Cranberry Holiday Slush

I tore this recipe out of a cooking magazine probably 10 years ago and finally tried it at Thanksgiving. It is definitely our new holiday favorite!
I usually just make 1/2 the recipe, and whenever we want some punch, we take it out of the fridge, scoop some with an ice cream scoop into our cups and pour Sprite over it.

Now if I was Pioneer Woman, I would have a few pictures of the ingredients and how to dump them into a bowl. But I think you can manage without pics for this one!

Cranberry Holiday Slush

3 cans (8 oz each) jellied cranberry sauce (not the sauce with whole cranberries in it)
2 cans (12 oz each) frozen lemonade concentrate
1 can (12 oz) frozen cran-apple juice concentrate (they didn't have this at Wal-Mart, so I just bought apple juice concentrate)
4 cups water
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
2 (2 liters each) bottles of Sprite

Mix everything but the sprite, cover and freeze at least 8 hours or overnight. Remove from fridge 45 minutes before serving.
For serving, combine equal parts slush and Sprite.

Our First Day of School!!!

August 17, 2009, marked a huge day as our firstborns headed off to Kindergarten. It was a horribly dark and rainy day so we didn't get any good outside pics.

Han's in Mrs. Boone's class. According to Han she's the best teachuh in the whole wide school.

Hud's got Mrs. Gray for his teacher. She is really sweet and he seems to have a lot of fun.

More catching up from this year....

In early August, Russ' dad treated the family to a two day trip to San Antonia and Sea World. We had a lot of fun with Pa Paw, Grandma Doris, Russ' sister, Susan and the cousins.

Here we are feeding the dolphins.

I made the girls matching dresses.

We had some Mexican food in downtown San Antonia.

Thanks Pa Paw! That was a blast!!

"Smile Josh!!"

Here's what you get when you tell Josh to smile... makes taking Christmas pics a challenge!! Notice Russ and I both have a hand on him.

Joshua's new phrase

Josh has a new phrase he uses hourly. He'll ask me what something is and when I tell him he'll say in this sweet, enthusiastic voice, "OH, I Love ___(fill in the blank)______!!!"

Like when he was "helping" me make meatballs the other night for dinner he asked me, "What's this, what's this?" "It's onions, Josh." Then came, "OH, I love onions!!!"

Or, "What's that, Mom?" "It's something for Thanksgiving." And Josh replies, "Oh, I love Thanksgiving!!!"

Just now he was sitting beside me on the couch and was patting my chest. Next came, "What's this, Mama, what's this?" "That's my breast, Josh." And, you guessed it.... "Oh, I love breasts!!!"

One Year Gotcha Day

I know I posted something on this already, but this is such a classic pic. Our Chinese boy in a Dallas Cowboy helmet. How all-American can you get?

The kids are watching the video of when we got Josh. He kept saying, "That's me!!! That's Me!!!!"
I decorated the living room and kitchen with lanterns.

This is a similar to a pic that was taken just after we got Josh. I think it will be neat to take this pose every year on Gotcha Day.

I have so much catching up to do!!!

These are un-edited pics of our wonderful vacation in Tennessee. See bottom for more explanation!

Rusty dancing to some Keith Urban with Macy Li.

Josh and Tyler

Rhonda and I at Katie Davis' charity dinner.

Hanging out on the front porch with Nolan.

Phillip and Macy Li.

Rhonda and Nolan

The infamous Loveless Cafe is DE-Lish!!

Macy taught Josh how to bathe in the sink!

I know that I've been less than faithful in keeping up with the blog and it's been hanging over my head. Not because I think that you guys can't live without this, but because this really is our family's history, and I want it preserved for us! So I'm going to attempt to catch up from this past July starting with our great vacation to Tennessee.

We went to see our great friends Phillip and Rhonda and their awesome kids in TN. If you followed our adoption blog, you'll recognize them from our trip to get Josh. They got their daughter, Macy Li the same time we got Josh.

We mostly just hung out and had fun, but also ate breakfast at the famous Loveless Cafe, went to the lake and their church.

Brief Josh

Brief Cowboy

Brief Ninja

Brief One-Man-Mariachi-Band

Somehow the sound is a little off on this video, sorry! This is Josh' s latest love, playing the guitar and singing!!

As you can tell, he's got a thing for his underwear lately. He decided to potty train himself about a month ago because he wanted to start wearing big boy underwear. It's not unusual to find that he's wearing 5-6 pairs at once! He's also just as bad as his brother at hitting the target, so I am continually mopping up yellow liquid in the bathroom. Not sure if I'd prefer to just change a diaper instead of chasing down that urine smell around the toilet.

Advent Plans

In preparation for Christmas, I have been crafting a fun Advent calendar similar to this one except instead of painting the little boxes I modge podged fun Christmas scrapbook paper on the front and cut out numbers with my cricket. Mine will have magnets on the back instead of being glued to a canvas. I plan to put a piece of candy for each kid in each one as well as something we'll read at dinner (she also has scripture reading and a discussion question for each day that are great for young kids). My hope is that the Advent season will help my kids (and myself!) prepare our hearts and focus more on Jesus. I found this awesome site that gives an amazing amount of reading, activities and such for kids and adults. Just click on a day on the calendar and it takes you to some really neat ideas.

Also, this is the first year our family has participated in the Samaritan's Purse Shoe boxes. Each of my three kids packed a shoebox for someone their same age and sex. They had such a great time picking out stuff. Han kept saying, "I am just having sooo much fun!".... "This is making my heart feel sooo good!"... "I know I keep saying this, but I am having sooo much fun!" Both Hud and Han contributed $5 each from their own earned money, which, believe me is a lot of money for them!! If your family is planning to do this this year, the drop off deadline is tomorrow at Metro East Baptist Church, but Samaritan's purse accepts boxes year round.

It's not too late to make some preparations for the Christmas season that will help you and your family prepare your hearts!

When your sermon gets preached back at you...

Han and I have been in a bit of a fashion struggle for about the last year. For the most part, I let her wear what she wants to, but there are times when what she wants to wear is not what I want her to wear for a particular occasion. We have a little power struggle, a little compromise and she leaves the house looking like I want her to.
Sometime in August I was getting some clothes out for her and noticed something behind the dresser in her closet. As I pulled out one of her outfits her eyes got really big. I said, "Hannah, you tell me the truth, what is this doing behind your dresser!?"
Han: "I didn't want to wear it."
Me: "Han this makes me very upset. You're in trouble."
Han: "Am I going to get a spanking?"
Me: "No, but I am going to do something. I'll let you know later today." (something I say when I'm not sure what my next move is)

Later in the day I went to her and said, "Han, I've decided what your punishment is going to be. We've been talking about the kids in Africa who are starving and poor. Most of those kids don't have anything cute to wear. So tomorrow, you're going to dress up like one of those kids from Africa."

That night, I got out an old, black t-shirt and slashed it up a bit along with some cut off shorts that I also mangled. The next day she had to wear the ensemble. She didn't have school and I didn't parade her around, but I could tell that it made an impact and since then our struggles haven't been as bad.

We'll the other day we were about to leave and Han had a purple and a red flip flop on. I said, "Han, I want you to go put on some shoes that match your outfit so that we can leave."
She didn't want to and I started to tell her why I wanted her to change.
She looked at me and in her best "Mommy tone" she said, "Mom.... you should just be thankful that I have shoes to wear!"

Africa

I read these thoughts recently from a doctor who had just returned from a time in Africa...

"So, what if the coin was flipped? What if we were there and them here? How would we think of them? How would we want what they had? Why don't they use some of what they have to help us? Why wouldn't they just make a small sacrifice to help us....to help us feed our families and provide medical care for our children? Why won't they just see how we are hurting and how challenging it is to live like this? Why don't they just understand that this life isn't just about themselves? Why don't they live like the Christians they say that they are?"

Hadn't thought about how I'd feel on the other side of the coin.

I Love My Kids!!!!!!!!!!!

These pics just capture my kids perfectly! They were taken at a birthday party for one of their "best" friends. The photographer is a natural! She's only in high school, but is wanting to do more shoots. If you're looking for someone to snap some fall pics of your family let me know. She's VERY affordable.