Surprise Trick or Treaters

I was so happy to see "Supergirl" the "Scary Jester" on my doorstep this afternoon!!



My day is complete!

Happy Halloween

It's just me and Hutch today, hanging out. So I figured I would dress everyone up in the virtual world.




I do plan to dress Hutch up several times today in the real world. He wore his pumpkin costume to HEB this morning, which made a lot of people smile :).

Dell Chili Cook-off

Les' group at Dell had a chili cook-off a lunch today. Hutch and I went up to join the party, and as usual everyone outdid themselves. They are always so warm and welcoming, a fun group to be around!

Hutch made his rounds, and was totally pooped by the end. He closed his eyes, his head fell forward and the snoring began!
























Thanks DES team, special thanks to Monica, a sweet lady who knows how to put a party together. You all are the best!!

Report Cards

Cannon is doing fantastic this year!! He is reading very well (slow, but we are getting there) and he is in PACE math, which is the accelerated program!! We got his report card yesterday, and he made 4 A's and 1 B...Yay Cannon!! We are so proud of him!









Neely is LOVING school! She gets really fired up about things they are studying, she is so exicted about learning. She gets her "homework" sheet on Mondays, it has a little activity, letters to write or math problem for each night Monday through Thursday. At the bottom of the sheet is a "challenge". Monday she completed Monday through Thursday's assignments, and completed her challenge. She is so eager to learn!








Last night we celebrated hard work and good grades!!

Big Flirt

I had to take Hutch to the Dr. yesterday (which is a long story and I was too frustrated to even blog about it), and he was totally "hitting on" the nurse when she was taking his temperature and listening to his heart! She looked at him and said, "you are such a flirt". He smiled, laughed and grabbed her hand to help her hold her stethoscope. When she talked to him he looked all bashful, turned his head into me, then looked back at her and flashed her his big old gummy grin!!







What a flirt!

In the car this morning

I took Cannon's and Neely's teachers breakfast this morning for Teacher Appreciation month. We left extra early so we could get Ms. Lankes and Ms. Haley a special treat from Roaster's Coffee Haven. Here is the conversation that was going on in the car...

(remember it is still dark outside because we left extra early)

Neely: It's still night time Mommy, but it is light in another world, like California or something.
Cannon: it is still dark in China
Neely: China is in a different world
Cannon: I don't even know what you are talking about Neely, Mommy are there ants in China?
Mommy: probably so
Cannon: there aren't ants in India because there is a boy in my class that is from India, and he says there are no ants there.
Neely: or bees or wasps?
Cannon: I don't know Neely!
Neely: Mommy why does God make bad things like ants and bee?

Mommy doesn't even have a chance to answer, but I am asked that question often, and I usually answer, "because Adam and Eve ate an apple"...which usually spawns about 100 more questions!

Neely: God's birthday is Christmas.
Cannon: No it's not, it's Jesus' birthday, not God's.
Neely: well, He has a lot of different names like...Jesus, and God...(long pause) and Baby Jesus
Cannon: I don't even know what your talking about Neely. Mama, do you know what she is talking about?
Mommy: OK, we're here!!

I love to listen to my sweet babies talk. I wish I could just follow them around all day with a tape recorder. It just cracks me up how they transition from one subject to the next!! I wonder where we would have gone next if we had not been at our destination???

Easy Peach Cobbler

This is an easy recipe that will make people think you slaved over it...even though it only takes 4 ingredients and about 10 minutes to prepare.

Friday is the Dell's annual chili cook-off, and Les has volunteered for a dessert. 9 times out of 10 when I/we offer to bring a dessert I make peach cobbler. It is an easy schmeeasy recipe, and always a hit...especially when served warm with Bluebell homemade vanilla. So, here is the recipe for my cobbler.

1 stick of butter
2 14.5 oz cans of peaches w/syrup (do not drain the syrup)
1 1/2 white cake mixes (recipe only calls for 1, but I like mine a little more cakey , and less runny...yep, I think I just made that word up "cakey")
cinnamon and sugar


Melt the butter, and pour into 9 x 13 dish. Pour 2 cans of peaches and syrup into dish. Cut the peaches into bite size pieces, and make sure there are no pits...I find pit pieces in peaches A LOT! Pour 1st cake mix all over peaches and work in lightly with a fork. After you have worked that in pour 1/4 to 1/2 of the 2nd cake mix on top and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top. Bake according to the cake recipe. I usually poke mine a little with a fork midway to let the juices come to the top and mix in with the top layer of the cake mix.

That's IT, those are all of the ingredients!! I guess it's kind-of a "dump cake", but better!! I guarantee if you make this you will be asked for the recipe, and you won't want to give it up because you will want them to think that it was MUCH harder and time consuming than it was.

2 good things

Cannon lost his second tooth last night. Well, he didn't really "lose" it, it was pulled out after a lot of prodding and prying yesterday! The tooth really needed to come out, his permanent tooth was already coming in behind it. His baby tooth was being pushed straight out by the permanent tooth. He was really hungry last night and asked me to make him a sandwich. He tried to take a bite of it with that tooth, but couldn't because it was hurting. He came in to me and said, "we really need to get this tooth out Mommy". So I tied another piece (we had been doing this all day) of dental floss around it, and he yanked until it popped out. He was so relieved, and a little nauseated too. He wrapped his tooth up in aluminum foil, skipped the sandwich and went straight to bed. He was very excited about a visit from the tooth fairy....the tooth fairy that left him $5.00!!


Ahhhh, sweet sleep!!! Hutch slept through the night!!! He slept from approximately 8:30 last night until 5 am this morning...when I woke him up to feed him before I started getting ready. After I fed him he went right back to sleep until I got him up at 6:30 to get him ready. What a good boy!!! This schedule I could handle!!

Easy weekend

It's been a fun, relaxing and easy weekend. I have enjoyed every second of it, and I hate to see coming to an end!!









All family, all weekend, all fun!!

Nothing

It has been a long time since we had absolutely nothing to do on a Saturday morning, and we are loving it. Sleeping in, pajamas (if you can consider the clothes we passed out in last night pajamas) till noon, coffee ALL morning for me, cartoons, coloring, cinnamon rolls (Neely has had FIVE), Chip Ahoy dipped in milk, eggs over easy for the dogs, morning over easy for all! Les of course is playing golf...and missing our great morning of nothing. I am enjoying the heck out of it and can't think of any place I'd rather be!

It's a start!

Dear Sweet Baby Hutch,

Thank you! I realize that it is only one night, but don't you think it worked out well? I slept great, you slept great...WIN...WIN! You stayed up a little later, and we got lots of nursing and snuggle time!! You waking up at 2am to eat and going right back to sleep was such a good boy. I am so proud of you, you slept in your bed, in your room all night!! I think this will be a good schedule for us. I appreciate your cooperation, and look forward to working with you on this in the days and weeks to come.

Love,

Dear Hutch

Dear Sweet Baby Hutch,

I love you sooo much! I love you morning, noon and night, but I'd really like to love you a little less at night. I realize that we don't get to snuggle and love as much now that I have gone back to work. This is obviously cramping your style! You are really wanting a lot of snuggle time in the middle of the night. While I am always glad to see you, I am a little tired during the day from seeing you in the middle of the night so much!! Could we please concentrate on a little more quality time in the evenings instead of you just guzzeling milk and passing out on the couch at 7pm? It would be much nicer if you would drink your milk a little slower, and stay up a little later....say 8 or 9 o'clock??? I don't mind getting up once during the night because I realize you are a growing boy, and you are very hungry, but the 2, 3 and 4 times a night has gotten a little out of control, wouldn't you say? Let's compromise here, meet me in the middle! How about you stay up a little later in the evenings, wake up one time a night, we will snuggle and nurse for as long as you like for that ONE feeding (you pick the time), then you go back to sleep until 6:30. This seems very fair to me, what do you think? If you have any other ideas that consist of me not having you attached to my boob all night I am all ears! Hope you have a great day. I will be thinking about you and missing you!!!

I love you with all my heart,

Red Ribbon Week

This week is Red Ribbon week at Leander ISD. Red ribbon is to teach children to say no to drugs. Before they can teach my kids to say no to drugs, they will have to teach them what drugs are, then tell them to say no to them. I tried to explain them to Neely, and all she wanted to know is what color they were. Doesn't really seem right that they have to teach such young children to say no to drugs....especially if they have never even heard of them!! Anyway, they try to make saying no to drugs fun by having a "spirit week".

Monday: Drugs and I don't mix: wear mismatched clothes
Tuesday: Dream big, be drug free: wear pajamas
Wednesday: Band against drugs: wear bandanas or headbands (Cannon is refusing)
Thursday: Don't flip for drugs: wear flip-flops (again, Cannon is refusing)
Friday: Red rally day: wear red

It's all a little silly, but the kids had fun dressing up the first two days. When I picked them up at school on Monday my heart sank because I saw no other kids at the afterschool program wearing mismatched clothes. I wondered if perhaps it was next Monday!! It wasn't, Cannon and Neely assured me that it was in fact mismatched day, but no one was quite as mismatched as them!




They also kicked off red ribbon week with a food drive for Hill Country Ministries. Hill Country Ministries serves families in need in our area. In 2008 HCCM distributed 300,000 pounds of food, feeding approximately 300 families a month. This year families needing their services has increased by 20%....so there is really a need! The kids came home yesterday and were very concerned about those families and were excited to take their grocery bags full of items to school this morning. They have sweet little giving hearts!!

My favorite salsa recipe

My girlfriend, Stacey C. passed this wonderful recipe on to me! I make at least one batch of it a week....I swear I can eat it with a spoon like it's Gazpacho! We eat it on everything!! One of my favorites is on top of black beans and rice.

1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1 10 oz can Rotel (I like the HOT, but if you don't like it HOT, use mild or original)
2 tsp. Lemon juice (I put 2 tsp of lime in mine as well)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2-1 C chopped onion (I like to use the yellow onion b/c it is a little sweeter)
3 cloves garlic, chopped (whoa Nelly, I use about 1 tsp minced....you decide...I couldn't kiss Les for 3 days if I put 3 cloves in there).
Approx 1/3 of a bunch of cilantro (I use a ton of this)

Put all ingredients into blender and puree....YUMMY STUFF! I like to prepare mine a day in advance so all of the flavors "meld" together.


I personally put in a LOT more cilantro, less onion and garlic, but that is just how we like it. You try it out and adjust your ingredients to your perfect taste.

Kiki eater

Apparently Hutch tried to eat his Aunt Kiki while I was in the shower on Sunday morning. I guess I should have fed him before I showered!! I heard all the laughing from the bathroom.....and could only imagine what was so funny. Well, it's a good thing they caught it on video, because now you can see what was soooo funny too!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hutch's Kingdom

The first day we got the Exersaucer Cannon & Neely deemed it "Hutch's Kingdom". Hutch gets really excited in his "kingdom"!! This particular video was shot over a week ago, I just never got around to posting it until now! Welcome to Hutch's Kingdom.....

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We think he is so funny!

The other half....of our weekend

We had an amazing weekend!! I am sure there would have to have been a round of golf for Les to describe it as "amazing", but I'm pretty sure he had a pretty good time as well. After the half yesterday morning we had a wonderful day of football, food and fun. Cannon, Neely and Ashley had the best time playing together...cousin time! They played house, computer games, painted pumpkins and broke open a piñata. We packed a lot into 48 hours, and were wishing for more. Hutch was a complete angel the whole weekend, well, until the drive home. He was NOT in the mood to be in his car seat for 4 hours...which made for a long trip!! He really is a great baby, so great that he has almost convinced my sister that she needs another....oh what fun that would be!

































Back to life! We've got a fast and furious week ahead of us. School, work, parent teacher conference, red ribbon week, a treasure hunt, pajama day, food drive and I'm sure a thousand other little things. My head is spinning just thinking about it!!

It's always good to be home. When we walked in the back door Neely walked to the wall of our house and hugged it!! I am glad they love to go to Meme's house, but I am also glad they love to come home.











Look out Monday here we come....