Home By the Creekside

This is Brayden Kindergarten shirt for when he is Star of the Week. I have had it on my counter for the last couple of weeks. I thought we'd better get it in. We have one more project to do, the letter J expert page for the alphabet book in the class. By the way, he was able to recognize all the letters in Oshkosh on his shorts today. Hooray it is starting to connect! This is a pillowcase that Brayden got from his new friend from his class. His mom made it and then embroidered his name on the bottom part...I was telling Brayden how he needed a Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine's Day pillowcase and so forth..Hint Hint Grandma! You could totally do that!

This is the aftermath of Brayden's presents (minus the girly stuff, Eric!!) from yesterday. It is nice to see that he is playing with them. He got a Kung Fu Panda weapon set complete with headband. I think he looks like he needs to work in a Japanese restaurant at grill with all the knives...He got a huge spongebob puzzle from his friend so I brought Lyndee's Cinderella puzzle out along with her dolls and they put the puzzles together with dad's help. Today was the kids' primary program in church today. I don't think Brayden and Lyndee had a clue. I did not see Brayden sing..I saw Lyndee sing a couple songs. I think they were more focused on sitting the cool seats up their on the stand. I know that Brayden knew his part and was shy. Lyndee, oh Lyndee, just loved how she really said her part! This is Lyndee's new dress. Not bad for 7 bucks at the second hand place in Ogden. I wished that the Once Upon a Child was a nicer one up here like the one in Gilbert.

Yup...those are hands in Brayd's spooky Halloween black punch. It is orange and grape koolaid with water and ginger ale and.... an icy hand.  Then I used ice cubes that were for water bottles and stuck a gummy worm in them..Kids got a kick out of that. Kids got to decorate their own pumpkins..I mean cupcakes.  I had the kids sanitize their hands...ya know with all those nasty germs out there. Ping Pong Pumpkin:..this game did not go so well. You bounce the balls into the pumpkins and cups. I could not manage this well because...I lost my voice and had a hard time explaining this. Blind Marshmallow....kids were blindfolded and had 30 seconds to put them into the other bowl with a spatula. Before cupcakes, the kids decorated a foamy pumpkin with foam stickers that I had from last year and never used in my classroom. Presents.... Then after that. I had the kids run around outside playing vampire and werewolf tag. They enjoyed  it and atleast I hope that they did. It w

Before Brayd's party, I took a picture of my lovelies outside.  I can't believe how much they have grown.

Here is my lotion that I made today. I made about 9 bottles today. I gave away some bottles to a neighbor down the street. Brayden and Lyndee already claimed theirs.. I made Pomegranate, Blackberry Fizz (yes Erica that is your new favorite), Bath and body country apple, Burt Bee's Buttermilk, and for the kids..Root Beer. I really like my lotion because I know what is in it. I also save money. I dont have to visit Bath and Body or Victoria's Secret. I also add some silk protein to help make my skin softer and it works better than the stuff you buy at the stores. Now I get to enjoy my lotions and not have dry skin..yea for us. Wanna a bottle, be the first comment!

So, Clay and I are in charge of getting the church building clean this month. Sometimes there are not enough of people so we go and fill in. Actually we do it all the time. We even take our kids. Sometimes they help and sometimes they run around like a couple of wild banshees. Now who really believes me that they really help?  So after we were done, we took the kids on a donut run. Here they are enjoying their treasures.

Okay maybe my life has not been so boring..Yesterday I baked some sugar pumpkins ((never have done this before and am so amazed at how easy it was)) and then I pureed the pulp and put them in 1 cup baggies for future use. When I say future use, that means pumpkin chocolate cookies and other fattening delights for my family but NOT pumpkin pie. Not a fan. Brayden took the above picture. They loved watching! My pureed pumpkin...Looked so much like baby food...it made me baby hungry... Oh..I rearranged my oversized family room in my basement. Wish I could have designed it myself to make better use of the space. I love these decorations by August Moon. My mom gave me all of hers because I fawned over them and besides I am her best daughter.

Nothing special in our house this week. We (except Clay) were sick with whatever was going around. Brayden is fine. Lyndee has the croup still and we are still fighting it. Tonight I put Vicks on her feet and covered them with her socks so we will see how her night is. It has been cold here in Idaho and  we have been trapped inside which is okay. Brayden has not even been out playing which is weird, I know. We did not even go to church today because of Lyn's cough which was a big bummer. School is tiring me out because I have to plan so much and for some reason these kids are farther behind than the kids that were at my previous school. That makes me feel so overwhelmed. But hey, my job is teach them.  Other than that, nothing new..

When we first brought Brayden home, he was a month old and he had RSV. The first month of his life was rough. He was in the hospital twice. The crisis center that he was at was right next door to the Banner Hospital in Mesa. The first time we met Brayden, he was in NICU. He was hooked up to all kinds of monitors and I knew then that he was ours and I had to save that precious little boy. We brought him home a couple days later raspy as ever. We watched every breath, dosed him with his nebulizer, and cared for him. So last night after playing hard with his little friend, he came to me and said, "Mommy, my head hurts, I was coughing, and my tummy hurts". I hurriedly had them put their jammies on and dosed him with Tylenol because he was burning up. I put Lyndee Lou in bed hoping she was not sick and she isn't...Then Brayden went to sleep. I slept with him all night worried. So today, Clay and I watched conference while they were in the basement watching Spongebob. I know

Allright so my crazy kids got the notion of tying each other together with our dog leashes. They figured that sitting at the dinner table tied up to each other was okay...But now they wanted to go outside.. A normal parent would have said no for them to ride their bikes together, right? I said sure... and told them that you are going to crash and burn and learn. Then I said to watch out for my favorite word: KARMA.  I figure sometimes that I need to let them deal with the choices. They rode and realize how difficult it was to keep themselves from being wrapped up in the leashes. Lyndee was the first to admit defeat and unleashed herself. Brayden then followed. I was relieved..very relieved that they did this without crashing and burning and I let them be kids...

Hey Mom! Lyndee loves her new sweater. Thank you for all the hard work you put into it. Even Brayden likes it! (hee hee) He told me to not show anyone his picture at his school but did not say my blog...

I love Allrecipes.com. I love the fact that people rate the recipes or they put suggestions on how to make it better. I always use the recipes with the most ratings. I found this cinnamon roll recipe there. It is called Clone of a Cinnabon . Now...it really does not taste like cinnabon but it is really delicioso. And the best part is that the dough is made in the breadmaker. Can't screw that up, right?  That was a picture of my last cinnamon roll!

I got this recipe from Best Bites but made it my own to cut down on the fat even more. Garlic Alfredo Sauce 2 cups of  low-fat milk (I actually used non fat) 3-4 ounces of fat free cream cheese (or use 1/3 reduced fat or all fat) 2 T flour 1 t salt 1 T butter 3-5 garlic cloves 1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese ½ cup mozzarella cheese Toss the milk, cream cheese, flour, and salt in a blender. Process until smooth and set aside. In a non-stick sauce pan, melt butter on med-high heat and add garlic. Let the garlic saute for about 30 seconds, you don't want to burn it. Then add milk mixture to the pan. Stir constantly for about 3 or 4 minutes or until it just comes to a simmer. Keep stirring and let it cook for a few minutes more. It should be much thicker now. When it's nice and thick (it should look as thick as a normal alfredo sauce) remove the pan from the heat. Add the cheese, stir it up and then cover immediately. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before using.