While I've been away...

We have had a lot of activities lately, and the holiday season is just beginning. I still have pictures to upload, but here's a run down and a fun contest you can enter too:

• Family pictures - THREE times! We took pictures in August (NOT good!), again in October (better) and last weekend (BEST!)...thanks to my new family photographer - Missy!!!
• Football, football & football - We're still in the playoffs, so that's been fun and busy. Especially combined with 8th grade basketball too. Lamar is gone most days from 6 am - 8 pm! At least it's all for a good reason.
• ICE! @ The Gaylord Texan - We were able to go to the first week of the ICE show at the Gaylord. This year's theme is Charlie Brown. The girls really loved it. We also visited Santa while we were there. I'll post pictures and share a few funny stories on that in a separate post.

And now, for the contest/giveaway:

My favorite crafters are giving away a Silhouette Machine. It is the latest and greatest in crafting and I would LOVE to have one...HINT, HINT Santa!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends! I know we will! And hopefully we'll cap it off with a WIN Friday night!

So Thankful!

I LOVE this time of year!! This weeks marks the beginning of so much excitement! On top of Thanksgiving, we are still in the playoffs---Go Trojans!!!

We have so much to be thankful for---our health, our home, our family, our friends and even more! God has been so good to us this year! The most notable thing has been Lamar's new job. He was brought out of a difficult situation into a great one! We are definitely blessed.

Tonight we get to kick off the holiday season with a trip to ICE at the Gaylord Texan. At some point, I need to get my tree up too!

I'm looking forward to a wonderful season full of fun family time!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all (if there are still any readers out there)!

Happy Halloween

from my 2 favorite cheerleaders!

Pumpkin Patch

We made our annual trek to the Pumpkin Patch yesterday. It was a beautiful Saturday so there were 100s of people there!!! The girls were fairly cooperative and let me take over 100 pictures!

I'm guessing this pumpkin was 15 pounds or so!

Fed up with pictures, but still cute!

Some days I want to lock them up!

The Hello Kitty Crew

101 Dalmations

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake

Tonight was our turn to host Home Team at our house. We have been a part of this small group for over 4 years. It's so wonderful to have close Christian friends who are in the same phase of life. We spent a long time tonight talking about parenting - it was GREAT!

We had good food, good fellowship and good fun!

Here's the recipe for the dessert I made. It's Paula Deen's Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake. I'm not a fan of pumpkin in general and I LOVE this!

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cakes

Cake:

• 1 (18 1/4-ounce) package yellow cake mix
• 1 egg
• 1 stick butter, melted

Filling:

• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to overbake as the center should be a little gooey.

Serve with Cool Whip.

Variations:
For a Pineapple Gooey Cake: Instead of the pumpkin, add a drained 20-ounce can of crushed pineapple to the cream cheese filling. Proceed as directed above.

For a Banana Gooey Cake: Prepare cream cheese filling as directed, beating in 2 ripe bananas instead of the pumpkin. Proceed as directed above.

For a Peanut Butter Gooey Cake: Use a chocolate cake mix. Add 1 cup creamy peanut butter to the cream cheese filling instead of the pumpkin. Proceed as directed above.

Little Fans - Pictures added

**I thought I had saved this as a draft and obviously I posted it before I downloaded the pictures. Here they are! You should also know that Daddy was the photographer on these. If I was taking the pictures, they would have had their hair fixed with matching bows! :)

Today Missy brought by Landrie's birthday gift. They gave her and Karsyn Dallas Cowboys jerseys! I knew it would be a hit with Lamar, but I had no idea how much the girls would love to have them!! They both put them on immediately and the only time they took them off was to eat dinner. Landrie is even sleeping in hers tonight!

Silence

I'm not a quiet person. I don't like to do anything without some kind of background noise - including sleep. But right now, the only sound I hear is the typing on the keyboard. It's glorious!



This week has been go-go-go and I was looking forward to tonight. Monday night, I drove Lamar's truck in our homecoming parade. One of our organizations needed transportation. The girls loved it! I let them get in the back with some of my students and they waved at the crowd and ate lollipop after lollipop.



Tuesday night was my Open House. Our principal stressed how important it was to be there and let me tell you...for the 2 parents that came by my class...it was imporant. Let me backtrack - Lamar had a late practice and Lolly had plans, so I had to take the girls with me. Right as we're leaving the house, Karsyn decides she needs to go potty. She proceeds to take off all of her clothes and still no results on the potty. She redressed herself, which was great - until I noticed that her shirt was on backwards--after I got to school. She also managed to pull her bow out and mess up her hair in the short trip there. She was a mess to say the least. Lamar picked them up around 8 and got them ready for bed. I'm sure he loved it, but just as he got them down, I called to say I was on my way home.


Last night, we were all at home but it just didn't seem restful since it was the first night I'd had at home all week.


So tonight, Lamar is coaching the JV game and the girls are sleeping. I have my clean, quiet house all to myself! I'm in heaven.

We're gearing up for another exciting Buffalo football game tomorrow! Let's hope we can finally win one!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving. I've enjoyed playing with the girls, spending time with family, shopping and of course eating. Here's some pictures from our trip to Salado.

Landrie & Karsyn on Uncle John's Rocking Horse

Mommy & Karsyn tired and FULL - ready to take a nap on the road.

Attempt 1 of many to get a Kirk Family Picture for Gigi's Christmas cards.

Since we're all dressed, let's try to get a family picture...turned out just like they always do! I think Daddy's worse than the girls! :)

Happy Halloween!

An unhappy bumble bee

Practice round @ Pops & Lolly's

Karsyn & Campbell ~ The Cutest Bumble Bees!

Lolly has the other pictures on her camera. Hopefully she'll post them soon! Landrie and Karsyn actually smiled together for a few pictures! Surprise, surprise!