it's a doughnut day

Today we read about Homer Price and the automatic doughnut machine. It made us hungry for some so we made a batch this afternoon. They were pretty tasty!

more tooth talk

"I'm just so sick of losing teeth!" - Elle

This said right before she lost another tooth this morning. That makes 3 gone on the bottom and 1 on the top.

lots of snow

the tooth fairy is coming here tonight

She lost it just in time for the family picture we are having taken tonight for our church directory! :)

open for business

Today the Mommy Store was open. Last week the kids decided to spend their chips on things besides tv time. They must have missed it because today when the store was open they went together and bought 4 - 30 minute coupons of cartoons. They are using one right now to watch Yogi Bear. Elle bought 2 coupons to pick a movie to watch anytime after school is done. Thomas purchased 1 coupon to play the XBox for an hour and another to stay up 30 minutes past his bedtime. To finish off their chips they each bought a coupon to have me cook a meal of their choice. Elle says she is going to pick spaghetti again and Thomas said he is definately choosing Tater Tot casserole. It's so cute to watch them decide what to buy.

grocery tote

I made this bag on Saturday. It's big and floppy and I think it would be perfect to bring groceries home in. I just need find a fun button for it yet.

my ava mae

baking muffins

fun outside with dad

Thomas did a little snowboarding around the lake behind the 4 wheeler this afternoon. Wonder if we will have a picture of him on skis like this this summer?! :)

Elle's giving up the double blade skates for Thomas's old hockey skates. They're a little big though so I will have to keep my eye out for some that are her size.

check out thomas's blog

We took a few minutes and updated it this morning. It had been over a month! He would love some comments from any family that reads it! Here is the link to it - The Adventures of Tommy.

knitted hot pads

Here are 2 knitted hot pads that I finished up this afternoon. I used 2 balls of cotton yarn and knit in seed stitch so that it would be thicker. I then hand sewed onto one side of the knitted piece a red polka dot fabric that had one layer of batting sewn onto it along with a ribbon loop for hanging it.

faith like a child

Elle loves to sing. This morning she was wearing her cowgirl hat, riding on the rocking pony singing a song about going out east, making it up as she was going along. I love to listen to her make up these songs. The other day we were in Office Max and she was singing while we walked through the aisles. She was making up a worship song about how God is holy and His Word is perfect. I love that she worships God wherever she is and she isn't worried about what other people will think. She also loves to pray. There have been several times where she will just be sitting on the couch reading a book or in the middle of playing and she'll stop and fold her hands, close her eyes and talk to God for awhile. It really is precious. A few weeks ago we were at the yarn shop and I was at the register paying for my purchase and I looked over at her waiting for me by the door - her hands were folded and her eyes closed and she was talking to God out loud. I learn a lot from her.

valentine's day

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day yesterday. My Sweetie got home from Switzerland and he came home with some dark chocolate for me. :) It is so nice to have him home. This was his 3rd trip in a row with only a day or two home between each trip so we were really missing him. He has to leave again next week for one more quick trip to Atlanta but then he'll be done traveling for awhile.

We made ourselves a nice dinner and had a date at home while the kids played upstairs. Scott grilled 2 ribeye steaks and sauteed mushrooms to have with them. I made baked potatoes and our favorite Pear and Blue Cheese Salad with candied pecans. Everything turned out delicious. The kids joined us for a Dove miniature icecream bar for dessert.

We did extra schoolwork on Tuesday and took the day off yesterday. Thomas and Elle had dentisit's appointments in the morning and I'm happy to report that neither of them had any cavities. Elle has a very loose tooth on the top in the middle right now. The dentist said that there are 3 other loose ones up there that she will probably lose within the next couple of months. It will be hillarious if all 3 kids don't have their front top middle teeth at the same time. :)

After the dentist we met up with 2 other families that also homeschool and had a Valentine Party together. We all had a fun time. The kids decorated boxes to put their Valentine's in. They also decorated cupcakes and played Bingo. It was a fun day!

angel food cake

This was dessert tonight. It is Scott's Great Grandma's recipe and it's a goodie! I love those tried and true recipes that are passed on from generation to generation.

mommy's store

I found this idea here about a Mommy Store and decided to give it a try. It's a fun system for rewarding good behavior in your children. When I read about it I thought Thomas and Elle would love it and I was right!

The way we are doing the Mommy Store is that I have made many different coupons for the kids to purchase with Mommy money that they have earned throughout the week. Mommy money is white and red poker chips. They earn a white chip every time they remember to do their daily chores without being reminded (brushing teeth, putting dirty clothes in basket, making bed, etc.). They also can earn more white chips for good behavior, being kind to each other and for any additional work that they might be asked to do. When work is done with a bad attitude or if there is fighting and it doesn't stop after a warning then they are given a red chip. When I open up my store on Wednesday morning they have to pay me one white chip for every red chip in their jar before they can make any purchases. Today was the first day the store was open so they now realize how costly a red chip is.

Each coupon in my store is worth a different amount of chips and they can choose which ones they want to buy. I made coupons for watching movies, cartoons on Boomerang, and playing the XBox 360 because I felt like this was starting to get out of hand in our house. So now they only are going to get these privelages if they have purchased a coupon and only for the allotted time on the coupon.

Here are the coupons that each of them purchased. It was fun to watch them mull over which ones to decide on and to work together to buy coupons they could share. For instance, a coupon for 30 minutes of cartoons costs 2 chips. They figured out that they could each pay 1 chip and share the coupon and watch an episode of Tom and Jerry together.

Thomas purchased -
1 coupon for a full can of pop
2 coupons for an hour each for playing the XBox 360

Elle purchased -
1 coupon to watch a movie of her choosing (I'm sure she'll choose Barbie!)
1 coupon to play an hour of the XBox 360 (This surprised me! The game she likes to play is snowboarding.)
1 coupon for a big bubble bath in the whirlpool tub
1 coupon to pick a meal for me to make this week. She has already said that she is going to choose spaghetti. Thomas wrinkled his nose up at that one. Spaghetti is his least favorite meal! :)

Together they purchased an hour and half worth of cartoons to watch.

I have a feeling that they will be earning many more white chips this week than they did last week since they now know all of the fun things they can buy with them! I'm hoping so anyway.

The place where I read about this idea has even more fun ideas about incorporating toys into the store. She bought a Mr. Potato Head and accessories and each piece was worth X amount of chips. She also did the same with a doctor's kit. I love that idea except that my kids are older so the toys they want are harder to do that with.

peace and quiet - what's that?

Here's a conversation we had in the vehicle today -

Thomas: Mom, when is your birthday again?
Me: It's on Sunday.
Elle: Oh good! Mommy gets to have a church birthday.

Thomas: What do you want for your birthday?
Me: Hugs and kisses
Elle: Really?
Me: Yep!
Thomas: What else do you want?
Me: Maybe a little peace and quiet.
Elle: What's that?

EXACTLY!! :)

weekend project

Yesterday the kids and I ventured out into the cold (it hasn't gotten above zero degrees here for a few days!) and ran some errands in town. I came home with some really fun fabrics and yarn and am busy on a few new projects. I am looking into opening an Etsy shop to sell handmade items so I'm trying to come up with some fun stuff to sell. This is a handbag that I finished up today. Elle says she wants to buy it. :)

Scott is in San Diego right now for a tradeshow. I am jealous - it is 70 degrees there!! He came home with these red tulips for me on Friday. Isn't he sweet?!! They look great in the kitchen and make it so cheery. He also gave me 6 light pink roses that I have in our bedroom. I could get used to having flowers throughout the house! :)

Well, the Superbowl is going to start soon so I better go get started on the appetizers we are going to eat while we're cheering on the Colts!

where are those front middle teeth?

See those crazy teeth?!! (Excuse the booger nose!) :)

a haircut for elle

I cut a couple of inches off of Elle's hair this afternoon. Weekly swimming lessons are proving to be very hard on her fine hair. It was getting tangled so easily and was too much work to alway keep it fixed to look nice so we cut it off to just a little above her shoulders. She is going to miss the braids because she loves to take them out and then have curly hair but I think it looks adorable.

helping mommy with the laundry

Baking, dishes, laundry....Ava helps me with it all! :) She looks a bit like Rudolph right now. Last night at church she tried to stand up next to a bench but missed it and fell down and got a rug burn on her little nose.

We've all took turns getting sick with a fever/sore throat/runny nose/cough this past week. There is still a lot of sneezing and coughing going on but we are getting better.

Scott is coming home tonight from a business trip to Atlanta. He's been gone all week so we are looking forward to seeing him! He has to leave again on Saturday to go to San Diego, then home again for a few days, then he will be flying to Zug, Switzerland. Lots of travel this month. :(

Well, that is all the time for an update I have. The kids are hungry again. It's PB&J sandwiches for dinner tonight!