Somewhat of a Catch-up & The Post about Dr Pepper

How can I talk about Christmas and Easter in the same post?
Because I'm BEHIND.

Christmas was great.
Made lots of gifts,
didn't take pictures of most of them.
WHAT WAS I THINKING?

Oh well.

We did our annual
cram-everyone-into-the-photobooth
picture.



Love it!

Don't know how much longer we'll all fit!

In other news....

Lent started yesterday.
I gave up pop.
Actually, I'm trying to decide if I gave up pop
or just Dr Pepper.
But all pop is the greater sacrifice
so that's probably what it should be
and OH MY, I'm having a hard time!
I'm shocked. Is it possible to go through pop withdrawal?
This is crazy.

But then I found this post
that talks about going without a different luxury
for one month at a time and instead giving the money for water.

This month's challenge is coffee. I like coffee but it's no big deal for me to give it up. Dr Pepper..... there you go! I bet I spend close to $20/month on Dr Pepper! That same $20 could buy water for 20 people for 20 years. Um, yes, SIGN ME UP FOR THAT!

I can choose to sacrifice for one month so that others can have water for 20 years.

And then can we pause for a moment
to consider the privilege of my life
that giving up Dr Pepper
is my "sacrifice"?


If you are interested,
here is the post that got me thinking.
They are building wells in Liberia, West Africa
through charity:water.

Wordless Wednesday: Fun Times in MuchoLand

Helping Hands

I thought this was so cute,
Three "helping" One tie his shoes

Sunday

It happened slowly.

Four sleeps with us.

Then the other morning,
Three crawled in.
Then One.
Then Two....

Then Mama got the camera:

Anyone else feel like singing
"There were four in the bed
and the little one said,
roll over, roll over!
So they all roll over
(what? without any fighting or whining?)
and one fell out...


We're getting back in the swing of things.


Little belly's are healing:



Little girls are growing up
and having birthdays:



We're having fun in the sun:


And crafty things are in the works!

Check out CraftHope's latest project here,
pillowcases for your local little ones with cancer.
I committed to make at least two,
maybe you could too?

Catch Up

Just checking in from a blogging break.

We've been doing lots of hanging out.



Playing in the sprinklers:


Getting our entire floors replaced:



Turning 3 mos old:



Taking youth groups to the Lion King:


Notice the smile on my face?
This is me before they told me
I had to have a ticket for Four as well.

Seriously.

(Don't worry, they comped it.)


Then this one gave us quite the health scare:

(He has taken to drawing on his face....markers, lipstick, sunscreen....you name it.)

He's now scheduled for kidney surgery this week.
Ironically, so is our neighbor.
Same day, same hospital.

So the blogging break is going to continue
because my babies come first!

Happy Summer!

Money Math

We made money jars back at this post.
The only problem was
none of us ever knew how much money they had
and let's face it,
Mom's not the best at remembering
to give them their allowance.



So we counted up the money,
-it made a great math lesson-



and created a ledger for them to keep track
of the balance:

(Yes, I paid One to wash our windows. 25 cents a window...what a bargain!)


I love that it was:
1) fun
2) math
3) life skills
all in one!

Pipe Cleaner Rings

I saw these cute pipe cleaner flower rings
over on Martha Stewart.

They were so cute
and came together in a flash.
The tutorial is here.

Kids loved them!
They'd be great party favors!

Coffee

I tried a new coffee place.

It came highly recommended
from several people I know.
Different groups of people,
and they all liked the same place.
My hopes were high,
and can I just say.....

YUM!



But something was funky.


See how my snazzy lid
didn't open all the way?


Hmmm.
Upon closer inspection,
I wondered if it was because of this:

Are the coffee people snobs?
Hating on my pregnant self
with their judgement on my
decaf snowy mocha?

Nope!
Turns out you can get a new lid
plus an extra chocolate covered
espresso bean...

which just might ruin the effects
of my decaf order.

Curly Hair Secret

Buy socks!

Or use your son's socks
that you bought a size too big
because you were in a hurry
and not paying enough attention...

I saw the idea here.
She has four daughters.
You know it's going to work.


Look at Two's hair the next morning!

(I used 5 socks.)

She loved it!
Said it was so bouncy!
And the curls stayed all day....
so much better than curling-iron curls!
And so much easier too!

Blog Signature

Warning: I'm not even sure this is worth it's own post!

You know when you see a word
printed over and over and over again...
how it starts to look misspelled?

Did you ever think your name could do that too?

Well I found a free site that make signatures!
And I have to tell you, that after looking at my name
over 100 times (in different fonts)
it seriously started to look wrong!

But I found one I liked and here it is:

Want one of your own? Go here!
It's totally free, you don't even have to register!

ps. Still working on it obviously, but it was fun!

Give Water

Will it be yours?
No.
But kids die every day
because they do not have access
to clean water.

Did you know that $10 can buy
clean, fresh water for someone
for 10 years?

Ten years!

Did you see that Oprah show
where students went to go build a school
in Africa? I wish I could find the episode but...

The students walked with these children as they went to get water.
They filled their containers in the same lakes
(large rain puddles?) where they bathed.
The same lakes that they drove their cattle through.
The same lakes the cows pooped in.
The water was the color of mud.
The students were saying,
"Don't you know you could get sick?"
"Don't swim in the water, you could die!"
The children already knew this.
But what could they do? It was all they had.

The students were in tears because they had
fresh, clean water provided to them everyday.
They ended up giving their water
to the children they were building the school for.
Then they came home and worked together
to raise enough money
to get a well for that town.

These were young teenagers that did this.
Oh how I wish I could find that episode!
It was incredibly moving.

$10, 10 years.

To find out more, go here.
To see what it might be like if we ran out of clean water, go here.
Or check out Julie's fund-raising raffle, here.

No pigs allowed!

We got our swine flu vaccinations!
Hurray!

We got to the clinic held by the health department
THREE HOURS EARLY
(I even pulled One out of school early)
and we still weren't first in line!

We were, however, prepared to wait a looooong time!
Games, food, chalk, toys....
the mom next to us even brought a table!




Look how official this looks! It was so surreal! I mean, when does the doctor not have enough vaccinations?!? Here come the health officials:



Three was the only one of us who already had his shot so he was completely relaxed with the whole situation:



How we felt about getting sick:



After three hours of waiting outside in the cold and rain, they led us into the elementary school cafeteria to fill out some paperwork and then into the gym for our shots. This line went to the end of that hallway back there, around a corner, out the building, out to the sidewalk, down to the street corner, around that corner, and halfway down the block!


Did I mention that the line was that long and the clinic wasn't even due to start for another 30 minutes? Yeah, talk about people being desperate to get the vaccine!

But wahoo!!!!! We got 5 of those precious 1000 doses! And good thing too! After that clinic, the county canceled all future clinics due to lack of vaccine! Whew! You don't even know how relieved I feel!