Gwennie rocks

The other day I asked Gwendolyn if she wanted me to paint her toenails this weekend (what little girl doesn't love that?) and she responded, "No. It makes me feel like I'm showing off -- like I have a boa and poofy things." She'd much rather dig in the dirt and look for pretty rocks or try to catch geckos.

She's quite the entrepreneur. She borrowed her daddy's hammer to crack these rocks open in an effort to find "crystals", which she intends to sell.

this is what February looks like in Texas

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Speaking of Casper, Linus tells me, "He was just trying to make my matters worse!"

Linus is still very interested in airplanes and the Wright Brothers. Today while we were driving, he was pretending to fly our van. When we got to our destination, I helped him out of the van and noticed that his zipper was down:
Mama: Hey Linus, your fly's down.
Linus: Yeah, I landed the plane.

I gave my baby a chocolate chip muffin for breakfast

nature spot, february

home sweet home again

I'm back from my weekend away. I had a wonderful time at the conference and visiting with family, but I'm very happy to be home with all my sweeties. I missed them like crazy.

joint venture

I'm heading out of town this weekend to attend a business-y conference. I'm excited to learn new things and network and all of that, but I'm also excessively proud of the business cards Todd designed and letterpressed for me, and the goody bags (also letterpress printed) we made. Aren't they cool?

free food for dinner

The strangest thing happened to me today. I went to the grocery store with all three kids late this afternoon and as we approached the check-out lanes, the store manager approached me and pointing out a group of men in wranglers and cowboy hats who were standing nearby, asked if I had a few moments to speak with some representatives from a local agricultural association. I said yes and listened to a rancher talk about the low cost of food today and then I discussed with him the fact that this particular store actually buys a lot of locally produced meat and produce. They look my picture for their farmer newsletter. And then the cowboys and the store manager ushered me to a check-out counter and paid for my basket of groceries! I paid for the cat food and they paid for everything else. Blessed cowboys.

Last night Todd and I put in a bulk food order and went over what we had budgeted for it. Even though that overage cut into the rest of our grocery budget for the month, I was confident that everything would work out. My basket of groceries today was almost the exact amount of our food order overage. Mysterious ways.

between the bars

This is apparently how Casper likes to sleep lately.  I've had to extricate him from the bars of his crib at least three times in the past couple of days.

self-portrait with my valentine

blue all around

casbr

Casper drew this fabulous picture of Mama (?) and then Gwendolyn helped him out by signing his name for him. She obviously sounded out the name on her own and thought she'd done it correctly (because Casbr really sounds exactly like Casper) and she was beyond thrilled with herself. It was so much fun to watch her excitement.

a room of his own

edible valentines

Heart shaped pretzels! Easy kid-friendly activity with a delicious sugar-free payoff.

Learn from my mistakes: don't under-bake them and go easy on the salt.

resident spitfire

Gwennie had an hour and a half freak out tonight. About a cd of primary songs. It was exhausting for all of us.

We have a large basket of cut up, sanded tree branches in the playroom and the children use them for building blocks, play food, etc. We call them "Rita Blocks" because they came from trees which were blown down during Hurricane Rita in 2005. We recently heard Gwendolyn refer to them as "Burrito Blocks".

Gwennie recently made up a song,"Oh, happy husband, happy husband, happy husband! Oh happy husband today!" But she can't tell us what makes the husband happy.

A note about this photograph: after we took the shot, Gwennie spent nearly an hour pulling berries off our holly bush and gluing them onto this pruned live oak branch.  (It was actually quite artistically done, and is now displayed on our kitchen table.)

live oak

Our front yard is quite large and does not have a single tree it. We looked at our house on Google Earth, and we have the only treeless yard in the neighborhood (perhaps the entire town). But today, our yard has a tree. We planted a 15-foot live oak and we are very proud of it. It looks so good in our yard (and will on Google Earth), so we're really hoping that it lives.

temporarily replaced

Auntie Tiffany is here for the weekend and we're all so happy that she came to visit -- especially the kids. Since she's arrived, no one has asked me to read to them or cuddle in bed with them.

teeth

Today, Casper gained two teeth and Todd lost three. Actually, Casper's molars came in over the past week, and Todd's came out in the forty-five minutes that it took an oral surgeon to extract his wisdom teeth (and a tumor in his jawbone) this afternoon. Both are recovering.

This'll depress you

Have you seen my backyard recently? Come take a look if you want to be bummed out. I see it everyday and everyday it makes me so, so sad. Look how close those gigantic trucks are to where my kids play! Grrr.

what goes on in that little red head

Linus, after a sugary breakfast, explains what he wants for a snack: “These little pokey seeds (uncooked/unsalted sunflower seeds), that’s all I’m hungry for, these healthy foods.”

As Linus helps Todd make pigs in blankets for dinner, he comments on the li’l smokies waiting to be blanketed: “These are pigs, but they’re cold and just busy begging for blankets.”

Linus seems to think the Pledge of Allegiance goes a little something like this:
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.
And to the republic of wicked sands . . .

After seeing Mama throw her breakfast doughnuts up (man, we are so not going to do that again), Linus says, “Maybe baby sister is coming out.”
After recovering (from the shock of the comment and from, you know, the vomit), Mama says, “But I don’t have a baby in my tummy, do I?”
Linus: “Yes . . . I mean no. Baby sister is still waiting in heaven. Is she watching our family?”