Andrew's school B-day celebration.

In kindergarten, the kids take a turn bringing snacks for the class. Because Andrew's birthday is in the summer, we celebrated his "1/2" birthday today. Here is a picture of the treats we made. They are peanut butter French Fries and sugar cookie/peanut butter hamburgers! They were a huge hit with the class, and very easy to make. The recipes even have a little history, mom made these for me to take to school for my birthday when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, and she still had the recipe book!

Gardening Wagon gets a new home!

Thank you Steve and Sue for giving your gardening wagon a new home. Colby loves the wagon, he has been hauling all over the yard. I even gave them a ride in it this morning. I cleaned the dead foliage from the tomato plants up this morning, in preparation for a new year of gardening. I am excited to try some new plants this year. I found some seedless watermelon's that the boys want to try. We will have three garden patches this year, so there will be lots to share!!

Lauren's baby shower

First of all, thanks to everyone who attended Lauren's shower this weekend. We had a very good turn out and Lauren received lots of wonderful gifts. It was so good to get to see everyone, and do a little catching up! Connie requested the recipe for the Spinach salad, so here it is:

Poppy Seed Salad Dressing

1 1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. dry mustard
3 Tbsp grated onion
2/3 c vinegar
2 c. oil
3 Tbsp Poppy seeds

Combine sugar, salt, mustard, onion, and vinegar. Slowly add oil, stirring constantly. Add poppy seeds last.

This dressing is good served with fresh spinach, fresh strawberries, toasted pecans, chopped green onions, and feta cheese. You can also add crumbled bacon, and replace the strawberries with dried cranberries.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Puppy update!

Well, we ended up keeping the little male puppy with the kink in his tail. He is the best natured puppy I have ever seen. He would prefer to sleep than rough house. The boys are in love with him, and I think Jeff and I are also! He spends most of the evening in the house with us sleeping.

During the day though, either him, or his mother have to go into the dog pen. Not much fun, but a necessity since his momma won't stay home. Take today for example, all three dogs were asleep on the front porch when Jeff left, and Mattie had been limping, so he left them out. When he came home at lunch, the older dogs were home, but not Bo. He looked a little bit, but had to get back to work. When I got home with the kids, we drove around looking for him. Jeff ended up finding him on the neighbors land with his foot caught in a hunting trap. As you can see from the pictures, his front right paw is very swollen. Luckily, he is walking fairly well on it now, so we don't think it is broken. Earlier this week, the neighbors grown dog had been caught in the trap as well, but was there for at least 24 hours, and his leg was pretty tore up.

I'm back!

We have a couple weeks of illness, both colds and the stomach flu, and I just haven't made it online to blog lately. We had a wonderful Christmas. We have a new family member, Bo. He is one of our chocolate lab pups. Everyone seemed to want girls, so we ended up keeping a little boy. He spends most of his time in the house with us and is adjusting well. Right now, he is sleeping on Jeff's lap on the couch. (Jeff has been under the weather today) The boys are playing their Leapster's, after a fancy dinner of cold cereal. I will get a few Christmas pictures posted in the next few days so check back!

Busy in the kitchen!

The last few days we have made lots of different kinds of candy and baked goodies. Sunday I baked cookies for work and froze some to have for Santa, made a snack mix, and a huge batch of German Chocolate fudge. Last night, we made bagel dogs for supper, then I made some peanut brittle, Oreo balls, Puppy Chow, chocolate covered pretzels, and peanut clusters. We made a sampler of each goody and placed in a tin as Christmas gifts for the teachers and babysitters. Tonight, we are making Snowman popcorn balls and punch for Andrew's Christmas party on Thursday.

Today, I am home with Colby. He woke up running a fever in the middle of the night, but just seems to be stuffy now. His Christmas party at school is today, so I am glad he has not run a fever since. Every 5 minutes, he is asking me to look at the clock to see if it is time for school yet!

Would anyone like a little blonde boy???

Okay, two posts in one day is a little much for me, but I couldn't not post this. Colby is being a terror this morning. First, he keeps trying to change his clothes. He comes into the living room with different jeans on, I tell him to go put his original clothes on. Next he comes out with only his underwear and a new (good) shirt on, I again tell him to go put his original clothes on. Then, I hear water running in the bathroom, and he is notorious for making a mess in the bathroom. I walk in to find him on his footstool with only his underwear on, and they are around his ankles, pulling the stopper out of the sink, with a pitcher, toy water bottle, my container of cotton balls, and water all over the counter. It looks like he has left over Orange juice that is watered down, so I ask, "What is this, and where did you get it?" b/c I know we do not have any OJ made in the house. He matter-of-factly says "It's pee". Apparently, he peed in the pitcher, then poured it into my cotton ball container, and spilt it all over the counter. At this point, I would be tempted to add Colby in as a package deal for the puppy buyer we have coming today!