Tree Shopping

So after a crazy week, with all kinds of missed blogging opportunities, we headed out to a tree farm early Saturday morning to cut down our own tree. I was so pumped-- I love new experiences and this is something I have never done. Usually Kevin and Brecken go to a place in town and pick up a Frasier Fir that is already cut. * Side note-- I read that getting trees from tree farms is actually more "green" than artificial trees-- unless you keep your tree for more than 20 years. We have a 10 y/o old artificial tree and it is not looking good I can't imagine it at 20-- well actually it didn't look great when we bought it. Now, since we do both (real and fake) I am a little unsure where we stand.* We are all bundled up in our winter gear for the first time this year and the temp is in the 30's. We get to the farm and they give us a saw, a mat (to sit on), and a long measuring stick. They point us in the direction of the type of tree that we like and we are off.

After trekking to the end of the row and back we think we found one we agree on. Kait has only knocked me in the head twice with the measuring stick. :) The saw remains safely in Kevin's control! We take a vote on the tree-- it has to be in our price range and then meet our requirements for height and fullness. Everyone agreed this was the one except Bella who at this point was cold, her boots were too tight, and her mittens too itchy.

Taye loves wearing his mittens (that won't stay on for anything). He wore them and looked at them the whole way to the farm! He loved everything about the day!

The men are working on sawing down the tree. Then, our saw broke in half-- I think this kind of stuff only happens to Kevin! Luckily, a nice family who had just finished was walking by and offered us their saw as well as a few tips. We had the tree down on no time!

We are heading back to the barn to have it shaken out and a hole drilled. Bella is seeing the end of this outdoor experience and is starting to feel happier!

Home for hot chocolate and decorating!
Only after Taye was napping was anyone allowed to touch the tree. Bella was totally in her element, as was Kait. Kevin and Breck hung a few things and headed off to work on a float for the Christmas parade. By the time Taye was up the tree was done-- he loved it-- I wish I had a picture of his face but this one is really sweet!

Good Times!

We got to hang out with Liz and Ryan (my sis and bro- in- law) Saturday afternoon! Our kids all took naps or disappeared (and didn't even trash stuff) and we could actually just talk. Love it!! Note this girl's decorations-- and I'm accused of being too early :)-- looks great!

These two are such good buddies!

The party moved to my parents for an amazing Thanksgiving feast. Taye loves turkey and after his little cousins left the table he went around and finished their turkey for them! yummmmm!

Taye and his darling cousin Macy-- DO NOT leave these two alone! Double Trouble!

Speech and ballet are cancelled today so we are totally enjoying a Monday at home! Have a great day!

It's Coming!

The Christmas jammies arrived today and I even listened to Christmas music! Yeah! I love the Christmas season! So fun that it is Taye's first Christmas here-- what is he going to think about everything?!

More, More, More!

Nope, this post is not about the amazing Beth Moore conference that I was blessed to attend this last weekend. That WAS an absolute answer to prayer-- great time with friends, powerful worship, and solid Bible teaching.

We have had another prayer answered though-- Taye has about six words and is even saying "more" without being cued, at the appropriate times-- you know, MORE candy, MORE movies, MORE playing! :) He has been wearing his hearing aids for a little over a month now and is doing so great with them! He amazes me with how he keeps them in and willingly works to repeat words that you want him to say. According to the hearing tests he is still not picking up much sound but he is definitely using all that he has to try to put sounds together! As of now we have an appt. with a cochlear implant team scheduled for December. This may have to be delayed d/t insurance issues but we are praying that we can move as fast as possible. He is such a sponge and the sooner he has more access to sound, the more likely it is that he will really thrive with implants.

Early Treats!

A sweet across -the- street -neighbor invited us over tonight b/c she doesn't want the bunch of older kids on Halloween. The kids were thrilled to have another chance to dress up, see friends, of course get candy, umm I mean visit their elderly neighbor :) We had a fairy, a dancer, Luke Skywalker (brand new territory - I had to look him up online to make sure he was okay) and a cute dog. You may also notice-- we have a BUNCH of leaves! Luckily I don't have to rake them all!

You can kind of see Taye in the middle with his hood on-- seriously you just want to eat him up-- so cute! We met up with some other neighbors which was super fun!

The adorable crew of kids!
Funny story about the dog outfit-- Brecken wore the thing for 4 years. he agreed to retire it last year for a knight costume but he still wears the dog thing around the house sometimes. I hate the idea of buying costumes for Halloween-- so of course Taye has inherited the dog and it looks like it might fit him for 4 years as well. I did break down and get Brecken's pants and shirt at Target for 30% off (he had the boots and sword). I am hoping now when he is playing with the girls he can be a guard or something instead of their dog.

Weekend events

I got THIS at the farmer's market Saturday morning! Brussel Sprouts are so cool-- I have never eaten them before or even actually seen them on the stem. Brecken loved them raw-- in fact the quote of the weekend was "Brecken, seriously stop eating all the brussel sprouts"-- the child is NOT normal! Love the farmer's market! Ours closes after next weekend- bummer.

Bella got her first real haircut. At 4! Our girls take forever for their hair to really come in and thicken up. She only had a tiny bit trimmed off because she wants it to get really long.. like Rapunzel.. that should be interesting to try to comb out. You can kind of see how long it is though when you pull it straight. Almost double. I am going to have to straighten it some day for fun.

Yes... Taye is wearing underwear. I didn't want to deal with this yet. I hate public restrooms, touching everything, ahhhh! I was planning on waiting until after Christmas-- diapers with a lot of traveling are really nice. I want him to be a baby for a while. The signs were there though. Waking up dry after 12 hours (yeah, he has also been sleeping through the night consistently for a month!!!). Asking to be changed right after he would go in his diaper. He could practically change his own diaper for pete's sake. Then, we switched him from his high cal formula to lactose free milk. I was thinking about not buying formula and started thinking about not buying diapers either. The next thing I knew, I was in the basement digging out Breck's tiniest undies. The next few weeks should be interesting. :)

Some Recipes

Okay, here are a couple recipes that I am loving right now for my crock pot. These are both from Kev's A. Carla's cookbook and I changed them a little bit-- tweak them to fit the ingredients that you have on hand and what your family likes.

Sunshine Chicken

8 chicken breasts place chicken in slow cooker. combine other ingredients and
2 c. BBQ sauce pour over chicken. cook on low for 8 hours. we had this with
1 c. apple cider or o.j. rice the first night and then shredded the leftovers and froze it
1/2 c. water for sandwiches the next week.
1/4 c. honey

So this one surprised me-- I was pretty skeptical about spaghetti in the crock pot but we really liked it!

Spaghetti
1lb ground beef- browned 1 28 oz can tomato sauce
1 lb ground sausage- browned 1 (47 oz) can tomato juice
2TBSP dry minced onion pepper to taste and some ground red pepper flakes
1 tsp salt 16 oz dry spaghetti
1 tsp garlic powder broken into 4-5 in pieces
oregano
thyme
1 TBSP brown sugar

Mix everything in crock pot except spaghetti. Stir well. Cook on low 6-8 hours (or high 3.5 hrs). Turn to high last hour and stir in dry spaghetti.
Serve with fresh grated Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy ~and I would love to get some of YOUR favorite crazy week night recipes! Let me know if you are posting some! Thanks!