melted snowman cookies

because it's 72 degrees out here and we're baking christmas cookies. i mean, could there BEEEE a better cookie to make here than melted snowman cookies???? just perfect i think!

aren't they ADORABLE? thanks to my friend melisa for sharing the recipe. we had so much fun making these with our friend lisa!

and if you love peppermint, the chocolate peppermint cookies are TO DIE FOR! thanks lisa for the FANTASTIC recipe!

carson turned 8

wow wow wow. time is just FLYING.


here are some pics from his birthday party on thanksgiving weekend:

a loving correspondence between brothers

carson and austin were having a squabble. carson was certain he was going to get in trouble when austin handed me the note he had given him. imagine his surprise when he saw me laugh instead.

searyeslea, how can you be mad when you read that???? (and for the record, he's not allowed to say 'pist' and he knows it). ahhhhh, the joys of parenting teenagers and little ones at the same time.

christmas trees and SNOW IN HOUSTON!

last year we were soooo happy to get back into our house on christmas eve that we didn't even care if we couldn't REALLY decorate our tree. so we threw some pinecones on a cheapy one from home depot and it was beautiful in our eyes.

but this year, i am thrilled to be able to REALLY do the tree.

austin and i spent an entire day grooming the branches & putting all the lights on and then that evening all the kids decorated it.

and we actually had some SNOW in houston. south of us, it actually stuck to the ground. but where we are, it just kind of stuck to your clothes for a second before melting. here are the boys just getting off the bus (see why i'm so happy carson finally let us get his hair cut? LOL). and doesn't hudson just look THRILLED by the white stuff? hee hee.

new pics of the kids

my dear friend stacey (of rowan and lucky photography) took pics of the kids. carson was growing his hair out so we had to work ALL of their outfits around his HAT to cover up the scruffy, messy hair (that we FINALLY convinced him to cut off last night...thank you GOD...happy meals are the BEST bribes...cheap and easy LOL).


anyhow, the pictures turned out amazing and as always, i'm amazed to see how much my kids are growing. it seems that from day to day you don't really see the change but then all of a sudden you see a picture and it hits you: THEY ARE GROWING UP :(

if you're looking for a natural light photographer in the woodlands texas, she's definitely your girl :) you can check out more of her stuff at http://rowanandlucky.com/

and the award for most neglected blog goes to...

me.

wow. early november? wish i could say it was because i was just so busy making all kinds of fun memories.

the truth is that november was a reeeeeally hard month and sometimes you just don't want to type all of that out to share, you know? the worries, fears and doubts associated with bobby's layoff got the best of me.

we've lived this before. we KNOW the truth. the fact of the matter is that God has always provided for us, even in the roughest times. we are blessed. our children are blessed. and even if, God forbid, we would lose our home, we still would have family and friends who would be there for us. so compared to so many in this crazy world, we are still far better off.

but it still doesn't change the fact that november was dark for me.

and now december is almost over...and i have some catching up to do.

so get ready for some random updates from the month. will be adding events as i have time.

xoxo.

should i be worried?

think carson may have a little bit of hypochondriac in him...whatcha think?

little bruisers

today marks the 50th DAY OF SCHOOL.

so all the kids dressed up fifties-style. here are my little men on their way out the door. hee hee.

HO HO HO...LETTERS FROM SANTA

i have to be careful how i say this because a couple certain someones are reading very well these days. not sure they'd ever make it to my blog but just in case...

so...hmmmmm...well, let's just say that i have this friend. and she's REALLY GOOD FRIENDS with santa.

check out her website if you're interested in having santa send your kiddos a personalized letter this year for christmas :)

the first shipment goes out on november 27th. check it out:

http://www.santaslittleletters.blogspot.com/

what can $20 buy these days?

that depends on WHO you are and WHERE you spend it!



in my super thrifty cheapskate world, $20 can go a loooooong way.



take my target gift card from sissy for my birthday...what to buy...what to buy? i browsed the aisles looking for just the perfect thing...not a candle (though i love them so) because it would burn and be gone. not clothing because at the rate i am pigging out (thank you stress) nothing will fit for very long LOL. and then i stumbled upon them. two crumpled up plastic bags with the red sale sticker on them. i wasn't even sure what they were...had to take them out of the bag...because i'm nosey like that :) and low and behold (mark, if you're reading this, 'beholes!!!!'), it was two PERFECT curtain panels for my window-treatment deprived master bedroom. $8 each instead of $34.99 each!!!! add the cheapy hardware for $5 and...okay, okay...so it was $21.00. but LOOK, LOOK, LOOK at how fabulous they are. THANK YOU SISSY.

and the thriftiness doesn't end there, my friends. oh no. how 'bout a rousing round of the grocery game? if you haven't heard of it and your heart beats at the thought of stretching your dollars, go here: http://www.thegrocerygame.com/ and if you decide to join, please be kind and use me as your referral :)


anyhow, it rained allllll day. so i didn't get to go til after the kids were all tucked in bed. much as i was ready to climb into my raggy jammies (um, maybe i should have skipped the curtains and gone for new pjs instead????), i COULDN'T miss out on this week's deals.

12 cans of chicken noodle soup

4 boxes of chex mix cereal bars

3 boxes of cheerios

3 boxes of cinnamon toast crunch

3 boxes of cocoa puffs

3 bags of birdseye veggies & pasta

a partridge in a pear tree (hee hee...just checking to see if you're still with me)

and a FREEEE (yes, FREE) glade soy candle...



the total before my savings: $65.91


what i paid: $21.90




(yeah, yeah...i know...it's $21 again...maybe i should change the title of this entry LOL).


OH, AND GET THIS...not only THAT, but i also got coupons at check out for THREE FREE BOXES OF CAPRI SUN JUICE BOXES for my next visit. that's like another $6.00.



i can go lay down in my curtain-flanked bed and sleep tight now. i think i've earned it!

and p.s. if you're concerned that all my children are getting to eat this week is dry cereal and chicken noodle soup, please be advised that i also went to kroger. i only saved 45% there but still got out with enough food to MORE than last our family a week for under $50.

p.s.s. if you had told me 20 years ago that someday this would be the stuff that made my heart skip a beat, i probably would have just ended it all right then. LOL.

after weeks of wiggling...

and wiggling...

and wiggling...

and bribes of happy meals and trips to the toy store...

and attempts at pulling it while he was sleeping (hey, it worked the first time),

an afternoon of rough-housing with huddy did the trick.

carson is down another tooth.

hudson is SOOOOO proud that he knocked his BIG brother's tooth out. he asked if i would bake him a cake to celebrate. i thought the kid who loses the tooth was more worthy, but not in HIS mind LOL. he did what we've all been trying to do, and was way more effective at it :)

and now, count down for the other one...it's already wiggle-worthy :)

Go LaDy eAgLeS!

due to the previously described meet the teacher evenings, i missed jordan's first volleyball game of the season.

SOOOOO, thursday night i got to see her second game. they won the first game but struggled through the second two.

but watching my daughter, interacting with her teammates and her coach, and loving the game is the real measure of success. spoken like a true mom, right? seriously though, it just brings a smile to my face to see the unity amongst these girls. teamwork is such a great thing to learn early on.

here are some pictures from the evening:

team captains flipping for courts.

jordan serving.

waiting.

serving again.

it's up there somewhere...getting ready to bump it over.

setting...

bump...there it goes...

passing...

lady eagles soar!

meet the teacher night @ AUSTIN'S school

after a long evening of going through the high school, class by class, apparently most of the parents decided that they'd skip the last period and try to beat the crowd to their cars in the parking lot.

being the goody two shoes that i am (lol), i wasn't about to leave early (okay...maybe that's not true...maybe true is that austin HAD to serve til the very end and so there really wasn't anything better for me to do).

but, OHHHHHH, if i could change one thing about meet the teacher night for his sophomore year, this would be it. i would have cut class.
why? read on.

geometry. it was the last period of the night. i never really was good in math anyhow. the teacher was waiting in the hall. young guy. bobby stayed home b/c hudson had a fever.

so i get to the room and the guy welcomes me. no one else is there yet. i walk in and it smells SOOOO yummy. i immediately comment. he says he's glad that it smells so good and says he doesn't know what it is, it's a shared classroom, but he's certain it's not him. LOL.

i'm like, "oh no...it's like a bakery scent." and i close my eyes and inhale and then go "YELLOW CAKE MIX! IT SMELLS EXACTLY LIKE YELLOW CAKE MIX."

so he's like, "okay???" and keeps waiting in the doorway (i'm sure hoping some other parents will arrive ).

so i start walking around the empty classroom...i'm certain there HAS to be a plug in kind of thing somewhere and i want to know what it is b/c i LOVE the smell.

i went up to this box looking thing and started to sniff it and realize, RIGHT AS HE TELLS ME, that it's an electric pencil sharpener. OMG.

i'm snorting as i type this out.
so now i HAVE to redeem myself by proving to him that there really IS something in the room that is scented.

i finally find it (it's a big room). it's just some random glade plug in. and i pull it out of the wall and hold it up triumphantly: "FOUND IT!!!!!"

and no one else ever showed up. and the poor guy now thinks that his students mom is an absolute FREAK.

and i am still giggling. seriously. i sniffed the pencil sharpener.

and there you have it. my most embarassing moment of 2009.

meet the teacher night @ carson & hudson's school...

hudson is off to a great start...he's in a small class of only 17 students and he's loving his new friends and his teacher. nothing really eventful to report from his open house other than that his teacher is a total sweetheart and her enthusiasm for teaching them to read is sooooo evident. GOD BLESS MRS. HAMILTON. i can't fathom that responsibility x 17!

carson could not WAIT for me to go to his open house so that i could see the projects he had worked on.

he made a chain of people that comprised our family...and he wrote something about each of us.

here's his run down on la familia, in his words, in his spelling LOL

• my mom is the best. i can't have a beter mom then this mom. my mom is nice. she has blond her. she has brown glassis and she drive's a wite car. i love her.

• my dad is the best. i can't have a beter dad. my dad dose not have a job. he drive's a wite car. he has black her. he is nice. he has black glass. he has black shose. i love dad.
  
• my big brother is so nice. i love him. he is smart. he has black glassis. he has black pan's. he has a blue short. he has black shose. he has brown her.

• my sister is the best. i can't have a beter sister then this sister. she has brown her. she is nice. she has brown glass.

• my little brother is the best brother then this brother. my little brother has brown her. he is nice. he has black shose.

he also had to fill out something about his favorites:

favorite food: peatsa

favorite sports and hobbies: eat

favorite color: black

favorite book: spider man

i wish: i had shage hair

when i grow up i want to be a: pulea's

i enjoy: my mom


the illustrations are HYSTERICAL but i'm too lazy to photograph them to share right now. just know that apparently he reeeeeeeally wants me to let him grow his hair shaggy & when he grows up to be a police man, apparently he thinks he's going to have a gold tooth to accompany his uniform? hee hee.


this kid keeps us guessing all.the.time.

here he is in his new specs:

a man in uniform...

it's open house tonight at the high school and austin is all dressed up in his air force ROTC uniform, ready to serve for the evening.

i'd call him my mini-me, but sometime this summer he TOTALLY passed me up LOL.

an anniversary of sorts...

i think that there are seasons in your life...defining moments...that have such a distinct impact that they are etched forever in your mind & soul.

one of those moments for us was the arrival (and departure) of hurricane ike. without going on and on about how much it impacted our life, i will just say that it has forever changed us. just hearing the name IKE brings the range of emotions back in a split second.

so it was interesting that on the eve of the anniversary of ike's arrival, we had a local realtor come to our house to photograph our 'after' shots. they are working on a revitalization project for our neighborhood and want to cast the vision for the potential of the homes in our community.

they just sent over the photographs tonight and i just sit here in awe. which seems silly considering that this is my view every single day. but i still have this overwhelming 'pinch me, i can't believe that i live here' feeling whenever i see it in photos.

and in case you don't remember what it looked like BEFORE, here's a quick glimpse:

as i look at the before & after photos i am reminded that while things sometimes seem overwhelming in the midst of the storm, often times...after the storm has past...you can look back and see that GOOD has come out of it...things that you couldn't possibly have imagined.

and so, tonight as we face our newest storm, i shall try to remember that "all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose."

this kitchen will serve as my visible reminder that sometimes you just CAN'T see ahead...but that the plans HE has for us are far better than what we can imagine for ourselves. even if the process is painful.