Operation Old Man River

I've always known I wanted to really surprise Eric for his 30th birthday, so I set up an entire weekend of surprises! I can't believe I managed to keep it all a secret because he was surprised by every single thing! It was so much fun!

The surprises started on Friday afternoon. Eric's friend, Josh, flew in for the weekend. The kids and I picked him up at the airport and went right over to Eric's work. He was shocked! And it made it all that much better that I'd arranged for him to have the rest of the afternoon off. His smile got even bigger when I told him to pick up his keg on the way home.

Josh has flown in 2 other times and we always manage to keep it a secret and surprise Eric. Talk about a great friend!
The kids really like him too!



We did a little drinking on the keg Friday night.

E was feeling a bit rough the next morning, so we just hung out in our jammies and watched cartoons most of the morning.




Then it was time for the next surprise! The kids were going to going to spend the night at Nana and Papa's house! Even Konny. I was having some serious anxiety about it, but was also looking forward to a whole night of sleep. Katie was more than ready to go!


After dropping the kids off, the guys went to Shady Creek Sporting Clays. After that, we headed to Playa Azul where all our neighbors and a bunch of friends were waiting to surprise him again!
He had no idea!







After dinner, we all went back to the house to keep working on the keg. At some point during the evening, we discovered giant sparklers in the garage.





When the party was over, we slept like babies. Well, not like our babies because they don't sleep! I slept for 7 straight hours before I woke up missing my babies! It was glorious!

Nana and Papa brought the kids back the next day and Kelton gave Daddy his last surprise, a Marlin model 336 30/30 lever action rifle. He'd been wanting one for awhile and was pretty excited!




It was such an awesome weekend. I still can't believe I pulled it off!

We are thankful!

So much has happened in the last year and
we have lots to be thankful for!
We have our little Konnor, who wasn't even really supposed to be born. We are so thankful he's here and cannot imagine our lives without him! It's amazing the beautiful little lady Katie is blossoming into! We are so grateful that she's now able to eat dairy and for how much she's grown. Kelton is so intelligent and continues to be such an awesome big brother who loves and dotes on his Buggy and Konny every chance he gets. We are so blessed that his asthma and allergies finally seem under control.

I just love them so much!




Of course, even with the pain in the rear that she is, we're thankful for Jasmine. The kids adore her and she is so good with them. Konnor already loves her too.



As always, we are super thankful for our jobs, our home, our wonderful neighbors and a great church family.

Although a stomach bug has been making it's way through our house, we cooked up a storm and celebrated with meal that was completely soy free, dairy free and gluten free (minus on glutenous strawberry rhubarb pie, that I made specifically for E and I to enjoy sans children). After Kelton prayed, we went around the table to say what we're each thankful for. Katie was thankful for her "wine" (sparkling grape juice). ;)



We had crockpot pumpkin pie, crockpot candied sweet potatoes, honey corn muffins, pumpkin corn muffins, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas and turkey!

The sweet potatoes were from Papa's garden and turned out really yummy! We'll definitely be making them again! The 2 different kinds of corn muffins were awesome also! I didn't even try to make stuffing because I couldn't fathom wasting a $6 loaf of GF bread on the chance that it didn't turn out. And if I can't have my mom's stuffing, I'm not sure I really want any at all.



Last year shortly before Thanksgiving, God placed on my heart the desire to reach out. We're a busy little family and I wasn't sure exactly what I could do. I continued on with everyday life, yet He persistently tugged at my heart, telling me I needed to do something. So it came to be that we provided Thanksgiving dinner to a large struggling family, who probably would not otherwise have had a turkey.

Right away I knew that was something that we would do every year and we were so blessed to be able to provide dinner for a family this year as well. Plus, since we had more time, I was able to get more! We dropped it all off on Monday morning.


I hope they enjoyed their turkey and
the day with their family as much as we did!
The kids will be hitting sack early at this house, so E and I can enjoy a drink by the fire (and some peace and quiet!) I'll be heading into town long before the sun comes up for some Black Friday shopping! You know I can't pass up a good deal!

Grow Konny, Grow!

At his 9mo check up, Konnor weighed in at 18lbs even and 26in long. Not too far off from Bugs, who was 17lbs 9oz and 26in. Kelton was a chunky 19lbs 10oz and 26.75in at 9mo! I just can't believe he's 9mo old already! Pretty soon I'll be bawling my eyes out at his 1st bday party.

Good news on the feeding front! We've added two new foods; prunes and peas! I'm not sure what we're going to try next, but I know we'll be having something new in the next few days.




Just when I was feeling like it'd been forever since I'd won a giveaway, I got an email from A Busy Mom of Two. I'd won the Family Taco Night giveaway, which included chili pepper shaped plates, a cactus chip bowl, a pk of taco seasoning and a $10 giftcard! The kids were super excited to use the plates!



After dinner that night, we had a bunch more fun decorating the turkey Kelton brought home from school as a family project. Katie love gluing the "cacamonies".


Speaking of Katie, we're really making some progress with potty training! She's in panties all day and wears a pull up for naps and night. I think we were spoiled with Kelton because while he potty trained a bit late, he had very few accidents. Katie on the other hand, has her moments. We'd been promising her a new baby when she finally pooped in the potty and we got to go to the store to get that on Wed! She picked out a bathtime baby.



With the weather getting colder, I've had fun making more soup (in my crockpot, of course!) The latest was Calico Bean Soup. I used rotel and fire roasted diced tomatoes, which I think gave it an awesome flavor. Since I didn't have celery seed, I chopped a whole bunch of celery while E ran to the neighbors to borrow some parsley. I loved having the celery in it and actually meant to add some chopped green pepper too and totally forgot. For beans, I went with Bob's Red Mill 13 Bean Mix.


There's a whole meals worth in the freezer for another day, plus enough beans to make it again! Rarely (beyond shepherd's pies) do I cook specifically for the freezer. I just prefer to make extra and then freeze. It keeps us nicely stocked!

As of 1pm this afternoon, Operation Old Man River is in full effect! E turns 30 on Sunday and I have a whole weekend of fun and surprises planned!

Tiny Dancer

Tuesday evening was Katie's dance recital. She's been going to "class dance" (as she calls it) once a wk for 8wks. The class requires parental participation and at first I was taking her, but it became easier for E to take her and they really enjoyed the time together. Just like with swimming lessons, I think daddy/daughter time is very important and things like this will hopefully keep their relationship strong as Katie grows.







I'm sad to say that this is probably the last outfit that all 3 kids will wear. I do have more of Moose's stuff for Kon to wear yet.




It's no secret that I love matching jammies, so when Gymbo came out with Thanksgiving turkey jammies this year, I snatched them up in a hurry! I bought them all a little big too, so we'd get plenty of use out of them.




As Kon is growing, we're having his picture taken and I'm getting some finishing touches on some of the decorating in the house (about time after a yr, right?)

Their 3, 6, 9, 12 mo pic frames are definitely a favorite. I love having them up, they always bring back memories.


We finally have Konny's bathtub picture too!

And I just finished putting these pictures together. It's the evolution of our family; me and Kelton, then add Eric, then add Katie and finally Konnor too!


Last but not least, if you're not my facebook friend, you missed out on the pumpkin spice hot chocolate. I LOVE pumpkin, LOVE IT! So I came up with this recipe....

2T cocoa
2T brown sugar
sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice

Mix the dry ingredients with a splash of hot water until combined.

Add 2T pumpkin puree, mix well again.

Fill the rest of the mug with hot milk, stir and ENJOY!

It's fabulous!

I'm always looking for new ways to use pumpkin, it's so yummy and healthy! I can't wait for my organic pumpkin from amazon to arrive....12 cans for only $17.34!