Happy Birthday Christy

HApPy BiRTHdAy tO yOu
hAPpY bIrtHDaY To yOu
HApPy BiRThDaY dEaR cHrIStY
hAPpY bIrtHDaY To yOu!!!

No, Christy is NOT running around without pants in the photo in top right corner. She was at a swim meet.
We love you baby girl!

Crazy Little Brothers

My dear little Brother Larry has been in Mexico since Christmas Eve. He went to deliver stockings and goodies to 3 or 4 of the orphanages there (very charitable of him). A couple of days ago he decided to take a ride down the highway on his bike, which he had trailered there. So, he and his friend Paula jumped on and took off. After stopping at this toll booth, he decides to take off doing a "wheelie" (yes, he is a show off). In the process of doing the wheelie, both he and Paula were slung off the back of the bike. Ambulances and police were called.

I think this has been his second experience of riding in the back of a Mexican police car. Thank goodness Paula was there to interpret for him. I think they are back in Las Vegas now. This boy has got to grow up!

What's For Dinner?

Olivia wanted a recipe, so she watched and wrote down what she saw.
She started with the "sampling" before she finished.
You do notice the title..........."Old Folks mac and Cheese"!
I wonder how she ever came up with that??????

Here She goes.........

Beginning seamstress we have here.
Great job Olivia.

Here He goes........

First try at sewing on paper.

The Murray Family

Wendy, these are great! I downloaded all 30 something of them!

After-Christmas Celebration at Grandma Cat's

These are the pics Mandy took at Grandma's today. I haven't downloaded mine yet.
Where are the pictures of Brooke and Travis Jr, and their boyfriend/girlfriend?

Christmas Photos

What is It?

Go Cameron, A new Deere!

Olivia, I didn't know they made little sizes.
I've always wanted to try one of these.

Where are the other Christmas pictures?  Come on now, I know you have a few.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday.
I'm sure all the kids had smiles on their faces, candy in their bellies, and loads of excitement.
It was great talking to each of you. For the grandkids that we didn't get a chance to talk to, please have them give us a call.
Just know, that we love each and everyone of you!
Merry Merry Christmas.

Happy Birthday James

Happy Birthday to YOU
Happy Birthday to YOU
Happy Birthday dear James
Happy Birthday to YOU!

Celebrate in style!

Happy Birthday Kathy

Happy Birthday to YOU
Happy Birthday to YOU
Happy Birthday dear Kat
Happy Birthday to YOU ! ! ! !

Make it the best one yet!

Blake's Bike Ride

Blake was able to ride this bike, flat tire and all.

This child is not afraid of anything!

Hey Mandy.....Look at this one!

Found it on Six Sisters Stuff. NO BAKING!
Love their blog!

Chubby Hubby Clusters

Chocolate, peanut butter, pretzels, and peanuts all come together to make the perfect little treat! No baking required.

Ingredients

• 1½ cups semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup peanut butter chips
• ½ cup butter, cut into pieces
• ¼ cup peanut butter
• 2 cups pretzel sticks, roughly chopped 
• 1 cup salted peanuts

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, mix together chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, butter, and peanut butter. Microwave on high for 45 seconds, stir, and microwave again for 30 seconds. Stir until smooth (if it isn't completely melted, return to the microwave for 20 second intervals, stirring after each time).
2. Add pretzels and peanuts to the melted chocolate mixture and stir until they are completely coated in chocolate.
3. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto wax paper and refrigerate for about 30 minutes or until firm.
4. Optional: drizzle with melted peanut butter.
5. If you don't eat them all in one sitting, store leftovers in an airtight container.

What ? ? ? ?

What? ? ? ?
I thought that G r a n d m a ' s  were supposed to read the bedtime stories.
Who knew she was going to make me read it all by myself?

Blake

Busy, Busy, Busy

Snug as a bug

I LOVE these cool nights and sunny days. I was able to get out today road running and getting the last of Christmas all wrapped up. Boxes continue to be delivered daily by UPS and Fed Ex, and Jack is going crazy. He has to sniff everything that comes in the house.

Tomorrow will be another Yard day getting up leaves. We have millions of them everywhere. I had rather bag them up and haul them off, but Sherrill wants to burn everything. So, guess I will be having a fire tomorrow. We really have to watch it close since Sherrill tried to burn the barn up a few years ago.

Hope all of you have things in order before the Fat Man comes!

Poor Little Baby

Poor little thing......spent the night at the hospital.
Hope you get better soon Blake!
Call me if you need me Kelli.

OMG You Know She Didn't

Yes......she, I mean I probably did!
This year I refused to buy more Christmas cards. I have boxes and boxes of leftover cards......so I decided to recycle, reuse, and SAVE.  So, if you happen to get the same card that you got last year, or the year before.....or even 10 years ago, don't stress. Just pitch it in the garbage after Christmas.

Now, if you are one of those sentimental folks, like myself, that saves all of their cards just return your card and a self addressed stamped envelope, and I will be happy to send you another one!
By the way.......no money in these cards. Even more depressing huh?

Poor Grandpa

I suppose by now all of you have received the email from Kat with the youtube video. Sherrill hasn't seen the video yet, but I was telling him about it last night on our way to Krispy Kreme. After I finished the story, he looked over at me and said "Why haven't you started Christmas cooking yet."

Duh? "Well Sherrill, it's not Christmas." His reply was......"Well, it will be over with in a few days".

I went ahead and asked him if he wanted me to make him some Chocolate Oatmeal cookies tomorrow. He told me sure, but when was I going to make EVERYTHING? What is this man thinking? I quit baking for the community YEARS ago. I have not delivered a platter of Christmas treats in quite a while. But.....HE still wants me to do all that baking? ? ? ? For HIM????? The man that is NOT supposed to be eating sweets!

So Cindy, when you are making those Oreo balls this year......you might want to send your dad a few.

And Christy, remember those pretzels he said you didn't make because they looked so perfect.....you better get busy. And Mandy, remember those chocolate cookies that never turn out the same on the east coast, but they turn out just right in Arizona, you better save him some. And Wendy, he has about given up on you, because you always send MY favorites! Kathy, he wasn't impressed with the Baklava, so you are safe. And Abby and Kelli, he's never had any of your baking, so now would be a good time to get started.

The trip to Krispy Kreme had to be a negotiation. He wanted a dozen, I said just two, and we ended up with six. I'm sure his blood sugar is still sky high.

What is this?

This was drawn by one of our new budding artist.

Who can identify what it is?

Why Oh Why???

I just finished my first class. Oh me oh my.....why oh why??? The only thing I was sure about was "Cookies". They were named after Hansel and Gretel leaving a trail of breadcrumbs in the forest.
I now can tell you about POP, SMTP, ASCII, CERT, SANS, ISDN, DSL,T1, Sonnet, hubs, you name it. Whew.....that took a lot of reading. Port 25 used for sending email, Port 80 allows you to access the internet.
 Most of the people in class are teachers, IT specialists, programmers, you name it. We had to do an introduction thing, and I am the lonely little grandma just trying to protect my Mac from the Grandkids downloads! I have to run all these tests on my Mac as well as my laptops before I can configure my own network. And believe me......it will be a mighty secure network.
The one thing we will be doing next week is learning how to disable remote control on your computer. If you have not changed your settings, your remote access is ON, and anyone can access your computer. Also, I learned dial-up is more secure than broadband. Broadband is on 24/7 where as
dial-up closes down once you sign off.
This is going to be tough, but I can do it. I am saving each of the lessons, so if you want to join in on the fun, I'll share them with you.

Christmas Update

So, here's the Christmas Update

Only 3 presents left!!
I ran out of money......so the gifts will be a smaller this year. My transmission took all of your Christmas money......sorry. 

Kelli.........no present yet Done
Blake...... done   Delivered and enjoyed
Liam.......no present yet
Cindy.......no present yet DONE  Should be delivered by 15th
Tristen....to be delivered around Dec 15th Done......did it arrive?
Nate........should have been delivered Monday DONE! ! ! ! ! 
Kathy.......No present yet DONE  Should be delivered by 15th
Chris.......No present yet
Eli...........No present yet   In transit
Isaac........No present yet
Wendy.....No present yet  Done 
Cameron..Should have been delivered DONE
Olivia.......Should have been delivered DONE
Christy.....No present yet.....will be sending food for Wilbur (the pig) DONE
Kenny......delivered Monday DONE
Luke.......delivered Monday DONE
Catherine..delivered Monday DONE
Jacob.......delivered Monday DONE
Mandy.....no present yet......been naughty DONE
Seth.........no present yet DONE
Meghan...no present yet DONE
James......no present yet.....another naughty one DONE
Lauren....present arrived DONE
Carter.....present arrivedDONE
Isabella..present in transit DONE
Sherrill.. done, done, done, done, and more done (all in transit) DONE
Parents...no present yet DONE
Triplets...no present yet DONE
Jackson...no present yet DONE
Christa...no present yet DONE
Tristen Evans.....done DONE ( nope...not done...being sent HERE, now I have to ship it, Ugh!)

OMG.....I am not even half way through yet! Next year, EVERYONE gets pajamas and a book.....just wait and see!

Only 3 presents left!!
I ran out of money......so the gifts will be a smaller this year. My transmission took all of your Christmas money......sorry. 

Signing up AGAIN............

Yes, I am doing it again. I am signing up for an online class called Introduction to PC Security.
I know, it's the holidays, and now is NOT the best time, but as Grandma Cat says,"You've got to watch out for those Nigerians".
In this class I will learn how to build my own firewall on each computer. I'm so excited. Yes, I will remember to back up all of my files before I invade my own computers. I have two ibooks, one with I forget how many terabytes of storage.
If you are interested, go to Ed2go and just take a look at the pretest. Boy do I have a lot to learn!

Need More presents......Need More presents......

Alright now, it's getting down to the nitty gritty.
I still have a few more presents to get.
No presents yet for the 6 kids ( yes, you are always last, Grandkids come first).
Anyone with a suggestion, let me know, email me, text me, Skype me, or hey, you can even actually call your dad and let him go on about the wool underwear! What do YOU really really really want?

Happy Happy Sunday

Look how this boy has grown. He will be 4 in just a couple of weeks.

As for Kelli, she is still just a tiny little thing! 

And by the way...... Wendy, he was going through my iPad looking at pictures, and came across one of you, Liv, and Cameron. I pointed to you and asked who was that, which he promptly responded "Cameron's mom". He immediately got this smile on his face and said emphatically, "Oh that's Grandma". That was a good laugh. He had to think twice!

Kelli, Thanks for the visit. Come on back and stay with us a few days.

Ohhhh, These look just too good.....

Homemade Bacon Turtles

Author: The Endless Meal

Recipe type: Baking

Serves: Makes about 3 trays

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 1 tin condensed milk
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 8 oz semisweet chocolate
• 3 tablespoons butter
• ¾ pound pecan halves (Nina said she buys 2 – 1pound bags of pecans, since some of the pecans are broken. I just happened to have a bunch in my freezer)
• A half pound of bacon, cooked crispy

Instructions

1. Caramel: Mix the butter, corn syrup, brown sugar and condensed milk in a heavy saucepan. Start with heat on high until boiling, then reduce to medium. Stir constantly for approximately 15 minutes or until softball stage in cold water (a candy thermometer makes this much easier!). Let it cool for about an hour. It should still be warm, just be careful it is not too hot.
2. Chocolate: Gently melt chocolate and butter over low heat until just melted. Be careful not to burn the chocolate
3. Assemble the turtles: Arrange pecans to resemble turtles – one for the head and two for the feet – on parchment paper. Roll small balls of caramel and place on center of pecans, squishing gently into place. Cover caramel with a piece of cooked bacon. Place in fridge for at least 30 minutes. Hold turtle by the head and spoon the chocolate over top. Place back onto parchment paper and sprinkle lightly with medium course sea salt. Put back into the fridge to harden the chocolate

Notes

These little guys freeze really well. And they make perfect gifts, too

A Woman's Work...........

You know how women are always responsible for making sure there is toilet paper, milk, cereal, and bread in the house? Why can't the same be said for men?
Why is it that EVERYTIME I go out to cut grass, or get up leaves, there is NEVER no gas? With FIVE gas cans, you would think at least ONE of them would be filled. There was less than a pint of gas in the lawnmower.
And then......there's the N-rigging that some one likes to do. The tube that goes into the leaf catcher has been broken for like 10 years. I use to could use the bungee strap to hold it on, but now it is attached different. So, after 2 loads of leaves, I had to give up......that with the NO GAS situation.
(I quit putting gas cans in my car after some sloshed out one time.) It took forever for the smell to go away! I was too lazy to rake, so I just came inside for house work.
Women are DEFINITELY better prepared!

Kids, Kids, Kids

I was just on Google+ and came across these photos. I'll pull some more off later.
 Google automatically takes them from the blog and puts them in albums on Google+. One album has over 1,000 and the other has 800 something. I really freaked out when I saw that I could see the photos from my blog. Everything has been checked "private". So, I called Christy to make sure that the general public could not see my info. Christy read out where 158,673 people have looked at my profile. WHAT? ? ? ? She tried, but could not access my photos....Whew! Thank goodness for that!
Look at how these little peeps have grown.
I just went back, and now it's showing 3,133 photos. All of these were posted since August 2009!

Handmade Snowflakes for Kids

http://www.agirlandaboy.com/journal/archives/0011622.html

Here's a link on how to make this cute little snowflakes, made with pipe cleaners and Borax (science project).
Christy, I'm sure you have Borax at your house......give this a try.

Santa's Workshop

Yep, we are working on it.
I finally talked Sherrill into flooring the rest of the attic. Every year we have to pull things from the attic, the barn, closets, and I never can find everything I need. You see, we have a snowman tree, the turquoise tree, the candy tree, the purple and gold tree, the burgundy tree, the red and gold tree, the white and gold tree, the pastel tree, the Pretty in Pink tree, the purple and lavender tree then the assortment of everything else tree. This is not even including the Mardi Gras decorations Mandy got for me last year.

I have pulled out ALL of my tree ornaments I can find from EVERYWHERE! They will all be neatly labeled, and put in totes, with a picture and description on each one. I will have to go back and look at previous trees to make sure everything is included. We have birds and feathers, pinecones and boas, musical instruments and pom poms, snowmen and .....well, just everything!

Sherrill will spend a full day putting together his yard decorations. This year we are going to let them stay put together, and carry those babies to the attic. This will include 2 large snowmen, 3 lighted gift boxes, one igloo, three penguins, one polar bear, one reindeer pulling a sleigh, Teddy bear, and 3 yes 3 Rudolphs of all sizes, and even a pink flamingo! We have not been able to find the Abominable snowman. He is missing. There are also 2 large deer in the barn that have to be restrung with lights.....
theirs melted in the fire.

Once we get it all together, Sherrill will have his very own little workshop! Wonder if I can get him to fix it up like this!

Words According to Kat

Kathy didn't cook a traditional Thanksgiving meal on Thursday. I asked her today if she missed having leftovers.
Her reply was NO, that she was making lasagna today.
"Real homemade lasagna" I asked, and not "Stouffers".
Yes mom, real lasagna from Stouffers. No one makes real lasagna anymore. You take it out of the box and bake it!

Treetime

Kat, did you give me this snowman last year?

Look at what a little deco mesh and lights will do.

Art Project....What next Grandpa?

Watching videos

Black Friday isn't Black when the little Peeps are here! ! ! !

McEwan Thanksgiving

Yes, the smallest of them will eat the most meat......go figure!?!?!
And Christy, I see the corn you froze. Good job!

Happy Thanksgiving one and All

Ham is done......sweet potato casserole in oven.
Sherrill's Macy parade is over, and he has finally climbed out of his chair to go outside.
Looks like another Thanksgiving day here.
Yes, he ate all of his 8 pound turkey breast, now he will have a 12 pound ham to devour. As for me, I have been living on turkey and lettuce, and lettuce, and more lettuce.

Happy vacationing to those that are traveling, and for those at home, hope you have a quiet peaceful
Thanksgiving Day, and a good nap!

Look What Kat saw on EBay

Vintage 1987 Avon "Count Down to Christmas Advent Calendar  with Mouse

Currently selling for $60.00  Does it look familiar? Yep, I use mine every year!

Jack and Katie. ..

So Brittany posted this on Aunt Cathy fb page.  Jack and Katie need one!!! 

Let the Shopping Begin.........

Do you know what this is?

It's the Poachit icon.  Just download it to your computer or phone, and go shopping.

I have looked up prices on all kinds of items so far.

So kids.......send me your list.

Grandma is ready to go shopping! ! ! ! !

Halloween Decorations for Next Year........

Whoever is around next year to climb in the attic, these are the Halloween decorations I will need.......

1 large blue tote                                             1 lamp post

1 large black tote                                           2 ghost

1 large orange tote                                         1 ghost on stand

1 black tree                                                    Monsters Inc man

2 large spiders                                                2 witches in large flat box

Not pictured boy, girl, and mom scarecrows.

Also upstairs is a waving ghost that was not used this year.

Halloween wreath should be in a closet.......somewhere, as well as place mats and tablecloth.

Hope Sherrill packs it all away in one place.

Maannddyyyy.........where R U?

Kenny's Party

Looks like a Minecraft kind of day! You're a teenager now!