Mama's Little Loves

2012-01-26T13:07:00.004-05:00

Look who did Locks of Love!!!

Here is the before pic at our house of her very, very long hair.

Here she is getting her hair all brushed out before getting it cut.
Her long ponies all chopped off.

Look at that happy face!!! She loved every minute of getting her hair cut.

All done! Her response was, "I look like a different kid! I think I look like a unicorn filled with sprinkles and cheese." Not sure what she meant by the ending there, but we all laughed.

For a treat after her haircut, we walked over to Panera Bread and got a delicious bagel. Such a fun day out!

2012-01-23T07:33:00.000-05:00

Some more of my crochet projects...

I have been trying to refrain from picking up my needle too often since, come on, let's face it, I have about 20 other things that I should be doing. You know, like cleaning my house, working on school with my kidlets, organizing the sheer awesome amounts of things we have in this house...and the list could go on and on. But, seriously, what's the fun it that? So here are some hats I have been able to squeeze into the schedule and still feel like I am getting done the things that I need to be doing.

Gnome hat--my girls call it "little Benny's hat" from Gnomeo and Juliet.
Can't you tell Dean just loves his new hat? Ha! Little stinker. For some reason, he does not like to wear this one.

A little bit better--I had to bribe him with a sucker. :)
Maybe I'll have some booties to show next week.

2012-01-21T19:25:00.002-05:00

The "7 Foot Snowman"

Caleb came home from work the other day at about 7:30 or so at night and yelled in to us to come outside. He said the snow was perfect for making our annual gigantic snowman. Sure enough, that snow was awesome packing snow and we were able to make 2 snowman very quickly.

Please ignore my awful suspender snowpants...even though it was snowy out, it was actually fairly warm--hence the great packing snow.

Notice Piper kissing the smaller snowman? Yup, she just had to have a pic with her kissing the snowman.
And if you can't read the sign, it says, "Please don't knock me over! I was made with love!" Last year, some rowdy kids kept driving by the house, finally stopped in front of the house, and jumped out of their car and knocked down our snowman. We are hoping that the sign will maybe discourage them from being so mean. We shall see. :)

2012-01-05T14:00:00.002-05:00

The New Year...

One of my "resolutions" was to make more projects with the kids. I am going to try to aim for one special project a week. So far, for week one, we are actually at two projects. Yeah! Here are pics from our first project that we did--homemade play-doh.

We added sparkles to our play-doh, because, come on, sparkles make everything so much more fun!

And there is Piper with the finished product! This play-doh is definitely worth the time and effort to make it. I couldn't find the link to where I saw this recipe, but here is what I wrote down:

1 cup flour

1 cup water

1/4 cup salt

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tbsp vegetable oil

food coloring--or use a kool-aid packet(which is what we did) and you will have delicious smelling play-doh!

sparkles! definitely aren't needed, but it is just so much more fun! :)

Mix everything together in a sauce pan and stir together with a wooden spoon over medium heat. Keep stirring the entire time! After a few minutes, the doh will start to lump together. Keep stirring! Once all the doh becomes one gigantic lump, it is done. Remove from heat, dump on countertop and knead until there are no more little clumps. Once cooled, put in containers. Your dough will last about 6 months.

You will never buy another jar of Play-Doh again! Or maybe you will if you find a great deal on it. :)

2011-12-30T20:45:00.000-05:00

Teehee...

I thought of Esther today when I saw this. Hillarious!

Source: Uploaded by user via Deborah on Pinterest

2011-12-26T21:28:00.006-05:00

Some pics for Daddy
And for those in CA, expect to see these in your mailbox, hopefully, on Monday! Also, since I still haven't decided on black and white or color, you get to see lots of pics. Sorry!

Ambry

Piper

Kobe Dean...and his curls :)

And some pics of all 3 kidlets.

The last one of the kidlets is probably my favorite. I think it captures all of their personalities. I had so much fun taking their pics today. And in case you're wondering...yes, that is my couch on the front porch. :)

2011-12-24T09:17:00.000-05:00

Kalahari vacay continued...again, because,well, let's face it, I like to take lots of pics.

Besties!

An ok family pic, if you don't mind the funny faces.

My failed attempt at getting all 3 kidlets to smile at me. Stinkers!

Goofy girls!

Gotta love Ambry's wild headband in these pics. She won it at the arcade and wore it for the rest of the night. Of course, she hasn't worn it again since we got home.

And one more ok family pic. At least Caleb and I look happy for the pic. Oh, and yet again, please ignore the stinkin' hat! (One day, I am just going to toss them all. Just you watch!)

2011-12-22T09:04:00.003-05:00

Kalahari vacay continued...A night at the arcade and a night of mini-golf

A night at the arcade...how misleading...we were at the arcade almost every night of vacay. Apparently we have some serious game lovers. :)

Piper won the jackpot and was quite excited.

Piper and her haul of tickets.

This child is such a character. I was limiting the amount of games they could play, so she climbed in this car and proceeded to pretend to drive. Check out that face! She takes her driving quite seriously.

Ambry playing mini-golf.

The girls and the surfer in the black light mini-golf course. Ambry, "Look, Mom! Now I really look like I'm from California!" Goofy girl. She considers herself half Californian. :)

Caleb (and his hat), Dean, and me on the mini-golf course.

I wonder if I'm allowed to outlaw hats. No more wearing them if there is even a remote chance I will want pictures. :)

2011-12-21T09:19:00.003-05:00

We went on vacay!
We got to to go to Kalahari again!! We were so excited when they ran the bogo deal again, that we ended up booking twice and staying for twice as long this time. So much fun was had by all! Here are just a few pics, with many more to come later.

My view from the front seat--our very precious cargo.

This awesome family also went!
And Josh and Tara went too! So excited that more people were able to go this year. Maybe as word gets around about how much fun this place is, more people will go too. The more the merrier!

And, my one family pic that turned out halfway decent...other than Dean pointing at the giant giraffe...and Caleb wearing a hat in yet another family pic...and Piper not looking at the camera...like I said, a family pic that turned out halfway decent. Some day I'll get a nice one--I just know it!

2011-12-06T15:45:00.001-05:00

Ambry, Piper, and their most favorite Aunt KK...

Of course, she is their only Aunt KK. :)

Love you, Aunt KK!!!

2011-12-01T10:38:00.001-05:00

Say it together now..."Aaawwwww!"

And that is all for now. Hope everyone has a good Thursday!! :)

2011-11-29T15:49:00.004-05:00

Don't worry...more posts will be up in the next couple of days...we've been busy with the Thanksgiving week last week and crocheting and painting and school and...the list goes on...

Pics are from about a month ago when Dean had all of his beautiful curls still intact.

2011-11-17T11:46:00.003-05:00

My New "Addiction"

I am a crocheting fiend lately and LOVING it! This was one of my first projects. A mama turtle that "poops" eggs. :) My girls think it is awesome! I made two baby eggs, 1 large egg, 1 small egg, and 2 cracked shells.

And, of course, a back shot.

My second project was this little "bear" that turned out to be more a monkey than a bear. When I got done with it, I just didn't think it looked much like a bear so I added a tail.

And last, but not least, is Dean's owl hat. Seriously, how stinkin' adorable is this hat?!?

Say it together now..."aaahhhhh!" And now I am off to get started on Piper's hat. Hopefully pics of her's to come at the end of the week. Maybe sooner...although I suppose I do need to make time to also clean my house...and take care of my kids...and do school...hmmm, maybe the hat will be made next week. :)

2011-11-09T09:26:00.000-05:00

Fun in the rain

How could you not have fun when you have a kitty umbrella and some of the most stylin' frog rain boots I have ever seen!

2011-11-07T09:24:00.000-05:00

Hard at work.

This is what I get to see every day. I am so blessed!

2011-11-05T09:19:00.000-04:00

Piper picking up her room

"What, Mom? Can't you tell I'm working oh so very hard? No? Oh well."

I'll just go back to "reading" and pretend that you aren't there.

And this is why picking up her room is an all day activity. In her defense, about 90% of the mess is her sister's.

2011-11-03T09:10:00.000-04:00

A series of events

Dean and a bag of Lays that he found that daddy had brought to the soccer bowl. (Don't ask me why daddy had to have a bag of Lays. It isn't like we had to bike 10 miles to get to the soccer bowl.)

Maybe if I quickly stuff my face nobody will know...

...quickly trying to chew my HUGE bunch of chips...

...uh-oh...I think I've been caught...

...OH! It wasn't me that had the chips! Look! Over there! It was Piper all along!
Hee-hee. I amuse myself. :)

2011-11-01T08:53:00.000-04:00

Fun at Charlie's Dump, a.k.a. The Soccer Bowl
Daddy and his girl

Ambry and Piper

Dean, plenty willing to ham it up for the camera.
Getting ready to play some soccer...

...but someone forgot the baby. :)

Piper sick of me taking her pic.

Plenty willing to pose for pics though if she can get up and dance around...

...and dance some more...

...and some more!

2011-10-30T08:50:00.000-04:00

It's awesome being Piper!

Yup, that is her, breaking down a dance move right at the playground. No cares at all if anyone sees her. Goofy girl!

So rare for me to actually get a real smile out of this child lately. It has been lots of fake grins. But this day, I was able to get some cute ones of her.

2011-10-28T08:40:00.000-04:00

The 3 girls who braved the very, very cold weather on the morning after Ambry's sleepover. 8:00 a.m. game...freezing winds...yeah, it was cold.

Luckily, I am a crazy hoarder and had enough hats, coats, and gloves to clothe everyone. :)

Apparently, I need to work on capturing the jump shot. I think I will have to bribe Piper to jump for me later. :)
Pure joy!

So glad Ambry has such good friends! No pics of all the tye dye fun. The dark and my camera just weren't cooperating. Not to mention, trying to take pics with 7 girls around four big buckets of dye...scary! I decided to supervise instead of try to take pics. Hope you understand.

2011-10-26T08:27:00.000-04:00

Ambry's B-day

Ambry really wanted a sleepover for her birthday. She requested 11 girls. I narrowed it down to 7...because, 7 is still an insane amount of girls! Here is a closeup of her sleepover cake.

Rosie, Ambry, and Emmy all posing with her cake.

Aunt and niece...still can't believe that! These two are so cute together!

A pic of all the girls at her sleepover...minus Kasey, who was maybe too cool to get in on all that girly action. :)

More pics to come later! Thanks to all the girls who made it to Ambry's sleepover! I hope they had as much fun as she did.

2011-10-25T08:24:00.002-04:00

His sisters believe in starting him young...

Maybe by the time he is 2 he will be holding it right side up. :)

2011-10-13T22:45:00.003-04:00

Art Prize 2011

World's largest bean bag. Cool idea...ugly pattern/fabric/whatever you want to call it. :)

Dog and his ball. The girls liked this one the best.

Preying mantis.

I can't remember what this one is called, but it was carved out of wood. Pretty cool looking.

Bry and Piper with the hanging monkeys.

I thought this was so neat. Albert Einstein's head made out of those paddles with the balls. Seriously?!? Where do people come up with these ideas?

Ambry trying to hear the laughter. There was a little button that you could push and hear children laughing.

Glitter girl. Another one of our favorites. It was a painting with all these little sparkly circles that you could blow on that would catch the light and sparkle.

Tonka truck. Fun idea!

And a pic of me and the kids...kind of. Piper didn't want to stand back by us so she is "holding" Dean's hand in the pic.

The kids and I wanted to see more, but it started to rain and there was no way I wanted to try to run through the rain to get through to the next building. Oh well. Lord willing, there is always next year and we can see more cool stuff!

2011-10-04T10:34:00.000-04:00

A trip to the beach for a family get together.
Piper the poser. Seriously? Why can't she stand and smile so cute like Lettie?

Piper buried in the sand by the girls.

All sand covered and couldn't be happier. Which is a huge surprise for this child since she can't stand to be dirty.

2011-10-02T10:20:00.000-04:00

Yet some more random vacay pics

Daddy and his kidlets

This is what Dean thought of all the pics.

Oh wait, there is a smile.
Dean and me.

Seriously love Piper's crazy pose here. It was just going to be Caleb, Dean, and me, and then there comes the crazy Pip and pops a pose.

Dean yelling "buuuh" (bye) to me while "driving" his truck.

Daddy and Piper taking a break from playing in the sand and playing with the gameboy instead.

2011-09-30T09:57:00.000-04:00

Some of my favorite pics of the girls

Yeah, not so many good ones of Piper. That child can not take a pic without doing some kind of crazy pose!

Some sisterly love.

I love this pic for some reason. Maybe it's the little sister looking up to the big sister or just the plain goofiness of those two together. Either way, I think it is cute.

Huggin' it out.

And a sweet dance move from Piper. What did I tell you about the posing!

2011-09-28T09:44:00.000-04:00

Some very overdue family pics from our mini vacay

Good grief, have I ever been horrible at posting anything on here. With starting the new school year, trying to have what seems to be the never ending garage sale due to weather, attempting to keep my house clean, need I go on? I just don't seem to have as much time to post pics on here. I need to get back on my schedule that I so neatly wrote out before we began school.

I love Ambry's pose here. She looks so sweet.

It was a bummer the sun was so bright that day. We all have sun glare faces. Oh well. At least I got some fairly decent family pics. :)

2011-09-27T09:36:00.002-04:00

Piper, the soccer player

Piper watching her teammates play and then looking at me when I am "very nicely" telling her to run after the ball.

Piper waiting for her turn to get back in the game.

Piper is #5 for her first year of soccer which she loves since she is 5. :)
And, of course, a little hip action for her pic. Silly girl can't take a pic without popping a hip.

2011-09-15T10:12:00.002-04:00

Sitting around the table doing math while listening to Il Divo.

That is all.

Maybe later I will have something more exciting to share.

Have a good Thursday!

2011-09-09T07:54:00.002-04:00

Hope you have a "chillin' Friday"!

From Ambry

Yup, she really would sit like that with her legs up and her head just poking out of the water. Goofball! I LOVE that girl! :)

2011-09-08T08:10:00.000-04:00

A couple of pics of Dean on vacay...

At the beach by the water. He loved the water! He hated the sand though. The wet sand by the water was okay but I couldn't set him in the sand without him getting upset. He sat on a towel, in the wagon, or on a chair the whole time we were at the beach.
Sweet pea fell asleep on my very, very long bike ride.

Dean eating some of the raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries from the farmer's market.

I think you can tell by his face that he liked those berries a lot!

Dean sitting in one of the chairs. Check out his toes. He wouldn't even stick them in the sand. :) Piper being such a good big sister and sharing her yogurt with Dean.

Sorry! That ended up being more than a couple pics. Oh well. More to come later. :)

2011-09-06T19:57:00.004-04:00

The week in which I start school, a budget, a garage sale...must I go on?

It's been a little while again, but I've been oh so busy that I haven't had time to get on here and post pics. Now that school has started, it is even more busy. But hopefully with my new super schedule (I will share that another day) I am hoping that with having computer time scheduled that I will be able to make the time to blog regularly again.

Anyway, here are some pics of our mini vacay that we took last week.

Lots of fun was had by all and there are LOTS more pics to come!

2011-08-29T16:39:00.000-04:00

Kobe Dean

Playing in the water in his favorite bucket.

Watching the kids go down the slip-n-slide.

I wish that last pic was a little clearer. He had such a big grin on his face. He loves playing with the kids outside. It is one of his favorite things to do. Check out those little toothers on the bottom there. Maybe someday he will get some more to accompany those. :) (p.s. He does have some up top for a total of 5 teeth. Yes, I know, not very many. But all in good time.)

2011-08-27T16:31:00.000-04:00

Best friends

One of the best part of having extra kidlets running around?? The kids have playmates. And here are some pics of them this week.

All the kidlets with Dean. This is how many little people there are running around my house every day. And I wonder why it looks like a bomb went off in my house every day. :)

Love that last pic of all four of them together. It is amazing how well all of the kids get along together. I am definitely blessed with how much they all love each other.

2011-08-25T16:24:00.002-04:00

The kidlets eating "rat poison" right, Esther? :)

We thought the ice cream was awesomely delicious though! Ambry got mint chocolate chip, Piper got superman, and I got birthday cake ice cream. Yup, you read that right...birthday cake ice cream. One of my favs. Big chunks of birthday cake mixed in with the ice cream. Yummy!

Ambry's big grin says it all..."Fun and yummy!" Thanks for the gift card to go out for ice cream, Esther!

2011-08-17T12:25:00.000-04:00

Last pics of Piper's Birthday Party

Here she is opening up Nana's birthday present.

A pillow pet! And it's a unicorn! Good pick Kasey and Rosey!

Getting ready to blow out the candles...all five of them!

Thanks again to everyone who came to her party! We are all so grateful to have such awesome family and friends!

2011-08-16T12:17:00.000-04:00

Piper's Birthday Party...continued

The kids all played a balloon game for Piper's birthday party. I blew up about 40 balloons, threw them all out on the slip-n-slide, and the kids had to grab a balloon, and try to pop it by sitting on it. They had a blast and the adults had fun watching them slip all over and try to pop the balloons.

Check out Piper's face here...such joy! And she only managed to pop one balloon! So much fun!

The reason for the very wet and green looking yard? It downpoured right up the start of Piper's party and the rain really didn't stop until about a half hour after her party started. The kdis didn't care. They went on the slip-n-slide while it was still drizzling and by the time they wanted to take a break and jump in the pool, the rain had completely stopped.

2011-08-15T12:11:00.000-04:00

Piper and her birthday cake

The obligatory cheesy smile for mom while holding her cake.

And a closeup of her cake. She picked an aquarium cake. She had so much fun decorating it.
More pics to come later and hopefully a video if I can figure out how to upload the stinkin' thing to my computer! Thanks again to everyone who came! She had so much fun!

2011-08-13T12:09:00.001-04:00

Once again wondering why we even bothered to buy the girls a bunk bed...or pillows for that matter! Check out what Ambry is using for a pillow.

Also, gotta love the argyle socks. Definitely styin'.

2011-08-10T11:56:00.000-04:00

Some more summer fun in the pool

With all of this hot weather we have been having, the pool has been holding steady at about 80-84 degrees. There were even a couple days where it reached 90!! Which means we have been using the pool quite a bit this summer.

Here are a couple of pics of the kids along with Kasey and Rosey.

The gorgeous Kasey and the handsome Dean.

And here are some of the many faces the Dean pulls.
A happy version of what I like to call his "stink" face.

And a nice big happy grin.

Looking back at these pics, it is such a good reminder to me to appreciate these times that I have with my kids--and my sisters! I have so much to be thankful for!

2011-08-09T11:49:00.004-04:00

Fun with Play-Doh

It isn't often that I take down the bin of play-doh. I can't stand the sticky mess it makes and then all of the hard crumbles it makes once it dries. But every once in a while, the kids catch me and I feel that I must say "yes" to them. So here are the girls with some of their creations.

First up is Piper with her many "cupcakes" and "delicious cookies".

Ambry's "cake".

And, of course, a pic of her and her "cake".

Imagine how long it took for them to separate all of the colors again. Neither of my girls can just shove the used pieces of play-doh back into their little bins. They do NOT like the colors getting mixed so everything must be painstakingly taken apart and put in it's proper place. How I wish they were like that with their room!

2011-07-29T08:23:00.000-04:00

Blue-eyed Dean

Dean and I helped a friend of ours weed in front of her house a couple of weeks ago. He found some random plastic pike and had so much fun digging around in the dirt.

Dean's favorite new thing to do--reach for the camera. He is such a little ham!

Check out those gorgeous baby blues! I still can't believe how much he looks like his big sis, Ambry! They could be twins at that age! I'm going to have to dig up some pics of Ambry at that age and post a compare. :)

2011-07-27T08:16:00.000-04:00

Dean likes Starbucks just as much as his mom!

I left my coffee cup laying in the grass while the girls and I worked on painting the playhouse and Dean snatched it right up. There were only a couple of sips left, but he was loving it!

Yummy! Thanks Mom!

LOVE that adorable little face of his!

2011-07-25T08:11:00.000-04:00

Some pics of our insanely overgrown garden...and some goodies from said garden

Check our the size of that squash! I have to pick every other day or that is how big the squash get. I can't wait until we start getting tomatoes!

And here is a pic of our tomatoes just to give you an idea on size. I know the pic is a little blurry/totally blown out from the sun, but the tomato plants are taller than Piper and have reached the top of our neighbor's fence. I can't wait to see how many tomatoes we get from those giants!!

2011-07-23T08:07:00.000-04:00

Dean LOVES the pool...and his Aunt KK!

So sweet! Love this pic of the 2 of them!

2011-07-21T07:59:00.000-04:00

The kidlet's new-to-us playhouse

After taking off a week of no blogging...we just didn't have much going on over here :) I thought I would post a couple pics of the kids playhouse being moved into the backyard. Caleb got a skidster from work, hacked a bunch of low hanging branches down, took out the fence, took down my clothes line pole, I dug up a bunch of flowers, shoveled out the sand for beneath the house...need I go on? Anyway, after all of that, the house was able to moved into the backyard.

And here is a pic of a little "friend" that hopped a ride all the way from where we picked the house up from and then the following 15 miles or so back to our house. I can't believe that it stayed on the house that whole time!

And, of course, I have no pics of the playhouse in its current location in our backyard. So I will take some more pics later on. Not to mention, I can take pics of the inside once it is all cleaned out--insert icky spiders here--and with its new paint job.

2011-07-11T08:58:00.001-04:00

Fourth of July parade
Gerrit and Jen walked from their house to watch the parade for a little while with us.

Piper eating her pre-parade snack.

Dean getting some chips from Daddy. Still can't believe he was eating those things!

And then a bottle to wash it all down.

Cute cousins waiting for the parade to start. Lula was NOT happy that we had to get their early in order to get a good seat for the parade.

Piper getting a lift from Uncle Gerrit.

Dean all tuckered out.

His sweet baby face says it all. We were all pretty whooped by the end of the parade. It was sooo hot and the parade was sooo long. Fun was definitely had by all though!

2011-07-09T08:56:00.000-04:00

"I am So 'Tool' (cool) Mom! Take a picture of me looking so 'tool'!"

2011-07-07T08:45:00.000-04:00

Bubble Slip-N-Slide

Ambry and Piper playing in the bubbles at the bottom of the "slide".

Piper and Toby laying around in the bubbles.

Ambry sliding down.

Piper sliding down.

And Dean hanging out at the bottom of the "slide" watching them all take turns sliding down over...and over...and over again.

This has to be one of the hardiest tarps/plastic things ever! And it works perfect for the kids to make a slip-n-slide out of. Our backyard had just enough of a slant to it that they can get going pretty good. Shoot, I've even gone down the slide and survived. And let me tell you, it is great fun! Can't wait until Esther and her brood come over. Maybe I can persuade her to go for a ride down the slide too! :)

2011-07-05T16:42:00.003-04:00

The cup speaks for itself...

Yummy! Made this recipe here with a couple of modifications and it made enough to fill my HUGE coffee cup all the way. SO delicious! Obviously, Piper thought so too. :)

2011-07-01T08:45:00.000-04:00

Fun in the Pool

Check out all that hair that Piper has! Finally getting long!

Raelyn and Piper goofing around.

And the best part after swiming in the pool all day? A sleepover!

2011-06-29T08:37:00.000-04:00

Little Boy Blue

This is where the Dean sat while I sanded down my funky bench. Give him a bowl of grapes and he was more than content to sit and watch me work. Please ignore the fact that he is not clothed. I promise, he usually has clothes on...most of the time anyway.

2011-06-28T08:32:00.005-04:00

Before pic of a funky bench thingy that I picked up at a garage sale. After pics hopefully the end of the week!

Sorry about the dark pics. I thought this thing would be such a cool piece once refinished. The bench seat opens up and there is storage underneath. I didn't like the color so I am sanding everything down. I'm not too sure on what the new color will be yet, so you will have to wait to see what I decide to do with it! I'm sure you're just as excited as I am. :)

2011-06-26T09:00:00.000-04:00

Dean and his Poppa on Father's Day

Dean's face is hilarious here. He can't decide if he should cry or laugh. :)

2011-06-24T11:09:00.001-04:00

Piper and her "curly" hair

"Mom, you have to take a pic of me because (insert hair flip and hand on hip here)

I think I could take pics of those big, brown eyes of hers all day long.

Oh, she is such a character. These are pretty much the only good pics I have gotten of her in the last year. Such a stubborn one!! Hopefully I can persuade her to sit for me later. Although knowing her, I'll probably have to bribe her. Stinker! :)

2011-06-23T11:16:00.000-04:00

A couple pics of one of my sisters...so gorgeous!

Oh, she is growing up way too fast! I still can't believe that she is almost a teenager. I love having pics of her this happy. She is so gorgeous! Love you, Kasey!!!

2011-06-21T11:04:00.002-04:00

A fun **free** craft

Paint chips from paint store

1 piece of paper

Scissors

1 glue stick

Draw a rainbow on the piece of paper. Label where the colors go. Take the paint chips and cut them into little squares. Grab a glue stick. Start with the color red, glue the paint chips in place, and move onto orange. Once done, take pic of happy child with her beautiful rainbow. Free craft makes mom happy and fun craft makes child happy. :)

2011-06-17T10:06:00.000-04:00

"Have a SWEET weekend!", from Dean, with love.

2011-06-16T08:29:00.001-04:00

In the words of Piper "That is hillarious!"

Silly boy! He was just a little jealous that my nephew kept getting to go in the swing so I let him take a ride. And he loved it! He was in and out of that old swing all day long. Perfect entertainment for him and all the other kids who loved watching him laugh and giggle!

2011-06-14T21:17:00.004-04:00

Sweet baby nephew

I couldn't resist taking pics of this cute little guy and those big eyes. I got a new camera (temporarily) that I am having a blast using and thought he would make a fun subject to take pics of. I am lucky that I get to have him at my house 1 day a week. He is so much fun!

2011-06-10T10:57:00.002-04:00

My baby is 1!!!

And doesn't he look so excited about it? Since we try to eat somewhat healthy over here, the Dean got a blueberry muffin for his birthday. No pics of birthday presents, because, seriously, he is one. Ambry did choose to spend some of her own money on a gigantic ball for him. She is such a sweetheart. I will have to try to remember later to take a pic of the two of them and his birthday gift.

2011-06-09T09:44:00.000-04:00

My attempts at sewing...

This is an old skirt of mine that I haven't worn for the past year. I am trying to be better at getting things out of my closet that I don't wear. But I still don't want to just get rid of things. So I attempted to turn another of my old skirts into a dress for Piper. I have managed to do an all right job on two other of my skirts for her. Not too sure about this one though. And please excuse the horrible pics. My camera is on the fritz!

I need to come up with a better idea for keeping the ribbon tied so the dress will actually stay up. Any ideas are welcome! I think once I can get that fixed then it will be much cuter. Or at least I think it will be much cuter. :)

2011-06-07T09:31:00.000-04:00

Our Garden

Here is our bean teepee and some of our herbs. There is lemon balm, lavender, mint, and chamomille planted along the outskirts of the teepee. We shall have to wait and see how the beans do. Some naughty rabbits got in there and managed to eat quite a few of the leaves before we put up our fence. I started the herbs in baggies before I planted them and they were doing great...until I transplanted them to the ground. So we will have to wait and see how much we actually get. The only herb that is doing good in this planter is the chamomille.

Here are some more of our herbs. In these pots are chives, cilantro, oregano, and basil. In the other big pots are jalapenos and banana peppers.

Some strawberries from our garden. Piper picked the "bucket" to put the strawberries in. :)

The girls and me picking strawberries. Please no comments about how I look in a bathing suit. I know it is scary. :)

Ambry showing her strawberry pickings.

Seriously, how cute is that girl?!? We aren't going to get too many strawberries this year. Probably just enough to make it fun to go out there and pick a couple bowl fulls. But, I suppose it is better than nothing. :) I wasn't very dilligent about the weeding once fall hit and taking care of our little patch. So as a consequence it is pretty patchy this year. Hopefully our other plants will produce good!

2011-06-05T08:20:00.000-04:00

Just a few more of the kidlets...

Ambry has turned into quite the little camera poser, whereas Piper on the other hand is just a total goofball. Her posing is something totally different. She is leaning this way and that, hands on the hip, or arms folded. You name it, she tries to pose it. Oh well, that is the beauty of just taking your own pics. You know the kids personalities and even though the pic might not be someone else's idea of "perfect", it is definitely mine. I think their personalities just shine through and I love it!

2011-06-03T08:14:00.000-04:00

The kidlets...

I managed to get some pics of them. But, good grief, is it ever difficult to get all three of them to look at the camera and smile. I was jumping all over, making weird sounds, pretty much just about anything to get them to smile. Stinkers is what they are! :) I don't know how you do it Esther!

2011-06-01T08:41:00.002-04:00

What to do with the baby when the girls want to wash the car??

Put him in a (cleaned out) shoe bin and let him spalsh around too!

Look at that happy face! He was loving having his own water to play in and being able to watch the girls too.

Check out that tongue! Hilarious! This was the easiest solution that I could come up with for him. I didn't want him getting into the girls soapy (and icky) bucket for washing the car. And I really didn't want him getting all dirty from crawling in the grass--or muddy grass once the girls were done washing the car. :) This definitely worked for me!

Linked to WMFW--We are That Family.

2011-05-29T17:14:00.002-04:00

Note to self...DO NOT leave baby unsupervised!

Look at how happy he is with himself. Little stinker! It wouldn't have been such a big deal except that he got out all that nasty powder at the bottom of the box too. Do you know how hard it is to clean up powder off wood floor?? It was in the all the joints and everything. But at least he was happy eating the pieces off the floor while I cleaned up the rest. :)

2011-05-22T16:13:00.005-04:00

Children's Museum

Last week the kids, Grandma J. and two of my nephews went to the Children's Museum. Our local library offers a free pass for up to 6 people once a year. It worked out perfect for all of us to be able to get to the museum.

Piper and Roman in the mirrored tube.

Piper posing...

...and again with the posing. Hilarious!
Sweet baby playing with a truck.

Ambry making bubbles.

Check out that bubble! So cool!

Kobe Dean could not be happier than when he has some balls to play with.

Now I'm off to go get my herbs going. Hopefully we will have the beginnings to our herb garden going in a few days! Also, hope to have our bean teepee going also this week. Yeah!!!

2011-05-18T16:52:00.002-04:00

In which I "lust" after out door play things for my children...

Can you imagine the fun to be had in this beast? Someday...someday...I can just picture them out there having tea, planting their own little flowers, and setting up their own "house".

And check out this ingenous idea!! Making bean plants to grow over top of a teepee. Can you imagine the fun to be had in there by kids? And bonus! You get to harvest the beans also. How much fun and yummy!

And my last fun idea? Although I won't be doing anything quite this HUGE, I want to make an herb garden with the kids. I am torn between doing some type of container gardening or just putting all different herbs around in my landscape around my house. I think that lavender, lemon balm, peppermint, cilantro, basil, oregano, and chives would be great ones to start with. There is so much info out there on how to harvest, dry, and freeze the herbs too. I think it would be so much fun!

Side note: Piper is wondering if we can grow Pepsi in the garden. Or maybe coffee, she says. Hmmm, I think we will have to ask Grandpa about that one. :)

Any takers on making a kids play house with me? I just don't think I will be able to persuade my husband to build one this year. He is just way too busy with work. Let me know when you would like to get started! :)

2011-05-13T11:26:00.000-04:00

Kobe Dean 11 mos. pics continued...

Ambry and Kobe Dean...twins! :)

And my one of my favorite pics of him. There is just something about that sweet little look he has on his face. LOVE it!

Now if I can just get Piper to take some good pics. I can't seem to get her to sit still for more than 2 seconds and even for those 2 seconds she is pulling faces or just being completely goofy. Such a stinker! And she is one that I actually need some new pics of. Oh well. With all this gorgeous weather hopefully I can persuade her to go and sit in the sun for me. :)

2011-05-11T11:22:00.002-04:00

Kobe Dean, 11 mos. pics

Instead of going and having our pics taken at our local Sears or Target or where ever, I have been just going out to our backyard and taking pics out there. That way I am guaranteed to get the ones that I want and love. So far the only pics that I have missed out on is family pics. I am hoping to take some fun ones when Kobe Dean turns 1.

Hope you enjoy seeing these. There will be more to come! I love taking pics of him right now. I just can't resist those big blues!

2011-05-07T22:33:00.000-04:00

Have a "CRACKIN" good day!

2011-05-06T07:40:00.000-04:00

Reading Time

Every day Ambry takes Kobe Dean to her room to read books to him. It is the sweetest thing. I happened to have enough initiative to actually grab my camera and snap some pics of them together the other day. Look at those faces! Adorable!

2011-05-04T07:32:00.002-04:00

After the flood...

If you live anywhere around here chances are you had some pretty good "lakes" by your house. We had a good size one between the side of our driveway and our neighbor's yard. And what started out with the girls walking through it became a huge splash fest.

Piper digging her boot out after it became stuck in the mud. I'm really hoping we didn't permanently damage their yard!

Sisterly love.

Hugs from Piper turn into...

Drama! That child is such a stinker when it comes to taking pics!
And if you could only see the ones that I quick snapped in the garage when they were changing out of their clothes. Sweet Ambry and all her modesty and Piper turning around and asking me to take a pic of her butt! That child seriously spells trouble!

2011-05-04T07:25:00.003-04:00

My hubby is so sweet!

I don't know where he found the time, but for my birthday he got my a steam mop for all of our new wood floor. I was in South Haven over my birthday and he was working about 20 minutes or so from there. So Monday morning he packed up my present and took it with him so he could give it to me down there on my birthday! Like I said, my hubby is so sweet!

2011-04-11T15:42:00.001-04:00

South Haven mini vacay

We left on Monday, got back on Thursday, and fun was had by all. That is about all I have to say on that. :)

2011-04-05T11:04:00.002-04:00

Kobe Dean and his favorite activity

Love his bed head! And he loves his rubber ducky. :) It is by far his favorite toy to play with in the bathtub. That sweet, little boy can sit in the bathtub for the longest time splashing around and playing with his ducky. I usually can get the bathroom cleaned up and wiped down and he is still wanting to stay in there and play.

2011-04-04T09:25:00.003-04:00

The Dean and his pot :)

This is what he does while I cook. I give him a pot, the occasional ice cream scoop, spoon, or cup, and it keeps him busy while I cook dinner. Favorite part of the pic? Those "cankles" around the wrist. LOVE those rolls!

2011-04-01T14:31:00.000-04:00

I "HEART" Scrabble Tiles!

I own 3 Scrabble games. Not sure why, but I got sick of seeing all of the individual games, not to mention some of them were missing a couple tiles. So I kept one in it's box, and emptied the rest of the tiles into a canning jar and put them on a shelf in the living room. Why, you ask? Well, just because. And it makes spelling fun for Ambry. And it encourages Piper to want to learn her letters. And just because I wanted to. :) And here is another use for them. Here is my view out of one side of my kitchen window. It says "smile" because sometimes I just need to be reminded. And a rock on the other side that Piper painted. On the other window sill--that I didn't take a picture of because my camera suddenly decided to die--is the word "pray" because, again, sometimes I just need to be reminded. Hope you are having a great, sunny April 1st!

2011-03-31T14:27:00.000-04:00

A Random Warm Day...Hopefully nearing the end of winter!!!

Warm enough to even hang out some laundry! Yeah! No more line drying in the basement!

Warm enough for the girlies to eat their lunch outside!

Do you see the snow in the background? Still not quite spring yet, but it is getting there! Today it was about 50 degrees out so definitely warm enough without coats on. We even took a bike ride and it was lovely. Hopefully the spring weather continues!

2011-03-29T14:21:00.002-04:00

Room Updates...

A sign in my room. And some flowers...fake, of course, because I can not seem to keep any thing green alive inside my house. And if you can't read the envelope, that is an early birthday card from Ambry. It has now been sitting there for a month. :) That girl is on top of things I tell you!

Pictures of my kidlets hanging in my bedroom. So sad, but those are the first pictures I have actually hung in my room since we have lived here. We have lived here for over 6 years. I am that undecisive about what to hang. Horrible, but true.

A close up of my lovelies. The living room wall. LOVE it! Enough said.

Now I'm off to paint some more doors. I'm telling you, one of these days I will have a bedroom door again! It has only been a couple of months without one. :)

2011-03-21T09:22:00.000-04:00

"Is it summer yet Mommy?"

You can't see the snow out the window, but it is there...along with Caleb's air compressor...but it is out there still. Poor honey can't wait for flip flops and bathing suits, just like her mom. Well, not the bathing suit part, but at the least the flip flops!

2011-03-19T09:19:00.000-04:00

Delicious Pineapple!

From this...

...to this...

...to this.
Golden, delicious pineapple all stored up and ready to be eaten at a later to be determined date. So worth the citrus sores on the hands! Yummy!

2011-03-17T09:16:00.000-04:00

Momma Piper and Kobe Dean

That sweet boy and his cheeky grin! Love those two!

2011-03-15T09:13:00.001-04:00

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork." Ps. 19:1

2011-03-13T09:05:00.000-04:00

HUGE snowstorm of 2011...a little late with pics, but still cool to see :)

The girls and Caleb on the back deck. Caleb was literally holding Piper up because she kept sinking down into the snow up to her waist and couldn't get out. :)

Piper sitting on the snow pile that is currently our driveway.

The snow was literally waist high when we started shoveling it. Crazy!
Uncle Gerrit stuck in our driveway. Check out Piper in the background! That is snow that she is standing on!

And one of Ambry doing the same. Almost looks like she is standing on Uncle Gerrit's truck!

Uncle Gerrit did finally get unstuck but it took Caleb's big work truck to pull him out. :)

2011-03-11T08:58:00.005-05:00

Remodel continued...

Wow! 2 weeks of self-imposed distance from the internet and there are suddenly over a thousand emails to go through, tons of pictures to edit, and facebook updates galore. Of course, I can do without all the facebook updates, because if I see one more misspelled word, I just might scream. What are the schools doing to kids these days?? Good grief!

Our house is coming along nicely though. All of the wood floor is in now and we are waiting on getting doors painted and hung, trim primed, painted, and put back on just in Kobe Dean's room. The girls room is pretty much all done except for pictures hung. The same with our room and the living room. Now it is on to touch ups and cleaning up the huge mess. Super fun! Here are a couple pics of the girls room all finished.

Here is a random pic of the hall way as Caleb was finishing putting the flooring in. I still need to paint the trim around the bathroom door and the window in there. Boo!

I have lots more pics to come! So stay tuned. :)

2011-02-08T21:20:00.002-05:00

Day 2 of our new Family schedule...yeah!

Here is our schedule as it stands right now.

6:30--I get up, get dressed, start coffee...because, well I am not yet a strong enough person to get up that early without some help. :) Clean up for 1/2 hour.

7:30--wake up kids

7:45--breakfast and devotions

8:00--kids get dressed. Clean up for 1/2 hour.

8:30-10:30--school. So far, this has been the perfect amount of time that we need to get done all of our books.

10:30--snack break

10:45--Clean up for 1/2 hour. My hope is that we will be able to have the type of house that no matter when someone drops by, it at least looks presentable. Now, now, no laughing...one can hope!

11:15-1:00--reading, internet time, free time for kids, and/or errands

1:00--lunch

2:00--I work out. Kids read.

3:00--work on projects. For me, this means painting or cleaning out closets. For kids, this is art projects, coloring, or some type of art project that they would like to do.

4:00-5:00--Clean up or run errands if we didn't have time to run them earlier. 4:00-snack time.

5:00-5:30--get dinner ready

6:00--dinner

6:30--clean up, devotions, sing songs

7:00--Family time! The girls favorite time of our schedule so far.

8:00--girls get ready for bed.

8:30--all kids in bed

Today was day 2 of our schedule and it went great! I am loving having so much done by the end of the day. Plus, the kids are doing amazing on it. They know what to expect next and what I would like them to do. Also, they are so much more willing it help out. Clean up time has worked out great since they know that we are going to do it for a half an hour and then move on to the next part of our schedule.

We are going to keep trying to stick to it without deviating from it too much. I will keep you updated. Hopefully I will be able to say that we are still committed to our schedule a week from today.

2011-02-02T12:49:00.002-05:00

Piper's seriously wacky sense of style. She put her legs in her pajama's arms and went to sleep like that. PLEASE excuse my seriously messy house also! It is horribly out of control right now!

2011-01-28T09:53:00.001-05:00

When all else fails to make him happy...

...stick him in a box. :)

2011-01-26T10:21:00.002-05:00

The Home Remodel...still :)

Here is the new fireplace all installed. Caleb and his Uncle David made it out of concrete. Awesome!!

Caleb working on getting the hardwood floor installed.

A pic of the fireplace before the tv was installed and the green carpet was still in.

The finished bathroom/laundry room. Ignore the mess of tools on the dryer. They will probably be there for a while until all of the flooring is finished.

The almost finished entry way. The baseboard needs to be finished still. The wood floor will but right up next to the tile when that is all installed.

So happy that I have such an amazing husband who is willing to work so much on the house. Can't wait till it is all done!!

2011-01-17T10:11:00.002-05:00

The state of my living room right now

I have since picked a color so at least my walls are not "rainbows" anymore as Piper calls them. And now our fireplace mantle, hearth, and aprons are all ripped out. All that is left is the actual fireplace insert. Yikes! It is so messy and crazy over here right now. The fireplace is hopefully going to be ready to be installed on Wednesday. Yeah! Can't wait for it all to be done! So if my posts are few and far in between, this is why. :)

2011-01-07T11:22:00.000-05:00

All the kidlets reading books together.

All fresh and squeaky clean from baths and here is what they go to do next. They all cuddle together in the hallway and Ambry reads to Piper and Kobe Dean. So adorable.

2011-01-05T09:19:00.000-05:00

A "Rockstar" even when she's sleeping.

I went in to wake up the girls this morning and this is how I found Piper sleeping. I have no idea how she managed to keep those glasses on all night, but she did. Oh, how I love that silly girl!

2011-01-03T11:06:00.005-05:00

Some deals to start off the new year!

A couple close up pics of what I got since the pic above is kind of small...

And here is the list of what I got:

19 bottles of ketchup
1 jar of peanut butter
3 avocados
1 cilantro bunch
3 oscillo child flu meds
3 Advil migraine
3 Advil pain relief
2 Advil children's pain relief
2 Omega 3 thingys
6 Papermate pencil packs
11 Glade plugin refills
13 Glade candles
13 Glade sprays
2 Biore steam cleanser
1 Biore face wipes
4 Air Wick scents
4 Buckets for veggie plants this summer
2 Salonpas heating pads
6 Sunday papers for all the coupon inserts

Total spent was $35.17. I still have $43.00 Walgreens money left and also got 3 coupons for free Breathe Right strips from Walgreens. Total savings??? All receipts totaled up said I saved $364.74!!! If you can believe that. :)

2010-12-17T15:16:00.003-05:00

Vacay Pics--Kalahari 2010

Kobe Dean chilling in the stroller. Sweet boy was so good there!

Coolest sunglasses ever!!

Ambry being a good model with her new shirt...Piper, not so much.

Family pic!

Too bad Kobe Dean wasn't awake for the pic.

I wish I would have taken a pic of the sign by this little setup. The giraffe and hut were all made out of food! It said it took them a little over 120 hours of work with their entire pastry department working on it. Very cool!

Thanks Esther and her infamous hubby for inviting us! We had just as much fun as last year!

2010-11-16T14:35:00.002-05:00

In Which I continue to hemorrhage the moolah...

Another $7.05 out the door. It bought me:

1 8 pk of girls nail polish kit
1 baby toy
Rummikub (used, but all the pieces are there)
2 books (used. Gotta love Love, Inc.)
6 pks of Zany bands
2 dish towels
4 Andes mints (not pictured...the kids already scarfed those down)

So that makes my total for this week so far $84.14. Yowza! Total for the month is $267.78. That means if I stick to my $300.00 for the month, I only have $42.22 left...if my math is correct, anyway. :)

I think I am going to totally blow that $42.22 though since I totally forgot about Black Friday in there and there are some great deals at CVS and Wags. And you know I can't stay away from the deals!

2010-11-16T08:31:00.000-05:00

The day I blew my budget...big surprise, right?

Here is the pic of what I got.

And here is the list of what I got:

12 packs of Huggies diapers
10 Right Guard deoderants
1 caramel candy (filler)
6 cans of MSG (just kidding)
2 packs of batteries
1 rotisserie chicken
1 package of celery
1 20# bag of potatoes
1 bag of potato chips
Hummus (not pictured because I broke the container on my way to take the picture...grrr)
Pickles (not pictured because I didn't want to break this too)
Potstickers (not pictured....because I was too lazy to get it out of the freezer)
2 Hellman's mayo
2 Kid-Eeze medicine
4 Vick's Synex
2 Zantac (I sell this to my neighbor for $3.50 a piece)
4 Ecotrin
3 Gain dish detergent

Between Costco, Meijer, Walgreens, and Rite Aid, I spent a grand total of $77.09. Huge ouch! But my total savings was $204.59...at least according to all the reciepts. You could also look at it as I bought 12 packs of diapers at $8.99 which would have been $107.88 without coupons. So maybe not too terribly bad? Hopefully? Maybe if I keep looking at the savings the actual cash out of pocket won't be so terrible.

2010-11-15T14:55:00.004-05:00

My new toy!!!
Yeah! It finally came in the mail today. You can subtract another $56.00 from the budget. But so far, I am considering it money well spent.

I am working on figuring out how to upload to You Tube. So much fun! :)

2010-11-14T15:22:00.004-05:00

Budget Update

How much do I stink at taking pics of everything I buy?!? Good grief! As the second week of the budget is done, I thought I would update you on my spending. Not to mention, updating helps keep me aware of just how much I have spent.

Week 1 totals were: $39.07! Yeah! $10.93 under budget.

Week 2 totals were: $88.57! Ouch! But, I got a TON of stuff!

What I bought in week 1(sorry for the very, VERY long list):

2 Play-doh toys $.06

1 Leap Frog game $.63

Matchbox cars $1.00

Necklace chew toy $.47

2 ceramic snowmen dishes $.90

2 ceramic santa dishes $.90

4 Andes mints--free

1 pair of earrings $.30

12 pkgs. of tissue paper $3.74

1 bell--free

2 pkgs. Zany bands $1.84

1 Melissa & Doug train paint set $.51

1 Melissa & Doug car paint set $.51

2 caramel candies--free

2 pkgs. cards-5 in each pkg.-$.60

4 wrapping papers $2.63

1 pkg bows $.34

1 pkg. of ribbon $1.00

1 Fructis conditioner

2 Fructis shampoos

1 Nivea body wash

1 pkg. gum

1 pkg. candy sticks

1 Garnier hair color

1 Crest toothpaste (#'s 19-25 were nothing out of pocket, used $3.46 on gift card, $3.00 wellness cpn, and got back $8.50 in wellness cpns.)

All of those purchases were from Kohl's, Rite Aid, and Hallmark for a total of $15.43.

Whew! Break for pics, and here is rest of list:

7 Neuragen--$20.00 moneymaker...each!!!!!

4 caramel candies (fillers)

4 cases of pop

7 floss

2 Revitalize contact solution

5 pkgs of M&M's (fillers)

1 Simply Orange juice

4 pkgs. Jell-O

2 Degree deoderant (Walgreens total was $18.78)

1 turkey breast--Costco $12.42! Ouch!

1 case of beer

1 pkg. romaine lettuce

1 pkg. organic tortilla chips (Costco total $33.85)

6 pkgs oat wafers $3.00

1 HUGE bag of salt water taffy $5.00

2 boxes of butter cookies $1.00

2 tins of honey candy $1.00

30 jars of Smuckers jam/jelly $3.50!!!

bananas

oranges

bagels ($7.01 total from Meijer)

Total for Meijer, Walgreens, and Costco were 73.14! If I calculate in the money maker from the Neutragen though, that is a $140.00 money maker total! Woot! So if all of those work out properly, then I will come out more than ahead. I am coming to realize just how much I spend on deals though. I might have to look at really trying to budget seperately for that.

P.S. In the pic with the wallpaper, there are our 2 flooring choices. Both are real wood (hickory). I am having a hard time deciding between which one to go with. I am starting to lean towards the dark though.

Here is a link with our 2 choices next to each other. The dark hickory pictured is fairly close to the stain of the one we might choose.

So, take a peek and let me know what you think! I have until tomorrow--Monday to choose!