Snip-Snip...From Babies to Big Boys!

It's amazing what a haircut can do. Before, they were still babies... after, they suddenly looked BIGGER.
I almost cancelled....again. But I went through with it this time.
Cindy- Thanks! You were so great with both of them. Especially Monkey See, who wasn't as cooperative!
After the haircut I realized how often I would run my hands through their hair... funny, I hadn't noticed it before.

I love their new look!
Enjoy the pics!

The MacFlowers Barn Yard Bash!

**Test**
** Edited to add... details...
*the stick horses are homemade. made form 1x2's, felt and yarn.
*the haystack game was a play on finding a needle in a haystack. I just burried bags of suckers in straw and the kids dug around for their treasures. We opted to do this in place of a pinata this year.
* yes, I made the melted cake.... heat did nothing for looks of the icing!
* the drinks were kept on ice in the wheelbarrel
* we had a fishing game set up in the little plastic pool and also had the water table out. July birthday's are HOT.
*part of the "goody bag" included a baby oak tree. Our yard is full of them so we dug some up and the kids were able to plant them and take them home... cost= FREE!!
* on the small tables I had a Little People farm set up, Pigs in the pigpen game, and lots of farm books were placed throughut the yard in baskets.
* We pulled our giddy-up horsey from the bonus room and put it out side for "pony rides" - The kids LOVED it!
* The boys each got a John Deer tractor for their birthday so it fight right in as they rode them around the back yard!
* I dressed all 5 of the kiddos in denim overalls. I just embellished the girls with a little lace trim.
* The hats came from oriental trading.
* the birthday books ( for people to sign) were called Mortimer's First Garden. It is a super sweet book!


OK- so I said before there are A LOT of pictures, and seriously, there are! YAY!!! I love pics.... obviously an inherited obsession from my mother.

Anyway- because there are so many gloriously, wonderful pics by my sweet friend Kate (she totally outdid herself!) I opted to choose just a handful of my favorites and put them in a slide show.

This party was sooo much fun to plan and even better- the kids had a SUPER time too! All of my plans didn't work out, and I decided to change some things at the last minute but regardless, the kids had fun and we were able to celebrate a very special day in our family with lots of people we love!

UPDATE

Ok- so all of my pictures are in.
There are A LOT of them to go through.
My plan includes going through them all and posting about the party but that requires time. Which I am short on.
So, I am planning to work on that today and hopefully be able to share tomorrow.

For now I'll leave you with a quick run down of what else has been going on...

Puddin finished her last day of summer preschool.
Puddin was also accepted into the preschool we wanted for the fall!! YAY!!!
Daisy and Bud were dedicated at church. A BIG YAY!!!!
Saturday family fun at the local park.
Discovery Center... a lot!
Visiting with relatives from out of state.
Drawing.... lots and lots of pictures. This has become one of Puddin's favorite things to do.
Fighting... a lot. Aren't they too yong for that?!
Disciplining three kids 3 and under... not fun! But they have to learn to get along!
Went to my nephew's baptism. Very cool.
Van issues.... ugh! I think we are wearing our poor van down!
Cleaning- a lot. (this never goes away!)
Laundry... every day!
Missing my Nanny. I wish I could visit with her. She's just too far away right now. Praying for her to get well soon.
Sewing- a lot.
Procrastinating- a lot.
Finished a coulpe of half done projects. Only a few left to finish!
Scooping up hay from our back yard.
Visited the pediatrician... 4 of the 5 received shots. Mass chaoes was in full force, of course, but his time my sweet husband went with me to help!
Bible study. LOVE my Bible study girls!
Catching up with old friends on FaceBook... wishing I had invented Facebook... so cool!
Giving thanks for my healthy, happy children. God is so good.
Trying to get more sleep. Daisy and I have been having some heart to hearts lately.
Being more thankful for my sweet husband and the sacrifices he makes for all of us- as well as his hard work.
And of course the party and haircut which I have already talked about on here.
SO, the past 2 weeks have been super busy! Iam taking this rainy week to get started on some big projects and trying to get some new routines in effect for the kiddos. I'll share about that later too.

Gotta go... 3 of my luvies are standing here staring at me now. I guess they are bored!

Recovering

We are now recovering from the MacFlowers Barnyard Bash to celebrate my Monkey's birthday. They were sooooo precious!
I am sooooo tired!
Words can not express how much I love these 2 little guys! Below is a pic of the boys the night before their haircut. Ignore the pony tails. I got a little crazy and in an effort to covince myself they really did need a haircut I decided to put ponytails all over their heads... and take pictures. hehehehe!

Even with ponytails they are precious! (although, I realize now you can't really even see them in this picture!)

I am waiting on pics from my friend Kate and once I get those I will share in detail about the party. Let's just say for now, it was FAN.TAS.TIC!
My children are only now coming off their sugar high! Seriously!

They boys also got their 1st haircuts. There will be a post on that later too. (so tired)
Needless to say, they look adorable!

And finally, please remember this sweet baby girl. She is having a hard time of things and really needs to be showered in prayer. She is very near and dear to my heart (her sweet Momma too) and to put it mildly, they have had a really difficult weekend. And since you can never get too much prayer, lets just go full force!

Much love,

Lacking confidence

This is the cake I want to make.

So precious.

I have it all technically "made" already.

It's the decorating that still has to be done and that has me scared.

Oh- because I'm so cheap I didn't want to spend the money for the instruction book (Wilton 2009 yearbook) so I took a picture of it with my cell phone instead.

I'm crazy like that!

HMMM, what am I gonna do?? The party is Thursday.

ok- back to work.

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BTW- I've been missing from Blog land lately... just busy.

Party preps, preschool, busy babies, laundry and life have just been keeping me plenty busy.

Speaking of which- Daisy is yelping for her bottle.

Again.

Yep- still eating every 3 hours!

$1.00 worth of fun

The act of creation is often messy- Chinese proverb

Yes it is Mr. Confucius. Yes, it is!

Target has crayola markers on sale this week for a buck. It just so happens we were in the market for new markers. Seems someone around here either ate the tops of the actual markers off or left the markers opened and they all dried out.

I have no idea who could have, or would have done such a thing!

So, once again, in an effort to feed my family, I splurged and spent the dollar.

Then I found some spiral notebooks leftover from when I was teaching.

I put everybody's name on one and gave them to the kiddos.

Everyone got 3 markers each to work with. This helped the fighting over markers scene that I knew would ensue. Oh, it still happened, but it bought me some time.

For about 15 minutes they all happily drew in their books and allowed me to cook dinner.

Then "MINE!" and "AGHHHHHH!!!" and "NO BWUDDERS!" broke out so I had to intervene.

Eventually the Monkey's tired of the fun and wandered off to play. Puddin could seriously do this for hours! I will say, her art work is really, very good! (I am her momma, I can brag a bit!)

She has really begun to put lots of detail into her work and I love watching her create! We even have a few pieces ready to be framed! The Monkeys will get there eventually! After all they are still just 1 year olds! ( It still surprises even me that I have 4 children under the age of 1!!!!)

My son, Monkey Do. Sheer talent displayed here! And, he's ambidextrous!

Notice the thoughtfulness as he colors his hands for the umpteenth time!

Puddin even got in on the hand coloring fun... I actually think it was her idea! She chose a simpler color pallet and stuck with pink. But really, is there any other color worthy of a complete palm print?

Drawing pink fireworks in her book.

Monkey See working on his drawing. Looking good- but something else has caught my eye!

Yes, that would be it. My sweet, sweet child now has a ratty mullet!!! UGH!!

The curls, however, are still adorable!

Awe, Shucks!

Is it 5:30 in your house?


Are you desperately trying to fix dinner?


Do you need a few mintues of peace so you don't forget to take the bread out of the oven or forget to set the timer, or forget to TURN THE OVER ON??


Well, here's the solution!

" I'm using my muscles!"

Yes, she's wearing PJ's at 5:30 in the afternoon.

She loves her pajamas and changes as soon as we get home.

Just like her momma!

Excuse the mess, if I had known you were coming for dinner I would have cleaned up a bit!

UGH!!!!! This is hard work!

Thank you God for corn on the cob!

Princess in Training

Puddin really loves to play dress up.

She really wants someone to dress up with her.

Her brothers aren't really into the whole princess dress thing, although they will wear the high heels and hats!


Puddin was sooo happy to be having a sister because as she said, "And we can pway pwincess togeder evewy day!"


Her dreams have come true! Today was the 1st official Puddin and Daisy Play Dress Up Day!

Daisy as Belle

Looks like Daisy had a really great time!

Happy 4 months!

These sweet babies are 4 months old today!

Could they be any cuter?!?!?!

I could seriously, just squeeze the stuffin out of them!

I'm listening to them squeel, and babble and coo right now.

I just LOVE those sounds.

They are perfectly, perfect... right down to each little dimpled roll!!!

And yes, they are getting to be little rolly-pollies!

And no, they still a not sleeping all night!

But I look at the other 3 (who are sleeping all night-yay!) and remember that they too took a while, a long while, before they slept through the night.

I know these little darlings will too. Each day we are 1 day closer to a full nights sleep!

oh- and on another note.... I officially have 1 child completely potty trained!!

WOOO-HOO!!! No more diapers for Puddin, ever- not even at night!!! But more on that later!

Unh?

Monkey See: Hey Momma, huna wa wa go sha doe boo.

Momma: Oh, are you reading a book?

Monkey See: unh

Momma: What's the book about?

Monkey See: Hey Momma, see fa go haha grrrrr.

Momma: Oh, I see farm animals! Do you like farm animals?

Monkey See: unh

Momma: Which one is your favorite?

Monkey See: Hey Momma, da he he go unhhhhh!

Momma: What?

Monkey See: Hey Momma, da hehe go unhhhhhh!

What, what, what?????

At least he's got "Hey Momma" down pretty good!
Just so you know- "unh" is yes, not be confused with "unhhhhhhh" which is the sound a horse makes.
He also occasionally uses "si" as yes- and yes, he is bi-lingual, or maybe tri-lingual if you consider "cave boy speak" a language!

Fever

I've got the fever.... it happens about this time every year...birthday party fever.

I have lots of ideas swirling about in my head... now I have to tame them and start pulling things together!

I LOVE planning birthday parties! They are so much fun!

Puddins 1st party was at the Pumpkin Patch. Her 2nd party was an Elmo party- cuz she loved him immensely! And her 3rd party was a princess party... complete with castle! All 3 were super fun!

Last year we celebrated the boys first birthday... Monkey Style! It was lots of fun too! But, I haven't blogged about it yet because it was actually before i started blogging and I haven't had much time to go back and do that yet- but I will... soon! This year we are planning a down home farm party... in just a couple of weeks!

I better get busy! I've got a lot to do!!

Here are a few pics from their 1st birthday...

Monkey See eating his smash cake... he was covered in cake and loved every minute of it!

Strangely, Monkey Do was a bit more timid where the cake was concerned!

Puddin and Monkey See

the Monkeys and a playmate cooling off with a dip in the pool!

The birthday cake... yum- banana chocolate chip! I was a bit nervous

about it but it turned out great!

The Monkeys with their home made monkey pinata!

opening gifts... only in a diaper now! It was sooo hot outside! They had on their birthday suits, then ate cake and needed a bath, then went for a dip in the pool and finally ended up just in diapers for the gift opening!

later that afternoon with one of their favorite toys!

Finally, that evening before bed! They look pretty happy!

Hot Mess

Wikipedia describes "hot mess" as this...

(slang, idiomatic, chiefly US South) Refers to a person, thing, or situation in such a state of disarray or disapproval by peers, often in reference to physical appearance, perceived to be disastrously embarrassing, pitiful, or beyond repair.

I describe "hot mess" as this.... Monkey Do.

Mind blowing! At any given moment he is indeed a HOT MESS! No doubt he's still cute all the while... but still a hot mess!

These were just from breakfast this morning. In the 4.2 seconds it took me to turn around and start the microwave he did this....

(the camera has painted an unfair picture here. Truly, it was MUCH WORSE than it looks... and the speed the child possess to make such messes is AMAZING- absolutely a gift from God that I pray he will use for good someday! *wink*)

Notice his brother. Still clean. Yes, they are different. I have learned that when a choice of clothing is given it is in my best interest to put Monkey See in the darker, less forgiving clothes.

And yes, I am teaching him to clean up after himself. Or maybe I should say I am trying to teach him.

This Hot Mess definitely keeps me hopping!

Hot mess or not- I love them both like crazy!
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Shortly after this happened he came to the landing of our stair case stark naked- yes, he did!
Know what he said????
"Hi Momma."
Just like that- no explanation. Thankfully his translator...aka- Puddin, explained that they were playing dress up and he did not want to wear the princess dress (really?? imagine that!)
Who could blame him! She has forever been trying to make her brothers wear the latest fashions in princess wear! Poor things! This time I was a little more forgiving and fussed at all of them instead of just my Monkey! I'm fair like that!


Rules reinstated...again...

Do not put princess dresses on your brothers. They don't like it!
Do not strip down naked and start playing! (who knows how long he had been like that???)
And for heaven's sake- if nothing else, keep your diaper on!


All of this before 9:00. And they didn't even wake up until 8:40 this morning! I'll leave the rest of my day up to your imagination!

Happy 4th of July!

Having a hard time getting everyone to look at the camera at the same time! But here we are! All 7 of us in a picture together!!!! (and yes, those are the 4th of July outfits I have been sewing for the past couple of nights!)

What a great Independence day!

We had a relaxing morning, a busy afternoon and a fun

evening with Nana and Papa Flowers. Daisy and Papa

Nana, Puddin and Bud

The kids were super excited to go and visit! They always love going there. We made sure to pack lots of toys- even though they never took them out of their bags! Nana had some "new" toys for the kiddos and the Monkeys had fun playing on with Papa!

Papa and the Monkeys...trying to rest!

They were so wild and were climbing all over him!

We thought the chair would flip a couple of times!!


No fireworks involved for us- unless you count what we saw on the ride home.

The Monkeys...tickling the ivories when we first got to Nana and Papa's house!

Just lots of fun with the ones we love!

Sweet, sweet, happy babies!


Silly Monkey Do... who knows what he was up to???


Monkey See... following Puddin and trying to get the ball!
See those darling curls in the back??? He won't have his sweet little mullet much longer!

I love this girl so much!

THE FLOWERS FAMILY

Do you shop ETSY?

If not, you should!

Oh my, I love that site and have started shopping there, especially for gifts, before I shop anywhere else!

Everything there is unique so it's easy to find something for those hard to shop for people.



About a year and a half ago I found this shop called "Gemmielou" and I.FELL.IN.LOVE with her stuff! So much so, that I got on a waiting list to order my very own set of dolls.

I waited, and waited and waited and waited some more. In fact, Gemmielou was sooo busy making dolls that I waited long enough to have 2 more babies to add to my set!


Finally, after the babies were born I could wait no more so I sent Gemmie and email asking how much longer I had to wait (when you see them you will understand... they are precious!).


My turn was coming up so sent sweet Gemmie all of the details on our family and...

TAAA-DAAAA!!!!

Meet the Flowers Family!!!!!

Aren't they just the most PRECIOUS things you have ever seen! I love, LOVE, puffy heart LOVE these little people!!! I feel like a kid at Christmas time!

In fact, waiting for them to be delivered was harder than the wait to get off the waiting list!!! I would run to the mailbox everyday looking for them!

I even told my husband today after we opened them up that if we ever had a fire and all of the kids were safe, he needed to grab these little dolls along with our wedding and baby pictures!!!

So seriously, check out Etsy, check out Gemmie's site and if I ever get time to get my shop open you can check out my Puddin Pop Kids too!

A Tip to the Zoo... NOT!

The gang before we left this morning.. their shirts say 1, 2, 3, 4,and 5.

The plan for the day... go to the zoo with Daddy and enjoy some family time.

Again, the plan fell through.

Mostly because of Mommy.

I was up-LATE last night dealing with nearly every one of my children at some point. I don't even want to say when I actually laid my head down. I will say, in my book it only qualifies for a nap. So, because I only got a nap last night, I woke up with a migraine, which I am prone to getting. UGH!! SO, so not fun! Because I wasn't feeling well my sweet, sweet husband entertained the children and let me sleep for another hour until finally the wild animals burst in the bedroom ready for the zoo!!

Which translated as " MOMMY, MOMMY!!! GET UP!!!! WE GOING TO DA ZOO!!!!"" from Puddin and "MOMMY!!!!! GRRRRR!!!!" from Monkey Do (according to my sweet first born son all animals growl) and from Monkey See, "MAAAAma! UP, MAAAAma!" So, yes, I dragged myself out of the bed to start our day- already late and determine not to disappoint the fam.


It was HARD and things weren't going so well. If you've ever had a migraine you know what I mean- if you haven't, count your blessings!


Since I was up late that also meant the children weren't dressed, hubby wasn't dressed, lunches and diaper bags were also not packed. QUICKLY we started moving. We still had at least a 30 minute drive to the zoo and the babies were coming up on another feeding. Finally, we decided to zoo may not be the best idea considering how late we were getting started. The original idea had been to get there early before it got too busy in hopes of avoiding the crowds and all of the stares and questions. Remember our last trip to the zoo?? Oh my heavens, I sure do!


So instead, we asked the kids what they thought about going to the Discovery Center instead? They, thankfully, loved the idea! And by the time we actually were ready and left the house it was 11:00 so it was a good thing they were on board.


They had the best time!! I won't show all of the pics from the day, because that would just be crazy of me and my computer might possibly crash from system overload but let's just say they played HARD and our day at the "zoo" was perfect! We even played on the playground outside and took a walk through the wetlands and made it home for a nap!


Now, we are gearing up the 4th of July tomorrow with Nana and Papa Flowers! The kids (and hubby and I) are excited to see them! We probably won't see much in the way of fireworks since our little ones are afraid of them. Eventually we will be able to enjoy that part of the 4th. For now we are focusing on spending time with those we love!

Puddin and Daisy

Puddin, Monkey See and Monkey Do checking out the turtles.


Daddy and the kiddos in the gravel pit.


On the back of the antique fire truck.


The Monkeys building with blocks.

Daisy waking up from her nap!

The Monkeys LOVED this area! They could have played with this little car and tracks all day! We don't have anything like this at home so it was definitely a favorite!

The learned to change a tire too!

Puddin driving the antique car.

More tire changing.

Walking through the wetlands.

At the playground.

Wherever you are- enjoy the holiday!

I just realized- I hadn't included baby Bud in any of the pics I chose! I really didn't get a good one of him either. BUT, he was absolutely PERFECT today! He DOES NOT LIKE HIS CAR SEAT- EVER and today he managed to stay in it for the entire trip... and not cry... and be awake for most of the time! What a good, good baby!!