Catch Up

I hope you had a very happy Thanksgiving! We enjoyed our time in SC. It was only the 2nd time in 6 years that we've been able to spend Thanksgiving together as a family. Usually, Mike is gone somewhere. He actually was gone, but we met at his Dad's house. lol. I had hoped to post my holiday baking pictures before we left, but it didn't happen. I swear, traveling with 5 kids gets harder the older they get. It shouldn't be that way though, should it? I digress. Here is the best pumpkin bread you've ever tasted. It's not healthy, but it is super yummy. We added wal-nuts and chocolate chips to the mini-loaves. Definitely will be doing that again.

Benjamin was my helper with the pumpkin bread. I think he likes to help me bake only so he can lick the beater.

Next, we have rolls. Oh my goodness. These are delish! I made a test batch a couple of days before we left, the kids scarfed them down like there was no tomorrow. I'll be making these again for sure. Here's the recipe, just in case you would like to try them.

Anne’s Sunbeam Rolls
Cooking Time 12-15 minutes Preheat oven to 375Makes 24 rolls
Ingredients:
1 Cup milk1/2 Cup butter3 eggs1 tsp salt1/3 cup sugar41/2-5 Cups flour4 1/2 tsp yeast (2 pkgs)
Scald milk. Melt butter in hot milk. Let cool to room temp. Dissolve yeast and sugar in a small amount of water. Add the yeast -sugar mixture to the cooled milk mixture. Add eggs and flour. Mix thouroughly. This makes a wet dough. Knead until shiny, adding flour if necessary. Oil the dough. Cover and put in a warm place to rise until doubled. (About 1 hour) Punch down. Divide dough into three pieces. Roll, with a rolling pin, each piece into a circle (about 10 in. diameter.) Cut circle into 8 wedges. Pull off one wedge. Starting form wide end towards the point roll into a crescent. Place on a greased cookie sheet in 3 rows. Cover and put in a warm place to rise until double in size. Brush with butter.( Optional sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds)Bake about 12 minutes until golden brown.
**These rolls can also be made into hamburger buns with delicious results.

We also made an apple walnut bread. This was good, but I don't know that we'll make it again. Much healthier than the pumpkin, but no where near as good. Mikayla was the kitchen helper this go around.

I finally got around to taking a little better photo of the February Lady Sweater. I started the sleeves tonight. I really need to hurry up. I have so many other things to complete before we leave. Atleast this picture shows the color a little better. It really is heathered. ;-) I do love this sweater. I'm thinking I"ll make one for myself at some point.

We did a photo shoot at Heritage Park in downtown Columbus a few weeks ago. I'll share more photos later, but for not, here's a picture to get you in the holiday spirit.

Current Projects

I've been busy. My to-do list is a mile long. I am quite certain I won't complete it all before it's time for us to move. However, I'm going to try my darndest.
Here's some gift tags I made using my Cricut. This was such a fun project to work on. Hopefully the recipients will appreciate them.

These are gift card holders. They're super easy to make. If anyone is interested in the directions, just post in the comments and I'll write up the directions. These were super fun to make too. Since we're moving right before Christmas, most of our extended family will be getting gift cards. I know, I know...it's the easy way out. I don't usually give gift cards. Sometimes you've just got to though. ;-)

Last but not least, proof that I really do knit. My Mom asks me what I've been knitting nearly every night. I lie and tell her socks. In all honesty, I am knitting on a pair of socks, just not as much as I've been knitting on the February Lady Sweater. This is a horrid picture. The sun was sooooo bright on my deck this afternoon. I'll do a retake soon. I just needed ya'll to have some proof that I really have been knitting. HA! I've got 2 or 3 more repeats on the body, then it's on to the sleeves. I do believe I"ll finish this in time!

We're traveling to SC for Thanksgiving. I can't wait. We'll get to see the in-laws and Mike! We haven't seen him since the beginning of October, so I am excited. We've got some fun plans. We're going to take the kids to the Greenville Zoo. We've been before, but not in a couple of years. Of course, a trip to Greenville wouldn't be complete unless we ate at our favorite restaurant, Sticky Fingers. I saved ya'll a possibly scary google search and provided the link. ;-) We're contemplating a trip to the movies too. Bolt comes out on Thursday. I'm sure my two big kids would much rather see Twilight though. Silly kids.

Civic Duty

GO VOTE!!!!!!

Please make sure you vote today. I would love to tell you who to vote for, but I won't. :-) I just want you to vote. Once you've voted, take your "I voted" sticker to Ben and Jerry's for a free ice-cream scoop. Ice-cream isn't your thing? How about coffee? Take your sticker to Starbucks and get a free tall coffee! What? Coffee isn't your thing either? How about donuts? Mmmmm...who doesn't like donuts? Krispy Kreme is giving away free patriotic star shaped donuts. Don't like donuts? How about chicken? Take your sticker to Chick-fil-a and get a free chicken sandwich! I did hear that Chick-fil-a will take your sticker though, so make sure you get your other freebies first. ;-)

Fun with Photoshop

I've had Photoshop 5.0 on my computer for quite some time. Quuuuiiiitttteeeee some time. I've used it to make a digital brag book or two, but that's about it. I really should take the time to learn it, because it's so much fun! Trying to get good pictures of five kids is nuts. I've pretty much given up. Not to mention the fact that they never match. ;-) Anyway, I played around a bit today, converting them to black and white and then changing the pumpkin back to orange. Here is a result of my efforts:

I didn't Photoshop this next photo at all. It's not a fantastic picture...it's hard to get fantastic pictures when it's pitch black outside and you don't want to use a flash. I should have dug out the tri-pod, but I didn't. I do like the shadows in this picture though.

Soon...soon you'll get a picture of the Lady.

Festive Projects

I've been sewing. Nothing major, just a couple of quick projects. I have my next sewing project planned out, but I cannot find the stinkin' pattern. I dug through all of my sewing stuff last night and it's no where to be found. I guess I'll just have to buy it again. I'll look through everything once more before I do that though. Grrrrr.

Placemats that are supposed to look like Christmas Ornaments and a little fabric basket. I told you it was nothing too exciting. :p I just love that little fabric basket. It's quick and easy. It would make a great gift filled with some baked goods, don'tcha think? Wanna make one yourself? Here's how.

I snapped a few pictures of Liberty jumping on the trampoline. She loves to jump. She seriously needs a hair-cut. I just love her hair though. She's 4.5 and has never had a hair-cut. We keep saying we're going to do it, but I just can't make myself get it done! The current plan is to get it done when we're in NY for Christmas. The stylist who cut Mikayla and Benjamin's hair is there, so we might as well stick with tradition, eh? We'll see. I still have time to change my mind. :p

While I was snapping photos, I should have taken a picture of the February Lady Sweater. It's going quite well! The thing I'm struggling with now is, how long do I make it? Since it's not for me, I can't just try it on. Mom is a few inches shorter than I am. So, anyone who has made a size large and is about 5'4" care to tell me how long they made the body before blocking?

Shhhhh....it's a secret

I am 90% finished with my Christmas shopping. Since we're moving three days before Christmas, I've been stressing over shopping. It's been the last thing on my mind when I have went to bed, and the first thing on my mind when I wake up. I hate that. I know it's just been because I have so little control over much of my life right now, but I'm glad I don't have to think about it anymore. I have a few little things to pick up for the kids, some gift certificates for extended family, and that's it. My Mom will be getting several boxes delivered to her house next week. It will be so weird not going shopping in the stores this year, but alas, it is what it is. :-) I do have a few things I'm planning to make, so I'll have plenty to keep my busy between now and then. Even though we're down to less than 2 months until we move, I know it is going to go by so quickly. After five years at the same duty station, I am ready to go. I'll miss my friends here, but geez louise, I've had itchy feet for a couple of years now! ;-)

Paper Crafting

I've been knitting, but still haven't taken a picture of my current work in progress. I'll try and get that done later this week. The project is coming along nicely, but there's one problem. My Mom has been shrinking. She's lost about 20 pounds in maybe 4 weeks? It's sickening. Then there's me...takes me over 2 months to lose 20 pounds. Geez Louise. Anyway, here's what I've been doing lots since Mike left...paper crafting.

That may or not be my Christmas card for this year. So, if you usually get one from me, pretend you didn't see this. :p I signed up for a Christmas Card swap with my private swap group. Hopefully the other ladies like it. I kind of wonder how I ever scrapped or made cards before I got my Cricut Expressions? HA!

Next...a mini-album made with the Close To My Heart File Folios. Really, they're just a 12x12 file folder. So, if you've got one of those laying around, you could easily replicate this little book. This is actually the second one I made. The first, I sent to Mike for his birthday last week. He likes sentimental stuff like this, so he was pleased to get a little surprise in the mail. When he was in Iraq, I sent him an album that went everywhere with him. Even out on missions. ;-) Anyway, this one, I mailed to my Mom today. She'll appreciate it, as she says I don't mail her pictures anymore, I just e-mail 'em. Does anyone mail pictures anymore???? This is the album closed:

This is the album open, showing the little tags that pull out:

This is another little album I made. I haven't added pictures yet though. I'm thinking some black and whites of the kids would be super cute. I'm planning to make several as gifts. We give most of our extended family gift cards for Christmas. We haven't always done this, but it gets too hard to know what to buy for people we hardly see. Plus, it costs a lot to ship all of that stuff. So, my mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister-in-law and my brother will be getting these little albums full of pictures of the kids, along with a gift card for Christmas. I'll probably give one to my Mom too, 'cause she'll have a cow if I don't. :p

Closed:

Open:
Each envelope has a tag that pulls out to hold a photo too. Super fun, super cute, and super quick!

For those of you American Girl fans looking to start your shopping a bit early, here's a code for you. It's $10 off a $30 purchase. You can use it as many times as you want. So, you can purchase $30 worth, submit your order and repeat! Code: 159926 Don't forget to check the sale section! They don't have much for the 18" dolls, but they have some cute stuff for the Bitty Baby/Bitty Twins!

Yee-Gads

I've been a bad blogger. Very sporadic. Geez Louise. My dh is gone again, so hopefully I'll have time to blog more faithfully. Although, I'm not sure I'm interesting enough to blog more than once per week. :p

We took a couple of field trips over the last couple of weeks. One to the Columbus Museum, and one to the Montgomery Zoo. We've been to the zoo lots of times, but the kids still love it. We're planning to go again in December, as soon as Mike gets home. It'll be the last time we go before we move. Atleast there will be a zoo closer to our house once we move...no more driving nearly 2 hours just to see some animals.

Katie also celebrated her 12th birthday. We started the day with presents, then took her to get her hair cut. She had been growing her hair for months...maybe even a couple of years? She wanted to donate it to Locks of Love. She really hated her hair long, so she was so glad to get it cut. She looks so much more grown up with her shorter hair-do.

Before:

After:

I really should take another picture of her. I like it much better the way she styles it rather than the way the hair-dresser styled it.

In knitting news, I've started a new project. I was hoping to share some photos of it with you today, but it's raining outside. In order to get the true effect of the heathers, I think it needs to be photographed with natural light. So, maybe in a day or two.

I'll share a couple of my favorite photos from the zoo...

Pretty in Pink

I'm sharing another finished knitting project with you today. Can you believe it? I'm getting quite a bit of knitting time in lately. You know what that means, right? I'm not scrapbooking at all. Seems I can't find a happy medium, but for now, I'll either just knit, or just scrap. My cousin is having her first baby in February. Or maybe it'll be January? I want to knit her a sweater, but she's one of those people who won't find out if they'll be welcoming a little girl or a little boy into their family until the birth. Geez louise. Can you imagine? ;-) I don't want to knit a green or yellow sweater. I was thinking of using some Dream in Color yarn, but I only have a purple colorway. If you have any color ideas, share 'em with me. I also wasn't sure which size needles I should use or which gauge or yarn! So, I did a test knit. With some stash yarn bought way back when I first started knitting and didn't know what "nice" yarn was. This yarn wasn't too bad, but it didn't take me long to remember why I don't much knit with acrylic. Someone at our church had a baby girl a couple of weeks ago, so I'll gift this sweater to her on Wednesday night.

Specs:

Yarn is Paton Astra Pretty in Pink Ombre

Pattern is Baby Sweater on Two Needles from the Knitters Almanac

Size 5 needles

Sweater size 6-12 months

One thing I loved the most about this pattern is, there are no seams to sew up when you're finished. Well, I suppose if I followed the pattern to a "t" I would have had to sew up the arm seams, but I knitted them in the round. That's a huge plus for me because I much prefer the knitting process to the finishing process. It about killed me to sew the buttons on. I chose plain jane buttons. I just don't do cutesy buttons. The fact that our button selection here in Columbus leaves something to be desired might have something to do with it. I loved knitting this sweater so much, that I'm considering knitting an adult size for my mother for Christmas!

Half-Pipe

I finished knitting this hat a week or so ago, I just needed to sew in the brim. I don't know why i waited to do it, it took all of maybe 5 minutes? I think these hats are so cute. I'll be making a few more of them, I'm sure. I tried to get my dh to model for me, but that was a no-go. :p I think Benjamin makes a pretty cute model though.....



Project Specs....
You can find the pattern in this book.
Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Yarn
Size 8 needles
I had hoped to have another finished object to share with you. However, I am still short a sleeve. I may finish tonight, but I'm sure I won't have time to blog about it before my surgery in the am. Have I mentioned how hungry I am? I haven't eaten anything since Friday at dinner!!!!!!!!!!

Evangeline

I am finally sharing some finished knitting project photos with you. They've been done for quite some time now, I just haven't gotten around to taking pics and uploading them. I've started my "we need hats and mittens for everyone" project. So far, I've got these two pairs of fingerless gloves for the 2 older girls and a pair of mittens for Liberty. I'll share those soon. I've got a nearly complete hat for Benjamin or Devin, whomever it fits better, that you'll get to see soon too. I need to order some more yarn before I can knit anymore. I have the hat pattern picked out for the girls, but have no chunky yarn in my stash. I dont' really have much of a stash...one rubbermaid tote. Most times, I don't mind. Now is one of those times when I'm wishing I had a closet full of stash. :p I can't seem to find the pattern link anymore. However, if you're a Ravelry member, you can search for it quite easily. These were both knitting with Cascade 220.

I absolutely love the cables in this pattern. Looks complicated, but is relatively easy.

I'm hoping to share some more photos with you by the end of the weekend. I'm having surgery on Monday, so I'm kind of in finish it up mode. I'm not sure how I'll be feeling after my surgery. It's a minor surgery, I'm actually quite excited about it, but you never can tell how you'll feel afterwards.

Lastly, I'll share a photo that is sweet to me. I figure ya'll have seen many pictures of Liberty's "crazy" side, you need to see a photo of her "sweet" side too....

My Baby is Growing Up.

She can write her name. We've been working on it for about a week. I don't think she can do it from memory yet, but geez louise...that didn't take long at all! She can even make the e!!!!!

Where has the time gone?

First Day of School

I know, it seems awfully early to be back to school already. The public schools here in the south start super early compared to the northeast. Growing up in NY, we didn't start school until after Labor Day. Here, they started on Tuesday. We had our first day on Monday. We had one horrid day this week...yesterday. The rest went surprisingly well! Here is my pre-schooler:
She is so excited to have school books this year! She's currently learning to write her name, although she's not too thrilled with that. It's easier to just have an older sibling write it for her. :p Her stack of books include:
Get Ready For the Code
Get Set For School (Handwriting Without Tears)
Kumon workbooks (currently mazes...she rocks at mazes)
Various other worksheets that I find

Here is my 1st grader:
He was very excited to be starting first grade this year. Until he actually started it. Then he decided it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. He had to stand in the corner on the first day of school. I was amazed at how little he forgot over the summer. We did virtually no work this summer, so I had figured they would forget everything. He totally surprised me! His stack of books for this year include:
BJU Math 1 (I bought the Review books this year for extra reinforcement)
Explode the Code 2 (I have 2.5 and 3 ready for when he finished 2)
My Printing Book (Handwriting Without Tears)
BJU Phonics and English 1
Various things like Sight Word cards, etc.
First Language Lessons (we haven't started this yet. I'm waiting until he can write a bit better)
Apologia Zoology 1 (we didn't finish this last year, so we're still working on it)

Here is the 4th grader:
I can't believe she's a 4th grader. She gets to change Sunday School classes this year, she is very excited about that. Currently in her pile of books:
Explode the Code (she needed reinforcement, so we're reviewing)
FLL 2 (finishing from last year)
BJU Heritage Studies
Apologia Zoology 1
BJU Math 4
HWT Cursive
Sequential Spelling
Various Readers from the Sonlight catalog
Studying God's Word A
The Complete Book of Animals (workbook from Sam's Club - great for reading comprehension)

Here's the 7th grader:

We didn't realize she is considered a junior high student until Tuesday. She asked us what kinds of privileges junior high students get. As if. :p I can't believe she's a 7th grader now. She gets to join the youth group at church, which excites her very much. . Not so much her older brother, 'cause now he'll have someone to tattle on him when he acts obnoxiously. HA! Currently in her stack of books:

Alpha Omega History

AO SOS Story of the Constitution

Mind Benders

Saxon 7/6 Math (She'll start Pre-Algebra in January or so. Maybe Teaching Textbooks?)

BJU English 7

Apologia General Science

Abeka Of People (Literature)

BJU Bible Truths B

Maps and Geography (workbook from Sam's Club)

Various Readers from the Sonlight reading list

Getting Started with Latin

Last but not least, the Highschooler:

Ninth grader made Devin super nervous. We've been talking to him all summer about how he was going to really have to buckle down once he was in high school. He even told all of his friends that he wasn't going to have time to go outside and play once school started. He had one day this week where he did school until 4:00, but the other days were great. He finished by 11:30 one day, which was a miracle. ;-) Four more years with this boy, then he's off to college. First off, I'm wondering how on earth I could be old enough to have a ninth grader? Secondly, holy cow...4 more years and he'll move out...there is still so much we want to do with him, yet it is overwhelming to think about how little time we have left. Here's his stack of books:

BJU Literature 9

Algebra 1 (Math Relief...with the exception of yesterday, he loves it. :p)

Apologia Biology

Mind Benders

AO SOS Story of the Constitution

Streams of Civilization 2

BJU Grammar/Writing (I might switch his writing to WriteShop)

Rosetta Stone Arabic

Various Readers from the Sonlight reading list

Wordly Wise

BJU Bible Truths B

I'm hoping we have a great year this year. Our goals? Writing ON the lines, doing our best work the first time and time management. They might be lofty goals, but I'm hoping we can accomplish them. It's going to be a good year.

Hip in Hemp 2

I am finally finished with Liberty's skirt. These aren't very good pictures, but they'll have to do. It was soooooo sunny out, it was hard to get a good shot. Liberty wore her skirt to church last night. She looks so cute. ;-) Now, Mikayla is requesting a skirt. I told her to just wait a year and she can have Katie's. HA! I'm not sure I've got it in me to knit another one. Although, I might like one for myself once all of this extra baggage I'm carrying is gone! ;-) Next on the knitting schedule....Evangalines. I couldn't get the pattern page to come up, but there's some pretty pics of them on that blog site.

We started school this week. So far, it's going well. It still seems too early to me to be starting school, but I digress. I'll share some first day of school photos in my next blog post.

Back to the Real Real World

Dh went back to work on Friday. He hasn't worked since May. Holy cow, that was a long vacation. It was mostly good. I think we're both ready for some type of a routine again though. Although, I'm not sure how much of a routine it'll really be. My parents are flying in tomorrow. I'm excited about that. Surprisingly, my Dad decided to come. He doesn't do hot weather. Of course, he decided to come a few weeks after Mom had bought her ticket, so he had to pay $300 more than her's cost. I guess that's the price he paid for procrastinating? :p We're planning a trip to Stone Mountain while they're here. We've never been, so I'm kind of excited to go there. We got free tickets through Mike's work, otherwise we could never afford to go. That place is spendy!
We'll be starting school the week of the 4th. That seems so awfully early to me, but that's when the public schools are starting back up! Summer vacation is so short in the south. I'm not even remotely ready to start school again. I bought a fancy planning program to use this year. It takes hours to load all fo the lesson plans on to the computer. I know once it's done it'll be worth it, but geez louise. I'll be spending some late nights inputting info once my parents leave. I can't believe I"m the parent of a freshman now! Yee-gads!
Hold on to your computer chair, but I've been knitting. I'm trying to finish up the Hip in Hemp skirt for Liberty. I could be done now, but since I've got some extra yarn, I'm going to add another striping repeat. So, maybe in a couple of weeks I'll have a finished project to share with you! Every night that I knit, Mike keeps telling me to hurry up and finish the skirt. He seems to think I need to knit the kids hats and mittens for this winter. It'll be cold where we're moving, but not THAT cold. :p

Big and Rich

I've been absent from blog land for quite some time now. I would promise to do better, but I can't promise much of anything these days.

Mike was out running on the Riverwalk Thursday morning. They're building the new Infantry Museum out that way, and some old guy stopped Mike to talk to him for a minute. He was telling Mike that Big and Rich was coming for the ground breaking ceremony for the 173rd Airborn Memorial. If you've heard any of Big and Rich's music, you would know they wrote a song a couple of years ago or so called the "8th of November." That song is about the 173rd. They've since done a benefit concert to raise money for the memorial. Since the 173rd used to be stationed at Benning, the new Infantry Museum was chosen as the location for the Memorial. Mike was a little leary when that guy told him B&R was coming, since there was absolutely no advertising done at all. BUT, according to the B&R web-site, they indeed were planning to be at Benning on the 11th. So, off we went, into the swealtering heat and humidity, to the ground breaking ceremony. There were maybe 60 people there? After B&R sang their song and did their thing with the media, we were able to chat with them for a few minutes and have our photos taken. Mike enjoyed talking with John Rich about this season of Nashville Star. John is one of the judges, so it was actually pretty comical. Big Kenny doesn't talk much...we were surprised about that, but it appears that John Rich is the more outgoing of the two. We do think there is more behind that story though. :p

SC pics

Here are a few pics from our trip to SC. We had a blast. I didn't die of smoke inhalation, which I was seriously concerned about. :p

Mike and Devin are hiking the AT in North GA this week. Next week, it's just Mike and I off to Disney. I can't wait...........

Busy

So, it's been a while since I've posted. It seems as though I've barely had time to come up for air since Mike has been home. I've not knitted an single thing since he returned, can you believe it? Here's a what we've been doing lately.

Shopping....

That's a 42" LCD HD Vizio TV. We love it. The night we bought it, we watched National Treasure 2...turned the volume way up, kept the lights off and all crammed into the living room. Felt like we were at the movie theater. :p

Riding bikes....not me in particular, but everyone else has been riding a ton.

Silly things...Mike and Devin are going to do some hiking next month. We ventured to two different REIs in Atlanta to purchase their equipment. Of course, they didn't have the particular tent Mike wanted, but Ebay did. :-) Mike and Liberty tried it out in the living room the night it arrived.
Swimming. It's HOT, HOT, HOT in GA right now. We've all had the sun burns to prove it too.

Wednesday, we're headed to Greenville to spend some time with Mike's Dad. We're hoping to hike a bit, take the kids to the local water park and eat at Sticky Fingers. Oh, and Mike is planning to play a round of golf with his Dad. That ought to be a riot.