A Healthy Dad!!!

My dad finished his last round of Chemo a few weeks ago and had his full body scan on Saturday to see if he won the battle! But of course we had to wait until Wednesday to get the results...

... and today my mom called and handed the phone immediately to my dad and he said:

"I Beat This Thing!"

Woo-hoo!

Happy day!

A healthy dad who can now have hair and a 'stache again!

And best of all I now have a dad that can be around grandkids that may or may not have a snotty nose, but it would not matter either way! He can get that hankie out of his back pocket and wipe their nose without fear that a simple cold will send him to the hospital! So... watch out grandpa... you will have many a grand-girl who will insist on wallering you to death to make up for lost time!!!

You Can Lead A Kid To Healthier Eating...

But you can't make them eat!

I made healthy blueberry muffins for breakfast. Oats, half whole wheat flower, and applesauce instead of oil! I mixed it up, baked with with a splash of love... and no one would eat it... I ate mine... but I really did not enjoy it! I usually am pretty insistent that my kids eat what I give them, but this would have been child cruelty! Poor things gave it such a good try! Even Ruby (my pickiest eater) ate 1/3 of hers! I looked over at her and said, "Oh honey! Thanks for trying, but you don't have to eat that!"

It was so not worth it!!! Next time... I am making it the yummy way!

Is there anything else you can think of that is just not worth it to eat the healthy version? Let me know, so I will avoid it in the future!

Oh the Tragety!

Poor Callie! We had been out all day having the 2-year check-up with shots, Wal-mart, hair cuts, and McDonald's and by the time we got home she was so tired... and to top it off when she got out of the van she was walking inside, tripped over her feet, and skinned her knees! And the worst part for me was I had a handful of things that I had to put down before I could run to her!

I got her inside, got her comforted, set her on the counter to doctor her boo-boo, and she immediately calmed down. Then... she got a good look at the damage and boy was she devastated! She was Sooooo tired! (The first picture is priceless... classic devastated Curly Girly!)But fear not, mommy kisses and Casper glow-in-the-dark band-aids make it all better!

By the way, this big girl did not even whimper when she got her 2 shots! Here eyes got wide and she let out a little whine, but that was it! The 'shot lady' was very quick, but very gentle! As soon as she got her shot I popped her up on her feet and she looked at me like "What happened?" She was a very good girl! Just the skinned knees sent her over the edge!

Two Paste!

So...

Today I was running errands with Lettie, Jovie, & Callie. I had to go by Wal-mart today to buy a few random things. One of which was toothpaste! I told Lettie to not let me forget. So... after finding my last item Lettie reminded me to get the toothpaste. The babies were in the cart getting a little impatient. I told them:

"One more stop and then we will go! I just have to get toothpaste."

To which Jovie says:

"No, No! Not Two Paste Mommy! One paste! One paste!"

It took me a second to realize what she was telling me, and then I laughed! I thought that was pretty clever! I explained it was toothpaste because you use it to brush your teeth. Not two-paste. So, then when I jokingly said "So, let's get the two-paste", she said, "No Mom! Toof-paste" and pointed to her teeth! I think she thought it was pretty funny too! She is a smart cookie!

She is talking up a storm now and I love it! I can totally have a semi-conversation with her! And she seems to already get the joke sometimes! She reminds me of Nolan... thinks outside the box... uh-oh... look out! Haha!

And so it begins...

I walk into the kitchen to see Jovie with the scissors held to her hair! And when she saw me... what do you suppose she did? Cry? Say sorry? Run away? Look ashamed? Nope...

She worked FASTER!

As I came towards her she was frantically trying to get those scissors to close on a big clump of bangs!

Luckily in her flustered state she panicked and ended up losing all sense of coordination, therefore opening the scissors instead of closing them, thus not cutting off a huge clump of hair in the middle of her forehead... but I did find this:

I can not pinpoint exactly where that hair came from on her head, which is a small miracle since her hair is stick strait and even when she goes to get her hair cut you can see every snip of the scissors because her hair is so strait!

So... she got a pass this time!

The only thing that would devastate me more is if there comes a day that either Callie cuts her own hair or Jovie decides to cut it for her! And this is why: Callie's hair has to grow around and around before it grows down because of the curls. Therefore her hair is not even to her chin and she has never had a haircut. Her hair straitened actually goes half way down her back. So, to cut off what might look like an inch of curl is actually cutting off half a year's worth of growth. Jovie's hair grows FAST, therefore the situation would be remedied in a matter of months... with Callie it would be a matter of years!

So, my scissors are put away and hopefully I do not absentmindedly leave them on the counter again!

Her is the cutie culprit:

A really good helper!

Lettie is a terrific helper! She is always quick to help me make meals and she is always very thoughtful! Tonight Levi was working on putting together the stool he is sitting on in this picture for his classroom. He commented, "It would be nice if we had more light in here!" (2 of the light bulbs had just burned out and I need to buy new ones). The DJ lights that you see in the background were on the other couch across the room, so in order to help her daddy out she turned them on for him!

Rapidly blinking colored lights across the room really don't help, but who has the heart to tell her that? Plus, it was a sweet gesture. Levi and I just smiled at each other!

Then, Levi had to go upstairs for something and I was in the kitchen dishing out dessert. Lettie was the last one in for dessert (Apple Crumble & ice cream) and she is usually the first one in because she likes to help dish it out, hand it out, and also get some herself. Finally she came in a long time after everyone else and she seemed winded. When I went into the living room I saw why... she had moved the lights all the way from the other couch to the chair next to where Levi was assembling the stool! She had them plugged in, turned on, and ready to go... and those things are kind of heavy for a Princess Teenie! So, of course, he put his stool together by the light of blinking red, blue, green, and yellow lights because his Princess Teenie went through a lot of trouble to help him out! I thought it was sweet and very "typical Lettie"!


When I was putting away the things in the kitchen I saw where another "big girl helper" tried to make her own apple crumble. Apparently Jovie (who was helping me bake earlier) decided to make her own Apple crumble... see the piece of an apple and half my container of cinnamon? I think she took a bite out of it and realized a lot more was missing to make it taste good! Jovie is a "big girl" in a little body!

Have your kids ever "helped" you with something... that maybe was not the most helpful... but you went along with it anyway because it was so darn sweet?

"Stars Upon Thars"

Now the Star-bellied Sneetches had bellies with stars. The Plain-bellied Sneetches had none upon thars. The stars weren't so big; they were really quite small. You would think such a thing wouldn't matter at all. But because they had stars, all the Star-bellied Sneetches would brag, "We're the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches."

My kids were supposed to dress up as book characters in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday! They said "no Halloween costumes". Silas wanted to be Spiderman and I had to explain that it was not Halloween. So, I bought some yellow shirts, some glittery green felt, and some feathers and they became "The Star-belly Sneeches had bellies with stars"!

I ended up staying up until 1am finishing their outfits, but I think they turned out really cute! The only thing is I felt bad about sending my boys to school with feathers in their hair! Do you think that is wrong?

Hooray for the Loose Tooth!

Finally! Nolan lost a tooth! Poor thing was always asking, "Mom! When am I going to lose a tooth?" All his friends at school were losing teeth and he seemed to be the only one with all teeth intact. Then I was thinking this week, "If Nolan does not lose a tooth soon, I may have to take him to the dentist and make sure something is not wrong!" I have heard of kids needing their teeth pulled so the permanent teeth can come in. So I called Nolan over and said, "Let me see if you have any lose teeth" and sure enough it wiggled! I told him to keep wiggling it and by the next day it was very lose and it made it painful to eat. So... I tried my mom's magic string trick...

So... all mothers of kids in the teeth losing stage... here is my mom's magic string trick for painless tooth removal!

If the tooth is so lose that you can slip a string under the ridge of the tooth near the gums, then you can use this trick. You loop to string (or floss) around the tooth. My mom ties a knot (I just cross it over in case it is not ready, you can remove the string easily). Once the string is in place you tighten the knot (or tighten the crossed strings around the tooth), and the tooth will painlessly pop out!

Somehow it seems to separate the skin from the root as it works it's way down the root and in a blink of an eye the tooth is out!

My mom did not learn this anywhere... she came up with it herself... she just thought it made sense! And boy does it work! Nolan and I just stared at each other in shock when his tooth popped out!

(I will do another post sometime where I will draw a diagram for you of how this works in case you need more instruction. I remember when my mom told me about it, I thought it was an unusual way to go about getting a tooth and and 'surely this is not painless'... but it is and it is wonderful)

If anyone comes across this post and it works for them, please comment do me a favor and comment and tell me how it went after you tried it! I would love to know if it works as well for others!

The proud toothless boy!



The tooth had quite a root on it, I was surprised!




Now he can drink out of a straw without opening his teeth! (Look at those fabulous eyes)



The loose tooth! Before Judy's Magic String!

The tooth fairy booty! He for 3 gold $1 coins and boy did he think that was awesome that they were gold! That is my Tooth Fairy tradition!

Today the temperature is 67, tomorrow it will be 77...

Can you believe this is what it looked like on Monday?!

It turned out to be a great day! Levi got to stay home too (usually the teachers only have a 2 hour delay) and we were able to have some fun family time in the snow! Last time it snowed it was still snowing, the wind was blowing, and it was more humid outside that the cold was "biting". This time the sun was shining, the air was dry, and we all had a fun time in the snow! We had a huge long snow ball fight, but I don't have pictures because I needed to put the camera down so I could throw just as many as everyone else! It was a great family day!

Ruby eating snow and Callie watching the action with Kanga!


Jovie is the biggest cold wuss! She made sure she was very bundled up! The snow was not packing well for big snowmen, but Nolan made mini ones!

A Silas wiping out and a Princess Teenie striking a pose!

The ground was soaked before it snowed, so as they sledded our hill turned into a huge mud puddle!

What a good daddy!

Nolan gearing up to go down the hill! His big trick this year is to go down backwards on his knees with his hands in the air!

Yonas after a backwards sled run! And good ol' Kanga!

I like the first picture... it is Callie, but look at the bottom... she is getting ready to get a kiss! Callie and her poor frozed boogies! She has had the runniest nose lately!

Levi throwing a snowball! It was quite a fight and everybody was so good natured about it! If they got hit in the face they would just say, "Remember, no faces!" and move on! There was a lot of laughter and fun! What a good day!

But I am happy to be enjoying the sunshine now!!!

A Good Idea... in theory!

You know those toll house cookie ice creams?
2 cookies with vanilla ice cream in the middle?

That was the concept for Callie's birthday cake! It was a good idea... a good concept... but...

Anyway, I made 2 HUGE cookies in an 8 inch cake pan. Basically I made one batch of my favorite chocolate chip cookies and put half in each cake pan. Then I took vanilla ice cream that was softened on the way home from the store and made an ice cream sandwich...

Then I put it in the freezer to re-freeze!

Then I took it out of the freezer and frosted it in real whipped cream (they did not have Cool Whip at Sam's Club... plus real Whipped Cream is divine!)

Then I used Chocolate chips to write Callie's name on the cake!

Then I refroze it to set the icing!

Look great... problem is... the cookie was ROCK HARD! I could not even put a candle in it, so I had to cleverly arrange the candles on the side of the cake under the whipped cream! And then when I went to cut it the ice cream and whipped cream already softened... but not the cookie! So, in the process of cutting the cookie, the ice cream squished out the sides and the whipped cream rolled off the cake... and the kids were trying to stab their forks into the cookie and all they were getting is a hard thud sound! The only way to eat it was to pick it up with your hands with ice cream dripping down and bit into it! The only redeeming thing is when you did this is tasted SO GOOD! These cookies are really good out of the oven, cut into triangles and served with ice cream... they just do not work frozen! I know what you are thinking... 'duh Audra'... I just really did not think about it!

Have you ever done something where it seemed like a good idea until you did it and then you thought... "how did I not realize it was going to turn out this way?"

Here is a picture of the final carnage! It was hopeless at this point so I threw the leftovers away! Levi says in order to not make the cookie rock hard when it is frozen I need to use trans fats. So, I suppose I will just have to not try this ever again... haha!