Ping Pong

With no tv the boys have become rather creative with their play. It's much more enjoyable to spend the day playing toys than watching movies. And as you can see from the background in the video, we aren't lacking in the toy department. Lot's of fun! :)

There's A Party Going On Around Here

Joseph asked Jesus into his heart!!!

Oh my heart is just overflowing with joy! Maybe I'll post more about it later but for now I just had to share that. :)

Chocolate

Oh chocolate, how you deceive me so. Wrapped in sparkling foil, covered with a hard shell, hugging a scrumptious morsel of peanut butter! You call out to me with all of your milk chocolaty goodness.
I have enjoyed you for far too long. Today dear chocolate, today it is over. We are breaking up. I know you will miss me. Hershey's might very well notice a dip in profits. My waist line might notice the difference too. That is what I'm going for my sweet chocolate. You see, the idea of eating chocolate standing up and not having to count calories? I tried it. Your fat still crept onto my thighs. Chocolate, why?! Why must it be this way? I will always love you dear chocolate but you must go. Oh wait just one last...
NO! You must go! Farewell my sweet friend.
I will miss you.

There is no denying it...

We have kids.

Roger and I were cuddling on the couch in a rare moment of silence. His face close to mine he says "You smell like peanut butter" I think for a second "I didn't eat any peanut butter" Roger turns his head from next to mine to the arm of the couch "Oh, it must be the couch"
Cracked. me. up.

Joseph's Eye View #2

Joseph got a hold of the camera a few times recently. Here are some pictures from him. (Click here for the 1st Joseph's Eye View)

I'm not sure what I was doing here. Probably trying to convince Hannah that her hair needed to be fixed. CHEESE!
This kid loves to take pictures of himself.
This was one of his favorite toys for awhile. It's some extra Lego pieces. For a few days his "slinky" a plastic Easter egg and this "robot" were all he played with.
Um, how do you like my light? Looks like I need to replace a bulb.
Hahaha, I don't know what to say. Maybe this is his homeboy pose? :)
WhatchyoutalkinaboutWillis?

Tiny Talk Tuesday

I was getting Hannah (18months) dressed and she says "I tute?" Yes my dear you are very cute. Just in case I was lying she went to ask Joseph "I tute?" he laughed at her and affirmed her cuteness.

While outside playing Joseph (5 years) decided to look at the clouds. "Mommy look! That one looks like the mountain where Jesus died and the rock was rolled away!" (I wish I had a picture of this cloud. It did look like the pictures you see of the large rock. Right in the middle of the cloud was a clear patch - where the rock was rolled away.) Pretty cool.
We were running errands and had one more stop... the grocery store. Joseph's response "This place is too grocery. I'm a homeboy" Ok Gangsta Joe. I get the idea. You are tired of errands.

Nehemiah's (3 years) newest thing is to say "That's my name!" It is completely random. If he see's handwriting "That's my name!" Calling the kids to come in from the car "Thats my name!" We're having spaghetti for dinner guys! "That's my name!" goofy boy.
Nehemiah is also into dinosaurs right now. Like big time into dinosaurs. We actually got a good picture of Nehemiah taken at the mall because we were pretending to be dinosaurs. He'll come up to me and growl then say "Oh no! Dinosaurs! RUUUUUN!" It's cute. Or as Hannah would say "tute" :)

For more Tute talk head over to Mary's at NotBefore7. Happy Tuesday!

Yummy

There's nothing like a good piece of chocolate.

Link Worth Checking Out

I've been wanting to share this with you... but I'm kinda bummed. In order to see the whole thing you have to buy the video. :( So, here's the first half. It's powerful - even without the end... we all know how it ends anyway! Click HERE to see it. Really. You want to see it.

My 300th Post!

In honor of my 300th post (I must have a heap of nothin' to say!) I thought I'd do a post about me. I don't think I can come up with 100 things but lets just see. :)

1. I was the youngest of 8 growing up, until I was 14 and my little brother came along
2. he's a teenager now, but I'll ALWAYS call him my baby brother
3. I got the chicken pox when I was 19
4. It wasn't fun
5. I have always loved working with kids
6. I was a nanny for a few months, it was the worst job ever
7. selling knives was better than that nanny job
8. I didn't make any money selling knives
9. I've been to every state on the East Coast except for RI
10. and that's if you count being in a Florida airport as actually being IN Florida
11. I became a Christian when I was 18
12. It (He!) changed my life
13. I've been to Mexico, it was fun
14. I've been to Colombia, it was a learning experience
15. I've been to Brazil
16. It kept a piece of my heart
17. I have lived in New York
18. New Jersey
19. Pennsylvania
20. Texas
21. My first car was an Eddie Bauer Ford Bronco II
22. It was a piece of cr*p
23. I wanted a VW bus
24. It was a piece of cr*p too
25. I have 3 tattoos
26. I used to have my eyebrow pierced
27. I'm so over "weird" piercings
28. I would so get another tattoo
29. I enjoy cake decorating
30. and making chocolate molds
31. I'm a homeschooling Mama
32. I hope to adopt children someday
33. I would love to adopt from Brazil
34. I can't stand being called "mom"
    
35. I prefer Mama or Mommy
36. my kids know this and will torment me
37. My husband is my best friend
38. (even when he bugs the living daylights out of me)
39. I love yard sales
40. and thrift shops
41. and the mall
42. um, I think I just realized I have a shopping addiction
43. I'm running out of things to say, so I think this will end the "about me" post

It's GONE!.... and other randomness

Notice anything missing from this picture?

That's right. No tv. It's in the basement. (but don't tell my kids that) I had enough. There was arguing and talking back and fights over sitting at the table to eat dinner. ENOUGH! TV is in a time out. A long one. They are doing SO well without it I'm thinking we won't be bringing it back for awhile. I'm thinking maybe for Easter they can have it back (we bought them a dvd for Easter). I like some of the movies we have. Nehemiah LOVES the Hermie videos by Max Lucado. Leap Frog is awesome. So are the 2 plug in video games we have - Leap Frog and the Smart Cycle. They truly are educational. For those few things I want a tv. For the other yucky stuff. We aren't even missing it a little bit.


Non tv related stuff.....

Yum! That was a great smoothie Mommy!
Oh dear Joseph. See that little black thing in his hand? It's from a cheap foam visor he received at a birthday party awhile back. He calls is his slinky. He has not been seen without it for weeks. Weeks! It goes to bed with him. It goes to the bathroom with him. It goes in the car and it is the center of his every day play. I always wanted my kids to have a lovey.... I just never thought it would be a slinky.

It's all in the tone

Ok, get the snottiest 5 yr old tone you can stuck in your head. Got it? Now read this.

"What? Why did you say no? It's a brilliant idea?!"
stomp stomp stomp pout pout pout

life with children is never dull. no. never dull

Let's Talk Cake

A friend recently asked me some cake questions and then suggested I post about it all. Good idea! So... here we go. Cake 101.
I must admit it's been years since I made cake from scratch. I do the box thing. I DO make my own icing though. It's so easy, and tastes better than the stuff in a can. This is the icing recipe that I always use - it's for a buttercream icing. If you use clear vanilla it will be pure white, if you use "regular" vanilla it will have a buttery color.

• 1/2 C butter
• 1/2 C shortening
• 4 C powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-2 TBSP milk

• cream together your butter and shortening. add vanilla. add sugar, 1 cup at a time. mixing well. add milk. Start with 1 TBSP and add 1 more if it's still too thick.

The thick is good for decorating, so if you wanted to pipe "Happy Birthday" on the cake you could take a scoop out and add the milk to whats left. Do you have cake decorating bags? You can also use a ziplock with a small corner snipped off.
Want to give it some pizazz? Ice the whole thing, and see how much you have left. (the recipe makes 3 cups) Separate leftovers into 2 or 3 different containers and use food coloring to make different colors. Using the ziplock (or cake decorating bags) make polka dots. When the icing drys on the cake you can dip your finger in some powdered sugar and smooth out your dots so they don't look piped on.

One of my kids favorite cakes... for Christmas we made Jesus a birthday cake shaped like a giant cupcake. So... like a cupcake we put sprinkles on it. A LOT of sprinkles. So if you have sprinkles that would be a fun way to decorate... and the kids can help. :)

I made cakes when I was young. I remember calling my mom at work and asking her if i could walk to the store to get some cake mix. My first "decorator" cake was a Winnie-the-Pooh cake done for one of my daycare kids who was moving up to the next class. That started me off on a love for decorating cakes! I wish I could show you a picture of that, but it was LONG before the days of digital cameras. I actually have a Polaroid of it....somewhere. :)
I'd have to say thought that my favorite cake that I have made so far was Hannah's 1st Birthday cake. It turned out better that I imagined.




I've made 2 wedding cakes, and they were nice... but I don't want to do that again anytime soon. Foolishly, I have NO pictures of either. So... here you have my favorite cake... so far.
What about you? Whats your favorite cake that you have made? Not the baking type? How about the favorite cake you ever received? I'd love to see pictures!

This is how it works. You post about your cake loving experience on your blog... pictures n' all. Then you use Mr.Linky to link your post my my site.
New to Mr.Linky? It's simple. Copy the URL from your cake post and paste it into Mr.Linky. The key is to copy your specific post and not just your blog name.
Make sense?
Have fun!!

Here is a picture my sister sent to me. This was for her son's 3rd birthday. It's Rocket from Little Einsteins. Cute cake.





*sidenote* I'm never posted with Mr.Linky before. I'm not sure what the "In Other Words" thing is. I had to pick a name from a list... it was confusing.**

Chicken

We were at WalMart tonight. Nehemiah was in a great mood and was dragging me around the store to look at this and that. It was cute. There are Easter things EVERYWHERE. There was a giant matchbox easter egg and Nehemiah picked it up with great joy exclaiming "chicken!" :)

Photo Booth

We were playing on Roger's laptop. The kids love to see themselves on the computer. I don't remember who stuck their tongue out first but it didn't take long before everyone was in on it.

Holy Cow

We were having grapes with lunch yesterday. Joseph had an itty bitty grape and said "holy cow! look at this one!" Hannah picked it up and really studied it. "Cow?" No honey. It is a grape. The english language is a funny thing.

Why 1 Yr old's shouldn't wear white

Note to Self #3

No more Chocolate Cherry Diet Dr Pepper before bed. I couldn't sleep. Caffeine was buzzing through my body. I like sleep better than a caffeine buzz. Besides, Chocolate Cherry Diet Dr Pepper really isn't that good anyway and it smells like a tootsie roll.

My little beggar

Hannah's become a wonderful beggar. She was doing well with the whole weaning thing until she got sick, then we were back to "on demand". Well, now she will grab my face - ever so gently with her sweet little hands.

Hannah: cow (couch)
Me: Why do you want to sit on the couch?
Hannah: boo
Me: You don't need boo right now
Hannah: peese (please) kiss? (then with her hands on my face she gives me a kiss. She pulls back and looks at me...) Two? (then she gives me another kiss) :)
I'm a sucker for two kisses.

Play-doh

What? You mean this isn't what your supposed to do with play-doh?











Um, don't know what to say here. She's a little scary though. :)




What do you do with your playdoh?

Prayer: Update

Well, updating my last post... things aren't going well. This is a 19 year old girl (I originally said 20, I was wrong) who is sick and the Dr's don't know why. Test after test and they are stumped as to what is causing her pneumonia symptoms. They just keep tapping her lungs to drain the fluid (50cc's at the last draining!) PLEASE pray that the Dr's will discover the cause and be able to treat this at the core and not just treat the symptoms.

And as for my other prayer request... my friend from church who's Mother and Sister are ill. Things are still not good there. They need all the prayer they can get as well.


There is POWER in prayer. Thank you for lifting up these (maybe) strangers to our Lord. He is JEHOVAH-ROPHE (The Lord Who Heals)

Another Prayer Request

A daughter of my mothers friend is very sick. She is only 20 years old and is in the ICU for pneumonia. They can't figure out what caused it, she was healthy and the pneumonia came on very sudden. They have had to drain her lungs multiple times in the short time that she has been in the hospital. Please pray that the Dr's will be able to figure out what has caused this, so that they will be better prepared to treat it.