Baking Day

Baking with my kids is one of those things that I am very rarely brave enough to take on. But we have these adorable baking get ups from Grammy Kimmy, so every now and then I prepare myself for the ensuing natural disaster, and let them into my kitchen. But they have to promise to pose for pictures first :)

Say cheese!

Seriously, Mom, lets just get on with it.

I'm sure Cooper wouldn't let her do something. We actually see this face quite a bit :)

They totally lost interest in taking pictures, and even in making faces at me to discourage the pictures. But even staring at your fingers is cute when you are two and wearing a chef's hat!

Carnivale 2011

Carnivale is a huge event around here, with being so close to Venice and all. Even our little town has a huge parade, and carnival rides, etc. Jesse was gone for most of it, so we did a bit less this year than we have in the past, but the kids and I did make it down to the rides for a bit one afternoon. I only had a couple coins on me, so we had to limit what we could do, hence the kids all crammed into one car, taking turns driving:



I think they still had fun :). Next we moved on to the merry go round. Always a hit, and especially this one, as they always hang balloons from the ceiling for the kids to try to hit.



And finally, we spent our last coins on cotton candy that was bigger than any of them!

Yum...

Hiking with God

We took the kids on a hike this last Saturday. It was so much fun, we all had a great time and came back down the mountain happy, hungry, and tired. All marks of a good day :)


There were parts of the hike that were really steep, and parts where the kids fell down a lot. It got me thinking.


As we were coming up the last bit of the hill (in the picture above) it was pretty steep and the kids were getting pretty tired (Momma, too), and were slipping a lot. I walked with Zeke in front of me, with my arms outstretched toward him, not touching him, but staying close by him. And every time he would stumble, or tip backwards, he would tip right back into my steadying arms, which would enable him to get his feet back underneath himself and continue on. And every now and then the "trail" would get a little unclear and he would hesitate, or start wandering a bit to the side, so I would gently nudge him the right way, or sometimes without even speaking would just point which way I wanted him to go.

And suddenly it struck me how much like our Father it all was. We trudge along, sometimes looking up, seeing the top, remembering where we're going, but mostly we're head down, stumbling, not always even sure if we're going the right way, just trying to keep going. But right by us is one who loves us more than himself, walking with arms outstretched. One who sees the whole trail and how to stay on it. One who has a constant view of the top. One who catches us, steadies us, guides us. If we let him.

And we made it. Exhausted, but triumphant.

The boy

"Hey, Mom, look at my hair!!!"

"Whoa, it looks good, buddy! Did you wet it down with water?"

"Nope."

"Oh. What did you put into your hair to make it look wet, then?"

"I don't know." And he wandered off.

It was liquid hand soap, dripping out of his hair.


Several nights ago we were eating a dinner that apparently none of the kids were overly fond of. Jesse and I had to tell them all three over and over to keep eating their food. Then one of us noticed that Zeke's food was disappearing quite quickly all of a sudden. After watching him for several seconds, we realized that he was shoveling bites in and swallowing them whole.


The other day I was outside trimming the dead stuff off of our plants and trees, and the kids were playing close by. I heard Cooper say something about potty, so I turned around to check on them. It seems Zeke decided he needed to go potty in the grass (always exciting), but instead of finding a secluded corner or a tree to pee behind, he had gone over to the low iron fence that separates our yard from a decently busy street. And by the time I had turned around he had stripped his pants and undies completely off, and was struggling to get his sweatshirt over his head, while his critical parts were just hanging out for everyone walking or driving by to see. We had to have a short talk about being "discreet".


And by the way, when people talk about boys eating a lot, they're not kidding! Zeke ate four bowls of cereal for breakfast yesterday!

Reality check

I just got my girls up from their naps.

I opened their door to Payton beaming at me with those warm, chubby, red cheeks that are exclusive to a toddler waking up from a good snooze. I picked her up and she wrapped her scrawny little arms and legs around me and squeezed. Man I love that girl.

Then we got Cooper out of my bed and all came trailing down to the couch, where sweet Cooper said, "I would like to snuggle with you, Mommy." So I hunkered in with a little monkey snuggled up on each side. And I was feeling pretty warm and fuzzy, and thinking that being a mom is pretty much the greatest thing that could ever happen.

And then Cooper said, "Eeewwww, what's that smell?" And I said, "I don't know. What does it smell like?" "Poop," she said, and paused, and then answered her own question: "Oh, I think it's just your breathing."

Hey, we all need people that love us enough to tell us the hard truths. And now I must go brush my teeth.

Dress up

Peter Pan, accessorized with a princess crown and cowgirl boots, of course.

Swim Barbie (the anti photo taking version)

Swim Barbie take #2 (efforts at photos were supposed to be thwarted, but Mommy thinks this looks just as funny)

Ten Bucks well spent

The local grocery store sells these little board books, mostly of Disney movies. Ten bucks bought us quite a bit of quiet :)