I Love It When This Happens...

Ahhhhh! Nap time at the exact same time! Finally, a little peace and quiet all to myself!

Feeding the Crave

Our family absolutely LOVES ice cream! It's an addiction we just can't give up, and quite honestly, we don't really wan't to! So, my sister gave me this idea. It's a healthy ice cream...Say What!? Healthy ice cream? No, really, this stuff actually taste delicious, is creamy and smooth, sweet, and feeds the crave for that cold delicious treat!
Here's the recipe:
Ripe bananas (they're just getting the black spots, but not overtaken by them completely)
Skim or 1% milk (we used 1%, but really you can use whole or 2% too)
and any other fruit you like (we added strawberries...delicious!)
So when your bananas get spotted, cut them up in bite size pieces and freeze them.
When they are nice and frozen, throw them in the blender with just enough milk to get them blended...we didn't use very much at all).
add any other fruit you want blend it all up
and enjoy your sweet, smooth, oh so delicious, creamy treat!

Just look at this little girl! She loved her healthy treat!

YAY for Gracie!

Grace has been trying to learn the whole alphabet for a while and she just about has it! I'm proud of little Grace Clare! My favorite part of this video is when she sings LMNOP...so cute!

Now that is one cute 2 year old! How I love those chubby cheeks and big lips!

If Momma Ain't Happy, Ain't Nobody Happy!

Okay, that is not entirely true in this house. Grace doesn't seem to care that Momma ain't happy!
Last Thursday I was happily looking through inventory in my beloved art supply closet at work (this closet puts the walk in closet to shame!) As I was moving boxes, determined to find more white drawing paper, I twisted my darn weak back! I made it to the time clock, my car,  picked up Seth and Grace, and into the house before I completely doubled over in pain. Since then, I have made it to Instacare, the pharmacy, and one day of work, and lets not forget the bathroom and kitchen once in a while. The couch  and I are almost inseperable...if it weren't for my little ones, I would never leave it or endure the pain of movement. My poor kiddos! Let's just say, I do what I can, but I am in no way entertaining! Thankfully, Grace is pretty good at finding things to do and Seth happily follows her around waiting to watch her next ambitious, totally crazy move.

Today, Grace brought all her dollies out and put each of them carefully on the couch. She kissed them one by one and told them they would be okay. I asked her what was wrong with her babies? Her answer, their backs are hurting. She also claims every night before bed or while she is trying to get out of her chore of cleaning her toys up, that her back is too tired and hurts! Someone is very observant! She has learned that I do very little lately because of my back, she already knows how to use a good and reliable excuse! Smarty pants, that one is!
I'm so grateful she keeps herself busy so well and gets into very little trouble. (Though the story is different when daddy comes home and I go to bed early, I can't even describe the mess I woke up too.)

Books have been our greatest help the past week. Grace reads them to her dolls and Seth. They keep her busy, right in front of me, and out of trouble. I love Books!

By-the-way, I was so disappointed with that doll when I made it for her for Christmas, I think it is so not cute , but Grace loves Maggie. She sleeps, dances, cuddles, and reads books with her. So funny that she likes it so much more than I thought she would.

"The Express Likeness of His Father"

The night before Seth was born (I was induced), Deryk and I still hadn't decided on a name for our little guy. We had quite a few names that we really liked, but we just hadn't felt any of them were really right (though I really wanted one or two of them, I just couldn't settle on them) So anyway, here we were trying to come up with a name, and I decided to look up a few in the bible dictionary. I had mentioned Seth before, but it wasn't in the top ten of names. But I looked it up in the bible dictionary anyway and this is what it says...

Seth 

Seth. Son of Adam and Eve, born in the 130th year of Adam’s life in mortality (Luke 3:38; Moses 6:1–3; 6:9–11). A prophet and patriarch, he was ordained by Adam at the age of 69 years. He is called “a perfect man, and his likeness was the express likeness of his father, insomuch that he seemed to like unto his father in all things” (D&C 107:42–43). The record says he lived 912 years (Gen. 5:8; Moses 6:16).8

I liked the part about his likeness being the express likeness of his father, insomuch that he seemed like unto his father in all things. I felt that if I was going to have a boy I want him to be just like his father in looks and personality. When Seth finally arrived the next day we still weren't sure what to name him. A few hours later we thought we better get serious about choosing a name. The truth is, I couldn't even remember some of the other names we had liked and talked about earlier. Seth was the only name that came to my mind. I tried hard to think of the others, but they just wouldn't come to me.  Seth just seemed the right name.

Well, although I'm not sure who Seth is more like in personality, I do know he is almost the picture of his father. The only difference is the eyes. (he got my big blue...to bad too, cause I was hoping to see Deryk's beautiful green/hazel eyes on this little guy. oh well, he's still as adorable as ever). It seems the name was very appropriate. Check out Deryk and little Deryk!

AND now little Deryk has figure out how to climb and cruise the couch and anything else his height. He's been at this for almost a month now, and it scares me, he's had a few tumbles. I wish he would slow down!

He's so proud of himself!

No Your Eyes Do Not Deceive You...

That's Deryk cooking a delicious meal for the fam!
Paroggies...Deliciousness!
I love it when he cooks, (I'm sure he feels the same way about when I cook).

V-Day Come and Gone!

Who can believe it is already nearing the end of February? For REAL!! Time is not just flying, it is jetting by! I think the best news I've had lately is that Puxatauny Phil didn't see his shadow, so an early spring is in the forecast! Bring it on! And we have had GREAT weather lately too. It got to 60 degrees one day! (then it snowed, but it is supposed to get real nice again soon, so I'm okay with the short-lived snow fall.

Anyway, this is our Valentines day fun...
Our tradition is to have a yummy candle-light dinner for the fam. I didn't go all out this year like I have in years past, we have busy Mondays, the fact that I made dinner was surprising in and of itself!
Salad, chicken and spinach pizza (made for the first time by me, I made it kind of dry, but it tasted even better for left overs the next day), and  chocolate lava cakes for desert...DELISH! And of course, we always open a bottle of sparkling cider, always my favorite treat!

(can't figure out what Grace's face is all about in this picture)

Desert! 

 Gracie was done-up V-day style with all the cute hearts. She loved her V-day present! (60% off at Shopko, I paid 4 dollars for it...good deal, right? Seth got a cute little sock monkey, he made out with it. Seriously, wouldn't stop kissing it. I already have to wash it. Unfortunately he fell asleep before I got a picture of him with his new love!

Deryk got me flowers and some jewelery. Can't go wrong with that!
It was a nice night, enjoying the people I love most and that is what it's really all about!
Hope you all had a great V-day as well and here's to a happy early spring to all of you!!

Look at those baby-licious thighs!

I'm obsessed!!!

How she makes me smile!

Grace is so much fun! Her personality keeps us laughing...AND very busy!

 She found my eyeshadow. Not the first time I've caught her putting make-up on either!

The more the merrier! 

There was a time when she was completely weaned from pacifiers, but the minute Seth  came home with a passy in his mouth, all was lost to the temptation of that almighty passy! Now we can't keep them from her and she even stockpiles them for times when we think we've bested her in the wits of the hidden passy game! 


Endnote. Both these pictures were taken in the morning soon after Gracie woke up, thus the insane hair-dos! (ya, this isn't even the worst of her morning hair-dos!)

Hide and Seek has Never Been So Fun (or cute)

I love playing hide and seek with Gracie, cause this is usually how I find her...

 OH, do I spy little Gracie?




Yep, there she is!

Art Projects Overload!

This is what we've been working on in art the last month.

 Silly Socks (1st and 2nd graders)! This is the example and these....

 are what some of the kids came up with! I love the one with high heals!

 Black and White Alphabet (1st Graders)

 Newspaper monsters and flowers (2nd-3rd grade)   (sorry picture rotating problems)
Here are some of the student's work....

They turned out so cute, the students LOVED doing them!

 Primary and Secondary colors (4th and 5th graders)

 Fun alternating patterns (3rd grade).

 Valentines using an old reading workbook (seriously old!) and water colors (3rd - 5th grades)

 Gustav Klimt inspired trees (4th - 5th grade)
and some of their completed works. (they all did such awesome work!!) I was so impressed with how artistic and creative they all were!

Being the art teacher is seriously one of the very best jobs I have ever had. I love being creative and seeing others creativity come to light. The students impress me and inspire me everyday! Some of the ideas I use are my own, but I have been doing so much research, hours upon hours upon hours! I am sooo grateful for the many great art blogs that inspire me or provide the whole lesson plan! They have been a life-saver!!
This week we are working on Jim Dine inspired water color hearts. They are turning out so cute. It's a fun project!

And that's the fun Birch Creek Elementary is having in art!

(For my homeschooling friends, if you want some good resources for art, let me know. I'll direct you to some great blogs!)

Where's Gracie?

Putting Gracie to bed also means putting her dolls and bear to bed too. She asks for them each by name. Maggie (the doll I sewed for her), Tilly (the cabbage patch doll), and bear, (and sometimes Lilly, but not very often so she isn't pictured).  Doesn't she look as snug as a bug in her crowded rug?

A little bit of This and A Lot of That

We've been busy lately, but not to busy to enjoy life with each other and family members. (By-the-way, we are never to busy to get together with our families...always worth the drive!)

I love that I don't have to work on Fridays! I get to play with the kids, stay in P.J.s for most of the day, cook, prep art examples for the coming week, and waste time looking at all the hidden treasures at ROSS (Grace absolutely loves that store, mostly because I let her rummage through the toys to make her own little discoveries...we never buy, but its fun to play with them while we're there.)

One new fun thing we do on Fridays is have tea parties! I make cookies, or small peanut butter sandwiches and hot apple cider or hot coco and we have all the makings for a grand tea party! Grace absolutely loves this! I do too!

 I found Grace's little tea set at Ross's (of course)

(sorry for the blurry pic)

 And I had to buy a tea set for me too, so I could host our little tea parties. (I can hardly believe I never had one, considering my mother owns a ton.)

 My little cuties, dressed up and ready for church! Sundays are so exciting at our house, the excitement of nursery is more than we can handle!

 We made a trip to Idaho on Martin Luther King  weekend. We went to Malta for a quick visit and had fun hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa Barrett's house for a few hours. Then up to Newdale to eat Sunday dinner with the simper family (well, a few of them anyway). Then on Monday we Drove to Pocatello and played in the snow with Debbi's family and Eva and Porter. The snow was so wet, we were falling in all over the place. I spent most of the time, in the car with Seth, but it was fun to watch the others get down and dirty in the snow. The highlight of the visit for me, was laughing around the kitchen table with my sisters for an hour or so after the snow play.

 Eva and Grace...they look so cold! But they had so much fun!

 Look at those rosey cheeks! 

 Seth! So Cute! Just hanging with me in the car...we stayed very warm!

 Another moment in the hall, they spend a lot of time there while I dress for the day. (okay, not A LOT of time, I can usually dress in 45 min or less...USUALLY.)

 Brag time. 

I made this little skirt, it was a Christmas present. Now, what I am most proud of, is that I didn't have a pattern! I just kind of went with an idea I had after seeing one like it on the babygap web site that cost 32 dollars! YA RIGHT! I made this skirt for less than FIVE!

So there you have it, A little bit of this and a lot of that! Such a random post, I know.

Welcome to My Classroom

I have been the art teacher at Birch Creek for three school weeks now and I am loving it! I thought it would be fun to show you around my classroom. I am still working on it, but I'll show you anyway,

My Favorite part! My name right outside the door...I feel so official!

It is such a beautiful big class! Can you see the little snowmen families the kids have been working on? I've been putting them up (pretty slowly) as the kids finish them.

Birch Creek's mascot it the bulldog, so It's all about them in this classroom. Each table is a colored bulldog and they work together to earn their dog bones each week. The teams total over all points (in dog bones) throughout the month earn them the opportunity to take Arty, the bulldog back to their class for a month. They LOVE it.

Ooh, those precious dog bones...

Arty the bulldog and his clone. (The two classes with the highest points get to take them, they love Arty)
And this is the first real project I've done with them. It turned out pretty successfully! The first graders did the small guy, we called him our double decker snowman. and the second graders did the tall ones. The third graders are still working on theirs, they have an extra element to theirs...check out the picture below.
Cute right? So I taught the kids about character and style, leaving the eyes and nose off gave it a personal character and style. I taught them about dry brushing (technique), about art in play (building a snowman is like building a sculpture, creating a work of art) and finally, I taught them about art in nature, the snowflakes are an original piece every time.

So the first project was fun and turned out cute. It was hard to start out right away with a painting project. It was a lot of hard work. Classroom management was an absolute must and TONS of cleaning. But I'm glad I jumped in with this project, I know I can handle anything now.Next week's projects are going to be so fun (and cute) I'm pretty excited to see how the kids do.