Sneaky Parent Tip of the Day

Shredded carrots...an easy, sneaky way to get veggies in your kids' belly. I made homemade pizza for dinner tonight and all you have to do it shred some carrots really small (I have a shredder, a food processor would work great too) and mix the carrots with the pizza sauce and spread on the crust. Voila! Once you cover it with cheese and toppings the kiddos don't even know they are there. This sneaky process also works well with ground beef. You can sneak carrots (or veggie of your choice) into hamburgers, meatballs, meatloaf...let your imagination guide you! Good luck!

Crazy Cowboys

Tear Jerker

I'm sure some of you have seen this commercial JCPenney had out for Mothers Day. It makes me cry every time I see it. I found it on YouTube so I had to share. Mothers with daughters, get out your tissues...

Happy Mothers Day!

I had a wonderful Mothers Day today! After church, Jeff & the kids took me out to lunch at Buca di Beppo...YUM!!! And then came my gift for the day...they dropped me off at the mall, BY MYSELF, with cash in hand, to go shopping for the afternoon. The only stipulation was that I could only spend money on myself. Well OK, if you insist. So I shopped all afternoon until they picked me up. We grabbed dinner on the way home and now I'm plopped down on the couch. What a treat! PLUS, while I was shopping, Jeff picked up toys, cleaned up the kitchen and did laundry. I love Mothers Day!
Here I am with my 2 little sweeties. Being a mom is the best job in the world!

Apparently, the celebration was too much for Aidyn to handle. She fell asleep in the car at 6:00pm. We transferred her into this chair until about 7:00 when Jeff just took her upstairs and put her in bed. What a tired little girl.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Mothers Day! God bless all of you moms out there, thanks for all you do. To my mom, I love you - Thanks for being the best mom I could have ever asked for.

Thinker Girl

Today Aidyn was telling me one of her grand plans involving drawing all the houses in our neighborhood on our driveway in sidewalk chalk. Then decorating them all with butterflies and hearts. I said to her "Aidyn, you sure have some big plans. How do you come up with all these ideas?" Her response, "Well, I am just a thinker girl. And I'm really good at it too."
Skilled in her craft AND modest. A great combo.

Bruiser

Nolan has another black eye. That's 2 in 6 months. He fell into Aidyn's rocking chair yesterday while they were playing. This picture is right after it happened. It's more purple today, but a little less swollen. As for the scratches all over his nose, he did that to himself. My gentle little boy...

Cinco de Mayo

We had our Cinco de Mayo party on Saturday night and I had plans to take lots of great pictures to put on my blog. Well, I forgot. So here are the pictures I managed to get.
A bunch of guys doing shots....

Jeff & Shawn playing baseball on the Wii...

Corey sleeping...

Wow, I am quite the capturer of memories! Oh well, I think everyone had a good time. I know I did!

Party Princess

We had our annual Cinco de Mayo party on Saturday night. Aidyn had to be fully decked out for the party...new dress, hair curled, necklace, nail polish...anything girly! She did look pretty cute.

Like father, like daughter

Jeff vacuumed the steps the other day and Aidyn wanted to help. He always wears headphones while he vacuums so he can listen to music. So of course Aidyn wanted to wear headphones too. Well, they didn't fit her very well and kept falling off so she had to come up with an alternative....
Earmuffs.

Cruisin'

Here's Aidyn taking Nolan for a ride on her Harley. We've tried to let him drive it himself, but we will all be better served by making him wait another year.

Have you ever...

Have you ever...
Place an X by all the things you've done, and remove the X from the ones you have not done. This is for your entire life!

Have you ever:
(X) Smoked a cigarette? I finally gave into the peer pressure in college & tried one. I thought I was actually going to die on the spot...if not from the coughing, then from dehydration as I kept spitting, trying to get the wretched taste out of my mouth.
( )Crashed a friend's car?
( ) Stolen a car?
(X) Been in love?
(X) Been dumped?
(X)Been laid off/fired? This one still pisses me off...
(X) Quit your job?
( ) Been in a fist fight?
( ) Snuck out of your parent's house? Thought about it though! :)
(X) Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back?
(X) Been arrested? I don't think I was actually arrested because they didn't put me in handcuffs or haul me away. It was just one of those dumb underage drinking things...this also involved the same friend who gave me that cigarette...Hmmmmm.
( )Gone on a blind date?
(X) Skipped school? College classes.
( ) Seen someone die?
(X) Been to Canada?
(X) Been to Mexico?
(X) Been on a plane?
(X) Been lost physically and/or mentally? Physically, maybe a couple times. Mentally, quite often.
(X) Been on the opposite side of the country?
(X) Gone to Washington, DC? Been there 2 times, loved it both times. So interesting!
(X) Swam in the ocean? Fun, but boy I hate the taste of that salt water.
(X) Felt like dying?
(X) Cried yourself to sleep?
(X) Played cops and robbers/Cowboys & Indians?
(X) Recently colored with crayons? This happens on a regular basis at our house. I like to color though, so I don't mind.
(X) Sang karaoke? One time only. I sang Man! I Feel Like A Woman! with my brother in law. I don't think it was too pretty as the DJ guy kept turning our volume down.
( ) Paid for a meal with only coins?
(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't do?
(X) Made prank phone calls?
( ) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose?
(X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue?
(X) Danced in the rain? I did with the kids last summer. We all had a blast!!
(X) Written a letter to Santa?
(X) Been kissed under the mistletoe?
(X) Watched a sunrise or sunset with someone you care about or love? Sunsets only, I'm not much of a sunrise person...too early.
(X) Blown bubbles? Just the other day. We buy bubbles by the gallon.
( ) Made a bonfire on the beach?
(X) Crashed a Party?
(X) Gone roller-skating? It was a long time ago, and I'm pretty sure I was terrible at it.
(X) Gone ice-skating? It was a long time ago, and I'm pretty sure I was terrible at it.

Pony Party

One of our neighbor kids had his birthday party tonight. It was a pony party which was a HUGE hit with all the kids! When the ponies arrived you would have thought Elvis was there. Both Aidyn & Nolan took turns riding and they really liked it.

My little cowboy, riding off into the sunset...(with his tongue sticking out).

Spring Projects

'Tis the seasons for outdoor projects. Along with the regular "spring things" like planting flowers, cursing at the new weeds coming up, dragging out all the outdoor toys, cleaning the siding (that's not a regular spring thing, but I did do that this year)...we added a couple special projects.
First, I put up new lights on the front of our house.

Then Jeff put up a new double swing on the swing set. The kids call it a twin swing and love it!

Finally, today we planted 23 trees along the back of our fence. They are American Arborvitae and they will grow up to form a hedge of sorts and give us a little more privacy in the backyard. (For those of you who have never been to our house...yes, we actually have a white picket fence. How Americana, I know!)

There are more projects to come...I just haven't told Jeff about them yet.

Minnesotan lawn mowing

Hummus man

Nolan got into my hummus the other day and did he go to town on that! I think he ate about 1/2 the container. Apparently the boy likes chickpeas.