A few videos

Click on the sentences below to check out a few new videos. The one of Adelle laughing is a little dark, but so cute. :)

Adelle working on some motor skills.

Adelle cracking up at Daddy's game.

Alayna and feeding her baby.

Fabulous Fort Fun and a recipe

Cushion forts are fabulous Saturday morning fun. If we did these every day I might go crazy because my front room would be a complete and disastrously noisy mess. I'm in constant pick-up mode as it is, without complete destruction. Anyway, they have a blast and I get the kitchen clean ... at least for a little while. :)

She rules the roost.

Alayna is doing "school" in her newly fashioned t-shirt sleeve head band.

Here's me in mine and, drum roll please ....... I made homemade graham crackers this week! We've been trying to stick with the 100 days of real food plan. Check out THIS LINK for some great recipes! Anyway, kid snacks were my hardest thing. Goldfish and other processed food snacks don't qualify as edible under this plan. We'd been snacking on fruit and nuts and cheese sticks, etc., but we were missing the cracker variety. :) When I found the graham cracker recipe I had to give it a shot.

Graham Crackers

3 c whole grain white flour (I bought Hogson Mill brand)

1/2 t salt

1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t cinnamon

8 T butter

1/2 cup raw honey (or agave nectar)

1 egg (my addition)

1. Stir together first 4 ingredients in bowl.

2. Melt the honey and butter together and pour over dry ingredients, adding enough extra butter to make the dough workable (I added 2 more T of butter and 1 egg at this point).

3. Lightly grease your cookie sheet and roll out dough to 1/8" thickness. Cut rectangles with a knife and prick with a fork. (You could sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar at this point too) :)

4. Bake 10 minutes at 375.

They are a little bit fluffier and grainier than the packaged variety, and I may be partial, but I thought they were wonderful and the kids think so too!

Crafty-ness!

I was in charge of the craft for our annual church Women's Retreat this year. I found this fabulous blog with all manner of crafty wonder and these fabric rosettes immediately grabbed my attention. Seriously check out all her stuff. Natsprat is a creative crafty genius. Her tutorial is way cuter than mine, but New Life Ranch is not equipped with Wifi so this lovely poster board had to do the trick.

And this is the finished product!

So easy and SO CUTE! Beware, it's addictive. I've made about 372.

We've been digging a hole to China. Our bathwater is brown every night. Loving the spring weather!!!

See the little purple rosette in her hair. She actually left it in! I'm loving the chubby little arms and legs in shorts and t-shirts. Oh.My!

How sweet is this?! Love those boys.

Funny story about Alayna. She's got this sheer, tie-dye ribbon that she loves to tie around her head or her wrist or just about anything. She calls it her Indian crown/bracelet/whatever. But instead of saying "Indian," she says "idiot." I got to laughing so hard this morning as she twirled around the living room singing, "I have my idiot crown," in her most beautiful singing voice. She's a funny one.

She's 11 months old (yesterday). I could write a book about how incredible she is and how much I love her. This happy little expression is pretty much constant. I pick her up from the crib and she squeezes me and presses her face into mine. She's just pretty much awesome. Time to start party planning!

I love them

Just got back from a women's retreat that I'll post more about later. But I came home to these precious faces. :)

I think she might like these muffins. :)

Sweet boys - here's a good story: Hudson's 2nd top tooth was getting loose. The last time we pulled a tooth I had to hold him down. He cried, Pierce cried, Alayna hollered, "I'm being brave!" It was quite an ordeal. This time Hudson and Pierce were playing Ninja Spin-jitsu (I know you play that game at your house too). Pierce karate chopped Hudson in the mouth and the tooth went flying. I don't advocate facial karate chops, but this one worked out in my favor!

Oh my goodness - am I a blessed mommy or what?!

In my spare time ...

We've lived in our current home for about 5 years. We love it, even though we're outgrowing it. However, we chose this property mainly for the land - 3 acres to be exact. We're close to town but the land makes us feel like we're in the country. We love our neighbors, but their not right on top of us. It's great for the kids to run around and play. The people who livedhere before us did a great job with the yard - or hired someone to do a great job with the yard. The yard right now is well utilized by our children and their play things - littered with colorful tubes to crawl through, pink and blue slides, a teeter totter, a swing, a grill, lots of pecan trees a water well house, and a double clothes line - and that's just on the front acre.

The fence to the west is a privacy fence. The fence to the east is chain link and barbed wire, but it's covered in vines and the most awful bushes ever. The privacy is nice, but these bushes are taking over, and underneath them is growing a mountain of poison ivy. I learned that the hard way the year I was pregnant with Alayna and decided to trim up the bushes. Huge pregnant and covered with poison ivy is as miserable as it sounds.

Anyway, this year, I'm not pregnant and the bushes are coming down!

Here's what we've done so far.

Here's the mess that we still have to work on. I'm no girl scout, but I'm pretty sure those vines are poison ivy.

Daddy and the little cutie pie. Adelle is walking and trying to JUMP. She's also trying to repeat every thing I say. In this shot she was telling me hi. :)

The boys with their lego letter creations. Don't you just love the pose?!

Pierce doing his reading lesson - so proud of him. :)

The little jammy princesses with their waffles. Golly, they're cute!

Here's a couple of funny videos if you're interested ...

Alayna describing the bug that was on her finger. Hang on for all 27 seconds of this one for a good chuckle.

Adelle trying to jump with me.

Spitting Sparkly Kisses

I was at Aldi yesterday with all four of my children and every "blue-hair" in this little town. One sweet lady, who was about 85, told me she'd take those girls off my hands for me. She spent the next 5 minutes telling me about her twin boys "who are old men now." My kids could not take their eyes off this lady - she didn't hear very well so she was yelling and her "teeth" we're clicking. Adelle kept grabbing for her glasses and the lady would grab her hand and spit kisses all over it (don't worry, I'm always armed with wipes). I looked at the four of them and couldn't help but think that someday that would be me, stopping a young mom in the grocery store to share stories.

It's Saturday, which is still a work day around here. Daddy gives the boys jobs and after work Alayna and I usually go do something girly. She was watching my lips really closely last night as I read a story. She stopped me after a few minutes and said, "Mom, your lips have a sparkle. It's so beautiful!" Guess I had some leftover Burt's Bees Champagne on my top lip. :) Today we're going to find some sparkly lip stick for her. Love my girl.

The makeover continues ...

I painted my kitchen last week. It's a lovely light blue - fresh and clean and bright - and I love it! My cabinets are dark brown, neutral tile - so I was thinking red accents. Especially after I hung that picture back up and saw the red awning and loved it next to the blue.

Well, lo and behold, wall decor was on sale at Hobby Lobby and I made a few little purchases.

I already had the flowers and the navy thing they're in. I think David got those for me for our first anniversary. (I've always loved red). The LOVE plaque reads: Love bears all things, believes all things, endures all things. LOVE it. :)

Then I discovered these lovely things and had to control my excitement in the store. Can you see the light blue coming through with all the brown and red??? These were made for my kitchen!!! The Micah 6:8 plaque is not just a great exhortation, it has light blue little paisley things on it! The next one says, "Christ is the center of our home, a guest at every meal and a listener at every conversation." The kids and I did our devotion this morning over that topic ... and it's going to be a reminder on my wall! The last one is Isaiah 32:17, "The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever." What a powerful verse! I also bought a big wooden spoon and fork - I couldn't resist. They were 1/2 off!!!

My sister, Amanda is coming over tomorrow to help me hang everything. Needless to say after all those exclamation points, I AM SO EXCITED!!! And after watching HGTV all weekend, I'll be moving on to the next room soon. :)

I love my kids!

When we first moved into the house we're in now, Hudson was Adelle's age. I can't believe he's six!

Oh my goodness! Pierce is all blue eyes and cheeks and little chicklet teeth.

Alayna the little princess who loves her braids and bows and ponytails and polka-dots and anything that's light, sparkly pink.

Adelle, my little doll-baby and happy little monkey is nine months old!

Can you tell who eats more sweet potatoes?!

Videos and Pictures

What?! Two posts in one day?! I know, it's unheard of. I'm on a roll.

Adelle on the changing table babbling

Boys Sledding

papa was the first to dig and navigate the hole - he's our hero!

Pierce thought it was pretty awesome.

Hudson helped dig from the inside.

Alayna thought it was beautiful, of course. :)

Still Running

The kids got jolly ranchers from my boss at the Y. Thanks boss. So I explained that they should not chew them because it's bad for their teeth. They could suck on them but be very careful. Hudson asked, "Why do we have to be careful?" Because you could choke. "What would happen if we did choke." We we're driving right by the fire department so I said, "I would have to drive you to the fire department and they would give you the Heimlick (who knows how to spell that?!). "What's the Heimlick?" I answered, "Well, they would wrap their arms around your stomach and pump really hard until the jolly rancher flew out of your throat." Then I just decided to go for the big scare, "You would probably throw up and you might get some ribs broken." Oh my goodness, what a terrible thing to tell your children! Hudson answered, "I will never eat Jolly Ranchers for the rest of my life!" Pierce said, "Or you could just be careful." Ha!

A few days later Hudson got some Starbursts at church. Every one wants my children sugared up except me! After lunch, when I was unwrapping them, Hudson asked, "Are these kind dangerous?" Yes son, all candy is dangerous.

Well, we've been snowed in for a week. Maybe longer. I don't know. I've lost all track of time. Thankfully our school routine has kept us busy and the kids have been way into digging tunnels in the snow. It's like the Great Escape in my back yard - secret tunnels and bunkers everywhere. What else are supposed to do with four foot snow drifts?!

For some reason, our little town is incapable of clearing roads. We're supposed to get more snow tomorrow and even more on Tuesday or Wednesday. Could we please get some driveable surface before the whole of this lovely little town goes insane?!

In other news I went out to do some laundry a couple of days ago (after my husband informed me that he was on his last pair of undies - I don't usually wait that long but it's been freezing and my washer and drier are in the garage, poor me!). Low and behold the washer would not turn on. Lots of buzzing, no water, no good. All of my facebook friends gave some great tips, so David put a space heater by the washer and by that afternoon we had a lovely little creek bed running through the garage. I think it's safe to assume something is busted. Well, we had to have undies so I picked through the laundry and gathered all the socks and underwear and brought them inside to my sink. Let's just say I'm so glad I was born in this century and that I'm not Amish. Hanging towels on the line is one thing. Washing and wringing out socks and underwear for 5 people is not my idea of a productive morning. At least the drier is still running. And the children are still running, so I'm also thankful that my coffee pot is also still running.

We'll be finishing our February bulletin board today and playing in the snow and risking our lives as we venture out on our treacherous roads in an effort to save our sanity. I'm making pizza tonight and cinnamon rolls for tomorrow's breakfast. It's a busy day folks!

Car Conversations

Pierce asked, "Mom, do police even come get kids?" I answered, "If kids disobey they law, they have to be punished and that's the police's job." Pierce needed further clarification of this, "But if kids don't obey the law do they go to jail even if they're just kids?" I answered, "If kids are old enough to make bad choices (and gave several examples like stealing and breaking and entering) then they are old enough to pay the consequences." I told the kids what happens to most kids who disobey the law and said that's why it's so important that we choose wise friends and make wise decisions, etc. After a little thought Pierce said, "Well, I think my wise choice will be that I'll never run out in the street." Okay, good choice for a four-year-old. Then Alayna said, "I have a choice." Oh boy, what's your choice? "I will choose to eat cake." Really?? "Cake is yummy so that's a good choice." Makes perfect sense.

Snow and School and a magnificent makeover

Don't you just love my snowy tree background??

Well, we're ready for a new week and here's a re-cap of the week that was...

This happy little cutie loves to play in our laundry/treadmill/girls play room. Earlier she climbed from the treadmill into that laundry basket and was standing on top of the laundry hiking her leg to get up on the tall chair behind the basket! Help!

It SNOWED. Oh the excitement of snow ice cream and snow men and snow angles and snow castles!

Hudson said, "This is just like the beach, only freezing!" And no ocean, and no, this is nothing like the beach. I just smile.

Alayna is all purple and pink and polkadots and Pierces old navy blue boots. Oh well. The snow princess loved the snow for the first time in her 2 1/2 years. "Oh, it's so wintery and beautiful," she said in her most high-pitched princess voice.

We still do school on snow days. Hudson has been writing a short paragraph about whatever story we read for reading. He was particularly proud of this paragraph. His teacher gave him and A. :)

I've been wanting to recover my dining room chairs almost since I bought them just before we got married. They're white, or I should say they were white. My dear sister, Amanda, got me new foam and fabric for Christmas and came over last week to show me how to recover these lovely chairs.

BEFORE ...

AFTER

I'm so proud of what a good job we did. Now I need to repaint the kitchen and dining room, sand down the kitchen cabinets and repaint them. And by the time that's done I'll be ready to move on to the rest of the house. Who knew one simple little project could snowball into an extreme home-makeover?! :)

Bedtime stories and Tutus

My fortune cookie this afternoon said I was good with words and someday I should write a book. I'm really good at making up stories to tell the kids. One day maybe I'll write those down. The boys like "The Three Brothers." For a while these brothers went on real adventures of my childhood: camping, skiing, hiking, exploring Australia's Great Barrier Reef and riding motorcycles down the Great Ocean Road or taking a 4WD through a rain forest with a river full of crocs. True stories. Then they built a time machine and a rocket and the stories got more inventive. My imagination took another turn after watching Modern Family and croctopus found it's way into our story - a creature with the jaws of a crocodile and the tentacles of an octopus. Yes, my cool points went way up with that story.

In other news I bought the girls tutu skirts and they are SO CUTE. The practical side of me had been holding off from this unnecessary purchase. I'm not a frivolous shopper. My kids have plenty of clothes right now. Who really needs a tutu anyway? Well, I don't know. But I do know that they are just darling and I have no regrets from that purchase. I'll get a picture of them one of these days.

Halloween

We went trick-or-treating last year and the boys got scared at a couple of houses. The houses looked fine but the adults came to the door in scary costumes and my 3 & 4 year-old boys were not into scary...and still aren't. So, they didn't want to trick-or-treat this year. We did dress up and went to visit Gigi and a few of her neighbors, then we went to Wendy's to use our free frosty coupons. Now that was a treat!

The fairy princess, a couple of cowboys and a pretty little flower - I just love it!

Close up - I put a little bit of makeup on her and she definitely felt beautiful! She twirled and flitted everywhere she went.

My mighty men were cowboys. At the three houses we went to (my Grandma's neighbors who are all about her age) the boy took off their hats and said, "yippee-ky-a" instead of trick-or-treat, and gave hugs after they got their candy. It was pretty sweet.

My happy little flower chewed on her petals and showed off her pretty smile all night.

Three big kids practicing their smiles.

Enjoying a sucker and Veggie Tales after a fun night. When we left Wendy's we decided to go for a drive. Once we got out about 10 minutes from town (or bathrooms) Alayna said, "My belly hurts." A few seconds later Hudson said, "I don't think my frosty is digesting very well." We all made it home in time to get everyone taken care of. Those drive will have to be reserved for date night. :)

My living room this morning. Alayna and Pierce are under the other blanket.

My sweet girl.