chew Toy

Our son LOVES dogs--real ones and toy ones. So...recently he's come up with a new saying..."Last one there is a chew toy!" So...here's a question for you...would you rather be a rotten egg or a chew toy?...something to think about!

Start 'Em Early

This weekend we were hanging the wreaths on the front of our house. We decided that it would look nice to mow the lawn to clean it up. Look who decided to help:

Nothing wrong with starting 'em early, right?

I gave our girl a job too...cutting some flowers to put inside the house.


June's job was the same as usual..."wiener ball!"

Our boy lined up all these toys for a photo:

Then our girl helped her brother clean them up:

What a great day!

Thanksgiving 2009

We spent Thanksgiving with Nana and Papa. Here are some pics of our visit:
The kids admiring the animals next to a playground near Nana and Papa's

Boy cousins

Girl cousins

All the grandchildren

Our family

Hubby's sister with kids

Hubby's brother and family

Nana and Papa with the grandchildren

Happy Thanksgiving!

Worry

Today the preacher preached on worry, and about how worry never does any good. Here are some events that happened this weekend with worry in our family:

1. Hubby hit a deer on Friday morning. He called home about 5:50am...I wasn't really comprehending what he was saying at that time! It was pitch black outside, he was driving on a main road (b/c he doesn't like to travel back roads b/c he might hit a deer), and he didn't see the buck until he was right up on it. Thankfully...he wasn't hurt, and to tell you the truth...we really haven't worried too much about the wrecked car in our driveway. We'll worry about that on Monday.

2. On another note...our son went to his first home UGA football game this weekend. They did a tribute to Uga on the big screen complete with sad music and photo images. Uga's death worried our son so much...that he cried on his Daddy and was depressed for the remainder of the game. The 7:45pm kick off probably had something to do with his disposition!

3. Well...at lunch today, Hubby said..."Our girl's not worried about pizza" (because she was eating a pretzel for an appetizer before our pizza came to the table). Our girl responded saying, "Daddy, I worry about pizza every day!" She is her father's daughter! He could eat pizza everyday...in fact, in college...he did eat pizza everyday...and still does some now!

Did you worry about something this weekend? Did it do you any good?

N...I...C....E (or not)

I'm always talking about how our 5 year old girl is saying things that are unbelievable. Well...this weekend was no different. Here are a few things that she said that I can remember (keep in mind that she's still on medication):
1. (I wore a different lip color than usual one day) Our girl says..."Mama...you look like a witch." Nice!!!!
2. My sister watched the kids for Hubby and me one night so we could go to a church retreat. Our girl told her aunt that 'nobody liked her' (after she had just bought a new doll for our girl)....Nice!!!
3. She told Hubby and me tonight that she would "make a mess of the whole house if nobody came to play with her." Nice!!!
Maybe we should have started earlier with the singing of..."He knows if you've been bad or good...so you better be good for goodness sake."

Our Pilgrim Boy

Today was our boy's Thanksgiving feast at school. I think he's a handsome Pilgrim boy...if I do say so myself!

Check out his tee pee:

It's a sugar cone with frosting and such. He had a great time making it, but could have cared less about actually eating it!
Here's his speaking part below from their "Pilgrim play." He is speaking about some of the food choices on the voyage over on the Mayflower:

Happy early Thanksgiving to you!

Mood Altering

I have been home with our sick girl for the past 2 days. She has had fever, ear infection, cough, congestion...but the scariest part is her shortness of breath. So...needless to say...she is on lots of medicines. One of the medicines is a liquid steroid to open her airways. I don't know if your children have been on this stuff...but let me just say...it is definitely mood altering!! Last night our girl announced "We haven't done our chores." So she wants to start cleaning the bathroom counter (with rubber gloves and Clorox wipes) and the bathroom mirrors (with Windex while standing on the counter). So...I got to thinking...Maybe I should start taking her same medicine to see what I could get done around here!?!?!?!?!?!

Go Dawgs!

It's Friday night...so what should we do? Well...this Friday the answer was...drive to Athens for the Dawgs' opening basketball game. For the first game, they had a ticket special for $5/ticket with free t-shirts for the fans! Who doesn't love a free tee?
These two loved a free tee! Daddy and his girl...

The band was playing the "4th quarter song" from football games here. All the fans had up their 4 fingers...and that's how you know UGA is a football school...not a basketball school.

How about the blue Powerade mustache? Nice, right? Check out the empty seats too...that's another way you can tell UGA is a football school...there aren't too may empty seats at an opening football game!

Here's a video of part of the half time show--fun!

Being up past 11pm on a Friday night, makes a family ready for bed early on a Saturday night! Good night!

HaPpY HaLLoWeEn!!!

I LOVE Halloween! Don't you?

Here's how we rolled this year--our boy wanted to be Pluto for Halloween. Well...Mama didn't get to sewing soon enough...so he settled for his Darth costume from last year. We do like to recycle in our family! Our girl...well-she started the day in a Dorothy wig and a Cinderella dress. We were calling her "Dorothy-ella," and I think it hurt her feelings...so...she moved on to "Jasmine" (aka I Dream of Jeannie costume I bought last year for about $6). She added her own crown and a jacket because it was damp for our trick-or-treating adventures. What do you think?

Here's a picture of our girl in her Cinderella costume earlier (she'd already taken off her Dorothy wig):

OK--get prepared for a good laugh:

I laugh so hard every time I look at this pic! Hubby wanted to be hippies for Halloween. So we found these wigs, and started building our costumes from there. I decided that I would stop by the 'ol Salvation Army to see how they could help us with our costumes. Well...did I hit the jack-pot??? I found two suits (just like mine above) still in the package for $1.99 each. I'm not even kidding! $1.99!!!! So...I bought them both and headed home with my excitement!

Here's another pic of Hippie Mama with the kids (minus the wig) right before heading out to trick-or-treat.

Hope you had a fun-filled Halloween!

Trunk or Treating

Somebody is 5 years old!

Yep--our baby is 5 years old!!

She had a fun party at our church. Here she is rolling in the grass on the playground....whoa--rolling makes you d*i*z*z*y!

How about some pin-the-tail-on-the-cat?

How about a decorate-your-own-cupcake? See the eyes and candy-corn hair? I love how she's laughing here while everyone is singing Happy Birthday to her! She can be a shy girl!

The birthday girl let me hold her on the sofa and tell her stories of how we loved and kissed on her 5 years ago when we brought her home from the hospital! It's so hard to believe that she's already 5!

Happy Birthday! We love you soooooooooooooooo much!