it kills me...

...that these 2 are growing up so fast...sigh.

polk-a-dotted yumminess

The girls are working on earning a baking badge with their Keepers of the Home book/group. I have told them they need to actually earn these by completing the tasks. This has motivated them to make cakes, breads, cobbler and pie. These cupcakes turned out great.

I am using these trays that I bought for the kids tot school for more than just schooling. I put a tray out for each of the kids and this helped them with having a contained space to work in.


Tyce loved this project. Anything hands on seems to work well for him. He added LOTS of polk-a-dots...sugary goodness. Just use white chocolate chips turned upside down. So cute.

homemade quilt made from old clothes

I recently made a quilt made from some baby clothes that I had saved from the girls. I wanted to make something on the sewing machine, but I didn't want to buy a bunch of fabric. So, I thought the quilt would work just fine, plus, we are often in need of extra blankets around here.

I will be honest, I didn't measure ANYTHING. I just started cutting and made sure the squares were about the same size. I am a "wing-it" kind of gal. I had no plan, just wanted to be crafty. The squares are about 9 by 9 inches. Lots of different kinds of fabric, sweaters, knit dresses, Chuck's racing t-shirt, old shorts that Tissy wore out before she grew out of them. Each piece brings memories and the girls LOVE IT. They love what it represents.
By the time I was ready to attach it to the backing and batting, I was in no mood to "quilt" it. The fabrics are too varied, so I decided to tie it with yarn. That alone took several evenings in front of the TV watching movies while I worked under the warm snuggy quilt. I can't wait until I can make one for the boys in a few years.

Introducing my "tween" girls

It's official. We have entered the tween stage. This was a big week here in the peapod. My little sweet peas are growing up. No longer little girls. They now understand what it means to suffer for beauty (well not just for beauty for the betterment of their mouth's health).

Tally got braces and Tissy got a retainer. We knew this was coming. It wasn't a surprise, but yet I am not sure I was ready for this. Not just financially, but emotionally. My girls look so mature and grown up. I am not ready for them to grow up. I have enjoyed every stage and I am determined to enjoy this tween stage too. I think if I embrace it with positivity, it will help them adjust to all the changes that are going on.
Here is Tally's sweet little mouth. Not only are we dealing with an "over jet" but lots of crazy positioning of teeth. Most of that is from a mouth injury from when she fell as a 3 year old. Talk about consequences.
One of the things for me that has been hard to accept, is her smile will never bee the same. I have loved that front tooth that has it's own special way of presenting itself. I love her just how she is. She has been so excited about getting braces. She understands it is a big deal and costs a lot of money and that she must be very responsible. She will get the head gear to go with it in a few weeks. I bet that will be another adjustment for her. =(Here she is afterward. She got a free ice cream from Baskin Robins as a special treat from the orthodontist. Only soft foods for a few days. That and lots of pain meds. Click on the picture to see it larger to see those beautiful teeth. Her bands are orange and pink.
Here is Tissy with her new retainer. She recently had a baby tooth removed (the filling fell out and it wasn't worth replacing) and in order to maintain the open space for the adult tooth we decided to go with the retainer. It will not only hold that space open (her mouth is tiny and has significant crowding) it will also prevent her from digging her teeth up into the roof of her mouth. She too has the over jet that Tally has. She sounds just adorable with her retainer. All lispy and cute. Not to mention she looks as cute as can be.

So there you have it. My two tween girls. And I guess that means I am not the young mom anymore with little kids. We are all learning to cope with this in our own ways. And I am learning to let them grow up.

My little helpers

There are times that I don't even realize what helpers my kids are. They are almost always with me and they so quickly jump in and help in ways that seem so natural to me, but are unusual in so many ways. Tonight we had some friends over for dinner and I was preparing all the taco fixings while the girls entertained our friend's kids. I noticed that they are often right by my side getting things out or serving drinks or finding ways to serve. There are times, like tonight, they serve me by helping out with the younger ones. These little boys were entertained by Tally and Tissy in the bonus room with coloring, playing with cars, games and videos. The girls act like little baby sitters and keep these busy little guys happy and safe so the parents can visit and enjoy the adult conversation.

What I noticed is how their absence was noticed in the kitchen. They are like my right hand girls. They know how to load and unload the dishwasher. They are learning to be observant of what needs to be done when we are hosting friends. They tidy the table when they are finished eating and clean up the plates. They are such a blessing to me in so many ways and it just struck me tonight what a treat it is to have them around. Often doing these things without being asked.

I often hear Tally ask if there is anything she can do to help. Or if there is a job that Tissy can do. They are such helpers around the house and a blessing in so many ways. They have really embraced the idea of being part of a "stick together family" and work as a team. They often ask if I need help with something before they go and play. The other day they voluntarily turned off the TV to help unload and put away the groceries while I visited with my mom. Again...blessing me and others with their actions.

I am so grateful that God has blessed me with such thoughtful girls. Ones that bless me and others with their actions and attitudes. In no means am I trying to act prideful but noting their actions, but just acknowledging their help and the blessing that it is. I understand that it is God's grace that they are who they are. I just missed them tonight in the kitchen and realized that they were helping with the little ones instead.

Learning to love one of Daddy's favorite toys

The other week when were out at yard sales and found this race track for matchbox style cars. Chuck snagged it for a buck and it has been a pretty good toy to use all of our cars with.


And when I say...ALL of our cars...I mean ALL of Chuck's cars. We have a huge collection that were Chuck's when he was a little boy.

The idea is you race them against each other and which ever one wins, goes into the win pile and the looser goes into the looser group. Then you keep racing the winners against each other and add to the loser group. Finally you are down to just a few cars to find out which one is the fastest car.Here the winners are lined up against the track and the rest are losers. The point is to find the fastest car. And the race always seems to come down to the same few cars. There is a green one that wins every time and is the champion.
Amazingly enough, we play this on the weekends for hours. You can imagine that Chuck loves it. And the girls love anything when Daddy plays along. Bonding time for sure. And all for a dollar at a yard sale. Well...the dollar and all the cars we already had.

crazy campers

Here they are showing me some kind of game they learned which requires making a mask and pinching your cheek. I think they look hysterical. I am not sure my arms bend in that way.The highlights this week have included...canoeing, riding the zip line and jumping off into the lake, archery, shooting a BB gun, and climbing the rock wall (which Tally made it to the top of).

Did you catch that list??? My little sweet girls tried all of that stuff. And if you know my kids personally, I think you would agree that they have been brave. I am so proud of them. For trying new things, for participating, for jumping in and having fun.

Summer Camp

What a highlight of my motherhood...to watch my kids enjoy camp. There is something so very special about camp. Being part of a cabin. Singing silly songs. Swimming in a lake. Hiking in the woods. The sound of the gravel path under your sneakers as you walk to the craft tent. Being hot and sweaty and exhausted and yet not caring. No TV or video games. Mosquito bites. Bible time. What a great experience.

This week my girls are at camp. And they are having a blast. What a blessing to watch them enjoying camp as much as I did. Note to self...always find some money in the budget to get to camp each summer.

enjoying the play set

We finally got our play set up and the girls have been enjoying it so much. We have had this play set for 5 years. We have had it at 3 houses now. After much hunting, we decided to go for the Rainbow play set and it has been a good investment. I'll be honest, they aren't cheap, but they come with a really good warranty. When we were moving this last time, we took it apart in just a few major parts and loaded onto the truck in big pieces. We had to order a lot of replacement wood to take care of the rotten areas. After the replacement wood arrived (under warranty) we hired the local Rainbow play set place to come and replace all the wood and put it back together.

I had no idea they had to take almost every piece apart and put it back together again. I think it was worth hiring the professional on this one. It looks like a huge puzzle with no picture to follow.

Most of the wood is new. After being in a REALLY humid area, a lot of it was rotten and needed to be replaced. I have been impressed with Rainbow and how they stand behind these products. It has been a joy to work with them.

Can you believe it is 5 years old??? It looks practically brand new. We were able to find a spot in the yard that gets afternoon shade from a hack berry tree. The girls have really enjoyed playing out there and the neighborhood kids have been over to play a few times too.

This is one of my favorites...a new place to read.Sorry for the lack of posts here in the Peapod. We have been busy and today's activities included checking out a dentist, orthodontist and getting 2 teeth pulled for Tissy. Prayers appreciated for my little one.

Sneak peak at sewing

This is what our Mondays have been full of. Lots of sewing. The girls are taking a sewing class that my friend is teaching. They are each making a small (crib size) quilt. Here is Tally with her first block. I am so proud of these girls. They have each worked so hard and learned a lot. I will have to post pictures when they are done with their projects.

There is much more to post, but for now...we have had our ups and downs. Tally is borrowing this beautiful old machine and she loves using it. Tissy is also borrowing a machine that has speed control that works well for her. Hopefully we will be back at it next week and get even more accomplished. It is really neat to see the girls gain confidence at this skill.

From the mouths of my children

Just for fun, I thought these were kind of cute. Nice to have little record of their thoughts. When I asked them these questions, I separated them so they wouldn't copy each others answers. And I wanted them to understand that there was no "right or wrong" answer, what ever came to their minds I jotted down.


1. What is something mom always says to you
Tissy-Pay attention
Tally-That you love me

2. What makes mom happy?
Tissy-When we clean the house
Tally-When I do the right thing without being told to

3. What makes mom sad?
Tissy-When I don't pay attention
Tally-When I don't do my needful

4. What makes your mom laugh?
Tissy-All my funny jokes and stuff
Tally-When Tissy is funny

5. What was your mom like as a child?
Tissy-Probably you were funny
Tally-nice and friendly and outgoing

6. How old is your mom?
Tissy-24, no you're not that young... I am going to guess 34
Tally-35 is my guess

7. How tall is your mom?
Tissy- 6' 3"
Tally- 5' 6" (I am somewhere in between)

8. What is her favorite thing to do
Tissy-You like to go on the computer
Tally-Do your Bible Study, your Precepts

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Tissy- You do your Bible Study, spend time with Daddy and might go on the computer again.
Tally-You blog and do your computer stuff

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Tissy-You are a good singer. Well, it might for writing a book called "Tinkle and Beans". No for your pizza.
Tally-Making her bread

11. What is your mom really good at
Tissy-Typing on the computer and cooking
Tally-Making your bread and healthy foods

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Tissy-Not the best at working with TVs and making movies and texting...you know, all that stuff that Daddy does
Tally-Loving and caring for all sorts of animals

13. What does your mom do for her job?
Tissy-Teach me and Tally school
Tally-You teach us school

14. What's your mom's favorite food?
Tissy-Maybe your pizza, or your pancakes or your bread
Tally-Healthy foods like spinach salad, and you like bananas and fruits

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
Tissy-When our friends come over, I am proud of your very good pizza
Tally-When you make homemade bread and give it to friends and when they say it tastes really good

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Tissy-Kanga from Winnie the Pooh
Tally-Mama bear from the Berenstain Bears

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Tissy-Sing at bed time
Tally-We talk and read my journal and stuff like that

18. How are you and your mom the same?
Tissy-We both have blond hair
Tally-We both have glasses

19. How are you and your mom different?
Tissy-You have glasses
Tally-You like to organize things and I like to play with animals

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Tissy-You say it
Tally-Because you care for me, hugs me, tells me that you loves me and tucks me in at night

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Tissy-Disney, Magic Kingdom
Tally-Family fun places, like the science center and Disney and places like that

THESE LITTLE CUTIES...

Will be spending the day with Daddy on Saturday while I go to an all day adoption conference.

Homemade Holiday

Almost forgot the precious homemade gift debut. As I mentioned before, in our penny pinching effort this year, we made gifts for Christmas. The girls really got into this and spend days working on theirs. I was able to help them come up with ideas that they could actually pull off. We got lots of felt (not wool felt ~ too pricey) and a variety of craft floss (like embroidery floss ~ just easier for kids to work with). And they had a blast making their gifts. I didn't get pictures of the gifts that they gave away to cousins, so just trust me on how cute those were.

Tally made these AG doll mittens and scarf for Tissy (well actually for Tissy's doll). Tally was able to conquer the blanket stitch and used it on lots of her projects.With a little design help from grandparents, Tally made these ice skate ornaments for me. I used to ice skate when I was younger and I have always loved ice skate ornaments. Aren't they just darling?

Tally has always been a natural communicator. And she was able to make these kinds of gifts totally on her own. She wrote a book for Chuck and made me a book of Poems. Full of phonetic spelling and all. I am not sure it gets any cuter than this. I just love these and I will bring them out in the years to come and put them out with the other Christmas books. (click on the picture below to enlarge the picture to read some of the poems)


Here I am unwrapping the gift that Tissy made me. I have mentioned that I want to make some cloth napkins and work harder at not wasting paper napkins. She came up with the idea to make napkins for our family with a special design for each person. She also got some help from Grammy and Papa and they couldn't be cuter. Her excitement for having me open these gifts was almost uncontrollable. She was bursting with joy. Tears and all.


The designs are from the left - race car for Chuck, teacup for Tissy, book for Tally, and apple for me.

My gift for the girls was this felt toy mail set. I had seen it in a catalog (HERE) and I thought it was too cute. But I wasn't willing to pay over $50 for the whole thing. So as I usually do, I figured I could make it myself (with no pattern). I thought it turned out just adorable.

All the stamps and names and such can be interchanged and are held on with bits of Velcro. The brown ones on the left are envelopes that the notes can go inside of.

My original idea was to paint on the felt, but I ended up stitching it on with floss instead. It has a sweet primitive look that I just love in simple toys.

Like I said before, we didn't take pictures of everything, but these are but a few homemade ideas. There was something really special about not having to hunt the stores for some gift that the person wont really use, and spend money that you shouldn't. It was special to make these and think about the person and express your love for them in a homemade way.

Though we ran out of time and didn't finish our gifts for everyone (our very fast moving threw us off), we had a lot of fun making these this year.

Not sure why...

...but my girls have been wearing these hats for a few days. Just having fun.



I just found out why...they are pretending to be spies. Bet you didn't recognize them. =)

I never thought to look in the tub

This morning, the girls wanted me to find their neat hideout. I walked through the house and couldn't find them. I looked in the usual spots (closets, nooks, and such). I finally did my whoop (like a mama whooping crane) to call out to them ~ and they always respond with "whoop whoop whoop". I think I just demonstrated another family oddity ~ I bet not many of you whoop to your kids. Try it, it's kind of fun. When they whooped back to me I knew they were in the bathroom. Ta-daa. I looked behind the shower curtain and found their hide out. There they were reading and having fun. I never thought to look in the tub.

Mall Hunt Birthday Fun!!

We had a great time celebrating Tally's 10th birthday in an unusual way. A party is the norm for us and this year, it was just too much for me to pull off (I have a hard time doing a small scale party ~ I tend to go all out and create more work than necessary for myself). Knowing that about myself and with the traveling out of town to see Chuck and all the guests we have had lately, we decided to do a Mall Hunt Birthday.













Tally was given clues to different stores along with a map of the mall and she had to go find the store. Sometimes her clue included money (a $10 since she is 10). Then at the store, she could pick out a gift. With the money she got, she was had the option of staying with in her budget (anything she didn't spend she could keep). If she wanted to spend more than the $10, she could dip into her other birthday money that she had gotten from grandparents.













Her clues lead her to a book store to pick out books. She got her 2 favorite Magic Tree House books. 2 for under ten bucks, not bad.

Both girls also got to pick out new t-shirts from the Disney store (compliments of Aunt Susi).

A unusual stop for us...the gumball machines.This clue included quarters for the gumball machines. We all sampled the sugar overload.











Both of the girls had been looking forward to new Webkinz. Their accounts were about to expire. Considering the hours of fun you can get for a ten dollar toy, not a bad investment. On this clue, Tissy was also included in being aloud to pick a Lil' Kinz.










The biggest highlight of the day was a trip to Libby Lou. We have never been to this little girl make-over salon. Oh, my, were we in for a surprise. If you are unfamiliar with this place check out the web site HERE. Both of the girls were able to get the basic package which includes a hair do, nails, and a bag full of glittery girly goodies.



















To be totally honest...this place felt like it went against everything that I stand for. It was really fun for the girls and I am so glad that a place like this is such a treat for them (we hardly even go to the mall). But this salon has this atmosphere of trying to make your little girls older than they are. While we were waiting there was a party of preschool age girls all dressed up and dolled up and working these dance moves out in the middle of the mall for their parents to video tape. Somehow it seemed unnatural and slightly creepy.












OK, off my soap box (which I am sure I offended someone out there with my opinion rant in the previous paragraph). It was fun to watch the girls get their hair done in these fancy up-dos. I watched carefully to see if I could recreate the hair style at home (by the way...I can). Both Chuck (being the only Dad in the salon) and my sister Susan (who has 3 boys) were good sports. The music was pretty loud in there and we were glad when it was time to move on to the next stop in the Mall Hunt.

After lunch in the food court and a treat at Cinabon, we were just about done and ready to head home. The girls spent most of their birthday money on Calico Critters (a very sweet toy ~post to come later).This was a huge hit and they have been playing with them ever since. One last stop at Clair's for new necklaces (big sis and little sis ones). Tally said this was her favorite birthday and Tissy was hoping that she could also have a Mall Hunt birthday (um, maybe when she turns 10 ~ I need time to recover). All in all, it was a really easy way to have the celebration seem really special to Tally and be easy on me for planning. What surprised me was how tired we all were from walking around the mall for 4 hours. It was like breathing a sigh of relief when we drove "back out into the country" to head home. (Can you tell I am not a shopper???)