Muffin Tin Munchies

I had seen this idea a few times before from some other moms and I've been meaning to do it. I think that it's so cute. It's just a fun way to do lunch for the kids.



I thought I was being so creative by doing a row on each side that had the same for each kid, then some "dessert" type munchies in the middle for them to share. How quickly I forget the unwillingness to share of a certain two year old boy.



So, I made some adjustments to my well thought out plan.



Here are two things that were in the tins that I thought I'd share....the smiley face crackers at HEB that I think are so cute...you find them by the deli, not on the cracker aisle. Our HEB enjoys sending people on scavenger hunts. Fine when your kids are being good. Not fine when it's almost nap time. Also, we have the Bare Naked chocolate granola. A HUGE favorite around our house. Oh, on the cereal aisle.




There are lots of flavors of the Bare Naked. They are a staple around here. You can also mix with yogurt and that's really yummy, too.


I just thought I'd share this for anyone looking for a fun mealtime for kids or anyone looking for some yummy adult snacks as well. If you have some neat ideas to bring us into the new year, please share!! (Angie, that means you should blog your oh so cute octopus hotdogs)

Prettiest of the Pretties

Courtney had so much fun today playing with her "make-up" that Nana got her. She painted her fingernails twice (I think there also may be a layer of hot chocolate on those nails as well...lol), mine once, and did our toes. She also perfected lip gloss layering with all the different colors she has. She was so giggly and ran into the bathroom saying that she feels like "the prettiest of the pretties!" So cute, so sweet.

As she sits and plays with make-up and Garrett is so content with his tractors, I feel so blessed. I just feel blessed that God has given me such wonderful gifts in each of my children. The fact that he trusts me to be their mommy and teach them the best I can to be his children is a little overwhelming at times, but I love it.

We got elephants for Christmas

The kiddos got slinkies from Santa in their stockings. They were miniature slinkies so they didn't quite do the tricks that a big slinky would do, so I gave up on showing them what to do with them.

Silly me, the miniature ones are elephant trunks!

I'm so glad they figured that out because it was the cutest thing. Garrett kept calling it his elephant. Later in the day he lost it and was asking me, "where's my effant?"

Merry Christmas!!

Enjoy this crazy Christmas light display....thanks Annie Aunt for showing it to us!



May you all have a very blessed Christmas!!!

In Valley Mills, Texas...can you believe it?!

These kids are the coolest.

Let me start over.

I was on my way to pick up Courtney from Meme and I saw the African Children's Choir bus in the parking lot of a church in Valley Mills. I quickly scooped Courtney up and we headed back over to see them sing. I had seem them on TV, but this was way better. Courtney LOVED them and so did I. Their smiles and their spirit are very contagious.

I love when God gives us great surprises like this. If it weren't for that crazy wide load truck moving down highway 6 that made me take the backstreets through Valley Mills I never would have known they were singing!

Check them out...if you ever have a chance to see them...GO!

Just in case Santa reads my blog...

There is a little girl in this house that would like scotch tape in her stocking. She loves tape. Her mommy can never find any tape in the house...and when she does find all the rolls in the house on the little girl's art desk, there is only about one piece left on each roll.

This story could also be applied to glue sticks. And sippy cups. And hair bows. And socks.

I have just decided that there are just some things that we never have enough of around here. I think when I was growing up my mom had this same delimma with scissors. It seemed I was always hearing from the other end of the house... "where are my scissors?!!!!!!!"

How about you? Is there something that you just can't keep enough of around your house?

Homesick

I'm missing this. These pictures are of the kids playing one evening on the beach in front of a little cabana a few condos down from where we stayed that served burgers and such. About once a week we would walk down and have supper there and then head back.

I'm homesick for the beach...for the warmth, for the simpleness of life, for the peace that the beach brings to your soul. I miss it. We may have to sneak off in the near future. I don't do cold. I don't like winter. I'm homesick.

A Yummy, 2 Funnies & my 100th Blog Entry!

Congratulations! You have suffered through 100 of my blog entries!! Wow. That was fast.

Ok, I'll start with a funny first....

I have to give credit where credit is due, so I'll admit that this is Justin's funny and I love it. Here you go....when a telemarketer calls just answer in Spanish. It then turns into reverse telemarketing because they hang up on you!!!!!!!!!!!! Love it.

Ok, here's the yummy. You CANNOT go wrong with this. It is so good. I think that it is the best meal I have ever cooked. Not that that says alot, but work with me here...

It comes from this blogger whose page I stumbled upon:

http://brandiandboys.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/from-me-to-you/

This is so yummy. I promise.

Ok, I promised two funnies. Here is Garrett cheesing for the camera. This is a big step for us. He usually ignores the camera almost every time I get it out. I guess he decided to humor me today.

Ok, I give up on trying to place the photo under where I wrote about the cheesing. SO, it's just where it is. If anyone knows how to place a photo after you type please let me know!!

Birthday Girl

Our little birthday girl turned 5 yesterday!! She has had lots of fun celebrating her birthday this time around. She basically got to celebrate it for a week because we did it with family over the Thanksgiving holidays. There are lots of things that we have to be excited about this next year of her life. She'll have lots of big events. Starting school, possible visits from the tooth fairy, etc.

Some of her favorite things right now are:

-anything arts & crafts

-My Little Ponies

-Hello Kitty

-riding her bike

-taking care of her kitty Lady

-loving on her little brother

Every night when I tuck her in bed she wants me to lay with her until she falls asleep. That is a habit I don't want to start and she always goes to sleep just fine on her own....but last night I had to say yes and I watched her fall asleep as a big 5 year old. Time flies and one day she won't even want me to step foot in her room so I tried to put last night in my memory somewhere where I won't forget it. I love you baby girl!

Turkey Days

We had the best holiday this year. On Thanksgiving day Meme, Poppa, and Anne all came over and we fried a turkey and had all the trimmings. The cutest thing about the whole day was when Meme and Poppa got ready to go. Garrett got it in his mind that he was going home with them and loaded up in their car all by himself as they were packing up to leave. When he gets something in his mind, there is no changing it. They didn't have the heart to tell him no, so he went all by himself to Meme and Poppas! It worked out great because Courtney and I were able to decorate the tree without a little helper. ;)


Friday was a fun and productive day. Justin, Courtney and I ran about a mile of electric fence around one of the wheat fields and then we headed out to Meme and Poppa's for a fun weenie roast. Courtney has been wanting to do this for a long time and Poppa said that we were doing it, so we did! Everybody had lots of fun and Meme had smores for the very first time! Then we traded kids and Courtney went with Meme and Poppa and Garrett came home with us.


Saturday Justin got all the lights put on the house and it looks so pretty! I'll have to get some pictures and let you see. Then, Saturday night we went to the Tippie's to help them celebrate the fifth anniversary of when Marcus and Brianna became a part of their family. A party at the Tippie's is always a fun time for all.

Sunday we got to celebrate Thanksgiving with Nana & Papa, Grandma, Allison, Ted, Brad, and Shana. We had a great meal and then we celebrated Courtney's birthday a little early....oh, and I forgot...we celebrated her birthday Thanksgiving day as well with Meme, Poppa, and Annie Aunt. I think that she is liking getting to have so many celebrations. She is such a blessed little girl to have so many people that love her!

That about wraps it up....it was a very relaxed and fun few days! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Mama's got a brand new blog!

Check it out!! I have a friend that gives me a hard time about how many hobbies I take on....here's a little something to go along with the hobby of choice for this week:

www.lightofmylifephotography.blogspot.com

I decided to make this blog so I can post some of my favorite pics and still have our family blog to do family updates and stories. I don't plan on ever making photography a business. It's just something that I like to do...so if you like to peek, you can keep up with one of my hobbies as I play. :)

Sweet :)

The Wall

It's done!!! I've always had plans for this wall, I just hadn't decided what exactly I wanted to do with it. But, after having it the way it was for almost a year I was ready for change. This room is far from done, but I'm glad to have a little color to work with once we get the rug and other furniture. I know that I can speak for a few people and say that they are glad the old wall is gone. ;) It's hard to tell, but it has a stain on it so it really isn't as green as it looks in the picture.

Courtney is just glad that she got to paint. She had a ball. She kept telling me, "Mama, I really like pink the best for this wall, but I guess green is ok because I do like all the colors in the rainbow."

Would you like some chicken with your pepper?

I'm not sure how I missed this happening at the lunch table today. I put Garrett down for his nap and then went to do the lunch dishes. This is what I found when I was clearing the table. I was wondering why he was being so quiet...

One month ago today...

Our baby turned 2.

His loves are basketball, boots, trains and tractors. He doesn't go anywhere without his John Deere cap. He loves his sister to pieces. He is always serious when I pull my camera out. He has a major sweet tooth. He has his blanky "bear bear" for nap and bedtime. When he says "yeehaw" it comes out "weehaw!" Books are fascinating to him. He has a very good imagination. He'll even play "kitties" with Courtney and she thinks that is just the best thing in the world. He calls Grandma "Meemaw". He stills sleeps in his crib . He gets mad at Courtney when she wants my attention and says, "MY mama!"

His personality is captivating. We just love this little guy to pieces. It's hard to believe that he's 2!

A true reflection...

...of how we feel about Aggie Football this year.



On a positive note, the Baylor team looks like they will be fun to watch the next few years! Although we are Aggies through and through, we love the good sporting events that we get to see due to having Baylor so close by!

It looks pretty cool and it's FREE

Ok, I'm not really an Oprah viewer, but I found the link for this from another blog that I read and I have to pass it on....it's for a FREE art photobook from Snapfish.

You can check out the details here:

http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/20081029_tows_messyhouse/7

(it's not clickable so you have to copy and paste it into your browser)

You have to log-in and get the book credited to you by tomorrow and then you have to order by Sunday. It looks legitimate, so I hope it works for everyone that wants to try it!!

Have you bought any lipstick lately?

I thought this was funny...I read it somewhere...

Supposedly, during hard financial times lipstick sales increase. It's proven historical all the way back to the depression. Crazy. Anyway, they say that women still want to go buy something to help them feel beautiful. So, instead of plopping down a load of money on fancy shoes and clothes, they go buy a new tube of lipstick to make them feel pretty.

Interesting.

Longing for Sandcastle Days :)

Now that the leaves are turning and a chill is in the air I thought I'd bring back a little of our fun!

This was the neatest weekend of the trip. There was one sandcastle artist all the way from Singapore!! These pictures aren't the finished products. I think that I took these about 5 hours before the contest was over, so there were still lots of details they had to finish.

This first picture is of the kids taking sandcastle lessons. They learned how to make a really cool castle!

I forgot about the fish!

I totally forgot about posting Justin & Courtney's fishing trip until I was going through my pics! We were home for 6 days and then Justin had to head out to DC & New York...SO, the Sunday before he left he took Courtney fishing. I'll let the pictures do the talking. They were ALL caught by Courtney. She had sooooo much fun! (Pardon the pictures....looks like my little camera took a beating at the beach.)

I see a fish fry in our near future.

The new me

The old me would be all in a tizzy because I'm waaayy behind on the blog and didn't even get Garrett's birthday and many other really cool things on here.

BUT, the new me is not going to worry about that and just enjoy life.

ALSO....a successful family picture in my mind is one that actually contains our four bodies. Not everyone has to be looking at the camera because that is just not feasible at this point in life. These are much more a reflection of real life anyway. I would totally be going against the name of the blog if it wasn't "real", you know. ;)

I'm going to try extremely hard this week to get a few of the cool things on here that have been missed in the last few weeks. But, if I don't get it all on here the highlights would have been/will be these things:

(in no particular order)

Garrett's birthday
Sandcastle days at South Padre
Courtney finding a sand dollar in the last few days at the beach (a HUGE deal)
Halloween

Ok, here's those "real" family pics I promised...

Where's My Whiskey?

Not the question you want yelled to you from your pre-schooler as she is getting out of the car in the carpool line.

Without thinking, I yell back, "In your bag!"

I'm sure the school director might have been puzzled as I handed her back the clipboard, but I didn't even think twice about it until I pulled away from school. The fact of the matter is...I put Whiskey in Courtney's bag every day for school. It's nothing new. She says she has to have Whiskey for naptime. So, Whiskey goes to school with her each day and I'm sure her teacher is really glad that she has something to calm her.

Why she decided to shorten her little stuffed kitty's name to Whiskey instead of Whiskers is beyond me, but we all know there is no changing a 4 year old's mind when she has it set. Whiskey every day in the school bag it is.

Now, if I could just pull off having whiskey in my school bag every day when I go back to teaching.... ;)

5 more days...

I feel very selfish saying that I'm not ready to leave. We have been so blessed to be able to do something like this. The kids have played so well together and there has rarely been a time that I've been overwhelmed from not having a break from them....something I was worried about. It all has been amazing. Other than missing family and friends, the trip has been perfect. Justin gets here Friday and we are sooooo ready to see him. The weather is supposed to be perfect while he is here!

All is right in the world

We had a little mishap at the beach yesterday evening right as we were about to head in.

Courtney wanted to ride the waves, so I headed out into the surf with Garrett in my arms. Courtney quickly realized that she didn't need to be wearing her hat for fear she would lose it in the waves, so she handed it to me. Then, she decided that she wanted to body surf instead of using her Dora board, so again I get another thing to hold in addition to her little brother and her hat.

The waves were pretty strong and I was doing good to hold onto Garrett, much less all her stuff. We got back to shore and got ready to pack up, but we were missing her favorite beach hat that Nana had gotten her. Without a doubt, I knew that I had lost it in the waves. We searched. And searched. The ocean had taken it and she was beyond upset. She was doing "the" cry. I felt horrible. I tried to console her by telling her that we would come out first thing in the morning and search for it. This seemed to give her a little peace even though she cried the whole way back to the condo and during her entire bath.

I knew the odds were slim to none that we would find the hat, but when we woke up this morning we headed out to the beach because she was ready to search...and I was quickly trying to formulate my back-up plan for not finding it.

We headed out the way that the tide would have taken it. The waves were so strong yesterday that I was sure it was buried in the ocean. I looked down the shore and my blind self saw something that was whitish, but not a bird because it was still. I sent her running off to check it out. I felt sure that it was some type of trash that had washed up from hurricane Ike. She is way off in the distance, but I see her pick it up. I see her run back with excitement!!!!!! I really gave us a 1% chance of finding it...and there it was in her little grip! It survived the tide change and all passersby. Somebody had set it up on a coconut (a first...I've never seen a coconut on the beach here) that had washed up so it was ready and waiting for her this morning.

This little hat survived nature and humanity to get back to her owner. This little girl was one happy little girl! I am beyond shocked that #1 - the ocean didn't eat it and #2 - that nobody picked the cute little hat up and took it home with them. It was out there for over 14 hours and this has been the busiest weekend since we've been here due to the Colombus Day holiday. My faith in humanity has been restored for the time being. Just another reason to love this place.

The kite was a hit!

They have a really neat kite store here on the island that we visited one day. There were so many choices of kites but this one was the only one that Courtney even considered. Garrett had a blast flying it and was even able to hold it all by himself. He also loved to let the string out all by himself. Like, alot of string.

Note to self: don't buy the big roll of string next time. It takes a trillion years to roll it all back up.

The santa hat went on a dolphin watch

Garrett's santa hat is the luckiest santa hat in the whole world. I mean, how many santa hats do you know that get to go on a boat ride on the bay and to see the dolphins? The boy was not parting with the hat today for some reason, so it got to go on a neat ride!

We had a great time seeing the sights and the dolphins today....thanks Mike!!!!

A neat treat!!

We had planned to go to our favorite breakfast burrito place in Port Isabel today. They are always closed on Monday, so we waited until today to head over there. We haven't been there the entire time we've been here so it was time! We eat 90% of our meals here at the condo because, well, let's face it...taking an almost 2 year old out to eat isn't really my idea of fun even when Justin is here, much less on my own.

SO....getting back on the subject...our favorite place, Manuel's is now not only closed on Mondays, but Tuesdays as well. Again, just our luck. I have a knack for showing up at places on their randomly closed days.

What to do? I'd already promised the kids out to eat for breakfast, then to Wally world to get a few groceries.

Back in June when we were here we ate a little cafe on the way out of town. This is not any little cafe, it's the only place that I know of where I've ever seen a teddy bear pancake. They aren't really on the menu, but when we were there the owner's granddaughter was there getting a special treat. After seeing this pancake in June, it's all Justin and I heard about for two weeks from Courtney. We were so tired of hearing about the teddy bear pancake and how she wanted one next time that we were going crazy. Then, of course, like most things...she forgot about it after about two weeks. That was until we pulled up at the cafe this morning. You should have seen her face! She very quickly remembered that this was the home of the teddy bear pancake. Now I only hoped they would be kind enough to make this special treat for my kiddos. As you can see, they were more than kind to make them for us and the kids LOVED them! Garrett thought his was a sea turtle pancake....he LOVES the sea turtles.





SO, if you are ever in Port Isabel and want a teddy bear/sea turtle pancake, you can find them at Isabel's Cafe. :)

Pictures you won't be seeing on your Christmas card

My mom wants to know why I never show Garrett's face in pictures. The truth of the matter is that the pictures of him looking out to the beach are way better than the scowl that he gives the camera. He is nearly impossible to photograph. One tough little cookie. Don't let him fool you though. He does laugh, play, and smile....just not for the camera.

A few shots

I'm trying out a new program. I haven't figured out how to really get these on here, so for now just double click to get to to see them big enough. Garrett was NOT cooperating so none of him right now.

We are doing normal stuff too

Even though we are hangin' at the beach for a while, we are actually doing normal everyday stuff, too...sometimes. Like today. I took the kids for haircuts in Port Isabel. They both really needed a good trim. Courtney cried the whole way there because she has a huge fear of getting a haircut. So, I made Garrett go first and he did great! Then, Courtney wasn't quite as scared. She got a few inches cut off. Her hair looks really good now. I'm so glad I endured the fit she threw to get it done!

A good question

Courtney asks, "Do mosquitos ever sleep?"

The answer has to be NO.

Super Fun with Friends