Parties!

Okay, so I know I haven't blogged in forever, so sue me! I'm a super busy mom. 

This weekend was super busy!!! We had a going a way party for our friends that are moving to Canada! So SAD.... 

Then a birthday party for Judah and Jacob! Can't believe my boys are getting so big!! Judah is 9!!! and Jacob 6!!!!

The cake they wanted! I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with myself on this one! It's better than the picture of the one they picked out!

Even had the fun side effect of turning your mouth blue ;)

 ....and they were blessed with fun presents! Thank you all !

Then we went to a friends house for a Labor day party...no pictures from that so you'll just have to believe me when I say we had a good time! Now I'm so ready for a little down time well... I guess you can't really call it down time, but more like working my rear off getting my house back in order!

New Recipe Dinner

I'm trying out a couple new recipes on friends for dinner tonight! Hope they turn out! Here is what I'm making! Simply click on the name of the food to go to the recipe :) I'll give an update to tell you how they were.

Sun-dried Tomato and Blue Cheese Burgers

Onion Rings

and homemade Sweet Potato Fries

I'm still here....

I know it's been eons since I've posted. Starting right after Thanksgiving we had our friends Rob and Shannon Wells and their 3 kids staying with us. Paul offered them, along with friends of theirs, a job and they both got it and they moved out here. The Wells stayed with us while they got things sorted out with their house and business back home and were able to find a house out here. They stayed with us for 2 fun months. On top of extra company it was Christmas and New Years. Needless to say between company, holidays, and normal life (home school, cleaning, feeding, ect..) we were busy!!! But it was exciting! Now we are back to life a bit more normal with extra friends near by. On other news Judah has started gymnastics and is loving it!!! Izzy is getting huge and making me sad! She is up to 17 lbs!! She is rolling all over the place and even trying to figure out how to crawl. She also likes the Johnny jump up and exersaucer. For Valentine's Day the 2 littler littles had a party at preschool and I took the older littles and baby to a home-school Valentine's Party. It was nice to have something for all the kids to do! We made homemade valentines and I made some cupcakes and candied popcorn. Tomorrow we get a visit from my favorite aunt, Aunt Angie!! Not sure anything too exciting is happening after that, but I will try to keep more updated on the blog :) Here are a few pictures from the past couple months.

 Christmas Eve is also Shannon's birthday, so we babysat and did our own little party with all the kids. We had them open a joint gift.....

 A crayon maker and made some crayons

And Paul read a kid version of the Christmas Story!

 The loved Johnny jump up with the cutest baby in it!

 A cake I made for a friends birthday!

Chocolate cake with fudge and raspberry filling! Yum!!

 We've had a crazily warm winter and have loved it! Even getting to the zoo!

We even got to see the lions play fighting!! It's a short clip, but still cool.

 Prettied up for a date to an adoption fundraiser banquet for a great couple.

 Then we finally got some snow! It didn't last long, but the kids got to play in it one day!

Our homemade valentines.

Teething is no fun :(

Help! Which One?!?

Okay, so we recently got our pictures taken and I need help deciding which picture should be our main family picture that we send to all our family and friends. Serious votes only please! PLEASE use the poll to the right!

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Half way....

So it is almost half way to my goal (Thanksgiving). If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can go here to read about it. I can't say I'm to happy with how things are going. Not horrible, but not great. I have been good about reading my bible about 85% of the time and feel pretty good about that. Can't say that I have had any big revelation, but feels good to still be in the word almost every day.

The funny, yet gross thing about brushing my teeth on a more regular basis is that I now feel when they are dirty. I think before they were dirty, more than clean, I just got used to the feeling. Like when you have braces and you get used to the feeling and then when you get them off your teeth feel weird. Not saying that it is that dramatic, but the fact that I notice now and didn't as much before is really sad, and gross.

I have been really good about washing my face at least once a day if not twice, with maybe the exception of one or two days. I am very disappointed with the results. I expected my skin to be much better. I'm still breaking out, and my skin still has dry patches. I am using good skin care products too. I'm going to continue using my current skin care for the rest of my goal just to make sure I'm not judging it too soon. However, if it doesn't get better I might have to try to find a different system.

Okay, now for the BIG thing, my weight. I have been REALLY good, not perfect, but good! Sadly I have not gotten the results I was hoping for out of this either. I have totally restricted my diet like I have in the past with good results, but I think as I'm getting older, it's getting MUCH harder to lose the weight. The fact that I'm trying so hard and getting little results makes me want to give up and eat whatever I want, but I'm fighting not to do that. I have a goal, and I don't give up easy. I have lost some at least, just not much.

Anyway, thank you all for your support and encouraging words. I'm not sure if it's related to all this, but the last 2 weeks have been quite difficult with the kids. Having to deal with big paint messes, and overall a LOT of fighting, disobedience, and bad attitudes. Praying this week goes much better!!

Fall Fun Day

 A couple weekends ago we had a family fun day. We invited 2 other family friends to join us.

 Some yummy snacks....baby carrots, pita crackers and hummus, and apples with caramel.

 We made some doughnuts. 

 and painted pumpkins...

 Our friends Angie, Andy, and Aspyn.

Our friends Adam and Melinda's son Logan. Didn't get a picture of them together :(

 After dinner we made chocolate taffy...

 Didn't get any pictures of the finished product, but it came out a little too hard (I cooked it to hot), but it still tasted really yummy!! All in all it was a day full of fun with friends!!