Random with some pictures and a video too

~ We have been doing the prayer vase (since we are using a vase we changed the name) every night and the boys really LOVE it!  More than I ever thought they would love it.....and that thrills me to no end. My prayer each night as they prayer for friends, family and sometimes strangers is that this is the start of a life long habit for them. Rascal told Tim the other night " Dad, Do you know what my favorite thing about our family is?.....That we do the prayer vase every night! Scooter asked me last night "mom can we pull just one more name out of the vase tonight? I want to pray for someone else." And because of that.... we may just continue to do this every single night and not just in November.

  ~ I had teacher conferences at school last week. They both went very well. Scooter's teacher talked about his very advanced grades and how well he is doing in school but then she said this..."Mrs. Rowland Scooter is the most precious little boy that I have ever had. " Well of course I agree 100% with that but it's what she said next that had me once again in cloud 9. She proceeded to tell me of the many things that Scooter does on a daily basis to help his classmates. He makes friends with everyone, is always kind to everyone and he is always very well mannered and respectful. This means more to me than the great grades. He also was picked for citizenship and has a special note hung on the wall for everyone to see:

Then I head to Rascal's conference and hear that he too is such a precious child. He always does what he is supposed to when he is suppose to, plays great with everyone, uses very great manners and is very well mannered. Rascal doesn't get letter grades in Kindergarten, they just give them a + if they can do it and a x if they can't. He had maybe one x and I can't even remember what it was for. Another words he is doing great too.
Scooter will be tested after the holidays for challenge classes. His teacher says he is so far ahead of the others on most subjects that she thinks he would benefit greatly from the challenge classes. I am still gathering all information about it to see if we really want o do this. The last thing I want to do is put even more stress and schoolwork on him. They have to learn a lot as it is now. I am very proud of both my boys and their grades but even more than that,  I am super proud of the well mannered respectful boys they are even.

~ Baby A is always into something. Just recently she had been quiet for far too long. When I went to see what she was doing I found this:

She emptied an entire container of wipes and was blowing her nose on them. Nice huh?!?!

Yesterday was an absolute beautiful day so we stayed outside for a while and played. She loved chasing acorns on the trampoline. Then Henry decided to join her but I don't think this is what he had in mind:

The poor cat is so great with her. She loves on him really rough (as you can see) and he just squints his eyes, as if he is bracing himself and takes it.

Baby A also found Heidi's water bucket and had a ball playing in the water. Heidi was hesitant to come close to her for fear of getting splashed. It was kinda funny.

While I was raking some leaves away from our driveway, this is what Baby A was doing:
She put his food into his water container. Henry was so funny just sitting there watching her and he even tried to get a drink out of the mushy yuck. 

 She is always providing a good laugh for us all, that is for sure.

~ I was pleasantly surprised to step on the scale a week or so ago and see I have lost 15 pounds. I had come to a point where I was mad that I wasn't losing and just stopped even trying anymore. Then I go and lose 10 more pounds. Kind of crazy but I will take it. Now I am trying to just maintain it through the holidays that are about to hit. It won't be easy but I don't want to gain it back, it's harder to lose it in my opinion.

~ I am making my very first loaf of bread as I type this. I was given a bread machine about 6 months ago and I have yet to figure it out. Well today was the day for me to try it.I have my fingers crossed that it turns out right. Here is the link to the recipe I am using.  And yes I found the link through pintrest! So far I love the fact that a bread machine does the mixing, kneading, lets it rise and bakes it all. That is SO EASY! Hopefully it will be yummy and we can continue to make our own bread.
If your keeping count (and I am) that is 2 whole chickens I have cooked in a crock pot and hopefully a loaf of homemade bread I have baked. These are two of the things I had on my to do list that I have been VERY intimidated by.



~ The kids get out of school for the entire week of Thanksgiving and that is less than 2 weeks away. I can't believe Thanksgiving is almost here. That means our house is about 1 week away from being decorated for Christmas! I can't hardly wait! I have a million ideas pinned on pintrest and I need to narrow it all down so I won't be spending an arm and a lag on decorations.

~ I just realized I have some pictures of the beach on my phone and I don't think I have posted them yet. I will try and do that one day this week. For now I thought I would post this video of Baby A playing in Heidi's water. I thought it was funny. Since this is the first time I have posted a video I hope it works. If not please let me know! Thanks!