Shopping and Boobs?!?

Happy Day-After Thanksgiving!! We are in Henderson, Nevada, next to Vegas for Nathan's baseball tournament. In keeping with tradition, my Mom and I were up and shopping this morning at 5:45! I am close to being finished with my Christmas shopping...ya-hoo! Such great bargains today, I didn't pay full price for anything, and mostly everything was 50-60% off.

We are staying at Sunset Station, it is a beautiful hotel. There just happens to be a "Hooters" Restaurant in the Casino area. Kyle's friends have talked to him about "Hooters", but we've never been...until today. Hey, the food was good...really good.

Okay, now we're off to baseball games. He has back-to-back games at 5:30 and 7:30, then games tomorrow and maybe Sunday. We're gonna freeze our butts off tonight!!

Hope you and Yours had a great turkey day!

No Oatmeal for Kyle

My friend Kelly told me about this yummy oatmeal she bought at Costco. She eats it everyday, even takes it to work. I thought I'd give it a try, although my kids and I usually don't like oatmeal. Kyle was hungry last night before bed, so I convinced him he should try the oatmeal...it's so healthy...he made some for himself. I didn't know the outcome until this morning, and this is what I found in the kitchen. Made me laugh...such a funny boy!

Thanksgiving Dinner

On Saturday night I cooked (with a lot of help from my Mother!) an early Thanksgiving Dinner. We will be gone for Thanksgiving weekend, so we ate turkey already! Actually, most of the leftovers are almost gone...bummer. We had my cousin Matthew over and had a fun time. As you can see, the "big boys" watched football after over-eating!!

I am blessed and thankful for family and friends, for health and happiness, and for mashed potatoes, gravy, and turkey!

Dominoes

Nathan has a fascination with Dominoes. He sets them up, makes them go over books and across the floor. He has many boxes of Dominoes because I think it's cool that he does this. Lately, he has been working on words and making them link together so that they all fall down in a row. Look what he did last night...can you read it? dominoes rocks!! Maybe someday he'll be in the Guiness Book of World Records!

Friday Night = Pizza Night

Most Friday nights are pizza/family/friends night at the Groff House. Tonight we have Nathan's friend Dwight here, they have been friends since age 3...how cool is that!? And Ryan, our neighbor whom we treat like our 3rd son, was here. Kyle and Ryan eat a large pizza themselves. We always order the same thing... 2 large pizzas and an order of hot chicken wings...so good.

Wordless Wednesday #11 ~ 99cents Only Store

Love the 99cents Only Store. Some of my latest purchases...

Southern California Fires

This is the front page of our local paper...

The "Governator" on T.V. They have not shown anything but fire coverage for 2 days.

This photo was taken off our of back balcony. You can see the smoke plumes above the horizon. It was WAY worse yesterday.

It is so sad when we have huge fires near us. These fires are hugely devastating because of all of the homes lost. One entire mobile home park with 500 homes is completely burned to the ground and keep saying on the news that when the embers die down they will send in cadaver dogs as this fire came on so strong and suddenly and many of the residents are elderly. Please pray for the people who have been evacuated and lost their homes.

Under the Weather...

We have the "sinus-infection-coughing-up-phlegm-achey-eye-watering-tired-can't-sleep-cranky-upset-stomach-headache-earache-red-nose" illness that's going around. Darrell has been sick for 2 weeks and shared his germs with Kyle and I...he's so thoughtful!!

FISH in the Crock-Pot!??!

Yes, I cooked fish in the Crock-Pot! It was yummy and easy...what more could you ask for? You wrap each fillet (I chose Tilapia) topped with the "mixture" in foil. Put it in the Crock-Pot, on high, for about 4 hours.

It turned out perfect. I made it once before and it was also perfect. The recipe is from the blog at the right called "A Year of Crock-Potting". She has tons of other great recipes. I've tried several, but this one was the best.

Of course, Nathan has a Peanut Butter sandwich. I won't even go there...

Kyle is acting like a pain in the rear. He is tired of me always taking pictures. He really did like the fish, he ate 2 fillets.

My dear Husband also being a pain in the butt! The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. SO...try the fish and let me know if you like it...

What Did YOU Do Today??

Darrell and Kyle played ping-pong. I forgot to ask who ended up winning, but the competition was getting fierce!!

Darrell, Kyle, and I went to Huntington Beach and had lunch and celebrated Zachary's 2nd Birthday!

Early this morning, I drove Nathan to Lake Elsinore to spend the weekend with Eldon (on the left) to continue his birthday celebration. In our family, we celebrate birthdays for several days...not just one day! Their friend Jake is on the right, he was on Nathan's travel baseball team last year and was also in Eldon's class at school.

Zachary Bennett Groff turned two years old this week, he belongs to Darrell's brother and his wife. He is going to be a big brother soon...maybe it'll be a girl. Darrell's parents have 2 sons and 3 grandsons right now...would they know what to do with a girl?? Pink. Ribbons. Dolls...

Darrell and Mini-Darrell (Mini-Darrell is actually taller that Darrell) driving to Joe's Crab Shack in Newport Beach for dinner. SO DELICIOUS!! Kyle is getting a bad cold or his allergies are bugging him, so he is cranky, but still cute!!

So, we spent about 4 or 5 hours on the road today. What did YOU do today? Please tell me.

Sorry my pictures are TOTALLY out of order, I'm still getting the hang of this new camera!

Tomorrow is 4 baseball games in 2 different cities...I love being a Mommy!

Rock Band...Oh, Ya Baby!!

Tonight we went to dinner for Eldon's birthday! I cannot believe he and Nathan are 10 years old! First, Tanya took them to play LaserTag and then the whole family, and some of Eldon's friends, met for dinner and cake. We had fun, but I didn't think to bring my camera.

When we got home the neighbors came over and played Rock Band. It's hysterical to watch them play, they are all so serious. We have daily "jam sessions" at our house with a variety of kids, young and old. I must go now and tell them to "TURN IT DOWN!!" I think that means I'm old, right?

Hey...TURKEY!!!

Today was "put the turkeys out" day at my house. The Jack-O-Lanterns are packed away in the attic and the turkeys are proudly on display. I am making Thanksgiving dinner here on the Sunday before the holiday as we will be in Vegas the whole 4 day weekend for a baseball tournament for Nathan.

President-Elect Obama

Congratulations to President-Elect Obama. I have liked him since I first saw him on Oprah a couple of years ago. Change is coming...
YES, WE CAN!!

Entertainment by Molly Mo!

Many of you know that Kyle begged me for about 12 years to get a dog...and I always said NO...and I had really good reasons (excuses)...and then Nate started begging...so finally we said YES. After a sad search, we ended up with Molly (full name is Molly Mo StinkyButt, but we usually call her Poopie) and can I say she provides so much love and entertainment, I'm not sure how we got along without her! Here she is with the boys this morning in their baseball uniforms...SO CUTE. And I gave her a yogurt container to play with and she walked around with it over her nose and cried because she couldn't find a place to hide it...TOO CUTE! So, go ahead and get a dog...alot of work, but she adds so much to our family!

Trick-Or-Treat??!!

We had such a fun time last night, and we all have a candy hangover to prove it!! I made my famous homemade chili and the Butlers (our neighbors), the Lopez's (friends from school), and my Mom and Larry came over. Totally low-key and relaxing. So, you can see the kids just raided the "dress-up box" before going trick-or-treating and this is what they came up with. Nathan came home, dumped out his candy, and divided it into 3 gallon zip-loc bags...and they are full. TOO. MUCH. CANDY.