Happy 5th Birthday Barrett!!

Happy 5th Birthday to my first little man!! You continue to surprise and delight me everyday. I cannot believe you are five years old, I don't know where the time has gone.



Here are a few thing your are up to at five.....

- You LOVE to work. Outside, in the dirt, at the dealership, at the deer lease.

- You are in Pre-K and are learning your letters and how to write.

- You are so funny, constantly talking about everything.

- Love to tell stories

- You love singing, you know every country song on the radio.

- You are a GREAT big brother!! You try to teach Jack all that you know.





You spend your days outside in the back yard. People make the comment all the time that you entertain yourself, and you do. You stay outside all day and just come in for snacks and drinks. You love guns, shovels, clippers, rakes. Love riding your 4wheeler and Polaris Razor. OBSESSED with trucks, backhoes, tractors and all equipment. We love you more than you can imagine! I am so proud to be your Mom!! You are truly a blessing from God!!!

Barrett's School Birthday

Today at school Barrett celebrated his birthday. He was so excited saying "I'm five today!" No buddy, this is not your real birthday. This is just a party at school since your actually birthday is on Sunday. This was somehow very confusing, never the less he celebrated anyway!!!




He wanted a pirate themed cake, and since this wasn't his real party I thought a "store" bought cake would been fine. When ordering the cake I mentioned the pirate theme and the lady said we have two, Pirates of the Caribbean or Peter Pan. Since the kids are young I thought they would prefer the Peter Pan version. Upon inspection of the cake today, Barrett informed me "this is not a real pirate cake. Real pirates have peg legs and these pirate don't." Well buddy, you got me there.



The kids liked the cake anyway. They enjoyed their favors the most. I gave each one of them a foam sword. It was mass chaos, kids were whacking each other and screaming. Luckily, Barrett's teacher was so sweet and didn't mind. Now hopefully the children's parents won't mind either!!



Shi' Shi' and Mary Micheal came to join in on the festivities today at school. The babies enjoyed the icing on the cake. I couldn't find Jack for this picture he was hiding under tables exploring.



This weekend we will be heading to North Texas for Opening weekend of Deer Season. I am planning on making a Rainbow Cake for Barrett. If any of you read Mck Mama/My Charming Kids blog, you realize what I am talking about. It is a six layered rainbow cake, pictures will follow from my attempts at this endeavor.

For dinner tonight I am still obsessing over The Pioneer Woman's new cookbook and decided to make Potato, Bacon and Leek Pizza. Even the crust is homemade and that is new to me, I usually use the premade.


Here it is, looking beautiful about to go into the oven.....



Mmmmm. Looks good right?......


WRONG! I don't know what I did, the crust was soggy and the potatoes were not even cooked. Oh, well. I might try it again. It is really hard to cook with children hanging on your legs.

My Newest Obsession

Here lies my newest obsession.................




I am in love with this cookbook!! I have read "The Pioneer Woman's" blog for awhile now and have made a number of her dishes. When I found out she had a cookbook coming out I quickly preordered on Amazon and patiently waited.

I received it a few days ago and have been madly making every dish I can. I love the way she has written it with pictures of each step, she does this on the blog too. She is a woman after my own heart with the food she cooks. I'd have to say in my book she's right up there with Paula Deen!!

I am going to try and work my way through her cookbook so if my upcoming posts start making you hungry or gain weight, don't say I didn't warn you!!!

So far I have made: Pumpkin Spice muffins with Cream Cheese frosting, Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls, Rosemary Rolls, Penne alle Betsy, Egg in the Hole and tonight is Pot Roast!!







Stay tuned for more posts on my attempts to recreate these heavenly, err sinful dishes!!

Happy Halloween!!

Our Halloween didn't start off too well. In the early morning hours Jackaroo woke up crying and running fever. I get a little paranoid, and immediately diagnose him with swine flu. I get on the phone and made a doctors appointment for 9:00 the next morning. The poor little thing was up all night. He slept, laying on my chest. So at the Doctors office she goes thru the normal questions and asks, " has he pulled at his ears?" I said no, no. Not at all. She looks at the first ear...nothing, and then the second. "OH Well, here is the problem!" And I have to say I was relieved. I hate that he has an ear infection, but so glad it's not the flu!!!

So our Halloween started a little like this........






Barrett and Jack dressed up as "Max and Moishe", from the book Where the Wild Things Are. Come on people read the book it's a classic and it's now a movie. Sorry, that was for the people who called my son a bunny while trick or treating last night. LOL!!!







We had so much fun. All of the Grandparents, Shi Shi and Mary Micheal and Kolby came over. We just went around our neighborhood, that's all the babies could handle. Then we all ate pizza and watched the Texas vs. KU game.

Here are the boys Halloween Treat baskets. I thought they were so cute!!

Trunk or Treat!!

Thursday at Barrett's school was Trunk or Treat!! The Mom's set up in the parking lot and the kiddos come trick or treating at our trunks. Barrett was so excited about this he LOVES anything to do with candy!! So, of course Thursday it was raining.....AGAIN! We were driving to school and I commented, "Barrett what are we going to do? It' raining." Him.. "Mom it will be okay, we'll figure it out." This child cracks me up!




And we did figure it out. We had "trunk or treat" in the gym, it's not the same but it works. Barrett was "Max" from Where the Wild Things Are, for those of you who think he is a Bunny??????

I didn't dress Jack up for this it was too early to break out "Moishe" just for a few minutes. Plus, it was close to nap time and trying to get the costume off and on is an act of congress.



This is Barrett with his best "girl" friend Sophia (far left). These two are hilarious together. They have been in the same class since they were three. One day Barrett came home and said, "Mom, Sophia tells me she loves me!" Me: "Well what did you say?" Him: "I said, I love you too." Sooo cute!!

Cause we're cute like that......

I just had to post this cute picture of my little men from this morning just because they are so darn cute!! We are really ready for Halloween around here. Barrett is begging to wear his costume everyday, so I had to break out the Halloween shirts to keep him a little happy.




In other news....This morning as were are leaving for school, Barrett says. "Mom today is crazy hat day!" Me: "Oh Barrett, your right so glad you reminded me." Him: "Yeah Mom, I don't forget a thing, do I?" No you don't buddy; but apparently crazy hat day isn't the only thing I forgot. While writing this post I get a call from Barrett's school. Caller: "Kelly, it's Debbie. Barrett's lunch box was empty today." That's right I'm CRAZY!!!!!!!!

Snap Shop Weekend!!

This past weekend my sister and I headed to Tulsa, OK. for a photography class called a "Snap Shop". A photographer from Broken Arrow, Ashley Ann; does them at her home.




Let me just start by saying, this girl is amazing. She has four kiddos all very young, and she's a photographer, blogger, and her home is AMAZING!!! She makes me feel very....slacking in the motherhood department. LOL!!! The class was great and I finally learned how to shoot pictures in Manual mode which is huge. She has a great reason for doing these classes. She explained how she always saw parents with these expensive cameras that didn't know how to use them.....ME!

I highly recommend anyone with a DLSR camera who wants to learn, go see her!!! Here a few of my pics for our "assignment". These children were great models and they are sooo cute!!









And back at home my wonderful husband kept a sick 4 year old and a luckily happy 12 months old. Thanks Ryan for keeping the boys so I could go! Your the Best!!!!