yummmm peppermint oreo truffles

i found this recipe on pinterest and made them for my small group's christmas party. they are awesome and relatively easy to make, you just have to have time to chill them in between steps.

siblings

i think i already have that as a title, but oh well.
here are our two cuties, being adorable again.

 

 

 

introducing our puppy, pepper pots

well we did it.
my husband and daughter were just supposed to be going to petsmart for cat food. but they came home and my daughter was spouting off how if we gave a blanket to the pet shelter they would give us a big discount on the adoption and that she would give all her allowance to get this one calm, wonderful dog. i was just looking at my husband thinking, what?!
so we talked about it, prayed about it and decided to take the whole family to see if this could be our dog. (alittle back story- we told my daughter that she could get a dog when she turned 8, she turned 7 this year so we knew the deadline was approaching. we told her to be praying that God would find just the right dog for us, so she has been.)
she was still there when we got to petsmart and she seemed to do well with our son. so we decided yes, she was our dog.
so i am proud to introduce you to our new addition, pepper pots. she is a 10 month old lab/basset mix. and she seems to have a great temperment for our family.

 audrey is over the moon about getting a dog for christmas. she even told us that we could send back her presents because getting a dog was good enough.

miles and pepper bonding.

santa cow breakfast

chick fil a had santa cow breakfast. they had a trackless train (the same train the kids and i rode at the rush creek church halloween thing), prize wheel, picture with santa cow, a balloon artist and a make and take ornament. they also had an elf cow. it was so cute.
audrey had a great time and im so glad that chick fil a has fun activities for kids. thanks chick fil a.

 audrey got a rudolph balloon. it was awesome, that guy was talented.

audrey with santa cow. miles was not too sure of santa cow, he only gave him high fives.

miles stocking craft

 the stocking craft that miles made at school. im not sure if they let the kids pick out the pictures from the catalog or not, but it looks like they did since miles picks are: super hero action figures, lincoln logs (although im not too sure about this one) and a car with a puppy in it. i thought it was hilarious and im hanging it up in our house.

ice day 4

i busted out the playdough and the hungry hungry hippos game today for our 4th ice day.

 audrey enjoyed the play dough more than miles. he just wants to be rowdy.

 the gingerbread man that audrey made.

miles LOVES hungry hungry hippos. its just the noisy, rowdy kind of fun that he loves to have.

we decided to put up the tree

since we've been iced in the past 3 days i have been trying to find fun things to do with the kids. so today i decided that we would put the christmas tree up. we weren't sure about doing that this year (yet again) because our son is definitely at that destructive age. but i dont want to have to wait until he's 18 for us to decorate with a tree. so up it went and we decorated with mostly kid constructed decorations and definitely unbreakable decorations. and at this point im glad we did.

books to open

so for a kind of fun activity, a sort of advent, i wrapped all the christmas books that we had. the kids get to open one a day. for the most part they are enjoying it but audrey is alittle skeptical of the fun because she remembers some of these books. oh well. its a fun way to bring out the christmas books, one by one.

 the books stacked up.

miles opening and audrey helping, always.

ice storm

we had an ice day because we had freezing rain and below freezing temperatures. audrey was so excited when she woke up and saw what was on the ground. it looks like snow but its actually ice.
so after breakfast we bundled up and played in it for a short while. the kids both enjoyed it but with the windchill at 14 degrees, i was cold. i also broke a swing while trying to show audrey how thick the ice was on it. :(

 

 

 

yup shes my daughter

since it is very cold today and we would be playing outside in the ice i decided to layer my socks. i meant to tell my daughter to do it also but i forgot. turns out i didnt need to. this little girl thought it up all on her own. she really is my daughter.

knee socks under regular socks, thats the way to do it.

prairie lights

went with the kids and my sister-in-law, sarah, to see the prairie lights because i had a half off coupon. hurray for coupons.
the girls all enjoyed it quite a bit. miles was not impressed and didnt like just sitting in his car seat while we inched along. he was also tired. but im glad we went because i had fun. thanks for coming with us sarah and taking good pictures. (i was driving so all the pictures are from sarah)

 audrey was so happy

 miles had already removed his socks, shoes and glasses by the time we were 5 minutes from our house.

 pretty nativity

pretty poinsettia tree

thanksgiving food

this year i wanted to try something different for the thanksgiving food that i was assigned. we did a green bean crockpot recipe, it had bacon, soy sauce and garlic powder with the green beans. it was awesome. i also did an apple snack and pilgrim hat cookies. yes, all the ideas were from pinterest.

 i had a super cute assistant making the pilgrim hats. we used peanut butter instead of frosting to stick the pb cups on the cookies.

 we used leaf sprinkles for the buckle.

 our apple snack with peanut butter/greek yogurt/honey dip.

 wouldnt you want to be served at starbucks by this adorable barista?

our thankful tree. we are still missing jake's thankful leaves (he's been sick) so we have even more to be thankful for.
im thankful for alot this year but my tops are:
my God who has been my helper and guide lately
my family
great school and teachers for my kiddos

playing in the leaves

autumn is definitely my favorite season. and the kids and i played in the leaves. audrey was the one with the genius idea to put the leaf pile at the bottom of the slide.

 attack brother

 

 

 

 

thanksgiving readers theater

audrey had a thanksgiving readers theater today at school. the kids read a short story about the first thanksgiving. audrey was announcer 5. she did a great job. then the kids recited some short poems and riddles about thanksgiving.

here she is reading in all her glory. she was so excited.

miles, that boy

miles is such a boy.

 miles, the little pony

 miles and his new friend batman. we went to toys r us the other day just to walk around and look at toys and he saw batman and got him off the shelf and was trying to make his cape fly.

 

two wild kids in a car.

game night

we had a game night with my brother and his wife last weekend. we all had fun. miles loved the rowdiness of hungry, hungry hippos and uno attack. audrey just loved getting to play games.
thanks for coming guys and we will be doing this again. we have to, we didnt finish all the games audrey had on her list to play.

 hungry hungry hippos

 go fish

 memory

awkward family pictures

camping

audrey got to go on her first over-night camping trip this weekend with my parents, my brother and his wife, and my other brother. to say that she loved it would be stating it lightly. we have to get this girl camping more (just as soon as her brother settles down a bit and sleeps past 5 or 6 most mornings). jake and i did take miles out to visit and have dinner with the whole group but we took him home to sleep.

on the way to the campsite. miles was reading away in his seat. he picked out the book to take on the ride all on his own.

 audrey so excited to go camping.

 miles working away on the campsite.

 audrey was able to bring the class pet to read to on the camping trip.

 miles and jake with glow sticks.

 all around the campfire.

 audrey and her buddy, sunny.

what a cute girl looking out from my parent's pop-up camper.