"Cheese!"

It's about that time... family pictures for Christmas Cards! Janelle Joy Photography is who we used last year and have already scheduled our appointment for this year. She is amazing. The way she captures eyes and personalities and lighting is amazing. She is SOO patient with kids and spends whatever time needed. Working with her after pics on editing and ordering is also such a great experience- she is fabulous and talented. AND! Right now on her blog she is having a contest giving away a free session and CD- a $350 value!!! If you are in the Mesa/Gilbert/Queens Creek area, you will have to check her out at http://janellejoy.com/blog/.

I'm off to enter myself!

The Phantom is Back...

AGHHHHHHH!!!!

Every October it is so much fun when the kiddos hear the doorbell ring late at night and run to the door and find... that we've been spooked!

This year the Phantom was creative and brought a big box full of fresh hot Krispy Kreme donuts, a Krispy Kreme hat for each of the kids, and Finger Suckers!

Colby ate two donuts before bed and was licking his lips as he drifted off to sleep.... Thanks Phantom! We are off to do it tonight! If you'd like to do it too, head to www.jenuinejen.com//wp-content/images/spooked.pdf.

Cow"ghoul" Cookies

Bakerella is the baking goddess. Love her fun ideas and yummy recipes. She had a super cute Cowgirl Cookie Mix in a jar that was just adorable using pink m&m's. I actually have never done the mix in the jar thing before but wanted to try... I first tried out the recipe with the girlys to make sure we liked it... Wow. It was YUMMY. The kiddos gobbled them up- super moist inside and a little crunchy outside. They had a great time making them too! So I thought it would make a great Halloween Gift idea as Cow"ghoul" Cookies.

Whether for your good friends, your visiting teachees, or a neighbor who is always helping you out, it makes a great gift and fun for the holidays! Think of all the combos you could make- M&M's come in all colors for seasons and holidays so it could be fun gift for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentines Day etc!

I used double stick tape to adhere the label on front and instructions for baking on the back of the jar. My copy and paste feature on this computer is not working for some reason... so check out www.bakerella.com/mix-things-up for the recipe and instructions for assembling jars!

Making the Cow"ghoul" cookies!

• 1- Mix up the dry ingredients (jar contents) in a bowl
• 2- Add liquid ingredients
• 3- Use SMALL ice cream scoop to form cookies (the girls still like to take balls and roll them perfectly smooth!)
• 4-You can bake them on a cookie tray covered with parchment paper
• 5- Bake for 10 minutes and cool on wire racks
• 6- Enjoy the moist tasty goodness!
  

The jars are Quart size and can be bought at Wal-Mart or Frys. I bought 1/4 yard of fabric and it worked perfectly for 6 jars. I had tried to find black bandana western material but the polka dots still turned out cute and they were fun to put together. This would be a great project for kids to help with too!

It's a...

Girl! With all my extra ultrasounds we always cheat and find out early what we are having. And we were so excited. yay! The girlies are ecstatic. Colby still firmly believes it is going to be a boy. This was his prayer this morning, "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you that Jesus is sending us a baby. And even though it's a girl I still think it's a boy..." It was so sweet. Poor guy! (the baby is so big it's legs got cut out of the above pic!)
The ultrasound was AMAZING. It was almost 45 minutes long as they checked out every detail of the baby and all my parts to make sure everything was where it is supposed to be and as big as it is supposed to be and the placenta was adhered where it was supposed to be etc. etc. The 3D part of the ultrasound was super neat as you can see in the above pic. The baby was moving around like crazy and it's not quite 3 inches long so it was amazing that everything is already forming. The baby looked perfect. From the heart and brain to kidneys and fingers and toes. Wow. What a miracle babies are. We can't wait!

We *heart* Sarah

We are totally spoiled to have the best baby sitter ever. The kids LOVE Sarah. And she genuinely loves them too. She brought Sydney the cutest cake on her birthday... (The pics of it and Sarah and Syd were on the camera I lost though- bah! It looked just like this with BIG sprinkles! YUM!) She brought Mia an adorable shabby chic headband she had made and stationary for her birthday... And always brings fun crafts and activities and just plays, plays, plays with the kids. They can be silly around her and just be themselves... She is patient and fun and amazing with them. And if that's not enough... she is an amazing photographer at the young age of 15! She took our kids pics last night and here is a sneak peek...
I can't wait to see the rest! Her blog is http://www.naavieleighphotography.blogspot.com/. My computer is having technical difficulties so there are more pics on her blog... She is re-doing her blog so all her other photo shoots are taken down but she is extremely talented and we are blessed to have her in our lives.

Sometimes I am like BAH! Another baby!?! What are we thinking?!? I'm feeling so blah/gross... Some days are crazy enough with 3 kiddos... I don't even want to let myself think about the scares of preterm labor AND labor itself... Babies are so much work and time... and then I saw this pic last night... and was so excited to bring another little beautiful spirit into this world. We are so blessed to have 3 beautiful & talented children and have the time and means for another one... so I am just feeling extremely blessed. Can't wait to have another little dimple-cheeked angel in our little family! Babies really are such miracles. Thanks so much for all your comments and congrats! We really appreciate all your support and prayers and think we have some of the best friends and family around. Love to all!