April showers?

I thought April meant rain not snow! Then again I should know better since April is Colorado's third snowiest month. First is March and second is November. So even though we have had some beautiful sunny and warm days this spring already, today is WINTER again. I am cold and unmotivated to do much of anything.

I have been a busy little crafter this week. I made this the other night and started on this one. I love just hanging out and "yarning" like Emma used to call it.

I took the 2 littles to the grocery store the other day for their big re-grand opening party. That was our excitement for the day. Free food in the form of little tiny samples. Kelli enjoyed everything. Jack was in a 2 year old mood and didn't want anything until after Kelli had eaten his sample. She even got her picture taken by the artichoke guy. He was serving chili with artichoke leaves for dipping. She was really enjoying hers so the man asked to take her picture for his promo department. It will probably be on their website soon. I'll let you know about it then.

Kelli also had cake and sushi and bread and meringue cookies and oatmeal and waffles and cut up fruit and brie and crackers. I think that's it. Pretty funny since the girl could eat mac and cheese every single day of her life for lunch. Who'd a thought she liked anything else?!

Tonight we are going to an open house for our friends that have just finished a house to flip. They were hoping to do kind of an outdoor thing, but the snow is really coming down now. We'll have to see how that turns out.

And the snow has really put a damper on Jack E's potty training! LOL I guess once it warms up he'll be back to peeing in the grass. But for today, he's just using those pull ups!

peep show for the neighbors once again!

Kelli used to be known in our neighborhood as 'naked Kelli' since she would disrobe way too often in the backyard. D was quite concerned about her love of jumping on the trampoline in the nude.

Well today was Jack E's turn. When I had my friend's kids here yesterday, one of the little boys had to go so just stopped his outside play and peed in the grass. I know they do this all the time at home or hiking or whatever so I didn't say anything. But Jack E saw him. He thought it was so funny that his friend would pee outside. He's been wanting to do it ever since.

Today after lunch he had his chance! The top half of him was still in superman jammies complete with a little red cape. He pulled his pull-up down to his ankles and let it go right there. The part of me that just wants to be finished with diapers was really proud of him. Got that pull-up back up and ran off to play.

Then he thought he might have to go a little more. So he wandered around the back yard with the pull-up around his ankles till he finally kicked it off. True to his Y chromosome, he never took his hand off his "handle". He didn't have to go anymore so we finally got him to put his pull-up back on.

But it was quite a site seeing our little superman peeing in the grass with his cape waving in the breeze. Trey got a picture but I don't think it's G rated so we'll skip it for now! LOL

what do you eat?

I was listening to the radio this morning and they were discussing a study done in the UK where families say they really only eat the same 6 dishes at home. I don't mean that a cut of meat or type of dish made up the list of the 6 dishes, but actually the exact same 6 recipes. Their reasons were things like fast and family likes it, don't want to look up new recipes, don't know how to cook anything else and always have the same ingredients on hand.

I admit that I tend to have many of the same ingredients on hand all the time. But give me a pound of ground beef and I could make a dozen different things with it. Maybe it's because we buy our meat as a quarter of beef or a huge batch of mixed pieces of pork. I grew up like that, too. My mom had to get creative with some of that stuff. And in the summer since we get our veggies from the farm and don't pick what's in the basket at all, we have learned to try new veggies. And find yet another thing to do with zucchini.

I am really blessed that my kids like a lot of different foods, too. And they don't always expect their food to look the same. If they know there is stuff on the table they like, they are happy. And my big boys are the kind that think their mom is THE best cook ever.

I must say that we do have some old standby's here, though. We do have eggs about once a week. They are fast and cheap. And I don't have to do any preplanning. I serve waffles or muffins with them and whatever fruit is in season. And for a while we were having homemade pizza every Friday night. But now it's a little complicated with Trey's guitar lesson when I need to be shaping pizza dough. I think there is some comfort in having the old standby's. I know that meatloaf will always be a winner. And my tangy porkchops in the crock pot is a great way to deal with bone in random cuts of pork. But I can't imagine having them all the time.

she did so great!

I was so proud of Emma at the dentist the other day. She has had such a hard time even getting in the chair and opening her mouth before, but this time she did awesome! She had her valium beforehand that worked great. Then they gave her the "goofy air". She did well with all of it. And our dentist was awesome at hiding that big ol' needle full of novacaine! He got the bad tooth out and we'll go back in a few weeks to get a couple more out.

I also made an appointment for the older kids to get their teeth cleaned in June once they are out of school. And Jack E and Kelli have a cleaning appointment in May. This will be Jack E first time. I'm hoping he'll just let them look. Then he can back in the fall for more of a look.

Trey and Clay were both home sick yesterday. And Aleena came home in the morning saying she felt dizzy. Thankfully D was still home to go pick her up since I was up the mountain at work. Both the big boys are back today. Trey's been out of school for almost 2 weeks after spring break and his virus. But Aleena is still home today. She did throw up last night so I don't blame her for being pretty cautious this morning.

Now it's time to get Kelli ready for preschool. It's raining and snowing here today. I'd really like to just get back into bed and read. Do you think anyone would notice?

just a bruise

That's what the ENT had to say yesterday about Kelli's ear. He was great. He looked at it and said, "that's what I was hoping it would look like". Only the skin is bruised but the cartilage underneath is still healthy. It will take a while to heal but it will all be fine.

The drama for today is taking Emma to the dentist to see about her cracked/broken premolar. Not sure what she did to it on Sunday. I think it probably had a cavity that left it weak. We'll see. Her appointment isn't until after lunch so I am sending her to school this morning to keep her mind off of it. She seriously HATES going to the dentist. I will be picking up a prescription for valium for her before we go. And even then I'm hoping that she will let the dentist look in there. My friend is coming over after lunch to watch Jack E and Kelli so I can give Emma my undivided attention.

Wish me luck!