Plug Your Ears!!

Lilly LOVES music like you would not believe (although Lexi does too!). Eric and I play a lot of songs for the girls on iTunes and they will just dance away. Well, the other night before bath time, Eric sat at the kitchen table and played a few songs for us. Lilly wanted to sit in his lap and see what he was doing. Then as he was singing to her, she started plugging her ears...it was too funny!!

At first, she thought he was singing good...clap, clap, Daddy!
Then, the ears get plugged....


She has actually been putting her fingers in her ears for a couple of weeks now, and we aren't sure why. But, it was the timing and her bored facial expression that just cracked us up this time! And I cannot possibly do a post without including a picture of Alexis!!!

Pumpkin Patch and A Prayer Request

Prayer Request: My brother-in-law, Sam, is in Iraq and was in an accident the other day. He and 3 others were on patrol when an IED detonated. Thankfully the guy detonated it half a second too early or Sam and the other soldiers would all be dead. We are thanking God for His amazing protection over them!! The vehicle was hit at the front and it was flipped. So while it was bad, it could have been unbelievably worse. Sam had a headache afterwards (which seems normal). Well the headache has not gone away and is getting worse. He is also seeing spots in his vision and can't hear very well out of one ear. So the Army is sending him to get checked out. That's all we know right now. Please keep him (and ALL of our brave men and women over there) in your prayers! Please also be praying for his wife, Christie, and their 5 little girls to have peace and not worry too much! Thank you!

Now totally switching topics....Yesterday we were able to go to Elgin, TX and visit their big pumpkin patch with some of my family. We went with Jason, Kim, and their boys. It was a lot of fun and the girls even loved the cool weather. I was a little worried about their little fingers and ears, but they were fine.

Here are a bunch of pictures...surprised? :) Lilly has on the pink shirt and Lexi has on the black shirt.

They were so interested in looking around that they hardly looked at us in their pictures...
She was actually hugging the pumpkin...what a cutie!


Lilly wanted down. :)

See a theme? Lilly mostly wanted to run around or be held (but only for a moment). She cracked us up, because she was so excited and didn't want to sit still.
We didn't notice the signs that read, "Please do not sit on the antique tractors!" until after we took a few pictures. Shhhh!
Once Lilly played with the ball, we could not distract her from it, no matter how hard we tried. She kept crying, "Ball!" for the rest of the time we were there. The only thing that helped was allowing all the puppies, that had come with the SPCA, lick her face. That made her laugh so hard!! Lexi was pretty chill and mellow the whole time.
My lame attempt to take a picture of all 4 of us on the hayride. Sorry, Lexi...I'll get you in there next time.
Now here we tried our best to take pictures of all 4 kids together....it didn't completely work. My girls were hungry and exhausted, so they sat pretty still for a minute or so.
Poor Tanner had reached his limit of sitting next to those stinky girls. :) Tristan was trying to make him stay. They are so funny!
I love this one, because Lilly has decided to get down and go see her Daddy. Then you have Lexi, just hanging out staring into the bucket of gourds. I think I may have to buy her some of those this year.
Then she noticed the scarecrow sitting on the bench as started talking to him.

We had a great time and I can't wait to take the girls again to the one in Harker Heights. Last year we took them on the 15th of October, so maybe we can go on the same day this year. We'll see. :)

16 Months Already

Remember these little babies that were just turning 4 months old in these pictures???

Well...that was 1 year ago today! My girls are now 16 months old and that is insane. Since it was a cold rainy morning, we stayed inside and made a fort to play in. All was good until 2 of the chairs fell on Lilly, then there was a little crying. :(

This is an amazingly rare moment and it only lasted about 30 seconds....all 4 of the small Sanford's sitting together on the couch. Lexi is wearing the pink leggings in these pictures.

Oh yeah, I guess I will explain the clothing on the dogs...my soon to be 14 year old maltese is now losing his hair. The vet is watching him but we think it may just be his old age...poor baby! And I have mentioned before, he is also too thin. So I have been keeping him bundled up lately so he stays warm. I put the one shirt that we have for Sneezy on him to show the girls that both their puppies like to wear shirts. Of course, they both hate it. :)

The only picture we got of them sitting still...we had to turn on a movie to get them to sit still for these few seconds. Thus the lack of smiles!

And now my gorgeous, sweet Lilly at 16 months old!

My gorgeous, sweet Alexis at 16 months old!

Wordless Wednesday

Lil' Stinkers

I am very tired tonight and seem to have broken my middle toe. So here are some fun pictures from the past few days.

Sweet little Lilly girl....

Lexi loves to go under her crib and say hello to Sneezy (who is usually under there napping)...we played "Boo!" for a while the other day.

Then she likes to say boo to Lilly...
I just love the expressions of absolute joy that they have on their faces...

Playing chase around the house....
Once again with the accessories...Lexi has now learned how to put her Daddy's baseball hats on backwards. Lilly still loves to remove hats and bows. :)
Lexi started rubbing her ear tonight and she was unbelievably cranky. She had a royal meltdown with no explanation tonight, so if she still acts funny in the morning, we may go see our doctor. I hate to go in right now since all those flu kids are bound to be in the waiting room. :( Pray for us if you will!!

Also, Eric has 2 tests this week and is studying really hard. I took the girls to the grocery store tonight just to give him peace. :)

The Other Day

The other day, Eric decided to mow the grass before the rains started again. When he mows the backyard, the girls can hardly leave the backdoor. Every time he passes by, they go nuts waving and saying hi.

Here is Miss Lilly watching her Daddy....I managed to catch her with her eyes closed, but that smile still says it all to me!

Getting sleepy waiting for Daddy to pass by again...
I give her 2 months tops until she and Lexi are tall enough to open that door all by themselves. She can almost do it now, but she is a little too short to really get a good grip.
Both girls watching for Daddy...notice Lexi is wearing her raincoat and it isn't raining??? Well, let me explain. :)
She is obsessed with all things accessories....purses, bracelets, stuffed animals tucked under her arm, and her coats. The other day she wanted me to put her big winter coat on her...I told her it was too warm and she had a complete meltdown.

So here we have her in her new favorite raincoat.
But not just a raincoat...that would be boring! She first begged for her UMHB tutu. I made the girls special UMHB Homecoming outfits and CANNOT wait to reveal them in 3 weeks at the game. So this tutu is just a part of it...Then, while I was doing some laundry, she had Eric put 2 different shoes on her feet. Next, we have the raincoat. She walked around laughing and playing like this for about an hour. I hate to take things off of her, since she pitches a royal fit, but it has to be done eventually!

Last week, she tried this ensemble...pom-pom boots (Check!), zebra print purse (Check!), favorite purple frog (Check!)...that is one ready for anything little girl!!

Sloppy Joes...and not from a can!

Hey! So Eric and I really wanted Sloppy Joes for dinner tonight. And since I didn't have a can of the Manwich sauce (or however you spell it), I looked for a recipe. I knew that you could make the sauce from scratch. I ended up finding this recipe on www.foodnetwork.com from Rachael Ray. It sounded fast and good, so I made it.

I gotta tell you, Eric is picky sometimes and he agreed with me that this was better than Manwich and we will be making it from scratch from now on. The recipe was simple and it used ingredients I usually have in the pantry.

Here is Rachael Ray's recipe for Sloppy Joes:

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan
• 1 1/4 pounds ground beef sirloin
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon steak seasoning blend, such as McCormick brand Montreal Seasoning
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 small red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 4 crusty rolls, split, toasted, and lightly buttered
• Garnish: sliced ripe tomatoes, pickles, Deviled Potato salad, recipe follows

Directions

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add oil and meat to the pan. Spread the meat around the pan and begin to break it up. Combine brown sugar and steak seasoning. Add sugar and spice mixture to the skillet and combine. When the meat has browned, add onion and red peppers to the skillet. Reduce heat to medium and cook onions, peppers, red wine vinegar and Worcestershire sauce with meat for 5 minutes. Add tomato sauce and paste to pan. Stir to combine. Reduce heat to simmer and cook Sloppy Joe mixture 5 minutes longer. Using a large spoon or ice cream scoop, pile sloppy meat onto toasted, buttered bun bottoms and cover with bun tops. Serve with your favorite sides or sliced tomatoes seasoned with salt and pepper, dill pickles and Deviled Potato Salad. Have plenty of napkins on hand!

Now I did a few things differently and it worked so well. I didn't have any onions or red peppers on hand, so I used onion powder and a seasoning blend I have that is called "Roasted Red Peppers and Garlic". I also just used regular hamburger buns from WalMart. :) You all should really try this one. It is so good!

Oh yeah, and if you are lucky enough to have some of Amy Gattis' homemade bread and butter pickles in your pantry, you are definitely gonna have a good dinner!! They were AWESOME and such a nice addition to the sloppy joes. Just ask the twins! :)