his gift

an even bigger surprise than the party was, was his gift.... dave has been wanting a jeep his entire life and as his birthday drew closer, he kept declaring that he was going to have a mid-life crisis and buy a jeep. i of course thought this was ridiculous.... one, you can't declare you are going to have a mid-life crisis, it just kind of happens and two, a jeep would be the most impractical car for our family to own.

after i thought about it more and more, i started talking to dad about maybe trying to get one and surprise him with it. he works harder than anyone i know and loves to give people extravagant gifts, so i thought i was time to turn the tables on him and blow him away.

well.... only with Gods direction and timing, dad and i found a 1983 jeep c7... fully restored and in amazing condition. it was about an hour from our house. when dad and mom were here in november he went and checked it out and we got. the guy we bought it from was a christian and so nice. he gave us a great deal on it.

when it came time for me to give it to him, i wanted the kids to help me. so wrapped up some clues and handed them to him one by one. the first being a bottle of touch up paint and the last being a toy jeep with a key attached to it. he didn't know whether to get excited or not.

i told him it was for real and he needed to go outside and check it out.




it has a few kinks we are trying to work out but i think it is going to be an awesome treat for my MOST awesome hubby. i can't wait to go on date night with him in the jeep.

Happy Birthday to the best part of me. You complete me, truly. I wouldn't be who i am without you. We all love you so much.

the widmaiers

while Dave's brother and family were in town for thanks giving we snuck away for a quick photo shoot. check the rest of the photos out here.

Dave's 40th SURPRISE birthday party

part of the reason i was so behind on blogging is because i was getting ready for a big surprise party for dave's 40th birthday. we had a great time. people traveled from far and near and really surprised him. we had an 80's themed party for him in the dining hall out at the camp.

i hung pictures in all the windows, decorated with tables full of junk he has saved. he is a pack rat for sure! or maybe just sentimental.

i tired to find a dress that was similar to this prom dates dress. i found this beauty at a thrift store for 2.50. it was a light teal and i dyed it to try to match it to the color of his dates dress. it turned out pretty good and REALLY funny.
more photos over at the dessert table. we had warm, gooey brownie with every kind of mint topping you could think of.... Daves favorite.
centerpieces for the tables.
almost everyone came dressed up. it was a blast.


some great friends of ours from florida made the trip up and then hung out with us for the weekend. we had a really wonderful time with them. ryan and kristin, thanks SO much. we enjoyed every minute.

more about Daves big gift coming next :)

Christmas Parade 2011

the first sunday in December was the greeneville christmas parade. since garret is a scout he was a part of the parade for the last two years. Dave's truck and trailer are also part of the parade :)

this year the girls and i rode with dave in the truck. it was a fun day and again, amazing weather! last year it was FREEZING!!

who are we???? pack 93!!!!

thanksgiving 2011 with the wids

I'm having trouble making my pics big... maybe i forgot how to do it, it has been so long since i have blogged :) above is a pic of the whole crew at thanksgiving. i will try to name everyone for you...back row: debbies children, meghan,katie, hunter, sydney, george and kay, ryan (debbie's adopted son) debbie. middle row: bonnie with jori in lap, dave, brenna, raelyn, sam, steve katie with ruthie in lap, jessie (debbies foster boy) front row: garret and jake.

thats a big crew! i hope i will have 11+ grandchildren one day :) the weather in east tennessee was just amazing for thanksgiving this year. it was great because when the house got to crowded with all those people in it, we could just send the kids outside. they played on the basket ball court, we took a family horse back ride, built and launched rockets, and built ginger bread houses. oh and of course we ate a lovely meal. katie and i even got to sneak away for a little while and do some black friday shopping.

the boys playing in grand pops "man cave"

snuggles with grandpa






we had a great thanksgiving. lots to be thankful for!

going way back

i have quite a bit of catching up to do here. i figured i would start with one to make you laugh... this is us trying to get a family photo with the self timer and an 18 month old who really just wanted to explore....i just had to share this blooper. my own family was by far my hardest photo shoot yet :)i did get some cute ones in there though too.


more coming later.

thankful for:

this crazy bunch i'm so blessed to call my family

beautiful weather lately

healthy kids

a husband that is the most amazing gift i could ask for

i pinned it, i did it - recipes

while mom, dad and kenzie were in town i decided to try out some new Pinterest recipes. The first is called Angel Chicken. i had heard from a friend who tried it that it was awesome, and the bonus is that you cook it in the CROCK POT. i LOVE my crock pot so i had to give it a try. you can click here to go to the original recipe. she has it written out with lots of pictures and details so I'm just gonna have you go to her site. as always though, i improvised a little. because i didn't already have cooking wine, i used chicken broth instead and we served it with angel hair pasta instead of rice. still very yummy. the whole family loved it. you gotta try it!

next up was dessert. i wanted to try something a little different and special since we were celebrating Logans birthday. i had seen these caramel corn bars that Mrs. Baker pinned and knew we had to try them. it was a good thing there were a lot of people around to help eat it because it was so rich.

to be honest i had mixed feelings about it. i didn't care for the "soggy" popcorn. after you put the caramel all over the top the popcorn gets a bit soggy or gooey. i think i am going to try it again but just substitute rice crispies for the popcorn. i will have to let you know how it turns out. might try it for thanksgiving while we are with a bunch of family to eat it all up. here is the link the original recipe.... i just love pinterest and sharing our ideas. Mrs. Baker, have you tried this one yet?

yellow belt in the house

we have an official yellow belt living in our house! garret and his buddy sam started karate lessons about two months ago. they have really enjoyed it and it is a great activity for garret. he can still move and get lots of exercise but it is in a very controlled and quiet environment. we have been so proud of his progress so far. last night garret and sam tested for their next belt. they had to perform their Kata (a series of moves) and then perform the different kinds of kicks, punches and blocks they have learned so far. they both did great and were presented with their yellow belts! garret we are so proud of you. you practiced hard and built up your confidence and did an awesome job. keep up the great work buddy. we love you!

i pinned it, i did it- give thanks banner

i found these awesome marble leaves on Pinterest and had to try them out. a few weeks ago the kids had a few days off school and we got the craft supplies out and made our "give thanks" banner with this fun marble technique. you can go to the original post here.

what you need:

shaving cream

paint

card stock

scrapbooking letters

squeegee (i used a piece of card board)

what you do:

1.) i squirted a big glob of shaving cream into some of my baking pans (lined with aluminum foil, for easy clean up)

2.) add some squirts of paint in whatever colors you like. we used fall colors.

3.) carefully swirl the paint (we used straws) without mixing it all together. you want it to just look swirled.

4.) lay a piece of card stock onto the paint and shaving cream mixture. press down a little making sure all the paper is covered with the mixture.
5.) carefully peel the paper back
7.) squeegee the mixture back off the paper.
8.) sit back and admire your work and let the paint dry.
9.) while the papers were drying we went outside and collected leaves the shapes we wanted to cute our leaves out as.
10.) trace your leaf and then cut it out.

11.) after we had all the leaves we needed for our saying, i got a piece of fabric that i ripped into a very thin string. you could also use ribbon if you have some already.

12.) then i used my sewing machine and sewed each of the paper leaves onto the fabric. i just did them one by one, i never cut the thread, just one long continuous stitch. i would sew one leave on and then put the next leave on the fabric and just keep on sewing until i was done with all of my leaves. (sorry no pictures of this part)

13.) then i glued my scrapbooking letters on our leaves and hung for us all to enjoy.