Lazy Snow Day

Today is a snow day for the kids. Well. . . actually an ICE day.

I was excited to get to stay home in PJs, and I think they were too. Charly is the only exception to the PJs because she likes to get dressed right away. Good thing too b/c it takes her a while to choose the "right" outfit (even when picked out the night before).

So we started off our morning with relaxing, then made a late breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes. Click here for the recipe I used. It was YUMMY! I didn't take any pics of making the pancakes. . . it was a little hectic with my 3 little helpers. But here's us making some homemade whip cream to go with the pancakes:

Licking the mixers while mommy cut the banana:

And our finished product: chocolate chip pancakes topped with sliced banana & whipped cream

The pictures aren't the greatest, but the pancakes turned out great!

(I haven't forgotten about posting video from Rob's weekend with the kids. . .editing in process)

Indianapolis, Snow, and Good Friends

My Roomies from my single dallas life:

Carolyn, Lane, Emily, and Sarah

They encourage me in the Lord, they have grown with me, they know me well, and challenge me with truth. My life is richer because of them. I cherish the time I have with them, and a weekend of quality time was absolutely perfect!

Carolyn, John, and their boys are in Indianapolis for John's fellowship. Here's the cute family:


So L, E, S, and I took off to Indiana this past weekend to visit Carolyn.

We left 80 degree weather in Dallas & headed to weather in the teens. It was chilly, but we had a blast. LOTS of talking, laughing, and relaxing together. We went to a dairy farm for lunch on Saturday. Yummy food!

Then a great local Italian restaurant on Saturday night. We waited for almost 2 hours for a table. . .

Sunday we went to J & C's church. We went in with dry ground then came out to snow! Much more than we ever get in Dallas. We loved it!! See Em's big smile!

Here's Carolyn's house:

And her hubby John:

We were so sad to go. . .


But we were also excited to get back to our families. Tune in for video of the kids while mommy was away! Coming soon. . .

Can't Get Enough

Of this. . .

Cookies & Other Fun Stuff

Today we made sugar cookies so we could decorate. This time, I decided to make the cookies from scratch rather than a mix. Ridge & Bennett were asleep, Cobb was at school, so it was just Charly and me. We had a great time putting it together. And then, we tried to roll it out and it crumbled! Oh NO! But our fun was not ended by too crumbly dough.

All I had to do was type into google. . ."My cookie dough is too crumbly," and I had my answer of how to fix it. I love the internet!

So on we went with cutting different shapes with our cookie cutters.
Cobb, Bennett & Ridge joined us for the decorating. . .

Well. . . Ridge & Bennett did more eating than decorating.




Later Bennett & Ridge enjoyed the piano. . .

Doesn't it look like Ridge is hitting a high note below?


Then we played in the woods behind our house, lost Mulligan(our dog), searched for Mulligan, found Mulligan, and then took a walk. . .


My kids are such a joy. And I love the above pictures(even blurry because taken with my iphone and unsteady hand) because it shows how much they love each other.

Charly & Hair

Yes, we are at it again. She is messing with her brother's hair yet again. But this time it's a bit more innocent than scissors (click here if you don't know what I'm talking about).

Mommy Can't Be Sick

Well, my throat started hurting last night & I felt sickness coming on. I tried my best to fight it with vitamin C, etc. Oh well. I woke with a splitting head ache, throat on fire, and other problems too. Sweet Rob let me go back to sleep, but when he left for work, it was back to work as usual for me. Yep, had to get the big kids off to school(so thankful for school today!), bags & lunches packed, and coats on. Martha(my sweet mother-in-law) took Ridge while I went to the doctor. I was then able to take a 45 minute nap at her house before I had to get back to Allen to pick up my big kids. My head was throbbing, my body aching, and Ridge whining by the time we arrived at the school. When we finally got home, I called Rob & told him I was going to lay down. That didn't happen. Not sure why I thought it would. But after cleaning up 3 #2 accidents (yes, 3. . . my big kids too), I realized it was really quiet upstairs. I walked up to find Ridge with the markers again. He had colored books and walls purple. He's done it before with a green marker and another time while with my mom:

Anyway, it's now 4 p.m. I just sat down again to try to write this all down. But Ridge is now crying upstairs and Charly has had another #2 accident(that makes 3 today. .. she's now back in diapers). Being is sick is not an option, but I'm sure grateful that I have an antibiotic and can see the end in sight.

Our trip to San Francisco

Our trip to San Francisco was a lot of fun... it started with just me (Rob) going and enjoying MacWorld. I've wanted to go to that for quite some time and it was a ton of fun. Haley joined me halfway through and we had a great time driving around San Francisco, eating at some great places, and visiting our friends Marco and Megan (Haley and Megan grew up together).

Waiting in line to see the keynote address. Lot's of iPhones.

Filling up the room.

The Renewed Vision booth... makers of Pro Presenter (our church uses this software)

Walking to the conference.

Drawing on the ModBook... my drawing is of Daffy Duck...the other guy is better.

Going to Bubba Gump Restaurant with Gary Molander

Looking at the Star Wars text feature in iMovie 09.

Golden Gate

Haley driving

At a live recording of a Leo Laporte podcast!

Is Pepsi riding the Obama look?

At TownHall... a very good place to eat.

Modpod

Rob showing me how you can draw on the screen. All this stuff is
really cool. I think Rob's techi side is rubbing off in me!

My Hubby in Paradise

His version at least. . .

Room Makeover #1

Our kids rooms really need some help, and a friend of mine, Jennifer Bolen, is getting her certification in staging homes. So she needs to do 45 rooms for a project. We were excited to have her work on Charly's room. It is so cute! I love it.
Here's some before and after pictures:







So how long do you think this will stay organized. . .

Hopefully she'll learn to pick up after herself. The neat & tidy thing is tough for all 5 of us.
Christman made the above piece for Charly. Click here to see more of his work.

Below is an up close pic of the red cabinet that we painted pink & off-white to match the dollhouse above.


One last look at the room:


Looking forward to getting the boys' room done too. Ridge is moving into Cobb's room this month. Or at least that's my plan.

My Little Commentator

Well, we made it to 6. . . I mean Cobb did. I started hearing Charly moving around at 5:45, but she hasn't come down yet. Ridge woke at 5. I let him do his little moaning thing til it almost broke into a full throttle cry. I grabbed him in just in time to hopefully not wake the others.

I think I might just have the loudest two year old known to man. His voice is always at full throttle, and he's ALWAYS talking. Our conversation this morning went something like this:

Starting when I walk into the room, the crying stops and. . .
R: hi mommy
Me: Hi Ridge
R: I go dow stay. I go dow stay. nee food. I hungy.
Me: ok (having to interrupt him)
R: I foss min whea. I gap nut.
Me: you want cereal. which one, frosted mini wheats or grape nuts?
R: I foss min whea. I papet milk. I see light keen! I see light keen! (pointing to his lightening mcqueen car)

He continues talking as I fix him chocolate milk and cereal. Keep in mind that it's only 5:15 a.m. and his voice is at FULL throttle the whole time breaking through the silent morning. After I give him his stuff, I move on to pour myself some coffee. . .

R: Mommy, coffee?
I nod
R: me papet milk. see? see foss min whea? Wan some foss min whea mommy? see keen?? voom voom! see keen? uh oh. Keen pill. Keen pill my foss min whea!

Yes, Lightening McQueen had bumped into his cereal and spilled it. His commentary went on and on. My little talker. Gotta love him even in the wee hours. . .

oops gotta go. the water is running, and I just heard Cobb shout, "No Charly, no!" Trouble. . .

Back to the drawing board

So around Christmas and New Years my kids were blessing us tremendously by waking at 7 a.m. (or at least 6:30 and waiting til "the sun wakes up" to come downstairs). But this morning, I'm afraid we're falling off the wagon. . .

I rolled over sleepily when I heard giggling in the living room, and it dawned on me that the monitor was off. I leaned over in the darkness searching for that little button on the side of the baby monitor. As I flipped it on, a sad and furious baby cry echoed through my room. "How long has he been up?" I wondered to myself. It was pitch black outside. Disoriented I figured it must be the middle of the night, but then I heard the girlish giggle from the living room again coupled with boy laughter. I look over at my clock to see that it says 5:45 a.m. Yes, ALL THREE were up, and had been up for quite a while (this being assumed from the noises heard).

There was no chance of getting all of the munchkins back to bed so close to "wake up time," but I am grateful that we woke up happy. I'm hoping this doesn't go back to being the "norm" because I have unfortunately gotten used to later time. Oh well, you can't win them all!

Hope everyone had a great first day of school!

Celebrating New Years

We've celebrated the new year with the Fifers for 5 years in a row. This year we headed to the Fifer's lakehouse on New Year's Eve to spend the night. It was so relaxing! The kids did such a great job playing well together so the adults were able to chill: chatting, reading, football, eating, etc. . .
Here's Rob & Kingsley:

Christman lit fireworks New Year's evening & the kids absolutely loved it. Cobb & Abby have never said "awesome!" so many times in 10 minutes even though many of the fireworks were duds. After the kids were in bed, the four adults chatted & watched the ball drop. We went by NYC time, and headed to bed at 11.

The next morning Christman made breakfast for all of us.

While Christman cleaned up from breakfast, the rest of us headed to the park.


The park was great! All old timey playground stuff. . . guess what this is. . .



Yep! It's those old horses! How cool is that!

And there was the good 'Ol Merry go round:

And the human hamster wheel:

The playground was so fun, and I think the adults liked it just as much as the kids.

Ridge & KK by the lake:

Daddy comforting a tired Ridge:




We played outside most of the day because it was so pretty!

The kids even got in the lake:





Ridge & Christman watching the big kids:


Sweet friends. Thanks for letting us celebrate with you again this year!