Lena makes a pumpkin pie

At Thanksgiving, Lena helped me make a pumpkin pie. Here are all the pictures from that fun event (in two posts). The really fun part came when my Dad was eating the pie, and told me he won the prize because he found a penny in his piece of pie. I had wondered where Lena had dropped her penny.

Halloween

Here is Lena trick-or-treating on Halloween. She was a cute little ladybug. Once again, I made her costume. We decided on a ladybug because for a while, she was always pretending to be a bug.

Why?

Well, it's come at last. Monday night, Lena started asking the "Why?" question. She varies it up with "But why?" and "Why not?" I'm starting to run out of answers. I knew it would come some day, and probably with a vengeance, seeing as I was relentless with the why questions when I was little. I know she's curious, but sometimes I just don't know what to say.

Christmas

My sister-in-law had this link on her blog. Makes you really re-evaluate things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU

New Recipe

Here is a new recipe I tried last night. James and I really like it.


Green Chile Fiesta Casserole----Serves 8

1 lb. ground beef
1 can diced tomatoes, not drained
1 small can kernel corn
1 jalapeno pepper (optional)
12 corn tortillas
1 red bell pepper (yellow or orange will work)
1-1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups Green Chile Stew (Got it at HEB)
Chopped Cilantro & Sour Cream (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Chop all peppers. You can deseed the jalapeno to make it not hot. Brown meat and chopped peppers in a large skillet; stir in salt, Green Chile Stew mix, tomatoes and corn; bring to a boil.
2) Spoon 1 cup of meat mixture onto bottom of a 9x13" baking dish. Top with 6 corn totillas, overlapping as necessary. Spoon half of the remaining meat mixture over the tortillas; top with 3/4 cup of cheese. Place the remaining 6 corn tortillas on top, then the remaining meat mixture and cheese. Cover with foil.
3) Bake for 25 min. or until heated through. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and a dollop of sour cream (optional).

Christmas Giveaway

Check out what's going on at 5 Minutes for Mom. They are having a huge Christmas Giveaway! Click on the button on the right to check it out!

Lena in the Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend, we were in Brownwood, and while there we found a pumpkin patch and thought it would be fun to take pictures of Lena with the pumpkins. It also seemed appropriate since her Papa (James' Dad) calls her his punkin'.

Lena and the Bunnies

A couple of weeks ago, Fry's Fun Farm came to Lena's preschool. She absolutely loved playing with the bunnies. Some of these pictures are out of order, but oh well. There were other animals there, but she didn't seem to care about them. I love the second picture. I had just told her it was time to go, because her class was leaving to go inside. Her look says, "But Mommy, I just caught the baby bunny!" All in all, she had a lot of fun. For the next several days of school, she kept asking if she was going to play with the animals at school.

Tagged By Elizabeth

Here are the rules:Grab the nearest book. Open the book to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post the text of the next two to five sentences in your blog along with these instructions. Do not dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST. Tag five other people to do the same.

From "The Messies Manual" by Sandra Felton

"What good does it do to have lived if our thoughts and actions are not conserved in memory or concrete form? These bits and pieces of stuff prove that we have lived full lives. Because of the passion with which we regard these belongings, it hurts us even to think about discarding them. We save for the future."

This just happened to be right there on my nightstand. I keep hoping that by putting it there, I might actually have a few minutes to try and read it one day.

I tag my sister Trisha, Tiffany, Hilary, Amanda, and Shea Amaro

Pay It Forward

This is a fun game that I played on Whitney's blog, and won. now it's my turn to "pay it forward!

"This is copied from: http://www.thelumpkinsfamily.blogspot.com/


THE RULES: The main focus is doing an act of kindness without expecting anything in return other than that the recipient will, in their turn, pass the kindness along and pay it forward.I will send a small, fun gift to the first 3 bloggers who post a comment on this entry. In turn, those three will post this information and pick 3 people they want to send something to and then the game will continue!!If you are interested in participating, be one of the first 3 bloggers to leave a comment!! The little something you send can be something you made, bought, were given or found, anything you want!! Just a gift that will make the person's day!!You have to promise that you will then post about this on your blog, link back to me, and then send something to the first three people who sign up to play along through your blog. Doesn't this sound like fun!!??

Bible Verses

I know it's been a little while of not posting, but I'm back now.

Lately we have been trying to teach Lena some Bible memory verses. So far she knows, "Children obey your parents." Now it is time to start her on a new memory verse.

I was also thinking that it would be good for me to recite and commit to memory Bible verses throughout the day and weeks. What are some of your favorite Bible verses, or what are some verses that inspire or speak to you, or ones that you think are really just wonderful verses?

Also, what are some short verses that would be good ones to start having Lena memorize?

Lena's 1st day of preschool

Last Friday, Aug. 29 was Lena's first day of Preschool at Brentwood Christian School. We started the day by going to Chick fil A for breakfast. Of Course Lena had to play on the playground there. At school, we put her lunchbox in her cubby, and found her friend Maizie from chuch. Lena's class starts the day off at the playground, which is wonderful, because when I dropped her off at the playground, she ran immediately to the car, and didn't look back and didn't cry. When I picked her up at the end of the day, she said "I had a good day!" with big smiles. Today was her third day of school and every day she says she had a good day. She seems to really enjoy her time there. She will go 2 days a week, Tuesdays and Fridays.

Lena's cubby.

















Lena's friend from church, Maizie (in the class below Lena)

















Lena went immediately to the car on the playground and didn't look back, and didn't cry.

Lena's classroom



















Walking with her class from the playground.

Hooray for Milk!

Hooray! Lena is no longer allergic to milk! It is such a relief now, to know that I don't have to worry about what she can and can't have and to be able to leave her with a caregiver without having to tell them what all she can have and can't have. It's only been about 2 weeks on regular milk, but she's doing great. Sometimes I still have to remind myself when I go to the store that I don't have to get lactose free milk. She made her switchover by refusing all kinds of milk for several days, (very strange for her) and then one day asked for milk. I thought that would be a good time to try out regular milk, since that's all I had. Turns out it all worked out for good.

James' 33rd Bday

James' birthday was actually Aug. 24. James, Lena, Jan (James mom), and I went to Macaroni Grill for his birthday dinner. Our waiter sang happy birthday in italian and had an amazing voice! When they brought out the cake, Lena immediately blew out the candle. I think she was a little confused on whose birthday it was. James, Lena and his mom enjoyed the chocolate cake and I just took pictures.