Happy New Year to everyone, I hope 2009 brings you health and happiness!

The best part of 2008 for us?

Rowyn Camille, of course.

He is his father's son.

I've been fiddling all day with different pictures...making Cooper a Jedi, a mugshot of Lumpy, Riley as the Mona Lisa. Try it out at PhotoFunia. Fun stuff!

When my husband called me at work to tell me he and the kids were outside in the car and my daughter had something to tell me...I knew it couldn't be good. As I walked out, he rolled down Camdyn's window...how did I know it would be Lumpy? After playing coy for about 30 seconds, she finally managed to say quite proudly, "I fall in Papa's pond and Meghan rescue me. Daddy too."

Yep, she wasn't kidding.

Clyde went on to tell me that Camdyn was out with Aunt Meghan and that she was shoveling the snow out of the yard while Meghan cleaned snow off her car. A minute later, Meghan heard a cry she's never heard before, followed by a desperate plea, "Meghan help me!" Meghan raced over to find Camdyn had broken through the ice layer on the pond. Meghan laid down to distribute her weight, reached in and grabbed her out. Clyde heard the screaming from inside, rushed out, leaped over the deck railing, and was there just as Meghan was getting her out. Aside from being cold and wet and very scared...she was okay. I'm actually glad I was at work, otherwise I could quite possibly have had a coronary.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...never a dull moment with Lumpy around.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a healthy, happy 2009!

Special thanks to my friend, Anna, for the digital card!

Rolo Cookies

2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

2 eggs

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1 bag rolos

2 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

Heat oven to 375. In bowl combine flour, cocoa, and baking soda.

In large bowl, beat sugars and butter until fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs. Slowly add flour mixture until well combined. For each cookie, shape 1 tbsp of dough around 1 rolo, covering completely. If dough is too sticky, chill first in refridgerator. Dip one end of cookie into sugar and bake sugar side up for 7-10 minutes. Allow to cool 2 minutes and then remove to wax paper. Do not cool on rack.

Peanut Butter Balls

2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup peanut butter

6 tbsp butter

almond bark

Stir powdered sugar, peanut butter, and butter. Shape into balls, coat in melted almond bark, and set on wax paper lined cookie sheet.

You know those Reece's Peanut Butter Cup eggs that come out at Easter time? These totally taste like them...so good, rich, but DELISH!

Thank you, Meghan, for all the free Peta stickers.

Lumpy felt obligated to make sure they all found wonderful homes. Like the wall in the hall, the leg of the end table, the tv armoire, the sofa arm, the oven door, and this little innocent Christmas music box. Which was the only one I couldn't get off without a fight. This pig, was not my friend...so I ate him. OK, not that one, but we did have pork chops for dinner. For shame!

The hair is back in town...

You're so silly, Mommy!

Oreo Balls

1 package oreo cookies

1 8oz package cream cheese

white almond bark

chocolate almond bark

Crush oreos (if you have a food processor you can chop up the oreos in that, otherwise, just put them in a large ziplock bag and smash them to crumbs), now mix together with cream cheese. Roll them into balls and put them in the fridge for about an hour to chill. Melt the white bark, dip the oreo balls in, coating them. Place them on wax paper on a cookie sheet to set. When they are semi set, you can drizzle some chocolate bark on them for decoration. Once they're solid, enjoy!

Why are there toys on top of our kitchen cabinets?

Everyone that visits our house asks.

It's simple, they're in a toy timeout. Come to think of it, the popper and worm have been up there for some time now...perhaps their timeout is over...nah. It's quieter this way. Oh, and yes there should be molding on top of my cabinets, but my husband does things at his own pace. It's been 4 years. See the hardware on the cabinets? Yeah, he finally got around to those last month.

Oh, and I found the perfect site for Camdyn who is a perpetual mismatcher.

Check out the cute tights and toe socks at LittleMissMatched

You've got a friend in me...

As I was running around the house trying to get things straightened up, picking clothes out for school the next day, starting yet another load of laundry, stressing about the holidays, I came around the corner and stopped dead in my tracks. There was no yelling, no fighting, no bickering, things were too quiet. I listened more intently and heard just the sound of Riley's voice and following it, I found her in her room. I peeked carefully around the corner and there they were...in jammies, under blankets, listening intently to Riley reading them a bedtime story. My heart smiled.

Before tucking Riley into her top bunk, I found this hanging on the wall above her pillow. She must have done it this weekend while I was at work. That girl always amazes me.

The Office

Rowyn, in her office, networking on her Dora iphone.

...and eating her iphone.

Shit. Dropped it. Now what?

Flash Mom my cute smile and she'll get it for me. Then I can drop it again and wait for her to pick it up...and again, and again, and again. It's a fun game you know.

The Ice Wreath

What a simple idea, especially if you live in Iowa where your snot freezes from your door to your mailbox. Sure they won't last all season, but put some faux berries and some snippings off your evergreen, add water/snow and your ready to go. Then just recycle when it melts. I know everyone has a bundt pan...and if you don't, take one from your mom, cause she's bound to have one. I got my inspiration and photos from Resurrection Fern

My Etsy addiction continues...

This seller has been added to my favs, just for her descriptions alone. :P

Grumpy Girl

Description: Oh you know you have one... that hot, sexy UPS dude dressed in brown that makes your heart skip a beat every time you see the truck roll up in your driveway. And we know that sometimes, late at night while you're watching the latest infomercial on TV, you secretly toy with the idea of ordering the Faux Flex just so he'll come visit you in 3-5 days with expedited shipping.

This soap will turn your man into the next best thing since the pony express. Capture the hot, sexy UPS dude anytime you want him and save yourself the overnight shipping charges.

You can also start telling your friends you've got a Hot, Sexy UPS Dude waiting at home in your shower for you and become the envy of the neighborhood.

Orange blossom, mandarin, jasmine and is accented with amber, cedar and vanilla.


Net Weight 4.50 - 4.75 ounces

Scents:
We offer over 50 unique scents of soap, please see profile for complete listing.

and these scrumptious looking cupcakes...they're for the tub too!

Girls, these bath bombs are truly the most scrumptiously DIVINE treat you could ever pamper yourself with. The famous Magnolia Bakery in NYC could only hope to stock something this fabulous.

Rich mango and Shea butter combined with highly moisturizing sweet almond and avocado oils work together to drench your skin in silky soft, and oh so kissable smoothness.

Highly fragrant and sprinkled with cuteness on top of real fluffy royal icing, you'll suddenly find that your craving for sweets has been fulfilled. Each one of our 50+ scents comes in a unique coordinating color combination.

Comes packaged in lots of crinkly cellophane and an ultra cute bow in a clear cylinder box to protect your cupcake from the horrors of shipping, and it also makes a really cute gift.

Trust a fat chick, we know ALL about cupcakes.

Net Weight 5.5oz
DO NOT EAT!

Have you read about the Hello Kitty Maternity Ward inChanghua County, Taiwan?

Nurses tend to a babies inside a Hello Kitty themed maternity ward inside a hospital in Changhua County December 4, 2008. Mommy, daddy -- and Hello Kitty -- welcome newborns at a cat-themed Taiwan maternity hospital that hopes the Japanese cartoon icon will ease the stress of childbirth as well as boost business. The 30-bed Hau Sheng Hospital in Yuanlin in central Taiwan claims to be the only institution of its kind authorised by the popular cartoon cat's parent company Sanrio Co Ltd. Newborns get everything Hello Kitty but a set of whiskers, including pink or blue receiving blankets, nurses dressed in pink uniforms with cat-themed aprons, cot linen and room decor.

I'm fairly certain Hello Kitty would do nothing to decrease my stress level, but an IV of Smirnoff, now that has potential...

Our basement is a work-in-progress. Ok, that was a lie...it's a work-at-a-standstill, lack of fundage does that. Anyway, it's framed out and the beginning of our play area is there. My inspiration came from this playroom of a family on a board I'm on. We won't have the amazing climbing wall, but we will have the cute arched doorways, a window, a small loft area inside, and a dutch door on the front. My mom will be helping me paint, since she majored in art at Clarke and because she's amazing, creative, and beautiful...(Have I mentioned this to you yet, Mom?)

Anyway, when I win the lottery on Saturday, this is going to be our first project to finish. But if I win the lottery, then I guess I would have a climbing wall. ;)

Camdyn's favorite cooking show is Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee. She will watch that show from beginning till end without so much as a peep out of her. I would love to have a kitchen like hers, that changes color with each episode. My favorite part is all the different KitchenAid mixers. Maybe I'm weird, but I would love a mixer in each different COLOR...break a different one out each month depending on my mood or holiday. Ok, so I really am weird, but whatever.

I love personalized shirts. Quite some time ago, I bought a shirt off ebay from a seller and I loved it so much, I went back again and again. The owner, Barbara, is simply the best to work with. I have gotten personalized shirts, onesies, burp cloths, canvas bags...always top quality, shipped quickly, and oh-sew-cute! She now sells on Etsy, as well, so check her things out at SEWCUTECREATIONS . Want to see some of the other things she can do? Check them out HERE


If you're looking for a neat gift for a little boy or girl, check out BABYPOP. I found this store awhile back when Cooper was going to a Superman themed birthday party. I bought the little boy a personalized cape and wow were we ever happy with it. Some serious super cuteness. I bought a princess cape for Camdyn, because she's forever running around the house in a hooded baby towel, yelling, "Super baby!" There are quite a few different color combinations and styles. Buy some.

Rowyn entertains Aunt Caitlin. Poor baby girl has a sinus infection, not that it seems to be slowing her down any.

Happy 3rd Birthday Camdyn Elisabeth!

While it's true that you sometimes make us crazy, you certainly keep us entertained. Like this morning when you insisted on getting "wessed in me ducky overall-ez and sock-ez." and you came out with books, a doll, and your shoes strapped in your overalls. Hence the reason you looked so lumpy and bumpy!

Or at your party when you put on your new pink glitzy glasses, stuck your hands on your hips, and shook your booty. Party on Lump!

There was the time last summer you launched your Dora croc out the window at the corner of Asbury and JFK and you made mommy look a fool and go get it in the middle of traffic.

All the things you do make you YOU and we wouldn't have you any other way. We love you Camdyn Elisabeth, your are our Lumpy, now and forever.

Camdyn's Candyland 3rd Birthday!

The cake (click on it to make it larger)

Blowing out candles!

What's a birthday without some crack?

Dora...loves her some Dora!


Looks like the Skittles went right to her legs.

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours.

Cause it's impossible to get them all looking and smiling at the same time.

Camdyn wonders what in the holy hell Grandpa just gave Cooper.

Cooper with his turkey leg, which he promptly gobbled. (pun intended)

Riley Breck...ate not a touch of turkey. My vegetarian in the making.

There were no other pictures of Rowyn, she was at Grammy's house for all of 10 minutes and she had a blow out...in fact, I'm sure that's why she's crying in the first picture. Poop up and down your backside does that to you, I guess.

I ordered this x 3 today. Cuteness, yes. Having girls is expensive.

Camdyn found a half-eaten deer stick in the play kitchen microwave, I'm thankful she didn't eat it.

Rowyn had two blowouts today, I'm thankful for Oxy Clean.

Riley likes to tell people to 'mind your own beeswax', I'm thankful I only heard it half a dozen times before I had to leave for work.

Cooper uses my living room furniture as a jungle gym, I'm thankful he gets plenty of exercise.

I'm thankful my husband, by the grace of God, lost his voice today.

I'm thankful for Pinot Noir after a non-school day like today.

Riley practicing her spelling words last Friday morning before school.

At conferences, we found out that Riley was going to be starting a new set of spelling words, some words to challenge her. These words were completely different from what she was used to, and she found herself having to practice. She went from words like 'red' to words like 'firecrackers'. She hasn't missed a word yet and she really takes pride in coming home and showing us how she did. She must have gotten her spelling ability from her grandmother, because it certainly wasn't her dad or I...spellcheck is my friend.