Crash!

Life is crazy right now. Last week our basement flooded, nothing got ruined, but it was a lot of clean up. The same storm blew away the kids playhouse and broke it in many pieces, all which can be put back together in time (when we have the time).
Our computer crashed, so I can now get on the internet, but I have no programs yet. Aaron did just back everything up yesterday. I knew a crash was on it's way. I can tell when the computer is acting funny.
We also are having sump pump issues and we have been getting tons of rain. (This was not the cause of our flood, it was water from the window well) We are probably going to have to buy a new pump.
Our toilets have been messing up, basically just constantly dripping water, which in turn is wasting who knows how much water.
We are have a garage sale this weekend..................enough said!

We did just have a great evening at dinner then laid down with the kids and watch a movie, that alone is the highlight of my week. I love just laying with them and cuddling. I was picturing 5 in the bed, I hope we can all fit.

As we speak Taylynn and Preston are TRYING to sleep. They have been sharing a room for about two weeks and it's not going so well. Preston loves it so he doesn't want to sleep. Although for some reason naptime they both just crash, but a nighttime he wants to talk to her and sing and play. They have been in there for an hour tonight and still aren't asleep. We have moved Preston three nights back into his room just for Taylynn's sake.

I am just so glad she doesn't mind him being in her room, that would make this so much harder. They really have grown to love each other and they are best friends. I have a picture of them sleeping in her room, once I get it back I'll post it.

Good night!

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

I thought I'd do a post on how to dip strawberries. Most of you might already know all this, but I know someone out there doesn't.

You want to start with clean strawberries. The best way to do it is clean them a day before, put them back in the fridge until the next day. An hour before your ready to dip them take them out of the fridge so they can reach room temperature. They should be completely dry, but if not lay them on a paper towel. They must be dry.

For your chocolate, you can use almond bark, chips or a bar. If your using almond bark or a bar chop it up to chip size. Take your sauce pan and add chocolate, turn the temperature to low and don't get higher than this. Once you see a bit of melting begin stirring with a spoon. The motion will help the heat spread and the chocolate will melt faster. The less time your chocolate is on the stove the better. Just keep stirring until the lumps are gone and take off the heat.

From this point I find a small cup to put the chocolate in, something that will be easy to dip and pull out a strawberry from.

This is the easy part. Take your strawberry, dip, shake off a little and lay on wax paper.

If you notice any lumping (caused by a wet strawberry) you can add vegetable oil to the chocolate and it should bring it back to the normal chocolate texture.

If you want to add a white chocolate layer, make sure the bottom layer is dry and take a spoon and drizzle over the strawberry. Simple and beautiful!

You can also make a tuxedo for a fancy occasion :)

Stell and Dot

Does this just look like fun!!!

I went to a Stella and Dot jewelry party yesterday and fell in love with everything. These were a few of my favorites:

Of course being a mom I didn't buy anything for myself, but for Taylynn. This was too precious to pass up.
I can't wait to get it!

Me (or my friends) are throwing another party so if you are in the Topeka area and would like to come let me know.

Rockin' in the Rockin' Chair

This week has been one of those weeks. Our basement flooded, the playhouse in the back decided to move to a different yard and fell apart in the process. We are also having a garage sale next weekend and the basement is a huge mess, not sure how I am going to get things together in time.

I am sitting here listening to Glory To God Forever, request of Preston. (He loves this song) No matter what is going on here, I still lift God up. My children are health, I am pregnant. Aaron has a job, their is nothing to be complaining about. As far as I know THIS IS THE LIFE. Praise God!

Mexican Food

I have been on a Mexican foods kick. Not sure if it's the pregnancy or what. I never really cooked it or ate it, the only time I really had Mexican was if Aaron picked it up from Taco Bell. I didn't even make tacos.
In the last month I have made tacos twice, fajitas twice and quesadillas.

Recently I discovered enchiladas. Not that I didn't know what they were, but I didn't realize how good they were. I cooked a recipe I found on allrecipes.com and Aaron and I both loved it. I have a couple other recipes to try before I commit to one great recipe and make it every other week for our new "mexican night"(you guys do that right, like spaghetti night, pizza night....)
So we rated this recipe a 7, it's a bit pricey, the next recipe I have is from my sister and it is pretty different so we'll see.
If you have any good mexican recipes let me know!

Here is a picture of Taylynn and Preston getting their quesadilla's ready for me to cook.
While their food was cooking I had them make pudding to keep them entertained.

Have a great day. I am 30 weeks today, I can hardly believe it. I am feeling pretty good other than the fact that I can't bend over to pick up the living room or kids rooms. I have to call my little helps to do that for me :)
My next appointment is on Friday, I am sure this little one is doing great because she is moving all over the place. She has moved more than Taylynn and Preston both did. I think she is just excited to get out and meet her sister and brother

Girls Night- Gender Dectector

Last night we had our usual girls night. We were missing two girls so we ended up going to Pam's house and playing Mahjong. It was fun, but no one won :(
What I want to blog about is the Monday before. It was close to Katie's Birthday so we had a girls night to celebrate her birthday.

Everyone brought yummy food over to my house and we just hung out. We did take a few old girly quizzes you would find in a 1990's Teen Magazine. We also watched a little bit of Sex and the City, the Movie and talked about our plans for May 27th when the new movie comes out.
Something else we did, that we had never done before was the ring test. This is an old myth that if you let your wedding band dangle above your pregnant belly it would tell you if you were having a girl or boy.

This is me and it said I was having a girl and yes, that's true!

This is Kim and it said she was also having a girl. Well at the time we didn't know the sex, but since then she had her
sonogram and it's a ..........................BOY!

So the test doesn't really work. Oh well we had fun doing it.

Wonderful Weekend

This weekend Aaron took me to the plaza in Kansas City. The weather was perfect for a pregnant girl....not too hot and not to cold.We first ate at the Cheesecake Factory. I really could have skipped the meal and went straight to dessert. We had the White Chocolate Caramel Macadamia nut cheesecake. It was wonderful and just as good as I remembered. I wasn't willing to share with the kids because I knew one piece doesn't go to far, so we got them ice cream which I think they liked even better.

After lunch we went shopping. I wasn't in need of anything so we just strolled around. There were bands playing and the first song we heard was John Mayer. Taylynn and Preston recognized the song so I think they thought it was really John Mayer, ha! Music is their thing, they both LOVE IT!

While in Pottery Barn Taylynn and Preston made me some flowers for Mother's Day.

We don't have a lot of pictures because I didn't have my camera so we used Aaron's phone. I am just glad to document the day because it really was wonderful.

Before we went home we had a graduation party to go to. Two sweet girls from our youth group had a party. One is going to Oklahoma Baptist and the other KSU. It is going to be sad to see all of our seniors leave.

Sunday, Mother's Day was just as wonderful. We went for a quick breakfast before church then after church we met Aaron's mom at Olive Garden so we could take her to lunch. We enjoyed a nice meal, but all this food made us all tired. We all took a nap when we got home and surprisingly everyone woke up in a good mood, even me :)

For dinner we went out to eat breakfast for dinner, my favorite! I even had a special tub of Baskin Robins Peanut Butter and Chocolate ice cream brought to me by Aaron and the kids.

WONDERFUL.

I took a bath and then watched the Amazing Race. The weekend was perfect!

Thank you Aaron, Taylynn and Preston for making motherhood, easy! (sometimes)

I LOVE YOU!