Well here are the pictures of Brock blowing out the candles on his cake. This post comes with an explanation. We had our beautiful airplane cake on the counter while we were all out of the room and our oh so lovely puppy put his front paws on the counter and ate one of the wings, we were so not happy with this! Don worked so hard on that cake and boy were we angry. Needless to say we made another cake that we could eat. It turned out yummy just not as cool looking, I am bummed we didn't get any pictures of Brock with his other cake but I am thankful we took some pictures pre-Ben!

Better late than never

Well as you know we are big into the kids birthday cakes and to say the least we were a little late again with Brocks, yes it's the 22nd today and Brocks birthday was the 25th of October. Anyhow, here it is, we will serve it to him tomorrow sometime so I'll get some pictures of the candle blowing, etc. Enjoy and another great job Don!

Morgans updo!

My lovely daughter asked me to share pictures of her hair. Here they are now make sure you ooh and ahh at her beauty.

Bargain Alert

For those of you here in the Albany area this post is for you! Albertsons has their turkeys 23 cents a pound after you spend $25 in the store. The other stores in the area you have to spend more money to get that price so for us this is the best deal. We don't do much shopping at the grocery store anymore mostly Costco but $25 shouldn't be that difficult. Don wants me to try and get a few this year so we'll see if I can make a month menu in order to find enough to buy at the store to make it worth it. Oh and we've stuck to our menu so far, well except for Monday the kids and I walked to Costco to get milk and ended up having sausages for lunch there instead of eating at home. It is so nice to be able to look at the menu and know what to prepare etc, I can't believe I haven't done it before, I'm a little behind the times on that one I guess, huh?

Update: I just spent $4.14 for an 18 lb turkey yeah! I plan on going back in the next couple days to get a couple more to stock the freezer! YEAH!

Reading time

The kids and I have been reading Little House in the Big Woods every night and last night I got a few cute pictures. We are hoping to get through that series and then read Robinson Crusoe. I watched the show Crusoe on NBC and loved it and thought the kids would totally get into the book.

Our Fun Saturday!

Right before we had a huge leaf fight we were so dirty by the time we got home.

They are the cutest aren't they?

All in a row

Just the right place for a gap in the railing for Brock

Ty had a blast

Morgan was not impressed with the seagulls eating the ducks bread

Darn seagulls!

Don is on his way to North Dakota this weekend so it's just the kids and I and our no eating off the menu life. Today was finally sunny so we walked to the park and fed the ducks with bread I've been saving for the past couple months. We had a great time and I got a few cute pictures. We came home and raked the leaves in the back yard and cleaned up all the toys back there. I'm hoping to mow one more time before the real rain starts. We're heading to church tomorrow and that about wraps up our excitement woohoo aren't we thrilling?

Our menu

The kids and I decided that since Don wasn't going to be home until the end of next week that we were going to have a goal of not eating any meals that we didn't make, so last night we sat down and made a menu, I'm sure it doesn't look very exciting or creative but hey it's a start and we decided together.

Today
Raisin Bread
Mac n' Cheese
Homemade Pizza

Saturday
Biscuits w/jam and applesauce
Leftovers
Cales Chicken

Sunday
Eggs w/ toast
Chicken Noodle Soup, Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Roast

Monday
Pancakes
Pb&j and apple chips
Tacos or leftovers

Tuesday
Pumpkin Chip muffins
leftovers
Morgan's chicken

Wednesday
Make your own breakfast
nachos
steak

Thursday
Oatmeal
mac n' cheese
spaghetti

Friday
oatmeal
hot dogs
fancy nachos

I'm hoping writing it down will keep us on task I'll let you know how it goes they can't complain about the menu if they made it

More recipes!

Okay I've been kind of a baking freak the past months but I have more to share. A couple days ago Morgan made the most amazing Apple Cake I didn't get any pictures but it was awesome!!!!!!! Then today I made Raisin bread, I've made a version of it before but it was swirl and you had to roll it, etc. I enjoy that but something with a little less fuss is right up my alley for sure! One other thing about sauce I gave you the recipe for, anyhow i had leftover of it so added it to my spaghetti sauce and yummy it was so good. Don asked me to do some experimenting while he's out of town, guess he didn't want to be a guinea pig. He said the combination of spaghetti noodles and pepperoni is something he likes so he suggested making the pizza sauce putting some pepperoni in it, and use it to top the spaghetti noodles. That's what is for dinner tonight so I will let you know how that goes.


Apple Cake

6 apples, Mom uses McIntosh apples
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar
2 3/4 cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup orange juice, didn't have any so used apple
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional) yuck, obviously didn't use those
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan. Peel, core and chop apples into chunks. Toss with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.
Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients into the dry ones, then add eggs, one at a time. Scrape down the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated.
Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Spread half of apples over it. Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until a tester comes out clean






Raisin Bread

2 well beaten eggs
1 cup warm milk
1 tsp salt
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp instant yeast
3 c raisins (rinsed with hot water)
½ tsp cinnamon
½ c melted butter
½ c sugar
flour to make a manageable dough(about 4 cups)
Mix in order given. Let rise until double in bulk. Shape into loaves( 3 small or 2 large) cover, and rise again. For a shiny look, brush withmixture of 1 beaten egg and 2 Tbsp milk. Bake at 325F, 30 - 45 min.,depending on size of pans. Remove from pans to cool.

Brock "reading"

Brocks favorite book is Goodnight Moon and I caught him today reading it. So cute and I love the barely visible head nod at the end, that's how he answers all questions in the positive so we really have to watch to see it.

Random Pictures

Ty reading his three words a day with Don, he's getting it!

My $4.99 Goodwill Christmas dress for Morgan

I've been kind of camera crazy over the past few days so thought I would share a few of the cute ones.

What were we thinking?

Morgan wore an apron so she could pile the apples in there
and bring them over to the box.

Well we went apple picking again today and picked an additional 58 pounds. I am hoping it will be enough. We have not had any for just plain eating or any extra to make into apple chips. I think I'm on an applesauce strike at least for a while but the rest will be fun. I got some fun pictures of the kids as usual, it was fun picking in the rain.

Random pictures from yesterday

I snapped a few pictures yesterday and I thought I would share, we had some very interesting skies over our house and some fun times inside also.

Look at our matching freckles!

Everyone gathered around the table for snickerdoodles yummy!

Morgan doing penmanship, I love how focused she is.

Look how big our six month old "puppy" has gotten

What a day today has been!

I sit here at the computer in tears. I had such hope that we would have a president that I could respect and be proud of but it seems God had other plans for our country. I think we are in for a very scary next four years! I voted for McCain so if and when the country starts regretting their decision I can say hey it's not my fault right? I know I'm venting but I am so disappointed as are the kids and Don! My prayer will be that men of God will surround Obama and his heart will be changed, thats all I can do right now I guess. Sorry for the political post, just needed to share my heart! God bless our country as we head into the next four years.

Recipe alert

I don't know if I should say the pizza place here in town that you take and bake they have a chicken garlic with white sauce and also a gourmet vegetarian that I die for. Anyhow, I was searching the web for the sauce and found the recipe. I made it on Friday during our usual pizza night and it was awesome, everyone loved it. Ready for this oh so difficult recipe? 3/4 c ranch and 2 tablespoons minced garlic. Wow was that tough. I let it sit in the fridge a couple hours for the flavors to mingle. Yummy! I think my addiction to the gourmet vegetarian may be broken for good! Sorry Mom you'll have to come to the house now for my version now!

Home Depot Fun

I don't know if everyone knows but Home Depot has a kids clinic once a month. Ours was today and the kids have been looking forward to this one for a while now. They made a leaf press, it was an easy one today but fun and they are looking forward to pressing some leaves this fall and some flowers come spring. The next clinic here in Albany is December 6th don't know what the project is but I bet it will be fun!