Sweetheart Stars!

When my sweetheart asked me to make Cake Pops for an office birthday party - I thought he'd maybe lost his mind. I know he doesn't know exactly what goes into making them... but still!
Alas, I love my sweetheart and would do anything for him, including making him the most popular guy in the office by providing the awesomest dessert of Fulbright's history.

My friend Lucy came over last week and helped me make, sculpt, mold, shape and dip these little treasures. And let's just say we made Fulbright history the next day! The praise was grand. There were even a few offers to marry me if Alec should die.

Look What Love Has Done

How do you write about an experience that isn't really yours to share and yet at the same time has so deeply and profoundly impacted your own life, attitude, faith and gratitude? The prayers I have offered, the blessings I have asked for, the gratitude that has consumed my heart for the answer to those prayers and pleas for blessings. This life altering incident happened to a friend of mine. A dear friend. And it was one of those things that happens on E.R. the TV show, or Grey's Anatomy, not to real living breathing people that I know and love. I had the blessing that it happened to someone dear enough to me that they weren't afraid to ask for my help - which was making one simple phone call to the right person at the right time. As this all has unfolded my heart has swelled as I have seen others reach out to this family and serve them. I am reading a book right now titled, Look What Love Has Done. When I read the post on Sarah's blog today, that was my thought... Look what love has done.... love of our Father in Heaven, love of family and friends, love of life.
click here to read Sarah's post.

Easter 2009

This year, because we have church at 9am, we told the Easter Bunny not to come until after church. It made for an easier morning! When we returned home from church the boys first clues to find their baskets were taped to the garage door! Sneaky Rabbit.

Noble really liked his "look" this year.

One of the favorites this year, and most likely a new tradition, was the carton of Cascarones that each boy got in their basket. (cascarones are confetti filled eggs that you smash on peoples heads.) They are popular around here during fiesta but they also have them for Easter. In the past the boys have always wanted their own, and now they have them!
See the confetti in their hair below!

Hewy Easter 09

Little kids make holidays so much fun.
Hewy really enjoyed running from clue to clue to find the next clue and eventually his basket. He receives a new rubber ducky every year - this year it was green! He really liked the chocolate rabbit too. He is at such a fun age for holidays and traditions.

Easter Eggs

Dyeing Easter Eggs is always so much fun!




Everyone participated and had a good time.




Hewy really enjoyed Easter this year. From the egg hunt and dyeing eggs to the clues to find his basket and of course ALL the candy!




I noticed while we were decorating eggs that everyone kept sticking out their tongues in a "thinking" or "concentrating" pose. It was kind of funny. Here is a sampling that I caught in pictures. My commenting on it led to a competition to see who could touch their nose with their tongue. Hewy and Alec can!

Cape, take two

So the cape that I made for the super hero party that Hewy had been invited to... disappeared. (click here to see the post about the first cape) Where exactly does a cape go? I remember taking to Grandma and Grandpa's and him saying on the way home he had forgotten it. Alec remembered him falling asleep with it on and taking it off of him, but couldn't remember what night that was. We looked everywhere. Grandma and Grandpa looked everywhere.

So I made a new cape.
Everyone likes this cape better.



Later the same day. . . Alec found the cape stuck down between his bed and the wall.
Urg! Why is this always the case?

But, like I said, Everyone likes this one better.

Happy Easter Everyone

Just a Hoppy Note to everyone. I hope you have a happy Easter and that the true spirit of the day touches your hearts and families.

Easter Egg Hunt

Auntie Anna hosts an Egg Hunt every year.


Hewy really got into it this year!



The older boys enjoyed helping Hewy find eggs and teaching him to open them.



Liam had figured out that some of the eggs had spare change in them so he went around shaking eggs and found his ten with money in them! Great mind!


Noble participated, but he wasn't all too excited about it.
He never returned and reported to show me his eggs or basket.
When I look for him he was off talking to his friends.
Growing up. . . is hard on Momma

Liam

There is a story here about the video and it isn't just about biking.

I asked Liam one day why when I am taking video of Hewy he always comes in and talks or gets in the picture. He replied that I never take video of him. I then told him sweetly that it is because all he does is watch TV!

Liam has had this bike for two years and we took the training wheels off of it over a year ago. But he has had no desire to ride it at all. He didn't want to learn while others were watching and having other kids in the neighborhood kind of put a kink in that plan.

But one day we were at a friends house and I looked out - and he was riding his friends bike! WHAT? The older brother of this family was helping him get started and once he was going he was gone.

It still took a few weeks until he came in the other days and said: Mom I can ride my bike! And he can.

So here - have a look at my awesome boy that taught himself to ride a bike and did something besides watch TV so that I could video it! :)

Lisa

Lisa and the boys

Lisa leaves for BYUI (Brigham Young University Idaho) on Monday.
We will miss her. They boys made her cards.
She will be back for 7 weeks in late July / August.

Cake Bites

Too Cute!

We all know that I love Bakerella's blog.
click here to go there now

I made these Cake Bites, like cake pops - minus the stick, for our Fair Well Lisa Party tomorrow. I'm in love with them and they are yummy too! You may think they look too cute to eat but let me tell you - the yumminess outweighs the cuteness. Yes, really.

Super H!

Hewy has been invited to a birthday party. This may be the first non-family birthday party he has been invited to... and it's a super hero party. They asked that the kids dress up as Super Heroes. I just can't wait to see all these three and four year olds dressed up! How fun!

So what a perfect time to make Hewy a cape.
He is always running through the house saying "Super H!" as he has one arm raised to fly like Superman.
I haven't gotten any pictures of him wearing it yet, but I will, I promise.

No, I didn't make two capes, it's reversible!

I used this blog, Puking Pastilles, as my inspiration
click here to go there now.

The Toast and Jam phase

Is it just Hewy or do all kids go through phases where they only want one thing to eat over and over and over and over and over? Hewy loves chocolate milk. But recently he is switching his favorite food pretty quickly. This was last weeks favorite. Toast and jam. The week before that it was bananas. This week it seems to be cheese sandwiches cut into a star shape.

What ever the favorite food is, he wants it breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.



This is the face we looked at all last week and how it is achieved.

This was a different day - but you can see he fell asleep after his toast and jam.

Jumping Jacks

I wish I had this little boys energy!

Cake Pops - not mastered

Alec's sister, Christy, and her family came to SA last weekend.
Friday night Alec took the men (Dell, Dad, Rob) to a Spurs game.
That left the women (Dixie, Anna, Christy, Mom) and kiddos
(Noble, Liam, Hewy, Henry, Emily, Katie and Jeffrey) at home. (humph)
Anna came up with a great idea, to make Cake Pops.
It was fun and the kids really got into it.
I can't wait to try again, now that I have learned a thing or two.


Liam and Katie rolling balls

One of Liam's first cake pops

Hewy thinks they are very good.

Here are a few finished yummies

Sea World

We went to Sea World last weekend.
Alec's sister and her family were visiting SA.
Two things to note - I don't a have a single picture from Sea World of anyone but our family and the pictures I do have are not great. BUT we had a great time!!!!



Noble and Liam's favorite part of this trip was going on roller-coasters with Grandpa Val. They still talk and talk about it.

Hewy won this frog at one of those carnival type games. I will never forget the image of him running across the court yard with this frog in front of him and screaming as he ran to me - "I WON A FROG! I WON A FROG! I WON A FROG!"

Granted it was a Saturday and we as a general rule do not go to Sea World on Saturdays, but it was the BUSIEST it has ever been before. There was one mob of people I wasn't sure we were going to make it out of. Whew.
It was some armed forces day, some Baylor University day AND, AND (yes double and for effect) Christian family day.
The good part about the last thing - they showed a VeggieTales movie in the theater about having patience with God and the promises he makes! (I want to say only in Texas would this happen. (that they show a Christian movie at a theme park), but I don't know)

Hewy and Mom

Hewy and I were enjoying some down time at Sea World.
Love this little boy o' mine.

April Fools!

The boys were excited to play April Fools jokes on each other.
This one is Jell-o in a glass and they told their Dad it was Fruit Punch.

Other April Foolishness that went on this year was that 2 gallons of our milk had turned blue and purple. I told the boys they had slept until 1 o'clock when I got them up that morning at 7am. Hewy kept telling me he was never going to nap again! At dinner I told the boys that Daddy wasn't sitting by me because he was mad at me. Noble and Liam played lots of little pranks on each other all day.

Over Tired Hewy

I am not a mean Mom.

This is just honest to life footage.

Listen carefully: he is crying because he wants a muffin, which he is holding, and chocolate milk, which I knew he already had in the kitchen - and he had put himself in the sad chair.

What happened here?

Have you ever seen my Study?
Not likely as I keep this door closed. As closed as I can living with three boys.

But if you have sneaked a peek, you know this is not what it generally looks like. It usually resembles a mountain of paper, books, boxes and other odd things that have no home.

Look what Lisa hath done!



This is one of the last projects that Lisa will do before she heads off to BYUI in 10 days. I couldn't be happier. Happier with the Study, not that Lisa is leaving. That thought brings me literally to tears if I think too much about it. (I blame pregnancy hormones for those tears) Today was nice to sit on the floor and go through stuff as she handed it to me. It's one of those rooms you go in now just to look at it.

Oh, and last week she did the "Under the Stairs" closet/storage area that literally had not been unpacked since we moved here! Whatever will I do without her?!

Evidence

This is evidence that Hewy brushes his teeth and does ACT rinse afterwards How so? Well you see, he brushes his teeth and then he has me brush his teeth. Then he does ACT rinse while I count, s-l-o-w-l-y to 20, and then he spits. I was in the other room counting for him today when I heard him spit just as I said "20!" When I went back in this is what I found I on the mirror.