Kids are holding me captive

I know it has been quiet but the kids are holding me captive over here. I will post more when I can break away.

Smiles!

Anna's Christmas Concert

Anna is the beautiful girl in the white sweater with a pink tank top under it.

Sorry for my poor filming techniques. I was try to watch her sing with out looking through the little camera picture and wasn't looking at what I was filming.
Smiles!

Coffee Time

I love Tuesday mornings. Why you ask? Because a group of ladies from church get together at Beans to Brew after getting the kids off to school for a little "sharing" time. We have such a good time talking and catching up with each other.
This morning Patty shared with me that I have a typo in my header. What!?! Has anyone else noticed my mistake and was to nice to tell me in a comment also? I am not going to fix it because I am just being lazy like that. LOL!
Diane asked me this morning if I was going to post Zack's Choir Solo from last night. It is the same solo he did a week ago at the Senior's lunch but this time I brought a camera with a charged battery so I was able to get it all. I hope you are not getting sick of my kids yet. I apologize for the shake-y picture during PJ's solo I was trying to find a way to rest my hand so it would not get so tired holding my camera still.



Did you notice Zack (my tall bald young man) and PJ (on the right) snickering during Stephen's (on the left) solo? I have no clue why but PJ is always joking so I can only imagine something happened during practice and now they are thinking about it. Boys will be boys.
Smiles!

Better late then never?

Welcome to our home.... Feel free to hang you coat here by the door and take a look around. Do you see the beautiful egg hanging on the coat rack? It was given to me last year by some friends of ours that live in Mackinaw City. Little did they know how very much it would mean to me. My mother-in-law passed away 2 years ago and she used to put these little ceramic trinket boxes in the kids stockings. They would always be a different shape like a ladies fancy hat or a football and then when you opened it there would be a little ceramic item inside that would relate to the outside. The kids just loved getting them and seeing what would be the matching item inside. An example is Zack got one that looked like the old basket type fishing box and inside was a fish. Well this egg looks like a large replica of those little trinkets and when you open it inside is a music box that plays The First Noel. I was in tears over the flood of memories that came back when I opened this gift. It will always remind me of my mother-in-law and thoughtful friends.I received this a couple years ago from a Secret Sister gift exchange I had with my bible study ladies. I just love the snowman.

This poinsettia was brought home just for our daughter, Kaylyn. She loves blue and everything that glitters. It is a plus to have a daddy that works for a greenhouse.

This poinsettia is my favorite this year. If you can't see it is also all glittery. This was my Christmas gift from my kids (really that is Mark's way to get me gifts when we agree we aren't getting each other gifts) last Christmas. I fell in love with all of the art work done by this artist. I am sure it has to do with the quilting on so many of the figures. Last but not least our Christmas Tree. The Angel on the top was also a gift from my "kids" a long time ago. My husband found it in Chicago on a business trip and I just love it. It is tradition that once we have decorated the tree Mark puts the angel on top. Only Daddy gets to top the tree. Thank you for visiting our home. Please let me know you were here. Have a very Merry Christmas!
God Bless,

Just couldn't resist.

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Slow down I need more time!

Look at these! Are they not just the cutest ornaments ever for a girl that loves to knit!?!?! I got an e-mail from Berroco KnitBits® today (why wouldn't they send this out a month ago?) with a link to a free pattern for these. Y'all know I just have to make these! Where will I squeeze in the time to do this? I think everyone in my house needs their own, don't you? Oh but where will I find those cute little hangers... Hobby Lobby here I come! If I can't find them in the doll house section I will get small gauge wire and make them myself.

Smiles!

Who woulda thunk?

You know how my sweetheart took me away a couple weekends ago? While we were shopping he said he would like to get something little to give to each kid when we get home. Well the dutch frugal cheap responsible side of me doesn't like to spend money just to get them something unless I know they will use it. So we were looking and had a couple ideas but nothing that really said, "we thought this out".

Then I seen it. In one of those little shops that has the mixes that you just add water and wahlah a seven course meal, okay maybe it's more like add cream cheese and you have cheese ball. Anyway, they had individual packets of hot cocoa in fun little packages. My kids LOVE hot chocolate and they race (maybe it is a little more like fight but I was trying to sound like the "have it all together" home) to see who gets the "perfect" mug.

Right then I knew what we had to do. Buy them all their own "hot cocoa" mug and for perks put a package of cocoa mix in it to get them started. Well the mugs in this quaint little shop were around $12 each (x4, you do the math=ouch that hurt). We bought the fun cocoa packs and decided, if we must, we could stop at Target and pick up the mugs because I was being dutch frugal cheap responsible again.

The next store we enter is a Hallmark store and guess what? They have cocoa mugs on sale for $2.99 each that is 4 for the price of one fancy store mug. They also had exactly 4 different styles. Yes! No more fighting! They also had this really cool container of cocoa that makes 10 servings and you get to grate your own cinnamon (Kaylyn is all about the gadgets, she is mamma's girl that way, wink) and some snowman poop, you can't go wrong with kids and a little snowman poop. We are going to save the big mix of cocoa for our Christmas Eve festivities.

Here is a picture of Zack and Anna's mugs (they were the only one's clean right now).

My kids have all told me "thank you so much for the mug" multiple times as they are making themselves hot cocoa for an after school snack. Who woulda thunk they would be such a huge hit? And the bonus... no more fighting over who gets what mug!

Smiles!

What do you mean SCHOOL IS CLOSED?!?!?!

Not only is school closed today but it didn't get posted until AFTER all four kids were up and getting ready. ARGH!

I had planned on sewing the kids Christmas PJ's yesterday and Zack came home sick. No problem I will do them Tuesday... Okay I guess now I will be doing them Wednesday. Here is a picture of the pj's I made for them last year.

2005 PJ's... Look how small Gunner is. It is our first Christmas with him.

2004 PJ's... I helped the kids make their own this year. They picked their fabric and they helped sew. The girls tops didn't work out so well because they were a bit revealing so the girls had to wear tank tops under them. This was the last year I bothered with tops because the after Christmas the kids always go back to wearing tank tops or t-shirts anyways.

You see a theme, for the last 4 years or so they have been pants for the girls because they just don't wear the dress-type pj's and if I am going to make them I want them to wear them. I am very excited about this year's pj's because of the fabric I found for them. You will have to wait 'till after Christmas to see them since the girls look at my blog.

So instead today I will be working on a purse that Julie ordered at the Craft Fair at church a couple weeks ago.
Smiles!

Marker wars!

Anna started something Sunday afternoon that I just had to finish in a "Grand Fashion". You may not know but washable markers do come off skin with a little help of soap so when we have Youth Retreats we let the kids have marker fights as long as they don't mark any of the adults faces (not that those sweet middle schoolers would ever try). Well I guess Anna is getting excited about the upcoming Youth Retreat, Jan. 5, and just had to tease mom a little by marking my hand and giggling. I could only stand her teasing for just so long and then I had to "school" my little lady. We were both laughing so hard at one point I thought I would wet my pants. She was holding four capped markers in her hand and I was trying to get them away from her. I pinned her on the floor and grabbed her handful of weapons. I got all the markers with none of the caps. She was holding on to the cap ends. We both realized what happened at the same time (picture a light bulb above my head here) "Mom is now armed and dangerous!" Since Anna's t-shirt had got pulled up in the process I had the perfect canvas (her back) for my art work. Although I was laughing so hard it was hard to even hold her down.

Here she is not letting me get a proper picture of my handy work.

This is a picture of one of Anna's friends at last years Youth Retreat. You can see they have TONS of fun with the marker wars.

Smiles!

Yummy!

Friday night Melissa stopped by and dropped off a wonderful surprise Christmas gift of homemade goodies that she spent all afternoon making and an individual little gift for every member of our family. The picture only shows a small portion of what she gave us. We love you Melissa!!!

Saturday was our family Christmas baking day. To start the day Kaylyn and I made Stuffed French Toast that I got from Sarah. Although I didn't make the Fruit topping for it even though it sounded absolutely delicious to me I don't think the rest of the clan would have been brave enough to try it over their much loved maple syrup.

Once everyone was fed it was time to get busy. First on our list was a recipe that Lauren shared from Family Fun for Holiday Pretzel Squares.


Next up, Easy Peanut Butter Cookies we were going to dip these in chocolate like this but I miss calculated my chocolate and ran short. They taste great anyway so we will save that thought for later.

Somewhere in there we also made White Chocolate Chex Mix.


After that we moved on to dipped pretzel rods. I just melt some chocolate squares. After they dip them in the chocolate they rolled them in chopped peppermint, chopped nuts, or rice crispies.

The last thing on the agenda was Peanut Clusters. This is a super easy recipe. It sits in the crock pot while we make the other stuff and then you just drop it by spoonful onto parchment paper.

Anna thought we also needed a couple pictures of the messy kitchen. The sad thing is I left it not much better than these pictures because Mark and I had to be at a wedding at 2pm.

Anna and Kaylyn did a great job of getting all the food taken care of while we were gone. My most wonderful hubby cleaned up the rest of the kitchen after church this morning. I had to stay for 2nd service to help in YC&W. I love that man!

As I type he is cleaning up from making eggs, bacon, and toast from homemade bread a wonderful lady from church, Noreen, gave us. She loves Mark so we are blessed with her homemade bread on occasion and he blesses her with flowers from work.

Smiles!

Soup-Tacular

Since I just posted this soup recipe a little while back I decided to just put a link to it. I know some of you have tried it already. We just had it again last night and I have yummy left-overs in the fridge for my lunch today. Can't wait!http://zaankalisadventures.blogspot.com/2007/11/lynneas-potato-soup.html

Smiles

Zack's solo

Yeah! I finally got a video to work, however you see it still isn't directly through the blogger upload. Instead I uploaded it to my Google account and pasted it in here. Oh well.

Edited:Maybe I spoke to soon... I still haven't been able to view it on this page yet. Maybe it is still loading somewhere out in cyber world. One can only hope. If it doesn't show up try going here to see it.

Edited AGAIN! I am giving up on Google and switching to YouTube. I try not to use YouTube after having a very graphic video coming up on it infront of my 12 year-old but I am hoping that won't happen again.

Zack had to sing for the Senior Citizen's Program that his High School does every year. He had a solo last year also and never told me. I found out from people at church "your son sings so lovely".

"Zack, what is she talking about?" (I know he sings well but when we she have heard him)

"Oh yeah, I had a solo at school last Wednesday at the Senior Citizen's Christmas Program."

"I am at home all day why wouldn't you have told me this so I could have seen it?!?!?!"

"You would've come to watch?"

"Are you serious? When don't I watch you (sports, choir) am I not always there with my camera?"

He didn't make that same mistake this year. I guess I stressed it loud enough last year.

The only bummer is my camera's batteries went dead but I at least got his solo. They did a great job!

Edited yet one more time: Since I got videos to work I decided to add Kaylyn's and the room at The Inn at Bay Harbor that we stayed at last weekend. I should have turned on the lights before I started taking the video, sorry.

Kaylyn's concert

Doesn't Mark looked thrilled to be waiting for Kaylyn's concert to start?

Kaylyn started playing the clarinet in band and she still practices it often but she has switched to the flute and plays it quite well also. She also plays the piano. Are you getting a theme? Kaylyn loves music.
Here she is playing Jingle Bells with all of the bands together at the end as the "Grand Finale".

Random questions?

1.Is anyone else having trouble uploading videos directly into Blogger? I keep trying both with the room at the Inn and now with Kaylyn's concert last night and they keep failing? It is getting quite frustrating to me. I have uploaded videos before and I am using the same camera and software. Argh!

2. Is there somewhere specific you can go to get a "Christmas" header for your blog?

Smiles!

Can you say "Pampered"?

First in regards to my last post. Little Noah is doing great! Thank you for all your prayers and please continue to pray for him and the family as they wait his home coming.

I have a hubby that loves to pamper me and I love him for it! He took me to Petoskey this weekend to stay at The Inn at Bay Harbor and it was wonderful!!!

Here is sweet hubby filling up before we hit the road. You can't tell but there is no snow on the ground here and hubby isn't wearing a coat.

We left our house Friday around 1pm. Mark had taken half a day off from work. First stop, Jimmy John's for lunch.

We are about 30 minutes from home in the next picture and if you can see the temp on the mirror it says 18 degrees Brrrrr! You will also notice the ground is covered in that white stuff that we didn't have at home.

Hubby tells me to reach behind his seat for my first surprise.

He had a gift bag for me and in it was a bottle of wine, a can of whole cashews, a King size Kit Kat bar, a three CD pack of Celtic music (he thought it was the Celtic woman and was bummed when he realized he read it wrong but it was still nice music), a berry smelling candle, and hand warmers (for while we are shopping downtown Petosky on Saturday in case it is really cold I can put one in each coat pocket).

We are about half way now. There are flurries on and off but the roads are still pretty good.

We arrived at the Inn just before 5pm. Just in time for my 5 o'clock appointment at the Spa. Oh yeah, my hubby knows how to start the weekend off right.

I was treated with a 75 min. Swedish Massage to start with. Then I used their ladies room to take a shower and do my hair. Everything I needed was supplied. (My hair gets a little messy after the massage and I knew dear hubby had fancy dinner plans.) Then off to get a manicure. That took until 7:20pm. Hubby was waiting for me when I got out and he took me up to our room which I hadn't seen yet because we got there a little later then planned.

Time to get dressed to go out for dinner but I don't want to ruin my new manicure. "Will you help me undress and dress?" He planned that too didn't he. Smiles!

We ate at Latitude Restaurant. (Picture taken Saturday morning in the daylight) We started the meal with Lobster Roll for an appetizer and then I had the Fire Roasted Pork Tenderloin and Mark had the Char-Grilled Beef Filet. The servings were HUGE I couldn't even eat half of my meal but Mark was gracious enough to not let it be wasted.

Back to the Inn for a surprise "turn-down" service that Mark had requested. A hot bath was already drawn for me.

I wasn't able to really "sleep in" Saturday morning because my internal alarm clock woke me up so I decided to make the most of that tub that I can stretch my legs out straight out in (and at 5'10" that says a whole lot for that tub). Mark was in his glory while I soaked he was watching hunting shows. We don't have cable so he seen this a a HUGE bonus for him. Then it was time to say goodbye to our wonderful view and go get us some breakfast/lunch at Chandler's and do some shopping.

We didn't shop downtown long because of the looming forecast (freezing rain and snow). We were heading home by 2pm. We hit a couple of stores back in Grand Rapids and then we ended our laid back, relaxing weekend the same way we started it with a stop at Jimmy John's for dinner. (We like Jimmy John's can ya tell?)

Mark and I agreed that this had to be our most relaxing weekend ever. We never felt rushed. It was just wonderful!

I took a short video (really bad lighting) of the room and if I can get it to upload I will post it so you can get the "full effect" of my wonderful getaway retreat.

Smiles!