The Polar Express Surprise!!

This year we decided to do things a little different for the boys and the Christmas Money Grandma & Grandpa's sent. So, as we got to talking we thought and "experience" would be a much better use than buying a whole bunch of stuff. So, we got a couple little things for them to open and invested the rest in a trip to Palestine, TX, for a trip on the Polar Express. Drew LOVES trains and is soooo into the Polar Express this year. It is actually all he asked for, was a remote control train (those cost WAY to much), so we settled on the next best thing... the REAL thing.

I (Santa) created clues and little gifts all week leading up to the BIG surprise (post those later), I think I had more fun with it. Anyhow, we set off on our Trip Friday 12/29 and return Saturday (today). Short trip, but sooo worth it. Drew was in Train Heaven!

Drew has his Ticket!! Meeting the Conductor! Wouldn't be the Polar Express without Cocoa & Cookies! Evan Dancing with the Server!
Drew meeting Santa for the first time!

Santa signed his book & gave each kiddo a Bell (first gift of Christmas)Meeting the Engineer, a highlight for Drew!
Drew's first Train Sighting before the Ride

Evan Dancing with Server!

This was truly a magical experience! If you have ever seen the movie you would be in awe of how much they put into making this train ride special for the kiddos. From the music, to some of the phrases from the movie, dancing servers, going to the North Pole, Santa giving the first gift of Christmas (a bell to all kids), Cocoa (perfect temp), conductor punching their tickets, etc... I would highly recommend this experience for EVERYONE!! Doing something like this just might become an every year thing!!

Evan's BIG Boy Bed!

I am sooo behind on blogging, which I thought would NEVER happen. Here is your first catch up post.

As we prepare for our new little man, we needed to start the transition of Evan going to a big boy bed. So, today we put the Toddler bed up in Evan's current room to give him a few days to get use to it, THEN we will move it to Drew's room, so the two can get use to being in the same room. David is working hard to complete Drew's BIG BIG Boy bed (loft bed), so when that is all done and the room is decorated, I will post more pictures!!

RECIPE: My Mamas Frosted Pumpkin Bars!!

I have been meaning to add more recipes to this blog FOREVER, so I am going to make a commitment to share some of my favorite recipes over the next several weeks. First up, is Frosted Pumpkin Bars! My Mama has made these as long as I can remember and they are my absolute favorite! Many of you know I am not a baker, but this is one recipe I do make from scratch!! If you want Pumpkin Bars that melt in your mouth, then try these:

Ingredients:
4 Eggs (Beaten)
1 C Oil
1 Cup Pumpkin (I use entire small can)
2 C Sugar
2 Cup Flour
1/2 teas Salt
2 T Cinnamon
2 teas baking soda
(1 C raisins or nuts optional - I don't use)

Directions:
Mix together until smooth

Bake 350 for 20-25 min. (I use large cookie sheet-grease & flour). Once you take out of the over, FROST while warm.

FROSTING Ingredients/Instructions
3 oz Cream Cheese - softened
1 teas Vanilla
1 T Margarine
2-3 C Powdered Sugar
little Milk

Mix all ingredients until smooth. I wish I could say these measurements are exact, but just mix the frosting until you get the desired texture (not to thick, not to runny).

GOOD LUCK!! I will add a picture when I make the next batch!! I PROMISE you will love them!!

A Fun Day at The Pumpkin Patch!

We had a fun time at the pumpkin patch last week with our MOPS group! The boys ran like crazy, and really enjoyed playing with the other kiddos. They got to pick a pumpkin, feed the goats, go through a maze, climb, and take a hay rack ride. All in a days work, right?! It made for some GREAT naps!! Enjoy pics from the day!!

Touch a Truck Event..

Last weekend we surprised Drew by going to an event in the area called Touch-a-Truck. Anyone who knows Drew could probably guess what his reaction was when we arrived. This was a really cool event in Dallas, where a variety of trucks were parked, so kiddos could climb in them, honk the horns, and run around. Drew had a ball, and so did Evan! Although to our surprise it took Drew a little bit to even get in a truck, but once Evan did it, he HAD to do it to!! Here are some fun pictures from the day!

Some Iowa FUN!!

We all had a relaxing and fun time in Iowa with my family, even though there was practically NO Cell service, which meant no connection to the outside world... AHHHHH!! Somehow we still managed to survive! We did lots of fun things, here is one night of fun... my Mom & Bob had sprinklers they had saved and we lit them ALL!! The boys LOVED them!!

Grandpa Hot Rod's first attempt with matches -NO GO!!

Now, for Grandpa Hot Rod's way "A TORCH..."

Not sure how this happened, I think it was just the lighting because those sparklers did NOT go this high. Just cool!!

Our New "Metal" Family Member

Well, we are officially crazy! When we were in Iowa visiting family and attending my cousin's wedding we found a VAN! It has been a LONG search, but we found a GREAT one and for WAY under budget. It just came with a 2 day drive back to Texas, family bonding time, right?! It has a few minor thing that need to be fixed, but David is just the guy to fix them!! Check it out!

HEB Cook-Off in San Antonio

I will eventually back track and catch you all up, but I wanted to share the fun weekend I had in San Antonio last weekend! I had the honor of traveling with my friend Courtney to join her team in a cook-off at a HUGE HEB in San Antonio. This was an event where the top two vote getting bloggers got to do. It was a crazy day, we checked in, we were assigned a shopper to get our ingredients (we had to use: Peter Pan Peanut Butter, HEB Frozen Veggies, Egg Beaters, & Hebrew National Hot Dogs with whatever else we chose). Once we shopped and ate lunch, then we had 45 min to prep, then 1 hr 5min to cook and plate! I felt like I was on a real cooking show, lol! I was sooo impressed with our team and our food, we rocked it!! We ended up winning 5 t0 2, WAY TO GO "I COOK" team!

The only bummer is we were suppose to meet George Duran, a celebrity chef (was suppose to be our chef for the day), but he couldn't make it due to the hurricane on the East Coast. Frank, the HEB Chef, was tons of fun though! Enjoy some fun pics:

You can get our recipes here at mycrazysavings.com.

God's Little Blessing!!

Well, most of you know by now, but if you don't WE ARE EXPECTING! This has been such a blessing!! Story below:

In April of this year (2011), life was CRAZY to say the least. We were packing and getting ready to move into a bigger rental, I was going strong on Weight Watchers and had already lost almost 18lbs, Moving began which consisted of lifting lots of heavy boxes up stairs, I was working out hard at the gym, and the list goes on and on. By all accounts we should not have been pregnant, and believe me it was the last thing I would have ever thought.

So, we just went on with life moving and getting settled into our new home and it wasn't until about the third week in May (not long before my birthday) that I started thinking I may be late. But, I still didn't think it was because I could be expecting. I just thought since I was loosing weight and working out hard, my body was getting adjusted. Anyhow, I told myself if I didn't start by my birthday then I would test. So, my birthday came on Friday that week, and NUTTIN! So, I decided to actually count my cycle days, well... to my surprise I was 10 days late, which is not normal for me. I called my friend Courtney and asked for her help with "something," but didn't tell her what. I ended up heading to her house that afternoon and testing. It was a BIG FAT POSITIVE! I was soooo shocked. I talked David into going out for birthday dinner (we usually just celebrate together), and wrapped up the test. At dinner I gave him the gift and he was just as surprised and excited!

For any of you who know our history, you know that this is such a blessing because we went through extensive fertility with Drew & Evan. It took us 7 1/2 years to get the news we were expecting Drew and 3 IUI's for Evan. We have been praising God everyday of this pregnancy. We are now just over 20 weeks, and just found out it is a BOY!!

Keep us in your prayers, the baby is very healthy, but I just found out today that I have a low lying placenta, which means it is covering the cervix. You know I do DRUG FREE births and the thought of a possible c-section FREAKS me out! So, please pray as the baby grows, the placenta will move up, which happens in LOTS of cases.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Lions & Tigers & Motorcycles???

Drew and I had our first trip to the circus with our friends the Solstads. The were kind enough to share their tickets and David was gracious enough to watch Evan and Maci. Thank goodness for that because the Circus was LONG and Drew barely made it through. He was saying he wanted to go home at intermission, but the Elephants saved the day! If you asked Drew what he liked best he would say the train & motorcycles in the cage. Enjoy some pics!

Drew's Treat! All he could talk about was Dumbo!

My Date, cute huh?




Getting Tattoo's from the Circus folks My favorite part of the circus, the Trapeze