Fun with easy bake.

Grace got an easy bake oven 2 years ago for Christmas. She played with it once, and we soon discovered that she was a bit to young for it. So it has spent the last 2 years in one of my kitchen cabinets.
Grace was helping me make some brownies yesterday when she spotted the easy bake oven and asked..."Mom, how come you don't ever use that green and white thing?" She had totally forgotten that she had an easy bake oven, and she had also forgotten what it was exactly. When I told her what it was, she quickly remembered her long lost toy. ;-)
Of course, she wanted to use it right away, but unfortunately for her, I had to leave for work. So the easy bake oven fun had to wait for today. She chose a chocolate cake mix to make. She had lots of fun prepping and mixing her masterpiece. She even let Ethan join in and make a yellow cake. I got some pictures of the before, but (bad mommy) forgot to take any after pictures of her masterpiece once she had it baked and frosted. So without further ado....

She is all sorts of cuteness isn't she???!!!!!

Love,

Katie

Monkey see, Monkey climb

So to make our lives more interesting.....Owen has discovered a love of climbing. He can now climb up and down the steps like a pro. His very favorite thing to do is climb on the chairs in the kitchen, and from there he loves to climb on top of the table. The other day he tried to scale the front of the dishwasher and get on the counter. The same day he also tried to scale the front of the oven door and get on the counter that way. Luckily, both of those attempts were unsuccessful, but I am sure those failures will not make him quit trying. He is so, so busy. I am learning from him that I didn't fully appreciate that my older 2 were not "climbers." Here are a few pictures of Mr. Busy.


He climbed on the chair and dug in my purse to find one of his favorite toys.....mom's cell phone.

Getting into the cereal box.

Here he thought he would just join Grace for breakfast. Of course, she encouraged this behavior by sharing her breakfast with him.

See what I mean.....busy, busy boy. I have decided that....1-I have either forgotten how busy the other kids were at this age. 2-I am just old, and have trouble keeping up. or 3- He is much more busy than the other kids were at 16 months old. Whatever the answer....I love this busy boy, but he sure does make me tired. ;-)

Love,

Katie

FYI

FYI- If you are making hand prints of your kids for say a father's day card.....make sure you use a washable ink.....

Grace's hand after scrubbing till she was really annoyed.
Ethan's hand after a lot of scrubbing.

Owen's hand after much scrubbing.

Can't really keep a secret from Daddy....when the evidence is all over their hands! Oh well, it is the thought that counts right!!?? I have never been great at surprises.....

Love,

Katie

Ethan's new doo(sp?)

Ethan has been asking for a mohawk for awhile now. He saw a little boy that is Grace's age in church that had his hair cut this way. He, of course, thought it was SO cool. I really didn't care how he wanted his hair cut. (I mean really....it is just hair. Of course, I know I would have a problem if Grace wanted to do this to her hair.....so maybe I shouldn't say that!) (How about this....)He is a boy...so really if it looked bad, we could just buzz it all off. It took a little more convincing to get his Daddy on board with the mohawk haircut, but as you can see from the pictures.....it was actually Daddy that did the cutting. They did it while I was at work last night, so my sister was nice enough to capture it on camera for me! (Thanks Lori!)

It cracks me up to see how much TJ is concentrating in the 2nd picture. Ethan was so excited to show me his new mohawk this morning! I think it looks pretty cute on him!

Love,

Katie

Sepia colored glasses

The other day I attempted (the impossible) to get a "frame worthy" picture of my 3 kiddos together. I was trying to avoid the expensive photographer. I attempt this from time to time and most of the time I eventually decide there is a reason we pay a photographer to do this. Out of the many photos I took, I ended up with 1 that was decent (not necessarily "frame worthy" though.) So I decided to use my creative memories photo editing software....I simply cropped out the kids that weren't cooperating and chose to look through "sepia colored glasses" and make the most of what I got.

Not to bad right??!!! I think I like the "sepia colored glasses," don't you????

Thank you God! I am very blessed!

Love,

Katie

maybe next time

Anyone else feel like their kids go through stages where it is absolutely impossible to get a good picture of them? Ethan is going through that right now. He is usually very busy, and apparently taking 3 seconds to appease his mother with a picture is asking to much of him. I am hoping that he grows out of this soon, and will once again smile pretty for the camera.

The other day I saw the flowers blooming so thought it would be cute to get a close up of him smelling the flowers.

Me- "Ethan, bend over and smell the flowers....Mommy wants to take you picture."

This is what I got, before he ran off to play 2 seconds later.....

Not exactly what I was hoping for.

It's raining, it's pouring...

We were playing in the back yard the other day when it started sprinkling. So we quickly picked up our toys and headed inside. We realized when we got inside that we had left several toys out in the front of the house, so we hurried out to get them picked up. Well, one thing lead to another, it started raining much harder, we were already getting soaked and then we remembered how much fun it can be to play in the rain, and the kids discovered for the first time how much fun it is to splash in puddles that are still being formed.



This was actually right before we went inside. It took quite a bit of coaxing to get them to finally come in. We had the air conditioner on so when their soaking wet little bodies hit the cool air conditioned air...they thought they might freeze. We had to wring their clothes out, and put them in a warm bath. (Not to worry....they warmed up quickly.)

It's kind of far away...but look at that grin on Owen's face. Ethan and Owen were splashing in the puddles with Daddy, and having a FABULOUS time. This is only one of just a couple pictures that Ethan is actually in. He was so busy and quick running from here to there that I ended up with only a couple pictures of him playing in the rain, and both pictures were of his back. Oh well.

CUTE!

CUTER!

Grace had lots of fun dancing in the rain, and she did her fair share of splashing in puddles also. But when she got her hands on the umbrella, she never put it down again. All in all, they all had a great time. I think the next time it rains, the kids probably won't be running so quickly to the house to stay dry.

Picture this...

So I just happened upon one of my very very favorite songs from high school! I found the song and video on YouTube. It isn't so much the words of the song that I loved....more the tune, but as I recall, I spent many a time in the car listening to this "cassette tape" while driving with friends, and singing the song at the top of our lungs! So can you picture my excitement when I heard this song again after......13 years. (Yes, I am old....I have been out of high school for 13 years now, but that is not the point of this post.)

I want you to picture the look on my children's faces when their (somewhat old) mommy was totally jammin out to this song today.... I will admit I have played it at least 10 (maybe 20) times and I have sang and danced every time. The kids have even decided (I think) that Mommy is not being weird at all, but instead they think that Mommy is being lots of fun. They have joined me in my singing and dancing.

Thank you Lord for providing this very fun moment with my children today....and for the fun trip down memory lane for me!

Here it is....ENJOY!

Love, Katie

I get to do his laundry!

This is how my wonderful hubby looked when he came home from work the other day. He was apparently tearing down a garage that had partially burned down.....so he was covered in ashes.


I know you are all very jealous that you don't get to do his laundry....thankfully he is not typically this dirty! And I really shouldn't claim to do all the laundry, because my hubby definitely does his fair share of laundry. Owen didn't seem to mind that Daddy was filthy. He still couldn't wait for Daddy to pick him up the moment he got home.

And just so you all know....he does clean up pretty well. Love you Babe!