Family pictures

We got our family pictures back, I picked out my favorites and our Christmas cards are done! I won't leave you in the dark any longer, here they are...I hope you all enjoy them as much as we do.

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Crazy Eights

This looked fun -

8 TV Shows I Love to Watch:

1. One Tree Hill
   
2. Private Practice
3. Lipstick Jungle
   
4. Army Wives
   
5. CSI Vegas & NY
   
6. Desperate Housewives
   
7. Without A Trace
   
8. 90210/Grey's Anatomy (tie)
   

8 Favorite Restaraunts:

1. The Melting Pot
   
2. Panera
3. McAllister's
   
4. Jinbeh/East Ocean/Oishi (really, any sushi restaurant will do)
   
5. Cheesecake Factory
6. Pei Wei/PF Chang’s
7. JR's
8. In-N-Out (OMG it's been too long!)
   

8 Things that Happened Today:

1. Took Kaylin to school
   
2. Took Jonathan to school
   
3. Called around to several vets
   
4. Made Bella's spay appointment (Monday!)
   
5. Finished 2 candle orders
   
6. Made dinner
   
7. Put the kids to bed
   
8. Painted my toenails
   

8 Things I Look Forward To:

1. Seeing our family pictures that were taken last weekend!
   
2. Jeremy's company party (Saturday!)
3. The holidays
4. Watching the kids on Christmas morning
   
5. Disney on Ice (Saturday after Thanksgiving)
6. Dinner with HS girlfriends
7. Christmas parties
   
8. My Birthday!
   

8 Things on My Wishlist:

1. Dutch Oven
   
2. Gift cards
   
3. Lenses for my Rebel
   
4. Canon SD880 IS
   
5. New floors/Carpet cleaned
   
6. New kitchen countertops
   
7. A date night with my husband
   
8. Clean and organized house
   

Tag, you’re it!

Menu Plan Monday

Sunday: Salisbury steak from Dinner Station
Monday: Creamy Almond Chicken over rice (DS)
Tuesday: Chicken Fried Rice (DS)
Wednesday: Taco Soup
Thursday: Pancakes with Scrambled Eggs & Orange Juice
Friday: Homemade Pizza
Saturday: Jeremy's company party - so whatever the Hyatt Regency @ Reunion Tower decides to serve us.

Taco Soup
1 lb. Ground beef, browned
1 can rotel
1 can regular diced tomatoes
1 can black beans or pinto beans
1 can chili beans
1 pkg ranch dressing mix
1 pkg taco seasoning
1 bag frozen corn
1 bag frozen green beans
2 cans of water

1. Brown ground beef. Add taco seasoning to ground beef following directions on seasoning packet.
2. Combine all ingredients in a large soup pot or crockpot. Also add roughly 2 cans of water to the pot, until it's of the consistency you want your soup to be.
3. Cook in crock pot on low for 6-8 hours or on stove until warm throughout.
You could also use canned veggies with this, I just prefer using frozen veggies.

Family picture time!

Today we had family pictures taken by my friend ReJana, and also a few shots with Edward both of Bludoor Studios. Santa Claus was there, which made Kaylin go all shy at first, but once she warmed up she was cuddling up to him, winking at him and being her normal self and just hamming it up! Jonathan on the other hand, took things very seriously. I think we only got 2 or 3 smiles out of him the entire time. I will be sure to post some as soon as possible. Until then, here is a sneak peek from a session they had last year, with cute little Macie, ReJana & Mike's daughter. Isn't that a great Santa?!

Pumpkin carving and Pumpkin Express field trip

We went over to our friend's house and had a pumpkin carving party the weekend before Halloween, this is what we ended up with.

From October 2008

I carved the SMILE pumpkin, Matt carved Jack from The Nightmare Before Christmas, Chera carved Elvis, and Jeremy carved the one on the end, I don't remember what it was titled. We had fun and were shocked by how good they turned out.

Every year the Mother's Day Out program takes the kids on a field trip to a local pumpkin patch. You can see last year's pictures here. Well, since Kaylin is in Kindergarten now we tried to find time to make the trip as a family on our own and with Jeremy's work schedule and our regular lives, we were just too busy. So, Kaylin and Jeremy didn't get to enjoy the pumpkin patch this year. Jonathan and I did though. Though I think Jonathan could really have not cared less. He stayed by my side most of the time and then froze the other half of the time.
Jonathan with his class.

From October 2008

Jonathan and mommy on the train. You can see the start of my stye in my left eye in this picture. Fun!

From October 2008

Trying to get another class picture.

From October 2008

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween...

We had a very low key one over here. We started the night out with passing out candy - Kaylin, Jonathan and I - until Jeremy got home from work to take them out trick-or-treating. Or, that was the plan. Jonathan fell asleep before Jeremy got home. Not a big surprise seeing as he goes to bed at 7:30 and Jeremy normally gets home between 7 and 7:30, but we thought we could keep him up an extra half hour or so to hit 3-4 houses, neighbors we're friends with. Nope, he couldn't last. So, we put him to bed and Jeremy and "Uncle Matt" (Jeremy's best friend that lives one street over) took Kaylin trick-or-treating while I passed out candy. They were gone not much more than an hour, so she didn't end up with a whole lot of candy, thankfully. I didn't even get any pictures snapped of her in her Hannah Montana costume. I did, however, take a picture earlier on Friday at her school costume parade. She wanted to wear one of her dress up costumes for that, for whatever reason. They weren't allowed to actually wear the costume to school and come to find out, they all had to put the costume on over their clothes, so it looks a little goofy. Also, the Kindergarten classes and first graders are the only ones that participate.

From October 2008

From October 2008

Oh well, they enjoyed themselves, and that's what matters!

Newest addition to our family

On Monday night Jeremy brought home a surprise. I was sitting there watching TV and he came in and said something to me to make me turn around. And he was holding this precious little thing.

From October 2008

We named her Bella. Technically, Jeremy named her Bella, and the rest of us have just kinda gone with it. She is definitely a daddy's girl. Up until last night she has slept with Jeremy every night. I had to put a stop to that last night because Jonathan wasn't feeling well and kept waking up every few hours. I was entirely too tired to continue to deal with the up and down, so I just let him lay in our bed for about an hour. He's feeling much better this morning, thank goodness!

Anyway, the kids just love her to pieces. Kaylin has asked me to bring her to school when I pick her up every day. Jonathan wants to hold her on the ride there and back, plus carry her when we actually get Kaylin (I don't wait in the carpool line, I park and walk to pick her up. It's faster.) Jeremy is obviously smitten with her, since he normally isn't a big fan of dogs and is always loving on her and letting her sleep with him! And I love her, and will love her that much more when we get her potty trained