Thursday, November 13, 2008

Devine Pumpkin Dessert

Thanksgiving Pictures, Images and PhotosI had the most scrumptious pumpkin dessert the other night at my Women's group. I got the recipe and thought I would share it with my blogging friends. She served the dessert warm and it literally melts in your mouth. I'm drooling just thinking about it. ENJOY!!!

PUMPKIN SURPRISE
Printed from COOKS.COM
________________________________________

4 c. cooked pumpkin (29 oz. can)
1 c. sugar
1 lg. can evaporated milk (12 oz. can)
3 eggs
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1 box yellow cake mix (dry)
1 c. chopped nuts
1 1/2 sticks butter (melted)
Mix pumpkin, sugar, evaporated milk, eggs and spices together well. Pour into a 9"x13" pan. Sprinkle dry cake mix over the top. Sprinkle chopped nuts over the top. Pour melted butter over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Monday, November 10, 2008

OUR SWEET GIRL IS TWO!!!

Today our beautiful daughter turned two! What a gift Amanda is to our family and how blessed we are to have her in our lives. She is an amazing little girl that has brought so much joy and laughter to our family. Amanda is God's happiest child and she has a wonderful charm about her. I could go on and gush about her forever, but I'll spare you all and stop now!

This day didn't turn out exactly as planned because Amanda has been running a fever all day. :0( She didn't seem to be in a celebratory mood being sick and all, so we stayed home for dinner and opened her presents shortly after. She was fading fast and we didn't think she would even make it past dinner. Amazingly enough Amanda perked up quite quickly once she saw her birthday balloon! She could care less about anything else once she saw that darn balloon. Micah helped Amanda open her presents while Soowan and I took pictures and manned the video camera. She took very little interest in her presents and kept a tight grip onto her balloon the entire time.

Note to self: Amanda prefers balloons over presents/toys. Great!!! Christmas will be easy and inexpensive this year! YAHOO!!! ;0)

After we were able to get the balloon out of Amanda's hand and got through the drama of her tiara breaking, we did cake. We sang 'happy birthday' and when Micah told her to blow out her candles, she took a deep breath in and blew both of them out! Amanda instantly perked up and with all smiles she exclaimed, "Again! Again!" How could we resist such a request? We ended up re-lighting the candles numerous times, so she could blow them out and we could see her smiling face. Have I mentioned what a JOY our sweet girl is?!?!

Amanda ate some cake, but once again she began to fade and we knew she was just about done for the night. Hopefully tomorrow she'll be feeling better and back to her spunky, little self.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMANDA!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

MOM, DAD AND MICAH


(Aunt Maggie, I specifically chose this song for your listening enjoyment.) ;0)





Tuesday, November 04, 2008

THE GOOD NEWS!

21 In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.

22 May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD,
even as we put our hope in you.

~Psalm 33:21-22

10 PREDICTIONS NO MATTER WHO WINS THE ELECTION

1. The Bible will still have all the answers.

2. Prayer will still work.

3. The Holy Spirit will still move.

4. God will still inhabit the praises of His people.

5. There will still be God-anointed teaching and healing.

6. There will still be singing of praise to God.

7. God will still pour out blessings upon His people.

8. There will still be room at the Cross.

9. Jesus will still love you.

10. Jesus will still save the lost.

ISN'T IT GREAT TO KNOW WHO IS REALLY IN CONTROL!

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Beautiful Day!

We had a beautiful day here in Dallas on this first day of November. The sun was bright and the weather was perfect. Here are some pictures of Micah's soccer game from this morning, and more pics of our time spent at the Arboretum where we had an early, picnic dinner.

(you may notice a huge blue-green mark on Micah's left cheek. This is not left over face paint from Halloween, it's the HUGE bruise from getting kicked in the face while playing touch football on Wednesday night with his buddies.)





I had to add this one of my sweet girl!






Friday, October 31, 2008

Thursday, October 30, 2008

'Twilight Zone' Kind of Morning

This morning the alarm went off and it felt like the morning came way too soon. Soowan got up to take a shower and I briefly fell back to sleep. I popped up looked at the clock and it read 6:47 , and I thought to myself... "Micah didn't set his alarm last night." He normally gets up at 6:45. I get up, get Micah up. I try to let Abbie (our dog) out to use the restroom but she didn't need to go, so she stayed inside. I start the coffee, Micah gets himself a bowl of cereal and I turn on the computer to check my emails. The computer comes on and I notice the clock reads 4:57. I start to think there is something wrong with the computer. The coffee pot beeps and I go to the kitchen to get myself a cup of coffee. I look at the clock on the oven and microwave and they both read 4:58. My cell phone is on the kitchen counter... I check it, and it reads 4:58 too.

twilight zone Pictures, Images and Photos

I go into our bathroom, and Soowan is shaving. I show him the time on my cellphone. He looks at the phone and then back at me in an odd way. He then starts to walk around the house and notices that all the clocks in the house say it is almost 5:00 AM, but our bedroom clock says it is almost 7:00 AM. It took us a while to figure out what was going on, and for a minute there I thought I was trapped in an old black and white episode of the 'Twilight Zone'.

twilight zone Pictures, Images and Photos

Long story short... Yesterday our power went out for a couple of hours. I had reset all the clocks in the house, except the one in our bedroom. I wont say who set our clock, but I'm sure you might already know who did. ;0)

Micah finished his bowl of cereal and I sent him back to bed. Poor kid never fell back to sleep. Instead he got ready for school and listened to the radio in his room for an hour in a half. I hope he makes it through school, because we let him stay up an hour past his bedtime last night. To top it off he has three tests to take today. YIKES!

Of course I fell back to sleep about 10 minutes before the alarm went off for the second time this morning. Sigh. I hope my little, Miss Amanda will take a nap today, because the past two days she has decided she doesn't need one. FUN! FUN! FUN! I have a feeling this is going to be a looonnnggg day... sigh.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Pumpkin Carving Party

This evening we had some friends over to carve pumpkins. We've been doing this for the past 4 years, and it has been a fun time for both the parents and the kids. The boys always pick out which design they would like to have carved onto their pumpkins, and the Dads get stuck with doing the actual carving. Then the boys go hog-wild crazy in the backyard until it's time to eat. Once they are fed, they return to going hog-wild crazy until it is time to show off their jack-o-lanterns. Us Mom's... We stay inside, eat pumpkin cheesecake and wait to see which one of our kids will sustain the first injury. With 9 boys, someone ALWAYS gets hurt. This year it was my son. Yep! Micah has a nice shiner on his left cheek. Oh well... At least it will go well with his costume for Halloween.





Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Yes... I'm still here.

It's been a while since I've posted anything on my blog. There is a lot going on currently, with nothing really happening at the same time. I know that makes no sense... but trust me. There are some possible changes that may be occurring for our family soon, but I'm not at liberty to share those changes on a public blog at this time. But when I am able to share, believe me I'll be writing about it.

Currently Soowan and Amanda have a nasty stomach bug and I'm trying really, really hard to keep it away from Micah and myself. I've been in major cleaning mode these past 24 hours. Soowan feels a bit better this morning, but Amanda is still producing some rather nasty diapers for me. Poor girl.

Micah's been doing good in school and all his other extra curricular activities. We have parent teacher conferences next week and report cards come out next Thursday as well. With that said, his homework load has been rather heavy with reports, projects and tons of tests to study for to wrap up the first 9 weeks of school. For those of you who don't know Micah very well, he LOVES this stuff. He's always up to the challenge and doesn't become overwhelmed with it all. He has already learned how to pace himself and get projects done early, so they are not being done the last minute. Obviously he gets his study skills from his Dad, because I was (and still am) the great procrastinator. I barely need to help Micah with his homework anymore. He's always been my independent kid, (heck he more or less potty trained himself) so I'm not too surprised.

This past Saturday Micah's soccer team played a GREAT GAME! They did lose 2-1 but it was an exciting game. They went up against the other undefeated team in their league and boy were they good! The other team took advantage of scoring off of two corner kicks, which is one skill our team could be better at defending and executing themselves. Other than that the kids played an awesome game! We look forward to playing this team again at the end of the season tournament. We did bring our camera, but I forgot to put the media chip back into the camera after getting some prints done last week. OOPS! Oh well!

Amanda is sweet and sassy as ever and it's hard to believe she'll be two years old in 3 weeks! I love the age she is at... So full of wonder and discovery. I love seeing the world through a toddler's eyes. I honestly forgot how much fun it is! Amanda really enjoys music and loves to get her little groove on when she hears a catchy, little tune. TOO CUTE! She has a blast at the toddler music and reading time at our local library, and I love it because it's FREE! ;0)

Like every year, these next few months are already looking full on my calendar. I'm trying no to feel overwhelmed but it is hard when your children's birthdays are a week apart and then the next week is Thanksgiving. Life then gets even more crazy between Thanksgiving and the New Year, as it does with most families. To top it all off if the possible changes I mentioned above do take place, life as I know it will become nothing less than CHAOTIC. I'm trying hard to not put the cart in front of the horse and concentrate on what's happening in the present. Easier said than done, but doing my best to not feel the pressure of the situation.

To clarify, this possible change is a good thing just not an easy/convenient one. But one thing I've learned is that life is NOT convenient, and decisions should NOT be made on the basis of convenience. Sure it's easier to chose the more convenient route, but that's usually not the route God is leading one to.