Snowman, Haircut and Soccer

Roy starting his big project.


It was a little too big for the kids to help.


The finished product. This was around 11am.


By noon it was melting and starting to lean.


This is what it looked like when we got home from church at 4 that afternoon. So Roy had the kids try to push him over. It took awhile for them to find the right spot. Take a good look in the video at 40 seconds. Rae steps back and goes forward with her shoulders like they always do in cartoons - it's so cute!




The next day the bottom of the snowman was the only sign of snow.

In other news, we decided Blaise desperately needed a haircut. It looked fine when it was smoothed down, but most of the time his hair was ridiculously messy. So we finally broke down and bought a hair buzzer thingy. (We had one before but it was a really cheap one that didn't work very well) We were going to try to give him a decent haircut, but he does not handle haircuts very well, so we just buzzed it all around.

Before.
After. It took me a while to get used to it, but I think he looks good both ways. I miss his long, beautiful hair, but this is definitely much easier!


And in other news, Rae had her first soccer game today! It was cold and windy and Rae was not in the mood to play. She and her friend were very distracted and pretty silly at the beginning of the game. By the end of the game Rae was just grumpy and refused to play. She kicked the ball one time - the rest of the time she just let it go right past her. She never ran towards the ball or anything. Hopefully she'll be more entergentic and enthusiastic when it's warmer. Or maybe I'll have to sign her up for dance classes or science classes or something. She said she likes practices better, probably because she gets a chance to have her own ball to kick around! Hopefully it'll get warmer and the next game in two weeks will be more enjoyable.

Goofing around.
The first time the ball came towards them.

"What am I supposed to do??"

Well, at least she turned towards the ball.


"I'm done!"

Totally slacking

I just haven't been in the mood to blog lately. I won't go into too much detail about Michigan, because it will take too long, so I'll just write about the highlights.

Roy's interview was on Thursday, so the kids and I just hung out and shopped and swam in our hotel pool. It was a nice, relaxing day.



We went to Chuck E. Cheese's for lunch. Man, their pizza is horrible!


Rae got lost in the tunnels. She kept coming to this spot and looking out the window to figure out how to get out. It was so sad but so funny! I had to send a little boy up there to help her!


Friday we got up and headed to Frankenmuth for the day. Did you click on the link? Do it. Frankenmuth is a little tourist town with Bavarian-themed shops and restaurants. Roy grew up going there a lot. It was so fun! There were tons of candy shops and fudge shops (man, you could smell the fudge from the street!) and toy shops. It was like being in Germany again! I got a couple of yummy German pretzels. Then we headed over to Bronner's Christmas Store. It's the world's largest Christmas store. (Roy went there when he was a kid) The kids had a lot of fun. After that we went to a McDonald's down the street that was even Bavarian-themed! If you are ever in the area of Frankenmuth, I definitely recommend going!



In this cheese shop they had "chocolate cheese". (I don't know how they made theirs, but this is the only thing I could find when I googled it. Roy loves it, but I couldn't even swallow it!

I really wish I had gotten one of these! They were expensive, but I should have splurged! But I had really bad heartburn that week and figured this would make it worse.

A huge Santa outside of Bronners.

Distance from Bronners to various places.

Giant polar bear giving Rae a hug.



The McDonalds we ate at.


We went back into Saginaw (well, actually Bay City) and stayed another night. Saturday morning we drove into Flint (where Roy grew up) and spent an hour looking at the houses he used to live in. It was neat to see Roy remember little details about the area and neighborhoods. When we got to the house where he lived when he was ages 4-6 he remembered that there was a playground around the block, so we went there for the kids to play. And then we went to the trailer park where he lived when he was ages 6-13 and he took pictures of the creek he used to cross to walk to school. We also stopped by his old school. Even if Roy doesn't get the job in Saginaw I'm glad our whole family went on this trip so we could all see where Roy grew up. It was pretty neat.


Roy lived here from ages 4-6


The playground around the block.



His old school.

We drove all day Saturday and got home by 10pm to a lovely snowstorm. Gee whiz, can't spring have a turn?! It all melted the next day, but not before we had a chance to make one last* snowman! (*That's what we said about the snowman we made a couple of months ago!)

The snow that was there to welcome us home!



This week has been off and on rainy one day, sunny the next day. We try to enjoy the sunny days as much as possible! It's supposed to be warm and sunny tomorrow, so Rae might actually have a soccer game! (Her game on Saturday got canceled and so did her practice on Monday) Roy won't hear from Saginaw till Monday at the earliest, so I'll keep you posted! And I'll post pictures of our gigantic snowman later.

Happy Birthday Colin!

Rae says she misses you and hopes she gets to see you soon - she said she likes playing games on the tv with you! Hope you have a great birthday!

(Preview)

Ashley's slacking, so here's a preview of her eventual next post.

- The Husband

Trying to catch up

There's so much I want to write about but I just haven't had the time lately. I want to do a whole post about Rae and all of the things she's been up to lately. Having a 4 1/2 year old is a lot of fun! She had a fantastic time at soccer practice Monday night. She was a little goofy- dancing around when she should have been listening, but she has the skills to make up for it :) I forgot my camera but I snapped a few pictures on my cell phone, so I'll post those sometime soon. Roy tried to make fun of me saying that I was now a "soccer mom" but that's a great compliment for me! I've always been athletic and couldn't wait for the day when my kids would start sports. In fact, when I married non-athletic Roy I worried I'd end up with couch potato, computer building geniuses, but I won't let that happen ;) Okay, maybe they can be athletic geniuses :)

Anyway, we leave this afternoon for Michigan, so I have a lot to do to get ready. I'm going to have so much to catch up on next week!

She's been waiting.... and.... waiting

At the beginning of the month I signed Rae up for soccer. She has been so excited and asks on a daily basis when she starts. We bought shin pads, shoes and a soccer ball. Her first practice is tonight but it's raining. :( I really hope it will clear up and dry up in time, but it is very unlikely. It makes me so sad! Also, she has to miss her first game this weekend because we'll be out of town. She doesn't know that she'll be missing it though, so that makes it a little better. I'm really hoping that if practice gets canceled today they'll reschedule it for tomorrow.

When your kids are faced with disappointments like this do you feel like you have to make it up to them somehow? I know that they've gotta get used to things getting canceled and plans getting messed up. But I find myself saying things like "well, there's not going to be any soccer tonight because of the rain, so how about you and I go out for some ice cream." And Rae has been asking to go to Chuck E Cheese so I was thinking of taking her this weekend while we are out of town since she has to miss her game. (Even though she doesn't even KNOW she is missing a game!) I guess it is probably okay to do every once in a while but I probably do it too often, and I think Rae probably expects it sometimes. Hmmm, I think this may be a sign that I am feeling guilty for other slacking I've been doing and other times when I'm too busy to just play with the kids. What do you think? Do you do the same thing?

Update: It stopped raining and the sun came out! It's really really windy, but I'm thinking there will still be practice - yay!

I'm not so sure about this....

Roy has a campus interview in Saginaw, MI next week. He also teaches every day of the week, so it is really hard to arrange a time when he can be away. Oh yeah, let's throw in the fact that the nearest airport is 3 hours away. We have an airport here that has flights to St.Louis, but they only have two flights a day - one in the morning, one in the evening. And the airport in Saginaw is small too - just two airlines and not a whole lot of early morning or late evening flights (which is what Roy needed) So, anyway, we did a ton of searching and there was just no way Roy could fly without missing an extra day of classes, so he is going to drive! Oh, and even if he had found a flight, by the time he drove to the airport and flew to Saginaw (there are no non-stop flights) it would have been about 6-8 hours of travel anyway. The drive is about 11 hours.

So, how about we make it a little more interesting and have the whole family go?! Saginaw is about 30 miles away from where Roy grew up (Flint), so we thought this would be a nice chance to go see his hometown. (And also see what Saginaw is like in case he gets an offer there) We are leaving Wednesday afternoon at 2:30, right after Roy's last class. His interview starts at 9am on Thursday. We are hoping he'll be able to sleep while I do some of the driving....and of course hoping that the kids are angels! Then we have all day Friday and Saturday to explore and we'll drive home on Sunday. (We might make half the drive home Saturday afternoon) Should be an interesting adventure!

Poor Roy - he's got so much to do. He has to prepare for an interview, get subs for his classes, do all the regular class prep work and try to keep up on sleep so he isn't dead by the time the interview comes! He was up till 4 in the morning Friday night and last night (thankfully we don't have church till 1pm) I'm trying to feel sorry for him instead of myself :) I'm trying to keep his household duties to a minimum, which means not as many things are getting done around here! :) He's such an amazing guy - he never complains about anything. I bet a lot of us wish we could be more like our husbands when it comes to not whining so much!

Anyway, I'm excited, but it's been a while since our kids have been on that long of a drive, so we'll see how it goes! I'm packing the Benadryl! Wish us luck!

Oh, and I totally need to post about St.Patrick's Day - maybe I'll get around to that this evening.

Stupid Walmart

Has anyone else had trouble finding White Cloud diapers? We haven't been able to get them for about a month now. I'm wondering if it is just our Walmart or if maybe White Cloud is being discontinued. For now we are stuck using Parent's Choice - yuck. I've tried Target's store brand and I don't like theirs at all. Has anyone tried Costco's diapers? Any good? Suggestions for other diapers I should try?

Sigh, I was completely satisfied with White Cloud and I'm so bummed that I can't find them. I have such huge trials in my life. :)

Finishing up Spring break

After we left the zoo we drove a little ways out of St.Louis towards home and stopped at a Costco. My leg was feeling a little bit better, good enough to walk around. We got a few things and a few samples and then went down the street to Chili's for lunch/dinner. Yum yum yum. When we got back in the car Blaise fell asleep immediately and Rae was being really good. It was a peaceful drive. I had to pee after a while (I can't go more than an hour in the car without having to pee - so annoying!) so we stopped at a cheesy souvenir shop. We ended up being there about 30 minutes - there was so much to see! We bought the kids some rock candy and I had some flashbacks of trips to Quartzite!

Anyway, we drove to Columbia, which is about halfway home and stopped at the mall so the kids could ride the carousel and get some wiggles out. They had a great time there. The rest of the drive home they watched a movie and amazingly stayed awake. We got home around 9:30pm and all went straight to bed. It was good to get away for a bit. But back to reality! Thursday Roy had a phone interview so he was in his office all day. I was still in a lot of pain, so I spent the day on the couch and the kids spent the day whining and trashing the house! Luckily I felt better on Friday. On Saturday we went out to the lake and enjoyed some fresh air and the beautiful weather. We spent the rest of the day catching up on chores, cleaning out the van (which included re-arranging the carseats to make room for Isaac) and enjoying the last of our time with daddy! It was a great week and we are so sad to have Roy back in full-swing and busy, busy, busy. But we've had a couple of warm days this week, so it's been okay. It's amazing what a difference some sunshine can make in my life!

In other news - we still don't know where we will be next year. Roy has an offer to stay here and that was the plan, but now a couple of schools have shown some interest in him, so we are waiting to see what happens with that. We'll keep you posted.

So-so St. Louis Part II

Wednesday morning we got up and hit the free breakfast at the hotel. It was very tasty. We got dressed and packed up and managed to get out the door a lot earlier than I thought we would. I wanted to get to the zoo as early as possible because the Children's Zoo is free the first hour that the zoo is open. (The actual zoo is free to get into and then they charge for certain exhibits and rides) We got there and had the whole place to ourselves! The reason? It was a nippy 35 degrees and windy! Luckily I had brought our winter jackets and even gloves, but it was still too cold! We went straight to the children's zoo and there was a nice indoor area for the kids to explore. We went there first to warm up.



Blaise wasn't really interested in any of the animals, he just wanted to sit in this car the whole time. They had some cute guinea pigs to pet and hold and he liked that, but the rest of the time he was "driving". Rae was also more interested in the toys and climbing area than the actual animals. Oh well. At least we were warm :) After a while we ventured back outside and walked around the rest of the children's zoo. They had some fun slides and ropes to climb on, but it was just too cold! There was ice on the slides. :(

The kids really wanted to ride the carousel, so we headed in that direction next. We stopped at the penguins. They were so cute! They were getting fed when we there, so that was fun. Rae and the kids went inside the exhibit to see more, but I stayed outside because the smell was too strong for me.



Puffins.



If you look closely on the left you can see one swimming towards Rae. Man, they were so cute!

We headed to the carousel next but it was closed! :( The train was closed too. Major bummer. And by this point my leg was starting to hurt a bunch (I think I pulled something while I was ice skating or when I was playing around in the children's zoo) and the kids were starting to get a little tired and cold and bored. We went to see the "big cats" next and the kids really liked that. Then we stopped to eat our lunch but it was too cold to sit for more than 5 minutes! By this point the kids were really really ticked. We went into the bird exhibit next to warm up again! These are the only other pictures we have at the zoo:



My leg was really really hurting!



Blaise hates to be cold - he was pretty unhappy the whole time.



Rae was probably the happiest of all of us.


We really wanted to see the elephants but decided they were too long of a walk away and the kids wouldn't care anyway. So we stopped by the sea lions and then the gift shop (luckily they had some cool stuff on clearance, so we were actually able to buy the kids a few things) and then we left! Fairly uneventful and disappointing trip to the zoo, but at least it was free! Across the street from the zoo (where we parked, to save $11!) they have all these turtles to climb on. Roy took them to do that while I sat in the car and planned our route to Costco. I think they had more fun on the turtles than they did in the zoo! And Roy took a ton of pictures of them!



"Feeding" the turtles.







I'll finish this up with Part III tomorrow.

Someday

I really will get around to posting about the rest of our St Louis trip soon. But today was full of outside fun (yay for the sun!) and tons of chores and now I'm pooped and just want to hang out on the couch with Roy and enjoy the kids' early bedtime!

So-so St. Louis

We had a great time in St Louis, but there were a few things that weren't as great as I was hoping. The kids were great on the drive there - I don't know what we'd do without our portable dvd player!! I never imagined I'd have so many electronics in the car!

Our first stop was an outlet mall on the way into town so that I could go to Motherhood and get a pair of pants. We got there and discovered that there was an ice skating rink, which was going to be our second stop! This rink was a lot cheaper than the other one we planned to go to, so we did that first. The plan was for Roy to take Rae and for Blaise and I to watch. But Roy has never been ice skating in his life, and I've been 3 times, so we thought it'd be better for me to go. Ha. I haven't skated for about 8 years, so it was like my first time. Add the pregnant belly to the situation, and it was pretty funny to watch. I think Rae thought she'd be able to get on the ice and just skate, so she was very disappointed. We scooted along the wall for about 15 minutes and had only made it halfway around the rink. Rae said she wanted to be done, so we had to cut across the rink to get to the exit. Leaving the wall was scary but we managed to do it with Rae only falling once and I was able to stay standing. My ankles were killing me, so I was glad Rae was ready to be done! At least she can say she got to try and she said maybe she'll try again when she's five :) Oh, and after a while I was actually able to let go of the wall and skate pretty decently for several yards. I was impressed with myself.


Just starting out and afraid to leave the wall.


Leaving the safety of the wall to cut across to the other side.


We can make it!



Stopping to entertain Blaise.


Whew, almost done.

After skating I went off in search of some pants and Roy and the kids explored the mall. I went the long way around the mall and ended up walking a good 20 minutes before I got to the Motherhood store. I was exhausted. Walking is not very easy these days. I get a lot of burning in my lower belly after I've been standing for too long. It's really annoying. Anyway, I got some pants, the kids had fun at the mall and it was time to go to the hotel.

I got an awesome Priceline deal on our hotel. It was a huge room with a kitchen and a sofa sleeper and a nice king-sized bed. It was right across the street from another mall and just a few miles from the zoo. We did a quick trip to Target (right down the street) and then to the mall for some Panda Express for the preggers girl. The hotel had a "manager's social" that night, so we got free food - hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. It was pretty great. We got the kids to bed early and Roy and I stayed up to watch Heroes on the laptop, since we missed it Monday night. It was a pretty decent day :) Oh, and did I mention that it was 70 degrees in St Louis?! Unfortunately the weather was not as nice the next day. Sigh.

The kids are getting really antsy and I've been ignoring them all day, so I'll write about the rest of our trip tomorrow.

Quick catch-up

We are headed to St.Louis today for a mini-vacation. Woo hoo! I thought I'd do an update before we go because I'll have a lot to post about when we get back.

The kids got bunk beds last week. Someday I'll write all about how I put them together mostly on my own. Blaise kept falling out of his toddler bed because he didn't have enough room to move around, so we knew he needed a twin bed. We were planning to have the beds separated until Rae got older, but we decided she is such a careful, mature little girl and she'd be fine on the top bunk. And Blaise is afraid to even climb the ladder, so we don't have to worry about him getting up there. It's nice to have so much room in their bedroom. Oh, I just realized I don't even have a picture of the bunk bed yet, so I'll have to post it later.

We also bought the kids a toy kitchen. I just realized I don't have a picture of it yet. Man, I'm slacking on the pictures. Can I just say that I LOVE Walmart's site-to-store option? I've used it so many times - fantastic!

And yet another toy we got recently (umm, big tax return!) is a Tom-Tom! Woo hoo! I've wanted one forever (we get lost every time we go somewhere new) and with this trip to St.Louis I decided it was really time to get one. Luckily it was Amazon's Gold Box deal on the day I decided to get one! It was only $99! I'm in love.

Okay, I didn't mean for this to be a post all about the money we've spent recently! But there were a few things we've been wanting to get and the IRS helped us get those things. :)

Yesterday we spent the day doing spring cleaning. We went through all of the boxes in our closet and got rid of a ton of stuff. Whew, so nice to have that done! And then we finally organized our filing cabinet and got rid of a huge bag of papers. Can I just tell you that projects like that make me completely giddy? I've had to wait for Roy to help with both of those projects, so to finally have it done makes me feel so good! I like to know that everything in my closet, drawers, filing cabinet, etc, is stuff I actually need and I know exactly where everything is. Yup, I'm a little obsessed.

Anyway, we'll be back late Wednesday night and I'll post pictures of our adventures! I hope the weather cooperates!

Did you know?

Robin Williams made a Popeye movie back in the 80's. It was his first film. We were looking up some stuff about Popeye (Rae loves to watch episodes on the Boomerang channel) and came across this video:

Go check it out.

Do it. Now.

He makes my life cheerful :)

Blaise loves to be different characters throughout the day. His favorites are Barney and Goofy. For Barney he'll walk around saying "hi everybody" and giving hugs. Or he'll sing the "I love you" song. He came up with that all on his own. When he watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse he always wants to put a hat on (like Goofy) and do the Hot Dog dance. So Roy got Blaise to start saying this phrase:



He's a fun boy!

Happy Belated Birthday Evan

I remembered yesterday, I just never blogged. And I don't think anyone in the Bobby Jeppson family reads my blog everyday anyway :) Sounds like you had a great birthday Evan! I can't believe you are five - that means Rae will be five soon - yikes!

I don't feel like blogging much lately. I think I'm waiting until I can post some kind of news about where we'll be next year :) But it'll probably be the middle of March before I can do that. Maybe even the beginning of April. Sigh. It's not really stressful at all, just annoying to wait and wait. And I feel bad that I'm constantly telling people what I think is going on and then I have to change my story a week later. So I'll withhold details for now, for your sake!

The weather was really nice here at the beginning of last week and then got cold at the end of the week. I'm not sure how much longer I can take the cold weather. There better be a couple of warms days soon or I'm going to go crazy. Winter is so depressing. Especially when you live in a small town like Kirksville. But next week is Roy's spring break, so I know I'll cheer up soon! :)

Anyway, posting might be sporadic for the next few weeks.

Happy Birthday Callie -- and, "my needs"

Today is my niece's 2nd birthday - Happy Birthday Callie! I hope I get to see you soon!

And here is for your mommy:

If you are bored and have about 5 min., post yours! It is loads of fun to see what the other "yous" are doing out there!

Go to google and write your name and the word ‘needs’, in quotes — as in “Jennifer needs”. Notice the first 10 sensical sentences that come up.

1. Ashley needs you like water in her lungs.
2 Ashley needs an escape (that's for sure!)
3. Ashley needs to get something off her chest (this was in reference to boobs!)
4. Ashley needs prayer (yup!)
5. Ashley needs a nap (heck yeah)
6. Ashley needs to learn the rules
7. Ashley needs a home (well, maybe, we don't know yet)
8. Ashley needs flowers
9. Ashley needs to speak out over Newcastle (okay, I'll get right on that)
10. Ashley needs your votes.

Happy Birthday Katie!

I don't have any pictures of you to post. But I hope you have a great birthday and know that you are one awesome lady - wrinkles and all! ;)

The future

I've been watching a lot of Baby Story and Bringing Home Baby lately on TLC - trying to prep myself for May. I especially like to learn from the mother's mistakes. My belly seems to grow daily and it's becoming more of a reality that in a few short (ha) months we'll be a family of five. It is a blessing that you forget some of those horrible moments of childbirth and those first few weeks (and months). I'm actually looking forward to childbirth a lot more than I am looking forward to the first week home! I am so glad that Roy will be done with school and will be around 24/7 to help out. Oh the joys of being married to a teacher!

I've been thinking of a few things I'll miss once we have a newborn in the house:

-Taking a shower whenever I want. The kids are old enough that I don't have to try to catch a shower before Roy leaves for the day. I'll still be able to squeeze one in once in a while when the baby is napping, but it won't be as relaxed as it is now.

-Only 4, maybe 5 diaper changes a day, with only one or two being poopy. Along with that - a boy who doesn't pee when I take off his diaper! Shoot, I forgot how often newborns poop and pee in the middle of a diaper change!

-Getting 7-9 hours of sleep every night. It's not completely uninterrupted, but not nearly as interrupted as it will be with a newborn. I love my sleep.

-Normal sized, non-leaking boobs. (sorry guys)

Of course the list of joys a newborn brings to the house is a lot longer, or else I wouldn't be doing this again! I remember enough good things to make me want more, and just enough bad things to make them spaced out 2 1/2 years ;) Anything else I should be remembering?

Farewell Violette

No, she didn't die - we just got rid of her. I've been wanting to get rid of her for about a month now, but the last few days I have been feeling so anxious and annoyed and just had to get rid of her! The kids have very little interest in her and Roy is the only one that can get her out of her cage and hold her and he's not home enough. She also kept kicking over her food bowl and her igloo house and then she would squeak until we fixed it. She squeaked every time we opened the fridge or rustled a grocery bag. We kept her in the playroom and it always smelled like guinea pig. (Not super strong, but strong enough to bug a pregnant woman and make me not want to be in there playing with the kids) And she kept kicking out her litter and hay and sometimes her poop would come along with it. Can you tell I just couldn't stand her? I've discovered I'm definitely not a pet person and we will take a lot more time to decide before we get any other pets. We definitely made a bad decision! We gave her to the local pet store yesterday and I felt immediate relief and delight! The kids could care less that she is gone. Rae argued for a few minutes but I told her there'd be more room in the playroom for a toy kitchen and she was okay with it. No tears, no regrets. :) And now we have an extra 30 bucks a month that we were spending on stupid litter,hay and food! Ahhhh, I am so relieved!

Spring break

For spring break (March 9th-13th) we wanted to go to St.Louis for a couple of days, go to the temple and do some other fun stuff. Well, the St. Louis temple will be closed during that time. So I started looking at other temples in the area. Omaha is about 5 hours away and there are some fun things to do there (zoo, museum) but nope, the Winters Quarters temple will be closed during that time too. Okay, maybe we'll venture into Chicago - it's about 5-6 hours away. Oh, the Chicago temple is closed, scheduled to open on March 3rd, but subject to change. If it actually opened again on March 3rd, that'd be fine, but I don't want to wait till the last minute to make our plans.

The Nauvoo temple will be open but there's not a whole lot to do in Nauvoo or the surrounding areas. I guess we'll probably just take a day trip to Nauvoo and then a mini-vacation to St. Louis. Or maybe we'll drive the 930 miles to Charlotte and stop at the Nashville temple. Yeah, 30 hours round trip in one week - sounds like a relaxing vacation :) If only Charlotte was a little closer!

I've been looking forward to this spring break for so long and now all of my plans are being shot down! I guess that's what happens when we try to plan our vacation around going to the temple. Maybe we shouldn't be so righteous ;)

Tired, tired day

I guess I stayed up too late last night. It stinks when 9:30 is too late. I feel like I slept really well and I only got out of bed twice last night and Rae didn't wake up till 6 - so I shouldn't be so tired! But it's a cloudy, dreary, dark day. I should do some housework because that would get my blood going, but I don't wanna! What I do want is to go to Walmart and get more Valentine clearance candy and a bottle of diet dr.pepper. That would solve everything, right? :) Yesterday we hit up walmart for valentine clearance and I limited myself to one kind of candy. I chose cheesecake hershey kisses. Meh...not all that great. Now I want another chance to make a better choice! I want something chewy and sour. But I also want chocolate. But I'm also gaining too much weight so I probably shouldn't have either one!

Anyway, I guess I'm going to go do some dishes instead of dragging my kids out in the cold for some candy. Oh the sacrifices I make! To make this post a little more random but more interesting, I'll throw in a few pictures :)

Rae being silly and making a bed for herself on the shelf.


We played with cornstarch and water yesterday. Rae loved it but
Blaise didn't want anything to do with it.

Since we were already making a big mess with the cornstarch, we decided to have some s'mores too! Blaise took a ridiculously long time eating his and made a ridiculously huge mess.

Best manicotti ever!

Roy and I love manicotti - but it can be a big ol' pain to make. I was looking around at recipes and saw several that said you can just stuff the manicotti without boiling them first. I've recently discovered "oven-ready" lasagna, and I'll never go back to boiling! It's the same idea with the manicotti. You just have to add about a cup of water to your sauce and cover your pan with foil while you bake it. I put about a cup of sauce under the noodles and the rest of the sauce on top. I cooked it for about 45 minutes and then took off the foil and sprinkled it with cheese and cooked it for another ten minutes. The noodles were cooked perfectly and it was so delicious! The noodles are SO much easier to stuff when they are hard! (I used a ziplock bag like a pastry bag to pipe the filling into the noodles) I made them before church and it only took me about ten minutes to do the prep work and then I covered it with foil and put it in the fridge. When we got home I took it out and let it warm up on the counter while the oven heated up. It's perfect for me because I hate to be in the kitchen right before dinner because the kids are always going crazy and I have to pick Roy up from work everyday at 5. So I can make it during naptime and just pop it in the oven before I go to pick up Roy. I am so excited about my new meal idea I just had to share it with everyone! Try it out and let me know what you think! I can't wait to have the leftovers for lunch!

Happy Birthday Lindsey!

In honor of your birthday we got pink and red heart-shaped doughnuts with sprinkles - it had nothing to do with Valentine's Day! Hope you have a great day! I sent you a card but it probably won't get there for a couple more days.

Sugar cookies - bleh

Thanks for the recipes Chantel and Sara! I ended up using Chantel's recipe because I didn't have enough sour cream for Sara's. I do want to try Sara's recipe though - they look really yummy. But I'm not sure that sugar cookies are worth their effort. I mean, come on, they don't even have chocolate in them!! The ones I made turned out good. They are thick and soft and sweet. But to make them delicious I still need to frost them. And to make them interesting I have to decorate them. Any cookie that requires that much effort should at least have chocolate! I guess I'm just much of a domestic person. And I hate having the kids help - it always makes me stressed and annoyed. I'm going to have 5 preschoolers decorating them tomorrow - should be interesting! I'm gonna need some real good, chocolate cookies after we are done!

Pay it Forward

Okay, I'm sure most of you have seen this somewhere. It's almost as common as the 25 random things tag :) I don't know what I'm going to make but it'll be a fun challenge.

Pay it Forward
The Rules
1. Be one of the first Three (3) bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me.
2. Winners, you must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift for the first 3 bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!
3. The gift that you send to your three Friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!
4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love!

I'll be getting something from my sister Katie (I'll probably receive it in 364 days, knowing her ;) j/k Katie) I'm interested to see how this all turns out! :)

Sugar cookies

Every time I try to make cut out sugar cookies I end up very disappointed. Either the dough is too sticky or something else goes wrong. Does anyone have a sugar cookie recipe that they have used several times and really really like? And any tips to rolling out the dough and cutting shapes? I want to make cookies for the preschool kids to decorate on Thursday. Please share your recipes and advice!

Blaise's new trick

I don't even know where he got this idea and when he started it, but the other night we noticed it. He was dancing around and being loud and I told him he needed to stop because it was too loud. He responded by touching his chest and saying "I turned it down". Of course we had to get the camera and get him to do it again. Also, the other day when we were at Rae's speech class he got a couple of blocks and stacked them up and said it was a tv and said he was watching Barney. He sang the closing "I love you" song and then touched the blocks and said "I turned it off". This kid is such a crack up and is always coming up with funny stuff. His favorite cartoon right now is "Three Little Pigs" from our Disney Silly Symphony dvd and he goes around all day being the big bad wolf. It's funny because he doesn't really sit and watch tv, but he sure does get a lot from the small amount he watches!

Nice, warm day :)

Friday was a lovely day! It was really windy, but it was around 55-60 degrees all day! I was able to wash and vacuum the van and me and the kids hung out outside as much as we could. Walmart even had strawberries cheaper than usual, so we sat out on the grass and ate strawberries - it almost felt like summer! (except that the grass was brown) We flew a kite and ran around and just really enjoyed the day. Yesterday was nice too but a little bit more windy, so we didn't spend quite as much time outside. But it was nice to put our winter jackets away for a couple of days, turn off the heater, go barefoot and feel some sun on our arms!

Children's books

I need some suggestions for good books to read with Rae. I feel like we wander around the library and just grab random books off the shelf, never knowing whether they will be decent or not. Any authors/series that your kids have liked? Also, we want to start reading more sophisticated books to her - like Harry Potter, The Hobbit or something like that. Any suggestions on that? And what are some good books for when they are starting to read on their own? Good beginner reader books.

Thanks in advance.


Also, I really really need someone in my family to update their blog! I check them a million times a day - update already! ;)

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

Wow, I can't believe she is 3 already! Your cousin Rae and Blaise say hi and Happy Birthday!

(BTW Christie, we got our Christmas package yesterday! Thank you! The kids cannot wait to go buy some bird seed and find a place to hang the bird feeder. And I've already started the book!)

My little Valentine

Rae is so excited for V-day and loves everything pink, so I got this dress for her from Target. She wanted to wear it on Sunday but we were sick, so I let her wear it to preschool yesterday.

She's like a walking Valentine!
Also, I love the way her jawbone looks when she smiles like this.
She has some interesting features - I wonder what she will look like as a teenager. Hopefully cute, but not gorgeous :)

What a weekend!

Saturday morning the kids and I got up early and went to Walmart for a doughnut run :) We also bought a sled and we had big plans to go sledding when Roy woke up. I woke Roy up around 8:30 and while I was in bed talking to him I moved the wrong way and hurt my neck. I could barely move it. But we had promised the kids we'd take them sledding and it was a warm day and the snow was melting fast! So I took some medicine and felt better and we got out the door as fast as we could so there would still be some snow to sled on! There were a few other people at the park sledding. It was nice and warm and sunny - perfect day to be outside. The kids had a blast sledding, even though they didn't go very fast and the hills weren't very steep or long. But it was perfect for small kids. Roy and I even had a couple of good runs. Then we went to the playground and played there for a while and tried to build a snowman. By the time we left most of the snow was gone! Then, later in the day after Blaise's nap we went outside to get the mail and there was hardly even a trace of snow. We rode bikes and played outside for a while - it was great!









Blaise was acting a little funny all day. Just being unusually grumpy and moody. I kept commenting that maybe he was getting sick or something. Well, that night he hardly ate any dinner and then threw up in the bath. Ugh. We put Rae to bed and got Blaise settled on the couch with some towels and a bowl. Roy went to return a video and while he was gone Blaise threw up again and then Rae threw up in her bed. So we got both kids settled on the couch with towels and bowls.


We let them watch some cartoons for a while and then put them back to bed. I called someone to sub primary for us and I went to bed too because my neck was killing me. Roy always stays up till 1 or 2 in the morning, so he took the night shift. He was so nice to let me sleep all night. The kids both woke up and threw up several times in the night but I slept through it all! I finally woke up around 2 to go to the bathroom and Roy went to bed. Blaise was asleep on the couch and Rae was in her bed. I sat with Blaise on the couch for a while until I was pretty sure he didn't have anything left to throw up. I put him in his bed and I went back to bed and we all slept peacefully till 6. In the morning both kids were so thirsty and hungry, but everything they ate and drank came right up. So we spent a weak, grumpy morning on the couch. My neck was bothering me all day. Both kids took a nap in the afternoon and I slept on the couch for a while. Roy took a nap later in the afternoon but then I started feeling really weak and sick. I never threw up or anything but I felt yucky all night. Rae threw up one more time in the late afternoon but there hasn't been any puke since then - yay! Both kids slept really well last night and are in good moods this morning. They haven't really had anything to eat this morning, just a little bit of juice. They are in the bath right now getting all the puke smell off of them. I'm anxious to get my house cleaned up and get things back to normal, but I want to make sure I don't hurt my neck again. I'm so glad this all happened on the weekend when Roy was here to help out. And I hope he doesn't get what the kids had! We haven't been sick like this in a long, long, long time! I hope it's a long time before we get it again!

Saturday night - you can see the clock in the background. It's 11:15 and there are some crazy cartoons on at that time of night.

Sunday afternoon. Rae had just fallen asleep and I was starting to feel yucky.