Betty Crocker giveaway.

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our house. The tree is up, the lights are hung, and the cookies are being baked. I don't know about you, but we love our cookies at Christmas. I feel like we are constantly baking for parties, gifts, or guests. I prefer to bake cookies from scratch most of the time, but some days that isn't always in the schedule. Enter Betty Crocker cookie mix!

I was contacted by Myblogspark to try Betty Crocker's new molasses cookie mix. I was, of course, excited to try something new and yummy.  I made them up one night when we had friends over. I'd love to tell you they tasted great, but I didn't even get to try one. They were gone before I got one. I guess that says it all doesn't it.  :) They did smell good though, and they were so easy to make. I decided to frost them as well. My kiddos LOVED them, and my hubby had a few as well. They made my house smell super festive too!

I'm excited that Betty Crocker through myblogspark is giving away an awesome prize pack so you can try the new molasses cookies yourself. It includes a cookie sheet, spoon, apron, and of course some cookie mix just in time for the holidays.

To enter just leave a comment and let me know what your favorite Christmas/holiday cookie is. Please also leave your email so I can contact you if you are the winner.

For an extra entry follow my blog and let me know you do.

This give away will close on 12/6/11 at 3pm. I will choose a winner using random.org. Good luck and happy baking.

*I was provided with a gift pack by Betty Crocker through myblogspark.com. They provided pictures and links, but all opinions are my own.

Freezer cook

I know I haven't been posting much lately. It is because I have been really busy. One of the adventures was yet another freezer cook weekend with the lovely Tami. We ended up with 36 meals when we were done. I'm pretty sure it was our biggest cook yet. And I can tell you my freezer knows it. Currently Dan's heavy tool box is on our chest freezer to keep it shut.  We are classy like that.

So our day started a little like this... Oh, wait did I mention I started the day off at our local Children's museum before we headed to Tami's to cook, yep, I'm crazy, but...

 My good friend came in town to see us, and we miss them tons. So, of course the two of us had to take our six BOYS to Boonshoft for some fun.

 My boys loved the robot zoo.

 This game was pretty cool. I'm pretty sure we spent at least 30 mins just playing with it.

Where's Bubba?

 Precious little Declan is seriously adorable. He is so happy. I love him!

 My baby is getting so big! And he always has a messy little mouth. Uh, melt a mama's heart.

Then there is this kid. He is my little buddy. And he is not the least bit camera shy. He is such an adorable little goof ball. Our oldest boys have been best buddies since birth, but they didn't want to get their pictures so they are left out.

After we wore out my kiddos we headed over to Tami's place to do some cooking. We started with four kiddos and no daddies. That makes it much more interesting. 

But they are adorable distractions. 

Here is Tami hard at work. We had prepped the 75lbs of chicken the weekend before. Tami cooked the ground meat up the night before so we were able to move quickly on knocking some meals out. 

Yummy Shepherd's pie. We each got 3. 

There was a TON of chicken. 

 Our awesome hubbies helped us bag and pack up.

 He is so stinking handsome!

 The end result!

Tami has a list with links to most of our meals we made so I will let you check that out here.

Better late than never

I know I am a little late, but I wanted to post a few pictures of my adorable little men from Halloween.

For Trick or Treating I had two ninja turtles and a bat. They loved going door to door. Levi actually did amazing. He loved getting candy to put in his bag. He is so funny. He loves filling bags.

We also attended a trunk or treat at a local church the weekend before Halloween. We don't really do a costume for each kid they more pick out of a bin we keep in the toy room. They are happy with it and I can buy costumes on clearance. Every one wins. Levi was a bat for Trunk or treat too. He just wasn't in the picture here.

 He was busy sitting on a pumpkin stem. I don't think he understood why this was so uncomfortable.

 When we got to Trunk or Treat there was a little boy in a scary mask behind us. Levi looked at him and thought for a minute. Then he started growling at him and laughing. I guess he is hard to scare.

 The boys with our pumpkins They were pretty cool.

Levi enjoying a snack of cider and cookies. Yummy. 

Here are two of our pumpkins all lit up. See Batman. Pretty cool, huh? I didn't carve it, but I liked it. 

So there you have it our Halloween adventures.

So, more and more I am realizing that my kids will cost more money the older they get. It is those moments when we go through a dozen eggs in a sitting or they eat an entire pizza before I get any. That's when I realize my grocery budget is only going up.

The one thing I kinda thought I would have was hand me downs. I have 3 boys. That means they can all wear each others clothes, right? It has worked fairly well up until now...

These bad boys were bought brand new this summer. Not only did Isaac out grow them he DESTROYED them. So, I guess I can add shoes to the list of things that will be more expensive as my men grow.  I am all about buying used, but we looked at both Goodwill and Once upon a child with no luck though.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving I would like to say I am thankful I found an awesome pair of new shoes at the Adidas outlet for only $7.48 this weekend, so have no fear my child will not be shoeless.  Which was less expensive then used shoes at Once upon a Child. YAY.

Keeping it real

I have had a lot of wonderful friends ask us recently how things are going with the adoption. I love my friends. I love that they are checking in with us and asking how I'm doing, but let me be straight with you. If you ask you are in for an earful.

I'm not good at fake. So, when some one asks how things are going here is the typical answer:

Long....It's taking forever. I mean we probably have at least another year. It's slow, nothing is moving. I'm so ready for her to be home it is ridiculous.

There may be more to my rant depending on the time of day you catch me, but I've given up the happy go lucky moving right along attitude. I feel like at this point it's pointless to pretend it isn't killing me that it is taking forever. So, please feel free to ask how things are going, but know it won't be a quick walk by with a smile. You could be in for a mild melt down depending on how I'm doing at that moment.

Subway

Did you see the subway deal to get a $10 gift card for only $5 at Savemore.com? I grabbed it up for my hubby since he loves some Subway. This would make a great stocking stuffer if you are starting a little early. Plus, they have lots of deals and coupons to help make this an even better deal. You can check it out here if you are interested.  Yay for inexpensive lunches (or dinners)!