Elleree's 4

That's right my baby girl turned four today.  Oh how time flies.  It was not that long ago that we brought her home from the hospital. 

 Then it was not long before we had to take her back to the hospital.  

Elleree got so sick, I thought she was going to die.  I have never been so scared in my life. 

 Thank goodness we got to take her home after only two weeks and she has never looked back.  Now she is four years old, and healthy as can be.

 Now for Elleree's cake, she had to have a Tangled cake and I could not let her down.  I think it turned out pretty well.

 Allison and her kids were able to be here, and my parents too.  A little pizza and Kool Aide, life is good.

 Dad looks pretty good right?  He of coarse couldn't have pizza so this is his chicken and fruit dinner, which he had to share with the kids.

 A very happy little lady.  What did you say, that cake looks freaking awesome.  Oh go on.

 She got a ton of Lalaloopsys from everyone and a house from us.  She love, love, loves them. 

 She played with them.

And played with them some more.  She had a great birthday.  

We love you sweet thing!

St. Patty's

Mostly I haven't posted lately, because I am a little frustrated with my camera myself and my abilities with my camera.  First of all I had some really cute pictures of Peyton's birthday party that we went to a couple of weeks ago, but apparently it matters whether you take your picture in RAW form or not. To make a long story even longer I can't put the pictures on my blog because I have no idea how to convert them.  Second, the pictures I do take I feel like a 2 year old could take them.  They are worse than if I had just used auto.  I have been reading a ton of things on ISO, aperture, shutter speed, white balance, and everything else.  As you can see by the following pictures, it is doing me no good.  

Anyway we had St. Patty's day and Jason went all out.

 He made green waffles, but you can't tell because I am such an awesome photographer.

 The kids loved them. 

 Isn't it funny how just the color of something can change how excited they get about things.

Jason also made us Corned Beef and Cabbage, which he has never had before little alone eaten.  I love it, but I never did like it when I was a kid and my mom would make it.  That is exactly what happened with my kids.  Of coarse they don't like anything, Jason wasn't a big fan either.

 Moving on, I had this great idea for a 4th of July wreath I was going to make.  I was going to dip paper stars into this Plasti Dip.  It coats anything in plastic.  It has some real potential I promise.

 But alas, I don't think it is going to turn out. 

 So then I just started dipping things in the stuff, like this cloth-pin.  Don't ask why, just go and try it yourself you will understand.  It reminds me of the time Jason go us some liquid nitrogen.  We spent hours freezing anything we could think of.  We would spit in it, put coins in it, what every we could think of.  It's just good fun.  So if you can think of something that needs dipped in plastic, just let me know!

My next project was cross-stitching this awesome dish towel.  It is my family, in case you were wondering.  Yeah, the guy that looks like a child molester/hippy is supposed to be Jason.  Beckett didn't turn out so great either, okay none of them did jeez.  I got these cute little patterns from here so I thought I would try them.  Not so much cute when I try to tweak them.  Oh well!

Like Siblings

 My cousin Darcie blessed her third child this last Sunday, so we decided to go.  I was sitting there during the blessing realizing how grateful I am for these cousins.  We are very close for cousins.  We grew up together, so sometimes it's more like they are siblings than cousins.  The only one missing was Betsy, who was the one I ran around most with growing up.

This is Darcie and her new baby Megan.  Poor Darcie just got her gallbladder out a couple of days before, and she was sick, so it wasn't too much fun for her.

 

 This is Douglas (Doug), he is the oldest, and like my big brother.  He is just like a teddy bear.  I love him.

 This is Garrett he is the baby, and the same age as my youngest brother.  He is awesome.

Travis is the middle child and a kick in the pants.  He is very sweet, and would do anything for you.  He sat with me for like an hour playing with my camera and showing me how to do some things.  Apparently you don't get a camera like mine just put it on Auto.  I guess you can do some pretty cool things with it.  Who knew?

 Here is my Auntie Kit.  She is like a second mom to me. Then my cute little grandma came too.  Since my grandpa passed away, she is just be-bopping all over the place.  She is in pretty good health, so I hope we see more of her. It was nice to just sit a shoot the breeze with all of them.    

 I know I haven't been doing many crafts.  I just haven't been in the mood.  But a couple of days ago I made this hard cover for my Kindle.  It is made out of  a book and washi tape.  I have decided I totally dig washi tape.

 It's not very pretty, but I made it up myself, without a tutorial, so I am proud of myself. Plus it's functional and that is all that matters.

 My other project has been these flip-flops.  I bought some really cheap ones, but I can't wear them because of the plastic thing, it always rubs on my toes and gives me blisters.  So normally I buy ones that are made of material, but they are also more expensive.  I came across this tutorial on Pintrest and decided to give it a try. I think they turned out pretty cute.

This is what they did look like.  Much better right?

Spring is in the Air

It has been warming up here, so the kids have wanted to play outside a lot.

 Beckett is L-O-V-E loving it.

 He has only ever seen Chewy out the window, so he is getting used to him.

 It is a good thing that Chewy is such a good natured dog.  He puts up with a lot. No that is not a bone, it is a piece of wood he carries around with him, and chews on.  He is a strange dog.

 Elleree is in this phase, she will only wear skirts everyday.  They rarely match her shirt or her tights so the look is lost.  I am one of those awesome moms that let their kids pick out their own cloths.  So we always look like white trash. But I figure, I have enough battles on my hands each day  to fight about what they want to wear.

 Elleree talked me into putting Beckett up with her on the swing.

 They both fell off after this picture was taken.

 Jason and I said we were going down to exercise.  This is what showed up.  Elleree decided she was going to exercise too.  I love the flip-flops.  I promise I don't look like this when I exercise.  I am a whole lot fatter, heehehhe.

Jason the "Old Man"

 Jason had his birthday!  No I will not tell you how old he is, and it isn't because I don't remember.  We invited his mom, dad and his sister Kristy up for the occasion.  Of coarse I didn't get any pictures of them, so you will just have to take my word for it.

 Elleree "helped" me decorate the cake.  I gave her her own piece, I think she did a better job than I did!

 I strapped Beckett in his chair and he just ate the cake while we decorated.

 Here is the final version.  It is supposed to be a tie, Elleree picked that out, but it looks more like a Dreidel.  Don't be jealous, with years of practice, you too could be this bad a decorating cakes!  By now you should be used to my ugly cakes.

 We had lots of noise makers.  Too many.

 Jason almost got all the candles blown out.

 He tried to make it look like a tie.  What a good sport he is.

 

 As always Jason had tons of help opening his presents.  I think it was a good birthday for him, at least I hope so. If not there is always next year. 

Some Updates

This is going to be a blog of random things.  I need to have up dates on my kids for when I make this into a book.

 Elleree is going to preschool and is loving it.  She is starting to come home and do the songs and dances for us, and it cracks me up.

 

She has taken to wearing her sunglasses when she goes to bed at night.  We like to call her Hollywood!

 It snowed the other day and Elleree has been hankering to go outside and play lately.

So Jason took her out and they made a snowman.

A guy from Jason's work made this really cute ruler/growth cart thing for us.  I have been wanting one ever since I saw one like it on Pintrest. I love it and the kids love seeing how tall they are getting!

 Beckett is becoming such a little boy.  

I buzzed his hair the other day, so he looks even older.  He is not longer my little baby, but my little boy.  

I swear he is a puppy, he chews and bites everything and everyone.  He is starting to say words.  He says Uh-oh, dad, mom, no, dog, thank you and we are working on please and up.

Look how cute he is standing to get measured.  I could just eat him up.  

 Dillon is doing fine. He got the highest reading award in his class, it is a medal.  He is very proud of himself.  He just finished the Hunger Games series so that we can go to the movie together.  This is the same kid who was watching Lord of the Rings when he was five, we believe in over exposing our kids to violence so don't worry!  That's just how we roll.

We also got a letter in the mail saying that he is being tested for the Gifted and Talented program.  Jason said jokingly "I am a little disappointed, I was tested in first grade."  Dillon must have a little of his mom's genes in him after all.

Truman is his usual wild self. He hates all things to do with school except recesses.  He is however, very good at math, so we have to leave that for last when we do homework.

We went to visit my in-laws a couple of weeks ago and he saw a picture of me with my hair short.  He said, "mom why do you have your hair cut like a boy".  I said, " because I look cute with short hair"  He said,  "no you don't you look like a boy".  Then the next day at church he leans over to me and says, "hey mom that guy up there looks like you with short hair".  It was this old guy with hardly any hair at all.  Needless to say I am not going to cut my hair anytime soon, not if I want any self-esteem that is.

So far this winter we have been very blessed and have had not trips to the hospital.  Except to visit grandpa that is.  Grandpa go to go home on this week though.  He is very tired and had lost a ton of weight, but he is out and doing well and for that we are very grateful!  Thanks everyone for coming and visiting him and for your prayers.  I know they meant a lot to him!