cute hat

Isn't she just too cute?

Miss C has figured out how to get on her knees and has been trying to scoot around a bit. It SHOULD be a while before she is crawling though, but who knows.

Baby food

Miss C is getting interested in food now. However she is not a fan of the old fashioned rice cereal, mashed bananas or apple sauce. So, this week I made some carrots and teethers for her.

She liked the carrots. I had peeled, cut up, and steamed a bunch of carrots and pureed them. I froze a bunch in ice cube trays for later.

 

It seems though, she would much rather feed herself. The teethers were a huge hit. I made up a couple of loaves of banana bread, cut one up in thick slices (the other was put in the freezer for later), and toasted them for a few hours in the oven (at 170, flipping regularly). They are very hard so they will not fall apart. She loves chewing on them!

Flowers, squirrel, cows

We spent an afternoon at the ranch this week-end, and had a great time!

The wildflowers were in bloom, making the hills look painted, and giving my girls loads of fun picking flowers. The boys enjoyed "hunting" with Mr. M's toy gun he received for his birthday.

 

Rob supervised some shooting practice.

Mr. M made his first kill! As he was shooting, a squirrel popped up, he took aim and shot it! The squirrel was running. He was aiming at the head. He got the shoulder. What a great shot!

Everyone was excited and so proud of Mr. M!

 

Miss E picked these wonderful flowers, and Miss J admired them.

We headed up to to house when we were done and had some great time visiting with our friends. Their tortoise was out and about and very active today. It "chased" the kids, and they fed it grass.

 

On our way out we headed across the way to see the new bull calf that had been born just an

hour or so earlier. Miss J fell in love with the calf and asked us if she could have it. She was content just looking at it and then going for a walk and checking out the flowers.

Happy Birthday Mr. M!

Mr. M had a GREAT day on his birthday. He got to open his gifts in the morning right after Bible reading. He received everything he wanted this year for his birthday.... various candies from his siblings, a rubik's cube, light sticks, and a Davy Crockett gun from Vision Forum that he had been asking for for months. He was one happy boy.

For breakfast he requested cappuccino rolls, sausage, mochas and OJ. Then after breakfast he

got to drink a Dr. Pepper. He loves Dr. Pepper and Coke, but we don't let him have any so as a treat he got some for his birthday.

The big plans for the day and what he had been looking forward to most... A day with Dad! Rob took him shooting!

 

At the range Mr. M found a lizard and made friends with it.

Then they spent hours at the local Army surplus store. Mr. M had been wanting to buy combat boots with his birthday money. His big surprise was that we had been planning to buy them for him. He bought himself a web belt; I don't think he has decided what to do with the rest of his birthday money though.

 

For dinner Mr. M had picked steak, strawberries, and chocolate milk. After that we had his

cake. He had asked for the Duggar family ice cream layer cake. He made most of it and had made plans on his own for decorating it. Dirt. Lots of Dirt. And mud. With Indiana Jones.

The big hit though, was the box the gun came in. Figures.

Oh, and Happy Birthday to Auntie J too! We love you!

a date with Mr. M

Mr. M's birthday is coming up, so he is getting to do all sorts of special things. Rob planned for him to take me out on a date. How fun! We went to a Mexican place by the water and got a table by the window. I had such a nice time with Mr. M working on a word puzzle in the kids menu, talking, watching the boats/ sea life and checking out the rocks on shore.

His meal came with a tiny little scoop of ice cream, but he liked the look of the chocolate volcano cake, so I ordered that. Yum! We had fun sharing!

Since we were going to be out during feeding time Miss C tagged along. She was a joy to have along, happy as could be, though her squeals of joy did get a bit loud at times!

 

highchair cushions

Miss C is just about ready to start using the highchair, so I thought I'd make some cushions for it. We've had this chair for nearly nine years and we've never had cushions for it, but I had the fabric so I thought I'd make them. They came together very quickly though I've been working on them for a week (15 min. here, 1 hour there, 30 min found somewhere else etc.) I like how they turned out, next I'll have to see how Miss C likes them.

buddies

This morning Miss J asked Miss E to hold her, but Miss E had some jobs to do so she suggested that maybe Miss J would enjoy a ride in the Ergo. They both enjoyed getting Miss E's jobs done together. Miss J was even able to help out on some of the jobs.

Rob said it looked like Miss E had Yoda on her back! Hmmm... Maybe I'll have to get that clip out for them to see? It is supposed to be raining today, so it may be a good day for that.