Pre-order anyone??

Click over to the Layouts and Projects Blog! But hurry...these are on pre-sale only until Monday!!

Sugar Cookie

Gingersnap

Madeline

I should have pre-ordering available for these kits no later than Sunday! Because I just got word that my BasicGrey 2 scoops order should be here early next week. These kits will be shipping out the week of the 7th!

From my MS girls!

A big thank you to Greta and Elizabeth for the very thoughtful Christmas gifts! I got 2 adorable handmade cards. 2 Starbucks gift cards and 2 ornaments!! thanks guys...you're the best!


UPDATE---Jonnine (also from MS) sent me this adorable card also!! I just went through the rest of my mail this morning. HOW CUTE!!! Thanks Jonnine!!


And this also came to me from Kelly Jo!! I'm so lucky to have such great and thoughtful friends around the country!!

Thanks guys!!

Santa's coming!!!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
xo-Noel, Jason, Jacob, Nick and Luke

He's better than a Doctor, he's Santa Clause!

We are all kings

There is a fun little thing we do in our house. I forget how it started but we are all "kings of something"...kind of designating us each special in our own way. Nick is King of Cozy, because he is the snuggle bunny. Luke is king of desserts, because he licks his dessert plate clean. Jacob is king of green spaghetti, because he loves spaghetti with pesto sauce. Dad is king of coffee, self explanatory. But today in the car I got the best one. Luke said "Mom, what are you king of?" I said I didn't know, what should I be king of? He replied first with "King of Queens"..LOL! Then he changed his mind and said "no mom, you should be King of Love". Aww....super sweet!

The Nutcracker and do it yourself eggnog latte!

Today was the long awaited day to head to Sacramento for the annual production of the Nutcracker! We took the boys last year and believe it or not, at 3 and 5, they sat through and enjoyed the whole thing. The talked about going again throughout the year so I got tickets for us to go again. Don't they just have that "Bad News Bears" look about them??! There is nothing perfect about my kids....in every group photo, someone is in a choke hold!


Luke was really excited!


The show was good and very similar to last years as far as set design and costumes. The boys made it all the way through again with little complaining, although at one point I did have to whip out a package of m&m's for a bit of a distraction. Oh and at intermission Jacob said "when will this torture end"...but I think he liked it! LOL! but they followed the story line and asked questions, so it was fun


So if you are a fan of the $4 Starbucks latte like I am, I have a very quick and easy treat for you! Fill your morning coffee mug a little over 1/2 way full of eggnog (I suggest the light version). Put it in the microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds. It is important to heat the eggnog alone...I have tried to heat it all togehter and it's not that good. After the eggnog is heated then stir in your usual favorite brew and voila....homemade eggnog latte!!


Oh and for my own selfish reason I need to jot down a few cute things the boys are still saying. Luke is "king of besserts" and likes them "gimantic"! ...translation: he is the king of desserts and like them big. Take a look at his photo above and you can guess how much enthusiasm he has when he says this too! Nick still calls his little finger his "finky"...which I love!

Probably my favorite Christmas movie scene ever!

I can never get through this one with a dry eye!

my "semi-homemade"goodies

So I'm in charge of deserts for our family get together this weekend. So I decided to make several things including cookies. I'm going to share my favorite, and fairly easy steps for festive, delicious crowd pleasing cookies that keep for weeks!

So I love to make chocolate covered graham crackers, oreos and pretzels. And my husband loves peanut butter balls (think homemade recess peanut butter cups) or as my kids call them "chocolate rocks".

First step for the crackers and oreos is to dust them off of any crumbs so you don't dirty up the chocolate.


If you want to decorate the tops with colored chocolates get a couple squeeze bottles and slowly melt them in the microwave in 15 second intervals with the tops off. Fill them...heat them...squeeze them up...repeat, until it's all melted and smooth. Put your waffle iron on low and lay several thick dishtowels on the top to keep the bottles warm and the chocolate workable. **NOTE** check your squeezbottles periodically to make sure the bottoms are not getting to hot. Last year I left one on to long and went to use it and the whole bottom squeezed out.


I forgot to take a photo of my chocolate pot...but here is the Michales version, which is where I bought it. $15 with a coupon. And sooooo well worth it! Just buy a bunch of the Wilton's chocolates, throw them in, melt them and then dip. I use a fork. You want to get your item covered completely and then tap it so the excess chocolate and any air bubbles with come off. Air bubbles are not really a big deal....they just kind of look "not perfect"....Martha S. would not find them acceptable...lol!



You do need to work kind of quickly. Make sure you line your cookie sheets with waxed paper. Get your cookies, etc...in the chocolate and then drizzle or sprinkle as you like. Then off to the fridge to set them up. If you take too long the chocolate will start to turn white, so the sooner you can get it to the fridge the better! Leave them in there about 20-30 minutes.


When drizzling the colored chocolate don't worry about going off your cookies, when they harden you can just snap the excess off to even them out and make them look perfect!


So here are all my finished goodies! I made enough to pass around to the neighbors too! Next week I'm hoping to have time to work on the pretzels. I love to do those in white chocolate with white sprinkles!


You can store all of these items in Ziplocs for weeks! the chocolate is fine at room temp, so just put them in a dark room or closet out of the sun if you want to store them for awhile! If you have any questions just email me!

Merry Christmas 1975 style!

Yours truly....1975! Man...people sure knew how to dress in the 70's didn't they!

Have fun people!

I saw this over on Kristi's blog and I just thought it was so much fun I lifted it! This is how I used to live...fun every day. I want to live fun again. Now that the boys are older it's getting easier and I'm finding the fun with them. But watch it the whole way through...it starts off slow and then they kind of remind everyone to "have fun"!

glumbert - Best wedding first dance ever

Turkey Coma

uuhhh. I think that's the only phrase I could utter after eating that meal I made yesterday! Oh my...was it good! Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry, rolls, gravy...and topped off with the best pumpkin pie I have ever made!! Paula Dean's pumpkin pie is the bomb!!

We started the day by letting the boys decorate some sugar cookies I made the night before. They loved it!

Meanwhile the turkey was cooking....yum!


My mom and grandparents came over which was really nice. I think Jason may have surprised my grandmother a bit with this photo...LOL!


And even though it seems like Thanksgiving was just yesterday....we are on to bigger and better things. Oh yes! The boys are ready for the mother of all Holidays to be here....so they are decorating the tree as I type! And just to ensure a peaceful home until the big day I have informed them all that Santa called last week to check in and that he gave me his home phone number if I needed to get in touch before Christmas. Evil mom alert!


Oh...and yes, apparently we do everything in our pajamas at our house...LOL!

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This is what my twins are thankful for this year....their dog George and their big brother.



In their turkey hats!



Here's Jacob from his Kindergarten show. I have video of this I will need to find too. First graders don't do a show so I'm pulling last years pic!



This was also from last year...the twins doing their "Gobble Gobble" song. They did it again this year but I don't know how to pull the video from the regular video camera, so you will have to enjoy the vocal stylings of the 3 year old preschool class. I also love how Nick (barely out of diapers) tells it straight to the girl who tried to mess with his gear...LOL! They are in the right hand side in blue shirts

Rollin'

HAHAHAHA!! This photo had me laughing so hard I could hardly see straight! I'm so sixth grade!

Have a great weekend everyone!

xo~Smooches~xo

4 eyes

Got me some new glasses! I don't "need" them, but when I'm driving I can't read the signs and late at night everything on tv is a blur. So I'm sporting some "juicy" new eyewear! Ooh la la!

Getting to the bottom of it

So tonight at dinner he said "Lukey wants bread". I laughed and gave him a kiss. He knew I was laughing at what he said. So he told me he has been doing that so I can tell them apart. Turns out he was just being thoughtful! Cute kid!

PS...he told his twin brother he wants to be a rockstar...believe me he's got the personality and already has an agent...so look out world "Rockstar Lukey" may be coming to a mall near you!

And it continues....

Today...."Lukey want's to go to Chili's for lunch". Dude, seriuosly, what's up!?!! This kid is either mental or a comic genius!

Lukey Does

So my son Luke has started referring to himself in the third person. It's been going on for about a week now. Who knows why. I mean sometimes I do it and Jason does it fairly often. Parents usually do. Something like "Give it to Dad right now". etc. But Luke is pulling this kind of routine. Today I said who likes banana bread. 2 "I dos" came from the living room. A few seconds later a "Lukey does...Lukey likes banana bread". He's been doing this for days like I said. I laugh every time he does it. Totally reminds me of this classic Seinfeld clip!

On a side note, Jacob came home last night and said a boy in his class said the "S word". My eyes bugged out and I said "uh oh"! Then he said "yep...you guys know what Dean said, he said the S word.....Stupid. And he should have gone to the principles office, but he didn't." Whew, that was a close one!! LOL!

Genius Alert!!

Wow...I'm impressed with myself! Greta sent me a link to a fun "fill in the blank" type intelligence test. Here's my score CORRECT ANSWERS: 25 / 33 I spent about 1/2 an hour on it, so i guess if I left it and came back throughout the day I might even have a better score. But I have lot's to do today...so I'll just accept the "genius" score I received and be happy. HAHAHA!!

Go give it a try!!

Amazing Raffle!

So my friend Sonda is holding a fantastic raffle over on her blog! Click over for all the details. It's a very worthwhile cause! Good luck Sonda! And whoever wins that prize is going to have a very Merry Christmas!!

For Jason

This made my husband laugh the hardest I have ever seen him laugh. He was crying for like 5 minutes straight after watching this. Man humor!

According to Jacob

So I have a strict "No Walmart" policy in our home. I won't step foot in that place. Not because I don't like a bargain as much as the next guy, but because I get physically nauseous upon stepping foot in the place. Not to sure why, but it's a guttural reaction that I can't control. So we don't go there.

My mother on the other hand loves it! And she occasionally takes the kids with her. Jacob knows I don't like Walmart....so the other day he said to me "Mom, why don't you like Walmart?" I said because it was messy, but that it was OK for him and grandma to go, I just like Target better. He said "I like Walmart. And you want to know the best thing about it? The best thing is, what you're looking for might be right on the floor." I laughed and replied "Odds are it is."

tagged

So I got tagged by Lesle and instead of doing the thing she tagged me to do, I'm doing this one instead....:-) All about my first born.

1)Were you married at the time? Yes
2) What were your reactions? Excited!
3) How old were you? 29
4) How did you find out your were pregnant? EPT
5) Who did you tell first? My dad
6) Did you want to find out the sex? no
7) Did you deliver early or late? early, about a week
8) Did you have morning sickness? no
9) What did you crave? Mexican food
10) Who irritated you the most? My mother
11) What was your first child’s sex? Boy
12) How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? I refused to look at the scale, but probably 50lbs or so.
13) Did you have any complications? no
14) Where did you give birth? At the hospital
15) How many hours were you in labor? 16 hours
16) Who drove you to the hospital? My husband, at 1 am.
17) Was it natural or c-section? Natural
18) Did you take medicine to ease the pain? As soon as I could! I was on a pitocin drip to help my contraction along and was taking stadol because I wasn't dilating. And finally after 13 hours of non-epidural labor I got one. And he was born about 1 1/2 hours after the epidural, so most of it was with none.
18) How much did your child weigh? 7lbs 2 oz
19) Did you child have any complications? I hemorrhaged after delivery...I felt really lightheaded because I had lost so much blood. I look so pale in the few photos of me that day.
20) What did you name him? Jacob Griffin (My mom's maiden name is Jacobson, and my Grandmother's maiden name was Griffin)
21) How old is your first born today? 6 years


Ok...I'm sending this to 3 other moms I know....Greta, Elizabeth and Simone...can't wait to see about your birth stories!

Harry, Spidey and "Dark Spidey"

Here's us last night! Hope you all had fun!

Trick or Treat!

BOO!

He lost it!

Jacob lost his first tooth this morning! It was a fun story. I asked him if he would eat apples if I cut them up and put them in his lunch. he said no, because they hurt his tooth. So I said "we need to get that tooth out of there!"...."do you want me to try the door thing?" I never would have thought he would want to! This is something I had told him my parents had done for my loose tooth. Tied some floss to it and then tied the other end to a door handle and closed the door really fast, making my tooth fly out.

He was all for it. I said how about after school, since he had about 20 minutes until he had to leave. "No...let's do it now. Then I can show all my friends." It took us 3 tries, but I finally got the floss tight enough it wouldn't slip off. Tied the other end to the refrigerator door...told him to close his eyes...slammed the door...a little "Ouch!" and there it hung from the refrigerator!

He was soooooo excited! He said "I can't believe it! I thought my tooth was never going to come out!" It had hung on for about 10 weeks. He thinks he's getting $500 from the tooth fairy tonight... we told him he'll get 500 pennies!

Austin Powers plays blackjack

The last sentence of this clip is probably my favorite movie quote of all time!! Genius!

The times...they are a changin'

So we had a Halloween Day at gymnastics today. Most of the kids wore their costumes and the teacher did too. The twins were Spider man and the black Spider man. There was a Belle from Beauty and the Beast, Mr. Incredible, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and Mr. Joe was a pirate. Lukey was looking at all the costumes and looked at Mr. Joe and said "What DVD is your costume from?" LOL!!!

Keepin' it real

So I added music up to my blog today. And I was sitting here listening to my varied taste in music and it's all over the place. The Beatles, James Brown, Sting. I said to my husband, "my eclectic music taste", and he said "yeah". So I told him "That's how I roll.... I'm keepin' it real". That made me laugh.

first peek!

of the main kit....BG/DD/FP...plus loads of other goodies!!


These pieces are for the "add on kit"...but it's going to be huge-ish!!

Tag...I''m it x 2!

I got tagged by Jana and Stephanie ....so here goes.

Here are the rules of tagging that I am supposed to follow:

1. Link to your tagger, and also post these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of you post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

4. Let them know they are TAGGED by leaving a comment on their blog.

OK...so 7 random things about me.

1) I was robbed at gunpoint at work when I was working as a bank teller. It was terrifying!

2) I knew in my gut when I was young that I would only have boys as children...and low and behold, 3 boys later here I am!

3) I was terrified of moths until about 2 years ago. I'm not sure what cured my phobia, but when I was younger I would get hysterical when moths flew around me. Like screaming and freaking hysterical.

4) My husband and I got tattoos on our 3rd or 4Th date. It's so not us...but it's kind of fun to have that silly story down the path of our lives.

5) I didn't have a honeymoon. We bought our home and moved in 5 days after our wedding.

6) When I was a kid I used to love eating carrots and potato chips together. I know it sounds weird, but that was so delicious to me!

7) The car I drove to school when I was 16 was a 78' Ford Custom Cab truck with cow rails on the back. And the topper of that ice cream sundae of a vehicle was that it was butter yellow....Guess what...I parked a block away from school and walked the rest of the way.

OK...who should I tag??? I guess I'll shoot this over to
Ashley
Greta
Elizabeth
Lesle
Simone
Sonda
and Kim
Can't wait to see your random facts!!

boo

So I got this adorable card in the mail yesterday from my friend Greta who lives is MS. I knew it was from her right away! Isn't it adorable?? Now I go to open and read her Happy Halloween greeting and what do I see....a blank card. Which of course got me laughing so hard on was on the edge of tears. Luckily at that moment I had her on my AOL aim, so we had a good laugh over it. From one crazed mom to another...this card said it all. Sometimes silence speaks volumes!!

Things I am currnetly in love with!

Right now I'm in love with a few new things one of which is this soda I found at the deli. It's called GUS (Grown up soda)...It DEE-LISH-ous!!

Also in love with the New AC Christmas papers!! The will be included in my Mid Nov. kit release along with a TON of other amazing holiday goodies!!

And last but not least...have you seen these yet?? Martha Stewart's glitter pumpkins! I'm going to have to try one. They are so darn adorable!!

40...6...and Georgie

So what a weekend!! On Friday night we had a surprise 40th birthday party at a local hot spot for a friend of mine from Bunco. We had a blast...drank a bit to much...ate a bit to much...and cursed a bit to much...oh well. Good times!!





Saturday was our family Birthday party for Jacob. He's six...wow!!







Then Sunday brought the friends birthday party. It was held at a bouncy house place called pump it up. there were about 12-15 kids, so it was manageable. they all had fun!



And last but not least...this is George. My mom found this little guy in her back ally all beat up and starving. She cleaned him up and took him to the vet. The kids fell in love with him, so now he's ours. he's really a very good puppy. He hangs out in his bed and has only had a few accidents in the house over the last few days. I think the boys are really going to love having a dog. And he's so small he can go pretty much everywhere with us. Another good deal is he doesn't bark. Isn't he a cutie??