Mama's Little Baby Loves Shortnin' Bread

Psych!  This post is actually about strawberry shortbread, but for some reason that song title was the only thing that suited me for the title.

Kayli brought home this book from the school library called Cook-A-Doodle-Doo, about a bunch of animals (including a chicken descended from Little Red Hen... yes, THE Little Red Hen) who bake strawberry shortbread together.

And, of course, there was a recipe in the back of the book to try at home.

And, of course, the kids were desperate to try it.

And, of course, we did.

For those who don't know (I didn't), strawberry shortbread is not at all the same as strawberry shortcake.  The shortbread is really just like a very large biscuit.

So, it was a little messy.  But it was tasty.  And they were really proud of themselves for helping.

You didn't actually think I'd do a complete post without a picture of Lanaya in it, did you?

Tiding You Over

I know.  We're hopelessly behind.  This is summer is insanely busy, so there is not much hope of getting caught up anytime soon.

 

And, for a totally unheard of post, I have an excessive amount of pictures of Lanaya.

 

Wild, I know.

 

This is from when it finally warmed up and she got to sit in the grass for the first time.



 

She was ecstatic to be outside on her own.

Then she touched the grass.  And was slightly horrified.

She kept starting to put her hands down and then immediately pulled them back up in this pose.

Please, don't miss the belly hanging out.  Love those chubs.

Thinking about being okay with the grass.

 

A dandelion--now there's something that might be worth braving the grass.

Maybe.

Upping the ante...

Finally!

A dandelion!  Yummy!  ( Name the movie.)

Love that face.

And this once.  Just another similarity between her and Bryce.  Silly faces.

Dear Blog Reader, appreciate this hair while you can. It only lasts a little while longer...

Delicious.

She is turning into quite the gourmand!

The Potty Train

That's what Trey calls his little potty chair.  When you're as in love with trains as he is, it's understandable that you might get confused about potty training and an actual potty train.

Personally, I make it a point to stay as far away from any train with the word "potty" in the name.  I mean, nothing good can happen on a train with a name like potty.

A Smucker's Train, however...

Speaking of good trains--every good train needs a good home.  We finally broke down and got this train table for Trey.

It's from craigslist, so it actually came with way more pieces than really ought to fit on that table top.  But, we squeezed 'em on anyway.

We were so excited, we set it up the night before and made him promise not to get out of bed until after he'd gotten us, so we could capture this photo of his face when he first saw it.  Which I thought we did. And then later he confessed, quite nonchalantly that he'd already been out and played with it long before we got up.

That's what happens when you have several incredibly loud drying fans blowing all over the house.  You don't hear your toddler playing with his trains.  And you don't get to see his first excited face.  :(

Fortunately, there were many more excited faces to come.  You might remember his birthday breakfast photo from last year.  I was relieved to have smiles instead of tears this year.

But, who wouldn't smile over cinnamon roll waffles?  Especially when you get to blow out a couple of candles, too?

Yeah, the excitement around here knows no bounds.

I made Jell-o trains for dinner.  I am not going to lie--I was pretty dang proud of myself for coming up with the idea for the smoke puffs.  All on my own.  Who needs pinterest when you've got a can of Redi-whip?

Special note for anyone who might copy my super awesomeness--it melts pretty fast.  Make sure you put it on the plate just before consumption.

Speaking of consumption.  Here was the rest of his birthday dinner.  Lemon Ricotta pancakes, cucumbers sans peel, and the aforementioned Jell-o choo choo.

He's got pretty refined tastes.

After spending several hours on his train birthday cake from last year, I decided to go the ultra-easy route this year.  Because it's very common for train tracks to run through a vibrant and lush meadow with beautiful purple (still his favorite color) wild flowers.

He loved it, though.  And really, that's all that matters.

Gift opening.

There is so much about the above photo that I love.  That is his sheet he's holding, in case you were wondering.  It started out as a queen size fitted sheet.  It is now just a tiny little strip, hooked to his pillow with a binky clip.  It is awesomeness in its purest form.

Ah, our dear little Trey.  You are crazy.  You can be the sweetest, snuggliest little boy.  You say so many funny things and keep us laughing.  Then you can be a wild man.  Sometimes in a good mood, sometimes in a terrible mood.  When it's a terrible mood, we all run for cover.  You have broken and destroyed so many of Kayli and Bryce's possessions, not to mention parts of our home!  You love to sing and dance.  You are a non-stop chatter box.  Except when someone else tries to get you to talk.  You pretty much never do something if someone else wants you to do it.  It has to be your own idea.  You pay attention to everything and remember everything.  You love to read and do anything else your older siblings are doing.  You pretty much just live in your pajamas.  Good thing you have so many!  You are a sweet big brother with your baby sister "Banaya".  You love to give her loves and make her laugh.  Sometimes it seems like it would be too rough for her, but she loves you so much and she laughs anyway.  You give excellent hugs and kisses--when you want to.  You make us crazy at bedtime because you take about an hour to finally settle down and stay in bed long enough to actually fall asleep.  You have a good heart, though and really really just want to be a good boy.

We love you, Trey!

Saddle Up

It always seems like once we hit mid-April, life suddenly becomes busier and chaotic-er.  And it stays that way until about February.

I love it.

For example:

One Saturday near the end of April, I woke up early and participated in a 5k being put on by our stake (made up of several church congregations in our area).  It was freezing.  I thought my toes my fall right off because we waited a while to get things started.  And I took 5th place overall.  It sounds impressive, but not that many people participated.

I drove home and met up with everyone else to participate in a 1-mile fun walk.

 Kayli and Bryce decided to each donate $10 of their own money (we don't give them a very big allowance, so this was a lot) to a Food Bank program that provides backpacks full of of food for kids on the weekends.  Without these backpacks, many of these kids wouldn't get a meal from their lunch at school on Friday until their breakfast at school on Monday.  And most of them have plenty of other family members to share the contents of their backpacks with at home.  I was so impressed with Kayli and Bryce for making a sacrifice to help out other kids.

You can kind of tell that it was freezing that morning.  Less so for the walk than it had been for my 5K, but still...

After a quick lunch and nap, we headed back out to show the kids a bit of rural living.

Lanaya was thrilled to be at her first rodeo.

I am sure that all of the Stetson-wearers, were jealous of their sweet hats.

Blake was pretty excited to pass on his love for the rodeo to his posterity.  You can see how equally excited his posterity was.

Bryce participated in a boot run.  It involved taking his shoe off and rolling around in the mud.  I was thrilled.

Note:  Indoor rodeos are smelly.  And when you get home, you are smelly.  Do not attend an indoor rodeo unless you like the smelly.

Speaking of getting home... Actually, let me back up.  Early in the morning, moments after I woke up, someone (I can't remember who) came into our room to tell us the (kids' bathroom) toilet was clogged.  Fabulous.

Since Blake's shoulder surgery, I am the resident Toilet Unclogger.  A title I love and cherish.

Unfortunately, in my sleepy stupor, followed by my rush to get to my race on time, I forgot.

Fast forward to getting home from this crazy, hectic, tiring day.  Blake took the boys back to the kids' bathroom to give them a bath.  Only to be greeted by a pool of water covering the entire floor.  Courtesy of a toilet that had apparently been flowing and flowing the whole time we were gone.

He had me run downstairs.  And sure enough, the upstairs bathroom had lent itself to create a downstairs shower.

We already have one downstairs shower.  In the downstairs bathroom.

Now, we had one in the door way to the guest room.  Which would have been convenient if we'd had a guest wanting to shower without leaving their room.  In toilet water.

But, I digress.

We had this going on for a few days.

And this.  And a gigantic contraption de-humidifying the whole downstairs and the ventilation system.  And another huge drying fan in our bedroom.  And we had to keep the house at 70 degrees round the clock.  Which might upset someone who prefers to sleep in sub-arctic conditions.  And we got a new bathroom floor out of the fun.  And a lot of strange men tramping in and out and around the house for weeks to come as they took everything apart to dry it and then slowly (s-l-o-w-l-y) put everything back together and/or replaced what was ruined.

That was a great Saturday.