Christmas Cards

I meant to type this a few weeks ago and forgot.  As many of you have probably noticed, you did not receive a Christmas card from us this year.  Don't worry, we still love you and didn't send one to anybody.  No, we aren't scrooges.  We are annoyed, cheap perfectionists (or at least I am).  Snapfish had cards on sale right after Thanksgiving and I was going to order cards then.  Earlier that week, my sister in law and I decided to take our children to a professional to try and get a good picture of them together to give to my in-laws for Christmas as we can't ever get them to sit still and I figured I would use one of those in the Christmas card.  Ta Da!  Cards and gifts done in just a few days, I am a genius!  Well, the photographer we got a Potrait Innovations was very nice but didn't do that great of job of distracting toddlers for a picture and the pictures we got were ok....still good enough for gifts and cards though.  I considered buying their cards but holy moly, they are expensive (hence the cheapness).  Oh well, I'll just use the free cd to make cards like I always do, I thought and left the studio sweating (I mentioned photographer didn't engage the toddlers so my sis-in-law and I had to jump up and down like idiots to get ok pics) but with photos for gifts at least.  That evening I uploaded the pics from the cd to discover they are EXTREMELY low resolution and were going to be blurry even in the smaller 3X6 cards where the picture is the size of a wallet print (annoyance and perfectionism starting now...).  Sears and Olan Mills both gave cds with the ability to at least print 5X7's so I thought there must be an error but Portrait Innovations informed me that all their cds are low resolution which begs the question of why even offer a cd?!  I'm really annoyed at this point and my cheapness wanted to order right then (as sale ended that day) and my perfectionism didn't want to wait as I know myself and I wouldn't mail them until next year if I waited any longer.  Then I had the epiphany to eliminate stress and not send any and donate the money I would have spent on cards and stamps.  So I did.  Next year I promise to get my decorations out earlier and take pics myself to avoid this mental meltdown happening again as we have really enjoyed all the cards we received this year!

Curse of the extra camera

We are fortunate to have over the last five years acquired 2 cameras: my fancy rebel and a smaller "point and shoot" canon. I love my fancy one because the quality pictures but the small one takes pretty darn good pictures plus I can throw it in it's bag in my purse instead of lugging around the other one. The problem is I always forget to download pictures off of both cameras and end up with pictures from oh, about 3 months ago....

Mom-ma's birthday in September...

 Getting some love from the great mom-ma at the family reunion in October (only 2 months ago, so not too bad!)

Trying to get eaten by a goat at family reunion 

Dada's birthday with me smiling at the camera (can you hear the angel chorus singing hallelujah?!  oh wait, that's just mama singing off key...)

Gig'em while working in the country! 

Family photo from Thanksgiving 

Showing a baby calf with a sick mommy some love.  He asked about the cow and calf every day until Pop-pa reported that both were doing better!

Pumpkin patch

This is another catch up post from a few weeks ago.  We went with cousin to see the pumpkins this year.  Photography during the middle of the day with too much light and lots of shadows is difficult but it didn't really matter because these cute stinkers weren't interested in posing for the camera anyways.  Becoming a children's photographer is not in my forseeable future...

Playing in puddles

These photos are from a few weeks back but it was the first time Cole really got to use his rain boots for rain and not just a fashion statement to church and walmart and everywhere else! 

Of course we had to take some of our toys with us on our puddle seeking expedition.

Splish splashing!

Trying to make more puddles with the fire hydrant...maybe he will be a fireman in the future...

Happy Halloween!

We aren't big Halloween people in our house but still think it's fun for little ones to dress up (especially if they aren't gross/gory and girls are showing an age appropriate amount of skin).  Cole bounced between being a cowboy and a fireman but last night was just ready to go see our neighbors that treat him like a surrogate grandchild that he didn't want to wear either costume (only really had fireman costume as he already has boots and cowboy hat).  I told him he needed a jacket and hat because it was cold outside so that is the only reason he has this on....

 "Mama, quit taking my picture so we can leave!"

 He came and stood right in front of me to tell me he was ready to go "tricktreat" (all one word, without the or).

It's really hard getting good pictures at night, especially when the outfit has reflectors!  This is the best outside shot I got.  Hope everyone was safe and had fun!

Food

Here are some random shots of eating and cooking food...

We love some Mexican food!

FYI, pudding doesn't contain milk.  However "real" milk is needed to set the pudding as rice milk results in a tasty but soupy mess.  However, rice milk freezes to make super yummy banana pudding pops!

He ate that whole thing by himself!

We love to make cookies!

We get really excited with the spatula and end up with a really big mess....

I was proud of this dessert...homemade donuts:)

Entertainment, part 2

Hummingbirds!  They were in the tree when Cole and Baxter were looking at them and then I took these pictures when they came into the feeder.  Some days we only have one or two but one morning we had about 8 fighting over this one feeder!  Either the dominant one got rid of the others or they have already migrated farther south because there has only been one the last few days.  These little critters have no fear and will swoop down and around right in front of you when fighting for a spot at the feeder.  And yes, there is feed in there but it is clear because I make it from sugar and water (really cheap!)....evidently red dye isn't good for hummingbirds either and they are attracted by the red base that has flower shapes on it anyways.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the hummingbirds and one of the boy acting silly in his little trampoline:)

Entertainment

Can you guess what we're looking at?

Cooking

Here's some pictures of what the boy and I have been cooking (but none of the boy...just fyi in case you want to stop reading now...).  We are trying to make as many meals dairy free as possible so that I'm not having to make 2 meals each night.  Did you know dairy is everywhere in processed foods?  This means we've also been experimenting with making things ourselves, plus cooking with new foods.  Stressful and exciting at the same time!

Homemade red pepper hummus minus the tahini paste (haven't tried nuts yet but Cole isn't a big hummus fan) 

 Kale chips.  Ok.  If you like bitter then you'd like these.  Going to try cooking a different way next time.

 Roasted carrots.  Yumm-o.

 Roasted red peppers.  Tasty alone but better in hummus.

Mickey Mouse flax seed pancakes made with rice milk.  Sounds yummy right?  Actually they were good but Cole isn't a fan of bready products so Russell and I ate them with some new maple syrup we bought:)

Pancake batter strewn about the kitchen.  Example of why 2 year olds make poor sous chefs!

Naked chef

Ok, so he's not really naked, he's just giving some big boy underwear a whirl while making dumplings!  I have a few more cooking posts to follow but this one has inspired me to make him an apron for Christmas (take note of the flour that is not on the cabinet or bowl)...

Wordless Wednesday

Can you say dry?

Cole has a cow obsession.  He can find a cow anywhere, in a pasture on the side of the road and even tiny ones on cartons of sour cream at HEB.  He loves watching John Wayne and going to the country to see the cows in person.  We try to go out there a couple times a month and will go more once the weather isn't quite so hot.  It's really depressing for us adults though as getting away from the watered lawns shows how bad the drought really is.  Tanks are shrinking, the ground has huge cracks and the vegetation is brown and crispy.  Hopefully all the prayers for rain will be answered soon!

Here's one of the cows trying to beat the heat in the shade.

Pop-pa and urban cowboy with his cool shades.

My two handsome boys!

Cole's version of beating the heat:)

Random picture catch up

I have alot of random pictures to share and not enough to make individual blog posts so here is one long post of pictures....

I love my Daddy and I want to grow up and be just like him!

I love babies, especially our friend's baby A!  Too bad Mama and Dada say I'm going to be an only child (for now!)

I love spaghetti and Mama learned the hard way that white t-shirts do not love tomato sauce (let's just say that's a play at home shirt now despite me going all out Martha Stewart on it and treating it with a full arsenal of products)

I love baths, by myself!  (Cole and his friend D taking a bath after getting hair cuts.  I could hardly get them both in the picture because they were sitting so far apart from each other....it's like they thought the other one had cooties (spelling?) or something!)

I love to read!  Favorite books are any that includes cows.  After I finish reading, I close the book and say "Amen".

I love to help!  Whether it be dusting, sweeping, putting up dishes, walking the dog or helping Aunt Melissa blow out here birthday candles, I am a big helper:)