Baby food

Miss C is getting interested in food now. However she is not a fan of the old fashioned rice cereal, mashed bananas or apple sauce. So, this week I made some carrots and teethers for her.

She liked the carrots. I had peeled, cut up, and steamed a bunch of carrots and pureed them. I froze a bunch in ice cube trays for later.

 

It seems though, she would much rather feed herself. The teethers were a huge hit. I made up a couple of loaves of banana bread, cut one up in thick slices (the other was put in the freezer for later), and toasted them for a few hours in the oven (at 170, flipping regularly). They are very hard so they will not fall apart. She loves chewing on them!

Flowers, squirrel, cows

We spent an afternoon at the ranch this week-end, and had a great time!

The wildflowers were in bloom, making the hills look painted, and giving my girls loads of fun picking flowers. The boys enjoyed "hunting" with Mr. M's toy gun he received for his birthday.

 

Rob supervised some shooting practice.

Mr. M made his first kill! As he was shooting, a squirrel popped up, he took aim and shot it! The squirrel was running. He was aiming at the head. He got the shoulder. What a great shot!

Everyone was excited and so proud of Mr. M!

 

Miss E picked these wonderful flowers, and Miss J admired them.

We headed up to to house when we were done and had some great time visiting with our friends. Their tortoise was out and about and very active today. It "chased" the kids, and they fed it grass.

 

On our way out we headed across the way to see the new bull calf that had been born just an

hour or so earlier. Miss J fell in love with the calf and asked us if she could have it. She was content just looking at it and then going for a walk and checking out the flowers.

Happy Birthday Mr. M!

Mr. M had a GREAT day on his birthday. He got to open his gifts in the morning right after Bible reading. He received everything he wanted this year for his birthday.... various candies from his siblings, a rubik's cube, light sticks, and a Davy Crockett gun from Vision Forum that he had been asking for for months. He was one happy boy.

For breakfast he requested cappuccino rolls, sausage, mochas and OJ. Then after breakfast he

got to drink a Dr. Pepper. He loves Dr. Pepper and Coke, but we don't let him have any so as a treat he got some for his birthday.

The big plans for the day and what he had been looking forward to most... A day with Dad! Rob took him shooting!

 

At the range Mr. M found a lizard and made friends with it.

Then they spent hours at the local Army surplus store. Mr. M had been wanting to buy combat boots with his birthday money. His big surprise was that we had been planning to buy them for him. He bought himself a web belt; I don't think he has decided what to do with the rest of his birthday money though.

 

For dinner Mr. M had picked steak, strawberries, and chocolate milk. After that we had his

cake. He had asked for the Duggar family ice cream layer cake. He made most of it and had made plans on his own for decorating it. Dirt. Lots of Dirt. And mud. With Indiana Jones.

The big hit though, was the box the gun came in. Figures.

Oh, and Happy Birthday to Auntie J too! We love you!

a date with Mr. M

Mr. M's birthday is coming up, so he is getting to do all sorts of special things. Rob planned for him to take me out on a date. How fun! We went to a Mexican place by the water and got a table by the window. I had such a nice time with Mr. M working on a word puzzle in the kids menu, talking, watching the boats/ sea life and checking out the rocks on shore.

His meal came with a tiny little scoop of ice cream, but he liked the look of the chocolate volcano cake, so I ordered that. Yum! We had fun sharing!

Since we were going to be out during feeding time Miss C tagged along. She was a joy to have along, happy as could be, though her squeals of joy did get a bit loud at times!

 

highchair cushions

Miss C is just about ready to start using the highchair, so I thought I'd make some cushions for it. We've had this chair for nearly nine years and we've never had cushions for it, but I had the fabric so I thought I'd make them. They came together very quickly though I've been working on them for a week (15 min. here, 1 hour there, 30 min found somewhere else etc.) I like how they turned out, next I'll have to see how Miss C likes them.

buddies

This morning Miss J asked Miss E to hold her, but Miss E had some jobs to do so she suggested that maybe Miss J would enjoy a ride in the Ergo. They both enjoyed getting Miss E's jobs done together. Miss J was even able to help out on some of the jobs.

Rob said it looked like Miss E had Yoda on her back! Hmmm... Maybe I'll have to get that clip out for them to see? It is supposed to be raining today, so it may be a good day for that.

Stuck!

Miss J got this stuck on her head this week, lovely!

She has developed a fascination with the upstairs bathroom and using this seat, and has been scolded more than once for putting it on her head. Hmmm.... How do they come up with these things? During nap time she got into this scrape while I was getting snack ready. I think she has learned her lesson, and we all got a good laugh out of it too!

A visit with Aunt M

Aunt M was in town this week visiting from Germany (well she was visiting her parents, and we were lucky enough to get to see her too!). We had such a nice visit with her! The kids loved playing games, playing outside and just visiting with her!

Rob came home early from work and we all had a lovely lunch together and then a nice chance to just sit and chat for a while. We did miss having Uncle D here too, but he is out playing Army.

pulling teeth

Mr. R had a loose tooth for a week or so and he noticed that it was ready to come out on Sunday. We were all sitting around listening to Rob read to us when he asked if I could pull it out. Miss E was sitting next to him and offered to pull it, and he let her!

Mochas with M

Mr. M loves Mochas and he is learning to use Rob's machine. He was eager to help me make these last week on his "special helper day".

I had fun enjoying them with him!

Friends from Germany

Some very dear friends of ours were in town from Germany last week. We were so blessed to be able to spend an afternoon with them! We had such a wonderful time catching up over lunch, coffee drinks, and dessert.The kids all had a great time playing together. They played upstairs for quite a while, then Miss E had the great idea to get the train set out.
Later the boys went outside to play and visit, while the girls stayed inside. I had a wonderful time talking with my dear friend Mrs. J, I always love our visits and have missed her so much this past year since they moved away. Miss J fell asleep on me and transfered over to Mrs. J so I could get Miss C up from her nap. I'm so glad Mrs. J had the chance to get a good cuddle with "Baby J!"

 

We all moved on to the farmers market in the late afternoon. The kids all had fun checking everything out, and sharing the huge bag of kettle corn that Mrs. J bought. Our time together ended much too soon.

Girl's night

Rob took the boys to the men's dinner at church one night this week, so the girls got to have a "girls night"! I had fun having just the girls around.

Miss E took some time to read a book I had given her that day, and to cuddle with the kitty.

Then Miss J and Miss E got into the dress up stuff and brought some fairy wings down for Miss C. Isn't she just too cute?

Since there were only three of us eating dinner I decided to skip the cooking. We found some yummy goodies that ended up making a great dinner.... Baked brie, sausage, rolls, and apples!

Good Morning!

I love Saturday mornings! This last Saturday the kids roamed in one at a time to cuddle (except Miss E, she went downstairs to read), but usually they all manage to come in at the same time. We love having the extra time to cuddle with them and play before heading down to start our day.

Food!

Miss C is getting bigger and more grown up every day. She is very interested in food and has been trying out some baby oatmeal, though she is having a hard time getting the hang of it. She loves the teething biscuits though and does a fairly good job with those (at least she manages to spread them all over herself!)

catching up

I'm way behind on posting. We've had lots to do lately, so blogging just had to go for a while. Along with our regular stuff we've switched one of the kids to a gluten free diet so I'm learning how to do that cooking. We're also ready for summer break around here, and we're starting it out by doing some cleaning out and organizing. I'll try to get some more posts up in the next day or two.

Mother's Day

I had a lovely Mother's Day, and I hope you other moms reading this did too! I was awakened in just about the best way I could have been, by a sweet smiling baby being brought in to me for a cuddle and feeding!

Rob and the kids spoiled me with flowers, which I managed to spread all over the house so that in nearly every room I'm in I can see them. Every time I look at them I smile!

Rob did all of the cooking on Sunday. We had a lovely breakfast of

scones, strawberries and

whipped cream, and sausage. Miss J loves sausage and since we had way too much we decided not to limit her intake.... She had six links (we usually stop her at three or four), and one bite of scone. She passed on the strawberries which she usually loves. We think she has a hollow leg.

We did a baby dedication at church (Don't worry Oregon friends and family, we are trying to figure out when we can do our traditional one up there!). Miss C got to wear Miss E's dedication dress (made by my mom from leftover fabric from my wedding dress that she made). After the dedication Miss C and Miss J fell asleep on me, I loved cuddling with my girls while I listened to the sermon with Mr. M sitting next to me cuddling up from time to time too!

The rest of the day was so lovely too. Rob and the kids got cheese and crackers ready for lunch (baked brie included, yum!). I had a nice nap and then we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out and Rob read aloud to us for a while. I am so blessed!

Board Walk

We went up to the Boardwalk this week to meet Rob's parents and had some fun. The kids had a great time playing games in the arcade. Miss E managed to get two stuffed animals out of one of those "grabby games" which was very exciting.

Mr. M found a game he thought he would try, he ended up hitting the 250 tickets hole! Then he got it again! Yep, he managed to get 500 tickets from that game!

 

After that we walked down the Boardwalk a bit and stopped to check things out. The candy store was a hit. Salt water taffy and giant gummy bears!

Rob took Miss E, Mr. M, and Mr. S down to the beach to play for a bit (Mr. R and Miss J are not fans of sand and wanted to stay out of it). They found some shells and even some dead sea critters (looked like maybe hermit crabs? I did not look very closely though).

After stopping to look at the bumper cars and carousel we went to buy tickets to ride them. Miss J told me "horse pretty, me ride" but we were not too sure she would go through with it, so we had her watch. As soon as it stopped she said "me ride now!", so Rob took her. She was so happy and loved every moment of it!

 

The bumper cars were a hit too. Mr. S and Miss J were too little to go on them, but they had a great time watching while everyone went around the track bumping into each other.

After that we walked down the pier, so some sea lions and then had dinner. It was a fun day and a nice visit with G'ma and Grandad.

As soon as we got home I noticed a nasty fishy smell, I thought it was odd. The next morning it was even stronger and I was having such a hard time figuring out what it could be. The house was clean, I had not cooked fish in a long time, the garbage had been taken out.... What could it be? I opened the windows and that helped, but it was chilly so I had to close them after a short time. At breakfast the kids were remembering the fun they had had and Mr. M started talking about his (dead)critters he had found and it was too bad that they were already dead or we could have cooked them.... Then it clicked!

 

Me- You didn't bring them home did you?

Mr. M (with a big smile)- Yes, they are right here! (picking up his bag)

Me- Oh that's what that awful smell is! You were not supposed to bring those home! Go throw those away.

We all got a good laugh out of that, and I felt so much better having discovered (and taken care of) the mystery smell.

pot holders

I've been needing new pot holders for a while now. All of mine were looking pretty worn and tired. I've been meaning to buy some more, but just have not taken the time to pick some up. Miss E and Mr. M decided to make me some!

Miss E did quite a bit of the work, but she also showed Mr. M how to make them and I think he did all of the work on one of them. What sweet children I have, and I'm so glad that they are learning to make good use of their free time and creativity!