Lil' Miss Grabby Hands and the Crazy Kid Crew

I'm thinking that could be a great name/title for something....;p

Brea is getting busy.  She's been rolling over from both sides for about two weeks now and her latest development is reaching out and grabbing stuff.  Her favorite so far is noses and hair.  She's gotten a hold of Ailey's hair a few times and Ailey responds saying, "Brea, don't pull my hair out!"  Very funny!  She's also started giggling in response to a bit of tickling.  She's been laughing at the kids talking to her occasionally, but now she's going into my favorite stage of liking to be tickled or caused to laugh.  She's still my super chilled baby.  She still only fusses when she's tired, hungry or poopy.  She has had a couple of days of fussiness because of teething, but a little Tylenol and some teething pellets and all was made right again.

Ailey is revisiting her messy tendencies.  She is a strewer.  She leaves a trail of toys or whatever she's picked up for two seconds and then discards as she goes through the house.  I need a robot maid like the Jetsons.  Rosie, right?  There are some days that all I have done is gone around and picked up and then I look around and it still looks like an Ailado has been through the house.  She's quicker than quick.  She's faster than fast!  She's sweeter than sweet! :)  I put her hair up in pigtails yesterday, because that's how I had mine and she wanted them, too.  They actually stayed up for more than thirty minutes, but lost out to Ailey's grabby hands, eventually.  We'll just have to work our way up to a whole day.  She's been cracking me up lately at how she relates to Brea.  She's so very sweet to her, talking to her, hugging her, sharing her food and blankets with her.....;)  Then, I'll look and she'll have her foot on Brea's face.  I guess we all show love in different ways.  I've come to a different perspective concerning her ability to get into anything and everything all at a pace I can't seem to keep up with.  Since she is apparently taking after me, I know that there will be a point at which this curiosity will be turned from a frustration to an advantage.  I look forward to that day, while still enjoying her fun quirkiness now.

Zekes is being more aggressive in letting us know he needs our attention.  I'm loving that! I think he finally figured out that he's really got to let us know, so he's started coming and climbing in our laps more (he's a sucker for a back or neck rub;) and saying he needs our attention.  Now, with that we are having to teach him to not interrupt and to be patient to wait for an answer, but it all goes with the training territory.  He has currently reached the stage of getting upset about most things not going his way and not handling it at all well.  We are having to show him how to handle his frustration in a better way.  Its really funny that Braden has just been coming out of that stage and Zekey is going in....earlier....yeah. I think Ailey is trying to join him already...maybe Brea will join in and we can just get it all over with now!  We all might be a wee batty by the end, though. ;p  Zekey has this amazing kindness that just blows me away at times.  If Brea is upset, he will sit beside her  and show her all sorts of stuff or talk to her for long periods of time.  He and Ailey have been playing cooperatively together more often, too.  Exciting to see him grow!

Braden is just such a help!  He's eager to help out most of the time and I sure am grateful for that!  He's fun and we laugh a lot together.  He has such a great sense of humor and its fun to see him get new humor concepts like puns.  Anytime I am making something, he wants to do it, too.  He's very interested in cooking and every time I'm doing a craft, he wants to try it, too.  He wants to be able to crochet, but the concept is still beyond him for now.  Its so funny to me when Zekey and Braden see me crocheting something and they decide all of a sudden that they want to have some yarn and a hook so they can make a blanket.  Haha!  Well, maybe someday. :)  Braden is doing an amazing job learning how to be an encourager.  There are still times when he chooses to use hurtful words or have a yucky attitude, but the really great thing about him is that he is easily corrected and it sticks!  One of the fun things that I like to see with him is when he's trying to be serious about something that is more funny and I start laughing and he tries not to laugh.  He opens his mouth wide to keep from smiling and averts his eyes, but usually he can't keep from laughing for long. :)  Really fun!

Here are some random gratuitous pics from the last month or so:

This one I have name: Bare-bum baby tries to fly. 

Yeehaw, ya'll!  (Not really, I DO NOT say ya'll!) 

 Sam got these vintage safety glasses from a guy at work and the kids loved them!  Zekey looks nerdy in a circa 1950's sort of way. :)

This is my Granny.  She HATES having her picture taken and because of that, I think I take a sort of delight in taking her picture whenever I can...mmmmwwwaaahahaha!  Do you see the small daggers being shot from her eyes?  hehe!  I love, love, love my Granny!  I keep telling her the pics aren't about her so much as they are fond memories for the kids. 

 My kiddos call her Gran-Gran.

 Sweeter Zekers!

Granny a.k.a. Momma with Brea-boops.

 Rockin' Ailey's hat at 3 mos.

 Littlest Sweets!

 Yeah, so I'm saying it again...I love the Target $ aisle!  I got each piece of the space costumes for a buck each as well as the sunglasses for the same price each!  Nice.

 So pretty!

 I didn't anticipate that Ailey would want to be a spaceperson, too.  Braden shared with her and the next day I went back to Target and got her outfitted, too. :)

Grabby hands hard at work.

What is up?!

I received an email through my homeschool group asking me to sign this petition.  Well, I did, of course!  I can't stand it that supposed "adults" can't leave children's programming alone!  This one has to do with a petition to Sesame Street to have a gay marriage for Bert and Ernie.  Really?! Here's what its all about:

http://www.onemillionmoms.com/signpetition.asp?id=121

In the News...

Well, my news anyway.  I'm still working on getting back up to speed with the kiddo updates.  I have pictures coming out the wazoo here and I'm trying to keep ahead of the avalanche!  I've been sitting at the computer a lot the past few days trying to upload pics to get them developed and starting certain photo projects for gifts and on and on and on...ugh! Anyway, hopefully, I will soon have pics to put in all the frames hanging on the wall.

I've got some projects in mind for the near future, but here's what I'm knee deep into right now.  I decided to make the pantry that Sam converted for me only a half pantry.  I stuck my craft paraphernalia in there, too.  I'm still trying to get it all organized, which might take me the next year or so to accomplish, but here it is so far.....

 I know that I've mentioned in previous posts that I am indeed a ribbon junkie.  Here's some proof.  This is actually on the low side because I've used a lot of it lately.  I'll be stocking up soon...:)  I also found this to help me organize all that loose ribbon:

This is the Ribbon Ring and you can buy it here.

This is actually supposed to be the pantry part, but it is hosting some of my craft junk until I can figure out where to put it all!

I couldn't fit everything into the closet and had to leave these two rolling bins in my bedroom, so now I'm trying to figure out how to beautify them.  Right now, I'm thinking of getting a piece of plyboard and cutting it to fit across both of the tops and then surround it with a curtain and decoupage or paint the top.  Then I can use it as a nightstand. We'll see.

AND...I kept passing a house down the road and kept seeing these chairs sitting outside and then a couple of days ago noticed that they had been moved to the back of the truck in the driveway.  I decided to see if the intent was to throw them away and so I stopped and asked.  Sure enough, the man was going to throw them away!  So, SCORE!  I love the lines of these chairs.  I'm gonna reupholster them...well, after I've cut two new seat bottoms for the ones that are bottomless. :)  Anyway, the bonus is that they pair well with this table that I rescued from being tossed at a neighbor's down the street.  I'm just a small step away from dumpster diving.....;p

Oh, and this is on my list for the future - a Play Kitchen!:

Found this one among others here.

Totally in love with the little ruffled curtain on this one.  Don't really have room for this kind of spread though.  Found this one here.

This one's a beauty!  Found it here.

Lovin' this one, too!  Found here.

Lookey here at this fancy-schmancy one!  They did a really great job on this one.  I prolly won't feel like putting this much work into a play kitchen, but it sure is cute!  Found here.

This one is my favorite.  Sooooo cute!  Found it here.

Then, of course, we'll need to furnish it with felt food:

Cuteness!!!
Again with the cute!

Seriously talented lady!

And...Check these out!

click here to see or buy.

Today...

Today, Zekey dressed Ailey.

 (Braden made some flip flops of his own...)

Today, I made the kids little barnyards for lunch out of graham crackers, peanut butter, cheeze-its, pretzels, animal crackers and shredded mini wheats.

Today, I made one for me, too. ;p

Braden came in this morning to wake me up and ask if he could go ahead and get all the cereal stuff ready.  I said he could and then rolled back over and snoozed for a bit.  After a while, the kids were running through the house and I thought that maybe I should go ahead and get up and pour milk in their bowls so they could eat.  I dragged myself out of my room and came upon Ailey dunking some shredded mini wheats into a little bowl of milk.  Then, I immediately looked beyond that to see that the milk that Braden had used was the buttermilk.  Oops!  Not one of them said that it tasted weird or different or yuck or anything.  I'm thinkin' Braden is hired! ;p

My kind of S'Mores

So a while back, I wrote about the baby shower we had at the house and one of the goodies was S'Mores pops.  I made some again sans the pop part and decided to do a step-by-step, since its easy and I actually felt like taking the time to take pics. ;p  One of my biggest dislikes about S'mores is that the chocolate doesn't melt enough to mingle with the graham cracker and marshmallow.  I usually end up with the chocolate taking over the whole bite and I like balance.  I'm rather crotchety about how I like my chocolate and I'm just fine with that. :)

Step 1:  You need a whole mess of yummy marshmallows, a good handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips and crushed graham crackers.  I would also suggest the mini baking cups to put them in, but you could also just put them on parchment paper. 

Step 2: I melted my chocolate in a pot on the stove top and once they got melty, I just turned off the burner and resisted the urge to drink it straight.

Step 3: I set up my assembly line and this is how it went:

Step 4:  Get a good grip on your marshmallow.  (It will try and wriggle out of your grasp and become one with the pool of chocolate.)  I will also have to admit that this is the stage where, sadly, some of the marshmallows don't make it through the whole process...

Step 5:  Dunk and twirl until the chocolate is halfway up the sides of said marshmallow and there is full bottom coverage.  We don't need no daisy-dukin' marshmallows here!

Step 6:  Gently shove the now chocolate-treated mallow into the graham cracker crumbs and mush it around until the chocolate is wearing a crumb sweater or coat as it were. ;p  Don't want our marshmallow catching a cold, now do we.

Step 7: Attempt to make your hand put it in the little baking cup instead of dropping it down your gullet.  It's pretty difficult to achieve this, so you might need someone in attendance to assist in this endeavor, but beware the temptation is catching so it might be good to have a whole support group present.  Ach!  Who are we kidding?!  Just go ahead and put the mini baking cups back up and save them for one of the kids' art projects.

Optional Step 8:  If you want to be all facy-schmancy for a special occasion or to see your kids' eyes light up, you can stick some cookie sticks into the centers.  It does keep little fingers safer from the attack of the Chocolate Mush Monster, though sometimes the fingers are lured into its enticing trap anyway.

TaDa!  Super Easy and not only is the chocolate completely incorporated with the graham cracker goodness, its bite size stature contributes to *99.9% of all of the yumminess making it INTO your mouth, so you don't have to store it for later AROUND your mouth.

*This statistic was the result of a completely biased and unscientific study conducted in an independent, non-controlled approach outside of a laboratory environment.