Amber Waves of Grain

Here is the list you've all been waiting for! It's the FINAL installment of gift ideas for 2011! That's right, you now have 25 gift ideas! For those of you who have missed them, check out my blogs from the 25th of each month since July to find the first 20 ideas! Here we go! 21. Lodge Cast Iron Camping Cookware ( LINK ). Great gift for the camping husband. Nathan recently got himself the dutch oven and he's already been using it in the backyard. You can buy the products on amazon or look in stores like Gander Mountain or Bass Pro Shops. 22. Stir Crazy Popcorn Popper ( Link ). This was something I listed last year.... but that's just how much I love it! We use ours all the time. You just put in some oil and popcorn kernels and let it go. There's a place to put butter and when it's done you just flip the whole thing over and the dome becomes a bowl. It's listed for $29.99 at Target but you can find them on sale closer to $20 if you watch th...

It's that time of year where we reflect on thankfulness ( and eat a lot ) . Here's my top 10! I'm thankful for..... . 1. Old Navy finally getting rid of those creepy mannequin commercials . 2. A Big Lots recently opening by my house. It's big. It's lots. It's BIG LOTS. 3. Sam's Club's new self checkout with a really fun scanner laser gun . It makes me want to buy everything at Sam's now. (Surely I can use a 10 gallon jug of pickles, right?) 4. The kid's Hungry Hungry Hippo game from our dear friend, Michele, finally breaking. 5. Stores cashiers who still tell you how much you spent, not how much you "saved. " No thanks to you, Kohls. 6. The Christmas Shoes song only being played at Christmas. If it had been about birthday shoes, we would have been tortured with the song all year long. 7. For my two post-partum muffin tops because two is better than three. 8. For all the messes my kids make while eating.... and dirt tr...

A wise man recently told me that he never corrects his kids from across the room . He always walks to where they are to correct them. Hmmmm. Interesting. So, I tried it this past week. And, it made me a nicer mom . Instead of yelling, "Stop it!" from the kitchen into the living room.....I went to them. Even if that meant the spaghetti was boiling over . By the time I was at their side, I had time to cool off, time to process my words and tone, and then I came alongside them with my arm around them to talk. It's a loving approach. And, they responded better! Win, win . I don't usually like to do serious blog posts, but this was such a good tip I just had to share!

I'm afraid this year's cards might involve outtakes. Really? I think they just told Savannah that Santa isn't real: Just what do we do with this baby?: Can we say awkward!?!?: *sigh* I'm glad I have another month or so to make this year's card just a little. less. awkward.

We welcomed a new vehicle into the family this week. Meet " Lewis " (as in Lewis & Clark.....), the Explorer. (Can you believe Nathan wouldn't let us name it Dora the Explorer?) It's a 2002 with 69,000 miles. It looks new on the inside & out. The previous owner took really good care of it! This will be Nathan's main car since his old car needs expensive repairs. Anyone want to buy a old PT Cruiser? It has a 3rd row so if we need to fit the whole family in it, we can. It also has a cassette tape player which I'm pretty sure means we're retro hip & cool! Welcome to the family, Lewis!

Savannah turns 8 months today! She's a happy baby! She smiles constantly and is so content. She mostly just crawls around all day and plays with toys. This week she used some furniture to pull herself up so she could sit up on her bottom. (of course I missed this photo opportunity..... you'll just have to imagine it) She loves her carseat. Mums the word. Love, love, love this little girl. Happy 8 months, Savannah Reese!!!!!

We had a fun Halloween weekend. On Saturday we went to a costume party as a family. I was a cat burglar (all dressed in black with a plush cat on my shoulder), Nathan was the Cat in the Hat , Savannah was an ice cream cone , Kennedy was a cupcake , and Keegan was a skeleton . On Halloween we took the kids trick-or-treating while my parents and grandma held down the fort and passed out candy. That's a big job since we got over 160 kids! Little girls dressed up cute can get away with just about anything. The neighbors all let her reach into their bowls and grab more.... and more.... and more candy. She certainly knows how to work it. And, today they both had Smarties with breakfast............... Hope you all had a fun Halloween!!!!!!!!!