Happy Halloween!

This is sad, I haven't even looked at Halloween pictures til the middle of December! Uncle Eric was over to help carve and take the kids out trick-or-treating with Troy and Paul.

Apples in the Bathroom

The kids have always eaten apples, but in sliced form, and for Lucy, with no skins. I brought home a bag of apples this week and they think the best thing is getting to eat them whole. I'm not going to remind Lucy that they have skins on either. They eat the apples down to the seeds and stem. Way to go!

Cake Balls

Just going through photos from this summer and I remember I was going to post this super duper easy recipe of putziness and fun-ness with a step-by-step photo montage. I have seen these on various websites and made them for a friend's pre-baby arrival gathering in a girl theme this past July. I have also seen these made with chocolate cake/chocolate frosting and really can be made with any cake/frosting combo you could ever desire. This one was done with strawberry cake and strawberry frosting and dipped in white speckled Wilton's candy coating (love those Joann's 50% off coupons for this sort of thing!). Not only are these great to serve at parties, but also look cute bundled together for gifts or "planted" as a boquet! (No, you don't have to pay me for these ideas.)

YOU'LL NEED:

Box of cake mix (and ingredients to make cake)

complimenting tub of frosting

lollipop sticks

candy coating

FOAM (VERY important!)

Step 1: Make cake in cake pan as directed. While cake is baking let helper lick the beaters (or yourself if you have no helper...important to NOT let any of this go to waste!)

Step 2: Let cake cool.

Step 3: Crumble all your hard work up into a large bowl as shown below. Now add in half a tub of frosting to that.
Step 4: Mix it all together so it's all a big moist ball of cakey gooness. If still dry, add more frosting. Can never have too much frosting.

Step 5: Roll the cake mixture into 1" balls. I put in fridge to keep them "solid" while I prepped the rest.

Step 6: Melt candy pieces in microwave per instructions on the package. Set up your station: foam pieces (to stick the pops in while they harden), lollipop sticks, melted dip, cake balls.

Step 7: IMPORTANT - dip the end of the lollipop stick into candy coating before putting a cake ball on it. This helps the ball stay on the stick while you dip it. I actually put them in the fridge for a couple minutes so this would harden.

Step 8: Take your cake ball-on-a-stick and dunk it in the candy coating. Put other end of stick in foam. Put thes in the fridge or freezer to completely solidify.

Step 9: If desired, melt another color of coating and drizzle it over the pops for super craftyness.

Enjoy! I would recommend keeping these refrigerated until you are able to enjoy them. I dare you to eat just one!

My Faith Box

I'm a winner! Actually the whole family is. You've seen me post a Fall Challenge from a blog that I follow "Women Living Well". One of their Good Morning Girls offered a giveaway of a My Faith Box to one lucky winner. In the end, Angela's husband said every woman who entered should get one. In return we would blog/share with our friends about the My Faith Box - these would make excellent baby shower/baptism gifts. You can read more about the giveaway here. With Lucy having just received her first bible at age 3 from church, we are talking about God a lot and this is a great item to keep a record of her faith trek!

To see and order a My Faith Box/My Faith Book

Week 4 - Making Your Home a Haven

Where has October gone? I am just getting weeks 1 and 2 established in our home. (The candle is almost gone, darn, time for ANOTHER). And the music collection just got added to as I broke out the Mandisa that has been held captive in my husband's Camry, only allowing a listen as I drive to Saturday morning bible study :)

This weekend was the Women of Faith conference. Seriously, if you are one of the 3 women that reads this blog, are you attending and if not, why not? I take away something different every year and this year I took away a few things about friendship. And thankfully my friend Annette bought the worship CD that I downloaded and it's now added to our daily "background music"! Already counting the days til next year's conference!

Week 4 is about our children and holy horses do I need to work on this. Being a full time working mom, I often am so busy organizing meals, cleaning house, running errands that I don't think I'm spending nearly enough time making those happy childhood memories.

In fact, my children are taking it upon themselves to make them on their own. For example, Max successfully dialed 9-1-1 a week and a half ago from our home phone. Funny ha ha. Well this morning he successfully pressed the right combination while playing with my BlackBerry and dialed 9-1-1 again. They now have my name and birth date down at Baldwin P.D. and are probably keeping tally and sending me a bill!

Stay tuned for more happy family memory-making!

Zoo Boo 2010

Last night we went to Zoo Boo at Como Zoo in St. Paul with all the kids. It was a good time, nice weather, and it was very organized to get us through without any pile ups!

This is Max, looking thrilled with his costume!


Trick or Treat!
Doing a "witchy" face. That's what the girls are, witches, but the hats are not child friendly. Must figure this out before next weekend.

Ain't that the truth...

Week 3 - Making your home a haven

http://womenlivingwell-courtney.blogspot.com/2010/10/cleaning-up-clutter-challenge.html

It's week 3 and I'm finally getting around to week 2's task - music in the home. I have minimal relaxing music, how sad! I did find 2 that have worked, a Frank Sinatra hits and the Manhattan Transfer Christmas CD. So those have been playing in the house today and I will say that lunch with the kids was rather uneventful (no tattling, fighting) and I'm blaming that on the music!

Week 3 is right up my alley, cleaning up the clutter in your home. Egads. Clutter begets clutter that's for sure. Not sure where to start as if I did as suggested, buy a basket where clutter usually happens, you would find baskets every 3 feet in my house. Trying to think of another solution. I like the idea of taking a garbage bag and running through the house for 20 minutes, but I'm guessing the children would have no more toys to play with when I got done. I have a week to figure this out :)

This upcoming weekend is the annual Women of Faith event at the Xcel. This is my 5th year going and it's money well spent. I usually come away from it with some sort of "to do" or focus in my life. Can't wait to see what this year brings!

Go Max!

Max had his 18-month appointment yesterday and here are the stats:

31" tall (15th percentile)
23.4 lbs (15th percentile)
head 49 cm (90th percentile)

So he's a peanut with a big head. He has the cutest smile ever, signs "please" all the time, can lay down and throw a tantrum at the drop of a hat, does not like to read books but likes to wrestle and pull hair. Still trying to learn what the word "gentle" means. He's all boy!

Week 2 - Making your home a haven

http://womenlivingwell-courtney.blogspot.com/2010/09/making-your-home-haven-fall-challenge.html

The candle has been burning when I remember to light it at home, right in our kitchen. We picked up an awesome soy candle while on our anniversary trip to the North Shore last weekend. (Yes I know I do make soy candles but as I can attest to anyone, I do not like to make my own crafts but only craft for others!) The scent is "Autumn Pear" and I love it. So the purpose of the Women Living Well fall challenge, week one, was to say a prayer for peace on your home every time you looked at the candle. I think I did accomplish that once or twice. There were other prayers said such as "God, make Max stop pulling everyone's hair." and "Dear Jesus, I wish these two kids would take a nap already."

This week's part of the challenge is to have soft music playing in the background of your house. Seriously the only "soft" music we have would be in the form of Christmas instrumentals. Lucy is going through a Michael Jackson phase and that's just not going to bring a sense of calmness on our house this week, so I better go dig out the Perry Como...

Making Your Home A Haven - Fall Challenge

I am linking up to one of my new favorite blogs, Women Living Well, for her fall challenge. It starts with a candle so it has me hooked :)

Last Days of Summer

Summer is over and Fall is here, my favorite season, and we're starting out with rain and flood warnings. Since we have been flooded twice in the past year and things happen in 3's I'm holding my breath. In fact, if our basement floods again, you can send someone over to the house to commit me in the hospital.

Enough negative talk though, let's look at some photos of the last days of summer:


Team work:

Team work is over:

Troy lets Lisa mow the lawn for the first time!

Looks like a back to school shot, but I think this was before church. Lucy in her new free purse with her money in it:

Loves to help dad wash the dishes:

Breakfast of champions - powdered donuts. Notice the evil donut face:

Mom whipped out a couple aprons yesterday to be used at the Craft Show at the Orchard. My first ever time doing something like this, details closer to the date (November 22nd).

Too cute for words

Baby Stuff

We're in business! Please go to http://sellnswap.blogspot.com if you were directed here for "Baby Stuff".

At the Car Wash

Some photos of the kids helping dad wash the car last Sunday. Looks like Lucy was more interested in washing her brother though.

And a couple pictures of Max eating Dilly Bars. You'd think it was summer around here all these treats.

Life has been busy all summer. We are now fully moved back into the basement after the great flood of August 11, 2010. 2 times in one year, if it happens again the For Sale sign is going up "as is". ugh.

Abby has been gone almost 2 weeks now. Sometimes I think it's getting easier every day and then we'll find things like a new box of dog biscuits Troy had bought that day, or Max playing in a basket of dog toys. Ironically when things happen to you, you tend to notice it in the news and happening elsewhere. The night she died there was a news clip of Mark Dayton (running for MN govenor) telling someone to turn the a/c on in his vehicle for his dogs while he did a press conference. The following weekend's "Sainted and Tainted" section had a couple articles chastizing people leaving their dogs in a vehicle during these hot days. I keep thinking, I know how it feels to have the shoe on the other foot. If you are so concerned about an animal being left in a hot car, don't write a letter to your paper, go in to the store and find the owner. Maybe that person was like me and was so absorbed in everything else going on at once, she didn't even know the dog was in the car. It's easy to judge when you haven't been in that situation, but I can tell you honestly that if I ever see an animal in a car on a hot day, I'm going in the store to find that owner!

To end on a happy note, my favorite time of year is arriving. It commences with the Great MN Get-together!

July 7, 2003 - August 12, 2010

Today we lost our dear dog, Abby. It happened tragically and I'm still trying to wrap my brain around it. I missed her at dinner tonight, not by our feet to pick up Max's scraps. Or when I shut the garage door tonight, when she usually runs in tripping the garage safety light. Or in Lucy's room tonight, where she normally lays while I read bedtime stories. I'll miss her crazy snoring at night. I just can't believe she's gone. I'll miss taking her on walks and her running to the street to greet every dog that walks by. I'll miss tossing her popcorn during movies. I'll miss her trying to shove herself under the bed during fireworks.

We haven't told the kids yet figuring we'll see when Lucy brings it up. Tonight at bedtime she told Troy to say a special prayer for Abby. Kids know more than we think they do.

As our hearts grieve for our family member, we are thankful for all the good years we did have. She was great with our kids and loved us all unconditionally. R.I.P.

Teef

Max has been running a fever for the past 2 days and screaming at night and not sleeping very well. A trip to the doctor yesterday says he's teething. I suppose that's right, he hasn't had any padoodles or vomiting that would speak of a virus and his lower gums look swollen. Just with the tooth would make it's appearance already. He's a poor whiney little fella that is difficult to console right now.
Last weekend I enjoyed my Mother's Day present, a whole weekend alone in my own house, and I enjoyed every minute of it! I am not ashamed to say that a break from the children and husband is a good thing!

Our house is chaotic right now with our master bedroom spread out throughout the house (repainted the closet and awaiting the closet system we ordered to arrive). After the closet is back together I have to decide on a wall color and just do it. The bedding is here and the wall color we chose, which we painted in the closet as a test, might be just a bit too much to have on all 4 of my bedroom walls, so need to tone it down a bit. The master bedroom has only been waiting a facelift for 4 years, what's a few more weeks?

Loving the sunny weather and trying to take it outdoors as much as possible. Not only is that Vitamin D good for you, but it apparently makes my kids sleep like a rock! (Unless of course you're teething.)

Looking forward to this long Memorial Day weekend followed by a week up at the cabin in June. Can't wait to be awoken by the loons and nature and not a screaming child :)

The picture above of Lucy and her big bun. Somehow a sandwich made on a bun is more likely to be consumed than an ordinary one on bread. And her face is painted, which is often a daily occurrence at our house now since the church spring festival. Oh well, it's free fun and gives me practice!

Have a safe holiday weekend everyone!

Valentine's Day at the Zoo

Took us a long time to upload photos, so the blog posts may be out of order. On Valentine's Day we packed a lunch and headed out to the MN Zoo.