Santa's Village

I can't believe it's already been a year since we took the boys to Santa's Village for the first time! The Thompson family was here and even though it was pretty chilly, we had a blast! This is a great, FREE, kid-friendly Christmas activity at the Richardson Public Library. We used to go all the time growing up and it has certainly grown a lot over the years! NiNi and G-Pa came with us tonight as we headed back for our 2010 visit. While we were hoping it wouldn't be as cold as last year it actually ended up being around the same temp. But that didn't stop us from enjoying our time!

 

 

 

Landon Cam

For Landon's birthday this past September, we got him a toddler-friendly camera. It has since been one of his all-time favorite toys! It takes pictures and videos but in a fairly low quality. He loves to go back and look at his pictures and show everyone his work. He's become quite the little photographer and has learned how to center his subjects a little better in the frame. I just wanted to share a few pictures from the perspective of a three year old. The last few of these are from our recent trip to PaPa and Eg's house! Please keep in mind that these are taken using 1-2 megapixels!

 

 

 

 

 

I Love These Boys!

In light of Thanksgiving coming up next week I just wanted to share some random pictures from the last couple of weeks of 2 amazing little boys I am so very thankful for!

Reid and "Bear"

Every now and then Reid likes to wear his socks in honor of Aunt Lauren!

Ready for a haircut!

 

This little boy is super independent and LOVES to feed himself...which he does very well for being only 16 months old!

 

 

Fone Pics Friday

Landon & Luke 

A trip to Bass Pro Shop

 

The "teacher" came out in me the other day and I took the boys on a nature walk. For the most part we just picked up leaves and then I had this crafty thought to do an art project with them. Well, mostly the boys just tore them apart, but oh well! They're still learning I guess! :)

We got our very first blog book in recently. I had really wanted to spend more time and create one on Blurb.com (which I actually started a LONG time ago) but it's so tedious and I was finding my self being SUPER picky about it. I realized it wasn't going to work out when it took me like 2 weeks just to finish the cover! So, I used the Cutest Blog on The Block's blog book creator that just basically makes it for you. It's not layed out exactly like I would want, but it's done! And at this point in our lives my time is more valuable elsewhere! This is all our blog posts from 2009 (160 pages) and I can't believe I will already be able to make our 2010 book in a few short weeks!

 Spaghetti at NiNi & G-Pa's

 Landon has really enjoyed all the extra toy catalogs coming in due to Christmas!

It's Finally Fall!

Today was a delightfully dreary day! For the first time it really and truly felt like FALL! It was rainy, cold and wonderful! We started the day off with a chick-fil-a breakfast and a trip to Costco. Since it started raining soon after that we decided to stay in the rest of the day. We didn't have time to carve our pumpkin over Halloween weekend so that was one of our activities for the day! Landon helped us clean it out and wash the seeds. I've always loved fresh roasted pumpkin seeds so that was my project while Aaron carved.

Pumpkin Seeds Recipe

Wash and dry seeds. Melt 1-2 tablespoons of butter in a medium bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of worcestershire sauce, a dash of season salt and a dash of garlic powder to the butter. Mix well. Add pumpkin seeds and toss to coat. Bake at 300 degrees for about 20-25 minutes or until they start to brown. Add salt to taste. Lay out on paper towels to cool.

 

I had to laugh a little when Aaron said, "It's the perfect day to just lay around and watch a movie." Yes, it USED to be like that! And while I still enjoy these lazy, rainy days, they are definitely a lot different with 2 toddlers in the house who aren't real excited about just laying around. But, for the most part they did a great job at finding things to keep themselves busy!

To top off our cool Fall day, we enjoyed some chicken and dumplings for dinner!  

 Chicken and Dumplings (Crock Pot Recipe)

3-4 chicken breasts

3-4 cups water

1-2 cups milk

1 can (14 oz) chicken broth

2 cans cream of something (celery, potato, chicken, etc.) I usually use celery or potato

3-4 celery stalks chopped

3-4 carrots chopped

1 small onion chopped

Salt and Pepper

Bisquick and Milk for dumplings OR 1 package of refrigerated biscuits

Use a Crock Pot Liner for easy clean-up! Place chicken, carrots, onions and celery in crock pot. Mix water, milk, chicken broth and creams in a bowl then add to the pot. Cook on low for about 6 hours. About 30 minutes before serving turn the slow cooker on high. Remove chicken, shred it and return it to the pot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pinch off bits of dough and place in pot. Cook about 20 minutes or until they are not raw in the middle!