Other lovies

Here are some random pictures of my furry lovies, enjoy! :)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Gobble, gobble! I hope that everyone had a really nice day filled with good food and fun with family. We had a nice time just being home together, eating and hanging out. It was really great! The lions lost, that was a shame, but everything else was great. Jeff smoked a 20 pound turkey in his smoker, it was so delicious and juicy! Best I've ever had. The pie turned out different than it should have but it was still good, yeah! We had a nice time of hanging out playing a game/puzzle, chatting this evening. There is sooo much to be thankful for.
I am overwhelmed when I think about all that God has blessed me with.
Now it's time to think about Christmas.....

A few more bday pictures for ya!

Ryan is 10!!!

Yesterday was Ryan's 10th birthday! I can't believe my baby boy is a whole decade old!

We had a party for him complete with games, a pinata, corn dogs, presents, and dirt cake. :)

It was a blast and Ryan got some nice gifts from some special friends. Here are some pictures

of yesterday. Tomorrow we are having a special dinner in honor of #10, a seafood dinner as

requested by Ryan. We are having shrimp scampi, shrimp cocktail, mussels, and fruit.

My boys love their seafood that's for sure! Jeremy asked for the same special dinner for his 10th bday also.

Snow- and lots of it!

Well, we got dumped on last week. About 12 inches worth! It was heavy snow too, hard to shovel. The boys loved it as it was perfect for making forts and snowballs. They spent the majority of two whole afternoons playing outside! I loved greeting them in with some nice hot chocolate and a yummy treat. Emily had fun too, she thought it was cold but yummy. She is always up for fun that's for sure! We'll take her sledding a little later this winter when she can support herself a bit more.

Here are some random snow pictures as well as others to enjoy!

Oh boy, sh'e mobile!

Well, Emily has done it! She is crawling! She started crawling this week, so much fun!

At first it was that jerky crawl, just adorable. She's really getting the hang of it now though.

She isn't content at just crawling though, she loves to walk while holding our hands. And she really does know how to alternate her feet and she has stood by herself for several seconds quite a few times! It won't be long before she's walking I bet. She'll be 9 months old here in a couple of days, so it seems a little early to me. I had to buy her some shoes last night, she was really excited about them.

Football season for the boys has come to a close, it was a great season with great coaches!

The boys looked so handsome in their football uniforms. They played great and it was a lot of fun to watch their games.

I have had a lot of fun with company lately! My friend Sara from Ohio was here and we had such a great time hanging out! I miss her!

A childhood friend of mine, Karen,was also here, she's such a sweetheart it is was so good to see her too. My brother-in-law has been with us for a couple weeks now and just had his kids here this weekend, it was fun and busy. It is so fun when there are a lot of kids running around, laughing and having fun and playing. I just love it!

I was blessed with tickets to a Taste of Home Cooking School demonstration that my friend Karen was in town for. She was the specially requested demonstrator! She presented 8 delicious dishes in front of 1,000 people at this first ever twin cities-wide demonstration.

I would call it a convention. There was over 60 vendor booths there too, it was an amazing afternoon. I had to make several dishes the next day, they were great!

Halloween was a fun night. The kids and I all dressed up and literally ran from house to house.

What a great time that was! Emily even got some candy for herself. Hmmmm, I guess I'll have to help her out this year. :)

I'll post a picture of Emily's new shoes soon, have a happy fall day everyone!

Cloth diapering and teff

This month I switched from disposable diapers to cloth diapers. I'm lovin the results!

Emily's bottom was red when I switched but is healing up nicely! The diapers are Fuzzy Bunz, really, really good ones that I am borrowing from a friend. I love not having the diaper expense! They have these really cool inserts you slide inside, such an improvement over the last time I used cloth diapers with folded diapers and plastic pants. The liners are made of hemp, cotton, or bamboo of all things are really do wick the moisture away from her skin. They even work very well overnight. AND are soft and comfortable. I wish I would have switched sooner. I just got tired of paying the price for disposables and going through them so fast. I actually have some covers that take folded diapers and found some fabric at a garage sale to make diapers out of. I'll be getting out my sewing machine this weekend for that fun project!

Ryan and the neighbor boy Sam were so cute in the bathroom last week "shaving".

I just had to share a pic!

School is really going well and very smoothly considering I had a baby to take care of at the same time. Of course I am busy, but we are progressing through the books and learning is happening so I am thrilled! The three of us are having a lot of fun learning Spanish together and have made it halfway through book 1 or 2 already! It is our favorite subject and it is so much fun to be doing it together.

Emily has a tooth! She got it on the week she turned 8 months old, last weekend. I guess they say that when they get them later like this they come down stronger. Hmmm, we'll see I guess.
She did well too, didn't even know she was teething. Boy is she a busy baby! Can't holder her on your lap w/o feeling like you're doing aerobic exercises. She wants to see and do and grab!

And stand! She loves to stand and will hold our hands then let go, of course she falls but I am

surprised that she feels okay enough to let go! She rolls and scoots backwards but has not figured out how to go forwards yet when she's on her hands and knees.

Emily is going to be a pooh honey pot for halloween, she looks really cute and loves to chew on the bees wings. :)

We went to the apple orchard this week, the apples were in terrible shape. It was a hard year for them with the early warm up and then a hard frost. It killed a lot of blooms. We actually left without buying even one apple. They are nicer at Cub. :) We bought some carmels and had a good laugh about leaving empty handed.

Starting finger foods now with Emily. Bread, cheerios, small pieces of banana, cheese, meat, etc. She loves it all, except for the liver that I feed her occasionally just because it's good for her. I always said that I would never cook liver in my own home but I've broken that promise to myself for the sake of my baby getting all her nutrients. It smells gross but I just turn my nose off to do it. :)

Football is going great! Jeremy's team is in first place! Ryan's is either second or third so both boys are having a great season. The playoffs are coming up in a week or so, those are always fun.

I've also been trying different types of grains to accent my gluten-free (mostly) diet. Teff is a wonderful grain that I have just personally discovered. It is widely used in Etheopia. I cook it and and a few things to make teff pudding for morning. It is full of fiber, iron, and other vitamins so even though it's "pudding" it's a very healthy start to my day and keeps me full till lunch which is good. Mornings are extremely busy around here. I also made some teff muffins with bits of walnuts, apples and shredded carrots too. They are really good with a little homemade jam that Ryan and I make every fall.

Enjoy the various pictures! God bless!