April!

Winter seems to be losing the battle. Isn't April an interesting and changing month? I read in a new book I received for my birthday that April's Theme is resurrection and the reminders for us are everywhere this month as the world reawakens from winters sleep. I plan to take a little walk outside every day this month in hopes of keeping this idea in mind. Every day of April is different. Yesterday it was so warm, we should have been wearing sunscreen and today it has been raining and overcast all day. But, the world is awakening, and winter is losing. What beautiful reminders.

Mullet Piggies!

On General Conference Sunday we had such a lazy, but fulfilling day. When the broadcasts were over, Mckinley fixed my hair. (And told me that Daddy wouldn't marry me if my hair wasn't fixed. Ha! Too Late!) And I put Dolces hair into pigtails. Her hair is longer in the back than on top and so when we showed Daddy, he said they were Mullet Piggies. We laughed and of course couldn't resist snapping a picture. She's onto the game now though and she is not falling for getting her hair fixed without a fight anytime soon, so we have to be content with her lovely hair that has a strong resemblance to velcro in the morning. We love these little girls!

A chef in the making

After a long break from the movie Ratatouille, Kinley watched it one day and her need to create was given a new venue. She watched it several times in one day and after she had had her fill, she turned it off and told me two things:
1) That's it's really OK to have Rats in your house. (Which I adamantly disagreed with.) and
2) That she is a chef and was going to make some things.
Since that day, she has made breakfast in bed for David and me several times. The first time was such a surprise. She had mixed 2 different types of cereal together, and had clearly stirred it to perfection, and brought it to us on a serving tray that we have no idea how she got a hold of because it was in a very high cupboard. She said she didn't know how to pour the milk, so she gave it to us dry. It was very delicious, nonetheless, and she was so proud as we were eating it. The moment was short lived, however, when we heard the little sister waking up and Kinley frantically ran downstairs to put Dolces breakfast together. She came back with a roll she had found and Dolce very happily snarfed it up. The sweetest part was that Mckinley had completely forgotten to make anything for herself. When I asked her what she was going to have for breakfast, she smiled shyly and said, "I'll just have some of yours, Mommy."
The discoveries continued in the playroom when Mckinley began making 5 star dishes out of socks from the sock matching box. She was absolutely thrilled when her Daddy stuffed an entire sock into his mouth and told her how yummy it was.
As I've been reading a book called Simple Abundance, one recommendation has been to implement a weekly soup night throughout the winter. The idea is to enjoy the entire process of making different comforting soups. I must say that with my little girls help, I have enjoyed this cooking ritual so much. I have paid closer attention to the bright colors of vegetables, the smells as the flavors blend together, even the warmth of standing by the stove cooking, when the weather outside has been so chilly. Our next venture for the month of April is going to be implementing a bread making day once a week together. Banana bread first!

Shorty

At 16 months old, she's caught on to the fact that she's not extremely tall. But she hasn't let that get her down. She's just come up with a solution. Pushing furniture to the location she wants it to be and climbing on top of it. This gives her full and complete access to countertops, sinks, cupboards, you name it. I'm not kidding when I say that she's been caught swinging from a chandelier. Babyproofing has literally risen to higher levels. For now, if you put something on top of the fridge, it should be safe...but anywhere else is a gamble. She has a few trusty stepping stones. Kitchen chairs with felt on the bottom of the legs are pretty easy to move on wood floors. Her sisters folding chairs can go just about anywhere. And my personal favorite: a very old makeup case. When she gets this going, you better get out of the way because she'll take your leg off with it.
Babyproofing. I guess we'll have to try harder. She'd love a challenge.

Family night Puppy Adoption

After our week of being sick, we were all getting pretty bored being cooped up in the house. I had read about an idea for a little boys birthday party that involved doing a puppy adoption and thought it would be a lot of fun for a family night. So we set up a "Pet Shop" with little toy puppies that Grandma H sent for a birthday surprise. We each picked a puppy to adopt.(Don't worry, the extra puppies had families coming just a few minutes later, so no puppies got left out.) Then, we put a collar and a dog tag on our puppy.(we made them out of felt.) And we signed very official adoption documents. We even had them notarized with a valentine stamp. Then we had a picture taken with our new puppies and were off to the supply shop for puppy supplies.
At the supply shop, we used the very handy shopping cart and basket to shop for puppy chow (cereal in a plastic bag and canned food with the wrapper peeled off.) a puppy blanket, scooby snacks and a puppy dish. The supply shop was very expensive and the totals amounted to about 800.00 for everything but luckily we had membership credit cards from Costa Vida and a lot of pennies.
Next, we were off to the vet for the puppies to have a check up and shots. Kinley was very distressed that her puppy was going to have to have shots. She almost cried but then she became a very helpful veterinary assistant and gave all the other puppies their shots. The puppies also had their temperature taken and their ears cleaned with Qtips at the vet. The vet then gave each puppy a little container of puppy vitamins that looked suspiciously like conversation hearts. (Thanks Jj and Valeena!)
Off to the groomer next to get all scrubbed and brushed and combed. These puppies have already been very loved and so they did get a very real Lysol wipe down before they got to leave with their owners. They also were blow dried and had their nails clipped which they were all very nice for.
Last but not least, we made puppy homes out of boxes by putting the puppy blankets and dog dishes inside. After working so hard loving the little puppies, hot dogs for dinner were a must.

Play More! When was the last time you ate snow?

I have been slow to post because my little family has been sick. All. Week. Long. During this sick week, we stayed inside, had several soup nights including a homemade chicken noodle soup night, and on one of the days there was a big storm that brought a ton of snow. We all wanted to go out and play in it, but instead, I was reminded of the snow cone kits I gave to my neighbors this year for Christmas. We had a lot of fun making these kits and they were very budget friendly too. We began by making the snow cone syrup. We followed this very easy recipe:

Snow Cone Syrup:
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 packet of unsweetened Kool-aid mix

Mix all ingredients together in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Pour into a water bottle or snow cone dispenser bottle.Pour over fresh packed snow for snowcones. (only use fresh, clean snow.)

While the snow cone syrup was cooling, we decorated our snow cone cups. These were just clear plastic cups that we decorated with scrapbook paper. We also clipped colored straws to fit better into the cups. Then we sent Daddy out to make perfectly rounded packed snow cones from the snow outside. We poured the topping on (And drizzled some cream on top to mimic snowasis snowcones.) and we all felt magically better for the rest of the day.

Play More!

I read on a very cute girls blog a new years resolution to play more with her kids. She has been making a special effort to do something fun and youthful each week with them. I loved this idea so much because I sometimes tend to be the kind of parent that thinks that what I think is fun should automatically be fun for my girls. Not always the case. So, it has been very fun to talk to Mckinley and watch Dolce to try to uncover what they think would be fun to do. One day, we went on a Doll walk with Dolls in strollers.(My doll was better.) Another day Mckinley told me that she wanted to make a "bunny house." Isn't it funny how we forget how easy it is to have fun? I can't wait to see what my little girls will come up with next.