the news

here are all the random things that have been going on lately....
1. Crazy weather - snow yesterday and 74 tomorrow - what?!
2. Holly and I had our first attempt at selling our bows today. It was a windy day with not a lot of foot traffic, but we have a store interested in carrying them and have ideas for workshops. Nothing big, but we're pretty excited!
3. Cole was diagnosed with polyps today and has to have a colonoscopy and outpatient surgery to have it (or them, if they find more) removed on May 19th. He also has to have blood work done (the part i think is the worst!) so it's not much fun. Poor guy
4. Mclayne started to work on mother's day presents for her grandmas

5. still chipping away on my stockpile of bacon and trying to counteract it with spinach sludge shakes, although now i'm adding in a little ice cream. i'm sure the vita-mix lady would be VERY DISAPPOINTED with the addition, but what's bacon without a little ice cream, right?!

who doesn't love bacon........and sludge?

i love bacon. and when albertsons has buy one get TWO free I go a little crazy with the bacon. my usual four or five strips per week goes straight to four or five every morning. no lie. so today i decided to balance out my binge with a healthy little shake my father-in-law calls sludge (still paired with bacon).

It's basically a spinach based smoothie with fruit, water, and ice. I used spinach, an apple, pineapple, and blueberries and it was delicious. Vita-mix has a really great recipe guide for green shakes if you want to check it out. It's a great way to get rid of all the guilt from eating too much bacon...or reese's peanut butter eggs!;)

nine o'clock church...boo!

I really can't wait until we move to the 11 o'clock time schedule. and not just so we'll actually make it to church on time (we haven't made it on time yet this year...i just can't bring myself to wake up cole "early" at 8:30 on sunday mornings).
It will also make holidays that fall on sunday much more enjoyable to celebrate. for instance, this year the kids opened their baskets at different times, ryan caught very little of each, mclayne tested out each toy for about 15 seconds, and then we rushed to church an hour late.

mclayne's 15 seconds with BV, her beaver puppet. she put on a little show in a very low, husky beaver voice. wish we had it on video.

THE FIRST 30 YEARS.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

the fish killer strikes again....

mclayne has matured a lot since her third birthday. she literally exited the terrible twos. so, at our latest trip to the pet store to see all the animals mclayne insists she needs needs as pets to sleep with at night, i decided to pick up a couple fish for mclayne. given her past experiences with fish i decided against our usual "nice" $3.00 fish and had them bag up two of the 12 cent ones. the good times with blacky and lightning lasted one week. then today mclayne came into the room and said...
"um... don't go over by the fish um... area."
she has tried this method before of trying to ban me from a horrible mess. you would think by now she'd realize it only does the opposite, but it does act as a nice warning. at first i laughed a little at her use of the word area and then prepared myself for the disaster that i would no doubt end up cleaning. and there it was...the entire container of food dumped in the tank or sprinkled on the table. seriously an inch of fish flakes on the bottom and two fish fighting to stay alive in the nasty murky water. it didn't help that mclayne straight-out lied about it...she has always been so honest....sometimes TOO honest!
after a long discussion on lying, i explained to mclayne that her pet days are over until further notice. no more talk of fish, dogs, or cats. no more saying...
"i really wish i had a swimming thing"
or
"i just need a chinchilla to sleep with"
she agreed that pets are out and then went upstairs, laid on the love sac, pulled a blanket over her head, and feel asleep. ahhh...it's her first nap in a long time. she totally went and redeemed herself!

*as a parenting side note {only mean parents like me will sympathize}...
isn't it so frustrating when you're really mad and want nothing more than to calmly yell at your child until they realize what a horrible thing they have done and quietly apologize, but before you can even start they preemptively strike with the loudest scream ever! a screaming fit that never stops, not even to take a breath. aaaaauuuuugggggghhhhhh! nicely played mclayne....nicely played

Cole at 15 months

just takin' it easy in his high-chair/lazy boy recliner.....

i have completely lost confidence in the accuracy of growth measurements at our pediatricians office, but cole is still one petite boy (especially after being sick for a few weeks).
Weight 22 lbs......... 20th%
Height 31.5 inches.... 60th%
Head Circ 19 inches... ?????





i also tried snapping a quick picture of me and mclayne on our way out the door to see the doctor. as you can see from the pictures, that is easier said than done. i obviously have no idea what i'm doing. i was actually trying to get a picture to document her being sick for the last week, but of coarse she perked right up for the doctors appt. She looked like this most of the week. I hate when that happens and I end up looking like a dramatic hypochondriac when we check-in. Luckily, (not for mclayne) she had a sinus infection, double-ear infection and a red swollen throat. i would love for the easter bunny to leave me two healthy kids in my basket this year!

alphabet poop part II

i am sure all of you will be VERY excited to know that the list is complete, although some of them are a bit of a stretch. now you can finally get some sleep at night...you're welcome!;)

Apple in your Armour
Bomb in your Boxers/Bloomers
Crap in your Coolots
Dookie/Doo Doo in your Diaper
Dump in you Drawers
Excrement/Eewie from your Endtrails
Feces/Fudge in your Fruit of the Looms
Grunt in your Gitch
Hud in your Huggies
Icky in your Intimates
Jujubees in your Jockeys
Krud/Kool Whip in your Khakis
Loaf in your Luvs
Log in your Long johns
Mess in your unMentionables
Nugget in you kNickers
Oh no in your Overalls
Poop in your Pants
Quicksand in your Quarters
Rocky Road/Runs in your Rags
Soil your Shorts
Turd in your Trousers
Ugly in your Undies
Void your Vacuum
Waste in your Whities
Xtra in your XXXwear
Yucky in your You know what
Zero out your Zoot suit