just checking in... :)

Hi! Just checking in to say I'm still here. I have been A) without internet for a week and 2) been playing single mom since last thursday, so I haven't had a chance to blog! Tomorrow is my last day of being here with my kids 24/7, since their parents get home tomorrow night...so hopefully I will get caught up soon. There is a lot to share from this past week!

For now, I'll leave this pic that Laura's husband, Mike, took of Leah and me tonight. Apparently we both got the memo to wear dark jeans, pink shoes, and purple shirts - with ruffles down the front! :)

(Hey Mike...how's that for picture editing...! lol)

jonathan and cousins

A couple weeks ago, Shannon asked if I would do pictures of Jonathan and his two cousins who were in town for the weekend. I think this was the first "real" photo shoot I've done with Jonathan and it was definitely a lot of fun!

If you live in our city...and have your photos done...chances are, you are going to have them done at this spot at one time or another! :) Isn't he cute?? Not that I'm partial or anything.... ;)

Doing an outdoor photo shoot on a beautiful afternoon is not the easiest thing in the world to do when you're trying to follow three little boys all over the place! Josiah (the older of these two) had no patience for slowing down to have his picture taken, lol.

Caleb was still young enough that a few things caught his attention and he would stop to explore for a couple minutes at a time.

Finally we found something that caught Josiah's attention and even let me get this awesome smile out of him!

A swing! :)

Swings are fabulous things....and make little boys smile and laugh! :)

(note to self: remember that! lol)

Next we found a caterpillar to examine. Said caterpillar may or may not have survived the examination..... ha!

This is not supposed to be a cute pic of Jonathan...although he is cute... :) This is just to show a tiny bit of the damage from the storms/tornados that came through just a few days before. All the downed trees made this shoot a bit more tricky since I kept seeing yellow caution tape in the background of some shots...and who wants giant tree roots in the background either?! Poor trees. :(

Sweet baby. :)

He's adorable.

Outtakes. :}

Hopefully in just a couple short months you will get to see a photo shoot with Jonathan again...when his new baby sister arrives! :)

really late easter egg hunt

Because Leah's 2nd birthday party fell during the week before Easter, we didn't get to have the egg hunt we wanted to do until the week after Easter. But it was just as much fun!

as seen on tv

Still catching up on our Easter activities. :) Have you seen the Rice Krispies commercial where the mom and kids are oh so happily making rice krispy treats for easter? Well, it was one of those "Duh! Why didn't I think of that?!" ideas and we decided to try it the Friday before Easter.

Step 1: Make the general recipe for rice krispy treats. Growing up, my mom always just went ahead and doubled the recipe because, well, YUM! :)

Step 2: Spray the inside of some plastic Easter eggs and squish a spoonful of krispies into the top and bottom of the egg, making a dent in the center of each with your thumb.

This is a great texture lesson - the smoothness of the cool, greased, plastic eggs contrasting with the rough stickiness of the warm rice krispy treats. :)

Step 3: Count out/choose your color of m&ms (or whatever candy you want).

MH took this part very seriously. :)

Step 4: Place your m&ms inside the bottom part of an egg.

Step 5: Gently squish the top part of the egg so that it sticks to the bottom part.

Step 6: Shake the egg to see if you can hear the m&ms rattling inside...just like on tv! :)

Shannon and Jonathan also made these the same day, only theirs didn't rattle when they shook them. I'm not sure what the difference was...we seemed to make them the exact same way! Oh well. :)

Step 7: You know you have to eat one right away! :)

I saw on another blog where they added dye to the marshmallows as they were melting to sort of make the eggs different colors...but that sounded like too much work and too many pots to wash since you would have to do a separate pot of marshmallows for each color... but as they were, these were easy and simple to make, and so fun!

zoo day!

I might love them... just a little bit....... :}

I love that these two and their mommies are often up for spur of the moment outings!

I also might love him just a little bit too........ :}

My three little monkeys!

Ha! This next one is my favorite from today.....

Teehee!!! So funny and cute. I love that the zebra is wearing Buzz Lightyear sunglasses!! ;)

two!

So as usual, I'm a little behind in my blogging. Last Wednesday we went to Leah's birthday party. Laura always does SUCH a great job of decorating and letting things up!! And we all had a lot of fun just being together again!

The birthday girl. She now answers "two!" whenever you ask how old anyone is - herself, my kids, Mommy, Kiki.... :)

Laura did a nursery rhyme themed party because Leah is very into nursery rhymes these days. She had set out spiders for the kids to color and stickers to decorate them with.

Little Miss Sunshine here is going to make a great babysitter in a couple years! She loved getting to hold Annie for a couple minutes. :) I think Annie liked it too. :)

Ok, seriously! Check out these peanut butter sandwiches - in the shape of a clock!! (Hickory Dickory Dock...) So cool!!

I should have gotten more close up pics, but each snack had a nursery rhyme to go with it! And if you have read my blog for very long...you know who did that cake there in the middle. Do you know the nursery rhyme that goes with it?

"Sing a song of sixpence,

A pocket full of rye.

Four and twenty blackbirds,

baked in a pie......

...When the pie was opened,

The birds began to sing;

Wasn't that a dainty dish

To set before the king?"

(Cake by Leah, of course!)

"Leah, say 'Cheese!'"

Isn't it funny how so often the other people around will "blow" the candle out with the birthday person? :}

Jonathan here LOVES birthday parties. But there MUST be balloons. And cake. And presents. Of course. He couldn't wait for Leah to open her presents and finally it was time!

Great job on the fun party, Laura!! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LEAH!!!

even more kid quotes

I realized that it's been a long while since I did a kids' quote post, so I'm going to get caught up. I love looking back and reading through them...they make me laugh. :)

Conversation during math earlier in the year:

Kiki: "Color the circles red and the triangles blue."

LMG: "So I color the circles red and the triangles blue?"

Kiki: "Yup!"

LMG: "So...I need a yellow and a blue crayon?"

Kiki: {{blink, blink}} oh my heavens.

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A feeling-sick little MH trying to explain how he was feeling:

"Kiki, my tummy feels like there is a vampire melting in it! and a ghost too!"

Hmm...that doesn't sound too good!

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Listening to LMG make up her own song while she played:

"Jesus! Jesus! He is wonderfuuuuul....He is sooo wooonderfuuul!!"

Love it. :)

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LMS: "Kiki, how do you turn a circle upside down?"

Hmm...Good question!

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MH at the playground in early March when it was still cold:

"Kiki, I'm freeeeezing!!!"

"Why don't you put your hands in your pockets?"

"Cuz the cold got into them!"

I hate it when the cold gets into my pockets, don't you?? ;)

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I had to send MH to sit on the stairs in time out one day and realized a minute later that he was sitting there singing to himself. His song of choice? MJ's "I'm bad".

Oh my.

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MH: "Kiki, you're not a grown up yet."

"I'm not?"

"No."

"Am I a teenager?"

"Ummm...no."

"Then what am I?"

"Uhh...you're a nanny!"

Ah. I see.

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MH ready for a snack:

"Give me some crackers, Kiki!"

(shocked look from kiki) "Excuse me?!"

"Pleease??"

"I was about to ask where your manners went!"

"Oh. They went to the store. Just real quick. To buy me a new heart!"

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MH wiped his runny nose on the back of the white couch and when I gave him a "what were you thinking?!" look, he explained:

"It's just soo far to the bathroom!!"

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Going over a few letter sounds with MH one morning:

"G says guh"

"ok,...what does H say?"

.....split second pause.....

"H says, 'Boy am I stinky!!'"

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Kiki:

"We're going to make something really cool...and mommy is gonna die when she sees what we're making!"

LMG: (thinks for a moment...)

"Kiki! Don't make it so cool!! I don't want mommy to die!!"

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Mr. Happy one rainy day after playing with play dough for a while:

"Kiki, is it a rule that whoever gets out a toy has to clean it up??"

Hmm...interesting question since technically Kiki got out the play dough...! Lol!

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LMG this morning to mommy:

"Can I make a lemonade confession stand?"