Baby Shower and first birthday.

Last week i did a first birthday cake that turned out pretty nice. I just winged it from a discription of the invitation.

this week i did one for a baby shower. I got the inspiration for this one by doing a google image search for 'pink and brown baby shower cake'.

Curse you, Sitemeter!!

Kristi posted the other day about some one in England reading her blog. So i got the idea to install the nifty little sitemeter on my blog. Bad idea. Now not only do i check Google reader several times a day to see if any one has posted, i am also checking sitemeter to see who has visited. Most of the locations i recognize as people i know.......but there are a few, nothing as exotic as England this week, that i have no idea who they could be.

Holly, I saw your comment on Kristi's blog. all you have to do, if you have sitemeter at least, is click on the location option on the left side of the sitemeter screen.

No more anonymity for you!!!(sort of)

It's potty time!!!!

Grace is at the age where she really should be able to go pee pee in the potty. I have been encouraging her but but not pushing because of her speech delays. So last night before her bath i sat her on the little potty and said "go pee pee' and walked away. Why did I walk away???????? I didn't really believe she would go. I came back about a minute later and there was pee in the little potty. The first thing i thought was that Eddie had done it. he denied it an as i was asking him grace was franticly pointing to herself and saying 'me me'. AH HA she can be taught! thankfully i had just scored a bunch of cheap easter candy earlier in the day so we had plenty of potty treats.

Great job Gracie!!!

Magic Beans

When my mom was here last july she brought some magic beans for the kids to plant and watch them grow. She planted them with the kids and the rabbits ate them. So i waited to plant some more in a pot and the bugs ate them. At that point i decided to wait till spring.

Last sunday after church the kids and i went out to plant them again. Yesterday when we watered them this is what we found.

Now if i can just keep the bugs off them...

Can you hear me now???

Those of you that know Grace at all know that she has some speech delays. I tell people some times that she doesn't talk but she does talk a little bit. A couple of weeks ago i got in touch with Early childhood intervention and had her evaluated. They rated her speech level at 20 months. That is almost 9 months behind. I was somewhat relieved to hear this because i was sure that it was just me being impatient with her.

We have been working with the ECI program doing some therapy with her over the last two weeks. One of the things that was so hard for me was that she was not putting two words together. I have talked to other kids her age who talk in full and complete sentences. Eddie spoke very well at that age(although i try really hard not to compare my kids). I would really like to potty train her and she seems like she could be ready but she cant yet tell me when she has to go. On Saturday she said 'bye bye ma ma'. I was thrilled.

One of the suggestions of the ECI program was to have Grace's hearing tested. We went to the Audiologist on Wednesday last week. One of the first thing they discovered was that she had fluid in her ears, therefore the test would not be accurate. They went ahead and did the test anyway and in showed mild hearing loss in both ears, probably due to the fluid. This is weird because she hasn't had nearly as many ear infections as Eddie had. So we went back to her pediatrician today and got a perscription for some allergy medicine and nasal spray. All i have to say is this had better be effective because the nasal spray was expensive. it must be made of gold or something.

In 6 weeks we will go back to the audiologist and hopefully she will walk in there and say..."hi doctor, my name is Grace"

Wouldn't it be Cool if.....

Wouldn't it be cool if there was a machiene that could record your thoughts??? Not is a 'Big Brother' sort of way but like a dictation machiene for yourself. I find myself thinking up whole blog posts while i am driving or taking a shower and then when I sit down at the computer I draw a blank.

Wouldn't it be cool to be a radio DJ. I listen a morning radio show sometimes and just think about how much fun they seem to be having. How fun would it be to get paid to talk and listen to music?

Wouldn't it be cool if there was a service just for moms that you could call at 4:40 in the afternoon and they would bring you a home cooked meal and take away all the evidence so your husband thinks you made it?(I should start that one;)

Oh, what do you do in the summer time???

It is currently 94 degrees here. I took advantage of the winter dryness and the summer type heat and rented a rug doctor. Eleanor cant stand the sound of the vacuum much less the noisy rug doctor. So today in my effort to get my carpets clean i discovered that you CAN use a rug doctor if you only have one hand/arm. I did pretty much the entire house while holding eleanor. But i feel pretty satisfied with myself.

my personal best

I know you are all sick of hearing about my trips to the grocery store but i went above and beyond today. I will spare you all the details but the long and the short of it is......I saved $95 at Randall's. Before my store card and coupons my total was $128. I was a little nervous seeing that because i knew that i only has $32 left to spend after HEB. So i scanned my card and handed over my coupons. My final total was $31.91. That was with out any $20 or $10 off coupons. But i did buy 10 boxes of cereal, 5 cheerios and 5 total raisin bran. the deal with those is select cereals are 5 for $5 when you buy 5. I also had a couple of coupons for those select cereals so i got them for about $.50 a box. Also Wholly Guacamole was on sale 10 for $10 and i had enough coupons to get 11 for free. And 2 free bottles of windex.

If any one is interested in learning how to do the grocery game i would be happy to sit down and show you how.

eye see you

Mom, What's Voting??

We were out delivering bread today and drove past the fellowship which is where i am supposed to vote. I was kind of thinking out loud and i said 'oh i need to go vote' well of course from the back of the car comes the inevitable question.

Eddie: "mom what's voting??"
Me: "well, we get to choose who we want to be president of our country. Who would you choose to be the president Eddie?"
pause....
Eddie: "Joseph Smith"
I was trying really hard to keep a straight face.
Me: "Really?? I don't think that he can"
Eddie: "Is he dead??"
Me: "Yes, Who would be your second choice?"
pause.....
Eddie: "President Hinkley"
Me: "Hmmmm I don't think that would work either, he's dead too"
We talked for a minute longer about what being dead means, going back to live with Heavenly Father. Then...
Eddie: "Mom, I think Heavenly father would make a good president"
Me: "Yep Eddie, i bet he would"

Counting.....

Janssen's recent blog has inspired me to count my weekend blessings.

1. All my laundry is folded, well almost. But at least it is all clean.

2. Tax Return.... need I say more?

3. The Sunday newspaper with all it's coupons.

4. Thank goodness for high powered antibiotics. Eddie was complaining that his throat hurt and then he broke out in a rash. Our first experience with strep throat. So now he is on Antibiotics and we are all crossing out fingers that the other two don't get it. Since Grace and Eddie sleep in the same bed now we may be making another trip to the Dr. this week(cross your fingers for me).

5. Sick kids kept me home from church which isn't a blessing itself but i did just reorganize my pantry and that is good.

6. 'Ticket to Ride'. I played this game over at Robin's house Friday night. Way fun.

7. Papa Murphy's. instant Saturday night dinner.

8. My neighbor and i are resuming our morning walks starting monday. i am actually excited to get up at 5 30.

that's all for now.