I live with PIGS

SADLY ENOUGH, THIS IS TRUE. This is how my boys room looks 90% of the time. I don't understand it. I yell until I am blue in the face, harp on them until I can't stand the sound of my own voice and threaten to knock them into next week if they don't get it cleaned up and promise to never let it happen again. But it always does. And it is usually trashed again about 2 hours after they have just cleaned it.

I just don't understand it. I was, as a child, and still am as an adult, meticulously clean. Everything had a place and it was always in it's place. I would dust my room, take my light fixture out of the ceiling and clean it, change the furniture around in my room, wash my window and the window seal, and vacuum perfectly straight lines at the age of 8. But somewhere I have missed the mark with my own kids.

If I made a mess, I quickly cleaned up after myself. I never sat there with a smug eating grin on. Basically I was the perfect child!

So I started to evaluate the rearing I have given my children to try to figure out what I have done wrong and where I need to change.

-Have I always taught them to clean up after themselves? Check. Only for some dang reason they don't. They leave it for me to either clean up or to yell at them to "get in here and clean up after yourself!"

-Have I taught them to put their clean clothes away properly? Check. Only for some reason, I end up getting folded, clean laundry BACK in the dirty clothes bins in the laundry room. (this infuriates me!)

-Have I taught them to take their dirty clothes either to the hamper in their rooms or to the laundry room? Check. Only for some reason I end up with mismatched socks that have been soiled and stuffed in the cushions of my couch and dirty underwear stuffed under the bed.

-Have I taught them to put away their toys after they finish playing with them? Check. Only for some reason they are strung into EVERY SINGLE room of the house.

I can't figure out anywhere that I have gone wrong. Only thing I can come up with for why this stuff happens is because of this guy.......

(this picture was taken somewhat by surprise and he wasn't pleased. Then again, the flaring of the nostrils and the pursed lips probably gave it away.)

Merry Christmas 2009!

Molly LOVES Fancy Nancy. So she got a ton of Fancy Nancy stuff for Christmas. One of the first things that she opened was her Fancy Nancy dress and her Fancy Nancy purse and sunglasses. She stripped of her pj's and put on her new outfit. She also got a Fancy Nancy doll.

And a new Fancy Nancy book. She put her doll on the couch, climbed up and read her new book.

Cade got this really neat Razor big wheel thing. It drives like a big wheel but has razor scooter wheels on the back and it can do 360 turns and really neat tricks.

He sat down on his big wheel first thing and opened all his presents there.

Sid has been wanting some boots REALLY bad. Can you tell she was a little excited to get them...

And Jensy got the .22 that he asked for. He couldn't hardly wait to go shooting with it.

Sidney's 10th Birthday Party

Well we have FINALLY celebrated Sid's birthday. She turned 10 this year. So seeing as how she was now a decade old, I told her we could celebrate one of two ways. Since she was a decade, we could have a decades party. We could have the girls come dressed from different decades: 50's , 60's, 80's, etc. and we could play games from different decades. Or we could have a baby shower since she was out of her baby years. The baby shower was easier to buy stuff for so we went with that.
Each girl got to take home a little goodie bag with a bubble gum cigar, mints, a rattle, chap stick and a pink flower hair clip.

Her invitations we baby shower invites and we played baby shower games.

First game we played was we had to smell the "poopy" diapers to figure out which kind of candy bar had been melted in it.

Then we played this memory game. I showed the girls the tray and then removed it and they had to remember as many things as they could. And lastly we played a baby shower bingo game.

Then we had pizza

and cupcakes. It turned out really cute. The girls had fun and I finally got it celebrated for her! Happy (belated) Birthday Sid!

Holiday Treats

Microwave Caramel

1 cube BUTTER (not marg.) at room temp.

1/2 c sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c Karo syrup

1/2 can (14oz size) sweetened condensed milk

*Stir together until there are no lumps and it is smooth. Microwave for 6 minutes. POUR out the mixture in a greased or waxed lined 8x8 inch pan. DON'T SCRAPE the bowl out. For some reason it changes the consistency. So just get as much out as you can and then you can scrape the remainder out onto a plate for yourself for later! DO NOT DOUBLE THIS RECIPE either.

Peanut Butter Cups - or squares

1 pkg Graham crackers - finely chopped

1 c BUTTER - melted

4 c powdered sugar

2 c peanut butter

*Mix all the ingredients together and pat down in a wax lined cake pan. Melt two 8oz (the giant ones) Hershey Bars and spread over the peanut butter stuff. Chill and cut up.

These are so yummy. They taste just like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. It doesn't matter who I give them to, they LOVE them!

Tea Pot cake

My friend's darling little girl is tuning 3 today and is having a tea party to celebrate her birthday. Jamie, my friend said she wasn't going to bother making a cake for it. So I made one for her. It turned out so cute! I have this red tea pot that I set out at Valentines that I love, so I tried to make it look like it.
I just baked a cake in a 2 quart batter bowl for like an hour until it was done. And the lid is a jumbo muffin top. The spout and handle are made out of cardstock. So easy!
(yes, yes I know I am bragging. But sometimes, you just want to!)

PUMPKIN WAFFLES with BUTTERMILK SYRUP

I wish that I had some pictures to post of these but I didn't make any, so just use your imagination. They are so yummy! I like to make them on Christmas morning.

PUMPKIN WAFFLE BATTER

1 c flour

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

*mix together in a bowl

2 egg yolks-beaten (keep the whites for later)

1/2 c pumpkin

1/2 tsp vanilla

3/4 c milk

6 tbsp melted butter

* mix together well and then add the dry ingredients and mix.

Whip the 2 egg whites until peaks form, then fold into the batter.

BUTTERMILK SYRUP

1 1/2 c sugar

3/4 c buttermilk

1/2 c butter

2 tbsp corn syrup

*Boil for 7 minutes. Remove from heat then add:

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

*Stir together well.

You have to make this syrup to pour over the waffles. Don't just pour some plain old store bought maple syrup on them. They just won't taste the same. These are so yummy!

Cowboy Staduim

I have had a nasty --literally nasty, naughty, all of the above in my computer---that I downloaded on purpose kind of. I thougt I was running a Windows Security Center sweep. A fake Windows Security Center said I had a virus trying to attack. This kept popping up for a week or two so I finally ran the sweep which downloaded porn! I about died! I was so glad that it was me who ran the sweep instead of Jens. NOW TO MY POST!
Jeff had an Agel event and took Jens along. He also brought my nephew Alec and Sam brought Jaxon. They had an all access pass to the Cowboy Staduim. They LOVED IT! They got a personal tour of the stadium and then got to watch the game from a suite.

Jens was so excited to show me this picture. He said that this was his new facebook profile picture.

After the game, they all got to go down onto the field run around and play. They loved doing that.

Alec and Jeff

Jens and Jaxon