My very talented son!

I love this time year.  I love the cooler temperatures, (and slowly I think we're getting there) the crisp mornings and the earlier evenings.  I LOVE Thanksgiving.  I love getting together with family and friends.  I love cooking all the yummy comfort foods we associate with this time of year so naturally I do more of it.  However, I do have two problems,  first one is I get tired of cooking the same things all time. So lately I've been a bit obsessed with food blogs.  I could literally spend hours searching out different food blogs.  I have found a new favorite.  It's The Pioneer Woman.   I just love her!  She has fabulous recipes so if you get a chance go take a peek,  but be prepared to spend some time there, she has loads of fun stuff to browse. Now my second problem is, because I'm cooking more, I'm eating more and unfortunately my desire for exercise does not match my desire for eating.  I guess another plus about this time of year is the bulkier clothes I get to wear to cover up the extra pounds I've put on!!

Happy (eating) Thanksgiving!

Last birthday of the year!

If I wasn't feeling old enough at my own impending birthday (right around the corner) I  do now that my son has turned 17!  If time wasn't flying before, it sure is now.  The next couple of years are just going to be blur.  How precious this time is and a great reminder to enjoy every moment we have with the ones we love.

I Love you G-man!

Here's my birthday boy trying to pull off the Wolverine look.  This was his attempt at a Halloween costume this year. (he really needed about another weeks worth of growth) I was sad when he shaved it off.

Let's just say Halloween is NOT my favorite holiday.  Now fall I love, Halloween not so much.  All the time and money spent on costumes and candy, well I'd just scrap it all but, of course, the kids love it but I really try to keep it simple.  So, of course, I'm all about EASY Halloween costumes.  It's pretty much whatever you can find in our costume box, borrowed, or requires the least amount of effort and money on my part.  These costumes were perfect for my Halloween laziness.   Mario and Lugi.  Thankfully, I had two willing participants.  I just hate it when I think I have a great idea for a simple costume and the kids just aren't on board with it.

The girls were just whatever.  Liv based her whole outfit around that tie, she had some pretty crazy socks on too that you can't see here. ( couldn't upload the other picture that showed them off ) Sweetpea found that dress at a local thrift store and that was good enough for me!  

 Here's one benefit of your kids getting older...they can carve their own pumpkins!  Hubby was working and he is usually the one that does all the grunt work of carving pumpkins.  But the kids wanted to do it so I sent them outside and said "clean up when you're done."

these are the results...

Liv got discouraged because her pumpkin was so small and it was really hard to carve, so after finally getting the top off she opted to just draw a face on.  This is Jack.

Let me just say, I'm so glad Halloween is over, now we can get down to the real holidays...Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Upgraded.

Hubby and I have always been a little behind when it comes to cell phones.  I think we got our first phone about 5 years ago and only one, for me.  Nothing fancy, just the free phone that comes with your  service plan, cause if you know anything about my husband he's not going to pay for anything extra that he doesn't "NEED".  That meant basic plan, no texting or anything.  So we were a one cell phone family for a few years.  When we switched servers we decided to add another phone for Hubby, which was nice because we could let the kids use it if they went out, etc.  The phone turned out to be more of a frustration for me than anything else because every time I would call him, his ringer would be off and he'd hardly ever check it.  His phone was for his convenience only.  So imagine how I felt when he came home a couple weeks ago informing me that his job was providing a work phone for him.  (let me tell you, that alone was a shock)  But Not just any phone, mind you, but one of these..

 The Droid......

OH MY GOSH!  I can't even tell you how cool this phone is.  Really I can't because I don't even know all the things it does.  I have to say I did feel some twinges of jealousy here.  I mean he barely used his other phone and I thought "what a waste" this will be totally lost on him.  Well, how wrong I was.  I can't tell you how many times out of the blue he says.  "I love my phone!"  He's texting, emailing, checking game stat's, downloading apps, taking pictures and I don't even know what else.  Who is this man and what has he done with my husband???    Anyway, I guess we're moving up in the world of technology, well Hubby is anyway,  I still have my free, non texting phone.  Oh well, maybe if I bat my eyes and ask real nice he'll let me use sometimes.

First Lost tooth!

 

Little A was so excited to finally loose a tooth!  So excited he barely waited for the tooth to be loose before he wanted it pulled.  His tooth started to get slightly wiggly a couple months ago but hadn't progressed much, but then he noticed that his permanent tooth was coming in behind his baby tooth.  After biting into a couple things that helped loosen it a bit more he couldn't stand it any longer and asked Papa to pull it out.  He was so brave considering his Papa had to loosen it before he could pull it out.  Little A was determined and didn't back down. After each tug, he shook off the pain and went right back for more, finally the tooth popped out.  He was so happy.

Happy Day!!

First Day of School -Final Round!

Mr. E was the last one to start school.  He started yesterday.  We're trying a new school this year called CAVA (California Virtual Academy) they use the K12 curriculum.  Home schooling your children is such an overwhelming experience in itself but trying to choose a curriculum just about did me in last year.  There are so many choices, it will make your head spin.  Our school last year worked like this.  They gave you an allotted amount of money each year for you to buy your curriculum  and materials.  Yes, that can be fun, you can do a lot of cool things with it including music lessons and certain sports.  (That's how Mr. E and Liv took Rock climbing) like I said, trying to narrow down WHATt to buy is enough to drive a person crazy.  I just didn't want to do it this year.  So I heard about K12.   It's an online public school.  It's supposed to be a really good curriculum.    The best part? I didn't have to pick out anything.  Two big boxes were shipped right to my door, filled with all the text books, workbooks, dirt, rocks (for Science) that he will need for the year.  At this age, the curriculum is mixed online learning and book learning.  As you get into High School it's more online learning.  Anyway, I'm excited.  Hopefully, I'll feel the same way by the end of year.

(there is a chair positioned perfectly behind Mr. E's head that makes him look like an elf! funny.)

Happy Birthday to my beautiful boy!!!