Last Week: Music, grass, and… food mostly.

Last Tuesday when I packed everybody’s lunch, I just couldn’t help taking a picture.  :)

Joanna’s: hard boiled egg, ham and cheese “roll-up,” ants on a log, cantaloupe.

Natalie: PB&J, cheese, cantaloupe, hard-boiled egg

James: pear, cantaloupe, hard boiled egg, sweet potato

The girls, singing to some sheet music I had out.  I love it when they pretend they can read.  :)

We stopped by my mom and David’s house one day last week, and this is what Joanna did as we were leaving:

It made me feel a little guilty about the state of our grass (none – all dead), but then I figure we can just go visit my mom to lay in the grass.  :)

I bought these silicone push pop mold things, and finally got around to using them.  :)  I filled them with smoothies and froze them.  The girls thought they were great!

And this week I sent one in Joanna’s lunch, and it was back to smoothie consistency for her to drink at lunch time.  Yum!

Last Friday my mom gave us some childcare so we could go on a date!

This is what you look like when your four year old takes your picture:

The camera at that angle adds like 25lbs, right?

We still had some Red Lobster gift card money, so of course that’s were we went!  Sadly, I forgot to take a picture before we started our meal, so these next shots may be a little gross depending on your view of things.

We realized when we got there that is was all you can eat shrimp time.  Ahhh… Heaven.  I had a whole lot of fried shrimp and some scampi and some shrimp pasta.

And Matt had some kind of other funky things with more spices involved.

And there was salad and baked potatoes and those amazing cheddar bay biscuits.  I definitely ate too much.  And I was very happy.  :)

Then we went to Wal-Mart.  It was fun.

Sadly though, we got home and EVERYONE WAS STILL AWAKE.  I fired my mother, then we put everyone to bed, and by 10:30, I think they were asleep.  And they’re still grumpy.

:)

Poor James is just a little addicted to some Momma love before bed, and my mom didn’t know about how the girls can’t sleep after they watch TV and she let them watch TV.

I’ll probably forget and rehire her again soon (or as soon as she’ll let me).  The price is right.  And she feeds them and loves them and takes really good care of them and they love her.  And it doesn’t matter what shape my house is in.  :)

THANK YOU MOMMA!

James is 11 Months Old Today

And you know what that means… in just one little month, he’ll be ONE!!!  I’m so not ready for that.  For now, let’s enjoy his 11 month photo  shoot.  I took 33 pictures.  Let’s see how many I managed to whittle it down to:

These days James…

• has four teeth in and I think a couple more on the cusp.
• LOVES to sing and dance.
• cries to get his way (what a baby!)
• is a fruit-a-maniac.  LOVES fruit.
• is absolutely crazy about bananas especially.  If he sees one, he must have it.
• has had a little runny nose this week but is still a pretty happy baby, thank goodness!
• will let you feed him some, but mostly prefers to feed himself.
• has said his first official word: “Uh-oh.”  He says it a lot, at all the appropriate times.  It’s very cute. 
• also sort of says milk.  It sounds like “mah.”
• drank cold (mommy) milk from a cup today and seemed to like it.
• wears size 12 month clothes and doesn’t seem to be growing out of them any time soon.  I bet he’ll wear some 18 month stuff once it’s actually cold.  (It’s going to get cold again sometime, right?)
• Is pretty hot-natured.  It’s hard for him to ride in a carrier or nurse under a cover, simply because he’s so warm.
• can pull up on everything.  Cannot so much pull back down.  I’m ready for him to acquire that falling back down with ease skill.
• Is obsessed with my cell phone.
• Is attached at my hip.
• Takes two naps.  His morning nap is usually the best; unfortunately that is the one that sometimes gets messed with.
• drinks well out of a cup, even one with a straw!  He’s the youngest Pence baby to manage that one.
• still “crawls” on his belly.  It’s super-cute, though if he’s wearing white, I know exactly how dirty the floor is.
• was entertained yesterday for a solid fifteen minutes with a toilet paper tube and a clothespin.
• Says “da da da da,” and I feel really confident that sometimes he’s actually calling/talking to Matt.



• Is so very incredibly loved by all his family.  Happy 11 months, James!  We love you!!!

You know, the kids will pretty much play with what’s there.

James is so funny. :)  Now that he can do it, he’s pulling up everywhere… as high as he will go. 

Joanna used this doily thing as an ice pack for her baby.  She filled it with wooden blocks.  The baby busted her head open.

The other night I believe there were leftovers involved in dinner, which is why James has egg casserole on his tray, a carrot in one hand, and a breadstick in the other.

He’s a two-fisted kind of eater.  :)  Me?  I just love the little foot on up his tray – sooooooooooo cute!

We have this bucket in our kitchen these days to put “scraps” of water in (the end of a glass, etc.), and we take it out to water the “Joanna” rose.  It’s really perfect for James to pull up on.

He loves a good empty spice container to play with.

I’m looking forward to when James figures out how to get down after pulling up.

Playing at Lisa’s

We played at Lisa’s on Friday for a bit.  She fed us lunch, and we visited poor Junior.

James loves these back windows!

Anna loves James!

The girls played in the backyard for a bit.

It was cute.

Awwww…

I think Junior liked the company.  He licked James in the face.  :)  He has to stay penned in the living room so he doesn’t slip on the laminate floor and injure himself more.  He had surgery to repair his knee last week.  Poor guy!

More Pics from the first day of school

These are back from last Tuesday, when I picked the kiddos up. 

I picked up Joanna first (since I knew I wouldn’t be disrupting a nap), but I didn’t actually take any pictures of her.

If you stand real far back from your computer, this doesn’t look so blurry.  :)  But it was the best I got, and I love her sweet little self laying on the nap mat.

Then I picked up James!  (FYI, getting there ten minutes early is not enough time to pick up four kids.)  James was the last one in his class – sorry teachers; I’ll do better tomorrow!

Then I grabbed Ray and we headed to the car.  I’m pretty sure this whole process took me thirty minutes.  The place was deserted when I left.

I have a few ideas to streamline the process:

-Pick up in this order: Ray, James, Joanna, Natalie.  Natalie takes the longest I think because of the nap mat.  She’s still laying on it, and I have to go in, get her, roll up the thing, then leave.  So I shall save the longest for last.

-talk to no one.  :)  Umm… yeah, right. 

-I’m going to try to be there at 2:15 and see if I can get it all done.  I really don’t want to leave my house earlier than 2:00 (if I’m at home).  If I’m subbing, they’ll all be the last ones picked up anyway!

It was a Tuesday

September 11, 2001
I was a sophomore in college, but I lived at home. I had class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, so I was getting ready for work here in Kingwood. I was upstairs in the bathroom, and I heard my mother swear downstairs in front of the TV. At first I didn't get it. How did a plane fly into the tower? I watched the news for a few minutes then headed to work. I had a part time job at a children's bookstore. We weren't very busy that day, and we listened to the news on the radio.

I don't think I've written that down before. Don't think I'll ever forget though.

Ummm… well… food, mostly

Last week I went out and bought myself a food processor.  I’ve been wanting one forever, and I finally just decided it was time!  The good blade for chopping and what not on my Magic Bullet bit the dust (I haven’t gotten around to looking at replacing just the blade), and I needed something I could make hummus with!  The Magic Bullet really was terrible for making hummus, but not quite as terrible as my blender, so that’s what I had used.

Anyway, I bought a little 3 cup Cuisinart, and so far I like it very much!

And it was a BREEZE to make hummus. 

I wanted to make some for the first week of school to send with Joanna (along with homemade crackers!).  Side story: Joanna and I were at Kohl’s buying the food processor, and I was looking at the different options.  I said to Joanna (really just thinking out loud), “How many ounces are in a cup?”  And she answered with no hesitation, “eight.”  What?!  I think it was a fluke, but it was so precious!  I laughed and gave her a high five.  She said, “Was I right?”  Love that girl!

We were low on taco seasoning, so I mixed up another batch but took a picture before I shook it up.  It’s so pretty!

Not as pretty, but soooo tasty!

We grilled out (in the bee-you-tee-full weather) some chicken and veggies last week – yum!

James had a dirt/stick/leaf appetizer. 

This little girl is just so pretty!  And very addicted to this dress-up combo right now:

Mmmmm… more sticks!

I love her hair!

Oh, this girl is so precious!!

We had just watched some Blues Clues, and Joanna is sitting in her “Thinking Chair!”

Don’t you love a man cooking dinner?!!

More posts to come in the next day or so as I catch up.  Hopefully my kids will stop doing super cute or momentous things for a little while so I can catch up.  :)