It seems we are living next to the neighbors from hell. It has to be pretty bad for me to use such words. Let me start off from the beginning. After we moved in things were bad right way with the gay guys next door. The gayness isn't the problem but the disturbances well into the wee hours in the morning are. These guy were sitting outside in their backyard watching a movie that was on inside their house. I don't know if they installed surround sound speakers in their yard but it sounded like I was sitting in a theater in my bedroom. This was going on every night until I couldn't take it anymore and had my husband climb up over the fence and kindly ask them to knock it off. Things had been better until last night. They had a party going on with lots of rowdy guests. They were peeing outside, extremly drunk, and fighting each other until at least 2 in the morning. Each time I would just fall asleep I would get woken up. So, what to do? My concern with calling the cops is that it may not be anonymous. At least I don't think so. But, I don't think they have given us a choice at this point. If this happens again I will. I also put in a call to the homeowners association to file a complaint. Hopefully, this situation will get better. If not, they picked the wrong neighbor to mess with!

Broccoli Quiche

I made this for Christmas eve dinner. This was so fantastic! I ate so, so much. I would be embarrassed to say how much I ate. It went so fast that I forgot to take a picture. This was my first time making a quiche and I just made up a recipe from reading a bunch online.

Broccoli Quiche


preheat oven to 350

1 refrigerated or frozen pie crust or make your own if your Martha :)
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar
1 1/2 cups fresh chopped broccoli(not frozen)
1/2 small onion finely chopped
1 Tbsp butter
salt/pepper
1 Teaspoon finely chopped garlic or one clove

Over med to low heat melt butter, add onion, garlic, and broccoli and cook until vegetables are soft.

Press 1 cup shredded cheese onto bottom of pie crust. This is so your pie crust will not get soggy :)

Spread cooked veggies on top of the cheese. Combine eggs and milk. Season with salt and pepper. Add the rest of the Cheese. Pour egg mixture over vegetables.

Bake for 45 minutes. Done when the middle is set or you can stick a knife in the middle and it comes out clean.

Enjoy! And don't eat as much as I did.

Houdini

The other night we went out to our favorite mexican restaurant. The kids were relatively good. Meaning Noah spent most of the time in his high chair. My husband was holding him while we were waiting for the check and Noah started getting antsy. My husband looked down and said "why is there a diaper on the floor?" I didn't remember bringing in an extra diaper. He looks down Noah's pants and he didn't have one on! This boy somehow took off his diaper with his pants on. All while my husband was holding him. I don't think I have laughed that hard is a very long time!

Merry Christmas!

Hope your day is full of blessings!

I am falling apart

Yesterday, I went for my yearly visit with my OB and for some pelvic pain that I have been having. They discovered that I have high blood pressure. The only other time that I had a blood pressure problem was when I was working at a horrible job. Once I quit I no longer had a problem. But, it's not like I can quit my job now. I don't drink, smoke, or eat fast food. I get plenty of healthy fats every day. All that is left is stress, and lots of it. I was cooking dinner the other night and the whole house started spinning. I really thought I was going to pass out. That along with the tingling in my left arm really has me scared. I am going to have to come up with some way to make things better around here because I want to be around to see these kids grow up. As far as the pelvic pain, I have to go back next week for an ultrasound and bloodwork. Then on to my primary doc after that.

I am pretty sure that I forgot to mention all the injuries I incurred the past month. My knee popped out of socket, I dropped a kitchen aid mixer on my foot(seriously), then last week my big toe bent completely under my foot. Luckily, no bones are visibly broken in my feet. I had them xray the other foot at the same time because it has been hurting for 8 months since Grace fell on it. But seriously, enough injuries already! I need a break.

Personalized video from Santa

This is super cute. Create a personalized video from Santa and it will be emailed to you. Here is the one I created for Grace. This is free. Click here to create your own.

Snow

Old man winter finally made his way down to Houston. He was very generous this year and he granted us snow! What a treat. As you can see, the kids had so much fun in their first snow.

Grace thought it was yummy

This was first thing in the morning. It snowed all day long so we ended up getting several inches. I wish I would have gotten a picture of that.

Pink gloves and all.

It all melted later the next day. Hopefully, it won't be another 4 years before we get it again.

Part 2

Buzz Lightyear had too much fun! Double the fun!

What is she doing to him? Eating him?!

This is Noah's Thanksgiving pouty face. He ended up falling asleep during dinner and woke up in a not so great mood. But, he eventually got over it. Plus, he is painfully shy

Whoa Buzz, should you be doing that?

Even Gracie had to get in on it.

Seriously too much fun. And no we were not drinking anything. Just good old fun.

Lots of updates part 1

There have been lots of things going on here in the past few weeks so blogging had to take a backseat to family. Its seems each week one of us has been sick. First Grace, then Noah got a mysterious high fever and now I am sick this week. Which is why I am sitting long enough to blog. Ha Ha
We spent our first Thanksgiving in our new home. We had lots of giggles with my sister and niece's here. The kids had a good time with their cousin Dameron too.

This is my niece and my sister

My niece's dessert plate. Seriously, why can't I be that skinny and eat like that?!

Sweet Dameron

Gracie has been doing great at her speech therapy. I can already notice a difference in her expanding her sentences.

Noah has been testing limits these days. I kid you not, I have had to get up 5 times already while writing this post. Once to get him out of the crackers, then I had to sweep them up. Next he was eating butter and then he was on the counter. Then he save the best for last by dumping orange juice all over the carpet. All before noon. Deep breath...

My husband was on vacation all last week. Well, sort of. He ended up going to work 4 days during his vacation. Insane. That is all I am going to say about that. At least he has a job, right?

My favorite/cheapest christmas gifts

Is everyone recuperated from their food coma yet?

Ready for your Christmas shopping? Me too! Today I snagged Christmas gifts for my mom and my sister for only $5 each. Then I used my amazon gift cards that I got for FREE from Swagbucks to buy them! WAHOO!! So, I got their gifts for FREE. I am totally excited about that. I didn't even have to get in my car and fight the crowds.

What did I get them? Amazon has their top 5 magazines on sale for only $5/year through Dec 1st. I got my mom Real Simple(love it) and my sis House Beautiful(love it too). I get both of these magazines and they are great. I am even going to get Real Simple for me because it will go towards my renewal. Double Wahoo! A really cool way to give magazines as Christmas presents is to buy one, roll it up, and tie it with a beautiful ribbon.

Have a great shopping day everyone!

I am pretty sure I am DONE with having kids. This week has just about done me in. I mean, how many times can one child cover himself in poop?!!! I have lost count how many times it has happened this week. Yesterday, while my husband was watching him while I took a shower, he covered my love seat, toys, and himself in it. Can you imagine?!! Thank God it was a slipcover. Today, he covered himself and his sister's stuffed animals. The other day it was the living room carpet. I am going to lose my mind people.

Not only is he doing this, he is coloring on EVERYTHING. The furniture, toys, walls, himself. I have had to hide crayons and if he finds a pen, he thinks it is a free for all.

Oh, and the climbing. It is driving me nuts.

DONE, DONE, DONE! Probably, Maybe, oh who am I kidding, tomorrow I will want more.

More reasons to avoid canned food

Study finds high levels of BPA in canned foods.

On my toes

This little guy keeps me laughing most of the time. That is a good thing since he gets into a lot of trouble these days.

There is never a dull moment around here!

Would you please say some prayers for Grace's speech therapist, Mrs. Cunningham? She recently had surgery for breast cancer and she found out yesterday that she will need to have chemo.

The best freebie of the season!

Are you ready for this? !!

Heather at Freebies 4 Mom is giving away 50 FREE photo cards through SeeHere by Fuji. All you have to do is enter the code freebies4mom-1109 at checkout. Isn't this fantastic? I just got my christmas cards for FREE!!! I do recommend that you download the software to make it go faster. I think it is Java/Active X. Something that is trusted so don't worry.

Guess what? There is more. Before you do your photo cards, sign up on the main screen and get 100 free prints(plus shipping). The code for that at checkout is "prints".

Have you visited Freebies 4 Mom yet? I LOVE her site. While you are there, check out her post on a free Kodak gift card. I got mine!

I need a time out

Today has been an adventurous day. This morning started off fine. I put up our tree a few days ago because I thought I could just take some pictures of the kids in front of the tree for our Christmas cards instead of spending the money to have some done by a professional. So, I got them all dressed up this morning. Not an easy task by the way. Noah wasn't in the mood so I figured I would get some of Grace instead. Have I mentioned that we have been having trouble with Noah unlocking the front door? He picks this exact moment to do it again. But, this time he got out. Did I mention that I was still in my gown? My, too short, raggedy gown? I tried to call him in but he just giggled and took off. His pants down around his ankles at this point. I hesitate for a moment and call his name again. Now I can't even see him. So I run out in all my glory. I clinched my gown closed but the boobs were still falling out. This is pretty comical now that it is over. Oh, but he decided he was going to play chase around the truck. Did I mention that I was without undies too? Yeah. Can you imagine what my neighbors think.

I bet they think we are hippies. Once Grace was playing in the backyard and i took Noah upstairs to wash the mud off of him. When I came back down, Grace had white roses in her hand and she was naked. I don't have white roses in the backyard.

Today I thought we would look on the regular tv channels to see what was on. We usually only have on the christian kids channel, pbs, or Qubo if the tv is on. I really like to watch some of the shows that pbs has on the weekends. Cooking shows or crafty shows. Not that I ever get to watch them. Today we ventured to the other stations. When I saw Grease was on, I got all excited and I figured we would watch that. Well, a minute later they start singing "We're gonna score tonight". Whoa! Not something I needed Grace singing while going down the road with Grandma ya know? It was Grease 2. How is it that all the things I watched as a kid are totally inappropriate now that I see them? Even Wizard of Oz scared me half to death now that I think about it.

Thankfully, the preacher Tony Evans was on the next channel. Noah, he totally cracks me up. He quickly pulled a chair up to the tv and sat down to watch Tony Evans. He must have gotten that from his dad. He was pentecostal and I was a southern baptist. Can you imagine? What a combo. I bet you would have paid money to see the look on my face the first time I went to his church and his mom fell down backward in the isle and continued to lay there the entire time.


Speaking of my husbands family. Please bare with me, I really need to vent since I have been holding all of this in. What would you do if your SIL added your husbands ex-fiance to her facebook? After my SIL called him at work and asked who it was and he told her not even to do that because it would just cause problems. But she did it anyways. Let's just say that I un-friended her. I honestly feel like I am always reaching out to them just to get slapped in the face and it is exhausting to say the least. Now that I have kids who are old enough to actually remember someone and miss them, I feel so differently. They don't call, they don't have anything to do with my kids unless we go halfway across the country to see them. It makes me so very sad for my kids. All you want to do is protect your children. But from their own family?

Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I modified this recipe just a bit to make it healthier. I added about a 1/2 cup of flax seed and used half whole wheat flour. I also used chocolate chips instead of raisins. Just because I don't like raisins. These cookies were seriously delicious. Boy, were they moist. This is now my favorite oatmeal cookie recipe. I don't think that we have ever eaten a batch of cookies in 2 days before.

Note: Child laborers were paid generously.

In the mood for more pumpkin yummies? Check out this recipe!