Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

I ran accross this by way of Cheaper than Therapy and her friend Walking by Faith ......I love recipes!!!!! Since we went Apple Pickin' last week and made homemade apple pie, I thought that this would be my first recipe.....

5-6 apples
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon apple spice seasoning
2 tablespoons of flour
1 pkg pre-made pie shells (the ones that aren't cooked and you roll out)
1/4 stick of butta'

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Cut the apples into 1/4 inch slices
In a mixing bowl, combine sugar, flour and apple pie spice, mix thoroughly. Pour the spice mix over the apples and stir until the apples are coated.














Line one crust in a 9 inch deep dish pie pan. Place the apples in the pie crust. Dot the apple filling evenly with butter. Fit the top crust over the apples. Press the crust down gently and cut 3 or 4 slits in the top crust to allow steam to escape while the pie bakes




I normally use the leftover little bit of dough to create a shape.....the girls picked out the heart. I just used a cookie cutter. Then I lightly 'baste' the top of the pie with an egg white and sprinkle it with sugar......





Bake in the preheated oven 50 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Check the pie after the first 30 minutes of cooking: if the crust is already browned reduce the heat to 350 degrees F to allow the apples to cook without the crust burning.
I use a pie crust sheild on the pie when I see that its starting to brown....

Monday, September 29, 2008

Night out!


Fun night out!!! Here are a few pictures of my adventures on Main St. during a bachlorette party and watching Rachael's husbands band perform......


Dinner with Laura

Rachael and I and some random guy that thinks we are cool and wanted to be in our super cool picture!

My sister-in-law Stacy and meeee.

Me and Casey

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Apple Pickin' Friday

We went Apple Pickin' with the pre-schoolers/pat group on Friday.
Kaelyn
Emma, doing what she does best.....being difficult...
Sophie just being cute!
Since I spent the morning with the girls doing something fun while Macy was in school, Macy and I went and did 'big girl' stuff by ourselves. This is a rare occurance since our schedules are so crazy. So we went and got our nails painted.....ooolalala. Macy picked a WildCat blue color (that she has already started to pick off) and I got a pale pink....kinda boring color really. Then we went and ate mexican food and hung out at Target. It was really fun....wish I had a picture of us!
So now we are off to make home made apple pie......yum yum yum...

Thursday, September 25, 2008

A Thousand Words Thursday


Cheaper Than Therapy

Thousand words.....This is my brother Josiah. Its the first 'close up' picture that I have seen of him in years. We have not seen each other in 9 years. He lived at Crystal Mountain, Washington for years and just took at job working on a ski lift at Lake Tahoe in California. This a self portrait of him taveling the road! I miss him so much!!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

New Layout~

OK. I have been searching for a new layout. I liked the last one, but I like this one better! I am too cheap to have a cool one made, so this was a freebie! Let me know what you think!

Sophie's Shoes

Look at this girl! She spent 15 minutes putting on my socks and Emma's shoes all by herself and she was so proud of herself, that she was trying to run after me (the shoes are too big) saying,"Picture, picture, picture!" So here you go. She is not even 2 yet! The big day will be on October 30th....

Way Back Wednesday

The twins at their first b-day! Emma is still eating off of everyone else's plate!

Look at my baby! This is Sophie at 10 months!


This is my Macy at 6 months!!

Oh Girls!!! How time flies by!



Monday, September 22, 2008

A little bit about myself and my girls~

So I 'borrowed' this little Meme from my fellow blogger,
Shannon
. Thanks!



First you are to post a picture of yourself and kids




2nd you answer the questions below~


1. How many children do you have? I have four daughters.

2. What are their ages? Macy-9, Emma-4, Kaelyn-4 and Sophie-almost 2

3. What time of day do you start your day? Anywhere between 6:30 and 7:00 ...I get up Macy and she's off to catch the bus at 7:25, unless its Tuesday or Thursday...the twins have pre-school and I drive them all in by 8am.

4. What do you eat for breakfast? Me? Nothing. Macy gets breakfast at school everyday. Emma could eat an egg sandwich every morning, Kaelyn likes cereal and Sophie will eat what is put in front of her.....lucky me!

5. Do your kids watch TV? Yes...but not an overload.....I do try to limit it, but there are some days that I am just exhausted from running the entire day before and then working the night before and I am too tired to argue....I know....its bad!


6. What are your kids' favorite activities? Macy loves school! She also is in the Choir, takes guitar lessons, plays softball and is in DI. Emma and Kaelyn are taking dance class and love pre-school. Sophie just hangs with me! We also go to MOPS every other Friday, and the 3 younger ones love hanging out and doing crafts there.

7. Do you get a break during the day? Uh, NO! The twins have pre-school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but its only for 3 hours and I still have Sophie. Its nearly impossible to accomplish anything in that time....

8. How do you end your day? Work. I work 4 nights a week for 6 hours. I do not know how I function on a daily basis.....something is going to have to start to give...

9. What is your best parenting advice or tip? Listen to your kids......

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Strassenbash~08

Strassenbash 2008


The old Threshers with their antique John Deere's in the Parade~


So we went to the Strassenbash on Saturday. Its just a little festival in the town where we live. It reminds me that its finally FALL!!! The parade was at 11 am and then we met Grammie, Pop and Grandma B afterwards and had a lunch that consisted of hotdogs, ice cream, cowbell potatoes, ribeye steak sandwiches, 2 funnel cakes, soda and parade candy! Grammie and Pop were in charge of the food! The girls went down the jumbo slide, big bouncy house, won prizes at the kiddie booths and enjoyed some great music!
The Chamber of Commerce has a 50/50 Raffle every year and a few years ago, my father-in-law won! I entered for the first time, I am not a big raffle enterer. With 4 kids, its hard to write your name on entry tickets, etc. But I spent $5 on raffle tickets just for the heck of it and guess what?! They called me Sunday after church and I WON 2nd Place!!!!!!!! So the weekend ended fantastic! Needless to say, it was well worth my time to stand at the booth with 3 irritated little ones for 7-8 minutes filling out little tiny tickets each with my name, address and phone number!! Whoo-Hoo!!
Here are a few pictures of the kids...



Emma and Kaelyn being driven by the Old Threshers Train~


Grandma B and Sophie~


The Twins on the slide~

Monday, September 15, 2008

2nd Dance Class





So we had our 2nd Dance class today. So at 7am, I hear little voices, "Do we have dance today or school today?" "I don't know, I hope that we have both." The twins love dance and school. How cool is that?!


So this picture of Kaelyn was taken at 8am. She is talking to Daddy on the phone about what she is going to do throughout the day. "We have dance, and I am already dressed and ready to go. I have to be careful while I eat so I don't get my dance clothes dirty with cereal, then we are going to come home and watch Ariel"


She is cracking me up. Its 8am, dance doesn't start until 10:30. She is totally dressed (-the shoes) and had her dance bag over her shoulder! She is already prepared for everything! She had me pack Kleenex in her dance bag and a jacket. "Just in case it gets too cold, mom."


Emma? She's downstairs totally dressed already watching Ariel. Sophie is waking up and my day has officially begun!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Peters Boys 1st Birthday

So we had a busy busy past few days! The Peters were in from Las Vegas and we got to love on some baby boys....My super-duper sister-in-law Angie, was in town for a wedding, friends wedding shower and her own twin baby boys 1st Birthday Party, then it was back off to Las Vegas they went! But they will be back in 3 weeks for another wedding that Angie is in.....so we'll get to love on them some more!! Check out these cute little "Cupcakes"

Friday, September 12, 2008

neighborhood kids.....

Ok. So this happened last year and someone was asking me to repost the story, so here goes.....

There are 2 neighbor kids (siblings) that live in my neighborhood. The younger one is in kindergarten and the older one is in 1st grade. They come to my door 2-3 times a week and want to play and when I tell them no, its dinner time or no Macy is doing homework, they just stare at me. They don't say, "OK, thanks!", they just stare at me. I have learned that I just have to start closing the door on their faces and they finally get the hint. So reluctantly everyonce in awhile I let them play in the backyard...... I am beginning to think that their parents just don't want them around.
Sunday I should have known better because I have had to send them home for being rough with the twins, but Macy was at a friends house and the twins were bored and they wanted to play. So they jumped on the trampoline some and I had to tell the 'boy' to quit body slamming Emma. My Emma and Kaelyn are only 3 1/2. So then Geoff was doing his weekend chore of cleaning out the garage so I can park my new car in it!! And I was sitting on the swing in the backyard supervising while Sophie was taking her nap. Well why does everything happen when you turn around for a minute, or just simply go to the restroom. Damn bladder! Anyway I am making my way back to my swing with a cook book and I am looking for recipe to make this cheese stuff that you mix and freeze and then slice it over a hot steak straight off of the grill!!! yummy..........back to my story.....I hear Geoff asking the neighbor girl to repeat something. Now mind you, Geoff can't stand these 2 kids and is already irritated that I let them come over and play. I walk over by Geoff and he looks at me and repeats himelf. He says," Did you just ask my daughter to say 'eat shit'? And of course, I am like holy crap what it going on. I jumped in and was very stern with out making her cry and told them both that they needed to go home and that we don't talk like that at our house and that once she was home she needed to tell her mother to call me. So Geoff breaks into the whole story and tells me that she had put her hands on Kaelyn's shoulders and was telling her to say eat shit and then she looked at her little brother and was laughing saying look, she will say what ever I tell her to say!!!! I thought that I had died. Like I said before, if this didn't happen to my girls I would be laughing my ass off right now. So I calmed down and explained to the twins that we don't say bad words, you know the whole 9 yards. In the meantime I can see the little girl from my backyard every once in awhile peaking out of her kitchen window and I am patiently waiting for her mom to call me. Well I have no patience and I finally called her. Talk about freaking hoosiers! She said that she was sorry that she didn't call me right away because her and her husband had gone and spent the weekend in a hotel room and she slept on her neck wrong and took a muscle relaxer and was tired. Like I care!?! So I proceeded to tell her what her daughter said and she apologized and said she was sorry and blah blah blah. I got off the phone even more irritated.....And then I was even more irritated when I saw them back outside playing and harrasing other kids about 20 minutes later!!!!!!! Now if that was one of my girls they would have been in trouble for probably the rest of the day. The last thing they would have been doing was playing outside.
This is also a family that boasts by saying that they just don't know how we do it with 4 children and they have to have her mom take their 2 kids every weekend because they are so stressed out. That is not an exaggeration. Her mother takes the 2 kids every Friday night and drops them off every Sunday around noon. What in the hell do they need to get a freaking hotel room to get away for?? Get the hell away from what? OK. So I feel better now that I got that off of my chest!!!

OH and the kicker. I kinda have to be nice to this lady! She works in my OB's office and she brings me home free birth control when ever I ask!!! And everyone knows that I need lots of that!!!!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Grandma B's

So we all went over to Grandma B's to meet Geoff, he was mowing the lawn for grandma and grandpa and I had to meet him there with the kids since I had to go to work. But the girls ate pop-tarts with Grandma. Uncle Paul hobbled over (he broke his foot) and asked the girls if they wanted to pick some apples. Of course he had come over after I left for work so I have no picture of the girls picking apples.......The girls have decided that we need an orchard of apple trees now! Here is a pop-tart shot! (Emma was napping in the car)

Door Remote and Rantings

Embarrasingly enough I would like to know how many other people have walked up to their front door loaded down with purses, bags, misc. items from the car, groceries, etc. and hit the unlock button on the car door unlocker thingy? And then stood there for a minute and hit it again wondering why the front door didn't open???
Yes, Folks. I have done this several times and I still amaze myself when I realize how long I stood there completely puzzled and couldn't figure out what it was that I was doing wrong???
Thank goodness, Geoffrey got that hunk of junk out of the garage and I can rightfully claim my spot again. I need a sign that says, 'This space belongs to Mom. This space does not belong to little chairs, bicycles, wagons or spare shoes.' Or maybe I should make my husband have the girls put away all of their crap when they are done playing! If I come home one more time at midnight from work and have to move everything before I pull into the garage......there's going to be a big pile of 'crap' on the street for the trash man!

Monday, September 8, 2008

Dance Class

The twins have officially started Dance class. They loved it!! Its an hour a week until May and then they have a winter recital and a spring recital.....Macy was never into this kind of stuff so I am super excited! I am sure that I will post lots of pictures of them dancing!!

Monday, September 1, 2008

Lizard Rock

We spent the day at Lizard Rock in Warrenton. Its only about 10 minutes from our house and the girls had lots of fun. They caught crawdads, fish, frogs and tadpoles. Emma has a bad habit of loving her frogs to death. She loves catching them and had found herself a new one to play with. Geoff and I did not realize that it was still in her hand a good 15 minutes later until she came up to me and opened her hand and said, "MOM! He is not hopping anymore!!!" Here is a picture of the girls together and one of Emma when she first caught the poor baby froggy...