Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Merry Christmas!!!!


Our Family would like to wish all of our blog readers a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! We hope you and your family has a wonderful time together and through the New Year! Remember the Real reason for Christmas...... Not the Presents and all the Commercial hoop-la...... Keep CHRIST in Christmas ....... The Real gift that was born 2009 years ago!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Santa Pictures

After 3 attempts of trying to see Santa we were finally successful. We braved the crowd at the mall and to go to dinner . Thank the Lord all my Christmas shopping has been finished for a while now , I almost had a panic attack out in that Christmas mess last night! Ugh! We had to make reservations to see Santa. Lol! We got there around 3:15 and had to make our reservations for 6:30 pm. Can you believe you need Reservations to see Santa?!? It still did not help.... We had to wait in line for about 40 minutes anyway!

He was a really cool Santa though! He gave all the kids high 5's and was the most active one I have ever seen with them.

Here is the 3 little ones with Santa. The 2 older boys are to old now!!! Until Chirstmas morning!!! Lol!!!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Happy Birthday Karlton!!!


Today is my hubby's 38th B/D. I married this man when he was 23 yrs. old ( so guess how old that made me ;0)! He has been my very Best Friend for the last 14 1/2 yrs. Today he woke up to cards from all of us and gifts. Then we spent his B/D doing a little shopping..... seeing Santa Claus.... and eating at Tony Roma's!



Then we came home to eat his favorite kind of cake ..... white cake and white icing! He loves the butter cream icing best!


Then Josiah had us to do a photo shoot. Here are a few of the ones he took.



Now we have a movie to go watch together................ Hope you had a great day today!!!!

Friday, December 18, 2009

Looking Back At Our Past Week

It has been a really busy last week! Last Saturday I drove to Florence, SC w/ 4 of the kiddos to meet my family ( mom, dad, grandparents, and nephew ) for Christmas at a really yummy restaurant! They had the BEST giant brownie I have ever had! Sara Ava got sick early that morning so Karlton had to stay home with her. My sister and 2 of hers and my brother did not get to make it either. But we still had a nice time!



Then Sundays are devoted to Basketball after Church.....Our team and Jordan Jr. High Team has practice. Jordan also had a Christmas Party at his Friends house were they exchanged their Secret Santa gifts.


Monday was Jordan's Fall Sports Awards Ceremony. He received a Certificate for Cross Country. The first picture was of him walking back after he got his Certificate...... My Camera's batteries were dying! Ugh!!!!! I had to switch back to the 8X longer batteries because my rechargeable batteries never held a charge!



Wed. night I taught my Women's Bible Study and Josiah went to his Christmas Party at Church.



Thursday ,Sara Ava's K class Sang at K-mart. Lilee woke up that morning running a fever so we had to miss that...... and Sara Ava and Joel's Christmas Parties. I hear they did a great job! :0(
When she came home from School I took her picture in the sweatshirt she had made for their Caroling. She is the 4th little Shrum to make of of these cute little sweatshirts!



Joel and I are not feeling well now.... we both have headaches and are dealing with colds! Ugh!!!! I have been working hard this week finishing up all my Christmas tutu's, hat sets, gift sets, and etc..... I have been to the post office 4 times this week shipping out all my orders. I have shut Cutie Patutuz down until January the 4th, so that I can spend the rest of the time with my kids over the Holidays. I am looking forward to a break but..... I am brain storming and preparing for Valentines Day :0) Other then baking and making a lot of Goodies for my kids and their parties, running , and couponing..... that has pretty much been my week ;0)



Monday, December 14, 2009

I Have Posted A New Message on Cutie Patutuz



UPDATED - I am shutting down Cutie Patutuz this Friday until Jan. 4th for the Holidays. Make sure you stop by to see all the gloves that I have left. If you have already bought a hat then you will need my gloves to make a matching set. They are $5 a pr. (this does include the shipping) Make sure you stop by http://cutiepatutu.blogspot.com/ to see which ones I have left. They will be shipped out this week. So you better hurry and let me know if there was something you were interested in! karlton5@juno.com

A Fun Holiday Treat!

Peppermint Chocolate Fudge Sundae



I saw this in one of my magazines and wanted to try it out yesterday. All I can say is it was Yummy!

It called for more ingredients but I just used what I had at home. Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:

~ ( I used Candy Canes) or Peppermint Candy - 1/2 cup ( I used more)

~ ( I used Chocolate Magic Shell Sauce) Chocolate Fudge Topping

~ Chocolate Chips - 1 cup

~ 2 pints of Vanilla Ice Cream

Directions:

1.First you will have to sit the Vanilla Ice Cream out to soften.

2. Then unwrap all the Candy Canes or Peppermint Candies and place in sandwich bag. Then start smashing them them with a rolling pin until they are really tiny pieces.

3. Stir the crushed Peppermint Candies into the soft ice cream until it is blended really well.

4. To really make it yummy..... you can mix in some Chocolate Chips.

5. Put back in the freezer for about 1 hr.

6. Serve in a bowl with you choice of Chocolate Topping!

ENJOY!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Basketball




This picture is from Monday night. Joel is able to play for the 1st-3rd and play up to the 4th-6th, since he is in the 3rd grade. That is Joel jumping for the ball in the orange shirt, in the picture above. He did get it for his (1st -3rd grade) team. This was his first game that he had played with them. They did not win that night but Joel had the ball most of the game. He ended up making 6 points for their team and 1 point for our team (4th-6th grade). Joel was on Fire that night!!!

Our team has still not won a game! We are on still on a roll from last year. We have had some pretty tight and exciting games but no wins!!! Arg!!! Josiah is our really good defensive player.... Joel too! Josiah has made some points too in ea. game!

Jordan's team has won 3 out of 4 games. He always has a really good team! Last year they won the Championship. Jordan scored 8 points at his game on Thursday night!

Way to Go boys!!!!!!!!!!

We are on break until after the NEW YEAR! So we have plenty of practice time.... hopefully we will win a game!!!

Friday, December 11, 2009

UPDATED!!!! CHECK OUT MY NEW GIFT SETS!!!!!!!!


I AM SELLING OUT OF MY SETS SO QUICKLY! I HAVE UPDATED THE ONES THAT I HAVE LEFT! YOU NEED TO STOP BY MY WEBSITE http://cutiepatutu.blogspot.com/ AND CHECK OUT MY NEW GIFT SETS!!! I'VE BEEN WORKING HARD!!!! ;0) THESE MAKE GREAT STOCKING STUFFERS, GIFTS, AND FUN SETS FOR YOUR LITTLE ON TO WEAR IN THIS FREEZING WEATHER!!!!! IF YOU SOMETHING YOU LIKE DON'T WAIT..... YOU CAN E-MAIL ME AT KARLTON5@JUNO.COM

Friday, December 4, 2009

We Are Still Alive! ........

Barely!!!!!!! Ha! It feels like that anyway. Karlton just finished up his night shift at the Nuclear plant today. It was suppose to go the beginning of the year , but then they started talking about wanting to have the shut down finished before Christmas, and then it became the 10th and all of a sudden it was over. I am happy it is OVER but a bit worried again, because that would have been 3 more 72 hrs. worth of paychecks. :0( . Now we are back to square one..... Praying and asking the Lord every day for work. The Nuclear Plant did ask Karlton if he wanted to work another shut down in March. But my word, March is a long time from now!

With Karlton working 72 hrs from 6pm to 6:30 am. I had to pull double duty!!! Felt like Triple duty!! The kids really gave it to me for all they had! They have tested me like I have never been tested before! ALL OF THEM!!! It got so bad that one day this week I walked around with a paddle in my hand daring anyone to cross me! Karlton asked me if I was losing it... I said " Ya think!" We got to see Karlton from 4pm to 4:45 pm while he got ready for work. So it will be nice to have him around again... more. Poor Lilee thought he never came home anymore, she was so confused asking where her daddy was at now! Lol ! When he came home today at 2pm. she asked, " daddy what are you doing here?" I was on my way out the door to get the 2 from Elementary and I asked, "do you want to come with me or stay with daddy?" Guess which one she picked???? He is working tomorrow (for his Company) and taking the 2 older boys to help him. Yay!!!! That is the most of a break I have had in 5 weeks. Ahhhhhh! So me and the little ones are going shopping! Getting out of this house! I am going to get my stress reliever.... STARBUCKS!!!! Nothing better then that combination.... For me anyway! ;0)

So what I have I been up to you ask?????? Thanks for asking BTW ;0)........... I have been making tons of pretty little Tutu's in all colors and sizes and Hats..... LOTS AND LOTS OF HATS!!!! I have been staying up to midnight trying to finish my tutu orders. I only have 3 more to go and then I am taking a break from tutu's until after Christmas! Because of all these hats and tutu's I was single handed-ly able to by my kids Christmas presents this yr. I am very happy about that since I have always depended upon Karlton to work extra or take side jobs to come up with the money for Christmas gifts. I put my own sweat into it this yr. It feels really good too! But I didn't really single handed-ly do it! I am sending a big shout out to everyone who has purchased my hats and tutu's. Thank YOU all soooo much! Thank YOU LORD!!! I prayed everyday that he would send me customers so that my kids would not be with out Christmas presents under the tree this yr. They would have had something .....trust me! But.... it wouldn't have been what they wanted! They still don't have as much this year but I am satisfied with what they are getting!! Its good for them to learn to deal in hard times just like everyone else!BTW...... I only have 3 Christmas Hat sets left, better check and see if there is one you want because they will not last long. You can go here to see which ones are left http://cutiepatutu.blogspot.com/ I am now working on Valentines Day CREATIONS! Brain storming anyway!

Speaking of Christmas presents .......... I got some awesome deals this yr! I got the big boys an Xbox 360 for $199.00 but the deal was I got a $100 Wal-mart gift card when I bought it for FREE. It was a 3 day deal that I just could not pass up. So I took that $100 and bought their games that I got on sale too. I think I ended up getting 6 games for under $100. Not bad at all! So I spent $200 for 2 kids Christmas gifts. averaging out to $100 a piece. I think that is pretty good. I bought Sara Ava a doll house that was on Sale but it came with a free family van that was a $25 value. I hardly spent anything on Lilee but got everything on her list. Toys R Us had a great deal one weekend. I bought her a baby that crawls for $4.99. It was a $30 doll. I had bought another doll and got that one for 1/2 off. But it ended up being being more than 80 % off. I finished up their stocking stuffers today. So they are all done. I am so relieved to have that behind me! Maybe I won't have panic attacks this year! :0)

I am still couponing away!!!! I hope you all are too!!! I want to hear about some good deals that you all have been finding and let me know how your coupon deals are coming!!! I went to Harris Teeter today and forgot to give the girl my Vic card and when she rang up everything it was $120. I about had a heart attack because I have not seen this much of a grocery bill since May. But, then I found my card and handed it to her and it went down to $57.00, that was before the coupons! Then I handed her my stack of Q's and ended up paying $38.00. Not Bad huh!!?? So I saved $82.00 that is more that 62% savings. I actually got a lot of stuff too. Here are some of the deals..... Bayer aspirin for .57 cents, Bread for .24 cents, PB for .26 cents, 6 pk. of apple sauce for .50 cents. Oh yeah.... and shredded cheese for .46 cents. I bought a few of ea. of these items to I stocked up!!!!

I had to coach 2 basketball games this week by All by myself.... Ack!!! Poor kids...... we lost both games of course! Karlton will be back for this weeks games! Hallelujah!!!!! Pray that these poor kids win a game this yr. They lost every single one last yr. Even the really close ones and the over time games. Ahhhhhhh! We are off to a bad start again................

I am still running!!!! I FINALLY made it to 3 miles today for the first time! :0D I can't believe I actually did it! I have been running 6.5 mo. now. I would have never dreamed I would have made it this far! I though I would have had to run for a yr. or 2 before I could run that distance. I ran 14.6 miles total this week, best so far. It was so nice and sunny yesterday and it felt good to run! Today was cold and yucky and only going to get worse! My mood changes with the weather and the seasons!!! Trust me!! I am a SUMMER GIRL!!! I love heat, green, green leaves on the trees, flowers, and SUNSHINE, oh yeah and daylight that last! I get so down in the winter time!!! But yesterday...... was a nice break for me, it felt good to PRETEND it was spring already! I know the winter is not even here yet...... :0(

The kids are all doing well! We have been pretty healthy for the most part! PTL!!!!!!!!! Joel has been excepted into Eagles because of his good grades!! And Jordan was named a Junior Scholar for making the top 12 highest grade on a SAT test out of the 8th grade. I think these are practice test for when they are in High School, which he will be in next yr. Waaaaaa!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!! We did!! We stayed home and I cooked it all! Yes.... even the gross turkey! If you follow me on Face Book you know what I am talking about! I had a hard time with prepping the turkey, I totally grossed out! Next Year Karlton gets to clean that nasty raw bird! But it still turned out pretty yummy and I got a really clean kitchen afterward! I cleaned it 3 times! ;0) Josiah did help me cook some, but he only cooks what he wants to. We got Karlton up to carve the turkey and he ate with us and then went back to bed. I was glad that he was able to have Thanksgiving with us and that we did not leave him alone!

I think that is everything that has been going on around here! Hopefully I will be taking some picture of more then just hats and tutu's soon.... like my kids!

Hope I did not bore you all to death with all this ranting!!!!!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

CHRISTMAS HATS THAT ARE READY TO SHIP!


Make sure you stop by http://cutiepatutu.blogspot.com/ to see all the Christmas Hat Sets that I have been working on this week! These are one of a kind.... if you see one you like let me know quickly because I will Not be making anymore of these. You can e-mail me at karlton5@juno.com if you are interested in one.

My tutu's and hats are how my kids are getting Christmas this year! ;0)

I promise for an update on our family soon! I have been trying to fill all my hat orders, make new hat sets, and working on a mound of tutu's to get out before Christmas.