Isn't it the middle of December?

These pictures were taken this past week.. not this past summer. Yep, the high that day was around 70 degrees!!! It's December! I am sooo not used to this!

*sigh* He's such a great Big Brother (well, as long as she isn't trying to play with his cars;))!!

Grilling Goodness

1. What pain reliever do you swear by? I try to avoid taking any kind of medicine. I'm just not that in to them (even more so now since I am still BFing Miss Leah). But, if I absolutely HAVE to take something, it would be Tylenol or Motrin.

2. Have you gotten up-to-date with a flat screen HDTV? Flat screen? No. I think our TV is capable of HD channels, but we don't get those. I really don't know. My husband is trying to convince me right now to get one of those (LCD, plasma, flat screen, 50 something inch, blah blah blah, no idea what I'm talking about) tv's.

3. Have you honked at anyone lately? If you know where I live, then you understand why I say yes. And why I honk at least once every time we go out!!

4. What is your favorite household product? I don't have a favorite. I always buy a new product at the store. I hate using chemicals, but I haven't made the switch to better cleaning stuff yet!

5. What is the earliest you've gotten up this week and why? Um, like up get out of bed? 8:30 AM. I know that is so not early, but my hubby is on Swing shift right now (goes in at 2:30pm and doesn't get home until after 11pm), so, we are more on his schedule. Staying up later and sleeping in.

6. Do you travel out of town for Christmas? We haven't in the past. We aren't this year. Not sure about the following years to come.

7. Have you been listening to Christmas music? (Favorite?) Yes, but not as much as I would like. I have a Josh Groban Christmas CD, and I looooove it. He has a beautiful voice!!!

8. When do you exchange gifts with family? Our little family opens one present on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas morning.

If you want to join in, or read other posts, go on over to Golden Goodness!

Wordless Wednesday - The Kids w/ Santa

To see other 'Worldess Wednesday' photos, go on over to 5minutesformom! =)

What do YOU call it?

Muddy Buddies? Puppy Chow? Dog food? Something else?

My friend Rebekah made a batch this weekend and she called it Muddy Buddies. I had no idea what on earth she was saying! I have never, ever heard it being called that. I call it puppy chow. Around the blogosphere I've seen people calling it different things-so my curiosity has been sparked and now I wanna know what YOU call this great yummy tasting stuff! No idea what I'm talking about? Go here. ;-)

Easy Fudge

Easy Fudge

• one 8x8 pan
  
• WAX paper for the pan


• 1/2 stick of butter


• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk


• 3 cups of chocolate chips (1 and 1/2 bags)

Melt the last three in the microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds, stir, then microwave for another minute. Make sure you stir in the middle, don't burn it. Pour into a wax paper lined pan. Use the wax paper!! You need to use the wax paper, if you don't use the wax paper, you are really going to regret it. Don't forget the sides either. Refrigerate for a couple of hours, cut, and enjoy.
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Very easy for variation.

Best "seller" is butterscotch, which is simply taking 2 cups of chocolate chips and 1 cup of butterscotch chips.

Mini M&Ms are another good substitute.

You can use flavor extracts like mint or orange.

Cover the top with coconut flakes.

Substitute 1 cup of walnuts for 1 cup of chips.

Normal recipe, plus 1/2 c. chopped walnuts and 1 c. mini marshmallows, folded in after the mix is well blended and ready for the pan = Rocky Road Fudge

Normal recipe, minus butter, plus 1/4 c. peanut butter = extreme peanut butter fudge.

Busy, busy!

Before my hubby went on his deployment he knew he would be needing some time off after he got home. So before he left he requested 2 weeks of leave. Now that he's home, Brandon is so glad he scheduled that. He worked 12+ hrs each day for about 5wks, and having only 2 days off the entire time. My hubby lost some weight while he was gone (he ate only plain noodles, plain rice and rolls for every.single.meal!!!) so I've been busy trying to fatten him up. ;-)

Monday started my hubby's vacation, so we have been enjoying the extra time with Daddy!

Last week I mentioned scoring some online deals. One of the orders we placed was to Fathead. They were having a buy one get one free sale and a lot of their stuff was marked down. If you've never heard of Fathead before, check it out! They have "stickers" that are lifesize. It is pretty crazy. The details are great. So, we went all out for Kyle's room. If we would have paid full price it would have been around $700. Seven hundred dollars, people! Well, we would never, ever pay that, but we did pay $60 for 6 full sets of stickers. You can't even buy one set for that price.

Monday we took advantage of a sleeping little girl and got to work! It took us several hours to
put it all up, but it really wasn't that hard to do. It was fun and so worth it. Kyle loves his room!! Can't you tell?!?

another year gone

Yesterday was my birthday. It sure didn't feel like it. But, it was and now I'm another year older. When I was a teenager, I pretty much always felt my age. Now, I always tell my age wrong! When I'm in a store and get asked my age, I always stutter and say "twenttttyyy----" and it actually takes me a second to remember how old I am! When we moved into this house earlier this year, our neighbor's daughter asked me how old I was. I told her 22!! I can't believe I told her I was a year older than I actually was. Phew!

We celebrated my birthday by going to a small Christmas parade (my first one ever). Then we headed to dinner and ate at P.F. Changs! By far, our favorite restaurant. Both the kids were extremely well behaved at dinner and we got our meal right away. We've eaten dinner there quite a bit, but I think last night was our best meal yet. It was great!

After dinner we headed to the outlet mall and scored some goodies. Aeropostale had a bunch of polos and t-shirts marked down $1.99 or $2.99. The original prices on there were like $19.50-$34.50! No way I would ever pay that much for just a shirt.

As far as gifts go, I got a PURPLE digital camera from my hubby and I got a beautiful bracelet from one of my bestfriends, Rebekah. And my favorite sister ever gave me a Victoria's Secret giftcard.. a nice amount, too! ;) But, I think the best present of all was when my hubby let me sleep in until 11am!!! Both of us went to bed very late, as in almost 3am, so I know he was tired, too!! I'm blessed.. :~)

Daddy and Leah waiting for the parade to start

And the parade starting!! Look at that grin!