Blog Help

We ran out of space for this blog! Visit our new site for more recent updates:

 Http://wuenschel2.blogspot.com

Ruth's First (assisted) Steps

Ruth has been pulling herself to a standing position for about two weeks now. She loves to pull herself up on Mommy, Daddy, toys, and (especially) Nathan. Nathan doesn't always love it.... hehe

I've been waiting for Ruth to take a step while standing by the sofa or with a toy. The other day she almost did, as the stool she was leaning on moved out from under her. But she opted to sit rather then take a step. Yesterday, while holding my hand, she finally took a first step! And today, she walked many steps (with help, of course)!!  She's pretty good at carrying her own weight, but still needs a lot of help with stability.

We got her first steps on video. By the end of the 2nd take she was pretty tired - it's a lot of walking for a little girl!! But we kept recording, because you can hear her calling out for her Daddy. "Dada" is her favorite, and first, word! I cannot confirm other words yet. Although, I have my suspicions that she's starting to learn to say "nay nay" and "bye bye". Time will tell!

In the mean time, enjoy Ruth's first steps in the video below (if you're reading this in email, be sure to go to the blog to see the video).

I Am Alive

Once Upon A Time... there was a mother who had a family blog. And she posted a teaser photo of her son's birthday cake. She said she'd post party photos the next day. But then an evil dragon came and attacked the mommy. Busyness was it's name. And it's brother, sickness, came soon after. The brave mommy fought off the dragons and won. But then, on the way back to her blog, the mommy fell into a 6,000 foot deep hole, filled with grosgrain ribbon in every color you can imagine. She sank in the rainbow of ribbon and slowly clawed her way out, loosing feeling in some of her fingers from glue gun & sewing needle booby traps hidden in the ribbon. When the mommy finally made it out of the hole, she was unable to untangle herself from some of the ribbon. But she refused to let that stop her. So she dragged the ribbon with her as she made her way back to her blog. Only, once she arrived, she realized that the dragons had attacked her photos! All of her photos from the last few months were horribly disorganized and spread among 6 different storage devices. But this mommy refused to give in. She would post to her blog again. One day. So now as she picks away at more ribbon, and begins to gain feeling in her finger tips again, she is tediously sorting thru the hundreds of photos in an effort to organize herself. She will slowly start to catch up on this blog soon, she promises. The End. (but not the end of the blog)

Lunch

No picture today. Just a funny story. 

I keep meaning to write down the silly things the kids say... so while I have a moment, I'll commit this one to blog-memory :)

I gave the kids leftover spaghetti & cake for lunch today. Nathan's birthday party is tomorrow and I had cake scraps that the kids were begging for. Each child had a bowl of spaghetti and a bowl of cake. We prayed and then I left the kitchen to check on Ruth. As I turned to leave the kitchen and heard:

Faith: I don't want cake

Nathan: I eat your cake, k?

Faith: yeah, you can have my cake nay nay

Nathan: thank you

Faith: you no want sketti?

Nathan: no

Faith: I eat it for you, OK?

I turned to go back in the kitchen and see Nathan sitting with 2 bowls of cake. And Faith digging into one of her 2 bowls of spaghetti.

Our kids are a mess - but at least they compliment each other. And yes, I made sure Nathan had something besides cake for lunch. At least, today...

See, yesterday I made the cakes. 6 cakes to be exact. Long story.... But between cake making and freezer club cooking, I think I spent 75% of my day in the kitchen... It was a little chaotic and busy. Around 5:30pm, I was talking to Jacob on the phone and it dawned on me.... I never fed the kids lunch!!!  But they didn't complain at nap time. Why? Cause they sorta snacked on cake scraps all morning.... ha  Guess they had cake for lunch ;)  Maybe that's why Faith didn't want cake today. She was tired of it after yesterday. hehe

Tomorrow evening is Nathan's birthday party. He's sooo excited to have his friends come over, to have a party, to turn 4, and to eat more cake. hehe  

Here's his finished cake. I'll post plenty more photos on Sunday!

Best Bath Ever

The kids took the best bath ever this morning... I'd been waiting for weeks to do this. But we needed the guest bathroom (with no windows) to get fixed first. And then, we needed time. Today, it all aligned ;)

I've shared how we love bathtub painting before - washable paint mixed with shaving cream makes the best bathtub paint! Today, we kicked it up a notch. Fluorescent washable paint (I heard Colorations was best, so that's what I got). Oh, and what's Nathan holding?? The innards of a non-toxic yellow highlighter. We held it under the running water till it lost all it's dye in the water.

Then when I turned off the lights (and turned on the blacklight), we got glowing water!

The kids were excited to paint again... it's been a week or so since we did last. But they didn't quite understand that I had something special up my sleeves. They were mesmerized when I turned off the lights!

It was sooo much cooler in person, though my camera did a decent job capturing the fun.

I tried to capture the kids' expressions - but they were too excited to stand still.

Trust me when I say, it was THE best bathtime EVER!

Until the paints fell... for the 4th time... then we were done. Next time I'll need to find a way to secure the muffin tin to the bath tub.

It wasn't nearly as pretty when the lights came back on... ha. 

We spent the next 5 minutes washing it all off the walls - it came off VERY easily. But the kids had been painting for about 45 minutes, so there was a LOT to clean up ;)  Including the kids - they got real baths after the tub was clean.

Glowing bathtub paint is awesome! It's definitely an activity we'll do again & again!

C is for...

This past week was C week in our house. We talked about the letter C. We practiced tracing the letter C. We made C sounds. We read the story of Creation. We talked about the ten Commandments. And we did lots of other fun C things. Like...

Crayon art. Melted crayon art.The kids helped me sort the crayons by color, then we glued them to canvases and used a hairdryer on them till they melted. 

A few friends asked about the cost of this project... I figured it out to be $3.85 for the two completed projects. We used the last 4 crayon boxes I had stocked up from last August's school supply sale ($.25 each). And I bought a set of 7 canvases at Michaels back in March ($10 after a 50% off coupon). We used 3 canvases for updating our handprint art wall that we started last year. And we used 2 canvases for teacher appreciation projects (I'll share those another day). Pretty cheap, fun art :)  And COLORS & CRAYONS both start with C :) 

We made letter C caterpillars. And, yes Mom, I tried hard not to call them Calapitters ;-)

I cut out different colored circles and the kids chose colors then glued them down in a C shape. Then they added 2 legs to each circle, 2 antennae and 2 eyes. We counted circles, too :)

One evening, when our driveway was cool enough, we played with chalk.

I drew shapes on the ground and let the kids throw poppers on the shape I'd call out. They'd never played with poppers before... they liked them. hehe

And, of course, we played hopscotch.

Nathan loves hopscotch. So much, he was upset when the van parked on his game! :)

Another day we made cupcakes together.

Then decorated them once cool.

Funny story... I let the kids lick the whipped cream icing off the beaters and Nathan said, "Yum, I like mashed potatoes" LOL  Sometimes they just make me laugh with the things they come up with.

We made cats, clowns and cute faces on our cupcakes.

Can you tell which are which? :)

We had lots of other C foods this past week, too...

Caterpillar bananas with peanut butter & raisin eyes.

And apple & grape cars.

Vrooom vrooom

One day, for lunch, we had crab hotdogs.

My mom use to make these for us, it was fun to get to do it for my kids now :)

The kids loved them. And after we prayed, Nathan talked as though he were his crab saying, "No, no, don't eye my eyes!" then he popped the raisins in his mouth and laughed. hehehe

And today's snack was grape caterpillars (on a skewer)

And out Bible verse this week??

Ephesians 6:1 "Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right."

The kids weren't quite as excited to learn this week's verse... haha  But they still did pretty well.

Next week is VBS at our church. We'll pause our ABCs, cause VBS will have us all busy, and exhausted. In a good way :)

Potty Trained!

It's been a couple weeks now, but Faith is FULLY POTTY TRAINED!!!!!

WOO HOO!!!!!!

We've been trying with her off and on for a long time now. But almost a month ago, Jacob got her to pee in the potty on a Saturday morning. And she went bare bottomed the rest of the day. We had a few accidents that day - which she was more upset over than anyone else. By Monday, the only accidents she was having were in the bathroom because she didn't quite get there fast enough. By Wednesday, she was good to go!! And I mean, she was fully trained. She stopped wearing diapers for nap time that day. And there's been no going back. I still put her in a diaper at night, just in case. But I think she's even ready to get rid of that diaper. Wow - she learned sooooooooooo fast!!  What a smart little girl :)

After no accidents for a couple days in a row, she filled up her sticker reward chart. So she and I got to go shopping for a "big prize." She picked a stick horse that makes horse noises. She loves it! 

We were hoping that all the excitement around Faith would encourage Nathan to finally poop in the potty himself. But, no, it hasn't... he's genuinely proud of his little sister. And he congratulates her all the time. But it hasn't spurred him on to figure out how to poop in the toilet himself... I'm going to ask the doc next week if I can safely give him some kind of laxative to help predict his bm schedule (he has no regular schedule).  I am still mostly convinced that he doesn't even understand how to control those muscles. Which fits with his fine motor skill development delay - which he's slowly catching up on :)

Faith, on the other hand, has amazing control! She's yet to have an accident around me or at church. We're so proud of Faith!!

Here's to having just 1 kid in diapers - woo hoo!

Auction

Most of you know what I'm going to share in this post. But for those that don't, I figured I'd share :)

My dad's been in and out of the hospital since March, Mostly in. He lost half his right leg and has had many other severe health issues related to his heart and kidneys, just to mention a few. Between the hospital, rehab, medical equipment, getting the house handicap accessible, etc etc, my parents are getting buried in medical bills. So some family & friends in Maryland are working to put on a dinner & silent auction in his behalf.

The auction will be at Grace Pointe Community Church of the Nazarene in Severn, MD. It'll be on Friday, July 13th. Lets hope its a very lucky day - with a great turn out, and some awesome things to bid on - good deals for bidders & great deals for the medical fund :)

If you're in the area and want to attend, it'll start at 6pm, cost is $10 for adults (larger donations won't be turned down!) and will include dinner & entertainment. You can't beat that! :)

Whether you're in the area or not, auction organizers are accepting donations. Think giftcards, homemade items, furniture, gift baskets, etc etc. If you want to make a donation, email me!

I've been trying to figure out somethings that we can donate. Being in TX, I'm a bit limited on what I can carry on a plane... but a few ideas came up. One is hair clips.

Hair clips? Yup. I figured I could make some cute ones and sell them in a bouquet that would raise $30 or so. Every little bit helps, right? So I posted a picture on facebook, to see if I was on a good track... would people buy them at an auction??

Instead of getting a "yeah, I think that'll sell." I got a dozen, "I want one!" or "I want 7!" or "I want ALL of them!" I was blown away. So, I've stalled a bit in continuing to update the blog, cause I have over 40 orders of hairbows to fill!!!!

And I'm all for getting more orders ;)  Though I can't promise I'll be able to fulfill new orders before end of July ;)  But I'll try! Any orders I get between now and July 14th, 100% of the profits will go towards my dad's medical bills. So tell your friends, forward these pics on. Order some for friend's b-days, showers, Christmas, etc etc. I'm asking $5 for ribbon clips, $4 for flower clips. I'll ship for free if you order 5 or more.

Here's photos. Sorry some are blurry... I was having camera issues. All solved now. But I'm too lazy to take new pics ;)  Plus... some of my samples are sold already and I've yet to make new ones to replace them.

I'm happy to do some custom work, too. I've already had requests for things like strawberry shortcake, hello kitty, pink & purple butterflies and strawberries. 

So if you're interested in buying or want close up pics of specific ones, email me. And tell your friends ;)

B is for...

Each week this summer, the kids are focusing on a letter of the alphabet. We're memorizing a Bible verse that starts with that letter, learning Bible stories, eating snacks and doing crafts & activities that all start with that letter, too. This week was B week. So what'd we do?

The kids each made a letter B bee.

And we did some bubble painting

I made a solution of water, dish soap & paint and the kids blew into it with a straw, making bubbles. 

Once you have a bunch of bubbles, you pop the bubbles with white paper, and it leaves behind a bubble impression. I experimented a bit with what would leave the best colors behind... food coloring did not do so well. Washable paints... well... duh... unfortunately I didn't think about that and tried them. They did worse than food coloring. I know, I know, what was I thinking mixing washable paints with soap and expecting them to work... haha.  

Acrylics worked well! But we had to just be extra careful with them.Cause bubble painting with a 2 year old is a messy activity :)

Here's one of Faith's works of art.

We also made bubble snakes. These are pretty cool.

Mix 1/3 cup water with 2/3 cup dawn dish soap. Then cut off the bottom of a water bottle. Attach a washcloth to the bottom of the bottle, with a rubberband - covering it completely. Dip the washcloth in the soap and blow in the bottle. And you'll get awesome snakes! They had a really neat texture. The slower you blow, the finer the bubbles. 

Faith wasn't so fond of this activity... she still doesn't quite understand the difference between blowing and sucking... she sucked a mouthful of soap right into her mouth. Ick! Poor thing. While Nathan continued to play with the bubble snakes, I asked Faith if she'd rather bubble paint again. She said, "That sounds like a much better idea, Mommy." LOL, my little 2 1/2 year old sometimes sounds so grown up!

Ruth didn't need soap. She made her own bubbles along with us ;)

Another day, we made butterfly pretzels. I laid pretzels on parchment paper and filled the holes with vanilla candy melts (left over from Christmas cake pops). Then the kids added sprinkles and candies to the warm melts. Then we popped them in the freezer for 5 minutes to let them set. 

Once set, I mixed the remaining vanilla candy with some cocoa powder and made bodies for the butterflies. I stuck 2 pretzels on either side of the bodies, and broken pretzels made antennae. Nathan & Faith really liked "helping" eat, I mean break, the pretzels ;) 

I was nervous about how they'd turn out. Would they just fall apart they moment I moved them? But 5 minutes in the freezer was all they needed and they lifted off the parchment paper beautifully!

Butterfly pretzels were our snack that day. Other days we had yummy B snacks, too:

Banana sandwich cookies (banana, peanut butter & nilla wafers, rolled in sprinkles. And there were banana tacos (also with PB), and fig newton Bibles. And, of course, some blue juice to wash down our snacks.

And there was an occasional blue tongue... :)

Friday night we had a family bubble fun night. We went outside to try out some giant bubbles. 6 cups distilled water, 1/2 cup cornstarch, 1/2 cup dawn dish soap and 1 T of baking powder + a secret ingredient that I'll share if you ask... or I'll make you a batch & a wand for a small fee (to help fund our summer fun) :)  Let the mixture sit for at least an hour before you use it. The cornstarch will sink, just carefully mix it back in when you're ready to use it.

It was pretty windy... so we didn't have great luck. But we still made quite a few giant bubbles!! We'll definitely have to do this another evening when it's less windy out. Evenings are best, when the sun isn't beating down. The bubbles break easier in the hot sun.

Then, my personal favorite... bouncing bubbles. That's right, they bounce! Not just those touchable bubbles that are plasticy. These actually bounce in the air when you touch them. I'll happily sell you a batch of this mixture too, if you want :-)  

We had to wear clean gloves - the oils on skin make them break, but with the glove, they bounce really well!! It's not something a photo does justice for... so here's a video of our giant bubbles and the bouncing bubbles!

And last, but certainly not least... Our Bible verse this week. I didn't forget it ;)  Monday the kids had it down, and so I got them to memorize the address, too. Faith knows it well, but won't say it on camera. But here's Nathan reciting Acts 16:31 "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved."

What a great B week we had! Next week, we'll do the letter C. Then we'll take a break for VBS. And review A B & C the following week, and do some of the activities we haven't had time to do yet. The kids are enjoying our summer of letter fun, and so am I :)

Valentine's Gifts

Back in February, the kids painted valentines for some of their favorite people.

They love to paint!

And Faith loves to make messes. Notice, Nathan has a paint brush. Faith is more a hands-on girl :)

Which is why she's also wearing no clothes.... ;)

Can you see the purple handprint on her belly?

I cut hearts out of their painted artwork. And then the kids attached accordion papers to make "hugs" that we could mail to grandparents and a few other special people to remind them that we love them!

Then for school & church friends (since we were at church on Valentine's Day), the kids posed for photos so I could make some cute valentines for them to give to their friends.

The valentines turned out cute.

Happy belated Valentine's Day :)

very belated!

Or... you know, maybe I'm just really early ;-)