New Friend and New Recipe

This friend arrived in the mail the other day. Olivia was delighted! For some reason, she started saying "peacock" all of the time. I don't even think she knew what a peacock was. My mom picked up on it while she was visiting us and thanks to Gee, Liv has her own peacock and it's her new best friend.

The peacock was immediately invited to tea.

Olivia has a friend named Erin who has the most adorable little kitchen that her grandpa made for her. Erin is always so sweet to let Olivia play with all of her toys...even her beans. :) Erin's mom, Nancy, is such a fun parent and let Erin cook with dried beans and pasta. Olivia enjoyed it so much that we had to cook some up at our own house. But remember, Nancy is a much more fun, relaxed mom that I could ever dream to be. So, Olivia had her fun and now the beans are waiting up high in a cabinet for a rainy day. haha

I think this lasted for about 3 hours. Then she had to take a nap. When she woke up, she immediately asked for "beans" and forsook her snack. If you know my kids at all, you know that is major!

I was good with this for all of yesterday. But today, as I was cleaning house, it finally got to me.

Especially when this rascal jumped in.

They are so much fun to watch together.

Watching Her Brothers Play

Lookin' Kinda Homeschool-y

I love homeschooling my kids for so many reasons.

1.) My daughter can dig in a box of old clothes and put together an outfit and wear it for two days. Nobody cares. Isn't she smashing?

2.) Josiah gets creative while I work with Isaac on his school work.

He taught Isaac how to make a book.

3.) She can color in her underwear. Nobody cares.

4.) We can draw crazy pictures all day long and come up with silly names for the unique animals. "Grass is yum." Josiah's dimple is yum.

Photos From My Cell Phone

Okay, maybe it's not that interesting. But I finally figured out how to send the photos from my cell to my computer. I wish that I would have learned this a long time ago because I've deleted LOTS of pics. Some of these are about a year old.

I love my boys!

crazy faces

Argh, matie.

when Olivia learned how to open the door by herself

Sometimes they get along. :)

Riding toys at the outlet mall in St. Augustine

One of our favorite places.

Isaac popping bubble wrap and Josiah playing in the rain at the townhouse

silly guys

drinking milk from a straw for the first time

playing outside on the driveway

cheese

playing in Olivia's room

a fun tunnel we go through on the way to and from Texas

Jay's a fun daddy.

I love having a child that can read to his siblings.

This is one of the restaurants Jay and I ate at in Winter Park, FL on our anniversary. I wish I would have remembered to take my camera. It was such a fun town.

Olivia and Sadie when Rachel came to visit last year.

Olivia right before having tubes put in her ears and having her adenoids removed.

My three kids and I eating out at a Mexican food restaurant here on Fleming Island. I love that Isaac has on a Florida shirt and Josiah has on a Texas shirt.

Hey There!

Let me try and catch you up a bit.

Hmmm...I can't say that much has really been going on around here. Maybe that's why I haven't blogged. Good thing I took a couple of pictures so that I have something to write about.

Our boys have only had cars and superheroes to play with all of their lives. Until now!! They are very intrigued by all of Olivia's things. And since Jay had been at school and away from home, I let them go for it. haha

Oh me, oh my. I love the football shirt with the tiara.

He has the hairbrush tucked into the tutu in case he needs to freshen up.

Jay wasn't too thrilled when he came in to see them.

Olivia had her first ear infection since getting tubes. First she had pink eye and I had a feeling that maybe an ear infection had caused it. Sure enough, it was a horrible ear infection. Poor baby. But she is on the mend now and hopefully no more of these!!

We are awaiting a visit from Gee! She comes on Monday and I don't know who is more excited -- the kids or me (or Jay)!

Olivia finally figured out the light switch thing. It's now her new toy.

Needless to say, we are very proud of her. :)

We took the kids to the circus last night.

They were excited to find out where they were going. Jay and I were a little apprehensive. I mean, it's the circus. When we first arrived, PETA was there to hand out fliers about the elephant slave trade. It ruined our night. I couldn't think of how cute it was when the elephants stood on top of each other. All I could think of was how they had been abused in order to learn that trick. Plus, we were at the VERY TOP of the arena. It was all I could do to keep from crying and wanting to go home because I kept thinking I was going to fall down the stadium seats or drop one of my kids.

But the kids liked it. :)

I had to throw this photo in so that you can see the painting I just purchased. Our pastor's wife is an artist and I saw this in her home when we were there recently. She painted it in October and it won't be dry until April. So, it will be hanging unframed for awhile, but I really, really like it. It looks bigger in person. ha

Well, I know this is just all so exciting. Up next - photos from my phone that I just learned how to get onto the computer! Hold on to your seats!! (But you might have to wait a few days.)

My Helper

Before I tell you about my helper, I thought that this was pretty cute. Josiah sees his daddy sing like this every Sunday and found a creative way to prop up his microphone. He had a very serious song going on.

I'm usually not very good about letting the kids help out in the kitchen because I always seem to be in a hurry. But I had time today, and it worked out because it was pizza night! I told Jay that I should let Josiah help me out more often because he is such a picky eater and might actually eat whatever he makes. He was so proud of his pizzas!

Here he is helping me sprinkle cheese on top. I wish you cold have seen him tossing the mozzarella slices and tomatoes on. He looked like a pro.

We had so much fun.

One of our finished pizzas. It was very good. Way to go, Josiah!

FYI: I got this recipe from The Pioneer Woman cookbook. The pizza dough that I usually make is a lot more involved. This was simple and good...not as good, but good enough that I'll use it again because it took less time.

Guitars Once Again

Growing up, I had 3 brothers and a father who all played guitar in our house. Sometimes they would all play at once, but usually there was at least one guitar being strummed on any given day. While I love guitar and was so proud of each of them, after awhile the noise just became too much for me. So I declared that I would NEVER marry someone who played the guitar. I did marry someone who plays guitar, but he never brings it home. So I felt that I had somewhat kept my vow.

But what I had never even considered was the fact that I might one day have boys who think so highly of their uncles that they too might need a guitar. Our house is loud with the sound of music, but when it comes from my own son, it's a little more tolerable. :) Plus, he sang me a sweet little diddy tonight.

"I love my...momma. I love her. I love her.

She looks so beautiful in the morning.

I love my...momma. I love her. I love her

She always cooks and cleans.

I love my...momma. I love her. I love her.

She tells us that God has big plans for us

And I say...yes.

I...love...my...momma."

Yeah, I think I can tolerate that.