Great Blog!

Every one's looking to save a buck these days. Found this great Blog that helps with dinner planning and just had to share it with you. Besides that it's got some great recipes on it. I already found a couple I'll use next week. Enjoy!

http://www.5dollardinners.com/

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.....

So it's a little early I know but Christmas season is starting to kick in, at least for me. I had been thinking of it already (actually bought my first gift in July) but it's officially kicked off now that the Toys R Us book came. Remember when we were kids and the Sears Toy Book would come? I could spend a whole day sitting on the house circling things I wanted.

Alex and Rachel dug into the book this weekend and per Santa's rules, came up with the 3 items for their Christmas lists. After last year's Bumblebee Transformer search I am determined to start early. What, prey tell, are they asking for this year?

Alex amped it up a bit this year. I'm a little unsure of one of the items but it's #1 on the list so Santa may have to pony up the extra cash and get it. EyeClops Night Vision Goggles (not sure what he's planning on looking at but he is obsessed with these things), Scooby Doo and the Goblin King DVD, and Matchbox Pop Up Haunted House.

Rachel is asking Santa for Pixo's, A Barbie B-Smart Learning Laptop (After reading the online reviews I'm going to try hard to persuade her to change this to something else) and Bendaroos. What are bendaroos you ask? They are wax building sticks that are not sold in stores only online. Thanks to the power of television my daughter is obsessed with these things. Thankfully they are pretty cheap so whatever. Hopefully these items have a better play life than the stuff they got last year, because as of right now the only thing Alex still enjoys is his Crest Spinbrush!

Happy Birthday Allen!!!!!

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday Allen, Happy birthday to you!!!!!

Pumpkins!

Every year we get a couple of pumpkins, which the kids decorate and we put outside. They sit there forever until Allen hits one with the snow blower and curses me for not throwing them away sooner. This year we decided to carve the pumpkins and toast the seeds for a snack. Here are some shots of the kids carving the pumpkins (No I did not let them have knives, they drew Allen carved!).

Brrrr......It's Getting Cold Out There

Soccer, yesterday morning, was pretty chilly. Thankfully there are only 2 more weeks and we are done. One month off and YBL starts. Yeah!

Mr. Muscles

Another One Bites the Dust

Mr. Alex is now gumming his food!

Crockpot Oatmeal

I work super early in the morning on Mondays (I am there by 6 am) so that I can leave at 1:45 pm and pick up Alex from school. Being that I get up before the birds I don't usually want to get up even earlier to make breakfast. I try and grab something to eat at my desk like a banana and yogurt. But lately I've been wanting more. A lot of other days during the week I have oatmeal. It's good for you and keeps you (well at least me) full until lunch. I found this recipe on the crock pot 365 blog and made it Sunday night to take for work for a couple of days. Now of course once it was done cooking I just had to try a small bowl while watching the Amazing Race. All I can say is WOW! I can't believe oatmeal cooked in a crock pot was this good. Actually I can't believe oatmeal could taste this good period. Do note that it was good the next day but not as good. So try this at home!

1 cup of oats
2 cups of milk (next time I will do 1/2 milk and 1/2 water)
2 tbls brown sugar
1 tbls vanilla extract (mine was super vanillay (is that a word) but I buy the pure vanilla and that's probably why so I might cut it down a little next time)
1 chopped up apple
pinch of salt

Put it all in the crock pot and stir. Cook on high for about 1 hour and 15 minutes stirring every once in a while. It was really good. Next time I am throwing in some raising and a pinch of cinnamon. Enjoy!