Giveaways

Are you into giveaways?? Do you love to or want to learn to edit your own photos? then you need to go to MckMama's blog, and enter to win Adobe Lightroom 2 editing software, and go to Grammie Mommie's blog to enter to win the Photoshop Elements!!!! It's a random draw, and it is open for entry until Dec 20th. Yay!!!
Good luck!

Want a chance at a new Computer??

So, recently I was made aware of a chance to win this really awesome computer. It's the new PC Touchscreen 600. WOW That's all I can say about this thing! I want one. We're trying to teach our children not to say "I want" all the time, but man is it hard!!

There are actually a few chances to win. You can go here, or here, or here, here, or here!

There are actually 3 entries per blog, so that is a lot of chances to win! Go read the reviews, and enter! :) Good luck, Vinessa

Not Me Monday

Yay! It's Monday Morning, the morning created by MckMama to share the things that we would otherwise be too ashamed to admit to!

So, I did not sit in my pj's almost every morning this week, drink two cups of coffee and play on the internet while cleaning, and sewing new curtains. I also would never let Elyana choose to wear pullups just because they tend to be easier than the cloth diapers I wash every day.

I would never ever sit here on a Monday morning, in my pj's, with coffee eating chips and salsa for breakfast when I should be getting dressed, clipping coupons, doing school with the kids, and sewing curtains and diapers! No way, because I am always on the ball, I never ever procrastinate.
So participate if you want!

Busy Fall

It has been a very busy fall for us so far. Canning, freezing, sewing, playdates, Mops, church, growth group.
Too many things to name I think. Trying to keep up with the day to day chores are just that. Chores. It is a never ending battle, that sometimes I feel like I am waging on my own. Steve does help when he gets a chance to. Laundry never seems to end, of course it doesn't help to have to babysit the dryer to make sure that the door stays closed! hehe
I have made the decision though that no matter what, I am going to try to really cherish these years while they are here. This age is so important and fun. All the time spent trying to keep the house "perfect" takes away from important time that could be spent reading/playing with the children, teaching them things, and learning from them. Loving them. So, as I embark on this quest to try to build a better/closer relationship with my children, and learn more about what makes them tick, and what discipline works better with each one, I ask for prayers. Because we all know that as soon as we make decisions to do the right thing, the devil comes in to try to ruin everything. We fight spiritual battles that many times we do not really realize are spiritual battles. I am going to don the armor of God. I know that through God's strength I can do what needs to be done! I'm sure I will find that as I do this, the house will also stay picked up better! Because I will be concentrating on what God wants me to instead of what I want to.

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.



First of all, since I am a mom that is totally on top of fashion, and my children only go out in the best, I would never ever even think to let my little girl go to church like this.






This week, after I had all the cloth diapers in the wash, and no disposables in the house, I most certainly would never put a bathroom hand towel on Elyana as a diaper just to buy some time. That just wouldn't be sanitary. And of course I would never take a picture of it either.

When it snows for the first time, I would never let my two children go out and play in what was more mud than snow. Just to get some peace.

I would never let my children make their own BBQ Chicken Pizza's on homemade tortilla shells, because if I did, there would be BBQ Sauce and cheese all over everything, including the floor, and would just make more work for me.

Hope your Monday's are as good as mine! :)

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I didn't not take my medication that I am supposed to be taking (for 2-3 wks) for a week just so I could have sugar.

I also did not take my 4 children that are all under 4 to the store at 7:30 last night and let the three oldest spend a dollar on anything they wanted. They chose candy. I did not while I was there, get a 16oz can of Dr Pepper, a regular sized three musketeers, and a 16 oz of Mt Dew and consume all of them that night before bed! I would never do that because I am too conscious about the effects that that would have on my body, and on all of our dental health.

I am never too tired to get up with the babies so I just bring them both into bed with us when they wake up so that it will be easier and I will get more sleep. Not Me!

I also never turn on movies for entertainment so that I can get just a few more things done, even if it is past their bedtime. I also never forget to brush their teeth or am too lazy to do it before they go to bed.

And I would never ever ever go out in public in pj's and hair not brushed but twisted up in a pony, and no shower just because I needed to get some stuff done!

A Photographer I am NOT!

A photographer I am not! Oh how I would love to be though. I love good photography. There are a couple that I follow. How I wish we could afford to have them do our family photos.
I do not have photo shop. Man do I wish I did sometimes though! Who am I kidding? I still have diapers to sew, shelves to make, knitting to do, curtains to make, and school for the kiddos! I barely take time to update our blog, let alone sit down and try to fix my amateur photography (if we could call it that). I do however, love to take pictures! So, I have quite a few to share.
We did apple pie filling earlier this week, as a family. We had a blast! As soon as I brought the camera out, Michael walked his walker right in front of me and cheezed it up! Hmm...

Everyone got to take turns turning the peeler, which was given to me when I worked at a restaurant in Michigan by one of our regular coffee drinkers!

Of course it was a little slow going with the children, so Steve had to get in there and do a few fast ones so that he could core them.

And then Michael was still following me trying to get in the picture! No, I am not making that up!

Here's what the filling looks like so far.08.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388200338324055746" border="0">

Elyana got in trouble. Hehe so I think it was a little mean to take a picture, but in all fairness, I was taking a picture of Gabe doing the peeler and this all happened at the same time.

She's running to me. She thinks I'll save her.Filling+011.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388200836907252194" border="0">
Getting ready to go in the canner!

Here is the end result. We got 19 quarts, and now will be getting more apples to make more! Have to have enough for the winter time. We like to share also.

Now there's the clean up though. Some day I am going to take a picture of the kitchen right after it's been cleaned, so that I can show that yes, it does get cleaned! It's just that our cook comes in for breakfast lunch and dinner, and makes a terrible mess when she cooks!

Then there's my guys. :) Aren't they just handsome??

I got to go to the store the other day by myself. Steve showed me this when I got back .He said Michael was in there, just talking away, then he was quiet. Steve looked over, and Michael was in this position! He assured me that he hadn't had Michael in there for very long! Hehe

Then I was cleaning the kitchen last night, and didn't hear Michael for a while. Steve said the show must have been boring. :https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQGhKN-ZBgINOxwmjbGNHd__kqNsaRgdZjwGAhGIIJ7HTs0kNvbDpfC0yetwIjkIPy6K6yu4kFe7S2XfKmyrsyTg7ixaRomfzbUVW39aFDVpYhjvlZQ3OGIbJykwfiGpvLDKGf-1MLPBnM/s320/steve+n+babies+002.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388201222419658322" border="0">

I love it, Michael is a daddy's boy, and get's so excited to see his daddy. I just love this photo of them.

So now that I've shown you some photos, I must go get some shut eye. Our little angels have not been sleeping well. Teeth, and Michael is still waking up coughing. If you think about it, pray for him would you? I've been keeping in touch with the phone nurse, and I'm going to give it a bit more time as they said the cough can hang on for about 2-3 wks, but if he has a really hard time breathing, we will take him in to make sure it is nothing more.

Play Dates

I love play dates. Tonight we had the privilege of having a really great family over for dinner and some play time. She brought a few things, I had a few things, I mixed up bread earlier in the day, and we put together potato soup. Yummy! we had potato soup and homemade bread, with fresh honey from the Native American Tribe in our area.
It is so nice to be able to talk to another mom while the children are playing. So, her four, with our four, equals fun times! I sent some soup and bread with her for her husband who was not able to join due to work. A great ending to a great day. Wonderful worship this morning, the service was just amazing. I love when God's word is spoken in black and white.


I also got permission to share what few photos I took from another play date we had recently with MckMama!!! :) We had an amazing time, amazing food, an amazing cake that Amanda made that MckMama also blogged about here. MckMama made the most amazing wraps!
The kids played so well together, and I'm almost sure we probably over stayed our welcome! I had a really hard time getting the children to leave, as they stated that they were staying all day. I was pretty sure however, that if we stayed all day, we would definitely over stay our welcome. hehe So, here are the photos. I don't have a lot, since I was so content to just sit in the country and smell the fresh air, and listen to the great conversation.





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Hopefully we have more playdates in our future!

Applesauce and This mornings Musings

This is what it often looks like at our house when it is a rainy day.




Michael is learning new things these days. at 7 months he is crawling, using his forearms not his hands though, and pulling himself up on shelves!



I love this little boy he is such a delight, along with our other children. What a blessing they are in our lives. I made tortillas again, and apparently Elyana knew just what to do. Go figure.

We made applesauce yesterday with the Tieben family. What a very fun time! We took our stuff over there, started in on the apples, and Tony made us breakfast. The children barely took time to eat! they didn't want to eat all day, but when we got home, they were begging for food! Leah took some pictures, Tony took some pictures can you tell which??

Hmmm..Looks like Leah on this oneUmm.. I'm thinking Tony!

Yep, it was definately Tony.

Oh this one??? This was was definately Leah. I think she took it for Steve though.

Leah took this one too. Glad she took some!

Leah canned some of her apples, and I canned some of mine, together we got quite a bit of applesauce! I left in the middle to do Gabe and Gini's preschool screening, in which they passed! Then we made more sauce, Leah made a dessert, which was amazing, we had lunch, we cleaned up, we won't say how the toy room looked. :)

The children and I thanked them for a great day, went home, unloaded everything, cleaned up the kitchen, and tried to figure out something for dinner, since I had forgotten to put the roast in the cooker. Like I would ever do that!

Steve commented on how well the kitchen looked, we tried to cook dinner (yes I said we) while I had two water bath cookers on as well. We ate a late dinner, had some fellowship, I made apple bread, and sausage gravy.

This morning I made him scrambled eggs with hashbrowns and biscuits, sent him to work with that, leftovers for lunch, and a loaf of applebread.

So, now I'm up alone, thinking, listening to music for this morning which I don't normally get to do. It will be so awesome to have my piano moved into the house, and tuned. I'll get pictures when it happens.
So, for now, I had better go get ready for church, so that I can wake all the children up and get them ready as well. Can't wait to go worship the Lord, and see what He has for me!

PS We also had another play date as well, recently, and hopefully I'll be able to share photos of that. For now, here's the link to see the Hostess's photos!

Lazy Day

Today was a lazy day for us. It was rainy, and cool, and we hadn't had much sleep last night, between both babies, so when Michael and Elyana woke up at 5:30 I woke up with them, and let Steve sleep, then both babies went back to sleep at about 8:30, so I went back and laid down, and Steve let me sleep till about 10:30. Woohoo!

I managed to get most of my coupons out of the accordian file, and into my baseball card holders, and is it ever easier to find them now! I let Gabe and Virginia go play in the mud. They came in black, so Steve rinsed them first, then we let the water finish going down the tub, and rinsed it, then gave them a bath. :) fun fun!

We had my version of Chipotle for dinner. I marinated the chicken yesterday, and grilled it today, with rice and lime (bummer we were out of . Black beans (which I made a huge pan of the other day, and the rest of them are safely in the freezer) While we ate, I finished making the tortillas, made some baby food for Michael. Rice, black beans, avocado, and cantelope, mixed berries, apple and yogurt. it's freezing right now, then I'll pop it into freezer bags and label it later.
We bought 2 bushels of apples the other day, so now the plan is to go to Tony and Leah's (some good friends of ours) and make applesauce in the morning, and then at 10:30 Gabe and Gini are going to do the preschool screening. We are homeschooling, but I thought it would be nice to see where they are at.
So, we are going to bed now, an early morning, getting up with Steve and getting him off to work, then getting everything packed up to go! Busy, but fun. :)
What are your weekend plans?

The Things I didn't do this week

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.


I was not going to let my daughter go out in public like this until my husband made her change before we left. I would never do that!




I did not climb into an apple tree with Michael sleeping in the wrap on my back.

I would never have let my 18 mo old daughter climb up on the back of the couch while I was filling out some paper work, and let her fall out along with the screen. Not me! Then when we got home from the ER and errands later that night, I would not have let her wear her shirt over the back of her head like so.


And never ever would I spend so much time looking for material to make curtains and telling the children to settle down, only to realize when we got out to the car, it had been 2 hours. Wow. I would not then go fill the car up with gas, and while inside get some zoo juice, one for each child, a 32 oz fountain dew, and 3 $.99 bags of chips and 2 bananas in order to keep from going home for lunch only to make another trip out with all four of them again to finish the errands that I needed to run.

Not me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not run out of diaper covers for Michael and use the periwinkle from Elyana and pretend it's blue since it is so close to blue. I also did not use cloth diapers at church and forget to take a wet bag with me! I would not stop using disposables cold turkey because we ran out of them and I didn't want to spend the money for more.

I would never pick up a small bookcase off the side of the road and use it as a shoe shelf in the closet by the door. Not me!

I would never ever laugh at my 3 yr old daughter when she tells me that " God said I didn't have to wear a pretty right now"
Or my 4 yr old son when he says " God told me to hold the kitten".

So, what have you been up to??

Trip to Michigan

We're here!! After a 14 hour drive (since we ended up having to stop a little more than we had hoped) we are now in Royal Oak at Steve's parents. We arrived yesterday morning, and were able to catch a nap even. We are having a blast.

Yesterday was our nephew Jack's 9th birthday, so they had a family birthday party. We went to Tim and Cathy's house, and had pizza, cake, and ice cream. We played outside, wrestled, and Steve and Tim played Guitar Hero. Apparently that was a blast. :)

I got a call at 4 am this morning and found out that my new niece is finally here! Lexy. She wieghed 7 lbs 7 oz, and was 21 in long. Everything went well.

Food

We've been very busy around the house, trying to get laundry finished, and make tortillas and cookies, for our trip to Michigan. I wanted to have a lot of tortillas so that we could use them for our wraps while we are moving and such. So, I made a huge batch, and got about 60 tortillas.
Now, they are in the freezer! They don't take any time at all to thaw out.
Anyway, as you can see, I am trying to teach our little ones responsibility, how to be a good worker/helper (they're good helpers anyway), and to do it with a good attitude, so that as they get older, they can also help others ,and when they are grown and on their own, they will know how to take care of themselves if they have to! Also, they are happier helping then when they are on their own playing all the time!

Elyana is very upset that she cannot have the plunger to walk around the house with.


Usually the children argue over who does what! So, they now just do it together. I sort the laundry , or sometimes Gabe does, I put in the water and detergent, and they put the clothes in. Then, when the clothes are done in the wash, I take them out and put them into a basket, and they put them in the dryer while I get the washer ready again.

The floors also needed a good wash, even though we do mop, I thought it would be good to do a really good job since we would be leaving, and people will be coming in to look at the home as a possible rental option.






Enjoying the tortillas that I just made! The children wanted ham rolls right away!
going into the freezer.
This bread is a whole wheat soda bread I wanted to try, as it has no yeast, and only about 2 tbsp of honey, which could be cut in half.


Yummy, breakfast, with goggles!


Elyana enjoying breakfast, and Gabe enjoying breakfast while wearing his new swim goggles.

These are my oatmeal cookies that I love, and I had some blue berries and raspberries to use up, so I threw those in also!

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 c butter
1 1/2 c brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
6 c oats
1/2 c applesauce
1/2 c honey
about 1 1/2 handfuls of ground flax seed meal.


I added about 1/2 -3/4 cup of flour to this. I found this recipe online, and then changed a few things. I added the applesauce and honey and took that cup of sweetener from the brown sugar. . I also added cinnamon, and chocolate chips. The cookies are very very soft and chewy, which is how I love them. If you try it, I hope you enjoy it!
The raspberries went great with the chocolate chips.

This is Gabe and Virginia, enjoying MckMama's Sour Cream and Spinach Pancakes, with blueberries added, and blueberry cream cheese!!! Very yummy!

Sooo...This week has been extremely busy.