Box

My parents gave me a box of goodies for the kiddos. I told the kids that they couldn't open it until there was at least a foot or so of snow outside. Well, I guess they gave us the box just in time because we got a big snow storm soon after. It has kept the kids crafting all week. If you know my kids they will do crafts all 24/7. Oh, and it had one of those cool old fashion gum ball machines inside too. Graham saw it first. So, like all kids who see something first, he claimed it as his own. Thanks Mom and Dad. It was like Christmas all over again last week. You are so creative and thoughtful. I thought I might be able to hold out until February, but not with all the snow and ice that kept us inside.

Eden can write!

Ella so badly wants Eden to grow up and play with her. The other day I caught her trying to teach Eden how to use the doodle thingy.

Ella had her first sleepover last weekend. We started off her birthday celebration early in the morning with the table decorated Ella style in pink with fresh flowers just for her. She turned 6 this year and wanted to have her best friends, Lydia, Anna, and Elise, sleep over. We had a blast. Girls are so much fun. They dressed up a lot, painted wooden boxes, made necklaces, decorated cup cakes, dressed up some more, ran from the two little boys in the house, and stayed up for hours giggling when they should have been sleeping. Oh, and did I mention that they got out the boys marshmallow guns and had a marshmallow fight? Yeah and they did it in dress up dresses and high heel shoes!! I love my little girl so much and her sweet little friends have such a special place in my heart. I pray that they will be BFF's! And if you Mamas need baby sitters in a few years these four little girls will be ready for you. It seemed like one of them was holding Eden at least the entire day. These girls sure like babies!

Going to the island for snack

Since the weather has gotten cold we have had to get pretty creative with how we spend our days inside. Lately the kids have been enjoying their snack on the bottom of our kitchen island. Sometimes we eat lunch there too. Good times!

Help

All of our kids love to help. It used to be a free for all when I would get home from the store. Three kids, a ton of bags, and soon there would be groceries all over the kitchen floor. That was until I used my noggin and gave the older two their own area of responsibility. Ella is responsible for keeping the pantry organized at all times as well as putting away all the pantry items when we get home from the store. She refers to the pantry as "my pantry." And if you need something she knows just where it is. Little Darren is responsible for a few things. First he must use his strong muscles to carry the bags inside. Boys, no matter what the age, love to hear that they are strong and have big muscles. I convince Darren...well both Darren's (my husbands name is Darren also) to do a lot of things this way. Anywho, After little Darren carries the groceries in his responsiblity is to unload the cold stuff and put it away. It is also his job to teach Graham, his younger brother, but we are still working on that one. Here are just a few pictures of them doing their jobs. Sorry for the not so good photography:)

Birthday dinner

Thanks to all you who have wished me a happy birthday. It sure does mean a lot. No matter how old I get I still love it when someone wishes me a happy birthday!
Last night me and the family went out to dinner. I have the best husband and kids in the world. They are so much fun to hang out with. Never a dull moment and there is always a bunch of laughter. So, little Darren brought the laughs last night. He is such a funny kid. Finally we are out of that weird fit throwing lots of whining stage. I am so enjoying watching this little boy grow into a little man. He is just so cute. Well, last night we are sitting in the restaurant and of course we are the loudest table in the place. We get lots of stares and just about everyone comments on the fact that we have four kids. Anyhow, our food arrives. There is always that short silence when the food comes. Everyone is hungry and you can't help but stop and just look at it. Well, during this short silence little Darren looks at his Dad and says (quite loudly) "Dad...pause...remember when I used to drink Budweiser?" Gasp....more silence...stares from everyone.....lots of laughter but only from our table. Big Darren responded, "Budweiser? what do you mean?" Little Darren: "You know Buuuudweiser!" So funny. But really he has never had Budweiser.

After we discuss beer for a while with our four year old he begins to eat his traditional meal that he gets at every restaurant, chicken and fries. A few bits into his meal he looks over at me and Darren to see what yummy food we are eating. First a look of curiosity and then a look of disgust, then he hit us with this, "Mom why did you chew your steak up and then spit it out?" Now I want to loose weight, but chewing and spiting out my food is not how I am loosing weight these days. I actually ordered the blue cheese fillet....mmmmm it was good. It did look a bit interesting with all the goodies on top(or a bit regurgitated from a four year olds perspective) but I for the record I did not chew and spit.

Funny things

My kids are hilarious. This weekend was Ella's six year old birthday sleepover so they are still coming down from their social high. I will post pics and stories about that later. Anyhow, they are playing with some of Ella's new presents...one of them being a toy cell phone...a pink one that seems to be attached to Ella's ear. Ella was using it to call the doctor for her 4 year old brother. What was the reason for her call? These are Ella's words, "Yes, Doctor...um Bubby is sick. He is obnoxious and his belly hurts." So funny! Soon after they were again running up and down the stairs playing and Darren blurts out, "ELLA!! You're too loud to ignore!"
Kids crack me up!

Hanging by a thread

My sweet girl is officially growing up. Her two bottom teeth are loose and are just about ready to fall out.....or get pulled out by her Daddy. I tried to pull one of her teeth out for her, however, rather than her tooth getting pulled out, I got pulled back in time to when I was her age and loosing my first tooth. I remembered the anxiety I felt about loosing one of my teeth and suddenly felt such compassion for my little crying and concerned girl. Needless to say, I have not tried pulling on her tooth again. Here is a video of her expressing her concern about her tooth. After watching the video of Ella, I noticed that the thing in her hair is actually one of those toe separators for painting your toe nails. She used ribbon from her craft box and tied it to a head band. She thought the toe thing looked better as a crown.

Graham being a ham

Pictures of Home

I added some pictures of my home on my side bar. After visiting blog land for some time I have found that I am a total snoop. I love seeing how other people live and how they decorate their home. So, for all you snoops out there, here is a peek into my home.

Ikea cabinet

So I have this Ikea cabinet that we modified with a bead board back and crown molding. It still needs trimmed out on the bottom. But I finally replaced the weird looking knobs that came with the shelving unit. What do you think? Don't mind all of the paper and junk jammed in next to all the baskets and the random frames just leaning there. I'm still working on properly knick knacking my house.

Kids say the funniest things

My kids have been on a roll lately with saying the funniest things. A week or so ago I was in the car with the kids and Eden was crying. I sometimes let Ella get out of her seat to give Eden her paci. This particular day it was raining and I didn't feel safe having her get out of her seat. Here's how the conversation went:
Me: Ella I don't really want you getting out of your seat while it is raining out.
Ella: But Mama Eden is sad and crying.
Me: I know. But, she has to learn that someone isn't always going to be there to put her paci in her mouth when she wants it. She has to learn to comfort herself.
Ella: When I am a Mama I am not going to let my children cry at all.
Little Darren has been getting up in the middle night with strange request. Two nights in a row he woke us up with crying. He usually doesn't wake up crying so we were concerned. The first night it was because his pants were too tight around his waist. Seriously, my 4 year old son is waking me up at 1am because his pants are tight. I think he was dreaming because none of his pants have ever fit him the least bit snug. And since when did he know the word waist. He usually refers to it as his belly. The second night he woke us up crying because he was scared. He couldn't explain why or really say much of anything. After talking with him for a bit his Daddy told him to get back in bed. Little Darren responded over and over and over again in a crying voice, "I am just a kid Daddy, I am just a kid." Yes just a kid waking me up the third night in a row at 1 in the morning.
Graham doesn't say much but he sure is funny. Being the third child he tends to follow the two older ones around all day and do what they do. He doesn't talk much and hasn't really gotten into using his imagination much yet. Well, until the other day. He really likes helicopters and airplanes. He calls them DD's. Sunday I bought what it seems like these days my daily box of diapers. The older kids love playing with the box and using it for things but Graham has never been interested. This particular day I found him putting the box up on its side and climbing on the top to sit. I didn't think much of it. I look over a bit later and he had gotten an empty cardboard ribbon roll and was holding it in his hand like a steering wheel. He could tell I was curious as to what he was doing and replied, "DD, DD, DD" and acted like he was flying an airplane.
Kids are so fun.

Full of Smiles

I have been blessed with children who are so full of smiles. Each of our kiddos have always had the biggest, wide open, all gums or teeth showing, smiles. I am so blessed. Children make life so less serious!! What FUN!!

Monogrammed obsession

Here a few monogrammed things that most of you have seen before. I will be posting some new monogrammed things soon.

Quick Change

Do you a canvas or picture that you don't like anymore. I did...what did I do you ask? I painted it black of course. If you have seen my house, you know I have a not so secret love affair with painting furniture black. Why stop at painting furniture. For this particular project I painted my canvas black and then used a bit of mod podge to attach a piece of scrapbook paper that I had painted a monogrammed letter B to. Cute and no cost decorating. Since then I have found a great website for monogrammed wall art on Etsy so I will probably be changing the picture, but at least for now I don't have to look at that yellow picture anymore.