blog has moved

I am moving my blog to my own google account instead of Ben's.
here is the new address.
www.melinda-ellieollieandreed.blogspot.com

Lost tooth - #2

There is nothing worse than seeing your faults play out in your kids so I was determined not to allow Noelle to let her fear of pain control her. She had her 2nd lose tooth and one evening before bed we discovered it was almost ready to come out. She didn't want to go to bed with it in for fear of swallowing it or losing it or something. So I told her to just pull it out. But she was too scared it would hurt. I knew the tooth was very ready to come out so I kept pushing her to do it. It took about 45 minutes of encouraging and she finally twisted it around and pulled it out. She was sooooooooooo proud as you can see from the picture. I was proud of her too and I hope this will take her one step closer to learning not to live in fear.

Her note and payout from the Tooth Fairy.

Merry Christmas

cute kid!

Logan is One!!!

Good idea!

Here is a good way to get rid of all that holiday candy without eating it or throwing it away. A few gummy bears inevitably got eaten but just a few and it was a fun craft.

Life can be crazy!

Well in case no one noticed, I haven't been blogging much lately. Times have been seriously busy, kids have been continuously sick and now I am sick with the worst of it. I am feeling a little better about my chances of not throwing up because I am coughing so hard tonight but I am still run down and overwhelmed. But that is the life of a mom I guess.

Anyway, I don't really have energy to update you on our lives the past month or so but I did want to give you all this link to an awesome sermon series that everyone MUST download immediately and listen to. At least if you want to be a good Christian..... ;)

It is a series of 20 sermons by Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. He is an awesome speaker and although the sermons are all 1 hr to 1 1/2 hr, you will not be bored. He talks about money (Angela, you will love these!!), women, men, children, ect. He is really funny and most of all...duh dud duhhhhh...convicting!!! Ben and I have been downloading these sermons for a few months now and have yet to hear a bad one. I would also recommend the Peasant Princess (Song of Solomon) series for all the married couples. It is great.

Anyway, I hope some of you check it out. Let me know if you do and what you thought of them.

First snow

Logan's first trip out in the snow. It got cold real quick but at least we got him out before the snow was taller than him.

Christmas Stockings

I finally got all the kids stockings since we are done "filling our quiver"...unless God has other plans. But we are feeling pretty settled with 3. Anyway. I loved the stockings at Pottery Barn and last year I ordered Wyatt and Logan stockings from the after Christmas sale for 50% off. They didn't have the ballerina one for Noelle in stock so I figured, "No big deal, I'll get it next year." I mean it is pottery barn, they don't change their stuff that much. they have had these stockings for years. But, surprise, surrise when I went to order Noelle's this year, they had changed their design!!!! So I had to settle for the new design which is no where near as cute as the one last year. But Noelle would be really bummed to not have a stocking on Christmas morning so I got it anyway. It still matches the other ones in style so it isn't that big of a deal. It just teaches me that if I know I like something, I better bite the money bullet and buy it. Provided I have it in the bank of course. :)

By the way, if you are wondering why these are hanging in the window instead of on the mantle, it is because we have a wood stove in our fireplace and the stockings would hang down onto the stove and I would have to keep moving them every time we used the stove. I am just too lazy to do that, plus I like them in the window.

Graham cracker houses

Here is another craft project we embarked on during this snowy week. I have fun memories of making gingerbread houses when I was little and we have a really cute picture of me and my 2 siblings holding our completed houses so I always make it a point to do these with my kids. I am really into doing things that will become Christmas traditions that the kids will ask to do every year. Noelle is definately at the age where she can remember and look forward to holiday traditions. Since I have had nothing but time lately I have been putting some thought and effort into them. The kids had fun doing this and of course ate a ton of candy. Noelle asked to start eating the candy off her house seconds after it was finished. I said no. I remember sneaking candy off my gingerbread house when my parents weren't looking and when eventually they noticed, it was mostly white frosting left still bearing the imprint of the stolen goods. Luckily Noelle hasn't risen to that level of defiance....yet.

Logan kept himself busy by playing with the silverware in the kids drawer while we did our houses. I am trying to decide if I should wash all the dishes he plays with or just shove them back in the drawer. I usually end up putting at least the silverware in the dishwasher and putting the bigger dishes back in the drawer. Hey, I am just building up those immunities, right?

Christmas crafts

The snowy weather has forced me to give up my plans of last minute shopping and errands and allowed me time to relax and have fun with the kids. Admittedly the first couple days there was a lot of movie watching going on.(we had taped several holiday movies off TV) But when I realized it was going to be sticking around for a while I decided to take advantage of the time and be creative.

First I made chocolate covered pretzels with the leftover pretzels from Wyatt's birthday "people sandwiches". We don't normally eat plain pretzels but I love chocolate covered ones. I had all the ingredients so I went for it. The kids of course wanted to help but as usual in our small kitchen it was much more irritaing than enjoyable. I did most of the pretzels myself but I let the kids decorate their marshmellow toothpicks. I thought I would run out of pretzels and still have chocolate left so I tried to think of something else to dip in the chocolate. I stuck a few mini marshmallows on a toothpick and it worked great. I used leftover cookie crumbs to let the kids decorate them with. They thought it was great but Ben's comment was, "It looks like poop on a stick."



Then I read my friend Jodi's blog and saw her post about making these cute popsicle stick trees. I also had all the necessary supplies on hand for that and so the kids had another fun craft to do.

It was really fun to watch Wyatt do a craft. I am rarely creative with the kids so I don't see him work on projects very often. He was very concentrated and did a great job with the painting. (Better than Noelle actually) I tried to get a picture of him with his tongue sticking out but I kept missing it. Noelle wanted to do a pink tree and I managed to pursuade her to use Mulberry instead of Hot Pink. Noelle glued on her ornaments and Wyatt used foam stickers.

Birthday Boy!

Wyatt had a great 4th birthday yesterday. He awoke to streamers hanging in his doorway. He thought this was very fun and it is a tradition we will be continuing with the kids. We did it with Noelle last year and she loved it too. Noelle stayed up until 11:00 pm with me the night before helping set things up for his party the next day. She was very excited to help me hang the streamers and kept repeating emphatically ( and not in a whisper ) how we had to be quiet so Wyatt wouldn't wake up while we were hanging the streamers. She also helped me decorate the cake, wrap presents and clean up the house. It was a fun little mother/daughter time.















Wyatt had a happy face pancake for breakfast on his Happy Birthday plate. Aunt KristaJoy painted a cute birthday plate for each of the kids. This is a tradition we start when the kids turn 3. Before that, I don't trust them not to throw their handmade plate on the floor. Plus they don't need all that chocolate and whipped cream for breakfast.




Wyatt's friends came over and played and then we had "people sandwiches" for lunch. An idea I totally stole from my friend Ginger's blog. She is always doing creative stuff with her kids. Good thing my kids aren't old enough to look at blogs or they would be jealous.

















The kids got to play Hungry Hippo for a little while which is Wyatt's favorite game. We managed not to lose a single ball (a small miracle). I only get this game out occasionally so it was a fun treat.













Wyatt really liked his race car cake and I love it because it is sooooooo easy to make. Crushed Oreos for the road, marshmallows line the edge, Tic Tacs for the road stripes and Lifesavers to line the inside of the track. Green sprinkles make the grass and I am done! He had this cake last year too and I will probably make it for as long as he lets me.




Happy Birthday big four year old!! We are looking forward to another great year with our sweet boy!

A boy and his dog

Wyatt fell asleep in the car cuddled up with his precious Doggy. He was so cute I had to take a picture.

A visit with Santa

I have never gotten a picture of the kids with Santa so I decided to make it happen this year. Our pediatrician's office has a Santa come in every year for pictures and they have crafts and treats. I have never made it before since it is such a busy time of year. It was really fun and we were only there for about 20 min. The kids were really excited about it and were happy to sit on Santa's lap. Logan however was not. I didn't really expect him to cry since he is such an easygoing guy but the second I set him down the lip started to curl and the tears started to fall. I really didn't mind too much because everyone needs a picture of their kid desperately trying to escape Santa.