Good Friends, Bread & Food Storage

I am so glad the weather has been nice this week because we finally were able to have our park playgroup again. I love this weekly get together where the kids play and I get a chance to visit with some truly amazing moms. A few weeks ago we were having a discussion about politics and economics which then turned to food storage. I came home that day feeling unprepared and set a goal to educate myself about food storage and start getting our family prepared. So I talked to my great friend Janice who is wonderful at this sort of thing (and many other things!) and have started my food storage journey. So at our playgroup another mom brought up the fact that after our last get together she had started working on food storage so we spent a lot of our time talking food storage, making bread etc. I am so grateful for talented women that I know in my life that share their skills and knowledge with me!

I try to get together once a month and make bread with Janice. (A way of rotating that wheat in the food storage!) We have a lot of fun doing it together even though the kids are running around wild. But I decided last week I needed to try it by myself once just to make sure I could do it. Janice is an amazing cook and my cooking skills are definately lacking, but I did it all by myself. The 6 loaves turned out great!

Don't make me Pull This Car Over!

I can’t believe I did it, but today I turned into my parents! I actually found myself threating the kids that I was going to pull the car over if they didn’t stop fighting. And of course they didn’t stop so I had to pull the car over. But then I burst out laughing when I found out what they were fighting over.

I had given each of the kids a tootsie roll before we left for the store. On the drive, Samuel started getting really mad a Bella.
Samuel: “Mom, Bella won’t talk to me”
I look back to see Bella with her hand in her mouth. Me: “Maybe she doesn’t have anything to say to you.” Then I try to focus again on the talk radio show I’m listening to.
Samuel getting increasingly upset, raising his voice and beginning to cry: “Bella, give me the candy. Bella talk to me. I want the candy.” (This went on and on and on)
I’m really trying to listen to my program, but it’s hard with the crying and loud bursts of anger from Samuel and Bella with her hand in her mouth making loud noises that resemble a "No". So after asking the kids several times to please stop fighting I begin the threats of pulling the car over. And did this help, No! Samuel just started crying harder about Bella not giving him the candy.
So I got upset and pulled the car over thinking Bella had taken Samuel’s tootsie roll since she would not take her hand out of her mouth.
Me: “Bella, do you have Samuel’s candy?”
Bella hand still in her mouth: “Yeah”
Me: “Please give it to him.”
Now at this point I could not believe my eyes. Bella took her hand out of her mouth and pretended to give Samuel several pieces of candy out of her mouth. Then Samuel took the pretend candy and started to play like he was stuffing it in his mouth and eating. By now he had stopped crying and was all smiles.
Me: “You guys are fighting over pretend candy!”
I just had to laugh. And then I switched my talk show to music and turned it up! What imaginations!

Hiking

Saturday was such a beautiful day that we took the kids hiking. As usual, we had a great hike getting to our destination because the kids were all excited and having a great time. But whenever we head back the story changes. They were tired and hungry and all three were crying or whining for most of the hike back to the car. We did have this funny conversation that made Chuck and I laugh.
Samuel: "Hold me daddy"
Chuck, who was already packing Isaac in the bjorn: "You have to walk yourself"
Amber, for some reason feeling the need to reinforce the issue: "Everyone who has legs needs to walk by themselves"
Samuel: "Well, Isaac has legs and he's not walking"
What a smart kid!


We spent forever at this little pond with the kids throwing rocks in. Look at that giant rock Bella is getting ready to throw.

Bella loves to jump off every little rock in the trail.

And Samuel kept stopping all along the way to throw rocks.

I thought this was so cute because Samuel just came up and grabbed my hand as we were walking along.

Kids Happenings

Samuel and Bella were playing a funny game the other day. They had the baby in the stroller and Samuel was pushing the baby around like a wild man. Then he would say the baby got struck by lightening and fling it out of the stroller. Bella would then run pick the baby up and "nurse" it. Then the baby would go back in the stroller and they would start running around the house again. It's fun to watch at such a young age that built in nurturing nature of little girls.

Oh My Bella Girl!

She was supposed to be taking a nap and I heard her crying, "Help me" so I ran upstairs to see what the problem was. A couple of weeks ago during nap time she climbed clear to the top of the closet to retrive something and was stuck at the top and couldn't get down. But this time she had climbed inside her doll high chair and her legs were stuck.
Saturday morning I was brushing my teeth and Bella was playing around under the cupboard. I'm always finding her playing with the lotion, but this time I figured I was standing right there so it would be okay. Then I look over to see that she had dumped half a bottle of baby oil onto the concrete. Talk about a slick mess! I spent the next 1/2 hour trying to get it cleaned off the concrete floor with all the kids crying about something and wondering what was taking Chuck so long at Home Depot.

I love this picture of Bella playing basketball in her pink high heels!

Samuel

Samuel's new favorite activity is "Jedi training". Everyday he goes down stairs to practice being a Jedi. Right now he tells me he's just a Padwon, but if he trains he will be a Jedi. He has us build robots out of the big blocks and then knocks them down. Chuck also throws blocks at him and he hits them with his light saber. He also likes Bella to fight with him, but she isn't quite as excited about it. The other day at Joy School the twins weren't here so it was just Samuel and the girls. During free play time I heard him ask them if they wanted to do some Jedi training - poor guy, they just wanted to play dolls!

Every day I do learning time with the kids. The other morning Samuel came to me and said, "Mom, I need to work on Bella's letters with her". So he sat down at the computer with Bella and helped her with her letters. It was really cute!

Isaac

Isaac's new favorite hang out is the pantry. The door is usually open because we are all snackers around. He really loves to eat and there are usually crumbs on the pantry floor from Bella and Samuel so I think that's why he is always heading that way.

Isaac looks like a little lamb here. Whenever Isaac is crying Bella instantly jumps into action trying to make things better. She gets him a drink, toy or his binkie. Samuel on the other hand is quick to say, "Mom, Isaac needs you!"

The kids like to drag Isaac around by his feet on the concrete floor. He laughs at this for a few minutes, but then gets mad.

Valentine's Day

My Valentine's tradition for Chuck is making him this very yummy from scratch cake with marshmallow and chocolate frosting. It's a lot of work, but oh so wonderful! In all it has 3 sticks of butter so how couldn't it be good.

And Chuck got me pink roses because he thought Bella would love seeing the pink flowers. A funny story about me and flowers - A few years ago Chuck bought me some flowers at the grocery store and the girl made the comment that he better take off the price tag so I wouldn't see how cheap they were. Chuck just laughed because he knows me well enought to know I would love them even more when I saw the price. You see, I like flowers, but they do just die rather quickly, so I just can't stand the thought of wasting a lot of money on flowers. So yes, I LOVE the cheap grocery store kind.

My tradition for the kids is buying them new swim suits. But as they were opening them I realized this was actually kind of a lame gift. In years past we would let the kids open their swim suits and then take them over to the indoor clubhouse pool to swim. Well it didn't even cross my mind until they were pulling out the suits that we no longer have an indoor clubhouse pool. So I quickly told the kids that we would take them to SHAC on Monday.

And the kids loved going to SHAC to swim.

All except Isaac. Poor kid was clinging to me and crying everytime he would get splashed. We just haven't taken him swimming and I just throw him in the shower with Chuck so he doesn't even get in the bathtub. No wonder he was not having a good time!

Valentine's Week

We had a lot of fun preparing for Valentine's day. We made giant heart cookies with sprinkles. Of course the kids always like making cookies. Bella was so excited about eating her cookie I couldn't even get a picture before she bit into it.

What I remember about Valentine's when I was a kid was helping my mom make my Valentine's box for school. She always had such creative ideas. So the kids and I made what was supposed to be a robot Valentine's box, but it actually turned out looking like a crazy bug.

We also made Valentine's cards. It was so fun to ask Samuel what he loved about each person. He came up with a great list for everyone. Sameuls' list for Grandma involved trips to the Dollar Store and gifts that she buys for him. Grandpa's list involved all the fun games he plays with Samuel. When I asked Samuel what he loved about Bella he said, "I like Bella because she plays with me. I just love her that's all." When I asked him about Isaac he said, "I like Isaac because he likes to give me five. He likes to play with me." As you can tell, playing games with Samuel is very important to him.

Weekend Fun

Chuck and I have been trying to have once a month "date nights" with each of the kids. This month it was my turn to take Bella out for a mommy daughter evening while Chuck and Samuel had a stay at home Star Wars fest (Isaac was sleeping). We've been talking about it all week and each time we would bring it up Bella would get sad because Samuel would talk about how he and dad were having a party. When it was time for us to go Bella threw herself on the couch and started to cry. Then I told her we were going for ice cream and the tears instantly stopped. She was so cute because all night she kept saying "Mommy, Bella shopping date". I took her to Target and she picked out a pink necklace and the brightest pink nail polish you can imagine. Then we finished with a shake.

The guys watching Clone Wars.

Samuel and Bella have been wanting to go to Jumping Jacks for several weeks now so we finally took them again on Saturday. They love this place!

We have had various colors of paint samples in our entertainment nook for months now. This weekend Chuck decided he was going to finish this project. I know I picked this color, but I'm not so sure about it now. Chuck hates painting for this very reason. I always have painters regret! Maybe it will grow on me and not be so bold after we get some things in the nooks.