Today

Once or twice a month I sit down with my favorite cookbooks to make a list of meals that I want to make. I compile a grocery list from the chosen recipes. When I return from shopping I make a list to hang on my fridge of all the meals I can make with what I now have on hand.

My cookbooks of choice:
Taste of Heaven - cookbook from Hampstead Ward 2005. It makes me feel connected to my friends I don't see anymore.
The Bodell Bistro - Chuck's family cookbook. 475 pages of yummy tried and true food.
Kraft Food & Family - easy recipes with short ingredient lists. Get the magazine free
My binder - 3 ring binder full of recipes I have printed off the Internet to try and enjoyed.

An OCD mother's worst nightmare.....mixed colors of PlayDoh. AAAHHHHHH!!!

Our new backyard neighbor. Yesterday there were 2 deer, but I could not find my camera. I later found it along with my cell phone, home phone, keys, and some mail stuffed in drawers throughout my kitchen. Indeed the work of a 3 year old.

Chores and Games

I created a chore chart for Leland. There are 3 things that we decided she needs to do every day: make her bed, put away the clean silverware, and clean up the blankets. Her new favorite thing to do is to take ALL the blankets out of the basket in the living room and stuff them in the crack between the bottom of the couch and the floor. She persists that there are monsters under there.

The chart has pictures of her with each thing "To Do" or "Done". There is Velcro on each side so she can flip it. So far it has worked great. She loves the idea of turning the picture to the "Done" side. I am sure that soon I should upgrade to a chart that shows her progress over a week. But for now I am trying to get her to understand the "chores" concept.

I loved playing Mancala growing up. I remember always playing with my cousins and my sisters. I decided I should teach Leland the game and she has learned quick and LOVES it.

Although sometimes in the middle of a game she will decide to spin the board around, so my side becomes hers, and hers, mine. It's pretty funny. Another quirk is she will decide that she does not want a particular color stone. I will drop a green marble in her bin and she will say "No green ones mom. I only want your purple ones."
Note: Lucy's update to follow when I find the time tonight.

At the park with Dad

Dad is always fun to go to the park with. He is such a kid at heart.
He gets in the tire swing

He does the zip line

We play hide-n-seek and tag

He teaches me how to walk on the balance beam

Where are the boys?

Friday night we went to another free summer concert. The band was really good and it was a beautiful evening. Leland enjoyed dancing and running around with all the little girls. Where are the little boys in this town? It was 10-1out there.

Lucy even got into the dancing, shaking her head and arms. She also clapped at the end of every song. It was really cute. Lucy wants to do everything her sister is doing. She wanted so bad to be running around with her. This girl just has no interest in walking right now. I was fine with it, but she is starting to get too heavy.

Missionaries

We had the missionaries from our church over for dinner. Leland gets so excited when they come over and waits by the window for them to arrive. We have had the same guys for a while now so she has warmed up to them. Tonight she sang her favorite song "I Love to see the Temple" for them.

After dinner finished she knew the routine, she grabbed our Book of Mormons off the shelf and went to the couch. The missionaries brought their chairs over from the kitchen table, so LJ went to get her little chair. She plopped her chair down next to one of the Elders and scooted it as close as possible to him. I think he was a little embarrassed about it, but I thought it was cute. (not a great pic, but still cute)

Their message: 2 Nephi 9:39 ..to be spiritually-minded is life eternal. S.M.I.L.E The closer we are to God and are spiritually-minded, the more we will smile and be happy.

The Lord's work: both the missionaries walking and the beautiful view.

Lucky

2 princesses to be exact. I love it when I am lucky enough to have both girls asleep at the same time. I can read and do a little more digital scrapbooking. Here is my first actual page.
Nothing fancy, I'm still learning. I am using GIMP the free version of Photo Shop and there are all sorts of free kits out there. Thank you to all those people that believe ideas should be free and take the time to share them with others.

Leland and the Beanstalk

These crazy tall weeds are growing all over in the field by our park. Every time we see one, Leland stops to tell me that they are beanstalks and they are going to grow as big as her.

Leland's first real injury:
Tonight Leland and I were making rice krispy treats. I decided to use cookie cutters to cut them into shapes. Leland happened to drop one of the cookie cutters onto the floor. I just left it and gave her another one to use. As we were finishing up, she slipped, fell out of the chair, and stepped right onto the cookie cutter. She started wailing, as it was getting late I thought her cries were a bit exaggerated. I looked at her toes and she did have a small cut on the outside of her little toe. She asked for a Band-Aid so I carried her back to the bathroom to get one. As I set her on the bathroom counter I noticed blood all over her foot.

There was another gash in between her 3rd and 4th toe. It was at such a weird angle, I'm not sure how it will heal. As we tried to clean and bandage it, she was screaming. It just broke my heart. Chuck wrapped all of her little toes together. In the midst of all the commotion Lucy shut her fingers in the cabinet drawer. No blood, of course, but she added to the noise level.

How does anyone manage more than 2 kids?

Apron

Since today was between Chuck's birthday and Father's Day we had a little celebration. Chocolate chip muffins and his new homemade apron. Leland says his apron looked like an American flag. It sort of does and that actually is very fitting for Chuck.

25 cents each

Pandit Books, a large warehouse-type book store, was going out of business, so we took advantage of the liquidation sale. Between 2 visits we picked out 129 books, videos, and books on CD for 25 cents each. Some of you will be getting packages soon. (Kim you would have gone crazy. Be grateful you moved BEFORE the sale.)

Walking to the park

Tara, Leland, Conner

Tag - Leland's It!

Leland was tagged to answer questions about her mom. It took me a while to get the answers because her automatic response to EVERY question is "I don't know?", even if she does know the answer. This started when she first started talking and she would say "I not know!" and then laugh because she really did know the answer. She hasn't kicked the bad habit yet, so sorry for all the "I don't know" responses. These are Leland's actual answers.

1. What is something mom always says to you? Wanna watch the dancing show? (So You Think You Can Dance?)
2. What makes mom happy? The happy part of the song
3. What makes mom sad? me crying
4. How does mom make you laugh? (falls on the ground kicking her feet and fake laughs)
5. What was mom like as a child? you looked like a baby, just like me
6. How old is your mom? 4
7. How tall is your mom? This tall - (jumps with arms in the air)
8. What is your mommy's favorite thing to do? dancing (Leland added: but my favorite thing is the park)
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? I don't know
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? I don't know
11. What is your mom really good at? I don't know
12. What is your mom not very good at? I don't know
13. What does your mom do for her job? maybe....the dishes
14. What is your mom's favorite food? salad
15. What makes you proud of your mom? I don't know
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? a green Snow White, and I'm Sleeping Beauty (I was wearing a green shirt)
17. What do you and your mom do together? Ring Around the Rosie
18. How are you and your mom the same? I don't know
19. How are you and your mom different? I am pink and you are green, white, and black (the colors of our shirts)
20. How do you know your mom loves you? You love me THIS much (stretching her arms high into the air)

We tag: the Benner kids (any that my sister has time for), Kylie T, Matthew P, and Tallon H.

(these pictures are from our fun day today - Boxerwood Gardens and Old Time Music Jam)

Cousins!

Oh happy day, our cousins are here to play!!!