Baby Swimming Pool???

Okay....I had to post this! Clara loves water so much that she has found her a new swimming pool to take advantage of inside!!! Here are a couple of pics!!

My Clara can get into something in no time flat!! This morning she got into the toilet....got her out and in a second walking through my room and past the half bath in the hall she had given her small brown puppy dog a bath in the other toilet!!! To say the least, little brown puppy is now no longer....He is taking a ride in the trash can! It is almost impossible to keep this girl out of the toilet!! Another day this week she also decided to use her creative side and color a wonderfully beautiful orange crayon masterpiece on our bedroom wall. =) I did not think to get pics of that before I got it off the wall along with some of the sheetrock. A note to those that have not gone through this yet....use soft, soft pressure when removing crayon from wall or else pieces of sheetrock come with it. Yes, trust me. It is getting time to paint anyway and we need semi-gloss paint instead of flat that it was built with. I have been telling Clay this....this incident just proved my point. LOL =D Out of 3 kids this was our first wall masterpiece that I can remember. Now, Cullen broke in our new brown leather couch with pen mark when he was little. Thank goodness it did not show up that much and we still have that couch to date. Time for new living room furniture too....=D I think we might wait a bit to make sure Clara realizes artwork needs to be on paper for now!

Clay just reminded me that Christian too did some artwork of his own with crayon but he chose to do it all over the floor in his room.

Needless to say as soon as I got her out of her new-found "swimming pool" I wisked her into the bath. Here is a pic of her proud self getting cleaned off.

**NOTE*** The yuckiness you see on the top lid of the toilet seat is a stain!! Promise! My toilets were cleaned yesterday!!****

Tot Food~ Leading to better decisions for the whole family!!

Prior to this week we have not had much luck with Clara eating sandwiches. She tended to take them apart and did not each much of it at all. While we were in Oklahoma I found a heart-shaped sandwich cutter which I "had" to have. Well, I am glad I got it. She will eat almost an entire peanut butter and jelly sandwich when it is cut with the heart-shaped cutter. I think it seals it better and it is easier for her to hold onto without the crust. We also tried the Mott's natural applesauce but blueberry flavored and peach flavored. The kids LOVE these and they are all natural too.

We also really like Annie's Homegrown organic ravioli and also the spaghetti loops and soy meatballs. This way she can have quick "junk" food that isn't really junk at all. We have used the bunny grahams before but I wish we could find such good variety in the stores here. So far I have only found the loops and meatballs and cheesy ravioli. I need to run by the health food store and see what I can find.

This plate has the organic/natural cheese ravioli, natural vanilla yogurt, frozen peas, and frozen berry blend of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. Clara likes peas but she does not like them frozen hard. She likes them after they have sat out of the freezer for a bit when they are cold but not hard. When I first heard of eating frozen peas I was kind of grossed out. Try them...they are yummy, cold, sweet treats!! The kids also LOVE CLIF Kid Zone bars to snack on. We have found them at Sam's Club. They are organic energy bars for kids.

Focusing on feeding the kids better has shone a glaring spotlight on what I do for myself. I am a full-blown diet soda addict and enjoy food so very much. I am trying now to make those good choices not only for my kids but for myself. As of today I have had NO diet soda and only had 2 yesterday before deciding to make better choices. Asparatame is such a horrible thing for you. I have known it for a long time. We are so stringent about no smoking and no drinking but yet I will drink 4-6 diet sodas a day. What kind of message is that sending?? I ask that you pray for me through this struggle. I know God is mighty and He can do anything, BUT God is also a gentleman. He will not just barge in and take control unless you ask Him too. I am asking that I can make the next "best" decision through Him and that I can hand this struggle over to Him!!

To join in Tot Foods to share your ideas with others and get great ideas from others you can go to Carissa's website here. Join in the fun and share your ideas!!

Tot School

~Clara is 19 months~


Okay...this will be another post I am joining in on to help me with my Clara at home with her schooling. This is just my first post. I will be trying to incorporate Clara's learning with the boys' schooling too. I hope to have some posts here soon of the plans I have for the up and coming school year. I am really excited about the organizational opportunities our workboxes will do for us. I hope to give you more info on the workboxes very soon with pictures. If you want to get an early jump on the Workbox System click here. I hope to gather new ideas and hopefully share a few too through the Tot School posts. I first learned of Tot School through the great site of Carissa's at 1+1+1=1. Clara is 19 months old and is starting school! =D Please let me know if you like these Smilebox slideshows better than just posting them directly into Blogger. It is sooooo much easier!!

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Since this was our first go at Tot School we really only did a few activites. This activity with the pom poms works on colors, sorting, fine motor skills, counting, etc. She also colored some and we introduced the letter A. I hope to bring a lot more of the things we do in the coming weeks. I hope to get many ideas and hopefully give some ideas to others. I hope you enjoy our Tot School journey.

Tot Food & Sword Fighting

I am going to start trying to blog about my up and coming school girl. I have found these new links to blogs with Tot School and Tot Food. They inspire me to be more creative as I am NOT!! This blog has started it all... http://totallytots.blogspot.com/This will be my first attempt at something like this and I hope you guys enjoy. This is what Clara ate today for lunch and dinner. I bought these neat plates at Target today. They help me fill her plate with different goodies. Tonight's dinner was black beans (straight from the can), blueberries, blackberries, and mango, and a new try of Kashi 7 Whole Grain Pilaf Moroccan Curry style. It is excellent for her and the boys really liked it too!! She also had grilled chicken again leftover from last night's grill out. The Kashi Pilaf is so easy and so healthy. It is in a packet that you open up and put in the microwave for 90 seconds with 2 tbsp water and "walla" rice is served. It is organic and has 8 g protein and 7 g of fiber. They liked it, they liked it!! For lunch she had grilled chicken too but I gave her cottage cheese, frozen peas (really, straight from the freezer), blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries and she tried gnocchi for the first time. She did not like the gnocchi. =( She loves peas and they are like little sweet, cool treats straight from the freezer. I learned it from another blogger. She loved her new plates too!! Here are some pics of her dinner and her eating her lunch.

On another note altogether.....The boys started theatrical sword fighting class with our homeschool group a few weeks ago and I have been meaning to add pics of them. They LOVE it!!! It is more like a sword dance. They look forward to it very much every Wednesday. It will also benefit the boys in any theater that they do. Christian has just now learned he got 2 roles in Mulan that the Children's Theater is doing. He will be playing Yao and a yonger version of Xiao. We will begin rehearsals in July. It will last 2 weeks and then he will have 4 performances. He is looking forward to it very much. Congratlations Christian on getting a part in Mulan!!! I am so proud of you!!

Frogville, Oklahoma....The Old Farm

WARNING>>>>This post is long and may not interest any of you who did not play and grow up on the Farm in Frogville with Grandma and Grandpa!! If you don't think so feel free to read it anyway.

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Well, we made it to Frogville today on our way home. We arrived around 2:30. We called Uncle Thomas to let us in. Him and Luda arrived and told us to stop back by his place after we finished exploring Grandma and Grandpa's old farm. Now, it is no longer the farm it used to be by any means. The trailer has since burned to the ground many years ago. Thomas has leased a pasture out to someone with 40-50 head of cattle. It is so grown up though we only saw the cows when leaving and did not see that many.

We had a really great time. We looked at the spot where the trailer had been first. It is so weird to see it unkept and overgrown with just the bones of the trailer that once held all 7 children and all the grandchildren that came along and then great grandchildren. We had many a Christmas, Thanksgiving, and summer fun there. We played many Turkey bowls out in the pastures...our Super Bowl of sorts with all of us joining in; adults and kiddoes. We would all pile in that trailer for holidays and even sleep on the floor or one Christmas our own Suburban....=) It really was great times and I so much wanted my kids to know what it was like out there with my Grandma and Grandpa. They have probably 200 acres when we were younger but the Red River has since probably made it grow to 400 acres or so. The Red River backs up to the farm and it gives and takes away land as the years pass. Grandma maintained 2 gardens. One was probably 1/2 an acre and the large one was at least 1 acre...as I remember it. She grew everything!! She even had peach trees, pears, and plum trees. I remember watermelon, cantelope, beans of all sorts, peppers, onions, potatoes, corn, okra...you name it. She would can and freeze everything. She was a wonderful Christian woman who worked hard taking care of everyone else. My grandfather took care of his family well and as I remember him kept to himself a lot. He would walk the bank of the river after fishing for a short amount of time. He could not sit still for long. They were wonderfully, hard-working people and I cherish every memory I have of them. They both passed away...Clara Mae in '88 and Elzy in '95.

I think I am a farm girl (wanna be) at heart. I love the idea of having cattle, chickens, goats, gardens and the fruit from it all....but then reality hits in and I realize how much work it takes to have all of that. Maybe one day I can have a small taste...but we shall see.

Okay....I digress....We walked around the trailer and I tried to get pics to show you guys how much it has changed. Grandma's flowers still grew amongst all the overgrowth....it is really neat to see them all around. We saw a King Snake probably 4-5 feet long. He left us alone and we admired him from a distance as he made his way away from us. He wanted nothing to do with us. We then made our way out and down to the old chicken coop. I remember going to collect the eggs with Grandma. The coop is still there but it is so overgrown. Grandpa's workshop/shed is still standing. We then made our way down to the creek. Thomas had said he thought we would be able to make it to the river by going way of the creek on the back pasture. We went right instead of left to go behind the barn towards the back garden. Did that make sense?? Anyway....it was easy to get to the creek b/c a truck had obviously been going down there. We got in there and made our way down the creek. We were hauling a large bag, Clara, and our boots. Clara loves the water so as long as she was in the creek she was a happy girl. Clay carried the heavy bag on his shoulders being careful to not get it wet as my camera was in it. Christian and I broke off from the group to see if we could go further down and eventually find the river. We never did find it!! =( We did have a great adventure along the way though. Christian and I ran into some beavers that scared the mess out of Christian. It was hilarious to see his face and hear him. We are in the middle of this creepy creek out in the middle of no where and no telling the last time humans had been in the middle of it. Anyway...all the sudden I hear this HUGE splash and Christian saying...."Get me out, get me out.....!!!!" Then I turn his way and see another beaver come running off the bank and leap into the water. I told Christian don't worry....they are just BEAVERS keep swimming. There were at least 3. We watched one more come down after that and waddle his way down into the water to safety away from us. About the same time as the commotion dies down....what do we see on the opposite bank coming to take a look at us....a COYOTE!! He just sat there and looked at us as though he were thinking what were we doing. He stayed about a minute and went on his way. Christian and I went over to that bank to take a look and he had already left. It was like we were on our own animal adventure safari. Christian and I LOVED it!!! Chrisitan is my little explorer just like I was and still am. He kept saying the whole time we were swimming..."this is so much fun, mom!" Exactly the reason I wanted to go so badly even if it is not the same place.

We never found the Red River, but I am determined to do so. We are trying to make plans to go back to go camping and hopefully take a flat-bottom boat to take down the creek and find out now where it dumps into the Red River. Years ago I felt like I knew it like the back of my hand....it is amazing what a river can do to the landscape. Eats up the land and then spits it back out something totally different.

We made our way to Thomas' to say hi and bye. A quick good bye tuned into a couple hours. Of course he got his truck out to drive us around his farm. He has about 1000 acres and 150 so head of cattle. He also has a I think an approx. 40-acre lake on his property. It is really neat to see land like that with nothing even close by. We appreciated our tour but had to get on our way as Clara was hungry and worn out as were we all!!! To say the least we were EXHAUSTED, but I would and plan on doing it all over again!!!

Day #1 Oklahoma City Trip

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Here is the pic of the kids I was trying to re-create in the slideshow. I had them in the same spot. The pic below is from last year's trip. They ave grown so much. Clara the most obviously. She is no longer my baby but my little girl!!

Today was the first day of our annual business/fun Oklahoma City trip. We stopped by and ate at Cracker Barrel and Daddy bought Clara her first purse (which included a puppy). She has been carrying it everywhere. We then made our annual trip to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Mmm, mmm good. I am experimenting with Smilebox for the slideshow and I hope it works right. I took a lot of pics and plan on taking more tomorrow. We had our business dinner tonight at Coach's above the baseball stadium. We watched some of the game there and then walked the river walk. We got back about 10:00. We are worn out. We are staying at the Skirvin in the suite Clay upgraded us to. He is so sweet and thoughtful. He is playing golf tomorrow for the other part of the business trip. He knows we will spend most of the day in the room. We will swim down at the pool but it makes it so much nicer when we are not cramped in a small room all day. The suite has a living room with a HUGE flatscreen TV and the boys are sleeping in there. Clay and I have our own bedroom with TV. Clara has a crib in our room and Clay and her are already asleep. =D

I am really looking forward to our trip home. We are going to make a stop at Frogville, OK. My grandparents had a wonderful farm down there that backed up to the Red River and it was a blast when I was a child. My grandparents have since passed. My grandmother, Clara, passed in '88 and my grandfather, Elzy, passed in '95 shortly after Christian was born. They were unbelievably, hard-working people. They had 2 large gardens, cows, chickens, some horses...LOVED it there!! I so want my kids to get an idea. It is no longer a farm and the trailer that was once there burned to the ground years ago. It is not the same place but I am still hoping we can pull off some good exploring and possibly making it down to the river. We bought rubber boots that come to our knees to protect from snake bites and brought a machete (sp) to cut back the brush. I pray that it is a good time and I can share some precious memories with my kiddoes about their wonderful great grandparents and the life they lived!!

Okay...I am going to sleep now but wanted to share our day with you guys!! Sorry it has been a while since I posted last....we have been busy, busy.

More to come later!

I am Not the Mother I wanted to be....

I read this post on Books and Bairns this morning. http://booksandbairns.blogspot.com/2009/05/i-am-not-mother-i-wanted-to-be.html

It so hit home with me and I wanted to share it with you guys. I had never really "planned" on being a mom. I was too selfish at the time to consider sharing any kind of time, money, emotions with someone else and I was also 19. Thank God, He had better plans for me. There are many days I long to have an even larger family and the next second think, "What am I thinking?" I so enjoy my children and the lessons God teaches me through them. I am so thankful that I can trust God to prepare me for them. As she stated in her blog, "These guys are awesome. I can't imagine how boring life would be without every single one of them."

God has tremendously blessed our family! Each one of us uniquely made to fit in together and to learn and grow from one another. As hard as some days may be I would not change one thing except that I would show more grace to my kids when it does get tough. Have a great day and hug those kiddoes!! If you don't have children yet....contemplate the mom you want to be and then pray for God's guidance and wisdom to make you that much greater!