To be continued . . . .

A stomach virus hit our family pretty hard last week. I was down for the count and I'm still playing catch up. Couple that with a hot water heater going out, the drying dying, and Kent working major overtime to get ready for an auction and my "free" time is gone. I hope to be back soon but I didn't want all 3 of my readers to be worried about me/us. :)

Thursday Tip 3/4

I have a "fake" friend {'cause you know, Internet friends aren't "real" ;) } Melissa, who started a blog link-up of helpful tips. Most of the participants are moms so we're all sharing ways to hopefully make everyone's life a little easier. :)

My tip this week has to do with food preparation. As a mom of 5, meals seem to consume my day. Make a meal, serve a meal, clean-up a meal, make a meal, serve a meal, clean-up a meal, etc. Add in plan the meals, clip coupons and shop for meals and I need a full time personal assistant! So anything that makes any part of the process a little faster - sign me up! :)

I have to admit that I "stole" this tip from my sister. When spreading peanut butter on anything other than a sandwich put your Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator to work. Just fill it with peanut butter and press. No more messy knife and getting peanut butter all over the jar and you!

Aren't they pretty? Including the time to load the decorator, I think I made everyone peanut butter crackers in less than half the time. Let's face it, at my house even food preparation is done in bulk. ;) This also works great when making those delicious Ritz crackers filled with peanut butter and covered in almond bark.

I tested it out on apples and it works great on those as well!

Worless Wednesday

I can feed myself!

Recipe for disaster

Ben is our early riser. You can count on him to need potty help first thing in the morning. He is more than capable of going alone but something about that early morning trip requires
assistance. LOL Every morning Daddy helps him get dressed. Ben is typically the only child awake when Kent leaves each morning. On this particular morning the pain of Daddy not taking Ben was eased with his very own Daddy hat.

As I was finishing my morning routine I could hear him in the cabinet. Ben is also our forager! That boy gets in the pantry, the refrigerator, the freezer, the cabinets, etc. All. the. time! I promise I feed him (most of the time he out eats Griffin)!
This particular morning I decided the rummaging had to stop so I did what any good mother would do - I shot him! My weapon of choice was my Canon Rebel. Ben was awful proud of his "Daddy hat" and wanted to make sure I could see it.

This boy can be oh so frustrating (what 2 year old isn't!) but one look at this face and somehow all the mischievousness is forgotten - Almost!

(As a side note. We think we're finally getting somewhere with treating his face. Ben has always had dry skin but the last year or so it has gotten worse. We still don't know what, if anything, is causing it but our current treatment seems to help. That said, I'm open to suggestions. It just doesn't seem "right" that a 2 year old has scaly patches over his entire body, peeling skin on his forehead and raised bumps and rash on his face. We've been using coconut oil as a moisturizer and are now slathering him in Lanolin. Aquaphor worked for a month or so but then it seemed to get worse. We haven't used the Lanolin enough to determine long term results.)

Showering Lynden Part 2

What a busy week we had! We started the week off by heading to Robin's for a baby shower. It's about a 3 hour drive, plus the time to drive the boys to Kent's office it seemed I left the house at noon! We were glad to be there though!

The ladies at Robin's church did a great job on the cake and decorations. I loved the S on the vase - such a nice touch.

I really like this plate. I can see it being used for birthdays and other parties and always coordinating by switching out the ribbon.

There were several ladies who made the shower possible. They took such good care of Robin and all the guests.

By the time we took this picture, it was getting pretty late for a certain little boy. He was such a trooper!

One of the cutest attendees with his Mimi.

Madisyn was the official gift passer. She brought all the gifts to Robin so that Robin wouldn't have to bend. One of the hostesses was giving Madisyn tips and Madisyn leaned over and told Aunt Robin "I don't think she knows I've done this before." LOL I guess professional gift passer is just one of her many titles. HA!

Raegen's birthday was just a few days before the shower. He spent the weekend with Mimi and Granddaddy so one of the young ladies at church gave him a birthday gift at the baby shower. He loves balls so I think the idea of "riding" one just made his day!

I fixed up a few gifts for Lynden (you can see more of them on my Sew Darlin' blog). This tie applique is one of my favorites! Talk about casual Fridays. Of course when you're a newborn there's also casual Monday, casual Tuesday, casual Wednesday, . . . . .

There are some talented people out there! This card was handmade - all that handiwork and it's not even the actual gift!

Lynden and Raegen are going to share a room and Robin has a brown and teal-ish blue color scheme. These name canvases will be perfect!

Mom purchased a few bibs from me to give to Lynden. When I made them, they were actually for Henry and Robin helped me determine what design should go on the green one. Little did she know!

Now we just wait for baby Lynden to make his appearance. I told him he had to wait until March and he appears to be listening. :) With Lynden's birth in March, my parents will have grandchildren born in every month February - July. Two more have birthdays in October and November. So we need to work on filling August and September! There's always 2011. ;)