The Dynasty Continues

It's not about the speed....

it's all about the design, look at that tail fly!

Beagle Power

Benny the Beaver Believer (you cannot see his cute osu shirt in this shot)

This last weekend we participated in the awana grand prix again....and we came home winners! Each of the kids won for design, which is all because of their daddy! The kids and Thad spend hours dreaming and designing their cars, because let's face it...this is not my thing. I like to be creative and I contribute in some capacity, but without the help of their father and all his tools, all would be lost. This year noah decided to do a OSU beavers car and sydnie wanted to do a webkinz beagle. Sydnie painted her own and noah did a bunch on his, but the parents smoothed it all out for him. We used a glossy car paint this year and it really helped the overall design and they looked really great. The saddest part was that noah was playing basketball while his car raced and was not even their to pick up his trophy...oh well...he survived just fine. I joked with thad that he was setting the kids up for failure, cuz someday they will not win and he looked at me and said....no, i am creating a design dynasty! ha ha. good thing it is him and not me.

Finally

some type of white, crystally, flaky stuff to write about. Tonight we finally got a bunch of snow.

I was at a PTA meeting with our principal at school and when we started to walk out someone mentioned it was snowing......HOLY CRAP!!! it was beautiful. in the two blocks to our house i slid around a bit. I have been dying for snow. all around us there has been inches of snow...but finally it was our turn. i am hoping that we will wake up to several more inches in the morning....only time will tell. it will probably be one of those nights were everytime i roll over i will have to get up and check to see if it has snowed.

The Breakfast Corndog

so about a year ago noah was begging me to eat corndogs for breakfast and everytime i would tell him no, that is not a breakfast food, let alone something you should everyday.....i happen to be shopping at walmart and what did i discover!!!! THE BREAKFAST CORNDOG!!!! the holy grail of breakfast foods to a little boy. it had everything he loved. pancakes and sausage dipped in syrup. he was in heaven. I knew that word would get around soon enough, that the motherload of all breakfasts could be purchased at your local store. So last night we are watching chuck...one of my new fav shows, when suddenly the weinerlicious girl is offering chuck a breakfast corndog.....i just know there is going to be a run on them now...ha ha. they must have guy writers on that show that discovered them as well. cuz only a guy would write a line into a tv show about the breakfast corndog!!! seriously. made me laugh.

Repeat Offender

Wednesday day night I am getting the kids from awana and one of noah's leaders comes up and asks if he has told me the big news!! I said no....with a bewildered look on my face. had my genius son said his whole entire awana book in one night??? This leader was beaming with joy and she was so proud of him. she leaned into me and told me what had transpired.

While being presented the gospel, noah raised his hand and said a prayer to ask Jesus into his heart. I did not know how to break this womans heart.....but i laughed and said "so I have a repeat offender?" She looked at me, crushed that I would not be more joyous! I proceeded to explain that Noah had taken that step a couple of years ago with his Daddy and that immediately afterwards he said "dad, is jesus already in my heart? yes. WOW that was fast!"

When I asked Noah in the car why he had raised his hand, he looked at me with all seriousness and said "I guess I just keep forgetting that I have done it....I have done it so many times now!" I see the years stretched before us with lots of caring, loving women coming to me with the amazing news and each time I will have to crush their dreams....because this little guy is gonna do it over and over and over!!!

the simple life

growing up you have all these dreams and hopes and desires....and then reality hits. i am a stay at home mom. we do not have two incomes. we sacrifice a lot for me to stay at home. we don't go out to eat. we don't buy new cars. we live hand to mouth, wondering can i buy that extra creamer for my coffee? we shop at old navy and target. the saddest day was when i cut up my nordstroms card. we have to save to buy something that is over $50. but in the end, from my viewpoint, it is worth it. i feel like i have more time with my kids, more experiences with them. just more!

but over the last year our tv has been going downhill. it is 10 years old. a purchase we made back when we both worked, good incomes and we still found a killer deal on this tv. but sadly lines have started to form. the sound is still okay, but it is getting old. so we talked about getting a new one this year, but then both cars went in for repairs and there went any money for a tv. we settled into a life of tube tv and crappy picture for another couple of years.

but then, enter some gracious parents and a great grandma and christmas. we are now the proud owners of a flat screen tv! wow. i try not to ask for too much in this life. and i know that so many of you already own them and are quietly thinking what the heck is wrong with me that i didn't rush out and buy one the minute they became the hot ticket. (see first paragraph in post).

last night i programmed our tv to find the hd broadcast channels!!! WOW. i cannot believe the difference. it is amazing. i can actually see the picture. now yet again, we are cheap and only have basic, basic cable around here....2,6,8,12! I was going to have to pay $9.00 a month for a stupid hd box and then the lady at comcast told me that i should auto program the tv to find these hd channels!! thanks for the free tip! the one thing we did do is buy an upconvert dvd player so that our current dvd's can play in hd format...that was a good purchase. until blue rays come down in price and the dvd's get a little less expensive we will stay with this.

all this being said. i am grateful and appreciative that we were given this gift. it makes me happy. makes me want to watch tv all day!! ha ha. thanks mom and dad and grandma. you brought us into the 21st century.

Basketball

This has been such a great year for syd and basketball....she is really loving it this year. her dribbling has improved greatly, she is a little more aggressive about stealing the ball, she tries to stay on her person, overall vast improvement from last year! but more than that, it has been amazing to watch her confidence grow, her self esteem shoot up by leaps and bounds and it is great to watch her out there with her dad. she loves that he coaches her team and she takes such pride in telling others about him. i hope that she continues to enjoy basketball and that the experiences that she takes away from it will stay with her for life.

a little me time

Last night I had the chance to go to a cooking class at Kelly's. I have been wanting to go to one and my MIL called a couple of weeks ago and asked if I would like to go...I said sure. Last night I arrived just as the opening was starting. There are many people who had taken classes before from the wonderful chef donna. it was a great evening filled with lots to learn and smell and taste.

She started off the evening with a north african meat soup that was fruity and had a wonderful beef tenderloin meat. it is a simple stock recipe, easy to create and inexpensive to make. it was not my favorite, but still a wonderful dish.

Next came the "big" demonstration.....shrimp bisque and coconut shrimp. Now i was in heaven with the coconut shrimp...one of my alltime favorites!!! this soup was complicated and a long process but it was heaven in a soup bowl. perfect flavoring and just the right amount of heat. I would like to say i would make this, but unless it was for company, i just don' t know.

the third soup was a simple sweet potato with chicken and lime! it was my favorite soup of the evening. this one you can cheat and buy canned diced peppers, which cuts down on your prep time!! it was a really good. i loved her homemade tortilla strips on top...that was so easy and fast to make for any mexican dish.

of course she saved the best for last and made us each a dessert of creme brulee.....my all time favorite dessert.

it was a fun evening with lots to learn. i loved the little facts that i never would have learned had i not went to this class. more than just soup! to learn more about the cooking school go here (http://www.kellyshomecenter.com/cookingschool.html)

Congratulations

This goes out to Jim and Krista....i am so happy to hear of your new little bundle of joy...Finally.

Joah David

I cannot wait to see the little guy. God has blessed you beyond measure.

lots of love,
auntie rochelle

The Scrapbook Indoctrination Video

This video made me laugh hysterically! if you have seen the tom cruise crazy video you will understand this one. as a scrapbooker it is even funnier. thanks cathy for being one of the most real, funniest scrapper/bloggers out there!

Headache the size of texas

this evening after awana was over we were heading home with 4 kids in the car, 3 girls and one boy...when suddenly the girls started singing HSM songs at the top of their lungs..each trying to outsing the other. WOW. It was so adorable i did not have the heart to tell them to stop. they were excited because one of them is having her HSM birthday party in two weeks and they were talking excitedly about who they were going to dress up as and which outfit of that character they would wear. i think it is hysterical to see all these girls walking around with the clothes, the lunchsacks, the school bags, well just about anything they can think of has been made into HSM stuff. Gotta love that disney...now i am off for a bottle of tylenol and sleep.

Pitch or Pinch?

Thad showed me this video tonight and we both could not stop laughing hysterically!!!! Grab your depends (if you have had two or more kids) and watch.....

Sentimental?

So I am answering my friends question (http://buhtafly.blogs.com/) regarding what are you sentimental about......

well there are probably too many things to count, some of them trivial, some of them big. But the one i am going to talk about today was a passion, obsession and love of mine from back in the late 80's. Now some of you will gasp and say "i can't believe that she is admitting she is that old" some will think "what the heck are the 80's" and some will understand, cuz you are girls.

i am completely and totally sentimental about one of my all time favorite movies.....Gone with the Wind. i love that movie and i don't really know why. if i hear the music, i get all teary eyed. if i see and image from the movie, my mind wanders to my favorite scenes. if i hear a phrase or famous line, i see rhett walking out on scarlett. it is a classic that will be around for generations to come.

I cannot even recall the first time i saw the movie, maybe middle school. but that started the passion. debbie and i (my bff at the time) would spend countless hours talking about the movie. we collected anything GWTW. I have porcelin dolls, collector plates, barbies, posters, games, stationery, coffee table books, first edition sequels, and christmas ornaments. the list could go on and on. these are the precious things i still cannot give away. i bring them out occasionally (they have their own storage box) and i look at them. this morning, before i had even read bree's blog i put the movie into watch. it has been probably 5 years since i have watched it. my passion towards it has changed, but i still love to sit down and enjoy a good 4 hours with scarlett, rhett, ashley and melanie. to be transported back to a time that is gone with the wind...ha ha.

boy style

notice the rock band stance or maybe it is the gunfighting stance -
"am i playing basketball? these guys in blue are out to get me...
give me my fully loaded guitar so i can rock their worlds."


who doesn't enjoy standing one minute and the next you
are falling to the ground...just for kicks and giggles (oh wait
this is a boy post....) just for the heck of it. maybe he is trying
out his dance moves to go with the guitar playing.

chase a ball!!! are you kidding. i love to chase after round

objects that bounce. plus you gotta love the hair....love it

when it sticks up like that when he runs.

oh boy...more falling down action. he couldn't be happier

right now.


"sweet.....i got it before these other kids could. i rock."

That is pretty much the extent of his game today...except for when he was on the court waving at his sister and then he started yelling her name so she would wave back!!! I love kindergarten ball. He is like a wet noodle out there...he just runs around with his arms doing whatever...he never tries to shoot and he always stays on his color opponent. not bad for first year...especially when i can't get him to practice at all. The best thing about watching him is when he miraculously pulls out his air guitar or his machine gun and starts going to town. oblivious to everyone around him. i am not sure that a career in sports is in his future!!!! ha ha

Drill Sargeant and Tears

So the other day my eight year old comes home and tells me that she had the meanest teacher on the face of the planet for pe that day. That she had been yelled at, they had been punished and that they were miserable for the rest of the day....I asked her if she had joined the army instead of going to school. She looked at me like I was from a foreign planet...i laughed and asked her what had happened. She told me that the teacher had called them all babies, she had told them to shut up (several times) and that she yelled at a little girl when she fell down and told her not to be a cry baby. WOW....the whole class was terrified and could not wait for class to end. Their teacher caught a few stories the next day and immediately went to solve the situation. I don't think that substitute will be coming back....i wonder if any of these kids will be affected and every time they see an army commercial run away shrieking in terror....all because the drill sargeant subsituted when they were in the second grade.

SOOC vs Edited

SOOC (straight out of camera) - very shadowed


fun and funky with the omni spotlight

i think i did the warm filter on this one and it is too orange
did not adjust color...wanted to see the warmer in action.

pure and simple b&w

This is my final one..the one i love. i burned the edges and

played with the saturation and color. i love it.


I have had a ton of fun playing with my photoshop the last several days. i have had this program for 3 years and have just done some basic edits (crop,auto color, etc). but i stumbled across a couple of different blogs that made me pine for more.....more photoshop. i am an addict now. (when i told thad that i pinched my nose like a coker would. of course he did not laugh, but i did. i guess it is no worse than licking my scrapbook paper)

i am on the hunt now for free actions that i can load to my photoshop elements. i have finally decided that my two hours of free time in the afternoon are now being spent on photoshop. of course the last several mornings noah has had to fend for himself while mommy feeds her addiction. i think it is just devoting time. i also am taking an online photography class to help feed my overall picture taking addiction. although in the last several months, my photo taking has decreased dramatically....i think it has something to do with not scrapbooking anymore.

so if you don't see my for awhile, if i have that worn out, dark eye look and if i start trading in kids to buy cs3 or actions......don't fear, it's just photoshop!

new smile

i just love this picture...i love his new smile. i love that look of mischief in his eyes. i cannot believe i actually got him to keep his eyes open. i think it was because i turned the flash off. he has lost 5 teeth in less than a year. it is taking me awhile to get used to that huge gap in his mouth. so cute.

She

she is now eight. she is stubborn. she is adorable. she is a reader. she is a lover of animals. she is techo girl. she is smart. she is fascinating. she is slow as mollasas. she is beautiful. she is a good negotiator. she is talented. she is messy. she is a fast talker. she is good at memorizing. she is into hannah montana. she is into high school musical. she is into webkinz. she is a second grader. she is amazing. she called a boy tonight to talk on the phone! she is incredible. she is full of energy. she is all girl. she is into basketball. she loves the color blue. she likes her pix taken. she loves to look in the mirror at herself. she loves her long hair. she is mine.

all coffee is not the same

so there are just some things in life that i have decided it is okay to just be a total snob about....and coffee is one of them. I used to give my brother a really bad time about the fact that he would drink nothing other than starbucks....but he is sooooo right. In my quest to be dilligent in our finances i have made the mistake of buying some "other" brands of coffee, they will remain nameless, but they totally and completely sucked!!! ha ha. I finally broke down and bought some starbucks coffee the other day...it has been awhile since I have had it here at the house.....oooohhhh the love. it tastes so good. i really must have nothing else in my life that brings me happiness, but seriously. my taste buds were so happy today and you know what they say......if mommy's taste buds aren't happy, then no one else is happy.

and another thing that makes me happy.https://www.starbucks.com/mycard/default.asp I should get my customized card in the mail anyday. can you guess which design i chose?

FYI......peppermint mocha creamer also makes me very happy!!!

Meet Snowflake

For my birthday this year the kids had a plan. they knew exactly what they wanted to get me for my big day and so I would like to introduce you to my very own webkinz....snowflake. a cute little beagle with a sweet disposition and a really cool bedroom!!!! ha ha. we walked into practice a week ago and a friend showed up with her very own webkinz that her kids had bought her for her birthday. of course sydnie and noah thought that was the coolest thing ever! so friday night they went out and bought me one. they could barely contain their excitement and were telling me about all the webkinz they saw at the mall with daddy, even how they had seen one beagle left at the candy store!! so funny. so i am officially a webkinz addict. in my spare time(which is why there has been no posts lately) i have been earning coins and spinning the wheel of wow!!! the funny thing is that a couple of other moms i know are getting one for their birthday this month....must be the new mommy trend. gotta love that.

a new beginning

i have been mulling over my word for the year for the last several days and reflecting upon this last year....okay not too deeply, but enough to figure out that my balance (http://lifeworthliving-rochelle.blogspot.com/2007/01/new-year-keyword-balance.html) was a little skewed this year. i did accomplish that sense of family first that i was wanting, but somewhere along the way i think i forgot to just do stuff for me!! I have not scrapbooked in about a year. I have done some little albums (cheerleading and maddie) but i have not even touched my kids stuff, let alone our disneyland album. although i did watch a lot of tv on dvd (house, lost, smallville, alias) so i have to admit that i did not really achieve an overall balance to my life.

so this year.....my new word is vitality. now i feel like i am cheating here a little because as i was thinking of a new word this year..i kept thinking energy, exuberance, get up and go!!! but i could not quite think of the perfect word....until i read ali edwards blog. of course vitality is the word she chose....and i have tried many different words to sum up my feelings for the new year ahead and vitality is what best describes it. so here it is:

noun, plural -ties.
1. exuberant physical strength or mental vigor: a person of great vitality.
2. capacity for survival or for the continuation of a meaningful or purposeful existence: the vitality of an institution.
3. power to live or grow: the vitality of a language.
4. vital force or principle

vitality to me means laughter, activity, the ability to live through tough situations, to grow and learn new things everyday. I am really looking forward to this year and living life to the fullest.

Christmas Recap

lots of this...presents and fun


what a beauty


lots of family time...they are almost to big to fit on his lap anymore.

just the four of us

thads family and a huge collision that resulted in a bloody nose

a happy little boy with his lego castle


Another Christmas done and gone and it has taken me forever to write about it. We opened our gifts here with the kids on Christmas eve morning....sydnie opened her camera and i think just about had a heartattack...the only thing she could say was oOOOOOOOOO. Noah of course loved his legos and we spent the rest of that morning playing games and building legos. Then we headed down to my parents house for the evening. We had our traditional pizza and games. but this year we had the kids put some reindeer food (some oats, glitter and sprinkles) out for santa. Noah went crazy. He told us he was going to stay up all night to wait for santa and then while we were outside he swore that the "big shiny light" up in the sky was santa so we needed to hurry and get the food on the lawn. He kept checking the sky and watching for santa every few minutes. Then he told us in no uncertain terms that he had just saw santa and that he was on the way here. of course when we told him that santa only will come if the kids are sleeping, he wanted to go to bed right then! So cute. Sydnie had fun with it as well, but noah just believed.

The next morning the kids woke up and noah was so excited that santa had come to visit. we started off our morning with a wonderful breakfast and then started opening gifts. Noah could hardly stand to wait...he has been really anxious this year and a little annoying with the whole present thing. The kids were super excited when cousin ryen showed up in her pjs...they thought that was cool. They seemed to really love all of their gifts from grandma and grandpa. They each got a pair of heelys. which sydnie decided she did not want, if falling was involved!!! haha.

Once we had eaten and packed it was time to head back up to our neck of the woods for thad's family christmas. we ended up having our celebration at a local church this year and it was fantastic. there are so many of us and lots of older kids that need something to "do" we had so much fun and the only issue of the night was a major collision with sydnie and her cousin and syd ended up getting a bloody nose. But she recovered and ended up having a great time with her cousins. She got another webkinz and noah got this amazing lego set from grammie. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day.

Eight

Birthday girl

a little kitten to pet

a cute little puppy - cousin ryen

cousins

a new webkinz...now she has 7!

a new nintendo ds


A birthday at the pound...seriously. we found out that the humane society does birthday parties and sydnie was over the top excited to go there. they have this fantastic playroom and they do the craft, goodie bags and you get to tour the facilities. The girls loved it. They thought it was the best thing ever. They are second graders who all really love animals, so it was perfect. Sydnie did not even beg me to bring an animal home!!! She of course was spoiled to death with presents and even got a new nintendo ds...something we as her parents had been putting off, but grandma decided it was okay! She got three new webkinz....how many does one little girl need? Her friend has 11, so I think she is shooting for that many. She had one friend stay the night and she is still here this afternoon. might as well make a day of it. they went to target today to spend christmas/birthday money together. I heard them chanting about how much they liked shopping....so cute. How time flies when your beautiful little girl is growing up. She is the best thing ever..................

Have a Very Merry Christmas

Hoping that all remember the reason for the season. That Christ came to this earth as a newborn babe and died for us...to save us from our sins. This Christmas remember why we were created to worship an almighty God, to praise and honor Him. Wishing you and yours the very merriest of Christmas's.

Blogjacked

Dear mom and dad...

I miss u guys. why did u have to fly across the continent. i need my own house to sleep in, my kids to run after, i need my mom to hold me tight and spoil me and my dad to bark at every night. don't get me wrong, this house im at now is okay. i mean they have a dog to play with and a cat to chase and two kids to terrorize and the dad to bark at (ha ha ha). I do get to sleep pretty much wherever I want because I have this mom suckered into doing whatever I want to do. I just give her that cute face, the one were I look like a teddy bear and she will let me sit on her lap.

I overheard the mom and dad here say that I have two more weeks here.....i think i can make it as long as i know that u are having fun and that i get to come home to my family once this is over. so for now, i will say see ya soon...............think of me often.

much love, chewie

G-House

The newest gingerbread house. This year was a crack up because thad ended up doing most of it himself. Noah was distracted by a new birthday present and only wanted to play with it. Sydnie worked for awhile, but then she declared she was done and off she went. Thad ended up saying that this was the last year that we were doing a house if he had to do it all himself. I just sat there laughing and taking pictures (which is my official job). Someday we will look back at all of our houses and the stories behind them and laugh.

The Many Faces of.....

the i am allergic to light (aka: the flash) face


the mom stop taking my picture face


the I am so cute you cannot handle it face

The I think I am a rock star face (this is the face always used while playing an air guitar)

The many faces of six. Born this day at 11:55am, six years ago.

How Adorable

I can already hear the awwwwsss coming from your lips as you watch this video!! It makes you remember that first time you held hands with your sweetie...okay well we were not floating on our backs asleep in an aquarium...but still. you get the idea.