~New Look~

Oh I am just not liking this. I have tried a few different blog designs and of course the ones I really liked would not work for me. So for now I guess this is as good as it gets. This took long enough.

~The box~

Mason slid this box around house the other night.

He had little animals on top of it from the

Little Pet Shop!

I can not belive my little guy is already 15 month old!

Where does the time go?

He's still my crawler. No walking yet.

He does stand up by alot of things and

he pushed the doll stroller around the house.

Shouldn't be too much longer and he will be

getting around on his feet.

Mason on the go with the pink doll stroller!

(You get pink when you have 3 older sisters).

~Chicken Wild Rice Soup~

8-12 oz. cooked and cut up chicken

4 cups of water

4 bullion cubes, chicken flavor

1 can mushrooms

5 cups cooked wild rice

8 oz. velveeta cheese

12 baby carrots (cut up)

Heat together water and bullion cubes

(or use chicken broth) on the stove.

 Add all ingred.

Bring to a boil and then simmer for 1 hour on the stove.

 You could also put all of this in the crockpot.

Remeber when making your rice you want it to be about

5 cups after its cooked!

Not before hand.

I have made this a couple of time and really enjoy it.

I make it for the daycare lunch because my husband is

not a fan of wild rice. This time it turned out more of a hotdish

but that worked grat for feeding the toddlers.

~Missing tooth~

This past week Abby lost one of her bottom teeth.

She was so excited.

She told us that the tooth fairy shouldn't bring her any money.

She says she has enough money and doesn't need any more!

So low and be hold that tooth fairy didn't bring her any money.

The tooth fairy brought her a small little hello kitty notebook!

Sure wish I could say I had enough money!

~Thanksgiving~

Todays Thanksgiving will be alittle bit different than years past. We will be celebrating without my Grandpa. This is the first holiday without him. I know we'll be alright because he is watching over us. I know I might have mentioned this before but I've always called him Grandpa Turkey. That's what my kids started calling him as well. We always exchanged something Turkey on Thanksgiving. I have a couple of Turkey things in my kitchen on a shelf that he gave me. He also gave me a Thanksgiving bib the first year I had Maddison. I made sure to give him his little Turkey when I said good bye to him at the funeral. It went with him.

Even though he won't be with us today there is so much to yet be thankful for. He made it possible for me to grow up in such a wonderful loving family. I have 4 wonderful children who I could not love anymore than I already do. A husband who sometimes does what I ask! A warm house to live in. The list really could go on and on.

Here is a picture I wanted to share. We took this at my Grandpa's funeral. Its all my cousins. Of course the oldies are in the back having to stand. Then the 4 boys in the middle are all one year apart. Then of course the 3 youngest are girls!



Of coure my 4 wonderful children!

Happy Thanksgiving!

~Let's do laundry~

I am 29 years old and finally got something I have wanted for a long long time! I am sure I had it circled every year in the toy catalog. Some reason Santa never brought it. Well, I might not be the one who will play with it much now but I am sure my kids will.

Maddison is already doing her baby's laundry!

Another great craigslist find! The ad had this listed with 3 other items. I emailed the seller and asked if she wanted to split the items up. It just happen to be an aunt to a daycare child I watch. So she split the items up.

She even delivered it to my door this afternoon! Talk about exciting.

~Wordless Wednesday~

~Red Mahogany~

Last week when Danny had a few days off he tried to

get some home projects finished.

 We're really good at starting things and finishing them months later.

We put in these cupboards last winter when we put our

 microwave above the stove.

They never got stained because we could

not decide on a color.

Here they are finished... red mahogany.

He rigged something up downstairs so he could

stain both sides right away.

Now look at this funny thing!

We had first tried staining this door but

did not like the color.It was too orange.

Now I have to wait for Danny to sand

this down and restain it.

Like I said we start things and it takes a

few months to get them completed!

~Ice Cream~

Ice Cream Ice Cream.

Who wants Ice Cream?

This Town - Pink Scrubs Video - Cuyuna Riverwood Breast Health Alliance

I love Pink so when I saw this said Pink Scrubs Video I had to click on it. Cancer really does suck. It has taken many of my loved ones. Any kind is terrible. But we hear so often about women fighting breast cancer. I just wanted to share this video with you. I think its cool this Health Clinic put this together. Its neat to see the male nurses also wearing pink scrubs!

MercyMe - Bring The Rain

~Homework~

~Easy Taco Pasta~

The other day I was reading Jamie's blog and she had posted this recipe and pictures! Easy Taco Pasta. At first I wasn't too sure what to think. Pasta noodles and taco meat. Then I decided I just had to try it.

I browned 1 pound of lean hamburger and 1 pound of ground turkey meat. Turkey meat is better for you but I just can't do without my hamburger. After it was all browned I took only half of it and set it aside for a later meal this week. Then with the meat I had left I added my taco seasoning.

I also made some pasta noodles.

Once the noodles and meat were all finished I put a scoop of pasta on a plate and topped it off with some meat, sour cream, and cheese.

(low fat sour cream and cheese can be used as well to lower the calories of this meal).

I have to say it was very tastey! Something different. I made this for lunch on Monday while Danny was home. But he decided to sneak a couple tortilla shells from the frig. He didn't want to try the pasta.

I give it a 5 out of 5! I am not a black olive fan but I think you could for sure add olives to this and maybe even chopped up tomatoes.

~Swimming~

She begged to go swimming.

However its a tad bit cold out.

I wasn't able to take her somewhere to go swimming.

She did not want to wait for her daddy.

So she went swimming in the bathtub!

~She amazes me~

It amazes me sometimes what kids really do know. Last week my grandpa passed away. We are sadly going to miss him. He tried very hard to fight cancer and in the end got much to weak to keep going. I know he is in a better place right now. He's no longer so weak.

I told the girls Wednesday night that he had passed and would no longer be with us. I told the girls Grandpa Turkey went to Heaven. I really didn't say much more than that. What do you say to a 6 and 8 year old?

So lastnight on the way to the wake service I felt the need to talk to the girls. I didn't want to get there and here they think we were going somewhere else. So I started to tell them that we would see all our family. I told them we would see Grandpa but he's not really going to be there.

I started to say "The angels came and".

Jade quickly interupted me and say "Yeah, they came and took his soul".

Then she wanted to know if his sins were forgiven.

I guess I was rather shocked she was asking me that. I guess they learn more going to a Catholic school than you think.

I asked her what she ment and she said she wanted to know that Grandpa's sins had been lifted from his heart so he could go to Heaven for sure.

Seriously, my 8 year old is asking me questions like this? I wasn't prepared.

I did tell her then about when I had gone to see Grandpa at the hospital that their minister was there and he talked with Grandpa and took care of his sins.

It worked out great that when we got there the minister was there. Jade was able to talk breifly with him and he reassured her that yes, Grandpa's sins were forgiven! Then Jade made sure to tell him she went to the Catholic School!

There was a day last week that Jade came home and told me she talked to her classmates and teacher. She asked them to help her pray for Grandpa and so they did. They said 19 Hail Mary's (one per classmate)!

That girl really does amaze me!


We really are going to miss you Grandpa but we know you are in a better place. Thank you so much for the wonderful family. You made all this possible! You must not worry about Grandma because Jade is already praying that she does ok without you here.

~A girl and her Dog~

Nap time started out like this.

Then someone fell asleep.

This is papa's chair!

(We got this chair from my dad. Before it was my dad's chair

it was at my grandmother's house. It is so old and a bit out of style.

However I take confort over style with this chair. Its just so comfy!

So ever since we got it we've called it the papa chair!)

Maddison loves the corner of the couch.

Now Daisy does too so they share!

First thing Maddison looks for when she wakes up is

her Daisy!

~Almost wordless Wednesday~

A few weeks ago my grandpa turned 75 years old!

It was a great birthday for him.

His home was filled with family and food!

~Jade and Abby's Bedroom~

So the other night I fixed the problem with our children's dressers! It was very easy and less expensive than Hubby's idea. His idea was to buy them bigger dressers! I could see the $$$ signs. Instead I purchased 12 nobs at Wal-Mart for about $13. I changed the knobs on Abby and Maddison's dresser! They had some that had broken off. I also took the time to clean out some older clothes of Abby's that she no longer needed. Savings of ALOT! New dressers are not needed!

I know I have posted pictures of our home before but never of Jade and Abby's room. I was waiting for it to be clean. Ha Ha. Funny thing is I have 4 kids and a dog! I have no time to keep their room clean. They don't seem to either. Well when I was upstairs fixing the dresser I took some pictures of the master suite that belongs to Jade and Abby. I tried not to get the floor of junk!

Get ready for picture over load!

bathroom

View from the bedroom door.

Abby's area.

Jade's area. Picture not so good.

Jade recently upgraded to a very nice full size bed!

We've lived in the house for a bit over 2 years and the sister sign

I bought well before we moved here.

I saw it and had to have it. It came from ebay!

This is the guest area.

We have an extra twin bed at the moment.

This area is always a mess.

Good thing we never have over-night guests.

Jade's desk is also off to the side.

This is our huge family closet.

It stores extra coats and still some

new bath towels from our wedding

(I guess we are saving them for a rainy day

and no I haven't boughten any since way before our wedding)!

It also stores misc. stuff.

Its huge and needs to be cleaned out.

This door is in the hallway upstairs.

Leads to the attic.

We'll soon be taking it down!!!

We're going to be turning the attic into a loft.

The loft will become Maddi's room!

Here's how it will work-

This is behind the door.

See all that area back there. It goes to that huge closet in

Jade and Abby's room.

We'll be taking that wall down and opening it all up.

Then we'll put a new wall up making their closet a normal size closet.

She that white wall. Well its foam.

It should not be there.
Its covering alot of space so that is coming down too!

We're just waiting on some sheetrock help and we'll be getting started.

Shouldn't be too much longer.

MY PLANS are to have the room completed

 in time for Maddison's 3rd birthday

(March 17).

Hubby's plans are to have it completed when it gets completed.

So once that is completed all three girls will have their

very own spaces upstairs!

Mason will have his own room and not have

 to share with Maddison.

He is super excited!

Oh and pictures of the dresser-  Abby and Maddison have matching dressers.

Old knobs, a couple missing.

Nice new knobs!

Nothing fancy but they work great.

~4 kids and a Dog~

Its kind of become a comman saying for Jade lately "Mom, you do have 4 kids". I am not really sure how it came about completely. I do know that I had said something to my mom and she responded by telling me "Well, you do have 4 kids". She of course ment it as I shouldn't worry about the small things getting down. I am rather busy with my 4 kids. So now whenever Jade thinks I need to be reminded she will say to me "Mom, you do have 4 kids". She told me this again Friday night and it had nothing to do with what Danny and I were even talking about. She thought it did though.

I jokingly told Danny lastnight that Jade better start staying "Mom, you do have 4 kids and a dog"! He told me it would make a great blog title. Well, I am in no place to start a new blog and I don't want to change the title of my current blog. Just doesn't feel right. Even though it would be catchy... 4 kids and dog! So I added it to the side of my blog with a picure!

~Daisy Lee Wynn~

Our family has grown!

Daisy Lee Wynn

(yes, the girls gave her a middle name)

joined our family on Saturday.

She is 1.5 years old and 13 pounds.

She has been a great puppy so far.

We are glad to have her.

She loves sitting on the couch.

I've never allowed a dog on my couch before.

This is something I am still getting used to.

Thankfully Daisy does not shed.

The lady we got her from told the girls

she needed to be brushed daily!

They have brushed her too much already.



Jade cleaned out the kennel and took a peak inside!

The lady who had her kept her in a kennel when

she was not home and at night.

We're starting off by doing that as well until we

get her adjusted to our home.

~Help a child get home~

Meet Maeve

Isn't she adorable?

I came across awhile back Reese's Rainbow. A site for children waiting to be adopted. It just breaks my heart that it costs so much money to bring these children home. It also takes way too long. Maeve is waiting to come home. There are so many families who would adopt if they could get help with the funding.

I would bring her home in heartbeat but it takes much more money than I have.

I told Danny she needed us and he looked at me rather funny. He didn't want to break my heart by saying no but we don't all have $25,000 in our pockets on most days. Ok I don't any day. But what I am getting at is if we can all just spare $5 and add it to a child's fund than maybe another child can be home by Christmas. So head on over if you can and help Maeve or maybe another child get home.

You can also help Vika and read more about her. Its explained much better here. Also if you help by donating just $5 to Vika you get your name in a drawing for a very nice gift card.

All donations are tax deductable. And don't think just because you can only donate $5 it won't help. It will help wonderfully. That's just one less Java coffee this week!