What Kids Can Say

Kids, in general really do say the darnedest things. A lot of the things that my kids say directly come from my actions which make it more funny. Everyone of my kids know that I clip coupons. If I seek out to buy a particular item ahead of time, I generally am able to find some sort of coupon or deal for it.

In the summer, I found a great deal for free chocolate. Each time we went to Target, which was pretty often, we would pick up a free bar of chocolate. E. asked how much it cost and I said it was free. He asked me how that was possible. I told him that I had a coupon and each time I bought another bar of chocolate, another coupon would print out so we were constantly getting free chocolate. I told him that coupons are great because it could save a lot of money and sometimes even get you things for free. His response was, "Mom, can you look up and see if we can get some video game coupons so they can be free?"

Speaking of free, I asked all the kids what they wanted for Christmas and R. told me that he really wanted a 3ds. E. overheard this and replied, "No, don't ask Mom and Dad for that. If you ask Santa to bring it, it will be FREE. Mom will be happy about that." Can't you tell E. is truly my son?

During Christmas, Santa was pretty generous this year (seeing how everything was free). After all the gifts were opened, R. later says, "Mom, Santa brought me a lot of gifts. What did you bring me?" Next year, Santa will be bringing less and Mom and Dad will be getting more credit.

On the flip side to that story, E. responds to R. saying, "Christmas isn't really about getting gifts, it's really about giving." It's nice to know that they do listen to some of the things I say (well, some of them).

We took the kids to McDonald's one day and I tell Mr. N, "ooh, I can use my coupon." Yes, it's another coupon related story. E. asks, "What coupon do you have today?" and takes a look at it and says, "A coupon for free fries! I love fries, but I love them even MORE when they are free!"

Lately, R.'s been asking a lot of "how much is this" type questions. He asked Dad, "How much does this house cost?" Mr. N. responds, "how much do you think it costs?" "Hmmm...I think it costs a hundred dollars," he says. "Homes cost thousands of dollars, R." His response, "Mom's going to have to give me more for my allowance if I want to save for my own house."

A. always says he loves his mommy more. Its just a silly game he plays because he knows it irks his dad. A. asks me to get him a cup of milk one day and I tell him to go and ask his father. Mr. N. says, "who do you love more, Mom or Dad?" (knowing he always says Mom). "I love Mommy more, " A. says. Mr. N. responds, "Well then, I guess you can get your Mom to make your milk." "..but Mom told me to ask you," A. says. I enter the room and hear Mr. N. say, "If you want me to make you milk, you have to love me more." I'm now interested to see what A. does so he looks at me, then looks at his father and says, "I love you both." Mr. N. says, "Nope, not good enough." "Umm...I love you more Dad," he says as he looks at his father, but he quickly looks at me, covers the side of his mouth and whispers, "Mom, I really do love you more." He turns to his Dad who wasn't supposed to hear that and says, "Can I have my milk now?"

Those are my kids. Gotta love them. :)

Jello Popcorn

Jello what? Is that what you are thinking? That's what I was thinking when I ran across the recipe. I thought I had to try it since I could get red popcorn out of it (I'm still trying to get a good recipe for rainbow popcorn).

It looks pretty and get this, using strawberry jello gets you popcorn that taste like crunch berries (I mean it is crazy the resemblance of the flavor). My kids loved the popcorn so I'll make it again, but maybe try another flavor to see what it ends up tasting like.

Jello Popcorn

8 cups popped popcorn (2 packages of microwave popcorn)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine

3 tbsp light corn syrup

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 pkg. (3oz) strawberry flavor gelatin (or any flavor your heart desires

Directions

Preheat oven to 300°F. Line 15x10x1-inch baking pan with foil or wax paper. Pop the popcorn and set aside. Place butter and syrup in small saucepan and cook on low heat until butter is melted.

Add sugar and gelatin; stir until gelatin is completely dissolved.

Bring to boil on medium heat. Reduce heat to low; simmer 5 minutes.

Pour immediately over popcorn mixture; toss to coat well. Spread into prepared pan, using 2 forks to spread evenly.

Bake 10 minutes. Cool. Remove from pan. Break into small pieces. You can make another batch using lime jello and have red and green popcorn for Christmas!

Seventy-two

6 glue sticks, 2 rolls of tape, over a hundred sheets of paper and photos, and 3 weeks time off to create SEVENTY-TWO new scrapbook pages for my kids.

I will say that I made 50 of those pages within the last couple of days. It's crazy. I do not ever want to be that far behind again.

A.'s 3 years old, but I finally finished his first twelve month photo page.

There are some pages that are left undone on purpose. I was finally able to start on E.'s school scrapbook. I hope to fill this page in with all his grade school photos. I do realize there are two pictures that are the same (but I am undecided what size I am going with, hence it is an still in progress page).

All in all, I am ecstatic to be finally up-to-date. So much work, I do not ever want to get that far behind again. However, I must say that my kiddos have gone through their books countless times and so enjoy looking at them. It makes it all worth it. A resolution I have for this year is not to get more than 3 events behind in scrapbooking. We shall see if I keep this resolution.

My Favorite Recipes

I finally did it. I made my own little cookbook with all my favorite recipes.

Okay, so I made 2 books.

It took forever, 12 hours, give or take to be exact. I made it on shutterfly, but after experiencing their newest software for photo books, I'm not sure I will endure all the frustration of how slow their new program is. Their customization they have enabled is great, but every change takes so long to update and therefore, wastes a lot of time. That said, I do like how the book turned out.

I included a lot of my favorite recipes with personal pictures of my family making them.



It brought back such great memories when I rummaged through old photos for this book.

Some of my favorite recipes were written on scratch paper and other recipes I don't have printed at all, so I have to look at my blog for it. It's nice having it nicely typed out.

I even added a few pages for the index for easy flipping.

I'm so excited this task is finally checked off my list. I've been wanting to do this for over a year! How do you store your favorite recipes?

Happy New Year!

My new year started with a bit of a dejavu. On December 31, 2007, I was attempting to open a jar of tomato sauce when the jar shattered in my hand, nearly severing my thumb. If you are wondering, my thumb is still intact. See in the picture. Although, it took much effort to get it looking normal again.

Do you see something abnormal though? That's my husband's wedding band. It was cut off by the hospital's ring cutter when, low and behold, my husband nearly severed his ring finger off yesterday. His wedding band sliced his finger to the bone when it got caught on the shower door. He was trying to illustrate some karate move with the kiddos...j/k. He was giving the kids a bath and was hanging up the towel when the ring got caught. I'm sure that will be the excuse for him not to give the kiddos baths anymore.

Sitting in the emergency room, waiting endless hours to be seen (3 hours and 17 minutes to be exact), we realized that we are now sharing an experience. Different finger, different circumstance, but same hand, same outcome, same recovery. Through the pain of it all, we managed to giggle and laugh as we, for the first time during this holiday, had a moment where no one was tugging at our sleeves, wanting a snack, asking for help...we weren't obligated to do a single thing...so we talked, played a game of words with friends and enjoyed the time together, despite the horrible circumstance.

This year, I will make a conscience effort to spend more time with Mr. N. There are a lot of other things on my list of resolutions for the year, but this one will make the top of my list. I hope that everyone is having a much safer New Year's than us!