Friday, January 27, 2012

A NEW Family Member!

DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH... I AM NOT PREGNANT!!!! Thank God for that!! Instead, we are welcoming hamster number two into our home. The first hamster, aka TECH, died within 7 days. The pet store was gracious enough to replace our hamster for free. Ty chose a hamster that looked identical to the one he received on Christmas morning. So far, so good! No signs of death....YET!!!!!!!!

It was much more special that he got to physically pick his companion out. Tyson named him Virginia Tech Hokie (first, middle, and last). He said, "But you can call him any of those names!"

Sleepover FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!

Today, Tyson invited Josh over to play and sleepover. They enjoyed some Papa John's pizza, birthday cake ice cream, popcorn and a brand new movie titled, "Kung Fu Panda 2". Tyson was kind enough to let his brother and sister tag along for the adventures of a sleeping visitor. Lilah, at one point, exclaimed "I love Josh!" Josh has been Tyson's friend from the beginning of Ty's life. We all love him!!!

They are all finally fast asleep now....

Cohen's Turning 3

Today, we had the pleasure of going to Chuck E. Cheese with Cohen to celebrate, his almost, 3rd birthday!!!!! We arrived at 10 am, on the dot, and to our surprise it was CROWDED! Schools were out (we had no idea). It was hectic as ever, but that never phases the kids. They had an absolute blast.

Cohen, we cannot believe you are almost 3!!!!!!!!!! We love you!



To view the entire album, see below.

Daniel Maggi's FIRST Birthday!


Last Saturday, we attended Daniel's FIRST birthday party. It was a nice, relaxing time spent pigging out, opening gifts, and enjoying a slice of cake... well NOT me, but anyway... It's so hard to believe this little man is already one. I love his little smile!!!

Daniel, I pray this year is filled with many memories that glorify our God. Oh HAPPY DAY!!!!!

If you wish to view the entire album, click below.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Running On Overload!

Monday she was sleeping beauty. Tuesday, she was wild willy! As you can see from the youtube video, Lilah ran around our kitchen island, singing "I can be your friend" for well over 2 minutes. I think she could have gone for 10 straight minutes if I hadn't asked her to stop. She was making me dizzy. What's even funnier is her attire. Tights, "high heels," and a t-shirt. She forgot to put her pants back on after nap.

Darren looked like he was sleeping... he might as well have been. He had the flu and forced himself out of bed. I had made dinner and he was TRYING to eat it. Doesn't look like he was successful, huh?

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Sleeping Beauty!

The flu has attacked our church body! Lilah was the first person in our household to get it. We put her to bed on Sunday night at 8:30 pm. I HAD TO wake her up at 11:45 am on Monday morning. She woke up, ate a HUGE lunch, and fell back asleep, on the couch, at 1:15 pm until 2:30 pm. :( That is the strangest thing I have ever been through with my children during an illness.
I arrived home from the grocery store today around noon, to find my hubby laying in bed with the chills. And at 2:40 pm, Ty got off the bus crying, "I feel like I'm going to throw up." AHH! Please keep our family in prayer. I really hope momma bear doesn't get it.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

"The Lazy Song"

I haven't listened to secular music in years. Two Wednesdays ago, while we were getting ready for church, I decided to turn on the radio. Getting three kids ready for church can be slightly stressful, so I thought it might be fun to listen to some hip/hop songs. "The Lazy Song" came on and it had a really catchy tune/beat. I had never heard it before, so the beat grabbed my attention. The next day, I looked up the song on youtube. The twins happened to be near me and the catchy tune grabbed their attention too! Since then, we have watched the youtube video several times and they have learned, on their own, the "movements" to this song. The unfortunate thing is that it's really NOT a song that they, nor I, should be listening to. Some of the lyrics are just, quite simply, ungodly. In addition, it seems a little weird listening to it because I feel like I am condoning how lazy our society has become. You will NOT hear any inappropriate lyrics , I don't think, on this blog. I stopped video recording when those lyrics were being sung. Just focus on the cute boy-girl twins singing it and ignore the lyrics. Fortunately, the twins are too young to know what the heck they are singing.

PS. I did NOT include the original video because I do not want to cause anyone to stumble!
PSS. I'm pretty sure I'll just go back to listening, solely, to my Christian music again. :) ESPECIALLY around my kiddies.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Maya HEE!!!!!!!! Maya HO!!!!!! MAYA HEE!!!! MAYA HA HA!

First, check out the original video on youtube titled, "Numa Numa"~


Then, check out the Bolling kids MOCKING IT! I think Tyson found this guy, on youtube, from his tablet. It's a pg video, thank God. Although the song seems so pointless, it does have a good beat. The kids are, unfortunately, learning the movements because watching it is a daily, favorite past time of theirs.

Human Sponge!


The other day I was in Lilah's room putting away some clean laundry. She was still sitting in her crib. All of the sudden I hear, out of her mouth,

"You are being disobedient. You're not a-posed to say poo-poo and pee-pee. I havfta spank you now!"

As you can see, from the picture, she fulfilled her promise, to show her baby love, by disciplining he,r for her disobedience. I guess she hears Darren and I loud and clear and is fully aware that there are consequences to sin. Children truly are human sponges. They absorb it all. EVERY single detail.

"Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. " 
~ Proverbs 13:24

"Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die." 
~Proverbs 23:13

"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it." 
~ Proverbs 22:6


How He Loves - Featuring John Piper

Friday, January 20, 2012

All TO US!

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
~ Joshua 24:15

Thursday, January 19, 2012

May, June, July...

WOAH! We have a PACKED summer ahead of us!!! 3 weddings, in 3 consecutive months. We've watched our church youth go from teenager to young adult, single to engaged, and soon from unwed to newlyweds!!!!

Congratulations to the Barnett/Blankenship couple, Cannon/Cundiff couple, and Benson/Carroll couple. We cannot wait to celebrate the union between a loving husband and wife through Christ ALONE!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Valentine's D-ssert!

The dessert we made today was heart-shaped rice krispie treats! Everyone knows how to make'em and if you don't know how to make'em, you sure know how yummy they taste. Although, I didn't get to taste any :( I am on day 16 of my dessert/bread free diet. BUT YOU AREN'T, so give this recipe a whirl!!!

What you'll need:
1/4 cup of butter
6 cups of mini marshmallows
8-10 cups of rice krispies

Melt butter and marshmallows, until well blended, over low-medium heat.
Remove pan from stove.
Mix rice krispies into hot melted marshmallows.
Pour into an 11x13 glass dish. Spread evenly using wax paper and rolling pin.
My helpers!

The smell of melted marshmallows and butter filled the air. They need to make a candle that smells like this.
I melted some Wilton's pink rose dye into the marshmallows/butter mixture.

"Yummy!"
While I cleaned up, I allowed Lilah and Jax to lick the pot clean, keeping them preoccupied.
Look at those sweet fingers getting every bite possible.
Good to the very last drop.
Jax enjoyed being my helper! He loves to help in the kitchen.
I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter after the batch cooled down, to make Valentiney.

I added sprinkles for a little extra fun.

"Fishing for LOVE" LUNCH

I have been introduced to a really interesting blog where a stay-at-home mom creates visually stimulating lunches for her children.... FOR ME TOO! They are realllllly cool. Unfortunately, my children wouldn't eat HALF of the stuff that she serves her kids. She REALLLLY gets into preparing her children's fun lunches once a week. She uses edible paints, edible pens, fancy tooth picks, special tubberware, fancy cutters... the list is endless. She has A LOT of money invested in the items she uses to prepare her children's lunch. Here is one example:
Anyway, it has inspired me to try and be creative with my kiddies lunches WHEN I can, but I WILL not go this over board because 1. I don't have a brain like hers. I surely am NOT this artistic. 2. My kids DO NOT eat well to invest this much time into their meals. and 3. Although I do blog about special things and I am very detailed oriented, this is a tad over the top for me. COOL, YES! But it would take me DAYS to come up with these ideas.

I went out on a limb today and tried to design a fun lunch of my own. It certainly does NOT compare to the "cow jumping over the moon" lunch, but it's cute enough to entice and enthuse my almost 3 year olds.

The title of our lunch... "Fishing for LOVE". It includes:
1. A heart shaped peanut butter and fluff sandwich on whole wheat bread.
2. Cheese and pepperoni cut up in heart shapes.
3. Apples cut up in heart shapes.
4. Gold fish swimming through the "sea of hearts".

Stop laughing. I TRIED!!!! Erin Carroll, I want you to give this a whirl and see what you come up with. Send me the pics and I will feature you on my blog!

"Love" Biscuits/Ornaments

Today, Lilah, Jax and I made LOVE biscuits. If you recall from last week, NO MORE LIBRARY. Instead, we will be doing a weekly craft, a fun food, and a yummy dessert.
Today's CRAFT was homemade LOVE biscuits or ornaments.
What you will need:
1 Cup of Applesauce
1 Cup of Cinnamon
A Rolling Pin
Wax Paper
A Small Straw
Heart Shaped Cookie Cutters etc.
String/Yarn/Ribbon
Mix the cinnamon and apple sauce together until it is well blended. Roll it in a ball.

I added gold glitter to the mix to make the dough shinny.
Roll the dough out until it is 1/4 inch thick. Use your cookie cutters to cut out your desired shapes. Take the straw and poke ONE hole in the area where you will be tying a string/ribbon. This dough will take 3 days to completely DRY. Half way through the drying time, flip shapes over to insure proper drying takes place throughout the entire shape.
We made the word "LOVE" and four colorful hearts. I added Valentine's Day glitter colors to the hearts. I hope the glitter dries into the dough in the next few days! IF not, it will still SMELL wonderful and look cute hanging somewhere in our home or the kids grandparents' home :) I guess I could have even called these "homemade air fresheners" LOL!

You might be wondering two things: 1. W here is LILAH and JAX during this craft time? 2. That's all she was able to make with that much applesauce?

I'll answer these questions backwards. I ONLY HAD 1/3 cup of cinnamon left, so I had to use 1/3 cup of applesauce ONLY. I did NOT have as much dough as I would have liked to have had.Which leads me to the answer to the other question. Lilah and Jax were present and were helping. BUT since I had limited dough, I allowed them to do their own biscuits/ornaments using play dough. They didn't seem to mind! They were still able to use all of the supplies I had.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Kids Say The Darndest Things!


The other day, I was in the middle of taking Jax's poopy diaper off after nap. He is a consistent pooper at 1:30 pm. It's hysterical that you can narrow down your child's bowel movements to the minute. Jax - 1:30 pm, Tyson - 4:45pm and Lilah - 5:25 pm. Anyway, as I was wiping Jax's hiney, a funny conversation took place between Tyson and I...

Tyson: "Phew... I am never having a baby!"
Me: "Why are you never having a baby?"
Tyson: "Because they stink and I'm not willing to change diapers."
Me: "Oh it's not that bad and besides, I want grandkids, so you have to have babies."
Tyson: "Wait... never mind, I'll have kids, it's not like I'll have to do anything. I'll be at work most of the time."
HA!!!!! I guess he thinks that daddies don't have to do much because they work most of the time. This is surprising because his daddy is VERY involved and is an amazing team player. I guess he's not very observant. Not sure how he can miss it!!!! Either way, I thought it was so hysterical that that came out of his mouth. I have to admit, it gave me a little satisfaction to hear that Tyson thinks moms do it all!

Monday, January 16, 2012

Snowman Craft

What you'll need:
1. Paints Sticks
2. Acrylic Paint (black and white)
3. Embellishments: buttons, beads, googly eyes.
4. Pipe cleaners & pom poms
5. Ribbon
6. Drill
7. Wire
8. Hot glue gun
I got these paint sticks from the Northwest Hardware Store for FREE!! They asked if I needed some help with anything and I just said, "I actually just need some paint sticks because I am doing a craft with my kids." They handed me the amount I asked for as said, "No charge!" I even had them drill the holes for me. Support your local hardware stores.
Use the white and black acrylic paint to paint the snowman's "body" and top hat.

The kiddies gave this a whirl....
But apparently, it was too detailed for their attention span.
Paint sticks MINUS embellishments.
Completed snowman with all embellishments added.
Completed snowman with wire added.
In order to get this perfected wire look, insert the wire through the front of the hole, leaving enough to wrap and secure. Then, take the excess wire and wrap around a pen, as many times as you see fit. I wrapped it four times. Finally, secure the other side. I used wire cutters to help me wrap the wire around.
5 Snowmen: Daddy,Mommy, Tyson, Lilah and Jaxon
I can't wait to hang them up!

I did NOT create this craft. I replicated it with my own materials, ideas, and special touches. Kaitlyn made two out of the five. I made the other three.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

WHY I hate religion, but LOVE Jesus

Winter Food Fun!

It’s easy to let go of Winter, after Christmas, and quickly prepare for Valentine’s Day or worse Spring. I know the malls are already in Spring mode. YUCK! Why do the malls do that? Anyway, snowmen are my absolute favorite Christmas holiday decoration. I even have a Christmas tree devoted strictly to snowmen and snowflakes ONLY! The other day, I devised a menu that was geared around the topic of SNOWMEN. While Darren and I were in North Carolina, I had Kaitlyn help the kids make a snowman pizza, from scratch, for dinner and a snowman-powdered donut for dessert. Yes, I know, it’s not a very healthy meal, but according to Kaitlyn, they didn’t eat much of EITHER item anyway.

Snowman pizza – I purchased premade pizza dough from Pillsbury, pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni, black olives and a carrot. It turned out so cute!!!! Great job kids Kaitlyn.

Snowman-Powdered Donuts – I just purchased the cheapest powdered donuts I could find and some frosting. I bagged up some items I had around the house (candy corns, chocolate chips and raisins) for the kids to use to decorate their snowmen donuts. The frosting was used to adhere the food embellishments to the donut. Didn’t they come out adorable? I know Tyson, especially, found much enjoyment torturing his snowman as he ate his eyes and nose off.
95% of the photos were courtesy of Kaitlyn. Thanks K!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Pin The Carrot Nose On The Snowman!

Before leaving for North Carolina, I set aside a "lesson plan" consisting of a fun food dinner and dessert, as well as a craft and a game. Kaitlyn ran of out of time to do the game, so I woke up this morning and did it with the kids. They had a lot of fun. The best part was watching each person walk into the wall.



I really do not have an artistic bone in my body, so don't laugh if this looks bad. Out of construction paper and/or a word document, I created two eyes, a nose, a mouth, a top hat, a pipe, a scarf and some buttons. I was fairly impressed with how little time and money it took and how cute it turned out.

Construction Paper and White Poster Board: $1.00
Time: $Free
Fun: $PRICELESS!!!!
Jax went first.

He got close, but not close enough.

Next up, BIG BROTHER!
Ty didn't cheat and was the closest so far.

Lilah gave it a try, but hated being blind folded. "I can't see!" She kept saying. Of course you can't silly, your eyes are blindfolded.

"Almost Liley!"

The end result. The carrot nose closest to the snowman's carrot nose was Tyson.

Tyson was the WINNER!!!!! He won a sweet little Valentine stamp set. He's already stamped his hands and face. Ahhhhh!!!  If anyone is interested in borrowing this for a party or for fun around the house with kids, just ask.