Cason's lights

This is our 5th Christmas in our house and we have never put up Christmas lights outside. Since Cason loves lights so much, we figured we should bite the bullet and put some up this year. We told Cason about a month ago and he was so excited, he asked me almost every day if we could go outside and put lights up. A couple weekends ago my dad came to visit. We went to Home Depot and Lowes that weekend to buy some lights. We decided to go with all blue LED lights and bought enough to go around the front and one side since our house is on a corner. Kelly took advantage of the beautiful weather that afternoon and got a good chunk of lights hung up while my dad and I helped attach clips on the ground. Several Christmas Vacation references were made during these few hours.





After two afternoons up on the roof, Kelly finished up the front and side of the house as we had intended. I thought it looked good. Kelly thought it was "a good start". He decided that it looked unfinished and we should go around the whole house since there is a street behind our house as well. So back to Lowes we went to buy them out of blue LED C9 lights. Kelly just finished up the blue lights a few days ago and they look pretty good. We don't like the lights that lead up to the top peak but if we take the bulbs out, the strand goes out. Apparently a few bulbs can be loose, burnt out, or missing but not that many. We might put electrical tape around those or something so they look nicer when lit.

In this picture, you can also see our tree in the front window. It has blue and white lights on it as well. Cason was SO excited to put the tree up, Kelly and I not so much.





We also wanted to get Cason some lights to enjoy inside that he could turn on and off himself. He is a control freak and likes to be in charge of stuff like that. We initially bought him a string of snowflake lights that turn on and off with the push of a button. I hung them around the mantle for him but they played music. The problem with that is the music was a lot louder at home than at the store. And Cason would turn them on for about 2 seconds and then turn them off immediately. About 100 times a day. He said he didn't want to waste the batteries and that's why he couldn't leave them on. So after hearing the first few notes of the song over and over again, I packed the lights up and returned them to Home Depot just 2 days after buying them.

So then Cason fell in love with some icicle lights that changed colors and had a remote. No music, perfect! So when Grandma and Grandpa came down, Cason insisted on going to Lowes to show Grandma. Grandma bought Cason the icicle lights and all was right in his world. We were going to hang them inside but there was no real way to attach them to anything indoors. They ended up fitting perfectly on the two open sides of our back patio so this way the boys can watch them from indoors. Cason loves being able to turn them on with the remote and he won't let anyone else have that important job. There are 14 different programs that you can switch between for the light show. At first he didn't want to run these much because he didn't want to waste batteries but I finally convinced him that they don't run on batteries. They look much more cool in person but here's an idea of what they look like.





And here is the back of the house from the street. You can see Kelly's blue lights and Cason's icicles. Pay no attention to the one blue light that's burnt out already.



The boys love to go outside after dinner when it's dark to look at the lights. Here is Rycie in Cason's shark hat and mittens. He loves all things animals and will run all over holding his hands up when he's wearing the shark mittens!





Oh and just for fun, here is Cason at church this past Sunday. About twice a year the 2-5 year olds come on stage to sing a song. I know Cason well enough by now to know that he won't sing or do the motions but I still get excited to see him up there and bring my camera. As expected, he didn't sing or do the motions but he did flash us a big smile when he saw Daddy wave at him.

Thanksgiving 2010

For the past two Thanksgivings, Kelly's brother Chris has come down from Iowa to visit. And by visit, I mean he will hang out with us but his real reason for coming is to go to a Cowboys game. Well this year, Kelly talked his parents into coming down too. Nick and Natalie couldn't come this year but Chris' girlfriend Heather drove down with Chris so we got to meet her.

Preparation started on Monday when my helpers helped me grind up Oreos in the food processor to make Oreo balls.



I ended up making WAAAAAAY too many sweets. We weren't really thinking when we planned it out. Kelly's family isn't big on sweets so it ended up being mostly Kelly and I eating them. So we had a LOT to give away. Here is just a representation of the 300+ Oreo balls I made. I also made 300+ peanut butter balls and some delicious pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting.



We had our big feast on Wednesday night with Kelly's smoked brisket and pulled pork and some sides because on Thursday, we were going to the Cowboys game. This was my first Thanksgiving game to go to because the past two years I was at home with the kids. Kelly's mom graciously volunteered to stay home with the kids this year so I got to go have fun. We opted for party passes (standing room only) this year because they are 1/10th of the price of the seats in the nosebleed section. This was our view the whole game but we didn't care, we had fun anyway.









The first quarter was a joke and we thought we would be heading for home very early. But the Cowboys started playing the second half of the game and made it an interesting game to be at after all. We had a great time with Kelly's family, thanks for coming down Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Chris, and Heather!

My "invention"

Kelly and I have had our Thanksgiving meal planned for a good 5-6 months now. It basically consists of meat and desserts. Kelly is smoking brisket AND pulled pork. Then we will have cornbread muffins and Kelly's awesome BBQ beans. As for the important stuff, I will be making Oreo balls, peanut butter balls, and pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting. This has all been planned for quite some time (except the pumpkin bars, it was going to be pumpkin roll but the pumpkin king has changed his mind).

When we were in Myrtle Beach this summer, some of the candy shops had chocolate dipped marshmallows. I had never had one before but they looked awesome so I tried one. They were really good so I decided to try making them for Thanksgiving as well. A few months ago, I thought how cool would it be if I dipped the marshmallows in peanut butter and chocolate? Because there is nothing quite as tasty as peanut butter and chocolate together. I looked around on the internet to see if there were any recipes but I couldn't find anyone using the extra touch of peanut butter. So I decided to do a trial run to see if it would work. I wasn't sure if the peanut butter would set up. I'm sure this has been done before but since I couldn't find it anywhere online, I'm calling it my invention.

So first I took some Jif peanut butter and put it in the microwave for about a minute until it was somewhat melted. I put jumbo marshmallows on a toothpick and dipped them in the peanut butter. Then I put them in the fridge for a few hours (I'm sure they didn't need this long but I was waiting until my kids were in bed) to help the peanut butter harden up.



When I pulled them out of the fridge that night, the peanut butter wasn't hard but it wasn't going to slide off the marshmallow either so I figured that was good enough. The marshmallows were a bit hardened so I was worried that they would never get soft again but I went ahead and dipped them in chocolate almond bark anyway.



No need to worry. The marshmallows quickly got soft again as they warmed up to room temperature. The almond bark quickly hardened, keeping the peanut butter in tact. These are just my trial run so I didn't worry about aesthetics but they are delicious. You know you want to try one.

Kelly had the idea of rolling them in crushed graham cracker. It sounds like a nice touch and would make them more pretty but I'm not sure if I'm going to do that or not.

18 months already???

Where has time gone? It feels like Bryce just turned one. I've been slacking on the blog lately so I thought I would post something today so I don't forget the things Rycie does at 18 months. If it seems random, that would be because it is. I may or may not have just realized last night that today is his half birthday, I'll never tell.

He still loves his tiger and all animals really. Kelly took the boys to a park a few days ago and Rycie saw a bear statue. Kelly said he just kept roaring at it and it was so cute. Kelly also took Bryce to True Value a few weeks ago. He said they had some giant Webkinz stuffed animals and Bryce was hugging them all. Every time Kelly showed him a different one, he would drop the one he had and reach out to hug the new one. He even tried to put one up on the counter when Kelly was paying for his BBQ pellets. Kelly said he would have bought him one if they hadn't been $30.

He has also become very interested in balls of any type but especially a youth football we have. He has insisted on sleeping with it quite a bit lately and likes to carry it around the house. He also loves the Little Tikes basketball hoop we have. He has played with that more in the past month than Cason has played with it in the past two years.



Bryce loves to imitate pretty much anything he sees. Here he is doing burpees. We never tried to teach him burpees, he just saw us doing them at the gym.



Lately he's been obsessed with belly buttons and the funny thing is he always wants to see Cason's. If a belly button is mentioned or seen, he will then laugh and point to Cason and keep insisting on seeing it until Cason lifts up his shirt. Then Rycie laughs and laughs.

One of the cutest (although sometimes annoying) things he does is he will run and try to hide if it's time to brush his teeth or go to bed. He hates getting his teeth brushed but the past few weeks have been tolerable when I make a game out of it. I make a big deal about getting his tooth brush out and he starts laughing and takes off running. He usually runs as far away as he can and then just stands there laughing while I exaggeratedly come after him. Then he lies down on the floor and I have to straddle him to get the toothbrush in there for a few seconds. Hey, whatever works, right?

On the same note, when it's time for bed or nap, I take him to his room and change his diaper. As soon as he can, he gets up and bolts out of the room. He runs as far away as he can, usually to our bedroom closet or to the side of the clothes dryer. He is super quiet as he hides unless I start being silly calling out for him, then he starts laughing. It's super cute and I think he will be very good at Hide and Seek someday!

I don't know where he got this but he says "Aye" for yes. He doesn't say no either, he just shakes his head and says "Mmm-mmm".

Personality wise, Bryce is still a very intense child. He is either super happy or super angry. But he is usually happy outside the house so people think he is the happiest toddler. He is fairly outgoing with strangers but still a Mama's boy at heart. He is also pretty independent and it doesn't take much to entertain him. He is happy with almost any toy. I can't even really think of a favorite toy of his because he plays with almost everything at this point. He loves to play with coins and small objects like that so I think we may have another rock lover on our hands. I look forward to the day when I don't have to watch him like a hawk around small objects!

He loves his big brother and every now and then Cason will be nice and play WITH him. Bryce has figured out how to tease Cason though. If Cason isn't playing with him, Bryce will grab one of his beloved items like his "Softy Blanket" or "Navy Bear" and run off with it laughing. Already knows his role as little brother! But he can also be so sweet, he knows which items are Cason's favorites and if he sees one laying around, he will grab it and walk over to Cason to give it to him saying "here, here!"

Love you Rycie!

Trick or Treat!

Cason has never trick or treated before this year. His first two Halloweens, he was too young. Last year we went to a trunk or treat at a church instead. There are NO trick or treaters in our neighborhood. Seriously. We set a big bowl of candy outside our door this year and not a single piece was taken when we went to bed at 10pm. So Lacy invited us over to go trick or treating in their more exciting neighborhood.

We went over at 4:30, let the boys play for awhile, then Chris and Lacy ordered pizza. After that, the boys got in their costumes just in time for Kelly to arrive home from work. I took pictures with my camera but Lacy's turned out so much better that I will just post hers instead. How cute are these four???



Josiah wanted to be "Scary Batman" and so of course he wanted Luke to be "Scary Robin".

The world's happiest tiger. I can't believe he tolerated the hat so well.







Lacy's mom and dad were in town and they brought little light up toys for all of the boys. I think it was the highlight of Cason's night. He is obsessed with lights so he played with it until bedtime.



Josiah showed Cason the ropes and Cason caught on right away. They look so big trick or treating together! Bryce was not shy either, he walked right up to doors to collect his candy.