Happy Thanksgiving Week

It's been a little while since I last posted, so I thought I'd better do it while Abby is asleep.
This week has started out wonderfully. Tonys dad flew in yesterday to come play golf this week. I don't think anything better could have happened to him for his birthday, which is tomorrow. Happy birthday Love! You'll never guess where they are now?!? I think they are even going to take Jordan to the course tomorrow. (They aren't taking me because Jordan hits the ball farther and more consistently than I do, but I'm getting better!). It'll be fun for Jay to go hang out with the guys.
I found out why you don't release your springform pans immediately after taking your cheese cake out of the oven. My cake was so beautiful when I removed it from the oven! When the instructions say to loosen the cake from the sides, it doesn't mean to loosen the spring! Look what happens!





Talk about ruining your cheesecake! At least there's chocolate in it, so it'll still taste good!
I've still been playing around with chocolate, but I've also tried some other things. I bought some new molds, and some are able to handle hard tack candy. Here's a picture of the Christmas trees I've made.





The one on the left is the hard tack, while the one on the right is white chocolate.
In celebration of the upcoming Christmas season, I've been practicing making chocolate sleighs. I've made several, but this is one that's lasted long enough to get a picture. (Emily doesn't like the bittersweet chocolate.)





I've always loved chocolate dipped pretzels, so when I found molds, I of course had to buy one. Doing the different colors takes a lot of time, but they sure look neat!





Abby has just come down stairs, so it's time to bid you farewell. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
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Happy Turkey Day!

So, I'm a little early, but we can celebrate Thanksgiving all month, right?
One night, while contemplating what I can make with chocolate, I thought about turkey-pops. With a little bit of candy coloring, I should be able to come up with something. Well, here's my first turkey-pop. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.


My husband probably thinks I could use my time more wisely, but I actually had fun making these. I can't wait to do my next batch so I can try some different methods. Boy do I love chocolate!
The weather here has been beautiful all week. Just like it was one year ago when we first entered Texas. Can you believe it's been a year? I really do miss Washington state, but Texas is growing on me. It's too big not too, right!?!

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Halloween

I don't know about the rest of you, but my family had a blast this Halloween! It was lots of fun to be able to go all out instead of packing up the house!
It was weird to be trick-or-treating, though, without freezing to death. Weird, but very nice!


Emily, being Emily, wanted to be a "Star Wars Guy," so here she is in her Jenga Fett costume. Forgive me if I mispelled the name.
Abby will still let me choose things for her, so she was a little vampiress. She looked so cute and wore the headband most of the night.
Jordan wanted to be a Ninja. We just had to keep reminding him not to use his ninja moves on his sisters.
Tony wasn't too excited about dressing up, but I finally talked him into it. Here's his version of a Zombie.


I tried to get him to let me drizzle fake blood over his clothes, and smear him with dirt. For some reason he didn't want me to!
I probably had the most fun of everyone. My friends and neighbors only knew it was me when they saw me with Tony or the kids. What do you think? Is the vampire look great for me or what?!?


My favorite part was the fangs. If you look closely, you can see them. It's a good thing I go to the dentist next week!

So, on another note, I've been having lots of fun with chocolate. I've been learning how to properly temper and mold it. I thought it would be fun to serve my kids ice cream in chocolate bowls, so that's what I've been trying to make. Needless to say, I haven't had much success, but I've made a number of messes! The latest method has been to coat a balloon with the chocolate. It works great, unless the balloon pops! I'm going to be finding chocolate for weeks!


Here's a picture of the one bowl that didn't explode in the process, along with a very, very, small version of the mess chocolate makes when it explodes. It was fun, though!

Just a quick Happy Birthday to Mom and Megen yesterday! I hope you were both spoiled rotten! Love ya!

To Angel and family, you are in our thoughts and prayers!

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Golf

This morning is beautiful, although a little chilly. So, my husband being an avid golfer, suggested we go to the driving range. It's kind of sad that my 8 and 5 year olds hit the ball more consistently than I do, but we all have fun. Pretty soon Abby is going to be driving the balls with us!



Here's a picture of Abby while we wait for the others to finish.

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Columbus Day

My kids had a "holiday" today, so we had lots of time together. We decided to make Halloween decorations, especially since we didn't have many up. It's amazing what you can do with items out of your recycle bin!


These are our grocery bag ghosts.


These are our 2 liter bottle top and grocery bag ghosts.


These are some of our 2 liter bottle pumpkin luminaries, along with 2 of my artists.


Here's my other helper (notice the black paint on her shirt) right before she gets into the chocolate ghost lollipops.


Here's how the Phantom Ghost will be delivering some more treats tonight. It's amazing what you can do with styrofoam!
And, no Mom, you may not call me Martha!
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Chocolate

All I can say is I am having WAY to much fun with chocolate!
Growing up, every Halloween we would make white chocolate ghost suckers. It was so much fun! Now that my kids are older, I've started the tradition with them.


I am not a huge white chocolate fan, so I decided to try melting some Andes mint chips. I couldn't envision doing brown ghosts, so I had to try something else. Emily, though, had no trouble with doing a brown ghost.


Her ghost looks really good, but here's what I can up with.





My husband probably thinks I am going overboard with these chocolate suckers, but I'm sure having fun! Luckily the Phantom Ghost will have a use for all these suckers!
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Thursday Nights Storm Again

So, the other day I posted about the scary storm that rolled through out area. We honestly thought the lightening hit us or very close. Fortunately, it didn't hit our house. Unfortunately, it did hit a neighbors house about 100 yards away. I found out this morning, while waiting for the bus at the bus stop, that my two of my neighbors garage doors are completely messed up. The one that we think has the lightening hit, has several electrical outlets with scorch marks, and the appliances that were plugged into those outlets are fried. Thankfully no fires! It was a pretty scary storm!
On a lighter note, here's a picture of our lab Sunny. She's about a year and a half old, so she's still puppy hyperactive.


She keeps getting in my faceand nudging my hands, so onto the blog she goes!
Abby is doing the same thing now, so here's a picture of her.


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Last night

Last night a storm rolled through the Houston area. The wind must have been blowing bacause the rain was pelting our windows pretty good. The un-nerving part was when it sounded like the lightening struck VERY close. Our house rattled enough that our kids toothbrushes, the kind that flash for 1 minute, started to flash. The kids like to brush in our bathroom, so their toothbrushes were within sight of my room. Tony got up and walked around the house to make sure everything was okay. All I can say is, Texas knows how to put on lightening and thunderstorms, but luckily they don't last very long!
On another note, the kids liked the donuts I made, but Tony and I decided that they tasted like scones. So, I'm going to try another recipe next week.


This picture was sent to me in an email. I guess there are 7 horses, but I can only see 6. Can anyone see all of them? Don't you love Bev Doolittle artwork?
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Donuts

I'm a Bear Cub Scout leader for church. I absolutely love it! But sometimes I get frustrated when they come late. I only have an hour with them, which isn't nearly enough time. When they come late, we have even less time. So I made a deal with them. Those who are there on time get an extra special treat. Last week I made some chocolate chip cookies. Today I had a hankerin' for donuts. I toyed with the idea of buying some from the store, but where's the fun in that? So, I found a recipe online that I wanted to try. Emily loves powdered donuts, and is finally able to go back to school, so powdered donuts are what I made. I think they look pretty good. But my taste-testers aren't home for another hour.


I'll let you know what the kids think. Anybody know of a good donut recipe that I can try for next week?
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New Patio

Since the winters are mild, and we love spending lots of time out back with the kids, we decided to enlarge our patio. The original patio was a quarter of the size, and had a large step coming out of the kitchen. Abby can now go out back without struggling out down the step. We also have room for our table and chairs. I'm so excited! Within the next year, we plan on building a pergola similar to the one we built in Washington.



Isn't it a beauty!
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Oops!

Sorry about forgetting to send the address to my blog. What can I say? I'm a blond with three kids and a husband.


Here's a picture of them at Jordans baptism. It was an awesome day. I still can't believe I am the mother of an 8 year old!
Since I use my phone for everything, and just found this application for the iPhone, I'm bound to be a littlemore consistent with my blogging.
Hope y'all are having a nice day.


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Blogging Again!

Well, this is the second time I've tried blogging. Maybe I'll stick with it for more than 24 hours! We shall see! I just got through reading some blogs of friends, so here we go. Thanks for the inspiration Staci and Emily!
Recap on my family, for those of you who don't know.
I married a wonderful man, Tony Coulam, March of 2000. After graduating from the UofU in 2001, we moved up to Richland, Washington, where we lived for about 7 and 1/2 years.
About two months after moving there, we had our first addition to the family, Jordan. He's very much like his dad.
Our 2nd addition came March of 2004. We named her Emily, and yes, she is a little miniature me. Need I say more?
Abigail is our third, and probably last. She came into our lives the first day of Kindergarten, in September 2007. Never have I had a child that enjoyed naps until I had her. She is a very good mix of both her parents.
The last member of our family is Sunny, our Black Lab. She's about 1 and 1/2 and still growing. Sometimes I really feel that she is harder to care for than my children. The months of teething were awful!
So, there we were, happy in Washington, when we decided to start looking for jobs elsewhere. About two months later we closed the door to our house, for the last time, and began our trek to Katy Texas. I never knew bugs could be so big! I don't know what most of the bugs are down here, and I really don't want to. Did you know cockroaches can fly? There are really bugs called Love Bugs. And the mosquitoes! They get as big as the June bugs! Hello!
It's taken some time to get used to it here, but we are starting to love it down here. I'll never get used to the humidity, but I love being able to wear shorts in November. If any of ya'll want to warm up this winter, come for a visit!
Well, that's my life in a nut-shell. Hopefully I'll actually keep up with this blog, especially since I don't have my nose stuck in a book right now. Forgive me if I'm not consistent. Nobody is perfect!