Morning Photos…..

I love taking photos of my children when they first wake up……it is one of my favorite times to photograph River.  Especially if I get her to tell me a story about one of her dreams…..the expressions that I capture are priceless….especially because her stories go on and on and on..it is a great way to get her to not make goofy expressions the whole time I’m taking pictures..which is what she does anymore..when I take out the camera…..so here are a few good shots that I got the other morning…….

Also, check out the Water for Christmas Etsy shop……one of my woolies is up for sale….All proceeds from items sold on this shop go directly to building fresh water wells in Liberia, West Africa.

To learn more about Water for Christmas, visit www.water4christmas.com.






Bring on the Christmas traditions….

So this month…I think I might be talking a lot about our Christmas traditions…I’ve done it a bit in the past..but it might be more this year..so be warned.

One of our first traditions is getting out our advent calendar.  My mom gave this to us years ago and I love it because it is reusable.  I also love it because it challenges me to get gifts that are small enough that they fit into these little tiny drawers..which usually means candy or small amounts of change…which is a good thing..because to me the advent calendar is about little tiny things…..(okay..the first day I cheated…I put a little note in the drawer that said to look somewhere else..I got snowman candy bars and they wouldn’t fit in the drawer…but I couldn’t resist..they were delicious…white and dark chocolate with pepermint pieces!!)

We try to do the advent calendar first thing in the morning…when things aren’t too crazy…but River doesn’t always cooperate.  She likes to sleep in..and Tuesday and Quinn have to be off early for school.  So, we will either do it first thing in the morning…or right after school.  If we end up not doing it in the morning, it drives River crazy.  She spends the whole day asking why Tuesday and Quinn aren’t home from school yet!!

Embrace the Camera……photo booth style…


It is Embrace the Camera time…..better late than never…I didn’t get this post up til late!…oh well…..I so rarely get a shot with me and all my children..I thought it would be fun to do a photo booth style shot….so here it is..I love the site Laphotocabine.com.  It is a lot of fun…try it out!

Our Thanksgiving trip to Niagra Falls…..

This Thanksgiving we decided to do something totally different….and take a trip over Thanksgiving.  It was the first time that we have ever done something like that.  At first, we thought we would go somewhere local…maybe camping….then it sort of grew and grew and grew from there…….we ended up going to Niagara Falls!  It was so much fun!

We don’t take many trips, so it was a lot of fun and a great adventure!  I have never been to any part of Canada, so I really loved finally getting to go……we all had a blast.

We saw the Falls from the Canadian side (Tuesday almost fell in…or at least pretended to….), ate in a revolving restaurant, went behind the Falls (the boat tour was closed for the season…..), saw a rainbow, froze, got wet, went swimming in an incredible water park, saw the Falls from the American side, ate a lot of food, did a lot of Mad Libs, saw snow and froze some more!!

It was very cold…so there were hardly any tourists around!  I’m sure if we went in the summer…..we would have been complaining it was too hot!  It was a great little vacation!

Tofurky disaster….

Okay…so we were so excited to have a Tofurky.  I’ve waited my whole life to have one!  We thought we would cook it the night before Thanksgiving..since we were going to be away for Thanksgiving…….well……

First of all….I had no idea you had to defrost the thing for 24 hours!  Just like a normal turkey..I mean, who knew?  So, that was my first mistake…but there were directions for those of us who don’t know these things.  Then, I thought it was just ready to pop into the oven.  I didn’t realize you had to slice up potatoes and veggies….like a roast.  You had to take the thing out of this slimy plastic seal…just like a real turkey!

So, I got it all ready…it looked like a brain ready to be sacrificed!  Yuck..but I kept on going……into the oven it went…to be cooked for 2 1/2 hours!!!  Who knew????

Then I got the gravy ready…..again..it was frozen because I didn’t thaw it…but I slowly warmed it up on the stove….it smelled okay..but the taste was horrible.  It basically tasted like soy sauce.  I  knew my children were NOT going to like it..so I dumped it and made my own gravy.

We waited and waited and waited.  Finally, after we were all starving, I declared it done…….

It looked okay and it smelled pretty good….Christopher sliced it up and everyone got a plateful of veggies and gravy.  The middle of the Tofurky was filled with stuffing which looked really good.  I couldn’t wait to cover it with gravy and give it a try!

After about two bites everyone was ready for something else!  What a disappointment!  The best part was the veggies and the gravy that I had made myself!  The “skin” had this horrible texture to it and was impossible to cut.  The Tofurky itself tasted so artificial…..and the stuffing wasn’t much better.  It left a horrible after taste in my mouth.  Seriously, I ended up cooking something else for everyone!

Oh, and the wish bone..it was made from a tofurky jerky wishstix….it was so strange..we didn’t even take it out of its plastic wrapper because no one wanted to touch it.  The worst part was the smell in the house.  Thankfully, we were leaving the next day and by the time we returned the smell of Tofurky was gone from our lives!

What a disappointment!!  I was really so sad…..I had been so looking forward to this…and it was not at all what I thought it would be……I would never recommend this to anyone…I’m sticking with my homemade veggie pot pie!!

Squirrels and cats and peanuts…..

Okay..one of my favorite things to do is feed the squirrels…I just love the little guys.   They are just so cute.  And even better than watching them..is watching our cats try to get them!  Our cats are indoor cats…so they don’t get much excitement….and I think the squirrels know this…because they are constantly teasing our cats.  It is quite hilarious to watch.

And speaking of squirrels..here is a little story….my dad also likes to feed the squirrels.  He likes to feed them peanuts.   About a year ago my brother was moving some furniture at my dad’s house…and behind the one sofa he found a small pile of peanuts.  We all thought it was funny that a mouse must have been stealing the peanuts from the bag and eating them behind the sofa.  Since that time my dad has stopped feeding the squirrels peanuts.  He hasn’t bought any peanuts for an entire year.  Jump forward to this past weekend.  We went to visit my dad and he told us that he found one whole peanut on his fireplace..just sitting there..one peanut.  Then he told us that the next day he found half of a peanut shell in the middle of the floor….I instantly thought of that small pile of peanuts behind the sofa and I immediately had to go look behind the sofa…there was nothing there.   Then my dad suggested that I look behind the OTHER sofa……so I did…and…..ummmm……this is what we found…………..

Hundreds and hundreds of peanut shells!  It was unbelievable…..not a peanut to be seen..just shells…..I had never seen anything like that before…..

Embrace the Camera….photos with my dad….

It is Embrace the Camera time and this week I was prepared….I thought ahead of time who I wanted to take a photo with….and I thought of my dad….

Since my mom passed away 1 1/2 years ago…. I have wished that I had more photos of her with me and my children……

I haven’t taken a lot of photos of my dad..and I don’t think I have any of him with just me…and my daughter River….I was so excited to set the camera up and try to get some shots….but my camera wasn’t cooperating…..I took some, but when I got home I realized they were blurry (I had the camera accidentally focus on the wall..instead of on us)…but I’m posting them anyway….though I’ve told myself I must..in the near future….take more photos with him..and this time have all three of my children in the photo!

This post was inspired by Emily and her blog, 3 Boys and a Little Lady……..