Cannon's 12th b-day "cake". Frankie made Cannon a delicious chocolate chip cheesecake for his actual birthday. However, a few days later we invited his best friend since forever, Madison, and her family over for a celebration so Jewel and I surprised Cannon with a donut cake!. Cannon is OBSESSED with donuts so he LOVED his "cake" (I stuck barbecue skewers in so the donuts wouldn't unpyramid).

I really wish Cannon hadn't jutted his chin up and had a glare with his glasses b/c this would have been a really good birthday pic.

Frank has gotten me hooked on a series, "Robin Hood". I think it is on the Sci-Fi channel, but I'm not certain since we get it through out program at Hollywood Video (very similiar to Netflix"). I enjoy having shows that Frank and I can watch together late at night after the kids finally fall asleep (sometimes Frank and I fall asleep before they do, but oh well, we're old now we've accepted it.

Cannon wrote a poem about G'ma Rose for school. I'm posting it with his permission.

Rose

She would give me sweets as Halloween treats

She always smelled nice like sugar and spice

She had a nice smile like a crocodile

She was so religious she was overzealous

She was a volunteer and did it with great cheer

She was very loving and did a lot of journaling

She was very giving while she was still living

And she gave me a cross a reminder of my loss

Cannon still thinks that poems should rhyme. I liked the poem because his sentiment is so sincere. He and his classmates were told to write a poem about anything-he choose G'ma Rose.

Have a Blessed evening.

Jennifer

Bill and Frankie with the traditional "weird" gifts. Frankie got bill a Turkey something or other and Bill got Frank a 3 hour DVD of yule logs burning. The family members use to cast votes as to who "won" the contest, but we've kinnda gotten away from that the past few years. I think Frank won this year, but thats just me.

Okie I'm trying to blog at work while on break so I think I'm trying to go too fast. I didn't even get captions under the kids' pics. Oh well, better than not at all I think.

This is Jewel baby with her Sparkie 2nd year ribbon. She is working on book #3 now-which is the correct book for her age group. We are still getting caught up from the year she had her tonsils and adenoids out so we missed several AWANAS plus Cannon was sick a lot that year and Frank worked nights (so I took them or they didn't get to go). She is doing very well for starting out the year being "behind". (Note my lil "hippie" took her hair ribbon out during game time so now her hair is all over the place).

Jewel and Cannon using our new "perfect baking counter" to make Christmas treats. We made tons of almond bark covered pretzels and Ritz cookies with peanut butter in the middle. The first comment I made when we toured our new house was "oh what a perfect counter for making Christmas cookies". Well, due to my sinus infection the week of Christmas we didn't make as much as I'd planned or even as much as we typical do, but the kids had fun with what we did make. This is my favorite Christmas picture from 2007.

At last..... (the beginning to one of my fav songs and a descriptor for this blog)
Christmas and b-day pics. From left to right: Jewel with her Christmas gifts. Cannon with his gifts. Jewel with her "8 is great" birthday cake (she woke up saying, "I'm 8 and 8 is GREAT).
more later..

Smiles,
Jennifer

33 days until Newhart comes out on DVD-the Larry, Daryl and Daryl one. TEE HEE. I hope our video store carries it. I'm not certain I can save a dollar a day for the next 33 days. Maybe a Valentine's Day present if I can wait that long???

Smiles to you and yours.

jennifer

A F.Y.I. Frank's b-day is in October so he would love loaves of Wonder bread; esp the wheat bread that looks like its white bread.

In other news, that won't ever matter and no one cares about my new fav vegetable is: radishes. Years ago.. my fav veggie was yams (ask Frank about how many batches of sweetened yams he made me while I was pregnant with Cannon its amazing Cannon didn't come out orange). Then..for years we ate green beans-at pretty much every meal. Now I love radishes- plain radishes, radishes dipped in light dill dip, radishes sprinkled in salt.

so that's pretty much it. I'm a loser so I still don't have any Christmas pics developed.

Love to you all!

Jennifer

BEST CHILI ever:

2 thumbs way up for Cannon and Frank for the chili they made New Year's Eve. I'll confess; orginally I was not excited. The previous nigth: we had eaten tacos for supper (which for me is kidney beans with salsa and spices). I took left over k.beans for N.Y.Eve day lunch. Oh more of the same I thought about supper. I only took a 1/2 bowl. Unbeknowgst to me the guys had added sea salt with lemon zest to the chili. They also baked mini corn muffins to eat with the chili. I put 3 minis on top of my chili and added a little cheese. I cannot even think of words grand enough to describe the chili!!! So, I thought, well maybe I was more hungry than I thought or maybe it was a case of low expectations (the secret to a happy life according to Frank-although he doesn't always practice this idea). By the time I finished at 2 1/2 bowls I decided it was simply excellent chili; so Frank and Cannon confessed their secret of the sea salt with lemon zest. This product came in our Barilla Christmas pack and part of Academia Barilla so I'm not even certain its available in the U.S. yet. What a mean trick on Barilla's part iffen its not-similiar to the pesto sauce we helped test market for them few years back; except worse this sea salt is gastro delight!!

okay.. can you all tell my vow to cut back on food is not going so well. My weight is fine (the Dr says), but I've noted myself really liking food lately; this scares me. oh well I've got all year to cut back, right?

Smiles,
Jennifer