What's in a Name?

OK, I'm dork. I'm pretty sure I've told you all that before, so you shouldn't be surprised by anything you read on this blog. Anyway, I love it each year when Ellie's preschool puts out its annual classroom directory. I love going through it and looking at all the kid's names. It's my little window on the world of names out there. I know it's not a huge sampling, but it gives you an idea of what's popular- around here anyway. I just got the one for this year. I went through it and wrote down some interesting names and some names that are in there a lot. First of all there are 206 kids in the school- yes I counted. Told you I was a dork. There are 2 Ellie's (including mine) and 2 Ella's. 2 Logan's too. There are several Madison's, Maddie's, and Madeline's (of different spellings). 1 Grace, 1 Carter, 1 Jacob, 2 Ethan's, no Tye, no Austin, no Charlize, and no Adam. I just wanted to get those out of the way cause I know you were all wondering, as I always am. The other popular names (at least 2 of each) included Reese, Nathan, Mason, Dakota, Sydney, Olivia, Rachel, Alex, Abby, Dylan, Zach and Zachary, Tyler, Jackson, Lauren and Nicholas. I also noticed several "different" names I wanted to mention- Riddick, Hadley, Miller, Kinley, Keegan, Coen, Hudson, Kiley, Deegan, Dakin, Piper, Caysen, Kierani, Gahyeon, and Meade. And a couple "old fashioned" names too- Penny, Helen, and Gretchen. And this one poor kid- Ryan Loser. I would have to change my name if my kid was going to go thru life dealing with that. I just find all of this really fun and interesting. Hope you do too!

Have a Great Day!!

Complaint Free? Probably not. Grateful? Definitely.

I don't know if you all have heard of this concept of a complaint free world. There is a guy named Will Bowen, who was a pastor at a church in Kansas City and came up with this idea that we all complain too much and he wanted to see how his life would change if he stopped complaining entirely, for 21 days straight. It took him like 3-4 months to do it. He challenged the members of his church to do it too and it caught on. They now sell these bracelets that you use to help you remember when you are complaining. You switch it from one wrist to another every time you complain. Here's a link to the website if you're interested. (In case you're wondering I'm not planning on getting a bracelet. I'm going for a more moderate approach)http://www.acomplaintfreeworld.org/ I heard about it a while back but was just thinking about it today when I read Erica's blog and also Lisa's blog the other day about taking the time to appreciate all we have. I was thinking that maybe not complaining at all would be a little hard to do, but maybe we could try and think of something we appreciate every time we complain. It really does make a lot of what we complain about seem like nonsense when you put it in perspective. Like, for example, I know most of us would like to be able to keep our houses neater or at least more organized. But maybe instead of looking around at the mess and feeling like failures we should look at the beautiful houses we live in and be grateful. And realize that all that stuff that's making the mess are things that most people in the world only wish they could posses. And when we complain about our husbands not understanding or helping enough sometimes, we should think to ourselves that at least we live in a country where women have any rights at all and are respected as equals unlike most of the women around the world.

I know it won't make everything better, but it's really easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day hodge-podge of crap that we deal with. Sometimes taking a step back and looking at things for what they truly are can help. So I think we should all try it. Tomorrow if you find yourself complaining about something, just sit and think of something your thankful for and see if it makes you feel better. At least a little better anyway.

Example: Don't look at the mess of disorganized toys (which is actually pretty neat considering how messy this room can get). Instead, think how lucky my kids are to have so many nice things to play with. (Let me know if that helps you, cause it's not working for me just yet) Just remember, these things take time.

I just had to add a picture of something I'm thankful for. I bought these flowers today at Hobby Lobby 90% off . I got 2 $16.99 bouquets for $1.69 each. I bought the pot at full price for $7.99 and the foam inside was $1.99. My grand total for this lovely arrangement, including tax, was $14.50! For that, I am thankful. And each time I look at the beautiful arrangement on my table, I'll feel a warm glow inside. Maybe I'll try looking at them every time Ellie poops her pants or Logan smacks Ellie! It's worth a shot, right?

My Least Favorite Things about Christmas

(That was us last year! Hopefully we can get a better picture this year.)

If you haven't read my blog from yesterday- scroll down and read that one first. It'll make more sense that way.

My Least Favorite Things about Christmas

1. Scratching the hell out of my arms putting the lights on the tree so I can watch them glow.

2. Shopping for, keeping hidden and wrapping all of the presents that make the kids eyes light up on Christmas morning.

3. Christmas carols starting to play in November 1st in stores.

4. Cleaning up the hellacious mess that making Christmas cookies with the kids makes.

5. Wishing the threat, "Don't be bad because Santa's watching you!" would work better.

6. Reading "The Night Before Christmas" to the kids- over and over and over...

7. Getting together with my whole family for a Christmas celebration.

8. Feeling rather irritated about the horribly crowded stores and parking lots that the Christmas season brings.

9. Having to spend so much "Quality Time" with my family over the Christmas vacation.

10. Taking the kids to get their pictures taken in their special holiday attire and needing a stiff drink afterward.

Merry Christmas!

My Favorite Things about Christmas

My Favorite Things about Christmas

1. Turning off all the lights except the tree and watching the beautiful glow.

2. Watching the kids eyes light up when they see the presents under the tree Christmas morning.

3. Christmas carols playing while we decorate the tree.

4. Making Christmas cookies with the kids.

5. Telling the kids all about Santa, his elves and the North Pole.

6. Reading "The Night Before Christmas" to the kids.

7. Getting together with my whole family for a Christmas celebration.

8. Feeling the spirit of joy and goodwill that the season brings to us.

9. Getting to spend lots of "Quality Time" with my family over the Christmas vacation.

10. Having cute pictures of the kids taken in their special Christmas attire.

My Thanksgiving "vacation"

Hello all! I know it's been a while since I've blogged. I was totally out of pocket this last week. Wednesday was a blur with my oldest sister, Susan, arriving and spending all afternoon cooking for Thurs. Erica, her rug rats and my Dad came by as well and we had pizza for dinner since no one felt like cooking anything else. Thursday was of course very busy. We didn't go to Erica's until around noon, but all morning was spent cooking and getting everyone ready as well. We had a great time with all of our family there. It included me, Stu, Logan, Ellie, my Mom, her husband Jerry, my Dad, Erica, Ray, Grace, Carter, Ray's Mom and her boyfriend, my sister Susan, my brothers Jeff and Chris (y'all don't know them-They are much older from my Dad's previous marriage) Chris's son, Collin, and Erica and Ray's good friend, "uncle" Dave. It was a pretty full house (18 if I counted correctly), but we had a great time. Nothing but smooth sailing. I thought the food was good too.







We gave the kids their owls. I think we liked them better than they did. In fact Grace threw hers to the end of the bed just after receiving it.

We played a game after dinner- Battle of the Sexes. I'm sorry to say that the Men won. It was fun anyway. We didn't get back until like 8 and put the kids to bed then we had to pack to leave for Houston by 9am!! We did it though. I was exhausted. I didn't really have access to a computer there because Garrick (Stu's 17 year old brother) is on the thing constantly. He plays some game where he wears a headset and talks to his friends who are also playing. Anyway, that's my excuse for not blogging more. But, I'm back now and will hopefully do better! Hope you all had a great holiday too.

The picture to the right was yesterday when Logan decided to give his 42 lb sister a piggy back ride! Keep in mind he only weighs 53 lbs!

As you can see, Ellie didn't want me to take this picture. This was Thanksgiving morning when it was really chilly and they wanted to go out and play. I made them totally bundle up!

I also wanted to include some pics of the "other" side of the fam. This is Stu's mom working on our 750 piece puzzle. (yes, we didn't get very far.) And Logan and Ellie with Grandpa Gary and his dogs Braxton and Chloe.

Countdown to Thanksgiving

So I know it's already Tuesday, but my official countdown to Thanks-giving is just beginning. Logan had school Monday and Tuesday, so now that he's out and I don't have kids to take to school or pick up from school it really feels like the holidays are starting. Today was pretty productive. I wasn't really planning on it being that way, but I was stuck at home waiting for someone- who incidentally never showed up- so I was in a mind-set of how much can I get done today since I'm going to be here anyway. I guess it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Ellie was here, of course, since she's in preschool on MWF, and she was very cooperative in letting me get stuff done. I vacuumed, straightened, did laundry, did dishes, swept, recovered the cushions on my bar stools and cleaned up my horrid office/guest room/hell room. It's basically the room no one sees that I can quickly stash stuff in when I need to and it gets very full, very quickly. My sister, Susan, will be staying with us Wed. and Thurs. so I had to get it in shape. I also gave the dog a bath, trimmed his nails and cleaned out his ears. Anyway, it was a "productive" day that I can feel good about and not feel like I wasted a day. So I feel like I'm pretty ready for Thanksgiving, especially since it's not at my house this year- woo hoo. Poor Erica, she decided to have it at her house since it would be easier with Carter taking a nap. Then she found out that her beloved cleaning lady had changed phone numbers and she couldn't get a hold of her to help her get her house ready, so now they're stuck doing it all themselves! I'm sure it will look wonderful. Erica and I are going to try and finish our owls before Thanksgiving so we can give them to the kids. Won't that be a Hoot!! hahaha I know, I crack myself up too. Hopefully we'll get them done soon so we can post some pics. The pic above is of some Thanksgiving "art" my lovely children brought home from school. Enjoy!

Pfun Pfall Pfinds

Logan was doing tons better today, thank goodness, so we decided to let him and Ellie go to my mom's house this afternoon and spend the night. The kids have been wanting to do that for a while and we had planned on doing it this weekend before Logan got sick. He had to miss 3 days of school this week and had been home a lot "resting", which to a little boy is tantamount to torture, so I wanted him to get to do something fun today. We took them over to Mom's house in Taylor this afternoon about 1:30. After we left we decided to go to the outlet mall in RR before going to a movie later in the afternoon. I found some really cute, cheap things at The Children's Place and Gymboree and I found some cute black shoes for Ellie at Bass of all places. I have been looking for something like this for like 2 months now. You'd think black shoes would be easier to find, huh? Anyway after that we went to the Cinemark theater by the mall and saw Dan in Real Life. I highly recommend it. It was really good. After the movie we were hungry so we went to Pho Hoang, a Vietnamese restaurant. I'm not that into Vietnamese, but Stuart loves Pho (noodle soup) and doesn't get to have it very often, so I agreed to go. It was pretty good-we had Pho and spring rolls. I always leave there (or any Vietnamese restaurant) feeling like I'm not completely satisfied though. At the end of the meal I did wind up ordering an egg roll, which helped a little. Anyway, at least next time the 2 of us go out I get to choose the place.

After I got home I was talking to Erica about all the cute stuff I got shopping and she was telling me about the awesome 80% off Fall stuff at Hobby Lobby. I decided to get in the car and go check it out. Here's the stuff I got- The garland and all the stuff on it, the fruit in the basket (I already had the basket and leaves) and the 2 cute "Logan and Ellie" scarecrows at the top of the page. The grand total, drum roll please......$13.62. Ta Dah! Pretty good, huh. I love it!

The boy's still sick!!

(Doesn't he look sweet sleeping this way?) Yes, he's sick again, or still sick I guess, depending on how you look at it. I woke up to check on him this morning and took his temp around 6:45. It was 103. I told him he wasn't going to school so he should go back to sleep. I wasn't sure how that would work since he's usually a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed morning boy, but this morning he wasn't. I kept checking on him throughout the morning while I made him a Dr. appt., got ready, took Ellie to school and stopped by the grocery store (Stu was still home) and when I got back at 9:35 he was still in bed. I was starting to really worry because in his whole life he's never- NEVER- stayed in bed that late. We went to the Dr. and they did a chest X-ray, CBC (complete blood count) to check his white cells, and Flu test. They all came back normally. The Dr. said the Radiologist told her it was bronchitis. She said she never really knew what that meant in kids. She said it wasn't pneumonia like he had before, but it could be a slight case of walking pneumonia or it could just be yet another virus. She gave him Zythromax (an antibiotic) and told me to have him use his albuterol inhaler for his asthma to make sure his airways stay clear. Poor baby had fever all day, but it didn't get really high this time. I didn't give him any fever reducer at all in hopes that the fever would do it's thing and kill whatever needed killing. Also, I wanted him to rest and not run around from an artificial sense of feeling good that the medicine would give him. So hopefully he'll be better soon and stay better.

I also tried another recipe tonight. This time it was Sloppy joes. They were pretty good. I feel like they could have used a little more flavor or sweetness or something. I might put in some brown sugar next time. Also, I need to cut up the celery smaller to hide it from the kids. All in all it wasn't a total success or failure. I think I'll just have to fiddle with the recipe a little.

I wanted to include a funny picture of Ellie since I've been talking about Logan so much lately. Look at that sweet little face!

FYI-she had no accidents of any kind today. Yay!!!!!!!

Boring Blog

Here's my boring blog about today. Logan had a croupy cough this morning. If you've never heard one it sounds like a seal barking. It's mostly supposed to be in kids 1-3 yrs so I don't know if that's what it was or not, but he seemed to be feeling ok and went to school anyway. Late this afternoon he was acting pretty "droopy" so I took his temp and he had 101. I don't know what I'm going to do with him. We'll see what tonight and tomorrow morning bring. Also, Ellie pooped in her pants 4 times today. Yes, the fun never stops around here.
One good thing today was that I tried a new Deceptively Delicious recipe. The buttered noodles. They're just noodles (whole wheat preferably) cooked and drained then mixed with yellow squash puree, margarine, milk, Parmesan cheese and salt. The kids both LOVED them. You would never have known they had squash in them either. I thought squash might be kind of a hard taste to cover up in this one, but you could not tell it was there at all. I highly recommend it for kids and adults.
Sorry no pics today. I looked for one online of the noodles, but no luck. I'm too lazy to get up and actually take one, so you'll just have to use your imagination. Have a good day!

Thank God for technology

I have to pay homage to the best tool I've ever had for tracking fever in my sick kiddos. It's the Exergen Temporal Scanner Infrared Thermometer. I first saw it at my doctor's office a year or two ago. You just slide it across your child's forehead and in an instant it gives you a temperature that's as exact as a rectal temp. If you don't have one, I highly recommend it. It makes it sooo much easier and I feel like I'm getting an accurate temp. It's great especially at night whey they're sleeping because you can do it without disturbing them at all. I used to have an ear one, but I would always wind up taking the temp like 5 or 6 times because it could come back different every time depending on how you held it in their ear.

I got mine at Wal-mart, but I saw them at Sam's the other day too. Yesterday I lost it for about 30 minutes. I was freaking out. I didn't know what I was going to do. I really needed to take Logan's temp, so I got out an old fashioned digital thermometer and made him hold it under his tongue. He didn't know what the heck I was doing to him. He didn't like it at all of course. It measured his temp at 104.2. A few minutes later I found my Exergen and it registered over 105. I just wanted to let everyone know what a great tool this is and how it's worth every penny! (about $30) The only improvement they could make would be giving it a light up screen so you can read it in the dark. But still, it's awesome.

Poor sick boy

My sweet Logan. He's been sick a lot in his short little life. Especially when he was 4. That was a rough year. He was sick at least once a month and even had pneumonia. We also found out then that he has asthma and when we went to the allergist he was allergic to 21 out of the 25 things they tested him for. Bummer. But, his asthma is really mild and he hasn't had any problems with that in over a year. He gets really high fevers a lot. At first I would get really worried when I'd see 104. And at 105, well I was panicking- putting him in a luke-warm bath, calling the nurse hot line, etc. Now unfortunately, those are pretty routine fevers for him. Last year he was only sick enough to miss school twice the whole year. It was great. This year so far he's had a sinus infection (2 weeks ago) and now some sort of virus (so says the doctor today). This virus he's got is giving me fits. He started having fever on Saturday and today he had 105 twice and even 106 for a little while. You're probably freaking out, as I would have if I hadn't been thru this with him too many times to count. He just burns really hot for some reason. It takes a lot for him to be laying around on the couch all afternoon, so I know he must feel lousy. I just hope he gets better soon so he can get back to school and having fun with his friends like he wants to. Poor little guy. He looks pathetic doesn't he. I'm kind of a sucker when he's sick and he knows it. He always winds up getting some sort of "prize" which means a toy of some sort. Today I got off pretty easy getting him some powdered sugar donuts and a 75% off Halloween toy. We'll see what tomorrow brings...

(By the way Erica, I'll have you know that this is the 7th day in a row that I've posted on my blog!)

Frogs and snails and puppy dog tails...

Is that what little boys are made of? Well, no I guess not, but they sure do like lizards, snakes and spiders! We went to a birthday party this weekend and they had the Herpeton zoo lady there. She had a tarantula, emperor scorpion, giant hissing cockroaches, frog, bunny, milk snake, corn snake, bearded dragon, some lizard, tortoise, and a huge reticulated python. All of which she got out and held. Some of the kids even held them. It was creepy. There were like 25 kids there (I'm not exaggerating). Most of them boys between 8-9. It was one of my afterschool kid's birthdays, so Logan was younger than most of them. I tell you it was a "zoo" there even without the zoo lady. Thank goodness it was at our neighborhood resident's club in the huge outside pavillion by the pool. This party full of rowdy boys gives me a glimpse of the not too distant future though, Yikes! (By the way, you won't see Logan in the picture with the snake or the tarantula- he was a little freaked out by them! Thank goodness- at least he's not asking me to get one for him!)

Creative Kids

Here's some more art from my sweet kiddos. I was really impressed with Ellie's drawing of a mermaid. She has just recently started drawing things that are even slightly recognizable, and then yesterday she was drawing at the table and said here mom, a mermaid. I was amazed.

Logan drew the scarecrow yesterday after school. I just thought he did a really good job and I wanted to share it. Enjoy! (I realize the 2 in 2007 is backwards, but nobody's perfect) And Logan says the thg in the orange circle stands for Thanksgiving.

Meet the rest of the Pfreaks

These are the other members of our Pfamily. This is our basset hound Frank (or should I say Pfrank?). His full name is Blaine Franklin. (yeah, we're dorks) Most of you have met him already. He's huge for a basset. The books say males average 50-65 lbs. He weighs 80. He's not just fat either. He's just a bigger dog. He's a pure bred bassie too. They say life expectancy is 10-12 years. He just turned 10 in October. Poor old dog is feeling his age too. He has a harder time getting around. Good thing we don't have stairs because he really can't go up them anymore. He's also got a yeast problem for which he is on special food and a lot of "herbal remedies". He's become one of those high maintenance pets. He was our "baby" before we had any. You could definitely say there was a rapid demotion after Logan was born. But the kids love him. Although, now they think all dogs are stinky and slobbery. Ellie has even pointed out before how another dog "isn't all slobbery like Frank." I'm sure as much as we complain about him, we'll miss him once he's gone. Not enough to get another dog, mind you, but I'm sure there will be a void there.

The cat is Jack. He's huge too. And really beautiful. He has a checkered past. My sister Susan found him abandoned on an apartment balcony in Houston. She had him for a few months, but he didn't get along too well with her other cats, so my sister Erica took him. He lived with her in Dallas for a couple of years. Then when she moved to Austin her then boyfriend didn't want him to live in his house, so he came to live with us. We've had him about 7 years now. He's around 10 years old too. He's a pretty cool cat. He is a freak for fresh water from the fridge and demands it several times a day. He is supposed to use the litter box in the garage. We have a "kitty door" that goes into the garage for him to use. The problem is that he's almost too big for it and has to wiggle himself through. It's pretty funny to watch, but I guess he doesn't really like doing it because he always stands by the door and cries for someone to open up and let him in the garage so he doesn't have to do it himself. He also is a stickler for a really clean litter box and if he doesn't approve of it, he'll just go on the garage floor. Needless to say our garage stinks. But what are you going to do? He doesn't have claws so he can't be an outside cat, although he does go outside sometimes. Everyone loves him when they see him and I always offer for them to take him home, but no one's taken me up on it yet. Also, Ellie would be devastated. She adores him. I always say they have a love/hate relationship. You see Jack is an attention junkie. He loves to be petted, on the head only, and will seek out anyone he thinks will do it. He's not subtle about it either. He'll come over and "bulldoze" into you and try to lift up your hand with his head and "pet himself". Ellie sometimes "loves" him a little too hard. Jack's pretty tolerant of her, but she does get bitten now and then. I don't feel sorry for her either because she always pushes him too far. I tell her to stop or he'll bite you. She just can't help herself.

Our other pet is a gerbil named Daisy. She's our 3rd gerbil. The first 2 were named Ribbon and Rose. Logan got them for his 5th birthday and only learned recently that they weren't hamsters. Originally, he wanted hamsters but after researching the subject I decided that gerbils were better because they aren't nocturnal like hamsters and they are desert animals so they don't drink as much and therefore don't pee as much, so their bedding doesn't get stinky as fast. Don't even get me started on how many times one of them has escaped from their cage and I have had the displeasure of "catching" them with my bare hands. They are small and quick and have been known to bite hard when being caught since they're totally freaked from being chased around. Keep this in mind when/if one of your kids asks for one of these lovely creatures. We had Ribbon and Rose for about a year before the first "mishap". The night before our vacation Rose escaped from the cage and was "murdered" by Jack on our bedroom floor. I think Jack thinks they're toys though, not food. He wasn't trying to eat her, nor was their any blood, he was just licking her limp dead little body. Logan was very upset when we told him. We waited until after we got back from vacation. We decided to get another so Ribbon wouldn't be lonely. They're supposed to be social creatures and don't like to be alone. So we bought another gerbil named Tiger Lily. We only had her about a week and decided to return her because she was a biter. It really hurts when they bite you. So that's when we got Daisy. She was really cute when we got her. Really tiny compared to Ribbon. Then a few months later we went on another trip and when we got back Ellie walked in the house and said, "Mom what's that on the floor?" I looked down and it was a dead little Ribbon. She looked as if Jack had been licking her fur for a few days. Yuck. Anyway, now we have 1. We haven't gotten another one because the kids don't have much to do with them anymore and it's just one more thing for me to take care of.

Whenever the kids ask for a new pet of some kind my answer is always, "No, I can't take care of any more living creatures." I'm maxed out. For a while we had some snails and a hermit crab. I was really maxed out then. But we set the snails free and the hermit crab died. So now I'm kind of waiting for something else to die. Wow, that's morbid. But it's pretty much how I feel. Is that wrong? I don't dislike them, at least not all the time. I'm just tired. I'm tired of taking care of things. And right now one less thing sounds pretty good to me. Anyway, this completes our family for now and probably for a while. At least if I have anything to say about it.

Logan's latest works

I know I already did a blog about his art work, but I just wanted to put up these pictures he drew. The first is one of our family that he drew last night. The 2nd is a Halloween picture he did this morning before school. I guess I'm just a proud Mama who wants to show off her kids stuff. I thought they were pretty cute though.

It's deceptive, but is it delicious?

Yes, so far I've been extremely pleased with the recipes I've tried from my Deceptively Delicious cookbook. Let me start by saying that my oldest child, Logan, is the poster-child for picky eaters. So I knew that if I could fool him and he'd eat it, it was definitely a winner. On Monday I made the pancakes with sweet potato puree. They were delicious. Ellie (who already likes pancakes) ate 2. Logan doesn't like them to begin with and therefore wouldn't try them. I didn't expect that he would try them anyway. Stuart liked them most of all and eats them by themselves with no butter or syrup. He says they remind him of some bread they have in India. Anyway, I considered it a great success. By the way, I used canned sweet potato. You can buy just plain mashed sweet potato with nothing else added. Kind of like pumpkin. Monday night I made the chicken nuggets with broccoli puree and the macaroni and cheese with cauliflower. Let me preface this by saying that I didn't have a food processor at the time, so I used my blender. It didn't work as well as I would have liked. The broccoli puree was a little too thick I think. Here's a tip I've found in my whole 3 days of puree making- You need to add quite a bit of water to get the right consistency. So after I cooked the nuggets you could see some green under the breading. I knew this wouldn't fly, so I made a few without the broccoli. They're still healthier that way because the breading has flax seed meal in it. Logan of course wouldn't eat the green ones, but he really liked the plain ones. I'm going to try them again with a different puree, maybe butternut squash- that way it'll be easier to camouflage. The mac and cheese with cauliflower was a HUGE success though. Logan LOVED it! He had some again last night. I want to try that one with the butternut squash too.
Last night I made a recipe from my Kraft cookbook (Quick-fix Beef Burrito Skillet) but decided to add some carrot puree to it as well. It was great. You couldn't taste it at all. The only problem was, you could see it a little bit. I was very unhappy with my blender purees. So today I went to Wal-Mart and bought a new food processor. It's basically a knock-off of the Magic Bullet, but I love it. I made butternut squash and broccoli purees today and it was awesome. It's a Sunbeam Heritage Series and was only $30, vs. $55 for the Magic Bullet. One other hint for moms- Most of your kids are littler, but don't let them see you put the purees in. Logan saw me put the carrots in last night and instantly decided he wasn't going to like it. Maybe by the time your kids are as big as Logan they'll be used to it and won't freak, but just in case you may want to keep it on the DL.
I can't wait to try some of the desserts. I think I'm going to try and make the brownies next. I'm excited about this. Not only for the kids, but for us too. I eat lots of fruits and veggies already, but there's nothing wrong with adding a few more here and there. Here's to healthier eating and less whining!

Miss Ellie

What can I say about my sweet girl? She's a girly girl and I love that. I was a girly girl and I'm so glad she is too. I don't know what I would have done if she'd have been a tomboy. She's definitely not. From the time she was about 6-8 months old she started trying to hoist a purse up on her shoulder just like her mom. And from even before she talked much, she loved shoes! She would go over to ladies with pretty shoes on and try to take them off so she could wear them. Ask Sammy, she experienced this firsthand. And for the last 2 years or so, (She's almost 3 1/2) just walking by the shoe dept. is a major ordeal. I could go up and down the toy aisle with her and not hear too much of I want this or that, but if I go near the shoes I never hear the end of it. She loves dresses and skirts too, but will wear pants if I need her to. She's not quite as bad as her cousin Grace, who dresses like a princess- literally, with veils, tiaras, long white gloves, etc. most everyday and everywhere. She loves princesses like Cinderella, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, etc. She loves dressing up her polly pockets and Barbies. You know I counted like 15 Barbies in her room the other day. I had no idea she had that many. She loves them. She likes baby dolls and plays with them too, but given the choice she'll take a Barbie with a beautiful dress any day.
She's always been a happy child. She's a good eater and sleeper (most of the time). This whole potty training thing has been a challenge for us though. Gosh it seems like we've been "training" forever. Don't let anyone tell you, "girls potty train earlier" or "first borns walk later than second children". It's all a crap shoot, literally sometimes, as in the case of potty training. First, second, boy, girl- you just never know. As Forrest Gump would say "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get." And so are children. I try to remember that and I try not to compare them. It's easier not to compare when you have a boy and a girl I think, than two of the same because boys and girls are inherently different. Things have gotten much better on the potty training front, but we still have accidents. At least I'm not still buying diapers or pull-ups. Man, I hate to even speculate how much money we spent on diapers over the last 6 years. Yikes!! But, I digress... Back to Ellie.

I wonder what she'll be when she grows up. She says she wants to be a mommy. I hope she does. Maybe she'll do something with fashion. That seems to be her biggest interest in her whole 3 years and amost 4 months on this planet. I'm sure that she will change alot in the coming years though. I can't (nor do I want to) imagine what the teenage years are going to be like. Shoes, clothes, make up, aggghhhhh!! She already loves the mall too. The other day we asked the kids if they'd rather go to the zoo or the mall and she chose the mall. We're definitely in trouble. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

Logan's Art

My little boy loves to draw. It's hard to describe, but sometimes I think there's all this creativity in him and he just has to get it out. It's like something's driving him. Before school when he's supposed to be getting ready I'll find him at the table drawing. After school he'll come in from playing and ask for some paper to draw. He's pretty good at it, not like amazingly gifted, but that doesn't matter because it's the pleasure he seems to get out of it that's important to me. He just seems to have this need to create. It's not unusual for him to draw 20-30 pictures a day. It's hard for me because I can't save them all. I can't even save most of them. There's just no room. So I have to sort out the best one's and those I do keep. I'm trying to figure out how to help him develop this skill so maybe he can use it to make his living. Isn't that everyone's dream in life to be able to make money doing what brings you joy? I'm not being pushy about it or unrealistic. He's 6. I know we can't start mapping out his life or anything. I just wish someone had helped me recognize my passions in life sooner. This summer I enrolled him in a drawing class called Young Rembrandts at the P'ville community center. It was just once a week for 45 minutes. He seemed to like it. We'll see. I just want to give him every opportunity and every chance for happiness and success. Isn't that what all parents want for their kids? I also had to add a cute pic of Logan in his "Gi". Other wise known as a Karate uniform.

Halloween Pfreak-style!

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween. Out here in P'ville we know how to do it up right! You have to say that with a horrible southern accent to get the full effect. Actually, we had a very nice, simple halloween. We got ready, (it always seems like we're rushing to do this) then went out and hit the streets to do some serious trick-or-treating. When we walked down the street my neighbor and one of the mom's of a kid I watch didn't even recognize me. She said I looked like I was 18! Cool, remind me to wear this costume more often!


Poor Logan woke up Halloween morning with a fever of 101.7. I took him to the doctor and they said he has a sinus infection. At least it's not contageous. He felt lousy most of the day, but of course found the strength to trick-or-treat. He had 103 last night, but is doing much better today, so hopefully will go to school tomorrow. Everyone please pray with me that Logan will go to school tomorrow!! Mommy needs some rest!!


Ellie was a princess last night (of course). She even let me put up her hair and curl it with a curling iron. She looked so pretty!! Like an angel princess! I can't wait to be able to do more fun stuff like that to her hair! After we got home she just had to try on my wig. So did Logan. Actually, he makes a pretty good looking girl.





Stu's not much for dressing up, however we did get him to put on a mask for about 5 minutes. It's the first time in 14 years I've seen him dress up. Hey, it's progress.
Have I mentioned how much I hate trying to figure out where to put these pictures. I need to take a class or something. I'll bet I've re-published this thing like 20 times and this is the best I got!!