December 29...363/365

Me and my kids...eating birthday cupcakes and getting ready to say goodbye.  Gonna miss these guys...

December 27...361/365

Love her smile...this girl is absolutely obsessed with Soul Surfer...she can recite every line from the movie.  What a great book for her!

December 22...356/365

Grandpa visits Millie's class at Mary Castle Elementary.  Reminds me of the days when he and Mom visited Quinn and Clara at Highland for Grandparents' Day.

December 15...348/365

Millie's class presented the end of their Music Project today.

December 4...338/365

Coloring

December 3...337/365

Millie dances at our church's annual Angel Breakfast

November 19...323/365

The tree is covered with thankful leaves!!  Love this...

October 29...302/365

We decided to do something a little different, so instead of a regular present for our niece's birthday, we took her to Cookies and Canvas.  Millie was the lucky cousin who got to go with...and paint a Hip, Hip, Hippo!!

October 8...281/365

Cousins

October 6...279/365

After school today things were really peaceful for some reason.  I had soup on the stove and Millie helped me make pumpkin apple muffins for dinner.  Then we sat on the couch and read together.  I'm not sure why we can't do this every day, but I was thankful for it today!!

Apple Pumpkin Muffins

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 Tblspn. Pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 cup canned pumpkin

½ cup vegetable oil

2 cups finely chopped peeled apples

STREUSEL:

¼ cup sugar

2 Tblspn. All-purpose flour

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

4 tsp. cold butter or margarine

In a bowl, combine the first five ingredients.  In another bowl, combine the eggs, pumpkin and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.  Fold in apples.  Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full.  In a small bowl, combine sugar, flour and cinnamon.  Cut in butter until crumbly.  Sprinkle over batter.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.  Makes 1 ½ dozen.

September 11...254/365

Not a great picture as far as photographic quality, but an AWESOME picture of Millie's baptism day.

September 7...250/365

If you're squeamish, just stop now and look at the next post!

I cleaned out the fridge today.  This poor bag fell behind a shelf and was found under a drawer.  Not good...really makes me feel sick to look at it.  But it's my only picture from today.

August 20...232/365

Our kids are growing up! Sometimes instead of hiring a babysitter, we let them stay home alone with Quinn and Clara in charge of taking care of emergencies. BUT...no one is really "the boss." They all work together to get along (no phone calls to Mom or Dad because of arguments) and getting any assigned chores completed. If they meet those criteria, they earn some "staying home alone money." They decide together what they are saving for. They've been saving for almost a year for a night away at Great Wolf Lodge and we were finally able to go this weekend!!

August 19...231/365

Great Wolf Lodge

August 16...228/365

First Day of School tradition...a special snack. It's usually homemade, but I decided I'm not going to feel guilty about the fact that I bought it this year :o) Sorry that Quinn is missing, but he was still at Cross Country practice and these three were getting ready to leave for their own classes/lessons.

August 3...215/365

We had the best neighbors when we lived in Minnesota...neither of us live on Ebony Ln. anymore, but we had a chance to meet for lunch today!

Here's what the kids looked like the day before we moved back to Indiana...July 4, 2007

...and here they are today!

August 2...214/365

August 1...213/365

July 31...212/365

July 30 bonus pic

Love this one so had to post an extra...Millie with the engines from a Saturn V rocket