Our Family Christmas

Yummy, Yummy!

A princess towel for our little princess! Check out that missing tooth!

We have more wii!

The cheap clearance umbrella was a hit!

Eli likes his new Who zit toy (thanks for the suggestion Connie!). The black and white circles seem to hypnotize him.

We have a tradition of having a special Family Christmas celebration before we leave home to spend Christmas with our Tennessee Family. Mark and I have done this since our first year of marriage. Santa stopped by early in the day and dropped off a few presents on our porch (he is such a smart guy-he knew we were going to be gone on Christmas!).

We started the evening with a special dinner. This year we had steak, shrimp (Isaac's request), and hot dogs (the girls' request), baked potatoes, peas and salad. After dinner, Mark read the Christmas story and then we dug into the presents. We ended the night with ice cream and egg nog. It was a wonderful evening. What a blessing to experience Christmas with childrens' excitement!

Silly Sisters

Here are a few shots of Olivia and Anna Grace waiting for the Christmas play to begin. They are not shy in front of the camera!

The Worst Christmas Pagent Ever????

Our Little Angel adjusting her wings.
Look at that angelic face!

This is a before picture. Thankfully, we do not have an after shot!

So far, so good. Do you think Baby Jesus wore gym socks????

Nearing the end of his acting debut.

Today the children's ministry at our church put on a traditional Christmas play. Isaac was a "singer", Bailey was an angel, and Eli was baby Jesus. Isaac told me weeks ago that I had better make sure that Eli did not fuss (I am a mommy,not a miracle worker!). We had our doubts about Eli staying on stage very long, but he did pretty well. He lasted about ten minutes before I had to rescue Mary from a fussy little man (apparently he did not get the memo about "no crying he makes"). After Eli's departure from the stage, we headed to the nursing room. A few minutes later, Mark knocked on the door to let me know that Isaac had an "issue". He had "lost his breakfast" on the stage. Apparently he had a bad case of stage fright. His tummy was fine the rest of the day, although his pride was quite wounded! I was very glad that I did not get to witness the event, apparently it was not pretty. After Isaac made a quick exit, two other boys followed suit. It was quite a finale! As I was leaving the nursing room, a sweet homeschooling friend said, "Oh, you did not get to see the kid throw up." I said, "Yeah that was my kid..." Another friend called this afternoon to let us know that she got the whole thing on video, so watch for us on America's Funniest Home Video. Isaac and I agreed that the best thing about this Christmas play is that it is over!

Meal Plan Monday

Monday: White beans cooked with a ham bone, rice & cornbread

Tuesday: Tacos, Mexican rice, refried beans, lettuce, tomatoes & chips

Wednesday: Turkey and noodle soup and crackers

Thursday: Grilled Cheese and leftover soup

Friday: Ham, potato casserole, corn, biscuits and salad

Saturday: Jambalaya

Sunday: Isaac and Mark to CiCi's Pizza and caroling, the rest of us get pizza on the way home from church

Catfish!

Isaac and Bailey have gotten into playing Go Fish the last week or two. Mark has been playing with them some and teaching them the rules. Last night Anna Grace declared that she wanted to ply Catfish with Daddy. It thrilled her heart for Daddy to play with her. She did get a little help from her big brother!

Sweet Smiles

Eli started smiling this week. It is a precious sight to see his toothless grin!

A Special Visitor

Our neighborhood had a special visitor at the clubhouse today. Santa Claus came to visit and pose for pictures. I had not taken the children to see Santa in several years because it had turned out to be a traumatic experience in the past. They all did great today. The Littles were not afraid at all!

Food Blogs

I get tired of cooking the same things over and over, so I have been reading a few recipe blogs recently. Here are a few that I have bookmarked:

This one is the blog of a lady who made a commitment to use her crockpot everyday in 2008. Using my crockpot simplifies my afternoon so much, so I love seeing new recipes.

$5 Dinners is one woman's attempt to keep all of her dinners under $5. I have not used any of her recipes yet, but it has already made me more aware of which of my meals are around $5.

For the Love of Grub, Cooking for the Guys, and Eat at Home are all blogs of homeschooling moms. I like them because they usually use ingredients that I already have. Cooking for the Guys lists Weight Watcher points for some of her recipes.

The Pioneer Woman is a very popular blog, that I have seen many other bloggers link to. I used her cornbread and dressing recipes for Thanksgiving, and it turned out good. She is quite a character!

Brothers

Isaac sure loves his little brother!

Can I hold him?

Anna Grace loves her little brother! In fact, her love is sometimes a little much for him! She has been known to stick her fingers in his mouth, close to his eyes, etc. Her solution when he is crying is to try to cover his mouth! She is constantly asking to hold him. When she does get to hold him, he looks almost as big as she is. Even though it is scary at times, I am glad that she loves him so much!

Meal Plan

Monday -- Beef Stew in the crock pot
Tuesday -- Turkey fried rice
Wednesday -- Spaghetti & meatballs
Thursday -- Barbecue chicken & baked potatoes
Friday -- Homemade pizza
Saturday -- Ham, eggs & biscuits
Sunday -- Out to eat!

We had quite a bit of turkey and ham left over from Thanksgiving. I put it in the freezer, and I think that I can get at least five or six meals out of it (fried rice, ham & eggs, turkey & noodle soup, white beans cooked with the ham bone and a couple more meals I have not figured out yet). Thanksgiving is the meal that keeps on giving! Publix marked their turkeys way down, so I now have several turkey breasts and turkeys in the freezer. I am going to have to find some creative turkey recipes!

Oh Christmas Tree...

Move over Martha Stewart!

Eli was pretty excited about our celebration!

Anna Grace loves her Daddy!

We decorated our Christmas tree tonight. This is a tradition that our children look forward to every year. With five children eight and under, this experience was not completely stress free-- we had two broken ornaments before we even started putting them on the tree! Overall, it was a great evening. We decorated the tree, and then had a small birthday party for Jesus. We ate cupcakes and drank eggnog, and talked about why we have Christmas. I try to start off our Christmas season by reminding them that it is not all about presents. We finished the night by watching Frosty the Snowman. What a blessing to be able to celebrate Christmas with children!

A Short Sports Rant

I do not often blog about sports issues, but I had to write a little post tonight about Phil Fulmer, the coach of UT (actually now he is the former coach). I strongly disagree with the athletic director's decision to fire him. In my little world, I do not like it when my team loses, and I really like it when my team wins, but those emotions pass quickly. It seems like winning has become way too important. College sports in general have become too important. It is amazing to me how much money, time, emotions and words are poured into these teams and these games. I wonder if it is even fun for many of the people who coach, play and especially watch. Oh well, those are just my thoughts in my little world.

I am glad that Fulmer could go out on two wins. And, despite the fact I am sure that it has been a hard season for him, I am sure that his retirement fund is fully funded! After this short little rant, I am ready to get back to my usual blogging topics!

Meal Plan Monday

Monday: Homemade chicken soup

Tuesday: Barbecue pork loin in the crock pot, baked potatoes

Wednesday: Chicken Quesadillas (with leftover chicken from Monday) and French fries

Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving! My parents are coming to visit. This is only my second Thanksgiving dinner that I have cooked, so I am still learning! We are having ham (the children's' favorite) and turkey (it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without turkey!) -- yummy! I am planning on freezing leftover meat to use for meals in the next few weeks.

Friday: Leftovers or buy pizza -- I am going shopping!

Saturday: Chili

Sunday: Hot dogs and chili

Nine Days!

Mark has next week off, so counting the two weekends, he is home for nine days (counting today)! I am so glad! The children are excited to have Daddy home too! Bailey made a calendar tonight. She drew nine blocks, with the numbers one through nine. She crossed off number one because the first day is gone.

I am hoping to get a little done around the house while Mark is at home. With our little Eli around, and trying to get our homeschooling done, our house is a bit of a mess! Tonight I worked on packing away some toys. We have been having trouble keeping things picked up, so I thought it would be help to have fewer toys around. I am hoping to work on the master bedroom and closet over the next few days. Unfortunately, it often becomes a dumping ground for baby stuff, toys, laundry and other junk. I am ready for some fall cleaning!

Our "Little" Man

Eli's feet are stylin' thanks to my sweet friend Laura!

Check out those cheeks and chins!

I could just eat him up!

Fall Fun

Isaac and Bailey have really enjoyed playing with the leaves in the back yard. Our trees are not very big, but they have produced enough leaves to make a nice little pile. It has been very cold here this week, so they have not been able to get out much, but today it was in the fifties, so they were at it again. It must have felt like a heatwave after the freezing temperatures (notice Bailey's summer shirt). I am glad they like playing outside!

Photographing a Two Year Old...

I simply wanted to get a cute picture of Anna Grace. I was not asking much, just for her to look at the camera and smile. She happened to have happy, bouncy feet that made my job tricky. I am very grateful that I was using a digital camera. She is a cutie, so I enjoyed looking at the "mess ups". She keeps me on my toes!

Farmer Isaac Does it Again...

Isaac was not very happy with the way his spring/summer carrot crop produced, so he decided to plant some more this fall. He did it all by himself a couple of months ago, and I had forgotten about it. Today he came and got me to "show me something." He had "harvested" his carrots, and he was very proud!

One of Our Little Turkeys...

Olivia's Mothers' Day Out class had a Thanksgiving Feast this week. They sang songs for the families and then we ate. The older people of the church had cooked quite a feast. Olivia was very proud! She is quite a cute little turkey!

Happy Birthday Isaac!

Isaac celebrated his eighth birthday last week. I am amazed that he is that old! I gave him a choice of having some friends over for a party or taking our family to Chuck E Cheese. He chose the second option! We invited our good friends Kelly, Ben and James to go with us.

Isaac started asking in July if he could have a Nintendo DS for his birthday. We told him that it costs more than we usually spend on birthday gifts, so he would have to save up part of the money. He saved $40, which he earned from reading books and doing odd jobs around the house (Isaac usually wants to spend money as soon as he gets it, so this was a HUGE accomplishment for him). He was proud of his accomplishment, and he loves his new toy! He used money from his grandparents to buy a couple of games to go with it.

Happy Birthday Big Boy!

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Soup and bread night -- Minestrone Soup (I am going to try to cook more soups with little or no meat to help keep the food budget down. For this soup, I did a search for frugal minestrone soup, and combined several recipes that I found. It turned out pretty good. It is a cold and windy night, so warm soup felt good going down!).

Tuesday: Shake and bake pork chops and mashed potatoes

Wednesday: Grilled cheese sandwiches and left over minestrone soup

Thursday: Spaghetti and meatballs -- I used this recipe and made five meals worth to put in the freezer. I love having quick meals to pull out!

Friday: French bread pizza

Saturday: Pancakes

Sunday: Tacos, refried beans and rice -- This is an easy meal because I made extra taco meat and refried beans and froze them. I do not like to cook on Sundays. Everyone is ready to eat the minute we walk in the door after church!

A Few Pictures with Daddy

Mark won't be able to do the football hold much longer!
Daddy must have worn Eli out!

We are one tired family! Anna Grace still gets her

belly button when she is tired!

Menu Plan Monday

I have come across several blogs in my blog surfing that post their menus on Mondays. I have decided to give it a try. I realize that it will probably not be very exciting for anyone else, but it will help me get a little organized. I need organization as I attempt to navigate this newborn fog we are in!

Monday: Refried beans without the refry (from this blog , the children eat it really well. I follow Bethany's changes and add broth, cut the salt, add more cumin and leave the onion and garlic in when I mash it), taco rice, tortillas and cheese. I made extra beans so we can have bean and cheese burritos for lunch this week.

Tuesday: Chuck E Cheese (It is Isaac's birthday observed -- his birthday is actually Thursday, but he has Boy Scouts that day.)

Wednesday: Pork Chops in cream of mushroom soup, mashed potatoes and green beans

Thursday: My sweet friend Wendy is bringing dinner

Friday: Homemade pizza

Saturday: Barbecue chicken, baked potatoes, vegetable and homemade bread

Sunday is my day off. That means we will either go out, eat left overs or Mark will cook (which means we will go out!)

Happy Fall!

What a crew!Our Littlest Pumpkin!

Mark took the children trick or treating around our neighborhood tonight. Eli and I stayed home to hand out candy. We had over one hundred trick or treaters stop by. Anna Grace chose to come home a little early, so she took over the job of handing the candy out. She was quite proud of her job, and the scary creatures that rang the doorbell did not startle her at all!