TBT

   Here's a quick TBT for ya.  Just FYI I was born with a cleft lip which atfer having it corrected did leave a scar on my lip which is what you see in the picture.  Also I believe this was taken after coming inside from playing on a winter day, hence the rosy red cheeks.

Indoor Smores

   So, I've been thinking about smores since I bought what I needed to make them last Friday.  Since my cousin was coming into town for Gabe's birthday party we usually have a bonfire when she is here.  But it was a little too windy to have a bonfire and my pregnant self was very tired after standing all day baking and decorating cakes and cupcakes.

   So finally the other night I could stand it no more.  You know what it's like when you have all the ingredients to make a sweet treat, you just can't help yourself sometimes.  Also, luckily, we have a gas stove.  I know, probably not the smartest way to do it, but when you want a smore you make smores, lol.

  

   
   Don't mind my dirty stove, I need to get around to cleaning my stove top.  And yes that is a beater from my hand mixer.  I know we have camp fire hot dog roasters somewhere, but for the life of me I couldn't find one, and it was raining so I didn't want to go hunting for a stick.

   For future refrence make sure you have the flame on low, the marshmallows seemed to catch on fire rather quickly even without having it close to the flame but you want to make sure you cook it long enough that it gets gooey in the middle so that your chocolate will melt.  I made them the next night for the kids, well Julian and Gabe anyway, Sebastian just got a few marshmallows. 

  
Don't forget to follow me on facebook :)  Shared on The Homestead Barn Hop.

Birthday with a Surprise!

   So this past week has been a busy one getting ready for Gabe's birthday party on Sunday.  And it went off without a hitch!  There were about ten kids running around my back yard yesterday they had a blast.  Plus it was also the first birthday party where there were little friends here and not just family even though we have a lot of little people in the family.  There are ten kids in their generation that are six and under! 

   This is the cake and cupcakes I made for the party.  I really like getting fancy with cakes and love to decorate them but I have run into some issues.  Most of my husbands family is diabetic so I would make these awesome looking cakes but no one would eat them because they couldn't, and I would have lots of cake left over to eat and some of it would go to waste.  So I started making cupcakes for the kids and a cake that was sugar free with sugar free icing.  Thankfully there are now some option in the store for sugar free cake mixes and icing.  I have tried many different sugar free icing recipes and I didn't really like any of them.  Also the reason for only making a plain sugar free cake with no special decorations is because sugar free icing does not hold up well for decorating.

  Sebastian had fun running wound outside with all the kids, but he kept stealing the bikes the older kids were using to ride down the hill, lol.

   So now, the day after the party I have only a little bit of sugar free cake left, none of the snacking food I had made for yesterday, and balloons everywhere! Lol.  But that is fine by me, I'd rather not have a lot of leftovers.

   Here is a picture of cute little Sebastian, such a cutie.  This is how he usually watches tv, laying on his back, feet on the tv stand, with his arms behind his head.

   I was trying to clean up some of the blocks the kids have so I was washing them in the tub last week.  I went into the bathroom to see how much water was in the tub and this is what I found!  Little man in the tub.  I guess he just couldn't resit all those bubbles!   And also a picture from Saturday, I think he woke up too early so he passed out right as dinner was ready.  Always has to have his blankets with him.

    And here is our little surprise that we shared with everyone at the birthday party.  So let me see, one, two, three, four, five, six.  Wait a minute six pumpkins?  I thought she only had three little boys, why are there,....oh wait, BABY PUMPKIN! Wow, so new baby coming end of April 2015.  We were very surprised by this one, but never the less are excited about our surprise blessing :)

   And here is Gabe practicing his baby sitting on Murphy.  He is so excited about having a new baby.  He keeps telling everyone, "There is a baby in my mommy's bellybutton!"  He will be such a good big brother/helper this time around.

Shared on Homestead Barn Hop.

October

   October looks like it's going to be one busy month.  We have a child turning 5 the begining of the month so of course there will be a party.  There is also school pictures for two kids, doctors appointments for two kids.  Church hay rides, community trick or treat nights, and a trunk or treat party thrown in there too.  Our preschooler is starting letters this month as well so there is extra practice with him as well.  It's just going to be a busy month.  Here is what my calendar looks like at a glance.  I use a dry erase calendar in my kitchen so that I can make sure and not miss anything and so the kids can see how many days they have left till a fun activity or something that is coming up in the future. And yes it is color coded to different children :)

 

   This past weekend we went on a Farm Tour around the area.  The first place was a little disappointing.  It was a sheep farm that was supposed to have like 1,000 head of sheep.  But let me back up a little bit.  This farm was just a few miles from our house and I got lost trying to find it.  The address was listed on the Farm Tour info sheet, but it turns out that it was not where every map I looked up showed me where it was supposed to be.  Finally I saw a sign where the address was sending me to with directions to the farm, sign was not very clear, but we finally did get there.  They had a dog herding demonstration, is lasted about 15 minutes or so then the farmer put the sheep away in a pen where we couldn't even see them so anyone who showed up after the demonstration was done probably didn't even see any of the sheep.  They did have a little store open where they sold meat and sheep skins though.

   Next we went to an apple orchard.  There the kids got to see some turkeys and paint on some pumpkins then they did a little craft which they enjoyed, but it was mainly just a normal Saturday for the orchard since it was open and selling apples, pears, pumpkins, and plums.

   The last place we went to was a pony farm, which my animal loving 4 year old LOVED of course. And he got to ride a pony.  Mommy had to pay for him to ride the pony, but I couldn't resist how much he wanted to ride the pony.
 

   They also had some snacks and little play area set up for kids to play.  I think they mainly did the farm tour to get business for their pony birthday parties that they hold.  But it was still a good experience for the kids and the pony rider thoroughly enjoyed himself.

    So it wasn't too bad of a day even though it didn't start out the greatest.  But it was a beautiful day out of the house with my two oldest.  I don't get many days like this with just them.  I was hoping to see more animals for the animal lover but that just didn't happen, maybe next time.  And as a little bit of funny/cuteness/crazyness to end this, here is a boy in a box, lol, enjoy!

   Don't forget to look me up on Facebook and sharing this at Homestead Barn Hop.

TBT

  So not up to much today, just trying to catch up on laundry and trying to figure out what i'm doing for dinner tonight.  I think I'm going to go with french toast and some pieces of bacon ends we have.  Not that long ago my husband and his dad split a whole pig from a local butcher.  I really like doing that a lot better than getting it at the grocery store and the bacon was awesome! We got it hickory smoked along with some other cut of meat.  It is by far the best tasting bacon I have ever had.  And it was a lot thicker than bacon you get at the store with more pieces in the package as well.  We will be buying more of our meat in bulk from now on.  You get the cuts of meat you want and it's usually from a local farm which is always a plus.

   Now, enough about meat.  Let's see if we can find some throw back Thursday Pictures for ya.

   Ssssoooo many toys!  Can you find the little boy?! Lol.  my oldest was probably about 2 in this picture.

Toga! Toga! Toga!  I believe he had the towel wrapped around him like that because we were visiting my mom and he had a rash on his bottom and I wanted it to breathe a little, but my mom didn't want him peeing on her floor, lol.

  That's all for now folks. Happy Thursday!

Long time no post.

   I am so sorry for the lack of posts around here lately.  I have been trying to get into a routine with having two kids in school now.  With early mornings, pick-ups, drop-offs, and packing lunches, also a little something else that I will get to later, it has been a little bit hectic around here.  Here are some pictures of what we have been up to recently. So this will be a picture heavy post :)

   This is what happens when you have a little one strapped into a seat, but then the seat is not strapped to a chair, lol.

   Playground time.

   They weigh pretty much the same so they didn't really get anywhere, lol.

   Fun at the little pool area by the playground.

   The National Zoological Park in Washington D.C.   Baby Panda!

   Anaconda!

  Momma and baby lion cubs.

   The farm area at the zoo.  It was kind of funny to me.

   You have already seen this picture from my last post, but it amounted to 125 ears of corn and about 46 bags of corn for the freezer.  I will see how long this last us this year to see if I have the right amount to be able to last us a year.

  Dino boy built a fort for his older brother.  I love it when they get along.

  Little man still getting used to waking up early in the morning.  He's my last sleeper but when he has to get up so I can take his brothers to school he's not too happy about it.  I was doing something in the kitchen and turned around to find him like this at 7:30.

   One of four pumpkins out of my garden.  They have all been picked by now and are sitting on the banister of the front porch.

   Still getting used to those early mornings.  His brothers woke him up this day probably around 7.  He fell asleep like this before lunch.  Always has to have his blankets.

   The furbaby Murphy.

   Hiding in the cabinet in the kitchen.  I had to clean it out awhile ago because they kept crawling in there.

   The cabinet exploded, lol.  These are all the blankets that were in said cabinet.

   Yeah, had to add this one.  Little man is in the stage where he is always taking his diaper off, but on this day he had his shoes on so he couldn't get his diaper off! took him about two hours to take his shoes off so he could get his pants off.

   If you have stuck with me this long, thank you.  I know some people enjoy looking at stuff like this while others would just have recipes, tips, and other things. I will get into more stuff like that as I get more of a knowledge on this blogging stuff.  Don't forget to look me up on Facebook.  A Life of Organized Chaos.  Hope to see you around.

I know what I'm doing this afternoon

   So I was going to sit down and write a post about what my family did over the long weekend and how things have been going since my last post, but low and behold I had to run to town this morning to get some bread and milk.  And then I decided to stop at the fruit market on the way home, and ended up with this.

 

   I've been waiting and waiting to find a farmer somewhere selling corn out of the back of their truck (because that's how we do it in the country, lol.) But I have been unable to catch any of them, so I did the next best thing, stopped at the market where they sell fresh local corn.  I wanted 10 dozen, but the lady at the store counted it so I'm not quite sure how much I have here.  I'll count as I'm doing it I guess.  Then when I'm done I'm going to run down to two different neighbors that have chickens and see if they want my cobs.  But for now I need to get the kids lunch and then get cracking on all that corn.

   Don't forget to look me up on facebook!