Spirit Week

It was Spirit Week at school for Noah this week, and he was super excited to dress up on all the different days for school.

 

His favorite day was probably Monday, he was very happy he got to wear his PJs to school for Pajama day:

 

 

Tuesday was Hippie Day and we made tie-dye shirts for him and Ammon using an idea from pinterest:

 

Wednesday was Ugly Shirt and Tie Day:

 

And today (Thursday) was Fashion Disaster Day!

50 Reasons Why I Love Being a Mommy

Today I had a friend from High School (a woman, with no children and not married) make a comment that being a mom was not a "real job".  I won't quote verbatim what she said, but I found it rather offensive, and it made me pretty upset.  I almost jumped on here and typed out a big long post about all the work that stay-at-home mom's have to do every day, but the truth is, I KNOW what I have to do everyday, I KNOW how hard I work...and I don't need to justify it to anyone.  So instead I made a list of just 50 of the many many reasons why I LOVE being "just" a mommy.

1. Waking up to the sweet sound of my baby girl talking to herself in her crib, and seeing the pure joy on her face when I go in to get her up.
2.  Having my five year old give me a high-five because he had a great day at school and earned a sticker.
3.  Having my three year old tell me how much he wants the new baby to be born and how he wants to name him/her "Jemima".
4.  Having the ability to be pregnant, to grow a little tiny baby that is 1/2 me, 1/2 my husband and feeling the sweet little movements of this baby.
5.  Being able to still nurse my sweet little girl, I really enjoy the quite snugly moments with her, and the smiles she gives me during and after.
6.  Hearing my boys say their prayers every night.
7.  Getting hugs a million times a day from each of my three kids.
8.  Getting sticky, slobbery kisses a million times a day from each of my three kids.
9.  Seeing my five year old helping out another child who is hurt or upset at school.
10.  Watching my kids learn a new skill.
11.  Being told "I love you Mommy".
12.  Making a meal and having my kids enjoy eating it and tell me how yummy it was.
13.  Snuggling with a sick child and knowing that just holding them makes them feel better.
14.  Watching how peaceful my children are when they are sleeping.
15.  Having my kids tell me "I missed you Mommy!" after sneaking out to go to the grocery store while daddy is home.
16.  How my five year old is not embarrassed to hold my hand, hug and kiss me, or tell me he loves me in front of all the kids at school.
17.  Watching my kids playing together.
18.  Hearing my boys telling each other that the other is their "best buddy"
19.  Hearing them laugh.
20.  Crawling around on the floor and making a fool out of myself to make them giggle.
21.  Hearing the hilarious things they come up with on a daily basis.
22.  Feeling accomplished when my kids actually learn something important from me.
23.  Looking at pictures and realizing how much they have grown and changed.
25.  Seeing my kids cheer each other on when learning something new.
26.  Having them all piled up in my bed with daddy in the morning during the weekends.
27.  Watching how excited they get over simple little things.
28.  Hearing my five year old tell me what he learned at church.
29.  Hearing my three year old tell me how excited he is to go hunting with Daddy.
30.  Hearing my children sing.
31.  Seeing my husband playing with our children.
32.  Seeing my husband comforting one of our kids who is hurt, upset, or scared.
33.  Holidays are just so much more fun when you have kids!!
34.  Always having some sort of comic relief in the home.
35.  Always having little hands that are willing to help.  (Even if the "help" is more of a hindrance than anything)
36.  Hearing my kids making up nick-names for each other. (Noah started calling McKenna "Sugar Snack" no idea where he got that from)
37.  Hearing my kids tell each other that the love them.
38.  Snuggling on the couch with them just because.
39.  Reading them stories, its one of my favorite parts of the day.
40.  Having an excuse to watch cartoons.
41.  Seeing little smiles that are always contagious no matter how crappy your day has been.
42.  Having someone compliment you on how beautiful, sweet, helpful, kind (etc) your child is.
43.  Always having someone to hold your hand.
44.  Being able to dress them up in ridiculous and cute outfits.
45.  Just being able to watch them learn and grow.
46.  Looking at them and knowing you helped to create that.
47.  Knowing that God must love you and trust you enough to let you be a parent to one of His precious children.
48.  Being able to help someone else achieve their hopes and dreams.
49.  Having the joy that comes from serving someone other than yourself everyday.
50.  Being able to understand the magnitude with which one human can love another human being.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies Made with 3 ingredients

Yes, you read that right, Pumpkin Spice cookies made with 3 ingredients! These are some of my favorite fall cookies (and my kids' favorite all time cookies) and they are SUPER easy to make.  All you need are these 3 ingredients:

 

1 (18.25 ounce) package spice cake mix

1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

1 C chocolate chips (milk chocolate or semi-sweet, what ever you prefer)

OR you can skip the chocolate chips all together and frost the baked and cooled cookie with cream cheese frosting.

My picture is a little deceiving, I used a 29oz can of pumpkin and doubled my recipe, because apparently you can never find a small can of pumpkin in our small town. (well, that and the cookies disappear so fast that doubling the recipe is NEVER a bad thing at our house)

You literally just dump the ingredients into your mixer and mix until it is combined.  I usually start with the cake mix and the pumpkin, mix until all the cake mix is wet, then stir in the chocolate chips.

 

With most cookies you don't grease the cookie sheet because they already have a lot of fat in them (butter, shortnening, etc.) but since these cookies do not have any added fat you NEED to grease your cookie sheet, don't forget to!!  Drop by rounded tablespoons onto your greased cookie sheet, and bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes.  The cookies don't spread a lot, and you want them to be soft, you can check to see if they are done by poking them with a tooth pick if you are not sure.

Here is the finished product:

And here is one of my little monkeys enjoying her cookie:

Ammon is Three!!

I can barely believe that my baby boy is three years old!!  He had been asking about his birthday for at least a month before hand, and would get so upset when each day was not yet his birthday.  I tried showing him on the calendar what day each day was, and which day his birthday was, but it wasn't quite helping.  At a friend's suggestion I made him a paper chain to hang up in his room to count down the days.  The paper chain definitely helped.  We had talked about what kind of cake he wanted to have, and after informing me he wanted it to be "CHOCOLATE!" he agreed on me making him an owl cake.  (He REALLY likes owls)

 

 

 

As you can clearly see, he was very excited that it was FINALLY his birthday!

 

 

 

He made out like a bandit with presents this year, he got some new Cars 2 cars from Grandpa and Grandma Lynne, the first Toy Story Movie from grandma, some new truck books from Nana and Papa, the movie the Lorax, Buzz and Woody (which is what he had been asking us for), and a big John Deere dump truck filled with Mega Blocks.

 

He told Noah he could open one of his presents, then quickly changed his mind and pouted:

 

 

A very happy boy!!

 

Ammon is a very special part of our family, we couldn't imagine our lives with out him.  He is such a little firecracker, very opinionated, VERY busy, and always there to make you laugh.  He is very smart (he surprised me this summer when I was teaching Noah my phone number, he memorized it too!) and loving, he loves his brother and sister very much, and is always looking out for them.  At three years old his favorite things are trucks (especially tractors and construction trucks), anything to do with the Movie Cars or Toy Story, owls, going camping, playing outside, and hunting with his daddy.  He keeps telling me that "the season" is coming up, I asked him what season to which he replies "the season to shoot the kitties."  (He is excited for trapping season with daddy)

Noah's First Day of School

 

 

 

I can hardly believe that my oldest baby (because to me he will ALWAYS be my BABY) started kindergarten this year!!  He is growing up way too fast!!  Hoping he has a fantastic year at school this year!!

Camping

We were unfortunately only able to go camping once this summer.  The boys really enjoy camping, maybe next year we will be able to do it more.

 

 

The kids (and Mike) all enjoyed wadding in the creek.

 

 

Nana found a baby snake and showed the boys, who had no fear.

 

 

The boys really enjoyed roasting marshmallows, making s'mores and playing with their glow sticks!

 

 

And here are a few more pictures of the morning before we packed up to go home:

 

 

 

Summer 2012

This summer has been kind of a laid back one.  Other than our trip to Nebraska at the beginning of May, and our usual trips up to Reno and back, we haven't really gone anywhere.  The kids have enjoyed going to the pool several times a week, and playing at the park in the nice weather.  We did go out with Mike for short day-hunt trips a couple of times, and we were able to squeeze in a camping trip towards the end of summer.  Here are some pictures of the family this summer:

 Children's Discovery Museum with Grandma:

 

Butler Days:

 

 

 

Fourth of July:

 

 

Swimming and other miscellaneous fun: