A New Year Bring New Goals

This is my last post of 2009. Hard to believe this year has come and gone. I am not even sure where it went. Here are the highlights of our life for 2009.

1. We were in a car accident and our car was out of commission for 10 weeks.
2. Andrew's dad had another stroke and is recovering nicely.
3. Tatum began Pre-K but went down to three days a week.
4. We did a LOT of family events this year. I love that. It was good for us. We did something it seemed every month. I am fortunate that Andrew can take a day off here and there to do something during the week so we don’t cram it during the weekend.
5. Our beloved Buckeye's made it to the Rose Bowl.
6. We found a church and have been going most every weekend and have been trying to make some changes in our daily walk with God.
7. Tatum and Beckett are learning new things every single day. This as a mom amazes me. I love to have those ends of the day conversations in the car with Tatum. Beck joins in every so often.
8. Beckett was pretty ill this year but we have survived it. Tatum--just once. Praise Jesus.
9. I have formed a closer relationship with my in-laws. I Love them!
10. We have had some serious car trouble which in part brought money trouble...but we are working our way out of it.
11. I ran (jogged) for three months.
12. Andrew joined a gym (company paid or I would SO be there with him. We just can't afford a gym membership).
13. We only bought for the less fortunate and our kids for Christmas this year. Probably one of the smartest, best things we did all year long. I will never hesitate to go back. I did NOT miss the stress and felt better about Christmas this year and I have my entire life.
14. I started scrapbooking.

What do we hope to accomplish in 2010?

FINALLY LOSE THE WEIGHT AND START LIVING HEALTHIER
*HOW*

1. Andrew is getting a personal trainer--lets hope this helps both of us!
2. Santa Ebby brought money for mama some running shoes--which I am going to get.
3. Kim met a runner that is helping her with a schedule and hopes to be able to jog/walk a 5K by May
4. The Wii Fit has come into our lives by a miracle and Tatum likes to work out on it—as do we. Let’s hope the novelty doesn’t wear off.
5. Make working out either alone or as a family a TOP priority—and support each other on it.
6. Try a new healthy recipe each week.
7. Watch our online time. We seem to be online from the time Andrew gets home until we go to bed. I think this can be better spent. (Wink wink...) or working out.

BEING A CASH ONLY FAMILY

I am sure Mr. Dave (as I call him) would agree. Cash is King. Come May, the car will be paid off and Andrew and I will be able to be Cash Only. This is our last debt only to our home.

1. Pay off the car
2. Be on a written and planned budget
3. Use more coupons and stop the impulsive buying. We are both guilty of this…but more so me as I do all the grocery shopping and household buying.
4. Start working on our large expense fund.

BE MORE FAMILY ORIENTED

1. Do more as a family—Tatum I feel will benefit more from this. We have seen a change in her this year with the family dynamic so I wish to continue this.
2. Be more open with each other-talk openly about things. (I very much tend to take things personally and think everything is a personal attack on my ways. I know this and is something that I wish to work on)
3. Start talking baby 2011? Dancing later on in the year?
4. Visit Disney? And Visit Disney with only cash.
5. Join the church we have been attending for two years…or find a new one. I don’t care which….but I feel that step is being avoided—and not by me! I don’t want to do it by myself…but I might have to.
6. Make some more friends…find and join a small group. Again, another thing I might have to do myself. I know I married Mr. Antisocial..but I this is starting to wear on me. Not that we have a lot of time after being away from the house from 6-6 every day..But maybe every other week???
7. Try to have a better relationship with my sister. I am not sure this will ever happen. We have more of a texting or calling on emergency only relationship. I don’t know why this is the way it is…maybe partial jealousy.Maybe the way I feel she is very condescending toward every part of my life—including my parenting which breaks my heart more than I know because I strive every minute of every day to be a good parent. But, whatever the reason, I hope it gets better this year. I will try to keep an open mind.


Have a blessed and happy New Year Everyone. It is time to play Wii with the family. God Bless all of you.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone. Happy Birthday Jesus!

Luke 2:9-12
And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. (10) And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. (11) For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (12) And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”


The kids got up around 8 am and Tatum exclaimed that Santa had indeed been here since all the cookies had been eaten. (Andrew was up half the night from an upset stomach due to eating all those cookies). He also conveniently left Vivaca (Barbie and the 3 Muskateers) in her stocking which was another sign. The kids very much liked all their toys and have been playing with them since. Also, of course, switching things up and playing with each others toys. Funny how those things turn out.

We had our annual Overnight Orange french toast for breakfast which Andrew lovingly describes to me as "breakfast crack". Makes me feel good that it turned out so wonderfully. I am baking the homemade rolls right now and getting ready to make the mac n cheese. Salad is done for Christmas dinner at mom's. Hopefully it will taste alright.

On another note, I love my family. I am glad Andrew and I have been afforded the opportunity to give our kids a good Christmas. I know there are many people that haven't been able to do that this year. I am also glad that Andrew and I were able to tell Tatum and have her shop for the less fortunate with Operation Christmas Child. I know that made us feel better and it gave Tatum great joy as well. We will continue that with a tradition as long as we can. It is a good for everyone involved.



I do wish that my sister and I had a better relationship. That was my one Christmas wish this year. She is getting ready to have another baby and I don't know anything more about it. We don't talk--except for once a month at our family dinners that we have to have to keep in touch with each other--even though we live 20 minutes away. I haven't mentioned it before because I have never been strong enough to mention it before. But, something changed in me this year. I became stronger--more in myself and in my faith and in my ability to parent and love and be human. So, as I love on my kids all day long and look lovingly in the eyes of my aswesome husband, I am reminded that love is deffinatley unconditional.  Have a wonderful and beautiful and loving Christmas.

Christmas Traditions/Clifton Mill

I am a sucker for traditions. While I was so sure that I wasn't going to have kids I am glad that I did so that I could pass on some traditions. Here are some that Andrew and I have started with our marriage and then when Tatum was born.

1. Open one gift on Christmas Eve, after we get back from church--these of course will be Christmas Pajamas.

2. Bake cookies and leave them out for Santa (along with some milk).

3. Watch Rudolf and Frosty (then when they are older...who knows) on Christmas Eve

4. We had been going out to eat on Christmas Eve, but it was busy and EXPENSIVE, so we opted to stay home this year. We will be making calzones...

5. Get picture taken with Santa.

6. Eat Overnight Orange French Toast for Christmas Breakfast

7. Make a birthday cake for Jesus (this is Tatum's suggestion 2009--after hearing it on the radio)

8. Get the kids an ornament that either shows the year (1,2,3..etc) or that shows their interest. (I have a hard time finding the year after 5--in which case, I will choose the later for Tatum)

9. Operation Chrismtas Child donations with TAtum. She loved doing it this year and if you pay the box online they will track your package and let you know where it was delivered. Our's was to Nepal. How fun.

A new one I have been discussing with Andrew is possibly the "Elf on the Shelf". My friend Amy does this with her kids and they love it. I will have to check it out after Christmas to see if I can get it on sale.

On another note, we took the kids to Clifton Mill tonight for their Christmas lights display. OMG. I loved it. It was freaking cold and busy. They said it would busy during the weekends which is why we opted for during the week. Still busy...but lots of fun. We didn't get to check out the Santa display, but we did stay for the music and lights and we did walk around the village. Beck really liked the train set and Tatum liked seeing the Reindeer and Santa in his workshop. She told me that was the real Santa and he was getting ready for Christmas. How cute is that!!! I love that she is so into it this year and Beck is following suit. Awesome~

GIVEAWAY ALERT: 3 BOOK CHRISTMAS BOOK BUNDLE

December has been very hard for us. We had some car problems, both our kids have been sick over half of the month, and we are still trying to get all the Christmas things done. Sometimes I feel like we have lot sight of the real reason for the Season! Jesus. It helps that our children don't have us lose sight as when they request their books at night , they are ususally the Christmas books. It certainly helps us to put things back into perspecitve.

My friend Debbie over at A Frugal Friend is offering a giveaway for 5 winners to receive a copy of three different books listed on her website. That is 15 books....with the help of Zonderkids. I won one of her giveaways with the Zonderkids books and it has quickly become a HIT in our home. We read it along side of the Christmas books at night.

You can enter for the giveaway here.

Good luck!

Monkey Bread and Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

Im my attempt at kitchen domestics I have breakfast, lunch and dinner already done for the day and it is only noon. I am figuring out that I love cooking so much more when I make things from scratch and finding recipes that the our family finds together. I also love it more when I am making things that aren't ordinarily in the weekly rotation. That rotation was getting really old, really fast. In my previous post, I listed the menu for our family this week. Here is today's menu.

Breakfast:
Monkey Bread taken from the Pioneer Woman--( I used to have this when I was a kid for Christmas morning before church--kids gobbled it up and hubby said it was a keeper). Go mom! Tatum had some fun cutting up the biscuits and then shaking them in the bag. I had a little trouble with mine sticking togther so I had to pull some of them apart--but fun for us none the less.

Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 40 Minutes Difficulty: Easy Servings: 8

Ingredients

3 cans Buttermilk Biscuits (the Non-flaky Ones)
1 cup Sugar
2 teaspoons (to 3 Teaspoons) Cinnamon
2 sticks Butter
½ cups Brown Sugar

Preparation Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Open up all three cans of biscuits and cut each biscuit into quarters.

Next, combine the white sugar with 2-3 teaspoons of cinnamon. (3 teaspoons of cinnamon gives it a fairly strong cinnamon flavor. If you’re not so hot on cinnamon, cut it back to 2 teaspoons.) Dump these into a 1 gallon zip bag and shake to mix evenly.

Drop all of the biscuit quarters into the cinnamon-sugar mix. Once all the biscuit quarters are in the bag seal it and give it a vigorous shake. This will get all those pieces unstuck from one another and nicely coated with cinnamon-sugar. Spread these nuggets out evenly in the bundt pan.

At this point, you’re going to want to melt the two sticks of butter together with ½ cup of brown sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat. This can be light or dark brown sugar. Cook butter/sugar mixture, stirring for a few minutes until the two become one. Once the brown sugar butter has become one color, you can pour it over the biscuits.


Lunch: Leftovers or sandwhiches (this was my plan all along--if I can't use the rest of the meal for another meal--it goes to lunch--no waste).

Dinner: Lazy Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
(taken from Jen's blog--my cuz--check her out--she makes some very yummy stuff)
**One note that I changed on this....I had a fryer chicken I bought for this so I used the boiled the chicken off the bone (a fryer generally will give you 3-4 cups of chicken). I then used the stock from the chicken that I just used. I peeled the skin off the chicken before I boiled it and left some on for flavor--and gave it to the dogs(good for their coats)).

Lazy Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

4 cups cooked chicken, chopped
1 cup onion, diced
1 cup celery, diced
1 cup carrot, diced
4 (14 ounce) cans low sodium chicken broth
2 (10 3/4 ounce) cans condensed cream of mushroom soup (with roasted garlic)
2 teaspoons fines herbes (chervil, chives, parsley, and tarragon)
salt
pepper, tp taste
2 cups egg noodles, cooked

Remove skin from the chicken and chop the meat.
Put the chicken into a slow cooker with the onions, celery, carrots and peas.
Stir in broth, mushroom soup, and fines herbs. Season with salt and pepper.
Cover and cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or low for 8 to 9 hours.
When soup is finished, stir in egg noodles.
Season to taste and serve. Enjoy!

Santa--Sickness and the Fantasy of Lights

Last night we took the kids up to Alum Creek Marina to see the Fantasy of Lights.  This is a drive though light show. A little bit of Christmas joy and we get to stay warm. We planned our day accordingly so that the kids would be able to see them and not fall asleep on the way there. Alum Creek is about 20 mintues from our home and top that with driving there in the dark and that equals opportunity of little heavy eyes to close. Last year, Tatum and Beckett were both asleep by the time we got there. We had to wake Tatum up and needless to say, that didn't last long.

This year however, the kids were both wide awake and could make out and point out all their favorite lights. They had pretty much the same things as last year but it is something I really like doing and will add it to our list of "traditions".  Midway through the lights you can stop at "Santa's Workshop" for free cookies and hot chocolate and the kids are able to visit with the jolly old man himself. I was pretty excited to see how Beck would react since he is all about "santa" these days. Plus, Beck is extremely ill, so I knew the mall Santa would be out of the question. He did really well. He talked to Santa and said "percy and thomas" and santa pretty much probed those questions.

Tatum of course asked for "Barbie and the Three Muskateer's"--the only thing she has asked anyone for since mid August.  Santa was pretty much like "ummm...okay...Barbie" and of course Ta was like no..Barbie and the Three Muskateers....but I really want the Purple one. HA!

I am glad that we got to take the kids last night. They both have been pretty ill and house confined. We didn't get amoungst the public for long, but it was at least out of the house. I will post pics as soon as I can--as we know...the basement is a dungeon and freezing and the laptop wont support my camera software not does it have a card slot.

4 days till Christmas....What to do next??
Monday: Santa trip to the mall with Tatum and baking some Christmas cookies

Tuesday: Tatum with granny and some wrapping time for mommy and daddy...maybe Beck gets to go out?

Wednesday: CLIFTON MILLS--I can't wait. I wanted to do this last year but we didn't quite make it.

Thursday:  Family time and Family Worship at New Life.
                 --Check this out if you would like to attend a Christmas Eve service. At this service, children are invited to hear a story, sing carols and partake in the candle lighting. Tatum seemed to enjoy this last year as did Andrew and I. BTW...we will also be baking a cake for Jesus for his birthday. Something Tatum heard on the River and has asked that we do this.

Friday: Christmas Day...HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS.

How's your week panning out??

Christmas Break

I am on VACATION. Yep, I said VACATION. While on VACATION, I plan on being very domestic. Hubby and I already discussed this and made up some recipes that we want to try out. I also plan on trying out some of the Pioneer Woman's recipes. I can't wait. I will be forwarding her blog (website) to my hubby to have him pick out some recipes. Yum!

I also wanted to start running again too. I have one pair of shoes left that aren't worn down and they are running shoes. So, I will take it as a sign.  I haven't worked out in months. Im not proud, but I am ready to get down to business. I need to get off my arse and off the computer. We don't have any money for me to get mama a new pair of shoes--so after my scrapbooking weekend in January, my new savings  plan will be for me to get a new pair of walking and a new pair of running shoes. I plan on going to Columbus Running Company to get tested for my gait, etc. and trying to get on a training plan. They only charge $30.00 for a 12 week session. Can't beat that.

I ordered a Wii Fit for the household too. And no, I didn't pay for it. I earned it. I used all the points I had saved up from my office (for perfect attendance, quality, etc) and used them to get the fit. We have been talking about it for a LONG time--so I finally (just this week) got enought points and I wasted no time.

Will post more when I try some of the recipes from PW. Christmas is right around the corner. I am still not done shopping. Ack.

Beck's Upcoming Birthday

I am on a mission! Beck is turning 2 and I am trying to find all things Thomas. It wont be a huge to do as he will only be 2. I remember back with Tatum turned 2 and we had a party for her, but our friends had children similar ages, so it turned out that we had people to celebrate with. Beck has our family. Not that he doesn't have any friends, but our friends were done haveing their kids when we had Tatum so we don't really have anyone to help us celebrate with Beckett. BUT, we will have a good party for him. 

Thomas the Tank Engine will be my theme. He loves Thomas but also loves Percy so I will be trying to incorporate them both. We will see. I am not that crafty but a girl can dream right?

So I am thinking of this for our favors..( my friend Amy passed this along to me and I think they are stinken adorable)

Then we have the cake....I am going to borrow a pan from my friend Debbie to practice with and see what I can manage. I will need to find some info on  colors for Thomas and Percy of course...whooh. Thank goodness I have a few weeks off here soon.

Well, as soon as I get some more on invites, etc I will post them. I will be able to post more too since I will be on VACATION.

Thomas the Tank Engine Contest

My friend Debbie over at A Frugal Friend is offering a contest to win the lastest 3-DVD Gift Set that was just released. Stop on over and visit her site for your chance to win. You all know the Beck's whole world right now is Thomas. It is the first thing he asks for in the morning and the last thing at night. I hope I win..but dont lose out at your chance.

The DVD's offer the following:

Thomas and the Toy Workshop



Thomas' Snowy Surprise


Races, Rescues & Railways