Pink does not always equal perfection!

Today the girls and I spent the afternoon with a longtime favorite...the Easy Bake Oven. When I was a child I had one of these splendid toys and spent many hours making minature cakes and cookies. To my underdeveloped taste buds they tasted like bliss. I am not sure what word my Mom would use to describe them but my guess is that it isn't quite as complimentary. So, when Annie asked for one of her very own, I could hardly wait to run to Target and buy one. I was so excited for her to unwrap it on Christmas morning. I wasn't so excited about the $6 mixes that I just knew we would fly through in a matter of days. In the end I did manage to make her Easy Bake mixes last for a few months before the Easy Bake Oven was relegated to a shelf in the laundry closet.


My husband, being the wonderful Dad that he is, found a website online that had homemade recipes for the Easy Bake Oven! Annie begged me for months to please let her try one. I resisted, mainly because I didn't want to deal with the mess or the inevitable fighting that would ensue between Annie and Megan. Finally, after months (seriously) of pleading I gave in. As I was preparing lunch today I mentioned to Annie and Megan that we could make a cake in the Easy Bake Oven. Screeching ensued! Me, being the awesome Mom that I am, wasn't just going to make a plain old chocolate cake either. We were going to be making something called "Barbie's Pink Cake" to be topped off with "Barbie's Sparkle Icing". It was all going to be pink! Could anything be any better? I love all things pink and if I can manage to turn my food pink, I will. So, we mixed up the cake batter.

Do you see that? That is some seriously pink cake batter! I was giddy with excitement! The best part was that, one dip of the finger later, I was able to confirm that it was indeed edible! Now, it certainly wouldn't be descibed as blissful but edible was ok in my book. We filled up the teeny tiny pans and baked the layers of our pink goodness.

In the meantime, we began mixing "Barbie's Sparkle Icing". Annie and Megan were none too thrilled with the smell of the vegetable shortening, but I assured them that it would all taste fine in the end. How could it not? There were 2/3 cups of powdered sugar in the recipe! I couldn't have been more wrong! That icing was one of the most foul tasting creations that has ever crossed my lips! The girls agreed...



Of course, me being the culinary genius that I am, iced Annie's cake prior to tasting the pink goo. So, while her cake looked pretty it tasted and smelled awful! Poor Annie. We did manage to take a photo because it WAS a pretty cake.

I am never one to not learn from my mistakes, so we wised up when it came time to ice Megan's cake. I dug out a trusty tub of Betty Crocker chocolate fudge icing and we went to town.






While Megan's cake tasted MUCH better, it didn't quite have the dramatic effect that Annie's did. Somehow I am guessing that if Barbie had to choose, she would have gone with the pink cake. Afterall, she is a woman and women always pick fashion over function.

Noah ~ 6 months

Noah smiling on his 6mo. birthday.


My one and only baby boy celebrated his half birthday on Wednesday! These last six months have flown by and I simply can't believe that Noah is that much closer to age one! So, without further ado....here is what Noah is up to at six months of age.

~ He weighs around 17 or 18 pounds (my best guesstimate, he actually goes to the doctor next week).

~ He is I have no idea how long. I did try to measure him but he was too wiggly. I will have to wait and find out next week at the doctor's office.

~ He takes two to three good naps each day lasting anywhere from one hour to three.

~ He still doesn't sleep through the night and would love to nurse every hour if he had his way.

~ He is finally doing better at eating baby food. He now eats one and a half to two jars per day. Mealtime is usually around noon and again around six.


Noah's first taste of bananas.

~ He eats applesauce and bananas but dislikes cereal. We haven't tried any veggies yet.

~ He is sitting up on his own with only the occasional tumble backwards.

~ He wiggles quite a bit during tummy time in some sort of wormlike fashion.

~ He enjoys spending time in his exersaucer, highchair and Mommy's lap. He is also a big fan of the Baby Bjorn.

~ He refuses to take a bottle of any type despite our best efforts, so for the time being I a limited on my time away from home.

~ He is totally spoiled by all three of his big sisters and Mommy. Daddy is somehow better able to resist that baby charm.

~ He enjoys watching other children play, however, too much noise and he starts to fuss.

~ He is a terrible shopper...I pity his future wife.

~ He hates to ride in the stroller and lets everyone know it. He spends most outings being carried around in the Baby Bjorn.

~ He is a thumb sucker and uses it to soothe himself to sleep and to signify the end of a meal.

Noah always sucks his thumb to end a meal.

Fevers, Sleep Deprivation and Yuckies

I had good intentions of doing another post yesterday celebrating Noah's six month birthday. I even took pictures during the day to add to the blog. However, time got away from me and before I knew it I was crawling into bed. The alternate plan was to do it today. Once again, I am going to have to put it off. You see, I was awake a large portion of the night with Noah because he is cutting his two bottom teeth and wasn't real keen on the idea of sleep. So, I woke up totally sleep deprived and lacking any motivation to do much of anything. In fact, my morning consisted of basic childcare and watching old reruns of The Golden Girls on the Hallmark channel. I also spent a large portion of time changing diapers and taking temperatures. Lily went to bed with a fever last night and has been battling some virus all day. It is so sad when your two year old points to her head and says "Boo Boo Mommy". It just breaks my heart. She has been getting extra snuggles in between extra naps. I have every intention of posting about Noah's six month birthday sometime tomorrow. However, like anyone with kids, I will have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

Praying for Stellan

If you are a blogger then you are already aware of how blogging can make the whole world seem smaller. People that you may never meet or may have never even been interested in knowing can become virtual pals for you. You suddenly discover that there are loads of other people out there with the same struggles, hobbies, faith, etc... that you have. It's one of the reasons I love to read blogs and one of the reasons I have started my own blog.

One of the blogs that I love to read is My Charming Kids . It's a blog written by a mother about the ins and outs of her life with her husband and four children. She is an amazing photographer and, more importantly, an amazing Christian. Her youngest son, Stellan, has walked a tough road. He is a miracle. Right now, Stellan isn't doing so well. So, you may have noticed a I have a new button on my blog. It's a "Praying for Stellan" button. It's there to remind me to pray for this poor little boy and his amazing Mother. To remind me to thank God every day for my beautiful healthy children. To remind me that being a Christian isn't always easy. So, when you pray, please remember Stellan and offer up a small prayer for his well being.

Thanks.

A little bit of everything.

This weekend consisted of a little of this and a little of that. We had no real plans other than grocery shopping and going to church. We managed to tackle the grocery shopping on Friday night after a quick stop at Chik-Fil-A for dinner. I swear that is one of my all time favorite places to eat. As far as I'm concerned, their honey mustard sauce is perfection. I am always tickled when they toss in a few extra, which then make their way home to my frig where they wait for me to use them in some sort of yummy fashion. The grocery store was relatively painless. At least as painless as it can be with a family of six. All in all it was a good Friday when you combine it with my organizing joy from earlier in the day.

My lovely husband let me sleep in until 10am on Saturday!!! He took pity on me and the fact that I had to get up every two hours with Noah on Friday night. As if that wasn't nice enough, he even visited Target with me!! Is he great or what? Saturday afternoon was filled with a bit of dancing and singing.

The plan for Sunday was to attend the 11:15am service at church. Saturday night was rough. I was up almost every hour with Noah all night long. We finally woke up on Sunday morning at 9am! Sure, you would think that a little over two hours is plenty of time to get everyone ready and make it to the 11:15am service. You would be wrong! First, let's remember that we need to leave the house 1 hour prior to the service in order to make it there and check three of our four kiddos into their respective classrooms/childcare. So, in the remaining hour and fifteen minutes we had to feed four children, dress four children, dress and shower ourselves, pack two diaper bags, gather up all the library books that we had to return to the childrens' library at church and load up our giant double stroller in the van as well as all the kids. We also had to remember to take two backpacks full of school supplies that we had purchased to donate to children in need. The backpacks were actually due last weekend but we weren't able to deliver them due to sick kids. Anyway....I also remembered that I had not filled in the girls' reading logs for the summer reading program at our church. I HAD to do that before we left because the girls were really looking forward to picking their weekly prize. I managed to squeeze that in while the curing iron was warming up and I was brushing and fixing the girls' hair. Believe it or not, we actually made it to church pretty much on time! I felt like super Mom. Of course, Noah screeched so much that we actually had to leave the Cry Room and wander the halls. So, we didn't really get to hear the sermon. At least the girls got to attend their respective services and I snagged a yummy brownie from the church cafe.

We spent the remainder of the day doing random things around the house. I folded laundry and organized closets. Carlos removed our shutters and powerwashed them in preparation for painting them. Annie and Meg scrubbed green yuck from the bottom of the pool before we packed it away for the season. Mind you, we aren't packing it away because it's no longer pool weather but because it sprang a leak and we don't have to time to fiddle with it anymore this summer. We will tackle it in the spring...at least that's the plan.

Let me share a totally creepy photo with you. When Carlos removed the shutters he found a HUGE black widow spider and numerous egg sacks behind one of them! This spider was seriously the size of a fifty cent piece! The photo isn't the greatest but it's the best I could do with my camera. Try not to get too creeped out.

I swear I will be having nightmares about this spider for the next week! I seriously HATE spiders!!!! I asked Carlos what he did to it and he said he sprayed it with some bug killer and it fell behind a bush. I asked what he did to all the egg sacks and he informed me that he sprayed them as well. Anyone know if that is enough to kill them? I am having horrible visions of millions of baby spiders coming to avenge their mother's death!

Getting organized and being crafty.

I have had a long day. Of course, it didn't help that I was awake until the wee hours of the morning. A poor night of sleep always makes for a hard day. I am thinking that some Tylenol PM might be in order tonight if I run into the same problem. Hopefully, my hectic day has worn me out enough to fall into an exhausted slumber tonight. So, what has made my day so hectic?

We started off the day rushing out the door to go to the pediatric dentist. Trying to get four kids fed and dressed and out the door on time is a huge challenge. Especially, when two of said kids were awake late after an exciting evening at VBS. On a normal day I can't get Annie and Megan to sleep in but on a day that we need to be out the door on time, they are content to snooze the day away. We did manage to make it to the dentist on time with everyone fairly tidy looking. Annie and Meg had their cleanings and x-rays while I relaxed (yeah right) in the waiting room with Lily and Noah. Is there a way to relax while keeping a toddler and a tired infant quiet in a dental waiting room for an hour? Lily was actually well behaved. Noah managed to spit up all over the floor and myself twice. I bet the office staff was sorry to see us leave. The good news is that we are cavity free....kind of. Annie has worry free teeth once again. Megan, due in large part to her desire to consume massive amounts of candy, has an area that we need to keep an eye on. That translates into "Mommy and Daddy will be brushing her teeth from now on".

So, after such a fun dental visit the next logical place for a lone woman and four children to go is Jo-Ann Fabrics. I had yummy snacks packed in hopes that the kids would be calm and happy while I grabbed the items I needed. No such luck. Annie and Megan managed to do fairly well, however, Lily was happy to let the entire store know that she was not happy about being buckled into her stroller while Mommy checked out scrapbook paper. I managed to grab what I needed and hit the door before Noah fully realized that he was in the stroller and started to protest. Whew!

The next stop was Target. I love Target! It is one of my most favorite places on earth. That is the exact reason that I had sworn not to go to Target this week. One too many stops at the Dollar Spot, which always has awesome stuff I didn't know I needed, last week resulted in a self-imposed ban on Target for the entire week. However, I am in the midst of organizing my homeschool materials and craft supplies and I needed a few more letter trays that I had previously bought at Target. So, I decided I just had to go to Target in order to make sure that the much needed letter trays would fit nicely with the ones I already owned. Makes perfect sense, right? Well, my local Target was jammed with Back to School shoppers and the shelves were practically picked clean of anything I had on my list. The spot for the letter trays was empty and there was nary a stick of normal sized chalk to be found. I did manage to pick up diapers, wipes and other random list items but no letter trays. I suppose I will have to stalk Target until they replenish them.

We were all beat. I was starting to sweat and get a headache, the kids were all whining and dragging their tired little feet and Noah was in dire need of a diaper change. So, we loaded up the van and headed home. After I got Lily and Noah down for their naps I jumped into my organization project. Want to see what I did?

I organized my homeschool cabinet! See the books stacked in letter trays? I need about three or five more of those. So, my homeschool books are in the center section. Arts and crafts stuff is located in the bottom cabinet and markers, colored pencils, pencils, flashcards and other random school supplies are located on the top shelf. Do you see my awesome pencil cups? Here's a better view.

These are simply empty oatmeal containers that I covered in scrapbook paper! I am so tickled with how they turned out. I now find myself looking around my house trying to figure out what else I can cover in scrapbook paper. I will be sure to let you know what I discover!

I guess it's blog excitement.

I find myself awake at this ridiculous hour because my head is swimming with blog stuff! I tried to close my eyes and drift off into dreamland but instead I found myself thinking of this blog. Would it be easy to edit? Could I add pictures without too much fuss? How often would I really blog? Can I add a list of the blogs I follow so that other's can check them out? The questions went on and on. That is why I find myself sitting at the computer typing at 1am. I know better. I NEED to get to sleep. I have a busy day tomorrow and the few precious hours of sleep that I get are not to be squandered on the computer. So, I am forcing myself to sign off and crawl into bed. I promise to be back later with all kinds of tidbits about the day.

I did it!

I finally did it! I have gone ahead and started my own blog! I have been reading blogs for several months now and I finally decided to take the plunge and start one of my own. My hope is that this blog will be a way to keep friends and family informed of the happenings in our life. I also hope that it will serve as a sort of archive of my childrens' lives. I am new to this so be patient with me. I do promise to blog often and keep you updated with the goings on of our family.