today I am feeling especially thankful for the blessings of being a stay at home mom. I have a list of and million things to do, & I get to go do someone's hair right in the middle of it all. The blessings that have come our way have been phenomenal and we are truly grateful.

Back to the Daily Grind

Boys went back to school today...ready to get back into the swing of things, and to see their friends.  I had some time to workout and get the huge carload of Santa Shop sale stuff to the school and drop off.  It was a slightly productive day, and the house is mostly clean, except for all of the Christmas boxes and all of the Christmas trees are still up.  I'll get to them one of these days, as it always makes me a little sad when Christmas is over, and much ore when the boys go back to school.

After dinner, we all went downstairs to play the Wii (Daddy, Tyler and Christian).  The boys are so funny when they play it, bouncing around, saying things like, "Don't kill me!" and Daddy always says "Stop picking me up and throwing me."  It is truly comical, and I cherish these moments that we're all 4 together hanging out in our newly comfortable, 90% finished basement. 

When we were putting the kids to bed, I was telling the boys that my favorite part of my day was when they all came home.  Christian said that he has enough money for Daddy to stay home like me, as Santa gave him tons of quarters and dollars.  What a sweet and thoughtful thig to say.  Tyler told me TTYL when he wasgiving me a kiss goodnight, and was extremely proud of his newly learned acronym.  We truly cherish this time we have with them, and thank God daily for every single moment. 

Tonight, I thank God for our warm home, our faith, and the time we got to spend together these past 3 weeks of Christmas break.  Blessings.

Reminiscing with Christian

As I was folding laundry this afternoon, Christian wanted me to help him with a code on his ds. As he came into my room to ask me to help, I told him that he had to come up and pretend like he was my baby. I sang a cute little song to him and he sang "mommy cup" to me. We snuggled for a minute and I took this snapshot. I reminded him that I used to call him my "Little" when he was a baby. It brought a smile to our afternoon and always makes me happy that I chose to put my career on hold these few years to just sit and hold my baby whenever I wanted to. Another blessing today...just remembering and reminiscing.  Praise the Lord!

Summer day

Here we are on a beautiful summer day. it's hard to believe that this view might no longer be ours in just a matter of weeks. I have grown extremely attached to my home which could be a bad thing actually because God always knows what's going to happen and I do not. I am leaving it totally in His hands. I had to get this amazing shot of what I get to look at today while I fold a mountain full of laundry!  The boys are playing their games and getting along well today. it was was lucky charms and milk for breakfast this morning as I'm and truly enjoying such a beautiful day. the dogs are playing at my feet...chewing on a rawhide or 2. today it's just a little things that really are meaning so much to me (as they usually do) but I wanted to start putting it in a blog again. I am just so grateful...we owe it all to God... feeling so great today!

Bluebirds?

Here is a pic of our bluebird? and her 3 eggs. Jeff put our step-ladder on top of two rocker chairs on the edge of the second story deck to get the pic of the eggs.  What a stud!  :)

  It should be interesting because she built her nest right on top of the sunshade we use every night when we eat dinner outside on the deck.  This should make for some hot dinners as it got up to 102 today!  I hope she and her babies make it ok...the wind is crazy and there's been wrens (?) flying around trying to get her eggs.  They are extremely annoying!  I can't wait to see the progress.    

The boys are super stoked since they saw the pic of the 3 eggs.  She built her nest last week so we should see the eggs hatch sometime next week or so.  I am just as excited to get to experience this myself for the first time with my two little younglings.  :)   I also bought a bluebird house today so we can be sure that next time, the nest is built in a good, safe place.  Life is so good that I'm a bird-watcher, reading bluebird blogs, posting on the blogs, and blogging about them now on mine, haha!  Love it!

Kindergarten, ack!!!

I can't believe my little guy is going to be in KG next year.  It seems like it was just yesterday that I was getting him ready for his doctor visits in his carseat and weighing him at 8 pounds.  I have been preparing him for his assessments and he had them down! That is, until the teachers asked him the questions, LOL. 

Tyler has been adding, subtracting, spelling, and reading for a couple of months now.  His Pre-K teacher told me that he was the only child who was able to ID every letter and number at random without fail, out of 20 children in his class.  He is actually one of the youngest in his class, so receiving this feedback, I became over-confident!  :)

3 different KG teachers gave him his assessment.  I pray to my graceful and loving Lord that he gets a teacher with a sense of humor...as the one teacher who gave me feedback had none.  It actually makes the story even funnier, I think.  *snicker*  "Tyler said his alphabet to the letter K.", she began.  I instantly started laughing and looked at Tyler...then her...she must have done this before, right?  I have not...I found that info hilarious!  I told her he's known his alphabet since he was 2.  She also said he counted to 17.  I laughed again and explained that he and I have counted in the hundreds (grueling for me...so fun for him).She continued in her stoic way for a few minutes, explaining that Tyler did very well otherwise...knowing how to catch, throw, etc. and knew how to write, draw, and distinguish words. 

Here's the kicker-She came to the part when she told me that Tyler's answer to "What do you do when you break a toy?"   Tyler's reply-"You sell it."  I LOST IT!!!  Ok....she really thinks I'm crazy at this point.   I explained to her that his younger brother has had a habit of breaking toys on purpose recently.  For punishment, I have been adding a toy of my choice of his to my "Sale/Donate" pile I have in the garage.  It broke that habit quickly.  I thought I was a genius.  Apparently, she didn't. :P

I could not wait to tell my Mother about that story!  So darn funny!  He is so much fun, innocent (mostly), and imaginative. I love how he yearns to learn about anything and everything.  He names the planets from the sun to Uranus in order, knows every single character in every single Veggie Tales and Disney movie, recites them all to a "T", and tries to teach his little brother everything as well.  He understands recycling, how the body works, and the process of archeology...through his leapster and the help of Scholastic books.  It also helps that he has his head stuck in a book with me or Daddy every night.  :)

I am having so much fun laughing at everything he does that is silly...and making learning fun.  I really do pray that God gives us a fun teacher who teaches with love, caring, and smiles!!!  We have been so incredibly blessed at church for such a wonderful Preschool program for my boys.  They have learned so much more that I could have ever imagined. Not just academics, but the Word, love, forgiveness, and about friendships.  We are so blessed!

Superbowl bound and looking for recipes that are profound.

Sweet! Another trip to the Superbowl for the Steelers! DH is super stoked, of course, and we're anticipating a party in the mix. Time to break out the black and gold, chips, guac, and get ready for some FOOTBALL! If you have a recipe you love, share it. Thanks!

My first try at Hot pizza dip was a success for Bunco last month so I'll make that again:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened (I use low fat)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup pizza sauce
2 tablespoons chopped green bell pepper
2 ounces pepperoni sausage, chopped (I use turkey pepperoni)
2 tablespoons sliced black olives
small jar chopped mushrooms
Directions
1.In a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese, oregano, parsley, and basil.
2.Spread mixture in the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate, or a shallow microwave-safe dish. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup of the Parmesan cheese on top of the cream cheese mixture. Spread the pizza sauce over all. Sprinkle with remaining cheese, then top with green pepper, pepperoni and olive slices. Cover, and microwave for 5 minutes. Throw it in a crock pot on low and serve it up with sliced french baguette or garlic breadsticks.


If anyone has one, I would love a good salsa recipe that's not loaded with cilantro. I usually make this particular salsa(recipe modified from my Pampered Chef cookbook) and it's a big hit with Tostito's Scoops:
Southern-Style Salsa
Ingredients:
1-2 ears fresh corn (I use 1-12 oz. pkg frozen corn, thawed)
1 small green bell pepper
1 small red bell pepper
1 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped (or 1 T. chopped from jar)
1 green onion with top
1 tbsp (15 mL) snipped fresh cilantro (I don't use cilantro)
1 garlic clove, pressed
1 can (15 oz or 398 mL) Southern-style pre-seasoned black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
1 can (15 oz) Black beans, rinsed
1/3 cup (75 mL) Italian salad dressing (I use fat free)
1/4 tsp (2 mL) hot pepper sauce (Frank's Red Hot)
1 can (15 oz) can mild Ro-tel (optional)---sometimes I throw it in for a kick
Large corn chips or tortilla chips (optional)

Directions:
1. Cut off tip of ears of corn, creating a flat base. Hold corn by husk end and stand upright on cutting board. Remove kernels from corn using Kernel Cutter to equal 1 cup (250 mL) corn kernels. Chop bell peppers and jalapeño pepper. Slice green onion.

2. Combine all ingredients in medium bowl with lid; mix gently and cover. Refrigerate at least 1-2 hours to allow flavors to blend, but overnight is preferred. Serve with corn chips.

Well, there's just a couple things we'll have. It will be a killer game, even if Green Bay wins.