adjusted video settings

Some of you were having a hard time with the video - I adjusted my settings on YouTube, so you should be able to view them now. If you still have trouble - let me know.

Guitar Hero Hewy

I know that none of you doubt that my house rocks, but here is a little glimpse of post dinner at our house. part of me wishes that I could say this is a once in awhile thing, but no - this is very typical of our life.

Enjoy!

Have you heard the good news?

The Alec and Dixie Dunn family will be growing by two feet this year! Baby number four is a very welcomed surprise to our family.

Due date is September 3, 2009

People always say - Oh, I bet you're hoping for a girl. Don't get me wrong, girls are great, I know - because I am one! But really - any baby is a welcomed baby. Healthy babies - even better. I can't say I am hoping for a girl - that sounds like a whole new wardrobe - and after seeing Hewy wear the cloths that Noble and Liam wore - I think we got a deal on those cloths!

No, I am not sick. Not a single day.

Yes, I am very tired. VERY tired.

Did I mention we are very excited.

Oh, and we call the little thing: Gummy Bear. That has been our code word for the past several weeks to discuss the baby without others catching on. Hewy even made a practice of telling people all about Gummy Bear - but because he is three, people didn't think he was making any sense when he would say "Mommy has a gummy bear in her tummy." or "Gummy Bear is getting bigger!" hee-hee

I do have to award my children. They kept the secret longer than I thought could or would. One day just after we told them they were at Sarah's house and Hewy "slipped-up" and mentioned that I had a baby in my tummy. The boys immediately went into damage control, had a secret family only meeting in the bathroom and brewed up a story about me eating gummy bears, Hewy being confused and calling them babies, and now he thinks there is a baby in my tummy. It was all too hilarious because - Sarah already knew the secret. But I was proud of them for trying to protect the family secret.

great quotes

doing research for a talk I came across these quotes. . .

"There is no habit, no addiction, no transgression, no apostasy, no crime exempted from the promise of complete forgiveness. That is the promise of the atonement of Jesus Christ."
-Boyd K. Packer
That is exactly how I feel about the atonement.


"Let your children be exposed to great minds, great ideas, everlasting truth, and those things that will motivate for good."
-Gordon B. Hinckley

just for fun

Today it was just a day. We weren't hectic running from here to there. We weren't cramming to get school work and jobs and everything else done. It was just a day. It was nice. It almost felt like a holiday.

So after watching the Mom's walk their kiddos home from the bus stop I asked my kids if they wanted to make a big pitcher of strawberry smoothies and invite the neighbors over. I was met with a resounding YES!!!!

So we made three blender-fuls of strawberry smoothie and headed outside with paper cups and straws. The Brooks and Craguns joined us for a spontaneous Friday treat. The weather outside was beautiful. We have been commenting around here that it is too nice too early - the Mountain Laurels are already blooming and trees are budding. Spring is hitting a month or so early, even for South Texas.

It was a fun out of the ordinary event for a normal blah kinda day. Hopefully these are the things my children will remember of their youth.

Cakepops

My Rockin' friend Ami shared these cakepops with our family today. A friend of hers had sent them for Valentines and she wanted to share them with me because she knows I love to cook. I immediately recognized them as Cakepops from Bakerella - a blog I spy on.
Ami described them as "They taste like Ding Dongs when we were kids" - and ya know she was right! (Ding Dongs are dry and yucky now days) I have always been afraid to try and make them - they look slightly messy, but now that I have tasted one... um I will be attempting them soon!

Thank you for sharing with us Ami!
As you can tell we loved them!!!!

Bakerella's blog click here


Same blog, just cake pops

How do you like your toast?

Hewy likes his cinnomon chip bread from Great Harvest
with real butter and whipped cream!

Oh to be three again!

Noble Cooks

Noble made dinner one night this week.
He had chosen pizza and frozen bananas
New Grandpa and Grandma bought the ingredients for him
His brothers helped.
Alec was impressed and said it may be some of the best pizza he has ever had!
Way to go Noble.

Lisa Science

This week Lisa taught the boys about the ph scale.
It involved red cabbage - which smelled awful!
They mixed the cabbage juice with all kinds of things to measure how acidic they were.
It looks like we were dying easter eggs - but no.

Where everbody knows your name. . .

I have written before that the people at Costco know my children's names, right?

A couple of days ago my in-laws took Hewy and cousin Henry to Costco. Someone, another shopper, approached them and said, "Oh, you have the cousins today!" I still don't know who that person is, I am guessing it was someone from church.

Then when they checked out, Kristen, Hewy's favorite clerk at Costco said "Hi-ya H!" and my in-laws said, "how do you know his name?"

My kid is a celebrity at Costco.

So the next night when I went to buy four gallons of milk at 8:25pm (they close at 8:30) and they are used to seeing me slip in as they are closing the doors - but they know I am only there for milk and will be back out of the store long before the last customer is - Kristen and came and found me and said 'Hey H-y was in here without you yesterday!"

It may not Cheers, the sitcom from my youth, but everyone knows me and my kids names!

some new good quotes

friends have passed these on to me recently! Thanks for the good cheer my friends!

Be the kind of women that when your feet hit the floor in the morning Satan says, "Oh crap, she's awake!"

I know God will not give me anything that I cannot handle, I just wish he didn't trust me so much! - Mother Teresa

God is my rock and that's how I roll.

Oh, I forgot you weren't homeschooled, I'll try and use smaller words.

Super Mom, Super Wife, Super Woman, Super Tired

Cowboy L.B.

For those that don't know, Liam is a man of many Nicknames.
L.B. is one of them.
It stands for (when he was a baby) Liam Bein' and as he got older we changed it to Little Brother, but then Hew came along, so now we just call him L.B. because that's one of his many names.

Cowboy Noble

He needs a haircut but he's still handsome

Cowboy H.

He's Stinkin' Cute and he knows it.

Rodeo 2009

Last Night we went to the Rodeo here in San Antonio. I already wrote how big the Rodeo is here in San Antonio. The concert was Brooks and Dunn - Which I must say was good, but I didn't recognize all of the songs.

I think that everyone agrees that Bull Riding was the favorite.
Alec, Dixie, Noble, Liam, Hewlett, Grandpa, Grandmama, Dell and Henry all went.

My Men in Black hats

My Darlin' Cowboys

You're a. . .

Hewy has a new insult that he made up. When he is mad at you or anyone, he says: "You're a benny!" or "You are such a benny" It doesn't make any sense - so I ignore it most of the time.

However, it really bugs his brothers. I don't know why. Maybe it's "name-calling" to them. Or perhaps they think he is calling them a baby. I don't know.

This morning Noble took something from Hewy and it made Hew mad. So of course Hewy yelled "Noble, you're a benny!" And then Noble firmly said back, "You're more Benny!" After a brief pause of shock that Noble had used the word and called him a benny - Hewy said, "I'm gonna punch you in the ear!"

At that point they all laughed - and so did I sitting in the quiet room listening to them above in the gameroom. I heard Liam say, "you can't even reach his ear!"

And that was the end of being mad. And calling each other Benny's for now.

Valentine Breakfast '09

Another Valentine tradition we have is Love Day breakfast.
We have heart shaped pancakes with strawberry syrup and Reddi Whip (or Squirtum as our family calls it), bacon, eggs, and drink yummy sparkling juice.

Hew just has to have a straw these days - no matter what he is drinking.
The top right picture is him shoving a whole pancake in his mouth.

Friends Cookie Party '09

And again. . .
It was all worth it. Making 300 cookies and allowing my kitchen to be taken over by 41 kids ages 2-12. They love this activity. They also love just being together. As soon as they had a few cookies decorated they all went outside to play and play and play.

Liam wasn't having fun at all - can you tell.

The aftermath.

Fun Friday

Today we had a fun Friday. First we went to a play at Trinity University. Pipi Longstockings. The boys really enjoyed it and behaved very well.

The baby is a Fife baby - G.W. is his name.

After the play we went to Lunch at Willie's with other Homeschool friends. The sandbox is always a hit!

Lead Up

Years ago I hosted this random party for my kids.
Friends Valentine Cookie Party
I baked all the cookies and let my kids invited whom ever they wanted.
Their friends brought frosting and sprinkles and I sacrificed my house to chaos.

Little did I know at that time, I was creating a wonderful tradition for our family and friends. One year I didn't do it because I was just "too overwhelmed" (ha little did I know then just what overwhelmed feels like) and I still hear about "the one time you didn't do it. Not in a bad way, but I can tell they boys really missed it that year. Sometimes I think they look forward to this event more than they look forward to Christmas or their birthdays. There is so much expectation of gifts for the other holidays, this is just about being with friends.

And no rules.
I turn my kitchen into kiddie wonderland and let them loose. They can frost, sprinkle, eat cookies anyway they want, however much they want, for just about how long the want. They can lick the knives. They can put a whole bottle of sprinkles on one cookie if they want. They can do whatever they want to!

This year, my heart just melted when people said: "Oh, we were just waiting to get our invitation!"

Stay tuned for pictures from the real event.
This is the lead up
I made over 300 cookies this year.
Noble was a big helper this year.

Oh Hail!

There were flashes of lightening and then this very odd pinging sound.
When I looked out sure enough it was hailing.
The kids were excited and little scared.
But it has been so long since we had a good storm that this is a welcome stormy night.

Liam sick day

Liam came down with a virus Monday.
Sore throat, puffy eyes, headache, cough, fever, runny nose.
yuck!

Today Bishop Miller stopped by with two boxes of Popsicles for him and a bag of throat lozenges.

Carruth Visit

It had been a couple years since our kids had seen each other.
It was the first time that I ever met David, their youngest - that is two!
We were long over due.



The Carruths are Law School friends.
James was in Alec's class at the law school at BYU.
Ruth and I were in Law Partners together.
Our older kids have attachment to each other from those days too.

It is obvious that these kids have a fondness for each other and although we have always said it would be just fine if one or more Dunn's end up marrying a Carruth - We just don't know how soon this courtship should begin! Lets just say, there was some "pairing off."

One of my favorite memories that comes to mind here is at our farewell Law Partners party back in 2005 the kids had balloon swords and one little boy started to attack one of the Carruth girls and one or both of my older boys jumped in front of them and said something like: "You'll have to go through me first!" I think they won James' (their Dad) approval then and there.

Our weekend didn't go as planned, but sometimes, that's a good thing.
We had a mini party for the kids Saturday night - complete with pinata.

I hope it's not another two years - but it might be good for the "young hearts" if it were a few years until they reunite. :)
The Carruth's are always welcome in our home and hearts.