No more dummies!

Sorry about the lack of updating, I was doing so well, and then I got a little behind around Mother's Day and then I became overwhelmed with how far behind I was, so I just have to start somewhere.

So we were on vacation in Quebec City last week, hopefully I'll have some entries on that soon, and I guess Shane had finally had enough of Lily's pacifier obsession. For months now she has been demanding 3-4 to take to bed with her (one for her mouth, one for insurance, one for each hand...she likes to rub her arms and face with them) and she'll fight with Darcy to get one out of Darcy's mouth if it's one she wants. This is not an ordinary dummy (what we call the pacifier) addiction. It's full on. This is why I hadnt even broached the topic. They calm her, they put her to sleep, why do we want them taken away? The problem is she talks and looks much older than a 2 year old, so I think Shane was starting to be aware of what it looked like, especially because we only have the 0-6 month size, so they look pretty silly in her mouth.

So much digressing in this story, sorry!!

So back to Quebec, one night When Lily was demanding her dummies, Shane just kept explaining to her over and over again that she was a big girl and big girls don't use dummies. He would point out that Darcy uses a dummy and Darcy is a baby. Is Lily a baby? She would of course say no, and he would say, then you don't need dummies! I was floored that it actually worked! The first few days she would ask for them, and put up a little fight, but we just held fast, and now, a littttle over a week later, she doesn't even ta about them except to say "when I was a baby I had a dummy in my mouth" I think she's very proud that she kicked he habit too:) Even when she sees one laying around the house, she'll run it right over to Darcy. Im so proud of my little girl!!

Soccer Fan

Shane took Oliver to his first New England Revolution soccer game this past Saturday. (I went to Ikea with some girls from church and Dad came down and watched Lily and Darcy) Shane said that Oliver did great through the whole thing. I asked Oliver how he liked it. He said it was great and that there were lots of people selling popcorn and that Dada gave him his own spicy (soda). I just love the child's perspective:) hopefully a love of soccer is something we can encourage in all of our children as it is the only sport we care to follow or watch! (other that skiing, of course!)

The luckiest mom in the world

What a privilege and overwhelming responsibility to nurture these beautiful spirits!

Bath time

This is what happens when you leave a 4 and 2 year old in a tub with a full bottle of bubble bath in site... (they're lucky they're cute!)

Easter

Just some shots from Easter morning that I got a hold of. We also had an egg hunt the day before at Averie's house.

May wreath

I stumbled across the fake flower aisle at Wal Mart last week. Me likey their prices! I usually go to Ben Franklin which is ridiculously over priced and under stocked. Wal Mart even had a grape vine wreath form for $2.50! The flower bundles were $3 each, which means the total for my wreath was $8.50. Considering I saw a similar wreath already assembled but with gardenias on clearance for $15, I'm going to give myself a pat on the back for frugality! I think the pink and purple together are such a great May/Mothers Day color combo. Hope you enjoy!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, my beautiful Darcy Rose! You have brought so much joy to this family! We love your smiles, kisses, and cuddles. You're a little trouble maker, for sure, but you're son darn cute, we can't help but forgive you! Thank you for choosing our family to spend eternity with! We can't imagine life with out you!

Poppins

We were at the Hatzenbuhlers last week and we needed to distract the kids so we could eat our ice cream cake in peace. Tara suggested Mary Poppins, my kids hadn't seen it, but who doesn't love Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke!?
I go tell Lily that we will be watching a show called Mary Poppins. Her eyes widened and she asked with excitement "and Jesus Poppins!?"
It was then that I realized the kids only know the name Mary in the context of Jesus!
In conclusion, the kiddos were all riveted to the movie, Tara and I got our cake, and I found out Jesus is no longer terrifying to Lily (I think the connection to Julie Andrews helped!)! Overall, a great night;)

The Chef's Table

Just wanted to make a quick post about the best meal out Shane and I have had in a long time, The Chef's Table right here in Rochester. Yelp reviews recommended making a reservation, so we did. When we got there there was only one other party in the restaurant. Because we had a reservation we were seated right up front with a nice street view. We noticed those with out reservations were seated closer to the kitchen.

Each meal includes 2 starters or choice. I started with a spinach salad with craisins and candied pecans. The pecans were still warm. So yum! I also had a crab risotto. Also delish.

Shane had a chef salad with homemade cucumber dill dressing. He appreciated that the salad was actually tossed in the dressing and not just poured on top. His second starter was a French tartine that had ham, spinach, tomato, and mozzarella on it. It was big enough to be its own meal!

By this time we could have walked out fat and happy, but we wanted to leave obese and happy, so we moved onto our entrees. I had an amaaaaaazing steak tenderloin with mashed potatoes and roasted carrots. I don't eat red meat often, so I am easily disappointed if I waste my time on substandard meat, but this was he best steak I've had in ages. Perfect medium, not chewy at all. The carrots were super yummy too.

Shane had pan seared scallops over linguini. The scallops were cooked perfectly, cut like butter, no toughness. We were both satisfied.

I'd had my eye on the creme brûlée all evening so we made room to split one (you know Shane was full if he was willing to share his dessert!) unfortunately there wasn't enough brûlée in the creme. The sugar shell was so this as to almost be non existent. The actual pudding part was good, though, so not a waste of a dessert. An Andes mint was brought out with the check and it was the perfect end to an almost perfect meal. We're excited to go back soon!

Sooo....

Lily is terrified of Jesus. I know.

It all started last week when we had an FHE about Easter. We talked about how Jesus died and came back and then went to heaven, but that someday he's going to come back. Apparently all Lily heard was "Jesus is coming" and took it as a threat.

She won't go sleep at night.As soon as I leave the room she goes into historical about how Jesus is coming and that he's a bad guy.

I think the bad guy part has to do with the other part of our FHE lesson. We did an object lesson where we put a marshmallow in a crescent roll and cooked it. The marshmallow is Jesus, the crescent; a tomb. After it is baked, you cut open the "tomb" and the marshmallow is gone! Just like Jesus from the time! Wonderful! Miraculous! Right? Lily's reaction? "Hey, Jesus took our marshmallows!" Hence, bad guy.

No amount of us reassuring her that he's not coming any time soon and that he is actually a good guy will convince her. It also doesn't help that we watched a video about Him today and it made me cry, so now she claims that Jesus makes her sad, too. I just can't win!

Does anyone have any ideas of what to do? Has anyone else's children gone through the "I don't like Jesus phase"? Help!

Easter Crayons

For an Easter treat for the primary kids this year (I'm the primary secretary) I wanted to avoid food because all the kids get so much of it on Easter anyway. I found a fun tutorial for homemade crayons that you make out of old, broken crayons. After 2 weeks of searching and 7 stores, I finally found a silicone egg mold I could use to make the crayons. 250 degrees and 20 minutes later, these little beauties came out of the oven! I'm so pleased with them! I think I will probably include a few small coloring pages that involve Christ and the Resurrection just to keep it in the church realm. We will be at Shane's parents for Easter so I won't be able to give them out to the kids, but Im still excited for the children to get them!

Relief Society Birthday

Last Tuesday we celebrated the Relief Society's birthday at the chapel. Instead of the usual dinner and cake with maybe a game mixed in, we focused on a great service project instead.

We collected and organized food for an organization called Ending 68 Hours of Hunger. It focuses on children that depend on the school breakfast and lunch programs for food and often don't eat between Friday at lunch and Monday breakfast. We provided food such as cereal, canned pasta, mac n cheese, crackers, tuna, granola bars, fruit snacks, and the like.

It felt good to do something to commemorate our Society based on charity instead of just having the regular birthday theme. Don't worry, though, we still enjoyed some DELISH cupcakes after our work was through:)

St Patricks Day

We celebrated St Patricks Day on Friday and Saturday this year.
On Friday we made shamrock potato stamps. We tried some cardboard tube stamps too, but it required the kids to stamp in a circle, and they prefer stamping without abandon!
Saturday Oliver and Lily came down to green milk and yogurt! The leprechaun left a note saying he lost his pot of gold and that if the kids could find a rainbow it would help him remember where his gold was! We found objects around the house that completed all the colors of the rainbow. The leprechaun then whispered in my ear that the gold is where the pots are kept. The kids found gold wrapped chocolate bears (that we forgot to give them for Christmas) and some pennies. They loved it!
We headed over to GaGa and PopPop's where the kids rode bikes while Shane and I bought a new living room set (woohoo!)
We wrapped up the day with a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake made by yours truly for the March birthdays. I also have mom and dad their very own stenciled monogram! (I'm on a roll with those:))

Happy Pi Day!

Today is 3/14, known to nerds the world over as Pi Day. Some friends of ours invited us over for a Pi Day celebration.

I contributed a chicken pot pie (complete with appropriate signage) and a coconut cream meringue pie (that I randomly had all of the ingredients for!)

It made for a fun little week day get together!

Freezer paper monogram

I went to a friend's bridal shower this weekend. I was looking for some personalized decor for her on Etsy. What I found ranged $20-$30 unframed. Looking closer I figured I'd give it a try on my own!
I got the fabric and frame from wal-mart. I was surprised by the quality of both! For the stencil, I got out the ol' freezer paper and exacto knife and got to work!
The first one I made was too bold with 4 coats of paint. It also started to drip. I probably could have still gotten away with giving it to her except that I tried to fix it and in doing so completely destroyed it! (it's my curse, happens to me every time)
For the second draft I decided to only do one coat of paint so that you can still see the pattern under the lettering. Gives it a more folksy look, so the drips and imperfections only add to the character of it (I hope!)
I was really happy with the results and may make a "Sargent" one for our home!

Girl's Night

Had a great girls night last night with my good friend Megan. Her birthday was last week and mine is in 2 weeks so we celebrated them both by going out to The Cheesecake Factory. We picked up some goodies at the Godiva store too! It was a fun night and Shane did great with the kids.
The real test for the kids will be next week when my parents watch them while Shane and I go to a Jack and Jill bridal shower. I'm nervous about how Darcy will be, but I have full confidence in my padres:)

March Wreath

I whipped up this little beauty before church this morning. Super easy. Wrap the ribbon around the wreath, pin it with a floral pin (a wreath makers best friend!) then add the clover charm to the back of the wreath with another pin. Voila! St. Patrick's Day wreath! And it only cost $7.20! Can't beat it!

National Bird Feeding Month

Betcha didn't know that's what February is! The kids had a great time making pine cone bird feeders. I'm excited to see some birds in our yard!

(side note: I apologize that my pics are a bit weird sometimes. My iPad likes to zoom in on parts of the picture instead of showing the whole thing. If you click on the picture, you can see the whole thing!)(and apparently it puts them out of order...well you get the idea:))

This is what it's all about

I came home from the gym tonight (what up, new years res?) to a sad baby that had woken 15 minutes prior. She just needed to cuddle her mommy. She fell asleep in my arms. I love how she molds perfectly to my body. I cherish these quiet moments. It's harder to squeeze them in the more children that are around.

When I came home from the gym Monday, Lily was up in need of a cuddle. She came screaming I've to me, wrapped her arms around me and exclaimed "I love you so much!" I'm so grateful that I have taught her these words and that's he hears them often enough to say them back to me. Makes my soul sing.

14 Days of Valentines- Shane edition

Shane brought these beauties home tonight. Glad he got in the spirit of things:)
I had so much fun doing this for Shane and he told me many times how much enjoyed and looked forward to receiving his treats. Definitely helped us feel the love in time for Valentines Day :)

14 Days of Valentines- Day 14

We made Valentines for Shane at our Valentines Day playgroup yesterday. Those accompanied his final Valentine gift!

14 Days of Valentines- Day 13

Shane busted into this one pretty quick, so here's the wrapper :)

I'm okay with the kids watching tv...

...if it means I get to see this!

14 Days of Valentines- Day 12

Lame, I know, but he likes ice cream :)

14 Days of Valentines-Day 11

A little bit of bubbly after the kiddos go to bed!
(we were going to have a date night tonight, but at the last minute switched it to last night. If we had the date night tonight, I would have given him a package of dates:))

14 Days of Valentines- Day 10

Almost forgot to post!

14 Days of Valentines-Day 9

Bahahaha, I think this one is my favorite so far:)

14Days of Valentines-Day 8

Laid this out with Shane's clothes this morning. Just a little something "extra"!