SO,

this is my life at the moment...

Saturday, I had to work from 8-12 and came home to the most pleasant, happy home. My hubby and boys had done some major Spring cleaning. They had vacuumed the edges of the carpet, completely cleaned the kitchen including pulling out the stove and fridge and cleaning/vacuuming behind them and even mopped the kitchen floor.

They didn't want me to have to come home after working six days straight and have to worry about doing more work.

It was Heavenly and I felt SO spoiled!

Shortly after lunch, all I remember is that we got a Wild Hare and decided that once and for all we were going to get things in order so we can finally lay our hard wood (that we bought 3 years ago) and get it laid and finished in our kitchen/dining area.

SO,

this meant that everything out of our office and the kids rooms got moved out to our kitchen/dining area.

Our house looks like it "Blew Up"!!

Our plan...

To move our office furniture and computer, TV , sofa, wing back chair and beanbag into the room that the kids were sharing.

To move our kids into the room that used to be our office.

AND last of all to make it so you can come in any door in our house and make it to the bathroom/bedrooms on hard wood...
NO MORE CARPET!

AND

we will FINALLY have a large and spacious kitchen dining room that doesn't have our dining room table on carpet that can accommodate a large table that won't have a sofa in the way and we can actually have room to finally have the BIG Thanksgiving Feast at our house for a change!!

*********************

BTW...we do have BIG dreams of someday having a large TV/Game Room, Craft Room, Spare Bedroom/Exercise room in our unfinished basement, but to keep on track of meeting our financial goal of being Debt Free in under five years, we are opting to put our 12' x 14' bedroom to use in making it a TV/computer room and our smaller bedroom will house the boys twin beds just perfectly!
I'm excited to show the results of how it turns out...so far I am really liking how we are using the space.
Actually, other than a few cans of paint, we aren't having to spend any money on this home improvement project. It is mostly just a creative arrangement of things we already have.

We just rented a carpet cleaner and Tracy steam cleaned the two bedrooms and we are now working on painting the walls a new and Fresh color of light taupe paint that is easy on the eyes. We will then move everything back into them, which is a LOT of work!

I can't believe how much stuff we have to go through.

Ethan has creatively stashed every little thing he has ever received and what is amazing is there are NO missing parts to any of his things and he has every instruction book for all of his Legos and Bionicles.

Looking forward to finally getting to rip up the carpet and start laying hard wood flooring!

SO, until Kimmie gets her house put back together again...

she will be taking a little break.

LOVELY...
Tracy and Jade just walked in the door from Youth activities and informed me that our Home Teachers want to come by tomorrow evening to visit us!

Can't wait to be back to normal life of cooking, conversing with friends and Journaling about my life and seeing the FUN and exciting things that you are all doing as well!

Happy Easter

Celebrating!!

I hope this finds my friends and family happy and doing well and I look forward to catching up with all of you sometime the 2nd week of April.

A 1000 times of fun!

A 1000 times of fun!!
Those were the words that I heard over and over after Ethan's birthday party!!

My sons love to gather around
when I am reading peoples Blogs and last year my sweet friend Cherie showed an awesome party that she did for her 9 year old son. Ethan has been begging me since he saw those photos last year that he wanted to have a MAD Scientist party for his birthday this year.

It's sad that this is the first "Friend" birthday party I have ever done for Ethan, but up until this year he hasn't ever asked for a party.

Birthdays at our house mean you don't have to do your chores that day, mom fixes your favorite dinner and you get special treatment all day, so getting a special party is pretty cherished!

I had SO much fun planning this and what a FUN day we all had!

I am a creative person,
but I am NOT artistic at all.
I had delusions of grandeur that we would have the coolest pinata for Ethan's party that was a mad scientist complete with crazy hair and goggles.
I spent five days putting paper mache on the balloon and letting it dry in between. I painted it a nice flesh color and was hoping that Tracy could just work his magic and paint a face on the pinata and then I would add batting all glued and made into crazy hair.
HOWEVER, Tracy informed me real quick that there was no possible way to make this into a 3D pinata and so we made do and drew an 8 on the pinata and painted it to look nice...added some curly and sparkles to the top and there you have it...my first attempt at making a homemade pinata!

I LOVED these boys...
it was SO much fun!!
However, I learned real quick that it is ALOT of work throwing a party with eight FULL OF ENERGY 8 and 9 year old boys and trying to snap photos while trying to do the games and activities was not as easy as I had planned.
SO, my photos were not the best and didn't include everything we did, but they show the FUN that we had.

I LOVED this lime green paper I found and had SO much fun making the invitations and helping Ethan deliver them.

Name badges with
the lime green paper were made as well.

After we gave the boys their lab coats,
put on their name badges,
gelled their hair crazy
and passed out goggles,
Ethan's grandpa (Tracy's dad)
started off the party with a funny song and some MAGIC tricks.
The boys were in awe and intrigued!

This photo shows
just how into the Magic Tricks the kids were.
Clair had their undivided attention.

(from left to right)
Woodrow, Braxton, Karsen, Bryson,
Lincoln, Logan, Ethan and Ty

No Mad Scientist Party
would be complete without
exploding Diet Coke with Mentos!
We weren't sure how this was going to work out with getting sprayed by Diet Coke everywhere and so Tracy put on his trusty hiking parka to make sure the boys didn't get sprayed too bad.

We had four bottles of Diet Coke
and so we split the boys into groups of two and had two pieces of string hooked to a note card and a test tube with seven Mentos inside. On the count of three the boys pulled on their strings and pulled out the note card and the Mentos dropped into the pop and then...
EXPLOSION!!!

Woodrow and Ty's explosion!

Next came Braxton and Karsen...

and then Bryson and Lincoln

and last Ethan and Logan!

Fake Snow!
I had more comments from the boys how cool the Fake Snow was.
You put a teaspoon into warm water and it instantly puffs up into fake snow.

It had neat properties that made it get quite cold to touch after it was added to the water.
The boys were SO excited
to get to take home their container of wonderful snow stuff.

The CRAZY nut
who planned and threw this party!

SLIME...
My very favorite part of the party.
Who would have thunk that Cornstarch and water could make such a COOL substance, (and it cleans up with water).
The kids had more fun with this that they BEGGED to take their slime home with them!
***************************

RECIPE FOR SLIME
2 cups cornstarch
1 cup water
(few drops green food coloring)
Heat water on the stove until it is warm but NOT boiling.
Add in green food coloring
and then slowly add in cornstarch to the colored water.
Mix the starch in water thoroughly, using your fingers. Blend it well, until it becomes a thick and smooth paste.
The final cornstarch mixture should neither be too watery, nor too dry. It should be wet enough to drip through your fingers, but dry to touch.
Store in a resealable bag or container with a lid.

***************************
This provides HOURS of fun
for kids AND adults too.
I kept on picking it up and letting it OOZE through my fingers.
Looking forward to doing FUN projects in the summer with my kids and making slime again will definitely be something we will do for sure.

The looks on the boys faces
were priceless!

Lincoln was SO funny...
he was sure that the yellow Jello and gummy worms would not taste good and it took him forever to finally try it, but he finally did.
The boys LOVED
being able to be pigs and slurp and eat their Jello without spoons.

PINATA TIME...

The kids had SO much fun
breaking the Pinata!
My sad pinata that I was afraid would be broke the first few swings, took a licking and it took each boy a few times through the line to finally break it.

Tracy's hard hit FINALLY made the pinata break.
LOTS of excitement came as the boys scurried to get treats and prizes that were waiting inside the pinata!

Our brew of Homemade Rootbeer.
Cup after cup of this was drank!

Birthday cake!
I decided to do a cupcake tower and had eight cup cakes on the top with eight candles for Ethan to blow out.
The rest of the cupcakes were decorated with sprinkles and Neon Gummy Worms.

Our handsome and awesome birthday boy
Ethan Kip!

Time to sing
"Happy Birthday"
and blow out the candles and eat cupcakes.
Lincoln kept on trying to blow the candles out while we sang.
He is such a cute and funny little boy!

Lots of excitement as gifts were opened!
I have never seen SO many fun things for boys to play and have fun with then the gifts his friends gave to him.

Party Favors...
white lunch sacks filled with:
...Mentos Geyser test tube experiment
...Pop Rocks
...Bubblegum
...Punching ball
...goggles and fake snow
...AND treats from the pinata

Ethan's awesome and silly cousins
Bryson on the left
and Ty on the right

I have never seen a more FUN gift than this...
A Blow Blaster
Ethan played with this non-stop for over two days..sucking and blowing the foam darts. My TV and sliding glass door had lots of little dots all over them that showed I have an eight year old son that is having fun.
After the fun...
a little glass cleaner and paper towels shined the TV screen and glass window to as good as new!

And the party came to an end,
but not without one last magic trick from Grandpa.
WOW!
He really amazed the kids with his magic tricks!

"Experimentation is an active science".

-- Claude Bernard

A sweet little boy named Ethan!

Friday
March 19th, 2010

I can't believe how quickly time passes;
it seems like just yesterday
when this photo was taken...

and I had this sweet little boy
to hold and love.
How did my little boy get to be 8!!

I took the day off on Friday to go and eat lunch with Ethan.
THE JOY that little children have towards their parents just touches my heart.

It's so sad that kids have to grow up.

I savored each moment of our lunch together.
I savored Ethan snuggling up next to me in the lunch line and his excitement to have me sit with his friends at lunch as well.

I savored him wanting me to stay until the bell rang to go to back to class and the sparkle in his eyes as he said "hi" to his teacher with me by his side...holding my hand.

I left for an hour and was an emotional wreck on the drive home because it hit me that these sweet little moments won't last forever.

There comes a time in every child's life where it's not "cool" for their parents to come to school and be with them and so I am holding on to each precious moment of youth!

Ethan's class had a presentation for their parents that afternoon to show us their report on the animal that they had chosen.
Ethan's was about the Octopus.

I am amazed at how much knowledge he has in that little brain of his and he had it completely memorized.
I was SO proud of him and all of the hard work he had done. It was adorable to see him and all of his 2nd grade classmates and their displays.

Today I am grateful
for Ethan Kip!

E...is for ENERGETIC! Ethan runs everywhere and he never tires. I can't believe his energy and ZEST that he has for life! There is never a dull moment at our home with Ethan and his never ending supply of ENERGY!
T...is for THE BEST SMILE! Ethan's smile makes make melt and if I'm ever having a frustrating day, I just have to look at him and it brings a smile to my face every time.
H...is for HONEST and HELPER! It's sometimes hard to be honest and tell the truth, but Ethan never has a problem with this. He is meticulously honest and that is such a blessing. He is also the best HELPER to me and Tracy. He always pitches in and does his part to help out in our home and he can usually be found by Tracy's side helping him with whatever project he is working on.
A...is for AMAZING! I can't believe how smart Ethan is. I am always amazed at how quickly he catches on to everything and his love for learning never stops!
N...is for NICE! Ethan is SO compassionate and caring and he always includes everyone even if they have challenges or handicaps! I have never known Ethan to be rude or mean and he always has courage to stick up for others. He is just one of the NICEST kids I know!

Ethan has got so much determination and desire to succeed and I know that he will go far in life. At this point in his life he seriously thinks that he is going to grow up and be a Doctor someday and I wouldn't be surprised if that dream really did come to pass.

I don't know
what I did to get to be SO lucky to be Ethan's mom, but
I'm savoring each and every moment I get with him!

Looking forward to many more interrupted afternoons of not getting much done because I'm
spending time with boys
reading stories to them, helping with home work, riding bikes, playing catch, coloring, making slime or other "gross things", baking cookies, sitting on the porch and watching and enjoying nature, tickling backs, and the list goes on.

"If you haven't time to respond to a tug at your pants leg, your schedule is too crowded". ~Robert Brault

Lemon Herbed Roasted Chicken

There is nothing yummier
then coming home from a long day at work and having the house smell fragrant and delicious from this chicken recipe cooking in the crockpot.

This recipe came with my first crock-pot I ever owned and I just love how easy it is to throw together.
Put it on low and 8-10 hours later you have dinner to eat!

You can quickly throw this together and in your crockpot before you leave for work or school in the morning,
OR, you can put it all together in the crock at night and then in the morning just pull the crock, put it in the crock pot and turn it to low to cook all day,
OR, if you have late afternoon church, put this in the crockpot at 6 or 7 o'clock in the morning and then by 4:00 you will have dinner to enjoy after you get home from church.

It gets SO tender
that the meat just falls right off the bones!

SO good...

I used
some of the leftover chicken
for sandwiches for lunch the next day...

And the ugly carcass and leftover mess
from the chicken dinner, I just put in my fridge and then pulled it out 2 days later added water and boiled it up and used the broth to make...you guessed it;
WHATCHAGOT <---click here soup!!

Lemon Herbed Roasted Chicken
3-4 pound fryer or roasting chicken
1 chopped onion
2 Tbsp melted butter
juice of one lemon
½ tsp salt
1 Tbsp parlsey
¼ tsp. Thyme
¼ tsp. Paprika
Rinse chicken well and pat dry—remove any excess fat.
Place onion in the cavity of the chicken and
place chicken in crock pot.
Pour melted butter over outside of chicken.
Squeeze juice of lemon over the chicken and
sprinkle with remaining seasonings. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours.

This is the perfect dish for company
served with “Potato Casserole” and steamed veggies or salad.

Enjoy!