Sweetly Squeezed Saturday

If today was any busier, we'd have pulled our hair out!

We had to combine breakfast and lunch, drop off Kila to work, pick up L-Infinity from AcDec District meet, make copies of pictures at Target, come back home, change into our Disney shirts, go to the park with our photographer Tyler (L-Infinity's church bff), go to dinner, come back to make sure L and Tyler had enough time to go to a friend's early graduation party, string up lights, open another family gift, story time then run to the store for milk.

Dinner was a nice treat; we promised Tyler that if he took our family pictures, we will celebrate his induction to NHS with a 3-hour service sign-off and free food. So we took the whole family to Rock n' Rogers!

The above photo was on the wall almost touching the ceiling behind us, while I made sure that the gang had proof of where we were with the one below. The kiddos loved the old cartoon (Chilly Willy and various others) medley on the tube along with a whole ceiling of fun things to look at! (Yes, I used my cell...)

(Each one of us had a different Disney character on except L and Mr. Man; they both chose the main guy on The Night Before Christmas. I had on a Pooh sweater while J-Pony had Mickey and Minnie and I-Dude had Rhino from Bolt.)

So after all of that, we were exhausted! But when we took the time to exhale, this is what we accomplished...
A fun family-centered mantle of past Christmases from 2002-2009. I actually needed two more frames so I gotta go back to Walmart and hope they have these frames again. (Got them on clearance last year, 75% off)
A subdued and respectful display to honor the Savior's birth...
And cozy smiles... (L was on the phone with Tyler and Mr. Man is still stringing up lights)

Our family gift tonight from "the grands" was themed after warmth. Each of us got a new pair of gloves and this beautiful Nativity throw based on Luke 2:11; I love it, it's definitely helping my love of Nativity collecting grow! Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Can't you see how loved it is already? :-D

We squeezed in the story of "Jesus as my Lawyer". It is about how one man's death led him to a courthouse where Satan and Jesus Christ fought for his soul in front of Heavenly Father. Of course, the Savior won-- after all He already paid for all of our sins. I guess Satan would have to try better next time...

I can't wait to see the pictures! How sweet was your Saturday?

Must Be Sunday...

We finally got back into our own ward and being back with my Cutie Crew in the Nursery. It was "greet and meet" time again with them as I was away for a couple of Sundays, but it felt wonderful(though undoubtedly stressful) to be back playing with them. What a rush!

It must be Sunday because everything seemed to have fallen into place. Sometimes, Heavenly Father floors me with His tender mercies... I prayed that we would be kept safe today because we wanted Mr. Man to be back home safely.

Right after church, we had to rush to the airport to pick up Mr. Man, and since Michelle and I are not familiar with the North Texas freeways, miracle #1 was the text that Mr. Man had to take a later flight into Dallas. It bought us 1.5 hours which came in handy since the map we were following took us North instead of South!

This is Michelle and I-Dude while we waited for Mr. Man's flight to come in, at the Shell Station across the airport entrance.

Here's Michelle and I. Do I look excited to see my hubby? Cause I was, I was!!! ;-)

Then, after we got home without incident (miracle #2), the clouds started getting dark and rumbly.

Miracle #3- instead of worrying about driving in the rain, or the dark and strong winds,
We got to enjoy it instead! See, Michelle didn't even mind that my umbrella was falling apart. LOL
Again, Michelle surprised us with another great bread recipe she got from the wife of our former 1st counselor to the Bishop from our old ward, Crystal Shores in Gilbert, AZ.We even watched the rain and lightning while she made the dough. I found myself looking out that window and be flooded with gratitude when I realized how quickly HE answered that prayer...
After 30 minutes of rising, she tried to make two different sizes. They turned out tall and delish! Right after she put the rolls in the oven, I started the crab cakes by Paula Deen. Yup, my 2nd ever attempt at making crab cakes! I love this dish but never been able to afford it since California in the late 90s (which I don't remember how they turned out, that's a good thing I guess). The ones we got on clearance at Albertson's were too fattening, salty and spicy.

I made it healthier by using Keebler Club Multigrain crackers instead of the butter rich Ritz and I used Miracle Whip instead of mayo and mustard. So again, it's my recipe! *wink*
Look how yummy it looks! It was light, delish and easy to make! Since it wasn't straight up recipe following, and I liked it, I will so tweak it again next time. *hee hee*

Michelle is not a seafood fan, but her boyfriend is, so she braved tasting these crab cakes. She liked it with fresh tomatoes and some worcestershire sauce, each bite. That's true love, people! ;-)

I feel so blessed today despite all the stresses of running a household. Mr. Man's home, safe and sound, J-Pony's slowly getting better and Michelle's having fun learning to cook more.

Only Heavenly Father can provide such subtle miracles to fall into place in this cooky household.

"Thank thee so much for listening to my prayers today, Heavenly Father, thank thee so much..."

I hope you too, felt HIS saving grace, along with HIS son, our SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST...