Storytime and Crafts

We went to the local library today for story time. The kids always enjoy going so I am not sure why we don't go more often. It consists of songs, 1 or 2 books and then bubbles at the end - what's not to love! We checked out a few books, specifically books to go along with the craft projects from Preschool Projects. I ordered this box full of monthly crafts. It comes presorted and ready to go with a month of crafts. Every month is different and goes along with the seasons and stuff. This month is the letters "S" and "T", the number "9", the color Blue, Father's Day and Summertime fun. Each day has a craft, thought-provoking questions and a book suggestion to read. We did a squirrel project and read a book about a busy little squirrel. It was age-appropriate and super fun! L's addicted to glitter now since her recital.

While L & S were enjoying craft time, J tried some puffs for the first time. It was his very first time self feeding. The experience went well. He didn't choke and enjoyed the banana flavored cereal.
Tonight L & S decided to help bathe J in the sink. Please ignore the Coors Light can littering the picture. I used it to bake beer bread tonight : -)

Dance, Dance, Dance

Tonight was the big recital. L has been working towards this for the past 6 months. It was absolutely wonderful!! I even cried while watching her. Where has the past 5 years gone and oh how I wished I would have treasured them more!! I am not good at taking pictures in the dark without a flash so these will have to do. She started out a bit fast but quickly got in the groove and finished with a bang. I was proud of her for sticking with the class all year. I could see her dancing for years to come. She really enjoys it! Daddy Piper and I were there (and the boys of course!) along with my sister and niece and my mother. I had a yellow rose for her and my mother brought her pink carnations. She was truly so excited to have us all there watching her. Fun times! Oh and I believe she was sufficiently glittered up : - )

Recital Rehearsal

Tonight was the dress rehearsal for L's recital tomorrow. It will be her first dance recital ever, but not her last if she has a say : -) This has been a big deal in our home for days and days. She is beyond excited. Today while getting ready, I was treated to the most fun time with her. I got to blow-dry her hair and wrap it up in curlers and then do her make-up. I wish I had taken a picture of our bathroom during this - it was littered and cluttered with makeup, hair curlers, combs, perfume and the like. I did get a picture of her during the dressing process. I enjoyed the "girly" dressing as much if not more than I enjoyed the rehearsal tonight! Both boys hung out with us while getting L ready. S had as much as I did watching L get ready. J just wanted me to hold him. He still doesn't feel so well : -(

I did lose my patience once though during the dressing time. I yelled at her when she cried while I was doing her hair. I hate when I do that - why do I have to lose my patience at the worst times?? I apologized immediately - hope that helped in her eyes. I am a crappy mom sometimes but do realize it and apologize when I am wrong, like yelling at her when she started to cry because I didn't want her to ruin her makeup.

Back to the dance stuff. The rehearsal went well. L really enjoyed being with all the other dancers. She is really hoping to take dance again next fall but we'll have to see. She wants to do dance and soccer but that would be 3 nights a week we would be gone and I just don't want to miss that many family dinners every week. Right when we got there, so many of the other little girls had sparkly dust stuff all over them and I hadn't thought about it so L didn't have any. A lady let us borrow some and I promised to get L her own for the recital tomorrow. At least we were able to borrow some tonight so she glittered for her pics :- ) L danced so cute on stage. Tomorrow should go well. The plan was for me to drop her off at 5:15 with a stage mom and come back at 6 and watch the recital but she didn't want me to leave her (which made me so happy to hear!!) so now I'll go with her and Daddy will come later with the boys.

Daddy stayed home with S and I brought J with me to the dress rehearsal. S has really enjoyed having so much time with Daddy lately. And Daddy had work today (THANK YOU GOD!!) so having some one on one time tonight was great for him. They were playing T-Ball when we got home.

S called Daddy earlier today - by himself. I heard talking in the living room while I was showering L and I walked out here to hear S talking with Daddy. Guess S knows how to use my phone. He called to tell Daddy monster trucks were on the TV : -)

The garden is growing good. I had to replace a couple plants today. Thankfully Home Depot replaced them for free, although that isn't their policy technically I guess. So now we have a new cilantro and cucumber. The watermelon plant is growing like crazy and our first tomato is turning red. The other stuff is still just sprouting and growing. Hopefully in the next month or so we'll be enjoying the fruits (or veggies) of our labor. I did try our peach jam that we made a week or so ago for the first time tonight. Heaven in a jar. I tried it on my first loaf of homemade bread (recipe from the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes).

Life is good. No life is GREAT. I am thankful Daddy has work; thankful for my children (even with the current lack of sleep due to #3); thankful that I have the opportunity to stay home and nurture and grow our children and take care of our home. Many things to be thankful today!!!

Airplane to Mexico

Tonight while tending to the garden with L (doesn't that so cool!), we were having some fun conversations. One of them went like this:

L: "Mom if I were an airplane, you could ride me all over"
Mom: "Where would we go?"
L: "We could go to Mexico [somewhere she has never been]"
Mom: "Sounds fun - let's go! What would we do there?"
L: "Drink Beer"
Mom: (acting quite stunned - we are not beer drinkers on a regular basis) "Oh yea - why would we do that?"
L: answering quite seriously "Because you can't drink the water in the Mexico!!"

Now where did she come up with that???

Pulled Up!

I had to hop back on and post about Baby J pulling up to standing on his own today. I was on the computer editing photos and L was playing Wii Fit (my latest sensation) and Baby J was cruising around the house like he does now. J had come out to visit me and L screamed for me to look. Well what to my wondering eyes would appear but a 7 1/2 month old baby standing up on his own holding on to his toy chair thing. It was CRAZY!! L didn't crawl or do anything physical like that until 10 months or so, S was crawling by this time but not pulling up and here #3, my baby, possibly my last baby, is already pulling up at 7 1/2 months. SLOW DOWN Baby J!!!!!

Hodge Pdoge

I was downloading pics from our fun day (more on that a minute) and remembered these pics from a couple days ago. Both boys were just up from naps and were snuggling in Daddy's chair. I grabbed the camera and snapped a few pics. From the playroom I heard this "Mom - what are you doing?" I replied with "Taking some pictures of the boys, L". She came back with "Well I am out here, why are you taking pictures without me???". I told her to come join in the fun but she was mad by this point because I was taking pictures of the boys and had not included her. I did explain that I was only taking pictures of them because they were impromptu hanging out in the chair together. It didn't appease her one bit. Here are those cute pics though : -)

Fresh from nap and not at all happy I dragged the camera out.Okay now they are warming up to the idea.

Baby J still a bit sleepy from naptime.

Oh what a smile my baby has and look at those teeth (he has 4 now)!!

Now the smiles are abundant but not at the same time ;-)

Yesterday we went to a local museum (where I talked about the coincidence or what is it?). The museum was so much fun as always. I have some pics from there too (I know surprise, surprise!!)

Baby J in the baby crawlers area.S popping out of one of the bubble type of chairs in the reading area.

L & S in the dark room area with a black light on. They loved how their clothes glowed.

More modeling of the cute hats in the black light room.

Baby J watching the puppet show put on by L & S.

Puppet show from 2 of my favorite monsters!!

Today was a trip to the Zoo! I'll post about it later though because laundry is calling my name (and loudly too!!)

Coincidence?

Is it a coincidence that this morning at the museum a lady approached me in the parking lot asking for money and this afternoon Daddy Piper has work?

Back to the beginning...

This morning we pulled in the parking lot at the museum (the one we weren't going to until a last minute change this morning sent us here) and a lady came over on a bike and told me she and her son was down here helping her husband who had just been in a horrible car accident. She needed to buy her ticket to get back home. I have no idea if this was a story or the truth but I gave her money. I usually say no or try to turn my back when people approach me like this but today I felt led to give her money. She was overcome with emotion and very appreciative. I told her to pay it back to someone else someday. I almost instantly regretted giving her the money since this came from my grocery budget. I let the feeling go and we went about enjoying our morning. This has come back twice today in a good way. First when I got home, I opened my electric bill to find it had been lowered by $65 a month - a huge savings to us right now. Later in the day - Daddy Piper got the call for work tomorrow. I am just beyond convinced that these things weren't mere coincidences but rather the work of someone bigger than myself and I am so grateful!

Fun Day (even with DOOMSDAY coming tomorrow!)

We had a fun family day today. The weather was so wonderful which enabled us to spend most of it outside, together! I snuggled in bed with Daddy Piper for a bit and he snuck out to let me get some extra sleep. Only 30 minutes later I was wide awake having felt so great like I slept for a month. Sometimes naps are like that for me - the 30 minute ones are usually the best. I got up and started my coffee and we walked out to tend the garden. It is looking amazing after the rain and cooler days we have had lately. We have onions that have sprouted along with some other things that I am not sure of. They might be weeds growing but who knows. I am not real good at this gardening thing yet : -) I was able to sit outside and read my paper (no coupons - so sad!) and enjoy the fresh air and family time.

For lunch we had the yummy pizza I already posted about. Goodness that was yummy. I finished it off with some peach cobbler : -) I got a little nap in this afternoon while not one, not two but all three of my babies were down for rest time. J napped in his crib instead of the queen bed he is loving these days. He has rolled out of the bed once though and I wanted him in his crib. Unfortunately, he sleeps way better in the bed.

Tonight was more outside time including the stone laying project, gardening and in general fun time for us all. I enjoy the outdoors now as an adult and want my kids to enjoy it as well.

More to write but not tonight - my own prince charming is awaiting my assistance in a screen rolling project thing for J's window!!

The kids spent some time running through the sprinklers this morning and were cold so they chose to lay on the warm sidewalk to warm up - clad only in their undies!

Warming up quite nicely!

S was contemplating the meaning of life when I caught this look on his face or maybe he was just looking up at the military jets that kept flying over our part of the world this weekend. Daddy told them the jets were up there to remind people (possible bad people) that our military was alert and ready to protect this holiday weekend.

This handsome boy is my son. I am amazed and delighted by him more and more each day.

The babies of mine (2 of my wonderful 3) love to dig in the dirt. They were a big help to Daddy today spreading out sand and delivering more sand (more pics on that in a minute).

The beautiful girl is not into my picture taking these days so she gives me these horrible faces in hopes that I will quit taking her picture - not happening sweetie!!!

Daddy killed a scorpion while laying this stone in the backyard. I would feel bad but those things are horrible little creatures that hurt when they sting you!!

S helping Daddy by delivering sand from the sandbox.

I got a kinda smile while she was loading up her dump truck.

"It's too heavy Mama". Well honey - drive the truck instead of trying to carry it! Of course Mama ran right over and picked it up for her but only after taking a picutre : -)

L dumping her sand for Daddy.

J freshly awake from his nap and ready to play outside!!

J can now stand on his own. He has cut another took for total of 3. His diapers are more wet these days thanks for pumping extra milk and the introduction of formula, which just kills me. He only gets about 2 ounces of it a day but still - WAHH!! I don't want to quit nursing. He may be my last baby I get to nurse (not if I have anything to say about it though!!).

Last Day of Being 29....

This impending doom otherwise known as my 30th birthday is looming closely - like TOO closely. It's tomorrow; making today my last day of my 20's. I am bothered by this. I don't want to say goodbye to my 20's. They seemed so full of hope 10 years ago and now they are gone. Now what's left??

BBQ Pizza

Today for lunch I made the best BBQ pizza from scratch no less! And the kicker - it cost $2.63 for a cookie sheet full of pizza : -)

Pizza Dough - Free awhile back from couponsense.com
BBQ Sauce - better than free with coupons and catalina
Cheese - $1.00
Chicken - $1.50 (chicken tenders on sale from a few weeks ago)
Tomato Sauce - $0.13 for 1 can

TOTAL - $2.63 of yummy lunch!!!!

Garden Update

We are slowly starting to get sprouts. The squash, corn, and onions have all sprouted. I think the green beans have sprouted too but it may just be a weed. My cilantro has died. One of the tomato plants has a flower. I tilled up some of the areas that weren't growing and replanted some cauliflower and broccoli - wonder how that'll grow?? It has been wonderful having the garden. It is so nice to have an outdoor area growing nourishment for my family. It does bring me piece of mind. I enoy watering it twice a day and the kids are enjoying it as well. It is a twice daily trek out to see what's happening out there.

The kids had made these cute signs. I had taken pictures of them so we could remember them. Unfortunately, I had the kids use washable markers so the signs don't look nearly as cute now :(

Peach Pickin'

We went peach pickin' today!

I was up with the sun (and Baby J, of course) and was anxious to get out of here at 7:30 to get to the peach place to pick those peaches. Daddy Piper decided he wanted to join us and that put us leaving here at 8:30. The extra hour was not wasted though - L and S got their room cleaned : -) S choked on his medicine during that hour too. It must have gone into his lungs some how and he stopped breathing for a second or two. I was so scared. It took a long time for him to get his breathing back to normal.

While snuggling with Daddy Piper this morning, L came in to get me because as she put it "J was into the milking stuff". What stuff I wondered? Oh I quickly found out - my pumping stuff. Guess I am the resident cow around here : -)

We picked 22 pounds of peaches. I had no idea it was that heavy! The kids so enjoyed picking those peaches. The day was perfect for it. Very rainy and cloudy - a nice change for these parts. The hardest part was getting the kids to understand to check for ripeness before plucking the peach off the tree. Baby J got his first taste of a peach. Daddy gave him some right off the peach. Of course when I did it, he bit off some. We were told to eat as many as we wanted and enjoy the experience so we did! We came home and I made peach freezer jam.

Later this afternoon, we went to Lowe's and purchased a much needed BBQ grill. It wasn't money that needed to go out right now but our 12 year old grill needed replacing. This is my birthday gift and I couldn't be happier. We (I!) use our grill at least 3 x week so it'll be fun to get used to a new one. We christened her tonight with rib-eye steaks and boy were they good (although honestly they tasted about the same coming off the new one as they did the old one!!).

Tonight to go with the steak dinner, I prepared my first peach cobbler. L helped with this. It even included 1 farm fresh egg from our neighbors. Peach cobbler is something I remember from my childhood thanks to my "adopted" mom. She made frequently in the spring. I would beg for it constantly. I hope to instill the same type of memories into my own children.

I read tonight on a wonderful woman's blog the saying "Start as you mean to go". I LOVE this. I think I am going to print it and hang it up to see regularly. What a great way to live life, especially when raising children. Another great point to the day was talking to a dear friend from MN for a bit. I was so lucky to have worked with her for a few friends and we have remained friends, despite the distance. I had really thought we would be back in MN by now, damn economy get better already!!!!

Also tonight I ran some peaches and some of that wonderful cobbler over to our neighbor as a thank you for the eggs. It was nice conversation. I am really trying to enjoy life these days.

As it is now getting late and Baby J has been sleeping for 3 hours, I suppose it's time to wrap up. I just finished getting some peaches ready for the freezer - why did we get so many peaches??!?Oh I wanted to record that Baby J is now taking formula too. He is doing great going back and forth from nursing to a bottle. His u/s came back normal today so we are to increase his liquids and hope that makes up for the dry diapers.

Okay now off to bed!!