Late

It is very late, but I fell asleep shortly after small group tonight, woke up a couple hours later, and was wide awake.  I am hoping to get sleepy very quickly while typing this. :)

I am slow on turnaround time these days on the blog, but not for a lack of caring or interest.  I want to report on everything from: what it has been like being a mother to three to farm updates to immunizations to books we've read to decorating, ETC., but I am trying to pace myself!  Yes, pace myself!:)  I know I am late,  but I want to document our St. Patty's day with pictures, so we can look back next year and smile.

We have always celebrated the 'green holiday'.  Patty H. invited us over for green breakfast growing up (it was so fun to eat out for breakfast before school), and green breakfast is still a tradition.  This year, I made green pancakes for the little nuts using powdered kelp, they didn't even balk at the unusual taste. :) 

Our St. Patty's Day this year...

Green dinner at the farm:

Our little shamrock

Nana's creation for children's church:

All kinds of yummy, green food!

We finished up the holiday with a visit to Mamo (David's grandma).  She treated us to homemade brownies and lots of baby love.

Now for a few random pictures...

We invited Grampy in for lunch one day and had to take their picture with their matching denim and blue eyes...

Potty-training is going.  We have good days and bad, but more and more good days!  Praise God! 

Way to go, Buddy!

Olivia & Paytay's favorite toys right now are these little horses, and I don't even recall where they came from.  They make up all kinds of stories with them, and play with them all over the house.  I am itching to put a few animals in their Easter baskets from Coastal!

I finally got around to creating a little playroom for them in the basement and they love it!  We've lived here for over a year, but in a lot of ways I feel like we're still getting settled.

I am trying to be better about sitting down to eat with my little nuts.  We eat dinner as a family, but when it comes to breakfast and lunch, I was just standing and eating my food, while cleaning up the kitchen, filling water cups and half a dozen other things.  I am purposing to sit down with them and our meal-time together is one of the best parts of my day.  I love all the funny, insightful, random things they tell me.  And you know what?  They are sure to ask if I'm coming, so I know they enjoy it, too!

I hope you are all well and so appreciate your kind comments and love. 
God Bless & Good night!

Nine Years

David and I were married 9 years ago today on March 23rd, 2002, the eve of my college spring break.  We've almost been married for a decade?  It doesn't seem possible, and yet I can't remember life without him.  I was 19 and he was 22 (sounds like a country song).  We waited 9 whole months for the day to come.  Then we were ready for it to be over in about 9 minutes.  I guess we were done with all the waiting!  I don't think our March was quite as cold and wet as this one; haven't we seen 9 inches of rainfall this month?  It sure feels like it, but the sun is shining this morning! 
I'll never forget how you got down and washed my feet right in the middle of the ceremony; it was stunning, so unreal, and absolutely telling of the tender husband you would be. 

We've done a lot of growing up since those early years, and without a doubt, our marriage will only get sweeter as we let our God continue to shape and transform us.  I know it is only because of His resurrection power in us and unfailing grace that we are here today!   Have you noticed how our spouse ends up bearing the brunt of our ugliness when it should be just the opposite and they be the recipients of our absolute best?  Arghh.  Thank you for loving and believing in me, David, in the good and bad!  Life is a beautiful adventure with you.  I love the twinkle in your eye and the way you throw your head, even your whole body, back when you laugh!  How fun it is to dream with you and be loved by you.

I'm not certain how we'll celebrate just yet, but I do know we'll have 9 in attendance at small group tonight, so that is a start.  :)  You truly are a 11.4 (I should go with 9, but that just won't do!).  Happy Anniversary! 

Heap of Pictures

I've snapped pictures over the last few weeks, but rather than wait for time to make sense of them, I'm just going to heap pictures on you.  Get ready to be buried! :) 

The kids came down with colds after the prayer week at church, so we got creative with indoor amusement.  Olivia and I pushed Peyton back and forth in his Tonka truck.

Which turned into Peyton and Olivia pushing Rose back and forth.  Good times!

Julia is as cute and sweet as ever.  She has discovered her voice and is more interactive all the time.

She is sleeping 11-12 hours at night (beside the times she's been congested) and really settling into her routine.  I love her round bald head, precious expressions, and smile.

In an attempt to get more organized, I embroidered bags for the kids for the diaper bag.  I've had these bags (sheets sets came in them) for a while, and it was fun to finally put them to use.

I'm pretty excited about them (you know me and labels).  Save your cloth bags for me!  I'm already dreaming about what else I could use them for. 

Peyton's bag holds a change of clothes, book, snack, and cars.

We celebrated Grandpa's (David's dad) birthday at our house.

Amidst the celebrating, we took 'diaper pictures' with cousin, Caedmon.  He is a dolly!

Aren't they so cute together?  Julia is three weeks older than her cuz. 

The weather cooperated a couple times for a walk.  We haven't walked in ages due to weather and illness and we were out of shape! 

We barely made it up the hill.

 

The frogs were back after a long winter and we loved seeing the ducks and a blue heron (he is taking off in the picture below).

See the yellow bags in the background?  Someone actually picked up garbage due to our heedlessness!

Speaking of getting outside, check out this article!  I've thought for some time that kids should be around as much barn dust, and pollen as possible, so I thought this article was great.  Get your germs! 

I like to share pictures with recipes, so if you haven't tried Sarah's wedding soup, here is a picture of its' yumminess.  I used a pound of ground elk and a pound of Italian sausage this time (less spicy for the little nuts), and it turned out great.

 Yikes, I better be off.  Good night from the sleepy girl below and myself! 

 Happy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow. 

Peanut Butter Balls

Peanut Butter Balls

Give me peanut butter this week!  I think every family has a peanut butter ball recipe?, but just in case you don't, I'll share ours!  This recipe came from my great Aunt Kitty.  David's Aunt Sue and my Aunt Sally also make peanut butter balls.  They are sinfully good.  You just might need a steaming cup of wassil to choke down  go with all the peanut butter this week.  :)

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup butter

1 Cup peanut butter

2 Cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. paraffin

6 oz. chocolate chips

1 Cup walnuts

Directions:

Cream butter, peanut butter, powdered sugar and vanilla.  Add nuts.  Shape into balls and chill.

Melt chocolate chips and paraffin over hot water.  Dip balls into melted mixture.  Place on wax paper and chill- Refrigerate.

The recipe made 23 balls, but mine were pretty generous in size.  I would suggest making a double batch... I know I will next time!

***  Thank you, Jesus for protecting our family in Japan (Uncle Patrick, Mariko and girls)!  We continue to cry out and pray for so many others affected by this horrific disaster!  GOD HELP US!

Grape-Nut Bars & Little Nuts' Quotes

Have you made the Grape-Nut bar recipe from the back of the Grape-Nut box? 

My mom and I crave them (I made up a batch for her and I just bet she has been up in the middle of the night to have one :)). 

I haven't made them in a long time, but they are so basic, and I needed a cheap, yummy snack this week!:) 

Grape-Nut Peanut Butter Bars
Makes 30 servings (1 bar each)
Prep Time: 10 min.

Ingredients
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup reduced fat peanut butter
4 cups Post Grape-Nuts Cereal

Cooking Directions:
In large microwavable bowl, add corn syrup, sugar and peanut butter.
Microwave on HIGH 2 minutes or just until mixture boils, stirring every minute.
Add cereal and stir to coat well.
Press firmly into foil-lined 13x9-inch pan sprayed lightly with cooking spray. Cool.
Cut into 30 bars.
Wrap bars individually with plastic wrap.
Store in tightly covered container at room temperature.

Also, I was talking to my mom and she said she uses the whole box of All-Bran in Nanny's Bran Muffins, which is nice to know so you don't have a partial box leftover! 

There were quite a few quotes to enter into the kid's journal of quotes this month, so I thought I'd share a few!

• When Peyton and I snuggle, he likes to say, "Mama, you're a princess.". 
• "Uncle Daniel, are you my friend?" ~ Peyton
• Upon us laughing about a piece of bread flying out of the toaster, Olivia remarked, "Mama, can you part a line down my head and put a piece of bread in me, and I'll be a toaster?".
• On our way to a cousin's birthday party, we drove into a neighborhood and Olivia said, "Huh.  A lot of people sure must have thought it was a good idea to build houses right in this area."  What a country bumpkin!:)  Speaking of which, they don't just say,  "yes", but use a Texan accent and say, "yayah".  Cracks us up every time! 
• They love pretending to be Mary and Joseph, but lately they also pretend to be Pastor Jess and Brenda (our pastors).  Ha, Ha!  After a prophetic conference at our church, Olivia was walking around prophesying, "You guys are a wonderful couple.  God loves you and He wants to bless you," and  "can I get an amen?".  She is a nut!

I hope your week is off to a good start!

Wrapping it Up

I hesitate sharing the finished product as there is room for improvement, but this is it for now.  I hadn't done much with the room since we moved in (I think I leave the more difficult rooms for last), but it is starting to feel finished.

The curtains are done (I 'lined' them by hanging white Ikea curtains behind them).

I moved the chair from our bedroom in here.

The basket is a nice catch-all since we play in here a lot.  I had to quickly snap the pictures before the coffee table was covered in tractors.

Our coffee table is not the prettiest piece of furniture, but well-suited for heavy-duty play.  I like to think of it as the "distressed jeans" in the J.Crew picture and the curtains are her heels! 

Originally, I thought I would gather a bunch of art from around the house and make an eclectic display over the couch, but then I realized I've already done that in just about every other room!  So, I decided to go more symmetrical this time.  I'd like to add another row of frames someday.

  I'm pretty pleased with the way my homemade artwork turned out.  It was my mom's idea to take pictures of things around our house until I get portraits of the kids. 

Our woodpile:

The play structure:

The pictures are fun because they are meaningful to us and only cost $5.

Olivia's tricycle:

Our flag pole:

What do you think?

Now my girl...

Don't you love how I keep sneaking in pictures of her?  I'm shameless. :)

She is following in her siblings footsteps and enjoys her books!

I love this picture of her (somebody took it at her cousin's 1st birthday party).  It totally captures her at this stage: so peaceful and always with a finger in her mouth. :)

Done!