Getting so excited....

Halloween is tomorrow!!! Conner loves wearing his costume around the house and is pretty excited to go "twick o tweeting". Today I'm taking the kids on a 10 mile Halloween train ride so we are excited about that. Wish that it was not raining though and that Neal was home :(. Today is his last day of work man it has been a LONG 10 days. We will enjoy every moment of daddy being home the next two days because after Sunday we will see very little of him again :(

Results....

58 % of you fold your underwear the other 41% does not!!!!

I love my husband...

I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful husband :) He's going to Culver's to get us a treat tonight....yum. Maybe the ice cream will cheer me up!!!

HAHAH....Conner just grabbed my nail file and he tells me "mama I brushing my toes " he's funny.

In other exciting news (for me) I just found out that the new season of "so you think you can dance" started. BY FAR my favorite show EVER!!!! It's just so inspiring to see people do some of the amazing things that they do and make it look so easy and effortless when it's just the opposite. And I've always been fascinated with dance!!!! One of those childhood things. Just a little memory I have of me and my brother and sister having little dance marathons. A foggy memory but I remember my brother being a huge Michael Jackson fan and him doing the moon walk and all that....hahaha....fun times!!!

Yay Neal is home with our treats.....it's going to be so good I can hardly wait!!!!

Big boy Ethan....

I'm not so sure if he is ever going to crawl but he sure likes to stand up holding on to things!!! Conner was crawling by 6 1/2 months but Ethan is not interested at all :) prefers to just sit in place and watch his big brother!!!

Missing my big bro :)

Today is my brothers b-day!!! This just adds to my blaaahhhh mood. Missing him so much and wishing that I could be there to celebrate with him another year of ups and downs :)

Just not a very good week....

I know that it's probably my attitude more than anything but this week stinks. The kids (Neal included) are just not sleeping well and between the three of them waking up at different times of the night I just don't get any sleep and it's quickly catching up with me. Last week they were doing so well and this week it's just terrible not sure what's going on.

I feel like I'm going on coffee and sugar most days. Need a break....a date with my husband would be great too. Wow don't even remember when we went on a date night...lol. I am determined to use my Mothers Day present in November though. Why do I feel so guilty getting away for a couple of hours Neal can handle the kids I deserve to get away for a little bit why can't I seem to be able to do it though....ohhh yeah my husband works 14 hour shifts 7 days a week :) and that's why I feel guilty getting away AND that's why I feel like I need to get away. See what I mean my attitude stinks this week!!!! Need a new perspective and things will seem so much better than they are. Like the fact that G'ma Colson in in the hospital fighting to recover from a heart surgery and G'pa Colson is getting weak and tired because he had a heart surgery just a year ago and is trying to be so brave for his wife. Why am I sitting here feeling sorry for myself because my kids were up ever hour when things are so much worst for others. Like Mcmama who spent the night in the hospital with 1 year old baby Stellan fighting for his life. Why again am I being grumpy and frustrated and tired....I'm not because I'm blessed with healthy beautifull kids and a wonderfull husband who make my life complete and if things seem a little down and frustrating I just need to remember that it could always be so much worst.

Monday blues.....

Usually I like Mondays ...the start of a new week but not today. It's so dark and gloomy and it's driving me crazy. It looks like night time outside....ick. SO we are all in our jamies and bumming around today....that's the plan anyway!!!!

We had a nice weekend although Neal had to work :P But yesterday we had a visit from papa Rick and uncle Mike so that was very nice. They watched the Bears game.....not that it was worth watching since they got their butts kicked!!! I took Ethan and went running Conner wanted to stay home with dad and papa and uncle Mike. He really missed out all the animals were out yesterday....the horsies, sheep and the cows and even the puppy at the one farm we run by he would have loved to see them. He always gets so excited when they are out :)

So I finally did it I deleted my Facebook profile :) I'm so proud of myself!!!! I was getting really frustrated with it but somehow was hooked on it so I just deleted the profile that way it's not there for me to look at....yay :)

Proud of myself....

I have finished up 3 projects this week....that's impressive for me and an awesome feeling I might add!!!! I have a tendency to sometimes start something but never finish it. I have set up a little card table in our bedroom with my scrapbooking stuff and it's been nice to be able to just leave all my stuff out so that I can work on it when I have the free time (not always easy to come by with little kids). The mess is driving me insane but hopefully this way I can soon finish up some things and get it all stored away.

It's turning out to be a nice day outside. The sun is actually out for the 1st time since Monday. Hopefully it will stay that way so that I can take the kids running when they wake up. Neal has 3 more days of work then he has a day off then back to work again and off next weekend....can't wait. Starting Novemeber he has only 2 weekends off till the end of the year....sheeesh I hate holidays. Ohh well after the new year we plan to go somewhere warm if everything goes according to plan. I just found out that you can now process green card applications (renewal or lost or stolen...mine was stolen along with my ss card) on line....yay. I get to get all that paperwork taken care of so that I can actually leave the cuntry and be able to come back....lol.

Well better get to it!!! Kids are napping and my little card table is calling my name.

Please vote :)

Notice a poll that I added on the side. A valid question right...lol.

Things on my mind this morning....

• G'ma Nadine
• Neal's big day at work
• for some reason baby's are on my mind
• wishing that it was sunny outside
• wondering what to do this morning
• wishing our house was picked up but why bother :)
• wondering which project to finish up today while the kids are napping
  
• hoping the 200 hundred pictures I ordered will be here in the mail today
• loving the sound of Conner singing to his kitty player and dancing around (I'm sure in a couple days I will be wishing I never put new batteries in)
• thinking I should get up and get dressed and start on today's to do list but will wait till the coffee is done.
  
• wondering when baby Ethan will start crawling (probably never although he was sitting next to the dresser yesterday and the bottom drawer was opened he pulled himself up and into the drawer head first) wish I had my camera out.
  
• wondering what I'm gonna do for exercise this winter. Neal got me zumba...lol....need to see what the talk is all about!!
• trying to decide how to control my sugar problem...by that I mean how I can resist my need for sweet things. I have noticed though that having just a little sweet something is better that trying to fill the need with something else....how terrible is that.
  

Wow this list could go on and on and on. Wish that my head would stop running some days and just stay in the moment. Especially when I'm trying to get to sleep. Ohh well I better get this day started it's already almost 9:00 and I'm dragging my feet must be the weather.

Monday visit....

haha....yeah it was a busy 3 days :) In the afternoon we drove down to Rockford. We never made it for Papa Ricks birthday last week so we felt we needed to get a little visit in. It was a nice trip even with the bad news. No pictures of the grandparents but some cute ones of Conner :)

Great G'ma and G'pa Colson visit!!!!

On Sunday on the way home from Alissa and Lorens we stopped and had a little visit with G'ma and G'pa Colson. Now we are so thankful that we were able to see them. Our thoughts are will be with them over the next few days!!!

We finally made it there!!!

The look on their faces is PRICELESS!!!!

Watching the pig races!!!

Me trying out the go cart thing...what fun!!!

Tractor pull....Conner's favorite part and mine too :)

The adorable couple...hey today is their 3rd Anniversary!!! Hope that you guys can do something special ....have a good one :)

Alissa petting the goats!!!

The crazy goat...haha....they were kinda cool!!

My blue eyed boys!!!

The kids and I

Aunt Alissa with the boys...wow Ethan looks big in this picture!!!

This past weekend we made it to Iowa to visit my sister in law and her husband. We have been talking about making a trip there for over a year now and we finally made the time for it. We had a great time and would love to do it again sometime if they let us come :) We went to the pumpkin patch on Saturday and even with the cold weather we had a great time. I felt like a little kid and I'm not sure who had more fun me or Conner :) Ohhh by the way the improvements look great !!!!

yummie bites.....

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Rice Bites

Yields approximately 60 treats

4 tablespoons butter

2 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

10 oz mini marshmallows

5 cups rice cereal

1/4 cup peanut butter chips

non-stick vegetable spray

In a large pot over medium heat melt the butter. Mix in the cocoa powder until thoroughly combined. Melt the marshmallows, stirring constantly, until melded completely. Quickly add the rice cereal and the peanut butter chips, stirring to combine. Spray your hands with the non-stick spray and working quickly roll the mixture into walnut sized balls. The recipe should make about 60 bite size treats.

NOTES: I did not have peanut butter chips on hand so I used about a cup of low fat peanut butter (NO we do not use low fat stuff at our house but I excidentally bought this not so good peanut butter....lol) good way to use it up tho. I also used regulad coco powder because I forgot that I had the unsweetened as well. They are pretty yummy.....something that I will definatly make again. Conner had fun helping too but unwilling to try one :( maybe later he will give it a try :)

Joy in the simple things....

aA couple weeks ago while Conner was napping I drew him a picture on some of these cardboard papers my mom gets him from work . They are big and sturdy and fun. The main idea was to have a road that he could drive his cars on and line them up but it has since turned into a little world with ponds and houses and trees and gardens. We add to it when we can and we taped a few peaces together to make a huge mat....he absolutely loves it. Decorates it with his own scribbles and stickers. BUT the point of this story is that it's in the simple things that children find joy. When we play with them and spend time with them being silly and creative and tickle and giggle and dance in the middle of the living room to silly songs. This kind of joy is not brought on by any fancy toy or any amount of money. SO now that I wasted some more time on this post I will now get back to being silly with my kids then on to boring stuff like making supper :p although we do make that interesting around here some days....afterall SOME of us do like to eat in this house and maybe one day our little Conner will enjoy food as much as his mom and dad do.

yummy.....

I just LOVE this!!!!

We have wheels.....

I finally finished Conner's train. He tells me this morning "ohhhh nice mama" "manx mama" You have not seen the end of this little train though. I decided that his other markers stamps and paint crayons need a spot too so think we may be adding on more wagons in the future :)

why do I do this to myself....

PW's Coffee Cake Literally

CAKE
2 cups flour
2 cups white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) regular (salted) butter
3 tablespoons instant coffee (I used Folger’s Crystals)
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two round baking pans.

Add 3 tablespoons to 1 cup boiling water. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix sugar, flour, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
In a separate bowl, add buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, and vanilla.

Combine above ingredients, then pour into pans. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes or until set.

Allow to cool completely.

FROSTING

Well I think I used about 1 cup heavy whipping cream to make whipped cream 1 full thing of cream cheese 3/4 cup powdered sugar 1 tablespoon or so of instant coffee some vanilla ohh and white chocolate.

make the whipped cream and melt the chocolate set aside whip the cream cheese sugar vanilla and coffee then add the melted chocolate and fold into the whipped cream.

Ethan and his mama....

Apple cinnamon rice....

Recipe to come....I have to make it again and write it down!!!

My lense got here today....

and boy do I have some practicing to do but I LOVE it and can't wait to have some fun with it. A few 1st pictures!!!!This just takes me right back to Poland.....

Well this one too...."Mama take picher""more cow mama" when we go running we pass by these cows and a horse and sheep farm but they were not out today. Conner was very disappointed but he was happy to see the cows.

I believe that I'm done running with the kids unless it warms up. By the time we got to the playground Conner wanted to go home. I had them all bundled up and covered in blankets but it was windy and sitting still does not help.

Adorable or what....I need so much practice. Having trouble with overexposure and underexposure and focusing and the list could go on for a while BUT I love the blurry backgrounds and this was only set on f2.4

Bath time fun!!!!

This one has been sticking his head under water and blowing out to make bubbles!!!

This one likes bath time so much that when it's time to get out he puts up quite a fight followed by 15 minutes of screaming.

But bath time is much more fun with two than one. I just wish that I did not have to get soaked at the same time!!!

Ugghhhh.....

How I wish I had a scrap booking corner. I need to finish my nieces scrapbook of her trip here but I don't wanna dig EVERYTHING out and then have to put it all away again not to mention the mess while I'm working on it. One day I will have a little nook of my own for those little hobbies of mine :)

Childhood Friend!!!

Remember her?!?!? This is my childhood friend from Poland and her adorable baby girl!!! Just wanted to post a link to her Photography page.....she and her husband have their own company and are very incredibly talented. She was always an inspiration to me when we were growing up....PURE talent!!! If you are interested in looking at some awesome photos check out their page HERE :)

I'm bored....

yup I am bored....kids are sleeping supper is ready house is clean and I have nothing to do. It's nice to sit here in the quiet but still I can't believe I'm gonna say this.....I wish the kids were up so that we could play :) REALLY wishing that Neal was home already too.

Proving that God is evil....

A story I heard this week that has stayed with me.

A professor was talking to a class saying that he could prove that God was evil. He then asked the class if God had created everything the class of course answered yes. Then the professor said if God created everything then he created evil which in turn would make him evil.

A little boy raised his hand and then asked the professor if cold existed. The professor a little confused answered of course cold exists have you never been cold. The boy then said that according to the law of physics what we consider cold is simply the absence of heat. Cold does not exist. Then he asked does darkness exist. The professor answered yes of course. The little boy said no actually darkness does not exist it's simply the absence of light. Light we can study darkness we can not.

Then he said that evil is just like cold and darkness it's the result of what happens when Gods love is not present in our hearts.

That little boy was Albert Einstein.

Still waiting....

SO I found out today what the delay is on my lens. Our pay pal account still had the Eau Claire address on it so the lens was sitting there waiting to be forwarded. It's on the way here now so should be here any day!!! It's always hard trying to remember to switch EVERY thing to a new address every time we move especially cards like pay pal that do not get used very often.

Neal is working the late night and I'm sitting here wishing I could just go and get my babies and snuggle up with them and go to sleep BUT I'm not starting any bad habits. Conner got to go to sleep with mama last night ANYWAY. Neal was up late watching Monday night football and I had a migraine and headed to bed after I put Ethan down for the night. I had a hard time falling a sleep so at 8:30 (Conner's bed time) I got up and brought him to bed with me....worked like a charm I was out in a few minutes. Strange huh?!!? It's storming outside so windy and rainy and cold. Are we going to head right into winter here??? We have rain/snow in the forecast for next week and I'm truly hoping that the weather man is once again wrong :)

I'm in LOVE....

with a fall cookie recipe. Angie had the idea of making pumpkin cookies and I LOVE pumpkin!!! With this gloomy weather outside I decided it would be the perfect day to make some cookies. Conner helped of course and he is so excited to try one!!! I found this recipe and it's delicious.....just what I need more sweets lying around. I frosted most of them but left a few out un-frosted for myself they are just as delicious to me without the extra sugar :) WARNING>>>WARNING>>>DO NOT ENLARGE PICTURE....MAY PRODUCE THE NEED TO TAKE A BITE OF YOUR COMPUTER SCREEN.

Iced Pumpkin Cookies


Ingredients

1 cup shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons milk
1 cup confectioners' sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup packed brown sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F, line cookie sheet with silicone mat
Cream shortening, granulated sugar and pumpkin. Add egg and mix well. Add the baking soda, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and flour and mix well. Using a small-to-medium sized disher (cookie scoop) or generous tablespoon, scoop batter onto cookie sheet. Using a wet finger, smooth points/peaks and gently press down tops. Bake 15-18 minutes then remove from oven and transfer to cooling rack and cool about 10-15 minutes before icing. To Make Icing: Cook butter, milk, and brown sugar until dissolved. Cool and add confectioners' sugar and vanilla. Place a sheet of waxed paper under the cooling rack, take the cooled cookies and holding one at a time dip upside down into the icing, invert and place on cooling rack. Decorate with sprinkles while icing is still wet.

Mondays....

I actually look forward to Mondays...I know I've been told I'm nuts before. Not that I like to scrub toilets and wash bath tubs and scrub floors and so on!!! BUT I do LOVE me a clean house!!! So actually I dislike Monday morning when I'm doing these things and when my attention is diverted away from my kids but I do love the afternoon when our place is sparkling clean....ahhhh I love that feeling. Yes I pick up the house every day but Mondays are my SUPER cleaning days. Does anyone have a favorite cleaning product? I'm all about the Green Work products lately...they smell good and work well too!!!

Icky weather....

This weather has been ruining our plans. I was so excited for this past Saturday because we had made plans to go to the fall fair but it rained most the day so we sat around all dressed and ready to go but it never stopped raining so we had waisted the day away....well not really it was actually a productive day at home for me but would have preferred to do something fun instead. Yesterday it was actually a nice day BUT Mondays are my cleaning days and so I spent the morning cleaning and by the afternoon my headache turned into a migraine...I was actually sick to my stomach from it so the afternoon I napped as much as the kids let me and just relaxed at home. Then this morning Our plan was to go for a hike and the park but it's GROSS out there. I ended up leaving Conner at home with dad and just taking Ethan to go grocery shopping. Still had a migraine this morning and almost passed out while at wall mart but got some water and a snack and then I seemed better. Came home had another cup of coffee and more Tylenol and I seem much better. Now kids are napping AT THE SAME TIME and I'm going to pamper myself a bit. Hot shower and maybe a pedicure :) Why not right?!?!!? Need to catch up on my e-mails too....sorry peoples I'm not ignoring you :)

Happy b-day girls....

Opening presents!!!

Making a wish....Madzia was thinking real hard :)

The cake....my sister did a nice job!!!! Love this picture too...I was still in manual but was not holding a baby on my hip while taking it :P

The happy family plus our Ethan!!!

The girls and the cake!!!!

Licking snot off his lip....yuckie :) He had fun hicking too!!!

Ethan loved being in the woods...he looked up almost the entire time. Must be the colors and the trees. Wish this weather would clear up would love to get a few more hikes in this fall!!!

Sunday we headed to Rockford to celebrate Madzia and Katies b-days. It was a great time and right now I'm wishing I had a slice of that delicious cake that my sister made. I took the girls and my two boys for a hike in the woods before the party too. Neal, Mike and Steve were watching the game and my sister was getting the cake ready!!I was so disapointed though because my camera was on manual focus and most of the pictures turned out blury. Wish I would have noticed sooner and had gotten some better pictures :( The down side of learning to work my camera on some of the manual modes I always forget to turn it back to Auto :)

Some updates....

Aunt Angie and big boy Ethan!!!

Conner and Mallory!!!

Cute little Tommy!!!

Wow time seems to go by quicker every week. It's already Tuesday where did Monday go???? Well last Friday I packed up the kids early in the morning and we headed out to Chicago to visit Conner's cousins Mallory and Tommy!!! We never made it to Mallory's b-day and still had her present. It was a fun trip and not as bad of a drive as I thought it was going to be. Conner and Mallory sure had a blast together. Did not get too many pictures tho :p Thanks for having us guys!!!