Family Friday...late again!

My camera batteries are dead. I am waiting for a coupon to buy some more...cheap, I know. So I have no pictures for you this week. Sorry Mom. I will share some funny things the kids have said and done lately...

• Mikey said he was freezing, and that is was too cold to play outside last week. It was 60 degrees, I think he is acclimated already.
• I asked Haley what her favorite part of the trail mix was and she said "the enemies," meaning, the m&m's
• Haley was looking forward to seeing the pigs at the "zoo park" and was so excited because pigs are pink and she just loves pink animals.
• Mikey is having a growth spurt and will eat anything in sight. A couple of weeks ago we went to chik-fil-a for dinner and when he was done with his kid's meal asked "Mom do you have any scraps left? I am still hungry?" You would think he is growing up in a third world country.
• Every time I turn around Ella is standing up in the middle of the room somewhere, she is just about to take off walking.
• You might remember from a previous post that Jeremiah was stealing candy when we weren't looking. Well, he has started to involve Ella is his criminal activity. A few days ago we caught them in the pantry. Jeremiah was unwrapping the candy and sharing with her, how sweet.
  
• And a small victory we had this week...while stuck at Costco for FOUR hours waiting on tire business, the kids were phenomenally good, all four of them. They got a lot of compliments on their behavior and I was so proud of them, as a matter of fact if I had been wearing a button up shirt, the buttons might have started popping off!

Hope your week was as wonderful as ours!

Ribbon streamers

What you need:
hoops, I got these at Michael's, or cheap plastic bracelets from the dollar store
ribbon


Cut the ribbon into long lengths and tie them onto the hoop. My five year old figured this out, so I don't think you need further instructions!

I didn't make one for Ella, fortunately she wasn't too disappointed because she liked the empty spools just as well.

Send your kids outside to play with them. Expect them to run around screaming at the top of their lungs that they are shooting stars and twirling flower princesses. The next day they will figure out that if you put it on top of your head it looks like you have a wig with long hair. This was a great project, very easy and the kids have been playing with them for hours!

I got this idea from Me and My Girl, which is a retired blog, but all her posts are still up for viewing.

Prayers for my family

Heb 10:24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
Heb 10:25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Awesome God, you are Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Yet you reign in perfect fellowship together. In Your holy perfection you long for fellowship with your creation. I praise You for making us with a need for fellowship with You and with one another. Thank You for the blessing and sweetness of fellowship!

Lord, guide us and direct us as we consider what church to choose as our spiritual home. Please lead us to a church, a pastoral team and a body of Christians which can support and nurture us in our spiritual lives, so we can be grounded in you. Lord provide us a place to serve and worship You. In Jesus' precious name, Amen!

(This prayer was taken from one of the Presidential Prayer Team daily emails. I changed it to be for my family instead of for President Obama and Vice-President Biden. To receive the emails, and I highly recommend them, go to this link.)

Fun stuff to do with kids

• scavenger hunt
• write letters
• have a board game marathon or board game tournament
• play their favorite video game with them
• chase the ice cream truck (yes, there is an ice cream truck here, even in January)
• memorize a poem
• hula hoop
• let them put make up on you and style your hair, and paint your fingernails (cheap day of pampering?!)
• give balloons to people
• learn some magic tricks
• see who can spin around the longest
• drink a soda from a long neck bottle and then make music by blowing across the top
• go for a walk by flipping a coin, every time you come to a cross roads, flip a coin, heads go right, tails go left
• float a helium balloon to the ceiling and throw things at it, trying to pop it
  

Family Friday..under the wire!

Technically, it is still Friday, so I am not late this week!

On Monday we went with the cousins to a local park. It is called Bear Creek Park, and it is a regular zoo! I met a neighbor at the slides across the street from our house and she told me about it. There are buffalo, emu, goats, pigs, and deer. The buffalo are by far the most impressive, and the kids were amazed at how big they were.This was a fun idea I found somewhere while blogsurfing, the kids colored some signs that said Happy Birthday, and then we emailed the picture to the birthday girl!
These two goats were fighting each other through the fence, it made the kids giggle. Okay, it made me giggle too.

This stuff is delish...mmm...it makes my mouth water! If you have never had it, it is chocolate, hazelnut spread and it makes toast or graham crackers or bagels or English muffins or cupcakes or regular muffins or anything else, into a delightful treat. These little packages, which come with their own spreader, were for the Christmas stocking that never got hung by the chimney with care. I pulled them out of the top secret present stash. The kids were so funny trying to get it out of the container and spread it on their bread, it was hard for them, but I didn't hear a single complaint. By the end of it, they were just licking it out of the little tub!


On Tuesday I noticed Jeremiah had a little scrape on his back, figuring he got it climbing in and out of his bed, I dismissed it. On Wednesday he woke up and the little scrape had become a huge blistery sore, and about 30 more blistery sores were surrounding it!! I kind of freaked out, it looked like one of those spider bites where your flesh starts rotting off. (that was gross, sorry) So my sister-in-law took me to her pediatrician and turns out to be a staph infection. Poor kid, he is on a heavy dose of antibiotics for the next ten days. It isn't pretty, Michael said not to post a picture. (Does it really happen if you don't blog about it?)

In other news, we have a friend from Washington coming to stay with us and work with Michael for a while! I can't tell you how excited I am to see a friendly face...maybe he can just bring all my old homies with him? I am trying to work out the logistics of moving an entire church full of people to Houston...prognosis is not good.

Anyway, I hope your week was as wonderful as ours!

Prayers for my family

1Ti 6:18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,
1Ti 6:19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

Lord You are a giver, You are a generous God, You gave us Your only Son. We want to be like you, generous and ready to share. We need eyes to see the needs of people around us and hearts that are willing to sacrifice for others.

Family Friday

Original artwork by my apron swap partner, she drew my family! Seriously impressive.

My apron, and the artwork from above is on the top of my apron, isn't that ingenious? The rest of the stuff is special Canadian hot chocolate, a homemade Christmas ornament and some candy cane lotion. This was a very exciting package to receive, thanks to my swap partner!

Ella Rosie in her hoodie towel, thanks Aunt Chandra for the Christmas gift.

The kids and a cousin the day we made lollipops.

Hope your week was as wonderful as ours!

Fun stuff to do with kids

• invite some friends over, with their blankies and their favorite books and have a reading marathon
• play flashlight tag
• do some science experiments
• go to the library
• play hide and seek
• create a symphony with bottles, pans and rubber bands
• string noodles or cereal onto a necklace
• make up a song
• make a blanket fort and take naps in it
• make a map of your bedroom, house or neighborhood
• have a spelling bee
• surprise and elderly neighbor or relative by offering them a service (mow lawn, weed garden, cook a meal)
• learn sign language alphabet and speak "in code" to each other

4x4 tag

Mrs. Dunbar tagged me to find my fourth photo album, and post the fourth photo out of that album, then tag four more people.

My four people:
Cookie Mondays and Ice Cream Sundays...if you are out there, I miss your cookie recipes, send me an invite!
The Barta Clan
Never In One Place Long
Weaver Wonders

My photo:

This was Christmas 2005, which we were celebrating in January of 2006. This is Mikey and our niece, then our nephew and Haley. Haley Pie has grown so much, I miss those little piggies!

We represent the lollipop guild, the lollipop guild, the lollipop guild...

Thanks again to the Better Homes and Gardens email that my mom sends me, and thanks again to my mom for sending it!

(FYI--my title is from The Wizard of OZ, I always thought it was lollipop kids, until tonight when I looked up the lyrics. Who would've thought?)

What you need:
Hard candies like lifesavers
Bags to crush the candies in
Something to crush the candies with
Tin foil
Cookie sheet
We used some cookie cutters, but I don't recommend it
lollipop sticks
packaging

Preheat oven to 350. Unwrap and sort the candies.

Bag the candies and crush them. According to the kids, this was, by far, the best part of the whole project! According to me, it was the messiest.

Arrange the candies on the cookie sheets in patterns. Make the piles about 1/4 inch tall. The candy melted out of the cookie cutter and just became blobs, plus it was difficult to get the cookie cutters out of the goo once it had been melted. Also, make sure there is enough room to insert lollipop sticks once it comes out of the oven.

Bake at 350 for about 6 minutes. When it is getting close to time, watch them carefully. We left one batch in the oven too long and all the lollipops spread into one giant pool of sticky candy mess. When you pull them out, IMMEDIATELY, insert the lollipop stick and twist it around so that the candy is coating the stick. Then let them cool. They cool off pretty quickly and easily peel off of the foil. They are kind of fragile. We wrapped ours in clear favor bags.

One final thought, if you mix all the colors together it tastes like some really disgusting cherry cough syrup/moonshine combination. Maybe you like 100-proof cough syrup?

Okay and just one more thought, this was a very messy, sticky project. BUT it cleaned just as easily as it messed up. And it was worth the mess on the mess vs. fun scale.

I done did read these...

I am a John Grisham fan, have read all his books. He should stick with the lawyer stuff. Those are always my favorite, can't put them down. This one wasn't a page-turner. If you want some mindless reading, just for the sake of reading pick it up. If you want a great book by John Grisham, go read "The Last Juror."

We are in the last chapters of "These Happy Golden Years," by Laura Ingalls Wilder (I read ahead of the kids, so I am finished with it). It is chalk full of old-fashioned, good sense, hard-working, honest values. I want to be just like the Ingalls when I grow up. If you have never read these, go do it, out loud, with your kids, you won't regret a single second you spend in these pages.
"The First Four Years" is the last book of the series, relating Laura and Manly's first four years of marriage. Now that I am finished I can't help but wish they went on forever. My brother sent me an Amazon.com gift card for Christmas and my first purchase is going to be this series, they are too good to take back to the library each time!

Prayers for my family

2Co 5:6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
2Co 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
2Co 5:8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

Lord we are longing for the feeling of home. No matter what location you have us in here on earth it will never satisfy our deepest need for belonging, because we belong in your presence in Heaven.

Family Friday

On New Year's eve our sister and brother-in-law, along with their two girls threw a "Polar Bear Midnight Swim Party!" So with 15 minutes to go, the kids threw on their suits and went into the heated pool to ring in the New Year. The kids had a blast, and while it wasn't Spokane kind of cold, it was still in the 50's and much too cold for me to jump in with them.



I made all the pictures small this time, because they take less time to upload that way, feel free to click on them and you can see them better. This is Mikey, teeth chattering.






And this is how Haley rang in the New Year! Poor girl just couldn't hang, she fell asleep with only 30 minutes to go. We tried to wake her up, but she just couldn't do it!






This one is for Aunt Jennifer...at long last, after 4 moves, the sombrero had to go. It was a nice gift, one that was totally deserved after the taxidermy alligator head for your birthday. Michael had one last blast doing the Mexican hat dance, and then we had to say adios!








We were supposed to go to Disney World the day after Christmas as one of the kids' presents, but Haley Pie threw up on the way and was running a fever later in the afternoon so we didn't make it. To sort of make up for it, we went to Sea World in San Antonio instead. The kids saw a couple of shows, were totally thrilled by Shamu and rode their first roller coaster the Shamu Express. This was another ride, where they take you up and then let you drop. I was thrilled to see that parents didn't have to ride with them...I
hate that feeling you get in your tummy when you fall.

Last, but certainly not least here are two reasons why you shouldn't leave a two year old unattended, at any time. Yes, those are what you think, stuck to his shirt. I had a bunch of stuff unpacked on my bathroom counter, but not put away yet, and he got into it. (Really there is stuff unpacked but not put away yet all over my house! This is a slow process.)








And reason #2, they can sniff out the candy like bloodhounds. He rode into the pantry on his train, and had himself a snack. It was one of those moments when the house is way too quiet so you know you need to investigate.

They keep me on my toes around here. Here's hoping your week was as wonderful as ours!

Fun stuff to do with kids

• practice musical instruments
• perform a family concert
• wash car
• vacuum car
• wash bicycles
• play in the snow (for my Spokane friends!)
• make snow ice cream
• have hot chocolate
• make a rice or bean box and play in it with sand toys
• try to freehand your favorite children's book illustration
• paint secret messages onto white paper with lemon juice, then iron to reveal.
• build with blocks or legos
• make dessert
• give your pet a party

I done did read these...

90 Minutes in Heaven is a great book, very easy read. The first chapter or two is about Heaven, the rest is about how Don Piper recovers from his horrible accident. He died in a gruesome car crash, was dead for 90 minutes, spent that time in Heaven and then God sent him back to Earth. He wrestles daily with pain leftover from the accident, and with lingering questions about why God sent him back here.






You gotta get a balanced perspective, right?! 23 Minutes in Hell isn't a bedtime story, it doesn't produce lovely thoughts like 90 Minutes in Heaven does. It did make me count my blessings, and praise God that he has saved me from such a wretched place. This is a short read, I don't say easy because it is pretty intense. And not for the faint of heart.

A few tidbits...

Some interesting things about December:

Miles we put on the van: 4,375
Days in the car: 10
Dollars spent on fast food: $654.14
Cheapest gas: $1.35
Dollars spent on gas: $1253.73
number of hotels: 4
number of relatives who were kind enough to let us explode all over their houses: 5

We saw a police standoff in someone's backyard at one point on our journey. My mom could hardly contain herself, wanting to know what was going on!

The second you cross the Texas border people start saying y'all. Both times, as soon as we crossed the border we stopped for dinner, and both times our waitresses were using y'all like it was going out of style. One of them even put it this way "Hope y'all have y'alls a real nice weekend!" Wow twice in one sentence, amazing!

I have also noticed that people really want it to be cold here in Houston, even though it isn't. I see girls wearing their heavy coats and Ug boots around, keep in mind, it is 75 degrees out! At night, when it gets into the 50's people really think it is cold! I know, the humidity makes it feel colder...I have heard it all. Some people are so desperate for cold that we saw them sledding, on cardboard boxes, down the side of a big dirt pile!

We were greeted outside our front door by a 3" cockroach the first day we came to our house! I had to ask one of the guys helping us if it was really a cockroach. They don't have those where I come from.

Glad it is over, glad to be getting settled and now that I have posted about all of this, I think I can put it behind me!

Prayers for my family

Col 3:12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
Col 3:13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
Col 3:14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Col 3:15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
Col 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Col 3:17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Long overdue...

GingerLouise tagged me, way back in November. She makes the cutest skirts, and then gives them away! Very generous.

Here are my 6 random things:
1. I can't bake cookies, I mess them up every time.
2. The hair in the back of my head is super wavy, the rest of it is straight.
3. I want to arrange marriages for all my kids.
4. I get lost every time I leave the house by myself now that we are in Houston. Haley has started praying, on her own accord, that we will get where we are going!
5. I am the proud owner of an iPhone, and I really love it!
6. I am sitting next to a stack of papers about 2 feet tall that need to be taken care of...

Also back in November Oikology gave me this award, seriously undeserved. Creative is doing something new, I just copy everyone else. But I am thankful, and proud to display it!

Thanks a bunch to both of these bloggers for passing on the tag and the award. I appreciate them both. They both have great things going on their blogs, go check them out and leave some comments!

Family Friday...late again!

This was the last time that Michael put on his BDU's. It was so weird. He didn't get why I was taking a picture. He was really embarassed about his boots being so dirty, but I accidentally packed his good pair. I will never see him put this uniform on again, and will never sit and watch him polish his boots. I was in tears, worried, wondering what the heck we had gotten ourselves into...or out of! But the Lord is so good, everytime I was feeling hopeless or questioning this whole ordeal, he sent someone my way as a visitor or a phone call, a relative, to encourage me.

Then we spent the next week on the road. We were quite the caravan. And I stared at the back of the Penske truck for 7 days straight. And again, God is so good, we made it the entire trip with very little trouble.


I think we have settled into a pretty good routine here, and are working out the bugs of our new life. It is harder than I expected, but if God is for us, who can be against us, right?! We are looking forward to finding a new church home and are anxious to see what our Heavenly Father has in store for us here!