Christmas Recap

Here's the Christmas Recap, Part 1. That top picture is Abby freaking out. She was a little jazzed up. She kept screaming "yeah!!!" during the church service. Luckily it was the kiddy version, so it was no biggie. She had a bunch of fun.

The one of Will over to the side... it's blurry and tiny and all. It's all I could get of my child who was in constant motion for all of Christmas day. He's plowing through the house with Abby's new baby doll stroller.

And on the bottom, Abby's favorite toy... a tube of wrapping paper.

More to come later. Will is actually begging me to go to bed right now. I think he's still catching up.

Is it too much to ask?

I was just wondering... is it too much to ask that my children put these horns on their heads, hug each other, and smile in my direction?!

Christmas Kick-Off

We had an awesome day. Brandon was supposed to be working today, but his exceptionally good looking and well spoken boss (hey rick!) let him off the hook, so we spent our morning ice skating at Discovery Green downtown. They had the coolest thing going on there, too. It was "snow". Not that nasty shaved ice that turns to mud. It was actually teeny tiny bubbles from these machines. The kids loved it! Abby was so excited I thought her face was going to bust. Look at that!

the farm

here you go, grandma. life on the farm. more to come later.

Playing Catch Up

sorry for the blog neglect. i'll be catching up now. here's what i got today. brandon has built a gate that essentially makes our backyard include the driveway and keeps them in and everyone else out. it's really cool, and the kids live out there now and we don't have to worry about them. so i'm in here editing and i hear giggle screaming and go outside to find this. she loves him even though he sprays her with icy water in late november.

Warning

Let this serve as a warning to you. The holidays are here and obviously anyone who steps in front of my camera for the next two months will get elfed. I have to, you guys!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Destiny and Jordan have a bundle on the way

Destiny and Jordan have their first little bundle, Christian, on the way. Can't wait to see him. He's bound to be a killer, don't you think?

ok, this one isn't so bad.

anne marie's special project. a cookie caterpillar.

she'll eat this. she stayed with us for 5 days last week. do you know what anne marie eats? mostly air and cheese product. not cheese. that's disgusting. she won't even eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. today was the doozy though. in one day i've seen her eat a caterpillar, a fake cat terd, and (i'm so not joking) a can of potted meat. and that was just for fun. the not eating my chili wasn't personal until now.

DON'T LOOK GRANDMA!

you've been warned. the halloween gross-a-thon has begun. brandon, anne, will, and grandma cupitt got after the classic kitty litter pan pudding. do you want the recipe?

Two Peas In A Pod

Will and Anne, and Abby and Roxie. Things are going swimmingly right this second.

The Boys Brushed Off the Old Spitfire

This past weekend was so beautiful. You really couldn't justify being inside unless you had to. So the boys decided to get the garage in shape. Brandon has worked his tail off getting that garage in fantastic shape. Will has been right out there with him for four days. It was Will that prompted the whole thing in insisting that he wanted to drive his car. So that's what he's been doing... for 4 DAYS! Nana just came over and he talked her into "taking her on vacation" in his new car. They went to Canada and back in 3 short minutes.

I DID IT! Day 21! My insane project worked really well, actually. Final Bill:

$175.10 for THREE WEEKS of groceries! I'm super proud of myself. So now I have $35 left over. So I've decided to go out and buy a ton of meat for the freezer and see if I can keep it up for a while. I learned so much more than I expected from this regarding planning, nutrition, budgeting, and resourcefulness. I'm starting a new 21 day challenge today, but it's something you so don't care about. But I'm optimistic!

Will is Editing Now

I am so excited, Will is getting into photography. He shot this one with my camera in manual.

I took the pink one, but it's pink because Will decided to try his hand at creative editing. That's ALL him!

It's Molly!

Here's Molly, of the Fall 09 Collection of Cupitt children. I spent the day documenting the MANY faces of Molly today. I'm saving the super money shot for the birth announcement. Hold your horses and check you mailbox. But not this week. Don't get that excited. You'll just have to get your fix here for a while.

This is so sick

I haven't told you guys about my bizarre new project. Remember last month, my attempt at the 21 Day Challenge? It flopped on day 6. So I've got a new challenge, and believe it or not, I'm almost done. One more week. So I guess I can tell you what it is now. It's a little insane. It's to feed my whole family breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for $10 a day. I don't know how much you spend on groceries, but in my world that's radical. But there is some wierdness that goes on here. But SOMEHOW we're eating better. And several of you are actually kind of worried like we're starving, but we're totally not. I am cooking alot more. The physical work is harder. Nothing comes out of a box. But I can still bake like a wild woman in October. We have money for fruit and everything too. Don't worry. But I'm a FREAK and not a single grape gets tossed. We just eat the same fruits for two days rather than have a variety for a week. We eat the ends of the bread loaf. We eat scrambled eggs for lunch. We do eat a pot of beans every week, but it hasn't gotten old yet. It's working really well. But, of course, I do odd things to make this happen. Odd for me anyway. Freaky planning and number crunching. And eating stuff I don't normally eat. Case in point: Amy is having fun watching me attempt to do this, and directed me to chicken thighs, $1 a pound. So I hunt, I gather. I don't know what you do with chicken thighs or why we never eat them. They look ok. When I ask Brandon he says that it's because they're really fatty. But whatever. We're eating it. So he throws them on the grill at a really really low temp. It's taking forever. He keeps going out to check and it's just not really getting close temperature wise. Come to find out, the thermometer wasn't reading 100 degrees, the lowest temp. It was well past 600 degrees and the peg had gone all the way around and so it looked like it was at 100. Follow me? So I guess you have already seen the end result. The thighs were so fatty that they were actually flammable. And they caught on fire. And they were black black black. Well, my dear husband, seeing the wasted $4.88 (which is essential to The Project) that just literally went up in flames, decided that those chickens should not have been bought in vain. AND LOOK WHAT HE DID! This is so sick. He really truly scrubbed the char off of the chicken and turned it into a chicken salad using it's repulsive, smoky remains and vegetables that were only half rot in the produce bin. And he actually took that to work and ate it in front of everyone for three days. That's so sweet and disgusting. And for those of you that think that if you scrub it off, it's good as new...IT'S NOT. I tried it. Really gross. So my point is...we're ok. Really. Don't worry about how we're eating. It's totally fine. I'm at $129.18 for 2 weeks of groceries! I am looking forward to a Central Market trip when this whole thing is done. One more week.

*send coffee*

Right now in my driveway.

"Don't crash me, Bro!"

That's what I can hear while I'm typing.

Pie Contest.

I am so cheesy. I got tricked by my own husband into representing our entire church in a city-wide pie baking contest. I have worked so incredibly hard trying to prepare for this. On Thursday I attempted pie crust 4 times before I ended up just patching it together. And I accidentally used all brown sugar in the filling, which made it so so rich. Too rich. And if you know me at all, you'll know that NOTHING is too rich for me. But yesterday I experienced divine intervention regarding the preparation of my crust. It was perfect the very first time. Rolled all the way out, stayed in one piece with no weird patching. I am very optimistic. And the pie itself is pretty awesome. It's a plain old apple pie, right? Only way crazier. On top of it you put down this layer of sugary sweetness that tastes a little praline-y. And then it gets all crunchy. Then you put on some toasted pecans. THEN (here's the doozy), you top the whole party with half a jar of caramel ice cream topping. It's a little fantastic looking. Wish me luck. It's going to the festival in three short hours!

And what kind of sick-o takes pictures of food with a backdrop? Me. Click on the recipe to see it all big. 

OK, Shannon. I doubled the recipe.

...and now i have 1 BILLION pumpkin zucchini muffins. they are to die for. this picture was taken about halfway through the baking process. there are many many more muffins than what you see here. the last batch of minis is in the oven now. yum. i didn't even eat dinner. i had a muffin and a bunch of batter over the course of this afternoon and evening. i feel sick. will is trying to sneak them whenever i turn my back. oh my gosh!!! he's eating one RIGHT NOW. little sneak. 

6:21 ... More albums

you guys, i am so almost done with the albums. i even made a little bday sign yesterday. i definitely would not have done these albums in time, and thus EVER, if it weren't for forced crafting, so that's great. today i feel like baking because i somehow ended up at this site. never knew it existed and now i do. that's probably not good.  i'm really thinking of making pumpkin cream cheese cookies. every ounce of my being wants to make these today, but my brain is saying that i should probably paint some birdhouses. 

5:21 ... Computer crafting counts

i think the computer will do for this project. and i make up the rules so it does. yesterday i worked on the kids' bday photo albums. they just NEED to be done this week or they're just not going to get done. 

and on the home front ... abby's got such blueberrhea that her butt is stained purple. for reals. i'm not making that up. and there's another truly truly truly sick story that goes along with that but i'll spare you the details. but let me just say that her legs and feet are blue too, and that we brushed her teeth really well. 

4:21 ... Desperate Crafting

i had nothing all day long. i was going to do phase 2 of the stockings, but i need to print on iron on paper and i don't have iron on paper like i thought i did. and my printer isn't working. that is ALWAYS the case. why don't printers just work?! when we actually do get a printer to work it's only for a little while and then something goes wrong. or it runs out of ink ridiculously fast or something like that. anyway, i'm really really going to try and make it happen today. 

so at the end of yesterday i still had not done anything remotely crafty besides cleaning my craft room (aka my dining room that is now unrecognizable). it's nearly 8:00 and will's watching the good night show and the host suggests that tomorrow we should make maracas. will of course asks if we can make maracas, and normally i would say "no way. you don't have that kind of mom." but last night i seized the opportunity and did it. maracas made out of paper plates. will didn't even help. he got sidetracked. 

and on the home front ... look at will's closet! i was hanging up his laundry when i noticed that everything in his closet is blue. everything. blue and brown mostly. the kid could use some color in his life. it's just that he looks really good in blue. and our house is blue and green. so if i happen to take his picture and it gets printed, i know it'll match. but it's just wrong. this fall i vow to throw some red in there.