Our Happy Little Preschooler

Preston is in his 2nd year of preschool this year and he was so excited to start. He is in a wonderful preschool this year and already after meeting his teacher once, loves her. Emma had her a few years ago and she kept telling Preston all the fun things they would do and then just to help him feel at ease about his teacher, she would say, "Just pretend that she's me". She likes to play school with Preston and she's always the teacher although I don't know how that would help Preston feel good about his new teacher because when Emma's the teacher I am constantly getting notes from her that Preston needs to raise his hand and not speak out in class and sit in time out when he's told to. I'm surprised he wasn't scared to death thinking that his teacher would be like Emma. Anyway, he had a great first day and can't wait to go back.

This kid is so cool.

First Day of School 2010

Summer went way too fast, well except for the 3 weeks right before I had Sawyer, and its back to school already. Yeah!!! I'll admit it, I am happy to have my kids back in school. I gives me a little bit of power back. I can't tell you how many times I heard "But Mom, it's summer and we can do whatever we want" well now it's not summer and they have to do whatever I want. Plus it's just nice to be able to do things again without 5 kids.

Maggie started Jr. High this year. She is turning into such a beautiful young woman. I asked her on the way to school how she was feeling, expecting "excited" or "nervous" or even "scared" and she answered me saying "tired, really tired" isn't that about par for jr. high. It kind of made me laugh. But her first day went well. She was chosen to be on leadership team this year and had already spent quite a few days touring the school and opening lockers so when the first day rolled around she was a pro. I'm a little overwhelmed with all the different papers to be signed and trying to remember what she needs for each class and where she has to be when and holy crap... the fees that come along with Jr. High. I guess I better start saving for next year. Anyway, I guess we'll figure it all out. Isn't she cute? Do I have to worry about boys now?

Dane started 5th grade this year. He's just as "Dane" as ever. All he worried about the first day was whether or not Abby was going to like him again this year. He's liked her since they were in the same class in 1st grade and even told me last year they were boyfriend/girlfriend. I think he even said they were going to get married. So the consensus was that she still liked him so that made him happy. Dane also loves to chat in class and he came home the first day informing me that his teacher would be calling me. Oh Dane...what are we going to do with you???
Emma started 1st grade this year and could not get to school soon enough. She was asking an hour and a half before school started when we could leave. We ended up walking to school so she wouldn't have to sit around and wait for another 30 minutes. She had a great first day. For the first time in her already 4 years of school she got to go for a full day and eat lunch at school, which by the way was the only thing she wanted to talk about when she got home. She loved being one of the big kids who got to eat lunch at school. Unfortunately her excitement ended quickly. On the third day of school, she came home telling me that she went to the principals office because she missed me so much and they wouldn't let her call me. She informed me that she wouldn't be going to school on Monday because she loved me and just wanted to stay home and be with me. How sweet, NOW GO BACK TO SCHOOL!!! Love that girl!My Crazy kids. Gotta get a silly picture in, in order to get the good ones.


Preston will be starting later this week so we will add him in later. He's excited for preschool to start up again. I guess Sawyer and I aren't that exciting and he's getting a little bored.

Welcome Baby Sawyer

Oh... I have a blog??? Guess it's time to add a little post. My sister in law told me that if someone doesn't post on their blog for over a year that she takes them off her blog roll, Oh the pressure. I guess I'm good for another year after this.

So the most exciting thing of the summer is the arrival of our newest family member. Sawyer John Kargis was born on July 19th. Weighing in at 7 lbs. 11 oz. and 20 in, he was the smallest of all of our babies. That was quite a surprise considering Preston was 9 lbs at a week early, I expected this baby to be even bigger. I was pleased with his size cause I just think anything bigger than 9 is not a baby for very long. This way I get to enjoy the infant size for a while. Labor, delivery and recovery could not have been easier. The most annoying thing was waiting for the doctor to break my water. I waited for almost 4 1/2 hours for him to get there only to find out he was home asleep. Hmmm... Once he finally got there and broke my water, things progressed quickly and when I was ready to deliver and the doctor got there I was told not to push at all because the baby was there and sliding right out. That's how I like it, nice and easy.

Everyone was so excited to welcome our new baby and he has been an amazing baby so far. How he puts up with all the kisses, hugs, touches and being woken up is beyond me. He is quite the trooper and just what we needed for our 5th baby. He just goes with the flow. It is nice to have so many helpers around and allows me to still get everything done that I need to do. We are so blessed to have this sweet spirit in our family and love him very much.

Make-ahead Breakfast Casserole

I made this great breakfast casserole this morning for our Relief Society Birthday Brunch and posted it on our ward blog, but since that blog is private, I thought I would put it on here too. Seriously soooo good and easy to make. I'm not really sure how I am supposed to give credit for this recipe but know that it is not a Tina original.

Ham and Cheese Croissant Casserole

from Southern Living Magazine November 2009

recipe from Kimberly Denney

Makes: 6 servings Hands on Time: 15 min.

Total Time: 9Hr., 15 min.

You can substitute leftover bakes ham for chopped ham in this dish. Nutmeg is optional, but add a subtle touch of spice.

3 (5 inch) large croissants (I used the ones from Costco)

1 (8-oz.) package chopped cooked ham

1 (5-oz.) package shredded Swiss Cheese

6 Large eggs

1 cup half-and-half

1 Tbsp. dry mustard

2 Tbsp. honey

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg (optional)

1. Cut croissants in half lengthwise, and cut each half into 4-5 pieces. Place croissant pieces in a lightly greased 10-inch deep-dish pie plate. Top with ham and cheese.

2. Whisk together eggs, next 5 ingredients, and, if desired, nutmeg in a large bowl.

3. Pour egg mixture over mixture in pie plate, pressing croissants down to submerge in egg mixture. Cover tightly, and chill 8-24 hours.

4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake, covered 35 minutes. Uncover and bake 25-30 minutes or until browned and set. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

This was such an easy recipe and would be great for Christmas morning cause it's all made the night before. I also think it would be really good ( I haven't tried this so if you do, let me know how it tastes) to substitute sausage and cheddar cheese for the ham and swiss. Anyway, delicious!!!

Halloween 2009

Cindy and Jan Brady, Skeleton and the Grim Reaper

Yes it's true, my girls wanted to be the Brady girls for Halloween. So many people asked me if they even knew who the Brady's were, well they are a favorite in our house. I think my kids can quote more lines from the Brady Bunch than I can. I think they looked pretty darn good.

Ward Party

Justin and I dressed up in an old stand-by. I made these Dutch costumes years ago and we have really go some use out of them. It's a good thing we both got wooden shoes on our missions.

Each of the Auxiliries were asked to do a booth at the carnival so here is the girls standing if front of our bowling alley. My husband didn't even complain when I made him create this spooky bowling lane for me. Next year... Bigger and Scarier. We also had a chili cook off. Wow!!! Amazing cooks we have in our ward.

School

Preston decided just for his school party that he wanted to be Batman. We altered Dane's costume from last year by cutting about 12 inches off the legs and he was good to go.
This is the epitomy of my little Emma. This is how she walked by us during her school parade. It almost looks like she is doing the "Thriller" dance

Decorations

I got really into decorating this year. We went very spooky this year and had a great time doing it. It took me almost the entire month to get it to look just the way I wanted.


Of course I need to have my great candy jars. Love them! I've started saving all my candy (that way we won't want to eat it next year) and I have boxes and boxes on the top shelf of my pantry. I'll take a picture of that sometime. Just remember when you come you my house not to eat the candy. It's sure to be at least a year old if not more.
I got these cool pictures at Big Lots and spray painted frames from Savers (feeling very DIY and thrifty at the same time). I had three they are totally like the ones in the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. Very cool addition to my decor this year.

Halloween Party

Of course I can't go through all the work of decorating without having a few friends over to enjoy it. We had Hot chocolate, cider and desserts after trick or treating.

I think next year I am going to require my friends to wear costumes. That might get me out of the party since none of them will come (except Becky). Party Poopers!!!I thought that I should probably dress up for my own party so when I saw the "Desperate Housewife" wig at the store I had to buy it. Unfortunately it didn't look quite like it did on the package, but I couldn't resist being Bree Van De Camp at my own party.

L-O-V-E, love this kid!!!

I have to say I absolutely adore this little boy. Maybe it's because he's the baby of the family, or maybe it's because he is the only one of my kids that I can still consider a baby or maybe it's because he is so stinkin' good and cute. It's probably all three. Well he turned four a few weeks ago and I just need time to stop right now. I don't want him to get any older but everytime he asks to play the wii or spells a new word for me or reads a new book, I know that he's getting bigger. sniff sniff! Enough of the sappy stuff, Preston Rules and we had a fun Monster party.

He began by saying he wanted a lego party, well after repeating the Hello Kitty parties, I wasn't about to repeat the Lego party so one day we were walking through Target (my favorite place to be) we found the cutest monster stuff and I was able to talk him into the monster party. His birthday is only one week before Halloween so I've always tried to stay away for the whole "halloween" party thing and make it "birthday" but they have so many cute things around halloween, this was the perfect solution for me. Here's how the party went.

The Invite
Designed {using digital scrapbooking} by yours truly. I love doing this kind of stuff.

The birthday boy


The decorations

I guess I dropped the ball on this one and these were the only decorations that I actually took pictures of. These were just some little stuffed monsters we found at Target too then we had balloons. I have been looking at some blogs that have pretty amazing parties and am starting to realize that I need to step it up a little. I guess I'll have a lot of years to get there.

Games





We played Monster toss where they threw the stuffed monsters into buckets and then we also played pin the eye on the monster. I was surprised at how close they all got to the real eyes. I guess they had a pretty good chance seeing as the monster had three eyes instead of just one. Well everyone except Braxton who we tried to trick. He figured it out quickly and got back on track.

The presentsHis best (girl)friend Avery. We love this girl too. They could grow up and get married and we would be perfectly happy with that.
Our neighbors and lego buddies Braxton and Carson.
Our cute cousins Mae and Elle.
Our other cousin Jaynie.

We started a new tradition because everyone at a party always wants their present to be opened first so we let the birthday child choose the first person and then we give that person a ball or something to toss, in this case it was a stuffed monster and they get to toss it to the next person. It kind of becomes a game for everyone and so far no one has gotten upset about when their present gets opened. I had a few people ask me what Preston wanted for his birthday and I don't know if I have said this before, but this kid is obsessed with learning (I finally got one of me). I told everyone that he loves to write and read and those were some of his favorite gifts. Of course he loves Legos too, but we have so many legos in this house I couldn't tell anyone to get him those. Again, took lots of pictures of Preston opening up presents with friends, but not one single thank you note has come out of them yet. The guilt is building now that I have let out my secret. Maybe next year...

The cake


So proud of this one. I didn't even do a trial run and loved the way it turned out. This was definitely a fun party theme. So many ways to go with this. We also had some extra time after cake and ice cream and I let the kids decorate their own monster cupcakes. Everyone loved doing this except Preston all he wanted to do was watch Monsters vs. Aliens (at least he stayed with the theme). The cupcakes turned out really cute and this kids loved doing this.

Our guests

Of course before the party is over I always have to take a picture of all the kids who attended. They got into their goodie bags first and accessorized for one of the pictures. I love it.

The Goodie Bags

One of my favorite parts of a party is putting together a fun goodie bag. Thanks again to Target for all the great ideas and products (I don't know why I am thanking target, they should be thanking me for all the money I spend there).

So one of my very favorite things about Preston is when he tells me "Mom, I love you never ending" Nothing can put a smile on my face like that can.

Maggie's favorite thing about Preston, their private hand shake. "High five, knuckles, skin, eskimo kisses, isses, loves"

Emma's favorite thing about Preston "he likes to watch movies with me and I like to build stuff with him and I like to play legos with him and I like to do our hand shake."

Happy Birthday little butter!