moving

Our new home is almost complete, however, there is no firm move in date.  That's perfectly fine with with me... I'm just happy we're finally moving!  Those that know me, know that I have been wanting to move for quite awhile now.

It's incredibly difficult to live so far away from civilization.  We currently live almost an hour away from anything worthwhile.  Right now we drive at least twice a week to do activities and we make every trip into a day trip and try to schedule everything on these two days.  Because of this, these days turn into very long days and often times we leave at 10:00 am and don't return home until after 7:00 pm at the earliest.

Our new home is only about 15 minutes away from everything we need.  It's only about 7 miles, but with the twisty roads, it takes a little more time. 

To say I'm happy about this move is an understatement. 

For now I have had to put my Etsy shoppe in vacation mode and plan to start it up again in January.  We should be moved in and maybe settled enough by then.

I plan on posting to my blog during this transition... it's always fun to keep others' updated with photos of our family adventures.  Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope to see you again soon!

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so very thankful...

Our oak and pine trees

THANKFUL to have found a knowledgeable Speech Language Pathologist near home.  Well semi-near home... about 50 minutes away, which around here is about as close as you can get. 

THANKFUL that the kids don't have to leave home to go to school.  If they had to take a 1.5 hour bus ride to and from (3 hours total on a bus!) school each day plus 7 hours in school, there's no way we would be able to fit in speech therapy, kung fu, horseback riding, and music lessons.  Homeschool is cool!

THANKFUL that we got an appointment with an autism specialist.  Even though it is still a couple of months away, I didn't think we would ever find a specialist even remotely close enough to drive to.

THANKFUL that Matthew has found an extra curricular activity (besides swimming) that he is excited about.  He very rarely gets excited about things that don't involve Legos or video games -- so this is a huge break through for him.

THANKFUL that Fall is truly here (although it feels more like Winter).  Leaves' colors are changing and pine needles are falling.  Also a time to start fires in our fireplace.  Ahhhh....

Our first fire of the Season

Thank you so much for stopping by here today. Hope to see you again soon!

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halloween at our house

Halloween weekend for us started on Saturday as we got ready for the Illumination of the Jack-O-Lanterns in a local Gold Rush Town near us.  It's a fun little "contest" for kids to carve their gourds and bring them to the town square to win awards.

For some odd reason, my kids don't believe in drawing on their pumpkins before carving, so after cleaning the pulp out of the pumpkins, they got directly to cutting out their gourds. 

Saturday evening we brought the finished products to the town square to be judged.  (It's not really judged per se -- there were more than 20 awards to be handed out and no child was intended to feel left out.)

Anberly's jack was a dragon that was mistaken for a bat at the contest.  She won the Most Haunted Award.  (Sorry about the blurry photo... no tripod.)

Matthew's jack was Jack.  Teehee... Jack Skellington that is.  He added his own little touches to make it more Matthew-esque.

The rest of the weekend I furiously worked on their costumes to get them completed.  Anberly's costume was nearly done by the weekend, except for the sleeves on her jacket and her top-hat.  The sleeves were completed on Sunday and the hat was not completed until moments before going out the door to trick-or-treat.  Whew!

She was (what we called) a Steampunk Chick.

Matthew's costume was started and completed on Halloween day.  I was actually fairly impressed with myself!

He was a Black Hand Assassin from the game Elder Scrolls IV:  Oblivion.  This costume was really last minute... he kept changing his mind about what he wanted to be and only on the Tuesday before did he finally settle on this. 

We all had a lot of fun this Halloween.  Much more fun than last.  I am so happy to have had this experience with my children.

Thanks you so much for stopping by!  My plan is to update next time with a Project Life post and maybe a shoppe update so I hope to see you again soon. 
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letter to matthew

 10/28/2011

Dear Matthew,

My mama heart swelled with pride today as I witnessed something that I was afraid would not happen anytime soon. 

Today, we took you to a new-to-us Martial Arts Studio since we were all entirely unhappy with the previous one.  I was incredibly apprehensive as we waited for the class to begin.  I think you were a bit nervous as well – you tried to keep yourself busy by playing on my iTouch.

When your class started and I had to send you “to the mat” by yourself with new teachers and peers you’ve never met, I started to get very anxious.  I was expecting you to put up your protective shell, keep to yourself, and do your own thing.  But what I saw took me by surprise and made me so proud of you! 

You jumped right in with everyone else and started participating in all the activities.  You welcomed others’ help.  You even played a game that you usually hate:  Dodge Ball.  At the end of the class, other kids stopped what they were doing just so they could say “Bye” to you.  After climbing into the car, I stood at your door and asked you what you thought of this new place.  You said, “I love it!”  And I love that you love it. 

Love,

Mama

friday food files: halloween edition

Welcome to the Halloween Edition of F r i d a y  F o o d  F i l e s.  With Halloween coming up in just a few short days,  I have been busy preparing costumes for the kidlets.  This year I am making them from scratch and have only gotten one about 1/2 way done -- it has proven to be difficult.  It may even prove to be the death of me.  Yikes!  Luckily, the other costume looks to be reasonably easy.  Yay!   So let's hope that I live through making the first costume so I can move onto the next. 

Halloween is one of my favorite Holidays.  It ranks right up there with Christmas.  In fact, I was just talking to my mom about how the people that make Holidays into "official" Holidays (you know, to give businesses an excuse to close and give kids the day off from school) really should decide to include Halloween on their list.  And perhaps the day after Halloween as well so we could all recover from our candy hangovers. 

Warning:  As I was looking through my photos to put this post together, I realized that I have quite a few cupcake links.  That's OK, though... cupcakes are always good. 

Jack Skellington cupcakes (source:  Kempenfelt Cakes)

Mummy dogs (source:  Our Best Bites)

Candy Corn sugar cookies (source:  Kathie Cooks)

Dexter Blood Slide suckers (source:  Instructables)

Tentacle Pot Pies (source:  The Family Kitchen)

Strawberry Ghosts (source:  Taste of Home)

Ghostly Pizzas (source:  My Recipes)

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars (source:  The Girl Who Ate Everything)

Jello Blood Worms (source:  The Idea Room)

Pizza Mummies (source:  Family Fun)

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars (source:  My Recipes)

Halloween Oreo Cookies (source:  Gingerbread Bagels)

Candy Corn Cupcakes (source:  The Sugar Turntable)

Earwax Appetizers (source:  Quick Dish)

Well, those are some of my favorite Halloween party foods.  Will you be finding yourself at a Halloween party this year?  Are you throwing a Halloween party this year?  Planning on any interesting foods? 

Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you next time! 

P.S.  Please excuse my absence lately.  I'm buried under a pile of fabric! 

new friday feature

Those that know me know that besides my family and scrapbooking, food is one of my favorite things!  All food.  Except okra. 

I've decided to add a new feature here called  F r i d a y  F o o d  F i l e s.  Every Friday I will be sharing either my favorite recipes with you, sharing new foods that I found throughout the previous week, or sharing food related products and ideas.  

Source: the-girl-who-ate-everything.com

I made this earlier this week and it was a huge hit!  The only change I made was omitting the blue cheese because hubby is not a fan of it.  But i have two teenagers visiting this week, plus my two wee ones, and all of us loved it!  It was a lot of prep work, but well worth it.  

Source: nancycreative.wordpress.com

Source: tasteofhome.com

Source: ohsheglows.com

I'm going to try this dish very soon as it is definitely a healthier alternative than my normal breakfast of pastries and coffee.  

Have you found any new recipes this week that you'd love to try?  Do you have any tried and true recipes you'd like me to share here?  Let me know!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you next time!