From Our kitchen to Yours....

I had a request from a friend to post a recipe...so I wanted to do that for her and to share with the rest of you all.

Shepherd's Pie

1 lb ground beef (I use ground turkey)
Frozen mixed vegetables (16oz. bag)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
8 servings of Mashed Potatoes (I use the packets of Idaho- 1 butter and 1 roasted garlic)
Sliced cheese

Brown your meat and drain off grease if used beef. Cook your veggies as directed on bag. While your veggies are cooking mix together your meat and soup. Cook your potatoes. Once your veggies are done then add them to your meat mixture and mix all together. Pour this mixture in a greased casserole dish (13X9) and spread potatoes on top. Place sliced cheese on top of potatoes. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

I hope this makes sense. If not please let me know and I will try to explain it better. This is a favorite at our house! I like it because I can give my family a little of everything and don't have to make 50 dishes. I will have to say this is one of Bryan's favorites that he could have weekly. Bryan eats the leftovers by dipping nacho chips in it....it is good! Hope you enjoy!!
Happy Cooking!

Pumpkins and Costumes

This is a picture of the kids painting their pumpkins. When Isaac was little I wanted this to be a yearly event but I have not been very good at that. I have tried and its just one of those things that I can't stress myself over, but if we have had pumpkins and paint then we have painted pumpkins. We painted these on October 30. I laid Timothy down for his nap and got out all our things and let the kids paint away! They loved it and had so much fun. Their pumpkins were so cute and were very original. I also let them paint their hand and I got their hand print on paper so I could scrapbook it (one day).

Just wanted to share a few pictures of my "crew". I didn't include pictures of Timothy all dressed up in the last post, he was napping while we were out getting candy, he was staying with Daddy while I took the other three out and about. Anyway.... on Sunday night our church had a Fall Festival and I dressed him up and took him, so I wanted to post his "dressed up" picture (he is suppose to be a giraffe). As for the family picture I know the background is not the greatest but if you are like me family shots are hard to get so I just grabbed everyone while I had the chance. I just LOVE my little (or not so little) family!!

Dressing up FUN!!!

Bob The Builder

Minnie Mouse

NFL football player

Can you see the chocolate in those teeth?

Sarah enjoying a Kit-Kat.

ALL gone!!!

Candy, candy, candy, and more candy!!!!! I am already sick of candy! We have made it through another October 31 and the kids were so cute dressed up and they had a blast!!! I don't have a picture but my mother was dressed up too! Anyway the kids so enjoyed going to get LOTS of candy....did I mention that we have candy, candy and more candy? Isaac was excited about being a football player! Sarah makes such a pretty Minnie Mouse! And of coarse Elijah is just another Bob The Builder! Isaac and Sarah always enjoy and have fun at this dress up and get candy thing but this was Elijah's first year to actually participate. I wish I could describe to you exactly his reaction. The first house we went to was an older couple in our church and they gave him 2 snickers (fun size) and he tried to take all of it and was upset when we left, but after we kept going to more houses and he was getting more and more candy he was liking this! As my mother and I were helping him in the van after one house he got upset because he thought we were going to take his candy. He would not let go of that candy!! It was so sweet to hear him say "Trick or Treat" and "Thank You". It was a nice and enjoyable night. Hope you all got LOTS and LOTS of candy....if not let me know and I would more than happily share!

Enjoying a Fall Day!

There is just something about the change of seasons, you can just feel it in the air. Next week the time will change, the leaves are turning beautiful colors, and the weather is not too cold and not too hot.....just right. Last week the weather was so nice that the kids and I got to enjoy it some. The big kids and I got out the baby swing and cleaned it up so we could put Timothy in it. He LOVED it!! Isaac, Sarah and I took turns pushing him. Elijah enjoyed being outside so much also, of coarse he would stay outside all the time if we let him. Isaac is crazy about being outside because he can practice kicking the football and play football. We even aired up the bicycle tires and let them ride. We have a perfect spot in front of the house, they can ride in the road during the day because everyone is at work or school and we live on a dead end street. By the way the swing set was passed down by some grandparents in our church (their grandkids have out grown it) and our kids have gotten some good use out of it. Just another one of those blessings God has bestowed on us through the body of believers. Sarah gets outside and can have so much fun using her wonderful imagination. For me it is nice just to get some fresh air and watch the kids have fun. We even tried doing school outside one day but.......we didn't get very far so we had to come in and finish up. I can't forget Bryan.....he loves being able to run in this nice weather. As I type this post I can hear Bryan and the kids outside enjoying this lovely weather and time together. Thank you God for giving us all these wonderful things, You truely are amazing!!!

Children are...

This is my oldest child in action! He puts all he has in to whatever he does. Soccer season is still in full swing. We have two more games if they don't get rained out. Isaac has scored alot of goals and has the best time playing. As you can tell by the pictures I have posted that he is very serious about what he is doing. The first picture is a little blurry but I wanted to show you that determination (he is the one in the blue). As I have been pulling out clothes for Timothy to use, some of them were used by my first child, WOW! It is very sweet to remember that this child playing soccer was my little baby (and still is) at one time...Now he is growing up. He has really been crazy about football and some days I feel that is all he talks about. Once again he does his best to know all he can about the game and the players. His daddy (my wonderful husband) has been throwing the football with him in the yard and teaching him how to kick the football. They both like "playing football" together. One last thing about this oldest child is his Wednesday night teachers at church have told us how he is answering questions and knowing the Bible. For that I am the most proudest, because that is eternal while the sports are fun, they are earthly.

Now this is my only girl (right now) showing off her toothless grin. My hubby (her wonderful father) noticed the other day that she has lost 3 teeth in one month. If you notice the picture at the top of our blog of us as a family, she is not missing any teeth. She is the funniest and most imaginative child....once that top tooth (#3) came out she smilied and said "It looks like a truck." How neat is that! Can you see the truck? My kids get a kids magazine once a month and this month they were asking for pictures of toothless grins so we sent in this photo and maybe it will get in the magazine...we will see. This girl has the biggest heart! She just loves everyone and is always thinking of others. I have to tell you she has been a real big help to me in helping with the two smaller children. What a blessing! Her favorite thing to watch is the Food Network ( my mother tapes it for her). Don't be surprised if she has her own bakery one day. She has been wanting to bake things to sell and get money to save for a mission trip one day.

This is kid #3 and this is him in action, making us laugh and smile. It seems that every time we turn around he is doing something else to be silly. His vocabulary has really taken off lately and he can communicate very well. Although he is not old enough to play a sport he thinks he is just as ready as the older kids. He has learned his colors and knows them really well. He is also been repeating his ABC's with us and tries to count, I think his goes like...1,2, 5, 8,9,10! Any way he is learning. He can give some very good loving. He wraps his arms around me and squeezes tight and says "love you". He thinks he is big enough to take care of the baby! Every once and a while I will catch him picking up the baby to bring him to me or to Daddy. I know he is trying to help but it scares me, but I just have to stay calm or he might drop him. This little BIG guy is learning to sit in church with us and has come a long way. At first he would wonder up one pew or back one pew but now he stays right on our pew and does good. We are still trying to learn how to be just a little more quiet for those around us, but I am very proud that he is learning! He is also in the beginning stages of potty training...yikes! This can be a difficult task but I have to remind myself that my other two didn't learn until they were 3.

This is the baby that I have been blogging about here lately. The latest news is he is cutting 4 teeth at one time. It is so funny that he is getting teeth while the two oldest are loosing teeth. I wanted to post this picture to show you how he likes to travel. I purchased this carrier on clerance when my second child was born and probably didn't use it 5 times with her and then when baby #3 came along I used it maybe 3 times (he was a big baby) and then Daddy used it once to carry baby #3 in when we went on a trip. So I really was glad I purchased it on clearance if I wasn't going to get any more use out of it than that. Now that baby #4 is here I use it often! I love it and am so glad I have it! As you can see he has enjoyed it also! Ok enough about the carrier....I can't believe that baby #4 is already 6 months old and will be one very soon!

The Bible tells us that "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; They shall not be ashamed,..." Psalm 127:3-5

Amen and Amen! I hope I have not overwhelmed you with things about my wonderful blessings. I have recently learned from the Lord that being a wife and mother is a role that is not about "me", it is all about serving others. That is the example that Jesus set and I should follow. By His strength I can die to self and serve my family. It doesn't matter if my children succeed in the things of this world but it DOES matter if they love Jesus, live for Jesus and serve Jesus and that is what I pray they see in me and learn from me. When I fail I pray they see me humble and ready to ask forgiveness because I know I am not perfect and I will fail.

Looking to Jesus- Cantina

We have a......

CRAWLER! Guess What...Believe it or not Timothy is crawling!!! He turned 6 months old last Thursday and Sunday night a week ago he just took off! We were having our family worship time before bed and I was in the floor with him and Elijah and the cat walked by and he went for the cat! I am just amazed that he is growing so fast! I wanted to post about it but just haven't been able to capture the crawling on video and when I finally did it was too much to upload...so I took pictures instead. Maybe you can get the "picture". I am just wondering what will he do next! Timothy just looks so small to be crawling now, but he is sooooo cute!!! He has been doing this thing where he pushes his bottom up and then drops and again and again....he looks like a frog hopping! It is so cute! Hope you all have a Christ centered week!!

Love- Cantina

Haircuts!!!

Before....

During.....

After!!!!

Isaac usually goes with his Daddy and gets his haircut by the Barber, but things have changed recently! While we were on vacation Bryan decided to have the buzz cut look again (That's what he had when Isaac and Sarah was born). So today Bryan (Daddy) needed to buzz his hair and Isaac decided he wanted to do a buzz cut too. So we let him and I didn't know if I needed to cry or not! I just have never seen him with a buzz cut. I have always thought that he had a very handsome hair cut and never even thought about a buzz (well, I did when he was little). I know that it can always grow back out or maybe he will enjoy it and keep it this way. Either way he is still my handsome boy and I just love him, buzz cut or not!! ; ) He thought it was neat and never even gave it a second thought. He is growing up so fast!

Cantina