Smow Day?

My goodness, the weather outside has been frightful for 2 weeks. 

It snows.  It stops.  It flurries. 

We have 2 hour school delays. 

It snows some more. None of it sticks.

Temps have been hovering in the area of 15-25 for over a week, dropping once to 8 with a windchill of negative 12.......BBBBRRRRRRRR, baby it's cold outside.

I do however keep hoping that it will continue for another week in hopes that the white stuff falls on Christmas Day.  Oh how perfect would that be?  One can hope right?

So as I sit here, teachers are hoping for a snow day as 1-3 inches are in the forecast but for 2 weeks the forecasts have not been spot on, so we'll see. 

Now, back to check in on the short peeps to see how their gingerbread houses are progressing.  Will post photos of those soon!

Out of the mouths of babes....

Conversation with my 8 year old daughter who was on her way home from a gymnastics meet that was 6 hours away.........

Mom: "Hannah, I am not taking you to gymnastics tonight, it's been a long day, the drive was long and I want you to just rest, hang out and relax."

Hannah: "Are you serious mom?  I have been sitting on my bum all day and I need some exercise.  I am not a couch potato like daddy."  And then she proceeds to mock him in the back seat of the car by showing me how he sits on the couch, turns on the tv, puts his head back and commences to snoring!

I almost peed my pants, I was chuckling in the front seat as I was driving.....  needless to say that I took her to gymnastics.

Our first SNOW day!

View from our front door

Mac and Moose exploring the back yard

Mac and Moose looking for treasures

Moose, he was laughing because he just threw a snowball and hit me.  :)

Now Hannah taking aim at me

And succeeding!

Foster....hunting for.....a place to pee.  :)

I think his face says it all........Mom, I love this SNOW, this is the best day ever!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I am so thankful for my friends, my family and those that have touched my life in ways I can't even explain.  My life wouldn't be what it is today without the love, support and strength of those bonds.  You know who you are.....I LOVE YOU!

May you each have a blessed, joyful and wonderful holiday ........... and may you also have full tummies as well!

XOXOXO
Kimberly and clan

Stuff my mom cooks......

Alright, I realized that I am not a good personal blogger.....just like the journal that sits beside my bed collecting dust............but I try.  What I have realized is that I am passionate about a few things.....photography, anything outdoors, gardening and most of all..........COOKING!  I love to cook and I love to be in the kitchen......with my apron on (don't ask me to cook without my apron, it just won't happen).

It is where I go to soothe my sorrows.

It is where I go to express my delight.

It is where I go to just have fun.

My husband and I even have date nights where we send the kids out and we just stay in cooking - although since we have moved to VA, there is no where to send them too......yet.  Gotta work on that!

But my kitchen and food is the heart and soul of my home.  We gather to talk about the day.  We gather to cook meals together.  We gather to do projects and so much more.

I finally realized that blogging about something you are passionate about is a lot more fun than just journaling the everyday details (although important) of our lives.  I will still continue to blog the family stuff but thanks to my son and my cousin Haley......I started a blog that I can't seem to peel myself away from.  I need to pull back long enough to start taking photos of all these delicious meals but it is the beginning.....baby steps!

What is the point to this blog?  It really isn't for you, or you, or you.  It is so that my children will have a living legacy of all those moments we shared around the kitchen.  If you so happen to find a recipe that you like, great.  If not, that's fine too.  It's all about the moments and I finally found the way I want to capture those.

Stuff My Mom Cooks

Enjoy!

Busy Week!

Gosh, where does the time go?

I restarted blogging a week ago and missed posting all week!  How did that happen, lol?

Oh well.  This past week has been so busy between Hannah's gymnastics, Christian's basketball and Xander doing what Xander does.  All good and never a dull moment.

Two more days until turkey day.  I have my wonderful mother in law coming to visit.  It will be a delight to have her here.  She just celebrated a birthday yesterday.....Happy Birthday mom.  I love her, can you tell?

We are busy getting everything ready.  All the shopping has been completed.  Pies are in the works.  This year will be the first year that each of my children are contributing to the meal. 

Xander is making a raspberry swirl cheesecake with chocolate crust....... YUM!

Hannah is taking over the tradition of making the homemade yeast rolls that I have made for the last 15 years.  I am excited for her and the rolls are simply divine!  Yeast rolls in a hour.....easy too!

And my dear sweet Christian, the moose.....he is making homemade whipped cream to top all the decadent pies and desserts.  Xander was about his age when he started making it now Christian has a new job for holiday meals.  He is excited and loves to feel needed.  I need him.

So as we clean and prep and cook and get ready to share in these splendid moments, I want to take a moment to tell my friends and family just how thankful I am to have each of you in my life.  I have a lot to be thankful for this year.

Gotta get back to today's cooking........Drunken Cranberries and Bourbon Margarita Slushies.......are you seeing a pattern with today's recipes????  Oh yea, I am making pies too.  I should probably make the pies before I open all the spirits huh?

Have a great day.

Hannah's first Level 4 Gymnastics Meet

This photo album generated with Smilebox All photos courtesy of my dear friend and Carly's mom - Lara Hopkins @ lbhphotography.net

Back on the wagon...

I simply cannot believe that it has been almost a year since my last post. I sort of went on hiatus. But I cannot recover that time and I certainly don't have the time to sit here and recant the entire year so alas, I will simply pick up from well.....right here, right now. Today. Besides these posts were really only meant to help me remember the moments that we so often forget. And for my family who we don't see near enough. These posts were not meant to be an open window to the world. Right?

This year has been an adventure. We moved from CA to VA and the kids haven't missed a beat. We've been lucky enough to have been visited by friends and some family already but soon we too will need to venture out to visit. When I say soon, I mean after the first of the year.....there's only so much I can squeeze into the last 7 weeks of the year. :)

Realizing that having had bloggers block for the last 9 months, I have so much I want to say yet I cannot find the words to do so. At least not right this moment anyway. Give me an hour. How is it so easy to come up with about 200 characters of things to say on Facebook but so hard to write in a blog? Maybe I'll try writing in the future all the things I posted on FB on here instead. At least it'll keep the blog going, lol! Don't give up on me yet! In the Grove household there is always and adventure, now I just need to keep writing about them. Be back soon with more.... :)

Tuesday already?

BF and Lucy - my grandparents - not sure of the date

Wow, the days sure do fly fast! I feel like as I get older, the days get shorter and my kids get taller. How does this happen I keep asking myself!?!? It is a busy week as I get ready for my trip with the kids to Georgia this week. We fly out on Thursday night on the red eye (to keep the kids on schedule as best I can) and arrive in HOTlanta on Friday AM. We are headed back East to see my 91 year old grandfather and have a mini family reunion! It has been over 13+ years since I have seen some of my family, including my siblings. I know....sad but true. It will be great to catch up with them all, I am really looking forward to this trip.

Then on Sunday, my darling boy Xander will fly back home to finish up the school semester and final exams while the 2 short peeps and I head even further into the deep south to visit with my mom, family and friends in south Georgia for a few days.

To get ready, I am putting the finishing touches on a gift for my grandfather that I hope he'll like so won't be on here too much unless I get done early. Anyone have an extra wife I can borrow? I sure could use one right about now to feed, bathe the kids and clean my house while I am busy crafting and packing!

I'll blog along the way as I can squeeze in the time and as ya'll know, I will have oodles of photos to post so stay tuned and follow along with me.............the best is yet to be!

Life's Full of Potential....

Borrowing this post from my Aunt Sandy since it was too wonderful not to share. It is people like this young man who are great reminders that those things we consider life's "problems" are not really problems at all. May we all be so blessed with a life as rich as his!

Enjoy your sunny Sunday my friends!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xwCG0Ey2Mg

Recycled Crafting with Kids

I was going to post yesterday but I was too busy crafting! Hannah had a friend over so I decided to teach them how to make paper. We made very cute cards with all the recycling from my shredding machine, added seeds in it and they make darling cards that are perfect gifts and can be re-gifted back to the earth after we are done. So the girls made some cards with perennial wildflower seeds and they added in chamomile, vanilla, lavender and other scents to make their cards not only functional but smell good too! I made a stack of 4 cards that each contain seeds to plant a "pizza garden" - a tomato card, basil card, onion card and red pepper card. I stamped the back with some really cute CTMH "handmade" stamps that I ordered long ago from the best scrapper I know, my cousin Haley - check her out here. Now I am going to tie these up with a cute set of gardening gloves, trowel and shovel and give them to someone as a gift.

It was a great day. I even bought a piece of wood, mitered it and made my very own deckle screen frame. This craft is so stinkin' easy that even small kids can do this as well. All you need are recycled paper materials, water, screening material and a lot of creativity! Makes great teacher and neighbor gifts!!! The best part the only costs are the sees and the scents if you decide to add either, otherwise these cards could be made completely for free by using leftovers around your home - dry your flowers and save them too for nice additions of color pop in the cards. You can trim the edges or leave them rough as I have done. The paper is the easy part, what you do with it afterward is up to you. :)

Have fun. What have crafty project have you done lately with your recycling materials?

Windy, wonderful Wednesday

I say wonderful because we need the rain and because my family is healthy, happy and safe however that is about all the wonderful you get! Otherwise the wind is AMAZING, the rain when it comes on shore is torrential and the weather is the craziest I have seen in the 5 years of living here in sunny, southern California. You see, we are weather wimps here. Yes, we live in weather luxury where our years are a perpetual summer of sunshine, warm balmy temps, little rain and any given day can be a "beach day" almost year round, there are many days that I miss living somewhere that has 4 distict seasons but I certainly have no complaints, it could be worse. So this kind of weather sends our community in a tail spin and turns the town on its head, lol! Good thing these people don't live in the south, they would all run for the hills.

You can check it out here:

http://www.ocregister.com/news/storm-229995-highway-commute.html

So to make the most of the day we are hunkered down in the comfort of home crafting, cooking, catching up on housework and homework and just being happy! For those without home's or the comfort of a safe haven, we send our thoughts, prayers and hopes that you are finding a place to stay dry.

Hoping my darling hubby gets a flight in tonight from Tacoma in between the storms. We are missing him.

Have a great day making the most of your weather no matter where you are!

Christmas Road Trip 2009

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Where has this month gone?

Is it Tuesday January 19th, the day after my birthday and I am wondering where in the world these last 19 days have gone already? Whew, it seems like as I get older the days start going faster. I had meant to pist the last few days of our Oregon/No Cal adventures but never got around to it. I am going to post a smilebox (which everyone knows I am addicted to - if you haven't tried it, you should - a great way to send photos in a fun unique way). I'll get that up right in between the loads of laundry that never seem to end this week.

Speaking of which, why is it I have to tell my oldest that I notice each and every time he puts the exact same pair of pants in the dirty laundry that are still (or were still) clean AND STILL FOLDED! Does he really think I think they're dirty? PUH-LEEZ! So back onto his bed they go and the same cycle has repeated itself 3 times over the last week. I told him if I see them one more time, he is doing ALL the laundry for the entire family for the next week! So there!!!! Geez!

Anyway, I need to get to that laundry, get this smilebox made and get my house back in order so I'll sign off for now but post the photos from the trip before I go to bed!

Here's a photo to keep you occupied while I pull the others together! The kids at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company restaurant at Pier 39 in San Francisco. Run Forrest Run!!!

Night ya'll! XOXOXO