Kid Follies, Again

Yesterday, we all loaded up in Dom's truck on our way to do an apartment. When I got in the truck, Dom asked me if I had "such & such" which I just had in my hand prior to walking out the door. I said, "No, I must have laid it down on the table so I could blow my nose," then walked out the door without it. (I've been sick by the way, reason for blowing nose...) So I hopped out of the truck and ran back in the house to retrieve the "such & such." That is when Alex turned to Dom and said, "Now, I know where I get my memory!"

Yesterday, when we were in the truck driving back home, Quinn asked me, "Mom, do they have water beds that have fish inside them?"

Some More Kid Follies

Look at that, two posts in a row! Wahoo! I'm on a roll. Before I lose these two things I have floating around on a piece of paper, here they are.

Ethan was talking to me one day and he said, "When I'm a mom..." I explained to him that he won't be a mom, he will be a dad. He then said, "I don't know how to have kids. I don't know where to go?"

The other day, I came out of my bedroom after having showered and blown dry my hair. Quinn looked at me and said, "Mom, are you going somewhere?" I replied, "No." He then said, "Then why is your hair poofed out?"

I'm a Facebook Junkie!

Hey, it's me! Do you remember who I am? I don't blame you if you don't. I haven't posted in almost two months. I can't even say that all that time has been productive. I've been on the computer, just not in Bloggy Land. No, I've been in Facebook Land. And I have to say, "Hi, my name is Kara, and I'm addicted to Facebook." There really needs to be an FA class to take for this. That would be "Facebook Anonymous!"

It has been easier to write a quick one line status of what I am up to on Facebook, rather than take an hour to write something here with photos. Because, you know, a good blog post must have photos! But that takes time and I try not to waste large chunks of it. I am now just wasting smaller chunks of it on Facebook instead. Which of course could be added up to one big chunk, but somehow I don't think about that!

So, I must apologize to any of you who are not on Facebook and have been sorely disappointed in not knowing what is going on in my life. I really can't imagine who that would be, but if you exist, "I'm sorry." And I will try to blog about something more exciting in the near future!

Our Christmas

Here are pictures from our Christmas in a nice little movie for your enjoyment! ;) We had a nice Christmas at home. The kids were up bright and early as evidenced in the pictures by their bed heads! I actually took all the pictures while still in my night gown, although you will NOT see a picture of me from Christmas morn! Dom gave me a new camera, which I was not expecting, since we weren't supposed to get each other anything. When we have "lots" of money, we buy each other gifts. When money is tight we don't and just plan to eat our favorite foods on Christmas, which means seafood!! But he has "owed" me a new camera since last Christmas when he took my camera to work with him and dropped it. I've been able to still use it, but the LCD is broken. So I was pleasantly surprised with a new camera. A very nice one that I'm not sure I will every truly understand how to work, because it is a little complicated.

Dom and I enjoyed our seafood dinner of peel & eat shrimp, crab legs, & lobster. Always look forward to gaining a few pounds from all that butter! The kids had their little smokey hot dogs, summer sausage and by request from Alex, mac & cheese. I usually make cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Christmas morn, but Alex had requested bagels which he doesn't get to eat on a regular basis, so it was an easy breakfast for me to make. After all the dozens and dozens of cookies I made the week prior, I was glad not to have to bake another thing.

I decided to make lots of cookies this year, more than ever before. I invited a few friends over to exchange cookies with and also for all of our kids to ice cut-out sugar cookies. The kids had fun and created a nice little mess, but my friend Tammy's oldest two daughters cleaned up for me. That was nice! I made way too much, as I still have tons of cookies after giving some to three of my friends, the mail carrier (who always gives things to my kids on holidays and lollipops on a regular basis), the nursing home where we went to sing Christmas carols, and I sent some to work with Dom for his co-workers to enjoy. I doubled every recipe and tripled a few things. There were buckeyes (tripled), PB cookies with a Hershey kiss on top (that some child keeps eating just the kiss off of and leaving the cookie behind), orange cookies (my sister's recipe), a chocolate cookie with PB in the middle, snickerdoodles, brownies with white chocolate drizzled on top of and then sprinkled with crushed candy canes, two-toned brownie with the chocolate part on bottom and a light brown brownie (minus the cocoa) on top with M&M's, this delicious chocolate/caramel candy thing that tastes just like a snickers bar, & peanut brittle (triple). I think that's it!!! Oh, and don't forget the sugar cookies with icing!!! Whew, was I tuckered out after all that baking!

The kids and I enjoyed singing carols in our neighborhood and going to a local nursing home to sing to the residences there. The neighborhood caroling was kind of a bust, since it was rescheduled to another night due to rain and then the night we did it, it was freezing!! Think 30's, burr. My neighbor put hay bales in the back of a trailer that we towed behind my car. So she and I plus my kids and her son rode around in the trailer. We only hit two houses for a couple of reasons, one it was freezing, two we got a late start because the song sheets she had printed were missed placed and we had to figure out which songs we were going to sing. The kids were a little disappointed that they didn't get to sing at more houses but we still had the nursing home to do. The day we were to do that, all the kids woke up coughing. Alex had already been sick and had been to the doctor, but then all the kids came down with it. But we went anyway, in hopes that I could at least deliver the cookies, but wasn't sure if I should go in with the sick kids. I met two other friends there and they went in ahead of me, while I stayed outside with the kids waiting for them to came back out and tell me whether the staff thought we should stay outside or not. They told us to come on in, just keep our distance. So the kids were able to sing, and were glad of that. I'm glad we were able to hopefully spread a little joy there.

I hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas as well! Here are those pictures set to music from Micheal W. Smith's Christmastime CD, a medley of I Saw Three Ships-Joy To The World. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas

May the blessings of our beautiful Savior be yours throughout the season and in the coming year.

Domenick the Christmas Donkey

Here is a song that Domenick found on the internet a few years ago. We got a laugh out of it then and continue to get one each Christmas when we hear it again. I wanted to share. I set the music to photos of the kids from the past few Christmases. Enjoy!

Jinginy Jing....

Happy Thanksgiving

From our family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving.

Here are the pies I made yesterday, pumpkin, apple, and butterscotch. Quinn helped me cut out leaves to decorate the apple pie with the left over pie dough. The butterscotch pie is my grandmother's recipe that she used to make for the holidays. It has been years since I have had it and thought it was about time I made it! The pumpkin come from my friend Tammy who grew the pumpkins, processed it and gave me enough to make this pie. She also gave me a whole pumpkin that I will process later. We tried growing pumpkins, Seminole pumpkins which are good for this area, that Tammy also gave me the seeds for. But we planted them a little too late in the year, and although they were growing great and producing beautiful pumpkins, our last frost killed the plant and my pumpkins weren't ripe yet. :(

We are spending a quiet thanksgiving at home. It would be nice to spend it with family, but that's not happening this year, maybe next. (Hint, Hint)

So, I hope all of you are enjoying this day of thanks. We have much to be thankful for, health, family, friends, and I am sure there is more if I let my mind ponder longer, but its' time to start rattling some pans. Wishing you all the best.

The Bellavigna Family.