une autre mère

bonne saint valentin!

2012-02-04T15:41:00.002-06:00

Bienvenue à la soirée!

We hope you enjoy your time at our little "café."

(sign translates "Welcome to the Brooks' place")

Every proper French café needs a striped awning, yes?

And a chalkboard sign.

The "Craigheads" are the other couple that helped us throw the party.

So, pull up a seat at "la table."

And choose from our three different soups and desserts.

(I completely forgot to get pictures of the food. Which is a bummer, because Dana made some totally beautiful and delicious desserts.... so you'll have to just see one of the description cards instead). :(

Oh, and don't forget your "moustache."

We had a little contest to see who could keep their mustache the longest. If you were caught saying "please" or "thank you" instead of "s'il vous plait" and "merci" then your mustache was taken away.

Here I am with my very pregnant friend, Dana, (she looks amazing, doesn't she?!) who made a knockout Chicken Tortilla Soup, Cream Puffs and Puff Pillows. They were all super delicous! We also had Creamy Ham & Potato Soup, French Tomato Soup and a Village Inn French Silk Pie. "Miam miam" as the french would say. :)

"A votre santé!"

Some of our friends found some interesting places to put their mustaches. Jenn doesn't always look quite so angry. :)

After dinner, we visited "Le Louvre," where couples had to draw a picture of something to do with their relationship. The trick was that they had to do it with their arms around each other, each using only one hand. If this is confusing you, just hold on until you see the pictures below. ;)

Addie and Millie thought it was cool that they even got to draw a few frames too! :)

We made Abby use her left had since she's a professional artist. Of course, she is also an amazing artist with her left hand! So not fair.

Aw... isn't that precious? :)

Andy made a really good crayon cup holder.

These two took away the prize with their masterpiece! (a $10 gift card to La Mie Bakery!)

Hey, it looks like she's doing all the work! So typical... ;)

Et voilà!

C'est magnifique!

And we finished strong with some good laughs around the fire.

"Bonne Saint Valentin!"

the not-so-extreme home makeover: kitchen edition

2012-02-01T15:38:00.000-06:00

We've lived in this house now for four years.

For FOUR YEARS I've lived with a fruity kitchen.

(No offense to you if you have a fruity kitchen... it's just not really my style...)

I kept thinking I could live with it just a little bit longer... just long enough to get a new backsplash installed. But have I mentioned that we've also been working on finishing our basement for four years? Yeah... Chad's been pretty much tied up with that in most of his "free time." So I started to get the feeling that my kitchen tile wouldn't get touched until the basement was done. Which may be awhile....

This past weekend, I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands. One of our friends has a kitchen similar to ours and her tile is painted. So, I thought to myself, if her tile is painted, why can't I paint mine? Anything's gotta be better than that fruit, right? I guess I'll let you decide.

Here's the kitchen before:

And just incase you couldn't see the beautiful fruit well enough...

Chad did help out and sand down the fruity tiles for me and he also wiped down the rest while I was out buying the paint.

And, several hours, 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of grey later...

Voilà!

My slightly more modernized kitchen!

I also painted the top of the kitchen a lighter green.

Yes, I do realize we still have a ways to go, what with the nasty peel 'n stick floor and the outdated countertops, cupboards and appliances... but hey, at least we're on our way! :)

Stay tuned for my next "Not-So-Extreme" Home Makeover: Bedroom Edition!

our Christmas 2011

2012-01-07T22:11:00.000-06:00

It feels very strange to be writing a Christmas post after just enjoying a sunny 60 degree day here in Iowa. Ridiculously amazing weather. We played outside without wearing coats!! And I even worked up a sweat raking leaves! If only this weather would last for the next three months... but I have a feeling that's not going to happen.

Anyways, I wanted to sneak these pictures in from our Christmas before it got too late. And as always, brace yourselves for the never ending round of pictures...

Christmas Eve

We all pitched in and made Monkey Bread so we could enjoy it on Christmas Day. The kids had a blast putting the dough in the bag and shaking the sugar and cinnamon all over it. They also placed it in the pan all by themselves. So my only job was to cut the dough. They did awesome!

Then the girls made their very own calendar for their room, complete with pictures of themselves throughout the past year!

Since our church was having a Christmas Eve service that evening, our traditional Christmas Eve Dinner got promoted to a Christmas Eve Lunch. It was complete with our traditional hamballs, mashed potatoes, cheesy broccoli and garlic rolls.

After watching Polar Express and working on a 1000 piece puzzle (which is still in the works in my dining room...) we got all dressed up for the Christmas Eve service.

The service was excellent!

(You may be wondering why our fireplace is covered with a large piece of chevron fabric... so to ease your curious minds, we have an extremely drafty fireplace and therefore it must be covered up in the winter to prevent drastic energy costs, unless we have a fire burning constantly, but then we would have to be chopping wood every hour to keep that up. So I covered a big piece of styrofoam with fabric. No, I know it's not perfect, but it's better than the big black blanket we had hanging there before!)

When we got home, the kids each got to open one present - a movie for our trip to Michigan! :)

Christmas Morning

We woke up Christmas morning to a warm fire and full stockings!

My favorite part of Christmas is all the handmade gifts. The girls spend several hours throughout December coloring, cutting, and pasting to make gifts for everyone. This year I limited them to one gift bag per family member that they could fill as they pleased.

Adeline made me a book all about the First Christmas. It is truly priceless!

Millie spent quite a lot of time cutting out shapes for daddy. Adorable! :)

Perhaps my favorite is the huge smile in Millie's eyes here when she received this partially colored "suitcase for holiday stuff" from Addie (which, as you'll notice, originally said "Adeline", but was crossed out to give to her sister). ;)

Beautiful stamping done by Millie. :)

Tate was wondering when we were going to move on to the other presents... ;)

Odie got a new bone!

New slippers!

Tap dance shoes, skirt and lessons for Millie!

Addie's "American Girl" doll! Okay, so it's actually just the Target brand one, but she could care less. :)

A new tool set for Tate so he can help daddy finish the basement.

Perhaps Addie's favorite gift - matching nighties for her and her new doll, Katelyn!

After presents, we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and blew out the candles on the Monkey Bread "birthday cake" that the kids had made. Yes, it was just as yummy as it looks! :)

Then we read the Christmas Story from the Bible and The Light of Christmas (check out my last post for info on this awesome book).

And then it was time to head off to Nana and Baba's house, just over an hour away. But Tate didn't make it very far...

The kids got to enjoy another birthday cake for Jesus and Addie and Clara read the Bible story on Baba's lap.

Of course, the girls had to bless us all with their lovely Christmas carols.

And then my memory card was full. :( So you'll just have to trust that we had a ton of fun with Nana and Baba and all their cousins and aunts and uncles!

The Day After Christmas

Monday morning, we loaded up the car and headed up to Cadillac, Michigan to see the Brooks side... (with an empty memory card). I don't believe we've ever made this trip in less than 11 hours. This time, however, we did it in only 9 1/2! The kids did awesome. We only stopped ONE time. Let me repeat that... ONE TIME! And that was just for lunch, potty breaks and gas. I thought for sure we'd have to make at least one more stop, but no one was complaining, so we just headed on.

We had our Christmas celebration with them on Tuesday.

We had fun giving gifts.

And of course, receiving them too. :)

Here, Addie's showing me her latest, greatest toy - a Nintendo 3DS, purchased with $$ from Great Grandpa and Great Grandma. She found an awesome deal on Craigslist. That girl's got a nose for bargains... I'm so proud of her. ;) And Uncle Mark got her some fun games for it.

Uncle Scott got the girls Snuggies. Really, who doesn't need a Snuggie?

Modeling their new jammies and tutus.

The kids went out sledding with Daddy and Nana.

And made cornbread muffins with Nana.

Tate doing a little target practice with his new toy from Uncle Scott. I believe the box said ages 8+... but the men were sure Tate could handle it.

Playing Addie's favorite game, Disney Monopoly, with Great Grandma and Papa.

The men in a serious game of Double Deck Euchre.

Now she's sucked Uncle Mark into the game too... Look out, Addie, I hear he's a shark! :)

Notice she's in dance clothes. The girls wore these for a good part of the time. You never know when they might decide to put on a show!

Driving cars in the basement! Millie has become an excellent driver.

And of course, the kids enjoyed cuddle time with Nana!

So, there's our big Christmas 2011! Hope yours was stupendous as well!

hello, december!

2011-12-20T10:23:00.002-06:00

Oh, December... you always catch me off guard and fill my camera with so many pictures, I just can't decide what to post. So, here's a "few" I thought showed best what we've been up to...

The evening after Thanksgiving, we put up our tree.

It was Millie's turn to put the star on top this year!

Instead of making our traditional popcorn balls on "tree night," Chad made this yummy fudge instead that we poured over popcorn. Thank you, Chad, for saving my sanity... I detest making popcorn balls, especially when I'm in the middle of trying to help put up our decorations, and thus I've deemed this our new tradition. :)

The Saturday night after Thanksgiving, I took the girls to The Des Moines Playhouse to see "Junie B. Jones in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells." It was very cute and the little actors and actresses did a splendid job! We completed our Girls Night Out with dinner at Fazoli's. They enjoyed yummy *free!* kid's meals of spaghetti!

One way the kids have endured these cold days has been putting their big Zhu Zhu pet house together. This helps kill some time! :) It's amazing how much entertainment those little hamsters provide.

A few Sunday evenings ago, the ladies of our small group invited a few friends over for a Christmas Craft Night. I was truly impressed that my friend, Jess, even attended with her 2-day old baby! She had just come home from the hospital that day and still wanted to come! Of course, we were thrilled to have them!

We started the evening with food and stories of Christmas memories.

Then we took a few minutes to focus on the true meaning of Christmas by reading The Light of Christmas. I know I've mentioned it before, but seriously... if you don't have this book, buy it NOW! :) It's the one our family reads every Christmas morning... it clearly explains the reason why Jesus came and the kids LOVE it!

Then we headed into the dining room to tackle making our Advent Calenders from mini muffin tins. For info on how to make them, check out my post here from last year.

Here's Lydia with her finished product:

It was a fun night!

Next in our camera roll is...

Our Gingerbread House!

A few Sunday nights ago, the kids had their Christmas program at church. This was the first year they all three got to be in it!

Tate with his girl, Harper, before the program. He adores her. :)

*Thanks for the photo, Abby!*

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the kids in the program because I was recording it the whole time. But I was able to steal this one from my friend, Jessica's facebook...

See little Millie in the front row with the pigtails! She did such a great job! :)

And this is one that I got from our recording, so it's not that great because there was no flash...

Addie did a fantastic job singing her heart out! :)

If any of my church friends got better pictures of Addie or Tate, please let me know! I'm willing to shell out big bucks for those! :)

This past weekend, the Advent calendar said to go through toys and books to donate for the needy. The kids LOVED doing this and it made more room for their soon-to-come new Christmas toys! :)

And, finally, Adeline and I made this clipboard for her teacher, closely following the instruction from my friend Liz's blog.

My favorite part was the note Adeline wrote on the paper pad we included...

All I told her to do was write a nice little note, and she took off from there! :) She does have an awesome teacher this year and we are soooo thankful for that!

Hope you're all having a wonderful Christmas season too!

so long, fall

2011-11-29T11:08:00.000-06:00

I realize that fall doesn't officially end for another 21 days or so, but once Thanksgiving is over, fall might as well be too. December just doesn't sound or feel like a fall month.

So here's my official "So long" salute to the season that brought us...

*a beautiful all-kid-made leaf centerpiece*

*cute brown corduroy outfits*

I guess it also brought us the big scab under Millie's nose... aka "Millie's face meets the sidewalk." Ow.

*special moments shared with family*

*an endless supply of leaves*

*a fun daddy who rakes up all the leaves, just to let the kids scatter them all about again*

*a Thanksgiving Dinner with loved ones*

*a grandpa who hides around corners scaring kids and tickling them relentlessly*

*a grandma who plays soccer with the young'uns until she's plum out of breath*

"Run, Nana, Run!"

Addie reminding Nana of the rules of soccer.

*precious time spent with cousins*

There you have it. My fall wrap-up. Now our tree is up and Christmas music is playing. As much as I hate to admit it, snow will soon be falling and temperatures will be plummeting. Time to usher in winter!

Hope you all had a lovely fall!

a late orchard post

2011-11-16T13:50:00.001-06:00

Sorry, these pics are from last month, but I just couldn't go without documenting our family's trip to the orchard this fall!

It was such a beautiful day in mid-October. We really couldn't have asked for better weather.

The kids got their hand at milking a life-like cow.

We even got to watch a super cool science show inside the barn. Didn't get pictures of the actual show, but there were explosions and fire and everything!

This is Addie's best smile. :)

Launching apples.

Working together to find their way through the hay maze.

Poor Tate. He just couldn't get a foothold on the jumping pillow.

Maybe next year, little buddy.

Taking a hayride out to the pumpkin patch.

Our lil' pumpkins.

Riding back with our goods.

Little pig, little pig, let me in!

Enjoying a tea party with the Mad Hatter.

Looking forward to seeing you again next year, Center Grove!

easy breezy crafty lanterns

2011-11-15T13:30:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we were in desperate need for a fun, easy craft. So, I scoured my Family Fun magazine and found this little ditty.

So easy. And the kids love it because it's messy, but little do they know it's a "contained" messy.

First, get some glass jars.

Then tear up tissue paper into 1-2 inch strips (or if you have older kids, they could handle even smaller strips).

Fill a bowl with white glue (we used Elmer's).

Let the kiddos paint the outside of the jar with the glue.

Then just start sticking on the tissue paper.

Even my little 2-year old can do it.

If the glue starts to dry, just paint some more on. No biggie.

Addie made hers when she came home from school.

While the glue dries, run out to your local Dollar Tree and pick up a 3-pack of battery-operated tea lights. (Or pick up two packs just incase you get a dud.)

Then plop the the candles in the jars and watch them light up the night.

Guaranteed to light up some little faces too!

our "wicked" awesome hot date

2011-11-14T20:20:00.000-06:00

Have I ever told you how awesome my husband is?

Oh, I have? Oh... well, too bad, you're gonna hear it again. He knows how much I LOVE "the theater", so for my birthday present this past summer (and Christmas present and Valentine's and Mother's Day gift...) he got us season tickets to the Broadway series playing at the Des Moines Civic Center. So we get to see five broadway shows this year! This is totally a dream come true for me! And such a shocker, because I'm sure I've probably also mentioned before how, um... let me put this gently... "frugal" he is as well. ;)

This past Friday began our first of the shows. We started the night with dinner at The Royal Mile.

Super good English food! If you ever eat here and you're looking for a more "restauranty" feel instead of "bar-y," just go upstairs. Great atmosphere up there!

Then we walked on over to the Civic Center to see Wicked. This was my second time seeing it, and Chad's first, so I couldn't wait to hear what he thought about it since I loved it soooo much! And he really enjoyed it too, just like I knew he would. I think I can say for both of us that if you're going to see one Broadway musical in your entire lifetime, this should be it. Seriously.

The best part - we had tickets in row C! They were on the side, but we could still see practically everything! Plus, we could see backstage, so we got to witness some costume changes and cool technical stuff. And, best of all, watching the spit fly from the actors' mouths... okay, so maybe I could've done without that...

The rest of our season tickets are back in row GG (30 rows back), so we got a little spoiled for our first show.

And we couldn't have enjoyed such a relaxing, fun night out without free babysitters! Thanks, mom and dad! :)

Oh, and not to rub it in to all my Iowa-fan friends (because I myself am one), but MSU did spank Iowa this weekend, and Chad got to be an eye-witness to the whole thing (thanks to his nice friend Joe!).

Just to warn ya... I've been soooo lazy about blogging lately and I have a ton of things I wanna post, so stay tuned... you're in for a blog run. Lucky you. ;)

little beggars

2011-10-30T23:09:00.001-05:00

Trick or treat...

smell my feet

give me something good to eat.

Yes, even Odie got in on the fun this year.
He's dressed as a Michigan State football player/fan/something-or-other incase you were wondering...

We had a few friends over for beggars night!

I couldn't keep up with the big kids! They just ran from house to house! See the girls way up at the house already?

So I mostly stayed back with this little elephant.

There they go again!

I finally got close enough to at least grab this blurry shot.

Checking out the loot...

Woah. What in the world are we gonna do with all this candy?!?

"Eat it!!!" they say. :)

We will for a while. But in a few weeks we'll have "Homemade Blizzard Night" and chop it all up and throw it in some ice cream.

********

Backing up a few days...

We made "Halloween" cookies!

Although, I could only do yellow frosting since it was the only food coloring color I had left. But we did have lots of Halloween sprinkles! And these were supposed to be cut-out cookies, but mommy ran out of flour (or so I thought... after the fact I found 2 bags on a different shelf, hidden behind the rice! Anyone need some flour?) so I had to get the store-bought dough since I had promised we'd do it that day. Totally didn't realize that you can't make cut-out cookies out of store-bought dough unless you add flour. So these were just round ones.

Tate gettin' a little crazy with the sprinkles.

But oh, were they good!

********

And just because...

Since God didn't bless me with twins (or maybe the blessing was not having twins... not sure how you mothers of multiples do it!), I often feel the urge to dress my girls alike. Thanks to ridiculous sales (combined with Crazy Cash... which no longer exists... *sad sigh*) at Crazy 8 this summer, we can actually afford to do it sometimes too!

And then, of course, I have to take pictures.

*********

Happy Halloween! Or, er... excuse me... Reformation Sunday! ;)

Millie's got glasses!

2011-10-19T09:53:00.000-05:00

My baby girl's got glasses!

At Millie's 4 year well-child visit a few weeks ago, she pretty much bombed the eye chart. Especially when her left eye was covered. So we took her to the Children's Eye Clinic and they found that she has a pretty strong astigmatism in her right eye. So she gets to wear glasses! :)

We wanted her to really love her glasses, so we let her choose the ones she liked the most (from the cheap rack, of course!). The optician called these "pink and purple," although the purple is really really dark, so it looks almost black and the only pink is on the edges. But she fell in love with them, even liked them more than the all-pink ones, so we got them!

We just got them yesterday morning and then spent a few hours at the mall where she got compliments in nearly every store we visited. So that really helped her feel more confident in them. It was pretty strange for her yesterday to adjust to her new vision, but today she's starting to realize that she can actually see more clearly with them on.

I think the hardest adjustment has actually been on my part. It hit me pretty hard yesterday that this is how I will see Millie from now on ... the glasses causing her baby face to appear more grown up. I totally wasn't prepared for that. But she's definitely liking that part of it. Always eager to grow up.

Now we're just hoping that her glasses stay intact. With all her wrestling around with Tate and Odie, doing somersaults all around the floor, diving into her bed, etc... I'll be shocked if these last 6 months! :)

our pop-up adventure

2011-09-28T15:16:00.000-05:00

We recently purchased a new toy:

And decided to take it for a test run this past weekend.

Here's the inside before we put all our stuff in it:

the left side (where the kids sleep)

the right side (where we sleep)

my "kitchen" in the middle

Friday night - our first night out. And yes, this look on my face is one of forced joy. Let's just say it wasn't the ideal first night...

The campground we wanted was first come, first serve and we couldn't leave until after Chad's football practice, so by the time we got there it was full. After driving around forever to a few other campgrounds, we finally found a spot (a spot out in the open, with no trees, but oh well... at least we had a spot). We only had a tiny bit of sunlight left by the time we got there. We got the camper set up, the electricity hooked up and then realized that this particular campground didn't have water hookups. I wasn't expecting that at all, so Chad drove back into town to buy some water. When he returned, Odie (yes, we brought our dog) desperately needed a walk, so Chad took him out.

Meanwhile, back in the camper, it was getting very cold. Fortunately, we had a space heater in there so we plugged it in to warm things up. And since it was too cold to sit outside by a fire, I decided to pop the kids some popcorn and put in a movie to settle them down a little before bed. But when I plugged in the TV (at the same time the microwave was popping the popcorn - DUMB MOVE), all of the electricity shut off. Even the heater. And all the lights, making it pitch black. My kids don't like pitch black. So, once we all found each other (which wasn't too hard... I just followed the sounds of their crying), we huddled together in the darkness, trying to stay warm and waited for Daddy, who had the flashlight. When Chad returned, he looked all around trying to figure out how to get the electricity back on, but couldn't find a thing in the dark. But we did have an extension cord that we were able to run from the heater to the electric hookup outside so we could at least have some heat.

So, although you can't tell from the above photo, thanks to the camera flash, we're sitting in darkness (except for the little glow from the flashlight) and I'm worried about the success of this camping trip (and our food in the fridge - which was now in a cooler) if we can't get the electricity back on.

Oh, and just a little side note... if you're ever out camping with your kids and you have to walk a distance to get to the bathrooms, don't put footy jammies on them until after they go to the bathroom. Let's just say that shoes don't really fit over most footy jammies and it's also really hard to keep unzipped footy jammies from touching the bathroom floor while they're using the toilet. Just sayin'.

Fortunately, in the morning, Chad figured out how to get our electricity back up and running. Which made the rest of the camping trip SO much more enjoyable!

Would you ever be able to tell from all my griping that we used to tent camp quite often? And we actually worked for a whole summer at a camp where we took high school freshmen on rafting/camping trips (with NO bathrooms or electricity) every week? Guess I've just gotten spoiled in my old age.

On Saturday, we enjoyed a nice campfire,

made a "garden" in a cup,

played with Odie,

cooked our own hotdogs over the fire,

played some soccer,

played at the campground park,

enjoyed a warming and comforting dinner of tomato soup and grilled cheese,

had good conversations around the fire,

and finally settled in our cozy little camper for a peaceful night of slumber.

(pay no attention to Tate's pink sleeping bag... it's really his sister's).

Sunday morning, we loaded up and headed back home (a whole 8 minutes away).

And Odie had fun being king of the backseat.

So over all, I'd say this camping trip was very successful. Even after our first night of chaos, it ended up being just what our family needed. Just a chance to be together, away from everything else for a few days, was heavenly.

birthday...birthday...birthday...big party...and...soccer?!

2011-09-16T12:51:00.000-05:00

The season is upon us.

It begins with the start of school. It's followed up closely with one... two... THREE birthdays (not to mention 3 cousin birthdays and 2 uncle birthdays as well!). And it's punctuated with Chad coaching football and therefore being gone all. the. time.

So, if you're wondering about my lack of blogging for the past month, there you have it. This mama is just tired.

But I now feel the need to take a few minutes and post some pictures of all our birthday celebrations from the past few weeks. Bear with me folks, it's gonna be a doozy.

Let's start on August 24, when Tate turned... wait for it... you're not gonna believe it....

I know! Seriously, seems like just yesterday that he "popped out of mommy's tummy" (as his sisters would say).

And let me explain the lack of big cakes for their birthdays. We have a big combined birthday party for all 3 kids (which you'll see below if you don't tune out before then) which we have their real birthday cakes at. So, on their actual birthdays, we have a little family celebration with cupcakes, which the kiddos like just as much! Especially since they get to pick out what rings they want on their cupcakes. I know... store-bought... I'm a terrible mother. Think what you want, but during football season, store-bought cupcakes are a God-send in this house. And don't worry, there are some homemade cakes at their big party. :)

Anywhoo, back to this guy.

Made a mess then got to open presents! What an awesome night for Tate!

Two days later, on August 26, came Emilia's birthday!

4 years old already?!

And lots of presents awaiting her!

The Olivia house was one of the favorites (and one of mine too, since I picked it up at 75% off in the after-Christmas sales!)

Then 8 days later, on September 3, Adeline turned 6!

Don't worry, there really are 6 candles on her cupcake. 2 of them are just itsy bitsy (I had to save the rest of the big ones for her real birthday cake!)

Can't wait to tear into those presents!!

We saved the best for last! I think she was pretty excited. :)

Then after all the birthdays were celebrated, we took the kids to Incredible Pizza!

I highly recommend going there anytime, but especially for birthdays! Adeline just happened to mention it was her birthday and they gave all three of our birthday kids a bag full of goodies and a spin on the prize wheel! And they each got to wear a sticker saying, "It's my Birthday!" so they were constantly being wished Happy Birthday by everybody.

This little 6 year old took on 3 big boys in the bumper cars all by herself! :)

Our big party was scheduled for September 4, or "Labor Day Sunday." There were many preparations to be made, like making Addie's cookie cake. Millie and Tate were big helpers while Addie was at school. Here, they're putting a little love for their big sister in the cake by blowing kisses into the batter. *Awwww* ;)

Nothing beats licking the batter. YUM!

When Addie came home from school, she got to decorate it!

And finally... the big ol' party. Lots of cousins. Lots of fun.

After playing around for awhile, we started the festivities with Adeline's cake as an appetizer.

We stuck with the Wizard of Oz theme for Addie's part of the party. Remember, this party... a whole month ago? Hmmm... That might be part of my exhaustion too... ;)

Here they are... the 7 cousins.

Clara, Kaiden, Ruby, Millie, Adeline, Taryn and Tate!

Then we opened presents!

First Tate...

Then Addie...

Then Millie!

Next we had dinner with the main course being pulled pork sandwiches. However, I neglected to get a picture of anyone actually eating dinner. But trust me, we ate.

Then we had our "dessert." Tate's ice cream cake...

Can you tell it's a soccer ball? I was going to pipe on black lines, but ran out of time. And this was super easy. Just freeze a glass or metal bowl for 30 minutes. Line with saran wrap and scoop in ice cream. Then freeze it again until it's completely hard. Take it out and smooth it and it's ready to decorate! We did this last year as a lady bug for Millie's cake.

And then Millie's princess cake!

Yes, this is store-bought. Straight from Target. But it was delicious! I really wanted a special cake for her. She had been feeling a little down about not getting to have her own "friend" birthday party like Addie did (we don't start those until they're in school), so I decided to give her the cake of her dreams. And she loved it! :)

"Let them eat cake," we said. And so they did.

Birthdays - DONE!

And since we were missing the busy-ness of birthday season, we thought we'd replace the hole with... SOCCER!

Yup. Addie started soccer this week. It's just through the city league, so fortunately it's only 6 weeks long, with one game every Saturday and 1-2 practices a week. I think I can handle that. I think.

But she LOVES it! And I must say, she's really good at it too!

And this is how I feel right about now...

Think I can sneak a nap in this afternoon?

how we do back to school... and our new dog

2011-08-22T10:30:00.000-05:00

This is an expensive time of year for our family. As many of you know, all three of our kids have birthdays between Aug. 24 and Sept. 3 (a 10 day span!), plus two nieces, a nephew and two brothers with birthdays in these few weeks time too. Phew! It feels like Christmas in August around here with all the wrapping going on!

And now with Addie in school, there's the back to school expenses too.

Ugh.

Since we can't afford to do the traditional "back-to-school-shopping," and I still want my kids to experience the fun of having fresh clothes to start the new school year, we just do it a little differently here. And our wallets thank us tremendously.

So, what do we do? It's not really that novel of an idea, and I'm sure some of you do it too. I shop all year round, picking up clearance items (especially targeting the huge sales in January and July) and also hitting up garage sales with like-new clothes for great prices. As I buy the clothes, I store them all away in the back of my closet (don't tell my kids) and then about a week before school we have...

"Back To School Night!"

I put all their clothes in gift bags and it feels like a birthday party! The kids love it! I even do it for Tate and Millie even though they're not in school. It's fun for them to get new (or like new) clothes too!

The best part is the price I pay for these clothes. These Hello Kitty jeans were the most expensive item and I got them for under $6 at Dillard's!

Gymboree skirt = $3.49

Crazy 8's top = $2.99

Crazy 8 dress = $2.99

And the clothes kept coming out. All purchased for between $1- $5.74!

We also filled a container with preschool workbooks, flashcards, pencils and crayons for Millie to start her at-home-preschool with mommy.

And then we made sure these clothes got good use at school!

Oh, and for those of you who were wondering how Adeline's first week of first grade was...

It was AWESOME!!!

She's loving it, of course! She loves her teacher, she's made lots of new friends, and she still gets to see last year's friends at recess.

My biggest worry with her at school is getting hurt feelings from mean kids, because I dealt with a lot of that in elementary school. But so far, she seems to be handling that well. This morning when I put a Curious George bandaid on her itchy bug bite, she got a little sad and told me that a boy in her class made fun of her last week for her bandaid and hollered to everyone, "Adeline likes Curious George!" Fortunately, the other kids didn't go along with him (they probably like Curious George too) and Addie said she just didn't say anything. But it obviously bothered her. So, no, I didn't make her wear a Curious George bandaid again. I took it off and put on a normal one.

And Millie has been having fun doing preschool with mommy. We do it every-other-day during nap time (so we don't have any distractions from Tate.) And every day she asks, "Is it preschool today? Please?!" :)

Here's a picture of Tate. Just because. :)

Oh, and about our new dog....

This was Odie a few months ago (I didn't have any newer pics of him with his even longer, shaggier hair).

And then I took him to the groomers. And I brought home this dog.

Pretty sure that's not Odie...

but an older, wiser, more serious dog?

Must be the beard. ;)

first day of first grade

2011-08-15T14:10:00.000-05:00

My first grader.

FIRST grader!

6:40 a.m. - The morning starts out a little rough... since she's been wearing flip-flops and dressy sandals most of the summer, mommy didn't realize that NONE of her bazillion sensible, cute playground shoes fit her! NONE. Especially not the ones I had laid out for her. We try on shoe after shoe after shoe. Who knew her feet grew a whole size in less than 2 months?! We finally find a pair, although a little big, that will work as long as she wears thick socks with them.

7:10 - Breakfast.

7:18 - Wake Tate up (who was not so happy to be woken up at such an early hour).

7:23 - Check backpack for essentials and insert lunch.

7:25 - Rush out the door for some pictures. But not too many because now we're running behind thanks to the shoe fiasco.

7:27 - Begin our beautiful walk to school.

7:30 - Get partway down the street, and poor little Adeline gets a little too close to the stroller and trips over the wheel, falling and skinning her knee. We all rush back to the house where I run and get a bandaid. She's fine. Still excited for school. I start questioning the time and if we should drive instead. But it's too beautiful outside, so we proceed to walk again.

7:44 - We finally make it to school.

This is the hardest part for me.

The locker.

Last year they hung their stuff up in closets in the kindergarten room.

So safe and cozy.

This year her locker is way out in the hall.

Not so safe and cozy.

Way too independent.

When we walk into the room, I think we're late. Nearly all the kids but one or two are all sitting quietly in their seats and there are no other parents to be seen.

I check the clock.

7:46.

"Doesn't school start at 7:55?" I ask, afraid that they had changed the starting time and not informed me.

"Yes," replies the super sweet (I mean, really really incredibly sweet - LOVE her!) teacher.

Phew.

So I have a another minute to take one more picture.

A real desk this year instead of tables!

*sigh*

And we leave.

Mommy's heart sinks.

And keeps sinking.

I'm not quite sure why, but this year feels even harder for me than last year. Maybe it's because I wasn't as prepared. With Kindergarten, there's more info sent to you ahead of time, more parent prep nights at school, more communication with the teacher. With first grade, they expect you to know everything, which I guess I should. There's just not as much warning and then *BAM* all of a sudden, it's the middle of August (which is so absurd) and my little girl's gone all day. :(

I think the only thing that will help this sinking heart today is seeing that sweet little smile... in about an hour now! And hearing all about her wonderful day. I'm praying it was wonderful. I'm sure it was. She makes friends very easily and loves to learn (both traits that we are very thankful for!).

But in the meantime, this little sweetie was also very excited for today.

We started preschool at home today! We spent an hour (during nap time) going over some brand new workbooks and learning lots of new things. It was great having some quality one-on-one time with her.

49 minutes 'til we pick up Addie!

Adeline's Wizard of Oz party

2011-08-09T22:16:00.000-05:00

Addie had her first "friend birthday party" this year. Although her birthday isn't until September 3rd, she wanted to have her party before school starts next week so she could invite her friends from last year's class. I was thrilled when she chose a Wizard of Oz theme. A classic that this mama loves too!

Every good party starts with invitations. I stole this idea from this website. Yes, I'll admit it. I'm an idea thief. So sue me.

There weren't really smears on the invitations. That was done for the blog so you creepers (you know who you are) won't come hunt us down.

Addie had fun putting the glitter glue on Dorothy's slippers.

Time to decorate! We made a birthday banner to match the invitations. Please excuse the poor lighting. I'm obviously not the best photographer.

Addie came up with this sign all by herself. :)

We turned our front walk into a yellow brick road. Don't worry, it's washable paint, although after hosing it down this morning, I still have quite a bit of scrubbing left to do...

Chad made this beautiful balloon arch for "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

Luckily, our house happened to land on the Wicked Witch of the East before the party started.

If you haven't seen the movie in awhile, this sign may not make sense to you. Our bell really does work.

Millie was Glinda, Tate was the Mayor of Munchkin Land, and of course Adeline was Dorothy (thanks to my friend Abby's $3 find at a garage sale!)

Our sweet neighbor lady even brought over Toto!

The birthday girl!

Chad was a good sport and even made his own Tin man costume. It was such a huge hit that the girls drew names to take home his hat. I was Auntie Em (with a huge bosom), and my mom even got into it and made her own lion costume (tail, ears and wig) and let me paint her face.

The food was straight from the Land of Oz.

"Over the Rainbow" fruit

Emerald City jello

Glinda's Wand-wiches (pb&j)

Totos in a Blanket

And of course, the cake. Obviously, I'm not a professional cake-decorator either.

Oh that girl. She melts my heart.

The coolest part of the cake was definitely the inside.

I got the directions from this blog.

This is what the batter looks like in the pan.

And this is what the mess looks like. Lots of bowls, but totally worth it!

And of course we had to have Melting Witch punch!

Complete with dry ice. (Thanks, Krista, for that idea!) The kids were mesmerized by the smoke.

Of course we had to have party games too!

This is our homemade version of Pin the Slippers on Dorothy.

Then we played Musical Chairs with the Wizard of Oz soundtrack.

It came down to these two.

And Adeline won! (No, I was not biased... I turned my back on them so I wouldn't know who was in front of the chair when I stopped the music! That girl is just super competitive!)

After that, the girls lined up to play Melt the Witch.

I painted a simple witch on cardboard (obviously, I'm not a professional artist either) with washable paint.

The battle was on between the Wicked Witch and Glinda the Good Witch!

Glinda took her down easy.

She wasn't melting fast enough, so Auntie Em had to get the hose out. Anything to help her little Dorothy.

The game winners got "Emerald City Putty."

The whole party gang.

Aren't they adorable?

We couldn't send these darlings home empty handed.

So we filled straw baskets with:

* Oz character rings

*Glinda's wands

*Yellow Brick Road chocolates (Hershey's miniatures wrapped with yellow paper and topped with a homemade label.)

*Lollipops from the Munchkin Lollipop Guild

*Homemade coloring books

Complete with free coloring pages found on the internet.

And Auntie Em's homemade strawberry jam.

The last of the partygoers (the three Dorothys, Glinda, and Toto) had a little dance party to Oz music. :)

It was a lot of work, but it was definitely all worth it. Adeline has thanked me a bazillion times and even thanked God for me in her prayers last night. Awww. :) The only problem is that I'll probably never be able to top this. It's all down hill from here...

just some pics of where we've been

2011-07-28T17:53:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday morning we left with our youth group and my brother Trent and his wife Lydia (he's the youth pastor) on a long trek to Pennsylvania for a Teen Leadership Conference.

Here are our two fearless leaders, sitting in McDonald's, checking out the construction on the iPhone and planning the best route around it. Luckily they did, because they saved us several hours of sitting still in bumper to bumper traffic.

While they were doing that, Lydia and I were also doing really important things. Like taking pictures of ourselves.

Thursday was a long day of traveling, but we finally ended up at our destination around 10:30 that night.

The next day (my BIRTHDAY!), we drove about an hour to Cedar Point (a super popular amusement park known by all northeasterners... although I had never heard of it until I moved to Michigan. But it does have several rides that the kids loved).

Not all of us love the big scary rides. Here's the group I hung out with most of the day. We named ourselves "The Rejects"... although we know that we're really extremely cool. We even got one of those "old-timey" pictures taken together, which I'll have to post on here as soon as I get a chance.

I just wanted to prove that I was having fun too.

We all met at Chick-fil-A for a yummy lunch.

Soon after lunch, it downpoured. Like a whole lotta rain. So we ran into the nearest shop where we all crowded together for about a half hour waiting for it to finally stop. The kids got a little restless and started getting out of control. Good thing the gun wasn't loaded.

Due to the rain, most of the rides were shut down for quite a while. But once they started back up, this group was ready to ride the Top Thrill Dragster.

Well, most of them were ready. These two were a little nervous.

Unfortunately, only 2 in our group got to ride it before it started raining again. But a few of our kids were so dedicated that they waited another hour and a half to get their ride.

Did you know that wearing red flip-flops in the rain will turn your feet red?

That night, we went out for pizza where our group surprised me with a cake for my birthday.

As you can see, I was genuinely surprised. Or not. Let's just say being "stealth" isn't Lydia's forté. ;)

Joslin challenged me to a "eat your cake without hands" duel.

So of course I couldn't turn that down.

'Cause you know I love having frosting all over my face.

The next day, Saturday, we went to the mall and then to a Cleveland Indians game that night. Lydia and I decided suddenly to become diehard Indians fans, so we got matching shirts and were all pumped to cheer them on.

Everyone was excited for the big game to start.

Then it began to rain.

Fortunately we were seated waaaay up high in the cheap seats, so we had a roof over our heads and stayed nice and dry. We were certain that the game would start soon.

But the rain kept coming.

And the night got later.

And the chances of the weather clearing up were looking awfully grim.

Daniel somehow managed to keep it all together.

After two hours of hanging out in the stadium, the game was finally called off. We were pretty bummed, but the kids handled it extremely well. Us youth leaders were probably the most disappointed just feeling bad that the kids didn't get to see a professional baseball game. But they still enjoyed just getting to hang out in such a cool stadium for two hours.

On the way back to the church from the game, we decided to run into Walmart and get some ice cream for the kids to end the night on a happy note and to pick up some stuff for breakfast. However, the experience was not so great. Let's just say there was no fresh fruit, no cream cheese, no normal bagels and the entire time, Lydia and I just felt plain creepy in there. Maybe you can see it on Lydia's face:

And to make it even worse, we left the ice cream in the bag in the stupid turnstyle thingy and didn't realize it until we got back to the church (about 30 minutes away). Arg. I hate those stupid bag-turny things. Which is why I love Target.

Sunday morning after visiting the youth group of the church we were staying in, we headed off to another church in Pennsylvania to stay for the night. That afternoon, we needed to get some necessities, so some of the girls came with Lydia and I to Kmart.

Every time we saw children, Lydia and I got really homesick for ours. :(

Back at the church, Lydia got her groove on. She's so cool like that.

This is how Lydia and I slept in the churches. Perfectly still on our shared air mattress.

So, that was the first part of our trip. Now we're at TLC in Pennsylvania, staying at Baptist Bible College, having a great time, learning a ton and looking forward to seeing our kids again soon!

We're back... for a few days...

2011-07-13T15:37:00.000-05:00

Hope you're geared up for pictures, 'cuz I've got lots of 'em. We just got back from Michigan this weekend and are leaving again next Thursday for Pennsylvania with our youth group. So, I thought I'd better squeeze in some pics of our Michigan trip before we take off on our next adventure!

Did you know it takes nearly 10 hours to get to northern Michigan from Iowa? Well, it does. Luckily, the girls are all-stars at entertaining themselves in the car with books and coloring, but Tate is still at an age where sitting for hours upon hours strapped tightly in a car seat isn't very ideal. So, we packed a picnic lunch and stopped at a rest area with a park so the kids could release their built up energy. Even though it was in the mid-90's. Mommy and Daddy couldn't wait to get back in the air-conditioned car.

We decided to make the trip up a few hours shorter by stopping most of the way up on Thursday night and traveling to Caledonia on Friday to spend the day with some of our good friends from Grand Rapids. Our friend's parents have a house on a lake, so we had a great place to hang out and play in the water.

The kids thought this tree house and bridge was super cool.

Millie was so brave!

Tate and Will are only 4 months apart, so they make great buds!

The kids all love Ana too. She is so sweet and adorable!

Addie had fun swimming in the lake with Carson.

It rained off and on during the day, but we didn't let it slow us down! The kids had a blast jumping in the downpour on the trampoline. Well, at least Carson and Addie did. If you look closely, you'll see that Millie and Ana aren't so thrilled. Don't worry... we quickly snatched them off and brought them inside!

Once the rain stopped, all the kids got a chance to go tubing behind the speed boat! Here's Carson and Addie. She loved it!!

Next, it was Millie's turn. She loved it too, which really surprised me since she's not a fan of getting water in her face.

And yes, even little Tate went on the tube. Here he is with Cooper, another fun friend!

We couldn't convince Dawn to let Sam ride on the tube... but I guess he is only 1 month old. Isn't he adorable? Just pure cuteness. Nearly made me want a fourth. But that is for sure not happening! ;) So I settled for just holding this little bundle for awhile instead.

After all the excitement of the day, Tate just couldn't keep his little eyes open during our yummy steak dinner.

Friday night, we headed up to Cadillac where we spent the rest of our trip with Chad's parents. We arrived to late to do anything else Friday night, but the kids were anxious the next morning to drive these cars around the yard!

After a few test drives, we packed a picnic lunch and spent the rest of the day in Manistee, where Chad lived from age 2 through the 4th grade. They have a beautiful beach along Lake Michigan where we spent most of the day.

Addie was ready to jump right in and start swimming. This girl is just like a little fish in the water!

But Millie wasn't quite sure it was warm enough...

I agreed with Millie, so I decided to soak in the warm sun instead. But cold, wet Tate surprised me mid-layout by tackling me and getting me all wet!

Good thing for him, he's so stinkin' cute, so I quickly forgave him.

Sunday afternoon, Chad's parents hosted a Porter Picnic for the 4th of July (although it was the 3rd!). Water balloon volleyball was a hit on this hot day. Although Millie got hurt when we got a little aggressive and gave the balloons a really good toss, throwing Millie up in the air with the sheet. No worries though... she was fine after a good long cuddle. :)

We enjoyed catching up with everyone while eating good food off the grill!

The girls enjoyed a game of Bocce ball with Aunt Mary.

Later that evening, Tate got to go out on his Uncle Scott's boat. He enjoyed the role of co-captain.

On Monday morning (the 4th), Chad went out with Scott and his dad to do some fishing.

They caught two salmon and a trout. I think. I don't know my fish and Chad isn't here, so we'll just go with that. All I know is that I get to have a salmon dinner soon!

While the guys were gone, we spent some time with the neighbors, who we became fast friends with!

Later that day, Great Grandpa and Grandma B. came over.

The girls enjoyed reading with Great Grandma.

This next picture is entirely disgusting, but I had to include it. Sorry. You don't have to look. When we were eating dinner Monday evening, Tate said to me, "Poopy, Mommy." So I replied, "Yes, Tate, I'll change your diaper in a minute." But he kept insisting, so I took him in to change his diaper. When I opened it and saw it was clean, I quickly put him on the potty where he did his business for the first time! We were so excited that we had to get a picture! I thought it was a one-time deal, but he has done it a few more times since!

That night we went to Lake City to see the fireworks over Lake Mitchell. The kids enjoyed doing sparklers while waiting for it to get dark. Which, by the way, it doesn't get dark enough for fireworks there until 10:30! Nearly an hour later than in Iowa!

We all enjoyed oohing and aahing over the display. Millie's favorite were the "fairy dust ones," which she excitedly exclaimed every time. "Oh, look at all the fairy dust!"

Even mommy and daddy were impressed.

If you ask Tate what his favorite part of vacation was, he'll say, "Fireworks! Boom, boom!" And he punches the air when he says the "boom boom" part. So cute.

On Tuesday we went tubing down the Platte River. We didn't bring the camera along to capture the moment, but the kids really enjoyed it. Especially Addie who spent almost the entire trip out of her tube, just floating along in her life jacket. Here's a picture I got from mantripping.com.

I highly recommend doing this if you're ever in Northern Michigan. Chad and I have done it several times and love it. The river ends in Lake Michigan, so you can hang out and play on the beach when you're done tubing.

Wednesday we traveled up to Traverse City (Chad's home town from 4th - 12th grades) and took in the Cherry Festival (where Chad and I first started dating!).

The girls went with daddy on their first ever big ferris wheel!

"Look, Mom! No hands!" Addie was a little hesitant to hold her arms straight up (just like mommy). But Millie threw 'em right up there!

Tate enjoyed the view from Papa's shoulders.

We went to Kids Town at a park where most things were free. The girls got their picture taken with the National Cherry Queen. A very big deal! :)

They took in a free juggling show, puppet show, and this very fun concert below where they danced and danced!

They also had free craft tables set up. They chose to make visors. Good choice on this sunny day.

And we even got a free ride around Traverse City on this old school firetruck.

On Thursday, Papa B's side of the family came over. The kids had a blast with Elsie and Decklin. Here, they're jumping on the neighbor's trampoline.

They loved riding in Nana's "tractor"!

The girls put on several dance shows and concerts for us.

While the boys played the sandbox.

Another yummy grilled meal!

And a nice picture with Great grandma and Great grandpa!

Friday, Chad and I took a "date day" back up to T.C. by ourselves. We lunched at Mancino's - one of the places I miss the most in Michigan! Love, love, LOVE their grinders!

We had fun walking around the city and doing some shopping. Oh, and I got some AWESOME deals at the Gymboree there! Like $2 - $5 bargains on dresses, jeans, sweaters, etc. I was pretty pumped about that, in case you couldn't tell. But my favorite part of the day was the hour and a half Chad and I spent sitting on a bench in the shade downtown, just watching the people go by. It made us feel about 50 years old, but it was so fun and relaxing.

That evening we celebrated our 11th anniversary at Minerva's. Our anniversary isn't until the 29th, but since we'll be with a bunch of high schoolers in Pennsylvania, we thought we'd better celebrate early.

Chad's fancy jambalaya.

While we were gone, Nana and Papa took the kids back on the river for some more tubing. They enjoyed yummy homemade popsicles when they got back!

So, there you have it. Our 10 days in Michigan. My next post will probably be in August, when we return from our next trip. Hope you're all having a great summer!

better get this in here...

2011-06-27T22:49:00.000-05:00

You know you've been on a blogging hiatus and life is entirely too busy when you're trying to just fit in an updated post before moving on to the next part of your way over scheduled summer. But that's what I'm doing. Just trying to update this ol' blog before leaving for vacation in a few days (which I haven't even begun to pack for... maybe I should be doing that now instead of posting this? Nah...).

Okay, so where did we leave off in the last post.... I think I mentioned that the girls were staying at my parents' house for a week, right? Well, they did and of course they had a blast. But we sure did miss them around here. And Tate got extremely used to being an only child. Chad and I loved getting to spend some quality time with our little man.

Chad took him out in his kayak and on some hikes while I busied myself getting ready for my first (and maybe last...) year as the VBS craft lady.

And Odie just moped around, missing his girls.

They finally did come back and then VBS started up in full force, with a race car theme. (I know, right? My first year as the craft lady and I get stuck with a race car theme?!)

They actually drove a Mustang in through the church's front doors. Oh, and I should probably mention that this was crazy sock day.

VBS week ended with Father's Day! And what a fabulous father this guy is!

Just like my great dad (below)!

And my wonderful father-in-law too! Only wish he lived closer so we could see him on these special days! :)

My parents and one of my brother's family came over to our place for Father's Day. The kids had fun swimming in the pool.

While us adults sat around shootin' the breeze...

Or just shootin' off some zzz's...

Hey, cut him some slack. He's been working long days this summer!

(Sorry, Dad, I just couldn't resist putting this one in here!) ;)

The highlight for the girls was having their cousins, Clara and Ruby, sleep over!

Seriously, how cute is that?

And these two, they are just Ca-Razy fun! :)

Once the adults left, we got our dry clothes on and headed for Jester Park.

Tate kept a safe distance from those giddy girls. A skill I'm sure will come in very handy for him in the future. ;)

We had a hot and sticky sandwich picnic. We were hot and sticky, not the sandwiches.

Then we went on a short hike (shortened by the pesky mosquitos) and drove out to take a peek at the elk and buffalo.

If you look closely you can see the buffalo in the distance. Not a great shot, but they were there nonetheless.

And we ended our outing with some good ol' DQ.

Yes, we share everything in our family - even germs.

When we got back to our place, all five kids needed a bath of course, although it was two hours past their bedtimes. I thought it'd be smart to start with Tate since he's usually the squirmiest. I got the bath water just perfect (assuming I could wash Tate up in a few minutes and then put the girls right in), and had the girls ready to jump in when Tate was done. As soon as I put Tate in the water, he decided to use it as his toilet. Of course. So needless to say, I had to drain the tub, clean the tub and start all over again. We did eventually make it through bath time. Just much later than we expected.

But we did have a super time having our nieces stay over!

After VBS and Father's Day were over, I busied myself getting ready for my farewell jewelry open house. Yes, I'm hanging up my hat. I spent a good five years with Premier Designs and really enjoyed working for them, but with Chad coaching football and Addie being in school, we felt it was time to quit. I was having a lot of mommy-guilt, not seeing Addie all day and then having to turn around and leave her in the evenings too. We both feel very comfortable with this decision, although it will be strange not being the "jewelry lady" anymore. And I'll especially miss my awesome discount! :)

So, here I am at my Open House. I was selling a bunch of my samples for 50% off. Although, here I'm pictured with the jewelry I'm keeping. I know it looks like a lot, but hey, I honestly did have more that I was selling than keeping! :) If you want in on any of these deals, I have a ton of my samples for sale on Des Moines' Craigslist. Just search for "Premier Designs" and you'll see bunch of my jewelry.

I'll end with this random picture that I just love.

Did I mention what a good daddy he is?

Okay, now I'm off to do laundry so I can pack! Or maybe I'll just wait 'til tomorrow... Yeah, tomorrow sounds good. ;)

a late memorial recap

2011-06-08T14:56:00.000-05:00

Yes, I realize this post is a little outdated, seeing as it happened well over a week ago, but I couldn't let our Memorial weekend go undocumented. Especially since it involved some very special people...

Chad's parents came to visit for a few days, which was lovely!

The kids got all decked out in their red, white and blue for Memorial Sunday.

And then again for Memorial Monday.

Nana and Papa took the kids to the playground at Addie's school so she could show off her new stunts while Chad and I stayed back and painted the house.

Tate was so worn out, he actually chose to cuddle up with me without being forced into it! That almost never happens. (Please try to ignore my nastiness... remember, I'd been out in the hot sun painting all day!)

Later that day, when the trees were successfully shading our yard, the girls planted their garden.

And we found lots and lots of worms, which the girls actually liked even more than Tate!

We busted out the ladder ball (or blongo ball... whatever you wanna call it), and found that little Adeline is a pretty talented player, although Papa was a pretty tough one to beat too!

Then we made our dinner over the campfire. The girls loved eating hotdogs that they had roasted all by themselves!

And, of course, you can't have a campfire without s'mores!

Ooey, gooey, sticky goodness.

And the girls got to camp out inside their hippo tent that night, which they thought was a real treat!

And that was our Memorial Weekend!

Now I'm missing these little sweeties like crazy...

They're staying at my parents' house this week, which they have never done for longer than one night without mommy or daddy, so this is a real treat for them and Nana and Baba! And it's the perfect week for it as I'm busy getting ready for our VBS next week. I'm the craft lady this year, which was a job I took on before realizing all the work involved! But it's coming along and hopefully next week will be smooth sailing.

But Daddy and I aren't the only ones missing those girls...

Tate's missing his wrestling partners and asks every day, "Addie go? Millie go?" (translation: Where's Addie and Millie?) He would've gotten to go too, except my mom has to work this week and the girls can go along and read books and color, but Tate wouldn't have done so great at that.

Looking forward to reuniting with them again in a few days! :)

our little beat boxer

2011-06-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

Recently, while watching The Electric Company, Tate started bustin' out his beat box skills. Completely self-taught. He's just a natural gangsta. Now he beat boxes whenever he hears rap music, and on command. In this video, he even uses his Papa B's cane as a prop.

the one where I upload the pics from my camera and make a post out of them

2011-05-25T17:15:00.002-05:00

Sorry I've been awol for the past few weeks. (Have I been saying this a lot lately?) I guess we've been a little busy... I couldn't really remember why, so I decided to just upload the pictures from my camera and run through them with you. Hope you don't mind. ;)

Oh yeah. We did this (on a 90 degree day in the middle of May!).

I guess I just couldn't bring myself to sit down at the computer when the outdoors was so alluring.

(Yes, I realize our splotchy grass in these pics is anything but alluring... but it has now been fertilized and is even tempting enough for thoughts of rolling around in its lushness... were it not for hidden piles of dog poop...)

This one brought an instant smile to my face. We've been doing a little disciplining 'round here... those terrible 2's are creeping up on us ever so quickly...

Is it odd that I find "Time Out Tate" so adorable?

Oh, yup. This occupied most of my time...

The annual garage sale. We were worried that with the drizzly chilly weather, it'd be a bust, but we actually had a steady flow of people and sales! The total of everything sold was close to $700! (Not all mine... a few other friends contributed). And the girls were thrilled with the $40 they earned from their lemonade stand and old toys and books!

The girls have been working on these ginormous lollipops for several days now. Luckily, they came in a reusable case so when they tire of the licking, they can continue at a later time. :)

Oh, here's one that makes me want to wake my baby up from his nap just to squeeze him... Tate came down with yet another ear infection last week. Not sure why he doesn't have tubes yet.

But at least it made him extra cuddly. Notice the two blankies. He requires both of these blankies for sleeping. One for each side of his face and to hold in each arm. :)

This was such a rare scene. Tate actually laying down when it wasn't night-night time. This is how I knew he really wasn't feeling well.

This is one that Daddy took because he found his girls looking extra sweet last Sunday in their pink and white dresses. :)

Oh here's a fun one... this past Monday night, we were privileged to get a visit from Chad's cousins traveling through Iowa on their way from Arizona to Michigan.

Bonnie and Erin. Both super sweet girls. Although we had a hard time believing they were old enough to be graduating from college! Wowzers! Where has the time gone? We had a great time catching up with them!

And a reminder that tomorrow is Addie's last day of kindergarten...

Pajama Day! Her week has been filled with fun activities. Monday was Field Day and I was so bummed when I realized I had forgotten my camera! She had so much fun and it was a blast getting to watch her! I just can't believe the year is over. I'm soooo happy to get to have her home now!! But I can't believe that soon she'll be a FIRST grader! YIKES!

And that was all I had on my camera this time.

But let me put a word out there for the tornado victims in Joplin, one of whom happens to by my blog-friend, Sarah. Fortunately, she did not lose her home, but several of her close friends and family have. I know at a time like this, everyone wants to help but often doesn't really know how. But the writers at Bigger Picture Blogs have put together an online auction and all the proceeds are going directly to the Salvation Army for Joplin Relief. Please take a moment to check it out. There are lots of great items, so not only will you be helping the victims, but you'll also be getting a great prize for yourself too! :)

everything's coming up tulips... and mamas

2011-05-09T21:54:00.001-05:00

I'm a Dutch girl.

Through and through. As far as I know, that's the only nationality I have in me. So, I guess you could say I'm a "purebred." ;) Although I guess that would make my children "mutts" since Chad is what he calls "American" (translation - a little mix of everything).

Being that my children are half Dutch, I thought it was vitally important to take them down to Pella for the Tulip Time festival this year so they could see where some of their "roots" stem from. Even though it did mean pulling Addie out of school. But I considered it an educational field trip. ;)

The tulips, of course were in full bloom everywhere.

It was so beautiful and the weather couldn't have been better.

Unfortunately, Chad was unable to come along since he had to teach, but I was able to find another friend and her two kids to come with us.

And with no husbands around to help with the kids, that meant we weren't able to do much shopping at the hundreds of little booths and tents set up all around.

So we played at the park for awhile instead.

Our wallets thanked us later.

Handfuls of dirt and sand are much better than crafty little trinkets anyways, right?

We tried to wear the kids down at the playground so they would sit patiently and wait for the parade.

They did pretty good... although sno-cones didn't hurt either.

Tate wasn't too excited about the loud drummers approaching us every few minutes (actually, he hated them so much he cried big crocodile tears at each boom of the drum), so I got him dancing and clapping to the beat instead which helped relieve his fears immensely!

I loved the sight of my two little girls sitting side by side enjoying all the beautiful floats.

But the highlight of my day was definitely an unexpected reunion. When the parade had finished, I was cleaning up our mess when I heard a strangely familiar voice ("strange" because it was the same voice I knew, just a more "grown up" version) say my name. I turned to see one of my favorite friends from high school, Hollie. Just seeing her face (which really hadn't changed at all in this almost 14-year time span) brought back swarms of memories with her.

She was the friend that I could be completely spontaneous with. Sometimes maybe a little too spontaneous... i.e., leaving "marks" that last a lifetime... *eh-hem* ;) A moment with Hollie was a moment treasured and not forgotten. Just buried with time and new experiences. But so easily recalled... and smiled and laughed upon.

Here we are on my family vacation to Branson. Oh, good times. Remember our "this sucks" plates, Hollie? I'm sure my parents still have that picture... I'll have to dig that up. ;)

If only we had more time to reminisce and catch up. It was so good to see you again, Hollie!

And that was Tulip Time.

Which brings us to Mother's Day.

Yes, we had to have our yearly picture in front of our blooming purple tree (sorry, I don't know what kind it is, so I just call it "purple.") The blooms only last about a week, and lucky for me, it always blooms during the week of Mother's Day.

After church, we went to my brother and sis-in-law's house. And I do know that here we are standing in front of a lilac tree. See, I'm not completely tree-illiterate. Just mostly.

My beautiful mother. I couldn't ask for a better one! I am truly blessed that God gave her to me. She had to put up with an awful lot of "mouth" from this teenage girl. But thankfully, we got through that stage and are now the best of friends! I only hope the same for my daughters and me someday! (Not the mouthy part... just the friends part) ;)

And we enjoyed a lovely Mother's Day meal with fresh-caught salmon as the main course. Oh, yum!

And not to be forgotten...

another wonderful mother in our lives who is truly dear to our hearts. Just unfortunate that distance separates us at these types of holidays.

We love you Mom, and Nana!

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day!

i love winning...

2011-05-05T08:41:00.001-05:00

Who doesn't?

I'd love to be able to say, "Oh, poor me... I never win anything" and try and earn some sympathy points with you, but the truth is... I've kinda been on a winning streak lately. Actually, I think it all started my senior year at my after-prom when I won a dorm fridge - and not one of those little square ones, but a pretty big one complete with a freezer that we still use in our basement. I thought I was pretty big stuff in college with my own fridge. One fun win lately was a sweet Kidorable pirate umbrella for Tate from this Leelou Blogs giveaway. I'm sure that since I'm typing this, my winning streak will now come to an end. Oh well, it's only fair to give the rest of the world a chance.

But my absolute FAVORITE win happened in March when I won my choice of pillowcase dresses from the Pink Dreams of Mine shop on Etsy.

I had already purchased one of her dresses this past fall,

so I was elated when I won the Sneaky Mommy's giveaway.

In fact, I love her dresses so much, that I just had to buy a matching one so the girls could be twinsies!

And at $20 a dress, they're quite a steal! And have I mentioned how impressed I am with the quality of these dresses? Well, I need to because I'm quite impressed. I own a couple other pillowcase dresses that are not nearly as well made as these. The material on hers is much nicer and the dresses I have from her have a cute trim around the bottom. Plus, she has binding around the arm and neck holes, which my other dresses don't have. The ribbons she use also seem to be higher quality because they stay tied much better.

I also love that in cooler weather, they can wear long-sleeved shirts under them or little sweaters over them along with leggings. So they truly are year-round dresses!

Are you thinking I'm going to give one away now? Well... sorry, I'm not. (I say with a sheepish grin) But you'll be a winner if you check out her shop and get one for the little girl in your life!

You'll for sure win the compliments of others. :) I swear to you that every time my girls have worn these dresses, they have gotten gobs of admirers. I know, I know... that's not important, but it's fun nonetheless, right?

So, what have you won lately?

losing her baby-ness

2011-05-02T09:55:00.000-05:00

She thought it would never happen.

I was hoping maybe it wouldn't have to happen.

Maybe she could just stay little forever. Maybe somehow we could stop the natural cycle of life and freeze her at this stage forever.

But, inevitably, the day came. Her first baby tooth finally came out, and an "adult" tooth was already growing into it's place.

"Adult" tooth. Really?

*sigh*

But she was giddy with excitement at this sign of her ever-maturing self.

It happened at Nana and Baba's house on Easter, which made this already amazing day even that much more memorable. I wish I had a way to somehow tie in the loss of a tooth with the resurrection of our Savior, but I'm at a loss here. ;)

Luckily for her, the tooth fairy also visits Nana and Baba's house when a tooth is lost there, so on top of her Easter loot, she also made off with a gold dollar from Silver Dollar City. I'm guessing the tooth fairy resides near Branson?

Nana was the brave one who pulled it out. Chad and I had tried, but we were inexperienced in this area and feared hurting her. Whereas Nana had much experience with the sort, and yanked it right outta there.

Later that evening back at home, we got out the Tooth Fairy pillow my sister-in-law made (you can get one too from her and my friend Abby's soon-to-open Etsy shop, Holly Bloom.. they make lots of fun and cute crafty stuff, from skirts to hair bows to pillows and more!).

Addie tucked her tooth inside the cute little pocket on the back along with a letter she had written to the tooth fairy several weeks before when her tooth first showed signs of wiggling. In her letter, she asked if she could possibly keep her first tooth as a keepsake.

The next morning, she was thrilled to find a dollar bill, her tooth, and a note from the tooth fairy inside the pocket!

This sentimental mama was excited too that the tooth fairy granted Addie's wishes and let her keep her baby tooth. It seems like only yesterday when that tooth was first making it's appearance in my sweet little baby's mouth.

And now my baby's growing up.

And there's nothing I can do about it.

So I guess I'll try and make the most of all these precious little girl moments before they're gone and the "adult" ones show up in their place.

our Easter week (warning: picture overload!)

2011-04-25T14:49:00.001-05:00

What a busy crazy pre-Easter week! We started off our celebration last weekend when my parents came up to take us out for Chad's birthday. (Yes, I realize it was about a month late, but we've been busy!)

My mom was a good sport and colored eggs with the girls. Good thing she did, because their mommy had almost forgotten that Easter was approaching and hadn't even thought about that yet!

After the weekend, we had a busy week with activities every evening, except Thursday, which was good since we were recovering from Tate's incident. And I ended up with a killer headache that started when Tate got hurt and didn't end until Saturday. Sorry for anyone who had to be around me those days. I'm sure I was totally cranky and annoying. I swear that wasn't the real me! (Just don't ask Chad...) ;)

Friday morning we were all exhausted still (and my head was still throbbing), but I had been promising Millie all week that we'd see the Easter bunny. And Friday morning was our last chance, so we headed out to the mall. I believe this was the first time Millie hasn't been terrified to be this close to the bunny.

She was even willing to pose with another bunny at our church for our big Easter Extravaganza this past Saturday. And Addie was thrilled since school had caused her to miss out on the mall bunny.

Tate wasn't quite as thrilled to see the bunny.

Our church hosted a big Easter egg hunt with lots of fun games and big inflatables. And yes, they did of course talk about the REAL meaning of Easter. A super important part of the whole morning. :)

Looks like our family had an advantage in the Cake Walk.

Addie got a tattoo by our resident tattoo artist.

Sunday morning started with fancy outfits and an Easter egg hunt at our house.

Then we took off for church where we were reminded of the awesome forgiveness of our Savior and his glorious resurrection! If you want to hear a really great message, click here!

After church, we drove down to my hometown for a yummy Easter dinner with my parents. They, of course, offered to take a family picture of us, which was good since I had tried to coordinate our outfits (I know - I'm a dork!), although Chad refused to wear a salmon or peach-colored shirt . But really, what's the use of trying to coordinate outfits if there are no photos to account for it? ;)

And then there was another Easter egg hunt!

And there were more than just eggs to find!

Once Tate got a few eggs in his bucket, he got a kick out of emptying it and putting the same ones back in. I'm not sure he understood the purpose of the hunt...

Millie has been so sweet lately. In the picture below, she's bringing a football egg to Tate because she knew he'd like it. She also brought one of her sparkly eggs to Addie too, knowing big sister loves sparkles. :)

Meanwhile, Addie was behaving in a very competitive manner, searching every nook and cranny for those tricky hidden eggs. Wonder where she got that from...

Although she can be competitive, she is also very sweet and helped her little siblings find eggs too (once she had no room for any more). ;)

What?! How did those eggs get way up in the trees? That must be one tall Easter bunny!

Everyone's got a full bucket!

Us girls gabbed in the kitchen while unloading the loot,

while the guys talked about... um, well, I guess whatever guys talk about... and threw around Tate's new football.

And that was our week. Hope you all had a fabulous week and took time to reflect on the real meaning of the season. Here are a few posts that I thought did a great job of reflecting on the day:

Enjoy!

it's all fun and games until...

2011-04-22T09:11:00.000-05:00

...someone gets their eye poked out.

That saying has taken on a whole new reality at our house. Curious? Here's the whole story:

Time: noon yesterday
Location: our house

We had just finished having lunch and I was getting ready to put Millie and Tate down for their naps. But they were having so much fun playing together so I thought, "Well, I'll just take advantage of this time to upload a few pictures to my blog..." (which then never happened, but you'll see that post tomorrow). They were running around in the kitchen and laughing like crazy. I was basking in the sound of them playing so well together.

Then, suddenly, Tate's laughter turned into a scream. And Millie cries, "Mommy, Tate fell on Odie's kennel and I didn't mean to!"

I ran in right away and picked Tate up, only to see that blood had filled his eye. I couldn't even see his eyeball, there was so much blood and it was beginning to pour out. My first thought was that he has lost his sight. Through the blood I could see he was trying to look at me and couldn't get his eye to focus. He was scared. I was scared. Millie was feeling awful.

The only thing I could think to do was call 911. We live 30 minutes from the nearest ER, but I knew the paramedics could be here in just a few minutes. The 911 lady was so great. She could tell I was breaking down and she talked me through everything.

Within a few minutes, a detective was at our house. He was in the area and heard the call on the dispatcher, so he came over to make sure we were okay. He was very friendly and tried to help calm us all down. Although he frightened Millie to death. She still thought it was her fault, although I had told her over and over again that it was just an accident. It was really mommy's fault for leaving Odie's kennel open.

See that long part of his "door" sticking up? That's what he fell on. Yikes.

In another minute, the paramedics were here and they were checking out Tate's eye. They concluded that the important part of his eye (the iris and such) was okay, but there was definitely a cut on his inner eyelid and possibly back farther on his eyeball. At this time, however, the bleeding had stopped, so that was a good sign. They offered to take him by ambulance to the ER, but said I could choose to drive him if I'd rather and if I was in the right state of mind to do it. I don't think I was probably in the right state of mind, but I opted to drive since I knew it would save us a bundle, and at least his vision wasn't in peril anymore.

On the way to the ER, I tried frantically to get ahold of Chad. You see, he doesn't have a cell phone (I know... WHAT?!?) and he wasn't teaching like usual yesterday, he was attending some class off site and I couldn't remember where. So, after calling his school's secretary, she was kind enough to take charge of tracking him down. Which, I guess, took several phone calls and emails all over the place.

At the ER (Chad did eventually get there after a little while), we were so relieved to find out that he had only cut the inside of his eyelid, and his eyeball was unharmed. Needless to say, we were praising God for that! Just a centimeter difference and it could've been a much sadder story.

We did finally get Millie to realize that it wasn't her fault at all. They were just having fun and playing, and that's good, not bad. So she's fine now too. :)

And this little guy...

Well, he might look kinda funny...

But he's definitely back to his ol' self!

Thank you, Lord, for watching out for our son.

And on this Good Friday, may you all take time to reflect on the sacrifice that Christ made for us. If you're looking for a great service to commemorate his death, come to our church tonight! I'd love to see you there! :)

kids' bathroom makeover

2011-04-11T10:41:00.000-05:00

My amazingly talented friend Abby was here a few weeks ago, working her magic in my kids' bathroom. I only wish I had "before" pictures to show you so you could be even more blown away by how she transformed the space.

The inspiration started with the shower curtain that I got at Target. I thought it was perfect for a girl/boy bathroom. Gender neutral, yet fun.

So she took that and ran with her own creative ideas.

Just look at those darling owls above the shower. She personalized them with the kids' favorite colors and eye color. Although we can't quite tell what color Tate's eyes are going to be for sure yet... right now they're kinda bluish/greenish/hazel. But we can always repaint his owls's eyes once we figure it out!

And yes, I do realize that my kids' initials spell out "ATM." If only they did flow with cash instead of squeezing it out of me. Ha.

I also replaced the hardware, which had before been the cheapest-looking fixtures I've ever seen. And I was lucky enough to get new towel bars on huge clearance for just $4.75 each!

I thought this toothbrush holder fit the bathroom's theme just perfectly.

Plus, the kids love it.

It was Abby's ingenious idea to put up a picture of the kids, and she painted the frame for me on the spot.

This light fixture was previously shiny brass (which I don't care for), so I spray painted it a metallic black to match the new hardware.

And the tree. Oh, the tree!

Complete with it's own little critters.

I also needed this tree to serve a purpose, holding the kids' hooded bath towels. So, I found these funky hooks from heliotrope. I ordered the pink ones, thinking they'd be fun for the girls, but once they arrived, I didn't like the shade. They were very "pepto-bismol" looking. So I painted them purple and yellow, which the girls loved and they complemented the bathroom better too.

(The purple one still needs one more coat of paint...)

And Chad made this darling birdhouse hook for Tate's towel. It's so nice having a handy husband.

And, here it is serving it's purpose. Although I like the look much better without the towels. Maybe it would help if I replaced the pink-polka dotted towel with one that matched better.

So there it is, folks! The best part was Addie's reaction when she came home from school that day. She was so happy, she just giggled and giggled. The only downside is that the kids love their new bathroom so much, that it's hard to get them out of there sometimes... like on school mornings when we're already running late, of course.

Thanks again, Abby!

a few recipes and a super warm day!

2011-04-04T08:20:00.000-05:00

I've been craving Asian food lately. And not having been to P.F. Chang's in awhile, I was longing for their lettuce wraps. And since I probably won't get out there again for awhile, I thought I'd try and make our own from a recipe I got from All You magazine. I must say, they turned out really good! In fact, I served them with these Asian meatballs for our small group last night and I had lots of folks asking for the recipes, so I thought I'd just go ahead and post them on here.

Asian Lettuce Wraps

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

2 cloves garlic, minced (if you don't have a garlic press, get one! They're so fun!)

1 1/2 lb. ground turkey

1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth

2 Tbsp. hoisin sauce

2 Tbsp. teriyaki sauce

1 cup bean sprouts

2 carrots, shredded (about 1 cup)

24 large Boston or butter lettuce leaves (iceberg works just fine too if you can't get the other)

Soy sauce, optional

Warm oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
Add garlic, sauté about 1 minute.
Stir in turkey and cook, stirring, until almost cooked through, about 5 minutes.
Add broth and hoisin sauce.
Cook, stirring and breaking up clumps of turkey, until turkey is cooked through, 5-7 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in teriyaki sauce, bean sprouts and carrots. (You should have about 6 cups of filling.)
Spoon about 1/4 cup of filling into center of each lettuce leaf. Serve with soy sauce, if desired.

*For a crock-pot-friendly, large group version, double the recipe and follow the instructions up to bullet 5. Then dump it all in a crock-pot and add the teriyaki sauce. I served the carrots, bean sprouts and soy sauce on the side for people to add on their own, incase they were picky eaters.

(Slow-Cooker) Tangy Asian Meatballs

1 lb. ground pork

1/3 cup panko bread crumbs

3 scallions, white and light-green parts, chopped (I left this out so our kids would eat them!)

1 large egg

1 Tbsp. soy sauce

1 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh ginger (ginger root was $5 at my store (yikes!), so I opted for dried ground ginger instead - if you do this, then use 1/4 Tbsp. of ground ginger)

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 cup barbecue sauce

1/4 cup jarred Chinese plum sauce or duck sauce (I used plum sauce)

2 Tbsp. hoisin sauce

Combine pork, panko, scallions, egg, soy sauce, ginger and garlic in a large bowl.
Mix gently but thoroughly with your fingers.
Roll into 1-inch balls.
Mist slow-cooker with nonstick cooking spray.
Add meatballs.
In a small bowl, whisk together bbq sauce, plum sauce and hoisin sauce.
Pour over meatballs. Gently stir to coat (They fall apart easily, so be very gentle!)
Cover and cook on low until meatballs are cooked through, 3 - 5 hours. (4 worked well for me.)

And incase you don't live in Iowa, and didn't hear about our crazy warm weather yesterday... it reached 87 degrees here! But with the breeze, it was just perfect! Addie went up to a neighbor's yard to play, but these two had quite a fun time in our backyard.

Unfortunately, it dropped 40 degrees overnight! Ugh! But they're promising the rest of the week will be in the 60's. They better be right... whoever "they" are...

our april fool's prank :)

2011-04-02T22:09:00.000-05:00

So, the night before April Fool's Day, I asked the girls if they were going to play any pranks on anyone for April Fools. However, they had no idea what I was talking about, so I thought I needed to educate our girls on what April Fools is all about. And the best way to teach is to "do," right? So, we thought it'd be fun to make Daddy a "sponge cake" - stollen straight from the pages of Family Fun magazine (I'm really not all that creative).

Here are the little pranksters with their cake, made from kitchen sponges, and decorated with frosting and sprinkles.

Here's our unsuspecting victim... all happy that his girls thought to make him a special cake.

And here's the plan carried out in action:

(please pay no attention to that crazy lady's voice... I don't really sound like that, do I?!? Yikes!)

Awww... poor Daddy.

But don't worry, we made it up to him with ice cream for dessert instead! :)

I'd say the girls passed their April Fool's test, wouldn't you?

So, were you the prankster or the "fool" this year? Tell me about it!

Adeline's big news!

2011-03-29T08:47:00.000-05:00

The following is straight from my five-year-old Addie's mouth. I'm just typing it for her.

"I got saved on March 19. Saved means when you bring Jesus into your heart. And then when you die, you'll be in heaven and always have a good time. I knew I needed to ask Jesus into my heart right then because I really wanted to honor Jesus so He could be my King forever. I knew I needed to accept Christ because we are all sinners and he is the only way to heaven because he is perfect and he died on the cross to pay for our sins so we didn't have to if we believe in him with all our heart. Mommy and Daddy helped me by having me read verses in the Bible and I was able to explain them all really well, so they knew I was ready to accept Jesus."

I promise that was all word for word, even the "honor" part. :) Yes, last Saturday night was an exciting night at our house. After enduring the heartbreak of losing a young friend in a tragic accident the day before, we were rejoicing Saturday night with our little girl. She has known for the past few years what Jesus did for her on the cross and has even been able to explain it very well for a long time. But we didn't want her to make the decision to accept Christ just to please us or her Sunday school teachers or even because she just thought that was the "good thing" to do. We wanted her to understand fully what Jesus did for her on the cross and to realize that asking him to save her also meant that she was surrendering her life to him forever.

So, when she approached Daddy out of the blue Saturday night and said she was ready to accept Jesus, we wanted to be sure she knew what she was doing. We had her read these verses from her Bible.

In Romans 3:23, she knew that she was a sinner.
In Rom. 6:23, she explained that because of our sin, we deserve death and that death means eternal separation from God (hell).
But Rom. 5:8 told her that even though we are sinners, God loved us so much that he sent his son Jesus to die in our place.
Then in Ephesians 2:8-9 she learned that it is only by God's grace that we are saved. It is a gift. It cannot be earned. She told us that no matter how good she was, she could never earn her way to heaven. The only way was to trust in what Jesus did for her on the cross.
John 3:16 was a verse she already knew by heart and explained once again that God loved her so much that he sent his son to die for her and all she had to do was believe in him.
John 1:12 said that everyone who receives this gift is a child of God.
And finally, in 1 John 5:13, she read that if we believe these things about Jesus, we can know that we have eternal life. That cannot be taken from us. And we cannot mess up so badly that God disowns us.

After reading these verses, Addie knew right away that she wanted to pray and ask God to forgive her of her sins and become her Savior. She actually said, "Please be my King," which we thought was so precious that she understood it like that. She is now God's princess. :)

I loved her excitement. She jumped up and down, giggling and saying she was just so happy. And she wanted to call her grandparents right away to tell them.

Right after she got off the phone, she asked me if she could read those verses again. She just couldn't get enough of God's word. :)

We, obviously, are so happy about her decision. We pray for all of our kids from the moment they're born that someday they'll come to understand just how much God loves them and to accept his free gift of eternal life. We believe it is our responsibility as parents to raise them up Biblically and teach them God's word, but we cannot place their faith in Christ for them. That is in their's and God's hands. As Chad said, "1 down, 2 to go..." ;)

a shiner, a birthday and a recipe

2011-03-25T12:01:00.003-05:00

You should see the other guy...

Although the "other guy" is a table at the mall food court.

We were just settling down to dine on our home-packed lunch and Millie decided to try and get off the stroller by kneeling on the bench part (it's a sit-n-stand) and grabbing onto the table. However, the wheels were turned sideways and the stroller rolled right out from under her, causing her to smack her face right on the edge of the table and end up hanging upside down from the side of her stroller. There were tears, of course (the poor girl was in a LOT of pain!), but she got over it pretty quickly when I told her she was going to have the beautiful color purple on her face for awhile. ;) And believe me, this picture does not do it justice. It's really quite a dark purple.

Now mommy has to endure the judgmental glares of strangers.

These next two pictures are completely random, but I just had to show off Tate in his little sports jacket.

He really didn't want to cooperate by putting his cup down, so I had to stalk him around with the camera.

Oh well, maybe I'll have better luck next time.

Sunday was Chad's birthday and he wouldn't let me make him a cake since we had so many sweets lying around the house from spring break, so we celebrated with his favorite - Oatmeal Cream Pies!

Aren't their cards just darling? And Addie picked out the camo shorts all by herself. :)

Although Daddy didn't quite know how to wear them properly.

For dinner, Chad requested one of his favorite meals that I used to make all the time when we were first married - Cheesy Italian Sausage Penne.

It was so good.

And here's the super ~~not~~ healthy, but extremely delicious recipe:

Cheesy Sausage Penne

1 pound bulk Italian sausage

1 garlic clove, minced

1 jar (26 oz) spaghetti sauce

1 package (1 pound) penne or medium tube pasta (you can make it healthier with whole grain penne!)

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened (and of course, you could use low-fat but it won't be as good)

1 cup (8 oz) sour cream (ditto above ;)

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

In a large skillet, cook the sausage and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain.
Stir in spaghetti sauce; bring to a boil.
Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions; drain.
In a small mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese and sour cream.
In a greased 9x13 pan, layer half of the pasta and sausage mixture. Dollop with half of the cream cheese mixture and spread it around. Sprinkle with half of the cheese. Repeat layers.
Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until bubbly.

Yield: 12 servings

And if you were hoping for Addie's exciting news or pics of the bathroom, I promise it's coming! Just hold your horses! :)