Busy Boy

Make a Smilebox postcard

Make a Smilebox postcard

Here are 4 video clips. The top one is just listening to him "talk" one day when he woke up from a nap. The second is a video I took when he discovered that he could throw~not good! And lastly are a couple of Jack playing golf. You better watch out Art, it won't be long before "you're going down!"

Easy Vegetable Squares

1 (8 oz) pkg. of crescent rolls (they have a garlic variety now-yummy!)

1 (8 oz ) pkg. softened cream cheese

1 (3 oz) pkg. softened cream cheese

1/3 c. mayonnaise

2 tsp. buttermilk ranch salad dressing (powder mix)

3 c. toppings*

1 c. shredded sharp Cheddar, Mozzarella or Monterey Jack

Unroll crescent rolls and put into a 15 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 2 inch baking pan. Bake according to package directions. Cool on wire rack. Meanwhile blend cream cheese, mayonnaise, and ranch mix in a small bowl. Spread evenly over the crust. Sprinkle with desired topping, then shredded cheese. To serve, cut into squares. Makes 32 appetizers.

*Toppings: Finely chopped broccoli, cauliflower, or green pepper, seeded and chopped tomatoes, thinly sliced green oninon, ripe olives or clery, or shredded carrots.

Note from me-I was not able to find a 3 oz package from cream cheese and was able to make it with just the 8 oz package and a little less mayo. As for the topping, pick anything you want!

Thanksgiving 2008

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Collage

Okay~Here's a draft of the collage. I can't control where the pictures go, but I can re-do it and jumble it up. I can change the color of the background, change the title, delete the title (which will make the pictures a bit bigger). Any feedback? Click on the pictures to make it bigger. This will be printed as a 16x20. I ended up using 25 pictures, but can use up to 30. So let me know what changes you'd like.

This and That

So just a few miscellaneous items today...
A friendly reminder to keep saving your boxtops for Morgan. There's an ice cream party at stake here and you know we're really competitive. So if you have any don't forget to bring them to us next week.



And let's not forget about EBATES That's my check I just got-free money. Now is the best time to sign up, you get $10 if you make a purchase by Dec. 31. Just click on the word Ebates to sign up and start saving. Ask Mom, finally got her hooked and now she's seen the light :-).

And here is something I just found out about. I can't tell you first hand, but I understand it's legit. www.restaurant.com Honestly we probably won't go to most of the restaurants listed, but there are a few good ones nearby. The way it works is you purchase the gift certificate online and print it out. You can only use one gift certificate. So let's say you buy a $25 gift card for only $10, on your $35 bill you would have to pay an additional $10 so the total cost of your meal would be $20. Anyway, take a look at the restaunts and it certainly seems like a good savings.

In case you didn't notice, the "o" on my keyboard is sticking, so if you had trouble reading that last post, I went back and edited it and you can read it straight from the blog.

Typical Day

A couple days ago, Mom mentioned that she and Nana had spent some time together and it had come up that they wondered what Jack was doing now. Well, just last month I did a scrapbook layout in Jack's book documenting a typical day. Here's the layout:

What you probably can't tell from this picture is that it is an interactive page meaning I was able to use 16 pictures that I took throughout the day. Here is a look at the hidden pictures:


Some fold in accordian, some open like a book and one twists on a brad. Pretty clever, huh?
Here is the journaling that is written on that page:
This is you TODAY-October 15, 2008-13 , months old-While every day is just a bit different, you definitely have a routine and there are things I can expect to be exactly the same as the day before. You start your day by 7:00 every morning. Daddy usually gets you out of your crib and spends a little bit of time with you before you come wake Mommy up. We give you a cup of milk, but most of the time you toss it aside. About 7:50 we get everybody in the car and take Garrett and Morgan to school. Once we get home, it's just you and me for most of the day. We start by feeding you breakfast, hot cereal and a jar of fruit. Then you spend a few minutes playing before you start getting cranky. So by 9:00 I give you your pacifer, your small blanket and two other blankets that you have to have, turn on your music and put you to bed. You nap for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours and are awake by 11:00. It's time to get you dressed. We play a little bit more, sometimes go outside and then have some lunch. Your favorite lunch lately has been grilled cheese and bananas. If we have time, we also run a few errands like to the mall or grocery stre. You like getting out of the house. By the time we come back it's time for your nap again. We do the same routine and around 2:00 you are down for your second nap. Garrett and Morgan get home about 3:15 and are anxious to see you, but they usually have to wait until 3:30 for you to wake up. You get a cup of juice and a snack and then it's back in the car and off to take Garrett and Morgan to soccer and gymnastics. We come home around 5:00 and you are usually fussy which makes it hard to start dinner. By 6:00 we have dinner, sometimes it's just the two of us, but sometimes it's the whole family. You love meat right now, especially chicken. I will usually feed you a jar of vegetable baby food. Around 7:00, it's time for a bath for you which you love. Then pajamas. Dad is home by now so you get to play with him a little and show him any new tricks you're doing. You love books so you settle down to be read to and sometimes with a cup of milk. By 8:00 we start the bedtime routine with the pacifier, blankets, music (with a projection on the ceiling) and that's it for the night. We see you toss and "nest" in your crib, but you always go down without a problem. And then the day starts all over again.

The Countdown is On....

If you scroll to the bottom of the blog, you'll see that there are just 42 days left till Christmas. So I came across this website that you need to check out: http://bfads.net/
They compile all the great deals out there for Black Friday.

We're busy making lists over here. Garrett is easy, he's looking to get some software for his computer and can always use gift cards for iTunes. Will start thinking about everybody else.

Fall

He's a Mudder

An "after" picture of Garrett from the game last week. They basically gave them the choice to play in the rain or postpone the game and they chose to play, the fields were closed after this game. His team is currently 6-1-2 and in second place. With one game left to play, they must win in order to hold onto second. A big improvement from last place last year.

And in gymnastics news, Morgan did awesome in her last meet. She got an 8.5 on beam, bars and floor. Vault...well, she did great, by far her best vault I've seen, but it got a 7.2 :-(. That was the lowest score she's ever received on vault and it was far from her worst vault. Everybody's score was really low (her teammate had a 9.5 a couple weeks ago and a 8.5 at this meet). Anyway, after I keyed that judge's car (kidding!) Morgan still went home with her highest all around score of the season.

Awww....

Just got these from the photographer. These are his official one year pictures that were taken back in September. Can I get a group "awww!"? I'm afraid these pics will have to be admired via the computer screen. They were uber expensive and I might just have to sell his whole wardrobe on ebay to pay to look at these on my walls. I'm telling you, in my next life, I'm going to be a photographer...a RICH photographer.

Sugar High

Happy Halloween! Was hoping to post some fabulous pictures of some frightfully cute kids, but this is about as good as we could do. We might have to do some post-Halloween pictures to make up for it. Anyway, on Friday morning Garrett and his buddy Ben (who had spent the night-no school on Friday) were working on a school project and I had on Regis and Kelly and they had a Halloween costume contest. Let's just say there are some pretty creative people out there! Anyway, take a look at the winners. (click the word winners). So I called out Ben and Garrett who had no idea what they wanted to be and they were excited about this costume. It seem totally do-able to me, just a box and few odds and ends, right? Ha, ha! We tried so hard, but just didn't have the engineering talent to make it work so at 4:30 we abandoned the idea and the boys found old black cloaks and threw something together and off they went with their group-therefore, no pics of Garrett and we were already late for a neighborhood potluck. So snapped a few pictures.

Including one of Jack surrounded by some of the neighborhood girls. He's quite the ladies' man already, huh? So we had some sprinkles that kept threatening our plans for the night so Chris "volunteered" (read: wimp!) to stay home with Jack and pass out candy and I took Morgan out. She was a solo trick or treater which turned out to be a good thing because people seemed to take pity on this poor little girl out by herself and give her handfuls of candy. Anyway, we were able to catch up to Garrett around 8:00 and decided to call it a night. Came home and Chris (remember the eager volunteer) had already turned off the porch lights. Morgan spent the rest of the night sorting through candy. Garrett went over to his friend's 13th birthday party to spend the night.