Hey, Three - Get down, put the marker down, and close the cabinet!

This one...
she's a beautiful handful!!!

 

Never a dull moment with Rebekah around!

What's Up, Two?

Sometimes it's just easier to call them by number than trying to remember the right name...

Things have been rather calm with Elizabeth lately.  Well, other than the drama.  Her dance class is over, she loves to do her school work, and she' been asking me to take her to Target.  It's the simple things...  : )

When she cashed in her tokens this week, she chose to play an extra game of "Bowling Ball" on the Wii.  I forgot to take a picture after the first game, when she & David actually did really well, but she was still excited to have played two games this night:

And I have no idea why she liked the snakes so much at the zoo!  You'd 'a thought they were pink or something!  But her faaaavorite animal we saw was the little tiny owl in the animal program.  And I didn't get a picture of it.

Can You See Me?

"Can you see my legs?" he said.

I made dishwasher soap!

And Rebekah found it.

She can now reach about 6 inches onto the kitchen counters.  Nothing is safe.  I found her with a whole loaf of bread in the living room this morning.

I took her to her 18-month check-up this week and in the last 3 months, she has gained 4 pounds and grown 4.5 inches taller!!!  She likes to sit on Sarah and Sarah doesn't like it.  Rebekah is also jealous when anyone else sits in my lap... that will be interesting when Sarah arrives in December, won't it?

Back to the dishwasher soap - it's really not anything made.  It's just a heaping tablespoon of baking soda and a heaping table spoon of Borax into the dry soap dispenser.  Then white vinegar in the rinse chamber.  Works great with our hard water and I get no residue or spots!  (If you have soft water, it might not take that much of each.)

Random 1000 Gifts

8)  My new School Shelf!  My niece, Lauren, helped me do the first coat of paint.  Elizabeth helped finish paint it last night.  Now I can get all of our school books off the dining table, and put the markers & such up high enough to be out of Rebekah's reach!

I know that's bad lighting, but you get the gist.  Here's my favorite vignette on the shelf:

I got that mug for free at the big Mardel sale this summer.  The rock is one that David picked up in the Brazos.  And that reminds me that I need to take this year's school photos!


9)  My BOTW (Bargain of the Week):

A new, metal lunch box for Elizabeth, scored at Target for $1.21 because I was in the right place at the right time and asked the right person for the price!

10)  Peep is growing... and peeping.

He will be 3-weeks old on Saturday.  I say "he" because he sure acts cocky.  And there's a reason why cocky means cocky.

Read more about My 1000 Gifts.

Random Around the House

Yesterday Dad asked me if I saw the slide that Elizabeth drew on the chalk board.  I hadn't, so I went to take a look.  He had to point it out to me, and then I was amazed.  Can you see it?

It's looking down a tube slide, like at McDonald's.  See how it's dark at the bottom?  She doesn't like going down these.  She was also practicing her E.

Rebekah is just cute.  She was very happy about her bananas & yellow watermelon yesterday.

A few days ago I found a nest full of eggs in the Mexican Petunias in the back yard.  Today, I discovered that Julia has gone broody!  She's in a pretty good spot, so I think I'll let her stay & see what happens.

By the way, I absolutely hate the new way that Blogger is inserting photos.

And here's the free t-shirt I got from Graco and I Love My Baby Bump on Facebook:

Dancing again!

After the sonogram yesterday, we headed out in search of shoes!  Elizabeth is starting her little dance class on Monday and still needed some ballet shoes, and David has outgrown everything but his flip flops!  We made good use of the Payless BOGO sale!

Of course, when we got home, Elizabeth had to try on her ballet slippers again and try them out.  Prepare to be amazed by the cuteness....  : )

Shoes alone, would not have been appropriate - she had to put together an ensemble!  She's watching the Baby Ballet DVD that I got from Amazon using my Swagbucks!  : )

Hopefully these videos will work; I was having some problems uploading them...

Twins!!!

I know how fast the human brain works. : ) So let me say right off the bat - this post has nothing to do with my upcoming sonogram.

A couple of day ago, I collected this jumbo sized egg!!! That's a typical egg on the left. I was suspicious of what might be inside, so I made sure to crack it first and I was right...

Double yolks! Twins!!

There are the twins in the upper right, slightly smaller than the other yolks from the smaller eggs.

They were thoroughly enjoyed!

The Graby Baby

Last week, I thought Rebekah looked so cute when she climbed up in the chair at Dad's desk and put her hands in the right places. We put a password on the computer so she wouldn't really do anything and let her have fun.

Today, the office door was closed and she was in the living room. While I was reheating pancakes, she managed to get into the office and completely clean off Dad's desk. His paperwork trays, his books, even his desk drawer - all scattered about the floor.

Then we went shopping for a gate wide enough to span the double doors into the office. She was not thrilled.

She was crying about not being able to get in here:

Then she decided maybe she could have fun with it after all.

So far, the gate is working... Now if I could just keep her out of the Legos and the cabinets, and off the table & chairs (which I have to do at least once every 30 minutes she's awake). This is one of the reasons I haven't been blogging much lately!

Homemade Grape Jelly

Well, it took me all week, but I finally got it done! Isn't the color gorgeous?!?!

I picked mustang grapes off Grana's driveway fence last Saturday. Sunday, I started cooking them into juice. My pan wasn't big enough for all of them, so Monday I did another batch. I was working in the evening when it wasn't so hot. Then I started straining it to get out as much pulp as possible. Tuesday I got all set up to start the jelly. Still straining the juice, pans ready to go with my first 5 cups of juice, when I realized my bag of sugar only had about 2 cups in it. One batch takes 7 cups of sugar. Planned on getting some sugar when we went to half price burger night with Grandpa, but forgot my wallet. Wednesday, finally got the sugar and Wednesday night set to work on those beautiful jars! That's 2 batches of jelly and 1 batch of juice concentrate. We're also drinking some of the juice this week in my berry juice blend - grape, blueberry, pomegranate, cranberry.

Meanwhile, Rebekah feels that it's her job to take everything out of the cabinets and drawers and put it back somewhere else. Looks like fun, doesn't it? Now where did she hide those cabinet locks I need to install...

(BTW - She is the first child I've had who pulls everything out of the cabinets!)

Lego Star Wars Draws a Crowd

It's kinda hard to see, but Rebekah & Elizabeth were both standing in there watching David & Dad play Lego Star Wars!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Oh, there's talking. Constantly. And I've had a head & neck ache for 2 days now. So sorry, but I can't remember anything that's been said. Except that there was a lot said. I'm not kidding. A lot. And much of it was loud. Much louder than inside voices should be.

Rebekah got herself stuck in this position yesterday morning. Being the good mom that I am, I ran for my camera instead of helping her. Bad move, because after that she was fussy for a lot of the day. I'll have to move faster next time.

On another note, Dad's follow-up visit with his surgeon is today. Kids will go be loud at Grana's house & hopefully we'll get a good report from the dr.

Monday's Find

Two eggs today! And they were in one of the nesting boxes! I put some grass clippings in yesterday for nesting materials.

Dad found another blue-green egg under the water barrels, but it was cracked. Fluff and Tom got the first bite of homegrown eggs. : \ That means 3 hens now laying! I'll leave them penned a little longer tomorrow and see if any more eggs show up... in the coop! Yesterday we talked about where the blue-green eggs came from, so today David asked what laid the brown egg? : ) Now he knows that chickens can lay all different colors of eggs!

My Beautiful Rose

More beautiful than the most beautiful flower.

Sweeter than the sweetest scent.

Rainy Saturday Afternoon

Rain coming down outside, creative play going on inside.

The next in our line of Lego builders.

My farm girl is standing up!

2010 Farm & Garden Report

Wow, I can't believe it's March already! Today I spent some time looking back over my 2009 Garden Log, remembering what worked & what didn't. I participated in the 2009 Growing Challenge: Seed to Seed and failed at it, because I ended up not saving any seeds from things I grew! I did, however, grow new things from seed that I'd never grown before, so all was not lost. And we're still eating salsa that I canned last summer with my abundant crop of tomatoes & peppers! Now on to this year... and this year's Growing Challenge!

We had a devastating start to the year and I didn't get seeds started indoors like I did last year. Back in January, I received an order garden tools - fertilizer makers! This is what they look like now:

Really, I wanted them for the eggs, but the droppings are already going into the compost bin, so I think they will be beneficial to the garden, too. And they look so pretty!

I got straight run, mixed lot, so I don't really know what all they are yet.

I do know that this one is an Easter Egger - she's gonna lay those pretty blue & green eggs:

We had some rain the other day that resulted in a magnificent rainbow!

Click to enlarge. And a pretty cool puddle, too.

Your husband may bring home flowers... but mine brought home plants! Yeah, baby!!!

He brought me jalapeno seedlings. Wow, that's gonna be a lot of peppers if they all survive!

And a strawberry plant!!! This is it before Blackie, the goat, ate it. It's coming back, though.

He brought some arugula. This is it before Blackie ate half of it.

And he brought me some broccoli! This is one of the plants before Blackie ate it. I hope they come back... Strawberries, arugula, and broccoli are new plants for me to try.

My fall planted garlic is coming up. This is after the goats ate the tops.

There's an overview of the garden area for this year. On March 9, I planted seeds for radishes, carrots, assorted lettuces, spinach, chives, Swiss chard, peppermint, and sunflowers. I have never grown radishes and never successfully grown carrots, spinach or chives.

My pretty little helper:
I also dug, lined, and mulched for a new bed beside the arbor. I think this will be where I put this year's cukes.

Dad rented a Ditch Witch to run the drain line from the water softening system across the garden. Here it is coming down from the garden:

Another trench for a another line that I'm not exactly sure what to call.

Dad did a little witchin' of his own to find a buried water line. It's amazing to me that this works!

Back to the garden today - radishes are sprouting already!!

My purple allium bulbs are coming up!!!

We got the pansies on clearance last week. They're a bit wind blown right now, but still pretty.

The cone flower I dig up from the ditch last summer has survived!

My grape hyacinths are just starting to bloom, but you should see Grandpa's! (hey, Grandpa, maybe you should blog!)

And this blows me away - This Swiss chard was planted from seed on February 2, 2009! I never pulled up the stalks after it "died" and now it's sprouted new leaves! Crazy!

My first iris bloom from my Grandmother's iris:

This is where Rebekah watches the gardening when it's too cool for her to be outside with me:

Well, that was a hodgepodge of information, but that catches me up on what's going on outside so far this year!