New Decor & Riley turns 8

Fall is my favorite time of year, not only because I love the weather, but also because it's pretty much the only time of year I can buy things to decorate my house. And the awesome thing is if I wait till the week before Thanksgiving, everything is like 80% off!

After work a few days ago I ran by Hobby Lobby to check out their ornaments. I had a $2o gift card from my birthday I've wanted to spend for weeks, but was holding out till the fall deals rolled around. Here's what I got.

This metal platter was normally $38...I got it 80% off for $8!

This one was $35...I got for like $6.50.

They had all their Christmas ornaments 1/2 off too. I got 2 of these for $3.Since I'm still needing to fill my tree some, I decided to check out a few of the $1 places just to see if there was anything worth even looking at. Orange is a little hard to come by at Christmas time, so i was surprised when I found these little gems 3 for $1 at Dollar Tree. I hated the shiny gold they had on the hanger part, so I bought this pretty ribbon for $1 a roll to cover it. I think it finished them off nicely.

Here's a close up of the ribbon. I looked for 2 weeks to find something I really liked. My tree topper ribbon is awesome, but way to expensive anything more than the topper. Had I found this BEFORE the other ribbon...

Ok, enough about my tree...RILEY TURNED 8 TODAY!!

My sweet baby went from this...

To this, in a few short years!

Since Riley's, Cade's and Bran's birthdays all come between now and Christmas Day...things have to be kept pretty simple or I will go completely broke.

Riley had 2 friends over after school for a little party of snacks & games.

We played the dress up relay game.

And then the boys decorated their cupcakes.

Then of course, he opened gifts.

After the party I took Ri and Noah to Lokomotion for a few games. They rode the bull first.

Then they played laser tag...just the 2 of them. I slowed my shutter speed to get these delay shots. They would have been better had I taken my mono pod, but I can only carry so much. The blue streak you see is Riley running by me.

This is Noah

After that, we hit the go cart tracks. Now that they are 8 they are both old enough to drive on the mid size track. With only the 2 of them on the track, they sure spent a lot of time crashing into each other.

Well, that about sums up Ri's big day. Even as we speak, he and Noah are playing Mario Crash Cart on the Wii. They're stoked they get to stay up till midnight. I even made the other boys go to bed at 1o:3o so they would really feel special. It's not often Ri gets to feel like a grown up!

One more thing, we got Ri the new Sorry Sliders game for his birthday. AWESOME!! Sorry is a fun game anyway, but the this new version takes it to a whole new level. I highly recommend it as a Christmas gift.

Big News & Christmas Trees

What happens when you put this shirt...
On this little girl...

Apparently, you get a baby brother or sister!

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Yep, you heard right, my little niece Natalie is going to be a big sister on or around July 8th of next year! At least that's what we're hoping for. Steph's doctor seems to think she will have the same issues she had with Nat, and is therefor hoping that with bed rest and that sort of thing to get her to 30 weeks. That is definitely not what they (or I) want to see happen again! I'm just going to believe that everything is going to go great, and if it doesn't...well, we will just take it a day at a time. I just hope I won't be a gimp in the hospital when this little one decides to join us!

_

Speaking of being a gimp in the hospital, I spent 18 of 31 days last December in the hospital. And the rest of the month end bed. I am really really looking forward to this Christmas! Not only did I totally miss it last year, but this is my first AC (after cancer) Christmas. So, I decided to go ahead and put up the tree yesterday, after all, in my state of mind...25 days is just not long enough to celebrate this Christmas!

_

Last year, about a week after I got out of the hospital I took some of my Christmas money and got all new decor for my tree. I really wanted my tree to go with my orange & brown color scheme. I got more than enough "stuff" to go on my 9 foot slim tree. Well, a few months ago at a garage sale I found another a tree for only $1o! It had never even been used. The box was a little messed up, but other than that...brand new & pre-lit. What's funny about it is that all the "stuff" I got for the old tree looks like nothing on the new tree. So I'm gonna have to hit Hobby Lobby's 1/2 off sale to get a few more things. But even bare and sparse, I already LOVE IT!!

This is my tree topper & and closer look at my colors.

Thy have this little gems 4 for $1 at Wal-Mart. I love love love bling!

Here are a few more things on the tree.

Our other tree is still in use...now that we have 2 living rooms, we have room for 2 trees! The boys decorated the 9 foot tree with all the other ornaments. They loved all the creative freedom they had. It's only decorated on the front and there are no ornaments at the top, but it's beautiful to them!

And don't think I've forgotten about Thanksgiving! We will be celebrating Thanksgiving here at home this year. Jeanne, Dennis, Derek, Val and of course Princess Emily will be coming to spend the day with us too! The boys have the whole week off and I will be off Wed, Thurs & Friday with them. But first we have something else to celebrate...Riley will be 8 on Friday! Can you believe it? My BABY will be 8 in a little over 48 hours!! What is this...Bizaro World or something?

A great day!

Saturday was a great great day! I got to see both of my nieces ON THE SAME DAY! How awesome is that? The boys were gone to Jeanne and Dennis's for the weekend, so I was free to spend a little one-on-one with my girls.



Saturday morning Bran and I went over to Trav and Steph's to help move. Actually Bran helped move, I just spent time with little Natalie. She is getting so so big! I got to give her a bath...baths are about her favorite thing EVER! I had to follow her around just to get her diaper on! Have you ever seen such beautiful eyes?

Later that night Val and Emily came over for a few hours too. I was in baby girl heaven! As usual, it took her a few minutes to warm up, but after that she was a complete doll. She is starting to pull up some & is getting very very hard to change. What a wiggle worm.

I hope you've all enjoyed this little burst of adorable! I sure did!

Fill the wall

I've finally started to fill "the wall" in the big living room. I have been so overwhelmed by how to deal with it. So, what better to do than cover it with the faces of my beautiful boys! Here are the first three. I know it's hard to tell, but they are 16x20 frames. I have room for 2 more on this row & then I think I will do a second row below it too. We shall see. These aren't smile pictures, so I want to make sure and get a few of those up too.
I made sure to get a picture of princess Emily up too. I have a spot on the wall saved for Trav's girls if I ever get take their pictures!

Here is a close-up of Cade's picture.

Football is over for another year. I'm kinda sad...this was Boston's last year in peewee. We still have 5 more years with the other two, but it's just not the same. (Boston #36)

Coach Daddy & Coach Matt

The last moment....

FYI - The results of my scan were great! Thanks for all the Facebook well wishes & prayers.

Date Night

Bran and I, along with our friends Kelley and Josh got to have a little date night this evening. The Disheroon group kept our kids, along with 30 or so others for 4 whole hours! How awesome is that!


Josh has been Boston's football coach for the last three years, but we really just got to know them when Bran started helping coach & after they joined our small group.


First we hit PF Changs for dinner. The food was AWESOME as usual. Lettuce wraps, garlic noodles, carrot cake...need I say more? After dinner it was off to bowling. I am a TERRIBLE bowler, but the rest of them were actually pretty good. Bran is learning how to bowl again in spite of the fact he can't bend his knee very well, and Josh even knows how to do that spin thing with his ball. Kelley pretty much bowled better than anyone, but she never could get that last pin to fall so it threw off her score a little.


Here are the result of the first game. As you can see Bran came in first, Kelley 2nd, Josh just a point behind her and I of course came in dead last. I learned a long time ago...when it comes to my bowling prowess, if I don't aim high I'm never disappointed!

It took a few trys, but Bran finally figured out how to bowl without putting strain on his bad leg. I half expected him to go down with every frame. He didn't, and for that I am thankful... And just so you know, Bran's not a trash talker until AFTER he wins...but once he does...you may never hear the end of it!

As you can see, nothing about me says bowler. I do however, think my pink ball went well with my outfit! ...I'll take what I can get! (BTW - I hate hate hate this picture, but I'f I don't post it Bran will think I don't like the pictures he takes and stop taking the few he does!)

Kelly was a good bowler & looked even better doing it! But she did seem to have a one pin nemesis on pretty much every frame. She would've had a spare almost every time had it not been for that one pin she could never hit. I will say she's a better woman than I...she actually bowled a second game with the guys BTW - You won't see a picture of Kelley since I have a strict policy about only posting pictures of ladies that I think they would approve of. And since I don't think she would have liked the shot I got...I decided to let this single pin stand in her place.

From what I can tell, Josh is good at pretty much anything he does. He's just one of those people. I bet I could say "hey, lets play ping pong" and he would be like "great, that sounds like fun" and then he would proceed to win every game. On the other hand, he doesn't seem to have a prideful bone in his body, so I guess I'm ok with it.

I had to post one of his gutter balls...just to keep him humble!

As you can see...Bran doesn't make a big deal out of strikes.

Too bad his little strike dance was soon followed by a one point loss to Josh.

We did eventually have to make our way back to Farmington to get our kids...Thank you so so much Disheroon group for making it all possible.

The last thing I heard Kelley say as they drove off was something about a re-match...we shall see. I think we may have to have a cooking contest or something. I can only take so many beatdowns.

Haloween & Photo Shoot

It's been a little busy this week. Halloween is a big deal at our preschool, so I went all out for our Halloween lunch. I made mummy pizzas...so cute

And orange smashed potatoes. We also had "witches fingers"...pickles. & "eyeballs" ...boiled eggs cut open with black olives for pupils. The kids loved all the fun food.

Boston had a very muddy game last weekend. Both memas got to ride with us to the game.

It was a little chilly, but we had a great time anyway. Boston was FILTHY after the game and had to strip down to his undies just to get into the van.

Boston actually jammed his thumb catching a pass just before the game & got his knee stepped on by a 200 pound Elkins boy. You can see the damage in the lower picture.

Boston NEVER bruises, but as you can see...he did this time.

Halloween is always a popular time around our place. The costumes, the candy...the boys look forward to it for months. This year, I was a tight wad when it came to costumes. Boston wore his practice uniform, we found Cade's costume used for $5, and I got Riley's for $4 on the day of Halloween at Walgreen's.

Riley really was happy, he was just trying to look fierce.

I got to do a little photo shoot with the boys and Princess Emily today. Emily is getting so so big. She still didn't want to smile for me, but she was digging the leaves. Every time Val picked her up, all she wanted to do was get back down to them. The boys WERE NOT in photo shoot mode, but I did manage to get a few decent shots before they totally bailed.

Riley's my little model...he will pose for a picture any time any where.

Princess Emily

I'm supposed to do Trav's family sometime soon too. I will post those pics when I get them. They are moving right now, so it's gonna be hard to work out a time we can both do it.

We are in for another busy weekend. First, we get to have a date night tomorrow with our friends Josh and Kelley. We are going to PF Changs and then bowling! Cade and Boston both have their last games on Saturday. The boys have play practice and Peewee fun day Sunday....and on and on it goes!

Kick'in the habit

Hi, my name is Cassie & I'm a convenienceaholic.

I used to be the queen of a great deal! I never bought ANYTHING at full price. I searched out the best deals & bought only the things on my list. If I ever did add a "want" to my cart, I usually thought my way out of buying it by the end of the shopping trip. In those days I found it appalling to think that ANYONE would shop at a store like IGA or Harps. You know the kind of store I'm talking about...that small town grocery store where a $3 package of toilet paper sells for $5.95...ON SALE! Admit it, you've all shopped there. You think if you walk fast and don't make eye contact no one will ever know you were there!

That was then...

I must admit, over the last 6 months or so I became one of "those" people. To be fair to myself, my "habit" grew more out of necessity than convenience. Sometimes walking to the back wall of Wal-Mart for a gallon of milk and a pound of deli meat was just to much for my chemo riddled body to take. Well, I'm 3 months cancer free, and that excuse just won't fly anymore!

That's why I've decided to join CSA. (Convenience Shoppers Anonymous) Step 1...admit that I have a problem & admit to myself (and others...you) that my problem has made my budget unmanageable.

So, a few days ago I went to Wal-Mart to pick up the ingredients for taco soup.

2 pounds ground beef - $3.04
1 can of GV black beans - $1.12
1 can ranch style beans - .87
1 can GV chili beans - .59
1 can rotel - .87
1 pkg GV taco season - .33
1 package Hidden Valley dressing mix - .89
1 bag Frito's - $2.00
1 8oz block cheese - $1.87

If you can't add as you go...that's a grand total of $11.58 for a giant pot of taco soup. Not bad at all. Well, today I had to run into Harps for the preschool. While I was there I decided to use my Wal-Mart receipt to compare prices. I knew in my head how things would come out, I just needed to see it on paper (you know...step 1) Here's how it shook down...

2 Pounds Ground beef - $6.01
1 can black beans - $1.69
1 can ranch style beans - $1.29
1 can chili beans - .87
1 can rotel - $1.18
1 pkg taco season - .69
1 pkg dressing mix - $1.79 (OMG!)
1 bag Frito's - $3.99
1 8oz block cheese - $2.59

That's a grand total of $20 dollars and 10 cents! Can you believe that! A full 100% mark up! To be honest I had to re-add it after I saw the first total...I thought there was no way the mark-up could be that much. WRONG!

To tell the truth, I can skip the other 11 steps...I am a changed woman! No amount of convenience is worth those prices!