My Birthday Boy

My boy is six! Well, he isn't officially six until next week but we had his party today. I can remember the day we found out we were having a boy. I was so in love. The ultrasound picture went right into a frame and right on my desk at work. I would stare at that picture everyday... just admiring that little silhouette of his. He had a beautiful head. I know, it sounds funny, but when I saw the ultrasound picture I said, "he looks just like daddy".... everyone laughed, but I was right. They have the exact same noggins. I love it. The best gift God ever gave a woman was the ability to have children.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK ! ! !

Swinging

I love seeing them play together.

Critters

We knew something had been getting into the garbage the past few nights but didn't know what it was. Lucky me, the other night I was up late when I heard the garbage can lid hitting the sidewalk.... so I had to investigate. This is what I saw...




It was my hand and camera that squeezed out the door in order to get a quick shot -hoping that the flash would scare him away. No such luck. In fact, quite the opposite. He walked right up the stairs, introduced himself, and begged my pardon for the mess. I invited him in for tea but he declined. Well, it went something like that.


Daddy on the other hand wasn't as hospitable. He offered him a glass of water... in the face. Our critter eventually got the hint and disappeared - at least for a little while.





But it wasn't long before I heard him out there again. This time I wasn't going to be Mr. Nice Guy.... I was ready to shew more aggressively. But before I could say anything I noticed that his tail looked a little different.





In fact, his whole body looked a little different. I knew raccoons were smart, but I had no idea they could impersonate a skunk so well!

Last of the Fourth

Grandpa IS the grill master!



The girls and guys idea of recreation.



Daddy and Belle's idea of recreation.

How peaceful......

Ya, right!

Princess Belly eating her brownie.

Playing with Grandpa.

Having a good ol' time.

Grandma shows Belle how to hold the dog. Poor dog.

Goodbye cabin!

A much needed nap....

before the fireworks.

Our Fourth

The weather was perfect on our Fourth of July celebration. We spent the day at my in-laws cabin. I took sooooo many pictures it was hard to pick which ones to post.

Here is the road that takes us to the cabin... a bit winding at times... poor Jack - gets sick every time.

Now this is the swinging bridge we have to cross in order to get to the cabin. Daddy assures me of it's safety, however, I find no comfort in his words as I'm standing halfway down the bridge... where it's too far to turn back, despite the fact that I feel like fainting but can't because I'm holding Jack's hand plus all the bags that hold extra clothes I brought along... It's about here that I think we're going to need marriage counseling.

But here's the reward for braving that darn bridge - this quaint little cabin built by my father-in-law... I helped build it too... Yes indeed. I hammered in about 25 nails... I'm not sure they went into the right place, but hey, that counts right?

The cabin is surrounded by creeks and a river and plenty of mountains.

The view from the deck.

The main attractions for the kids were Grandma's teeny tiny dog, and the gigantic tadpoles.

They only found minnows at this part of the River - Jack was loving it!

The scenery was oozing with serenity. The wind was making the tall grass wave back and forth. It was peaceful... unless you're a non-outdoorsy type like myself, and you hear a noise in the tall grass, and not wanting to encounter any snakes you strongly suggest to Jack that it's time to return to the cabin.

I love my boy!

More pics tomorrow...

Favorites Friday

I had to resist posting another picture of my KitchenAid mixer. So I'm posting the next best thing... the wonderful pizza dough I made today - using my favorite kitchen appliance.

I love making dough. There's something so familiar about it....could it be I'm a baker's daughter? That may have something to do with it. This isn't my dad's recipe... heaven help me if he finds out I've used another....this is an unpardonable sin! My dad's is always going to be the best... just because it's my dads... but this one was pretty good. I will definitely make it again.



Go here for the recipe.

Ninja warriors with mohawks???!!!

Before we went to the store today, all I said was: "does anyone want me to fix their hair before we go out.. please come to the bathroom".... I thought maybe a girl or two would want a bow or something, I had no idea the boys would show up requesting Mohawks!!! "That's not exactly what I had in mind," I thought to myself, but, why not...

Who knew how exciting getting a "Mohawk" would be....lol... I'm laughing as I type just thinking about the boys comparing whose Mohawk was the biggest... it was hysterical.

So, without further ado, here they are....

THE NINJA MOHAWKS

Introducing the newest member of our family

Here she is.... in all her glory!



Sweet dough was the first thing I made...



I ate sooo many of these cinnamon rolls!!!!!


I'm in love!!!!

Another boo boo

It has become painfully apparent that my darling Belle has inherited my clumsy genes. Last night she fell and her face planted into the doorway of the playroom. It looks worse in person. There's a line on the left side of her face from her forehead down her cheek that is purple. I felt so bad.

Noooooooooooooooooooo!!!

"We're sorry we missed you???"

I can't believe it! I missed it! My very own little mixer was here and gone.... sigh.. no, sigh is being too cute... my real reaction is more like this... whhaaaa haaaaa haaaa! My mixer is gone!!!!!



Ho hum... there's always tomorrow. And this BEHIND of mine is going NOWHERE!!!!

Tea for Two

This is the girls having tea


This is Bella taking a cookie off the wrong plate. I love this picture. It makes me laugh every time. This was a serious offense...Just look at Lauren's face!



This is Belle acting all "What did I do?"


I'm still sensing some trust issues here. Even though the cookie was returned.



But all was forgiven. Happy friends once again!

Favorites Friday

I need to watch this movie again. I haven't seen it in a while. And yes, I know this is Hollywood's rendition of a true story about a Christian woman. And I know Hollywood isn't always going to accurately portray all aspects of Christianity, but I still like this one. It's a funny movie about a missionary to China. I can totally see myself adopting all those babies had I been in those shoes.

My culinary skills are about to be tested

YOU WILL NEVER GUESS WHAT I AM GETTING..... Ok, I can't wait any longer... I must share....

I

AM

GETTING

ONE

OF

THESE

I am so very excited!!! So excited. So excited. Soooooooo excited. Did I mention I was excited? I have been wanting one of these like forever! Mine is going to be white, of course.

THANK YOU DADDY

Snack-time at our house

Our cousins were over to play today. There was lots of noise, lots of laughing, and lots of fun. And then when I said "SNACK-TIME" there was silence - at the table. It was so funny. There was no noise. There was eating, but not one peep from the kids. That is, until the kids magically became fishermen... whose skewers for the fruit kabobs magically became spears... for the apples that magically became fish... and then there was noise again! Tons of laughing. A child's imagination is a wonderful thing!

Anything familiar about this picture, Becky?

The Year of the Skirt

This summer I've decided to start wearing more skirts and less pants and shorts. I have always had a thing for forties attire and wish I could find more dresses designed from that era. I think what I like most about that decade's fashions is they're ultra-feminine. And skirts are feminine, and just as comfy as shorts, so, why not? Even if it's just me and the kids at home, I'm going to do my best this summer to wear more skirts! And of course, my sidekick has no choice but to wear them too!!! But there are absolutely no objections there!

We need to work on that

Jack has been attending VBS this week and they have a memory verse they need to memorize. So, we have been working on this scripture found in Proverbs... it says:
A friend is always a friend, and relatives are born to share our troubles. He has that part down... and then I asked him where that is found in the Bible and he said: "Robert 17:17"........ oh dear.

Peach Cobbler

Although I didn't get to take my own picture, this one looks exactly like the one I baked. This peach cobbler recipe came from here. It turned out very good. The only thing I might change if I made it again would be to add more peaches.

8 fresh peaches - peeled, pitted and sliced into thin wedges
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/4 cup boiling water

MIX TOGETHER:
3 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven 425F
In a large bowl, combine peaches, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice, and cornstarch. Toss to coat evenly, and pour into a 2 quart baking dish. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine flour, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Blend in butter with your fingertips, or a pastry blender, until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in water until just combined.
Remove peaches from oven, and drop spoonfuls of topping over them. Sprinkle entire cobbler with the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Bake until topping is golden, about 30 minutes

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Daddy will be landing soon. But we live so far away from the airport that I won't see him until late tonight. He told me how tired he was....But I know him, and he will be at work tomorrow. My daddy is one hard working man! You go daddy......

um daddy, if the kids tell you they had puff corn and cheese puffs tonight for dinner, don't believe them............ it was only an appetizer :)

There were three in the bed and the little one said

"Mommy, my butt hurts"

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!! Because 2 minutes ago your hand hurt. That's what I was thinking around 2ish this morning. Sleep deprivation and I don't do too well. Here are the things that I have rubbed in the last 24 hours: 2 backs, 3 feet, 1 butt, 1 knee , 1 hand and a noggin. All is well at our homestead.... so far this morning nobody hurts.... so far.

Daddy called this morning! Hurray!!!! He finally got his cell phone to work. Actually he had to buy minutes so yesterday he went, by himself, to buy some and the lady at the store only spoke 2 words of English, and daddy only knows 3 words of Romanian, so it didn't work out as daddy had planned. He sent a really nice English speaking Romanian back to the store this morning - and I was pleasantly surprised to hear daddy's voice today. Thanks daddy!

He tells me the conferences are going great... they are women's conferences and as much as he loves attending church services over there, he felt a bit funny being the ONLY male in the service... so I think he's only attended part of one. That's so funny.

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Love you daddy!
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by the way, i have to have more sleep in order to write better... no editing for today

My brown-eyed girl

I woke up this morning to this beautiful face 3 inches away from mine

She was standing beside my bed with the sweetest smile on her face. Now that's my idea of the perfect alarm clock - And exactly what I needed since Jack climbed into bed last night around 1 am. He tossed, turned, kicked and elbowed me the entire night. The entire night. It's the reason why I have so much energy right now!

The hunter

In his sweetest voice I heard Jack say, "Belle, put your foot in the circle"

I can always tell when Jacky boy is up to something. And sure enough, this is what I saw....Where's Jack you ask? He's behind the door, of course... holding the other end of his trap.

Don't do it Belle!!!!!!

"Belle, put your foot in the circle".....

Poor Belle.

Daddy, have you been talking to Jack about hunting again!?

By the way, daddy is snoozing right now. He's 7 hours ahead of us. I wish I was snoozing. I'm very tired tonight. But I just had to post these pics. I know daddy will get a good laugh.

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Hey daddy, Jack was so excited when he saw your truck at the church today. He said very excitedly, "mommy, is that daddy's truck?" I knew he thought you were around since your truck was there. I felt bad breaking the news to him. We all miss you.... and I'm waiting for you to call ME from now on!

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Daddy and I talked on the phone for a whopping 8 seconds today! He had sent a couple of emails telling me to call him and giving me numbers and instructions how to call, but I didn't get them until later in the day. He apparently was sleeping when I finally called. Sleepyhead daddy talks nonsense when he's awakened from slumber... so I told him we could talk tomorrow... I was hoping to hear on the other end "no, let's talk now" but I got "okay" instead. Eight seconds isn't long enough. And the funny thing is, as he was hanging up he said "call often".