Painting!

The girls did a little painting today! It was such a nice day today, we went to the park this morning and then came home and had the girls do some painting while Ally took a nap- otherwise I think the deck would have had a little more paint on it if Ally was awake!:)
Excuse the mess on the side- guess I need to go through all that junk!!

Thank You!

Well first I want to say thank you to everyone who was praying for Todd yesterday! He is doing well today. Here is the scoop- Todd called me yesterday morning from work asking me to make him an appointment to see the doctor- ok that was the first sign that something was seriously wrong- Todd never wants to go to the doctor. He then calls back and says can you come and get me and take me to the hospital. He was feeling really dizzy and was having shortness of breath- his speech was really slow and slurred. And have the time he wasn't really making sense. I was already on my way at his point and he calls again and said they(the guys in the office) have called 911- just find out what hospital they are taking me too. I made it there before he left,so I followed them to the hospital. They did all sorts of tests, EKG, blood work, and a Cat Scan, but after hours of waiting, all the results came back great. He is healthy and they could not find anything wrong. Praise the Lord for that. While we were there he was progressively feeling better, so that was good. He was saying that while he was inside at the ambulance he could see me and was thinking I don't want to leave her and the girls- he was having thoughts that his might be it. That was how weird and awful he felt. He had a vision from the Lord that he saw Him arms wide open, not like He was welcoming him home, but that he was taking care of him and there was nothing to worry about. And then He sort of patted him on the back and said get back out there and do my work. You still have a lot to do for me(the Lord). So Todd was encouraged by that- (I hope I explained that they way he saw it). But we are so grateful for everyones prayers during that time yesterday- we truely believe the Lord healed Todd. Thank you so much! It is such a joy to see the body of Christ come together and join in prayer for one of the body- thank you also to Katie for watching my girls all day! WE love you all!

Air Conditioner down!

Yeah- our downstairs air conditioner stopped working. Not good- our house as most of you know is always freezing. So we had someone come out today to see what the problem was- well I had a coupon for a free service call, if they find the problem and we decide to use them, the fee is waived. Well he found the problem- a switch plate that turns the unit on downstairs went bad and this de-humidifier that is plugged into the air conditioner was unplugged. So what would of cost us maybe $3 to 5 dollars for a new switch plate outlet thing, ended up costing us $85 for the service call. For him to fix it, the quote was like $160 for parts and labor. Crazy stuff! But at least our air is fixed. And that it wasn't anymore than the service call I had to pay for. Thankfully it has not been too hot. The nights have been cooling off, so that is good!:)

"Chapstick"

While I was posting about corn on the cob Ally came in to show me what she was up to- putting "chapstick" on- only it wasn't chapstick, it was a glue stick. Silly girl. Thankfully she put most of it around her mouth and I don't think she figured out how to make it turn up, so there was not very much to put on.

Corn on the Cob

We had corn on the cob tonight for dinner! Yummy! One of my favorites. Well, while we were peeling the corn, Ally thought they were "Nannas". Emme enjoying being a helper!
Ally enjoying her "pop pop". I think she thought it was something like popcorn. So cute!

This picture does not even come close to what I walked out and saw. Ally found the box that contained the supplies for Kylie's Latch Hook Kit. Well they all preceded to take all the little pre-cut strings and throw them everywhere in our basement. This was taken after they had been cleaning up. I had gone upstairs and thought- oh I need to go take a picture of this. They were in the process of cleaning it up- you can see one of the munchkins hands. Crazy girls- a little confetti to brighten my day!:)

Fairy wings...

I went to a yard sale this weekend and found some new dress ups, one of which were these fairy wings. If anyone knows us at all, we love fairies in this house especially Tinkerbell and her fairy friends. We had a little time of dancing and taking pictures in the new dress ups. Here is Emeline looking so beautiful! Allyana posing in the new skirt and wings
I loved this one of Kylie- she is so pretty!

Explosion!

Think if you will for a minute, if someone came to your door and said "Hi I am from such and such company, we came by today to inform you that the construction crew across the street will be using dynamite and heavy explosives to blow up some huge rocks. We work for the construction crew in letting everyone who lives within a certain number of feet know about this and also video around their house to document any pre-existing cracks on the driveway and/or foundation. Just in case you begin noticing some cracks forming or anything else that may have broken after they have been blasting. " Would you sit outside and wait in anticipation for some big explosion? Well we did, and boy was I disappointed. We felt the ground move but that is about it! Oh well- they are not done yet and will continue with the blasting over the course of a few days. They didn't want to do one big explosion- that would be a little scary. And can't do multiple blasts in one day- I guess people complain. Oh well- a little excitement for the day!! Just was curious if anyone else would have been sitting on their porch in anticipation?

Bonfire and S'Mores!

Ally ate alot of graham crackers - she just kept going over and saying "more please".

We had a bonfire last night-there is a "burn ban" from May 1st till some time in the fall. So we aer taking advantage this weekend and having a couple of bonfires. Rick V. and his boys came over and Eric, Brande and Ansleigh came as well. Thank you Rick for bringing over the stuff to make S'Mores!

Flat tire

Well, I went to a couple yard sales today and at one I am looking through this woman's stuff and her son comes over and I hear them talking- he says "hey you need to find out who is driving the suburban because it sounds like air is leaking out of one of the tires"- sure enough it was mine and the air was leaking out very fast!! Well he offers to change it and put the spare on- how kind. So he does that and I then take the tire over to a tire place to see if they can fix the leak- I ran over a screw and it punctured it good and he says that it was too close to the edge and our tires will need to be replaced. So that was a fun morning!! Now I am trying to find a good deal on four brand new tires!!:) Wish me luck!
How kind of the Lord to let that happen at a yard sale and not on the road some where. I have changed a tire, but not nearly as fast as that man did. Thank you Lord for watching out for me and my girls!!!

Catching Tadpoles

On Friday there are two girls in the church that come over to help by watching the girls and/or help me clean. Well this week they were outside playing with the girls in their playhouse- and then decided to catch tadpoles. They had so much fun. Two of Kylie and Emme's friends from church came over as well. So the six of them were out there catching tadpoles- I think they caught like thirty of them.
Emme had a long weekend- she fell asleep lastnight at the dinner table - so cute!!

Thin Ice

When we were in New York visiting friends and family the girls played this game called Thin Ice. It is with marbles that sit in water on the bottom ring and you place a paper towel on the top and then transfer the marbles to the top -"ice" whoever breaks through the ice loses. The girls really enjoyed playing this game- I had never seen it before, then a couple of weeks ago I pulled up at a yard sale and the girls yell- "Thin Ice"- they have that game. So for 75cents I bought them the game. They were so excited- as you can tell on Emme's face!:)

Sorry- don't have any idea where you could purchase this game- I do love the expressions on the kids faces on the box- so, had to take a picture of that!!:)

Bubble wrap...hours of entertainment!

I don't know if anyone else remembers popping bubble wrap as a kid (and grown up)- well my girls love it. Todd received a package with some in it- and the girls went crazy. Here they are running down the long line of bubble wrap- it made the loudest popping sound. They loved it!
Kylie and Emme picked me some flowers from the back yard yesterday! They are so sweet! I love their thoughtfulness!

What a big girl...

Well, we had company this past weekend and we had them stay in Ally's room. So instead of having her stay in our room in the pack'n play we decided to try the "big girl" bed. She slept for four nights and only got out of bed one time. The only issue was if she lost her binky- then one of us would have to help her find it. She did great! We may move Kylie into Ally's room and have Ally stay with Emme. Ally also asked to go pee pee on the potty- so we tried that and she did it twice, so I put big girl panties on her- yeah not so great, wet in those twice and then poo poo- but hey she did go into the bathroom to do that. I felt like because we had company I couldn't really commit to taking her every 15 minutes, but she is understanding more and I will try again this week to maybe take a full day to potty train her! I did the whole give them tons to drink and ask them all the time- every 15 minutes- if they need to go or just make them go sit on the potty and try. It worked well for Emme- some friends of ours while visiting them trained Kylie!:) So we shall see- it sure would be nice to get Ally out of diapers- the larger the size of diaper, the more expensive!!!

Ahh a leak!

Well, when Todd was outside yesterday afternoon he noticed some water coming up out of the ground near the side of our house where the main water line goes into our house. Opened the door to the unfinished part of the basement and water was all over the ground. He turned off the water and the main water line near the street. According to the water company, from the meter on is our responsibility if there is any damage. Well, he had no idea where the leak was coming from and how deep he was going to have to dig. Well, he ended up only having to dig about 20inches and bought a part to fix the leak in the PVC pipe for $13. We were anticipating spending some serious money to fix that- thank you Lord for you mercy towards us and giving my husband the wisdom to fix the problem.

It was amazing to realize how much we use water for- It happened around 3 in the afternoon and we weren't able to turn the water back on until a little after 8 last night. I had to water jugs left over from the park the other day, so we used that to wash our hands, Kylie was a little grossed out about not being able to wash her hands before dinner- so we found a solution. And hey- no cooking last night, we ordered pizza! I am truly thankful to the Lord that the problem is fixed and for the simple luxury of having running water!

Easter egg hunt...

Here is Ally hunting for easter eggs. Here is Emme- (with some help from Ally a little later on when Emme wanted to stop and there were eggs still right in front of her)
And Kylie searching...and filling her basket full!

I took the girls to an easter egg hunt at a church close to here. They had the inflatable slides and jumping things, face painting, crafts, hot chocolate(it was so cold) and cookies. The egg hunts were split into different age groups. They had hidden over 4000 eggs! I think between my girls they may have found 50. We had a really good time- we ended up taking the bunny masks home to make. They enjoyed making and wearing those.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Did not get to many shots of the girls in their dresses b/c it was cold out today! So we quick had them take off their sweaters and took a few pictures in their pretty dresses!

Here are the girls dying easter eggs. Ally had a blast this was her first time, she dropped the egg in and then I pulled it out and she went crazy when she saw the color on it and was all excited!Kylie and Emme- what serious faces they have - they are concentrating hard on getting those eggs just the right color.

Here you go Jenn...

1. What’s your #1 comfort food? I love anything chocolate- milk or dark!
2. If you were on a deserted island, what one food would you want to have with you? Tortilla's- my husband says anything goes well inside a tortilla- I think he is right!
3. What is/are your signature dishes? Chicken Enchilada, Lasagna, anything grilled ( it will be 30's outside and if there is propane in the tank for the grill- I will grill)
4. It’s Friday night, you don’t know what to cook. You opt for … Spaghetti or Stir Fry- both quick and easy or try to talk my husband into ordering pizza
5. What’s your biggest weakness when it comes to food? Sweets
6. What food can you absolutely not eat? Anything jiggly- like jello
7. You need a drink. You grab … water
8. What’s the most decadent dish you’ve had? I am not sure how to answer this one-
9. What’s your favorite type of food? Anything Mexican
10. Favorite dish? I honestly don't think I have a favorite
11. If your partner could take you to any restaurant you wanted, which one would it be? Depends- Mexican-Three Amigos, Italian-Macaroni Grill, Chinese-PF Changs, breakfast-Cracker Barrel, Fast Food- Wendys
12. Are you a soup or salad person? salad
13. Buffet, take-out or sit-down restaurant? sit down
14. What’s the most impressive dinner you’ve ever made?Well I had tons of help, but this past year we hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house- all my siblings(except one) and their kids and my parents were here
15. Do you consider yourself a good cook? I always say I think I am a better baker than cook- but I am learning everyday how to cook
16. Do you know what vichyssoise is? It is a potato and leek soup- usually served cold
17. Who’s your favorite TV cook? Don't know that I have one-we don't watch TV
18. Can you name at least three TV cooking personalities? Giada(?)Emeril and Rachael Ray
19. Homemade or homemade from a box? That depends on what you are making-
20. Name 3 or more other foodies you are going to tag. Anyone can feel free to tag themselves for this!

Daddy's softball game

I apologize for the blurry picture. It is difficult watching the game, trying to take nice pictures and keep your eye on three kids- one of which was a sticky mess- she was eating a lollipop. They won he game last night- 19 to 0. Todd went up to bat and the bases were loaded, I was hoping at least one if not more could make it home. All three made it home and Todd made it to third. They played really well lastnight. It was really fun to go to his game- I will try and get better pictures next week!!

Surprise...!!!!

I missed a Kodak moment. Opened the door to get Ally up- there with her back to me, her little bare bottom facing me. She was naked standing up in her bed, turns to look at me and says "ah pee pee" She peed all over the bed- thankfully she did not do her usual "morning poop" . That would have been a mess- a yucky mess. It was pretty funny! Guess I might need to start duck taping her diaper shut like her cousin had to!!:)

Oh- she doesn't always sleep in a pack'n play- this was a shot I took of her at Aunt Heathers house while visiting them! Thought she looked so cute!