Happy St. Patrick's Day

I apologize for not getting this posted in a timely manner but if you only knew the crazy week we had you would understand!! After 4 trips to the ER, two surgeries and the flu we are sort of back to a semi-normal state (Gary has/had a huge kidney stone). Needless to say we did not spend St. Patrick's Day downing green ale toasting to the homeland. We did however have a small celebration at home with the kids in between the ER visits and surgeries. Thanks to Maima (aka Mom/Dianne) a little tradition was kept alive - Shamrock Cookies! We all had fun shaping the dough into little shamrocks and had a great time. The end result was delicious!

Chef Valentines

We usually aren't big fans of Valentine's Day due to the big commercialism of this "holiday" but with a prego mommy craving cookies who could resist a great excuse to make some treats! After the cookies cooled the little chefs enjoyed spreading pink and white frosting on the heart shaped cookies then dousing them with sprinkles and red colored sugar. The results were YUMMY and we shared them with family that night after pizza dinner. Happy Valentine's Day to all - We love you!

Ballet part Deux

Ballet II started three weeks ago and our little ballerina was so excited. We kept all of the handouts she received from Ballet I so she could practice. They are taped to the wall and she and little sis love to play ballerina by imitating the poses captured on the handouts. The latest move they are both practicing is an arabesque - which means you stand gracefully on one leg and raise the other behind you with toe pointed, then arms are placed either out to the side or in a circle in front of the body. The girls are getting so good at balancing! The videos capture the little ballerina in action. The class was working on some bar skills as well as some fancy sashaying across the dance floor. Enjoy!

Soccer Chick

This past fall (late fall) Kami participated in a soccer class through the local YMCA. She and two of her close friends, Reese and Lauryn, also played. After several weeks of learning some basic skills the girls really caught on quickly and seemed to enjoy this sport. I was just glad to have a place for Kami to run around for an hour, learn something new and tire her out! Rian enjoyed watching big sis play as well as roll around on her tummy on top of a soccer ball. She kept asking "when I get biggee can I play soccey" (she can't quite pronounce words ending with "er"). Here are a few videos of the girls playing soccer. Enjoy!

Make Your Own Fonts - FREE

Have you ever been working on a project or creating a special document and wanted the font to look handwritten (without actually writing it by hand!). Well while surfing through some blogs I ran across a great site where you can create your own personal font - FREE! What a great way to personalize invitations, cards, letters, homemade books or even capture your 4 year old's penmanship skills! Please check out this site and give it a try. If you send me examples of what you created I'll post them to this blog to share with everyone. The website is http://www.yourfonts.com/.

Here are a few examples of what other people have created through this site:

Yummy Banana Bread

I'm a big fan of super easy (and yummy) recipes. Quite awhile ago my mother in law, Lucy, gave me a great banana bread recipe. For some reason this past week we had more bananas than we could consume so before they got totally rotten the girls and I mashed them and made bread. This recipe makes one nice size loaf of bread. The result is a moist, flavorful, sure to disappear treat for you to share (or hide if necessary).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:
3 bananas
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. mayonnaise (any kind or brand will do)
1 Tbsp. water
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 Tbsp. brown sugar


Mash the bananas. Mix the mashed bananas, mayo, sugar and water together. In a separate bowl combine four and baking soda. Slowly add the flour/soda mix to the banana mixture, stir until combined. Pour mixture into a greased loaf pan and evenly sprinkle brown sugar over the top. Bake 45-55 minutes until toothpick inserted into bread comes out clean. Remove from loaf pan to a cooking rack to cool.

Merry CHRISTmas and Happy New Year!

My favorite part about Christmas is the excitement my girls have when we unpack our nativity scene, barn and all so they can play with it. They absolutely love replaying the entire story starting with the Gospel of Luke where the birth of Jesus is foretold and the angel visits Mary and ending with Joseph learning in a dream that he must take Mary and baby Jesus to Egypt to escape King Herod's evil plan to kill all of the baby boys where Jesus was born. I love seeing how this amazing story has really captured my kids hearts and how these little figurines can become such excellent teaching tools. Kami has appointed herself "keeper of the nativity" and has the responsibility to put all of the figurines back on the little table when they are finished playing. She puts the animals in the stable with Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. The rest of the figures (wise men, shepherd, angel) all line up in front of the stable looking at the baby Jesus with their backs to all of us looking at the scene. I smile each time I pass by our nativity scene and see it arranged this way! She says Jesus is important and these wise men, shepherd and angel all want to see him. She is right.

Rian has been playing with a smaller (in size) nativity set we have that is a little less breakable than our bigger set that Kami has been using. After she is tired of playing like her sister she has secretly been shoving the little figures into hiding spots. I will forewarn you all - be cautious when sitting down on our couch as you may get a small poke from the wise man when you sit! Oh and the little shepherd has been upgraded to and MIA status! Maybe the vacuum cleaner will get lucky after we take the decorations down and finish cleaning up the rest of the decorations. Which at this point isn't going to happen for at least another week - I consider this time to be a season of Christmas recovery.

We wish all of you a belated Merry Christmas! And hope that just because December 25 has come and gone you all remember that this is a time we remember the greatest gift ever given to us - Jesus. Kami's Sunday school class has been learning this great verse and I think it is a great way to end this blog entry!

For God loved the world so much He gave His one and only Son - John 3:16

What's My Name ?

Hello all - I'd like to introduce my latest little creation but I'm not quite sure what his/her name is. Right now we (the girls and I) call this softie "white bunny with green ears". This just doesn't have the right ring to it and to be honest it is quite a mouthful for a name. So does anyone have any great bunny names I could use? I've asked the girls but unfortunately their ideas are a bit over used in our house - Cinderella, Belle, Giselle, Prince Eric.... you get the picture! Thanks for your help!

** BABY **

Well the news is out - we are having a baby! (read the fortune above to see the due date). We finally told everyone in our immediate families and now we are sharing this great news with friends and extended relatives. Kami & Rian are very excited about becoming big sisters (again). Rian even thinks she has a baby in her tummy - it is kind of cute watching her stick out her belly, pat her tummy and talk to her "baby". Kami is working hard trying to come up with some good names. So far her ideas are fairly similar to names she calls her dolls and barbies...hhhmmmm (I promise no babies will be named Cinderella, Belle, Jasmine, Ariel, Aurora or Prince if a boy). I'm thankful to be out of the first trimester and well into the second (I'm just about 16 weeks along) one. The nausea has become much more tolerable and I'm getting a little more energy back - just in time for cold weather and snow! I'll try to keep you all posted on the progress of Baby#3 but I promise to not make this entire blog about this one topic.

Prima Ballerina

Tuesday was Kami's last ballet class. All of her adoring fans were allowed to come and watch her display her newly learned skills and talents (and a new fluffy pink/white tutu). The other cute ballerina with a puffy tutu is Kami's friend Reese. Both girls did such a great job following their teacher's instructions! I am amazed at how much of an improvement the kids in the class showed since their first class! Enjoy these short clips:

the girls are showing how to stand in second position and then leap (not sure the technical term for their fancy move). What poise and grace :)

The ribbon dance with a special wave to her fans.

Kami's solo performance