Mu-mu-muh, ME!

I'm sure a lunch of peanut butter on spoons isn't the most healthy choice, but it is fun and amusing. There's between 1/3-1/2 of a jar of peanut butter gone now. Gianna is still shouting "Mu-mu-muh, ME!" (her version of "more, more, more, Please!")
Eating peanut butter is a science. My experiments have proven the following "truths."
You can only eat creamy peanut butter off a spoon. It's just not right with crunchy. Crunchy peanut butter should be spread liberally on one side of bread and a nice coating of black berry jam, strawberry preserves, or grape jelly on the other side go nicely together. You can even mix those ingredients together, forming a consistent gooey mess before spreading it on one piece of bread, folding it in half and enjoying it.
Ah, Peanut Butter, you are SOOOOOoo yummy!

Fairytales Come Alive

I was just telling a friend of mine that I feel like I've lost my creative side...the imaginative part of me that enables me to play with my kids. I just didn't know how to come up with an engaging storyline to imaginative play.
Well, it was quickly aided by my amazing daughter. She collected some "magic beans" (aka green holly berries) and we acted out the fairytale "Jack and the Beanstalk". Totally cute. Totally hilarious. That was then followed by interpretations of the tales of "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Hansel and Gretel". HIL-arious! Especially when Emily played the role of the wolf or the witch.
I now want to find props to go along with these stories. Emily in my red hooded sweater as Little Red Riding Hood is adorable, but Eric in the moose hat is a little less-than-frightening as the Big Bad Wolf. We have a lot of fun with this game and Emily gets to learn the stories, gets to learn improv, and we all get rock hard abs from laughing at her re-tellings. It's awesome!!!

Shout Out To My Brother

There are few sports that are terrifying to me (and I'm talking "traditional" not x-treme). One of them is the high jump. It's just scary to me to think about doing it...probably because I'm not the most graceful of fallers.
Well, next weekend my youngest brother is competing in the State Track Meet for high jump. I'm so excited for him and proud that he's my brother and accomplishing such dreams and goals like this. Yes. Proud. I can say that.
So, way to go Jake! Best wishes on your jumps and keeping healthy and strong this week, especially. And, I know what he'll say when he wins.
"What are you going to do next?" an unimaginative reporter asks.
"Well, I'm jumping in the car and we're going to see my sisters," he replies. Or, if he's a bit more daring, he'll brake into song to the tune of the famous song by The Presidents of the United States of America, "Driving down to Georgia, where I'll see me a bunch of family..." ...and, if he's lucky, eat a few peaches, too.

Icecream, The "Cool" Photoshoot

I had no idea how perfect the conditions were yesterday for an impromptu photoshoot. Eric gave the girls icecream cones and it was overcast, giving PERFECT lighting and sprucing up the green in the lawns. Plus, the girls were having fun. Mix kids, cameras and something they enjoy and you'll get some great candid photos...and some posed super silly by them, too.
For some reason, these make me think of Old Navy commercials...old school, before they went all Dummies-R-US for models.

Gianna Too

And, just so no one thinks I'm shafting Gianna...here are a few of her. Yes, she's sans clothing, but tell me the toddler you trust with icecream and keeping it in the mouth and not on the shirt.

Updates

My technology zapper is back in full force. I complained to Eric about some issues I was having with the camera. He finally got a chance to look at it. Guess what? It is just fine with the automatic focus AND the SAME USB cable works for him (and now works for me). So, I thought I'd update with a few pictures.

This is the dress I made for my friend's daughter "KK". Emily was "dying" to go to KK's house to see her. She hasn't actually even met my friend yet, much less her daughter, but she acts like she has. It's really cute and someday we WILL make it out to visit them. But for now, we just sent them this really cute dress.

And, this is the twirl skirt I made with my friend Heather. I had to go back and get enough fabric to make a matching one for Emily. So, I
guess we'll be hanging out with Heather really soon so they can style them together at church.

Dead Battery

Yesterday Eric was a bit late in coming home from work. His car wouldn't start, and there was a whole long story associated with it getting jumped. Anyway, he finally got it going and came home.
Figuring that there wasn't a good excuse for the battery to be dead, he left it charging over night. This means it should have started right up this morning so he could go to work.
WRONG! It wouldn't start. Nothing.
So, logically, he should take the van.
WRONG! My battery was dead, too!
What is the probability of this happening? It's a good thing Susan has a car or we'd be up a creek. Of course, she also needs to head off to work in a little bit so we are hoping Eric's jaunt over to the auto parts store will be a quick thing and it IS just a battery thing (please, please, please don't be the alternator!).
Oh, Dead Batteries, please come back to life. You don't get much praise, but I really, really do appreciate the cars starting up every time we need to go somewhere!

Praying in Specifics

I learned on my mission that there is a vast difference between praying for generalities and praying for specifics. It's not that the Lord misunderstands us or anything on His part; it just helps us to be more readily capable of understanding His answers.
Emily is already learning this. It's really cute and sweet.
Last night she asked what pancakes do for our bodies (we had breakfast for dinner). I told her they give us energy. So, she immediately prays, "Bless the pancakes to give us energy."
Today she was explaining how bones work in our bodies (seriously, if she doesn't pursue something medical, I'll be surprised. Everything is ALL about the body...somehow). She ended with, "Isn't that cool, Mommy? I think we should say a prayer to tell Jesus thank you for making our bones stick together." She immediately begins a prayer just to say thanks for the cool way our bones work together.
I love being this girl's mother. She always helps to bring the Spirit and to remind me that everything in this world goes back to our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Sewing 101

A couple days ago I went to my friend's house and she showed me how to make these incredibly cute ruffle-tiered skirts. She's amazing and I really look up to her in so many ways. She has a cute little side business where she sells her skirts as well as tutus. Check her out online!
She also introduced me to new "friends", which I hope we'll be ordering soon. You can do that when they are attachments for the sewing machine. ;)
It was so much fun and the skirt I made turned out completely adorable. On top of that, Gianna is absolutely in love with it! If I can keep it out of her reach, she'll be sporting it to church tomorrow.
The more I sew, the more I love to sew. It's the whole creation thing. But, it's creation with a purpose, too. My kids can wear them!

PS When Eric gets home, I hope to be able to resolve the USB cable issue that is not allowing me to upload the pictures of this project.

Establishing Good Habits

I have always been a bookworm. I'm sure part of my poor eyesight is probably due to reading until the light isn't enough to read by but not noticing because I was so engrossed in the book. I still go to bed most nights enjoying some sort of reading.
I had a good laugh the other night when I found Gianna like this:

I hope all of my children grow up with a love and passion for reading. Gianna had been put to bed already, but got up, grabbed a book, climbed back in bed, and "read" herself to sleep. She's so cute.

What's On Your Toilet?

On it. Not in it. I don't care about the second. =)
Growing up, there was almost always a copy of Reader's Digest on the back of the toilet. I would always read the funny stories out of the magazine. It's was the old reliable and I would read from it almost every day.
Recently I've been wanting to spend more time reading the scriptures. I've tried different things to block out a section of time to devote to ONLY reading the scriptures. It's really hard with our less-than-predictable schedule and my girls who get up early in the morning.
I've done scripture journals. I've read on themes. I've given just about everything a try. I've even read them backwards to pay attention to detail (that's how you edit papers, so why not?!). I still find myself going faster than I want. I want to get into the scriptures and ponder them...not just remember story lines or what I've learned before or other things like that.
I found my solution. I figured that I use the bathroom multiple times per day. So, I grabbed one of our copies of the scriptures and gave it a new home on the back of the toilet. Now, every time I make a pit stop, I pick them up and read. Sure, I'm not going to win any scripture reading contest this way, but it does give me a chance to truly think about a verse or two at a time. Let me tell you, it works! I've had more epiphanies in the past few weeks than I have in a long time. I'm thinking differently about them because they are broken down into smaller bits for me to ponder on and I'm exposed to them consistently throughout the day.

Child's Apron

I've gotten to the point of feeling like a slacker if I don't make the gift I'm giving. It's funny how quickly we put pressure on ourselves to do this and that.
But, I had a lot of fun making this cute little apron for a friend's 2 year old. Of course, I nearly had to pry it out of Gianna's hands. I'm quickly learning that her favorite color is yellow!
I also created my version of an applique...the pink flower on the pocket is actually hand sewn on and added a nice little flare to the skirt (though, I had intended to add an accent to the top of the pocket, too...but that got sewn on for fear I wouldn't have enough time to complete the project before the party today!).
I also would like to make mention that Emily was more than happy to model it for me so I could document it with a photo. Thanks, Em!!