Food Manufacturers stink sometimes

I know everytime I go to the grocery store the boxes are getting smaller and the prices are getting higher, but today just chapped my hide. I went in today for a few things for our Young Women's activity tonight and thought ooh better get some spaghetti sauce since it is on sale. Brought the jar home went to put it away and noticed my other jar looked bigger. Sure enough my last bottle is wider at 26 oz. (1 lb, 10 oz). And the new bottle is a skinnier bottle but a teensy bit taller with 24 oz. (1 lb, 8 oz). Can you believe it?? Of course we can! It was the Classico brand if anyone is interested. I have in the past made homemade spaghetti sauce but have gotten a little lazy, so I guess this means I need to go back to homemade on lots of things. I wish we didn't need food to survive.

Quick get the family together and take our picture while we look descent before we go to church!

Snow or no snow?, School or no School?

The kids went to school this past week on Monday and Tuesday. We were told that we were going to have a severe winter snow storm Wednesday, so we all anticipated Tuesday night going to be waking up to snow the next morning. I woke at 6 am took my shower and started to get ready to go to work at the pre-school. Went and check the news and sure enough our School district was closing the schools and most of the schools around the state....... Ready..... not one drop of snow outside...... It hadn't come yet, but was! We hung out all day waiting for snow and absolutely none for Wednesday... what a waste of a day off from school (for parents anyway). But Thursday came several inches of snow and also Friday. So of course we have been sledding down our neighborhood hill the last 3 days. And the kids have loved having and early Winter Break. But, we are mostly stuck in our homes. Plows are not in abundance where we live since snow does not come very often where we live. But when it does you take your chances going out in it.
But yeah for me..... I got me a new toy to drive!! We traded in the Chevy Venture mini van that we had for 7 years, broken air conditioner, cracked windshield, and numerous other parts not working or starting to die... So we got a Honda Pilot, 4 WD.. Love it!!!!

So, now we have been enjoying the snow had severe wind last night. Still with power though. But always a chance of losing that. More snow to come tonight, 3-6 inches more. We have at least 6 inches right now, but some of it was blown all over in drifts last night.

Brace your self... here it comes!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good safe night!

Tears & Hugs

So I work at this great pre-school two days a week. Have 14 kids and all great personalities.
But you know there are those days when the kiddos are just out of sorts.
So, yesterday I had this little boy come in at 9am crying as he was walking in the door. Apparentally he had hurt his finger earlier that morning. My point is that you try everything to talk to them to get there mind off what is wrong, you offer to get a differen't toy, you say hey, do you want to paint?, etc.... But when I knelt down to him and asked him to come to me, he just threw his arms out and wanted me to pick him up, crying hysterically of course.
Even though my ears were beginning to hurt from him crying and hoping he was not going to upset the other kids. I miss my little girls running up to me when they were 3 years olds and wanting comfort in any way they could. What sweet memories we have as our children are growing up way to fast.

Not a political person

Just have been thinking of our new leader of our nation. I am not at all a political person. But the last couple of weeks as I look at my children with school, their friends and all they need to accomplish I thought about those two cute girls going into the biggest house they have ever been too, come January. What kids wouldn't want to spend the holidays or any other time in the White House! Or any adult for that matter. But I do feel saddended that some of their child hood will be rapidly changed. What will change all of us and how we look at each other? How will we treat eachother? Even though everything is changing around us, some things are still constant.

Gratefulness

Wow, what a busy crazy last couple of months for us all. School for the kids, new jobs, elections, family changes, holidays coming about. and thoughts of our future. It makes me appreciate all that we have and what the future of greatness will hold as long as we stay positive and remember why we are here on earth. I admit I am naive at most things, but I feel I need to think about things in crazy positive ways. "Life is Good" no matter what circumstance we are in. We all have had those days of great disappointment and great joy!! I am grateful for you all and what you have become in my life. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.

Halloween Tradition

I have taken pictures of the kids on Halloween ever since they were babies. It has become an obsession I think. Even scarier is that we have had the same leather cream couch for the past 12 years. It will be a sad day when I can't get the kids to sit down for a picture and the couch will have to go. Enjoy!

family gift memory box

We got this idea from a friend. It is a memory box of everything we have ever did or like to do as a family. I bought two games when they were buy one get one free, went to the local discount store and was able to pick up another game to use all of the tiles. It was so fun to put together with the kids. When people come over they think it is so great. So I thought I would share this idea for you all to do over the holidays. You can also get one board and go online and buy the tiles. You are going to use a lot of tiles. I think I used at least 5 "C's" and a regualr game only comes with 2. Then I was able to find a great shadow box that fits my board just snug.

Halloween Pictures

Candy dressed up as Cleoptra, why not dress while she still can. Nellie made up her own costume. She wanted to be "Bubble Gum Girl". Hmmm, what is that? She loves pink and gum so why not. We bought a bunch of Dubble Bubble gum ( you know, the pink gum that has flavor for about 3.5 seconds). We hot glued the wrappers everywhere. Way creative we thought. Love Halloween!

school party mom

For Nellie's "Harvest Celebration" party I decided that it would be fun for the kids to eat jello Frankenstiens (Family Fun). I made 25 cups of green jello (6 boxes), kids got to put in cherries for the eyes, and cookie crumbs for the hair. So as you can see my fridge was packed.

Janet's birthday cake

Candy baked my birthday cake, Nellie and dad decorated it. They made it look like a big Oreo. Way yummy. I love Birthdays!

Annual pumpkin picking

What a beautiful day to go pumpkin picking. We brought home way too many pumpkins.

I realize it has been almost 2 months since I have posted anything. So I will give you a few pictures.

Clarification

As I have changed our kids names just for fun, I have come to the conclusion that "Nellie's" name might be taken the wrong way..... Now most of you might recognize the name "Nellie" from Little House on the Prairie(LHOTP) or the American Girl(AG) doll. Our daughter just thought that the name seemed differn't and said yes I like that one for the blog. So for those of you that know our sweet, bubbly, smiley, girl she is anything BUT Nellie from LHOTP!!! Not sure about Nellie from AG though.

Also my long time friend looked at all of our pictures..... (thanks Piano mom for keeping in touch!) she asked me to now show pictures of the inside of our house..... But aaahhh that is the intriging (s/p) part...... We want you to come see it for your self!!!! Okay, okay the inside of our house isn't glamorous by any means, but it suits us perfectly.

Can't wait for our zuchinni and cucumbers to come in.

Outside our front door looking into our cul-de-sac. We have a great neighborhood.

Our beautiful view outside our bathroom window looking down our neighborhood street.

Left view of the backyard.... yes, the grass is brownish.... just because everybody hears it rains all the time, doesn't mean our grass stays green. That ground is hard as a rock.

This is our view out our bedroom into the backyard.

For those out of staters that haven't seen where we live..... here you go.