Do cookie crumbs grow?

Last week Emma planted some cookie crumbs in a small plastic pot. She added dirt and water to help them grow and asked if she should add sugar and other stuff too. I told her not too because it would make the cookies too sweet. She told me it would probably take a long time to grow which I was excited about. She and Isaac left early the next morning with their Grandma and Grandpa to go visit their cousins in Sacramento. When they got back late Thursday night, Emma's cookie crumbs had grown into a cookie tree. Isaac then said he was going to plant some cookie crumbs next much to my chagrin, kinda. The next morning Emma asked me if the cookies really did grow or if I had made them. I just told her, well you planted cookie crumbs and you got a cookie tree. Now she asks for a cookie from the tree that she planted.

Wild Olives

Hello all!

Okay this has nothing to do with my kiddos but it does help an old friend from Horn Creek days. I have a friend, Colleen, I worked with that is selling some really cute t-shirts online for ladies. Click on her link on the right to check them out! I hope her company does really well and I am hoping to get a shirt or two or maybe even 3 if I can swing it one of these days!

Take the time!

This isn't nearly as easy as I was hoping it would be! I look at my blog almost everyday and think to myself, I need to write something on it, but something always takes priority...paying bills, answering phones, pulling kids apart, teaching special sounds, peeking in to see what my kids are giggling about, ... A higher internet connection speed would probably help but who am I kidding, it won't make me type faster. I think I just need a clone to do some of my other stuff for me! The mundane things, not the fun kid stuff!

Anyway, you would think I would have all sorts of stories from the last time I wrote and I do. The problem is recalling them all. I was saying a while back that Isaac has a tender heart. A few weeks ago we all went to a conference for Christian camping and Isaac and Emma stayed with my folks in Palm Springs. Adam and Heather's boys stayed at the camp where the conference was held and Samantha and Sarah babysat them while seminars and such were going on. Anyway, when we met back up with my folks to pick up Isaac and Emma, Heather, her boys, my kids, my parents and I ate lunch together before heading home. Heather's youngest, Austin, who is about 1 1/2 years old hadn't really paid much attention to Isaac. Now, mind you, on the trip down, Austin couldn't stop saying Isaac over and over again...for 6-7 hours. Isaac, bless his heart, was very patient with him. When they parted ways before my parents whisked them off to Palm Springs, Isaac was making sure that Austin would be taken care of by his big brother. He was telling Caleb where Austin's water was and to give it to him when he asked for it. All this to say that when we were eating lunch together, Isaac's face was downcast. When I asked him what was wrong he said almost in tears, "Austin doesn't remember who I am". We assured him that Austin did remember, that he had been asking for Isaac the whole time they were not together. It was very cute! Isaac is such a protector and loves to help take care of kids smaller than he is.

The kids' trip to the Children's Museum and the Air Museum in Palm Springs with their Grandma and Granddaddy

A couple of weeks ago Emma was finally able to use one of her Christmas presents, her Ladybug Home. We were outside and caught a couple of ladybugs to put in their new home for a few days. The top, where you put the ladybugs in, is also a magnifying glass. When I told Emma that the home had magnification she said she wanted to look through the magicfication to see her ladybugs.

Last week we went to the Santa Barbara Zoo for the first time with our friends Mark and Andrea. We had a really good time and the kids got to see animals they had never seen before and they got to feed a giraffe. The next day when we were getting ready to start school, Isaac was praying and he asked Jesus that His spirit would go into Brown the penguin so that Brown would jump off the bridge he was standing on the day we saw him. It was pretty funny!

We were reading a Bible story one day about Moses and I couldn't remember if God had told Moses to strike the rock just once or what exactly He told him to do to get water for His people. As I was trying to remember, Isaac pops up and says, no, God told Moses to speak to the rock and Moses struck it instead. I looked over at him at little surprised and then remembered that yes God did tell him to speak to the rock. I am so proud of Isaac that he has been paying attention and is retaining what he is learning about God's Word! As a side note, God told Moses to strike the rock the first time His people complained and the next time God told him to speak to the rock and Moses, in his anger towards the Israelites, struck the rock instead and hence could not go into the Promised Land because he had disobeyed God.

Emma just wishes that I would not read so much when it is Bible story time in the morning. She is a funny little one! We only read for about 10-15 minutes but in her world that is too long and she has too much coloring to do to be sitting around listening to Bible stories. She has a hard time sitting still for anything. She has such a neat spirit! She'll get in trouble for something and within 5 minutes or less, she'll be back to her hopping, dancing, smiling self. I have never seen someone bounce back so quickly. She does love to boss people around and get her way though too. At Easter, they were both playing with friends while I was eating lunch and I found out later from one of the other moms that she knows that Emma has a big brother because of the way she was treating her son. Her son is just a week or so older than Emma but he is a little guy. I guess she was wrestling and punching him in a playful way but because the little boy is an only child he was not used to it and was a little taken aback. The mom was laughing about it but of course I was a little embarrassed and apologized to her. She is quite the little girly girl tomboy. She loves to dress up and put on pretend make-up but she can throw quite a punch and has a great throwing arm. During soccer she was also picking up the tricks that Adam was teaching all the kids very quickly. I guess I have a little boxer/soccer player/softball player on my hands.

I love listening to my kids talk and reason through things when they think we are not listening. Or trying to reason with us when they want to do something that we have told them they couldn't do. I hope I can do a better job of keeping up with this whole blog thing so that I can look back on this years from now and remember all the cute, funny things my kids did!

Emmabell turns 5!

Yep, my baby girl turned 5 on January 30th. I had been telling her she could have no more birthdays because I did not want her growing up so quickly and she told me "only 2 more birthdays, mommy, only 2 more". I'm OK with that! She said she wanted to be the same age as her brother so I'm not telling her he won't be 6 forever!
Emmabell had a wonderful Tinkerbell-themed party even though most of her little friends were unable to make it. One of our summer staffers, Ashley, came up from Nipomo (about an hour away). Emma was excited to see her and we were glad to see her again as well! The Russells, Reeds and some of the Wrights came as well. We set up the kid's big blow-up slide and they had a blast! It was a beautiful day! I had bought Tinkerbell and Spiderman tattoos for the kids to put on and all the boys except Isaac chose Tinkerbell tattoos much to the chagrin of their dads! I thought I would have more takers for the Spiderman tattoos but I guess I underestimated Tinkerbells popularity. They all also proudly sported Tinkerbell crowns on their heads. I even got a call from Amy asking me to drop off a Tinkerbell crown at church because Austin had forgotten his here at the house. Heather did tell me that Caleb had asked her earlier why he never got Tinkerbell toys. I forgot to bring out the pinata during the party but Emma, Isaac and Caleb did get to do it later in the evening right before they capped off the evening with the Tinkerbell movie. All in all it was a Tinkeriffic day!
Emma got play make-up which she applied all by her lonesome!

Notice the Tinkerbell crowns on the kids.


A perfect end to a perfect day...a Tinkerbell movie!