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Monday, April 26, 2010

Letter of the Week {C &D}

Hmm...
Seems like it's been forever since I posted A & B stuff.
Oh well.
Letter C & D have happened over a span of a few weeks rather than one week a piece.
We've had lots going on & let's face it....she's only 2:).
Ha!

When you teach preschoolers about letters, the upside down/backwards thing is a given.
It's all developmental. They get all the important stuff in time...
So what you want to focus on is letter shape, so they can recognize them, & the sound the letter makes, which builds important reading skills.
Makes sense, right?:)
*Can you tell I'm a little nerdy about this stuff?

"C" says /k/ like cotton.

And /k/ like caterpillar.

He's pretty cute...
so is she:).

Oh...and..."c" says /k/ like cake...
You gotta have some fun while you learn.
Good stuff. 
I don't have a picture, but I'm sure I eat cake just like that...afraid someone might steal it from me. You can't be too careful when it comes to cake...

Me: Parker, what comes after C?!
Miss P: Um....P!
Me: Well, no. It's D!
Miss P: That's what I said...
Hmm. So confusing.

"D" says /d/ like dinosaur.

So, we made dinosaur tracks.
He obviously lived in pink mud.

"D" says /d/ like dazzling dinosaur...
Oh yeah, we did.

Here Miss Dino, you need some sparkle under your neck.

Miss Dino, you're so preeeetty.
Hey, you got paint in my hair.

And lastly, "D" says /d/ like dream.
Good to hear your dreams Parker.
Puppy dogs & Jesus.
Sweet dreams.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Not much up here

Just been hanging out.
Enjoying sunshine.
Windows open.
A mom who finally feels motivated to clean the house...
:)
Playing with playdoh.

Putting sippy cups in playdoh bags.

Being so proud of "cleaning" up the playdoh all by herself.
*notice the playdoh OUT of the containers, squished at the bottom...

Being joyful...
that's what he does best.
Makes me joyful too.

And being crafty.
Got lots of other stuff to share, just need to upload.
Been really inspired by her lately.
Hope your days are full of sweet nothings too!

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Butterfinger cake anyone?

Yes?
Thought so...

I was making this cake for my sister in law, Christy's, birthday.
Its super easy, and many of you may already have a recipe like this.
But just in case not, I thought it might fun to share it...
because, its like, make you famous yummy:).
hehe
That stuff...up there...that's what you need.
A chocolate cake mix, I usually use devil's food (or you could make this one from scratch), a can of eagle brand, a jar of hot fudge, a regular container of cool whip, & butterfingers.
I usually buy the package of small one's with 10 in the package.

Mix up the cake following the box directions.
(okay, so that means you need water, oil & eggs too)
And, if you grab a cute little girl to help out, it makes it even more exciting...

Pour your cake batter into your 9x13 pan of choice.
And bake it.
Easy, right?

Now comes the fun part.
Let the cake rest for about 10 minutes, then poke holes all over it.
If you're like me, do it while watching an old Extreme Makeover Home Edition, so that you're crying so much that you can't even see what you're doing...
Then pour the whole can of eagle brand evenly over it (or as you can see, walmart generic works too).

Ta-da!

Next, the hot fudge.
By now, I had wiped my eyes, told myself to get it together, & ignored Extreme Makeover, so my cake wouldn't get weirded out by the crazy baking lady.

Dump that whole jar on your cake & spread away.
Then that nonfat & low calorie cake (if you speak it, its true, right?)
 needs to chill out a while in the fridge.
At least an hour, or up to over night.
That's how we've always done it anyway.

Next!
Cool Whip.
You guessed it...the whole thing.

Makes it look like heaven.

Then find a cool whip crazy man to come & lick your spoon...

Then you need to crunch up those butterfingers in a bag.
I use 9 of the 10 in the package.
The 10th is for me...er, my family & I to share.
2 year olds can sniff candy from a mile away...

Put those babies all over the top of your cake & make yourself happy.
And that's it!

Oh! But if its for a birthday party don't forget your candles, and....

don't expect to come home with much.
But enjoy the fact that your family thinks you're AWESOME.
Happy eating!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Countdown 1 year {4 months}

Another month has come & gone.
And that means my baby is another month old.
Four months.
At his appointment on Tuesday, his doctor said if you could bottle up babies & sell them, this would be the age to do it:).
Cute, happy, smiley, immobile, content...yep I'd agree to that.

Dad's so funny.
And Tucker's still our little cuddly guy.

It's been a big month for this little guy.
He laughed for the first time on St. Patrick's Day.
He laughed at me.
Good choice...you couldn't have picked a more willing participant Tuck.

We also discovered our buddy could sit all propped on his arms on St. Patrick's Day.
That was a good day...

Tucker, you LOVE to fly.
You get stiff as a board & smile as big as you possibly can.
Then you drool on your personal airplane lifter & make them laugh.
Or maybe cringe...but cute all the same.

Tucker is still super happy.
He does not like to nurse in front of others.
He's much too interested in seeing who's talking than eating.
Which makes it interesting. Even your sister causes you to get distracted.
Today Tucker is eating every 3 1/2 hours.
He naps 1 hour & 45 minutes & sleeps 8- 8 1/2 hours at night.
And a new trick has been discovered...rolling over.
In the middle of the night.

We had to let him learn to sleep without a paci this month.
That was hard. Mostly on mom.
I did not like that.
But I'm so thankful that we did it, because now Tuck's an awesome sleeper.
Soothing yourself is a skill worth having for sure...

At 4 months Tucker is:
Weighing in at: 16lbs 4 oz (75%)
Standing tall at: 26 in (90%)
and his Head was measured at: 17 1/2 in (95%)
Are we sure that's right?
I always want to ask the nurse that....but I don't want to insult her measuring skills.
Besides...I'm pretty sure she's right:).
He's a boy for sure.
A drooly, giggly, happy, squishy, oh so fun, boy.
We love you our adorable baby!
Now, stop getting so big...
Oh. And yes, he still looks just like Mitchel.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Happy Easter

Easter this year had some special meaning.
She was really interested in what Easter was all about.

I made her dress this year:).
It was really fun & SOOO easy.
And...she really liked it.

No, I did not make his outfit.
But boy was he C-UTE.
Just so darn sweet.

So in an effort to make Easter more meaningful & easier to understand for an almost 3 year old, I had plans of looking for ideas on the internet.
Before I even looked I found this.
So cool.
So we did it. That day.
First we made a salt dough hill.

We mixed with our hands.
Shaped it & poked holes.
Most importantly, we made a hole for the cross.
We baked it & waited till the next day to paint.

That was fun.
Except that the paint was old & smelled weird.
Kind of grossed me out...
But, it served it's purpose.

On Good Friday we read our Easter books & from her Bible.
Then we talked about the story as we put Jesus on the cross on our hill.
Then we put him in the tomb, covered him with a stone, "sealed" it shut, & put guards at the entrance.
Then we checked to see if he was still there later that day, & on Saturday.
Sunday morning, when she woke up, the stone was rolled to the side, & Jesus was standing there waiting for her.

"HE ROSED!"
:)

We also made the Easter Rolls from the same blog.
Fun, easy, & yummy.
You just wrap up a big marshmallow in a crescent roll or yeast roll, then put melted butter & cinnamon & sugar on top.
Oh yeah...yummy.

They smelled exciting.

When you take them out, the marshmallows are gone & the roll is EMPTY:).
Yep, she got it...
Happy Easter!