Sleeping Beauty's First Snow

So we've had our first snow storm that has actually stuck around this year. I took the kids out to play in it. I thought Sleeping Beauty would get tired of it quick and want to go back inside. But she surprised me. She actually enjoyed laying in the snow, and rolling around. It seemed to be a fun new experience for her.
Cinderella was really into making snow angels.And after Sleeping Beauty fell down I "helped" her make one. Then Guy said, "This is my snow angel."
I told him he needed to lay down in the snow. He then told me he didn't want to lay down. This was his snow angel.

Later we were attempting to build a snowman. We never got there because Cinderella kept wanting to eat the snowball. Guy however said, "This is my snow man." He had put a little snow ball on top of his ball that was covered with snow. I tried to take a picture but he knocked the ball off before I could.
This is Guy rolling his "snowball."

Yep we had lots of fun in the snow.

She's being an orange

This morning Cinderella didn't want to get dressed. As a result she ended up spending some time in her room stomping on the floor because it makes a big noise.
I was downstairs with Guy, and he asked me what the noise was. I told him it was Cinderella being a pill.
He then said "We don't eat peels, we eat oranges. She's not eating a peel, she's eating an orange."
I told him, "she's not eating anything. She is BEING a pill."
His reply was, "She's not being a peel, she's being an orange."

Favorite November Pictures

Which sibling does she look more like?

I asked some friends and family who they thought Sleeping Beauty looked like. I had a lot of people tell me they think she looks like Guy. I haven't seen it that much myself, but as a parent, when I look at my children I just see that child. Well we were eating at a restaurant the other day, and the waitress referred to Sleeping Beauty as a he. Now this isn't all that uncommon, for someone to get a baby's gender mixed up, and she was wearing a brown shirt, so I can see how someone could be confused. Anyway, when she said that, my husband looked at Sleeping Beauty, and saw a miniature Guy.

Well Sleeping Beauty has always looked feminine to me, and Guy masculine, but I wondered how much of that is in the clothes. So I decided to do an experiment. I dug out one of Guy's old outfits and took some pictures of Sleeping Beauty in it.
To be fair, I decided to also post a picture of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty wearing the same outfits.

So this is comparing them at similar ages. Now I want to know what you think. Which sibling does she look more like? Cinderella? Or Guy? Or neither?

Favorite October Pictures

Camera old vs. new

So a few weeks ago we went and took some pictures of our family with our camera, plus a borrowed camera from my dad. Neither camera was really that fancy, and I wanted to see if we really did need a more advanced camera to do what I was wanting to do. We were able to get some pictures that were likable, but I did find I had some frustrations. We took these pictures in a park in a canyon near our house. The pictures have some really nice scenery which I really like, but for the most part the problems I had were:

• It took way too long for the picture to take, and as a result we ended up missing the cute moment way too many times.
• The resolution was so small that when we did catch a cute moment usually the child was too far away for me to crop it down to how I wanted it, and have it still be good quality.

My favorites from this shoot are:

Cinderella
A-1

B-1
Guy
A-1


B-1

C-1
D-1Sleeping Beauty
OK so this one was actually taken in our back yard. She was too tired when we were up the canyon, and we didn't really get any good shots of her.
A-1
My husband
A-1
My family
A-1


And some group shots
A-1

B-1



C-1
D-1


E-1

So we invested in a Nikon D3000. I love it. It has one mode where I can just hold down the shutter release and it takes continuous pictures. A great way to capture the moment with my kids who don't hold still. It also has a much higher resolution, so it solves that problem too. It also has a lot of other things, many of which I'm sure I have yet to discover.

We took more pictures on Halloween. This time we didn't have the time advantage to go somewhere so the pictures were just taken in our house and back yard. However the results much more to my liking.
My favorites from this shoot:

Cinderella

A-2

B-2

C-2

D-2
E-2
Guy
A-2
B-2
C-2
Sleeping Beauty
A-2
B-2
C-2
D-2

Family
A-2
B-2

A few group
A-2
B-2

Let me know which ones were your favorites.

Pasta Coona Macaroona

This is the name of a dish I made for dinner the other night. I created the recipe, and Cinderella named it. Being a creation the measurements are approximate. I've only made it once, so I don't have it down to a science yet. But my kids really liked it, so I'm sure I'll be making it again.

To make this dish you need:

Penne (I used about 8 oz)
Cooked Chicken cut into bite sized pieces (I used about 5 tenders, but if you area big meat eater use more.)
Normandy Vegetables ( I used a small bag of frozen)
Cream soup of your preference. (The soup I used is called Shirley J, it is a cream soup base. You add the powder to water and cook it. However if you are using condensed cream soup, you will need to reconstitute it with a can of milk or water. Or you can make a cream soup from scratch if you really want to. I would use enough soup so the casserole isn't too dry.)
Dried Basil to taste
Dried Oregano to taste
Shredded Cheddar about 1/2 cup
Garlic (I used one clove minced.)

Cook your penne. Drain and rinse set aside.
Steam your veggies, and cut into bite sized pieces.
Heat up your cream soup. Add cooked chicken, spices, and garlic. Mix in cooked pasta, veggies, and cheese.
Put in a casserole dish and bake at 350 until bubbly about 20 min.