Reason #54 To Not Try And Relax

So the other day the little ones were really quiet and occupied so I went downstairs and worked played on the computer. Reading blogs, facebook, etc. When I came upstairs to our bedroom this is what I saw:

"We taught our babies to cut Mom!" they said. And yes in fact they were holding scissors to their dolls hands and having the babies cut....and entire notebook of paper. They had also managed to move all the doll furniture from the upstairs down to our room. I guess I was on the computer a little longer than I realized.  Then they made me promise not to throw any of it away or clean it up until Daddy got home. They were so proud of themselves. And Daddy was just as thrilled as me. ☺

Birthday Twins

Birthday Twins!

Four Generations!!

Four Generations!!



Auntie Rach with her beloved Sevilla...and some of her nieces!

 Something that is very special to us is that Hailey (Grandma Ruby's First Great-Grandchild, not her oldest but her first. Later Orlando was adopted and he is older than Hailey, but at the time Hailey was the first...if that all makes sense) was born on Grandma Ruby's Birthday. So we usually try and have a joint Birthday party for the Birthday twins! This year we had it at Grandma Ruby's house and it was catered by the best catering company around! We had lots of yummy food and good times!

Lefse Making

I love this picture! It is so Grandma!! Looking pretty right next to her Kitchen Aid!

This last weekend I drove home with my Mom to Yakima. Hailey and Karis came too and we got to stay at Grandma's Ruby's. The girls love to see their Great Grandma and talk about her constantly so they were thrilled to get to spend some time at her house. She even made them Strawberry Waffles which they devoured!
Grandma and I made Lefse. This is a traditional Norwegian flat bread type food that Grandma has made all her life. I am now helping carry on the tradition by learning the fine art of Lefse making. Let's just say it's not easy and a lot of work! I still haven't quite mastered the art, but I'm getting there! First we made mashed potatoes and then laid them all out on dinner plates to get them to cool faster. Then we mixed flour in and attempted to make little round circles to put on the Lefse maker. Some turned out better than others. Grandma actually emailed me last night and said we didn't put enough butter in, which is why they weren't quite turning out like we remember. Oh well....they were still good...and we had a great time! I feel so blessed to not only have Grandma in my life but also that she is so active and able to do so many fun things. She is a baking machine and is always making a cake or pie. I'm so glad to have inherited the love of baking from her! I love you Grandma! ♥ (She is also one of my faithful blog readers!)

Hailey's Birthday

Hailey had a great Birthday. The Saturday before her Birthday she went with two friends to the art gallery at church where they worked with clay and painted to their hearts content. Afterwards we went to the Cupcake store for some yummy cupcakes. Grandma came for the week to help celebrate so that was lots of fun! On her actual Birthday we took cupcakes made by Grandma to school. Then she had her first oral report presentation that same day so we stayed and watched. She presented on Leonardo Da Vinci. She did a great job! That night she opened presents and then we went to Louie's for a yummy dinner. It was so fun!

Cookie Decorating

One of our little family traditions is to make sugar cookies for various holidays and decorate them. I'll admit that as the years have gone by and the work of maintaining the children multiplies, that some holidays are forgotten. I mean do we really need to make ground hog cookies for Ground Hogs Day? And isn't it enough to eat a real turkey on Thanksgiving, do we really need turkey cookies? Or am I just a pathetic, lazy mother? ☺

Anyway......Valentines Day definitely deserves its own cookies!! So last night we decorated heart shaped cookies. A brilliant idea came to me though, why not involve Scott in this?! Why do I attempt this during the day? So I put Scott in charge of sprinkles. The goal was simple, two adults, four kids, it's gotta be less messy! Right?! I explained Scott's role very clearly.....you maintain sprinkles. Stand between a certain two children who are most likely to go sprinkle-happy and sprinkle everything but the cookies. Who could those two brown-eyed children be? We won't be naming any names. Funny that eye-color in our home has seemed to determine personality. ☺

Anyway.......10 minutes into the decorating, the table looked exactly like it does with one adult, four kids, decorating. A DISASTER. I kept saying, "Scott! You are in CHARGE of the sprinkles! That means certain children have to be CLOSELY monitored!" But I guess sprinkles and close monitoring just don't go hand in hand. And kinda get in the way of the joy.... and anyway....it's all part of the fun, and the memories. Because that's why we had kids, Scott! To do fun things like this with them!! ☺

♥♥Happy Valentines Day!!♥♥

Knitting and Lizards

Nice random title....right Hannah? My little sister Hannah happens to think I have random thoughts....so I knew she'd enjoy this title. ☺ I've been so into my newest hobby lately that I've hardly had time to blog, or take photos, or make dinner...just kidding....don't worry I've been fulfilling all of my mothering duties! But I am really excited that I can now knit. In fact I told Scott I no longer have any boring moments!!

 Whenever I am waiting in the car, or listening to Hailey read, or watching TV with the kids, or watching them play even, I pick up my knitting. Not that all those moments are boring, but sometimes I need a little something to do with my hands. Above is my first clothing creation...skirts for the American Girl dolls....much more economical than buying them I might add! I am currently working on skirt #3. I also made a hat which was way too big for anyone in our family, so was given to a friend with a bigger head...more hair I should say....I am also currently working on a dress. It's lots of fun and I have a knitting friend who has helped me a ton. And the added bonus is she has a little girl who gets along fabulously with Avery and Alex, so for the most part Tami and I knit in peace (in between handing out fruit snacks and gogurts).

Also as you can tell from the above pictures....Avery is in lizard heaven. That's right....we have another lizard. I have serious concerns that after adding Lizard #2 to the family that soon we will become like a reptile family that has all kinds of reptiles roaming free through the house. If people start asking us to come entertain at their children's Birthday parties I will know we have crossed over from normal family.....to reptile family. Scary!!!

Anyway our newest addition comes from our good friend Angie. She is actually the one who inspired Avery to get  a lizard in the first place. She and her son Dillon decided their days of lizard parenting are over so they blessed us with Cricket!! Complete with a much nicer cage than Fishie has! And the best news is Fishie and Cricket are living quite happily together in the nice, new life cage. Which means a certain large aquarium is empty and a certain man in the house seems to be looking longingly at it ready to fill it with fish. Seriously....we need to sell tickets to small children to come to the Hoefer Zoo!!

(And this post is for you Katie....another sister...who was concerned about the family since I hadn't blogged or facebooked in awhile. We are alive and well. Just busy knitting and lizard tending.) ♥♥♥