Oops.....Doggonit.

Today, I came home to this:

On a typical Tuesday morning, the dog goes outside when we get up, and comes in much later in the day when we get home. This morning, however, Rich let the dog back in right after she pottied. All fine and dandy.....as long as someone remembers to let her BACK OUT! I remember thinking to myself when she came back in "Oh man, I need to remember to let her out when we leave!" Apparently, I don't listen to myself. When we got home, she was jumping and excited to see us.

On a more positive note, she held her potties until we got home. Good job, dog.

I'm Sorry....It's What?!

Friday?

Oh wow.

I've been buried under piles of work. I, the OCD housekeeper, am severely behind on my house duties (you're welcome Nacho lovers). My little Motivated Moms checklist sits half blank on my counter crying out for order and obedience--I think it'll even settle for just one check mark. Well, today's the day!

Today I'm committing to catching up on my housework and maybe even doing a little holiday baking. I'd like to be able to give out my treats to friends and family at church on Sunday--yeah, we'll see how that goes.

Rich and I went on a date (is that how you spell it?) last night. His dad watched the boys last night while we went to Red Lobster--on a gift card, mind you. Then we went to Walmart and finished our Christmas shopping. We've known for awhile what we wanted to get Rusten and last night we were able to buy it. I wanted to buy the some-assembly-required version, Rich didn't. But I talked him into the romantic ideal of staying up Christmas Eve to put together Christmas gifts by the fire with a Christmas movie on and hot chocolate to drink. I'm not convinced yet that he's excited about all that, but he did humor my delusional wish. I'll let you know how that one goes.

We've got everything for the stockings. When I was growing up, the stocking was my favorite part of Christmas morning. Rich really enjoyed his stockings too, and we wanted to pass that tradition into our kids. That's why it meant a lot to me to be able to make our stockings this year. We've decided that the kids will get their stocking and one nice gift under the tree from us each year. We may even throw in a gift from Santa to the family (not this year though--we be out of moola).

This year is about going back to our traditions that we started earlier in our marriage, as well as establishing new ones with our kids. We used to bbq steaks on Christmas for our Christmas meal. We're going back to that this year--I already have some T-bones waiting for us (thanks to a HUMONGOUS sale at Albertsons, otherwise we would have settled for some baby sirloins!).

Our church is beginning a new tradition here this year also. We are setting up a Nativity Village at the school where we meet. We will be taking the people on a walk through the Christmas experience, including how Jesus fulfilled things spoken in the Old Testament. It's going to be a lot of work, but a lot of fun. That will be Monday and Tuesday nights.

We are so busy from here on out this holiday season. So sorry I've been sporadic in my posting, it may not get better for a bit! Don't think I'm not checkin' in on all of you though!

Happy Weekend before Christmas!

Dear Mr. Banker-Man,

First, I want to appologize to you for not picking your window when it was open. I realize that Jeanette wasn't ready to help me yet, but I prefer her. She knows my business and frankly you scare me.

I just wanted to thank you for giving my son candy without asking me first. It was a real treat to watch him light up over the free candy cane that he didn't even have to sneak behind my back--you did that part for him. I realize that perhaps you don't know the epic battle my son and I are engaged in right now over food. You may not be aware of the fact that the child sneaks candy all day long and I chase him around the house punishing him for it. I know you just saw that sweet face and wanted to give him some candy. I'm sure you weren't trying to butter me up so that next time I would pick YOUR window.

Just a little thought though, when someone suggests to you that maybe you should ask parents first before handing unsuspecting children candy canes, please don't disregard the validity of the suggestion and laugh it off. I'm pretty sure it was a serious suggestion and you should consider it such.

Lastly, I'm sorry that I didn't laugh with you at your effort to shrug off what you did. I was preoccupied with trying to figure out how to take the candy cane away from him without initiating World War III. I promise I'll pay more attention to your funny little oops jokes next time.

Again, thanks for the candy, Rusten will be over later after he finishes it and you can run around with him, mkay?!

Your Favorite Customer,

Katie

Spreading Christmas Cheer: Now He Won't Be Confused

See?

Wait, let me give you a close look...

I added our names to our stockings, so now Santa won't be confused when he delivers our gifts. I'm very pleased with the way the stocking project turned out. No, they're not perfect, but they were fun to make, and at least they resemble the stocking shape!

Trouble Is (Or At Least Should-Have-Been) His Middle Name

Rusten has had a horrible time lately getting into food without asking. He'll find candy and sneak it, or get into the pantry and get crackers. I'm not okay with that!! And, no, I don't starve my children!

Let's take today as an example. I'm getting ready in the bathroom this morning and I walk out into the front of the house after realizing how quiet things are (though that could be partly because brother wasn't up yet!). I find Rusten and the dog finishing off the last of some holiday cookies. Are you kidding me? It's not even 8 in the morning, and you're scarfing cookies?! So we were punished for that one.....including blankie being taken away all day long. Mama's serious, peeps.

So then later, after naptime, they get a snack of some crackers and juice, portioned by mommy herself. Well, apparently that wasn't enough! I can hear a chip bag, so I go into the front room and Rusten has re-filled Reed's bowl with pretzels. How nice of him to serve his little brother first. How do you punish that one? He was actually serving someone--it was adorable. Nevertheless, he was *again* getting food without asking.

After this, I'm finishing up working in the office before we left for my parent's for dinner. It's been awhile since I checked on the angelic boys quietly watching Kung Fu Panda for the 9283749283579 time (today) and playing in the front room. Here's what I found (I'm including all the pics I took because together they show the personality of my kids):

Do you remember that tree Rusten decorated the other night with all those candy canes? Well those candy canes have been around for, say, around 4 years-ish (maybe more). I guess what happened is that the pretzels weren't enough, so Rusten snatched one of those vintage candies off the tree, helped brother into the recliner with him, and together they broke bread (or candy canes--whatever) together. Precious.

As you can maybe tell, his punishment was a photo shoot.

Can You Spot It?

I came out into the living room after the boys had been playing out there for awhile. As I was picking up from their tornado of play, I discovered this:

Can you see it? Here's a better look:

The boys decided that we needed a more high-tech tree, and added a PlayStation controller. Silly me to forget that in first place! Sheesh.

Here's How...

I've had a few ask about livening up their blogs, so here's your chance! Fabulous K is doing a giveaway--Eeek, I know! Who doesn't like a giveaway in the holiday season!? She's giving away a new blog design! I want it....but I'll let you in on it too, if'n you'd like! Take a look here!

Spreading Christmas Cheer: The Christmas Tree

Mmmm....can you smell it? I love the smell of the Christmas tree!

Last night, we went and picked out our Christmas tree. It's nice and tall and full--it's a beautiful tree, and it was only $26.95. I'm in love!

We brought it home and let Rusten help decorate a bit before he had to go to bed. Then we decorated during commercial breaks of Chuck--priorities, peeps! It turned out beautiful!

Here's the boys getting the tree loaded up and ready to come home!

Isn't this funny? I took the picture and the reflection of the ceiling fan in the window looks like a star atop the tree! Isn't that a beautiful tree? I'm so excited! I know--amazing decorating! I hire someone to do it for me....

Here's my little elf, hard at work. He's the cutest helper ever!

Fast forward.....The tree and the mantle are done! I'm so excited with the outcome. Rusten was asking about the tree first thing this morning--probably wondering where all of his candy canes went!
I just threw this pic in--these are the Thanksgiving centerpieces tweaked for Christmas!

Menu Plan Monday

I must first tell you that I have NO groceries in my house. We will be making do until Wednesday. Here's my stab at making meals this week:

Monday: Not sure

Tuesday: Christmas Party (Taking Black Bean and Rice Stoup and some kind of dessert)

Wednesday: Roast with Potatoes

Thursday: Mac and Cheese

Friday: Dinner with my parents

Saturday: BLTs

Sunday: Who knows...

Spreading Christmas Cheer: New Stockings

I decided this year that we would all have matching stockings, and since we're not made of money, I would make them. Nice stockings are about $20 each, and I made these for about $4 each.

I love to cook, but sewing...notsomuch. It turned out okay though...thanks mom!

I used a pattern of another stocking of a size I liked. I cut out my nice material, my muslin backing, batting, and the cuffs. Then last night, my mom and I hand-stitched little stars into the stockings--to tack the back, stuffing and front together. They turned out really cute.

Then I sewed it all together. It was awfully confusing at first, figuring out how to sew it, but between my mom and I and a stocking she had made before, we conquered!

Here are our new stockings!! (I'm still going to go get a gold pen to write names on them, but here's a pre-name peek.)

Oh yes, and as I was taking these pictures, Rusten grabbed an old stocking and put it on, like you're supposed to, and yelled "MOM, take a picture of me!". So I did.

Spreading Christmas Cheer: Christmas Parade

Last Thursday was our town's Christmas Parade. We took the boys and met my mom, brother and their neighbor's family downtown. We left the house WAY too late. Live and learn--we'll be better prepared next year.

I bundled the boys up. I put two pairs of socks on each of them. However! Reed is in to taking off his socks and shoes right now. By the time we got downtown, he had all four socks and both shoes off. I took off my seatbelt and turned around (like every mother must from time-to-time), and commenced to re-dressing his tootsies. He then thought it would be funny to pull of my beanie. AHH! So we park and Rich gets Rusten out and I go to get Reed out, and guess who (again) no longer has socks and shoes on. Can you guess??? It took forever to find a parking place and get to an okay place to see the parade. We kept joking that we could drive back home and watch it on tv....wait, was Rich joking?

Once we were there, it was fun. My mom made hot chocolate for everyone and I brought candy canes to stir in. Rusten really enjoyed it! He was sad it was over and wanted to find another parade to go to...

My most favorite Baby Reed in the whole world!

Daddy and his little man!

Mimi and Rusten having fun watching the "floats"...more like a bunch of firetrucks and a few marching bands...but whatever.

Daddy and Baby Reed.

Mimi and Baby Reed.

Overkill? You shoulda seen it when he had the mittens on too!

My most handsomest men watching the parade.

Rustenism

Yesterday, Rusten got a spanking...I know, you're thinking "But he's so perfect, why would she spank him?!" HA--just kidding! You're probably actually thinking "I really think she probably needs to do that more often to that little ruffian".

Anyway, out of my head and back into reality, as he left the bathroom, brother was standing there waiting for us. He grabbed brother by the neck and was moving along with Reed in a headlock. Here's how it went down:

Mommy: Rusten you stop that now. What do you think you're doing to him?

Rusten: Oh, Sorry about that mom. That was my fault.

What?! I lost it laughing!

I'm Tired!

I don't know what my deal is lately. I'm spinning my wheels all the time trying to get caught up on my house, my jobs, my life. I have a payroll due tomorrow, and I haven't even begun entering timecards yet. Yikes! My house needs attention. I'm throwing a pity-party, right here, right now!

Whew! Glad that's over!

Last night, we watched Rudolph on TV as part of our advent chain. Rusten loved it. Rich, not so much, but he coped. Maybe it was the 4983573985 calls he received during the movie that made it more manageable. (Oops, am I complaining again, sorry!)

Tonight we're going to go to the Christmas Parade. I'm excited to take the boys--especially Rusten, I think he'll love it! My mom and brother are going with us. She's bringing hot chocolate, bless her heart!! I've got some marshmallows (marmallows, if your Rusten), mom, if you need.

Well, I have my work cut out for me today....I suppose I should quit wasting time on the computer. Back to reality....

Spreading Christmas Cheer: Advent Chain

The other night, I finished up making an advent chain with Rusten:

I musn't take credit for this idea though, I stole it from Raquel. Thanks, Raquel!

I think Raquel uses nice scrapbooking paper, but I went for good, old, cheap construction paper--of the red and green varieties. I used all my different scrapbooking scissors to cut 25 2" strips. Then I wrote the number on one side, and an activity on the other. Each day is something new to do: Watch a certain Christmas movie that's on tv, go to the Christmas Parade, drink hot chocolate. You get the idea.

Last night, we made Rich watch Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. He wasn't a big fan, but Rusten loved it. He was begging to watch it again.

So here's what the chain project looked like:

I thought I'd also include what was going on while I was working on this project....the boys were seeing who looks best in Rusten's new glasses. What do you think?

Merry SITSmas

From our family to yours, have a Merry Christmas. May you remember the true Reason for the Season. May God show you His love in a new way this year!

Today is Christmas over at SITS. Seriously! It's like gifts are falling from the sky! I encourage you to take a look. While you're at it, take a look at some of my new friends, like Yaya, Black Betty at Basketball Belly (I love me a prego), Star at Laughing Through Parenting, My cousin at Natalie's Num Nums, and Angela at the Painted House, just to name a few. What I'm really, greedily, looking for, though, is that $200 Target gift card!!! I need me some Target dough, mkay!?

Have a great Tuesday....and wish me some luck! :)

Lord, Please...

Tomorrow, I stand a chance to win a $200 Target gift card.....from the SITSmas celebration. Check out the fun here! I'm so excited! What a blessing it would be to win this during the tight holiday season! Lord, if You do read blogs.....

Not Much Happenin' Here

Last night we shopped around a couple different stores--including Target, yum! We found Psych Season 2 on a ridiculous sale (I bought Season 1 for around $50 and we bought Season 2 for under $14). We came home and had a surprise dinner of.......can you guess.......yes! Turkey! Then the boys went to bed and we watched a few episodes.

Today is a lazy day. We haven't had one of these in....well, I don't remember the last time we had one of these! We've watched another episode or two of Psych and played with the boys. Now we're all about to go get cleaned up and ready for something today. Not sure what, but we'll think of something! It's a cozy day and it's a blessing to be spending it doing nothing but spending time with my favorite boys!

Happy Saturday to All!

Favors?! YES!! Favors!!

And here they are:

(I forgot to take pictures beforehand, so the photo is courtesy of people leaving their gift bag behind...*sniffles*) I made a candle for each of them (when I say "made a candle" I mean that I bought a candle and decorated it with some ribbon and other niceties), tied together some cinnamon sticks, some cocoa, and some delicious chocolates. Just reminders of the cozy season to come.

I also made these two centerpieces. Each costing a total of.....are you ready.....$2.30. Yeah! I love me a good, cute deal! I got the vases and rocks at the Dollar Tree, and then all the foliage was from Walmart and each set was $.10.

Yesterday's guests included Rich's mom, his dad and Becca, Nathen, Sherah and Ryker, Patrick and Jackie (first Thanksgiving giving as an "official" part of the family!), Sean, Alyssa and Rylynn (Pat and Jackie's friends), and us! It was a lot of fun.

We also drew names for Christmas gifts. It was funny because we couldn't decide how to draw each other (i.e., couples, families, or individuals), and someone piped in and said they wanted their own gift, not a couple or group gift for their family. That solved the debate, and we drew individuals! The funny part is, each couple drew another couple! But I want you to know, Sherah, that I will get you your own gift......promise!!! :) It will be fun!

So, in closing, here's some pics from yesterday. Sorry there aren't more....I was a little busy, you know?!

So how was your Thanksgiving?

That Good Holiday Feeling

It's just one of those holiday days that you hope for! I'm baking and cooking and preparing for tomorrow. I'm so blessed to host Thanksgiving for Rich's family this year--I'm really excited! The weather outside is cold and rainy. That's perfect weather for your house to smell like pumpkin pie!

Well, I need to go prepare some more--a hostess' job is never done! I have favors to finish and a turkey to stuff. He's H-U-G-E! I'm going to have to beat the sun up tomorrow to get that bad boy finished in time! But oh....the stuffing....gravy....my mouth is watering and stomach growling! I suppose I should consider dinner this evening.

May you all have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving, and may we all NOT look like this tomorrow night:

A Kung Fu-E Day

Kung Fu Panda, how I love thee. Let me count the ways:

1. ummmm *crickets* uhhhh......Oh yeah. I love all the wonderful things you teach my impressionable toddler. Things such as telling his uncle "You're just a big fat panda". Or, how about when he grabbed his brother and shook him saying "Give me my dragon scroll". Good times.

I really do like that movie. It has a lot of funny stuff in it and it helps me out sometimes when I need to do something uninterrupted style.

That pretty much sums up our last coupla days. That, and these:

This little face came in to greet me in the office. I know what you're thinking--the same thing I was--aww, he's finished with his snack of apples and peanut butter and he's coming to tell me that he needs to clean up. We're both wrong....mostly. He did finish his apple snack, along with all of this:

Let me tell you that child bounced off of the walls forever! Have you ever tried to make a kid all hyped up on sugar eat his HEALTHY dinner? Not so fun, is it?!

This is just so stinking cute, I thought I'd include it. He made his turkey hat at preschool today and wears it proudly all-the-time! It bother Rich, though, that the turkey's smile is upside-down. Apparently, Rusten likes grumpy turkeys. You know what they say, birds of a feather....

Menu Plan Monday

Well, last week was a bit of a failure for me. I forgot I had done this, then other things came up. In a nutshell, I pretty much did NONE of my meals last week. So, in light of that, this weeks menu looks an awful lot like last weeks. Sorry!

Monday: Lasagna

Tuesday: Green Chili (see last time for recipe link)

Wednesday: Chicken Nuggets (homemade: chunk your chicken and roll in a breadcrumb/frosted flake combo)

Thursday: Duh! Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans and a pumpkin pie

Friday: LOTS of leftovers

Saturday: Turkey Soup (Aunt Barbara's recipe)

Sunday: Maybe some clam chowder? We'll see.

Ummm....Hi

Sorry for the strange disappearance. We had a busy couple of days, I guess.

Friday I had a doctors appointment and then went shopping for Thanksgiving. That evening I didn't feel real well because I had taken the flu shot at my appointment. Saturday I was fine though.

Saturday we had errands to run and then we spent the afternoon just cleaning up around here for our prayer group here that night. Heart for the Harvest was awesome on Saturday night. Only Dennis and Susan showed up, but so did God!! It was neat.

Sunday we had church and then youth and then our landlord came by to pickup a fridge. Then my parents came over and we bbq'd some burgers. It was nice and relaxing--except we were racing the '24' clock! My dad HAD to be home by 8 to watch 24!

Today is back to routine and normal......ahhh. My brother is with us today and maybe tomorrow because he's out of school for the week. I always enjoy having him around!

Have a great Monday!

I'LL Tell You Why...

...my house smells like pickles and my kids are eating toes and pants!

It all started with this:

I was preparing lunch and the boys found a Pampered Chef gadget and decided to play with it and ultimately break it. As I was looking to see if it was truly broken, which as you can see, it is, Reed decided to pull out my absolutefavorite mixing bowl which then shattered. Here's what THAT looks like nicely packaged in a Target bag:

Yes, there's more! At this point, I stopped making lunch and put the kids up to the table and out of harm's way. I finish picking up the glass and commenced to finishing lunch. I grabbed the pickles out of the fridge and.....yep.....

I was speechless. That can't possibly have just happened. All that green--pickle juice, not moldy tile grout. I left it. My poor kids were so hungry, they looked like this:

Well, the kids are now snug in their beds for naps and I'm avoiding the pickle-smelling kitchen by talking to you. I'm waiting for it to dry more so I can pick up the glass, then finish mopping....again....for the second day in a row. Such is the life!

A Motivated Mom, A Walk, and Relief in the Outdoors

Your very own (over) achiever blogger as been trying out a new cleaning system. It involves a checklist, which is practically my favorite thing in the whole, wide world, thankyouverymuch! It's by Motivated Moms and it's basically a checklist of chores for each day. It's designed to keep your housework under 2 hours everyday and free up more of your time. I know as a SAHM, it's hard to to accomplish housecleaning, short of assigning a whole day to it--which, by the way, I used to do until now. So I'm giving it a shot and so far, so good. I enjoy feeling like my house is company ready at any time.

One of the daily items on the checklist is "Read to Children" and one is "Exercise". So today we did both! I read the boys a book and then we went for a walk. It was really enjoyable. Rusten has recently learned about dandelions and how he can blow them. I included some pictures. What I did NOT include a picture of was the dead cat in the gutter that Rusten was fascinated by, thinking it was poop. Go figure.

Later this afternoon, as I'm preparing dinner, Rusten wanted to go play out in the backyard with his dog. Fine. However, I look up and sprinklers are on and guess who's running through the sprinklers with his sweatshirt and cowboy boots--which by the way were on the wrong feet?! Yep, Rusten and Paylen were enjoying a refreshing spritz in the sprinklers. But that's not all peeps.

I realize it's awfully quiet out there so I go to my bedroom door to check on him. I see a little boy's buns. He has his back to me and his pants around his knees. I asked him what he was doing, and I startled him. He (so confidently) told me that he was peeing "right there". Oh, well okay then...carry on. What?! His response later, when daddy talked to him about it: "Paylen pees outside".

Tonight we went and ran errands and then stopped at the frozen yogurt place and had some as a family. It was a pleasant evening. Now, I shall sleep!