Game Night!

Kylie stacking her dominoes while waiting for her turn.

 We had a game night in our house last night and ended up playing dominoes. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun with it and in the end Kylie won the game we played. Gabryle seemed to have the most fun stacking the dominoes we had and tapping them together to make noises. Kylie found she can make a "sofa" out of them.  I took a few pictures and thought I would share them. I hope you enjoy!!

The kids usually play Pop the Pig, Sorry, or Trouble, but last night we taught them a new game. Next up I plan on teaching them Monopoly!

Till Next time!!!

Gabryle helping Daddy put the dominoes back up in their box

Kenzie and Jerrod waiting on their turns.

Kylie getting some help from Jerrod.

Kenzie getting some help from Daddy.

Gabryle figuring out which one of our dominoes to play. 

Having some fun with some dominoes. 

Christmas Fun!

 Merry Christmas Everyone!! I hope you had a great christmas. Our family has had a very nice Christmas at home this year, and it even included SNOW! The kids are excited about getting to play in the snow when they get to later! They all seemed to be very grateful for what they received this year.

The girls have enjoyed being on Christmas break, although Kylie has already asked if its time to go back yet. Gabryle has seemed to enjoy having the girls home to play with. He goes up to them and hollers "Sisters come on!" to get them to come and play with him. It's cute!

I've posted a few pictures from today for you! I hope you enjoy them. If I don't write again before the end of the year, have a happy New Year!

 Till Next Time!!!

Mackenzie's Christmas card she made Jerrod and I at school.

Mackenzie's Christmas gift she made Jerrod and I in class.

Kylie's Christmas gift she made for Jerrod and I in class. 

Fourth of July video and pictures

As I mentioned in the previous blog post here are some pictures from fourth of July. Most of these were taken while we were at the Lake waiting for the fireworks to start. The photos taken of the fireworks and the videos were taken with my phone. The others were shot with the camera.  Enjoy the pictures and the two links to some of the short video clips of the fireworks!! ENJOY!!!!    TILL NEXT TIME!!!

Video 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nN5CmmYy2s&feature=plcp

Video 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLCngkVwHJw&feature=plcp

PICTURES!!

Easter Eggs!!!

One of the kids favorite things about Easter is getting to color Easter Eggs. Granted Gabryle still doesn't really understand it too well, he still enjoyed it. He seemed so interested in what we were doing. He could not quite figure out why we put the eggs in cups of colored water and let them dry.

All five of us colored a few eggs. The kids each did three eggs, Jerrod did five and I colored four of them. Jerrod did one with a toothpick and in a way "painted" on the color. It turned out really neat! I dipped one back and forth between the purple and pink and it turned out really cool also.

 We also this year instead of using one of the store bought egg dye kits, I made my own. I found the recipe via the Wilton website. All you do is take the following ingredients, mix together and bingo you have egg dye color!! The recipe for it is as follows:

Gabryle showing Daddy his egg

Wilton food color (or any other brand food color) 
3/4 cup HOT water
1 tbsp vinegar
hard boiled eggs


1. mix the food coloring into the hot water till well 
mixed. You can use as little or as much as you 
desire.
2. Add the vinegar and stir well.
3. Dip the eggs into the water mixture till desired color is on the egg.

Voila there you go! You have colored eggs. We did today Pink, Green, Purple and yellow. Kylie's favorite is pink. Mackenzie colored one of hers just purple and it turned out to be a beautiful purple color! Gabryle showed me which ones to put his eggs in and they turned out pretty neat. I'll remember next year for sure to do the eggs this way again.

The girls looking at their eggs as Kenzie's last egg is still
sitting in the purple color.

Kenzie working on her eggs

Watching Daddy color eggs.

 Enjoy the rest of the pictures from our event of coloring eggs this evening!

Till Next Time!!!

Kenzie munching on a meatball.

Watching Daddy color an egg

Coloring more eggs.

And more egg coloring

Gabryle inspecting the eggs. 

I can't remember what Gabryle was doing here. Just love
 his expression

helping stir the color.

Our finished Eggs

Our finished Eggs

PUMP JACK!!!!!

We're halfway through spring break and it's actually been fairly easy going. We've stayed at home, gone to the city to visit family for a few days, and even went up to Sulphur today to visit more family. And Wednesday is just now ending!! I guess that is a lot we have done since Saturday.

As we were driving home from the City Sunday evening Mackenzie decided a new game we would play. (Well, more like her and Jerrod!) Anytime they would find a pump jack, they would holler "pump jack" or "Pump jack moving" And yes she is meaning the pump jacks that they use in oil fields. As we drove down the highway, as Jerrod or Mackenzie would find one, "pump jack" would be hollered out. They wanted to be the first to find ten. Half way through the game Kylie decided she would play, and she actually found a few. They had a blast watching out the windows and trying to be the first to be the one to call out for one of the jacks that we would pass.

In the end, Jerrod won. The final score ended up being 10-9-2. Today as we went up to Sulphur the game was on again. This time we played in teams and Jerrod and Kylie won. (Note to self: Jerrod is hard to beat at car games like this one!)  Who knows what other car games we will come up with when we get in the car the next time to go out of town. It keeps us entertained and the kids get along with doing it so it is fine with me!!

Till Next Time!!

Big House Plans

Driving home today after picking the girls up from school Kenzie said that all of our family should live in one house. I glanced back at her and asked her how big she thinks that house should be if she wants ALL of her cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents and Great-Grandparents to live in. Her response was, big. I got to adding it up, and if we had all of their immediate Aunts, Uncles, cousins, Grandparents and of course us live in one house we would need at least 18 bedrooms. That would be a big house. I told her that and her response, "We'd need a lot of bathrooms then also!"   (Good to know she has her priorities down!)

So this evening she drew a few pictures of BIG houses and made sure to add at least 18 windows to the front to make sure it had 18 bedrooms. We also decided that it would need at least 3 living room/den areas, 2 kitchens, an extremely large dining room, a game room, and lots of room!! Kylie even drew a couple pictures of what she thinks the outside of that house would look like, and in all of them, the color was pink. No surprise there! It was fun looking at their drawings. I however would add to all of their ideas a large wrap around porch on the ground level, assuming it is a multi-level home, and where it stays around 60-70 degrees year round.

I got to adding it up while they were drawing their houses, and it really doesn't seem like they have that large of an extended family, but they kind of do. There is 1 Great-Grandmother, 2 Grandmothers, 3 Grandfathers, 3 Uncles, 4 Aunts, and 4 Cousins. What I love most is all the cousins, and our three are so close in age. Kenzie being the oldest and a cousin in Indy being the youngest, at least for the moment being the youngest. It's great they have such a large extended family!! Maybe one day we will build that big humongous house the girls would like to have so all the family could live together!!

Till Next Time!!!

Family Fun Night!

Tonight was the school's annual Family Fun Night to raise money for the school. It was a lot of fun. The girls got to put tickets in to win different items available in a drawing, dance and play with their friends, and eat some pizza. Jerrod participated in the silent auction that was being done and Gabryle had a blast while dancing in his seat and other places, playing with a little ball game and watching all the other kids.

The girls even played a few of the games the different grades did. There was a cake walk (which the girls both won), lots of bean bag tosses, a Dino dig, face painting, limbo, tattoos, and a few other games to play. It was cute watching the girls do the limbo. I never realized how low Kenzie can go under a bar! Kylie was lucky enough that she is so tiny she could walk under it most of the time. I think Gabryle had more fun eating the suckers the girls won in the games and playing with the little toys that they won as prizes in the games.

Jerrod bid in the silent auction on a few items and ended up winning a Mommy and Me gardening set that included lots of gardening tools, a nice wheelbarrow, pansies, a salsa growing kit, and a few other things in it. It's a really nice set too. All of the baskets are baskets put together from the different grades in the school. Some grades sometimes do 2 baskets, but most do just 1.  Worked out great getting it especially since we got some rose bushes a few weeks ago. The girls didn't get their name drawn for anything that they put the tickets into, but they still had a good time tonight. It was fun getting to watch them dance with their friends. When we first got there, Kylie was so excited because she ran into Adam, one of her really good friends. (Adam and Kylie eat breakfast together every morning.)
 
It's a fun fundraiser for the school that they do and we'll most likely go again next year. We know they raised at least 500 dollars just from the silent auction. I always find it interesting to hear how much the school. earned from tonight.

Till Next Time!!

Nice Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Yes yesterday was Thanksgiving so I'm a little late on the blog but oh well. We had a very nice Thanksgiving and were able to see a lot of family!

We left home Wednesday around lunch and headed to the City. We got to My Dad and Brothers house a few hours later and spent the day with them. The kids had fun with their Uncle, Marisol, Dante and Grandaddy. Around dinner time my Mom and Step-Dad came over  and we all had some pizza and visited for a while. The kids were excited to see Nana and Gramps since they hadn't seen them in a while. After Mom and Rick left Jerrod and I went a little later and caught a movie by ourselves. We  went and watched the new Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1, which I loved!

Thursday we got up and got the turkey in the oven and started our meal that we were having with Dad. We had everything fixed and ate an early Thanksgiving Dinner with Dad then lounged around the house the rest of the afternoon. Jerrod and Gabryle at one point crashed and fell asleep on the sofa for a while. Too much Turkey for the boys. Late in the afternoon we got all of our things packed back up and then headed over to Uncle Don and Aunt Gayla's house and had Thanksgiving Dinner with Mom, Rick, Patrick, Jamie, Uncle Don, and Aunt Gayla.

After dinner and visiting a little we then needed to head back home. All in all it was a really good holiday! It was nice seeing family we had not seen in quite a while and the kids had fun! Now that Thanksgiving is over, we can now start getting ready for Christmas.

Till Next Time!

Mexican Recipe

Well, we tried another new recipe the other night and it was pretty good. It's Mexican Chicken and Beans. It did have a little heat to it in my opinion, but it was still good! The kids ate it which is a big plus, and it made enough for leftovers for lunch today! I love recipes that make enough to use for lunch the next day or two! Here is the recipe for you:

Mexican Chicken and Beans

1 lb uncooked chicken breast strips for stir-fry

1 package (1 oz) Old El Paso® taco seasoning mix
1 can (15 oz) Progresso® black beans, drained, rinsed
1 can (11 oz) Green Giant® Mexicorn® whole kernel corn with red and green peppers, undrained
1/4 cup water
Flour tortillas, if desired

1. Spray 10-inch skillet with cooking spray. Add chicken to skillet; cook over medium-high heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until no longer pink in center.
2. Stir in seasoning mix, beans, corn and water. Cook over medium-high heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until sauce is slightly thickened. Serve with tortillas

I found this recipe on the Betty Crocker website under the diabetic recipes. I also cut the chicken into small bite size pieces instead of making them into strips. It's easier for Gabryle to eat chicken when they are in pieces not strips in meals like this. The next time we do this recipe we plan on maybe adding sour cream when we wrap the food in the tortillas. We might even try them with some of the whole wheat tortillas you can find in grocery stores. This meal was even quick and easy to make that next time I might let Kenzie help me make it.

Hope you enjoy!

Holiday fun!

Yesterday was the fourth of July, which is a fun holiday being as there are fireworks to watch at night, a great day to grill out, and it's my birthday to top it all off. Every year since I was a kid the fourth of July has been one of my favorite holidays. When I was little I always thought that the fireworks were just for me, course then I got old enough to realise that they were not all for me just because its my birthday. That was a sad day.

This year of course southern Oklahoma had the burn ban, and the Lake Murray fireworks show was cancelled. BUMMER! So we opted to just stay in and watch the Capital Fourth of July Concert and Fireworks on PBS.

We let the kids play in the sprinkler some and we ran some errands. I mostly laid around the house all day, and let the laundry sit and not be done for one day. I even slept in somewhat. It was nice having a day we were all home just lounging aroundt he house.

Jerrod and the kids made me a birthday cake which was so sweet of them to do. I thought it was also adorable when Kylie ran up to me and goes "Mommy we're going to kick you out of the house and surprise you and make you a surprise birthday cake thats chocolate!!!!" She was thrilled, and of course made sister and Daddy a little upset that the surprise was spoiled. Oh well, I still loved it!!!!!

Then last night the rain came. Lots of wind came first then the heavy rain, thunder and lightning.  The kids it didn't bother, until the power went out. Gabryle thought we turned off the show we were watching and ran to the tv pointing at it looking back and forth between it and us. Needless to say since it was alraedy after the kids bedtime we just sent them off to bed. It was dark so we didnt get any arguements really. Kylie fell asleep within 10 minutes of going to bed as normal. Gabryle came in the liing room a few times and then finally gave up about 20 minutes later. Mackenzie was the odd ball and was still awake in her bed. Around nine, nine fifteen last night She and Jerrod went driving to see who all had power and who didn't.

Aparantly a lot of the town was without power. The most the electric company showed on their website was 10669 without power from when I checked it the few times. Eventually the power came back on around nine thirty-nine forty five and Jerrod and Mackenzie got back to the house and we let her finish watching the fireworks shows that were on tv then sent her off to bed.

It definatly has been the first birthday I can remember where we lost power, or rained for that matter.Maybe next year we won't be in the middle of one of the worst dry spells we have seen in such a long time and will get to watch some local fireworks around town.

Till next time!!!!