Guess what today is?????

We love you Papa! Have a Great Day!

Slumber PARTY!!!!

I remember as a little girl my Dad always hated when we went to spend the night with a friend. What was the reason? Well, we would stay up WAY too late and then come home the next day tired, grumpy and totally useless. I hadn't thought about that in a long time because our kids are obviously too young to be having sleepovers, or are they?

Our friends Beth and Shae are getting ready to have their second baby and went to spend a night away, so we were lucky enough to have Aiden stay over night with us. We got such a kick out of watching/listening to Davis and his friend playing and laughing in their room until late into the night. I think we put them to bed at 8:00 and around 10:00 we were insisting that they needed to go to sleep (Owen had fallen asleep long before this time). At 11:00 p.m. they were STILL awake and I had to separate them and put them at different parts of the room. Well, the next morning we took two little zombies to the Boatnik parade.

After saying "good-bye" to Aiden and a LONG nap we got ready for yet another friend to come and spend the night. My long time friend, Alisen, and her son, Huxley, came through town on their way up north and once again the boys were thrilled to be playing with a friend late into the night. I was overjoyed to see my friend too, so I couldn't bring myself to go to bed any earlier either.

So today we are all tired, but Davis and Owen are all ready for Aiden and Huxley to come again!

Puddin'

Yesterday afternoon I was doing the dishes and I could hear Kate happily babbling about something near me. I smiled to myself and thought how nice it was to hear her happy again (she had been a bear while her top front teeth were coming in). So turned to see my happy little girl and it became apparent really quickly WHY she was SO happy. She had taken a lemonade container out of the trash can and was happily sucking on it...oh, and did I forget to mention that it was covered in pudding?!?! Disgusting, I know, but I burst into laughter and called Jed and the boys. It was classic. This reminds me too, our neighbor and friend, Jodi calls Kate "Puddin'" because she says that she looks just like a doll that she had, as a little girl, by that same name. Very fitting!

Pack Your Bags, We're Staying Home!

If you are like me, you are always looking for ways to entertain your family and for inexpensive ways to make the summer an extra fun time. It is for this reason that I love Family Fun magazine and I have subscribed to it for years. It is also for this reason that I LOVE this new download that my mom has on her blog. She has written a 33 page guide to help readers know how to have a fun vacation at home. In her words, "It includes recipes, directions for crafts and other projects. It also includes many internet resources to help with your plans. There are sites with ideas for games and crafts. There are sites that help you to find festivals, historic sites, and community fairs close to home. There is a guide to planning ahead of your vacation and detailed ideas for fun days to spend in your own home. Don’t worry mom, there is a plan for feeding the crew without all those meals to prepare and dishes to wash." So, if you are interested...it only costs $3.95 to download, about the same as a magazine. :) Check it out and have fun making inexpensive memories with your family this summer! blog.totallyready.com

Popsicle Day!

Today we spent the morning at the park and now are all tuckered out (just the way I like these little guys in the afternoon!). On the way home I noticed that it was already 92 degrees at 1:00 p.m. That is excuse enough for a Popsicle if you as me! I took some darling pictures of Kate eating her first Popsicle. After I downloaded them on to the computer, however, I realized that I had bumped the setting on the camera and they are almost all out of focus. This was the clearest one, so it will have to do.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you important women in my life...our mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, sister-in-laws, cousins, friends from Oakdale, College roommates, friends from Omaha, friends from New Mexico, friends who live near me now...no matter where you are or how often we talk, I love you all and am grateful to have you in my life!!! Happy Mother's Day!

p.s. And Happy Birthday Erica Humphreys! I miss you!

One step at a time...

So, I just have a few things to note from this week...

1. This week Kate has started standing on her own. She had done it a little bit here and there, but now she is a very competent stander (is that even a word?). It was fun to watch her stand up, not realizing what she was doing. All of the clapping tipped her off that her new trick was pretty cool, however, so now she does it all of the time.

2. Kate has been taking steps. She is definitely not one of these babies who just decides to walk across the room, but she does take a step here or two steps there. Very exciting and terrifying all at the same time. Oh, the things she will be able to do and destroy now.

3. Kate's (What can I say? It's been a big week for Kate) top two teeth have FINALLY poked through. Hallelujah! She has been such a bear lately and we are really hoping that a much sweeter girl will immerge once all of this teething is over.

4. On Tuesday, Owen worked on and off ALL DAY so that he could have enough money to go to Burger King, where he heard that the kids meals had Iron Man toys. We have a rule that we only get kid's meals on trips, so that they will remain a big treat. I told him that if he earned the money he could buy one for himself and that was all he needed to hear.

5. We are experimenting with letting Davis skip his daily nap. It seems when he naps then he is up for hours playing in his room at night. So far he still falls asleep every afternoon...on the floor, in a chair, in the car...I think he still needs the nap, maybe we will just try making them a little shorter.

6. Jed and I are now both boycotting Wal Mart for the next month. We don't live in a huge town, so it is unrealistic to say that we are never going back, but after standing in line with my 3 kids for 40 minutes I vowed not to go for at least a month. Then Jed went last night for some Mother's Day dinner shopping. They were out of everything that he needed and the lines we horrible, so he has joined me in my vow.

Cinnamon Rolls, Anyone?

A couple of months ago my Mom came up with the idea of doing a family service project. She said that she could not stop thinking about my sister's friend, Sandra, who is in a difficult situation. She felt our family, as a whole, should do something to help. We all agreed that Sandra is very deserving and Jed and I were excited to use this opportunity to teach our children about compassion and the value of doing for someone else. My mom then got some frozen cinnamon rolls at a wholesale cost (I wanted to be sure to put this in here so that it doesn't appear that we were making the dough from scratch...don't want to misrepresent myself!) and the kids went to work. Amy's kids had great success with their sales, so we were next. Our friend Carmen was kind enough to let us set up a small table at her yard sale. We spent a day baking and frosting 17 pans of cinnamon rolls (thank you Bethany for your frosting recipe on your blog--great timing!). The boys were eager to make signs to use and Owen was pumped about setting up shop. Things went well at the yard sale, where we sold the rolls individually or by the pan. Owen called out to potential buyers, "Would you like to buy a cinnamon roll?", basically as soon as the door opened to their vehicles. After three hours the boys had had enough, however, and we still had a dozen pans left to sale. We packed the kids up and started to hit up our friends. Lucky for us, we have lot of wonderful and generous friends with sweet teeth. When all was said and done the kids raised $150. Not too shabby, eh? Thank you Nana for getting us thinking about serving other people!