Holiday Season

My oh my we jumped right into this holiday season..I still can't believe October is over! With the holidays comes give a ways!!! Here's an amazing one:

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family?

**I would wish my family to have peace, love and joy in our home along with preparedness!

2. What is your Christmas morning tradition?

**We put out minimal gifts until they all go to bed Christmas eve then throw the rest under the tree and make them all wait and go in together.

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be?

**I have so many wishes....A Home with no mortgage, a new car with no payment, then there's always a 2 week trip to Europe :)

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?

**We are doing that this Christmas season, we tell stories, visit with family, go see Christmas lights and Mom and Dad are making most of Christmas.

5. What games did you play with your family growing up?

**Lots of card games, pictionary, charades...

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?

**We read the story of Jesus' birth from the Bible on Christmas Eve and open our present from Grandma and Grandpa.

7. Where would you go for a Christmas-away-from-home trip?

**My first response would be Disneyland, but I wouldn't mind spending it in Australia. I have a dear friend there and he's always telling us about their BBQ's at the beach for Christmas!

8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year?

Dsi's for my kiddo's, PS3, Lot's of Wii games!

To enter, link to your Mama’s Holiday Wish List post using the Mister Linky box below.

BUT WAIT. Did you think we were done? Oh, you must not know us at all.

We have another stockpile of gifts from GameStop that you can enter to win with our extra entry options.

• Runner Up #1 will receive a XBox 360 250 GB with Kinect and a $250 GameStop gift card.
• Runner Up #2 will receive a Nintendo Red DSi XL Bundle and a $250 GameStop gift card.
• Runner Up #3 will receive a Nintendo Red Wii Bundle and a $250 GameStop gift card.

Extra Entry Options include:

• “Like” Gamestop on Facebook
• Follow @gamestop on Twitter
• Head back to the tippy-top of this post and hit that “Retweet” button.

Good Luck everyone!!!

Halloween!

Halloween is quickly approaching and that's a big holiday around our house. It's my husbands favorite...so much so that we decorated for it about a week before October began. What are some of your costume ideas? We are on a tight budget this year, so our kids are getting creative. One daughter is going to be a modern day Cinderella, which means: Jeans, blue shirt, princess hair and tiara (such a cute idea), another is going to be a "goth fairy". Yeah, I didn't know what that meant either...basically just a fairy wearing black. Turns out she has everything she needs except for wings, so we lucked out there too! Not sure about my youngest son, he still can't decide what's cool enough for him to be but I have a feeling it might have something to do with a football player. Our littlest goblin is going to be Minnie Mouse and the oldest...well I told him he's too old for us to still be buying a costume for :).
Here's the real dilemma, my husband and I just got invited to a Halloween party. I'm not having much luck coming up with cheap costume ideas! I really wanted to go as "Dog and Beth" but as I said earlier....low budget this year, so I'm trying to think of something I can make myself. Hmmmm, pictures to come as idea's do!

1 down, 5 to go

It's such a strange thing to be a step parent, you really can't imagine all the intricacies unless you've been there. Having been a parent before marrying my husband you'd think that I wouldn't have too hard of a time adjusting...wrong :). There really is something to be said about the natural order of things and what I mean by that is you grow with your kids...if you are a mom of a 3 year old you don't really know what to do with a 10 year old! When we married, my oldest was 8, his oldest living with us was 12. Now that we've been together for awhile and I'm settling into the teen years, I'm far more prepared to battle with all that comes from older kids.
My husband has an older son who's come to visit many times and came to live with us last year. When he moved in he was 18 and a senior in High School. He completed his senior year, graduated, turned 19, got a job, got a car...and just moved out! Talk about weird. It was awesome to have him here, we all love him so much but also weird to have an "adult" in the house. He just moved out about a week ago and that was even weirder! As a mother of kids ranging from 2 to 16, it's strange to have that feeling that it's getting close to the time for one to leave the nest. It's not a natural feeling as a mom to feel like a child should be out on their own and yet that feeling does eventually come.
It happened quickly, in about 3 hours to be more specific! He came home, said he needed to talk and told us he'd been offered a job back in California starting the next day so he was going to pack. We weren't completely unprepared for this news, but still shell shocked at the timing. I told him he had to wait to say goodbye to his siblings who were all still in school and for me to get to the store to at least get him a road trip snacky care package together! It's probably for the best it happened so quickly, like a band aide, I didn't have too much time to tear up! We love and miss him and hope he's doing well in that big scary world!
We joke about the time when all our kids have moved out and we can have time to ourselves, but the reality is we will miss them all dearly. I look at my baby girl, listen to her sweet little voice, the sound of her feet running around the house, the sweet way she grabs my face to give me kisses, how she will take my arm and put it around her if she wants to snuggle and I try to memorize every moment! Life is busy with so many (now 5) kids at home, especially having them all in different schools but I try to live in the moment with them. I try not too be too busy to listen to their stories about the drama at school, listen to their oh so not funny jokes :), and always grab them for a hug before they run back out the door. I know that all too soon our home will be quiet. Enjoy every moment with your kids, let them go when it's time but until that time comes make some memories!

Teenagers!

I've SO slacked on this blog...i'll do better, I promise! And unlike most
teenagers, I really will do better :). I have teenagers, can you tell? I
have 3 to be exact. People will tell you that the teen years are tough, but
you really have no idea until you're in them. Emotional, irrational,
sometimes dishonest, lazy and excuse making machines that they are...
it can be tough. Not to mention that THEY. KNOW. EVERYTHING!
Don't get me wrong, I love my teenagers. It's fun to see them grow up,
make good choices, be good examples and have that friendship start to
grow with your children that you will have with them as adults. We get
to hang out with our teenagers and talk about life, about how the effect
that choices at this age can ripple throughout their lives, we can talk
about t.v. shows that aren't cartoons, movies, jokes, dating...things
that you can't talk about with younger kids. Teenagers have their up
side too, they can be pretty funny when they're not trying to be super
cool.
The teen years really are a roller coaster ride, one minute you're
laughing or having a normal conversation and the next...crying,
yelling, mouth hanging open from the ridiculous thing they just said,
or having to control your natural urge to take off your shoe and beat
them with it!
(I never would or have laid a hand, or shoe on my kids...but lets be
honest, the urge is there with teenagers!).
Parents of babies, young children, tweens...prepare yourselves! Buy a
5 point safety harness and strap in, it's going to be a bumpy ride!

It's 1:30am - and kids are still up

It must be summer time. It's 1:30am and I have kids still up wandering around the house. These kids won't sleep. There's only about a month of summer left before the school year starts again in August, and it's going to be a hard transition for the kids, but it's nothing that a glass of ice water can't fix. How you ask? - Let them know you'll be pouring it on them in the morning if they don't get up when you've told them too :) It's amazing what kids can do with the proper motivation :)

New Recipe

I tried a new recipe tonight and it was a big hit! We love Mexican food, so my husband and I just started talking about what ingredients we like best in mexican dishes. I cooked some hamburger with mexican seasoning and some mexican rice on the stove. While they were cooking I layered in a casserole dish refried beans (we like the green chile and lime flavor), then corn, then the cooked rice, black beans, hamburger and topped it off with cheese. I threw in some green enchilada sauce on top of a few of the layers. I baked it at 375 for about 20 mins and served it with tortilla chips. I topped mine off with sour cream, my husband likes hot sauce. It was a really quick meal and everyone loved it!

2 for 1

I think it's pretty common for most people (especially women) to be concerned with their weight, it seems to be the never ending battle! Also, most couples I know are struggling with finances and if you have children time alone! My husband and I are always looking for cheap and creative dates to go on. Lately we've started combining exercising and dates! We go for walks while our kids are in school....this would also work in the evenings just leave your kids at home! We stick our baby in the stroller and go for a walk....no phone, computer, t.v....just my hubby and I getting healthy and having time to talk without interruptions. Today we walked to the local convenience store and got a non-fat frozen yogurt to share on the walk home. We plan on walking together everyday, it's a great way to re-connect and support each other in having a healthy lifestyle!

There's nothing to eat!!!

How many times a day do you hear that?!?!? I love watching my kids stand in front of a fridge or cupboard full of food and exclaim, " there's nothing to eat!". One thing we've done to combat that constant question has been to get our kids individual baskets. Each child has a basket with their name on it, we try to refill them twice a month, but usually our budget dictates that. We go to Wal Mart where they have chips, cookies and soda for about $1 each. We let each kid pick out their favorite of each to keep in their basket and they have to budget their treats to last the 2-3 weeks between shopping trips. This has really cut down on the extra snacking and whining about wanting snacks. When they eat all their snacks, they're done! Again, depending on our budget that month we'll put different things in, favorite cereal, beef jerky, pop tarts..you'd be surprised the snacks kids come up with (like a bag of pepperoni!).
This also helps with mommy snacking :). If the kids have their treats in their own basket and not just sitting on the shelf, it doesn't tempt me. I can keep healthier snacks like fruit, cheese or just goldfish crackers on hand for when they've had enough sugar or have run out of treats. Some of the kids go through their whole basket in a few days and spend the rest of the time eating the healthier snacks and others budget really well and just have one treat a day. It has worked for us pretty well.
So here's my question to all moms...What are some of your favorite quick recipes? A family favorite that is quick, simple and made from ingredients you usually have on hand?
In our house the quickest, most common meal is probably "Italian Casserole". We just cook whatever noodles we have, ground beef with spaghetti sauce, pour it all in a pan, throw some cheese on top and bake it in the oven until the cheese melts. The kids love it, especially as a change from spaghetti.
We are also a family of pizza lovers so we're always looking for new ways to create that. We recently were making english muffin pizza's...yummy and pretty cheap to make. Just the other day my husband was in the mood for pizza but we didn't have any muffins so he used a tortilla! That's the new fav....a little bit of pizza sauce, either motzerella or just blended cheese and we like to use mini pepperoni's...bake them right on the oven rack and they come out crispy like a thin crust pizza!

3:30...the crazy hour

I'm always surprised at just how crazy life gets right around 3:30! I went from being a single mom with 2 kids..fast forward 2 1/2 years to me being a mom of 6 kids! Wow and I thought I was busy before. I have one kid on a computer doing a report, one on my floor doing homework, my almost 2 year old climbing around my bed yelling about wanting to draw and 2 others in and out with almost constant questions...whew, is it bedtime yet? Or the better question might be...what's for dinner?
Does anyone else ever wake up with Nick Jr. songs in their head? I do every single morning...Yo Gabba Gabba, Wow wow wubzy, Backyardagains....you name it, it's running through my head in the morning. It's interesting to see the effect us having a baby has had on our household. When she was born we had kids ranging from 8 to 17. All of our kids now sing Yo Gabba Gabba songs and have no problem sitting through many episodes...I LOVE this! When I think about all the garbage on t.v. I'm very thankful that my kids are happy watching "kiddie" shows and singing songs about the weather, not biting their friends and being brave :). This little girl has really brought our family together, she's got everyone wrapped around her finger. There's not many things better than seeing every kid in the house grinning from ear to ear and laughing because there's a little girl dancing in the room!
I think my 15 minutes of "sitting" are up...i've got to prepare something for dinner, family night and if I'm lucky i'll get the folded laundry that's been sitting on my chair for 4 days put away!

Where to begin??

I have been talking to my husband about wanting to start a blog about being a mom, but wasn't quite sure what to call it or if I had a specific subject matter in mind. I've thought about starting a blog as a mom in general, a mom in a blended family, a mom of a child with cancer and a few others! So late last night when I was fast asleep my wonderful husband helped me out.
That might be a good place to begin...my husband! Talk about winning the lottery there, he is the most amazing man I've ever known. I love every minute I can get with him and thank the Lord daily for bringing him into my life and my children's lives. Together we can get through anything!

I am a Mom of 6

Not only am I a Mom of 6, it is a "blended family" too. When my husband and I met, I had 2, he had 3, and together we made 1 more. This has proven to be a challenging adventure - the hard parts are really hard, and the good parts are rewarding enough to make me thankful I have all of the wonderful children I have.