Ok, here is my 5th and final excuse. (Most likely I still won't blog much in the upcoming weeks because of excuse number 4, but I will try!)
I have been getting ready for Allison's Strawberry Shortcake party...
And, letting the munchkins help; (a little... I still want to keep some things a surprise!)
That's all you get for now; just a sneak peak! Can't wait to show you more. This has been a super fun party to plan. Lots more work to do, though. I'm hoping to be back soon to show you more!
We bought a new house! I am SO, so excited and feel completely blessed. This will be the house we are in for a long time, and the house our kids will remember as home! In fact, it will be the only house Yehbie will know; (probably Sierra, too!)! Ok, here is a sneak peak of the backyard: (I'll wait to show you the inside once we've painted and moved in; the backyard shouldn't change much!)
The girls picking cherries...
A pool... couldn't be more excited!
And, a swing set/ pirate ship that is staying.
Like I said... we feel completely blessed! Escrow is set to close in 3 weeks, and we have already had the inspection! In many ways, we are still in shock that this is happening! Day and night, visions of color and decorating are going through my head. A new blank canvas; wow!
The girls are ecstatic. I am ecstatic... Please ask me sometime, and I would love to share with you all the details of how God brought this about. Too much to type, but truly a miracle!
What a mess, huh? But, a fun one! To finish up the MOPS year, I used the leftover pieces of fleece from our outreach blanket project to sew coffee cozies for our steering team. (Thanks for your help, Mom!)
I took four circles, and kept sewing them together until they resembled a flower... then sewed it onto the felt cozy.
This is the only picture I have of the final product. Unfortunately, my battery went dead before I could take any more pictures. Anyway, I was thinking it would make a great teacher appreciation gift, too.
I love MOPS... but, I am also looking forward to the break! From now on, MOPS can no longer be an excuse as to why I am not blogging!
I must keep an eye on this turkey:
In the last few days, she has:
- Poured syrup all over her room.
- Climbed shelves to reach milk that she proceeded to spill everywhere.
- Decided to eat a black marker while I was in the shower, (as pictured above).
- Also decided to use marker to write all over our chair.
- Thrown-up all over because she is sick. (Poor baby!)
Truly, I could go on and on... she is my handful! Sweetest thing ever, but I have to keep an eye out at all times!
Still tired... (in case you were wondering) But, life goes on and life is GOOD! 
We've had quite the unusual weather, lately! This is hardly what you'd expect for our little part of Southern California in mid-May! But, being a fan of cozy and not-so-much a fan of heat, I am ok with this! All too soon it will be too hot to go outside without a swimsuit!
Sierra insisted on joining her big sister playing in the rain. Not thinking she would last long, I allowed her to go out without a jacket or umbrella. The little turkey, (once again), surprised me and came back in SOAKED! But, I discovered she loves apricots, too. I guess Allison and I are going to have to share.
My little artist wanted to decorate the windows with dry-erase markers. I should have taken a picture of her lovely picture. Now if only she would put away the markers so Sierra wouldn't get a hold of them...
Fresh chocolate chip banana bread. Oh so yummy! But even better is the smell throughout the house. Heavenly!
Painting. Always a good rainy day activity. (Especially with new paints!)
We hadn't done self-portraits in a while, and the girls had been asking to do it, so the rain was a perfect opportunity. I had to laugh that Allison gave herself blonde hair and blue eyes, and Natalie went for super-long hair. :)
Last, but not least... play doh! Another lifesaver in the rain.
This picture was taken just 4 days ago, but I am happy to report that the apricots are now ripe and ready for pickin'. I have consumed 7 in the last 2 days, and I am in heaven... LOVE my apricots! (Especialy this year as I have been craving fruit this pregnancy!) Unfortunately, we have hardly any compared with last year, which means... no jam. :( But, I was thinking we would go strawberry picking again and perhaps give strawberry jam a try. Mmmmm.....
Oh, what a special Mothers Day this was. I'm not sure why... but I have had a big smile in my heart all day! It was just my girls and me today, as Daniel had to work. But, I was totally ok with that.
I woke-up to find the most precious card on my computer from Daniel. (He knows where I look first thing in the morning!) We started the day with breakfast, and then headed to the park. This may sound funny, but I love gloomy days, and the weather was just right! We were the only ones there, which was also quite nice. I could let Triscuit run around and chase the ball with no worries of scaring little kiddos.
Next, we walked to Henry's for our favorite muffins. I noticed Allison and Sierra holding hands in the stroller, so I had to stop and take a picture!
We brought our muffins home, cut some fresh roses from the garden, and had a lovely tea party. Natalie was initially upset that there was a strawberry with whip cream on her plate, (my crazy fruit-hating girl!) But, she soon got over it once the tea was poured and the muffins passed around.
Little Sierra took a 3 1/2 hour nap after that; (whew!), which allowed us to watch a movie and play games until supper. Right now the supper dishes are staring at me, and bed is calling my name... I think I'll skip the dishes in honor of Mother's Day, and crawl into bed with my Sunset magazine. Hope you had a blessed Mother's day, too!
Now that we're starting to clean out our house a bit, (and I mean barely starting; really just looking around), I am finding some long lost treasures. Today I found these wooden canvas-wrapped blocks a friend had given me, so I thought they would be great to do something with...
I had the girls use my horrible-doesn't-stick-to-anything Dollar store masking tape to tape a design on the blocks...
Next came our apple chip snack...
And then they painted over the whole thing.
We waited several hours for the paint to dry, and then pulled back the tape to reveal their design! They were a little disappointed, I think, because the "design" wasn't what they expected. This project would definitely work better on a larger canvas. But, I can't wait to think of another use for these in our new home!
