The Day Baby Guy Turned Two and Dropped the "Baby" Prefix.

Reese and Quincy thoughtfully planned a Toy Story 2 party for Corbin's second birthday. We had Toy Story plates, cups, cupcake toppers and decorations.

Look at the love that went into those decorations. Reese spent an entire afternoon drawing, coloring and cutting out every character from Toy Story 2. Then she carefully glued them onto the birthday bunting we made to go above the table. It was really cute. Reese and Corbin have a very special relationship. It was sweet to see the girls take extra care to make sure that Corbin had a good birthday.

He enjoyed the part when we sang to him.
He did not enjoy the part when I set his cupcake on fire.

He collected the Buzz and Woody cupcake toppers from everyone and spoke to each of the characters as he placed them on his own cupcake. We aren't sure what he said to them, but I'm guessing it was along the lines of, "I am going to eat you now." because that's exactly what happened next.

He wasted no time and went right in for the cake face dive.

Happy Birthday, Corbin Mac!

I don't need the excuse of a birthday to brag about how cool my kids are, but I refuse to pass up an opportunity. Corbin is the sweetest baby boy. When I was pregnant, people constantly told me how exhausting it would be to raise a boy, and that I'd better rest up now, because boys are rude, rough, rowdy and rotten. Well, all I have to say to those people is, BOYS. ARE. EASY.

Sure, he keeps me on my toes, he's messy, he runs right into the street, and he likes to throw stuff. But raising this kid has been a cakewalk. He is the sweetest little buddy and is very generous with his affection. He loves his family, his Rubbie (paci), eating, Buzz, the chickens, cars, sticks, blankies, playing outside, balls, horses, and dogs. He loves to snuggle. He furrows his brow and leaves his mouth hanging open when he watches tv. He loves to read books about animals. His favorite friends are Reagan and Claire and he talks about them all the time. He is such a happy little guy. His favorite book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. He loves to wear his Buzz and Woody jammies. His new favorite toys are his talking Buzz and his Lightning MaQueen car (that I hope the batteries wear off on soon). Corbin is a smart little guy, he loves to make us laugh and copies everything he hears his sisters say. Lately, my favorite phrases of his are "hey, guess what?", "aw maaaan!", "ohhhh nevermind." and "knock knock who's there banana! hahahahaha!"

I love this little boy so much.
I love his always dirty face and feet.
I love that he is always sticky, and just like the day he was born, he still smells like cupcakes.

Happy Birthday, Baby Little Boy.

A Boy and His Grandpa

Corbin is a carbon copy of photos of my dad at this age.

It is quite fitting that they are so fond of each other.

Harvested

Eight crowns of broccoli have been picked. We ate a few and the rest of the lot were blanched and frozen. Yesterday, we pulled out the stalks and planted seeds for more broccoli, cilantro, and dill in it's place. Success!

Prayers for Joplin

This is Aaron.

I spent the day working in Joplin, Mo and will go back up tomorrow morning to help again. The devastation is worse than I imagined after seeing it on tv. Today we cleaned up yards and cut down trees that had fallen on houses. All that was left of some of these buildings were the cement foundations. Some of the piles of houses that you see on the tv coverage are actually piles of other houses down the street that were blown to new locations and dumped there. I heard today that a bunch of the medical records from the files at the Joplin hospital have been found in Springfield, Mo two hours away. Debris is everywhere. They've even found medical records in Indianna.

Looking at the mess, I cannot believe that only 139 people have died. You would think there would have only been 139 people alive. I talked to some of the homeowners we were helping today. They lived in older homes and waited out the storm in their basements. They said that the storm passing over them while they hid in their basement sounded like they were being run over by a freight train, and since the tornado was not traveling at a very fast past, it just sat on these neighborhoods and stirred up the houses into soup. It must have been so sad for them to finally come out of their basements after the storm and see everything above them had been destroyed. Some people are left with nothing, others are sleeping in the non-damaged parts of their homes under the parts of the roof that are left. The electric company is working through to get power back to these houses, but their water is still under boil order. It was clear that the people we helped today were poor to begin with, and I felt so bad for them that they are still sleeping in their houses. Their houses were still standing, but they aren't really liveable. The rubble smells bad, there are bugs everywhere, it is humid and it got up to 90 degrees today.

I feel glad that I could help them, and there were a lot of volunteers there. 150 men from our stake were requested to help this weekend and 300 showed up. We came home tonight because the campsite for volunteers was full. It was great to see so many able to volunteer. It was difficult work and a lot of it was more than manpower could handle. A group of guys can't lift chunks of a roof, and chainsaws can only do so much to cut things into manageable pieces. They need to use sawzalls but don't have any electricity in many areas, so we did what we could bit it is like picking away in small bites. There were bobcats there to help move debris into the dumptrucks and our job was to make the debris accessible and get it to the street so the bobcats could get to it. At this rate it will take them years to recover.

Please continue to pray for these people. It is going to be a long recovery for them. They need all the help we can give.

I Confess...

Sometimes, I get mad or upset and have a difficult time letting it go and moving on.

When this happens, Aaron turns on Wipeout, then sits back, and waits.

I sit there, fuming, and insist his plan isn't going to work.

But it's like a train wreck can't not watch
and I can't not laugh.
So then I get even more mad at Aaron for using a cheap tv show to make me not mad at him.

But then someone gets nailed in the head with a foam propeller and I can't stop laughing.
and Aaron congratulates himself on another victory.

Thanks, Wipeout.

Easter

The kids were up waaaaaay to early on Easter Sunday.

The egg hunting began immediately. The eggs had traditional Willy House contents of mini oreos, goldfish, mini marshmallows, teddy grahams, peanut butter filled pretzels, jelly beans, and other goodies and each kid got a baggie to dump their treats into to make a snack mix for the movie. We watched The Lamb of God and talked about the Last Supper, the Atonement, the Resurrection, and the Sacrament with the kids. I love that they are getting old enough to really participate and add to discussions about gospel principles.


The Young Women in our ward held a fundraiser for girls camp that weekend, so we bought orange rolls from them to have for breakfast.

Corbin was a big fan.

The Easter baskets held new gluesticks for school, watercolors, Tinkerbell and Tiana underwear, a car, Peeps (gross), and the movie Despicable Me.

The girls were able to wear their Easter dresses from last year again (thanks, Auntie HolleeAnn!) and their dolls wore dresses to match. I wanted to take a picture in front of our dogwood like we usually do, but it was so stormy outside that we forgot about a photo until everyone was in pajamas again.

I baked a spiral ham, rolls, and fingerling potatoes in browned butter (new addiction...as if butter couldn't get any bettter-it can!) for dinner. Everything was really yummy and some of the leftover ham went into a pot of beans the next day. Perfect for a rainy rainy rainy weekend.

I love my little family.

{29}

29 sounds older than 30, if you ask me, and I wasn't particularly thrilled about getting older. I never thought I'd be that girl who whines about her age, but I still feel 25, and that's where I'd rather be. I had a wonderful birthday that started out with a 5 mile run with Darcie and Tanya, then a trip to the farmers market, where they handed out dozens and dozens of free tulip bulbs (I can't wait to plant them in the fall! and free? excellent.), I got home just in time to head back out the door with my family for soccer games.

The girls played well and the games ended just in time for the sky to turn black and the rain to come pouring down. We headed to Fayetteville anyway and had delicious cookies and pettite fours at Rick's Bakery (I rate that place 5 stars. You KNOW it's a good bakery when they their plain old sugar cookie is something you crave daily.) The kids loved sitting at the counter and watching the ladies behind the glass decorate elaborate cakes with fondant and fancy piping. Aaron picked up a little cake for me (chocolate on chocolate) to bring home and continue festivities throughout the entire weekend (which I loved).

We also went to the Cricket store and got a new phone. I still don't know how to work it, and our phone service is still total crap and I still drop 3 calls a day if I walk into certain parts of my house or drop my foil antannae hat, but it is nice to hear better reception and have a phone with a battery that lasts longer than 45 minutes. Also, the new phone has web access, so that's fun. It also has one of those fancy touch screens, so if you recieve a text that says something like "re ctgan atia I dobn,t Kdjnboooow on sTURDAy" --just know it's from me.

Our friends watched the kids that night and we went to dinner at Table Mesa (another favorite of mine, I can't get enough of their flautas and sweet potato fries), and our waitress surprised us with a key lime tres leches. I am ordinarily not a fan of tres leches cakes (too soggy), but the key lime version was tart and fabulous! We were stuffed to the muff with guac and dinner and couldn't even finish it.

Weak sauce, I know. Aaron and I were disappointed with our inability to make room and muscle down something so good and so free. After dinner we went to Hanks Fiiiiiiiiiiiine Furniture to look at sofas (and realize we did not like anything in the store), a task that would have not been productive with the kids in tow.

The next day, I slept in until 7:30, had banana pancakes a la Chef(s) Willy Kids.
That night we ate cake.

It was a great birthday.

I am so grateful God has blessed me with everything I've ever wanted out of life: A loving husband, awesome children, good health, good friends, a job that I love, and a lovely home of my own.

I'm working on crossing things off my list of 30 things I'd like to do by the time I turn 30. There are a few things I don't think are going to happen (leave the country), but I'm starting a couple other projects this year that are not on the list that are bigger and more important anyway.

29 will be good. It is good.

Duh, Winning!

Over the weekend, I'm hoping to get caught up and publish all of the 1/2 written blogs that I never posted. In April-May, we had 2 Birthdays, Mother's Day, Easter, a Marathon, a Preschool Picnic, a Preschool Graduation, a Kindergarten Graduation, a College Graduation, a lot of severe weather, Grandparents visit, a road trip, and so much more happen. Forgive me for the mass posts that will flood this blog in the next few days.

The Marathon:

Ok, so the matchie outfits actually were not planned. We both brought shorts/skirts and tanks, because it was supposed to be hot. A storm blew through the day before the race and when we got there it. was. freezing! Like so cold and windy that you RUN to the car from the restaurant and get back in the car to warm up while you wait for your gas tank to fill at the pump.

We started the race running into 30mph wind and near freezing and very wet conditions. It was not good. I wondered during the first 3 miles if I was physically going to even be able to run 26 miles in this. After about mile 5, the wind settled to a breeze that was just right. What what?!

Only 7 miles to go, babeh! Too bad they're ALL uphill!



Hills, shmills. We didn't climb run Tiger and Crystal Bridges a fazillion times over the last 4 months for nothing.

Darcie finished her first half marathon with a smokin' time of 2:16! This girl has only been running for like 7 months! Are you kidding me? Go Darcie!

Kasey cruising through the finish line. We were timed right in step and so happy to finish this race together. Love it!

And now I know I can run a marathon.

I ran a marathon.

We finished strong and were nowhere near last place.

Nowhere near first place, either, but

did we win?

did I love it?

will I do it again?

Oh, absolutely.

When it isn't Raining,

two little fairies like to frolic in the backyard.

Commencement

Hey beautiful girl,
You did it! Little Dolly, today was your day! You got to leave school early for a picnic with Mom and Dad at sissy's school, see your old preschool teachers, go out on a special date to a restaurant (Atlanta Bread Co-your favorite!) with Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Pumpkin, then come home and have the computer all to yourself for a whole hour! You kept saying, "I can't believe it! I can't believe I'm graduating today!" I loved the special time we spent together curling your hair and getting you dressed for your big performance. When you were ready to go, you asked me if Daddy or your friends would recognize you, because you looked so different with curls. It was so funny. Of course they'll recognize you! Who could mistake that great smile and those little freckles for anyone else? You did a great job singing with your friends in the program tonight. My favorite part was when you waved to me from the risers and threw kisses to the crowd like a pageant queen on a parade float.

I love you so very much Reese Olivia. You are a good, kind girl. You are a smart girl. You are a brave girl. You were once my teeny tiny baby, so helpless that you needed me for everything. You are growing more independent every day and have become quite a responsible young lady. You have a very mature mind for a 6 year old, and I love that about you. I value your ideas. You are a funny girl. You are a hard working girl. I am so proud of you for your determination and effort this year.

And now, you can read!

Way to go! You are "first grade bound" and I am so happy for you and your accomplishments.

I love the person you are,
-Mom

Did You See

...the latest Jenny McCarthy video that is currently going around on facebook?

I fear that more people are listening to her advice, because it is what is in front of them, rather than heeding advice of medical professionals, with proven successful results. No one is sitting around with a medical journal on their lap, but everyone is on facebook.

Here are a few facts for everyone:
-The United States just reached a 15 year high for Measles cases.

-The Pertussis outbreak continues to spread and kill infants.

-oh, and one more, wait what's that? Jenny McCarthy has a new antivaccine book coming out?

Someone put a muzzle on that woman.
There are still people out there that actually believe her.

Good Eats?

I made a double batch of playdough this morning for my preschool.
I came into the kitchen to find Quincy gagging. She spit up a huge wad of playdough that she had tried to eat. Sick.

I can't get the girl to eat a piece of turkey to save her life, but quarters, playdough, and wads of toilet paper? Anytime. Gross.

"Well Kip, frankly, I'm a little concerned about your mode of transportation"

Me: Reese, it's almost dinner time. Go hop in the shower, real quick.

Reese: [rolls eyes] Um, ok, but walking seems more practical.

Blood for Joplin

So a devastating tornado hit Joplin, Mo (40 min north of us) yesterday. Half the city is flattened the hospital was destroyed, and many people are injured and or homeless. Oh, and to add insult to injury, we have severe storms in the forecast for the next few days. Yowza.

Joplin needs blood.

There is a blood drive happening on Walton Blvd until 6pm tonight.
If you've been thinking about donating blood, now is a great opportunity to do so.

I'll even watch your kids for you :)

So drop off the kiddies at my house for party time and go meet up with the husband for a romantic monday evening date of giving. Do it! Go! You have lots of blood, and you will make more. And some people have rare blood types (ahem) and need to have your fancy blood types given to them.

Given.

Yup, blood cannot be "faked" or substituted with a man-made supplement.
And blood can't be purchased (because then there would be a line of junkies out the door, waiting to get cash for their blood that can't even be used).

It must be given.
Take a book. Enjoy the peace. Your kids can run wild at my house.

Friendly Frogs Under the Sea

Literature:
Book: Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andreae
Book: Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
This is a classic and I highly recommend it for every house with small children.
Book: Sharks by Scholastic Books

Dramatic Play: Underwater Adventure I used a roll of blue tablecloth, Busy Bee artwork, and crepe paoper to decorate the classroom like the ocean. Let them be a fish, and octopus, a shark, an eel, a whale, a squeaky dolphin, a crab, a starfish…

Fine Motor Centers:
Ocean Adventure magnet scene
Let's Go Fishing!
Art: Square Rainbow Fish

I gave each of the children 7 precut squares in varying sizes and colors and encouraged them to create their very own Rainbow Fish.

Math: Sorting seashells by color, shape, and size

Science: Land Animals vs Water Animals Chart

We used the flannel board to sort which animals live in water and which live on land.

Science: Sharks!

We read the shark book and talked about different kinds of sharks. Some are large, but others are small. Some are freshwater sharks. Some sharks have a funny shaped head! I showed them a shark tooth and we looked at pictures of the inside of a shark's mouth. I pointed out the multiple rows/sets of teeth on a shark. We learned that a person who studies sharks is called an Oceanographer.

Practical Life: What do fish need to live? Why can’t we live under water?

Language: adding to our list of P Words

Gross Motor: Crab Walk! How I wish I had taken a photo of this one....it was hysterical. Of course, they would probably say the same thing about me, since I demonstrated how to crab walk for them and I am certain I looked ridiculous. I set up some sea shells and encouraged the children to crab walk around each of the shells and back to their seat. Soooo funny. My favorite part was when Claire told me she can't crab walk because "fishes don't have arms, Mrs Meg! That's so silly!" I'll remember to have a photo of a crab to show the children next time. Too cute.

Music and Movement: Aquatic Songs
A Sailor Went to Sea Sea Sea
Slippery Fish
Tiny Turtle Tim
Baby Shark
Down by the Bay

Snack: ocean blue jell-o, gold fish pretzels and cheddar whales

Sensory: Magic Beans!
I bought a pack of those water-soluble capsules that have the tiny sponges in them. The children picked out capsules, looked at the photo on the package, and guessed which type of sea creature their capsule would be. They had to wait a few minutes and massage the capsules in their hands to get them to dissolve, but it was worth the wait. I did this activity during transportation week and they loved it. No surprise that it was a big hit again!



Boo. Under the Sea week usually means the school year is almost over.
I am going to miss them.

With a cluck cluck here and a cluck cluck there...

L-R: Penny, Goldilicious, Eleanor, Scoutie and Nugget

Thanks to all of our friends that donated scrap wood, trim, tar paper, and roof shingles to make this project VERY inexpensive. Do you love it more knowing it is made mostly from recycled materials? I do. I only ended up purchasing the hardware (it is not easy to make a coop predator proof, btw), wire mesh, some 2x4s and 3 sheets of OSB.

the nesting box opens from the outside for easy daily access to the eggs.

Details:

I reused some old closet hardware as hangers for the feed and water, but soon realized that the hens were using the hooks to roost on at night. I moved the water, and cut the old closet rod to make a roost inside the coop. They love it even more than their outdoor roost. I also added a barrier to the front of the nesting box to help keep the shavings in there and out of the water dish.

Reese helped me paint. Cute, right?

Yeah, our hens are totally spoiled. We love them. Hopefully, they'll be grateful and give us eggs in about 11-12 weeks!