It's Raining Teeth!!

On Wednesday, Kenzie lost a tooth. It was the second of her two front teeth. Thank heavens! She was starting to look a little 'Hillbilly' with one baby tooth half in and one adult tooth half grown.
Today, Friday, she wiggled another one free! Check out this smile - yikes! Watching the kids lose their teeth is pretty darn entertaining (in a completely gross sort of way). Kenzie's first tooth was loose for at least 2 months before it finally came out. Towards the end she could twist it all around and make it stick straight out-we all did this. The thing never sat right (disgusting). Now she's a professional and just 'works it' till the tooth comes out. Growing up is SO much fun!!

Our Jade is 7 years old - practically an adult! All she wanted was to have a party on her birthday (March 25). So, guess how I spent my Wednesday? We kicked off the festivities with a high-power game of 'Butterfly Bingo'. Then, I let the girls each decorate their own cupcake. Next, the lighting of candles, singing of songs, and blowing out of said candles. When I do the cupcake thing I let each child have one candle to blow out. Of course, eating cake and ice cream was next. Followed by presents. Bowen was so jealous he couldn't function. Had to send that child to his room because he was killing the party atmosphere. I got Jade 'Thumbelina' and after the presents were done I parked the kids in front of the TV until the parents came to claim their young. My mom was the real hero of the day for coming down to hold the baby so that I could be crowd control with two useable arms and hands.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am capable of amazing things and that I have many superpowers. Decorating cakes is NOT one of them. I'm extremely impressed by people who possess this superpower, but it is not my gift. Jade said that she wanted a white cake with a big red daisy flower in the middle and small pink flowers in the corners. UGGH! My specialty is sprinkles. No shapes or elaborate designs - sprinkles. I drew the flower on a sheet of paper then cut the flower out. I placed the paper on the frosting and shook red sugar sprinkles all over it. Then carefully peeled the paper off and Presto! Big red daisy.

Jade is such a sweetheart! She's kind to everyone and extremely thoughtful. When she gets candy at school she always shares with Kenzie. She loves to play with Kenzie and Bowen and she ADORES Talia. When she grows up, Jade wants to write books for children. She already tells people that she is "an author of children's stories". She's constantly creating little books which she writes and illustrates. We feel so lucky to have Jade in our family - we love you Jade-Jade!

The Wild Monkey Ranch

This morning Rob embarked upon a grand adventure to work on the archery range on our land in Duchesne County. Last year, Rob started this 'Buck and Pole' fence for an archery range - hopefully to keep people from being shot by arrows.

Here's a self portrait of Rob to prove it's him doing the actual work. No migrant workers at the Wild Monkey Ranch : ) These are the cross bucks that Rob finished last year. Another grand adventure....

Fence. See we do have land!

More fence - it's a large archery range. Actually, this thing is pretty good looking. Mabey I'll see if Rob wants to keep going and do the whole perimeter. It's only 10 acres. Oh, Rob just said 'NO'.

Fence again. Check out our super cool Juniper trees! Cabin - no, water - no, power - no. Fence - absolutely!!!

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I'm told that this here thing-a-ma-jig is a power inverter. It runs the drill/microwave/toaster/TV/hairdryer whatever fancy thing (any 3 things at a time) you need to survive in the wilderness - as long as your car battery/gas holds out.

Springfest Bellydancing Festival

Kenzie could hardly wait for March to get here so she could dance in front of an audience. She is such a little diva! Rob said that the more people cheered the bigger she smiled. Jade danced the best I've seen her. Kenzie loves dance class and Jade endures it. She doesn't care for early mornings - she gets that from her dad. They both felt very fancy and looked beautiful in their costumes. They had a lot of fun - and that's the most important thing!!

Yes - that's me!! I don't know that these are the best pics of me - but my outfit looks pretty cool! I wasn't sold on the head scarf or the pants (yes, those are pants). But when you get the whole thing together it looks good. I do love my pom-pom hip skirt - I think it's the best one in the group. I dance in a Tribal bellydancing troupe as opposed to a Caberet troupe. The basic difference is more clothes & less jiggle. Tribal has stronger bolder moves and Caberet has smaller more delicate moves. It's like being Xena instead of Snow White. After our dance, while we were waiting for our group photo, a couple of Middle-Eastern women tracked me down and asked if they could take a picture. I knew they were from the Middle-East because one of them was wearing a Burka (spelling ??). She was the real deal, too. I could only see her eyes, she was even wearing black gloves. The other woman was just wearing a Muslim head scarf. They were so nice and I wanted to talk to them for much longer than I was able to. But - they said that I looked the best in my troupe - that my dancing was very good and that I looked very authentic. Talk about making my day!!! I figure, a girl in a burka probably knows her bellydancing - so a compliment from her is pretty awesome.

Talia Isabelle

Check out this CUTE baby! At 8 months old, Miss Tali is getting to be quite the little person. She is quick to smile and laugh at anything and everyone. She went from sitting to crawling overnight and now she's standing up to everything and walking around the furniture. Sunday we found her first tooth. I swear it wasn't there Saturday. In hindsight, I believe on Friday I put my cheek on her head and said, "I think you're a little warm today." Other than that, no warning. That's how the other girls were...no drama, no swollen gums, no runny nose, no fever....just one day - teeth. Bowen, on the other hand, YIKES!!! Otherwise, here's what's up with Talia...
Tali likes: being packed around, people food, white chocolate chips, her mom, the cats, Bowen, the cat dish, any sort of string, sleeping in mom's bed, climbing the stairs.
Tali hates: being put down, baby food, nap time, being taken from the cat dish, being washed after a trip to the cat dish, sleeping in her crib, falling down the stairs.

Snails ATTACK!!

These days, when I leave the house, I get the most interesting messages on my voice mail. Kenzie sure is good at using the phone. Yesterday, after my long run, the messages went like this..."Mom, what is cream of tartar? Call me." and "Mom, what sort of oil is vegetable oil? I need some. Call me." I got home to find that Kenzie had learned to make play-doh in Activity Days and had been whippin' up a batch for Jade and Bowen (supervised by Rob - I use the word 'supervised' lightly). Today, Kenzie spent a bit of the afternoon creating an army of snails - ready to do her bidding and conquer the world!

Here Kitty, Kitty!!!

I didn't realize exactly what was happening when Kenzie locked herself in the bathroom with the cat. Then they came out. As you can see, Kohna is modeling almost every hair bow/flower that we own. As you can also see, it gives Kohna great pleasure to be done up so fancy. That's what you get for being a long-hair cat in a house full of girls. When Kohna chose us I bet she didn't see this one coming!

'Tis the Season!

When we were in the Bahamas last spring, we went into a boutique where they had a seashell Christmas tree. We LOVED it - we are all about the beach. So, we bought some shells and starfish so we could have a seashell tree of our own. Well all of my rusty bells and rag garlands weren't really in keeping with the beach motif so I jumped at the chance to buy all new ornaments - and since Rob was at work I was unsupervised which I took as my chance to buy things that were glittery and/or pink. I found these flamingo ornaments at Target and they were my pride and joy for the season.

Bear Lake

The weekend before Christmas we went to Bear Lake for a few days. Now, I realize that Bear Lake in December doesn't sound like much of a vacation hot spot - but it really was a lot of fun. We basically 'holed up like fugitives' for 3 days. Rob took the kids sledding one day and they loved it. I stayed at the condo with the baby and we loved that. The resort in Bear Lake has an indoor pool so we took the kids over every night - also fabulous. It really was just great to get away and relax.

Gingerbread Houses

This is the big Gingerbread House day at Grandma Waldron's house. As soon as it gets cold outside the girls start asking when they get to go to Grandma's and make Gingerbread houses. They had so much fun. Their cousins Tyler and Payton made a cute Gingerbread house also. This has become such a fun tradition!

Happy Birthday!

December 12, was Mackenzie's 9th birthday! The B-day festivities included dinner & presents at Kneaders followed by cake and ice cream at home. Kenzie got a Nintendo DS for her big present and she just loves it!! Kenzie is getting to be such a big help around the house. Jade and Bowen love it when she plays with them. She is doing great in school - we are so proud of her!

Thomas the Tank Engine aka "The Ambassador of Peace"

To say, "Bowen loves trains" is a complete understatement. What Bowen has is an all-consuming obsession. He loves the 'Thomas' trains best of all, with Thomas and Clarabelle being the current favorites. But Union Pacific, Frontrunner and Trax are just as exciting. Next to trains, Bowen's favorite thing is playing with "the girls". Unfortunately, "the girls" don't always want to play with Bowen. It's not uncommon to see Kenzie and Jade bolt from one region of the house to another with Bowen hot on their heels screaming "I want to play with the girls!" or "The girls won't play with me!" But behold, I have captured on film all three kids happily playing together. All of them like to build a fancy train track and drive the trains around on it. Sadly, this scene of childhood bliss and goodwill only lasted 20 minutes. Even if it is only a few minutes here and there, Thank you Thomas, you're a really useful engine!

The latest from "Project Central"

Here is proof that my craft room is not a black hole where projects enter, never to be seen or heard from again. I started this for my Aunt Tina 2-3 years ago. I never said I was fast. Actually, this particular project met with several pitfalls - including but not limited to: finishing the basement which rendered my sewing room inoperational for several months, the destruction of my ironing board by the local natives, planting season/harvest, and the birth of at least one child - possibly two. It isn't top stiched yet but I couldn't wait to get the pictures up!!

Here's a close up of the pieced block - It doesn't show the detail of the green fabric very well, but trust me, it's totally cute! The pattern is from an Amish quilt book. I wonder if the Amish girls are using a different system of measurement than we are. The book said these would be 10 1/2 in blocks - they are 11. Consequently, I have a few scraps left over & my corners aren't as nice as I'd like. Tina, if you want, I can cover the corners with buttons - Let me know. Perhaps I'll stick with Better Homes & Gardens from now on!

Recipes!!!

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

2 eggs

1 cup flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup oatmeal

1 3/4 cup buttermilk

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

Cooking instructions: Make like pancakes. We topped them with apple pie filling and they were so good! The kids loved them and that's saying something. They're pretty healthy, too. Before you comment, I consider pie filling a serving of fruit. And for those of you who know me... I grew the apples and bottled the pie filling myself, used one of my home grown pumpkins, and ground the whole wheat flour in my wheat grinder.

This is Kohna and the last of our pumpkins! Kohna is one of the resident fur-people living with us. Somehow she's managed to survive the pack of wild monkeys who also live here. Kohna loves: food, having her fur brushed, hiding in my box spring (I'm not kidding), and Kenzie. Kohna hates: visitors and baths.

This is Cairo. Cairo refused to sit by the pumpkin for a picture - what a brat. Cairo has patiently endured the ever-growing monkey pack for 9 years. Cairo loves: having his head scratched in the middle of the night at 2 hour intervals, sleeping on my bed, looking out over his kingdom from on top of the plant shelf, yogurt (any flavor). He thinks Amy is the supreme goddess of all things. Cairo hates: hugs and vacuums. Cairo is jealous of: Talia.

Trick or Treat!

We kicked off the Halloween festivities one week early with the carving of the pumpkins. The kids were so excited to carve pumpkins that we grew in our own yard. Now, when you're doing the pumpkin thing it's important to have - first and foremost - an elegant carving tool. Like Rob's hack saw.

This year I asked the kids to please, please, please pick costumes that we already own. I love to sew and can sew but I just didn't feel like sewing costumes. It would take time away from my other projects. They looked so cute!! We had the best trick or treat weather ever!! No coats needed - how fun is that? Lucky me, it was my year to take the kids around the neighborhood. Rob is back on next year when it will be snowing.

This is the result of my "set it and forget it" method of gardening. We grew 11 banana squash and 8 pumpkins! The biggest of the banana squash weighed in at 39 pounds. Wow. Just like our garden, the kids are growing like crazy. Kenzie is 8, Jade is 6, Bowen is 3, and Talia is a whole 4 months old.