Gobble Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!  I hope you are all ready for family, friends, and lots of yummy food!

We are headed to visit Matt's dad's side of the family tomorrow for our Thanksgiving meal.  I am looking forward to seeing everyone and for Mark to meet his Grandma Sally and the rest of the aunts and uncles.  The boys are in for lots of hugs and kisses!

I am also thinking today of my own cousins and aunt today.  One year ago today, my cousin Courtney went to be with our Heavenly Father after a life long battle with Cystic Fibrosis.  I am happy to know that Court is breathing easy now and free of pain...she is surely missed....

And today 2 of my friends' little ones turned 1!  Happy birthday to Evan and Charlotte!

Several friends whose wee ones are celebrating their 1st Thanksgiving tomorrow....Caleb, Nick & Alex, Madeline, Henry, and Teddy...we are so thankful for your precious lives too!

For Matt having a job this year, we have much to be thankful for....

And just for Matt, I am so blessed to have him by my side as husband and my best friend!

For 2 healthy boys, my wonderful blessings...

For FABULOUS  grandparents who help Matt and I out more than they even know and are so loved by their grandsons....

For my girlfriends who are really more like sisters, what fun would life be without you all?!

For Maria, our wonderful nanny, she has been such an immense help to our family and feels more like family every day!

And for so many other things....we have so much to be thankful for....

I pray you are all well and able to spend tomorrow with loved ones and remember to count your blessings!  Happy Thanksgiving...Gobble Gobble! :)

Thanksgiving 2009

November 2010

Cousins

This weekend we made the long trek to Abilene to see Grammy-Gram and Nonna.  Matt's sister, Julie, came down with her family from Lubbock to visit us too.  We had a fun weekend playing....went to Children's Museum, played with lots of cars and blocks, in Nonna's giant backyard, and at the neighborhood elementary school!  Fun was had by all!

The 6 hour road trip was a little bit much on the way there, so we decided to make an impromptu stop in Austin Sunday night to break up the trip.  Pawpaw and Mawmaw Manda were very pleased to see us for our short visit too.  They have some new critters in their yard....chickens!  The boys had a great time chasing them around and hunting for eggs! ;-)

All in all it was a great weekend and it was wonderful to catch up with all the fam!  And now a few pictures for your viewing pleasure!!

Blessing Board

Sunday night I made one my favorite crafts yet!  I stumbled upon this blog, Less then Perfect Life of Bliss.  She made the neatest board to write on daily the things you are thankful for or feeling blessed by...perfect for this thanksgiving season.  All you need is an old frame, some letters, and burlap and fabric and you are good to go!  Julie's was so cute, I pretty much just made it just like hers and I love it!  I have it hanging by my front door but thinking of moving it to somewhere where I can see it more often.  Here are a couple pics before I wrote on it and hung it up!  Go make one too, and be blesssed!!

Crock Pot Mexican Chicken

Somethings I really love about fb, like posting a question and getting like 20 responses!  On Monday I wanted to try a new recipe using 2 things....chicken breasts and my crock pot.  Anything else I was open to!  I honestly have used my crock pot for only 2 things....pot roast and queso and was ready to venture out with something else!

Ashley D. sent me the easiest and tastiest recipe....
*chicken breasts
*can of black beans (drained)
*can of corn (drained)
*can of Rotel or can of diced tomatoes/can of green chilies
*Spices....I added cumin, cayenne pepper, onion and garlic powder/salt
Put all of that into the ole crock and let it go.  I put mine on the 10hr low setting.  About and hour before you are ready to serve, drop a block of reduced fat or ff cream cheese.

OMG, it was so good!  I didn't even have to use a knife on the chicken.  It actually would have been really tasty to shred and put on tortillas (which hubs did for his 2nd serving).  We served ours with a side of Spanish rice and topped with a little fresh avocado.  Delish!! :)

I am totally ready to bust out the crock pot and try some new things.  There were several others that people sent that sounded totally delish too!  Do you have any great crock pot recipes to share?

Countdown to....Christmas??

Oh yes, we are only 4 days past Halloween and now Christmas has EXPLODED everywhere already! Our big shopping centers in town have been sporting the Christmas lights and giant bows and wreaths since like the first of October, but now all the stores are in full out holiday display too! Yesterday when I pulled into the driveway the guys who hung our outdoor Christmas lights last year were making their way around the neighborhood to set up appointments for this year! I personally still want to enjoy the fall some so day after Halloween I pulled everything down and busted out my fall stuff. I love me some more pumpkins and leaves and gourds and TURKEYS of course! I do have a couple of fall projects I want to complete so I better get on it so I can actually enjoy them before it is time to take them down. Seems the boys keep getting to bed later and later and mommy is more and more tired! yawwwwn......not enough time for crafting!!

But anyway, I am still on my quest to have a less stressful and less expensive Christmas. Been trying to shop the sales and use my coupons. I have a couple of gifts for the boys already, something for my mom in the works in my head. Really should make myself a calendar to have completion dates and see if that would help. I actually read a holiday checklist on my RealSimple email this week and thinking maybe I should print it out and try to keep up! So far I am not TOO behind but I think times are going to start going by fast, especially since we have plans I think every weekend until Christmas! :-0

Has anyone else gotten a head start on Christmas and any tips or advice to achieve that all coveted less stressful more enjoyable Christmas?? :)

Halloween 2010

I didnt get a very good picture of the boys together in costume, Zachary was too ready to go get his candy!! Note to self, take pictures BEFORE it is time to go trick or treating! ;-) We had a good time walking around the section of our neighborhood and Zachary got WAY too much candy for a little boy. People must have been heavy handed passing out candy because we didn't go to that many houses! Markey was definitely a favorite and looked adorable in his pea pod costume, especially toddling down the street after brother. Even Esther got to come with us on our walk in her halloween collar. Grammy came with us to help with the crew and it was much appreciated! Now...on to preparing for Thanksgiving and Christmas! :)

For the love of BOOKS...

My name is Lisa....and I love books. We have so many books, yet I can't seem to part with them! Today during big boy's nap, I decided to tackle a book case in our game room. After like 7 years of book club (approx 80ish books cause some months we have skipped) plus the countless other books I have read on my own, plus matt's books, plus some books from college, that is a LOT OF BOOKS!!

I love to share my books, but I also LOVE to look at the shelf, remember the book....the emotions, when I read it, etc and it makes me smile. Therefore, I have waaaay too many.

What do you do with your books? Immediately read and then loan or sell? I need to decide how to keep and how to let go of some books. I think I created a pile of about 50, but I still have another 100 or so I couldn't part with it. Any tips on how to let go of books? I am a book hoarder I think?!?! :)

12 month Check up!

Today I took the boys into the doc for Mark's 12 month check up. It was slightly stressful as these 2 do not like to a) be still for too long and b) be confined to a little doctor's room! :) They did pretty good waiting, but once the doc was there and ready to chat, m was getting antsy and z wanted mommy's attention. I always get a little embarrassed and they really were not even bad, just being a 1 and a 2.5 year old! ANYWAY, I asked doc about M's recent bout with eczema and on and off diarrhea. He said it is a possibility it could be related to the introduction of cow's milk, even though we have been doing fine with cheese, yogurt, etc for months. He said we could a) give it a couple more weeks to see how things go, b) switch to soy milk which I don't want to do or c) get a food allergy work up and make sure it is actually that. So I have a call into my insurance to check coverage for that and we will go from there. Oh yeah, and we have the start of an ear infection. Good times!

Markey got 4 vaccinations AND his flu shot and Zach got a flu shot so for about 3 minutes, there was insane crying and screaming coming from our room and I had to get another nurse in the room so she could comfort and hold one while I held the other! But thankfully they quickly recovered and were smiling before we even walked out the door.

Now for stats:

Weight-24lbs (50%)

Height- (90%)

Head- 46cm (funny thing we had to do this one twice because the first one showed his head had grown WAY too much since last time...that's happened to us with Z too!)

And interestingly enough...here are Zach's @ 12 months.

Height- 31" (75-90%)

Weight - 23.1lb (50-75%)

Head- 48cm (90%)

Almost the exact SAME! So weird, they look so different to me! All in all though, everything is healthy and normal and I am glad to have this visit behind us! :)

Monster Birthday Bash!!

The Pumpkins

Two weekends ago we headed out for our 3rd annual pumpkin patch trip! The kiddos had a great time, especially the older ones. Climbing on pumpkin piles, bouncey houses, train and hay rides, so fun! The little ones were good sports and went along for the ride! :) Enjoy some pumpkin cuteness!! :)