Butterflies and Grandparents

We heard about this fabulous little butterfly house, so we went one day to check it out. Annie was in complete heaven for a good hour and would have to loved to stay longer if Emily wasn't DONE.

It was the most amazing thing! Kids (and adults) can carry around little Q-tips with sugar water on them and feed the butterflies.

Grandma and Grandpa Maas came to visit when we'd been here a few weeks 'on the way home' from Minnesota. We had the most beautiful weather and basically lived outside! One morning I was teaching preschool, so they took Emily shopping. She was thrilled to not have to complete for attention!

This was just a few days after we discovered the Butterfly place, so we showed it to Grandma and Grandpa also. (We took Ben back the next week as he was a bit disgruntled not to have been included TWICE. With him we found a little hiking trail and spent most of a Saturday afternoon exploring.) They brought the girls butterfly shirts that are black and white inside the house, but the colors show up in the sun. VERY cool!

Grandma kept Emily occupied, so Annie was able to sit and catch her butterflies without a 2 year old scaring them away!

Oh, the intense concentration on this face!

Emily also learned to ride her bike while they were here. Grandma Maas was patient enough to walk along and help her turn her little legs over and over and over.

Ben lost his first tooth the second day of school and we pull his second a few days before Grandma and Grandpa came. As my camera was MIA, Grandpa took a picture for us!

Ben got a scooter and Annie got a bike for their birthdays this year. We live on a quiet dead end street with no sidewalks and a little bit of a hill, so they LOVE to just ride up and down over and over.

Here is happy, independent EMILY!

So Much FUN with the Castles!!!

We love playing with the Castles! One depressing morning, we dropped by and dragged them to the zoo with us. After a little convincing, Angie bought a zoo pass and we've now had three lovely days at the zoo while the kids wear themselves out. LOVE IT!!! Annie and Carter as penguins Ben got to go with us the first time. This zoo is different than anything else I've been to. They don't have a lot of the large animals, but there are places for children to play EVERYWHERE! This was a giant eagle's nest.

I just love this one of Annie because she is actually LOOKING at the camera! Of course, it was Sis. Castle's camera and not mom's...maybe that makes a difference!

One night Angie had YW and her husband had YM, so we got to have a pajama party...on a school night! The kids were VERY excited! We played upstairs for a bit, made some Halloween cookies and then watched Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure.

I watched the move and folded laundry with my newest love, Miles. He is the most cuddly baby and gives the absolute SWEETEST hugs! However, Andy TERRIFIES him - thus the look on his face.

I never seemed to have my camera around in September and most of October, but I did a lot of fun things with friends. SO - here are two links to my friend's blog with most of our activities for those two months.
Lindsey's Birthday and Law School Pot Luck

Amish Village and Cake Bites

Enjoy my friend Jen and her cute dog Jax that my children are in love with. Not to be confused with Baby Jack who is our other law school buddy!

MIA

I am still here - just really busy. This whole Halloween season has kicked our trash! We are also in the final moments of play practices for The Dreamcatcher that both Ben and Annie are in through the town library. Annie is a lollipop and Ben is a soldier. Tonight they got costumes, so it is finally becoming more real! That will consume us for the next two weeks of evenings. The timing has worked out great because Andy has some big memo due on the 21st, so we will all be busy! Pictures to come of Halloween - at least for those who willingly took pictures. :)

Little Things

1. "raw" is a word that Ben has been using for the last 6 months or so. Annie has started using it also. "I do not think it means what you think it means." raw=plain So, tonight I was putting away leftovers (pumpkin pancakes - yummy!) and asked Andy if he would like some for breakfast and if he could just eat them 'raw.' He looked at me for a minute. "Oh! I mean plain! You know what I mean!"

2. "tator tot" is another Ben-word that Annie has also incorporated into her vocabulary. A 'tator tot' is a shirt without sleeves; some might call it a tank top, but NOT at our house! This one brings a smile to my face, so I don't correct it. :)

3. "o-tay Mom" is Emily's favorite phrase. "Emily, stop eating the pancake batter." o-tay Mom "Emily, don't put your fingers in the raw meat!" o-tay Mom "Emily! Don't eat those eggs! They haven't been cooked yet, and you'll get sick!!!!" o-tay Mom Seeing a pattern here???? That child sneaks more food than the rest of us combined!

4. How does one keep a toilet seat warm??? Annie and I keep freezing our tushes off! No wonder she keeps trying to pee standing up!

5. How does one keep a nose warm? Between our noses and our backsides, it's getting a bit uncomfortable around here!!!

Little Worried

If today is September 30th, and the low temperature is 36 degrees, and we are still in FALL, what is winter going to be like??? Ummm, I think we might need to winter in Florida with all the old folk!

Just the Extra

I came out of the shower one morning to find my cute little girls snuggled up together on the couch. Annie and Emily are so adorable together! Emily only weighs 3 pounds less and is about 3 inches shorter - quickly catching up! Today we had our first fight over clothes because I let Annie wear a pair of Emily's jeans (Annie's old ones) since Annie doesn't have any pants out yet. Oh the tears that filled the room; unfortunately, I don't think this is going to be a lone incident. Aunt Jamie sent a package with a cake mix in it. A princess cake! The insides were pink with blue sparkles. All the kids were so amazed by the 'stickers' that went on the cake that we could eat! Super fun; thanks!!!

This is Andy's foot on day 5. It still hurts him almost as much as it did the first night. Think it's time to suck it up and get ready to pay a big old doctor bill... Can't wait any longer for our 'pending' insurance!

This is the favorite spot to play outside! This is behind our garage. I only let the kids go into the forest about 10 feet because there is so much poison ivy. They love to climb a huge tree. Ben likes to cut the big branches into smaller ones. They also play 'house' back here. We've made friends with the 8 year old girl across the street, so the kids are so excited for Fridays when 'the black girl' (it used to be 'the girl with the black car,' but Annie has shortened it. She's not so good with names!!!) doesn't have cheerleading or piano. They built this fort against the fence that held up during the two huge storms we've had this week. Get this - Tara's dad is a professional bowler! How fun is that! We haven't met him yet thought, just his wife.

They all play (mostly) so well together out here! They each have jobs and feel a part of the whole. Sweet Emily mainly just watches and follows Ben around, but she has so much fun doing it!

At my new favorite produce store, I found a big basket of pretty tomatoes for $3.95. I decided I could just can them - forgetting that my jars are almost gone and I still need to do apples! So, after eating about a dozen in the last 36 hours, I found directions for freezing them! Apparently the skins peel right off when thawed and they tomatoes can be tossed in chili or soups! I go through so many jars of stewed tomatoes in the winter, so hopefully this will help cut down grocery bills later! So far this month I've done peaches, peach jam, pears, pearsauce, and salsa. Tomorrow I'm going to get more apples for applesauce and baked apples...I think! And maybe some more tomatoes - they are just so pretty!!!

Girls Night

While Andy was playing basketball on Wednesday nights, we decided to go a girls' night. This is Jen (one of the 3 that have come into my life since we moved here) that is in Andy's study group and Heather. Heather taught us how to make cake bites and then we did some massive decorating. I must admit, they are divine - especially the next day. AND I think that was the best tasting frosting I have ever made - even Andy agreed!! (We played skipbo while we waited for the balls to harden in the freezer.) Yeah - it's only about 10:30 here, but we are all wiped out!

Oh so pretty - some too pretty to eat. They were still all gone by the next day... I only kept about a dozen though - knowing how much we all love goodies!

Law School Pot Luck

To be honest, I didn't take any of these pictures; I was too busy having fun! One Sunday evening, we had a bunch of the law school families over that we have gotten to know. We ended up with 28 people, but it didn't feel too crowded. We had Cafe Rio meat (pork roast, 1 cup salsa, 1 cup brown sugar, and 1 cup coke - cook in crock pot on low about 6 hours, shred, and devour on salad or in tortillas!) with lots of fun sides and toppings - including rainbow jello! By the looks on our faces, you can feel the heat - it was the hottest fire I think we've ever had!!! It was painful to sit near and roast!

Here are those who don't completely love s'mores and didn't come and fight for a turn to roast! Yes, we also did starbursts - yummy!

So much fun to meet everyone! Thanks all for coming and we'll do it again next semester!!!

House Pictures

So, I was just realizing I probably should have started at the front door and posted these as you walk through the house, but you will just have to follow my language. This is our room. We are the only bedroom down in the basement. It's great because Andy can hide down here and study and the kids don't even know he is home because... You have to walk through all of this stuff to get to our room! Somehow they are all still able to find their way to our room in the dark middle of the night. How that happens, I have no idea! This is our storage room with food and toilet paper and lots of blue tubs! We also have everyone's clothes down here (besides girls' dresses). It's about 15 feet from the washing machine, so this really makes laundry MUCH easier on me! :) The toilet is in that brown door. And, yes, that is an antelope head in the back. We haven't found him a place yet.

Here are the stacks and stacks of blue tubs. This was Andy's design, and I am still waiting (less and less patiently each day) for my children's winter clothes (as tomorrow the low is in the 30s) and my fall decorations...

This is our shower which you caught a glimpse of when Andy cut his foot with a machete. This is the other part of the storage room - laundry! In the back where the boxes are is where all of the well water stuff was. We are SOOOO loving the city water that we now have!!! The hot water heater and my extra freezer are also in this room.

This is a picture from the front door. I really love my living room. It's pretty much the only room I have actually decorated - I think I even spent about $100 ($30 for the plant that is dying and I don't know why)!!!

The other side of the living room - with my favorite corner that is blurry and the beloved red wall!!! And - the fireplace that Emily seems to think is her personal playground...those rocks are so darn tempting! I'm actually quite surprised there are still any in there from the amount I have swept or vacuumed up!

I am so feeling like I have already posted these... Anyway, this is the front door and bay winder. I love my Texas wall. :) And lots of pictures just waiting to be hung up somewhere...still.

This is front the living room entrance into the kitchen. Counters are always covered with something. I got quite ambitious tonight and made a real side dish along with a real dinner. Combine that with the banana nut bread we made earlier today, and we had a whole lot of dishes tonight! Excuse me, I had a whole lot of dishes tonight! :) The door goes into the garage. The green wall in the back is the staircase that the kids ADORE!

This is from the garage door looking into the dining area. The sliding door on the right goes into the backyard.

This is the kids' room. I asked if they all wanted to share and then have a playroom or split up. The vote was unanimous! Nobody wanted to sleep alone! Annie's bed even has a trundle under it, so we can fit another little body in here! It sure does make bedtime and book reading easier! We just always keep a chair by the door which is where Andy or I sit at night. We've been reading chapter books, but I'm really struggling to find books that are simple enough for both Ben and Annie to understand and not get bored with. Any ideas??? Most of my chapter books are older kids...

This is my Reading Room. I've always dreamed of having a library like in Beauty and the Beast, but it hasn't come to pass yet. This is close!

This is our reading chair and Andy's engineering books that I think he needs to pitch (or at least go through had get them OUT of my Reading Room! We also have our little blue table in here, and the closet has (more) blue tubs with craft stuff and my projects that will someday be attended to!

This is the playroom. I almost didn't post this one, but if I waited until I was clean, it would be too dark to show up!

We love these built-in drawers with toys in them, but the kids haven't really explored them yet. I'm still debating moving some down into the basement... The playroom is just a basic 10x11 room.

This is the hall bath that I have finally decided to make into a beach theme! The wall is hiding the toilet that broke last week and Andy was finally able to fix tonight! Yippee!!

Here is my husband's evening spot when he doesn't make it to the library!

This is the main room in the basement. My desk and tables loaded with 'stuff' that still needs a home. However, I have actually been working on some of my projects...just haven't finished anything yet!

This is the other side of the room . It's very big and would be fun to just junk up with toys, but I Don't completely want kids playing down here with all the storage stuff just through those doors on the left. Right now it's just a come and play while I'm on the computer real quick! It's still turned from our family movie night last Friday with homemade popcorn and Princess Buttercup!

That is our cute little house! I didn't get a hallway picture or much from the outside, but alas, it is finally here...

New Addictions

Okay - I'm a little bit more calm than this morning. We'll see how Andy comes home looking tonight! Accidents happen, right? Alas - I've found a few new addictions.

1. Milk Duds - honestly, I love them SOOOO much! This all started because of my favorite chick-flick (First Daughter with Katie Holmes - before Tom Cruise entered into her life!!!) Milk Duds and popcorn is the ultimate treat! However, since we don't have popcorn everyday, I've come to ADORE Milk Duds raw (that's what the kids say when they mean 'plain'). It's so easy to pick up a few packs from the front bin at Walmart. It's just $1.07!!!

2. Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook. Wow! Love it. Such a nice little feature, it will email you when friends have passed your score so you can try again. And each game is only one little minute, so you always have time for it! Sadly, I can't get away with anything less than 20 games! And all of my children know how to play now. It's better to interact this way and make them name colors and shapes quickly than watching the boob tube together, right? :)

3. Graham crackers with peanut butter! YUMMY!!! I'm pretty sure I've had these somewhere before, but we recently rediscovered them. I borrowed a book (The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale) and read on Monday. As my husband knows, that means my children, housework, and anything else I was supposed to do that day was attended to with the least amount of time possible. The girls were hungry and graham crackers were left on the counter, so I slapped some peanut butter on, cut up an apple and called lunch good. I grabbed one also and it was just divine!!!!

*I would mention books, but that is an old addiction that is reoccurring throughout my life. I've learned to try to contain kids into one part of the house so when the book is done and I've come back to the real world, the messes are limited.*

Not Listening and Trying to be Nice

Andy plays basketball on Wednesday nights. This is currently his only form of exercise (aside from wrestling occasionally with kiddos - which doesn't really count), and we sacrifice family time to fit it in. Andy was so excited to play today - he had his first test and just needed to get the excess stress out.

I kept thinking/hearing, "Tell him not to go tonight." (NO - he needs the exercise!) "Tell him to wait until this kid doesn't come anymore." (valid point - overzealous teen that plays a little too seriously and took out someone's knee last week - but Andy needs the exercise) Did I listen? No. As he is walking out he door, I called out, "Be safe! Don't get hurt!!!"

Sadly, I hear the door open at 10:04 - way too early for basketball to be over. My heart starts pounding, especially when I don't hear footsteps going into the kitchen for water. Just a call for "Ice, please. NOW!" and pitiful steps down stairs. Over the next ten minutes I got a few more details (yep, that kid - this is the part I'm trying to be nice about). So, lots of prayers later, I'm up at 4:02 this morning unable to go back to sleep - vacillating between lots of ANGER that the game was so stupidly rough (on a short carpet court) to ANGST for not listening to WORRY because he thinks there is something broken and not only does he not have time to go get x-rays but that whole insurance part of our lives hasn't fallen into place yet - although applications are in, so hopefully coverage will start with application date, not approval date...

This is my poor husband who can get stitches with no medication and not even flinch, to almost whimpering because the pain is so great while trying to walk. Great... no more church ball for us... :(

Ouch!

My husband just paid $58 for a lunch at a conference in Washington D.C. I decided the dinner that night for $150 EACH was a little bit out of the budget...as well as the $72 White House tour. Seriously - do these people think money grows on trees?!?

Peaches

I was going to go into a big long story, but I've done a lot of posts tonight and I have to be up in 6 1/2 hours, so this will be short and sweet. This is my new friend Heather. Her husband is going to law school with Andy but is not in the same section and thus not in any of the same classes. We met at a Spouse and Significant Other night during the first week of school. Turns out they are from Utah and LDS (along with another really fun couple) but just aren't in our ward. My kids LOVE her little boy who is almost 2, especially Emily. She and baby Jack got to stay for dinner and her first canning experience on Friday! I found some fabulous LARGE peaches, so we canned and made some jam. We just might have to do it again one night this week.... By this time it's about 10pm, and I am sure dragging a little bit. However, canning with a friend is SO much more fun and our conversations kept us going!

Success! Yummy peaches and peach jam. SO glad everything sealed, no jars broke, and a clean kitchen! (Notice all of the pictures in the background are crooked. I purposefully put pictures low enough for Emily to see and touch. She LOVES them! She will walk through the hall and touch people and excitedly tell me who they are. Thus, why one frame is down for me to put it back together...)

Thanks, Heather! So much fun! Can't wait to eat them - starting mid-November! Anyone else for canning???

An Action-Packed Saturday Morning

Saturday morning my normal workout friends all bailed because of some leadership training meeting (I didn't have to go and neither did Andy!!! :)), so we layed in bed and listened to the kids play above us. Somehow we missed the sounds of this stool being set up. Ben came running down the stairs, "Emily's in the gum!!!" She went through 2 1/2 packs of gum. She had the wrappers nicely hidden behind my empty candy dish. What a stinker!!!

Then we went to Lowe's for the kids workshop. Emily loved her goggles so much, so wore them for the next two hours before her nap. We went through the grocery store with Emily driving the fun cart and me pushing. (A few of the nicer stores around here have babysitting for kids 3-9, so Ben and Annie were in there!) She made quite a few people smile!!!

These are the drums we made. Annie did so well hammering in all the nails! When we got home, everyone wanted to color their drums. Love those kinds of projects!!! No cutting or pasting!!!

Car Washing Fun

Another Saturday study day for Dad!!! A few weeks previously a friend mentioned washing our cars. Well, my dear Ben never seems to forget a promised activity that he deems exciting! After numerous reminders, we finally got to wash our cars! This is my friendly neighbor's house that you see. Apparently about 4 years ago, the guy who owned our house had a double lot and decided to split the lot when he sold the house. She cleared a few of the trees and built a beautiful new house! She is very friendly and the kids love to chase her down as soon as they see her car pull in, literally. I try not to mention to them each time she is doing yard work because they all LOVE to talk to her! Here are Ben, Carter and Annie scrubbing all the dirt off that van! Ben is still wearing his goggles from our morning activity. Sweet Emily. She is just such a doll. Notice the nice car seat in the background getting a thorough washing as well. *Sorry* (Behind the grass is the forest the kids love to 'explore' and chop wood for their pretend fires. I love that this keeps them busy and happy outside! They aren't supposed to go more than 5 or so feet because the dreaded POISON IVY thrives in Ohio!)

Time to wash the other van! Jensen, Carter (also in Annie's preschool class), Annie, baby Miles (who has the BEST thighs!), and our friend Angie

I was so excited when Andy came home! He had called from his cell phone, so we were talking when he pulled in. First thing he said, "Did you wash the car today?" Yippee, I thought, he noticed! I asked if he'd noticed how nice it looked. "Well that and all the soap in the driveway." Yeah - not such a productive activity, but it was fun!

Yeah... House Pictures!

Okay, not really inside pictures, but this should help picture more of the yard! Our landlord said there were some bricks in the driveway to make a fire pit if we wanted to do that and showed us in the middle of the yard where there were plans to make one. Last Saturday I was trying to kill time until Andy came home from studying, so the kids and I made this fire pit! Tonight was our maiden roast in the new house!!! Although this picture looks smokey - it wasn't that way at all! All the smoke went up and stayed away from the people. The mosquitoes were different story though... (in the back you notice the OPEN window - our high today was 81 - and bigger windows on the left are above the kitchen sink so I can watch the kids play outside while cleaning those dishes! Also the box on the porch is a frog's home. Poor frog is probably completely traumatized from all the handling. Maybe he will warn his buddies to find another yard to live in!) This cute little boy is in Annie's preschool class. He'd NEVER had a roasted marshmallow before and DIDN'T know what a S'MORE was!!! (completely deprived child, obviously!) As they were packing up to go, he was still asking for more marshmallows. Yippee!! Another convert!

Andy - working his magic to make me the perfect s'more. Love these bricks because we can lay the bottom graham cracker down to begin the chocolate-melting process! I sent Andy to the store to get the chocolate and he came home with peanut butter cups, a symphony bar (with the toffee), a cookies and cream bar, and the regular chocolate. They were so yummy!

What a great FHE! This weekend some of the law friends are coming over to do s'mores. Can't wait! But next time we'll have bug spray readily available!!!