New Pictures of my Pumpkin Pies

Our kids are all about pulling faces for the camera these days. ;)






Cake from my sweet smart husband for my birthday. :) We had a fun weekend doing family stuff. Hung out at Harris Lake and played frisbee and softball. Made sandcastles and threw rocks in the water. Took the kids to see a movie. Liam slept though half of it and then was pretty intrigued for most of the rest of it. It was a beautiful day!











Prehistoric drawing and card that Parker made me. upper left is a mountain that Meadow made for me. :)





Framed photo of the kids that I loved of course. :)





Practicing and showing off their best jumps for Greg's Cousin Brian that came to visit.

My newest Niece

My brother Shaun and his lovely wife Taylor just had their first baby at 2:45 this morning. "A St. Patty's Day star."
Welcome to the world beautiful Shaunie Kathryn Brady! 7lbs 12oz, 20 inches. Love you already.

Happiness

A friend just wrote me an e-mail on facebook for Happy Person appreciation day and wrote such a lovely, kind, sincere note. It made me sooo...happy! Words are amazing things. :) They have so much power to lift and warm and strengthen depending on how we use them.

Family Night fun

We were inspired by our friends the Caldwell's blog so yesterday we had a family night lesson in the car on the way to The Grand Asia Market. The kids thought it was the most awesome time ever. They liked checking out all of the asian goods, the smiling, waving, golden cats, the large buddha statues, and the shiny red tasseled decorations. They loved going to the sea food area and checking out the large tanks full of swimming striped bass and tilapia and the little turtle that shared a home with them. The turtle's shell was covered with green fuzzy moss that looked like funny green hair. They aptly named him 'Moss'. I wish we had taken a picture of him, he was so cute. Then we toured the meat department and the children were enthralled with the packages of chicken feet for sale. I reminded Parker how he complained about dinner earlier. ;)

They had fun picking out a package of japanese fizzy fruit candy (pretty yummy!) and some gum and they were amazed when we showed them later on the globe where the candy was made and how it was shipped all the way here.

Greg picked out a soda called Grass Jelly Soda. Banana flavored. I knew he shouldn't have picked that (soda with chunks of jelly in it is what I imagined and I was correct) but you only live once and he is a brave soul when it comes to taste buds, lol. He described it as tasting a bit like armpits and would I like to try it? No thank you. I am sure it is probably healthy but I prefer soda with no chunks in it...

Oh it was great fun. The world is very interesting. I love family night. Please as treat for you, make sure to read the description under the brand name on the gummy candy bag. "offer admiring feelings of a graceful lady."
hehehe

Beautiful Day

On Monday it was 82 degrees here! I dressed the kids in shorts that morning and they were so excited to wear them. Walking out of the front door:

Meadow: "Ahhh, It is so beautiful outside today! Do you think the birds are out to play and have a fun day?"

Me: "Yes, I can hear them having a fun day right now."

Meadow standing on the grass in the front yard: "I bet the birds think I am pretty in my sparkly sandals."

Me: "I bet they do too!"

:) :) :) :)

Later that day driving in the car, Rod Stewart is on the radio:

Parker: "Dad that lady needs to clear her throat."

Greg: "Actually, that is a man singing."

Parker: "Well, that man needs to go ahhhhemmm hemmm hmmm, like that."

Check it out

Check out the commercial Greg made for Tobacco Road Outfitters. It is playing on the Discovery Channel here. :) Many of you may recognize Jeremy Mills in it too.

Good Work Sweets!

http://www.tobaccoroadoutdoors.com/

We have a seven year old!

Parker turned 7 on the 10th and was on track-out from school. We invited his whole first grade class and went to a giant indoor playground called rainbow play spaces. They make and sell outdoor play equipment and furniture and have this room to rent for birthday parties. Since his class was on track-out, we had the party on his actual birthday (a Thursday) during the day and it was much cheaper - hooray! Also hooray for buy one get one free cupcakes at Lowes that week. :) The kids had a blast playing, took a break for star wars cupcakes, and then went back and played some more! They were excited to see each other because school had been out for 2 weeks.

We did the yearly birthday tradition of watching the next episode of Star Wars. We were on Phantom Menace this year and Parker was soooo excited. He loved it when Darth Maul fell in the pit and he loved the speeder races.

Happy Birthday to our big sweet guy. Love you oodles and bunches!

Elementary School Valentine's Day memories

Let's have fun sharing. What is your best (this could also mean worst) elementary school valentines day memory?

I walked Parker into school on Valentines day and it was so cute to see everyone with their little bags and shoe boxes full of valentines. One of the teachers in the hall said "There is nothing better than the kindergarten and first grade halls on Valentines Day. It all goes down hill from there." :)

Ok, my most memorable Valentines Day memory from Elementary school happened in 3rd grade. There was a boy named Mark Stone who chased me on the playground sometimes and who I thought was cute. My friend and I sometimes tried to play football with the boys (but I don't think they ever passed it to us). Anyway, I knew that this Mark liked football. Well it was Valentines Day and I happened to have a shiny golden football sticker in my collection and I took it out of my sticker book and put it in my pocket to bring to school and give to him. Later that day after recess when we were lining up to go back inside the classroom I got up the courage to give it to him and he tore it into pieces and threw it on the the ground and his friends laughed. True Story. hehehehe!! I wish I had a scanner. In my third grade class picture I am standing by him, lol.

A Blessing!

A couple of weeks ago Liam was blessed. It was a beautiful blessing and day and we love having him in our family! I was glad that Greg's dad and my dad were able to be there. So much of my family and their families were sick and my poor mom even had a newly broken rib (the perils of yard work! ;) Greg's best buddy Rob that he grew up with was able to come and some friends in the ward helped out too. We had our wonderful neighbors there to celebrate with us also and an associate of Greg's. Liam wore the same outfit that Parker wore and that Greg wore 36 years ago. It is holding up surprisingly well! It is amazing that 15 minutes before church we had a major diaper blow out and had to quickly wash and dry the outfit again. Why does this always seem to happen at the most inopportune times?! :) To make mamma sweat that's why. Thank you Oxyclean. Whew.

Here's our angel in his whites. :)

Fun Valentines Art Project

Compliments of Martha Stewart. These look fun, I am going to make them with the kids tomorrow. Happy Heart making!



Directions: Begin with a 12-by-16-inch sheet of waxed paper. Fold it in half along its length; unfold. Deposit wax-crayon shavings (made with a handheld pencil sharpener) evenly but not thickly across one half of the paper. Fold the clean half of the paper over the shavings. Crimp the three open edges with a 1/2-inch fold to hold the shavings. Protect your ironing surface with kraft paper. Place the waxed paper on the kraft paper, and cover it with another sheet of kraft paper. Iron lightly on medium heat, checking after every few passes. Stop when all the shavings have melted; let cool. Next, trace and cut out hearts of various sizes. String each heart with a silk thread for hanging.

Rock Star Liam

Ma petit cannelloni

My little italian stuffed shell, how I love you.

Liam had his 2 month check-up and is doing great. He is 12.5 lbs and growing bigger every day it seems. We've got the first thigh rolls and the knee dents showing up, I love it! He has dry skin (like my other babies) and soaks up everything I put on him and everything the derm. recommends like a sponge and then is still dry. My pediatrician said to try olive oil so we did and I think it works pretty good! My little italian baby is softer and stays that way longer. :) :)

Christmas Day and beyond...

Finally finishing up through December. :) Hope everyone had a great Christmas! It is almost 10pm. The baby is sleeping. I should be sleeping. I am tired. I don't want to sleep. Sleeping is boring when you could be doing something else. Like blogging. Or cleaning. Notice I picked blogging. Still pondering a bit about all that I/we would like to accomplish in the new year. But first...

Christmas was great! Meadow loved getting a pink sparkly dress that she had her eye on and a big girl bicycle from Santa. Pink of course. She still loves dinosaurs as much as ever and playing dress up. Her Granny gave her $20 and she spent it on a pink scooter that was on sale after Christmas at Walmart. This worked out perfectly because Santa bought Parker a green one and they had a great time scootering together. :)








Parker asked Santa for legos and a lego batman game and all of his dreams came true. :) (ahem, thank you grandparents)
I thought it was so sweet that Meadow was so excited for him when he got what he wanted. :)







Liam with his presents. :)





It snowed late on Christmas Day. This is what we woke up to the next morning. The kids had fun making a snowman. An alien snowman with 4 eyes in fact. This year we have had the most snow since my family moved here in '1988.









We headed west to visit Greg's parents in Hickory. The kids had fun swinging and scootering and of course 4 wheeling with Grandma and Grandpa Winters on New Years Day.








Then to Grandma Lou's for some loves. :) It was such a treat too because all 11 grandkids were there this time. Derek and his Family were here and they are moving to Virginia so it will be awesome to have them closer. His older boys were so great with the younger kids and they followed Chandler around like he was the pied piper. :)






How many kids can we fit on this thing? Dog-pile Chandler!





Liam is growing like a weed. It is a little sad that i have already packed away his 0-3 month clothes! What a big guy. He is a little fussy in the evenings sometimes, but will always calm down if you fly him around like superman and play the superman theme song. We love our Super-Baby! :D