I Guess She Doesn't Like Yogurt

I tried feeding Whitney some organic, plain yogurt today. I don't think she's a fan!!!

Emma and Audrey

These are the girls that I watch during the day. They are sisters and really, really good girls. Emma is 21 months and Audrey is almost 7 months. Whitney loves playing with Emma, but still thinks Audrey is a chew toy. Poor Audrey! They get here at 7:45 every morning and leave around 5:30 every night. During the day I watch the 4 kids (Aiden, Whitney, Emma, and Audrey). At 3:00 Connor joins the mix along with all the neighbor kids!!! It's a full house, but we have lots of fun. There's never a dull moment, that's for sure!

Whitney saw me taking a pic of the girls. She crawled over as fast as she could, got in position, and smiled. She's such a ham! She can't understand why I would take a pic of anyone else. lol!

My New Favorite Thing

I'm addicted to Freezer Jam!!! It's so good. I could never eat Jelly from the store ever again. I like to make a bunch and put in in a big bowl instead of jars. I didn't know it would be so easy to make or I would have been making this a long time ago. YUMMY!!!

Here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS
2 cups crushed fresh strawberries
2 cups sugar
1 (1.75 ounce) package dry pectin
3/4 cup water

DIRECTIONS
Mix crushed strawberries with sugar, and let stand for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, stir the pectin into the water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 1 minute. Stir the boiling water into the strawberries. Allow to stand for 3 minutes before pouring into jars or other storage containers.
Place tops on the containers, and leave for 24 hours. Place into freezer, and store frozen until ready to use.

Boys and Their Dogs

No one can get Jeremy out of his poopy mood better than Kayla. The other day he actually said to me... "Isn't it weird that Kayla is an animal?" I looked at him and said... "NO!!!!" That is the difference between Jeremy and me, he thinks Kayla is one of our children and I think she's a dog. Either way though, she's part of our family and we love her!

Saturday

Ok... so, Connor had a soccer game Saturday. We really didn't have anything else to do that day so we just waited around until his game at 2:40. We get in the car. Got our snacks, blankets, toys, diaper bag, etc... We get lost on our way to the park (we've only been there once before and it's about 20 minutes from our house). I call my sister Tara - no blog to see but here's a pic
of her. She's awesome!!! Anyway, so she is guiding us how to get there using google maps. Finally!!! We find it. We unload the kids, the stroller, the bags, the blankets, etc... walk all over looking for field #19. Can't find it. Someone tells us "There is no field #19 here, your game is probably at Swarner Park." Ugggg!!! We've only been to Swarner Park once before too and even longer ago. It's 40 minutes away. So, we load all the CRAP back in the van, call Tara so she can tell us how to get there. Tara is at the grocery store and can't help us. Amy and Jeremy are fighting because we both think we know the better way to get there. Jeremy gets tired of Amy telling him where to go so he pulls over and lets Amy drive. We arrived at the park about 5 minutes later. ;) As soon as we get there, unload our crap, find field #19 all the kids are lining up to shake the other teams hands. The game is over. Connor and Aiden hurry and are first in line at the cooler to get their snacks!!!!

Connor's soccer game

After the boys finished eating their snack they immediately ran over to play at the park. You can tell Connor isn't AT ALL disappointed about missing the game.

Straight Up Pimpin'

Whitneys looking fly with her hat over to the side. lol! She loves the swings at the park!

Ready for Kindergarten???

This is Aidens artwork from downtime the other day. He was turning the receiver volume up one notch at a time so he could copy the number. The TV was off so there wasn't any sound. I walked in when the volume was up to 24.

Almost Walking

Whitney's new thing is to grab hold onto anything that will move to help her navigate from point A to point B. I guess crawling on hardwood floors is getting old.

Green Beans and Peaches

Is there anything cuter than a baby chowing down on green beans and peaches???

Play Date

Connor had a half day at school today so we had one of his friends over for a play date. They figured out the intercom on the cordless phones and all they wanted to do was talk to each other on the phone even though they were right next to each other. They just kept calling each other, saying "hi", and then hanging up so they could call each other again. lol!

Earth Day

What can YOU do to help the Earth? Being that today is Earth Day, here are some things that you can do to help protect our most valuable respurce:

Re-route your commute.
Walk or bike to work and save money on gas and parking while improving your cardiovascular health and reducing your risk of obesity.

Buy used.
Whether you’ve just moved to a new area or are looking to redecorate, consider a service like craigslist or FreeSharing to track down furniture, appliances, and other items, rather than buying them new. Check out garage sales and thrift stores for clothing and other everyday items.

Buy local.
Shop at your local farmers’ market. Though the offerings can be more expensive, you can generally count on a higher quality product—and the entire purchase price goes directly to the farmer. Buying any goods produced locally saves energy by reducing the fossil fuels needed to transport food and other items across the country and around the globe.

Change the thermostat setting and install energy saving devices.
Setting your thermostat a few degrees lower in the winter and a few degrees higher in the summer can translate to substantial savings on your utility bills.
Install low-flow showerheads and take shorter showers to save water and the energy used to heat it. Or, consider eventually installing a solar hot water heater on your property.
Wash clothes in cold water whenever possible and use a drying rack or clothesline. When incandescent bulbs burn out, replace them with longer-lasting, low-energy compact fluorescent bulbs.

Skip the bottled water at the grocery or convenience store.
Filter your tap water for drinking rather than using bottled water. Not only is bottled water expensive, but it produces large amounts of container waste.

Use safe, non-toxic cleaning products. Save money, time, and your indoor air quality.

The company I shop with is Melaleuca, The Wellness Company. Melaleuca researches, develops and manufactures over 350 household consumable products we all use and run out of every single day. Melaleuca guarantees that they will never use harmful ingredients such as Formaldehyde, Phenols, NTA’s, chlorine Bleach and many other hazardous chemicals and this is just one of the reasons for the company’s success.

Melaleuca is a wholesale shopping club much like a Costco or Sam’s Club who has been around since 1985 with continued growth every single year. They are committed to protecting our environment as well as the health of their consumers. Their products will save you money, they work better, and will help you, your family, and our environment be a healthier place for everyone.

Learn about the toxins and harmful ingredients in store brand products and why Melaleuca is the best choice out there! Send me an email at catesar@gmail.com if you would like more information on how/where you can try these products for yourself.

Have a HAPPY EARTH DAY!

Our Little Tom Sawyer

Saturday Jeremy dug up a bunch of concrete in our back yard. He broke it all up into small pieces so that the kids could carry the pieces. He told them that as soon as all the pieces were picked up and moved that we would take them to Worlds of Fun. That didn't mean too much to them until we went to http://www.worldsoffun.com/ and showed them what it was.
So yesterday, after school, Connor was ready to get right on it! He recruited our neighbors to come and help and got them doing most of the work. He talked them into coming back again today after school to finish the job.
We weren't planning on them getting done until June.... oops!

Best Friends

Now that Connor is in school all day it has been a hard transistion for Aiden. At first he was like a lost puppy who didn't know what to do with himself all day without his brother. Now Kayla has become his new best friend. He spends the majority of his day with her. He loves her so much and you can tell the feeling is mutual!

Today is a new day

As you can see... everyone is all better today. I still kept Connor home from school today since I wasn't really sure how he would be feeling today. Obviously, he is fine. Tomorrow it's back to school with him!

Whitney discovered the slide today for the first time. It was so cute! She was concentrating so hard to climb up the slide but would only get so far before she slid back down. She never gave up though! lol!

Just Shoot Me!!!

Things took a major turn last night around 11:20pm. Just as we're going to bed, about ready to fall asleep... we hear Connor throwing up in his bed. Lucky for me, we had Lasagna and Strawberry Shortcake for dinner last night. Uggg! So between 11:20 to 2:00am Connor threw up over 20 times. Every 10-20 minutes he was in the bathroom.

Then, around 3:00am, Aiden starts throwing up too. Between 3:00am to 7:00am someone threw up at least every 20-30 minutes. Jeremy slept on our 2-person loveseat downstairs. I slept between the boys in our bed so I could get up with each one every time they threw up. Several times I had Connor in the bathroom throwing up while Aiden was bent over a large bowl throwing up at the same time. Then as we get settled down for 10-20 minutes until the next round... Whitney would wake up and I would go feed her and come back to both of the boys throwing up again.

Jeremy had to take Eric to the airport this morning. He came back home and let me sleep until 11:00. No one has thrown up since around noon. So, I think we are over the worst of it. Needless to say, we are ALL going to bed at 7:oopm tonight!

Uncle Eric

Eric Brown was visiting this week to take the Western Board Exams for Dental Licensure. The boys took an immediate liking to him. We just got back from celebrating the end of his tests at Gates BBQ. The boys DID NOT like the spicy BBQ sauce and Whitney wasn't too thrilled about the pickles. lol!

Then... Eric tried to pull Connors loose tooth out. He totally failed! Connor actually said:

"What are you doing, Dude!"

Explanation

Ok... my last post was my first attempt at posting pictures. For some reason it did not publish the pics in the order that I put them, so it's a little confusing. But, you get the idea. These are pics of our home here in Prairie Village, KS. It is currently a work in progress and will be looking great this time next year. We've got lots of work to do but we love it!! :)
BTW - if you look closely at the pic of Whitney's bedroom you'll see her little head in there sleeping and then one of the backyard pics shows Aiden out there looking for bugs.

Pictures of home