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.

Story of my life...

The Incredible Lumpy

...caught digging for gold.

Baby Lumpy would always make a face when she needed a diaper change, so cute then...not so much now. Yesterday, she announced to me that she had had an accident in her pants. When I asked her why, she told me..."Because I had too many fruit snacks."

Later that night, Clyde called me at work to tell me Cooper and Camdyn had a food fight with their peas while he was in the living room feeding Rowyn. It's that very reason I need to continue to work part-time. Just to keep my sanity.

P.S. Twilight comes out tomorrow!

Dances with Shadows

Want to see all kinds of cuteness? I had seen THESE online and always thought, how stinkin' cute, and when I mentioned how I wanted one to a friend, she pulled one out of her diaper bag. After seeing it in person, that sealed the deal. They're called a Bink Link and I bought mine in candy necklace style.




I like my new candy Bink Link!

It's good to eat too.

Enough with the pictures already.

I love Photoshop, you have so many possibilities with it. You can completely manipulate a photo until it is just how you imagined it could be. Jimmy's eyes are closed...no problem, Photoshop can fix them. You got a great shot of the baby, but the dogs tail-end is in the background? Not a problem, you can take Fido out and change the background to Disney world if you wanted.

That said, Photoshop scares me. It is overwhelming. I would love to take a course and learn just what in the heck I'm doing. I have begun to understand Actions, or at least how to save them and run them. I follow the Pioneer Woman, both her totally awesome cooking blog and her just as fabulous photography blog. It was on her photography blog that I found THESE actions.

I tried them on a recent picture of Rowyn...tell me you don't want to eat those cheeks!

Original

Hue/Saturation and the PW edge burn action

PW Vintage Action with 75% opacity

Attention Breastfeeding Moms...have you heard of THIS?

My sister told me about these last week, and until then I'd never heard of them. What an ingenious idea...and think of all that time you'd save pumping and dumping if you didn't have to. Would I try them, definitely. Does part of the whole process make me feel a little bit guilty, yes. Would I go get hammered just to see what results these babies spit out, of course not. I look at them as an extra precaution after having that glass of wine with dinner or social drinks with friends.

P.S. If I do try them, I can totally see my husband laughing his ass off at me...

I have the best sisters. I posted about the Pancake batter and in less than 24 hours, I had four in my refrigerator. Thanks Ca-Ca and Mugs...love you! I made pancakes this morning, man were they easy and quite yummy!

One of Camdyn's all-time favorite sayings is, "I hungry to eat.", which if you hadn't guessed, means she's hungry. She's always hungry. She likes to help herself to things in then fridge and pantry. Most often she will take a bite or two and then be done with it, which of course drives me crazy.

Today while I was vacuuming her bedroom, she helped herself to a deer stick. Yes, two of my children enjoy deer meat like their Daddy, I on the other hand, won't touch Bambi.

Quite the face I get for snapping her picture and interrupting her snack.

Now shirtless, she's helped herself to a pack of Saltine crackers.

While perusing the Internet today, I came across THIS. Seriously people, ready-to-use organic pancake and waffle batter...I want to try it! I plugged in my zip code and of course, count on Dubuque not to carry it anywhere. It doesn't have any hydrogenated oils, no corn syrup, its container is eco-friendly...completely recyclable. So, it's a healthy, quick, filling breakfast for the kids before they head off to school. Now I just need to find where I can buy it!

My mom found this recently at Trader Joe's...a Lumpy Bumpy bar...seriously, how perfect?! Lumpy is the nickname Camdyn's aunt Meghan gave her when she was just a wee little one. Why Lumpy, we really have no idea...but it stuck, much to my mom's chagrin. We love our Lumpy, she's a wild one, but we couldn't imagine her any other way.

We love babylegs at our house. They make diaper changes a breeze, they come in the cutest patterns, and well, they're just plain cute! Lumpy wears them underneath skirts in the fall and winter, so much easier than tights when you're potty training.

Lumpy in her baby legs...February 2006

An Erb Invasion

Our friends from Dixon came to visit this weekend. With their 5 and our 4, we equalled half a Duggar family.

It was loud and chaotic, but everyone had a great time...and only one Lego down the heat vent, one doorknob to the noggin, and one bite to the shoulder. No blood. ;)

Here they were back in February 2006...minus 2 babies!

Camdyn has pretty much decided she no longer needs a nap, but we still put her down for 'quiet time' everyday. It's good for her and helps keep Mommy from losing her mind.

Usually she will read books in bed, but today she apparently decided to empty her closet out into her stuffed animal basket and rip half the hair pretties off the wall. She also decided to get all dressed up, quite the outfit, eh?

She got upset when I told her I wasn't happy that she ripped her room apart.


Then meltdown city when I told her to pick up the hair pretties.

After bribing her with a sucker if she picked up, she went right to work...and of course, that lasted for all of two seconds. So she ate a sucker while I picked up. Nanny 911 would love to get a hold of me.

Today we made homemade popsicles, the kids love them and it's so easy to control the sugar they normally get in store bought popsicles. Before we made them, I caught Camdyn showing the containers to Rowyn.

I have no idea what it is, but it looks like it has potential.

I wonder if it tastes as good as it looks?

My mommy will take my picture while I sit and give myself a tonsillectomy.
Nice work, Mom.


Oh no, she took it away!
I wonder if they are available in breast milk flavor?

Last week when it got pretty darn chilly around here, we broke out the bunny warmers. The next morning Camdyn was jumping all over the house...thump, thump, thump. I asked her what in the world she was doing (as I was about to lose my mind from the noise over and over again) and she told me,

"Jumping in me bunny hoppers."