happy winter, happy holidays, …

Why does it seem like every time I finally sit down to update this little blog I am apologizing for not updating this little blog … Oh, that’s right, because … um … I am … Here is life in a nutshell since last I’ve made an appearance ’round these parts …

E slept …

… while the big guys decorated the tree

They decorated boxes and baked cookies for their teachers

It snowed … again

They painted ornaments (those are paint markers – pretty neat, huh!)

etc etc LOL. Well, anyhoo, happy holidays

JT sings

Yesterday I had the pleasure of going to my middle man’s first over school concert. He looked so cute, and so proud standing on that stage!

Can you spot which one he is? *hint, he’s blond, and he’s looking at the camera LOL*

Each group did 3 songs. His 3 were “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”, “All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth”, and “Here Comes Santa Claus”. My JT did great!!!!

tis the season to be busy … fa la la la … oh, forget it, no time LOL

So … yep … been busy as a bee around here lately. Between school stuff, speech stuff, sports stuff, holiday stuff, … etc. there’s just been no time to tend to my poor, ignored little blog I do promise to get back to the task of writing as soon as I can because, as I know I’ve mentioned before, I <3 writing. In the meantime I wanted to just post a couple of pics of the kiddies from yesterday and today. We've had a little bit of snow over the past few days, and they've been having a chilly good time rolling around in it

December comings and goings

Man has it been busy around here! First off, Ashley, the 8-year-old, was named Student of the Month … Yep, 2 kids in school, 2 kids in a row named “SotM” … guess I must be doing something right

The holiday is approaching at warp speed and we are in full swing. We managed to get all of the kids presents (with the exception of 1 video game for the DS) … this is early for us, we have very little hiding space ’round here, so we tend to be last minute shoppers. Now we just have to get for everyone else LOL. Probably going to get our tree at the end of the week

It snowwwwwed yesterday! They said 4.5″ here last night. Not much is left on the ground, but I took the kids out for a snowball throwing, picture taking good time this a.m.

Tomorrow is the first part of E’s eval for CPSE (Center on Preschool Special Education). It’s the education portion, and boy am I nervous! I’m not sure if I want him to fail or if I want him to do well – failing means he would be eligible to receive preK, but that means he’d be going 5 days a week all day long; passing means he won’t get preK services (unless we pay for them) and I’ll need to shuttle him back and forth to half hour speech sessions 2 or 3 times a week. What’s a mama to do? *sigh* I just want what’s best for my baby, but it’s so hard to figure out exactly what that is.

Anyhow … as you can see/read, things are busy busy busy in these parts – this session of winter soccer will be coming to a close at the end of the week (2 more practices left), Girl Scouts has become Ashley’s new favorite place to be, the middle man (JT) has his winter concert on Friday, and soon winter “break” will be upon us.

Happy December everyone!!!

Proud Mama right here :-)

If you’re reading this, and you know me or have been reading my little blog for a while, then you know that when my middle guy started kindergarten in September there were some concerns about how he would do. Not educational concerns, my JT is as smart as a whip, but concerns because of his speech. I was real worried that he wouldn’t be understood, and therefore wouldn’t excel like I know he is capable of doing. Well, let me tell you, all those worries were for naught … Not only did he do well on his first quarter report card, not only was I told by his teacher last week that he is her star pupil, but today he was awarded Student of the Month. I am prouder of my middle man than words can express GO JT … keep it up!!!! You rock!

Cornbread Apple Stuffing

Oh … my poor neglected blog. I seem to go through periods where I’ll post every day, and periods where I just can’t seem to get around to it, and I do apologize for those periods, but sometimes things are just Crazy. With the holidays upon us, I don’t see things slowing down anytime soon. I did want to pop in and share something though – my stuffing recipe (sorry, no pics today LOL) – I hope some of you out there find it useful XD

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Cornbread Apple Stuffing

1/2 C butter
1 large sweet onion, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
2 Granny Smith apples, cored and diced into half inch cubes
1 TB rubbed sage, crumbled
1 tsp thyme leaves, chopped
4 C cornbread croutons
4 C white bread croutons
2 1/2 C chicken broth

Preheat oven to 375º F.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and celery and cook till softened. Add apple and cook till softened. Add herbs and stir. Pour croutons into a large casserole dish. Add onion mixture and broth. Mix together. Bake in the oven for 35-45 minutes.

to Photoshop or not to Photoshop …

… that is the question … well, if you are a photo geek like I am that is the question LOL. Here’s the thing with me and Photoshop – I’m not a big Photoshopper. Don’t get me wrong, I edit every single photo that I take. I’m not a big editor though. I try to get things right in the camera, and then I’ll just kind of tweak it. If I had to rely on my PS skills to “make” an image, well it, in all probability would not be all that fantastic. My drill is: crop (if I want to), adjust the contrast, and adjust the saturation. I’ll also convert to black and white, and sometimes add a vintage filter if I think the image will benefit from it. Again, just basics. On occasion though I do feel the need to play. This was just my 3 guys talking through the fence to the little girl that lives behind us. It was a snapshot, and I was bored, so into PS I went …

I love the way the tones came out

long time no post

Okay, it’s been a while … a long while since I’ve gotten a chance to sit down and update my poor little neglected blog I do apologize, but life has been crazy and downright unrelenting in it’s busyness. Anyway … just wanted to take a sec to pop in and share a couple of quick pics from the week …

the leaves

Perp in a Box

Hope everyone is having a great week!!

last day *sigh*

Today was the last day of the fall soccer season. The kids each got a trophy (check out my Mister wearing his goalie gloves – he rocked the goal!!!)

I’m kind of bummed the season is over – I love being out on the field! Guess I shouldn’t feel too bad though, the indoor season starts on Friday … that should hold me over till spring

Easter in October??

Um … okay, not quite. Check theses guys out, I just had to share.

Yes, the blue ones are naturally blue!! They are from E’s speech therapist’s chickens. She brought them over yesterday for us, and I thought they were so neat I had a grab a pic XD