hit or miss monday!!!

i'm actually posting this on a monday! woo-hoo! i guess staying up to watch the oscars then getting up early, really paid off for my blog today! not really. i'm pooped.



for my hits!!

is this the best idea ever!!! girl gets roses, boys gets bacon! love!



hahahaha!! i love this! but i'm thinking mario doesn't have a blue-tooth. i could be wrong...

and my misses...



who even came up with this idea?? must be a man b/c no woman would even THINK about wearing something that sharp and plasticy on their body. but i guess as a nursing bra you wouldn't have to worry about leaks...



and this. when i first saw it, i stared. then i pinned it. and i stared some more. and it keeps getting weirder. yet i can't look away....and what's going on with her arm/wrist/hand? see i keep spotting weirder stuff!!


linking back to the pinterest project

awesomeness!

here are some amazing things that have happened so far this year...

hubby has work out the wazoo!! so grateful!

caleb is going to be the worship leader for the student center at church!! he's just 16!!! way to go caleb!!

mikey is learning fractions and i don't have to teach him!! (b/c he has a computer program for that)

the boys (and all the co-op kids) got the opportunity to have a month of lessons on the bells for free!! thanks Ed!! they loved it!
winter camp was a HUGE success! and i only stressed out 1 time!!





being positive in 2012...

new years resolution

so yesterday, the first day of the new year, pastor mark was teaching at church. i just love him! he always makes me smile! his teaching was about the 5 things he would wish for us in 2012. great idea! to start off he asked us to turn to our neighbor (which was my hubby) and tell them one good thing that happened in 2011. do you know i couldn't think of ONE SINGLE THING??!!! but i could tell you 1,125,250,955 things that were not good. what in the heck is wrong with me!! on the way home i was thinking about it and came up with tons of AWESOME things that happened in 2011. i just am confused as to why none of them could come to me on the spur of the moment. and why only bad things popped into my head. so my resolution this year is to make sure i document all the great/awesome/fantastic things that happen this year, 2012. even if it's only fantastic to me. b/c really it's my blog and i make all the rules right! :)

so already in 2012 prayers are being answered. had some truly special people bless us at church yesterday. and not just with physical things. prayer are being lifted up for my husband and family. and we can tell! so thanks my wonderful friends!

and the first dinner of the new year, AMAZING! black eyed peas, ham and cornbread with some greens on the side. in the crockpot no less. so super easy, delicious dinner was a success! :)

and know what else is fantastic already!??!! i got up and took a walk this morning. yay me!

time for school. but here is something awesome that happened in 2011... a family Christmas picture!! never happened before. i'm blessed!

december via my iphone

i thought i would steal an idea from my friend brianne and post my phone pix from december. this way i will feel like i covered the high points anyway! :)

the first weekend in december we went to jacksonville to visit auntie jane and uncle bill. sassy joined us and we took a jaunt to the beach!
it was not too cold. for mikey anyway!




we had the whole place to ourselves!!! awesome


we let mikey draw faces on our shadows. i think he was being funny don't you!?

gotta love toes in the sand!!

december 15th we hosted our 2nd annual co-op cookie exchange. everyone brought cookies and munchies. it was such a nice day for the kids to run around and burn off all that sugar!



po is huge. almost as big as mikey. but nice and warm


i love our tree!! and yes it's artificial



mikey being mikey!



pecan pie baker extraordinaire



sassy was here for CHRISTmas and we made the best cookies ever!! instead of oreo truffles, she suggested using nutter butters. OMG!! they were fantastic!!! (note the cute apron she bought)



CHRISTmas eve at Next Level Church!! thank you Jesus for the gift of YOU and for this beautiful sunset!!




looks like Santa was hungry!


Legos from the Beans!


a Banjo from Sassy!



the worst thing about December was the loss of our sweet doggy zoe. she had not been doing well and went fast. it was hard to celebrate the season without her but we know she is in a better place. we love you zoe!



thank goodness we have these two nut jobs to keep our spirits lifted!


HAPPY NEW YEAR FRIENDS!! HOPE IT'S FILLED WITH LOVE AND LAUGHTER!!

it was a pinteresting kind of day...

so my pinterest addiction is slowing down i'm glad to say. (i'm guessing it's b/c of the CHRISTmas season) but i've still had all these ideas running around in my head. yesterday i took advantage of both of the kids having people over to play with to get some of them done.

this year i decided i was not going to buy any wrapping paper. i mean think about it. wrapping paper is trash. literally. you take it off package and throw it away. i have a bit left but i'll save it for my sister when she gets here. she always steals, uh i mean borrows my paper. i have been getting paper bags at the grocery store for a few months now. yesterday i opened them all up so i would be ready. and i bought a snowflake stamp and some green ink. here is the result not too shaby and i have some fun sharpie colors i'll put names on the presents with.

project #2 have you seen these? this is one of the first things i ever pinned. what a great idea. so i gathered my materials. and got to work. i didn't want a super long bookmark so i cut off the top 3 colors. i used a cute heart punch to make the hole for the string and used the extra colors as contrast hearts. looks pretty! but i didn't have any glue! what? so i had to use a glue stick of all things. but still turned out great! can't wait to give them as gifts.
still feeling crafty, i took out the pringles containers i had been saving. and i covered them with wrapping paper. (i had some scraps from last year) they will be used for the next project

ok here's the yummy stuff. (if you don't like peppermint, you won't be impressed) i made peppermint popcorn! oh man this stuff is so good! for 20+ years i have been making white trash for CHRISTmas. but it's kinda expensive to make and we are on a budget this year. so i found this recipe on pinterest and thought i'd try it. gathered my ingredients... and got to work! i have an air-popper and i put it to good use. made two big batches of corn. no added oil or salt. then i poured in half a bag of CHRISTmas m&m's. (that's my own addition) and i had a box of small candy canes. i processed them in the magic bullet type thing i have and made a fine dust with some bigger pieces left for texture and added color. melted one bag of white chocolate chips (i added 1Tbsp of oil to keep it smooth) in the microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each beep. here's where you have to work fast. i used a spoon and drizzled the chocolate over the popcorn/m&m mixture. then i would toss with two spoons and sprinkle with some candy cane dust. repeat until mixture is gone. i had to stick the chocolate back in the microwave once to melt it down again. toss, toss, and toss some more. then spread it on wax paper to dry. oh my so yummy!! i am going to put the peppermint popcorn into the covered pringles cans and give them as gifts!!

i have another project i did, but i can't post it. someone is getting it for CHRISTmas and she reads my blog!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FRIENDS!!

roasted lentils!

oh yum! these turned out wayyy better than i had hoped. trying to get some nutritional foods into mikey. i thought something crunchy. and these are! so so so easy! i had some dried lentils in the cabinet so i just cooked them for 20 minutes. i had brown but i'm sure you can use any color you would like.

i drained them and let them sit in the colander for a few hours. (only b/c i was doing something else. you don't have to let them sit this long) but you do want them dry so the oil will stick to them. put them on a cookie sheet and drizzle oil over them and toss. add some kosher salt and garlic powder. these are just the flavors i wanted, i'm sure you could do many other combo's.
i put them in 300 degree oven and tossed them about every 10 to 15 minutes. i think it took about an hour for them to get dark and crunchy. my oven is a tad off so it may not take you this long. i did add a little more salt while they were cooking.

this is what they looked like when they were done. oh so yummy and crunchy! and here what they look like before and after


i took them to co-op so everyone could try them. they were a HUGE hit! even the kids loved them. one mom (thanks chris) suggested using them on a salad instead of croutons!! let me know if you try them!

boo 2011

ah halloween. that special time of year when my children want to dress up like serial killers. ha like that's gonna happen. so mikey wanted to be pikachu. and he wanted to get one of those cheap plastic costumes. no way jose! so we thought and thought and i came up with the idea of him being a shadow. so off to walmart to get black pants, a black shirt, black hat, black gloves and black face paint. (nice way to get extra clothes for him too).
caleb was a parrot. a friend of his gave him this great hat and he ran with it. he's so clever! :)

the saturday night before halloween we went to a party at the bordeaux's house. all our co-op friends where there and we had a great time! food, fun, dancing! then halloween night we went to the morris' house. the uvegas' were there. hope, tammy and i took the kids trick or treating. even caleb, river and konner went with us.


sorry it's such a bad picture. they all got tons of candy then we came back to tammy's and roasted hot dogs over the camp fire.


here is the decorated house and some pumpkin carving pictures.




this weekend tammy, hope and i took our little kids to the Renaissance festival. i love that place. but boy it's super expensive. the kids got in free (thanks to hope) and i had saved some money so i kinda just spent it all! :) not really but i didn't skimp. and that makes me sooo happy to be able to let mikey get something and then worry about spending the money on it. b/c we are studying the renaissance in co-op there was lots there that they recognized. divinci, and Michelangelo were represented and it was cool to see their eyes light up when they saw or heard about them. they rode some rides, got swords, watched a hypnotist, ate steak on a stake, and saw the jousting. it was a great day!