On My Mind...

This post really will have no relevance to the small handful of people that read it. There are no pics of kids so you can go ahead and go spend time on Pinterest...  I don't even think any of the people I am about to speak of read this blog or even know it exists; however, it has been on my mind, so I want to say it. Even if no one reads it. So there!

I hate that old saying "you don't know what you got til it's gone" because I really try to appreciate what I have. I do. But I didn't know what I had in Starkville Branch. Even though it was my home ward, I felt like an outsider a lot of the time. I wasn't invited to everything, I wasn't in the cliques. But, I still loved it. I loved all the play groups, every book club, smiling faces on Sunday, babies popping out every other month from various women, the elderly ladies that loved J and brought entertainment to help me with him during Sacrament meeting, (believe it or not) visiting teaching, and the examples of so many truly amazing women. Even though I wasn't best friends with any of them, I miss them!  A lot of us loved talking food, sharing dishes, eating, and exchanging recipes. I loved that! I miss that! Because of that, we all exercised and talked about that too! It was just fun. I didn't share every opinion with them, I loved MS way more than they ever would, but I still miss them.

Our new ward is really great. They have helped me and my family a lot in the short time we have lived here. They all made great effort to meet us and welcome us. They greet us with a smile on Sunday. We are involved, but it is just not the same. I don't even really need it to be the same- I just need a little bit of what I had before. I'm not asking for much. Maybe one or two people that love making and eating food as much as I do. Maybe somebody that wants to get out of the house for a play date at the park once in a while. Maybe somebody who has room in their life for one more friend. And, when I am finally able to fill some of these gaps in my life, I will be sure to know what I got!

St. Patrick's Day

As a youngster, I despised this holiday. All the pinching at school was just not my thing. It didn't matter if you wore green, you were gonna get pinched and for some reason that was just so fun for kids. Not me. However, as a much older youngster I quite enjoy this holiday! Last weekend we made glittery shamrocks to put in the window. (Sorry no pics). Then last night M and I made a "rainbow" cake.

 This is the cake before I went to bed:

When we got up in the morning, we saw that a leprechaun had indeed climbed our ladder, walked over to the gold coin we left him, fell through the trap, escaped out the other side, and left us a big pile of gold as an apology for messing up our cake:

(It's a stretch, I know, but it was getting really late by the time all this happened!)
In the morning after we saw what the leprechaun left us we had green shamrock pancakes. Yum-O! (Actually, the green kinda grossed me out, but the kids enjoyed them).
Tonight we had delicious corned beef, cabbage, carrots, roasted potatoes, "bomb" rolls as M calls them. And our rainbow cake. Which incidentally, actually somewhat resembled a rainbow. Although, it was not perfect like the lady's from whose blog I got the instruction. Still, we had fun. I like holidays that involve fun with no pressure or expectations for gifts. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Outings

We finally got M's baby bike seat put on her bike (she has been begging us for months now) and the weather was not-too-bad so J donned the helmet and we picked M up from school to surprise her with it. Then we rode to the library since we were in great need of books.

I'm such a good mother that I even remembered to bring a baby to put in the seat. AND I even put a scarf on said baby so she wouldn't freeze. Wow!

And, as usual we wanted to get out for our family outing on Saturday. The weather was not allowing for us to do anything fun outside so we decided to splurge and go to the movies. It was a cute movie and we all enjoyed it. Here we are on the way there:

This handsome guy is our driver:

This handsome guy fights naptime bigtime:

And here is our rock star:

(Notice who is buckled in the middle! Either Emily or Caroline go with us wherever we go!)

Student of the Week

We sure are proud of our little M. She was student of the week last week. I am quite sure she enjoyed all the attention!

 

And in other news: J had is first trip to the dentist. All went well except for the insane running around he did before hand. I have a sneaky suspicion those people rushed us in for fear of the destruction he would cause to their waiting room. Once we were in the chair, he behaved quite well and was very brave. We pretended he was in a rocket ship and that we went up to space. That was pretty fun.

(Notice her hand on his chest: she literally had to hold him down to keep him in the chair!)


Here is a video of little Miss P. I'm pretty sure she is saying my name! What a doll...

And here are three beautiful children in my life:

Shredded Wheat

Dear shredded wheat,
I truly dislike you. I knew that when I picked you off the shelf and put you in my buggy. Actually, it was your sister, Strawberry Shredded Wheat that I brought home. I had hoped my oldest might eat you. I was so wrong. And it's no wonder. When I have you for breakfast, I actually have to check the contents of my bowl to make sure I am not eating hay. That's right, hay-as in for horses. Throughout my life I have tried numerous times to like you. And I just don't. Triumphantly I declare that I ate the whole box of your sister and will never be eating you, or any of your family members, ever again. Sincerely, me.

Ps more important posts coming mañana.

Picture Stories

M spent all her extra time before church one Sunday dressing Emily and taking photos. Here is the outfit Emily wore out. M loves dressing up Emily and Caroline and taking them out with us. We don't let her take them into church or a store, but we will a restaurant or the mall. It is fun to watch her mother her loveys.

I got another idea from Playing to Learn blog and stuck contact paper on the floor for the kiddos to feel and stick letters on. Anytime I can get J looking at letters I will do it. They both enjoyed feeling it and sticking stuff on it. J especially liked how it felt on his feet. In the end, he rolled his cars on it, as usual. They had a good time with it.

M has been wearing her hair in pigtails every day to school. I don't know why, but she just requests pig tails every morning. Here they are at the start of our Friday night movie night. I could get them to smile, but not tear their eyes off the tv screen.

My awesome neighbor came over to hang out on Saturday and ended up pulling M's tooth. Then we gave M a trim and curled her hair and did her makeup. Then she got her nails done too. M was in heaven. She is all girl, I tell ya.





Back to Friday Night Movie Night. This is a tradition we started when we moved here to BS. We all love it. We veg on the couch and watch a movie all together. Usually we eat dinner while we watch. This is a big treat for the kids and some much needed relaxation time for the adults. For dessert this past Friday we had Klondike bars. Here is J eating his. When he had gotten down to just a pile of ice cream, he came out of his movie/ice cream trance, looked at me, put his hands up and said, "Where's the brown?"
           "Come again, J?"
            "Where's the brown? The brown is in my belly! I like the brown!"
            "Do you mean the chocolate?"
            "Yes!"