Family Movie Outing

I don't think we've ever taken all the kids out to a movie before. This past Saturday we remedied that, and took all three to see Wall-e. LOVE the character... but, eh, movie could've been better.

The kids did great! Leora was pretty cooperative, Gregory only needed a popcorn refill once, and Charla didn't pull another "dairy aisle" on us.

That morning before we went, Fred prepped the kids by pulling up YouTube videos of Wall-e. There are some pretty dang funny ones! This was Gregory's favorite; it sent him into fits of hysterical laughter. There are about 5 or more other little ones like this, all clever and hilarious. Look em' up and enjoy a laugh.

Rock-a-bye kitty

No, we did NOT subject our kitty to torture by sticking her in that baby doll cradle. We found her lounging in it and took a bunch of the funnest pictures. Here are my favorite. She's such a little character!

Mistakes Gone Right

Sometimes mistakes (at least in cooking) turn out better than just following directions.

Since we've settled in, I've worked hard to plan each week's meals in advance, drawing most of my cuisines from a handful of cookbooks. Tonight I whipped up a recipe called "Stuffed Shells Florentine" from a cookbook Fred's aunt gave me for Christmas. It was a pretty simple recipe, but somehow I managed to screw it up.

My sweet hubby came to the rescue. I'd forgotten to add an ingredient, so we just stuffed it in extra. The result was delicious (although I'm sure the correct way is yummy, too). The true indicator that it was satisfactory came from my 2 harshest critics:
Gregory and Charla.
And, behold, they liked it! Good thing Gregory doesn't read Calvin and Hobbes comics, since this was loaded with spinach.

Then, for dessert after FHE the kids helped Fred mix up some chocolate pudding and we topped it with whipped topping and cookie crumbs left over from Fred's attempt to try a new chocolate chip cookie recipe on Sunday that resulted in, well, crumbs.

My First Shave

We have such generous neighbors.

We've lived here 2 months now and have mowed the lawn ourselves once, borrowing the neighbor's lawn mower. You have to mow about once a week here. Our neighbors have done it for us all this time.

Determined to re-pay a little, I resolved to ask our neighbors if we could borrow theirs again (we've briefly looked around for one, but have no idea what to look for or what a good price is). Well, I woke up this morning to the sound of mowing and looked down to see our neighbors mowing our front lawn again! I felt so bad... but grateful, too.

Still, the backyard was looking pretty bad, so I called our neighbors anyways. Then get this....
Our neighbors Jeff and Vina (who were lending us their mower) offered us there EXTRA brand new lawn mower for $50! Turns out while he was deployed she could never get their lawn mower started, so she went out and bought a new one (this one). After all that, her neighbors mowed her lawn for his whole deployment, so it was only used once! When he came home, he got the old one started just fine, so he's been using that one. I don't know what they paid for the new one, but it did a bang-up job on our yard!

Fred's back is still bothering him, so I rolled up my sleeves and tackled the yard. In the end it looked great... freshly shaven. It was my first time, too. It was even kinda fun :)

Assume the Position!

While Fred was working on the computer, Leora crawled over to him. After just a little while, he looked down and found her asleep, just like you see. I love that she's "snuggling" a Crayola marker- she must be my girl.

Potty training: the Good, the Great, and the Dairy Aisle

So, with Charla's birthday on the horizon (September 23rd) we're encouraging her potty training a little more diligently. She's a very strong-willed little girl.. correction... princess. We had a small victory yesterday when she asked to wear panties to church. She's never gone a whole successful morning, so this was a leap of faith. Proof that miracles still happen, she used the potty twice at church and was accident free!

Then it carried on over to today. I took her to the gym in princess panties and she used their huge toilet there and we left dry- YAY!

I should've known it was too good to be true. From the gym we headed to Super Walmart (I finally found one). I always sit Leora in the front of the basket, Charla in the main part of the cart and Gregory walks. I was chatting on the phone with a friend, meandering down the dairy aisle when Gregory exclaims, " UH-OH! Look what Charla did! She made a mess!" (luckily, apparently not many people shop there at 11:00am on Mondays, so there was no one nearby)

I turn around and see a trail about 4 yards long ending in a puddle under our cart. Yup, it was Charla. I cut my conversation short, laughing, mind racing. I move the cart over to the orange juice and yogurt, and quickly look for paper towels but found something better: A Walmart sales associate. I worked 3 years at a Super Walmart and I knew how they handle all spills- with an equal degree of caution. So, with a tiny twinge of guilt I politely informed the guy that there's a spill by dairy he should be aware of... and we book it to the baby department.

Frilly little girls

When I was a baby, my mom often had me dressed in frilly little dresses, some needing a petty coat. Now that I have daughters of my own, my mom has let me go through the baby clothes she kept and pick out what I'd like. One of the things I grabbed, was this frilly petty coat, that has been hanging in the closet since Charla was a baby.

It's been so hot and sticky in the house (we yesterday finally realized the AC was broken- we just figured this is what you put up with in a humid climate) that I pulled this out of the closet for fun and because it's so "airy".

Charla loved it and when she finally parted with it, I made Leora wear it for a few pictures. AdOrAbLe. It was fun... and now we're happy that the AC is fixed and we have the house chilly again *grin*











































This is Leora in another dress I wore in another life. I think she makes it look cuter than I did. I wish I could find a picture of myself to put on here. Oh well.