Dec 29: zoo

I thought this was an amazing picture of Collin at the zoo but I had to post 2 others as well

Caleb managed to come to the zoo with no shoes.

All the grand kids climbing like crazy.

Dec 28: expecting

Julie is expecting soon!

Dec 27: Game night

Game night was at our house and we had a ton of fun with Paul's new game called passwords.

Dec 26: Boogers

Everyone has a cold and Melanie is no exception.

Dec 25: Estate

The girls liked there new dollhouse estate. The elves were up till 12 putting it together.

Dec 24: PJ's

We all got our PJ's Christmas eve

Dec 23 :leaves

I wish our trees leaves look so bare but they keep dropping tons>

Dec 22: park

Kids and moms played at the park while the men played Frisbee golf.

Dec 21: Graham cracker houses

It gets so crazy we wonder why we do it but the kids have fun.

Dec 20: Blanch

I like to blanch my green beans.

Dec 19: Guitar

I did not even know she played the guitar. Apparently she had the class when she met Paul and was a bit distracted.

Dec 18: Cafe Rio

Cafe Rio warms our hearts. I worked really hard on all the recipes.

Dec 17: Nuts

There are always big bins of nuts at the stores during the holidays. This could make a cool wallpaper.

Dec 16: mad libs

At Rachel's class party they did Christmas mad libs. The papers were hung by the stove with care in hopes that J. J. Watt soon would be there.

Dec 15: The Grinch

In Rachel's class today they are watching and celebrating the Grinch movie. They were invited to either wear green like the Grinch or to dress like a who. We were a bit rushed but I had to do something so......

Dec 14: leaf piles

Little Kids do love to play in the leaves. Unfortunately the swamp oaks in the b

ackyard have pretty flat leaves leading to really wimpy piles. The neighbor was raking his whole front yard into one pile and it reached almost to the top of his mailbox. Kids would have had a field day(and made a huge mess) if allowed to plat in that!

Dec 13: visitor

We had a little visitor inside the house by the back door. I thought he was rather cute. Hazel held the door while I shushed him back outside. He is a harmless ribbon snake but he will be better off outside.

Dec 12: Cookbook

They came! They came! They are finally here. I have been working on this cookbook for at least 2 years. It was a lot of work. I learned food photography and did all the pictures and every recipe has a photo. People I know actually wanted a copy. I felt so good. I hope they like the recipes as much as I do.

Dec 11: Disney Princess

Hazel fell asleep looking like one of her favorite Disney princesses. She even got the movie for her birthday this year.

Dec 10: naughty or nice?

Do you think Melanie has been good enough? I don't know, she doesn't let mom sleep at all these days.

Dec 9: cloud

I have no idea what kind of clouds they were but man were they weird. Rachel noticed them at school as well.

Dec 8: Libaray

Is there a limit to the number of books you can take? We took like 20!

Dec 7 cousin love

December 6 : Leftovers

Leftover are much more exciting when you re purpose them into something else. Saturday I made carnitas. very yummy but for it I cooked a whole pork butt. After feeding my family and my sister who is minus her hubby for awhile I still had lots leftover. It was all part of the master plan. In the freezer I had enchilada soup saved from a big batch and turned the leftover meat from the carnitas into taquitos to go with them. Rachel dipped them in the soup like you would a grilled cheese into tomato soup. The leftover get used but we didn't feel like we were having leftovers again. Yay!
You can fill taquitos with lot of different leftover meat like pot roast or shredded chicken.
In college I even used canned roast beef. Gasp! Rinsed off the gravy seasoned it a little and turned it into taquitos.

December 5 : Rain

Rain. We have been under flash flood warning all weekend. It was dry for so long. We have either been flooding or dry this year. No in between. I captured this image on the way to get Rachel from school it is actually a reflection of the woods overhead. The little blurry parts are leaves or things in the water.

December 4:lemon

The lemon tree is giving it's fruit. It is so crooked and only as tall as the backyard fence but it makes lemons the size of grapefruit! The kids were getting out the patio chairs to stand on to pick them. They loaded them up in a toy shopping cart and hauled a bunch inside. Some were still a bit green but that's ok. I appreciate their harvesting efforts.

December 3 :Ice

Never buy the fridge/freezer my parent have. We are house sitting while they are gone on a mission. It does not drain or freeze properly and collects and freezes under the freezer bin. This is all the ice of just 2 months I think. It was at least 1/2 inch thick. What a pain!

December 2 : TJ

We went to the zoo today. We love the zoo. The highlight was the baby seal. Sarah had been trying to see him every time we went to the zoo since she was born. They had notes up saying she was to little, then that she was practicing swimming in a baby pool in the back and finally this time they were cleaning the cage at first and said they would be letting her out at 11am. We went to see other things but rushed back at 11 to see her. we were not disappointed. Man was she fast. She zoomed around the pool so fast. She would occasionally jump from the water and also chase her flippers like a dog chasing it's tail.
I bet the adult could probably go just as fast but...why...no predators or fish to catch. Very fun to watch. I guess little kids of any species seem to have boundless energy. Wish I did.

Little town it's a quiet village...

Hazel Has been singing that song from Beauty and the Beast a lot. She cannot say Bonjour and instead says bazoom. This is a Christmas village. Josh's mom collected them and it was one of his favorite thing about Christmas. He has started his own collection and it is very pretty when lit up at night.

Oh Christmas Tree

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree....oh how I'll miss my sister

This is her tree with an ornament that has one of her boys hand prints on it. It reminds me of the snowy Christmas they will have next year in New Hampshire.

making up time

Time flies in the holidays. I have kept taking pictures but posting every day is harder. Like I said I will post at least once a week. I try to everyday but like I said holidays and babies keep me busy sometimes.
November 24th

Thanksgiving was special. We were down in numbers enough that we were all able to fit around two tables pushed together. This meant a more intimate passing of the food then the buffet style we usually have to resort to due to the number of people. The turkey was amazing.

November 25th

Pumpkin gingersnap cheesecake from the pioneer woman recipes. Definitely a keeper.

November 26th

Ellie here for Thanksgiving. Love the curl.

November 27th

Sweet Melanie holding Rachel's hand

November 28th

Stayed up till 1:30 to finish my cookbook.

November 29th

Rachel stayed home. Looked like she had some hand, foot, and mouth.