Jenn Tagged me!

Here's the rules:

1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer

2) Select the 4th picture in the folder

3) Explain the picture

4) Tag 4 people to do the sameNO CHEATING! (cropping, editing, etc!)

This is from August when we were redoing the kids bathroom.

I'm breaking the rules though I'm not tagging anyone :)

Our Visit with santa

Did you know that Santa comes to church's for their Christmas parties? How cool is THAT! Here is the middle blueberry giving his list. He thought he maybe to big for Santa but Santa patted his lap and told him "I have a big lap sit down!"

Apparently Santa is a HUGE Atlanta Falcons fan, but we don't follow football! He was giving the middle blueberry stats and team members names and we had no CLUE what he was talking about (but his Falcons shirt is a cool one :) )

The little blueberry did so good! When we first walked up Santa knew his name (Santa's elf helper is littles choir teacher)! He was so shocked! Notice in these pictures there is NO EYE CONTACT. Here he is looking at his beard.

Here is doing everything he possibly can to not make eye contact.

I'll give you my list but I'm not looking at you!!!

It was really cute and now they've given their list we don't have to go see Santa at the mall-YAY!

Stamp Club Projects

Hi everyone! We had our Stamp Club this weekend and it was a GREAT time! If you haven't joined in you are missing out! We learned new coloring techniques and we will all be adding Dazzling Diamonds to every card we do! Here are the pictures of our projects



This card is featured in the Stampin Up Holiday Mini catalog. It uses the Home for Christmas Stamp Set which I love,love,love!

This is the triangle treat box from Beate's blog (fresh and funky) she writes amazing tutorials on SCS and the instructions for this one are on her site. I used Snow Swirled for the stamps on this one.

Here is another one using Snow Swirled. Simple but adds so much! Again I found the idea on SCS

We would love to have ya join us! Next month Emily is hosting.

Why can't I post pictures?

I try to upload them and then IE times out and then I get empty posts on my blog. Anyone have any ideas what I'm doing wrong?It's very frustrating!

Menu Plan for this week

This is a crazy busy week so we'll be doing a few crock pot meals instead of just one this week. Usually Wed. nights are crock pot nights because of church. Last week I wasn't able to do my Eggplant Parm. Sandwiches so I'll be doing that tonight :)

Monday: Eggplant Parm Subs with Sweet Potato Fries
Tuesday: 10 minute Fettuccine from this website http://orgjunkie.com/2008/11/10-minute-fettuccine.html I'll be doing it with Shrimp
Wed: BBQ Sandwiches with Fried Asparagus (going to try a beer batter with these)
Thursday:Pot Roast with Carrots and Potatoes and Yeast Rolls
Friday: Is my birthday I'm hoping for Sticky Fingers :)

Have a great week!

Menu Plan for this week

Hi guys! Here's my menu plan this week.:)

Sunday: Grilled Chicken Salad
Monday: Buffalo Chicken Chili (from Rachel Ray's Website)
Tuesday: Eggplant Parm. Subs with Sweet Potato Fries
Wed. Chicken Taco Soup (because Wendy's was sooo yummy)
Thurs: Lasagna
Fri: Eat Out
Sat: Eat Out

My "just in case" meal will be Red Beans and Rice and Cornbread

Have a great week!

Great quote!

My friend Cheryl saw this quote over at 2peas and she had to share it. It is a GREAT quote!

"Whatever you give a woman, she's going to multiply. If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby. If you give her a house, she'll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal. If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her. So - if you give her any c.rap, you will receive a ton of s.hit."

Just a little update

I've been using my blog more as a "favorite tracker" than a blog so I thought it was time I updated it.

Stampers that check here, wait until you see the November projects I have for you. The card looks so time consuming but it is sooo easy. I'll show you 3 different ways to add color to your cards. The 3D gift is adorable, and the unexpected is something your kids will enjoy. Stamp Club isn't until Nov. 22 so you'll have to wait until then to find out more (I know it's killing you isn't it!).


My menu plan for this week is a little well little. I was totally unprepared and had no clue walking through the aisles of the grocery store yesterday, but here's what i came up with

Tuesday was Tortellini with Pesto
Wed. baked ziti (it's all Jacqui's fault she had it last week :) )
Thursday Unstuffed Pork Chops-I may have to post that recipe it's sooo easy
Friday Is a crop Wendy will be doing the food ha ha ha!
Saturday Eat Out

My just in case meal this week is Red Beans and Rice and Cornbread :)

And finally I have to tell you about this weekend. We had a wonderful time camping, it was very relaxing and the I did not once hear "I'm bored". Ofcourse once we walked in the door the fighting began over the computers. We will definitly have to do it again soon. The littlest blueberry keeps asking when we are going to go camping again.

Menu Planning-a little late :)

I never knew how much I repeat suppers until i started posting it each week. Apparently my family REALLY likes faux-Moe's :) Taco Night but with things Moe's adds like Black Beans, TS Salsa, and Guacomole. Here is my menu this week I'll back track a few days,I will say that Ground Round is what was on sale so that's what we're eating a lot of this week :)

Sunday:Meatloaf
Monday Faux Moe's Taco Night
Tuesday: Baked Potato Soup and Homemade yeast rolls
Wed: Rotessiere Style Chicken from the Crock Pot Blog
Thursday: Hamburgers on the Grill
Friday: Camping woo hoo! We'll be doing a Shrimp Gumbo
Saturday: Camping: We'll be doing something easy probably in the crock pot maybe the Taco Soup that I didn't get to do last week.

Have a great week!

Frankie has a friend

And his name is Dracula :)

Is this not the cutest craft ever!A Stampin Up Demo posted on her blog the pillow boxes in Dracula. Well since I don't own the Pillow Box Die or the big shot I had to make do. These are so cute!!

Menu Planning for the week

It's finally getting cooler so I can break out the soups/stew recipes now!!

Sunday: Chili and Cornbread
Monday: Martha Stewart Penne and Chicken (she made it with Turkey i'll use Chicken)
Tuesday: Baked Pork chops, Baked potatoes, Corn
Wednesday: Beef Stew in the crock pot
Thursday: Grilled beef teryaki
Friday: Eat Out
Saturday: Eat Out

My fall back on recipe will be Taco Soup I forgot the ranch seasoning though and I'll have to go back for that-shoot!

Our first Stamp Club!

We had our first Stamp Club today. I have to say my favorite,favorite,FAVORITE project was Frankie. Thanks to Chic N Scratch you can check her blog out in the Blogs I follow she is AWESOME!!! I have kits made up so if you want one just let me know! We need more people in our club! We'd love to have ya!






This is a gate fold card. We used the WOW Flower Set-this is a GREAT versatile set. For 12.95 it's a great stamp to introduce you into card making.


And last I used the tutorial from SCS and made this scalloped edge medallion. We made a suprise card from this technique. If you want to see it sign up for club :)

November Diane is hosting and we'll be using the new set Home for the Holidays.

It's GREAT fun come join us!!!

Pumpkin Patch Time!

Yesterday after church we hit the Pumpkin Patch. All of the money goes to missions so every year we make it a point to buy them there. They do cost a few dollars more but it's for a very good cause.




Chase found this perfect one-this one is the "family pumpkin" the one that Daddy will carve :)


Ian found his! These are his "angry eyes" He is serious about his pumpkin :)


Okay so this is a "body humor" one. What do YOU think it looks like-LOL!!


Here is all three blueberries with their pumpkins. Why is it so diffucult to get all three of them to look in the same direction!

I want to encourage you to buy your pumpkins from church's-it's a great way to support their missions.

Menu for the Week

I went to Publix yesterday so I'm menu planning a little early this week. I changed my Sunday plan the avocados were screaming at me to make guacamole this week :)

Sunday: Taco/Ultimate Nacho Night
Monday: Chicken Stir Fry
Tuesday: Italian Chicken
Wednesday: Pot Roast in the Crock Pot
Thursday: Emily's Chicken Lasagna
Friday: Eat Out
Saturday: Eat Out

Have a great week!

My Menu for the week

This one is for Heather. She wants me to start putting up my menus for the week so she can get a few supper ideas. I only cook 5 nights-the other 2 are my days off :) . I'll back track for yesterday-we have a crazy busy week again with the smallest blueberry starting Soccer so it's pretty much an "out of the box" meals this week.

Monday: Zatarain's Red Beans and Rice and Tastefully Simple Beer Bread
Tuesday: Hamburgers on the grill
Wednesday: McCormick Bag and Season Chicken with Carrots and Potatoes
Thursday: BBQ Pork Chops
Friday: Eat Out
Saturday;Eat Out
Sunday: Homemade Chicken Pot Pie (use the recipe for my pie crust that's posted here it is sooo yummy).

I'll start posting them each week maybe it will help you too.

Thank you Steve!!!

For those of you who don't know Steve was the teacher of my SLR Photography Class at ASU. I had this awesome camera that DH bought for me and I was shooting on Auto. It took great pictures but I felt like I needed to learn the full potential of this camera and wean myself off of the little green box (Auto Setting).

The main reason for me even wanting an SLR is shutter speed. You see my children are not involved in non-action type activities... no they are board breaking, Jogging on Horseback, or running bases in tee ball (okay so there is a posed shot there cut me some slack :) ).

My guys (and my girl :) ) had testing this weekend and i just had to show you before and after Steve's class. The result is simply AMAZING!!!

This was shot on P only because the flash wouldn't pop up :) and at a High ISO-again i had NO IDEA what that meant!


Even with my new lens I just could NOT get good pictures.
And here are the "After Steve's Class pictures" see what I mean AMAZING!!!! Shot on P, adjusted my WB and ISO-now I DO KNOW what that means!!! I am so excited I just had to share!!



look at those kicks-woo hoo I captured them!!!


If you have an SLR camera I HIGHLY suggest taking a class-the results will amaze you!!!

Busy weekend awaits us.

I just made my weekend plans list and oh boy are we busy!!! I'm afraid I have added to the stress level by deciding that today would be the day we paint the Living Room.
It looks a little like this

Today: Joint Compound the nail holes and paint the living room (if Ian feels like going to Home Depot to get the paint)
Tonight: My guys are testing for High Blue-YAY!!! (Tae Kwon Do for those of you who are lost :) )
Tomorrow: Try a Zumba class at the Y
Sunday: Church, the I'm hosting a Taste of Home party at 2, the we are having a birthday party for my sister's little one, then we have to take Megan to Choir and Youth.

Sheesh!!!

Back to reality

My weekend retreat was FANTABULOUS. I have the best girlfriends! Now I know you're probably thinking "No way I have the best girlfriends" but I'll have to argue with you and say "Nope I do!". We laughed so hard our abs hurt.

We did actually scrap. I got 24 pages done. But the best was Heather she scrapped over 400 pictures! She left with 3 huge albums completed-WAY TO GO!!!

I would post pictures but they're all on Wendy's camera :)

We want to make this a yearly trip it really reenergized us but by Sunday at 3 we were all ready to come home and see the kidlets. They were missed terribly.

I told DH last night "Thanks for letting me go" he said "Sure anytime" so I told him "How about next weekend" he didn't answer :)

Heading to the beach!

The best thing about my DH is that he understands the importance of my "girlfriend" time. Ofcourse if you ask him he'll say "What choice do I have" but he does and he understands it. I am heading to Hilton Head this weekend with 4 girlfriends (hopefully 5 if D can get out of work early) and we are going to scrapbook. Oh boy I am carrying a lot of stuff (I hope everyone else is too or I'm going to look like a total space hog :) ). I have printed the pictures for 21 layouts (basically 42 pages) I really hope I can do it.

I'm off to get ready! Have a wonderful weekend!

This child can sleep anywhere!

The littlest blueberry is such a nut. He is wide open all the time but if goes down for a nap he sleeps hard and where he falls asleep is where he stays :)

This is how is looks in his "wide open" stage running around like a crazy man. :)


And a little while later he sat down to watch Veggie Tales and he was down for the count :)
Even having an Oreo face didn't phase him.
And yes he is hanging off of the couch upside down sleeping. This was at 12:30 a.m when he finally crashed.
And yesterday he was sleeping standing up leaning on the couch (yes I did get pictures but they are still in my camera) :)

The internet, it's a great thing!

What did we do without the internet? Our co-op is starting on Friday and I am teaching a US Presidents and First Ladies Class. I stumbled across a blog (I was following link after link so I would post it but I truly can't remember where I was-LOL you blog stalkers know how that goes :) ). At any rate I have been looking for a printout of the Presidential Seal and came up with an entire Unit Study!

I realize in planning this class I miss Unit Studies. You see we went through a time where I had the need to unschool the biggest blueberry and we did Unit Studies all year long. It was so fun and she really learned a lot. Hopefully through this class and lapbooking these kids will learn a lot too.

She had a great time!

I forgot to post an update when the biggest blueberry came home! The first thing she said when she got off the bus was "Did you miss me" I told her yes terribly she then said "Well I didn't miss you!" hmph.... darn teenager





While we were waiting the boys went to play on the playground. I decided to play a bit in Aperture Priority Mode. Usually I am a little to shaky and they are blurry but these turned out great!



This is my favorite of the day of the middle blueberry he cracks me up!


And this is the littlest blueberry in the car waiting for his sister. Next time I'll change my focus point and get the mirror clear and the back of his head blurry.

Sigh she's growing up.

I need to face it my baby girl is asserting her independence.

Our church has an awesome youth group that she got involved with over the summer. All summer they talked about Awanita. Awanita is a HUGE Christian Campground that is an awesome experience (I went to Awanita 23 years ago-shocking isn't it!). Here is their website www.Awanita.org they have TONS to do ( alot more than when Mommy went)so I know she'll have a good time, but we don't even do sleepovers at our house so for her to be gone 3 days and 2 nights is a REALLY big deal! The one thing I didn't count on was how much we would miss her-even her brothers are ready for her to come. Here are some pictures.

Getting her stuff out of the van:




Mom quit taking my picture!!!


My shy child took the path of least resistance and sat right behind the driver (poor little homeschool kid doesn't realize you go to the back of the bus-LOL)



Here is how they left. There are a total of 120 kids going and hopefully between 2 and 3 o clock today we'll see this big bus pulling into the church parking lot bringing back our precious little (okay okay BIG) girl!

Fabulous Photography Opportunity

Last nigt was our last Photography Class. It was very bittersweet, I learned so much I hated for it to be over, but we ended with a BANG!

Last week Jenn, Wendy, and I were standing around and these gals passed us and said "Hey we're fire people you can take some really cool pictures of us". So when it came time to set up a location for the last class we told Steve our teacher about the "fire people". He raced down Riverwalk and caught up with them for the details. They practice on Thursday nights and they were "lighting up" this week.

We decided we would all meet at Boll Weevil for supper and then head to class. There were 6 of us that came to eat, and sadly none of us could tell you all 6 people's names, we had a great dinner (okay well I had a great dessert-DON'T order the Potato Soup at Boll Weevil-YUCK! )
and then we got to have this fantastic "session" is that what you call it :)

Here are a few of my pictures from last night. I know I must be getting be an old Mama because all I kept thinking was "Be careful, Don't hurt yourself, and WHAT DOES YOUR MOTHER THINK OF YOU DOING THIS????"

A GREAT You Tube Video

Homeschool Moms this will be our theme song this year :)

http://lifeontheplanet.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/08/i-will-survive-homeschooling.html

I just love it! I may have to listen to do it daily :)

First Day of School!

We had a great first day of school. I have to tell you though that Mommy felt alittle bit like that scence from the exorcist where her heads spins around. It was a little tricky schooling everyone at the same time. We figured out the middle blueberry needs to get up before the little one because he tends to get distracted looking at the fun coloring stuff his brother gets to do. We'll have to stager a bit more than what we did today.

We changed a few curriculums this year and I think they will be great choices for us! First we are going with Life of Fred for Algebra (don't laugh it's really a good program!), and for Grammar we switched to Daily Grams and Easy Grammar. Our favorite so far though is the Answers in Genesis Science it's GREAT!

So all in all I would count this as an excellent school day :)

A little update

Sunday was a big day for us. Our church gives rising third graders a bible, and the middle blueberry finally got one! It was made even more special because one of my scrapping ladies made the bible covers and embroidered them with the cross and flame (I can't imagine doing that-there were 60 third graders!), he is thrilled to have his very on bible!
And the youngest blueberry LOVES tee ball. It's indoors so all the Mommies love it too :)
We have the best coach the kids have learned so much.

Picture of the Day Contest

News Channel 6 is having a Picture of the Day contest. Basically everyday they choose a picture that as been sent in and the winner receives a free session at Michael O'Bryne Photography. Guess what.......

tomorrow they chose MINE!! YAY! I am so excited.

This was our first vacation with my Xti it was bulky and heavy but it take BEAUTIFUL pictures. This one was shot on AUTO. It is the Lighthouse at Harbor Town on Hilton Head Island.

I may have to do a Creative Memories Poster Print of this one!

I'm so excited!!! Now if I only had Tivo because I know I won't be up when they announce the winner in the morning :)

Yummy Blueberry Pie!

The greatest thing about having 5 blueberry trees in the backyard is in the summer we have GREAT blueberry pie. DH and I and the littlesest blueberry LOVE blueberry pie and it usually doesn't last long at our house. The one thing I always forget until I go to make this pie is that I don't own a pie pan-LOL! So I just make it in my trusty Corning Ware Casserole Dish. This lattice top is what happens when you let a 4 year old help with your crust. He LOVES to help cook and I let him, after all it tastes the same it just looks alittle different :)

Here is my tried and true recipe. First my crust this is hands down the BEST homemade pie crust I have ever had! I found it on All Recipes my go to website for recipes.

2 1/2 c. Flour

1 c. Shortening

1/4 t. Salt

1 Egg

1/4 c. COLD water

1 T distilled White Vinegar

Directions:

1. Combine flour and salt. Cut in Shortening until it looks crumbly.

2. Mix egg,water, and vinegar together in a seperate bowl. Combine with flour mixture until it make a ball.

3. Wrap in plastic and chill (I'm impatient so i stick it in the freezer for a few minutes)

Here is the recipe for my blueberry pie. It's a variation of several we have tried many different recipes and have taken what we like from each one and created this one. For best results use the vinegar pie crusts.

Ingredients

4 1/2 C Blueberries

1/2 c Sugar

1/2 c Firmly packed Brown Sugar

3 T Flour

1/2 t Cinnamon

1/8 t Salt

1 T Butter

Preheat oven to 375. Roll out 1/2 of your pie crust and line your pie pan (or in my case corning ware dish :) ).

Crush 1/2 of blueberries in a ziploc bag and strain the juice. Add enough water to make this 1/2 c.

Put in a bowl all of your indgredients EXCEPT the flour. Mix. After the mixture is added then add your flour to the filling mixture.

Put in pie crust and top with the reserved pie crust either cut it into strips for a lattice top or you can do a "pot pie" type where you cover it completley.

Bake for 40-45 minutes. If your edges become to brown cover with strips of tin foil.

ENJOY!

A little update

I was trying to leave a comment on someone else's blog and was directed here so I thought I'd take a minute to post a little update.

Our summer is in full swing and we are busy,busy,busy. I thought we were supposed to have more time during the summer not have something on the calendar every day!

The youngest blueberry just celebrated his 4th birthday! I can't believe my baby is 4. We celebrated at Chuck E Cheese. A kid's favorite place and a parent's worst nightmare! Here's a pic.

Isn't he a cutie? Notice the cake-he wanted a Super Why cake. Well they don't have a Super Why cake so being the crafty Mama that I am-ha ha ha, I printed the picture laminated it and stuck the characters on a premade cake from Publix. It's not perfect but he was happy and so was I.

Well I'm off to take the oldest to her Wednesday morning Bible Study class.

Upcoming events that I PROMISE to blog about are: TKD testing heading for their blue belts, Basketball Camp, indoor T Ball, and what I'm most excited about my Photography class that starts soon! I'll be getting my Xti off of Auto-woo hoo!

Trying Again

So it's be a while since I've blogged I became a little frustrated not being able to figure out how to post pictures. My friend Jenn showed me last night and being the visual learner that I decided to try again this morning. So here goes nothing!

This is NOT my favorite picture but it's all 5 of us plus Jack and look it's there! Woo hoo! Thanks Jenn!