Happy Memorial Day!

What a beautiful morning!  Hans took Cody and I down to the Norwood Memorial, and we had an al fresco Dunkin Donuts breakfast on the lawn while waiting for the parade to come by.  Now we're just hanging out around the house (I'm going to head out to finish lawn work and some gardening), and I'll grill some marinated chicken and pork chops this afternoon.  Josh is heading out to a BBQ with his friend Shannon, and I'm just grateful to have my family safely here and able to enjoy this day.  Please pray for all our veterans, the active and deployed military, and especially their families (particularly those who live in Oklahoma).  And remember them more often than holidays.  I'm probably 'preaching to the choir' on this one, but I just wanted to say it out loud.  As a nation, we don't give enough due to our soldiers, airmen, marines and sailors.  But tomorrow is another day, and we can start each morning hoping for our best in everything.

Happy Memorial Day - we love you all...

Mmmm... Vegan cookies

I had a sweet tooth this afternoon, and Josh did too, so I made some Vegan cookies for an afternoon treat.  Hans and Bethany were very pleasantly surprised!  And since it's nearing Easter, I added on a little something to make them special.  How cute!

Thanks to Obachan for giving me this recipe years ago.  It is so easy, I have to pass it along again (with a small difference):



                            

Cake Mix Cookies
(preheat oven to 350o)

1 box any cake mix
2 eggs or egg replacer (mixed per directions)
1/2 c. oil
Any desired add-ins:  chocolate chips, nuts, etc.

Mix together until it starts to form a ball of dough, then spoon or roll balls of dough onto greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350o for 10-12 minutes.  Delish!

Almost Christmas!

Cody and I got Bethany and Hans off to Texarkana safely, and they are having a nice time!  Josh rode down with us to North Carolina, and we stopped in Stafford to drop him off at his grandparents.  Obachan has time off through Christmas, and they should be spending time together, along with Aunt Michelle and his cousins.  And he's looking forward to a delicious Suki Yaki dinner for "New Year's" eve (which they'll celebrate a little early).  So Cody and I finished our trip to NC Friday morning, making a brief stop at Hinnant Winery on the way down.  We've really just relaxed so far and enjoyed ourselves (doing a little Christmas work along the way).  I'm relieved and blessed to know that all the kids are safely visiting family, and that we made it to Cindy's safely.  We are having a wonderful time with her, and hanging out together.


Our love and prayers are constantly with the families in Newtown, CT, who are suffering this season with such an unimaginable loss.  May God watch over them and everyone affected by this and all tragedies.

Love to all...

-Kris (Mom)

Christmas is coming...

We had to go by the mall today to get a bunch of vitamins and things for Bethany, and decided to 'meander' a bit while there.  Macy's had tons of Christmas things out all ready, including some beautiful Nutcrackers, and I wanted to stop by Claire's to find some new clip-on hoop earrings.  Of course, it's never "just" with us...

For starters, Josh saw this lovely Nutcracker, and Cody pointed out that it was specially designed to crack Chestnut's.  ; )









And Josh got into the Jingle-Bell Hop mood at Claire's.  He's such a cute elf!  Be sure to press 'play' to watch him jingle his bells!  Hahahahaha......

Love to all...

The best night EVER!

I love this night.  I usually squander the whole hour any way I want.  And by squander, I mean waste the time doing something inane like blogging or checking Facebo...  Oh, wait.  I'm doing that right NOW!  Okay - I have to go, because this is productive, and there is an hour's worth of squandering to be done.  Love to all!

SLEEP IN!

Happy Halloween!

YEA!  Halloween was so much fun!  And for the first time EVER, we had everybody's costumes done BEFORE Halloween!  Amazing...

"Mirror, Mirror in my hand,
who's the fairest in the land?"

And another first?  Neither Cody nor I went out with them.    They're so grown up!

Hope everyone else had a wonderful Halloween, and is doing well after the storms.

Love to all...

Rouge the Bat (Shadow's girlfriend).

Hans my (cute) Angry Bird pig.

Our candy headquarters

Cody and I went as Elphaba and Fiyero, from Wicked.

Church party

The boys want to attend our church Halloween festival, so we're heading out. Man, they look good!

Happy 4th of July!

                  

Cody, Josh and I were up early to watch the parade go by - right on our street! That is so cool... The Mummer's were there again, all the kids tossing candy from fancy cars, and our wonderful Norwood police/fire/EMS members.

Now, after a nice breakfast on the back porch (what a great breeze!), we have imitated slugs. And a really lifelike - or not - impression we are doing. I may find the energy to order wings or pick up Mexican. Or maybe I won't, and it will just be chips and salsa...

"don't want to move..."