Thankful

For Family Home Evening this week, we made a Thankful Tree. We talked about our blessings and the things that we as individuals and as a family are thankful for and wrote them on leaves for our tree. It was fun to hear Chloe think of the things she was thankful for and it was nice to take some time to reflect and think of all the things I have in my life to be thankful for. I've kept the tree up on wall of our dining room all week, so we could be reminded of all that we have to be thankful for.

Free Christmas Music Downloads

Oprah is offering free downloads on eight songs on her website. You can even download a cd label and cover. It is part of her show/segment on having a "thrifty" holiday season. I'm not sure Oprah is a good expert on being thrifty, but I'll take free music!

http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20081118_tows_holiday/2

I really should be...

Getting ready for Turkey Day. I'm tired and lacking motivation and I'm going to suffer for my laziness since I've procrastinated enough that I don't have time to get to Costco and the grocery store before Chloe gets out of school (she has short days on Wed). This means I get to take both kids with me on all of my errands instead of just one.

Maybe I'll get the grocery items from Fred Meyer so Chloe can go to the kid's play area while I shop, hmm...

Brother and Sister

Cooper and Chloe are four years apart in age. I have guilt over this large age gap since it causes such a big difference in playing/comunicating/everything... But, despite the age difference, they do come together everyonce in a while and play together, and they always enjoy each other's company (which makes me feel a little less guilt about the big age gap). I was in our bedroom tonight and I saw Chloe run down the hallway and into her room. Cooper followed, laughing, a moment later. Chloe's room lights were off, so he stopped in the doorway. I heard Chloe say, "Its OK Cooper, there is a light under here. Don't be scared!" He giggled and ran into her room and went under her bed with her.

I snuck around the corner and spied on them, to see what they were up to. Chloe had a donut and Cooper was eating a mini-muffin. Sneaky kids! (ok, they weren't so sneaky since Justin had given them those treats!)

Muffin and Donut Faces

A boy and his trains

Cooper is "choo choo" obsessed. All day long, he talks about and plays with his trains. I love hearing him say "choo choo train." A lot of the time he adds an extra "choo" in there, so it comes out "choo choo choo train."

Yesterday, I had to wake him up from his nap to go pick Chloe up from school and he looked so cute in his crib sleeping. He was clutching trains while sleeping... I didn't even know he had them in bed with him! He is resting his head on his Thomas the train pillow too. I'm sure he was dreaming about "choo choo choo trains." Here is the "too cute not to share" pic:

Thanksgiving Decor

This year, I decided that I should "decorate" a little for Thanksgiving... normally once the Halloween stuff comes down, I wait a few weeks and then put the Christmas decor out. A trip to Walmart and Michaels later, I was pretty proud of my mantel. This is what it looked like:

I proudly showed Chloe and she quickly burst my bubble and told me it was "just ok." She said it needed a turkey or two. So, Chloe and I whipped up a couple turkeys! We made these "glowbirds."

Crafty Chloe

(I recently moved the play kitchen out of our kitchen and put a craft table in it's spot. I love it!)

Here are our Turkeys! Chloe's is the one on the right and mine is the one on the left.

And here they are lit up (with battery operated tea lights)!

Its a smock... Its a bib...

Its a SMIB! These fantastic finds at Ikea are not only an awesome price (a two-pack for 3.99) but they work amazingly! They aren't really called smibs, thats just what I call them... Ikea calls them BARNSLIG RAND. As you can see from the pictures I snapped of Cooper eating his lunch today, peanut butter and jelly is serious business and requires a serious bib. I'd also like to use these pictures as a testament to how much more relaxed I've become as a second time mom... There is no way I would have let Chloe tear apart a sandwich and so lovingly smear and devour the entire thing like that.

End of the Season

Chloe's finished up her soccer season by playing a great game! After the game, her team celebrated with cupcakes (what five year old doesn't want a cupcake at 10:30 in the morning?!) and each player received a medal! Chloe is quite excited about her medal and after wearing it around for a few days, it has been lovingly placed on her shelf next to her t-ball trophy!

Way to go Chloe!

Princess of the Week

The week of Halloween, Chloe was the Princess of the Week in her kindergarten class. With this prestigious title, comes activities revolving around her each day at school. On Monday, she brought in a poster full of pictures all about herself and she shared it with her class. On Tuesday, her classmates each made a page about why Chloe is special and those pages were compiled into a book for her to take home. Wednesday she got to bring a book from home to be read at story time and also brought a special snack to share with classmates during the story (she brought kettle corn). On Thursday, Justin, Cooper and I went to her school and ate lunch with her. And then on Friday, she invited Justin to come talk to her class about his job. Chloe had such a blast as Princess of the Week!

Here is Chloe introducing Justin to her classmates. I was holding Cooper and trying to keep him quiet, so I didn't get very good pictures.

Halloween Night

Justin took Chloe and Cooper down the street trick or treating. Justin was dressed as the Planter's Peanut, Cooper as the cutest Dumbo you've ever seen, and Chloe as a clown. After they got back from trick or treating on our street, Chloe and I went out and she drug me around the entire neighborhood. It was fun to see her so into trick or treating! Overall, we had a really fun Halloween this year!

The front of our house:

I guess we didn't wipe all the pizza sauce off of Dumbo's face!

Back home with lots of loot!

Carving Pumpkins

Justin was super busy at work, getting ready to open their new store the week of Halloween, so I had to... I mean got to be in charge of carving pumpkins this year!

Chloe had quite the plans for her pumpkin. She was a little disappointed when I told her that I didn't know if we'd be able to actually carve the tongue or eyelashes...

Chloe and her finished Jack O Lantern:

Cooper helped me carve one too. He seemed to much prefer beating it with a mallet than touching the pumpkin or helping with the carving.

And our finished Jack O Lantern:

Chloe's Clown Costume

This year for Halloween, Chloe wanted to be a clown. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, if you're weird and obsessive about clothes (especially kids clothes) like me, then it would have bothered you incredibly (like it did me) that all of the children's clown costumes available for purchase are incredibly cheap in construction and appearance. So, that left me needing to sew Chloe a costume. Now, I am not a sewer. Yes, I have a sewing machine and grandeur ideas about using free time to sew wonderful creations. The reality is that besides making an apron in seventh grade, I had never used a pattern before. But, with a little guidance (ok, at times it was a lot) from my mother, I was able to make Chloe the most adorable clown costume ever (and no, I am not biased).

(yes, it has a hoop in the bottom... like I said, SUPER cute!)

Tater Tot Casserole

After listening to some friends of ours RAVE about Tatertot Casserole for the past 7 years, I decided to give it a try! Imagine my suprise when it turned out to be really yummy and my kids even ate it! Here is the super-easy recipe incase you want to give it a try:

Ingredients:

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 bag tater tots

shredded cheese

1 lb of ground hamburger meat

serves: 6 or 7

Brown hamburger meat. Drain. Add cream of mushroom soup (don't forget to add one can of milk if you are using condensed soup) and stir together continuously.

Let simmer on low heat for 15 minutes.

Place mixture in the bottom of a casserole dish. Lay tatertots neatly on top of the mixture.

Place in oven on 375' and let the tater tots brown. (about a half hour)

Sprinkle with cheese; melt it in the oven and ENJOY.

Oh, and here is the humor part of the post... I was on the phone talking with my sister-in-law, Carissa, and she started to say to me, "I have to tell you about the most ghetto dinner ever that my kids and husband just love..." As soon as she said "ghetto dinner," tatertot casserole popped into my head. And yes, tatertot casserole is exactly what she was going to tell me about!

Happy Birthday Justin!

October 23rd marked Justin's 32 Birthday! At his request, we had a party with our little family, dining on swedish meatballs (with lingonberries, of course!) and had carrot cake cupcakes for dessert!

The Birthday Boy

Blowing out his candles

Cooper was quite impressed with Justin's candle-blowing out abilities!

Chloe chowing down on a cupcake

Cooper thought he was HILARIOUS looking through the balloons. I must admit that his face pressed up against the balloon is pretty funny!

I'm baaack!

We purchased a new computer this weekend... that means I'll be back up and running here soon!