Snow day Shreddin'!!

12 inches of new snow + no school + hyper children = a backyard full of gnarly shred heads!!



In one totally trippendicular move, J-boy collides with the very sickly apple tree.
Between the deer and the children, I'm afraid that this poor apple tree will never experience it's full potential.
In fact, I think it's time to say our goodbyes now.



Can you spy the backseat driver?



Yep, these two are a dangerous duo.



Speaking of dangerous... my photo taking abilities in snow.
Null.and.void.



Here's the "Mac Daddy" tearing up our hill.



He pretty much rocks I tell ya.
He's out there, in the balmy 10 degree air, having a grand old time.
Yes, I happen to be standing on our back deck.
It was necessary for me to stay inside and "tend the fire" and prepare the hot chocolate.
Only so that the children would be toasty warm upon re-entry.



This little peanut refuses to be left behind.
Have I mentioned he's 2 going on 8!!
Phrases like "That's Awesoooome", "Suh-weet" and  "Oh Yeah, Baby" are some of his favorites.
His kindly, and not overly cautious father even allowed him to try S-girl's snowboard at one point.
I cringed and covered my eyes.
He's getting way too big for his britches.



And look who else is getting way to big for her britches!
Make it stop...please!!

It's All Downhill From Here..Baby!

We've fully enjoyed our long weekend.
No routine.
Fun times all around.


On Saturday we had a lazy day.
Hangin' out with each other.
Cleaning up "Dixie's puppy piddles".
You know, just enjoying being a family.


In the late afternoon we decided to venture out into the world and run some much needed errands.
We pulled into the Costco parking lot.
C-boy jumped out of the car first. I took issue with his un-shapely hat but decided to just let go.
S-girl emerged next. I hadn't really thought much about her wearing my childhood dress around the house during the day, and yet somehow I missed the fact that she had entered the vehicle still adorned in this lovely attire.
Then came J-boy.
Sweat pants, snow boots, bed head...all kinds of fashion emergencies.
Finally, L-boy sealed the deal in his red pajama shirt.
I'm not really sure what happened.
Really...I have never been super concerned about what my kids are wearing as long as they look clean and neat.

I dropped the ball.
There was nothing "Clean and Neat" about these four children scurrying around me.
As I took in the scene I had to snap a photo on my phone.
I enjoy entertaining my sister with picture texts.


I spent the rest of the evening keeping a distance of at least 8 feet from my small "swarm" of a family.
I knew people would be more forgiving a Daddy out with his four little "messes".
"What a good Daddy", they would think to themselves, "he probably gave his wife the day off!  How sweet of him!"
So yes, I kept my distance.
For the sake of the children. 


Just take a moment.
I think S-girl takes the cake on this one.
Nothing screams "What NOT to wear" like a 30 year old dress adorned with apples, black stretch pants, and light purple Crocs!




Because I want this to be the last picture in your mind as you leave the Peanut Gallery.

Proof that they do clean up well!

Got Cute?

We do!


We've got all kinds of cute going on around these parts!


Meet Dixie.


She's like a walking piece of chocolatey deliciousness.


Eye Candy!


The pets with senority are taking her in stride.


She deeply appreciates our propensity for large sinks.


And the humans in the family are smitten.


Because what human wouldn't be smitten with a face like this?!


That and the fact that she has a new, soft, fleecy bed.


What small human wouldn't be smitten with that?!


At this point Dixie hadn't mistaken S-girl's foot for a chew toy so all was well with the world.


Speaking of smitten....the elders in the family are slightly less smitten.
Or better yet...annoyed.
Because when you are 98 dog years old...the patience wanes.

But we are hoping that Dixie will bring a little "spark" to Jake's final days.
And possibly lengthen them?
A family can hope, right?


The Elmo chair is a hit, as per usual.
I spy with my little eye a pair of S-girl's underwear tucked away for a little "snack" after a long winter's nap.


Where's Waldo?

Stop!  I can't take any more cute.  It's much too much!!




And all of this has got me wondering.... why we didn't purchase one of these years ago.



Think of all of the toilet fiascoes that could have been avoided!
Dixie isn't thrilled.
But my children?
Well, they've spent the better part of the day chillin' in the crate.
Who knew sitting in a cage would be so entertaining?
Hmmm...maybe we are on to something here!

The title of my new book will be as follows:

Crate Training Your Children-What Took Us So long?

Bakerella I Am Not... also titled The Motley Crew.

In a previous post, I mentioned the fact that all of the boys in my life...including the big one...were born  in December.

Hence, December has a way of becoming a tad stressful.

So, I really can't be sure what possessed me to try my hand at The Bakerella's reindeer cake pops.  It may have been the excess of eggnog that I was drinking...or quite possibly the large amounts of chocolate I had been inhaling for the previous three weeks. 

The fact that Wilton's chocolate melts were on sale at Joanne's drove the nail in the coffin.

My coffin.

I will start by saying that Bakerella makes the famous "cake  pop" look like such an easy endeavor.  

NOT.

I mean how hard can dipping a wadded up piece of cake on a stick into a vat of melted chocolate really be?

Really. Hard.

Not to mention the seventeen hundred steps involved in creating the perfect cake-pop.

And that being said, I will share with you the results. 




This was the very first little guy that I created.  I was feelin' pretty confident at this point.  I like how the little bump of chocolate below his red nose resembled a small mouth.  And being that I did not have edible marker to draw a mouth, I was feeling pretty genius right about now.




This was reindeer number 2. My dipping technique wasn't quite as smooth as the previous "dip". However, at this point I hadn't lost my confidence.  I was beginning to realize that this isn't as easy as it looks.  The eye placement was creating a problem as they seemed to want to sink down into the chocolate.



Things slowly began to take a turn for the worse.  I'm not sure if the children were ready to undertake such a lofty endeavor, J-boy was in charge of eye placement and S-girl was endowing each reindeer with antlers.




Then things got UGLY.
At this point I'm not really sure what happened.  I began to lose my confidence. My "dipping" ability was fading.  Apparently, so was S-girl's antler placement.



Look away if you must.
I'm not sure I can even say what happened with this poor soul. She looks as if she's had one too many.
The "lush" of the par-tay.



And this one?
You choose.
Confused?
Dazed?
Befuddled?
Any of the above will work..





This lovely lad will have great difficulty guiding Santa's sleigh.
Inspite of his "nose so bright"!



So, the moral of the story is....you will never find me making cake pops again.
Because I haven't got time for the pain....
no I haven't got room for the pain...

However, I will admit that the sheer excitement that my dear two year old displayed was well worth the production.  He ran around yelling "reindeer cake balls!" for 10 minutes straight.

So, now that I'm thinking about it...I guess the pain was worth it.
For this one time.




We made the mistake of pulling these out too early in the evening.  Before all the party guests had arrived.  I was having great difficulty keeping them from being licked and mauled. Oh well, it was only family...I'm sure they wouldn't have minded knowing that they were eating previously licked cake-pops.

Below is a brief clip. 

And yes, after doing quite a bit of video taping over the holidays...I am painfully aware of the tone in which I speak to my poor child.  I also couldn't get him to yell out "reindeer cake balls!" for the camera.  Isn't that always the way it goes!

Before and After...Big shoes to fill

Many moons ago, my mother-in-law asked if I would click a picture with the kids feet in big shoes and pair it with a favorite quote.


I never quite got around to capturing it until this past month...many moons later!


With Christmas breathing down our necks we found ourselves trying to think of the perfect gift for our mom.


Fortunately, I had some willing bodies, who actually enjoy walking around in shoes nine sizes too big!


Here is the before...


And After...

This was edited in Photoshop Elements and I used Coffeeshop's Color Block Action.

I plopped that baby into a hand painted frame by "moi" and had a real purdy little gift. In fact, I'm even gonna frame one for myself.

This is my beautiful Mother-in-law.
The word painted on the frame says "Inspire".

And now, because I want to inspire you...may I share an out-take?
I initially thought I'd only use S-girl for this photo.
I just couldn't get "Ole' thunder pants" to be still.


Before I share .... I must defend myself in a small way by saying that we rarely utilize our front door. Especially in the winter when D-man plows the top of our driveway and blocks the sidewalk leading to the front door with 5 feet of snow!


Hence, one can't be held responsible for not noticing the sorry condition of the pumpkins sitting on one's front porch.

Not really sure what I was thinking when I snapped this. 
Perhaps I was thinking I'd get real cozy with the crop tool in photoshop!

Really..a pumpkin should last for at least 2 months in the frigid North, shouldn't it?

Apparently...NOT!

I'm sorry you had to see this. 
Now run along and look at some more before and afters at Pixel Perfect.