Calling all Women of Faith!

The 2010 Women of Faith conference in Dallas will be held at the American Airlines Center on August 20th & 21st, which is a Friday night & Saturday. I have been to this annual event three times & have been blessed by it each time. I have a block of 25 tickets reserved & would love for you to join me! Tickets are $89 each, & I promise you that it's worth it. If you're interested please let me know by leaving a comment or emailing me. For more information on the event, please visit http://www.womenoffaith.com/dallas/. Thanks!

Whatever Works

I'm sure all of you parents out there will agree with me when I say that, most of the time, I try to be an involved parent. None of us want our kids growing up with more TV time than one-on-one time with Mommy & Daddy. Sometimes, though, you just need them to be occupied so you can clean up the dinner dishes & get ready for small group bible study. They're whining, time is running out & you need a solution fast. That's when stuff like this happens:
In my defense, their shirtlessness was due to the dinner menu involving spaghetti, so that wasn't just negligence on my part. In a pinch, sesamestreet.org is a lifesaver - and the gate keeps them from pushing all the buttons on the computer.
Sometimes, you've got to go with whatever works. Can I get an amen?

Yummy to My Tummy: Fanciful Fruit Pizza

I've been loving our warm spring weather lately (we missed the day of snow), so for small group a couple of weeks ago, I decided to make a fruit pizza. It just seems "summery" to me, plus it's easy & oh, so good. Enjoy!

Fanciful Fruit Pizza

1 recipe Favorite Sugar Cookie dough, or substitute 1 (20 oz) pkg refrigerated dough
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2 C sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 C orange marmalade
1 T water
assorted fruit

Heat oven to 350 degrees. With floured fingers, press cookie dough into a large circle on a cookie sheet or stone pan. Bake 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool completely.
Beat cream cheese, sugar & vanilla until fluffy; spread over cooled cookie crust.
Arrange fruit over cream cheese. In small bowl, combine orange marmalade & water; blend well. Spoon marmalade mixture over fruit. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving. Cut into squares to serve.

The Proof is in the Picture

Here's the lovely picture we gained from the experience described in my last post. It wasn't funny that day, but it is now. When I showed this to Justin, he said, "It's not that bad." I assured him that this was snapped nearer to the beginning of Jake's meltdown. I'm sure any shots taken later in the drama would be even more humorous. There's always next year, right? Sweet Mallory looks like such a big girl to me in this picture. Where have my babies gone?
My brief blogging hiatus has been due to a fun-filled week in Georgia. More to share soon!

It's a good thing he's so cute!

Jake gave me one of my more trying moments as a parent this morning. Even though we had a busy day planned, I decided to take the kids to the Arboretum this morning to get their picture made with live bunnies. They only do this on Mondays & Tuesdays in March & there just aren't that many days that will work for us, so I saw this as my chance.

After waiting in line for over an hour, all the while wrestling Jake to keep him from running away, we finally made it to our turn. As I led the kids over to the little bench that they were to sit on, Jake freaked out & started crying uncontrollably. I'm not really sure why; maybe the photographer just scared him. Despite my best efforts, he refused to calm down, so the picture we'll be receiving in the mail will show a smiling Mal & a sobbing Jake. Sound familiar? That's right, just like their Santa pictures.

To top this off, they didn't even have a bunny in the picture because the bunny had bitten a kid early in the line, so the photographer nixed the bunny from the photo scene. I was already a bit uncomfortable in the presence of the very polished moms standing around me in line, & my screaming child did little to ease this. By the time we made it to the car, I was crying right along with him. It's a good thing he's so adorable, or he might not be able to pull off stunts like this & still steal my heart with a grin thirty minutes later.

My sweet boy having some reading time with Daddy

Fancy Footwear

Almost two years ago, I received these cute Crocs for Jake & Mal from my friends Mere & Laura at my baby shower. They finally fit! And it's perfect timing since the weather is warming up & we're playing outside more. On this particular day, though, they just happened to be handy for a rainy day errand.

Jake was happy to oblige & show his duds off for Mommy.
Mallory opted to be a stinker & hide from the camera.
And then they just decided that it was funny to lay their heads down on the couch. Silly kids!

From the Archives: Pantless Play

I've been doing a good job of taking more pictures & videos on my phone lately so that I can capture random things the kids do when the big camera isn't around. Unfortunately, I haven't done a very good job of actually remembering to put them on the computer! So, I'm stealing an idea from my friend Rachel & posting some things long past their due. (Love you, Rach!)

These videos are just some random, cute play time from January. Clearly, you can have more fun if you go sans pants!

The Biter & The Bitten

It's ridiculous that each of these monikers describe one of my children, but thus is life these days! When I last posted on this topic, we'd had several minor biting incidents at home & one in the church nursery that left a substantial mark. Unfortunately, we don't seem to be improving much.

Last Monday, the kids were upstairs playing when I heard screaming from first Mallory & then Jake. My super Mommy radar told me that Mal had been offended in some way, had bitten her brother & now he was clearly offended to have been bitten. I ran up the stairs, expecting to see bite marks but couldn't find any. Jake acted like he'd been hurt from his whimpering but I couldn't find a probable cause. So, I sat & consoled him & watched Sesame Street with them for a few minutes to calm everyone down.
Then I saw this:
Um, yeah, I guess I didn't think to look for bite marks on his neck! What is she, a vampire? Anyway, Mal got a stern scolding, but I wasn't sure what to do about actual punishment since we were about ten minutes removed from the incident. I had no idea whether or not she would still connect the event to the punishment.

The next day, I was informed when I picked up the kids from Mother's Day Out that "someone" had bitten Jake on the hand. The caregivers didn't see who had done it, so they didn't want to place blame, but I wasn't so confused as to what had occurred. I assured them that it was probably Mallory & scolded her once again.

After relaying all of this information to Justin, he told me that we need to prepare to play hardball & punish even if it's after the fact since this is clearly a pattern. We will, of course, show her the bite marks & talk a lot about what she's being punished for, but since she's apparently smart enough to do it when we're not around, I guess this just has to be our course of action. We've also been dealing with a lot of fit throwing from our sweet girl lately, & last night she got put in time out at church for pushing Jake. If you have any advice from previous experience, I'm all ears!

Master Bedroom Redo: Phase 2

We took kind of a long pause between parts 1 & 2 of our bedroom update, but we finally have a few new pieces!

This table was a great find at an antique shop in Atlanta that J's parents love. The lamps & shades are cute but economical from Target.
We decided not to do matching tables, & I'm very pleased with the look now that we found them both. This mirrored one is from Pier 1. The red leather ottoman matches a love seat that we ordered for the room. It should be delivered this week!
The complete look so far:
We have also ordered the piece that our TV will be set on, but it wasn't in stock, so it may still be another month or so before we get it. Once that gets here, I'll finally be able to hang some things on the walls & see about getting the room painted. We found a couple of paint colors that we liked this weekend, & I think that will really complete the room.