We have a couple of new puppy additions (so to speak).....

See a couple of quick clips of: Our New "Puppies"

 This is our real puppy....K-Rae took this picture.....doesn't he look so sweet and innocent???  Man's best friend, right RyDaddy??? :) 

You want me to write WHAT?

So--was the art center just straightened up about 5 minutes ago....yes, I believe it was....and what is Little Miss Mae making exactly? 

(...besides a mockery of my efforts to straighten up before the grandparents get here)....

"You want me to write WHAT for you?"  And who is this card for.....yes, a card for her "boyfriend" at school......Yes, she is 5.  Hmmm. This went over really well with RyDaddy, as you can imagine.

 As I restraightened up the art center once again, K-Rae began a game of memory on our dining room chair.

 

 

 

 

And once she got bored with that, added Wonder Pet stickers to our dining room window....lovely...

And my  favorite item that somehow has found a living spot on the kitchen counter for the past few days.....this particular "toy" came home from a Happy Meal.......seriously, what was McDonald's thinking????  Is this a  Barbie, a fairy, or just a creepy androgenous doll doing the robot dance?  Hmmmm... And why in the world is she on my kitchen counter creeping me out????

Well, I think straightening up this weekend might just involve a trashcan and me, making the rounds through the house, and a razor blade, now don't panic-that's for the Wonder Pet stickers!  Have a great weekend!

Interpretations of life from a 3 and 5 year old

New jammies from Creammie & Grandpa

K-Rae and I were cleaning her room this morning.  She's excited about Great-Grandma coming to stay in her room.  I told her to go get a damp rag to dust with.  She asked:  "What's a dam rag?"  I replied...."A damp rag is a rag that is just a little bit wet, not soaking wet," to which she replied "I don't think we should call it that....Daddy told me not to say dam!"  Uh-hum....somehow we managed to get her room dusted anyhow!  

Speaking of RyDaddy....at breakfast K-Rae announced, "Do you know that Daddy eats candy at night after we go to bed???"  I asked,  "How do you know that?"  K-Rae replied "I see him eating it."  OK, RyDaddy...gotta be a little sneakier apparently, and no wonder that child doesn't stay in bed if she thinks she's missing out on eating candy!  

Sadly, Creammie (the girls' name for Grammie) and Grandpa's doggie Miko passed away last week.  I explained to the girls that Creammie and Grandpa's doggie was old, had lived a good long life and has now gone to doggie heaven.    K-Rae wanted to know if that meant he died.  "Well, yes," to which she replied, "Well, I would appreciate it if Kozy doesn't get old!" (Kozy is our puppy!)

At church Sunday we were singing a song about Jesus that says numerous times throughout the song: "We are hungry, we are thirsty, we are hungry for more of you..."  Each time it said we are hungry, Little Miss Mae would look at us, rub her tummy and smile as big as she could.  And then each time it said we are thirsty, she would grab her sippy cup and drink like crazy.  RyDaddy and I just chuckled throughout the whole song at Little Miss Mae's interpretation of it.  

I'll leave you with a quick movie clip of a Bible story that K-Rae has worked on memorizing with Daddy.

Lion's Club Carnival

 We went to the Lion's Club Carnival this weekend.  

The girls enjoyed it....
it was a little too wild and crazy for me. 

RyDaddy won me this cake though,
so it was worth the couple hours of insanity. 

Red velvet cake might be the key to my heart....
especially after it has been licked by K-Rae.

  

And the fun and games 

apparently wore 

Little Miss Mae 

completely out!

Happy President's Day!

K-Rae would like 

to know 

if she gets presents on 

"Presents' Day?" 

 

And guess what 

Little Miss Mae would do 

if she were to get elected....?

A peek at our random day....

The girls painted pictures for Grandma.....

I thought I would let them do this while I got a few things accomplished in the kitchen.....uh-huh, yeah, right...do they make paint smocks for faces?  

Oh--and it's national clean out your fridge week....

(this project did NOT happen while the painting was going on!)  

If you haven't cleaned out yours yet, what are you waiting for?  

Check those expiration dates, toss those things you can no longer identify, 

make some space, it's quite exhilarating, really....

OK, I need to get a life, but seriously.....

I LOVE a clean fridge!

(Thanks for motivating me to do this by your facebook post Jodi....I needed the idea!)

Another thing I love.....

having healthy snacks right on the kitchen counter, and I love my jars!  

And they're right there accessible for hungry grazers at anytime 

(even for you Uncle J!)

Dates, craisins, mixed nuts, almond slices, goldfish crackers, pretzel sticks, mini rice cakes....yum!

(Our version of your treat baskets Jordan)

And I just threw in this pic because this is my favorite section of my kitchen, mostly because it's the only part that manages to stay somewhat organized most of the time!

Oh--and I made this simple little activity for the girls out of a tissue box, a square piece of flexible foam with an x cut in the middle of it and some duct tape, pink duct tape of course!  It's an exploring box, and took about 5 minutes to make and entertained the girls about an hour.....that's my kind of toy!  (I filled it with various trinkets and fun to feel items...) The girls took the things they pulled out of the box, added a bunch of twisty ties they found somewhere and created some sort of burial ritual for the sing-a-ma-jigs.... I can only wish the sing-a-ma-jigs had actually died, as Kelsie has been using hers to "Wake up Mama" each morning this week......(Thank you Sampa & Meemaw, you're truly a blessing!)

I was able to spend some time in Little Miss Mae's classroom this afternoon...

The teacher was having each child share their writing/drawing for the day.  One of the girls drew a pair of underpants....that just about made Little Miss Mae die laughing!  The teacher attempted to get the class to stop giggling and settle down, which they pretty much did...A few more kids tried to share, but during each presentation the little boy sitting next to Little Miss Mae would whisper "underpants" in her ear, and she would start laughing hysterically again.  Finally, the teacher gave up and sent everyone out to recess....a good call!  Yep, that's my little one, completely interupting the class.  And at recess, she chased all of the girls around and tried to put woodchips in their pants...lovely!  In her notebook today, the teacher wrote, "Not sure we got much learning done today, but we sure had fun anyway!"  

The week ended with the stories from Grandma for the girls....and me blogging, checking Facebook, watching The Social Network, and thinking about my fun coffee date earlier this afternoon with my hubby...yes, I'm doing all of that at the same time, which is probably why this is such a random posting, and RyDaddy is working on taxes and making comments like, have we ever owed taxes before???  Welcome to our random life!  Happy Weekend!

Little Miss Mae greeting Pooh

So I wish this is how she would greet me each morning....

but alas, I can't compete with Winnie the Pooh.

Can I just say, I love blogging so much more than housekeeping???!

This is what the dining room looks like….hmmm…….

where to put all this stuff???

This is what the mini-office nook looks like…
don't even think about enlarging that picture! (YIKES!!!...wish I could say it rarely looks like this---& I hate to admit I spent 30 minutes decluttering it last night... yes, with this much to go---  sigh…)

This is what the living room looks like…..yes, it’s a constant Toyland…somehow, inspite of all the places in the house designated for toys, it’s more fun to drag them all to the middle of the living room…yes,  laundry is in progress, as always, and never quite done….yes, Little Miss Mae is still in pajamas (and maybe Mama too, but I won’t tell you that for sure or not!)

And this is what has been accomplished today…. 

after a quick spa treatment,

 

 

we've prepped and chopped

and diced and browned

and learned that we LOVE jicama… who would’ve guessed?   

 
How many 3-year-olds do you know that love jicama….  well, now 

you know one--- 

K-Rae keeps asking me for more.  

 

Dinner will be ready at 5:30—Spicy Cashew Chicken...see you then, if you don’t mind the messy house and girls in pajamas!!!

So, what has K-Rae been up to lately?

Let’s see…..she started ballet again, after the class took a break for a couple of months…..She is SO excited to be back in dance class.  Watching three-year-olds do ballet is quite entertaining---you would just have to experience it to understand! 

She has also been creating “people” with her jump rope and popsicle sticks….she loves to create!

And she has discovered scissors….and she has discovered they cut more than just snowflakes, which was the original reason she was introduced to scissors in the first place….I found a good size clump of hair lying on the carpet last week….. “K-Rae……where did this hair come from?”  “Kozy decided to cut his hair….”  (Uh-huh: Kozy is our dog.)  “K-Rae…..” “OK----I wacked my ponytail off.”  So I see…..fortunately, it was just her little top ponytail, creating a rather choppy look around her face…. it really doesn’t look half bad.  Come to think of it, I pay pretty good money to get a similar look every other month or so.  I don’t tell her this…. “K-Rae, scissors are only for cutting paper!”  “I know….”

Later I also found a good size clump of Kozy hair lying on the carpet too….probably he did that himself……And later still, a nice little whack taken out of her nightgown.  I’m assuming that all happened in the same whacking extravaganza, as the scissors were put up after that initial discovery.   A week goes by, I hear a shriek from Little Miss Mae’s room---not a good sign.  I head in there to find K-Rae “cutting threads off” Little Miss Mae’s outfit that she was currently wearing….and in the process pretty well shredding up her pants and shirt.  Apparently she had managed to reach her scissors with the step ladder.  Obviously the punishment the first cutting extravaganza wasn’t overly effective.  This time, we emptied K-Rae’s piggy bank into a ziplock bag, and went to the mall while Little Miss Mae was at school to buy a new outfit for her.  The lady at The Children’s Place was so patient with us as I explained the situation to her…she helped us find a pink shirt with butterflies for Little Miss Mae and a matching pair of pants, waited as K-Rae first emptied her ziplock baggie full of coins onto the floor and then picked them up one-by-one and laid them up on the counter saying, “Mama-I’m really not pleased you made me get all of my money out of my piggy bank for this!” Hopefully, lesson learned this time…….

Other interesting moments…..I pretty much have to set a timer for everything K-Rae does in order to get anything whatsoever accomplished….her latest comment about that tactic, “Do you think we should buy a new timer???......because I think this one is too fast!” 

And we had some good friends over for Sunday afternoon lunch a couple of weeks ago. They have a little boy.  After they left, K-Rae announced, “Did you know Michael can squirt pee-pee out of his belly button!”  (Apparently she had joined Michael in the bathroom at some point that day and gotten her first male anatomy lesson…) Never a dull moment here. 

Ahhhhh…..kindergarten......

I do miss teaching that age, and I enjoy being able to hang out in Little Miss Mae’s kindergarten classroom from time to time and watch her having fun with her friends.  Every single day from school, she brings home a little stack of love notes from her girlfriends….so cute.  And the trend lately is for the girls to give each other things….Little Miss Mae has brought home numerous stuffed animals, including a cute little ballerina stuffed monkey, a purple frog, a little stuffed Easter bunny, a Build-a-Bear teddy bear, just to name a few, and other random objects like a sparkly wand that allows her to spread sparkly glitter all over our house, a little red sweatband that was probably stolen from someone’s mommy’s exercise stash, and numerous “rubber-banz” bracelets that I am constantly picking up all over our house.  So Little Miss Mae decided to reciprocate some of this giving……by choosing some of K-Rae’s toys to give away---so thoughtful….well, you can imagine how that went over!  With some nudging, she finally gave K-Rae’s toys back and chose some of her own little trinkets to divvy out to her friends. Sisters.....

So---that extra five minutes of sleep really didn't pay off today....

I can hear the girls playing quietly.  The quietly part should have been my first clue.  However, my brain doesn’t really turn on until after a cup of coffee.  As I peel myself out of bed after that extra 5, OK, maybe extra 10 minutes of sleep, I think (in my caffeine deprived muddled mind) “Great, the girls are playing quietly instead of insisting on breakfast, I’ll take 5 more minutes and get ready" (which basically involves all of putting on sweat pants  and brushing teeth).  So I “get ready,” head out………What’s that burning smell?????? My caffeine deprived mind kicks into overdrive as I run to Chloe’s room.  Everything appears OK, a mess again, as the girls have gotten out numerous toys as always…..but there’s that burning smell….. “Girls do you smell something burning?”  Innocent looks….. I spot it, a little twirly-whirly windmill with the end burned off.   “K-Rae, why is the end burned off this windmill?”………. “I was roasting it like a hot dog!” (in the heater…..) As I slow down and take a better look around, I see a full fledged picnic/campfire was in the works…the hot cocoa mix, jam, peanut butter,  and jar of mixed nuts have all been hauled to Chloe’s room to feed the hungry teddy bears.  OK, Kelsie “Time-out”---must call RyDaddy for advice, as my brain isn’t quite functional enough at this time of day to figure out how to deal with a three-year-old attempting to roast hot dogs in the heater.  At times like these, I thank God for the angels that I know are watching over us.  K-Rae probably has multiple angels attempting to keep track of her that have to work overtime…and I also wonder if I will truly survive this motherhood business with any sanity left intact at all. And in case you don’t appreciate this blog enough…in the few minutes it has taken to process these few lines, I have stopped and started these thoughts multiple times…..while taking Little Miss Mae potty again, even though she just went 30 minutes ago, giving the appropriate “Yeah K-Rae!” cheer  for K-Rae getting her poopy prize, managed to find a “potty chair” for Winnie the Pooh to use, and threatened to give away all the girls' toys to goodwill, if they don’t play with them instead of trying to help me type on the  computer.  Please tell me I’m not the only mom to make this threat!---and it's only Monday! 

Oh-and for those of you wanting to leave comments, I've edited the comments setting so anyone that wants to can leave a comment now, without being a registered follower of the blog....don't make me regret that liberty and keep it appropriate please!  :) 

THE dilemma

It's there-
I can see it from the window-
Tempting me,
Full of ads......
Is City Market still having their
MEGA EVENT sale???
I ponder....
I only bought enough green beans
to last half the year---
I wonder if they still have them on sale?
I should top off the year,
and have RyDaddy build me
a place to store them!
But "Oh baby-it's COLD outside!"
Probably hasn't even hit zero yet.
Wish my dog knew how to do something
other than squeak his squeaker toy
incessantly--
then I would send HIM
to fetch it.....
Hmmmmmmm....
What to do about this dilemma....
There is only one logical choice at this point...
Hey K-Rae---do you want a job???
K-Rae: "Jobs? I LOVE jobs!...
Can I take Kozy with me?????"
SWEET!  Perfect resolution....

When we grow up, do you guys grow smaller?

Conversations with K-Rae often seem to turn to some sort of theological discussion for whatever reason. I suppose her three-year-old mind is trying to make sense of this world, our beliefs, cultural traditions, and how it all may, or may not fit together. The latest question I’ve been asked numerous times is: “When we grow up, do you guys (meaning Daddy & Mama) grow smaller?” This question surfaced once again on Sunday morning, while we were waiting in the van for RyDaddy to finish collecting a few things we had forgotten for church. Now seriously….how do you answer that question for a three-year-old? I didn’t answer her right away; I was trying to decide what to say, and pondering if I ignored the question once again, that maybe she would once again forget that she asked it, and move onto the next topic! But, no, I was not to be let off the hook that easily…she asked again: “When we grow up, do you guys grow smaller…..” I tried the “When we grow old, we all die, and if we have Jesus living in our hearts we go to heaven approach…” That instigated the next question, before I really even had time to finish the first answer…… “Did the dinosaurs have Jesus in their hearts?” And then before I could even think about how to answer that one, “Jesus will keep us safe and not let us die, huh?…..” Oh man…..at that point I was wishing I had been the one to go collect the various things we had forgotten! Fortunately, RyDaddy came into the van and the conversation was diverted, just before it got too complicated for me! I suppose somehow God will give us the patience and wisdom we need to raise these girls, and will help us figure out answers for the hard questions. And even though K-Rae announced to us a couple of weeks ago that she asked Santa Claus to come live in her heart, (Little Miss Mae about died laughing when K-Rae announced that), I suppose God might be somewhat humored by her interpretation of theology……so to wrap it up for today, my theological question is: Jesus, is there room in K-Rae's heart for you and Santa Claus both, at least for little awhile???