Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you are all having a fabulous Thanksgiving Day!! And enjoying the time you are spending with family and loved ones and eating your yummy dinners, that we all love so much...
I am Thankful for my friend Jessica who was my bestest friend in high school for always being a good example to me. We had the best times together and never got in any trouble (not too much trouble anyway) but more than that she introduced, Chad and I together.
I am so thankful for Chad and how supportive he is of me and my many "projects" that I have. And for the love and charity that he has shown my family over the well, last 10 years. And for sticking with me through it all. I am thankful for Chad and for all he does for our family with working full time and going to school, I know it's a lot so thank you!!! I am thankful for the job that he has and the flexibility that they have given him with working with his schedule for school. I can go on and on about Chad and all that I am thankful for, because of him, but that would send me into a big blubbering mess and we are going to be eating soon, and I don't want to explain the splotchy face and swollen eyes...I'll just say thank you and I LOVE YOU!!!

I am so thankful for my 2 little angels. Austin and Alyssa are full of it, most of the time and have my head spinning most days, but I remind myself how fast time goes and try to "enjoy" these moments, because they don't last very long. I am so thankful to have such sensitive tender kids that love me so very much, I love how they come crawl into bed with me each and every morning and either fall back asleep with me, or just play with my hair as we lay there in silence...the best part of my day!! I love you guys so very much!!!! More than you will ever know!!! I know have a glimpse at the love that Our Heavenly Father has for us all.

I am so thankful for my crazy dysfunctional family. We may not always get along or see eye to eye but we are ALWAYS there for each other, because we learned at a very young age, that all we have is each other. I am thankful for my bro/sis in laws, because I really do think of you as my family and I love the friendships that we all have. I am glad to be able to be part of such a wonderful family!

I am so very very very very very very THANKFUL and indebted to forever. OUR PARENTS. I really don't know where we would be in our lives without having your influence and assistance and knowledge and arms to run to and shoulders to cry on. You guys are the best, and the tears are starting so....THANK YOU!!! I LOVE YOU!!
I am so thankful for our families and the knowledge that I have that families ARE forever!!!

I am thankful for the little money that we do have and for our warm home and comfortable bed and my poor fitting clothes and shoes that keep my feet protected and warm (even though I kick them off the second I have the chance) I am thankful for the country we live in and the freedoms we enjoy and the luxuries of life that I take for granted on a daily basis (electricity, running water etc...) I am thankful for my talents that I am watching grow before my eyes and am thankful for the success of a business I never though possible that I have had so far and the friends that I have made and wonderful people I have got to meet that chose me to capture a few pages of their life story...

I think we are so blessed and I am thankful for this day to remind us to stop and think of all those things that we are blessed with that cannot be numbered. I am loving this season of my life and I hope I can try to remember each day that this is just a moment in time, it will change in a blink of an eye and to be thankful always of the blessings we have.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Black Friday Help!!!

Christmas is coming in 1 month!!!  I am in desperate need of good deals for kids stuff ages 2-10 and a teenage girl. I always hear all my wonderful friends tell me of their wonderful deals that they find. My last years deal that I got at Fashion Place Mall was buy one get one free on my kids coats, other than that I ALWAYS pay full price, then the next day they will have this fabulous sale on what I JUST BOUGHT!! So I am enlisting the help of all of you...what are you getting and where and when...help me!! 

Just got back...

This is us at 2am before the movie...

from the movie, oh and we snuck in an early morning breakfast...yummy! We were over tired so I will have to post the "I'm sure I'll be embarrassed later pictures" later. So I don't ruin my reputation...what reputation, I will post them, I'm not ashamed that I am crazy!!! I don't want to ruin anything for those of you who haven't seen it yet, but once you have I want to hear your thoughts on the surprise ending...j/k...or am I?

side note: on my way home we passed a gas station that said $1.79/gallon.... halleluiah!!

another side note: I just heard my little Austin cough...or,a...bark looks like croup is back at our house, and a trip to the Dr. Office we will be going today...

yet another side note: I have not been to sleep since Wednesday night, and I have 9 kids in my care! Wish them luck!! I am going to be grouchy!!! 

Just couldn't wait

So I had tickets for tomorrow afternoon show of this movie coming out...I don't know if you will have ever heard of it....

My friend Miranda lucky devil was front row on the red carpet tonight...you will have to check out her blog for pictures...The Hollomon's

I look over at my counter and it says 3 minutes...sadly I have to wait... All the midnight showings were SOLD OUT, so my movie doesn't start til 2:40am

Yes, I know I am crazy!!

Happy 1st Birthday Seth

It's still the 18th to me because I haven't gone to bed yet.  My Nephew, Seth turned 1 today 11.18.08 He is so stinking cute! I took his 1 year old single portrait pictures today...I will have to post some when I am through with editing. This is one I took a few weeks ago for his birthday invitation!! I love it!!! He is so happy!!!

Just what I need...

My Aunt Marilyn sent me this in an e-mail, I thought it was great!! Are you ready for Christmas Candy?!?!!?

Click on any of these and BAM! The recipe will appear! Don't worry they are all ZERO CALORIES!!!

2 Minute Microwave Fudge

7 Layer Bars
Aaron's Buttery Cashew Brittle
Almond Bark
Amanda's Peppermint Creams
Ann's Cream Nut Candy
Bavarian Inn Peanut Bars
Beth's Delicious Fudge
Brownie Fudge Dessert
Buckeyes
Buckeyes different one
Butter Toffee
Candied Yams
Candy Bar Brownies
Candy Cane Brittle
Candy Cane Fudge
Caramel Krispie Treats
Caramels
Carmel Corn
Carol's Christmas Treats
Chocolate Almond Bars
Chocolate Balls
Chocolate Billionaires
Chocolate Chow Mein Candy
Chocolate Covered Cherries
Chocolate Covered Nuts
Chocolate Covered Pretzels
Chocolate Nut Caramels
Chocolate Silk Bon Bons
Chocolate Truffels
Christmas Candied Walnuts
Christmas Crackle Candy
Christmas Mice
Chunky Mallow Candy
Cinnamon Hard Candy
Cinnamon Popcorn
Cranberry Nut Fudge
Creamy Microwave Pralines (Texas Stye)
Crispy peanutbutter balls
Dark Chocolate Fudge
Deborahe's Holiday Chocolates
Disappearing Marshmallow Brownies
Dish of Dirt
Divinty
Dorothy's Peanut Butter/Butterscotch Noodle Cookie
Dreamcicle Fudge
Easy Candy
Easy Divinity
Easy Divinity Easy Divinity Candy
Easy Fudge
Easy Granola Candy
Easy Microwave Carmel
Easy Microwave Fudge
Easy Pecan Logs
English Toffee
English Toffee Bars
Fabulous Fudge
Fake Brittle
Fantasy Fudge
Festive Chocolate Truffles
Five Minute Fudge
Fool-Proof Fudge
Frosted Pecans
Fudge
Fudge Puddles
Georgia Nuggets
Grandma Donna's Nummies
Grandma F's Delicious Fudge
Grandmother' s Holiday Fudge
Hard Candy
Hard Tack Candy
Hazelnut Fantasy Fudge
Ho-Ho Hash
Holly Confection
Honey Comb
J & D's Peanut Butter Balls
Jeanne's Tiger Butter
Jen's Chocolate Meringues
J's Cream Fudge
Kim's Famous Cashew Brittle
Magic Marshmallow Fudge
Mama's Fudge
Maple Rum Balls
Margie's Best Candy
Martha Washington Candy
Martha Washington Mounds
Marzipan
Melting Moments
Memaw's Reese's
Meme's Best Ever Peanut Butter Fudge
Meringues
Micky's Mints
Microwave Peanutbutter fudge
Milk Fudge
Milky Way Bars
Million Dollar Fudge
Mom's Mints
Mr. Monroe's Famous Fudge
Mrs. Eisenhower's Fudge
Never Fail Fudge
No Bake Rum Balls
No Cook Peanut Butter Fudge
Novia Scotia Treats
Nut Mallow Goodies
Nutty North Pole Fudge
Orange Balls
Orange Glazed Pecans

Oreo Truffles
Out Of This World Fudge
Oven Carmel Corn
Peanut Brittle
Peanut Butter Balls
Peanut Butter Bars-An Elve's Favorite Treat
Peanut Butter Candy
Peanut Butter Cups
Peanut Butter Fudge
Peanut Butter Snowballs
Peanut Clusters (mircrowavable)
Peanut Krispies
Peanut Patties

Enjoy!!!!

I did it!!!

I bought my Twilight Movie tickets!!! No we are not going to the midnight showing... I am not a big fan of overexcited people talking and screaming during a movie out of excitement!! I am sure I will get a little of that the next day but not as many people will be as overtired and acting like idiots.. Well except for the girls I am going with :)

Snow Day!!!

On Tuesday night, I decided to get all the kids outside summer toys cleaned up and ready to put in the shed.  The kids "helped" me while Chad raked the backyard. Well Chad and I must have both been so beat, that we BOTH forgot to actually put the toys away so wednesday morning out by the shed we saw this

Funny thing...it is now Saturday night and the toys are still there, the snow however is not.
The kids had so much fun. When they were begging to play outside in the snow, and I was busy rummaging up some "snow clothes" for them all to wear, we have mismatched gloves and mittens, boots that are too big, boots that are too small, and they are still insisting on playing outside. So I am ranting and raving about, the minute they get outside after spending all this time putting all of these clothes on, they are going to want to come right back in, and BOY WAS I WRONG!!! I had to go out and physically bring them in, they were frozen but insisted on playing out side. Well, Austin was playing. Alyssa was busy going around the yard and sampling the snow from about every location of the yard. We currently have a cup full of snow in our freezer, that I had to use to bribe her inside.




Earlier that morning after I took my nephews to school, I stopped at the grocery store grabbed a fire log and made sure I had marshmallows for hot chocolate. And while down the "baking" isle. (they need to call it what it is, the 'kiss your diet goodbye' isle) I suddenly had the urge to bake everything in site. PLEASE HELP ME THIS HOLIDAY SEASON!!! I LOVE SWEETS AND I WILL EAT THEM, SO PLEASE DON"T EVEN TEMPT ME!!! I CAN'T RUIN ALL THE WORK THAT I HAVE DONE!!--Well, I can, very easily, BUT I DON'T WANT TO!!!
What is it about a snowy day, that makes you feel the desire to bake and eat all the scrumptious sugary sweets until you are sick to your stomach?!?! (I need help)
We let the kids shoes and gloves dry by the fire and they all snuggled in blankets by the flames.

 While I got their nice hot soup and grilled cheese sandwiches ready.  And their cup of marshmallows soaked in hot chocolate. That's what it is, they don't drink their hot chocolate, they just eat the marshmallows off the top.





After lunch, Austin wanted to go back out, I was not up for another marathon, of getting everyone dressed AGAIN, so I talked them into an art project instead.

I had some milk cartons that I was going to use to make ghosts to line our walkway for Halloween but completely forgot about them... So we decided to make turkeys instead!!!

Afterward I talked them into a movie (The new Tinkerbell...highly recommended...so cute!!!)...I was hoping for a big family nap (ya right! But a girl can dream!!)

What do you all like to do on your snow days?!?!?

Alyssa and her Wip Gwoss...

Alyss, loves "wip gwoss" or lip gloss, and lip stick and chap stick and anything that looks like "makeups"... This I knew, so I wasn't surprised when she got a hold of a tube of my moms lipstick and tried it on. The best part of all of this, she didn't get it anywhere but on her lips and all over her face of course.... Isn't she cute!!!

Christmas Music already?!?!

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Christmas music, but my dear husband likes only the "Dandy Dansie Christmas CD's" thanks, Mike! No really, thank you, he used to be repulsed by Christmas music, and thanks to your CD's we can enjoy it together.

I am worried that now that they are playing it on the radio and in all the stores, he is going to be all Christmas'd out before December!!

Update on Blog Safety News Report...

They just touched base on what most would think would be obvious...

Here is a link to the report if you missed it....

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4699330

For those of you that live in Utah....

My Mother in Law called and said that Channel 5 News at 10pm is doing a report on the dangers of blogging....you all might want to check it out!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

On Halloween we got up out of bed and the first thing we did was put on our costumes...well, the kids did. And because it was early day for Ryan and Tyler, their Halloween Costume Parade was at 9:30am. So we rushed over there, luckily my niece, Ashley, didn't have school, so she came along and helped me with the kids. For some reason Tyler didn't want to wear his costume (kids can be so cruel) and he chose to walk around with his jacket pulled tightly around him....hmmm....

He is supposed to be a Clone Trooper. Ryan was Darth Vader. My little ones had so much fun seeing all the "big kids" in costumes. They would walk by and give them "fives" it was great!!!

Afterward we went home and decorated some pumpkin and ghost sugar cookies. I think Alyssa, Austin and Abby did more eating than decoration. But why limit their sugar intake on Halloween?!?! (I'm horrible) 

Later my sister Melissa and her kids came over to have some of my moms homemade chili and my attempt at cornbread (super good, but of course that comes along with super fattening, I made it with evaporated milk, and sweetened condensed milk. Jen made it for Jeff's birthday party a few weeks back, and I liked it better than the cake!!) I told the kids the following story:

" Your mom, and Aun't Melissa haven't been able to tell you this because you were too little, but now that you are older, I can tell you. She is really a vampire!! (Melissa bared her teeth, this story was spontaneous so we did great together) And after she drinks her victims blood she saves all their body parts, and I have them in our kitchen in bowls right now, and if you don't want to get eaten tonight you have to come feel them, we won't make you look but you have to feel them..." I had everyone 6 and under convinced (yes, I know I am horrible) We brought them in one at a time and made them feel the "brains--to get smarter" the "eyeballs-to see better at night to go trick or treating" and the "blood and guts- so they didn't get a bellyache from all the sweets" their reactions were priceless. My nephew Jack, was so brave but he was really shaking a little bit, and Abby and Austin started to cry. (Yes, yes, I know very horrible) Then we revealed the brains "spaghetti noodles", eye balls "black olives in thousand island dressing" and blood and guts "fruit cocktail in jello" It wasn't until after we told Austin that it was pretend, and held him on my lap, that he would feel it...

We got an early start on trick-or-treating at about 5pm. We were the first ones out for quite a while. But that's ok, because we were the first ones done too! I don't want to teach my kids to be greedy, by staying out as long as possible (sorry, to those of you that do) and my kids have enough sugar anyway. Besides, they love answering the door and handing out the candy to all the strange, scary, gross and totally awesome people that come to our door. It was so cute to see Alyssa running to the door, she wanted to do it all by herself. So I hung back unless there was a porch or a door that I thought they could get knocked down, or over by. Austin and Alyssa and their cousins would take turns ringing the doorbell. They thought that was the best!!!  They got their little buckets full, and that was plenty for me...now the trouble is, keeping ME and THE KIDS out of it!!! HELP!!! Lastnight when I was tucking in the kids to bed Austin told me he never wanted to go trick or treating again...I think some of the images and sounds and costumes and ok, maybe my story, scared him a little. I told him he didn't have to go again until he was 5 and if he still didn't want to go, the choice was up to him. We'll see how long that holds up! Alyssa on the other hand is just enjoying hers and the others spoils, everytime I turn around she has a piece of candy in her mouth, I swear she has a hidden stash somewhere!!!

Oh yes, our dentist loves us. I see dollar signs in his eyes when the Spencer Family walks through the door. Us Spencer's are candy loving folk!!!

Austin's Pre School Halloween Party

Austin had a party at school on Thursday 10/30/08 And I arranged with Jen (my brothers girlfriend) to have her watch the kids---THANKS JEN!! While I spent the whole day with Austin at his pre school class. It was fun to see him there and to see his little classmates and I was most curious about meeting his friend, Tristen. As I am sure you all know from my previous posts, Austin has a hard time with pre school. In fact, the only times he hasn't cried was his first day, and then the last 2 days (1 of them doesn't count, because I was there with him) (Wait! No, I am counting it!!!!) So He hasn''t cried 3 times out of 20.  Every time I would ask him about his day, if he played with anyone, if he talked to anyone he would say, no. I always felt bad, that I never exposed him to more "outside" kids. We have so many kids in our family that he gets to play with, and doesn't really get the chance to play with neighbor kids, or my friends kids. So I told him if he talks to someone he likes to play with at school, then we will see if he/she can come over to play at our house one day. He was excited and liked that. So the following after picking him up from school days conversations went like this:

"Austin, did you talk to any friends today?"

 "No"

"Did you play with anyone today?"

"No"

"if you want to play with one of your friends from school at our house, you are going to have to talk to them at school first."

"okay"

"Austin, did you talk to any friends today?"
"No"
"Did you play with anyone today?"
"No"
"if you want to play with one of your friends from school at our house, you are going to have to talk to them at school first."
"okay"
"Austin, did you talk to any friends today?"
"yes"
"What's their name?"

"Tristen"
"What did he say to you?"

"He asked me why I was crying."

What did you say?"
"I said, I didn't know."

He, however was so excited by this conversation. From there on out, each time I would pick him up, he would talk a little bit more about Tristen. but he still cried when I would drop him off, and tell me how he didn't want to go to school.

"So I wrote Tristen a letter from Austin, asking him to come over and play, and left our number" After we got home from Costco, there was a message that Austin has now listened to 10+ times from his beloved friend, Tristen. We are going to call him to come over tomorrow, there was just too much going on this last week, to arrange any sort of playdate. (Sorry, for the back story, I just wanted to remember that.)

So it was neat going to his class and meeting Tristen. He is a really cute, super sweet little boy. I think they will get a long great.

Austin got to walk in his very first costume parade. It was so cute, they walked through the older kids classes (kindergarten and first grade) and they all cheered the pre schoolers on, they were so proud! Austin's Grandma Green was able to come and see him, and he was so happy and excited to see her!! He was also a little embarrassed because he chose to bite his shirt instead of sing...(that was a first for me)

They had a cute little assembly where the staff put on a skit using the 'little mermaid' costumes that they dressed up in. They made a potion to give Ariel feet. they called it foot juice. Which was really Homemade Root Beer. They were all wide-eyed especially when they put in the final ingredient...Dry Ice, and the potion began to bubble and smoke. They all got to have "foot juice" and Apples with caramel for their snack. Austin's class also won the award for the "meanest pumpkin"

I got to watch Austin sing, dance, play and do some craft projects. And apparently Austin understands some spanish! That was a big surprise to me!! His teacher must have told the class to please sit down (I understood the por favor) and the class all sat down. And then she told them something else, and they all got in position to go out to recess. I was amazed!!!!

Chad was able to come to the last hour of his day, and Austin was just as proud as can be!!! It was a lot of fun for us to see our little guy at school. 

I was so happy tonight, because he asked if he had school tomorrow, and I said no. And he said "Ah, not fair! Can you just take me?!?! I want to school cause I love it sooo much!" So hopefully his warming up period is over, and it's not that he thinks he will have 3 visitors at his class with dressing up and treats. I love our little Anakin Skywalker!!!