Thursday, November 8, 2012

Note to Self: Guard the Cupboards!

Note to Self:

Remember to be suspicious of a suddenly quiet two year old.  Unless you are sure he is napping, as there may be trouble in the works!

Mr. Four is loving his naps and his time in his new walker, so I have a free arm a bit more nowadays.  Earlier yesterday, I was having one of those "wow, I am getting lots done today" moments.  I had Mr. Two and Mr. Three help me clean out the fridge (they actually like this chore) and empty the dishwasher.  After a quick dash to pick up Mr. One from school (it was a half day), we were back to work.  I was finally making a dent in the piles that have accumulated around my house as a result of too much sewing and various Halloween activities.  I was feeling really good, so I decided to make homemade rolls and soup.  (Never mind that it is still about 90 degrees outside here still.  It is fall and I wanted to make soup!)

I had Mr. Three in the kitchen with me as I mixed up the bread seasoning for our cheesy rolls.  A spoonful of garlic powder, a dash of basil, a cup of Parmesan cheese...  I popped it in the fridge and left the rising dough on the kitchen counter to tackle the next project:  the laundry.

As I was folding and sorting away, with my little Mr.'s happily playing together, it got really quiet.  I should have been leery of this change in noise level.

After a while, I decided to check in on the boys.  Mr. One and Mr. Two were building Lego Heroes, Mr. Four was still dozing in his crib, and Mr. Three was happily playing in the kitchen.

Wait, Mr. Three is in the kitchen.
With a step stool.
In the spice cupboard.
And it smells kinda funny in there.  Sort of aromatic, and not in a good way...

Well, Mr. Three, being the curious and smart toddler that he is, decided to make his own spice blend in the kitchen.  I will share his recipe, just in case you want to pin it.


Mr. Three's Secret Spice Blend

1 entire jar of ground Cumin
1/2 jar of marjoram
1/2 bottle of oregano
a good helping of chipotle chili powder
a pinch of rubbed sage and basil
whatever else floats your boat

Mix with a clean spoon in a dirty Tupperware container, then sprinkle amongst the family's water cups and counter for good measure.

In all honesty, I was equal parts stunned, angry and amused, so I think he got off pretty lightly with a stern talking-to from a mommy who was stifling a laugh.

I called Mike to tell him about the mess, and to question why it is that our children only go for ruining the more expensive spices.  I declared that Mr. Three is a new kind of two year old.  The other boys didn't do things like this.

Then Mike reminded me of the time Mr. One dumped an entire bottle of powdered ginger in the living room rug.

And the time when I chased Mr. Two around the house, as he giggled and screamed with delight, while he poured a large bottle of baby powder all over the house.

Or the time that the boys decided to play in a newly opened bag of flour...

So this is not a new thing.  I thought I would be more savvy these types of antics by now.

It's a good thing Mr. Four can't reach the cupboards with the "fun stuff" in them.  Yet.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Halloween 2012

Here are snapshots of our Halloween this year.


 Mr. One and Mr. Two are very much obsessed with Star Wars right now.  I attempted to get them excited about a different theme this year, but Mr. One was adamant about wanting to be Luke Skywalker.  I was not too thrilled with this idea, especially considering that my children had not even seen the movies.  Then the idea started to grow on me.  I found several tutorials online and lots of images through Google image searches (thank you internet!), found lots of materials at thrift stores and on sale at fabric stores, and got really excited about the whole project.  After a few weeks of wading through yards of polyester and jersey knit sheets, we had a Star Wars family!


 May the force be with you!  In case you couldn't tell, Mike is Han Solo, I am Princess Leia, Mr. One is Luke Skywalker, Mr. Two is Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi, Mr. Three is the cutest Yoda I've ever seen, and Mr. Four is R2-D2.


Here is another close up of R2.  Mike hand stenciled and painted his onsie and hat.  Oh yeah, I am super lucky to have a creative husband!


Here's Mike's sketch and the carved pumpkin.


Darth Pumpkin was quite the scary site on Halloween.  Again, Mike is our talented pumpkin carver. He loves doing this each year, which is good, because I really dislike carving pumpkins, but the kids love it. 


While I was at Time Out for Women this Saturday with my Mom, Aunt and sisters, they also worked on Sharkie and watched "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown".  Mike even roasted some sweet and savory pumpkin seeds.  Aren't the teeth so fantastic?!


After all the women came back from Time Out, we watched Star Wars episode IV at my parent's house on their big flat screen TV with surround sound.  The boys were totally mesmerized and loved it all.  Mr. Three kept shouting out our names when the characters we dressed as came on screen.  Thank goodness he wasn't disappointed that Yoda didn't make it into the first movie.  Now I am going to hear about Star Wars non-stop for a while now...

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Halloween Odds and Ends


Between the costume sewing, baking, helping with my sister's wedding, and general busyness of life, I have not posted much since, well, since Mr. Four was born.  I have tried to do some fun Halloween and fall activities with my little Mr.'s, and I've even managed to sneak in a few crafts of my own.  Here's a brief rundown of some of them.

I love the way my yarn wreath turned out.  I wasn't sure if it would end up a success or a huge craft fail, but I love the colors and the clean look of it.  Now I want to do more for other seasons.




My boys had a great time making these spiders.  They are just the right touch of bright and mildly creepy for our decor.


We made candy corn sugar cookies.  Mr. One and his friend cut the triangles, and sprinkled the cookies.  It was a fun treat to do together.  The tutorial is from Our Best Bites, using their sugar cookie dough with almond extract.  They were very yummy!


I made up this simple sensory tub activity for the boys, found here.  They had lots of fun searching for the ghosts and shouting, "Boo!  I found you!"

I can't wait for tomorrow's fun and trick or treating!  Luckily the force was with me in making our family's costumes this year (wink).  Pictures here in a few days. 


Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Dinos on the Brain

 

I had quite a bit of peanut butter cookie dough left after the kiss cookie incident, so I decided to do something fun with the kids in order to use it.  I let them take some clean plastic dinos and make footprints in the cookies. 

 
They loved it.


They turned out great, although I would probably use a peanut butter cookie dough that was meant to be baked and eaten without the kisses, as this dough is much better paired with some chocolate.  My little dinosaurs loved them just the same though. 

The boys had a great time playing with my container of dinosaurs, making them roar and stomp around the house.

They had so much fun playing with the dinos, I started looking up some other dinosaur-themed activities for my boys to enjoy.

I found these great dino preschool pack from 3Dinosaurs and kindergarten pack from Royal Baloo.

We have had lots of fun excavating plastic dinosaurs from eggs in the past.  My kids love smashing the soil eggs with a hammer to find the dinosaur inside.  Luckily, we have done this activity at story time and at a museum activity, so I haven't had to make them myself.  However, here is a link for how to make your own.

*These are all great ideas, but, to be honest, we didn't really do any of these additional activities.  Ideas saved for another time!*

We did do some dino reading, because you can never read enough good books. :)

Here are some of my favorite dinosaur books:


We have two dinosaur books by Aliki, Dinosaur Bones and Digging up Dinosaurs.  Both non-fiction books contain information on dinosaur history, how they were discovered, how scientists find and put together the skeletons we see in museums, etc.  Both use easy to understand wording and illustrations to help children better understand the science of dinosaur fossils.

Dinosaur Time by Peggy Parish is an older early reader.  Although some of the science of the dinosaurs in the book may be outdated, it is a great easy to read book for the dino loving child. 

Dinosaur Roar by Paul and Henrietta Stickland is a toddler favorite at our house.  It is a rhyming book of dino opposites.  With simple text and cartoon-ish dinosaurs, my two year old especially likes this one.

The How Do Dinosaurs... series by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague are also favorites at our house.  They feature great detailed dinosaur illustrations, who behave (or often misbehave) like some of the children that may or may not be in your own home or neighborhood...  Humorous and warm, with simple rhyming text.

Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff was a personal favorite of Mike's and one I remember reading as a young child as well.  A dinosaur lives in a museum until one day, he wakes up and goes on an adventure with a young boy, Danny.  What little boy (or girl) hasn't imagined what it would be like to have their own dinosaur adventure?  Another easy to read book with an inventive story.

I have a feeling we will be having more dinosaur fun in the future, but for now, we are immersed Halloween activities.  More on that to come...

Monday, October 8, 2012

Peanut Butter Kisses

We spent Labor Day weekend in New Mexico with my brother's family and my aunt's family for my sweet niece's blessing.  It was a nice, lazy weekend full of family and food (I know this is a theme with my side of the family) and a trip to the breathtaking Canyon de Shelly. 




For our Sunday picnic, I decided to make cookies to share.  Late Friday night (we left Saturday morning), I began mixing cookie dough, in between the laundry and cleaning and packing.  Mr. Three, as usual, was wide awake and wanting to assist in all the tasks at hand.  Oh how I wish that kid would learn to sleep at normal child times...

In order to keep his little hands busy, and out of a bit of desperation on my part to get things done, I thought to have him help unwrap Hershey's Kisses for the cookies.  As I mixed the peanut butter and sugar, eggs and baking soda, he unwrapped.  I was making good progress with the dough, and Mr. Three was happily at work.  I had him on a chair right next to me, so I felt I was supervising him adeaquately.  Mike was in the other room working on packing.  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the bowl of kisses getting larger.

"Good,"  I thought, "he's not eating all of them."

As the dough came together and my attention turned towards forming the cookies and adding the kisses, I noticed Mr. Three spitting into the garbage can, and I could see a kiss or two entering his mouth.  Then, I started to pay more attention to my little helper.

He had bit the tip off of his kiss and put the rest of it into the bowl.  "That's kind of funny.  Well, there goes one kiss," I thought.

Then I took a closer look into the bowl.


Every. Single. Hershey's Kiss had little tooth marks and no tip.

In his defense, I did tell him not to eat all of the chocolates.  And he didn't eat all of them.

Call it two year old quality control.

Needless to say, we weren't able to bring a whole batch of kiss cookies with us to New Mexico.  Luckily, there were lots of other sweet treats to share.

Now Mr. Three has his own bag of "special chocolates" that he will be eating from for a long time.


Good thing he's so kissably sweet himself and I can't get mad at this face for too long...


Kiss, kiss!


Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
2 Tablespoons milk
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
48 chocolate kisses

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream sugars, vanilla, shortening, peanut butter, egg and milk.  Add dry ingredients and mix well. Shape into small balls and roll in sugar.  Place on cookie sheet and bake for approximately 10 minutes, until slightly brown.  Place a kiss immediately in the center of each cookie after taking out of the oven.

Give someone you love a kiss or two today!

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Love Is Picking Up the Broken Pieces

Earlier this summer, I had a case full of memories shatter before my very eyes.  Literally.

My dining room hutch displayed trinkets and treasures accumulated throughout my life.  Fragile miniature penguins, gifted by various loved ones (I had quite the collection), wedding momentos, a tiny ceramic tea set lovingly painted by my grandmother, antique dishes and framed wedding photos.  Crystal and porcelian, ceramics and glass.



Then I tripped and braced myself against the hutch and it all came tumbling down, in one earth-shattering crash.  I screamed.  The kids screamed.  Then I saw the horror of broken pieces of my past scattered all around my dining room floor.  It hurt my sentimental heart.  Then, I sobbed.  I sobbed and sobbed, and tried to keep my babies out of the wreckage.  When I thought I had myself collected enough to talk, I called Mike at work.  But as I tried to explain what had happened, I couldn't get the words out, and I bawled.  My poor husband thought something was seriously wrong with me or one of the kids.  I didn't even realize he was thinking something far worse than broken dishes was happening at home.  When I finally articulated the cause of my distress, he quickly got in his car and headed home.

He came in, made sure everyone was ok, then just held me as I cried for a bit.  I was a mess.  But, in those few moments, I felt at peace.  Then, he calmly went about bandaging Mr. Two's foot (who decided to walk through the glass after being told not to), and picking up the shattered bits.  He then made a catalog of what was lost, with the thin hope of replacing some of it at some future point.  He picked up the broken pieces when I could not.  He was my anchor when I felt adrift and stayed until I could function again.  As he left, I knew that all would be right.  That things are just things, no matter the sentiment and value attached.  Family.  Relationships.  Love.  Those are things that are most precious.  Those are the things we need to guard and protect.  My earthly treasures may have shattered that day, but I realized who my true treasures are.  At the top of my list?  A husband who is willing to sort through the mess and put his arm around me in the midst of the tumult.

Love is picking up the broken pieces.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Chocolate Waffles Two Ways





My Uncle Eddie was my dad's oldest brother.  He was a farmer and a great cook, besides an all around loving and kind man.  I remember a summer tractor ride up and down rows of melons, with him picking one and cutting it up right there for us to sample.  His watermelons were so delicious.  We loved jumping on his and Aunt Jean's trampoline, running around their yard with cousins, and sitting and listening to him and the other adults tell stories of their days growing up on a farm.  When we would be in the Gila Valley for a visit, we loved going over to his home, especially on Sundays.  Uncle Eddie started a yummy tradition of baking chocolate waffles, especially on Sunday evenings.  Nothing was better than those waffles, topped with a scoop of ice cream, except for his famous pizza, but that's another story.


These waffles are a perfect summer treat.  Warm, without having to use your oven, with a cold scoop of ice cream to cool everything down.

Uncle Eddie's Chocolate Waffles

1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup buttermilk

Melt butter or margarine.  Add cocoa, sugar and anil.  Add buttermilk, flour, cream of tartar.  Blend.  Add eggs.  Mix.  Spray waffle iron with cooking spray and fill as directed.

These are extra yummy with a scoop of vanilla (or mint chocolate chip) ice cream on top.  Eat warm.

Now, my uncle's recipe really is the best, but I have also discovered an easy alternative if you are short on time or ingredients.  I kept seeing this idea on pinterest and I was skeptical, but I decided to give it a try.  I was happily surprised.

Just take a boxed cake mix and mix as directed with eggs water and oil.  Then, just pour batter into your waffle maker and bake like normal breakfast waffles.  Yummy and simple.  I will say that they spread and rise more than a typical waffle, so don't fill your iron too full or you'll end up with a chocolatey mess.  Take my word for it :) 

My boys had fun helping to make these, and you can freeze either version of these chocolate waffles to reheat and enjoy later.  Happy eating!

Monday, July 9, 2012

Water Play

In Arizona, there are two types of activities that you can enjoy in the summer heat:  outside activities that involve water or inside activities that involve air conditioning!  We are taking advantage of both this summer.  Here are some of our favorite indoor and outdoor water activities.

Outside:

The boys really love the water table.  Pouring, squirting and splashing themselves, the patio and each other.


I added some ocean objects to the water table (plastic sea animals, shells, plastic jewels, fish puppets, squirt puffer fish) and they loved playing outside even more. 

 
 
An added bonus was the fact that more water seemed to stay in the table with the extra toys to play with, so they could stay out longer. 



Now, if I could just find a way to keep Mr. Three away from the water spigot.  Wow, that boy loves the water!

Popsicles.  Who doesn't love a popsicle on a hot day?  This has become an almost daily ritual:  run errands/do cleaning around house, then go outside for a treat!


More science with colored water in plastic bottles (for more details, see this post).



We have plans to visit a few splash pads and community pools this summer as well.  Sorry no pics yet.  Maybe we should blow up the kiddie pool I bought last year and let them play at Grammie and Grandpa's house this summer, too...

Inside:

Glow sticks in the bathtub.  Thanks to my sister-in-law Eva for this fun idea.  I couldn't drag Mr. Three out of the tub, he loved this so much!  Adding bubbles made this even more fun, as the light diffused through the bubbles.


Water beads.  I ordered several packages of them through Amazon, but they are everywhere now.   My boys love playing with them.  Mr. Two was especially interested in watching them grow in the water.  The clear ones are really interesting, as they are basically invisible in the water. The kids have had fun squishing them, pouring and spooning them into different containers, sorting them and observing their changes as the absorb water and dry out.



Ok, so this one's not technically an activity with water, but vinegar's wet.  I colored vinegar in bowls, gave them medicine droppers and let them go to town with a tray full of baking soda.  This was great fizzy fun for my three oldest.  Then we had to mix the remaining sludge into something even messier after the fizz ended.  Good, messy fun for the kids.




I couldn't resist adding a cute pic of Mr. Four.  He likes to drool, so we can count him in the category of water fun, too, I guess.  Oh how this baby makes us happy!


Hope you are having a fun, wet summer as well.  Splash away!


 

Friday, June 8, 2012

Summer So Far...

So our summer has started out with a bang... literally.  Here's a brief update for all who are interested.

I spent the last few days of school in bed with a horrible infection that completely knocked me out.  Thank goodness for a mom close by who let me sleep, offered liquids, and watched my darling little ones so that I could recover and my handsome husband could stay at work.  Luckily, I recovered before the last day of school so I could attend the end of year festivities in preschool.

Memorial Day weekend was spent in the mountains relaxing in Heber with my family in my sis-in-law's aunt's cabin.  The men had fun playing paintball.  The women crafted (burlap wreaths with felt flowers).  The little boys loved playing indoors and out.  We took a late night walk, tucked boys into bunk beds on the sleeping porch, letting them giggle and talk while the adults enjoyed time together.  We played games, laughed, visited, and ate lots of good food.  Oh, the weather was perfect.  The lovely smells of pine and the gentle wind blowing.  Watching the squirrels chase each other up the trees.  Playing Fruit Ninja for the first time.  OK, so that one doesn't really fit in with camping, but still fun nonetheless. 

It was the perfect calm before the storm.

Thursday brought a fever and chills for Mr. One.  After lots of Gatorade and fever reducer, he was recovered by Friday afternoon.

Mr. Four was to be blessed in our church on Sunday, so we had several members of Mike's family in town, coming Friday and Saturday.  We looked forward to another good, relaxing weekend of food and visiting and all that good stuff.

Saturday we spent the late afternoon at a great aquatic center in Chandler.  The boys loved playing in the water and splashing their aunts and uncles and cousins.  We decided to head home at 6:00pm and get cleaned up for dinner.  As Mike drove our family to Sweet Tomatoes (a family favorite), close to 8:00, nearly there, we were suddenly T-boned by a large truck.  It happened so fast, I didn't really understand what was going on.  The airbags went off, turning our car into a sulfurous, smoke-filled scene of confusion.  The boys were screaming, the doors on the passenger side jammed shut.

Have you ever been in an accident with loved ones in your car?  Do you understand the agonizing moment after you quickly assess yourself and need to look back to make sure everyone else is alright?  I am so so so lucky that both times we have had our cars in a large wreck, we have all walked away with little more than bruises and headaches.  Thank goodness all were fine.  Mike's hand was singed, my right arm bruised and scratched from the airbags, but that's about it.  The boys were scared, wide-eyed and trapped in their car seats, but safe.  We had family right behind us, so they were able to park and come right away to help us, other family members close by at the restaurant came soon after.  What a relief to have your family literally surround you in a crazy moment like that.  Well, we spent the next hour on the grassy hill-like side of the road as the police came and got things sorted out, and we watched yet another minivan get towed off.

Needless to say, our car is totaled.

At least Sweet Tomatoes was open until 10:00, so we could still eat.  Wow, were we hungry by the time we all finally got there!  We actually had a nice time eating and visiting despite the earlier drama.

Sunday, we managed to all get to church on time to bless sweet Mr. Four.  It was a beautiful blessing, and I felt the love and protection of Heavenly Father as Mike prayed and our priesthood-holding family held that babe in their arms.  There, in that moment, was a little piece of heaven, a reminder of what is really important.

 As we returned home after our meeting, I realized that our house was warm.  Too warm.  Our A/C was not working.  Sigh.  Another snag.  Luckily, we had already planned on eating dinner all together at my parents' house and not our house!

Monday brought a fever and sore throat to Mr. Two and fussiness for Mr. Four after his 2 month immunizations.  Here we go again...

My brother and sister in law and daughter stayed for a few extra days for a little mini vacation.  They were so sweet to offer us their car and help.  I think if they had any desire to live in Arizona, we pretty much squashed that after spending an evening in our really warm house, witnessing our car crash, and being around sick children.  So sorry Joe and Jenny!

It is now Friday and things are finally looking up.  Our A/C is fixed.  No one is running a fever.  We have a rental car.  We are very close to getting the check for the van.  Bruises are healing.  We have decided that good things are around the corner for us.  I am looking forward to some nice, quiet summer days!  I've had enough drama, thanks. (Oh and yes, that is a butterfly bandage on Mr. Two's forehead.  He ran into the corner of the table yesterday, but he's just fine.)  Bring on the mid-afternoon naps and the popsicles!


Friday, May 18, 2012

Need a Lift?

Did anyone else feel a little inadequate this Mother's Day? I appreciated all of the kind words spoken, the sweet handmade gifts from my boys, and my husband making breakfast, the flowers, the encouraging words spoken in church.  I am a lucky mom, but I admit, I have been feeling a bit low lately.  Raising young children is hard work.

My mom sent me a link to this video for Mother's Day and it changed my perspective. 

Watch it, especially if you need a little lift. 
I know I did.  
I still do.  

 

To all who mother young children, whether you've given birth to them or not (because all women are indeed mothers), hang in there.  
We are not in this alone.

P.S.- Notice the family with the little boys trying to pray?  I can totally relate!

Friday, May 4, 2012

Mr. Three's Second Birthday

Mr. Three turned two on General Conference weekend.  Since we were with my family that weekend watching conference, we celebrated his birthday together.  One of our traditions is making the birthday person's favorite meal.  This proved a challenge for Mr. Three.  He is a picky eater.  However there are a few things he will always eat:  strawberries, candy and bacon.  Yes, bacon.  We made sure to have lots of bacon on his special day, but the silly little guy wouldn't even touch it.  Well, we tried!  He did eat the strawberries, though.


We also decided that he would really like Nutella cupcakes, too.  (Ahem, maybe Mom decided he wanted them...)  They were delicious, but again, Mr. Two hardly touched his.

So the food didn't go over terribly well, but we sure hit the bulls-eye with his presents.


He was so cute opening up his presents all by himself, and exclaiming, "Oh!" after opening each one.

Four days a week, we walk Mr. Two across the elementary school campus to take him to preschool.  Mr. Three has watched with envy as his older brothers put on their backpacks and fill up their water bottles to go to school.  He will take their old backpacks and wear them all around the house.  I knew that he'd love to have his own water bottle and backpack.  Auntie Carla found a perfect little Toy Story pack for him.  We also found a Cars water bottle for him.  He wears his pack to take his brother to school most days, with his water bottle and other random items stuffed inside.  It's so cute!

Mr. Three also has a stuffed puppy that he sleeps with every night, and Aunt Sarah found a soft Snoopy for him to love on as well.  He snuggles up with his two dogs every night (well, when he actually decides to stay in his bed at night, but that's another post.).


I made him his own superhero cape, like his big brothers.  He wanted to put it on right away.  So cute!

Grammy and Grandpa also found him a little talking laptop.  He loves electronics, so this was a natural hit.  He especially likes to play with it during bedtime and nap time, any time he's supposed to be quiet.  Gotta love toddlers!


The last gift we found was a water activity table.  He loves playing in the water.  Remember this post?  This was the perfect gift for him, and Aunt Jenny's gift of water/sand toys was the perfect compliment.  He and his brothers can play happily outside in the water table for long periods of time.  I'm the one that has to stop the fun because, either they have started to make a large mud mess with all the spilled water, or Mr. Three has dumped most of the water out of the table onto the ground, himself and/or his brothers.

Mr. Three is such a happy addition to our family.  We love his fun-loving, independent spirit.  It has been especially exciting to have him start talking in sentences now.  He loves to parrot family members and likes to talk in the car.  We don't always understand all that he is saying, but he enjoys being part of the conversation.  His cheeks are totally kissable and I will take any hugs and kisses he decides to send my way!  Even with all of the mischief he can get into, we love having him in our home.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Little Mister Four

Introducing Little Mr. 4.

He arrived on April 2nd, weighing 8 lbs. 14 oz.  I think that a large portion of that weight was in those chubby cheeks.


We love his plump little face, long legs and that heavenly baby smell.  He is sweet and we love having him here in our home.


He is keeping us really busy.  Too busy to blog.

I will try and update more often, but if you're wondering what we are up to at our house, here's a little peek.


Mr. One is usually face-first in a book these days, loving the Magic Treehouse chapter books and anything to do with Legos.  He's getting ready for his piano recital and will speed-play his song every day.

Mr. Two is busy building, drawing and playing.  He is enjoying preschool and making friends.  Both he and Mr. One love holding Mr. Four and are generally helpful.

Mr. Three is asserting himself as an independent, curious two year old.  He started this by launching himself out of the crib one day after Mr. Four and I came home from the hospital.  That meant a toddler bed for him pronto.  He loves to take advantage of baby feeding time.  If Mom is feeding the baby, then he knows he has opportunity to get into things he knows he shouldn't (the sink, his brothers' toy bins, the garbage, scissors, pens, etc.).  He also has decided that he doesn't want to sleep any more.  Not cool, but we're handling it.  It's a good thing he's so adorable.




Mike has been extremely helpful and jumps in to do what he can to keep our home in one piece and give attention to whoever needs it the most when he is home.  I don't know what I'd do without him! 

I have lots of help from family, especially my mom.  I am so spoiled with all she does to help during the day, like watching Mr. Three so I can take a nap when Mr. Four is slumbering.  It means so much just to have someone to talk to during the day as well!

Even with help, I've been really overwhelmed and tired.  Our together time at home consists of movies, playing Wii games, lots of story books and independent play.  Not a lot of structured activities.  Let's face it, I'm in survival mode right now, and that's just fine with me. I hope to plan out some fun activities for the summer to keep my kids busy and happy.  But that can wait for another day...



Excuse me now, while I pick up my hungry little baby and take the dental floss away from Mr. Three, oh, and I think we all need a nap!