Happy 2008!

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe New Year! Hooray for going to bed at 10pm and ringing in the new year with a good night's sleep!

Merry Christmas!

On the 21st, we had a "Christmas Party" with my day care kids. As you can see, we made little elf hats and then danced around to Christmas music for a half hour or so. They seemed to enjoy thems-elves!

Its amazing how kids will sit still and watch a movie when you actually sit down with them.

We had a great Christmas and the kids, as usual, got lots of stuff. Robby has had a Harry Potter movie in his stocking for the past 5 years!

Natalie got this cute shopping cart that actually squeeks like a real one! So annoying! Santa left it for her and she didn't want to open anything else.

We had to help her to get her to acutally do it!

Hope everyone had as great a Christmas as we did! Have a Happy and Safe New Year!

Congrats, My Awesome Hubby!

I just want to post on here that my hubby is awesome! He just passed his test to be a Certified Building Official this past weekend, which means he is qualified to run a jurisdiction now. He is currently a building inspector for the county we live in, but hopefully someday he will hold a higher position. For now we will stay put. Hooray for Mark!!!

Super Fudge!

Okay, so I have been asked by several people this year how I make my delicious fudge. Since my recipe is awesome, I am posting it here. If you do make it, leave me a comment on how yours turned out! I am curious to know!

You will need:
4 cups white sugar
1 cube (1/2 cup) real butter
1 can evaporated milk
1 10-12 oz. bag of chips (chocolate or other, I have made this with many flavors. Use milk chocolate if you go with the chocolate flavor)Don't use Generic!
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 can marshmallow fluff

First, put the can of fluff, the chips and the vanilla in glass bowl (or anything that won't melt) and set aside.

Line a 9x13 pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick spray.

In large pot, add the sugar, milk, and butter and bring to a boil. I never use a thermometer, but you want it to boil until it reaches the soft ball stage and then maybe a little longer. Make sure you stir the entire time to prevent scorching the beloved fudge! You can also drizzle a bit of the potion into a glass of ice water and then see if it rolls into a nice ball.
Once the mixture is ready, pour it into the bowl with the fluff and chips and stir like crazy. You want it to be nice and smooth. Once it is smooth, pour the mixture into the pan and let it set.
I usually cover it and put it in the frige as it will set much fast.
Don't forget to lick the spoon!
You can always add nuts to add a bit of flavor. I like to put them into the bottom of the pan, then it is not so hard to stir.
This only takes about 20 minutes to make!
It is so smooth and so good! The Nestle Swirl chips work really good. Last year I made chocolate mint, butterscotch, chocolate raspberry, milk chocolate, milk chocolate-walnut, and white chocolate. I didn't go as crazy this year. I only made four kinds and I did make peanut butter-chocolate, which was delicious!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Rock Eater!

So Benelli likes to eat rocks! Who knew dogs could have such poor taste in menu items. Last week Benelli started to make that wonderful gagging noise that dog owners everywhere dread. I picked him up and ran into the kitchen and low and behold, he vomited up two large lava rocks! They were probably golf ball sized. Great! So two nights ago, he was lying in the couch with me and his stomache felt weird. It was kind of grinding. I realized he had swallowed two more lava rocks and they were grinding together. The next day I went out into the kennel hoping to find the remains of vomit with rocks in them. When I found nothing, I went over to Benelli and felt his little belly. Not only could I feel a lot of rocks, but I could actually hear them. It was like holding a bag of really large marbles.

Thus, my research began. I researched rock eating online and found that Benelli is not the only dog to do this. People had taken many dogs in for surgery to remove rocks and other things from their stomaches and intestines. These surgeries were running more than $1000 a piece! WHAT!

New research topic: How to make dog vomit rocks. Success! I found two ways: the first was to pour peroxide right down its throat--but make sure it does actually vomit because it can poison them--HUH! The second way was to put a 1/2 teaspoon of salt on the back of its tongue and they will vomit from drinking so much water. Yeah, I think I'll go with #2!

So I did the salt thing and he threw up his food. Wow, it worked, but where are the rocks? I tried it again. Vomit and two gravel rocks. Benelli's stomache still feels like a bag of marbles. One more try. Vomit and 6 rocks! Golly Gee Willakers!

Benelli and Misty have since been banned from the kennel until all rocks have been removed. I guess putting rocks in areas of high water flows and dogs are not a good mix.



6 bags of rocks: $25, 1 can of Morton's Iodized Salt: $1.00 Watching your dog vomit and possibly saving its life AND $1000: priceless.



P.S. I actually called the vets office and they suggested giving him canned pumpkin to get his bowels moving. As if I really wanted those rocks to go all the way through!

Turkey Day!

It took me awhile to get around to posting about Thanksgiving, but here it is. We had a great time playing on the wii and we had a lot of good food.

Robby and Papa had a blast boxing each other. I think Papa really, REALLY enjoyed the bowling. It is quite addicting!

Teddy joined us as well. Misty and Benelli treated their cousin very nicely, even though he was scared to death!

Natalie sure doesn't fall far from the Nana tree!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RANDI, DAD, MIKE & MOM!!! GO NOVEMBER

Turkey Update!

We didn't get a gobbler as planned, those shady, sneaky creatures, so we will be having ham this year--and dove. That's right, dove, my friends. Tastes like chicken!

Sweet November

Did I mention I love fall? I wish it would truely come. It has been unbelieveably warm during the day and only a bit chilly at night. I haven't had to turn on our heater yet. The poor plants aren't sure if they should go dormant or bloom. Our neighbors' tulip bulbs are sprouting!

Anyway, the kids had a blast on Halloween. Robby was a skeleton, again, and Natalie made sure to tell everyone "I DeeDee Doodlebop!" I though Natalie would be tired of trick-or-treating after a block or two, but once she figured out they were willingly giving her candy, she was set to go all night. I only had to retrieve her from the inside of one house. She just walked on in and went down the hallway. She is so funny like that. Here are a bunch of pictures of the kids being themselves and some from Halloween. Robby lost his second tooth a couple of days after the first. Now he can stick his tongue out without opening his mouth!--I haven't gotten a pic of it yet!

Below: Always trying to be just like Daddy!

Below: Rob & Nat with Teddy

Alas, he is at a loss...

That's right! Robby lost his first tooth at school today. He went to the office and they gave him a really cool tooth holder necklace to put it in. He is growing up so fast!

Natalie didn't want this picture taken, but I did it anyway!

Here are Benelli and Misty enjoying some Greenies!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Benelli!

Our new pup, Benelli, is so cute! He is actually really well mannered and has figured out how to use the doggy door to go out and do his business. Misty is keeping him in check and letting him know who is boss! Puppies are fun!!!

Natalie just totally walked in with all of Robby's stuff on and said "I'm a cowboy!" So stinkin' cute!

We also just bought a Nintendo wii!!! I also sing its praises as my entire upper body has been sore this week!!!

Enjoy!!!

Autumn leaves are falling down...

Awww, finally, the weather is starting to turn cool. I love the fall! The trees ablaze with brialliant yellows, reds and oranges; the smell of a woodburning fireplace; the chill in the air; wrapping up in a blanket in my sweats; pure bliss my friends, pure bliss. Anyway, it's been quite a while since my last blog. I am a huge blog slacker!

I finally got my day care license after 4 months! Hooray! Anyone in the Madera area? I have immediate openings! Things are going pretty good. I have a 4 year old little boy that I have part time and a 3 1/2 year old girl that just started today that is full time. I am doing a morning preschool program that is working out great. It keep the kids busy, and makes my day go by much faster. Natalie is still working on the whole big girl pantie thing. We have accidents aplenty, but I refuse to go back to diapers or pay big$$$ for pull-ups! Offering her treats is working pretty good. Robby is in 1st grade and now has math and spelling homework. Yikes! Atleast it is very simple at this point.:-) We also got a new puppy. His name is Benelli, accent on the second "e" (this is a high end shotgun brand, in case you were wondering). I don't have any pictures on this computer of him, so I will post next time. He is super cute and looks like a minature version of Misty. Misty is keeping him inline. Enjoy the pics like Natalie is enjoying her pudding!

summer breeze, makes me feel fine...

Wow, do I need to catch up on some blogging! How bout some pics? Here is the rundown. Robby got REAL cowboy clothes for his birthday and then had a huge pirate party. I counted 17 kids. CRAZY!!! My friend made an awesome treasure chest cake.

Then 4th of July came around. We went out to the airport and watched the firework show that they had at the golfcourse. A couple of days later, I chopped off Natalie's hair. She gave me attitude! Typical! She has developed quite the personality. Robby started 1st grade August 14th and on the 15th, Natalie made poo-poo in the potty. She is officially a big girl. No more diapers, only big-girl panties! Woohoo!

Enjoy!

smokin' hot summer

Have you been here?
So, it's been awhile since I last blogged, so I am doing so now. Lots has happened! Natalie turned 2, we went to Memphis and I gave my notice at the college.

So Natalie turned 2 on Cinco de Mayo! She is getting so big and starting to make more sense when she talks. Just yesterday she started actually saying "milk" instead of "gok". Her favorite phase right now is "what's that?", which she pretty much says non-stop. My personal favorite is "I dunno".

I flew out to Memphis with the kids on June 8th to see my bros and their fams. It was a ton of fun and suprisingly, the kids were awesome on the planes-even with the 3 hour layover in SLC. We went to Graceland, the Memphis Zoo--which was totally awesome(they have panda bears) and had ton of family time.

See how good they were? The perfect little fliers!

Graceland was pretty cool. I'm not a huge Elvis fan, but I learned some interesting things. One, he had some very interesting taste in decor--really cool for the 60's-70's, he was a twin(I didn't know) and also, his grandmother died the exact day my brother, John, was born.

This picture was taken from the car museum. He had lots of cars apparently. Randi and Mike looked especially smashing in front of the pink caddy.

The highlight of the trip for me was the zoo. They had panda bears, which I have never seen, and the coolest polar bear exhibit. No pun intended!Apparently, they were hoping she was expecting, thus the shaven tummy. Probably for ultrasounds.

They're paws are massive. The water looked so cool and inviting, except for the bits of floating poo. It was so muggy in TN.

The kids loved the zoo, but we only had time for a few exhibits; Dad had to catch his flight home.

We still fit into the schedule some really good ribs, cooked by chef Aaron, a birthday party for Alli, and a great family picture. Everyone was there except for Mark, who had to work. Bummer!

A little blurry, but OK. We'll just photo shop Mark in. I almost forgot, we also went to Build-A-Bear with Randi. Robby made a cat and hasn't put it down since he got it.

I hope this makes up for my lack of blogging. Oh, yeah, I gave my notice at the college and have decided to run a day care out of my home. You may think I'm crazy, but I knew I could do it after spending a week with mine and Aaron's kids all together and I survived.