Snap, Crackle, Pop....

My kids LOVE sweets. Heck, I LOVE sweets. Last week, we had a good ol' time making Rice Crispy Treats....and it was fun. Gooey, messy, sticky fun but fun.

My Jack just wanted to "get down and dirty". He is a boy. What do you expect? At every chance he could, he was sticking his little fingers in the treats. So his main job was cutting out shapes...with mom's help of course!

Juliana LOVES to let her creative side show. Anything decorating, coloring, creating...she is all over it. Here she is "creating" her treat. I didn't get a chance to get "after" pics because my kids are too fast. If there is some sort of treat in front of them, it is gone in 3.7 seconds. :)

Oh my sweet Jack. While I was cleaning up our mess and five Rice Crispy Treats later, Jack was going in for the final kill. But I am a swift mom and my camera happened to be in my hand. :)

I Scream, You scream......

On Monday, Jeremiah and I took the kiddos to Memorial City Mall for some $1 Sundaes from McDonald's. (Cheap dessert after spending BELOW our budget for groceries that day!)

Before:

Jacie indulged in MOMMY'S ice cream....

After:

After our delicious ice cream Juliana, Jack and mommy headed to the huge play area and got some of that sugary energy out! (Meanwhile, daddy and Jacie went to the Apple store to get my iphone checked out.)

It was a fun outing that only cost us $5. That's my kind of family time! :)

Walking on Sunshine! :)

I am absolutely LOVING this Texas weather. Yesterday was beautiful - 78 degrees, sunshin-ing - not a cloud in the sky. Jeremiah and I took the kiddos to the park before lunch and they had a BLAST!!!

Juliana was climbing onto anything she could climb on! She likes to challenge herself with new obstacles. :)

Jack, well Jack was being your typical little boy. Walking down slides, climbing on ladders that were too big for him, tugging on another little girl's shirt. :)

And my Jacie Madison. Little thing WANTS to walk all by herself...but for some reason will only do it at certain times and certain places. She had a ball on the slide (with big sister and brother of course.)

Life is their playground. :)

Ethan James :)

My nephew came into the world today! :) He was born at 9:24am, 7lbs - 12oz and 18 in. long....

Hello world, here I come!!

Monster...... :)

My Jack. He is my little boy. He is tough. He is rough. He fights like a WWF wrestler...

Yet, he ran into the living room from the kitchen with a scared, "OMG I just saw a ghost" look on his face. When I asked him what was wrong, he just said, "monster, monster...."

Sadly, this heaven sent iced tea maker is the culprit. Who knew an appliance could be so scary?

It's a Jungle Out There....

This one might be a long one folks.

Below is a picture of our backyard as of Saturday morning. Being that we haven't ever owned a lawn mower or any other yard tool for that matter, we had quite the Amazon on our hands. If you look closely you might spot an orangutan, lion or even a parrot.

This is the after effect and THANK GOODNESS! Needless to say, the kiddos were happy that they could rule the kingdom that was rightfully theirs.

BUBBLE TIME!!! We got the kids a couple bottles of bubbles for outside time and they loved it!

(GP, these are Juliana's bubble glasses. Check your inbox.)

Jacie had a BLAST while Jack blew bubbles in her face. She was so intrigued by all of the balls of color that were floating all around her.

Last night after our ten mile walk - not really, but it felt that way, we came home and had baths and pizza. Then once Jack and Jacie were snug as a bug in a rug in their beds, Jeremiah, Juliana and myself laid a blanket and tons of pillows down on the floor and got ready for movie night. We rented Beverly Hills Chihuahua and turned off all the lights. Too bad we never got around to popping the popcorn.

I LOVE weekends!

Maid Service Anyone?

Last night as we were putting the kids down for bed, I walked into Juliana's room to grunting and the mattress scraping the wall. She had her mattress COMPLETELY off the bed, attempting (and doing a darn good job) to put her sheet on her mattress. Now anyone that has toddlers and toddler beds knows what a pain it is to try to pull and tug the sheet to fit over the mattress. If your lucky, the sheet just magically slides over the corners. But if you have had a sheet for five years that has been through MANY washes/drys you know that they tend to shrink. (Its Babies R US and the sheet manufacturer out to take more money from tapped out parents.) Well after 10 minutes, she did it. She did it all by herself. It made me smile because she was so proud of herself and I was proud of her. :)

Our Jacie girl. She really is trying. She flies through the kitchen while holding onto cabinets, walls and appliances. She flies through the living room holding onto the couch and coffee table. And once in a while, she lets go and realizes that she is walking all by herself - and down we go. But she lets go. Our kids are growing up. Soon it will be kindergarten. Then sleepovers. Then football camp. Then high school. Then our nest is empty. Why cant they be babies forever?

Bill Gates Meets Walk-er Baby?!?!?!

BREAKING NEWS!!!! Our Jacie girl took her FIRST steps yesterday! This picture is not from when she did it but from before lunch when she was walking "with" the refrigerator. Last night before bed, we were playing with her on her bedroom floor and daddy had a toy she wanted so she walked four steps from mommy to daddy. It was SO exciting!

Juliana has found a new favorite past time! She LOVES computer time and we found a couple games on www.disney.com that she just had a blast playing. This will most definitely be a new motivational tool. (ie reward for being good.). Who knew that having a working computer would be so advantageous?

Oh Jack. I just love this picture so I thought I would share. :)

Blogger Makeover With a Full Stomach!

For your reading enjoyment I will be updating the appearance of this blog monthly. Being that it is March and sunny and green here....like it is all year round, I figured this look is appropriate. :)

Now, onto the important subject.....FOOD! I just love God's sense of humor. When Jeremiah and I met in 2004, I was in no way any kind of chef, cook, microwave-er. I could hardly boil water on the stove! Well at that time, Jeremiah showed up in my life with a degree in Nutrition. (Yay me!!!) So anyways, Jeremiah and I are doing the Love Dare devotional and yesterday's dare was to have a quiet dinner for two at home and re-study your spouse. Well.....this is what Jeremiah made me:

What you have just "feasted" on is a Italian grilled chicken breast topped with Mozzarella cheese, a grilled portabella mushroom and grilled red bell peppers on a toasted ciabatta roll. Served with herb angel hair pasta. 

MMMM. Yay me! :)

Bananas and Wine?!?!?!?

My little 14 month old monkey LOOOVES bananas. Yesterday after church Jacie was eating bananas and making cute little monkey calls. Where she got that from, the world may never know!

Our church has "New Community" once a month on the first Sunday night of the month,("New Community" is a time of worship, prayer and baptisms.) and last night was my "turn" to sing on the worship team. Juliana was sitting with us because there is only childcare for ages baby to 4 years old. Anyways, it was time for communion and we walked to the table to receive our bread and grape juice. ( A little background: we have been talking with Juliana over the past few months about Jesus and how he died on the cross for our sins so that we could live in heaven with Him. We also have explained that the bread represents the body of Jesus and the grape juice the blood of Jesus.) As we sat down, we took the bread and juice and we started to pray. The man who was praying for communion referred to the grape juice as wine and Juliana looked over at me and said out loud, "Mom! I drank wine???" At that point, I calmly (and stopped myself from laughing) said, " No honey, you had grape juice." Well being that she is five and argues with everything I say, began to "plead her case" and lucky for me, I heard the word Amen. 

Kids say the darnedest things.