Happy Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING...from us to you. We hope you had a great day. We went to Pratt, where my mom lives and spent the day. It was so relaxing.

We did something a little different this year. We attended a community dinner that is held each year. We ate the wonderful meal and then volunteered to help by cleaning up. In this picture is our family, my mom and step-grandmother.

Mom and the kids being silly.....

Emily helps with the salt-n-peppers.....

Chad was gonna help with chairs....and then they said they didn't need it done.

I helped Chase keep his tray level while clearing cups and plates...

After we got back to my mom's, the kids wanted to ride their bikes. We rode over to the neighbor's house......

.....to see their six-week old puppies! What a fun treat. It was so much fun to watch them. Emily absolutely loved playing with them and would've brought one home in an instant.

We also took time for playing games and lots of toys.

When we did get the least bit hungry, Emily was our waitress and took orders.

Now it's bedtime....with lots of us tired out.

Anybody shopping tomorrow? Not me...at least not before 8am. I might miss some good deals, but those deals aren't that great by myself with 2 kids! We'll take our time and see what we can find. Hope you had a blessed day and took time to relax. Now it's time to start Christmas!

Things To Be Thankful For

I know I can't list EVERYTHING, but this is my list for this year........

God's love...Emily...Chase...Chad...all of my family...devotions...the Bible and promises it holds...sunshine...sand...ocean...trees...rain...pools...computers...cell phones...good health...great jobs...opportunities for growth & change...awesome friendships...SKM...Sunday school...church...great teachers...warm home...money to pay bills...food and drink...Christmas decorations (I love to sit by my Christmas tree)...silence...children's laughter...hearing my daughter read to me...cuddling with my kids in their beds...exercise...my son's smile...a hopeful future with our new president...music...great conversation...a warm hello...eye contact...scrapbooking...organization...a clean home (thankful or wishing for???)...

...thankful that I made it through another year. I pray God will bless my life through another great year. May you find peace in God's promises as you spend time with family, friends or doing whatever makes you happy this Thanksgiving. We will be volunteering at a community dinner this year and helping others. I will post photos tomorrow from our experience.

Crescent Rolls

Well....I did it again. Another new recipe. I just love all the ways you can use crescent rolls. Tonight, I tried a recipe from the Wichita Eagle titled: Zesty Italian Crescent Casserole. It was super yummy and VERY easy. Here are a couple pictures of the finished product and the recipe follows:

We rounded out the meal with some other favorites....steamed cauliflower and strawberries & bananas! Yummy...yummy.

You may view the recipe at this site, or it's listed below along with my suggestions:

http://view.exacttarget.com/?j=fe8310767262027a7d&m=ff001174756402&ls=fe0016727761057e77157672&l=fe9615727267057f7c&s=fe2d16797062067f751676&jb=ffcf14&ju=fe6a17747361057f7514

ZESTY ITALIAN CRESCENT CASSEROLE

1 lb. round beef

½ cup chopped onion

1 cup tomato pasta sauce (I used tomato sauce and added garlic powder & Italian seasoning)

1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese (6 oz.)

½ cup sour cream1 can

(8 oz.) refrigerated crescent roll dough

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In a 10-inch skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until beef is thoroughly cooked; drain. Stir in pasta sauce; cook until hot.In medium bowl, mix mozzarella cheese and sour cream.Pour hot beef mixture into ungreased 12x8-inch (2-quart) baking dish, or 9 ½- or 10-inch deep-dish pie plate. Spoon cheese mixture over beef mixture.Unroll dough over cheese mixture. (If using pie plate, separate dough into 8 triangles; arrange points toward center over cheese mixture, crimping outside edges if necessary.) In small bowl, mix Parmesan cheese and melted butter. Spread evenly over dough.Bake 18 to 25 minutes or until deep golden brown. Makes 6 servings.

SUGGESTIONS: I baked for the recommended 22 minutes and the middle wasn't quite finished. It browned very nicely, but it takes awhile for the biscuits to bake because they are layered. I would cover with foil when it is browned to your liking and bake at least the 25 minutes, if not longer. Enjoy!

Basketball and more Basketball!

Well, both of the kiddos are playing basketball this fall. Chase has been practicing for a little over a month and had his first game tonight. It is so much fun to watch. It's been a hard road with crying and lots of anxiety before going to practice, but he did just fine. He was very excited and played well. He got to dribble a couple times, attempted a basket and even got a jump ball. Our team won 24-14.

Sitting on the bench with the assistant coach.....

...looking past coach at what the guys are doing....

....ok...whose on offense? we still need to work on WHEN to guard......SO CUTE.....

...Chase is #9.....

...in the huddle.....as you can see Chase is one of the smallest....

...I have my arms up to guard....

...and finally shaking hands and heading over to get a snack!

Here's the girl.....she's playing at the YMCA. Chad is coaching her team and she if having a blast.

Coach Chad tells the girls just what they need to hear before going out to play again.....

Emily is #1......

We are so proud of both of the children and are so happy they are able to be active.

New Recipe

I tried a new recipe tonight and it was very good so thought I'd share! Visit this link: http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/shortcut-chicken-manicotti-108695.aspx. I did not use the broccoli as we had a vegetable on the side, but otherwise did it just as the directions said. Using chicken tenders worked very well and I baked mine a little longer than the 45-50 minutes because I'm always nervous about chicken. I think I might add a little more water to the sauce because a lot of it baked off and also add a little salt, pepper and Italian seasoning as well. It was yummy and most of the family like it! Enjoy!

Advent by Candlelight

I was invited to a special event at our church this evening called Advent by Candlelight. It was WONDERFUL! The purpose was to spend an hour relaxing as we enter into the holiday season and remembering why it is that we celebrate Christmas. Each table had a hostess and they invited people to sit with them, decorated the table and served dessert. It was fabulous. We had chocolate covered strawberries, cheeseball with crackers and red velvet cake! It was SO yummy. Here is our table...isn't it pretty?

After arriving and going around to view all tables, we had a short meditation titled "Does It Matter?" which was so enlightning. The speaker talked about viewing Christmas and all of our preparations as Jesus' birthday party and if it doesn't matter to the birthday boy, it probably isn't worth us worrying about, i.e. what we will wear to church, if the pie we take to the family gathering is homemade or from the store, etc. All He wants is for us to love him with all of our heart and to share that love with others around us. We sang Christmas carols and also had special music by our Handbell quartet. It was so relaxing. I asked the ladies at our table if we really had to leave because one hour wasn't very long!?!?!?

It truly was by candlelight as they turned all the lights off during the event. I am so thankful for great friends and a wonderful start to the Christmas season! Now....if I can just remember not to get uptight about things that don't really me to worry about them.......!!!!!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Happy Birthday Grandma! We spent some time yesterday celebrating Chad's mom. We went to Cheddar's Restaurant to eat lunch. It was DELICIOUS!
We then went over the The Alley to go bowling, but ended up spending our time in the arcade. Everyone had a great time.

Chase loves to play air hockey!

One of Grandma's favorites.......

.....basketball, of course.....

.....oh yes, and a ride in the yellow car...do you fit Emily?

Chad and his mom!

We also spent a little time at the mall for some shopping....the kids got an early Christmas gift from grandpa and grandma....new robes! This will keep them toasty warm after showers.

We had a great day celebrating mom and look forward to another year with her.

Sassy Klassy 'N More Giveaway

I just found out that Amy's Finer Things at http://amysfinerthings.com/ has SKM in the spotlight. Her blog entry focuses on buying handmade items for all of your Christmas gifts and features Sassy Klassy 'N More! She is doing a giveaway so some lucky person will be toting around a one and only SKM bag for FREE! If you would like to be in the running for this amazing giveaway then jump on over to her blog, follow the directions and see if YOU will be the winner. And...while you are there check out her blog--she is full of great ideas and has a lot to share! Thanks Amy! You do a great job!

Go Shox!

We got to go to the WSU basketball game today! They played Florida A&M in their first regular season game. It was a lot of fun and they won 77-52 - even better!! It is a pretty new team this year but the guys played pretty well together. We'll see what else the season holds!

All dressed in our black and gold!

Daddy had fun keeping Chase up to speed on the game...like he needs it...he sits so well and watches all the plays!


A great family activity for a Sunday afternoon...althought the weather in Wichita was great and we could have been outside. Oh well, there will be more days. We were glad to attend an afternoon weekend game since weekdays get too late for the kiddos! We had a fun time.

Bookworm and Climber

Emily has a love for reading! This is often what I see when I ask her to do something. The other day she was walking around the house reading a book while she was still doing what was asked of her! I hope her comprehension improves and that her love of reading continues! What a gift.

Emily earned a reward this weekend to go rock-climbing at the YMCA. Just a few short weeks ago she was very scared and didn't want to even try it. Now, she begs and begs to go the Y to climb. She went up the wall 3 times yesterday. There were a few moments that were very hard and she was very challenged, but she stuck with it and did a great job.

It just proves that when you try something new, you may end up liking it!

She made it to the top and gets to ring a bell! Good job Emily!

New Room

Earlier this year (when Chase turned 4), we finally got him out of his "crib day bed" and bought him a big boy bed. But we hadn't taked the baby wallpaper off the walls yet. Recently he got a new bedspread and we started to re-do the room last week. Chase was so excited to help and actually removed most of the border himself! He actually was very upset last week when we had to stop at bedtime one night. We had so much fun doing it together.

On Saturday morning, it was time to put up the new border. The kids wanted to be right there and played Legos for quite awhile amidst the mess of the room. Chase helped hold the wet border while I was getting it on the wall. They were so good while we worked.

Here is the finished product! We are so pleased and Chase absolutely LOVES it. I have material that I will use to make a new curtain for the round-top window and need a few things for the walls, but otherwise, we are done. Do you like it?

Here is the proud and happy owner of the room!

Friends

Last weekend, we had some friends come to town to see us for the weekend and we had a great time catching up. The kids had so much fun during the weekend. Here are some of the fun things that they did:

Climbing a tree........

.......this is Chase while the girls were in the tree........


....playing games on the Wii.........

........cuddling on the couch while watching High School Musical 1..........

........a fun slumber party together in the living room.

What a fun time we had re-connecting and making memories. Good friends are something I'm so very thankful for.