Twilight

Dave and I took Taylor and her friend, Samantha, to see the movie Twilight! It was AWESOME!! Taylor and I have read all the books... and the movie did not let us down!

Doesn't Dave look SUPER excited to see the movie? He could hardly wait! :) LOL! He actually liked it...in fact, he may read the books now too!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great day! We had a total of 15 hungry people this year. Among the guests were Dave's sisters family, my friend Susan and her family, and my friend Lynne. Everything was yummy! We are so grateful for good friends and our families.

Halli & Dave...


Katrina & Kevin Shaffer (Dave's sister and her hubby)...

Art & Susan Muela...

Halli & Susan...

The "Adult" Table....

The "Kid" Table...

Caitlyn & Lauren (BFF)...

(Whenever they are together they act like they're dogs...hence the "bones" in the mouth!)

Happy Turkey Day!!!

Puppies!

My friend's foster dog had puppies and let us come and see them. The girls could have sat there all day long. Carter snuggled them for a minute or two but then was off to play... Lauren and Taylor couldn't get enough. The puppies are two weeks old and their eyes still haven't opened. Aren't they cute?

A Conversation with Carter...

It went something like this...

HALLI: "One day, Carter, you will go through puberty too. Your voice will change. It will get deeper. Not to mention, you will start to grow hair on your body...under your arms, on your chest."

CARTER: "Well I'll shave my armpits and belly."

HALLI: "Boys don't usually shave their armpits bud. Dad, show Carter your arm pits."

(Dave shows Carter his very manly pits)

Carter takes a quick look, covers his eyes with his hands and says, "EEEEWWWWW...I can't look!"

(Taylor laughs hysterically and the teasing begins....)

Miss Lauren

Meet India, Lauren's pilgrim clothespin doll (which she made completely by herself). According to Lauren, she lives in a pumpkin patch and is very excited for Thanksgiving!

Need a closer look? Here you go...

I'm excited for Thanksgiving too!

No Boys Allowed

Lauren made this sign and hung it on her bedroom door....

We really don't swear around here so I don't know where she came up with that! I think I may save this sign for the future with a slight modification being "...or else my mom will swear!" :)

Happy Friday Everyone!

Family Photo Shoot

Yesterday we had family pictures taken. My friend Kerri Cernosek took them...she's awesome if you live in the Austin area. Her website is http://www.kcphotodesigns.com/. She emailed me a sneak peak of some of the "fun" ones and so I thought I'd share them with you! I am excited to see the rest of them....

Happy Haunting!

Taylor (rocker chic)

Carter (zombie)

Lauren (bat girl)

Maggie (witch) & Lauren

Check out all that candy!!!!

The BEST part about food shopping!

One thing that I really do NOT enjoy is grocery shopping. Because of this, I only go every two weeks; so, when I do shop, I always buy A LOT of food! (Not to mention I like to have extra stuff on hand). It seems that someone always comments on how much I'm buying. I get asked things like: "How many kids DO you have?" or "Are you having a party?" You get the idea. I even get comments at Costco...can you believe that?! The bulk capital of shopping! (It's a little irritating)SO, I always reward myself with one of these babies...

Lucky for me there's a great little smoothie shop in the grocery store!!! Nothing beats a strawberry smoothie :)

Christian and Stephanie Nielson

I have been following this story since August and have grown to love this family even though I do not know them. Their names are Stephanie & Christian Nielson and they need your prayers. They were in a plane crash on August 16th and both have severe burns. You can read about their story here:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/10/26/20081026sisters1026a1.html

Stephanie's blog is http://www.nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/
Her sister Jane updates their progress on her blog at http://blog.cjanerun.com/

She is an amazing woman and example.

A Little Pick Me Up

My sister-in-law posted the funniest song on her blog! It is definately worth your time to check it out.

Just click on the link below:
http://ac-and-kids.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-favorite-things.html

Enjoy!

Taco Pizza

Because of my aversion to tomatoes, I only put them on half of the pizza! :)

I was craving taco pizza today so I went online and found a recipe and made it for dinner tonight. It was a hit...delicious! So, here's the recipe:

I used my own dough recipe:

CRUSTY PIZZA DOUGH

1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. olive oil
2 1/2 - 3 cups all-purpose flour (I use 2 cups whole wheat, 1 cup all-purpose flour)
1 Tablespoon cornmeal


Dissolve yeast in very warm water in mixer bowl. Add salt, olive oil, and flour. Mix well. Knead . Place dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise for about 1 hour (until double in size). Punch down. Brush 14 inch pizza pan with oil and sprinkle with cornmeal. Roll dough out and press against bottom of pan forming a collar around edge to hold toppings.


TACO PIZZA
Base:
2/3 cup taco sauce
2/3 cup pizza sauce
1/4 cup re-fried beans
1 package taco meat seasoning
1 lb ground beef (I used fat free ground turkey)
1 - 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese (I used more than that!)


Topping (after baking):
shredded cheddar cheese
shredded lettuce
chopped tomato
sliced black olives
sliced green onion
sour cream (I did not use sour cream)


Brown beef in skillet. Drain. Mix in packet of taco seasoning and water as per the instructions on the packet. Mix taco sauce, pizza sauce, and re-fried beans together and spread on pizza dough. Put a layer of mozzarella cheese over sauce. Place taco meat over cheese and then another layer of mozzarella cheese over meat. Bake at 480 degrees for 11-15 minutes.


Once out of the oven, cut pizza and top with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, gr. onion, olives, cheddar cheese, and sour cream.


I served it with all fruit smoothies...

Enjoy!