Parenting 101...

According to a three year old!

Parenting advise from Matthew from Kelli Melin on Vimeo.

I left the kids under Jess' tender loving care while I took a nap. Apparently it didn't go well, because I heard about the "tongue lashing" that Matthew gave him upon finishing a time-out session. This video is a take two, but funny still!

*In case you can't understand him, here is what he says:
"Don't lock people in their rooms. Don't Spank people with your hand. Don't lock people in their rooms. And don't take time out!"
In the original, he said little boys instead of people!

Christmas 2009

Christmas Eve Dinner.

The kids on their Scavenger hunt to find their New Christmas Jammies.

Their new jammies.

The Christmas Elf paid us a visit to see if the kids were on their way to bed nicely. T Jay takes this ritual very seriously, do not get in his way, he will run you down on his way to get into bed!

4:29 AM - This is the last time this room was even remotely clean for two days!

Another "man eater" photo of our Summer girl. She's modeling her new make-up and her phone.

Lexi's little rocking horse from Grammy. It is the perfect size for her.

T Jay and his Nerf Blaster gun.

Santa's attempt to get Matthew on the nice list next year!

4:31 AM - The aftermath!

Down at the beach Geocaching (this is a modern day treasure hunt using GPS - www.geocaching.com ). I'm so glad it was jacket weather!

Down at the water looking for our second treasure of the day.

Our Little Lexi "LuLu Doll"

So many things to post about and pictures to share! For now, Our little "Lulu doll" is walking! She took her first steps on the 17th of December. She is choosing walking over crawling now, so it's official. Our house just got a little busier! We needed that, it was way too calm here!

Happy Christmas Eve...

Classic Santa photo! Lexi is screaming, Summer is "bored" and refuses to smile and well, my boys, look how sweet they look. Actually, Matthew's look is a little more mischief than sweet.

The kids are all snug in their beds...I can't wait 'til morning!

Whoa Here She Comes...

"Watch out boys, she'll chew you up!"

"She's a man eater!"

OK Friends...

Jess is over a youth activity tomorrow and needs some help. They are doing "Speed Socializing." You know, kind of like speed dating, accept it's not a date, it's just getting to know one another. Anyway, the kids are each supposed to come with a question, one that can't be answered with yes or no and is interesting somehow. You know the kind, "If you were gum, what flavor would you be?" I told Jess that I had a book that would have perfect ideas for him, only I can't find said book. So, my web friends, I am asking for your help. Please leave a question (or two, or more!) that Jess can use in my comments section so that when the kids show up question-less, they still have something to talk about! Thanks, that will free up my time to do the 9 loads of laundry I need to get to tomorrow!

RS Christmas Party

I hosted our RS Christmas Party this past Thursday. We had a great turnout and I think all had a great time. Our theme was service and giving during the holiday season and throughout the year.
Happy, Lexie and me at the party! Can you believe that we have been friends for 18 years now?!! Seriously, are we that old?

The yummies! I really do love to host parties.

On that note, we also had a lesson at church on keeping Christ in Christmas. Here are some of the things that we are trying here: We do a service secret Santa with the kids, make cards for the local nursing home, attend the Living Nativity experience, and read the story of his birth on Christmas Eve. I am curious what you all do. I am always looking for new ideas, so please share...

Refinishing Fools!

I had the bright idea last spring to buy an indoor table (cheap at a garage sale) and refinish it with outdoor stain to use as our patio table. This table was really easy to strip because it only had a thin layer varnish on it. We got it sanded really nice and Jess stained it. Being an amateur, he didn't know and I didn't remember until it was too late, that you brush the stain on and then wipe off the excess. We have to re-strip it and start over. Fun, fun, fun!

Safety first!! In order to include the kids in the job, Jess pulled out the air compressor and let the kids blow the wood dust away.

This is an antique table and chairs that my Aunt Sweetie Pie brought me when she came for Thanksgiving! I love it. We spent a good deal of time that week/weekend stripping the table and chairs. My Mom and I finished the stripping and began the sanding. I have one chair left to strip and then I can begin the many phases of sanding. I have, indeed, lost momentum! I am preparing for a Christmas party at my house. When that is done maybe I'll get back to work. For now, my garage holds two unfinished tables, 6 chairs and is covered with wood dust. Hmmm, am I a refinishing fool or a fool for refinishing? I'll let you know!

A little late...

But better than never, right??
Our annual Thanksgiving tree, plus an added bonus, a tree elf courtesy of Summer!

Our Thanksgiving feast. At the head, My Grandaddy, my Mom, T Jay, Mom's cousin Karl and his wife Ruth, me, Matthew, Aunt Sherry's SIL Becky, my brother Kenny and his wife Katherine, Mom's sister Aunt Sherry, her daughter Katelyn, and Summer. We had a blast cooking and visiting. Jess swears he is putting his foot down next year about the massive quantities of food produced. We'll see! You can never have too many desserts if you ask me!!

Make-up

I don't buy Summer make-up. I don't let her wear make-up in general. There are two reasons for this, 1.) Matthew always seems to find it, and makes a huge mess with it on himself and his surroundings. 2.) I want her to be a kid as long as possible. Don't get me wrong, we play make-up at times, I just want to try and keep her focus elsewhere. I mean really, she's 5! When I was 5 I think all I cared about were the Smurfs or something...
Her solution, sticker make-up. No mess, no fuss! Any one want to buy some? It's not even that expensive, and you can sleep in it too! Who knows, maybe it even has anti-aging qualities to it!Any takers? No, hmmm. I wonder why...
PS-yes, there was a wad of stickers in her bed this morning, that may pose a potential problem.

A Lesson on Compassion and Mercy

Tonight as I was putting T Jay and Summer to bed, they both wanted to fall asleep in my bed. I tucked them in with a kiss and a firm warning that if there was any goofing off they would be right back in their own beds. As I was heading up stairs for the baby's pj's, I hear them both laughing, talking and rolling around on the bed. I promptly sent them both back to their beds as promised. T Jay was feeling very unjustly dealt with and begged for a second chance. I told him I was sorry, but he knew what would happen if he goofed off and left him with another kiss. About two minutes later he comes downstairs and tells me he has something he wants to tell me.
"Mom, I learned a lesson from a Veggie Tales about compassion and mercy. You are supposed to give people a second chance, even if they don't deserve it, because that's what God wants us to do. So I think I should get a second chance to sleep in your bed."
Granted!!

Weed Trouble!!

Before long, I'll have to stand in front!

It's Already Started...

A little too early if you ask me!
(In Case you can't read the note, Michael writes,"Summer My FonNumBr
2887230.)

It's a good thing

Alexis 7 months. Who does she look like? Any changes? I think it's fun to compare them and see their similarities and differences. To me, they all look like Jelli hybrids! (Good thing!)

T Jay about 7 months

Summer About 7 months

Matthew about 7 months

MIA

I have been slightly MIA this week. If you're curious where I've been, here it is in pictures. I am the enrichment leader (party/activity planner for the women) at church. We had our Super Saturday craft day this past weekend. I have been so busy planning and organizing this activity that nearly all else fell by the wayside. Just ask Jess, I think he wants to fire me as resident housekeeper-wait, maybe that's not such a bad thing. Maybe we can get our own "Alice" to keep the ship afloat on the home front! :)
Tile coasters-We made these in ND about 2 years ago. This one was popular and super easy. There are tons of tutorials on line if you are interested in a cheap and easy gift idea.

Bird Family Tree. This is an idea from Better Homes and Gardens website. I am going to make some of these for my family members. Ssshh, don't tell them!

Glass etching on a casserole dish for potlucks and dinners to other families.

Kanzashi fabric folded flower. This one was a ton of fun for me. I am going to make a bunch more. The possibilities are limitless: hair clips and headband, pins, hat embellishment, purse embellishment, present bow. FYI Maggie, these are made from the dress fabric and lining from the leftover material from my Bridesmaid dress from your wedding, want one?

Decorative Modge podge balls, thanks for the idea Janet. These don't match, they are showing the different materials you can use on them.

It was a fun and very busy day. We also had a potluck and recipe exchange, so now I need to type up all of the recipes and e-mail them out. I love potlucks! Other than that, I am counting on a much calmer week this week! I hope yours is great, Happy Monday!

We Had a Happy Halloween!

Our little garden fairy, ghost, witch and Batman had a great time this Halloween. I had a lot of fun making their costumes! (FYI T.Jay didn't want to wear the Batman hood we had)

Jess took the older children Trick-or-Treating and Lexi and I stayed and handed out candy! It is so much fun to watch all of the kids on Halloween. I hope yours was great. Stay tuned for more Halloween fun this week...

Happy Birthday, Love...

On this date in history my sweet hubby was born! Yea for me! Happy Birthday, Jess!
*This is one of my favorite pictures of Jess. It's from our wedding day.

I guess I was wrong...

I haven't really posted anything lately because I didn't really think I had taken any pictures nor done anything out of the ordinary. I was wrong. There are lots of pictures to share.
Last Tuesday, Summer had a second set of tubes put in her ears and her adenoids removed. She did a great job. This picture was taken the day or so before. I couldn't get Jess to take the camera to take pictures. I am grateful that he was able to take her though. It's logistical juggling four kids!

Just playing in the toy room. Lexi loves this! As you can see their favorite game is dump and move on! Anyone have any cures for this?

Slumber parties on the floor with only the closest of friends! Notice the hooded bath towel on the bear!

We went to our neighbors fun birthday party and the kids got their faces painted for the first time! Matthew is a dinosaur, T Jay has a bat on his hand and Summer got the full girlie treatment!

One of Lexi's whole face smiles!

Her bag of tricks is getting bigger...

And bigger!

She helped me weed the flower beds. There's nothing cuter than a dirty baby, accept when they are cleaned up after!

Knowlege Is Power...

Guest Post by Jess:

So Kelli and I have been doing pretty good about watching what we eat the last three weeks and exercising pretty regularly. Tonight we both had a huge craving for chocolate chip cookies (known as one of the food staples around our house). As many of you know Kelli makes some of the best chocolate chip cookies in the world. As they say - practice makes perfect. At least a couple of times a week Kelli used to make cookies and we would each eat 6-8 cookies before heading to bed.

I figured that since we have been so good lately we could put the kids to bed, whip up a batch of cookies, and guiltlessly polish off the whole batch. I got out the mixer and asked Kelli to tell me the recipe since she has it memorized. She said, "One cup of shortening" so I grabbed the shortening and then made the mistake of reading the nutritional value label. It said 120 calories per tablespoon. My first thought was that there is no way she meant a cup, she must have meant a tablespoon so I asked her. She confirmed that the recipe called for one full cup of shortening (which just happens to be 16 tablespoons according to my friend Google). At this point I wrote down the recipe, went to the computer, and calculated exactly how many calories we were preparing to consume. 1 batch of Kelli's best = 6650 calories! Each cookie is 222 calories!

I'm happy to report that no cookies were made in our house tonight and I will never be able to look at a chocolate chip cookie again with blissful ignorance of how many minutes on a treadmill each one represents.

Daddy's little girls