Happy Cheetos ® Friday

So in between bouts of laughter I'm trying to figure out at what point sharing becomes a negative. Abbie wanted some Cheetos® so I put some in a baggie for her to have a small snack while I was trying to get some work done. Abbie, being the wonderful big sister she is & loving to share - decided to share with Kassie. Not that Kassie can't physically eat Cheetos® but in trying to be a good parent I wouldn't have given it to her this young. Oh well, to late for that....

She loved them! Rather than try my luck at taking them away from her, which surely would have resulted in a very upset baby. I decided to let her enjoy it, it wouldn't kill either one of us & it would avoid the crying, for the moment anyway (she had some really cranky days this week). You should have heard her smacking her lips!

I took these from a distance - they didn't know I was watching them.

BUSTED!The "But MOM" we're so cute pose
Today I am grateful for 2 little girls who love each other, who love to play together. Not many things sound better than 2 giggling. happy girls, I can't get enough of it. I am a lucky mom!

Lots To Say

I had a lot I wanted to share today so I divided it up into 5 posts - so keep reading.....

Last week I wasn't feeling well & stayed home from church. After church Nate & Abbie put on a dancing show for me to help me feel better - I think when they coined the phrase "dancing fool" they might have had something like this in mind. They danced around for about 30 minutes - non stop. We were all tired when they were done - but it did lift my spirits! I love my kids!!!



My other posts from today won't/don't have what I'm grateful for - this one will cover them all. I'm grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who loves me, knows me, and hears and answers prayers. I am grateful for my son, who in the middle of extreme chaos and stress had the mindset to take the time to bow his head in prayer, not caring that he was in the middle of countless strangers. I am grateful for a daughter who's self confidence defies logic, but most of all I am grateful that we all came home together as a family safe and sound. A lot more stressed yet at the same time much more humbled than before we left for a day of family fun of trains & the zoo. A day that brought so much more than we bargained for! (Details in Abbie's update) And as always I am grateful for a loving husband, who I know will always do what is right & good, and who is an amazing father to our 3 fantastic children.

Kitsap Live Steamers

About half an hour from where we live there is a group of people who have a club where they build & run miniature trains. They run twice a month during the summer. and operate on a "by donation" basis. Yesterday was our first visit to the trains this year & Kassie's first time ever, she loved it - kicking her legs and jabbering the entire time. It was a lot of fun. At the end of our second run our "engineer" offered to give Nate a tour of his locomotive - he even let him operate it for a short distance - he was on cloud 9.

Update - Nate or Peacock Stare-Down (aka Head Lowering Contest)

Yesterday when we were at the zoo, they had a new exhibit from the last time we were there. They had little birds that you could feed. The birds weren't that hungry when we got there so they weren't eating much - only Nate really got them to eat from his stick. I was amazed a how patient he was, he sat so still & waited so nicely & was rewarded accordingly.
Apparently it was bird day for Nate at the zoo - on our way to ride the carousel Nate got in, what looked like to me, a stare down with a peacock that was wandering about. Nate told me they were having a "Head Lowering Contest", I wonder what the peacock was thinking. He was matching move for move what the peacock did - it was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time - the proof is in the pictures & video. The first picture is my favorite - I'm taking suggestions for the caption - the expression on his face is priceless (I think).So after taking some pictures I switched the camera to video, not knowing what was going to happen - but it was so funny. Sorry for the bobble in the middle, not that my camera skills are that great in the first place, Dan was trying to get me to tell him not to get any closer - I knew if I talked to Nate I would start laughing (which I did). Nothing eventful happened, in hind sight Dan said we should have let it play out & if the bird had pecked him we could have gotten on America's Funniest Videos - oh well, maybe next time.

Update - Abbie

Abbie gave us the scare of our lives yesterday. The readers digest version of events:
We went to the zoo, the sun came out, Dan & I were wrestling with Kassie trying to put a hat on her head to prevent sunburn, when we turned around Abbie was GONE - she got bored and walked to the play park in the zoo - clear across the zoo - all by herself. After a couple of minutes of searching ourselves we alerted zoo staff - about 30 minutes later - the longest most terrifying 30 minutes of my life - they found her. I thought my heart was going to stop beating. Abbie was completely un-phased by the whole turn of events. She was having fun, and not a bit worried about being on her own - a trait she must have gotten from Dan, I am too much of a chicken for this to be my M.O. She's getting quite the attitude - but even when she's trying to convince us she's mad for whatever reason, her smile is not that far behind. She is a great big sister to Kassie (whether or not Kassie wants/needs the help). She's always ready to pose for a picture & in 2 short weeks will be graduating from preschool & well on her way to being a great big Kindergartener!

Update - Kassie

She's growing like a weed & threatening to walk at any time. She pulls herself up to everything, "couch walks" everywhere and has even taken a couple of inadvertent steps - much to her shock and our amazement. Time to get new gates for the stairs. Oh yea and she's starting to protest baby food, she wants what everyone else is eating - she still eats baby food, but not for much longer. It seems like just yesterday that we brought her home - yesterday being 10 months ago! Wow time flies!

Now for the pictures:

She didn't care a bit that she got herself into this predicament. It's all good fun when you're an explorer.
Missy on the move. Green & Lavender really are her "colors", but of course we think she looks cute in anything.
We have a cheese fan on our hands, here a grilled cheese sandwich."Cheese Head" - mac & cheese styleThe results of our spaghetti test - she loved it from head to toe!Tonight's menu - Chicken Fingers, Baked Potato & Corn on the Cob - putting all 6 teeth to work!

Rank my girls

Ok on a silly whim I entered my girls into a cutest kids contest. This is very out of character for me, but I really wanted the trip to NY. We would love to go visit all of our friends back there & since it's not in our budget.....

Anyway - ranking them only helps them to show up higher on the pages. There are judges that are doing the picking in the end (so the ranking really doesn't matter that much). At the bottom right corner of the picture you can move to the next picture to rank. At the top left of the picture you can click over the the other album to rank those pictures - for some reason the link to Kassie's pictures isn't working correctly (if you can't get there from Abbie's album, which you should, you can search for "Kassie" and find her, or search for my user name "radeke11"). There were strict limitations on which pictures I could use so if you are wondering why I didn't use that cute picture I emailed you a month ago.... there is a reason. These were the best ones I had access to that followed the rules.

So to quote a (famous?) commercial tag line from my youth
"Thank you for your support."

Abbie's pictures
http://www.parents.com/photos/photo-contests-1/cover-kid-1/764000038/

Today I am grateful for sunshine, that Kassie only woke up once in the night (and is still asleep at 7:48), and that Nate is healthy enough to go back to school - YEA!

Happy Mothers Day!?

First of all - sorry for not posting last week - my camera batteries were dead and posting pictures is half the fun - so without any new pictures to post I couldn't think of anything to say.

However - here's a funny picture that would have been in last week's post (if there had been one). Nate & Abbie were getting ready for swimming lessons and put a pair of their goggles on Kassie - we all thought it was pretty funny! Judge for yourself....So yesterday Dan & the kids took me to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. Ever since I worked as a nanny in NY and became aware of glass art I have been enamored with it - how it's made, how beautiful it is - all of it. It was a great day - they had some outdoor displays - one of them was a pool with glass ducks (we think) in it - it was amazing - the ducks didn't look like glass at all.Next on our tour was the Chihuly Bridge of Glass - it was beyond words. My pictures just won't do any of this justice, but I've just got to try to show you what we saw. [If you are ever here and want to go - let us know we'd go back in a heartbeat!] The bridge goes over the freeway, linking 3 different museums. First there are 2 large towers (for lack of a better word) of these huge pieces of blue glass. The sun was catching them at all different angles, they were brilliant - Abbie wanted her picture with them, which will give you a little perspective.
From a distance:A little closer now:The two towers were in-between two tunnels of glass one had an entire wall of these incredible glass sculptures - the lighting was not great for my little camera, but here's a picture of each of our favorites:
Abbie's favorites were the "twisty ones with the flowers"

Nate's favorites were the ones that looked like a pear & a volcano

This was one of Dan's favorites - can you guess why?
My favorites came from the second tunnel - where the entire ceiling was filled with glass art - I can't even put into words how much I loved this - beauty beyond words, in my opinion.


Then I decided my pictures just weren't going to do this justice so I "walked" the tunnel with the video turned on - there were 3 "rows" of glass, each divided into squares. It gave me goosebumps - really it did! Here's the video (sorry for the oops on the zoom in the middle)

There was a lot going on at the museum - they had free face painting for the kids - which only Abbie wanted to do.

They had free picture frame decorating & free cupcake decorating - which we didn't do. One of the displays they have is called "Kids Design Glass" where kids send in a drawing and the glass artisans at the museum choose 1 or 2 and then turn them into glass - they were a lot of fun - maybe someday we'll send something in & get lucky - boy, now that would be cool!
A couple of the "Kids Design Glass" that was on display when we were there (we got a good kick out of "Bacon Boy")


Last but not least - was the "Hot Shop" where you get to sit & watch them make different pieces of glass. I was surprised at the amount of time it took to make one piece, but it was so interesting that the kids even sat & watched (most of the time). Here are a couple of the videos I took - I could have truly sat here all day & watched them - WOW! The process was much longer than this so consider this a "Reader's Digest" version of events.






We had a good time, all three kids were wiped out & were all "konked out" by the time we got home.
So after such a great day you may be wondering why there was a "?" at the end of my "Happy Mother's Day!?" title - well on the way home Nate got sick in the car, and has been running a fever ever since, and Kassie woke up not feeling well either - I had obligations at church today so I went with Abbie & Dan stayed home with the sick kids, it just felt so weird to not be there together as a family. So overall this weekend has been great, one of, if not the best Mother's Day I've had since I've been a mom. With sick kiddos today has actually been pretty low key & relaxing, not something that often happens in our house. I just wish everyone had been feeling well today for the traditional Mother's Day picture in front of the Rhododendrons. Oh well, maybe next week.

PS - If you get the Friend Magazine - take a peak at the May 2009 issue at the bottom of page 19 you will see our primary & a project we did 3 years ago for Father's Day - Dan, Nate & Abbie are right in front! (Just to the right of center). A bonus Mother's Day gift for me & my primary presidency! We had a lot of fun with this project - I really do love my calling!

Today I am grateful to be a mother to 3 wonderful children, and grateful to have the best example ever to be my mother. For all she taught me through word and deed. If I can be half the mother to my children that she was to me I will be in great shape. Among so many lessons I am grateful she taught me how to love & how to serve. For these lessons and so many more - Thanks Mom - I love you - You are the best!