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".

And I wait...

I have probably hit the "refresh" button dozens of times already. One of these times I will see what I'm looking for: a map, and an airplane icon telling me that daddy has successfully taken off for another "missions" trip to Romania. I monitor that thing like a hawk. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing, but I do it. I guess that little replica of an airplane on my computer screen is the only "tangible" thing I have to stay connected to daddy... at least while he is in the air. And then when he lands he always calls and sends lots of emails.

While I wait, I'm thinking about today's events. Jack picked out a recipe from this cookbook

that we were going to make for dinner tonight. Since we got a late start and the glazed baby back ribs take a lot longer to cook than I realized, we had this instead

We'll have the ribs tomorrow. And a peach something or other.... I'm going back and forth on making a cobbler, crisp, or pie.... I'll let the kids decide.

And this is what the kids did while I was making dinner... isn't that precious... there was no arguing. For the first 6 minutes!

AND NOW I AM HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE:

HOUSTON, WE HAVE LIFTOFF!!!!

Daddy's in the air!!!! Please keep them in your prayers!

Footloose and fancy-free

The garden's in!

Pop, daddy, and the kids planted the rest of the garden goodies. This year we will have a strawberry patch, a pumpkin patch, and the regulars: zucchini, squash, and we must have our tomatoes. There may be a few more things too....

...but I don't know what they are since I had a date with my vacuum cleaner. We danced the waltz... I was wearing my pearls and my apron!!! I really felt like a 1950's housewife! And I loved it. Don't get me wrong, I was definitely meant for "our" time, because there is no way I would dress up everyday just to clean my house... my pearls were still on from church :)

Somehow the hula hoop got caught in the tree... I didn't ask questions.


and this is how daddy got it out....


successfully.


oh, and one more thing... my irises are blooming.

Have a Happy Monday!!!

Let the games begin!

It's official. Today is the first day of summer! Well, at least at our house because now that Jack's done with school he's looking forward to the fun that comes along with summertime activities.

I have a lot of ideas playing around in my head. For starters, I'm going to get a bike. An old fashioned beach cruiser with a basket. I can't wait. Yes, it's old fashioned looking. But that's the point and I love it! Jack already has a bike and I'm getting an attachment for my bike so Belle can tag along. We're going to pack our lunches, toss it into my basket and head out on wild adventures. I also want to go to museums, check out some zoos, hike the Grand Canyon...... the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon that is (I don't have that much energy!), go on train rides, visit a few fairs, have several cookouts... maybe some camping out...maybe, and a whole lot more! Can't waste anymore time... gotta go

I'm sooooo excited.

I cried like a baby

after dropping my boy off for his first day of kindergarten.


And then again tonight after watching a slideshow of pictures the teacher had sent home as a keepsake. It was so sweet. The pictures chronicled all the activities and special events that happened throughout the year.

Cry, cry, cry.... me, my mother, and my (pregnant) sister... whom we concluded had the most legitimate reason for crying....pregnancy hormones. All because today was a big day. It was the last day of kindergarten.

My boy, my baby's growing up - and it's exciting and sad at the same time!


Jack, please slow down! You are growing waaaay too fast. And I don't know if I'm ready for this - for my children to grow. I haven't had the chance yet to catch my breath after having a baby, and you go and finish your first year of school. How did you do that?

Buddy, I couldn't be more proud of you. If I'm ready for this or not, I'm still so proud of what you have done. And today in the car, when you thanked me for everything, you will never know how that melted my heart.

God has great things in store for you.... and I cannot wait to watch them unfold in your life.

I love you Jack!

...better get going before I start crying like a baby all over again!

Happy Birthday Bella Girl!