Sprouts

I have to take a minute and bear my testimony about my new favorite store - this is my ode to Sprouts. I've been hearing for months about how great the Sprouts in Plano is, but it was never worth the gas to drive over there to save a few bucks on produce.

Sprouts is like a mini-Whole Foods, but with killer deals on produce - at least the produce on sale that day. They opened one about 2 months ago that is close to my mom's house, so I try to plan my shopping trips around Saturday visits. BUT - it's still close enough that I am willing to just go.

Last week I got some of the stuff for our produce co-op there because it was cheaper than buying downtown at the wholesale dealer we buy from at Farmer's Market. This week I got two boxes of beautiful fresh apples and one box of pears - also because they were on sale this week. So, if you are reading this and are in our co-op, you have a preview of food for this shop!!!

BUT - the real reason for this ode was my chicken deal on Wednesday. Sprouts had boneless, skinless breasts on sale for $1.99 a pound which is about the best you can find right now - and these are the no hormones, etc chickens. We are doing freezer meals next Friday and needed 176 breasts (about 80 pounds) of chicken. We typically get it downtown from a chicken place, but when I called to check prices there, it was more expensive than Sprouts - plus the $12 to get down there! So, I called and asked if I could buy 80 pounds of chicken at this price. Of course, the answer was yes.

I went to pick up my two boxes of chicken 6 hours later. I went to the butcher and said I was there to pick up the chicken. I was greeted BY NAME!!! and then they loaded my chicken and walked me to a cashier who would know how to ring it up.

Sprouts ALWAYS has people on the floor ready to help and EVERYONE is friendly! I love shopping there!!!!

Funny story - last week I bought 13 watermelons and 24 lbs of strawberries. I asked the person stalking for 3 boxes of strawberries (they come 8 to a pack) so he wouldn't have to restock them. He smiled and said sure, but that is was job security. What a great attitude!!

Thank you Sprouts for moving to my city! I love you and will be back Monday morning to buy the fresh veggies I need for my freezer meals because you have the best prices around!!! And your people load my car!!!

Such Cuties!!!

I love pictures of little kids drinking. They do it so intently and with such purpose. Saturday Jamie took the kids to Home Depot Day and got yummy slurpees.
Annie loves to use the easel that Ben got for his birthday. When she is embarrassed or somewhere new, she will just cover her eyes until she feels comfortable. This was her first time painting on it and she didn't want her picture taken!
I love they can both stay busy in the kitchen with me without making a mess!!!

We had some little friends over the other day, and Emily just wanted to keep hugging Ethan - over and over and over and over. She would just follow him around to get another hug. It's a good thing he has a sister that loves to hug also! It was the funniest thing!
He's kind of like, "another hug?!" and she would get a look of pure joy on her face. :)

MOM!!! Emily just dumped her cereal out!

Wow - just what I wanted to hear this morning! Emily was throwing up for about 2 hours last night, so I went to change the laundry this morning while the kids ate breakfast. Being ever-so-helpful, Ben let me know about Emily's little action.

In my mind, "FABULOUS! She's eating Raisin Bran!!! I just hand-cleaned my floor..." to Ben very cheerfully, "Oh, that's great honey!"

Ben asks, "Why?"

Me, "Because I love to clean up messes!"

Ben, "Um, no you don't!"

I just left it there because any other response I had would not have been Sunday-appropriate.

Feeling Perfect!!!

WARNING - MORE LIKE JOURNAL ENTRY THAN ENTERTAINMENT...


A few weeks ago I was telling Andy what I wanted for my birthday. He said not to be disappointed, but it's an incredibly busy time right now and we'd have to celebrate a little bit later. I know this and I typically extend my birthday to cover the entire month, so this gives me even more of a reason to! BUT - today was great!


Andy left early this morning to help make breakfast for seminary, so the kids and I got ready, ate, took Ben to school, and came home to waste a few minutes before the kids place in the gym opened. We did the gym and I really wanted to stay longer, but we needed to meet friends at the park. I went to pick up the kids and they were both playing! One of my pet peeves at the gym is when the kids are plopped in front of a show with all of that fabulous gym stuff to play on! So - yea - happy day at the gym! We went to the park and had a fun time with a few friends. Then Annie, Em and I went to meet Ben for lunch! It was fun to meet his little friends (and know that he has some that like him for him and not because I'm friends with their moms and they are thrown together!) and hear them talk.


Then we came home to a fabulous Hope/Grace day and got the house mostly spotless (no bags for the vacuum!! ggrrr) cleaning nonstop for 3 hours! Then hot dogs cooked on the George Foreman with fresh cantaloupe from the garden! We did family night watching a little video - then I went to dinner with some friends to celebrate another friend's birthday that is 2 days after mine. (this is really rambling now...I have never been able to leave out details!)


We went to a cute little Italian restaurant and had such a great time. Andy had to run out for a little while, so I came home to a few babysitters watching my very favorite movie! Andy came home just when the movie ended, and it was great! It was such a fun day!

My actual birthday started with morning produce - always one of my favorite things to do! When my sister came to pick her food up, so stayed and played with the kids so I washed all my produce and picked up around the house a little bit. Then she took them to Home Depot Day while Andy and I worked in the yard with an NHS service project.

Andy went from there to help some people move while I took the kids to my mom's for a little party - complete with lunch, cake, ice cream AND balloons!!! Unfortunately I thought the pool was too cold, so I was in the sun to entire time and have fried my back and shoulders. Not the best of ideas. We rushed home to get ready for the ward party and Andy and Ben spent about 30 minutes making a car for the egg race.

Fun times there - then we came home, put kids to bed, Andy did more church stuff and I watched Girl with the Pearl Earring (which we read for our book club a few months ago) which is good, but you miss SOOO many details from the book! Movies are so much better when NOT reading the book first. Alas, after asking a few times, Andy went to get some ice cream which we ate while watching a fuzzy Rangers game.

We heard Em cry a few times, which is NOT typical. SO I finally figured she was hurting from teething and went to give her some Tylenol, only to find her covered in throw up. Me thinks she ate a bit too much pizza... After the cleanup session I had lots of good cuddle time with Em. Then we all went back to bed and that was the end of my birthday celebrations!

Emily feels great this morning and we could both tell when she felt better - after the 5th time of throwing up - because she decided instead of just sitting and cuddling, she wanted to walk around and play. Nevertheless - need to give her the 24 hour throw up-free time, so I guess we'll be missing church today...

Convention Madness

Wow! That's about all I can say! She is a piece of work! Haven't ever sat through a complete speech on television before this evening - been reading up on all those topics. Go MP!!!

We have grass!!!

One year ago, we started tearing up our yard to put in a sprinkler system, in hopes of getting nice solid grass. It has been a very long year of looking like the 'white-trash' house and most of our sweet neighbors haven't said anything negative- just "looking good" whenever we are out there working. Last week, the youth from church came over and helped us get a jump on this weekend's project - laying SOD!!! We filled in the flower bed and started raking the yard and pulling out weeds. Friday night and all day Saturday was spent raking the yard in anticipation of 6 pallets of sod to be delivered Monday morning...
The sod came on a big huge truck (free delivery with our large order!) and then the man drove his forklift to put the pallets around the yard to where Andy directed him.

This was about an hour into the project. It's amazing how quickly the green changes the appearance. We didn't have the side of the house raked because we had run out of time, so Andy started raking that while I continued to lay sod in the front. We were about to run out of steam when our favorite neighbors came over to help! We finally finished laying the sod at 9 pm. Then Andy cleaned up for another hour. I haven't been this sore in a long time, and my fingers hurt the worst. But it looks great!
Yes, we just layed 3400 square feet of sod. My back hurts too. I told Andy this morning that he is moving like an old man. :) He worked so hard, but I said we cannot do another project this big all in one day because we did it ALLLLLL DAAAYYYY!!!

few cute pics

bedtime!!!
tickle time!!!
painting time!!!

Excitement has worn off

No picture-taking the last few days...

School continues each day. Ben says he is 'quitting' school each day (except today!!!) and doesn't want to go back 'tomorrow.' I think the first few days of school are so painful because of all the rules and procedures. Today they got to paint and apparently that was really fun. He is starting to learn other kids' names and for some reason that makes him feel a lot more comfortable. There is a little girl named Leah that was in his preschool class at the local rec center and they have been best buddies. He's had homework each night except for the first day of school. I've finally had to start a reward system at home to get him to do it without a major battle and meltdown. Whew! Each day he comes out of school smiling though and says it was 'good.'

A friend's daughter started kindergarten at another school. The mom asked if Ben comes home to tell me all about his day. Per the previous post, I still have to drag any sort of detail out with probing questions. Her daughter comes home singing the songs and going through step by step each activity during the day and who she sat by, etc. The difference between boys and girls... :)

Kids went for 3 and 5 year checkups today. Both are great! Annie is 75% for both height and weight. Ben is 80% for weight and 85% for height. I think everyone that came into the room (3 children + 1 tiny exam room + 90 minutes = creative entertainment) was interested to see what we were up to - except the poor nurse that came to give the kids the flu mist. Ben is anti-anything around his nose because it is so sensitive and prone to bleeding. Yep - she got kicked...with his cowboy boots. Oops! I wasn't expecting such a strong protest because Annie had just done it and had ZERO problems. Next time we might just do the shot for Ben or just not do it all together... And yes, he did get a nosebleed as soon as it was done. Poor little boy; I know how painful that can be.

First day of Kindergarten!!!

Here is my sweet cowboy ready to go to school! He decided he didn't want everyone going to school with him, so just dad took him. While I was taking his picture he asked if he would cry. I said probably not, but I would! He asked why and I told him I'm just having a hard time with him growing up.

So, Andy took him to school. They walked to the front door and Ben says, "I'll go from here Dad." "No, Ben, I'll walk you to your class to hand you off to Mrs. S." When they got to the door, it was still locked because they were a few minutes early. They chatted with some of the other kids (Andy said Ben was showing everyone his new belt buckle - a real cowboy one - from Nonie!) until they could go in. This little boy asked where to put his backpack, got instructions, hung it up, gave Andy a big hug, said goodbye and went to sit on the rug and look at books like the teacher told him to. He was so excited to be there!!! Andy just waited in the wings for a few minutes and said Ben didn't even look for him! May each day go as smoothly as this one did!

The girls and I picked him up at the end of the day. "So, how was your first day?!" Ben says, "It was good. When is Cyberchase on?" HELLO???? So, I pryed a few more details out of him. He's decided he would like to go to school one day, stay home the next, go to school, stay home, etc. I explained that it didn't really work that way. The one thing he did say was, "We went to the bathroom THREE times!" He doesn't go quite that often at home. :)
So, we trimmed the back of Ben's hair because I forgot to do it before school started. I left out scissors and a comb to trim Annie's hair as well since I already had the vacuum out. I thought she was getting her pajamas on, but it took me a bit longer than I thought to do Emily's. I come back into my room to find the scissors missing from the chair and no Annie. AUGHHH!!! Thankfully she had only cut a few pieces. She wants her hair to be short like Ben's who wants his hair to be short like Uncle Ned's (thanks NED!!). I was planning to take about 2 inches off, but in the heat of the moment I decided to make it match the front more. Of course Annie had to cut the EXACT same place that Ben trimmed to an inch stub last year. The frustrating piece that continues to pop out of pony tails and braids. Somehow I ended up cutting about 6 inches and we now have a lovely bob... Oops. I kind of forgot that hair shrinks when it dries and curly hair shrinks even more. It took Andy a few minutes before he could tell Annie it was cute. Then he asked if I couldn't have waited 2 more weeks until my sister comes. I'll just let her straighten it out a little bit...
A friend did the CUTEST cupcakes for her kids the first day of school. I didn't prepare enough in advance to make them like hers, so we just did letters and names for our FHE treat tonight!
Hope everyone had a great first day of school!!!

Annie is 3!!!

My sweet little girl is already 3. It really seems like just yesterday I was eating steak at my parents' before calling the Dr. back. Then we head to the hospital because I thought my water had broken. It hadn't, but the baby was no longer breech, I was dilated to a four and she was engaged, so they induced labor around 5:30 pm. Annie was born at 12:11 the next morning. What a fabulous blessing she has been in our lives. She is seriously the sweetest little person with a huge heart - including the full range of emotions that go with that!

Here she is about 14 hours old...3 days - this was our announcement picture we sent out (or one like this; we have about 30)
Tummy time with big brother. Ben could never keeps his hands off her - constantly wanting to touch and love her.
Annie is one!

Annie is 2! (this was the picture I learned that birthday children should have clean clothes on for pictures - even if it is 30 minutes before bed and they are going to get dirty again!)

Here is my sweet princess's 3rd birthday. A wonderful friend passed down this jeep when her grandson outgrew it. To say the kids have loved it is a complete and utter understatement. Notice the friends tied to the front cover - I think they were going camping on this trip.

Emily loves to sit in the Jeep but doesn't like when Ben drives because he pushes the pedal all the way down. Annie hasn't figured out how to go that fast yet!
We had pancakes for breakfast, went to the gym, then headed for the park in the first nice day in the last week. We meet up with our church playgroup and fed the fish and turtles...and the small children that don't yet understand the reason for stale bread to be thrown into the water...

We came home for Emily's nap and watched the Barbie rendition of Rapunzel (pretty good - I didn't fall asleep!) before playing outside more. Then we got our stuff read y to swim at Grandma and Grandpa Doerk's pool because it was HOT!!! The kids and I swam until Dad came over and he swam with them while I made Annie's requested dinner (chicken nuggets). Then we had pink ice cream and opened presents.

We are waiting to have her birthday party until a little friend gets back in town and after labor day. Pictures to follow in a few more weeks!!! Happy birthday Annie!

"But she wasn't!"

Tonight was Meet the Teacher night at Ben's school. Yesterday we got a letter in the mail telling us who his teacher was. I actually met her in March at Ben's ARD meeting. So, we talked to her, looked around the room, bought the prepackaged school supplies, and headed back to the car. As we're getting in Ben says, "She wasn't old and ugly with glasses and a wart. I thought she was going to be, but she wasn't! She's young and pretty." I don't know where he got that idea although he does seem a bit happier about school starting now. 4 more days!!! Maybe we shouldn't read Miss Nelson is Missing for a few days...

Ben's Texas Ranger Party

Ben decided about 3 months ago that he wanted to have a Texas Rangers birthday party, but not the baseball players - the REAL Texas Rangers that ride horses and carry guns. So, we created a party for him. The plan for the cake was a Texas Ranger badge in the shape of a star, but the Monday before his birthday, he decided he wanted a white frosted cake with a cowboy and cowgirl on it. I told him I didn't think I could do that. "That's okay Mom. You just frost it white and I'll draw on the cowboy and cowgirl." "Ben, don't you want a Texas Ranger star? That would look so great?" "No, I want a cowboy and a cowgirl. If you can't do it I will. You just paint it white and I'll frost the rest!" Of course being the controlling mother I am, I couldn't NOT do it the way he requested, so here I am at 11:30 the night before the party filling in the traced cowboy and cowgirl! (BTW the cake was very yummy - two layers of strawberry cake with homemade strawberry jam in the middle layer. The frosting even turned out okay even though I had to use Smart Balance instead of real butter because we were out!) My handsome cowboy!
Explaining to Ben's friends the plan. We had 4 different stations that they rotated while at Texas Ranger camp. First, learning to rope. Second, learning to ride a horse. Third, learning to jump over snakes. Fourth, shooting a target.
Josh learning to rope

Gabe at target practice
We are a happy family!
Alex, Bennett and William meeting the horse they are to ride

Annie was still a little bit young for the activities, so Grandpa kept her busy!

Dad teaching the roping skills
Then we lined up all the potential Rangers to do their final test - using that sixth sense to pin the badge on the Texas Ranger! After they completed that, they were pinned and completed Texas Ranger Camp!!!


We celebrated with a cake...obviously...

Emily just enjoyed eating. Pretzels, chex mix, and about 6 different people's leftover cake...


No Texas Ranger should be left unchallenged! As the kid were finishing the celebration cake, our dear friend came over looking very distraught! See, she lost her hat and couldn't find it anywhere! Would Ben and his Texas Ranger friends PLEASE help her find her missing hat? So, we followed Mrs. Morrison's clues to retrace her steps, while shooting red eyes in the distance, jumping over poisonous rattlesnakes, walking the thin edge of a cliff and galloping on our horses!

Silly Mrs. Morrison, she left her hat in the garage!



Then everyone got a chance to hit the hat twice before the Big Guns came out to play...DAD!

Mad dash for candy and other little trinkets...

It was a fun party. Everyone was so polite and patient. Later that afternoon Ben did a big sigh and said, "My party was really fun." Yes dear, it was! Thanks so much to the many hands that helped make it happen!!!! As soon as all the party pictures get posted to our Picasa sight I'll let parents know. I'm pretty sure we have at least one of each guest!!! What a great birthday!!!