We had our 3rd snow fall for this year, today. It was so beautiful and wet enough that it would stick together enough to make snowballs and most importantly a snowman! Two weeks ago when it snowed it was just a beautiful powdery blanket of snow, and no matter how hard we tried, we could not get it to stick enough to make even the smallest snowballs.
Today was the day though! The snow was PERFECT for making snowballs and snowmen! After feeding the children a hot breakfast brunch of oatmeal, we all dressed in warm clothes and headed down stairs. We had our basket in tow, which held buttons, a cowboy hat, and a piece of material to be used as a scarf.
Why I didn’t think to make the children use the bathroom before heading downstairs escapes me completely, because as soon as we got downstairs, walked over to where we were going to build our snowman, placed AA in her Bumbo seat so she could watch us easily, I hear from EK, “I need to go potty”! I scooped her up, put JA and GC in charge of watching after their sisters and ran back upstairs as quickly as possible! Because if I hadn’t….well you know….I really could have been the mom who was frantically yelling “Don’t eat the yellow snow!!”….and that just wouldn’t have been pretty! She pottied quickly and we were back downstairs in record time!
Remember that basket I told you about…the one that held the buttons, hat, and scarf? Well it also held me camera. I had so diligently placed the cowboy hat over top of the camera, as to not let the snow fall directly on it.
Before going downstairs, I had pictured all of us working as hard as we possibly could to build one huge snowman. However, after getting downstairs it was suddenly clear that the boys must have had a non-verbal commitment to build as many snowmen…er…..snow-robots…er….snow-whatevers, as possible. Only thing, they didn’t tell me this, so I started building away on what I thought would be THE snowman.
I worked and worked and worked…with IM’s help of course. She wanted to see our snowman “come to life” as badly as I did. We made his bottom half, then his mid-section, followed by his cute little head. Then we placed some buttons on for his eyes, his nose, his mouth, and down his mid-section. I ran across the parking lot and found the most perfect set of branch arms he could have asked for! He was looking snazzy! We followed this up with his scarf, and ever so politely asked the boys if we could borrow the cowboy hat that they had taken out of the basket to use on one of their snow sculptures. They were more than happy to oblige. Then we all stood and said “WOW”, because he was the cutest, most handsomest little snowman ever!
Then it was picture time! I gathered all the children around our icy little friend, including AA, who had sat so happily in her Bumbo seat watching all the excitement. (She too was getting to take part in some of the action…well until I explained to EK, who laughingly would throw snowballs at her baby sister, that she should only start snowball fights with someone who could defend himself/herself.)
I reached into the basket to find that my camera had a bit of snow on it, not a lot, and what was on it was already melting. Apparently this is not good though, because when I turned my camera on, the screen was most certainly not working properly! All it would show were some tiny blue vertical lines on a white screen! And that is all it would show after turning it off and back on a few times. Nothing I did made it any better! When the boys, unknowingly, removed the protection of the cowboy hat from the camera, it did not take long for the camera to decide that it didn’t like having snow fall on it! And it threw itself a fit!
So now the camera is completely submerged in a container of rice, and I am praying that the rice will work to remove moisture from inside my camera in the same way that it works to remove moisture from the inside of a cell phone! I shall get back to you on how that turns out. In the meantime, I have removed the batteries and the memory card from the camera, and I will try to see if any damage has happened to the memory card, or the pictures that were already on it, tomorrow…er….later today.
Until then, word from the Learned, Do NOT allow your camera to be snowed on! Snow + Camera = Broken! 
I used my dehydrator for the first time today! My first experiments foods that I dehydrated are bananas, apples with cinnamon, kiwi, oranges, pineapple, and peaches. I tried a variety to get an idea of what we liked most, and now I know what to make a lot of.
The results? Apples with cinnamon are loved across the board! The kiwis were tart and liked by most, but not by all. The bananas are my least favorite, but loved by hubby and all the children, so I will be sure to make more of them. The oranges are disliked by most, but I will make more of them to have on hand to use with herbal teas. The peaches and pineapples are still on the dehydrator because they aren’t quite ready yet. However, we all got a little taste of each anyway, and we know that we are going to love both! The children were requesting that I make more pineapple already, so I will be putting more on tonight this morning before I fall into bed.
Here is a visual of some of the goodies that are ready to be consumed….and most of it has already been!!
My Excalibur Dehydrator has arrived!!!!!!!!!! I will take some pics of my first homemade dehydrated goodies and post them here soon!
Have a great day! 
We have been battling the flu in our home for 2 weeks now. If that were not bad enough, I haven’t fallen alseep before 3 am on any of those nights!
Why you might ask? Well it seems that my two smallest sweethearts have decided that that is their new bedtime. With most of my attention being focused toward whomever is sickest, I have not been paying much attention to whether the little girls get their nap at a decent time of day.
EK, almost 3 yrs, especially has been falling asleep around 4ish or later, then waking up full of energy! And since I am sleeping in the sick room (livingroom), with whomever is sick, DH takes EK to bed with him. However, as soon as DH is snoring asleep, EK makes her way back to me. AA, 1 yr, wanting to make sure EK has a playmate, stays awake too.
Although this makes for a very sleep deprived mama, there are memories being made during these midnight…and later….happenings. During these times we have watched movies, sang songs, played with toys,colored in coloring books and ate some midnight snacks.
Some of the movies that we have watched include, Baby Signing Times, WeeSing movies, Jungle Book, The Little Mermaid, Peter Pan, and various NetFlix movies. Some songs we have sang include, Jesus Loves Me, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and He’s My Rock. And EK and I have eaten some yummy snacks, from fresh fruits to pretzels dipped in melted semi-sweet chocolate chips. The pretzels with melted chocolate chips has been our favorite thus far! 
Honestly, life is not up to par. We are in survival mode here, and thankfully everyone is thriving! Our home is in need of some serious cleaning and what school we have done is the bare minimum. This is all temporary though. This is a season and it shall pass, but the Midnight Memories that have been made here in the past 2 weeks will always stay with me! These precious little ones grow up way too quickly, I do not wish to look back and regret not taking time to love on them, and cuddle them, and make precious memories with them!
So if I find myself awake tonight, at an hour that the majority of Americans are sound asleep in their nice comfy beds, I am going to smile despite the extreme exhaustion that I may be feeling, and I am going to help create some memories!
….To my Kitchen that is! Isn’t she beautiful! Eat your heart out Martha Stewart!
Yes, that has to be it…definitely Mommy Brain! Why else would I forget to restock one of the most important basic necessities in a home of 7 people? A product in which 6 of those 7 people use everyday, and 3 of those 6 people use MANY times a day! It is a product that I would hope to never run out of…um…but somehow I did?!
I am speaking of toilet paper. Yes, I do realize some families, and some countries can make it just fine without toilet paper….*shudder at the thought*. However my friend, my family is not one of those, nor, do we wish to be!
I could easily lay the fault over on the children, because they are given the job of replacing empty toilet paper rolls in each bathroom with new rolls. Unfortunately, I can’t do that either. Reason being, the 7 year old told me…AND showed me a few days ago that there was only one roll left in the pack. And you would think that his panic over the fact would be enough to keep me from forgetting.
His exact words, “OH NO, Mama we have a problem!”.
Me, “What would that problem be?”
Him, “This is the last roll of toilet paper!”
Me, “It’ll be ok, I will buy some more before we run out completely”.
*Blushing* But in my defense, the toilet paper wasn’t completely gone. See we had some left!
*blushing again*
This was in the childrens’ restroom. So what was in the master bathroom?….ahem, ahem *cough, cough*….Baby wipes. Now don’t you judge me, Mommy Brain could very easily be considered a medical condition. NO, I did not say mental, I said medical!
Now that you know that I forgot, want to know what made me remember? *A little background history* In our home, when someone has just used the restroom and they so strategically reach over to pull some toilet paper off the roll to finish the job, and uh oh, the roll is empty, you will here said person shouting loudly from behind the closed bathroom door “I need more toilet paper!” What happens next is, whomever is closet to the closet where the extra toilet paper is stored, grabs a new roll and quickly takes it to said stranded person.
So last night as our family was gathered around the dining table eating dinner, there was a knock at the door. It was my FIL and BIL. After letting them in, I thought that I would tidy up the guest bathroom (the kids’ bathroom) while they chatted with DH in the livingroom. Upon entering the bathroom I immediately notice that there is no toilet paper. My first thought was “Uh Oh”, and it was then that I remembered the 7 year old’s panic, and my promise to buy more before we ran out! Thankfully though the master bathroom had 1/4 of a roll left, so I quickly place it in the other bathroom, and pray that the children do not need to use it , or if they do, that our guests do not! Because, the thought of my FIL or BIL yelling from behind the closed bathroom door “I need more toilet paper“, is disturbing enough without the thought of having to yell back, “I’m sorry, but we are out, would you like some baby wipes?!?”.
Not to worry though, the children and I took a road trip over to WM today and we now have 24 brand new rolls of our beloved toilet paper!
Hi, Again!
I hope to get back here and get my “blog” on much more often this year! I find it very hard to think about what to blog about, which is CRAZY because let’s face it with 5 kiddos there is always something going on that is worthy of blogging about!
So this year, I am hoping to get alot more of those moments recorded here! I am also thinking about changing the name of my blog, but we shall see!
Happy 2010, may God bless you and yours!
I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I get when I see my children accomplish something that they worked so hard on!
My Gabe tied his shoes for the first time today! I sat in amazement, and had to give VERY little instruction, as he showed me how he could make the bunny run around the tree and duck into the bunny hole (well I taught him that part to help him remember all of the steps). His face lit up and he had the BIGGEST smile on his handsome little face when he pulled the two bunny ears and he saw that he had indeed tied his own shoe! Of course I had a HUGE smile too! I am so happy for him!
This event took place just about 10 minutes ago, and since then he has untied and tied his shoes many times. He tells me, “and I did it again…I”M DOING IT”, “I see my brother do it, he is tying his shoes and that is teaching me!”. He also just told me “I am a big boy, I am almost 6 (even though his birthday isn’t until December). I am going to keep practicing and practicing and I am going to get REALLY good at it.”
If I had to describe to you how I feel about his victory…well I think Gabe said it best when he said, “THAT IS SO AWESOME!” 
I’m just not sure what she is transforming from!
This is the conversation that took place in our home two nights ago…I know, I know, I should have posted this sooner….but, but…ok, no buts…I’ll just say that the procrastinator bug bit me…AGAIN!
I was cooking dinner, and Bella was playing with Anna.
(A very excited Bella enters kitchen)
Bella: “Mama, Mama. Anna just said Ma-Ma, Ma-Ma.”
Me: “Really?…That is wonderful! That means she will be the first out of all of you kiddos to say Mama, before Daddy. Did you know that?”
Bella: “Yeah. And you know what?”
Me: “What?”
Bella: “She sounded just like a Who-Men!!”
Me: (laughing) “She did! Just like a human?”
Bella: (even more excited now) “Yes, isn’t that good that she sounds like a who-men now?”
Me: “Yes, that is VERY good.”
So you see, my baby is transforming. She is now a Who-men…er, human…so would this mean that before, she was a…dare I say, alien?? Hmm…the verdict is still out on that one!
