Teddy Bear Tea Party!

I really don't remember much of my life at the age of four. I am pretty certain however, that I didn't have Teddy Bear Tea Parties at school! Last Friday the kiddos in Mackenzie's class we asked to dress up like royalty. . .the "men" were to wear ties, and the ladies were to wear their finest royal garb! Mackenzie was so excited that she was allowed to be a princess for the day that she smiled all the way to school. I even let her wear the tiara that I wore on my wedding day! :)

The kids were also asked to bring in their favorite teddy bear to help them celebrate. Mackenzie brought in a bear that Matt gave to me many years ago. It's a white teddy bear angel, with beautiful white and gold wings. I was a bit antsy allowing Mackenzie to take it with her to school, but figured that at least it was being played with instead of just sitting on her bed. She never really paid attention to the bear, but after it accompanied her to school that day, she has slept with it ever since.

Here is a photo of Mackenzie enjoying her teddy bear tea party. The snack was none other than "Teddy Grahams" served w/"tea", aka apple juice.

Mackenzie got to watch the Inauguration!!

Each day when I pick Mackenzie up from school, I check the outside of her classroom door to see what she did during the day. Mackenzie's teachers post photos of what projects and activites the kiddos have done to help the parents stay in touch with what their children are learning. I was surprised to see that today Mackenzie and her classmates watched the President's Inauguration - LIVE, via the internet (I love technology)!! I wondered how much of it she truly grasped, so I decided to ask her once we got into the car.

Her response? "We watched Barack Obama, and the saw Bush get into a helicopter to fly to Texas." I enjoyed how the helicopter was the focal point in her 4 year old mind!

Since reading this blog won't do the story justice, I had her leave a special message for Matt's parents, aka Grammy and Papaw, while they are vacationing in Alabama.

So, without further ado. . .



And then, because she couldn't stand to not leave another message for Grammy and Papaw. . .

We've been Baking!

We actually had some free time last week-end! Mackenzie insisted on watching cartoons, but I was SO tired of hearing the same "toon music" over and over. SO, how did I entertain Mackenzie you ask??! We baked, of course!

Mackenzie has become a major helper in the kitchen. . .almost too much of one at times. But last week-end was all about her, so she was expected to help! We started off the week-end by making homemade cinnamon rolls. YUM! Mackenzie was allowed to do almost everything. . .she still isn't allowed to touch the raw eggs or put things in the oven yet.

Here she is mixing the ingredients. . .

From the time she was itty-bitty, she has always stuck her tongue out when concentrating. She still does it, and it cracks me up!!!

The finished product. They were best the first morning they came out of the oven, but were still delicious reheated in the microwave!!


The next morning we made blueberry muffins. . .from scratch! I got the recipe out of a cookbook that was recommended to me by my sister-in-law. I purchased the book back in November, but I JUST got it last week! Apparently it was on backorder. The book came at a perfect time. .. we had a free week-end, and time to make a wonderful breakfast!

First she had to sift together the flour and baking soda. . .

Next she had to combine the wet ingredients. . .

Combine the wet and dry together. . .and. . .

Bake! YUM! Serve warm with butter or margarine!

Goodbye Christmas tree. . .till next year!

It's time to take down the Christmas decorations. The feeling kind of reminds me of vacation. . .you can't wait to go someplace, have fun while you are there, but love it once you are home. Taking down the decorations is the same for me. I can't wait to put them up, admire them all season long, but once they are down, I love having my house back in order!

This year I procrastinated as much as I possibly could. I had major Christmas let-down this year once all of the festivites were done. . .I miss haning out with family and friends!!! Anyway, today is the day. . .everything is coming down. Matt took the outside lights down yesterday b/c it was 50 degrees outside, so now all we have to tackle is the inside.

Here is a pic of our Christmas tree. . .

Maybe I will listen to Christmas music as I take everthing down?! :)

The Twins!

I am still back-blogging as of yet. . .meaning that I am covering events that happened in our lives last month. Actually, it's a good thing. . .this month has been blessedly boring! :)

My sister and her husband welcomed twins to their (and our) growing family on December the 12th! Although we haven't taken the "formal" photos of the twins as of yet, I do have a couple of photos to share of them. They had a boy, named Kavan Roy, and a little girl named Lachlyn Rielle. At birth Kavan weighed 9+ lbs and Lachlyn was almost 7 lbs!!! My sister's belly was amazingly large before she delivered them!

Here are some of the pics we have. . .

This is Kavan! Look at those chubby cheeks. They just scream to be kissed!

Here's lil Ms. Lachlyn! She is ALL girl. So dainty and pretty!!
Mackenzie was SO excited that she got to hold Lachlyn all by herself. She would give her random kisses every once in a while, and was so gentle with her. It's amazing to me how big my BABY has gotten!
One more of Lil Ms. Lachlyn.
Another picture of Kavan. Isn't his outfit just precious??

Happy Day After New Year's!

It's over!? Already?? 2009 is here!? My vacation went way too fast. . .although if I stop to think of everything we did, it's quite amazing! We got to see Matt's entire family this year for Christmas, but missed out on seeing my grandma, Aunt, Uncle and Cousins. Hopefully we will see them for my father's retirement party in the next few months. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that one. . .Christmas wasn't the same without seeing them!

I have yet to process any of our Christmas photos, but can give you a hint of what is to come: my sister had twins(!) on December 12th, Christmas w/both of our families, a special Christmas dinner, SANTA!, my dad's b-day party (which is on New Year's Eve), AND New Year's Day!

OH, and I have made my New Year's Resolution!! You would proabaly think it was to blog more since I have started again after a bit of a lull, but the blogging is due to Matt's parents being on the three month sabatical they take at this time every year. You know, to keep them updated on our lives! My resolution is to find more time to do the things that I NEED and want to do. . .exercise, scrapbook, and listen to some fun podcasts (maybe while exercising and scrapbooking??). . .and I am going to try to stop worrying about everything (although I think that might be a lost cause. . .I am female after all!).

Happy New Year!!!

It's Novemeber? Really?!

So, um, I have been a bit of a slacker with this blog. I was doing so well, and then, working two jobs starting taking over ALL of my free time! But, for the moment at least, I am taking time to myself to blog the latest news. . .at least the latest since August 29th (the date of the last blog entry!). Geez, time sure does fly!

First off, I found these random pics of Mackenzie that I didn't even know I had. I absolutely LOVE them! Her face is so expressive. . .






Rocky & Leticia (Matt's brother & his wife) came for a visit in September, and brought Leticia's granddaughter, Jasline. She was such a cutie! And we all had the best time talking and catching up with each other's lives.

Little Ms. Jasline would bring me leaves as a present. She was rewarded by being tickled until she could barely breathe. Then, the whole process would start all over again. She would run find some leaves, point them out to me, and then proceed to be tickled all over! She was so cute!

ZACH was home! Yippee!!! He was home for a few weeks on his pre-deployment leave before going to Iraq. We spent many days/evenings with him, and loved every precious moment of it!

The family gathered around to play cards and chat.

Halloween Pottery!

Ok, so remember the last post where I gave hints about the pottery we were making for Halloween?? WELL, I picked it up yesterday, and boy does it look CUTE! I LOVE IT! Here are pics of the pieces we painted. . .




My sister-in-law, Kathy, and I made a scrapbook for our cousins for the bonfire they hosted last year. We had so much fun that we wanted to say thanks in an unique way. So we scrapped our pics. Well, once we finished, we decided that we liked our creation SO MUCH that we just had to have a copy. So I scanned in the pages, uploaded them to mypublisher.com, and ordered a couple of books for ourselves. It helped that I had a buy-one-get-one coupon. I LOVE SAVING MONEY. Anyway, the books were delivered yesterday too. It was a fabulous day. . .pottery was done. . .books delivered. . .you know. . .the little things that make me smile.

I LOVE the books. The quality is awesome!!! Take a peek for yourself!

Harry Pottery!

We have a local paint-your-own pottery place in town that we visited for the first time yesterday. My Aunt introduced me to the idea in her hometown in Kansas, and when we visit her, we also visit the pottery place. Luckily the place has been there since before Mackenzie was born, so we have made plates, bowls, mugs, etc. with her handprints and footprints. Well, my very cool Aunt (HI AUNT B!) sent me a photo of some pottery that she insisted I make with Mackenzie. Once I saw the photos, I totally agreed, but since we weren't going to be visiting my Aunt anytime soon, we ventured to our local joint.

The place was awesome, and operated in similar fashion to the one in Kansas, so we weren't completely at a loss for what to do. When I mentioned to Ms. Mackenzie that we would be going, she said, "I can't wait to go paint HARRY POTTERY". . .or maybe she meant "Hairy Pottery"!

Upon arrival, we had to pick our pottery - a big platter. . .

Next we had to pick our paint. . .black, orange, and green. . .

The final step was simply to get busy. Mackenzie was a crazy-excited woman until we got to painting, then she calmed down a bit. . .good thing too, or we might have had to pay for a lot of broken pottery! I promised in a previous post that I would take photos, and I did. . .actually, MATT took most of these. . .I sure love that guy!

Here's Ms. Mack waiting to have her feet painted. . .we thought it wise to do one at a time. . .

One down, one to go. . .
Here's the 2nd foot. . .Mackenzie was VERY good during this process. . .something that made us both VERY, VERY happy. The paint can be washed if you mess up, but then it has to dry, and it's a mess, and quite frankly, a big hassle.
While I was finishing the platter, Mackenzie painted her own little pieces. . .a cupcake, some stars, and a moon. . .
Look at that concentration!
Here I am adding the border to the platter. . .
Matt, the pro, was helping Mackenzie with the bottom of her crescent. Our goal is to write the words, "When you wish upon a. . ." and then write the word, "Star" on one of the stars. Then hang the two stars and the moon in her room. Cute, eh? It goes with her princess motif.
Can't you just see her little cogs turning? She is most definitely a little sponge. . .absorbing everything. . .I LOVE that face!

We will get the finished pieces back on Thursday. . .I will take MORE pics and post them for you to see!! Woo Hoo!

My sister's having TWINS!!!

We've know for a while now that my sister is having twins! How FUN is that?!?!?! Or rather, how much fun WILL that be once they are sleeping through the night??! I was lucky enough to go to her lastest ultrasound to get a peek at those precious babies. She is having a boy and a girl. . .both are doing wonderfully, and gave us quite a show while we were there. Baby "A" is the girl, and she is in the position to kick her brother anytime she wishes. I bet he will have something to say about that once they are born!

Here are a few pics that I took while we were there. . .

This one is one of my favs. . .the little girl was looking right at us!!!!