Pizza

   We love pizza around here, its the only food that every member of the family with eat. Even picky crazypants. We usually order it, but I like to make it at home too. About a year ago my husband found one of the best goodwill finds ever. A bread machine! For $5, in perfect working condition. I've made a lot of bread in it, but my favorite thing to make is pizza dough. It makes everything so much easier. I am in constant search of the perfect pizza dough recipe, and yesterday I found it! It was easy to work with, buttery, flaky goodness. Here's where I found it!

http://www.momontimeout.com/2012/02/bread-machine-pizza-dough-recipe/

Ingredients:
2 c flour (I like to use bread flour but all purpose and even a combination of AP and wheat flour works)
1 Tbls butter, softened
1 Tbls sugar
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
1/2 c plus 2 Tbls water (105-110 degrees)

Doubled (for 2 pizzas):
4 c flour
2 Tbls butter, softened
2 Tbls sugar
2 tsp yeast
2 tsp salt
1 1/3 c water (105-110 degrees)

I have a big pizza pan, I think it's like 16-18"? So I doubled the recipe and it was a perfect thickness.

Thanks to Momontimeout for this wonderful recipe!

Jinxed!

     I knew it was gonna happen. I knew I shouldn't have talked about it, but I did. Now I've jinxed myself. Potato slept through the night for 4 days in a row, some days sleeping more than 12 hours! Unheard of for him. Well I had to go talking about it and guess what? Up 4x last night. Yawwwwwn. Good thing he's cute.

Christmas!

   Of course this morning I couldn't find my camera. So all I have are a bunch of grainy ipod pictures. Doesn't matter though, they still captured what I wanted. Smiles and happiness! Really great day, and it was declared the BEST. CHRISTMAS. EVER. by both big boys.

Enjoy!

M and Potato

HILARIOUS Crazypants

C-Man and his very specific, PLAIN GREEN SWEATER he asked for that was bought for him by some really sweet and wonderful friends!

Potato's first gift unwrapping experience.

SUPER EXCITED Crazypants, he screamed with happiness for HOURS this morning!

My favorite. C-Man never has much of a reaction to gifts, never gets excited. But boy did he give us a pretty sweet gift this morning. REAL EXCITEMENT AND HAPPINESS!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Hope your day was magical!

Remembering an amazing man

   Yesterday the world lost an amazing man. But, heaven gained quite an angel. Pastor Robert Wensil was "M's" preacher since birth I think. Then mine when I joined the church at 15. He was one of the nicest, most sincere people I have ever met, funny too! I remember before M and I got married we had to go to pre-martial counseling with Robert. It was all we could do to hold back our laughter during that session. But, he also gave us amazing advice that we still remember to this day.
   He was the one who was standing at the end of the aisle the day I got saved and the day I got married. If it weren't for him my family wouldn't be what it is today. When I was pregnant with "c-man" I got kidney stones and was in the hospital for 5 days. M couldn't be there most of the time cause he had to work. I remember one day Robert came up there and sat with me for hours. We talked about the most random things that day. Carolina basketball of course, and the dumb bank robber on the news, and that crazy hair style the news lady had. I think he knew I was lonely that day cause even when there wasn't much to talk about anymore he still sat there with me. He visited us when we we're scared to death right after C-man was born and in the NICU. He called when C-Man had his brain surgeries. Even when he was in the midst of battling his leukemia he came to the hospital to see us the day Potato was born, less than 5 months ago.
  He was an amazing man, we will forever remember him to the great changes he made in our lives. He will be greatly missed!

Robert with M and I, the day we got married <3

Obsessions

   Let's talk about obsessions. As I mentioned yesterday C-man is autistic. It is common for him to have obsessions. They can last for a day, a week, a month, or years. It's never the same kind of thing either. When he was 3 he was obsessed with the Family Feud. He could tell you every single time it came on, what channel it came on at what time, who every host was. Then it shifted to Thomas the train when he was about 4. Every time we went out he had to get the newest Thomas movie, train, book, whatever. From about 5-7 it was pens. Kid had about a thousand pens, all kinds. That was an easy one to deal with, pens are cheap. He was thrilled with a one dollar pack of pens every time he went out. Heck, that was HOW we got him to leave the house, by promising pens! In the middle of the pen obsession was the wiggles. That was an odd one cause he was too old for the wiggles by this point. He even wanted us all to be the wiggles for Halloween. That was fun (not really ;))
      In recent years it has been the computer, he has meltdowns when he can't use it. He likes to use it every chance he gets. Most of the time he isn't doing anything on there except for changing the backgrounds and downloading new browsers, I think we've had 8 at one time. Then came organizing, that turned into more of an OCD thing rather than an obsession. In the last week or two it has become diary of a wimpy kid. He has all the books, he's read them all. And re-read a few. He has the first 3 movies, he watches one every single night.

This is his desk area in our back room. 

My point, if I actually made one. Is that obsessions can be easy to deal with, but they can also he hard. I vote for hard. When you can't help satisfy the need for something its difficult on everyone. So, we just suck it up and try to move on to the next thing to shift his mind onto something new! Bet you never knew obsessions were that serious. They can be, and now you know! :)

Introduction

Hi, I'm "A"...I am married to the dashingly handsome "M". We have been together for half our lives now. He asked me to be his girlfriend at the wee young age of 14 years old. 15 years later we have been married about 9 1/2 years, and have 3 crazy boys. I won't ever use their real names on here, ya know privacy and stuff. I will start with a little intro about each of them.

"C-Man" we'll call him, is 8 years old going on 30. He is a rock star in every which way. When he was 5 he was diagnosed with his first brain tumor, which quickly grew back 6 months later. So by 6 years old he already had 2 brain surgeries under his belt. When he was 6 he was diagnosed with autism. More specifically PDD-NOS/Aspergers. He is a super genius and not afraid to tell you that. He is also in the 3rd grade.

"Crazypants" is the middle child, poor thing, and is 4 years old. He is a little ball of crazy energy. I think its the red hair. I like to say he hit the terrible 2's at 6 months old and it never stopped. He is wild, reckless, destructive, love able, and sweetest kid ever. Loves his daddy to the moon and back.

Little "Potato", he's new. He is 4 1/2 months old. Hates sleeping. Loves smiling, smiling's his favorite ;)
He is a sweet little goober, but like I said he's new, so there's not much to know about him yet.

"M" My husband. Well he's just the love of my life. We met in high school and have been together since. He is truly my soul mate and partner in crime. We have been through the ringer with all of "C-Man's" surgeries and stuff. But he was my rock through all of that and I was his. He is goofy, and funny, and will do ANYTHING to make our boys laugh. When I say anything, I really mean it. He is such a hard worker, and everyone knows it. After 9 years at the same company he lost his job in Sept. It was devastating...for about 5 min. He sat here and filled out applications non-stop for 3 weeks. Even when he had interviews he didn't stop. After only 3 weeks he got a job and is so happy there now. I still think all that mess was meant to be.

Our life is crazy, and exciting. But, hard work. Three kids is super hard. Way harder than 2. So there is something new and interesting happening every day around here. If you stick around you might get to read about it :)

This picture is normal day around 6pm at my house. I was cooking dinner. M, not home from work yet. Potato in his swing, Crazypants made a huge mess, and C-man on the couch reading. And of course family feud on the TV. Its the latest obsession with C-man.