This One's for You Grandpa...

...Camo (of any kind), no pants, rain boots, and chocolate on his face. Need I say more?

Oh, and this is from Thanksgiving #2. Also very appropriate for Grandpa!

Here She Is!!!

Tori & Jimmy, 

I know that we all say things like this when a child is born, but I am going to say it anyway. JJ & I cannot express how truly happy we are for the two of you. We know that Audrey Lynn is truly a gift from God, and she is truly beautiful!!! We cannot wait to see her and hold her and love her and kiss her all up!

Congrats Tori & Jimmy!

Audrey Lynn was born at 6:47 am, at 8 pounds 2 ounces! Both mother & baby are doing wonderful! Congrats to you both! We love you all and cannot wait to see her in person! (As soon as I get pics in my email, I will post). According to Jimmy & JJ, Audrey is our future daughter in law!

Thanksgiving #1

Football IN the house. He was throwing it to Poppy across the room, with Daddy's help of course. 

After lunch...3 generations of Jarzabek men napping. James sat up as soon as he saw the camera. 

New Recipe

First let me say, yes I sometimes do cook from cook books and recipes, and yes we do eat 'regular' food on most days. I think everyone expects us to eat gourmet meals every night, but that is not really practical when on a budget. I love finding new inspiration, especially for soups, which are my absolute favorite type of food to cook. Cooking dinner at least 4 or 5 nights a week, and on a budget can prove difficult when you haven't had any new inspiration in a while. Anyway, I found this one in a Paula Dean's cook book (I love her!), and thought I would share it. JJ & James both loved it, and JJ doesn't really care for mushrooms too much. 

Sausage & Rice Casserole

One 6-ounce box rice (I used beef flavored)

1 pound ground sausage

1 onion

1 garlic clove

8 ounces fresh sliced mushrooms

one can cream of mushroom soup

4 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 350.

Cook rice according to directions on box. Over medium heat, brown sausage, remove to drain. Sweat onions and garlic in sausage fat, add mushrooms and saute. (You can sub. with one 4 ounce can of mushrooms if you don't have fresh, and then you don't have to saute them). Combine all ingredients except butter in casserole dish. Dot top with butter. Bake until bubbly, about 25 minutes. 

Let me know if you try it and what you think! It's a good 'Mama Food' recipe, (as Cindy would say).

One Little Indian

James has really come to enjoy his rocking horse lately. As he was riding this morning, the thought occured to me that he has his indian feathers that he brought home from MDO last week. He also has a cowboy hat, but I thought the feathers were more Thanksgiving appropriate. And besides...I knew this would make his Paw Paw (my grandfather) very proud, as he is 1/2 Indian.

I also had some good shots with the camera long ways (sorry Misti & Kristi, I don't know the term) where you could see the entire horse, but I couldn't get them to rotate so they would have been sideways. 

I love the 3 snaggly little teeth!

What I Miss About Home

Fall is one of my favorite times to go home to the Hill Country, and we will not be able to this year until January. I took these pictures from Misti's blog. 

This is what I miss the most. Driving anywhere in the Hill Country, even on the interstate, and this is your view. 

...And the Next

James has been fever free and done with the flu since Friday, but he is now cutting teeth again. I am glad to say that at least we seam to be getting back on schedule with naps and bedtime, and he is eating and drinking much more than he was throughout the week and weekend. 

From One Thing to the Next

Last week was kind of a rough week for all of us. James was cutting a top tooth finally and having some trouble with it. He didn't sleep well, there fore, we did not either. That has past and he slept good for two nights...now he has the flu. Poor baby. He woke up at 4:30 yesterday morning with 102.1 fever. We were able to get him in the ped very early yesterday morning, but his fever spiked yesterday up to 103.1. It has gone down, but his breakfast came up this morning just as he was finishing. So, we tried again with applesauce, and he kept that down pretty good. 

Our Little Monkey!

James had a great time trick-or-treating Friday night! He had so much fun! We assumed he would be hot and not have much fun, but we were definitely wrong! We should have started earlier because he was having so much fun!

Once he figured out what was in the bowls, he was no longer scared to go see the people at the door. 

This little boy lives a few houses down, and he loved James' costume. He kept trying to hug him, James did not like that much. 

He refused to let us carry his treat bag, he wanted to do it by himself. It mostly drug the ground behind him, and he kept spilling his candy on the ground. 

He had a blast digging through is treat bag and playing with his new cup (he loves cups). Mommy even let him have a piece of chocolate, and regretted it later. He did not go to bed until 11:00!