Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Pie Anyone?

So for the first time in my 30 years, I made pie FROM SCRATCH! I'm pretty sure it is the most amazing pie EVER! I made a pumpkin pie, apple/cranberry, sweet cherrity, and a peach pie with delectable candied pecans. Are you salivating yet or what?

Anyhow, I've been the mad baker lately. Within the past few weeks, I have made 300 sugar cookies, a bunch of kiss cookies, magic bars, no-bakes, pumpkin rolls (a total pain to make but so yummy) & my mom's famous fudge. The kids had fun helping me with the sugar cookies and they can't wait to frost them in a few weeks. Tomorrow I will head to the grocery store to get the ingredients for homemade oreo cookies and the yummiest peppermint ice cream cake. I better take advantage of this crazy baking frenzy while I'm in the mood!

Here are pictures of the first 2 pies. YUM!

Tagged: By Two


So I've been tagged probably 17 times in the past 30 days and I've been rebelling and not replying (so not me). So, here are my answers to 2 of the tags I got.

Two names you go by:
1. AJ
2. Hunny

Two things you are wearing right now:
1. jeans
2. pink fuzzy socks (it's cold down here)


Two of your favorite things to do:
1. GNO (that's girls night out, sicko)
2. game night


Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. A new house
2. A new job for Clint

Two favorite pets you have had/have
1. Milo the bestest westie in the world
2. Sadie when I was hallucinating and thought I liked cats

Two things you ate today:
1.Honey Nut Cheerios
2.Meatloaf (seriously)


Two people you have talked to today?
1. Ian
2. Fallon

Two things you're doing tomorrow:

1. Going to lunch with my best buddy Tony
2. Going to Wal-Mart to buy more stuff to bake (see above)

Two longest car rides:
1. Michigan by myself

2. Whenever Clint and I are fighting

Two favorite holidays:
1. Christmas
2. Halloween

Two favorite beverages:
1. Water w/ no fruit in it!
2. Diet Dr. Pepper

1. What is your occupation right now? Stay at home mommy - FINALLY!
2. What color are your socks right now? Pink/white stripes
3. What are you listening to right now? The kids playing guitar hero
4. What was the last thing that you ate? Salad
5. Can you drive a stick shift? Yes
6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Cheryl
8. How old are you today? 30
9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? Volleyball or football
11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Yes
12. Favorite food? Chocolate
13. What is the last movie you watched? Twilight (disappointing)
14. Favorite day of the year? Christmas Eve
15. How do you vent anger? Cry and write in my online journal
16. What was your favorite toy as a child? I don't really remember...maybe my life-size Mickey Mouse
17. What is your favorite season? Spring
18. Cherries or Blueberries? Blueberries or maraschino cherries
22. Living arrangements? Let's not go there
23. When was the last time you cried? Earlier today...I'm a bit emotional lately
24. What is on the floor of your closet? Shoes, shoes, & more shoes. Also a karaoke machine & printer paper
25. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you still talk to? Besides family members, I would have to say Jess M
26. What did you do last night? Burned some CDs
27. What are you most afraid of? Losing a child
28. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? Bacon cheeseburger
29. Favorite dog breed? Westies for permanent, labs for puppy love
30. Favorite day of the week? Monday – everything starts anew.
31. How many states have you lived in? 5
32. Diamonds or pearls? DIAMONDS!
33. What is your favorite flower? Stargazer Lily


Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Cole's Birthday Party

Cole got to spread his birthday out a bit this year. This past Friday, he had his party at an indoor pool. We've done lots of parties at this pool and it is always one of the kids' favorite places. I like it because it is pretty cheap compared to most indoor parties and they do all the set up & clean up! Anyhow, he had 21 of his closest friends there. Here are some pictures and some video of the night. You can read Cole's blog to hear about all the gifts he scored!

For some reason, I wasn't thinking clearly when Cole asked me what time to put on his invitations. I told him 6-9 (pool operating hours). We've never done a 3 hour long pool party. I was pooped by the end of the night and I didn't even get in the water! I was just sure the kids would sleep in the next morning, but they were so excited about helping Cole open his presents that everyone was up in my house by 6:30 on Saturday morning! Ugh! So much for sleeping in and recuperating!

The kids were pretty wound up all night!
Payton & her girlfriends McKenna & Ember
Corbin & his best buddy, Glenn.Taylor & DelaneyCade and his buddy, Logan
Clearly enjoying their cupcakes! Victoria B, Peter, Trent, Charlie, McKenna, Payton, Hunter, Cole & Drew.Jackson & Brexton
Victoria C, Cole, & Victoria B
Cole, Charlie, Trent, Peter, & BlakeCharlie, Calvin, Cole, Trent & Cade in line for the diving board. You can kind of see Peter & Misty in the background on the 2nd board.

Here is the gang doing a fantastic rendition of "Happy Birthday"...see below for video

Here are the boys playing tackle football with a nerf football Cole got from Blake.


Saturday, November 8, 2008

Harvest Farms

I win things all the time. I've won trips to Mexico & San Diego. Tickets to concerts, shows, movies, etc. The kids always ask me what I've won this week. Well, I was lucky enough to score us some tickets to a big pumpkin patch/corn maze. Unfortunately, we were so busy the week of Halloween, that we weren't able to use them until Nov. 1. However, that really worked in our favor as there were not very many people there. We started just by walking around and checking things out. The kids had a really good time getting their pictures taken in the cut-outs around the farm. Then we went to see the farm animals in the petting zoo.

Then the kids raced some cute little John Deere tractor trikes around a big racetrack. Corbin won and gloated about it for the rest of the night. After the tractor race, we watched some pig racing (we were feeling really red neck by then). The kids then jumped around on some giant bales of hay. I got some good action photos of them there. Then we went calf roping. It was funny to watch the kids whip those lassos around!



Finally after all of that, the real fun began. We bought some tokens and headed to the batting cages. There was a pitcher who pitched us real pumpkins. We all had a blast smashing the bajeebies out of the pumpkins. Clint and I both had pumpkin mush in our hair that we were picking out for the rest of the night. I got some pretty good video of the pumpkin smashing.




After that, we used our remaining tokens for the corn cannons. They were really cool. They would shove ears of corn down the barrel and then the kids could shoot them (they were supposed to aim for targets out in the field). Payton actually hit one! The rest of the kids shot their corn straight up. It was amazing to see how high those ears of corn went! Laney didn't much like the corn cannons because they were really loud.



When we were all out of tokens, we headed to the corn maze. You can get an aerial picture of this year's maze here. We entered at the top in the circle and headed through Celebrating (see picture for info). We ended coming out of Colorado (the exact opposite side of where we should have come out) about an hour later. Luckily, since it was the last day of the maze being open, there were lots of man-made short cuts through the dead corn field, which made it much easier once we finally admitted defeat and just wanted to get out!

As we were leaving, we decided to take a quick family photo. As we were posing, a woman came up to us and handed us another $30 in tokens saying she bought way too many to use and was leaving. SCORE! You can probably figure out that we immediately headed back for the pumpkin smash. After everyone getting another 6 pitches there, we spent the remaining tokens at the pumpkin blaster (like the corn cannons but bigger, scarier and way louder).

We finally decided we were hungry and needed dinner. Then Corbin saw the hay ride. They had just gotten back from one ride, so we piled in and waited for the driver to take us around. And we waited...and waited...and finally after 10 minutes of that crap, we decided the driver wasn't coming back, so we left.

What a fun day for everyone!