Sorry for the Delay!

DUE TO TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES  ONLY ON MONDAY MAY BE POSTPONED UNTIL TUESDAY... OUR INTERNET IS DOWN!!!

Okay we are back on.  I never really know how to fix that problem.  I always try the oh so technical trick of turning everything off and trying again, but it wasn't working last night.  Then magically this morning it is working again.

Since i know you were all losing sleep over my jacket dilemma, I thought I would let you know that I found one!  My dad was in town and he helped me pick it out.  I think it will keep me warm and cozy this winter :)  Now to look for a pair of gloves!  Don't have the option to use pockets when you are always holding little hands or bottoms.

So yes my dad was in town!  It was a lot of fun to have him here.  We didn't do anything crazy but it was just nice to have company to break things up a bit!  The kids love to have grandpa here.  We asked C one day where Grandpa was from.  She told us he was from the donut store!  He always brings donuts over when we are in town so she made sure he lived up to that while he was here.  Here a few pictures from his visit.  I wish I would have taken more.  It is so hard for me to stop what I am doing and go get my camera.  I really just like enjoying and living these moments lately.

We also have been raking leaves like crazy around here.  The colors are changing and it is BEAUTIFUL!  One good thing about living in this area is the seasons.  Daddy raked them into a pile and we tried to take leaf pictures but the kids did not like it!!!

Fallfusment Park

Well Monday it is...  When i went to bed last night I remembered about my promise and said something to N.  He said, "Well you already know what you are going to blog about, right?"  Man, I love that man.  Yes, I do!!!  Fall is here, although I am not sure I like it.  It rained all of last week and was in the 40's.  Everyone has a winter coat but yours truly so I have been pretty miserable. I just can't figure out what to buy.  It needs to be an every day coat...not a fancy coat...because my everydays are just not fancy if you know what I mean.  It needs to be stylish and not manly, because I don't want people calling me sir (that happened at the store yesterday, and it got me thinking maybe it was because I was wearing N's big fleece pullover.  Man, that thing is comfy!)  So any suggestions???  I am thinking one of those down jackets because they are warm but not bulky...Hmmm.  Why do I waste time stressing over this...

On to the real post!  We went to a pumpkin patch last weekend.  Well, turns out it wasn't really a pumpkin patch, it was a farm.  Actually, it wasn't really a farm either.  I would call it an outdoors fallfusment park.  Yes they had animals, but I think they were brought in.  The people all wore headsets and they sold kettle corn for $7 a bag.  You got to pick a small pumpkin from a bin on the way out.  It was included in your ticket.  Your $15 ticket...  Regardless, I think it checked the box for a visit to the pumpkin patch this year.  We'll just buy the big'ens at Safeway!  I love love love to take pictures at the Pumpkin Patch.  I am not sure if it is the orange pumpkins with my orange haired kids, or the great weather, or the perfect light that creates beautiful pictures but it is so much fun for me.  I had a baby in a sling this year so I wasn't as obnoxious as usual and I have really slowed down on the pictures altogether.  I like to enjoy the event and not stress about photo ops throughout the whole thing.  They had some really fun slides and both kids loved had a great time!

Funny story about the old car...we were waiting in line for the big rug slide and J just takes off running.  It was so odd.  I mean, he kind of wanders but will listen when you tell him to come back.  He wouldn't stop running or look back.  I looked at N, he looked at me, and I shrugged my shoulders and went after him.  He was probably about 20 yards ahead, that is how determined he was. When I caught up to him, he looked at me with the biggest smile and bounced up and down pointing to the car and said, Look!! Ramone!!!  Ramone is one of the cars in the movie Disney Cars, which is one of his favorites.  He was so excited!!  It was the cutest thing ever!

Take a look at me now...

I have a new friend that lives down the street and you might as well call her Martha. Because I have never met anyone so crafty before. Well, she had this idea to make these cute pillows. We loved them so much that I think we are going make them for all the holidays and then just switch the covers!!! We made them using Moda's Spooktacular charm pack and she used her machine to applique the letters on. I love love love how it turned out. It is so cute, I want to eat it! N wouldn't let me put it outside the first few days after it was made because he thought it would get dirty! But that is what we made them for, so outside it went! I had the kids pose with the pillow so you would get to see them too :) C wouldn't coorperate. She was helping Dad wash the car. We are headed out for some fall fun. Next week should be a good post! I plan on filling up my memory card today :) Have a wonderful Columbus Day!

Date Night

First I will say sorry, I failed...I went to sew with a friend tonight and on the way home at 11:58 pm I found myself walking a little faster thinking...Oh I still have two more minutes to add a new post to the blog!  I didn't make the cutoff.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute! 

Daddy and Mommy hit the town this week!  We went to see N's favorite band of all time.  I will say that it was awesome.  Very loud.  I told N while we were listening to the opening band that they were so loud, I could hear it in my heart.  He said, "M, you can't hear in your heart."  I said, "Yes, I can."  I think he was smart and didn't argue the point further :)  It was loud, but very very cool.  It was our first time to leave the little man with a sitter so I was a bit nervous, couple that with the fact that I nurse him to sleep, and we were using a brand new babysitter that a friend of a friend recommended.  Notice in the picture that I am holding my cell phone!  The kids all did great and G-man even went to sleep without drinking the bottle I left for him.  We felt like we were twenty again.  We'll have to remember that feeling for a while, since we didn't get home until 1 am...The babysitter made decent money for the night :) 

N outside while walking walking walking to the stadium...see how he is wearing a jacket...

well genius that I am, didn't realize the concert would be outside, so I wore a cute SHORT sleeve shirt. Hmmm, not so smart when it is 50 outside. My sweet hubby let me wear his jacket. He bought a T-shirt and layered for warmth :)

The stage set was amazing...

Self Portrait...anybody seen the commercial for the new camera with the LCD screen on the front! How easy would that make these shots!

Sorry for my tardiness...please forgive me. I will get ahead, I will get ahead, I will get ahead!

Cheeseburger Meat Loaf

This has become one of our keeper recipes lately. I have been building up our recipe bank because I want to be super organized like this girl and keep a binder with 30 meals in it that we use consistently! Because dinner time at our house is pretty crazy! 

We had this for dinner and I think one of the reasons I like it so much is because EVERYONE eats it...very rare. We don't make special meals for our kids so if they don't like it, they don't eat :) Sounds mean, huh. Not really, they usually give in and eat something on their plate. But the two bigs eat this with smiles and tonight J told me, "More Meat Please, Lub Meat Mommy" We have also frozen the leftovers-yummy. And if you are not a meatloaf fan, you should try this. It is really good!

Cheeseburger Meatloaf

Yield

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

• 1  pound  lean ground beef
• 3/4  cup  uncooked regular oats
• 1/2  cup  milk
• 2  tablespoons  minced onion
• 1  large egg
• 1  teaspoon  Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  dry mustard
• 1/4  teaspoon  garlic salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  pepper
• 1  (12-ounce) bottle chili sauce
• 3  packaged Cheddar cheese slices, cut into 1-inch strips

Preparation

Stir together first 10 ingredients in a large bowl just until combined. Place in a 9- x 5-inch loafpan.
Bake at 350° for 40 to 45 minutes. Pour chili sauce over meat loaf, and bake 20 to 25 more minutes or until meat is no longer pink in center.
Arrange cheese slices in a crisscross pattern on top of meat loaf. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.
Note: For testing purposes only, we used Heinz Chili Sauce.

If you are looking for a good cookbook this comes from this book and I LOVE it!!! 

Happy Monday :)

This is taking forever

Okay, so I didn't realize it would take me this long to update everyone on our life. But it looks like we have been busy... So here is the cliff notes update till today!

the kids said hello to Rosa Parks at a local attraction

the kids played house with my baby

who is the most adorable thing ever

went to town on some local transportation...c learns to pick out her own clothes and mom could care a less, as long as she is dressed!

G gets a follow up ultrasound at the children's hospital here. All is well, no kidney problems! Yeah! We really weren't worried, but made for a cute picture in the big ole bed :)

G starts to eat solid foods and loves it. He should, we waited until "things were settled" before we realized things would never be settled and just went for it. He is 7 months old now and we are just getting going with 2 meals a day :) So much more laid back with the 3rd.

J starts refusing to take naps, but still needs them and falls asleep sitting up in the living room. C stopped taking naps at 21 months and J is close he is 27 months. Hopefully G will be my baby who takes a nap until Kindergarten!!!

C loves her brother. She took a hiatus from asking God for a girl baby after she realized how much time G took away from "mommy time" with her...then she said we need another baby but Daddy would take care of the baby...now just tonight she asked God again for another "girl" baby! Ha!

She also loves her other brother. They share a room here and love it!!!! J made the transition great from a crib right into a bed with sis. She insisted they have matching PJ's

I mean seriously, couldn't you just eat him up :) He is always this happy

Oh yeah, our basement flooded...about 4 inches of water on the entire bottom floor. Fun times.

Had to escape the stress of no playroom, flooded stinky house so we went to the Beach with some fun friends.

smiling again and almost sitting...has been crawling for a month now but won't sit still long enough to sit

C is soooo excited to be playing soccer!!!!

new big boy carseat!!!

I think she is even more excited to be starting Preschool. We love love love her school. She goes 5/week from 9-12 and is really enjoying it...J misses her like crazy and after 2 weeks still cries when we drop her off.

the highlight of her classroom...a guinea pig names Cooey. If you know C you know she LOVES animals...so cool.

We went to see Thomas...huge hit with the little guy

and a BUNCH of more trains

C started dancing...she is clueless but seems to like it

G finally got to wear his Babylegs!! Aren't they adorable...and he has the most amazing daddy ever. Look at him just holding his little finger. I think I was in the store and he was fussing and C was taking pics from the back.

Wooooo Hooooooo we got carpet again in the playroom. That only took THREE WEEKS!!!

some more house pics...these are as good as it gets. If you looks closely you will probably see a) dirt-because it seems that "picking up" is as far as I ever get these days. I never get to the actual cleaning part b)moving stickers-still finding them everywhere c) things already falling apart and needing attention that we don't have to give. Like the curtains that are falling down in two rooms... I would someone to tell me how their family gets it all done :(



see told you...it's bad I know. But I am just keeping it real :)

These are from today and make me happy to see my baby so joyful. We are loving life with our kids these days. Sooooo blessed to have N home. Looking forward to a fun fall.