Handmade for the Holidays

Tess thinks handmade gifts are best.I'm talking about these ultra cute sweaters, scarves, and hats, not the kids.

Although they are cute too.
If you'd like to have one of these adorable sweaters

or way cool critter scarves

Check out My Mom's Etsy shop!

Tess can't figure out why you wouldn't. :op

Your little peeps can be warm and toasty this winter too.

You can come back and check out the widget on the right sidebar later too.

If you have a color or an animal preference, just let her know.

I know the scarves she can make with critters, snakes or bears.

Carving pumpkins 09

We brought the pumpkins in last night and set to carving them up.

The kids really liked it, but I was reminded why we painted them last year.

The stringy guts are a pain.

Luckily, my husband usually takes pity on me when I whine and say "this isn't working".

Notice the biggest T was absent from the festivities. He's way too cool for making jack o lanterns. The littlest T was about, crawling around our feet. I'm sure the pumpkin guts would have went straight to her mouth if we let her any closer. I'm already going to have to scan the floor for pumpkin seeds before she gets up in the morning.

I think they turned out pretty cool.

Mom and Travis's jack o lanterns

Tate's contributions

And Teagan's creation. Yes, he has ears, and "dots on his forehead".

I don't know, pimples maybe?

I think we'll try carving again next year. It wasn't too incredibly messy, and we will get to enjoy some roasted pumpkin seeds. Yum.

Aww, shucks

What have we been up to lately? Not finishing my procrastinator's project, in case you were wondering. This chalkboard still looks like this. Why? Well, you see, it's like this, I'm a procrastinator. I was busy doing other things, but sometimes...... I wasn't.

I did pick up a big box of corn from the farmer's market a couple weekends ago.

I had big plans to shuck it all and freeze it. Luckily, I had a little help.

Tatum got pretty good at it.

Teagan got good at making a mess with the silks.

And Tess got good at taking the ears of corn out of the basket

and putting them in the box of husks.

Anyway, we have several bags of corn on the cob and about 4 cans of corn off the cob.

I'll let you know how it worked out when we try some.

Fall fun

What's funny about these pictures?Not that it was warm enough to play outside in short sleeves.
That my 12 yr old and 4 yr old are actually playing together.

Life at home

This is how we spend a Sunday afternoon. Feeling ill.

It started last week. I had a runny nose and cough. Then Travis was sent home from school with a fever on Thursday. He stayed home sick on Friday too. Tatum started complaining about a sore throat yesterday. The little peeps started coughing last night. Teagan is feeling particular miserable today. Enough to willingly chew up a chewable ibuprophen. Even my baby is sick.

Back on track

I've felt like I'm falling behind lately. Like no matter what I do, I can't get ahead. I'm in my 4th week of this quarter but felt like I have accomplished next to nothing for school. What with working, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping.....life in general......who has time for anything?

I started off this quarter off kilter anyway, not getting my books until the 2nd week, and I've felt time flying by since then. I feel like I'm getting back on track though. I did finish two of my patho quizzes and finally got around to finishing a rather easy paper that I just put off and put off. I looked at the timelines for my classes and am surprisingly, not that far off.

On the weight loss front, I finally match that weight I have listed down there for July. ;op With a trip to Kentucky in August, then Savannah and Tennessee in September, the numbers on the scale were creeping back up. I have been fighting with the same 4 pounds since July and thankfully, have finally beat them. For now. Needless to say, I am still one pound away from my second goal of 165. I am under my pre Teagan weight though. Woohoo! It's like I only had 3 kids. Sort of.

I went shopping a couple weeks ago because I saw some really cute boots in Kohl's ad, and who couldn't use a new pair of cute boots? While I was there I eyeballed a pair of size 12's and thought what the heck, they can only be too tight. Would you believe they weren't tight? They weren't even a little snug! They fit perfect! Have I mentioned I love Lee's comfort waist band jeans? Love them!

It's funny, I never really paid attention to the fact that my pants were a little loose, probably because those last 4 pounds were teasing me. Now that I have a smaller size, it's really noticeable, the rest of my jeans are loose.

Not quite ready to get rid of them though. Not sure I've seen the last of those last 4 pounds.

Happy Birthday Braeden!

Cousin Braeden had a birthday party. Notice the cool bowling pin cupcakes. Where do you suppose he had his party?

If you guessed a bowling alley, you guessed right.

You could actually lie down and catch a quick nap while waiting for the ball to reach the pins.

Unless you used the cheater ramp. Teagan bowled 100!

The big kids had a pretty good time too.

I think they all wore themselves out.

Surprisingly, they actually went to bed without much of a fight.

Maybe we should go bowling more often.

A Grand visit

Or rather, a great grand visit. My grandparents were in town a couple weeks ago from Wisconsin. They stopped by for a quick visit while they were here. Tatum and Teagan reading books to their great grandparents.
Even though we only got to see them briefly, I'm glad they made it down here. Earlier this week, my grandpa had a stroke. He's doing "okay" but I think we're in the wait and see stage to see how much he'll recover. He's a strong old dude, so I'm sure he'll be okay, but if you could keep him in your thoughts it would be appreciated.