Happy Thanksgiving…..

I am thankful for my kids, husband, and all that the Lord provides for us.

Time outs are so sad :(

Couldn’t help but take this picture of Sam in time-out. I am just surprised he stayed. Usually I have to put him on the dryer so he can’t get down.

Boys….

This is what my boys do for entertainment….

Halloween 09

Here are a few of the kiddos on Halloween!

Maddie wasn’t quite sure what she was called….pumpkin spice is what it said on the package. I called her a disco pumpkin, Grandma called her a space pumpkin…either way she was cute.

Jack was a skeleton. He wouldn’t wear the mask for long, but he did put it on for a few house.  He wouldn’t let me draw something on his face instead either.

Sam was batman! The day we bought it he wore it all day, all night, and the next day….even to tumbling. It was funny. There was a hole in it before he even took it off.

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Silly Sammyboy

Sammy Boy is counting now...up to 5 and close to 10...give or take a 7 or 8. But maybe someday I will tell him that yellow is not a number, but I just can't yet...

Musings of Jackyboy

Last Sunday while sitting in Church Jack wanted a really cool paper airplane that mom had already failed to produce, so he went to dad and asked him to use his master dad tricks to provide a fairly awesome paper airplane that he could have bragging rights to his friend and pue neighbor, Jacob. Well Dad's response was "Well Jacky boy, I will do my best". As he fumbled the paper around and roughly creased each fold, he presented Jack with not-so-awesome paper airplane. Jack looked at Dad and asked with question in his voice, "This is the best you can do?" Dad looked wearily at Jacky boy and saw the disappointment in his eyes and trying to reassure him he replied, "Yes Jack, that is the best I can do." Unconvinced, Jacky boy looked down at the plane and looked at dad and replied, "Okay, I guess."

Madison turned 8

Maddie turned eight on July 1st. She is going to be baptized this Saturday. She is so excited. She is growing up and its flying by. I keep think what happed to the last 5 years and I really have a hard time remembering. It makes me feel like I need to keep better records. Journal, keeping track of stories, keeping up with scrapbooks, etc. Its a little tap on the shoulder telling me to slow down and enjoy the ride....

I think I fell off the face of the Planet....

Well it could be true if you base it off my blog entries!

But I am alive....not going to go over the last two months for you though....not really much to tell.

But I am alive!

my brothers are so crazy! funny but totally insane

WATCH THESE.....NEED I SAY MORE?

here are some pictures

not my most pro pics, just using our point and shoot. But it shows what the room look like now...

 

this is the new armoire for the computer.

  

I still need to paint the wall rust red that the phone is on, but that won't happen until next week.

I must be Crazy!

Do any of you watch Oprah? I confess, I sort of do a little (which means I DVR the episodes and pick and choose which ones I want to watch, late at night, while folding laundry)

Well they have been having this series on her show about cleaning up your messy house. So this months challenge was the Home Office. (Which if you saw my office you would know that its going to take more than a month )

SO... I started my project and realized I need to separated my home stuff, like paying bills, etc from my work. I decided that it would be great if I were to put an computer armoire in my dinning room and use that as Control Headquarters. (since the table is where most of the stuff lands anyway.)

SO.... I found a used armoire  on KSL for a reasonable price and went to get it. But now the spot where I want it there is a china hutch. So I decide to list the hutch on KSL. Which means that I have to clean out my kitchen cupboards to fit the set of dishes and other items the hutch houses. Then I think in my head that it will look so weird to replace that china hutch with such a small armoire. But if I paint the room maybe it won't look so weird. (since this hutch has been in the same place for 27 years)

SO....I decide on a paint scheme and go to Lowe's and buy paint. The next day I start to prep the walls, spackle and all, and totally dismantle the whole room. I get it all done in ONE day!!! That's not easy on a Saturday with 3 kids.

Then, after moving things around I realize that the hutch will work  so now that I have completely emptied it and cleaned it I can now put everything back.

But all in all, the dinning room looks great! But wait a minute, the office is still a disaster!

Sam's Birthday

Sam's birthday was Last Wednesday. He is two can you believe it! I will hopefully get some pictures up from his party.

Dabling household drama

Sorry for the lack of posting....we had a flood last week in our basement. Our water heater hit the dust and leaked 30 gallons or more of water in my studio. We had to replace the water heater, pull up the carpet, rip out the padding, suck out the rest of the water from the carpet and let it dry out. Then Tuesday we had to re-lay the carpet and replace the pad. So that on Wednesday I could have the carpet cleaners still come. I had them scheduled before the flood happened. I am so glad I moved it back a week than we were thinking. But needless to say life this week has been hectic.

But today...the basement is back to normal, and not as musty smelling.

Proof that Life goes on....

New Habits...

I have been thinking about this year and how am I going to make my year different. I have been making quite a few changes over the course of two weeks....aiming for 21 days.

I have been actually having "Family Dinner" for the first time. When I say family dinner, I mean sit down as a family at the dinner table (with the TV off). This is really the first time in 8 years that we have ever done this regularly. The kitchen table was only used for Sundays and Birthdays, but now we have been using it everyday.

I have been cooking full meals. Main Dish, Veggies, Bread, and Dessert (mostly for bribing reasons) My kids in the past have been so picky, but I have been really proud of them for trying all the new recipes.

I have found some really yummy recipes that I will share in case any of you want to try something new for your family. The most frustrating part for me was "What" to fix for dinner it. So here are some of our winner recipes...

 

Skillet Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients

1 1/4lb Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast, cut up into 1-inch pieces (I actually used left overs from a Rotisserie Chicken)

2 cups sliced fresh carrots

2 cups frozen southern-style diced hash brown potatoes

1 jar chicken gravy (12-150z) I made up  2 chicken gravy packets

1 cup frozen sweet peas

1 can (12oz) Pillsbury Golden layers or original flaky biscuits

1. In a non-stick skillet heat 1 tbs oil over medium-high heat. Add Chicken; sprinkle with salt, 1/2 tsp thyme, and pepper. Cook 5 minute, until chicken is browned

2. Move chicken to one side of the skillet and add carrots and potatoes; cook 5 minutes stirring frequently. Stir in gravy into chicken and vegetables. Heat to boiling, Reduce heat to low. Cover; simmer 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add peas the last 5 minutes.

3. During the last 15 minutes of cooking heat oven to 400 degrees. Separate dough into  10 biscuits. Cut each in to quarters (triangles) sprinkle lightly with garlic powder and thyme. Place on ungreased cookie sheet

4. Bake 10-15 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown. Scatter over top of cooked chicken mixture before serving (I served them on the side for my kids)

 

another thumbs up was...

Mom's Skillet Goulash

2 2/3 cups uncooked rotini pasta (8oz)

1 lb lean ground beef

1 1/2 cups chopped celery

1 cup chopped onions

2 cans diced tomatoes, undrained

1 can tomato soup

salt and pepper

1. Cook and drain pasta

2. Meanwhile, in a non-stick skillet cook beef, celery, and onions over medium high heat stirring frequently. Drain

3. Stir in cooked pasta and remaining ingredients. Heat until boiling. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

 

It has been a really nice change for our family. I have been planning our meals weekly and shopping for just the needed items. I have been saving money and finally using stuff from our freezer, by planning ahead. 

And everyone has been helping out on the cleaning up (which I always hated) Its really been nice.

 

Now the hard part is keeping it up....

Organizing Photos

Hi all,

I am hosting an organizing your photos workshop on Saturday. I will teach you a system for getting those printed pictures out of boxes and getting them organized and safely stored. We will have 5 hours of work time. Workshop fee is $50 and includes all supplies including the Power Sort Organizing Box. I have also invited someone to come and scan any photos that you may want to have digitally stored and ready to put into your self-published Photo book. There is limited space available. Email me at spdabling@msn.com to register by TUESDAY!!! Please invite a friend to come too!

 

Organizing Workshop

Saturday Feb 28, 11-4

560 S Main Clearfield

Email to register

spdabling@msn.com

Birthday Facts

So with Jack's Birthday just passed us, and as I was cleaning today and my mind was wandering on what I could blog, so I thought this was interesting...

Birthdays in my Family

My Birthday is the first one of the year only 6 days after new years. One day after my childhood friend JD and 8 days before Melinda's. We were all baptized the same day. And now I share my birthday with my sister-in-laws father.

My dad and my mother-in- law have the same Birthday only 4 days after mine.

Jack and my friend Stacie share their birthday.

Sam is an April fools baby

and Maddie is only 4 days before the 4th of July.

My mom's is on the 24th of July.

My brother Ryan's birthday became significant in 2001. Sept 11.

Riley shares his birthday with my cousins daughter Samantha (same year as Madison) who's brother was also due the exact same day, luckily he was late.

All my children's original due date was the 8th of the month. Two were born on the first of the month....both on a Sunday. Then Jack was born on the 10th (but with him they moved my date back, but he was my biggest baby, even though "they" say he was two weeks early...ya right)

365 days in a year....

Jacks Birthday

Happy Birthday Jack... you are now four and now out of the three's. You are growing up so fast. I love your laugh. You are very loving and sweet. You love to cuddle and give lots of hugs and kisses. You really love playing with your sister, and are getting better at playing with your brother.

We had Jack's Birthday Party 10 days early so my parents could finally be here for one of Jack's Birthday's (those stinks think they have to fly south for the winter) Jack didn't understand that he really wasn't four yet, and didn't get that your Birthday was the whole day....not just when the party started. So we took the kids to Chucky Cheese last night for his birthday and he got to open another gift. He was satisfied. And I think he had a great birthday.

What does that mean?

So when my daughter complimented me tonight that she really likes it when I am nice....I asked, "am I not  usually nice" And she said, "well sometimes you get mad."

So I guess I get to add "be nicer" to my list of resolutions.

Blogging Extras

Some of you have asked me about Google Analytics and my Windows Live Writer.

Google Analytics is easy to use and so interesting to see where people are coming from to your site. This works with any website where you can copy and paste html code.

My Dabling in Digital blog has had visitors from Japan, China, Australia, Netherlands, Spain, Mexico. Its fun to see who found me through google, and see what keywords they used to find me and see how long they were on the site and what pages they looked at.

First click on this link to get Google Analytics

Log into your Google account (same as your blogger account) and follow the steps.

Then on your blog you just go to Layout>Add a Gadget (at the Bottom) and scroll down to choose HTML/JavaScript.

Then add the code that Google Analytics generated for you and your done.

Then you can see all kinds of information of who has been on your site and where their from and so much more.

I always just either go to google.com and log in and click on analytics from my account to see the reports or from your blogger dashboard you can also click 'Account' and it takes you to your google account.

When I post to my blog I use Windows Live Writer. It is a program that installs on your computer and I have a shortcut on my desktop, where I can blog from without even going to blogger.com or my blog and log in. I can draft a bunch of posts and post later. It is so handy. It makes blogging so much easier!

Click here to get Live Writer

ByShannon.com

I have been tweaking with my website and now it is a blog-site. I have finally got it set up (still tweaking) and have made my first post with more pictures of Bridger Dale Porter, my new nephew. So click here to see the post and click here to see a website gallery.

Thanks for looking!