Colt vs Fudge

Fudge? What fudge? I didn't see any fudge?

If only my arms were a little bit longer...

go go gadget arms!

darn!

Maybe if I look at Daddy with my sad eyes...
If I could only get the camera I could ransom it for more fudge!
How sad... no more fudge!

hehehehe... just wait till tomorrow when it ALL comes out!!!!

Colt, again...

I've been slacking on my pictures of Colt growing up. I take them, but I've been slow in getting them posted. Here is Colt quite content after chowing down on something "forbidden" I'm sure. I think Jason gave him a taste of chocolate... as you can tell, he loved it!

We went to an award ceremony for Randy and Riley, and Colt is very content to sleep in my dad's arms. He very rarely falls asleep like this, and even managed to stay asleep through clapping and little voices cheering!
What's wrong with this picture??
MY MOUTH IS EMPTY!!!
MMMMMM... FOOD!!!
AHHHH All is good again!

A Campin' We Did Go!

The weekend of Nov 21-22nd found Randy and I outside in the wilderness. We had our first campout as Bears this year. The weather was actually perfect! Chilly, but no wind to chill us to the bone. Just enough cold to make us appreciate our sleeping bags!

We had AWESOME food the whole weekend. Friday night we made "Hobo Stew." Each person got a square of tin foil and we piled on beef, vegetables, potatoes and cream of chicken... then we put them on the grill and waited for the goodness. Oh wow!! It was creamy, delicious and just plain perfect for campouts! The next morning we ate Egg Wraps... scrambled eggs with sausage wrapped in tortillas with cheese. YUMMY!!! For lunch, Jeff, my co-leader, provided the boys with their chioce of MRE (meals ready to eat-military fast food!) They gobbled them up and LOVED them. All the parents were impressed. The adults munched on Brats. That night for dinner, we had a potluck Pack Meeting, and ate hamburgers. Pack 222 is well nourished when we camp!!!!
Here is our home-away-from-home.

We downsized from a 8 man tent to a tiny 3 man tent... not much room to move, but it sure heated up quicker than our "mansion!"

We actually watched a movie while camping.. old style with projector.

Since we are scouts and our famous Pinewood Derby is coming up in December, we decided to view "Down and Derby." A good wholesome scout movie! Talk about funny!!! If you have ever done, participated in, or know what the derby is all about, this movie was FUNNY!!!! It's basically about how the derby race turns into a competition between the parents... The new parents to scouting didn't see the humor, but they WILL!!!!

That's Jeff, my notorious co-leader/cubmaster. He is a hoot!

Our campfire....toasty warm!
The next day, we had many activities planned for the boys. Here is Randy participating in the "M&M Relay Race." The boys had to pick up an M&M with tweezers and then run it back to the cup at the beginning of the line. Harder than you think!!
Here is Randy reading the clue in the scavenger hunt. Those clues were tricky, but the boys figured them out!!!

The most anticipated station, hands down....

Marshmellow guns! They aren't as bad as they seem. A little PVC pipe, some mini-marshmellows, a little breath and it's on!!!! They are a standard at Pack 222 campouts!!!

Riley wasn't left out, either! He got to camp at my parents house.. although, he did it the warm way!!!!

Jason took the 2 little ones to his parents for the weekend. That was his second weekend with Colt... all on his own! Last weekend, he took ALL 4 KIDS and left me at home alone!!! Talk about a treat!!! I honestly didn't know what to do with myself!!!

Over all, it was a great weekend! I can't wait till the spring so we can go campin' again!

Brodie and Mommy

EXTREME CLOSEUP!!!!

Mommy's new do...

photography by Brodie... she does a good job!!

Randy turns 9!!!

My firstborn is 9. I know that doesn't seem like much, but I'm still in denial!!! I can't believe my "baby" is almost in 2 digits! I'm going to spend the next year enjoying every "single digit" moment I can!

I have come to realize that I have apparently denied my children what EVERY other child in America, and probably beyond, has been granted. An ACTUAL birthday party... complete with friends. Yes, I am a bad mother. My children have never had a birthday party (that they can remember). We've had family parties, but apparently that's not "cool" enough for 9 year olds. I asked him if he wanted to have friends over, but he couldn't come up with names to invite... what's a boy to do? I guess when we've only been in the house for a little over a month it's hard to find friends to invite. I PROMISED him for his 10th birthday, he WILL have a REAL party, complete with friends, games, goodie bags and all the goodness that comes with parties. That's what I get for allowing him to GO to other children's parties! (I have since pulled out the photo albums to show him he DID have a birthday party, with friends, while we were in Kansas.)

Here he is with his "icing" cake!

After I decorated the cake, Jason gave each of the kids a squirt of icing from the icing bags... Randy just got a bit more than the other kids! Hey, "It's his party and he'll get a sugar high if he wants to!" Go figure.. he wanted a "Lego" cake. He designed the cake himself, drew the picture and chose the colors. They were supposed to look like legos, with the little "nubs" on top, but I couldn't get the nubs to look right, so he decided they were "flat top Legos" instead. Hey! Works for me!!! Not one of my best cakes, but he liked it. I did it all within an hour. I'm just glad he was happy!

Side view...
And here's the satisfied birthday boy... ready to disassemble his cake!

We have more birthday plans for him on Tuesday, but he doesn't know about them yet! We have a Veteran's Day Parade with our Scout Den at noon, and then we are taking him to Chuck E Cheese for a surprise afterwards! Maybe that will put me back in "good mom" standing!!! Until next time I'm not "cool!"

Final Day... how sad!

Today is the final day over at Angelosity for her "18 Rainbow Days of Angelosity." It was a countdown to her birthday, which is tomorrow! But it's not too late for you to join in the fun if you want! Just click over to her post and see how you can try for the BIG Pot at the end of the Rainbow! I've caught up on the last two cards and I'm sad to say I'm done. Now I need to find something else to keep me stamping!

As for Day 17, it was another Sketch challenge.

While digging in my slowly diminshing pile of cuttlebug backgrounds, I found this snowflake one. I miss snow!!! So I was inspired to create this card. I couldn't figure out what I needed on the bottom to "wrap it up" and this ribbon stuff didn't quite seem to do it. I think I have convinced myself I need to go to Hobby Lobby to look for more of the "finishing touches" I have run out of!!
Day 19 was a Birthday Challenge. Again, I turned to the cuttlebug sheets... (I really think I'm going to have to look into this more!) I found some black polka-dot paper to match the cuttlebug design and put it together. I also accepted Angel's other challenge today and that was to use a sketch from last year's Angelosity countdown! This is sketch #19. I like the pink/black combo! (Except it's really Cameo Coral!)
Can you tell I really like these cuttlebug sheets??? My son is turning 9 in 3 days, so when I found this number sheet, I decided I had to play around with it. I couldnt' decide on a sketch from last year, so I just played with some cardstock arrows and this is what came out. This was my last card, and Colt was getting tired of making a mess on the floor, so I had to hurry to finish. He's getting better at being patient while I "play" though!!

And so ends another year of daily inspiration for stamping. I think I am going to have to find another source of challenges!!! I enjoyed this too much and I can tell I'm starting to lack in the creative department! I also realized I need to go to Hobby Lobby finally! So, I'm out for now!

Card Catch-Up

I've been behind in my participation with Angel over at Angelosity. Between Halloween, Cake-baking and sick kids, I wasn't able to play along each day. I managed to catch up today!!!!

Here is Day 13...

we had a sketch challenge. I found these awesome Cuttlebug papers sent from an awesome friend, and they fit perfectly with this sketch.

I actually got two of this sketch done.

I like the first one so much and I found another cuttlebug sheet and stamp image to match it.
This is Day 14.
Our challenge today was a one-layer card. I actually found a masculine set buried in the bottom drawer of my supplies. Not sure how it got there, but I completey forgot about it!!
Not one of my favorites. It's hard to do a one layer card! Not quite sure where I was going with it, and I couldn't find a saying to match.. so I may be back when I find the perfect saying for it!
Now I'm up to Day 15.
We had 2 member of Jason's Troop have babies in the last few days, so when I saw this sketch, I knew exactly what set I wanted to use. The baby still reminds me so much of my Riley, but now I see a little bit of Colt in it, too!
And so this sketch got 2 cards, too! Perfect way to catch up!

Last but not least, today's challenge. Day 16.

Today Angel challenged us to do something with birds. I had to dig deep for this challenge!! I finally found a turkey in my set of "Year Round Fun." My stamps are a bit off-line, but that's because my future-stamper Brodie insisted she helped me! For this one, I acutally used a sketch from last year's Days of Angelosity!! I LOVED it so much and it worked perfectly with these little stamps I brought it back! Thanks Angel!

This is my second card for the bird challenge today. I found this cuttlebug bird paper and had to use it. This was my last card, so I was kinda rushed trying to get it finished so I could post it, too. Not my best work... may have to tweak it to make it work better. I love the cuttlebug part of it and the quote is cool, but I don't like how I put it all together. hmmmm

Many Blessings

Today was a day of many blessings. It started this morning, when I woke up and got the kids breakfast. My heart had been heavy since I hadn't made it to church the last 2 weeks due to sick kids. I'd been lacking in my bible study and felt like I was "lost." As I was dragging myself through breakfast and dishes, tired from lack of sleep again, my prayers were "If I only had one more hour I could make it to church." I went in the living room and sat down... dejected. Jason asked me why the time on the cable box was different from his watch. Then it hit me... Daylight savings! It was that moment, when I realized God had just answered my prayers. I knew where the next hour would take me! That was my first blessing.

As I got the kids ready for church, Jason called them in and asked if they wanted to go down to Cedar Park and visit their grandparents. Of course they wanted to go, and I began to think... once again my plans are being changed. However, I was in for a pleasant surprise! Jason took ALL 4 KIDS to Cedar Park and gave me a "day off!" Talk about a BLESSING!!! I haven't had a break in TOOOO long! Sure, I've had 30 min to an hour without kids over the past 3 years or so, but a whole day to myself... I honestly didn't know what I was going to do! I helped get the kids ready to go, packed myself in the truck (without carseats!) and was off to church. Even running late I was still able to make it on time since I didn't have to spend the extra time getting kids settled. After church was a different story though... I was honestly LOST! I didn't know what to do. Do I go home and clean? Work in the house? Sleep? Go shopping? I was at a loss for what I should do with so much time on my hands. How do people do this everyday??? I ended up going to lunch (which I got to eat when they brought it, not AFTER the kids were settled) with my parents, then went to the mall (no strollers, no kids begging for food, unbelieveable!) and then went home and watched a movie I can't watch with little eyes around! I still felt guilty for doing NOTHING at the house, but decided I clean and work when they are home, I was going to take a DAY OFF!! I LOVED it, but not sure I could do it day after day! (Yeah right!)

The kids came home and I felt rejuvinated! Jason and I had talked about rearranging some furniture in the house to make it work better and I actually had the energy to do it! We "upgraded" everyones beds, so tonight we moved them around. Brodie was so excited about her bunk beds she couldn't wait for bedtime! I still have more work to do tomorrow to make it all work, but the hardest part is done at least! And I have the renewed strength to do it.

It's amazing what a little "me" time does. I need to find more of this for me on a regular basis so that I don't have to scrape rock bottom in order to start the climb up. I can't be the parent I know I can be without taking care of myself in order to take care of them. I always tend to put everyone else first and take what's leftover for myself. You can only live on leftovers for so long before you start to suffer from what's missing.

I am thankful for my husband realizing I needed this chance to recharge. I am thankful for the kids being good on their trip so that it didn't end up being a stressful trip. I'm thankful... really.

Oh.. and I'm even more thankful that TEXAS TECH beat UT yesterday!!! GO RED RAIDERS!!!
Elaine... did you go to the game??? Was it as amazing in person as it was watching it on TV??? I MISS those games! I still watch the band and think "I actually did that!!!" and then somedays I think "I actually did that????" What good memories! Oh and of course, EOIF!!!!

Haunted Castle

Ahhhh... here's the finished project.

My second castle cake, this time a haunted one for a Halloween Party we had tonight.

Complete with Kit Kat fence, pumpkins galore and even featuring a multi-flavor house! The top floor is chocolte and bottom floor is vanilla! This one was too much fun to make! I can't wait till the next!!!