Elijah Funnies

Last week some time (and many other similar scenarios since):

EM: "Mom, my tummy hut (hurts)."

Me: "Why does your tummy hurt?"

EM: "I haf baby." (in his tummy)

Me: "Is your baby a boy or a girl?"

EM: "Gul!" :)

MJ was very quick to inform him that boys do NOT have babies, and she was not happy with me for indulging him :)

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Little man now has a favorite shirt and outfit that he wants to wear every day. The problem is that his fave shirt is a red and navy jersey-type sleeveless top, and the fave outfit is camo shorts with a green, sleeveless dinosaur shirt. He literally wants to wear one or the other every day now, and the little stinker is extremely persistent.

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These are some of the first things I hear out of Elijah's mouth practically every morning. He usually wakes me up with:

"I haf go bafroom," which is soon followed by, "I wut (want) socks, shoes on. I wut stinky diaper off. I wut me-uk (milk). I wut wat (watch) somefing. I hugry. I wut red shirt on."

This usually all occurs within a few seconds of each other. He's just a tiny bit self-absorbed right now :)

My Cuties

V

Our little Kerith Lovey is already teaching herself the alphabet! She's been making the letter V quite a bit :) :) Of course, it looks more like a V when she has her head down, but she was looking at Mommy for the picture :)

Mikaela Funnies

Me: (The other day after running an errand) "Now we're going to Subway to get some lunch!"

MJ: "SubWARE, not SubWAY!"

Me: "No, it's SubWAY."

MJ: "No, it's SubWARE."

Me: "Why are you saying SubWARE?"

MJ: "B/c that's what it is!"

As we're leaving the drive-thru, MJ sees the sign and starts spelling...

MJ: "S-U-B-W-A- (I'm waiting for the Y) R"

Me: now laughing "What?!"

I finally decide to look at the sign. Yeah, the Y really does look like a lower-case r :)

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This morning after eating a blow-pop:

Me: "Did you just swallow the gum?"

MJ: "No, I didn't swallow it."

Me: "Then what did you do with it?"

MJ: "I just chewed it and then ate it. I didn't swallow it." :)

Christmas Tree

We actually decided to go with a real tree this year! I haven't had a real tree in years b/c I'm allergic to them. But I thought it would be fun to try it out. The cool thing is that it smells really nice; the negative thing is that it sheds needles everywhere. So we'll see what we do after this, but for now it's been nice to have the smell, and it really hasn't made me sneeze very much at all!

Playing With Friends

Yesterday, we had some friends come over to visit. It was great; all the kids had so much fun together. They played so well that I feel like I actually got to talk to my friends! Pretty late in the afternoon Elijah just couldn't hang on anymore and fell asleep in my lap. So then he was in a very whiny, fussy mood when everyone was getting ready to leave. I hadn't gotten any pics the whole time and had to get at least a couple. The older kiddos were totally fine with cheezing it up, but the 3 two-year-olds weren't wanting anything to do with pics. So I was trying to be silly to get them to smile--that's why Elijah looks so funny--he's trying really hard not to smile (and he's cut the top of his lip and nose in the past two days) :)

About to Crawl/Update

This little piece of cuteness is getting close to crawling forward. Here she is on all fours and in her "push-up" position. She also knows what it means to turn the light on and off and how to give Mommy kisses :)

Just a cute pic--she often pushes backward until she gets stuck under the piano bench :)

Animal Play

This sweet girl has the best imagination and loves to arrange her animals and babies and go through different scenarios with them. On this day, she decided to line them all up on the bookshelf :)

Pushing Up to Sitting

Our little Kerith Love can push herself up to a sitting position--I think today was the first day for her to do this! She's trying really hard to crawl forward but is still just going backwards for now :)

Munchkin Funnies

Elijah had gotten some "lips" (chapstick), so, of course, Mikaela had to get some too. Elijah was trying to tell MJ she couldn't have any and was attempting to put them back in the drawer before she could get them.

Me: "She can have some too."

EM: "No! I two, Kayla four!"

Elijah Funnies

Some times when little man has gas but thinks he has to do some business in the potty and it won't come out, he tells me, "It not wukking." (It's not working.) And every now and then, if it does come out, he tells me, "It wukking." :)

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Today EM told me, "I feed my baby." He then lifted up his shirt and started "nursing" his baby. After a couple of seconds, he very nonchalantly told his baby, "No, dat huts." (that hurts)

He doesn't miss a beat :)

Mikaela Funnies

I put some lights up on the Christmas tree, and Mikaela asks me if she can talk to them. I told her, "Sure." So she starts naming them and creating scenarios with them. A couple of minutes later she says that she wishes she were one of the lights so she could talk :)

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Kachow! That's what MJ kept saying every time she got something right or finished something with her schoolwork today :)

Mikaela Funnies

Almost a year ago, we transitioned MJ from sleeping on the floor in our room to the living room couch (when she gets up at any given hour in the middle of the night). The other day we decided it's been long enough and have told her she needs to stay in her bed all night. So I was telling MJ one morning that we weren't going to be leaving a blanket and pillow on the couch anymore b/c she needs to stay in her own bed. She said, "That's ok, I'll just get them myself." :)

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As Eric was putting MJ to bed that same night, he was reminding her that she must stay in her bed and not go to the couch. He included that she needed to stay in her bed so that Elijah wouldn't be all alone in their room. She told him, "Daddy, Elijah won't be all alone. God's in here with him." :)

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The past couple of days, MJ kept asking me to fix her hair in two circles??? It took me a little while, but I started thinking about what we've been talking about and looking at. Well,

since we converted over to a Mac, I've been putting all my pics into iphoto. So, of course, MJ has been looking at old pics of herself too. This is what she was referring to:

She likes to put her wrists/arms through the holes :)

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The other day, MJ had done something to either KL or EM that kind of hurt them. So I told her to go stand in the corner and think about why she would even do that. Of course, she ended up being there for a little while as I was doing other things. Finally, she said, "Can I get out of the corner now?... My thinking's just kind of over." :) :)

Sitting Up

Our little sweetness is sitting up by herself now! She still has the tendency to fall backwards, so I try to keep her against the couch or chair, but she is actually content to play now! I just put her little basket of toys in front of her, and she takes her time pulling everything out to ultimately gum on her links :) She's also getting up on her hands and knees and rocking quite a bit--but no crawling yet.

Jus Fi Min-us

This is our usual nighttime activity before putting the kids to bed. They ask if they can play on Daddy for "just five minutes." :) I'm not sure if it actually tires them out a little more or just re-wires them :)

Sweet Girls

MJ wanted some pics with her little sis :)

Mikaela Funny

Today, the letter Mikaela was focusing on writing was a lowercase t, so there was a turtle on the back for us to talk about and color. After coloring, she asked me if she could name her turtle Tee-oder and informed me that it started with t like turtle. Well, she was adding a few more things to her picture--she usually gives the animals earrings and bracelets, etc :) but today, she wanted to color the ground magenta. She asked me what color it was, and I showed her where it was on the color and how to pronounce it. So a few minutes later, she that her turtle wasn't Tee-oder anymore, it was Magenta. She said her turtle (a girl) didn't like the name Tee-oder and wanted to be called Magenta instead :)
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MJ had just read a story to me about Elijah being fed by the ravens--he'd had to run away b/c he was scared of the king. So she wanted to know who the king was; I told her his name was Ahab and that he was very evil, and Jezebel was his wife and that she was even more evil. So as I was making my bed, she kept telling me that we have a nice Jezebel--the baby that was just born out of her (MJ's) tummy. I pretty much forbid her to name her "child" Jezebel--she wasn't happy with me at all and kept telling me that this was a nice Jezebel, not an evil one. Sorry--I don't need any Jezebels in this house :)

Awww!

Well, this is what I walked into the dining room to find this morning! This was TOTALLY a surprise! You have to remember that our home is my domain--a very small (cozy :) ) domain. You don't get by with very much without me knowing about it almost immediately. So kudos to my sweet husband for taking the time and effort to think about when he could actually do this without me 1) finding the receipt :) 2) seeing him put it out :) Thank you baby so much for loving me the way you do :)
Btw, the kids LOVED the balloons (oh, and the gummi bears :) )

God's Grace/Pics

Can I tell you what a wonderful, gracious God we serve? He even cares about about the tiniest, most seemingly unimportant details of our lives, and for this, I am truly grateful.

Well, last night we went to bed around 10pm, but I couldn't fall asleep until around midnight--ugh! Well, as I'm tossing and turning, my mind is wandering on and on about so many random things, one of which actually turned out to be a good thing. A couple of posts ago, I posted about Elijah getting entangled in some red thread and was so upset with myself for accidentally deleting the pics before pasting them into my folder. Well, I started thinking that since we got our new computer, I don't really use the pc very often. So when you copy something, you can usually paste it until you copy something else, right? So, unless something else had been copied, I should still be able to paste the pics into my folder, right?? YES!!! It worked! Fortunately, our computer had not done an automatic shut down or anything! What a great gift for the Lord to bring that to my mind! So without further ado, here they are:

<---- He thought he was in big trouble--until I started snapping all these pictures :)

Mikaela Funny

(Mikaela screaming outside as she stands on top of the slide)

MJ: "That other Mikaela is copying me."
Me: "That's called an echo."
MJ: "Echoes are cool!" :)

Thread

While I was helping MJ with her writing, EM was playing with a spool of red thread he'd taken off the sewing machine. He was right next to us, and I didn't even notice until he had it all wrapped around his neck and body and was totally tangled up in it. I think he was taking the spool and throwing it up in the air so that it would fall to the ground, and each time he did this, more and more thread would come out. Who knows how many times he did this :)

Oh, and this is just how brain-dead I am--I had taken a few pics to post and was putting them on my computer; I copied them, took the memory card out, erased all the pics from it and then went to upload them just to see that they weren't there! I get this major sinking feeling in my stomach any time this happens. Turns out, I copied them, but I don't think I ever pasted them into the folder :( So now they're gone forever, and you'll just have to take my word on the event :)

Bandera Vacation

Last week, we had the opportunity to go on vacation to Bandera, TX. It was really nice and especially wonderful just to have Eric be with us all week and not have to go to work. We stayed at this cute little cabin, and there were deer all over the place. We got there early Saturday evening, got something to eat and then went grocery shopping for the week.

On Sunday, Eric had to do a test for school, so he played with us for a little bit, and then I let the kids play on the swing, seesaw, in the sand on the sand court, blowing bubbles, etc. The main goal was to just let them wear themselves out :)

Monday it decided to rain, so we took our time getting ready and found a mall in San Antonio that had an indoor play area. It was teeny, tiny, but MJ and EM loved it, so that's all that mattered.

On Tuesday, we went to the River Walk--the weather was awesome that day, and we figured it would be all sidewalks--we were trying to escape any mud from the day before :) so we did that for a few hours and then found another mall that had an Inflatable Wonderland. It was totally awesome! MJ and EM LOVED it--too bad there's not one actually in a mall around here--it was quite convenient. The down-side was that it was FREEZING cold inside--and of course, it was the one time I didn't bring my jacket inside--oh, and little man had an accident b/c he wanted to keep going down the slide, and all I had for him to change into was a long-sleeved onesie (he didn't seem to mind :) )

Wednesday, we went to the SA Zoo. The weather was a tiny bit humid but still nice, and the kids loved seeing all the animals. After that, we still had time to end our day with a train ride. It was the perfect thing to lull Elijah to sleep (not that it takes much for him) :)

Thursday, we were finally able to go to a pumpkin patch on an apple orchard in Medina. It was just the perfect size for the kiddos. Mikaela got to dress her own scarecrow, they got to pet turkeys, brush a pony and horse, go through a hay-maze and go on a hayride around the apple orchard. Since we weren't with a school group, we got our own personal tour on the hayride! It was pretty chilly that day b/c the wind was blowing so hard, so after a couple of hours we were done, ate some lunch and then went driving around.

On Friday, I'd really wanted to go to Lost Maples State Natural Area b/c there are lots of maple trees there which were supposedly changing their colors, but we knew the kids would get tired fast and would want to ride--the thought of pushing a double stroller through trails just didn't sound appealing. We'll have to remember to get backpack carriers for next time :) So, we opted to go to Fredericksburg instead--not really a place for kids, but we did manage to find a really nice plaground in the Square--that was the highlight of their day :)

Overall, we had a great time but were ready to get home to get some sleep. Our wonderful little munchkins joined us EVERY night in our bed b/c they were scared :)

Favorite dialogue of the trip: we were in the car a lot--EM usually falls asleep, but this time he was wide awake and kept pointing things out to us; we were getting a little tired of answering him, so he says, "MommyDaddyMommyDaddyMommyDaddyMommyDaddy..." We finally respond, "What buddy?" to which he says, "tra-ter" (tractor) very shortly and matter-of-factly. He managed to crack us up with that :)

Ok--and I'm trying something new--let me know what you think. Instead of using picasa, I'm going to start putting picture albums in a different spot. Click on the picture below to see the album.

Another "Who's Who"

Well, there shouldn't be much guessing here b/c I've recently posted pics and there are dates on half the pics, but it's been requested, so here goes :)

My Sweet Girl

The other night, my wonderful husband went to Walmart for me and even offered to take one of the kids. So we let MJ go--poor little man was so disappointed :( He even said, "Bye Mommy," and was heading out the door with Daddy and sis, just to be pulled back inside.

Anyway, upon entering, MJ saw some flowers and told Eric they "needed to get Mommy some flowers!" He told her they'd get some later. Well, they did all their shopping and were in line when MJ exclaimed, "Daddy, we forgot to get Mommy some flowers!" Eric told her they would have to get some next time and got such the super uber devastated look from MJ that he got out of line and let her pick some flowers out for me. She also informed him that she wanted to give them to me--which she did as soon as she came in the house :) Too sweet :)

Favorite Recipes

Ok--I've gotten a couple of recipe exchange emails and even a blog challenge for favorite recipes in the past week or so. I know I'm not playing exactly by the rules, but here's what I have time and energy to do. Fortunately, they're already typed up b/c I've already shared them with quite a few of you--they really are our faves :) So here goes:

Mexican Lasagna

1.5 lbs. lean ground beef
1 pkg. (1.25 oz.) Lawry's Taco Seasoning Mix
1 tsp. Lawry's Seasoned Salt
1 cup diced tomatoes, fresh or canned (I normally use a can of RoTel--Chili-fixin' if I can find it; otherwise reg. RoTel)
1 can (15 oz.) tomato sauce and 1 can (4oz.) diced green chiles (I don't put in the green chiles)
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 eggs, beaten
10 corn tortillas
2.5 cups (10 oz.) grated Monterey Jack Cheese

In large skillet, brown ground beef, stirring until cooked through; drain fat. Add taco seasoning mix, seasoned salt, tomatoes, tomato sauce and chiles; blend well. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes. In small bowl, combine ricotta cheese and eggs. In bottom of 13x9x2 inch baking dish, spread 1/2 of meat mixture. Top with 1/2 of tortillas; spread 1/2 of ricotta cheese mixture over tortillas and top with 1/2 of grated Monterey Jack cheese. Repeat layering, ending with grated cheese. Bake, uncovered, in 350 degree oven 20-30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting into squares.

Becca's Chicken and Rice

Ingredients:
1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 c. uncooked rice, 1 stick of butter, 1 lb. of chicken breasts, 1 packet of Lipton's Onion soup mix, 2 cups water, salt & pepper to taste.

Directions:
In a 9x13 baking dish, melt butter. Salt and Pepper the uncooked chicken and place in dish. Pour soup of top of chicken and then sprinkle soup mix on top of that. pour dry rice evenly over all of it and then add the water. Seal with foil. Bake at 325 for 1 hour.

Quick Fix Beef Burrito Skillet

1 lb. lean ground beef

1 pkg. (1-1/4 oz.) TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Taco Seasoning Mix

1 can (19 oz.) kidney beans, drained, rinsed

1 cup TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Thick 'N Chunky Salsa

1 cup water

4 flour tortillas (6 inch), cut into 1-1/2-inch squares

1 cup KRAFT Mexican Style Finely Shredded Four Cheese

1/3 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream

1/3 cup chopped green onions (about 1 large)

BROWN meat in large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat; drain. ADD seasoning mix, beans, salsa and water; stir. Bring to boil. Simmer on medium-low heat 5 min. STIR in tortillas; top with cheese. Cover; let stand 5 min. or until cheese is melted. Top with sour cream and onions.

Gooey Butter Cake

1 Duncan Hines cake mix (we've decided red velvet and dark chocolate are our favorites)
1 stick melted butter
1 egg

Mix together until form a ball--spread in 13x9 ungreased pan

In same mixing bowl beat:
8 oz cream cheese (I've even used the Neufchatel cheese--an alternative to cream cheese)
2 eggs
1 stick melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
3 3/4 cups (16 oz box) powdered sugar

Spread on top of other mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-47 minutes--middle will still move.

Swollen Oatmeal

So I had somewhat of an epiphany this past Sunday. We were getting ready for church--bathing kids, getting ourselves ready and so on. MJ, EM and KL were each crying at some point at not wanting hair washed or whatever the reason, but still I had our hymns playing and hadn't lost my cool. Then, KL got to wear the oh so adorable sailor outfit that Aunt Kelli got for MJ a few years back, so what's a mom to do but to take a few pictures? My wonderful Eric assisted me in trying to get her to smile and so forth. By then I'd used up at least 20 minutes when I should have been doing other things so as not to be late. My wonderful hubby fed the kids and then proceeded to offer to make me something to eat. I told him I wanted some oatmeal, but I wasn't really wanting him to make it b/c I'm pretty picky on how I like it. But he was offering, and I really don't like to turn him down when he's offering to help. I told him how long to warm the water and such. He got everything ready for me, and I went to the kitchen looking forward to filling my hungry tummy with my yummy oatmeal. Upon pouring the water into my bowl, I thought it felt a little warmer than usual, but that didn't stop me from pouring it in. Well, I don't know if you've noticed before, but, the hotter the water is, the more the oatmeal swells, thus also giving you a larger portion of food to eat. I DETEST overly swollen, goopy oatmeal--it makes me want to gag! But, I'd already poured the water, so that's what I had. I asked Eric if he warmed the water for the amount of time I'd told him, and he said yes. So I continued to probe saying that he MUST have warmed it for longer b/c it was just way too hot. I finally found out that he'd filled the cup with scalding hot water from our kitchen sink and then warmed it in the microwave! Well, I hated to waste two packets of instant oatmeal, and I knew Eric would be frustrated if I didn't eat any of it. But the whole time I was just complaining and questioning and really wanting to just dump it out and do it the "right" way :) The joy I'd had just a few minutes before was stolen, and I really just wanted to be upset that now I didn't have time to eat breakfast b/c Eric didn't do things right. In trying to calm my inner thoughts down, the Lord graciously reminded me that I spent 20 minutes taking pictures, with Eric helping, at my request, and he was just trying to help me get something to eat--I'm just not being very grateful. After church, my epiphany was that Satan was trying to steal my joy over a bowl of swollen oatmeal! He wasn't successful through whining, crying kids, but he could somehow take my husband's thoughtfulness and turn it into something bad in my eyes. So, may I never forget the lesson of my swollen oatmeal, and I pray the Holy Spirit would not allow Satan to steal my joy, especially right before going to worship.

The Color Did It!

As I was getting either lunch or dinner ready yesterday, Mikaela comes into the kitchen and says, "Mommy, the green color just colored by itself all over Elijah's chair!" :)

Such a Boy

So this was another "you're such a boy" moment this morning. Elijah was using their kitchen ladle to try to hit the toy egg into the window :) Every now and then he'd scoop it just right and would really send it flying :)

Rolling Over

Fun Day

On Saturday, we had a little get together with many of the ladies from our church. It was a wonderful time of singing, sharing and then later talking over Ephesians 6:18. I pray we all become better intercessors after our time together. We enjoyed a yummy breakfast and lunch and had an absolutely gorgeous day to sit outside by the pool while we ate. MJ and EM had fun hanging out with Eric, Grandma A and Pops :) And then Eric and I enjoyed a little mommy and daddy time at Lupe Tortilla's and Starbucks to end the day (alone!) :)

No Words Needed...