It's almost Christmas!

Every year my mother-in-law has all the grandchildren over to her house to make ornaments and some type of Christmas cookie creation. This year we made snowmen ornaments and some yummy Graham Cracker houses. I got this idea one year while I was teaching. Some parents brought in Graham crackers glued to a small milk box in the shape of a ginger bread house. Well, we don't do individual milk containers at my home so when I stumbled on to Tanya's blog, the Sunday Baker, I was inspired to give it a try without the drink boxes.

First the older girls, Cynthia, Emily, Libby, Hallie, Zoe and I, started the day off right by going to see Twilight (some for the first time and others the second). For those who are obsessed with the series completely understand the need for more and the addiction it creates. I can't help myself, okay! Hello, my name is Delilah Hooten and I am a Twilight junkie!

Pulling myself back in -

What is the perfect way to pass the time? DANCING!! While I prepared the "gingerbread houses" the kids did a little break dancing! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we pulled out Micheal Jackson's "BEAT IT" and let our kids go crazy. Here is the proof. I wish we would have captured this on video.And what do you think the older kids and grown ups did while all this wild dancing was going on? Laughing?...Well, yes, but the grown ups didn't get left out of the fun...What is a night without a little bit of guitar hero?  And did I hear someone say "DDR?"  Yeah, baby!! Dance Em Dawg and Hal-G the Punk Rocker!!! This even stopped the kiddos from their dancing.  They are all so intrigued!

Everyone worked up a great appetite after all that dancing! They were able to enjoy a very healthy meal of chili cheese dogs and chili-cheese fries. Then we got down to business and made our snowman ornaments. I will admit I also have a thing for Snowmen. Every year I choose the ornaments and for the past three years they have been snowmen. Emily, I will be handing off the ornament making to you next year. Maybe that way we can break this vicious cycle!

This is me preparing the snowmen earlier that afternoon.

Here are the finished products! Didn't they turn out great! And if you are counting - Yes, even some of the adults made ornaments too!

Next on the agenda: The Graham Cracker "gingerbread" houses. The kids had so much fun making them. They all had their unique style.

Some took it seriously...
some just had fun and got messy...
some enjoyed snacking...
and some just dug into the house and started eating! Ava, I like your style, girl!

All in all, everyone had a great time. Now we just have to wait a few more days for Santa!

"Fiddling Around" (Giveaway & Blog Challenge Fun!)

If you haven't been to see Sunday Baker's website at http://www.comeandpeek.blogspot.com/

then you need to go and read about her latest blog. She tells all about a website called the Photo Fiddle: http://photofiddle.com/index.php?act=home2. It takes normal photos and turns them into great artwork. Go check it out. She is also having an awesome giveaway.

If I could have any photo made into beautiful artwork, it would be this one:

Dinner Party Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Dinner Party Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Wouldn't Hannah look adorable in this!!

Working at the Auto Show Kid's Fair

Hannah and Ian came to the Auto Show Kid's Fair to see me and the rest of the family. They had so much going down the big inflatable slide. I got some really good pictures of them. Here are just a few.

Everyone was thrilled to see Big Al. David especially. He is Alabama's number one fan!!

And we couldn't help, but act goofy in our spare time. The object of this game was to knock down the fat cats. Your job is to find the one that doesn't belong!

Towards the end of the fair, I had to go under cover! My kids were shocked when they found out that Sponge Bob was their mom!

Sometimes it is okay to mess up...

As you know, Ian's birthday was this week. I wanted to make him something special on his actual birthday, but I didn't want to make a huge cake since I was going to make one for his party a few days after. So I began my search.

I love searching the internet for cake ideas. I have found some blogs that I ritually return to for ideas and inspiration. Bakerella is one of my favorites. (Thank you Karen for telling me about this blog). She posted a blog about cupcake bites. I wanted to give them a try because lets be honest, little bites of cake with icing mixed in and then coated in chocolate...who wouldn't want to eat that?

So I get all of the ingredients and go at it. Things are going along fine because I am following the directions exactly. But when I go back and look at the pictures of what my little balls of yum are supposed look like-small cake-like cupcakes- and then look at what mine actually do look like-soggy little brownie-like cupcakes, I think all is lost.

But I don't give up. I continue on and this is what I ended up with. They look pretty good on the outside. I should have used less icing when I mixed it up and coated them in a lighter brown chocolate. I couldn't put M&M's on top because my little man is allergic to peanuts.

To see what bakerella's look like: Go to her site: http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2008/04/make-your-cupcakes-pop.html

This is what mine look like on the inside:

Even though mine were a little too moist, my family loved them. I am going to try them again soon, but I think I will try to make them into cake pops, make them round and put less icing in the cake. I can't wait to get started again! You know what they say, practice makes perfect!

My baby is 5 years old!

I can't believe Ian is now five. The years are going to by too quickly. My sweet cooing little baby that loved to cuddle and sleep on my chest is now a rambucious little guy that loves to dress up as super heros. He is still sweet, but he has is mischevious side as well. I can't get over how big he is and much fun he is to be around. Here are some of my favorite things about him.

1. He has the best memory. He can memorize any song and jingle he hears AND he loves to sing!!!

Here are a few funnies: The four of us are in the car and as we pass a Title Max sign, my little man starts singing, "Get your title back with Title max." Bret and I couldn't help but laugh out loud. He did that every time we drove by the place.

One of my favorite shows is The Office. The eposide where Andy woos Angela by singing to her is one of my favorite songs now and I have it as my ring tone. Well, my sweet boy knows all the words now (all the words to the song that my cell phones sings, anyway). Here is the song if you haven't heard it...I will have to record Ian singing it for you.

So back to the point, Bret and I are watching The Office one night and Ian sits up (he is supposed to be sleeping) and starts singing the song. SO Funny!!!

2. When he is acting a part: He puts everything into it!!

At Halloween this year he dressed up as The Hulk! Bret told him to say "Hulk wants candy!" instead of "Trick or Treat." You can believe that he stayed in character ALL night. Every door he went to heard "Hulk wants candy!" in Ian's very best Hulk voice.

3. Ian so expressive.

The one reason Bret and I were looking forward to his birthday is because we knew we would see the best expressions on his face. Here are a few of our favorites!!

Moving...

We are four days away from loading the moving truck and heading back to Alabaster. We are so close to being finished. My kitchen looks like a tornado has hit it, but I know things have to get a little messy in order for it to get clean and organized.

I have been trying to figure how to put food on the table the last few nights we are here without having to cook and without having to eat junk food. Well, my room moms from my class called and volunteered to cook us dinner Monday and Tuesday. I am so excited and feel so blessed. That completely takes care of my problem. Now all I have to do is run the dishwasher tonight and Bret will box up the rest of the kitchen for me. I precooked some meatloaf so we can have meatloaf sandwiches for lunches the next couple of days. This is Bret's new favorite sandwich so it is a treat for him. We will be eating junk food for breakfast, but Hannah and Ian are all excited about the Poptarts. They haven't eaten these in so long. I won't let them have them until tomorrow morning and you would think they were waiting to open a present. They are so giddy. What is it about those things?

Now Hannah and Ian had fun playing with the neighbors and the dogs. Don't you remember when you played so hard outside that you could barely keep your eyes open.

Even the dogs are tired!

My New Blog!

I have created a cake blog. I will be posting all of my cakes on there. I hope you enjoy!

http://www.cakesbydelilah.blogspot.com/

What's new with me....

Well, today I have aged another year. I am now 29 years old...one year away from 30. Some think that is a big deal, but I hear life in your 30's is awesome. So bring it on world...I'm ready! The question I had to ask myself is, how does one celebrate their 29th birthday? I decided to dig deep down inside and pull out the kid hiding within and go to Pizza Kastle! Okay, so I didn't have to dig that far because the kid inside isn't really hiding, but it sounded good, didn't it?
For those of you who have never heard of this palce, Pizza Kastle is similar to Chuck-E-Cheese, but also has a mini golf course.
My family and I went and played a round and the all time winner was.....drum roll please........my husband. That's right ladies and gentlemen, even on my birthday-my dear sweet husband kicked my butt (sorry mom...I know that term isn't lady like) on the mini golf course!!! Ian even got a hole-in-one (with my help, of course)! I think that should have reflected on my score as well, but I couldn't pull it off again. The hole-in-one even eluded my sweet and adorable hubby!

Another new thing some of you know, but others may not...we are moving again! Yep, for the third time this year, my family will be packing up and heading out. First we moved from Alabaster to Mobile, then from Mobile to Dothan. Now it will be from Dothan back to Alabaster. The firm my husband works for is closing the office that we moved here to open. I guess the economy is effecting everyone in one way or the other. My wonderful mother-in-law/best friend is opening her home to us until we can find employment. Please be in prayer for us during our search. We don't know where the Lord is going to take us, but we know He is walking-I would even say, carrying us through right now. He has been good to us and will continue to lead us in the direction He wants us to go in. I know the Lord doesn't give us anything that we cannot handle. I have my moments of wigging out, but continue to go back to scripture for my strength. If you have any good ones, please share them.

Also, since I am heading back home to all those who know I make cakes, I will be starting that back up again. I have been thinking of a name for a cake blog so I can post all of my work. Do you have any ideas? My sil, Emily, has a blog for her picture business called I Like Pictures and my mil thinks I should name it I Like Cake. What do you think of that? Someone has also suggested Cakes by Delilah. My husband thinks that is a little boring and we should have something that is a bit catchier. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

6 Quirky Things


So, I've been tagged....Here it goes, I hope you enjoy!



1.)When I was in high school, I had to drive my grandmother's car to school. The bad part of it - it was old and VERY loud. It also had a license plate tag that read "was his!" And to top it all off, it really "was his." My grandmother kept that car after she and her husband got a divorce.

If only my granny's car looked this nice. I wouldn't have minded driving it as much!!

2). I taught my daughter sign language before she could talk because I couldn't handle the whining and fussing. It really helped. She could communicate with me and the whining stopped, well almost anyway!!

3). I used to say "cent" instead of "cents." You know..."I have twenty-five cent." My husband loves to point out those little things. I am correcting them little by little.

4). I once fed my little brother and sister mud pies and told them that our mom told me to fix them lunch and they would get in trouble if they didn't eat it. And yes, they ate it! heeheehee!!!!!!

5). I REALLY dislike doing the laundry - the whole thing...folding, putting them up, and definitely ironing! This nicely divided stack of clothing has been here since this morning. It will probably still be there tomorrow morning. In my defense, I have done other things today...like blog (twice)!

6). I still get my right and left confused. My poor parents were late for my college graduation because I told them to turn right and they were supposed to turn left. Ooops!! My sister jokes around and calls them my reft and light-maybe one day I will get them correct! Okay, so this picture is a little strange. Kind of weirds me out a little!

7). One more for bonus! I love exclamation points! I can't help adding them to the end of most of my sentences! Usually with more than one!!!! =o)

Sooo, I tag: Page, Cynthia, and Stephi. I would tag more, but no one else reads my blog except Virge and she tagged me!

How cute...

Hannah is getting a loose tooth. To most parents that isn't a big deal, but to me it is huge. I get chills and try to hold back my gag reflex every time a student shows me theirs. I have been dreading this with my own. I have trained my students to just tell me when one is loose or when they have lost one. Now, I need to work on that with Hannah. She can show her daddy as much as she likes!!

Well, last night, Hannah came up to me so excited. She is getting her first real loose tooth. She has two that are a little loose from a scooter board incident. This one is loose all on its own. Of course, she began with the tooth fairy questions. She asked what would happen if you lost the tooth. She asked, "Do you write the tooth fairy a letter?" I told her that she could do that. Then with her sweet little grin she asks, "Mommy, could I pray and ask God for sweet dreams? Then I will smile while I am asleep and the tooth fairy can see that I am missing a tooth." Smiling and giggling, I told her that was a possibility as well.

Hannah knows exactly how to make me smile-even turning a gross event (a loose tooth) into something that will always bring a smile to my face and giggle to the surface. I love that little girl! Thank you Lord for allowing me to have the privilege of raising her!

My friend Virge is an amazing scrapbooker!
If you like to scrapbook....go check out this event!

Join us at Wrapper's Delight for a weekend long crafting time, fabulous classes, make and takes, prizes, and much more! Visit http://scrapetcevents.blogspot.com/ for more information!

Just like Mommy!
Can I even begin to tell you how excited I was when Hannah said that she wanted to be a cheerleader! I know she is only six and she can change her mind anytime between now and high school, but it was so exciting. Our school had a mini-cheer class for two days this past week. Hannah signed up for it and had a blast. All the girls that signed up got a t-shirt and did the dance they learned for the pep rally and during half-time at the game last night. I took my video camera and recorded the whole thing so I don't have any pictures to show you of her on the field, but here are a couple of her before half-time. Maybe, I will figure out how to put the video on here. I will look into it, but don't hold your breath!

Hannah is on the left.

Sweet Little Baby!

Well, it is official! My little sister is a mommy! God gave Erin the best gift anyone could ever receive on her own birthday. On September 2, 2008 at 5:05 in the afternoon Evynn Elizabeth Huggins was born!

She does not have a whole lot of hair, but she does have the most wonderful little cry. She weighed 8 lbs and 8 ozs. I would like everyone to know that I won the pool----too bad we didn't put any money into it! I guessed she was a girl (the only time I have EVER been right) and I was the closest to guessing her correct weight. I would have gotten closer, but I didn't want to wig Erin out by guessing 8 lbs or higher. I don't know why the people in my family believe the doctors when they say we are going to have seven pound babies. It just isn't in our genes. Big babies are what we are all about. Two of my sisters, including myself, have had babies in the nine pound range! Like I said-BIG BABIES!!!

THE PROUD PARENTS!!















The proud grandmothers! MawMaw at the top and Mimi on the bottom.

We got to go to Birmingham this weekend. We went to watch the ALABAMA game with B's family. It has been an outstanding tradition . This year it will be broken since we have moved to Dothan, but we hope to get up there as much as we can.

While we were up there we went to see some friends.
One of B's law school buddies is in the process of moving to B'ham because his wife has opened a coffee shop downtown at The Pepper Place. It is called O Kafes . It just opened on Tuesday and we had to go and check it out. When we first walked in, you could smell the wonderful aroma of fresh coffee. I LOVE the smell of coffee. The place looks great too. It has great tables and sitting areas to hang out with your friends, lots of yummy food to snack on and my family agrees the coffee tastes GREAT too. I have to insist that if you are ever in downtown Birmingham, go check it out! Tell her I said hey!!!



So, on with the story. Right before the game, Page and her family came over too. Ian ran up to Anna and gave her a hug. He looked up at Anna (it used to be the other way around) and said, "Wow, Anna! You have grown!" Noah ended up skinning his knees pretty bad, but he didn't cry. He was so tough. He did get a little dramatic after the fact. He didn't know if he would ever be abe to walk again! Children's tylenol works miracles! When you put The Hooten family, my family, Chuck's family and the Dollar family all under one roof, a party is started! There are very few moments that you aren't laughing with this group. What can I say, we know how to have fun!

Speaking of laughing ****Here is a funny story. If you don't know David this will require a little background info first.****
My brother in law, David, is mentally challenged. He is 18 years old. He is super smart and an awesome guy to be around. He just can't speak all that well. When you get to know him real well, you are able to translate what he says. We say that he speaks his own language, Davidese. He prnounces what he can and uses hand motions and facial expressions as well. Just a side note: He is probably the biggest Alabama fan there is. We all love him so much.

Okay so now that you know that, here goes the funny story. My little boy, he is four, comes into the family room and walks up to his Aunt Libby singing a song that David made up. The words are "old papa, Diddy, old papa, Diddy." Translation: "You are as old as an old grandpa, Libby." Who, by the way is two years younger than David! He just likes to tease her! Bret asked Ian if David told him to sing that to Libby. Ian said that David did. Well, Bret told Ian that he needed to go and give David a message from Libby. Libby said to tell David that he smelled like a fart. So Ian repeats it to himself and asks Libby how to say that in Spanish like David talks. Everyone starts laughing. I enter the room a little while later and Ian comes up to me and tells me that David taught him a song in Spanish and proceeds to sing the afore mentioned song. I burst out laughing. I asked David if he knew he could speak Spanish and he laughed and said no. Isn't being young and innocent adorable. Although, Ian was right, it is a different lanuage-just not Spanish. Aren't the Dora and Diego shows great!

So the game starts! We are ALL big football fans. We are HUGE Alabama fans! We all enjoyed the game so much. RRRROOOOLLLLL TTTTIIIIDDDDEEEE!!!!!! I think Bama fans needed this win. We know what our team is capable of and can't wait to see how much they improve through the season. I mean my goodness, they were awesome last night! How much better are they going to be after all the kinks are worked out and the freshman get more playing time. All the freshman we had on the field really showed their stuff. Oh and how awesome was Coffee, #38, last night? Dude, you rock! Keep up the good work! Coffee is my favorite. Elliott, another one of B's brothers, got me his autograph at fan day. I asked him to tell Coffee that he was my favorite, but he didn't. I am grateful for the autograph though!! No complaints here!

Page, thanks for showing me around blogger. Notice, I did some of the things you showed me! What do you think?

I hope we make it back up to B'ham again soon. I have so many more people to see. I miss you all so much! God Bless! I hope to see you soon!

Well, it is late and I am exhausted! Night all!

Well, I'm here. I have been in Dothan for a month and a half. I can honestly say, I never thought my family would ever leave Alabaster. We were establishing a life there. I was making friends. I had my two best friends as close as I could get them to me. I had a great neighbor that I could count on for a walk around the neighborhood, eggs, milk or cake decorating advice. I had a school to teach at and for my daughter to attend that I (still) completely believe in. I was establishing incredible relationships with teachers that were/and still are becoming great friends.
I guess the Lord had different plans. And I am willing to follow Him wherever he leads. Even if I don't understand why. I remind myself that faith is believing in what is not seen! I pray that I will always have that faith.
Well, we are as unpacked as I think we are going to get. I think we all feel "at home." After all, as long as Bret and I are with the kids, that is home, right? Those five months that I was away from Bret were extremely hard and I pray that the Lord will not ask us to do that again anytime soon. (If you missed this part, check out my facebook or myspace blogs. www.myspace.com/bretsgirl)
I have my classroom decorated and am in the process of getting it as organized as I can. Lesson plans are underway. I really do have a good group of students. Most want to obey and still please the teacher. I have a few that are just wild at heart. Maybe this is the year they will get reigned in. Let's hope!
It is different teaching at Providence than at Evangel in many ways. Things are not bad at one place and good at the other, it is just different. At E I was in an all inclusive classroom. We didn't team teach. I taught all subjects, but Latin. We didn't have enrichment classes and we got out of school at 12:40. The schedule was tight, but I usually got everything taught and was (in a good way) exhuasted at the end of the day. I had the rest of the afternoon to be with my children, work on school or house work. At P, we team teach. I get the privilege of teaching History and Literature twice in one day. I am not being sarcastic. It really is a privilege. I get to teach about how God has shaped history and we can see His hand in it. It is awesome. Literature is just exciting. I get to take my students into another "world." I love adventures! I also teach the rest of the core subjects to my homeroom class. I don't get to teach my other two favorite subjects (math and science). We get out at 2:40, but that doesn't mean more time to teach. We have several enrichment classes that make our schedules even tighter than if our day ended at 12:40. Leaving the school after 4:00 doesn't leave a lot of time for anything else except cooking dinner and getting the kids ready for bed. I know I will get the hang of it...it is just going to take time. The more organized I get, the easier it will be.
I am not one for change and EVERYTHING has changed. I now have a new house, new job, new everything. I know the Lord is teaching me to get out of my comfort zone and that eventually things have to change. I am a slow learner, but eventually I do get it. Lord, just be patient. I promise I will learn. I am grateful. I have my husband again (every day of the week-not just two). I have a house (we are renting) that isn't in need of any repair. I get to have my two dogs again (inside the house-not out). They are just too funny to watch chasing each other around the sofa.
Hannah has made some friends in her classroom and has three little girls that live in our neighborhood. Ian on the other hand has been left out. We haven't found any boys his age here yet. Maybe soon.
We are on the hunt for a good, God-centered, church. If you know of any in Dothan, please let me know.