I love Joanna.

I love how Joanna calls breadsticks “stick bread.”

I love how Joanna loves to help.

Even though Joanna is not ever supposed to pick up James, she still does it.  (I don’t love this.)  I love that she is so loving and careful when she does it.

I love that Joanna can use anything laying around to make-believe.

I love how seriously she talks to me.

I love how she looks so much like me.

I love how she still looks like Matt too.

I love how she runs.  Matt says she’ll run cross country some day.

I love the color of her skin and the color of her eyes.

Even though they annoy me, I love that she talks in funny accents/voices some times.

I love how she sings ALL THE TIME.

I love how she LOVES her brother and sister.

I love how she’s got a little swagger when she walks.

I love how she stands on the end of my bed, looks in the bathroom mirror, and performs whenever she gets the chance.

I love how she tells me “five more minutes” when she wants me to get out of bed in the morning.

I love that she can “read” numbers.

I love how she’s memorized our address.

I love how she has to watch everybody come and go out the front window.  It’s a bit of an obsession.

I love how good she is at fetching things.  (What?  You mean she’s not my personal four year old servant?)

I love how she can pack away food.

I love how well she walks in high-heels (or any kind of shoe!).

What can I say?  I love EVERYTHING about Joanna!

What do YOU love about Joanna?

Mock Ice Cream–Yum!

I’ve seen a couple of recipes lately for imitation ice cream (no dairy, easy, machine-free, etc.), and they looked yummy!  So this afternoon I tried one out.  I used this recipe, but here’s another very similar one that looks promising.  I took no pictures as there were three hungry/whiney children in the kitchen with me, and I wanted to get finished before the fourth woke up.  :) 

This is what I tried today:

Ingredients
-About 1 1/3 frozen, peeled bananas (I peel and toss bananas into a freezer bag when I have too many ripe ones.)
-1 Tablespoon peanut butter
-1 teaspoon cocoa powder

Stick all the ingredients in the blender (kind of sandwich the PB and powder in-between the bananas).  I hate my blender.  Anyway… this would probably work really well in a food processor, but I don’t have one.  I will try it next time in my Magic Bullet, which tends to deal better with this kind of thing.  With the blender, I started off slowly and keep scraping down anything that went flying.  As the bananas started to puree, I upped the speed and it really started looking like soft-serve. 

The girls and Ray LOVED it.  Ray even let me feed it to him, and he never lets me feed him anything.  I liked it too, but I may tweak it when I do it again.  (Maybe more chocolate, less PB)  It’s amazing how it really doesn’t taste like pureed bananas.  :)

I saw these things somewhere online and they have them on Amazon.

I’m thinking this “ice cream” might freeze well in them for an easy ice pop.  Even though this recipe was easy, I did have to get out all the ingredients and the blender and clean up everything, and I couldn’t do it one-handed.  So any shortcuts are my kind of thing, ya know?

I love Natalie

I love that Natalie calls Bert and Ernie “Bernie.”

I love that she says “hugs and quisses.”

I love that Natalie is pretty sneaky, but not in an devious way, more just a two year old way.  And I guess it’s kind of passive aggressive.  Example: I just looked over and saw the panties I laid out for her and told her to put on.  This means she’s going commando at nap time.

I love that she calls the playroom “Joanna’s playroom” but really only when she’s talking about taking her nap in there.

I love that she’ll lay down in the playroom, surrounded by toys, and sleep.

I love that she will snuggle with me in my bed (or the couch or the floor or standing up or on a chair…).

I love how her nose crinkles with her fake smile.

I love that she thinks swimming is called swim lessons.

I love that she potty-trained so early.

I love that her favorite thing to sleep with is a little stuffed snowman (wearing pink) named “Snowman.”  Used to, she called him “No-man.”

I love that she will sit on the floor with a book and read and read all by herself.

I love that she’s a little afraid of bugs but will still crouch on the floor, inches from one, to observe it.

I love that when I need to run out back for a minute, she’ll say “I stay on the dock (deck).” because she knows she can’t go into the yard without shoes.

What can I say, I love EVERYTHING about Natalie!!

What do YOU love about Natalie?

Eventually similar posts about her brother and sister will appear, lest anyone suspect favoritism on my part.  Although…she is the only one taking a nap this afternoon.  :)

VBS Friday: Blue–“Celebrate Forever!”

It seems fitting that for the last day of VBS, we’d end up with a good shot of all the children!

But there were a couple of funny ones too.  I love James’ face here.  :)

And in this one it looks like James and Natalie are doing the same thing – I love it!  And Joanna has such a sweet face!

Friday morning Lisa grabbed my camera and took pictures of the kiddos.  I’m posting just the ones with Joanna right now, but I’ll put them all up in another post (maybe below this one, in fact) so anyone who wants ‘em can grab ‘em.

I’m ignoring the fact that Joanna is not doing the motions in any of this pictures.  I’m thinking motions might not be her thing.  :)

Isn’t she so pretty?!

She sat with me for the last music session and the slide show.

She did a little dancing but was kind of done by the time I whipped out the camera.  :)  She loved watching the videos and singing along.

The goofy face is because she knew I was taking pictures of her.

I love that kid… all of ‘em actually.  :)  We all had such a fun week at VBS, and I’m so glad we did it!

More VBS Pics

Here are more of the pics that Lisa took Friday morning that just don’t have my kids in them.  :)  They do have our buds in them though.  Enjoy!

VBS Thursday: Purple–“Remember Jesus Often”

I got a little behind on my VBS posting this week.  Boy was I tired!  It seems so silly that spending a few hours each day away from home (and having fun!) would be so exhausting for me.  But it was and it also resulted in a very messy house and lots of un-finished laundry.  Oh, well!

Thursday was purple day.  The girls each had a little (ha!) purple, but poor James did not.  And aside from me climbing into the attic to look for a frilly purple romper, he wasn’t going to have anything.  I did find some old purple socks of Natalie’s to put on him though!

This was the best morning shot of Natalie:

And of the J’s:

For our morning music in the gym, the preschoolers came in to join us!

Another fun day at Vacation Bible School!

VBS Day 3: Red–“Believe with all your heart”

It was raining this morning – wahoo!!!!  But that meant not such a great red day picture.  Oh, well!  I’m sure the pic would have been better with the light in front of them, but I didn’t want to include the contents of my garage, you know?

The preschoolers (Joanna’s age group) got to come into the gym at music time this morning.  It was so fun to see Joanna in there!  Then we took a group picture in the gym (instead of outside).  Even though we have to walk outside to get places at the church, there’s a covered way to get everywhere, so it was perfect.  Cool, breezy, and pleasant.  Another fun day at VBS!

We stopped at my mom’s house on the way home for lunch.  She fed us grilled chicken wings, cheese, crackers, cooked spinach (my girls are loving this lately!), and cornbread.  What an incredible feast!!  And it didn’t wreck my kitchen.  :)  Thanks Mommy!!

And again we all had great naps this afternoon.  I’m so so thankful for that!  I’m having such a fun week, but I know we’ll enjoy the downtime next week.  :)

VBS Day Two: Green–“Give Happily!”

Today James was up before six but then went back down – wahoo!  I had to wake him up at 8:30 so we could leave!  I made the kiddos sit quickly on the driveway for a picture in their green though.  I didn’t get a cute one of all of them, but I’m posting what I got because they’re funny.  :)

I don’t know what’s up with James’ face here, but I kinda like it.  Joanna’s rockin’ the fake smile.

Fake smile has move toward a grimace; Natalie is at least making an attempt here; James is perplexed by something on the ground.

James is happy; Joanna is pensive; Natalie’s investigating.  I think this one’s the best of the three.  :)

Joanna’s shirt is a youth small so it’s huge on her.  I tied the side with a ponytail (Hey 80’s!!) – look closely and you’ll see it on her right.

Because I grabbed him out of his bed this morning, James hadn’t had his second breakfast so I opted to keep him with me for a bit this morning to sneak in some milk when we had the chance.  I figured he’d enjoy the music anyway!

Joanna and I were matching today!  Isn’t she just so gorgeous?!!

Another very fun day at VBS!  I planned on doing some easy things for lunches this week because walking into the house at 12:30 with 3 or 4 grumpy/hungry/needy children is rough!  For Monday I made the lunches the night before.  Today I had Matt pick up a box of mac & cheese when he went to the store last night.  I try not to keep it in the house anymore, but we all love it, and it can be prepared easily one-handed.  :)  Tomorrow we’re going to Café Gran for lunch and I’ll probably do fast food on Thursday (something to look forward to!), then we’ll be back to sandwich-y stuff on Friday.  It was good for me to plan on diversity and easy stuff this week.

Anyway, so today I was “cooking” the mac & cheese and Joanna comes in and says she’s changed her mind and doesn’t want it.  What?!  (It’s like her favorite food!)  She says she wants vegetables instead!  Ha!  For the preschoolers this week at VBS I know one thing they’re focusing on is eating good food to keep their bodies healthy for God.  LOVE HER!  So she got some veggies with her mac & cheese.  :)

The little ones and I took goooood naps this afternoon while Joanna played quietly in the playroom.  We were tuckered!!  I slept so deeply with vivid dreams.  I drifted in and out of sleep in the beginning I think, but then I slipped into a very deep sleep – oh I needed it.  Joanna told me later that she came out to tell me James was awake but she saw I was crashed so she went back into the playroom.  I’m pretty sure that helped me to wake up though – I’m not sure James was going to be able to do it himself.  :)  Normally I cannot sleep like that during the day!

Natalie’s lingo

I have to write some of these down before I forget!  Pardon if they’ve already made it to the blog-o-world and I just don’t remember.  :)  I have some on video, but I doubt I’ll get around to posting.

Helicopter = hepicopter

Umbrella = underrella; it used to be Cinderella

Yee-haw! = bee haw

Kids are funny

Joanna: Do you know where my milk goes down?
Me: It goes down your throat.
Joanna: No, which pipe.
Me: your esophagus
pause
Joanna: Where do my burps come?

VBS Day One: Orange–“Be Ready!”

This week is Vacation Bible School up at the church.  This is the first year in a while I haven’t been working, so the kids and I are involved this year!  The theme this year is “Shake it Up Café” and it’s all (obviously) food themed.  Yum!  The message today was about waiting on the Lord – Be ready!

If you can’t tell, it was also orange day:

Don’t I have the most gorgeous children?

They just fill up my heart!!

I was there too.  :)

James was in the crib room with three or four other little ones.  Natalie was in the two year old room, and they did crafts and sang songs I think.  And Joanna was with the preschoolers, and they have a schedule that’s pretty similar to the big kids, they just don’t move around.  And they get to play outside.  But they have music, crafts, snack, and all kinds of fun stuff.  Joanna is very excited about it, and the other kids are tolerating the disruption to their lives.  :)

I’m with the first graders, and they’re a fun group!  And I get to be in the gym at music time which means I get to learn all the songs and dances.  Yay!

Happy 8 Months, James!

James turned eight months old yesterday!  We realized it, but alas, did not take any pictures, save for the naked bath time ones.  Poor kid.  :)

Isn’t he so handsome?

Let me see what I can think of about James.  He…

• has the best open-mouth smile.
• has two teeth on the bottom.
• may be cutting some more teeth soon.
• can scootch around on the floor.  He doesn’t much unless he sees something he wants, but then he pushes himself along with one foot and grabs with his hands.  It’s very cute.
• sits up very well now.  He still will occasionally loose his mind and fall backward (which makes him cry) but normally he will sit happily playing for a little while!  I LOVE this as my other children were really moving before they could sit up so they didn’t do that “sit and play” thing.
• is a Cheerios-aholic.  He LOVES them; I think they are his favorite food.  He grabs up a handful at a time to eat.
• will now eat purees.  He likes them warm.
• has the most fantastic giggle.
• is wearing size 6-9 month clothes, with a few 12 month things thrown in there.
• I really have no idea what size disposable diaper he’d wear.  Probably a two?  I put a three on him last night b/c he needed a good slathering of diaper rash cream and the three was laying around.  :)
• wears the BG diapers on the middle snap.
• will put anything laying around in his mouth.  This means a lot more vacuuming for me.  :)
• can fit under some of our furniture.
• will put weight on his legs but isn’t much interested in standing.
• like his biggest sister, loves the “Little People” giraffe from the Ark.  It’s the perfect size for holding and chewing.
• Is the most loved little boy.

Sink Tub!

I gave James a bath in the kitchen sink yesterday and it was quite a photo-op.  (Ignore my dirty dishes; there was no more room in the dishwasher.)

I would say we usually give him a bath in the big tub (and often with a sister or two), so this was a bit out of the ordinary for him.  You may be able to see some of the water he splashed out.  He just splashed and splashed and laughed – the best!

The picture is in lieu of a video to show you how he was splashing.  :)  He’s a blur.

Sitting up babies are so fun!!

I have a longing…

I will never ever try to deny I am a material girl.  I like stuff.  I always have.  I struggle with this.  Part of me actually desires to be a minimalist.  I’m torn.  :)

So now that I’ve made that clear, on to the next thing I deeply desire… the next thing I simply must have.  Who wants to tell Matt?

There’s a seller on Etsy who makes these gorgeous CLOTH cash envelope systems – wahoo!!  Cash envelopes made out of beautiful fabric??  Sign me up!!

Another view:

She also sells the patterns, but bah ha ha ha ha!  I’d rather buy one all made up.  The only problem with the wallet is it’s short 1-3 envelopes for my needs.  I may convo her and see if it’s possible to add one.  If not, I’m also kind of crazy about her loose envelopes and pouch:

In fact I can’t decide which I’d like better!  This one would be more customizable, and I like the idea of just having the envelopes I need in the pouch.  (Having said that, I’d have to remember to grab the money out of the “haircut” envelope if I left it at home.)

I could add my coupons to the pouch as well as my cell phone, keys and chapstick, I guess!  I would need to find some sort of gadget for my cards (license, debit, library, you know…) to slip in there as I wouldn’t want a wallet in addition to this.

Thanks for “listening” to me ramble a bit. 

You know I made my own envelopes (out of paper) a while back, and while they certainly serve my needs, they are suffering a little bit from use.  And my wallet is nowhere near as cute as these cloth things!

See?

Here are my envelopes:

If you look really really closely, can’t you see they’re getting worn out? 

It’s terrible, isn’t it?  Embarrassing really.  Somebody tell Matt.  :)

In another fifteen years, I may have to take him back.

Last Friday afternoon, the teller at the bank informed me my driver’s license was expired.  Oops! I simply hadn’t looked at the thing in forever and had forgotten that it was going to expire on my birthday in 2011.  The next day my mom was off was today and she agreed to watch my girls so James and I could drive up to Cleveland to hit the DPS there.

It’s a teeny tiny office, and not that easy to find considering the people of Cleveland clearly don’t need street signs to know where they’re going.  :)  We actually found it just fine, and I joined my place in the back of the line outside.  There really were only 7 or so people in front of me, but the lobby is super-tiny.  I had expected James to nap on the way there but he said no.  So I plopped down on the ground, leaned back against a pillar, and nursed my baby to sleep.  He crashed and I was even able to rerobe and uncover him while he stayed asleep.

Look at those little beads of sweat!  A spot opened up inside, so I carefully gathered our stuff and went inside to sit.  He only stayed asleep a few more minutes, but then he was very happy!  He smiled at  people and was a great conversation starter.  :)

I’m actually not sure what time I got there, but I know I left the house about 8:50, and I was all done by about 10:30.  I’d say that’s not too bad!  My new picture is awful, but it prompted me to make an appointment tomorrow to get my hair cut.  And my name on my license will finally read “Jessica Pence.”  It’s been Cooksey because I’ve been too lazy to go change it!  The nice DPS lady held James while I had the picture taken.  I was hot and sweaty – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

All in all, not a terrible way to spend a Thursday morning.  My mom let me drive her car and I told her it was kind of like a pleasure cruise.  It drives real nice, and I got to listen to my little MP3 player!  James and I stopped by Cleveland Healthcare to say hi to Matt before we headed back to the ‘Wood.  He’d gotten quiet, but I couldn’t tell if he was sleeping (and I guess I just had to know), so I reached my camera back there and pressed the button when I thought it was by his face:

He wasn’t sleeping.  :)  He did fall asleep before we exited the highway though, and he stayed asleep while I buzzed through the grocery store.  He must have been exhausted to do that!

It took me a couple of hours to get cooled off once I got home.  It is just so stinkin’ hot outside!  And I had good A/C in the car.  Oh, my, what would I do without A/C?

 

Move, I think.

The Girls

Joanna came to me yesterday in the get-up and said, “I’m wearing this like Jesus!”

Then later it was a Moby Wrap for her baby.

Poor Matt.  But what a good daddy he is, right?

The girls are always grabbing Matt’s gloves when he sets them down after work.  Mostly they use them as gloves.  Natalie LOVES to put one on and then change the diaper of a Barbie doll… on the changing table.  It’s hilarious and I love it.  :)
I don’t know who had the idea, but tonight they put them on their feet and called them “octopus feet.”  LOVE it!

They’re so funny.