Oops

Another long gap between posts! Whats been happening... Emily had "PJ day" at school and that goes against her nature! She normally wants to get out of her PJ's as soon as she is awake! But she got into it and was having fun with it until I picked her up from school and told her we had to go to A&P on the way home. I made the mistake of asking her if she wanted to go in her PJ's or change into clothes. I always have a backpack with her at school and/or in the car with a spare set of clothes. Of course she wanted to get dressed, until she saw what clothes I had! She didn't want THAT shirt or THOSE jeans! Let the meltdown begin! She didn't want the PJ's or the clothes! She wanted me to go home first so she could pick her clothes THEN go to A&P! In the end I just got her to stop crying and we went to A&P in PJ's. She didn't mind then, but she did wonder why no one mentioned that she was in her PJ's!
Lately she has been wearing the same outfit EVERYDAY! Lord help me if it is being washed when she wants to wear it! It is her dark pink Hello Kitty shirt and Hello Kitty Skirt. I'll have to get a picture of the clothes before she wears them out! They are not even new, I don't know why it has suddenly become a favorite! But it is all she wants to wear!
Last night she got out of bed about 20 minutes after I turned out the lights. I was still down stairs and she was at the top of the stairs (I still have a gate up there) calling me. I go up and she asks me if there is a little hole by her nose because it hurts. I see nothing but guess she's been rubbing it on her sleeve and now it's sore. I put her back in bed and give her a pile of tissues on her nightstand. About 5 minutes later she is at the top of the stairs again calling me. This time just to say it feel better! So I put her back in bed and this time I think that is the end...until 3:30 in the morning when she wakes me up by saying "Mommy" right next to my bed! This time she has no real reason to be up (sleepwalking??) I make her take a quick trip to the potty and then back to bed. Now I am lying awake waiting for it to happen again! Thankfully it doesn't and I hope it doesn't happen tonight!

White (after) Christmas!

Well it is two days after Christmas and we are loaded with snow! But lets back track, Christmas Eve was spent at Grandma & Grandpa Coopers. (My kids get Christmas three times! And Emily gets an extra dose with Birthday presents!) It was a nice evening and the kids behaved, but also hid in the living room with their new toys most of the night. Then Christmas morning Tyler woke up about 7 (Curt got up at 6 to feed the horses so he could see the kids when they first woke up) and Emily was right behind him. They are not yet to the point of waking at 4am for presents! After getting through all the presents they emptied their stockings. I put a bag of coal (really chocolate candy) in each of their stockings and Emily found it first.

Emily: "Look, I got my own bag of rocks!" me: "No, that is coal!" Emily dropping the bag, "What!!"

I thought they could use a little reminder that they weren't exactly off the naughty list!!!


So next Cindy and I were getting everything ready for the MacMillan side of Christmas (Curt was doing the barn, thank you Curt). We had planned on putting out appetisers at 12 (when people were supposed to start coming) and then lunch at 1pm. But everyone came late and didn't get here until 1pm, but oh well, there was plenty of food! So we also did round number three of Christmas presents for my kids, yikes we are getting over loaded! Then after lunch, Birthday for Emily.

She was so excited for her party! She chose an "iCarly" cake.

Notice the girl on the right.

So now Emily started round number 4 of gifts!! But I have to say all in all, they behaved very well both Christmas Eve and Christmas day, considering the toy overload!

Now to the snow storm! The day after Christmas they were saying the snow would start, but not until the afternoon. So after getting the horses out and the barn done (Curt had to work), Cindy and the kids and I, ran out to Walmart. I wanted to get snow boots for Curt and I because neither of us had any. I was grateful the snow wasn't coming just yet so we could go out and get them! Oh and Emily got her first ride in a booster seat! No more 5 point harness/baby seat for her!
By the time we got home the snow was just barely started so Cindy thought she'd make a run for it to get home before it got bad. Curt was also on the way home. But the weather got bad very quickly. Cindy saw a number of accidents on the way home but thankfully made it home safely. Curt also said the ride was bad, but made it home safe. And then the snow really was coming down all night. It has stopped now but it is about a foot of snow maybe more but very cold and windy. Poor Mulch was snowed in her house! I had to clear the snow away from her door so she could get out! But then when she could get out she panicked about the snow and ran up under a bush by the garage! She did this last year too, I don't know why she gets so scared. Last year she ran up in the woods after a big snow and didn't come back until nightfall. At least the sun is coming out maybe it will warm up?

Christmas in the City

We ventured into New York city yesterday to see the big Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. We went on this particular day because Curt was not working and neither of the kids had school. It happened to also be an extremely COLD day!!! But we didn't spend too much time outside. We drove to my sisters house (we could never find our way around the city without her!) in Garfield, NJ then walked a couple blocks to the train station, We took the train to Hoboken and stopped by Carlo's Bake Shop (aka The Cake Boss) for a little pastry treat. Then to the Path train into the city and from there the subway. Once we got off the subway we were able to stay underground and walk to the Rockefeller Concourse and then venture outside to see the tree.
I tried to get a good picture of the kids in front of the tree but they were in no mood to have their picture taken.

My second try

My sister didn't fare much better

Curt really wanted a family picture and that didn't work much either

In the end I setled for just the tree


All in all it was fun, we also went to the Lego store, the M&M store and finally Toys R us and there we took a ride on the indoor Ferris wheel. Then is was back to the subway and trains and then a quick stop at my sister's house to see her tree and use the restroom. We were tired (well Curt and I were anyway, the kids, not so much!) and we stopped for a quick dinner on the way home. It was a long day but it was fun and the kids did pretty well, Tyler only got a little cranky and Emily was very good and she also kept her underwear dry all day. So that was good! :)

Christmas is coming...

and I am not ready yet! I am almost done shopping. Maybe one more outing?? I have all my cookies to make still, I have yet to do Christmas card (and I am seriously thinking about skipping them this year) I have about half my wrapping done (I ran out of tape, but now I have more I've run out of steam!)
Th kids are excited, but not behaving as if Santa is watching however!! Emily said to me that she might be on the good list and the naughty list. Then she asked Curt how to get off the naughty list!!
We made a gingerbread house this year. I just bought a kit that had everything included, you just have to mix up the frosting, and even though it came with a bunch of candy we also added left over halloween & holiday parade candy that no one was eating. It was alittle harder to do then I thought even with it all being premade! First the squeeze bag they gave me for the icing had several pin holes in it so it was squirting out everywhere. (Thankfully I have better, reusable bags with metal tips.) Then because we were doing it in the kitchen (with the wood stove going full blast) the icing wasn't getting hardened and things kept drooping. Eventually we got it going well and looking good. Tyler and I did most of it, Emily lost interest and wanted to sample the candy instead. Tyler just wanted to eat the icing!

By the way the wood stove is awsome! Our house had never been warmer! It is t-shirt weather in the kitchen and it really does help keep the whole house warm! I don't think we could have used it much sooner, however, the kids are at the right age where they understand and repect the heat. Tyler however accidently forgot and touched it twice but has since learned his lesson.

Sylvester enjoying the fire when the kids are in bed!

A quick little story...

Today while driving around Emily says to me, "Why do they call cat feet paws?" I say, "Well, any animal with feet like that are called paws." She then goes, "It's weird, it's like 'pause' your game or something."

Holiday Parade

Today I took the kids to the Holiday Parade in Newton, NJ. It's not the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade but it was nice and the kids had fun. Next year we know to bring a bag with us to collect the candy! We got so much candy it was falling out of our pockets! And to think we had almost finished all our Halloween candy!

My Favorite soup ever!

I got this recipe in the news paper sometime last year and I have made it several times. I've improvised it with left over (homemade) Mac & Cheese and also with leftover mashed potatoes.

Vermont Cheddar Bisque


1 1/2 Cups peeled potatoes cut into cubes
2 Cups Chicken broth
1/4 Cup butter (the original recipe says unsalted, but I never have that)
1 Cup finely chopped onions (or in my case, generous amount of onion powder instead!)
3 TBSP all purpose flour
1 1/2 Cups Milk
2 tsp Mustard (original recipe say Dijon, but again I never have that so use what you got!)
1 1/2 Cups shredded EXTRA SHARP Cheddar cheese


1. Combine potatoes and broth in a large stockpot. Cover and bring to a simmer. Cook until potatoes are tender about 8 minutes. Remove from heat.

2. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add onions and cook, stirring until translucent, 6 or 8 minutes. (for onion power, I just add it to the melted butter) Add flour and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir into Potato mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring until thickened.

3. Add Milk and cook, stirring, about 8 minutes. Do not boil. Remove from heat and stir in mustard and about half the cheese. Stir until melted and then add remaining cheese and season with salt and pepper to taste.

So good!