Christmas 2011

We had a great Christmas.  Levi didn't know what to think, but he watched intently.  After Christmas Eve church service, we opened our presents at home.  On Christmas morning, the kids opened their Christmas gifts from Santa and then we hit the road to travel to Norfolk.

 Asher's Christmas was superhero themed - pajamas, shirt, jackets, comforter, sleeping bag, Bat Cave, and even a Spiderman toothbrush! 

 The girls got new outfits for their American Girl dolls.  They spent our first morning back home organizing all their clothes and making beds for their dolls. 

Christmas Pic

Before the girls' Christmas program, we tried to get a kid Christmas picture.  With four kids it is difficult.

 A little silly.

 What's up with these faces?!?

 I think this is the one!

 Lost the boys.  The girls look great.

 Grandma was quite the distraction!!

 First shot.

 Looking good!

 Cute stuff!

She's 8!

It's hard to believe that Alexandra is 8 years old.  It went fast.  She is quite the girl.  I am amazed with how smart she is.  I am so proud of her.

 I had to give her golf clubs.  These are a little big for her since she isn't that tall, but she will grow into them!

 She also got books and stationery since she loves to read and write.

 We had a birthday party for her class at the house.  They loved playing Just Dance!

 Showing off her new boots from Grandma!

Projects

I have so many projects going on right now that I don't have time to blog, but I wanted to record my to-do list so that in several months I can post that I have completed everything!  Once again I couldn't do any of this if I didn't have the wonderful opportunity to stay home this year.  Let's hope it continues.

1. I am typing our favorite meals on my food.com account so that I can print everything out and put it in a binder.
2. I want to scan the thousands of pictures that are at my dad's house.  I already brought home 4 albums.  I took out a family picture from 1980 and framed it.  I also framed a picture of the boys and me from September 1977.  Can't wait for Tony to add them to our picture wall.
3. I want to create a binder for PTL that lays out all the different activities in detail just in case something happens and I am unable to do these things. 
4. I also want to organize the PTL receipts and bank statements.
5. Oh and I also have the school yearbook to do.  This year I am doing everything online.  I am not doing the cut and paste method that I have done for 10 other yearbooks that I have created.  Right now it is a lot more work, but I hope the end result will be better because everything will be in color and hopefully not so blurry.
6. We also have the seemingly never ending project of finishing the basement.  I am almost done priming the concrete walls and removing all the ceiling staples.  Next will be for Tony to put up walls.

Beauty Sleep

Here's Alexandra getting her beauty sleep.  She got the eye mask at the school carnival and even though the room was pitch black she still needed to wear it!

Halloween Pics

Since everybody else is doing it, I suppose I better post some Halloween pictures.

Mushroom Soup

Yesterday was a cold one so I made Mushroom Soup.  We love it.  Well, Tony and I do.  The kids had chicken noodle.  Here's the recipe (I usually add more mushrooms and then more of the creams and milk):
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 large onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cans beef or vegetable broth
1 to 1 1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 to 1 cup half and half
1/2 to 1 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Saute mushrooms, onion, garlic, tarragon, and nutmeg in butter until vegetables are tender.  Stir in flour until smooth.  Gradually add broth.  Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.  Reduce heat to low; slowly add sour cream.  Cook and stir until smooth.  Stir in half and half and milk.  Add the lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Heat through.

Cupboard Update

I saw on another blog a great way to organize a pantry.  I don't really have a pantry, but I do have a large cupboard.  So I ordered the chalkboard contact paper ($6.88) and bought white letters from Hobby Lobby ($3.99), and today I went to work! 

I took the doors off.

 Unfortunately, the contact paper wasn't wide enough so I had to put a little strip on the side.

 I then covered the whole back.

 I put the white letters on with a little help.

 We used the time to practice our letters.

 We then colored the entire board.

 We erased the chalk and I hung them up.

So cool! 

Creamy Tomato Soup

A couple years ago I started making a lot of homemade soups.  I found a great cook book; I didn't come up with any of them on my own.  This weekend I made the first one for the season and looking at the forecast for the week, I probably will be making another later this week.  Tony and I love this tomato soup recipe.  I had to strain out the "chunks" for the girls to eat it, but they liked it too.
1 or 2 onions, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
1 quart tomatoes
2 cans condensed tomato soup
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 package cream cheese, softened
In a large saucepan, saute onion in butter until tender.  Stir in the other ingredients expect cream cheese.  Bring to boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.  Add cream cheese; stir until melted.

Landscaping Project

Be sure to check out my update on the right (The House - Other Projects *New Post*) to see all the work we have done outside lately.  Here is the finished product.

I Think I'm Done

I finally used up all my canning jars today. I canned 14 more quarts of tomatoes from Dad. Now I just have to find recipes to use up my supply. It was a pretty productive canning season. The results:

-35 quarts tomatoes

-14 pints tomatoes

-15 quarts tomato juice

-5 quarts peaches

-13 pints peaches

I also froze:

-12 cups zuchinni

-12 cups corn

-"so many I lost track" servings of squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, apples, and banana baby food

Searching

This week I have spent a lot of time searching. There are several things that I have lost or misplaced recently. I hate that. I usually do not do that. I tend to know where everything is. On Saturday, I got a call from the library that a CD was missing from the Junie B. audio book that I returned. I looked in the computers and the CD players with no luck. We couldn't even remember listening to Junie B. I would remember; she's pretty funny! I went through all the books in the kids room...then through all the toys...all the drawers...everywhere! A couple days later I remembered that we listened to Junie B. on the kitchen CD player. I found it in between the refrigerator and the cabinet. Yeah!

Now I am looking for my little blue credit card holder. I have some gift cards in it. I let Addison play with it last week/weekend (I think). I told her to put it away and now we can't find it. The disappointing thing is that there is a Cold Stone gift card in there with like $5 on it. There also is a Hardees card. Oh well. Hardees closed a few years ago. Once again I have looked everywhere. I am hoping writing about it will make it appear!

Before I even was able to get this posted, I had an idea to look in the couch again. Not just under the cushions but way down under. I have to push the springs down to reach down behind. I found pencils, peanuts, pretzels, AND the credit card holder!!!!

Since that worked I am also going to write about the PTL money bag (it doesn't have any money in it...just the bag) and the Christmas exchange list that Tony wrote while at Kelly's. Let's hope this works...again!

We Have Girl Scouts

Soccer is about over so we are now moving on to the next activity. Girl Scouts! This is Alexandra's 2nd year and Addison's 1st. Alexandra is now a Brownie and Addison is a Daisy. Their two troops will be doing a lot together which will make it easier on us. Last Saturday they got to walk in the parade downtown. Here they are getting ready to go. They are now selling nuts and fruit to raise money for the different activities/patches they will be doing throughout the year. Cookie sales aren't until after Christmas. Let me know if you are interested in buying anything or be prepared when they ask you!

Men of the House

The men of the house are great fun!

Asher took care of some manly business while Daddy was at work. He helped the sprinkler guy move some sprinkler heads and paid for the bill.

On nice days we spend time in the back yard. I knew it was a good idea to get the swing set earlier this summer. I also knew the baby swing was a good purchase at a garage sale over a year ago even though we didn't have any trees or a baby at the time!

Lookin' good!
Levi has learned to sit up and is doing pretty well at it. He also is army crawling everywhere. He is starting to get up on all fours but it is hard to get that belly off the ground.

We might have a soccer player

Alexandra has been playing soccer for a couple years. She finally is starting to get aggressive and understand the game. Her coach this season has really helped. She likes playing all positions even goalie which makes me a nervous wreck. She scored her first goal last week, and she scored another one the very next game. Yesterday she played against a classmate from school. They were a tough team. Here are some pictures from the game:

She is getting better at her throw ins. It took her a while to understand she needs to keep her feet planted.

It's hard to get an action shot!


Addison started soccer this year. She is a little timid but I think she will catch on. She knows a girl on her team and the coach.