Tiny Talk Tuesday

So, I haven't been on the TTT circuit for awhile but Ben said and few things this week that tickled me. If you want to check out what other little ones are saying, go to Not Before 7 and click away. Thank you, Mary, for hosting TTT!

We decided to take the kids to a hotel overnight last Friday. On the way to the hotel we were listening to Veggie Tales and a song came on that mentioned something about picking or not picking your nose. Sarah made the comment that Ben picks his nose. (Because she never does that!)

Ben's reply was this, "I don't pick my nose....on Fridays."

Eric and I laughed awhile about that one.

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The next moment took place during the evening service at church last night. A man in our church likes to use illusions to illustrate Bible truths. He did one last night with a balloon and a gigantic needle. He was shaking really bad, so I knew that it wasn't going to end well. He managed to get the needle in one end of the balloon while he was talking about Hebrews 4:12. As he was trying to get the needle out the other side, he popped the balloon. Ben says in his loudest voice ever, "THAT WAS AWESOME!" Everyone laughed as we turned 5 shades of red. Sarah hid her face and said, " He is SO embarrassing!"

Oh, the perils of having a younger sibling!

A Small Family Getaway

We didn't get to take the kids anywhere over Spring Break, so we decided to get a room on Friday night in a town about an hour away in a hotel with an indoor pool. The kids had a great time swimming and they always love to stay in a hotel room. We got upgraded to a suite, so we had a big room. The town we went to happened to be where my sister lives, so we had her boys come over to the hotel to swim. Eric stayed there with the kids while my sister, her girls and I went to the mall. We found some really good deals here. I got Ben these shorts with this shirt, and I got Sarah this dress and this top with a white t-shirt to go under it. We also got some $5 deals.


After shopping and swimming, we went to Chuck E. Cheese. We had wanted to celebrate Ben's birthday on Easter, but I was sick. We decided to do it Friday, last minute, complete with leftover birthday cake from Ben's party with Eric's family. The kids had a ball playing games and we totally shut the place down...at 11P.M. It was fun that it worked out that we could all go together.
My sister is the queen of the skeeball, apparently. She hit the jackpot 3 times, winning 600 tickets. Three times, that's crazy!
Can you see how thrilled my hubby is that I'm standing on a table to take a picture? He wasn't embarrassed at all. He should expect things like this out of me by now. I DID stand in a window on our cruise to take a picture of our dinner table.
My sister, doing the happy dance after winning the skeeball jackpot.
When we got back to the hotel, I called Suzi (I just love her!)while Eric and the kids went to Meijer to get pool toys for the next day. They came back with a Bingo cage, because what 5 year old doesn't want one of those? Ben has wanted one for about 2 years. We played Bingo for about a half hour. It was one in the morning by then, so it was way past time for bed.

The kids and I swam for awhile the next morning. That water was cold. I don't care if it was inside.
After checking out of the hotel, we took the kids to Uniquely Yours pottery. They got to pick out something to paint and then in two weeks we get to go back and get the finished product. They were backed up on the orders because of Spring Break, so that's why we have to wait 2 weeks. I think that the kids had a good time with this. We had never done anything like it before. It was very fun and worth the cost.



Here are their projects, before glazing and firing. I thought they did a great job on them. I helped Sarah with her purse bank while Eric helped Ben with his crayon bank. Ethan did his on his own and did a wonderful job.
Well, that was our weekend, in a nutshell. I will be posting a Tiny Talk Tuesday this week with a couple of things that Ben said this weekend.

I hope everyone has a happy Monday!

It's a Baffling Situation

I can't figure out...

Why on earth...
I can't seem to...get rid of these ....
last five pounds!
Hmmmm?

It just made me smile...

Looky at what I found at Cato today! I was so happy to finally find something summery that I liked.
Get this, the girl that was helping me brought me small tops to try on-- God bless her!
I just love the shoes, too. The price was right, so I am excited!

I really liked the skirt. So cute.

Hope you all have a happy weekend!

The Cutest Example of Patience Ever!

I told you all about Todd and Angie Smith and the story of little Audrey. I even have a link to Angie's blog over in my sidebar.
Well, today Angie posted this little video and it is the cutest thing ever! You have to go over to Bring The Rain and watch it. You'll get a good little giggle out of it. These girls are so precious. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to meet them.

Enjoy!

It's a Pic-a-nic!

We have had a grand and glorious day today! The sun was shining and the temp was up ever so slightly so we took full advantage of it. We started the day with a free movie at the library. Today's movie was geared more for the younger crowd, but we all enjoyed it anyway. They really do a nice job of making it fun and special for the kids. This was the little movie that they showed, which is why they have all of the dragon books on display.

My Crew
The kids loved watching on the big screen and eating their cookies and Bugles.


After the movie we decided to have a picnic in the park. Eric came home for lunch and took the kids on up while I fixed the pic-a-nic basket. Don't you just want to say, "Heeey, Boo-Boo"?

It was great out in the sun and the kids ran and ran. We are looking forward to more days like today. This day made me smile!

I tried to do a slide show on photobucket, but the HTML code wasn't right and couldn't be accepted so I had to put the pictures on here separately.

My 200th Post!!

This is my 200th post! I can't believe I've posted 200 times in less than a year.

I talk a lot.

Anyway, I'm not going to bore you to tears with 200 whatevers, but I am going to do this little meme thing that I saw over at connercolesmom.

It's called 5 things about me and I thought that it looked fun, so here goes...

What I was doing 10 years ago - 1998*
1. I only had ONE child, he was 10 months old-Wow!
2. I was a branch manager at the bank that I was working at.
3. I had been married for almost two years
4. We ate fish sticks and mac & cheese... a lot
5. We just moved into an apartment in our current town after living in Chicago for 5 months.

Five things on my to-do list today -
1. Laundry
2. Use a new recipe for dinner (that will be my next post)
3. Take the kids to the library
4. Go to the grocery store
5. Make a tent for the kids

Five snacks I enjoy -
1. fruit
2. candy (I know)
3. granola with cranberries
4. yogurt
5. string cheese

Five things I would do if I were a billionaire -
1. Pay off all of the bills
2. Give at least 10% to our church
3. Set up college accounts for the kids
4. travel
5. Share with family members and give to different Christian organizations.



Five of my bad habits -
1. When I get nervous, I bite my nails
2. I talk loud on the phone
3. put off cleaning the house
4. eat when I'm bored
5. waking up grumpy (not every day, but I'm definitely NOT a morning person)


Five places I have lived -
1. Where I am now
2. Streamwood, IL
3. Lafayette, IN
4.
5.


Five jobs I’ve had -
1. School concession stand (loved that!)
2. McDonald's ( my first real job. I got it to go to Europe with the German Club)
3. Two different banks (9-ish years)
4. Long John Silver's ( this was a second job that I had to save money for my wedding. I worked two jobs and went to college. Whew! Then I got a touch of Mono, hmmm?)
5. My mom's daycare



I guess the new thing to do is tag everyone, so I guess I'll tag you all! Let me know if you do it so I can come over and read!

My Poor Little Plant

My sweet secret sister gave me this cute little plant in a bucket for Easter. What she must not know about me is the fact that when plants see me coming, they start praying that they will not be pretty enough for me to buy because they know that their time in full bloom will be short.



Wait, who am I kidding, most of them will never make it to full bloom.



I do not have a green thumb...AT ALL! I have no clue what plants need sun and what needs shade. Did I water them too much or not enough? Are they indoor plants or outdoor plants?

This particular plant is a Lavender plant. It may never see the light of day. I hope it does, but chances are, it won't. I'll have to keep you posted.



Thankfully, I do much better with these...

(This is from two Easter's ago) This is probably not the best picture to use since Ethan is sporting a broken elbow in this one. He did that trying to ride his bike.

The Easter Post

HE IS RISEN!!

I'm so sorry that I have been absent for the last few days. I have been s-i-c-k. I don't get sick too often, but I was hit pretty hard last week. The problem was that I really didn't have time to be sick. I didn't have anything contagious, so I kept moving and by Saturday afternoon, I was totally beat. I slept 12 hours Saturday night and close to that last night. I feel much better today, so "Woo-Hoo"

I hope that you all had a beautiful Easter Day. We went to my sister's church and then to her house for lunch and an Easter egg hunt. The kids had a great time with their cousins. My sister's Pastor and his family were there too. They don't have family that lives around here, so it was nice to have them with us. I love Easter. He is risen!

By the looks of Sarah in her Easter dress you would think that it was warm here... it's not!

Aubrey enjoying a cross cookie

hunting for those eggs

Cutie Chloe

Emma

Erin

We celebrated Easter with Eric's side of the family on Saturday. Our church also held it's first Easter Egg Hunt and the kids had a ball doing that. They hid the eggs outside for the older kids and it was snowing big ol' flakes! The kids loved that. Sarah found one of the three "empty" eggs that were hidden. The empty eggs stood for the empty tomb. Someone in our church donated 3 ten dollar bills to the kids that found the empty eggs. She was pretty happy about that.


Back -tracking a day, we had a busy Friday. We had two egg hunts at the school and two awards programs. All three of the kids were on the honor roll and we were so proud of them for that. Ethan even improved his grades from the last nine weeks, so he received an award for that, too.



Eric and I went to a Selah concert on Friday night. I really wish that I would have been feeling better, but I still enjoyed spending Good Friday at that concert. Todd Smith sang "Were You There" accapella and it was unbelievable. His voice is so smooth and beautiful. The whole concert was great, but that song will always stick out.






This is Spring Break week for us, so the house is abuzz with children's voices this morning. I have Cassidy this week too, so we'll be hoppin'!