All I want for Christmas is a .....

So I asked Tyler what he wanted for Christmas ....

"a big blue present" was his response.  This we can work with!

Merry Christmas everyone! 

Our many days of Halloween....

Halloween is over.  I'm a little sad and a little glad. 

A little sad because:
it's now time to put up all the fun jack-o-lanterns
take down the 'scary' bats hanging on the porch
and put up the costumes

A little glad because:
it's time for Thanksgiving
I definitely don't need all the candy around the house

Tyler decided that he wanted to be Jake from Disney's "Jake and the Neverland Pirates".  It's his new obsession.  Since no one makes a "jake costume" it was up to me and MiMi to make the costume (BTW: MiMi is REALLY good at making costumes!)

Our first night of Halloween fun was at Boo at the Zoo.

Tyler as Jake!

yeah ... that is our Mickey bucket!

can you spot him?!

Our second night of Halloween fun was at Crooked Creek Park for their Halloween Carnival.  We met Zack (dressed as Buzz Lightyear) and ran down the Trick or Treat Trail.  Afterwards, we went inside to the gym and ate hotdogs and played games. 

The third night we went Trick or Treating around the neighborhood.  It was fun, but I didn't take any pictures.  Mainly because I am really bad at taking pictures in the dark, so I don't waste my time!

I did NOT .....

This weekend is being brought to you by Not Me! Monday....

I did NOT decide to forgo supper Friday night so that I could eat lots of desserts at our monthly girls night out, which was appropriately titled "Wine / Dessert / Game Night".  I did NOT make some awesome Brownie Batter Chocolate Chip cookies that I  got from The Picky Palate.  I did NOT bring a lot of leftovers home and continue to eat them throughout the weekend.

I did NOT try to hide the icecream truck from my son.  Because sometimes you just don't feel like spending money on overpriced icecream in the shape of Sponge Bob Square Pants.

I did NOT dump all of the clean clothes on a chair in the living room, only to walk back in and find the cat sleeping right in the middle of the clothes.

{This blog carnival was created by MckMama at http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.}


Recipe for Brownie Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies via The Picky Palate ....{http://picky-palate.com/2011/09/19/brownie-batter-chocolate-chip-cookies/}

My 'Fall' to-do list

Tomorrow is Labor Day, marking the end of Summer and beginning of Fall.  And who am I kidding, I am looking forward to Fall this year.  Maybe it's because we got to finish our summer off with an awesome family trip (other wise known as Disney World!).  Maybe it is the anticipation of great holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Or maybe I am just really tired of the 100 degree days of Summer. 

Whatever the reason, I have already started thinking of what I wanted to do this Fall.  Some of it is fun, some of it not so much but ..... here goes! (in no particular order)

1) Figure out when we are going on our next Disney vacation.

2) Start the family on a modified Dave Ramsey plan.  (if you don't know Dave Ramsey ... google him ... he is awesome). I say modified because he is pretty intense and I don't know if I can go as hard core as him!

3) Visit the Biltmore House (specifically during Christmas).

4) Re-do Tyler's room.  I am thinking maybe a new paint color, curtains, and some vinyl wall art.

5) Go apple picking.

6) Start making and decorating cookies again.  I like to blame the heat ... from outside and the oven.

7) Paint the hallway and put up something to showcase Tyler's 'art-work'.  (The 'art-work' is currently hanging on my cabinets in the kitchen.)

8) Start and finish my scrapbook for our Disney vacation.

9) Clean up the back yard. 

10) Cheer Kyle on as he runs his first half marathon!


Now that the list is written down, that makes it official, right?!

We went to Disney World ....

And had a blast.  I have tons of pictures and lots to talk about: where/what we ate, our resort, who we met, the different parks.  But for now here is a little preview of our trip!

We stayed 'on campus' at the Disney's Polynesian Resort.  One word:  AWESOME! This is the view from our room/porch.

We met this guy .... and some of his friends!

We ate lots of food .... (it's a soft pretzels shaped like Mickey ... if you couldn't tell!)

And we rode a lot of rides.

Toffee Crunch Cookies

I would like to first point out that I LOVE food blogs.  Especially ones that deal with baking, since I tend to think of myself as more of a 'baker' than 'cook'.  I have found a couple of really good food blogs and have started to give some of the recipes a try. 

I saw a recipe on the Tasty Kitchen Blog for Toffee Crunch Cookies.  I almost skipped over the recipe because I really don't work with toffee that much.  But I stopped and read it, and realized that this cookie doesn't have toffee in it at all.  After making the cookie I realized that the ingredients help to create the texture and flavors of toffee.

There are a good many ingredients:  Butter, Sugar, Brown Sugar, Eggs, Vanilla, Flour, Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Salt, quick cooking Oats, Rice Krispies, Marshmellows, and Chocolate Chips. 

So ... you cream your butter and sugars together.  Beat in your eggs.  Add the vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt).  Then gently fold in the oats, krispies, marshmellows, and chocolate chips. 

(Link for the cookies http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/toffee-crunch-cookies/)

And after they are baked ... yummy!!!

These cookies are really awesome!  I love the texture the oats and krispies add to it.  I am definitely going to add these to my cookie arsenal. 

Now all I need is to find a cookie swap party that I can make these for!  Hopefully that will be another post!

Fiesta!

My friend Suzanna and I decided to throw a Mexican Fiesta Party.  OK ... to be honest it first started out just being "Hey, lets just invite a couple of girls over to eat and have a good time."  Before we knew it, we had a theme, decorations, invitations and fake mustaches. 

It was a potluck meal .... but we provided the tacos and margaritas!

dinner table!

welcome banner!

We got most of the decorations from Party City.  But I will take credit for the Mexican Paper Flowers!  They were strategically placed all throughout the house!  You will see them showcased in a couple of pictures!

my mexican paper flowers!

While at Party City we found some fake mustaches .... and of course ... we bought them.  Really, who can resist a classic fake mustache ... apparently no one at this party could!

liz, suzanna, and dana

Not even the blow up cactus could resist a paper flower and fake mustache!

the star of the party!

me, suzanna and dana!

 

me!

carissa and hunter!

leslie!

And one last look at the paper flowers!  Suzanna was a great model!

Everyone had a really great time! I wish I had gotten pictures of everyone eating at the table, with all the food around, but I just forgot (I guess I was having FUN!).

We are definitely thinking about making this a monthly thing.  Maybe with a different theme or idea every month.  Like a Dessert/Wine/Game Night or a Cookie Exchange or a Luau theme or a .....

FUN times ahead!

can't wait

My friend Suzanna and I are having a 'mexican fiesta' party!  And I made the invitations ....

Just a preview ... more to come!

currently .....

(I will preface this post by saying that I have seen this done on a couple of different blogs.  I decided to change mine up a little bit ... so here goes!)

Here is what is currently going on in my life!!!

Current Book: Walt Disney World with Kids 2011 and any book that has a happy ending!

Current Songs:  You Lie - The Band Perry , Wildflower - The JaneDear Girls

Current Drink:  Diet Coke

Current Wish list:  roller blades

Current Triumph: installation of my new closet system

Current Guilty Pleasure: "Love in the Wild" - TV Show

Current Favorite Blog:  Pioneer Woman http://thepioneerwoman.com/  LOVE HER ... especially all the recipes she posts. 

Current Goal:  repaint a section of the house every weekend!

Current Indulgence: Tiffany's petit fores (or really anything from the bakery) or Nutty Butter Bites (when I can't get to Tiffany's)

Current Bane of my Existence: my facebook app on my phone won't update.  This shouldn't upset me but it does. 

Current Excitement: Disney World in 30 days!

Current Mood: antsy (not sure why)

Current Picture: 

Fred in action.  It just makes me laugh!

I will try to remember to do this every month!

So what's currently going on in your life?!

can you build it ... yes we can!

I would first like to point out that we are FAR from handy.  Since we aren't exactly Handy Manny (does anyone notice all the Disney Junior references lately?!) the project we decided to take on this weekend was HUGE!  (FYI:  the pictures aren't great because the space was limited and the lighting was horrible!)

For my birthday, Kyle got me a closet system.  I have been dreaming of having one of those fancy closet systems for a while.  You know the ones that are made of wood and have shelves and drawers.  He picked it out all by himself and did a great job. 

We decided that this weekend was THE weekend.  It was time to install the closet system.  So Saturday morning we got ready.  Got all the tools out and opened the box and saw about 100 different pieces. 

OK so it is hard to tell here but imagine 100 pieces. 

We started to take the old closet system down.  You know the white wire ones.  I look back on it and know that I should have known that every screw was going to be anchored into the wall.  And that we were going to have to get those anchors out, but I just didn't expect it to tear up the wall.  By the time we were done, we had huge holes all in the wall.

 
Really bad picture, but if you look close you can see the holes.  So instead of putting up the closet system Saturday, we had to spackle the holes and repaint the closet. 

You can see the old color (not my choice, it was in the house when we got here) against the new color.  And we did decide to leave half of the closet in the old color, because when Kyle gets jealous of my closet system, we will end up having to rip anchors out of his wall and have a repeat of the spackling and repainting as well!

So Sunday we got to start on installing the closet system.  We did have a few mistakes, like installing the most important board upside down.  But other than that I think we did a great job. 

Here is the finished product ..... 

And my favorite part is the shelves ... I love being able to fold and stack my sweaters!

So we get to add another home improvement project under our belt! 

(oh yeah ... and GO TIGERS!)

another year .....

Tyler had his 3 year old check up today!  3 years old .... I cannot believe it! (said in a 'Quincy' voice for any Little Einstein fans out there?!).  And yes, I was running a little late with the yearly checkup.  His birthday was over a month ago.  But I do find it funny that when he was little, I would always have his check-ups on the day or a few days after his 'milestones' (you know: 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month, etc).  Now his birthday comes and I am like "Crap, I forgot to schedule his check-up" .... which is why we are a month behind. 

Anyways ... we got a clean bill of health! 

Tyler - 3 years old:

Height:  37 inches (70 percentile)

Weight:  29 lbs (25 percentile)

We call that lean and mean! 

But ... really .... 3 years old ... what happened to my little baby.  The one that was born 3 weeks early and had to spend 10 days in the NICU.

right after he was born ....

.... the one we had to wait 4 days after he was born before we could even hold him ....

kyle's first time holding tyler

..... the one that would just let you rock him on the porch and sleep all day long ....

I'll tell you what happened to him .....

...he has attitude....

 .... he gets stitches .....

.... he has way to much energy to sleep on the porch ....

And I wouldn't change a thing!

Happy Birthday Tyler (even if I am a little late!!)



busy weekend!

Last Saturday was FUN!  We had a great time hanging out at MiMi's house.  We like to hang out at MiMi's when Dad is working night shift and has to sleep during the day.  It is much easier to let a 3 year old run around and play outside than to try to keep him quiet indoors! 

So I bring you a recap of our day .... be prepared to be exhausted ... just kidding ... it was actually pretty relaxing!

First it was 4-wheeler time!  Tyler rode his 4-wheeler until the battery quit. 

Daisy and Fred even got to have fun at MiMi's.  But they definitely stayed clear of the 4 wheeler. 

After lunch and a nap, it was time to go swimming!  Shouldn't he model!

Tyler loves swimming in the lake and he is really starting to get the hang of "kick your feet"!

Then we just "chilled" on the porch for a much needed break! 

But of course we needed snacks!

We LOVE the lake and MiMi's house (and of course MiMi).