spaghetti dogs

YUM-YUM!!

My kiddos LOVED this lunch the other day so I thought, I just have to blog this!


When the kids are home I try to make a hot lunch for them . I figure, for the next umpteen years they'll be eating lunch box lunches so I might as well make their lunches at home as healthy as possible. For some reason that equates as a "hot lunch" to me. Now, I know that hot dogs are not the 'healthy-est" of choices, but they are 100% beef hotdogs and a huge favorite around here.
Even Daisy, a self imposed vegetarian, will usually, sometimes, eat a hot dog.

So, here are the how to's...

1. get some dogs and spaghetti noodles.

2. cut up the dogs in bite size pieces.

3. "thread" the noodles through the hot dog pieces. (At first I used the long noodles but then I started breaking them up to make them more manageable when cooked.)

4. Once you have enough for your crew (5 hotdogs chopped and ready to go for mine) put them in the pot of hot water.

5. Boil, just like you would cook spaghetti. I added some extra noodles to the pot after I snapped this picture.

6. Do a headcount of your all too quiet children...

6. drain

7.throw some steam peas in the microwave while you are serving the spaghetti dogs up on the fine china for your littles. I also added some butter and garlic powder to the spaghetti dogs instead of sauce.

8. Serve with the promise of apple slices with peanut butter for dessert!

My kids loved it! A fun and hot lunch that they all enjoyed! Works for me!

If you have any other fun lunches please let me know!
I bought some of the edible food markers the other day so I have been writing messages on their sandwiches when they go to school, which they love. We also use the cookie cutters for their sandwiches but... you know sometimes it's fun to change things up a bit!

Enjoy your spaghetti dogs!

** I just added my spaghetti gogs to little eme's site. I stumbled on it the other day and she has some super cute stuff and some super creative followers too!! go check it out some time!

Better than a Hallelujah

Love, LOVE this song....

remember when...

I said I would "review" December for you after I loaded the pictures in my new computer?
Well, I finally got around to finishing that up. They are loaded... into 1 file...all 66,727 of them...1 file... no organization!!! AGH!! It's insane, but it's done, and for that I'm grateful!

So, instead of sharing December stuff, I thought I'd share a little of what's been going on here. (Realistically, it might be July before I ever get that file "organized" enough to use it!)

So, what have we been doing??

Well, here's a little bit of the action seen around here the past few days....

a little decorating for valentines day... felt hearts recycled from the bin. They were originally extra felt birds from Puddin's birthday party that I had cut, but didn't need. So, now they have new life as a little heart garland. They look really sweet when we have the fire going... the heat makes them flap like little birdies! (too cute-I know!)


practicing our heart making skills... so fun for the trio- not so much for the littlest of the littles. Mean old mommy wouldn't let them have scissors or eat glitter!

excitement!!!

A couple of sweet little Monkey's celebrated their half birthdays! This was very low key- due to the snow days and sickness. New shirts an cupcakes for school- Enough fun for everyone!

new product?? not sure yet.

This is a "Gotcha Bag!" I have so many friends adopting I thought how, if it were me, I'd like a little bag of goodies to take on the big "gotcha" day. I plan to fill these with fruit snacks, puffs, a couple of diapers, wipes, a book and a toy or two and give them at the upcoming showers.

On one side there is Scripture... the other has the name of the sweet little

bundle coming to their forever family.

a little valentine project for hubby and me....

when finished it's going in a tiny frame that has needed something for a while.

new dishwasher, still in the box. Why does it cost another $125 to install??? CRAZY!!

Or maybe the crazy part is me thinking I can do it for a fraction of the cost.

I guess we'll see!

But man, am I ever tired of washing dishes!

And, finally, mischief, of every kind. Daisy's latest obsession? Coloring her arms with markers.

My child has "sleeves"

Oh- and she busted her brother's nose yesterday.
He was bleeding!
She sure is cute, but man oh man, she's a precious little handful!

So, what have you been up to lately?

SNOW CREAM

This month has been a busy one. It was set aside as my Mary Month. Not familiar with that term?? Check out Jmom- she is way more articulate than I am! While I have been able to be more of a Mary and less of a Martha, lets face it, life with 5 littles is still a busy one!

We have also had a lot of snow- I mean a lot for our area!
2 weeks ago we had 4- 5 inches on the ground!! Last night left a dusting, just an inch or so, but enough to close the schools. And considering most of my babes have been sick, we didn't mind another snow day!

So while the weather outside looks a little like this,

from last nights snowfall... taken at lunch time today

We have been doing a little of this,

Bud and Daisy LOVED their first batch of homemade Snow Cream!

So, while I'm no where near a Pioneer Woman, I thought I'd still share my favorite snow cream recipe for those of you interested. It is YUM-YUM Good!!

SNOW CREAM

1 cup sugar

1-2 tbsp vanilla

2 cups of milk

4-6 cups of clean, WHITE snow ;)

Now, just mix it all up really quickly, top it with sprinkles and serve it to your littles!

EASY-PEASY!

Saying Goodbye

Last Saturday evening my father in law passed away. This week has been a hard one for everyone. (It seems weird to, once again, be blogging about something so important but this is my way to document what's going on in our lives.)
I wish I were more eloquent of a writer.
I'm not.
I wish I had the time and the words to say everything I want to say about this special man.
I don't.
I don't even know where to begin.

I've been trying to explain to Puddin that Papa is a better place- he is with Jesus, and that is a great, great thing. But how can you explain that to a 5 year old that now knows the permanence of death?
She still misses Nanny, and so do I.
She worries about Nana, and so do I.
She has such a tender, tender heart.
It has been a hard week.
We are working through some things here.

He was a funny man, full of humor and loved to make people laugh... something he has passed on to my Puddin, for sure!
He had a beautiful marriage to my mother in law. Next week is their 60th wedding anniversary! WOW!
So, since words escape me right now, how about I share some of my favorite Papa pictures?!

Papa and Monkey See. December 2007

Papa and Daisy. July 2009

Monkey See, Nana, Puddin, Papa and Monkey Do. December 2009

Monkey Do, Papa, Puddin, Monkey See and Nana. July 2008

Technical difficulties

Hi friends... still here! For Christmas the hubby got me a lovely laptop!! Yay! I have been playing around the past could of days trying to figure it all out. *sigh* anyway- I'm telling you this so you know I haven't forgot about you. Sorry to leave you hanging with those AMAZING shots of the aquarium!! Wasn't that just the BEST POST EVER!?! Ha!
Anyway, as soon as I get all of my stuff on here I will be back... piny promise! I just need to load my docs and pics and we'll be in business!
Until then, would you please pray for my in-laws?
They are so dear to me. This summer my FIL was diagnosed with several forms of cancer. Since Christmas his health has deteriorated dramatically. He and my MIL have been married 60 years on the 27th of this month! Isn't that just amazing?! I love them both dearly and my heart breaks for them right now. Prayers for peace and comfort would be most appreciated. Thank you so much.

Quote of the day...

This afternoon, during naptime, I had just finished the dishes, put another load of laundry in, swept and mopped the floors and decided to sit for a minute and take a break.

Did I mention it was naptime?
Have I mentioned before that this has recently become hit or miss for us?
It has.
Today it was kind of split down the middle.
Puddin was playing her Leapster in her bed (she had permission... details on the Leapster to come shortly.) And the Wonder Twins were dancing in their beds because they had taken a 20 minute nap on the ride home from picking up the trio from preschool. (the downside of preschool- babies who still need a nap!)

Anyway, the boys, were not sleeping either. Instead they were playing quietly in their room. I knew pretty quickly that was not going to be the good kind of naptime so I made sure we were all on the page... it was a quite time in their rooms.

When suddenly, one little unnamed Monkey was squealing a high pitched squeal at the top of his lungs, and came running down the stairs. For the life of me I couldn't understand why he was crying, but I knew it was bad. He jumped in my lap, holding his face, while I was still trying to figure out the problem.
Quickly I assessed... no blood- good,
he can walk/talk/scream/cry- good,
then finally, I understood the words mixed with sobs..."derwe's a diamond in my nose!!"
translation: "I STUCK SOMETHING SHINY UP MY NOSE AND I CAN'T GET IT OUT!"

Normally, this is where I would insert a picture. But due to the seriousness of having a diamond up the nose, I decided to jump into action immediately, rather than grab the camera.

So while I sent the other Monkey on the let's take forever and a day errand to get mommy a tissue, I held the diamond free nostril closed with my forefinger and placed my other hand in front of his nose to catch.
I promptly asked him to... BLOW.
Yes, I did.
He blew- nothing (but snot).
He blew again- still more snot, and yet, no tissue!!!
Then he started to suck back in and I was so afraid that precious diamond was going to get stuck up there further that I ordered him to blow HARD.
He did.. good boy!
And in the process shot out more snot, as well as the shiny diamond! It was actually a yellow acrylic bead with the letter B on it... the teacher in me immediately thought, oh how appropriate, b for booger. My boy is S-M-A-R-T!
Yes, I did.
Guess what... then the other Monkey showed up with a tissue.
Yes, he did.

Anyway, good news is all of my children have diamond free noses tonight and no ER was necessary! Ya-hoo!
I also took the time to use this as a teachable moment, ie, scare the fire out of them. And in all my mommy glory I explained that if he or his brother ever, I mean EVER put anything in their noses again I would not be able to get it out. Next time we would have to go to the doctor and he would take a long shiny tool and put it up their nose to get it out.
-Insert 2 deer in headlights looks-
Their question?
"Will it huwt?"
My response?
"YES-very, very bad!"

And so it goes!
Hopefully, all of the noses under your roof are diamond-free tonight!
I'm off to bed and will probably wonder what they will come up with tomorrow!
Night- night!

Rewind... Chattanooga Part1

Since we skipped a vacation this yea, we decided we would take the children to Chattanooga over Christmas break and spend some time. It's only about an hour and a half away from us so it is very easy to make it a quick weekend trip. While there, our main goal was to ride The Polar Express!! The kids were so excited about it. I will share pictures of that adventure another night, but for now I'll share some pictures of our adventure to the Aquarium.

The last time we visited the Chattanooga aquarium I was 16 weeks pregnant with Bud and Daisy.I also had morning sickness. The kind that lasted all day. Yuck.
This time I also had sickness. No worries- not the same as last time. This time it was the stomach virus variety. DOUBLE yuck! At least I got a blessing out of the first one! But, we payed for the trip so we ventured out anyway! I tried not to touch anything or anyone, except my own people. (by the next day I was feeling much better too).

I'll let the pictures tell the story. Needless to say- we saw A LOT of fish. Towards the end, right before our camera dies, Puddin said, "I'm tired of all these fish!" (you probably will to if you stick with this post!)
Thankfully, we rounded the corner to see the favorite exhibit of the day... follow to the end to see what it was. They were THRILLED!!! After all, what could be more exciting than a bunch of fish, sharks and jelly fish???

The Wonder Twins!

blurry shot- the best we could do.

Congratulations if you have stuck with it to see

THE FAVORITE THING OF THE WHOLE DAY AT THE AQUARIUM!!!!

Here it is....

TA-DA!

Exciting, I know!

Stay tuned for more excitement to come tomorrow!