Colossal hamburgers

So most of it is my homemade buns, but it sure makes a good looking burger! :)

There was no way Brayden was getting his little mouth around the whole thing. :)

Enjoying... er... enduring the game

It was way too hot to say that we *enjoyed* the game. Taylor's first game was great and I never miss a game, but seriously--- sweating buckets vs. ice cold air conditioning and watching the Sooners beat the dog snot out of Miami??? lol Even though the football game was on while we were gone, I made sure I'd get to see it when we got home. How did we survive before tivo?? :)

First game of the season!

After some initial misgivings about this team and the coach - change is so hard when you've been with the best team of the league! :) - the Super Stars had their first game today and they did GREAT! I was so impressed by the ability and teamwork on the very first game of the season. Usually it takes a few games to pull together after being repooled. Taylor played most of the game and was the defensive star of the team! The girls won 6 - 1. Go Super Stars!

Making pizza for movie night :)

First days of school

This year has gotten off to a really great start. We sit down together for a few hours in the morning and do our book work, then break for lunch. Then the babies lay down for naps and I do reading with Chandler and Taylor reads and/or finishes up book work. Then piano and computer. I found this GREAT site called iknowthat.com. In the span of 30 minutes, Chandler had learned the continents and oceans! I was amazed! Taylor works on the state capitals and multiplication. Taylor is doing 8 subjects a day this year (!) in addition to the basic math, social studies, science, spelling, and English, I'm working in a lot extras like Bible, higher reading comprehension exercises, logic and composition. She's taking it all in stride and loves her school. Even BOTANY, which is the science we're doing day to day to go along with what she'll be doing in ELO. It's really intense, but she enjoys learning the new terms and absorbing the information. I love having such an eager learner.

With Chandler I do math, a unit study thing called Five in a Row that covers many subjects, logic activities, and reading. He's flying through his math and reading. He's already read two words! I love the 100 easy lessons because it give the child results really quickly and gets them excited about reading.

Being pregnant and schooling 2 kids is harder than I thought and the house has suffered because of it. It was pretty behind this morning.... but I have a WONDERFUL friend who helped me remedy that today. :) And I even got school worked in with all the housework we did! :) To quote Amara Forringer, "I so excited!" :)

Chandler working on geography.

Taylor working on her journal page for spelling.

Chandler really stuggles with writing. I hope to greatly improve his fine motor skills by the end of this year. I'm not stressing out about it though because technically he's supposed to be in preschool, but he knows all the preschool stuff already so I'm doing kindergarten with him. :) Except for the writing, he's way ahead of the curve. :)

22 weeks

Over halfway there! :)

Day at the Growden's

We spent the day Saturday with our friends the Growden's - they moved an hour away and we miss them a lot. Chandler was happy to see his friends. :)

Forgotten pictures

Just a couple pictures I'd found to post from this summer.

It's a family affair

Washing the car with Daddy. This is for Pam. :)

I made challah!

Isn't it pretty?? :) This is my favorite kind of bread to make, it's a Jewish bread that is slightly sweeter than regular bread and made with eggs to make it very moist and dense. It is traditionally served on Sabbat in the braided form and on holidays like Rosh Hashanah it's curled into round loaves with golden raisins.

Tom has decreed that I can never buy store bread again. :) He said it's the best bread he's ever had. I ended up making two loaves yesterday just so he could take one to work to munch on and have the other for our lunch. :) The kids love it too. It made great sandwiches. It also makes wonderful french toast! But the very best way to eat it is fresh from the oven with butter and honey all over the crunchy end piece. Mmmmm... I'm making myself hungry. I think I need to make another loaf. :)

I realise this isn't a picture of the kids. My mil, Pam relies on this blog to get her fix of grandkids from so far away. Truth be told, I'm a little burned out on picture taking at the moment. So there's no pictures to post. And really, not much has been going on. We're about to start school and I'm getting the house organized and everything ready for that.

We had a great family night about a week ago. We went to Johnny Carino's for dinner -- the italian bread pudding for dessert was heavenly -- and then played a game of putt putt together. It was a fun evening.

Taylor started soccer this past week. Everyone was repooled, meaning scrambled up and reassigned teams. The coach's wife from the Firecrackers had told me that they'd decided not to do that anymore so I was expecting Taylor to be be with her same coach and team. We were both surprised and very sad. She was on a GREAT team the last two seasons and they did so well. Her new team is the Super Stars. The team is shaping up and looks to have promise. The coach I recognize from a team we played last year. This coach wasn't the most controlled or good sportsman like on the sidelines. We have no problem requesting to be reassigned, so I hope he controls himself better this year.

Taylor also started back with her piano lessons. I was very relaxed on her practicing during the summer because we were so busy. But she remembered everything and her teacher said she did wonderful to having been off for 21/2 months.

Other than that, it's been a boring past couple of weeks. ELO starts the second week of September and the kids are so excited. I'm excited too.... the summer activities dwindled off after the first of August so I'm ready my busy fall schedule. I don't do boring. :) I guess that's why I got back into bread baking. Lack of places to go and things to do. :)

I love my hubby!!

I have the most wonderful, kind, patient, understanding, loving husband ever! Tom has been so great to me during this very trying and uncomfortable thing called pregnancy. Last night our family night got postponed until tonight. I was really looking forward to getting out of the house because I hadn't had the best of days. I told Tom I needed some time out and that I was going to the bookstore to pretend I didn't have kids. :-P He said sure and told me to go and relax. He sweetly said to come home soon though because he wanted to spend time with me. I sighed and said I'd come home sooner if I knew the kids would be in bed when I got home. (How selfish is this making me sound??) He said he'd feed the kids and have the them in bed early and to come home soon to snuggle. What a sweet guy. I love and appreciate him so much.

This is totally not a common thing.. actually I can't remember ever doing this before, but I really needed it. I sipped my mocha and perused (Christmas!) cookbooks, a book all about baking bread, started a F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, and made a list of homemade items to make for for Christmas gifts. I got stoked about baking bread again. I used to bake all sorts of fancy breads and rolls. I loved it. I so want to reclaim my passion for baking. It's so therapeutic for me and I've missed it!

I came home refreshed and happy, back to my sweet, loving self. ;) I kissed the kids goodnight and spent the rest of the evening watching preseason football on the couch with my wonderful hubby. I love you, sweetie!

Getting in the Christmas spirit

As soon as August rolls around I break out my favorite Christmas music. Okay, okay, I listen to it all year off and on, but August has always been the official "start listening to Christmas music all the time" month when I was growing up... so I carry on the tradition. And my husband hates me. :)

This morning the kids and I decided to take our early Christmas spirit a step further and make Christmas pancakes. (while listening to Christmas music of course!) :) They were a hit with the kids, though the sprinkles weren't my thing.

Merry Christmas!

This is all a cruel joke, right??

I pride myself on the facts that my house stays pretty darn clean most of the time, my kids aren't terrors who color on walls and that I supervise my kids with an eagle eye 97.8% of the time. It's a huge blow to my ego when something like THIS happens.

Someone please explain to me how in the time it takes me to have *ahem* my turn in the bathroom, a two year old can do this kind of damage!!??

Brand new shorts btw.....

Taylor's super cute WHITE vanity table....

And her princess TV.

There is humor here, I know it. I just. can't. see. it.

In other news, all nail polish and brightly colored cosmetics of any kind formerly in Taylor's room are now in the trash. Any tips for getting nail polish off furniture, electronics and clothing????

Our last night with Grandma :(

We went to Tom parent's last night to say good bye to Grandma. She's been visiting for 3 weeks and it's been so fun having her home! The kids will miss her. They've been talking about you today, Pam. Taylor and Chandler were talking about if your plane had landed yet. :) Love you!