What Loops were really made for

Some may argue that Loops were designed to help medical personnel see in better detail the the things in which they are performing procedures on. As you can see they were clearly made for cutting your preschoolers fingernails. I feel this could be a new marketing strategy for them. In fact when I came downstairs with a mound of laundry I saw this laughed and then immediately had an entire Saturday Morning Infomercial come to mind. It went a little something like this; Tired of accidentally cutting your infants skin while cutting her fingernails? Or listening to your toddler whine about their fingers hurting because you have once again cut those minuscule fingernails too short? Those days could now be over simply call 1-800-LOO-PS4U and with 4 easy payments of $19.95 (plus shipping and handling) you can own a pair of Loops just like the ones you see Doctors wear on T.V. if you have seen a doctor wear them during your surgical procedures you should call Binder and Binder now to file your injury claim!

Bryn

Bryn is such a good baby. She plays well by herself, isn't needed or fussy. She is 5 months old now and is so fun. Here are some of her favorite things to do. Play in her exersaucer. Have her sister hold her. She is completely in love with Kenna. They do a lot of snuggling on the couch. Kenna is soft and gentle with her. If Bryn starts to fuss she will go running to her saying "It's okay Bryn I am here". I love it. She is a rice cereal fan. And is so cute sitting up at her highchair. It is a good thing she make noise every once in a while or I would forget about her!

Mail from Grandma!

Kenna was so excited Monday to have the "brown truck" (aka UPS) bring her something from her Grandma. Every time she sees a UPS truck she asks if Grandma has sent her a special package. To make it more exciting I told her it was for her birthday. Being two days past her birthday she was thrilled that it was a "birthday day again". I had some cake leftover and we sang to her again. She is so funny. I am going to take this time to excuse myself from any responsibility on how the child is dressed she insisted on doing it herself! here are some cute photos of her opening her package from Grandma (Norby).

She was so excited to get the CD player and the Primary songs on CD. She also got some lip gloss and two cards one from Grandma and one from Great Grandma Wade with some money in it. She called the cards "messages". She looked so cute listening to "her songs". She spent a good 20 minutes on the couch listening. This is going to be great for the plane ride. Thanks Mom.

Kenna's Birthday!

I can't believe our little Kenna is 3 years old already! Time goes by so fast! She has been so excited all month for her birthday. Friday night we took her out for a birthday dinner, she chose pizza. We tried a place called Bertucci's Brick Oven Pizzeria. It was the best pizza we have ever had! Because it was her birthday they gave her free ice cream and put a candle in it, we sang to her and let her blow the candle out. It made her day. She wanted Brad to take her shopping for a "beautiful dress" so her and Brad went to Target and she chose a dress with black velvet top with pink (of course) satin with a chiffon overlay for the bottom. Brad tried and tried to get her to like a black and gold one that had a matching one for Bryn but it was not happening. She told us she wouldn't wear it, only the pink one. So the pink one she got.

Aunt Jena sent a card in the mail with some money she had a blast walking around the toy isles trying to pick something out. Every corner we went around she would say "I found something Dad!'' only to go around another corner to have found yet another something. She narrowed her decision down to a game. After debating over Chutes and Ladders, Memory, or Hungry Hippos for a good 5 minutes, she finally decided on Memory. She is rather good at the game, we need to work on only turning 2 pieces over each turn.

On Saturday (her actual birthday) she had some friends over for a party. Kids parties are so easy to do, a little craft, a simple game, food, play with presents. It went very well, Kenna chose a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme. So we decorated mouse ears that I painstakingly cut out the night before. They played pin the bow on Daisy, ate a preschoolers dream lunch of dinonuggets and fries with juice.She has a good bunch of friends that all come from good families that are teaching them well. I was so impressed when we sat down to eat lunch I suggested that we say a blessing on our food. Then ten 3 year old sitting at my table all folded their arms, bowed their little noggins, and closed their eyes. That was the only quiet time during the party.

Brad made an amazing Micky Mouse cake. She opened her presents they played and had cake and ice cream. Brad and I got her a bike with a helmet and knee pads to go with it. I was excited to give this to her, I bought it back in April and it had been sitting in our garage. We also got her a Rainbow Dash newborn (My little Pony), and a fisher price doctor kit that she had been asking for. Another thing I love at this age is the inability to keep a secrete, each friend when they handed her a gift told her what it was they all were just as excited as she was as you can see in the photo below. So cute.

Later that evening the door bell rang and some flowers from her Grandma and Grandpa Murray arrived with a balloon attached. She was in heaven. We then let her open the presents Grandma Murray had sent. She had a very big day and felt special. As I was putting her to bed she told me that Birthdays are my favorite and best days. Thank you to everyone for calling and sending cards.

I love the Fall in Pennsylvania!

And here is why. We went to bed on Wednesday with all of the leave still on our trees. When we awoke Thursday morning this is what we found, all thanks to a little gust of wind!! I should have followed my gut and taken a picture of the trees on Wednesday when I thought about it. Oh well just imagine what they all looked like on the trees.

The one on the right is of our sidewalk. Here are a few from the street.

Of course we took the kids out and took some photos of them in it.

We had Thanksgiving Dinner at our house, so when everyone showed up they all took pictures of their families in the leaves. I cooked a fabulous turkey again this year, and we had 6 couples and a set of missionaries over for dinner. It was great food, and great company we all had a ball and stuffed ourselves senseless. The turkey that I cooked was 25 lbs, we referred to it as "the bird". We will definitely do it again next year. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

Best Thing Ever

Friday Kenna and I made Banana Bread. She loved to stir all the ingredients in the bowl. Another big hit was counting as I put the ingredients into the bowl. She sure is fun. All the while stirring she kept saying "this is the best thing ever mom." I 100% agree. Here is the recipe for those who desire to partake of "the best thing ever". This is what you will need, 3/4 C Sugar, 1tsp Baking Soda, 1 pinch of Salt, 3 bananas mashed, 2C four, 2 eggs beaten, and 1 square butter. Mix butter and sugar in bowl, add bananas, eggs, and dry ingredients. Bake 1 hour at 350. This is what it should look like

This is then what happens to it.

....Going.....

Going...

... Gone... It didn't last 12 hours at our house.

A Project

Kenna is in love with art projects. If it is a product that can be cut, colored, painted, glued, or stuck on to something she loves it. She asks every day if she can do a project. My house would be tons cleaner if cutting gluing etc wasn't such a joy and paper wasn't everywhere. Oh well at least she isn't watching t.v. all day. So here is something that we did yesterday. This is good and cheep for all of you who are on student loan and/or repaying insane amounts of student loan debt budgets. We went for a walk and gather leaves tons and tons, every color that we could find. This was fun for me because it burned up some of that energy that she has which meant that when we got home she would take a nice nap! After her nice nap we took a paper plate and cut the center out of it. I was impressed with her cutting skills. Last time I let her cut anything she got her clothes. This is something that she remembered as well she said to me when she was done cutting; (read the following with all joy and excitement that a 2 yr old posses) "Mom I didn't cut my dress this time! I am so good!" I agreed Then we took the leaves and glued them to the paper plate to make a wreath. I let her run the hot glue gun with much assistance. I drove the point home that it was hot and would give her a big fat owie if she didn't listen while using it. Here is the finished product. She had a blast and it is being proudly displayed on our front door.

Bryn played with her toys while Kenna and I did the cutting and gluing. However, this is not where she was originally put. I put her on the other side of the boppy on the blanket. I had the Boppy on the floor just to keep her from rolling all over the place apparently it didn't work.

Bacon Potato Chowder

This is good stuff! It makes tons so if you have a small family you may want to half the recipe. This is what we eat every Halloween for dinner. It is a great fall dinner. 1 lb Bacon cut into half inch strips 1 yellow onion chopped 6-8 potatoes peeled and chuncked 2 cans cream of chicken soup 2 cups sour cream 3 cups water 2 cups cheddar cheese In a pot cook bacon to desired crispness, add onion and cook for about 5 minutes. Remove bacon and onion and set to the side. In same pot add 3 cups of water to remaining bacon grease add chuncked potatoes and cook until potatoes are tender. In medium bowl add 2 cups of sour cream and cream of chicken soups mix together. Add soup mixture to potatoes and water, also add bacon and onions. Heat on low but don't boil. Serve with cheese sprinkled on top. We also eat this with warm rolls. ENJOY!!

Want a story My Little Bryn?

Yesterday evening Kenna was in the living room spreading out her blankets on the floor and setting up a few pillows. She does this a lot and refers to the spread out blankets as her "space". She asked if Bryn could lay down on her space with her. Note in picture that bear has a pillow as well as her and Bryn, so cute! She had brought down a ton of books in the Halloween bag (thanks Carolyn she has had fun with that) and proceeded to "read" her sister books. I was quite impressed at how well she has some of those stories memorized. When she got out the Little Engine that Could, she looked at Bryn and said, "this is mommy's favorite because her Gamma Norby read it to her when she was little." You remember her Papa Norby right Bryn, we went to his house after the plane? Cute little Bryn just stared at her with her big blue eyes. Quite the little mommy.

Halloween fun!

We had a ton of fun this Halloween. Kenna had a Halloween Party with her friends they played pin the tail on the cat, a ring toss with a witched hat, bowled for mummies, and a cake walk. They also made a candy corn craft. All the kids came dressed in their costumes and they all had fun.

We had a church Halloween party that was tons of fun as well. Kenna and her friend Kyle entered the cupcake eating contest, however they slowly and delicately ate the cupcakes (we should have told them not to worry about making a mess). They did a costume parade and a cupcake eating contest for adults which Brad won!

Kenna is into crafts so we did a few. Thank you Jess for the Family Fun web site idea. She made a pumpkin out of a terracotta pot, a haunted house out of foam and carved a few pumpkins.

We took the girls trick or treating. Bryn only to the neighbors so they could see her cute costume I had told them all about.(thanks again Kim .) Then I took Kenna around the rest of the neighborhood. She understood the concept this year. She kept saying I want to get all the houses mom. She walk the whole way and we hit about 40 houses. I kept asking if she was done, every time I asked she would say no I have to get all of the houses. She ran from house to house for a while she wanted to make sure she got some candy before all the other kids took it all. Finally I was tired of walking so I brought her home. The bag her Aunt Carolyn got her was completely full.

Forgot these

We took the kids to JC Penny and got some pictures taken of them! They are so cute. They were are a little sick but managed a few smiles anyway.