Kids are cute

J at Friday Park Day

J and H making up a new game

 E in her Easter dress- I think it will be too small by then

Skyping with Nana in our pajamas

Hey I'min a picture- thats unusual!

Pinterest Projects- a small addiction

Yummy Jalapeno Popper Stuffed Chicken- tastes way better than it looks. Basically mix cream cheese with 2 Jalapeno peppers (de-seeded and minced) and bacon (cooked and chopped up). Cut into the thawed raw chicken stuff. Roll in bread crumbs mixed with salt, pepper, garlic powder- what ever you want and secure the whole thing with tooth picks. Then saute them on the stove with a little bit of oil- I actually just used the bacon grease.... 6-8 minutes each side- or whenever its not pink anymore all the way through. R loved these with the joy of Christmas in his eyes.

The Game of Love- a fun homemade V-day present for your husband that I found on The Dating Divas website. The lady on that site ironed her sheet then used tape to tape off straight rows. I'm way lazier than that so I skipped the ironing,used my fabric cutting board (or you could use some left over cardboard) and wrote in Sharpie (also cause i was too lazy to go buy a fabric marker). I made a little cardboard stencil in a similar shape to the TDD example and zig-zagged my rows around using little dots to show the way. This is how I got around not making fancy taped off perfect rows with out it looking too stupid. Then fill in your little squares with things like foot massage and 90 seconds in Heaven. The idea is to roll a dice (i made a special dice out of paper that only went to 3 since there are only 29 squares on my sheet.... short game) then spend 90 seconds on each square you land on. When you reach the end..... well thats it- do whatever you want- but don't tell me about it. 

Homemade Shout refill- Ijust used mine up so i thought I would try refilling with this.  I haven't used it yet so I can't evaluate the results.

Bubble Refill- we go through alot of bubbles. You heat and stir 2 1/2 cups water with 1/2 cup light corn syrup and the gently mix in 1/2 cup of dish liquid. Works just fine but looks like a little whispy floating ghost falling to the floor if they happen to pop on their own....

 DIY Wipes- 2 T baby oil, 2 T baby shampoo and 1/2 cup water, dumpover paper towels. Add more water if it isn't all wet. Remove cardboard centers and use from the middle. Really easy. The generic stays toghether but doesn't feel lik a very protective barrier btw your fingers and the poop- so I like the slightly nicer paper towels.

 Re- inforced Re-inforced Training underwear. I added 3 layers of leftover flannel from another project to the crotch od the already re-inforced underwear you can buy in the baby cloth diaper insert section at Wal-Mart and sewd some waterproof fabric to the outside of the crotch area. We aren't anywhere near this stage yet- but i thought these would be nice when we potty train for initial outtings and naps so that accidents are a little more contained.

How Time Flies

Just a little comparison for you H, J and I then and now

Toddler Joy School

I've now hosted our Toddler Exchange several more times- but forget to always take a picture. This particular time we talked about the color RED and went on a Red scavenger hunt. See all the red things we collected. Sadly I don't even remember them all if I don't take a photo- my last one it was yucky outside so we learned about rainy and sunny weather- and some funny new song about them. The time before that was the difference between big and little- large and small. These kids make me laugh- always fighting over the same toy- even though there are tons of them, making up games, singing random songs and sommersaulting out of the blue. Lately their favorite games are ring-around the rosie, climbing up on the end table over the couch and down and then doing it again (I guess they are learning to take turns as the do it all in a row in an endless loop) and the game where they all line up against the wall- then H yells GO! and they all run around like crazy- then come back to the wall and do it again. Last time must have been boring for them as they moved all the kitchen chairs to the front window and sat looking out for 10 minutes waiting, I guess, for thier mothers to rescue them... We did add a 4th to our little group- Cambre also from church and in the neighborhood. She is a little younger than J, but talks more than him so she seems to fit right in.

E's a glamour girl

Awesome Ari Hemming took some gorgeous photos off my gorgeous girl just  before Christmas. The last one was just a test shot but i love her little blue eyes.

Toddler Joy School

Just this week a couple friends and I started an exchange for our toddlers to play once a week and the other 2 moms to take a break (or get something done). We started out at our house. Although its a little advanced for any of them to sit and listen to a lesson I still had a theme and we talked about the body this week. In the pics, we traced thier hand and foot and they got to decorate them. Below are thier drawings. The bottom is a failed attempt at basic math skills. I tried to see if they could sort body parts into different bowls. Each of them ended up taking a bowl and as many of the laminated eyes, mouths and hands as possible. We can keep trying though.

I'm including what we did- more as a reference for myself incase I need to come back and do it again, I'll know where to look.

 

The Body:

Song: Head Shoulders Knees and Toes

Book: Parts by Tedd Arnold

Craft: Trace and Color Hands and Feet

Math Activity: Sorting Body Parts (eyes, mouths and hands)

Song: The Hokey Pokey

 

I don't know how much they really got out of it. Although they sometimes looked at me, there was little song participation, no one paid any attention to the book and the sorting went wrong. They did like the craft and had loads of fun playing together. We focused most on learning to share, take turns and not hit, which at this age is probably the most important and what they will likely take away from the experience.

E's Baby Blessing

We blessed Miss E over Thanksgiving weekend. Lots of family and lots of love.

 J and Nana sharing a laugh. He has his hands up because he is about to grab both sides of her face and kiss her. Its something he has been doing lately and its adorable.

 My Boys

The whole family. Her blessing dress is made from the fabric of my wedding dress. Made by family friend Barbara George- she does blessing gowns as a home business and she did a wonderful job.