Unsupervised Camron

My usual morning routine: 1) get kids ready for school, 2) get Camron breakfast and turn on TV 3) shower, 4) read daily emails and blog posts 5) today I'm doing a load of laundry and as I came down the stairs I saw this....

What? Why is my couch right there?  That's strange.  Then I walked in the room to see it all...

The couches moved, cushions everywhere, the pumpkins on the footrest there...wha?  I guess Camron needed more space?  Maybe a jungle gym?  Was he was redecorating?

I guess now is as good a time as any to vacuum under the cushions and under the couches before I put it all back together~my way...

Aahhh, that's better.

How we spent Saturday...

We enjoyed a beautiful day soaking up the mild sunshine while playing at the park.
This is what a fireant pile looks like in your grass~they're unmistakable.  You can't see the fireants very well in this picture. My advice is to just stay away from these tiny, painful buggers!

Butterflies have been migrating, so we get to enjoy seeing them flit around in November~can you believe it those of you up north? Caterpillars abound, too. Here are a few butterflies enjoying some flowers....

The kiddos played at the playground. It was perfect weather(mid 70's)~the kind I hope sticks around for a while!

Here we are painting our snake for dinner. The kids loved this part~ my little artists hard at work....

Mr. Snake fresh from the oven, yum. He looks a little more like a big ol' slug, but it was still fun! See my previous post for the recipe link.

We are looking forward to the rest of our fall...now it's on to Thanksgiving!

Boo! To You....

My Little Monsters....

Happy Halloween!

As Halloween Nears...

Hello! I'm still here. October has flown by! I cannot believe that the holidays are right around the corner!!


We carved our pumpkins last night. Corinne did hers all by herself. I helped the boys, but they cleaned them out themselves and knew exactly how they wanted me to cut faces. Without further ado....

L to R: Colin's google-eyed creation, Camron's traditional Jack-O-Lantern, and Corinne's vampire.

OOOOooooo, so scary in the dark............

We also did a quick field trip with Camron's preschool group and other friends to a pumpkin patch. Tons of pumpkins to choose from and places to take group photos. They even provided wagons and wheelbarrows to carry around your chosen treasure! Camron climbed to the top of the haystacks, so proud of himself. Then he wandered around trying to find "the biggest one", but I steered him to the cute tiny pumpkins (that the lady gave us for free!).

Here he is pretending to be an indian (look far right). At first he wanted to be a pilgrim, but I insisted that he was standing in the 'girl' pilgrim, so he moved down to be an indian (not that he understands who they are, but they look cool, right?). Incidently, the girl pilgrim is his classmate, Brooklyn, with her little brother Jack as the other indian and her cousin Noah as the baby indian.

So, stay tuned for our Halloween fun== A ward trunk-r-treat tomorrow and I'm trying out some new treats for our Halloween dinner (here and here)!

Colin's Cast is Off!

Wednesday morning after dropping Corinne off at school~cupcakes in her arms~we headed to Colin's appointment. We left early to beat the traffic (yeah!) and decided to stop by the temple while the boys finished their pop-tart breakfast. It was a quiet morning as we walked around admiring the beautiful landscape, waved to temple patrons and picked up snail shells.

Admiring the San Antonio skyline from the temple grounds.

Last picture of Colin with his cast on.

These were taken with my camera phone, sorry about the poor lighting!

Here he is, cast free, helping Corinne open her birthday presents. His elbow is stiff and he still protects it, but he is glad to have the cast off.

And just because it was her special day~here's Corinne ready to make a wish!

Corinne, It's Your Birthday!

How is it that my little girl goes from this precious baby...

(newborn)

(10 mos)

To this affectionate toddler...

(3 years)

(5 years)

To this sweet-spirited tween? Too fast if you ask me...

We love you Corinne and

Happy 9th Birthday!!

Grandma William's Ice Box Cookies

This is a recipe passed down a few generations on my mother's side.

Grandma Sophia William's Ice Box Cookies:
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
5 cups sifted flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chopped nuts (we used pistachios, so try your favorite nut)
Cream butter and sugar together and add eggs until incorporated. In a small bowl, combine flour, soda, salt and cinnamon. Add dry ingredients to creamed sugars until well blended. Add the nuts and mix lightly with hands into medium soft dough. Split dough and shape into two balls. Lay out two sheets of wax paper. Gently mold each dough ball into two long rolls on wax paper lengthwise starting at an end. You can use the wax paper to help you shape the dough and wrap it tightly. (Think of playing with playdough as you shape it into a long snake!) Ours were about 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter. Place wrapped dough in refrigerator until chilled. Slice into 1/2 inch to 1 inch disks, laying flat on your prepared baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes at 400 degrees; just until cookies are lightly browned.

The beauty of these cookies is you will keep your dough in the fridge and just slice cookies as you need! We only baked half a roll tonight. The second roll is in my freezer.

Corinne has discovered the joys of creating in the kitchen. She has mastered pancakes and is branching out her skills in cookies. While we were preparing them I was explaining why they were called "ice box" cookies. She said so sweetly to me, "oh, so you didn't have refrigerators when you were a little girl?" Okay, honey, I'm not that old! I explained that this was my mom's great grandma's recipe and of course I grew up with a refrigerator!!

Anyhoo, all my kids loved these and Colin decided he really does like pistachios. I told them that when I was a little girl my mom made these for me~a little bit of nastalgia. So, I love you mom and thanks sharing your love of baking (and your recipes)!