Tagged!

My very first "tagged".... thanks, Becky! ;-)

8's

8 TV shows I enjoy watching:
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. How I Met Your Mother
3. The Today Show
4. Army Wives
5. Survivor
6. The Amazing Race
7. Dancing with the Stars
8. ER

8 things that happened yesterday:
1. I went to work and listened to babies cry for an entire hour! Then thankfully, the instigator went home!
2. Took Kami to dance class and got to watch... it was Parent Watch Week, and unfortunately I had no clue... so no pictures to show. Oh well...
3. Put our new LED Christmas lights on the tree.
4. Made some yummy homemade tortillas to eat with leftover Chili.
5. Decorated the Christmas tree with the family.
6. Watched "Charlie Brown Christmas" with the kids.
7. Ordered a Christmas gift for my Grandparents.
8. Went to bed at a decent hour! (10 o'clock)

8 things I'm looking forward to:
1. Christmas Bunco tonight with the Babes!
2. Disney on Ice tomorrow with the girls, Paulette & Kylie!
3. Finishing up Christmas shopping with Tyler!
4. Christmas Break... no work, no school, ALL PLAY!!!!
5. Christmas!!!!!
6. Our 10th wedding Anniversary!
7. The day we can live close enough to family so that Tyler and I can actually go on dates!
8. Disney World... hopefully in 2009!!!
9. (Had to add a #9... this is a biggie!!!) Tyler sewing on Tech!!!!!

8 things I love about WINTER:
1. Hot Chocolate
2. Christmas music
3. Christmas lights
4. The fact that I live in a place where it snows only briefly, and even if it snows a little more than that, it doesn't bury the house, and doesn't stick around for months! (Can you tell I'm a California girl?)
5. Yummy soups and chilis for dinner
6. Jackets... some girls love shoes, I love jackets!!!
7. ... and Scarves!
8. Cuddling on the couch with my favorite snuggly blanket!

8 things on my wish list:
1. To live near family, or..
2. To move back overseas... Europe, please?
3. Disney World in 2009
4. New clothes!!
5. A new wedding ring!
6. That Madi gets a part... any part... in "Beauty and the Beast"
7. That Tyler and I could go away somewhere for our anniversary
8. To be the best wife and mom (sorry for "copying", Becky... that was a good one!)

8 people I tag: (sorry ladies!)
1. Christi P.
2. Mary W.
3. Missy N.
4. Krissa P.
5. Jennifer G.
6. Whitney S.
7. Jenny G.
8. Cyndi O.

My little Block-head!

In case ya'll were wondering where in the world I had disappeared to, since my blog posts have been a little, uh, lacking lately... I spent the last the last few weeks of November entirely consumed by another of Madi's productions. This time around we were doing "Velveteen Rabbit", and I was actually one of the Producers!!! Although the last weeks of the production were HIGHLY stressful, I had a GREAT time and cannot wait to do it again!

The show was fabulous... we really had some amazing parents working behind the scenes to create a truly magical set, and even more magical costumes. Our toy room "come to life" scene was simply amazing! And the kids... we had some of the sweetest kids involved in this play! I am suffering from slight withdrawals, I think, from Stagestruck, and all of my new friends- young and old!!

Madi was one of the "blocks". All six of these girls were so much fun, and actually spelled out words by turning around and showing the different letters on their "block"! I am so proud of my little "block-head"... congrats on another job well done, Miss Madi! Now on to "Beauty and the Beast"!!!



Madi and her best friend, Mary Ella


All the blocks, awaiting their turn on stage!

SNOW!!!

We had a very PLEASANT surprise a few weeks ago here in Goldsboro. SNOW!!!! Being a California girl, I'm not a big fan of the stuff. It's very pretty and I love watching it fall to the ground, and love to watch my kids play in it and catch snowflakes on their tongues, and I even like for it to cover the ground in a blanket of white... but that's about as far as I go. An inch or two is PERFECT!!! Well, we didn't have that much snow on November 18, but the flurries were definitely falling for a good 20 minutes or so, so of course Kami and I had to go out and experience it since it would only be a matter of time before it stopped!





I think we may be in for a "rough" winter, and it's technically not even winter yet!! Only three days later more flurries were falling to the ground... that's snow in Goldsboro twice before December!!! We shall see what the season holds!!

Bubbles!!!

School Fall Pictures 2008

The kids came home with their Fall Pictures this week, so I thought I'd share. Ignore the "Style A" blurbs on both of them... they only came home with the proofs, but I wanted to scan and share the pics, anyways! ;-)

Madi- 4th Grade!!!


Caiden- 2nd Grade!!

Young Eagles

A few weeks back I saw a little blurb in our local small town paper about "Free Airplane Rides" for kids ages 8-18, at our small town airport. So I mentioned it to Tyler, and we thought it might be fun to take the kids. Yesterday was the big day. The event was sponsored by the Young Eagles, a group who's goal it is to get kids interested in flying. So after Kami's dance class, we headed to the Goldsboro Municipal Airport. The whole way there, I was hoping that they would let Caiden fly since the ages said "8-18", and he was only 7. We arrived and the kids immediately got excited seeing all the little prop planes on the flightline. We walked into the room to register and sign them up and sign the all important waiver, and WOOHOO!! they said that yes, Caiden could fly! After filling out the necessary paperwork, we headed to the flightline. Poor Kami, she really wanted to go up with the kids, too. And she kept saying, "I'm going up with Bubba and Sissy. I'm going in the airplane." She was quite upset that she couldn't go, too, but she was quite the trooper and a very good sport. We only had to wait in line about 20 minutes or so for the kids flight. The pilots were taking kids up three at a time, so Madi & Caiden got to go together. As we walked out to the plane, the pilot asked who wanted to sit up front, and Madi immediately raised her hand and said "I do!!!" We got to walk on the flightline with the kids and the pilot to take a couple pictures....

Walking to the plane

Caiden in the backseat, ready for take-off!

Madi up front, ready to take control!!!

After they got all strapped in, all Tyler, Kami and I could do was sit back, watch, and pray that nothing would go wrong!


It seemed like they sat on the runway FOREVER before they were able to actually take-off... but finally we saw their plane!




Arriving back to the airport on solid ground... safe and sound! Whew!



The kids had an amazing time, and Madi even got to steer the plane a little bit! They LOVED it and immediately asked if they could get in line and go again! I think one of their favorite parts was wearing those headphone thingys that they could talk back and forth to each other on! What amazed me and Tyler most about this whole process was that it was completely FREE!!! This was the experience of a lifetime for our kids, it's something that they will remember for a long, long time, possibly forever!! I think we may have a couple of future pilots on our hands!

**Check out the Young Eagles website to find out if they are coming to a city near you! **

Pumpkins & Cookies!!!

This past Tuesday, the kids had the day off from school, and I didn't have to work! So the kids and I decided to have some "Fall Fun." We all made sugar cookie dough in the morning and then let it "chill" in the refrigerator for a few hours. While making the cookie dough, Madi also helped me throw dinner in the crock pot. Then the kids and I headed into town to run some errands, which included getting Flu shots, meeting up with Tyler for lunch, and picking out some pumpkins to carve later!

After we got home, it was cookie time! We decorated half of the cookies before they cooked, and saved the other half to decorate with frosting after they had cooked. We only had time to do the pre-cooked cookies on Tuesday, and then decorated the rest with frosting after school on Wednesday. I LOVE making homemade cookies with my kids, and the new sugar cookie recipe I tried was SUPER yummy!!!

Tuesday's Cookie decorating session!



Wednesday's Cookie Decorating session.. with frosting!!! :-)




Our table of cookies!!! Who needs candy?!?! Mmmmmmm!!!


Tuesday night we carved pumpkins! I look forward to this every year, mainly because I don't have to do it! For as long as I can remember, I have hated sticking my hands into that pumpkin "gunk". Tyler and the kids do it all, and I get to take pictures! The kids and I actually went online for our pumpkin stencils this year and found some great *free* ones! Madi and Caiden actually did most of their pumpkins by themselves... they both had VERY little help, and did a GREAT job!!!

Pulling out the seeds...



Kami's not too sure she likes the "gunk", either!


Such a goofball....


Caiden "eating" the "gunk"


Hard at work.....



The finished products!!!!

Kami's was her Halloween namesake... Minnie Mouse!



Caiden's was a cute little Frankenstein titled, "Der!" The lit pumpkin picture is kinda blurry, but you get the idea.



Madi's was a "Creepy Cat", but it turned out more "Cute" than "Creepy". Again... the lit pumpkin pic is kinda funky...

Trick-or-Treat!!

Halloween 2008 has come and gone!! And that's actually probably a good thing this year, as we had two very moody and emotional pre-adolescents! Definitely NOT how I had envisioned Halloween with my kids. Oh well... once we finally left the house and started Trick-or-Treating, it got a lot better!

Madi was a 50s waitress! This was her "curtain warmer" costume for "Bye Bye Birdie"!


My sweet, Minnie Mouse!




Caiden as Darth Vader... it's a good thing he has a mask on, cuz it hiding his GRUMPY face!!!!


Off to the base where we met the Leggetts so the girls could go Trick or Treating together!

Minnie Mouse & Cinderella.... AKA Bestest friends in the whole wide world!


Paulette, me and the girls! We realized after knowing each other for just over 2 years now we have ZERO pictures of us together! So here's our first one!


Tired from walking, cold and getting hungry we headed home. We did quite a bit of walking all over base housing, for not very much candy. But they definitely got enough, and honestly, with the "holiday" season now officially begun, who really needs all that candy anyways?!?

Inspecting the "loot"!!!

Our "Perfect" Gingerbread House!

Since I already admitted to my lack of interior designing skills, I'll let you in on another little secret.... I'm a bit of a perfectionist. There, I said it! Being a perfectionist isn't always a bad thing.... in fact it served me quite well in my school years! It's not such a great quality however when trying to have "fun" with the kids, or trying to "craft", or "create" with them. And being a perfectionist actually adds quite a bit more stress than necessary when trying to "create". It's something I have to work very hard on controlling and keeping at bay.

So I was quite proud of myself last week when we decided to spend a Family night constructing a Halloween Gingerbread House I picked up at Michael's, after seeing pictures on my friend, Mary's blog of her and her family's Gingerbread House.

I made the icing before the kids got home from school, and got everything prepped and ready to go, so after homework and dinner we could get right to work!

We assembled the house quite easily, and put it aside so the walls could "set." After dinner we got right to work. I actually read the instructions, step-by-step, to the kiddos and let them each take a turn decorating! I realized that this wasn't going to be the "picture perfect" Gingerbread house, when almost I noticed almost immediately that my icing that was the "perfect" consistency hours earlier, had now gotten a little watery. It was too late at this point in the evening, to try to fix it. So I completely backed off, and although the kids still tried to follow the "script", I let them go for it! We had a great night together, and this project that could have been extremely stressful for me, turned out to be soooo much more fun! I guess I'll have to restrain my inner perfectionist more frequently if it means less stress!



Caiden really concentrating!


When we finished following the "instructions", we still had three sides of the house, some icing and some candy left over, so I each of the kids got to decorate a side however they wanted! Fun!


Crazy kids!!!

Halloween Fun

I'll admit... I'm not the best interior decorator. Some people just have that knack, but I don't. I wish I could say I was, and I wish even more that I had the money to go and purchase all kinds of cute seasonal items to decorate my house with, but I don't. Every year I have these grand ideas, and wonderful intentions to at least decorate a little for Halloween, but then I get busy, and frankly, money runs out, so I don't. This year, however, I was determined to do something!!! So here's my very feeble attempts at decorating for Halloween this year... not shown in the pictures is my too cute Scarecrow out in my planter in front of the house.

I have had these window clings ever since our first Halloween here in 2004. They seem to "magically" change positions a gazillion times before Halloween comes, but my little ghosts and goblins have actually let them be this year!


It was lots of fun putting up these spider webs before Madi and Caiden got home from school. They were so excited when they got home and saw them!



I love my little Pumpkin luminary... only ended costing like, $1.50 or something at Michael's. What a deal!!


One of my new favorite things to do around the holidays is to decorate my kitchen cabinets with the many art projects and drawings my kids do at school!! I got this great idea from my friend, Christi!