More fun with bentos!

I go back to work tomorrow after having a week off for the holidays and thought I'd treat myself to a nice bento lunch:

A crab/lettuce/sprout wrap, carrots, cucumber, a small wheel of Babybel cheese and some instant miso soup. I thought I'd leave a little surprise in the fridge for the boys, too:

Big boys get mock sushi rolls (turkey, swiss and lettuce!), carrot and cucumbers, crackers and cheese, and strawberry yogurt. The littles get mock sushi rolls (PB&J!), string cheese, raisins and carrots.
Doug is fending for himself...he just doesn't understand cute food in little boxes!

Holiday Rewind...

Happy Birthday Jesus!

I think I'm turning Japanese....I really think so....

We went on a recent trip to Houston's Chinatown and had a great time! Lots of shopping, lots of eating...you get the idea! The best part of all was shopping in an Asian supermarket. The kids couldn't believe that people actually eat dried squid, fish flakes and sea weed! John Paul was amazed at the dozens of tanks of live fish, he didn't see, however, that they would take a live fish out and filet it for sashimi right there in front of you! Definately a great day trip!
Here's some of our booty:

The next day we had fun filling our bento boxes. The boys were amazingly dexterous with chopsticks and now insist on eating EVERYTHING with them!

Blogging Blessing!

I got a Blog Blessing Award from Dana at: http://deer06.blogspot.com/ (please forgive me, I don't know how to make those clickable links!) It was a great surprise and such a nice thing for her to think of me...but that's just the way she is! Thanks Dana!

The idea… it’s a game of tag with a difference, rather than looking inwardly, we look outside ourselves and bless, praise and pray for 3 blog friend. By participating in this endeavor we not only make the recipient of the blessing feel valued and appreciated, but we are having some fun too. We’re going to see how far the bloggin’ blessings can travel around the world and how many people can be blessed! Recipients of a bloggin’ blessing may upload the above image to their sidebar if they choose to. If you receive a bloggin’ blessin’ please leave a comment on this thread so that we can rejoice in just how many blessings have been sent around the world!


I want to bless the following bloggers:

1. Dawn at the Three B's: http://dawn-threebees.blogspot.com/
2. Ann at Ineffable Twaddle: http://annmargaretlewis.blogspot.com/
3. Rachael at The Escandon Family Blog: http://www.theescandons.com/

All of these women have been such a blessing to me at the DCF board! They offer friendship, advice, a shoulder to cry on and lots of laughs! They are remarkable women, wives and mothers! Thank you ladies for blessing my life!

Lord I thank you for all you give to me. I especially thank you for the friendsip I receive from Dawn, Ann and Rachael. I pray your blessing on all of them everyday. Grant them strength, peace and JOY! For they let You bless me with these things through them every day. Amen.


So, Ladies, please pass on the blogger blessing to three other bloggers.

A foggy morning...

Priceless

Number of times we've been told, "I want..." for Christmas: 1,468

Shopping trips to Houston to get just the right presents: 12

Playing peek-a-boo in an old plastic bin: Priceless!

In the kitchen...

We woke up today to thunderstorms and a cold front so I thought it would be a perfect time to do a little holiday baking. The kids and I made a batch of peanut brittle (Doug's favorite!):

...and a batch of Chex Mix:

No sooner than we finished, the clouds blew away and the sun came out! So all the kids ran outside, leaving me and Doug with all these snacks.
I sure hope there's some left by the time they come in from playing! ;-)

There's a new photographer in the family!

Doug needed a bio pic for Bella Photography and so we went out in the field behind the house and I shot this:

Did a little vignette on PhotoShop, and I think it turned out pretty good! It kinda reminds me of Marlin Perkins from Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. I can hear it now, "I'll stay in the jeep while Jim circumcises the angry rhino..."

A Haircut

Little treasures

I've been in serious withdrawl since garage/estate sales have ended for the holidays so I decided to take a trip to the local thrift store to get a "fix." Not much to look at, but I did find these little treasures:

A very old pastry roller, cheese cutter and vintage measuring spoons! I just love them and can't wait to use the pastry roller for holiday baking! The roller is very worn and I imagine someone's grandmother using it lovingly baking for her family....John Paul says he thinks "it will squish out PlayDoh really good!"

Recycling crayons

Last night we took all our old and broken crayons and gave them new life! Peel the paper off your crayons and place the broken pieces in mini muffin tins. Bake at 250 degrees until melted. When cooled thoroughly, tap them out of the pan.


The kids had a great time doing this and coloring with the finished product!
Who wouldn't love opening a box like this?

Cute picture of the day...

Who says you can't eat yogurt with a fork?

Homemade Christmas

On another blog I read, they've compiled a list of 50 Christmas things you can make yourself. I love things like that, they just make the holidays more special! Go check it out: http://www.simplythrifty.com/50-holiday-things-you-can-make-yourself/

(although I don't think we'll be making the soda can Christmas tree!)

Out in the garden...

Our fall garden is coming in nicely! We've been harvesting mustard greens like crazy! No sooner than I cut off some leaves, in a day or two the plant is full again. We harvested our first batch of broccoli on Thanksgiving day, it went straight from the stalk to my broccoli, rice and cheese casserole. I'm beginning to see little brussel sprouts emerging, and this morning I felt a solid head of cabbage in my plants. I really love fall gardening - No pests to deal with and no weeding!!
Here are my brussel sprouts and broccoli:


...and cabbage.

Christmas Cookies

Yes, I know it isn't even December 1st yet, but I can't help but get in the Christmas spirit! The days have been cold, the inside decorations are up, and I'm so excited about making wonderful holiday memories for the kids in our home!
Today I made a batch of sugar cookies and the kids had a great time decorating them. We are just now coming off our sugar high as we settle in to watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on TV tonight!



John Paul says that one of Santa's reindeer ran over this little ginger bread man (and then he bit his head off!)

Making a wrap skirt.

I LOVE wrap skirts and dresses! I've loved them ever since I wore them in elementary school! I found an excellent tutorial for making your own skirt at Sew,Mama,Sew: http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=104
Here's my first one:

I'll definately be making more of these!

Happy Thanksgiving~

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family, hope you all had wonderful days as well! We had such a nice day yesterday! It was nice and cool and a bit overcast, the perfect day for eating too much, watching football, and drinking hot chocolate!
We just had over Doug's mom since everyone else was scattered to the wind. We had a nice lunch around 1p.m. of HoneyBaked ham, broccoli cheese casserole, asparagus, candied yams, cornbread muffins, and peach cobbler. The boys set our holiday table:

After lunch, the boys decorated our Christmas tree. They did a wonderful job!

Little Danny especially loved it! Last year he was too small to appreciate any of the sparkle and lights, but this year he was right in the thick of things. He went through the ornament box digging out his favorites and clustered them all along the bottom!

I just love those chubby little baby fingers putting ornaments on the tree! He was so intent on getting them on just right! I can't wait to see his expression when we actually get the gifts under the tree!

Our boys

Think this will be our Christmas card photo this year...

Two seconds after this photo was taken, Danny threw those two handfulls of leaves at Kyle and the fight was ON!

More stuff to make from pillowcases!

I read Soulemama (http://www.soulemama.typepad.com/) everyday. I absolutely LOVED her lounge pants from bedsheets idea: http://soulemama.typepad.com/soulemama/2007/11/favorite-things.html and decided I could do the same thing for the little ones with old pillowcase material! Here's how I did it:
Take a pair of children's pants and fold in half. Lay it down on your fabric (in this case a vintage pillowcase!)and trace about an inch away from your pants. Flip the pants over to make a mirror image, and continue to trace.

Cut out when done tracing. These size six pants took the entire width of the pillowcase, smaller sizes will not. Cut through the sides of the pillowcase making two pieces of fabric. Put right sides together and sew the crotch of the pants together:

Open up the pants and reorient so that you have two legs. While keeping right sides together, sew up the inseam of the pants:

Turn down the top part of the pants 3/4 to 1" and sew. Leave a small hole to thread your elastic through:

Sew the elastic ends together and sew up the hole in your waistband:

These pants are AWESOME!!! They are so comfortable! Using the ends of old sheets or cases means no hemming, plus I love those funky little details on the pants! Making my own pair today...Doug will be so happy I'm finally using up my fabric stash!
They got a thumbs up from my biggest critics:

Lounging in my own pair!

Veteran's Day

We stopped school work for a little while to attend the Veteran's Day Memorial Ceremony on the square today....




Our town's courthouse and veteran's memorial with eternal flame:


...and a picture of my favorite veteran, my hero, my daddy:

Finished!

Finally got my laundry room cleaned and organized! It feels soooo good to get chores like that out of the way! I picked up some containers and baskets from the Dollar Tree to neaten up the space. Now you can actually find things when looking for them...but don't hold your breath, by Tuesday it'll most likely be a mess again!