Oh, I wish I were....

...an Oscar Mayer Wiener!

Guess what we found today - the Wiener-Mobile! We were in the drive-thru line at Jack in the Box, and saw it go down the road past us. After we got our Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers and Fries - yummy! - we took off to try and find out where it had stopped. It was in the parking lot of the University. We parked nearby, and took some fun photos. The kids thought it was hilarious! And then I told them how their Uncle Nick made a replica of it when he was in Royal Rangers. I wonder if he still has that car?

Doctor, Doctor, give me the news....

....I got a bad case of.....Giggles!
I was putting together my quiche for my MOPS meeting this morning, and I heard Gretchen giggling like crazy in her bedroom. I quickly grabbed my camera, readied it, and peaked around the corner of her bedroom door. I found her and Daniel playing doctor, and she would giggle crazily every time he tried to listen to her heart or tummy!
They were so stinkin' cute! I had to remind them, though, that we don't play doctor below the belly button. Silly kids!

Sunday Family Dinner

My parents came over to our house today for Sunday Family Dinner. It was kind of raining a bit when they first got here, but after dinner it cleared up. Grandpa and the kids gathered some fallen branches and stuff, and started a little fire in our fire pit so we could roast marshmallows and have s'mores. Lots of fun! The kids are totally enjoying our new country life!

Happy Birthday Austin!

Today Austin turned 6! Wow! He was 14 months old when we first met him and the time has just flown by! I am so very glad that God brought him to our family!

I took cupcakes and balloons to his school to celebrate his big day with all of his school friends. They sang him a special birthday song, and then they all enjoyed the banana applesauce cupcakes.

We always let the kids pick where they go for their birthday night dinner. It's just the 5 of us celebrating together, which makes for a very special birthday for the special birthday kid. Of course, Austin chose McDonald's, so we met Daddy there after work with balloons and cupcakes and spent a couple of hours eating and playing.

Happy Birthday, my big boy Austin! You are so special to us! We love you!

Fashion Shoot

Gretchen decided to get in some shooting practice this morning. I think she is very fashion forward in her ballerina footie jammies with her purple hat! And she's already learned quite the stance for shooting. I'm pretty sure she got the dishwasher good this morning with her nerf darts!

Puddle Jumping

It has been a rainy day today, but that makes it perfect for puddle jumping! Gretchen had a ball today playing in the rain!

New Purses

Yesterday my quilt group got together for a sew day, and the project I chose to work on was another one of my purses. They are fun to make, but take a little time. And I love how the finished product looks!

Here is the one I made at the sew day.
I am in love with the pink and brown combo, especially with polka dots!
I learned my lesson with my first purse, and now I double up the pellon
on the handles of the purses I make.

And here is the one I did today.
The denim is from an old pair of Gretchen's jeans, and the
butteflies are little bitty pockets on the front.

The inside of the purse. The pink and white is home dec fabric that
I got out of the remnant bin and paid maybe $4 for it, and I
still have some leftover. The inside pockets are made from the jeans legs.

This will definitely be one very sturdy purse!
The sewing was a little difficult because of all the layers
of denim, heavy fabric and Pellon.

Mmmmm - Mocha Cupcakes!

A friend of mine posted on her facebook this morning that she was making cupcakes - chocolate, vanilla and coffee. That last one triggered a craving in me, so I searched out a from-scratch mocha cupcake recipe with a cream cheese coffee frosting. And here they are:

Mixed and ready to bake!
Baked and cooling!
Frosted and ready to eat!

They turned out nummy!

The kids also got out the vintage Hi Ho Cherry Oh game to play this morning, and really enjoyed it. Such an easy game for little ones, and no electronics!

Safeway Savings today

I did it again - I coupon shopped with my kids in tow, something I keep saying I will never do again! Makes for some crazy times, and requires a lot of patience on my part and theirs, but the sale I wanted to take advantage of ended today, and I was left with no choice. But for their good behavior, Daniel & Gretchen got a treat of Jelly Belly candies! And I got to get some good deals on things.

I spent $27.49 on these 23 items, plus got a coupon for $1.50 off 6 Lean Cuisine Meals on my next shopping trip.

2 Doritos $3.99 on BOGO = 1.99/ea
1 Snyders Nibbler Pretzels $1.88 - $1.00 = .88
8 Progresso Soups $1.00 each - $1.00/4 x 2 = .75 each
3 Stauffer Meals on sale for $2.00 ea - $1.00/3 coupon = 1.67 ea
3 Lean Cuisine Meals on sale for $1.88 ea - $1.00/3 coupon = 1.55 ea
2 Freschetta Pizza on sale for $5.00 ea - $1.00/2 coupon = 4.50 ea
2 Pillsbury Sugar Cookie pkgs 5.98 - 50% off store sale = 2.98 - $1.00/2 = .99 ea
2 Dreyers Smoothie Drinks - free because I bought 5 Lean Cuisine/Stauffer meals
Minus $5.00 because I bought the minimum of $15.00 of frozen foods

My total savings was $43.02 - woo hoo!

Last Soccer Game

The boys ended their first round of indoor soccer today, and what a day it was! Daniel scored 4 goals, and Austin scored 3 goals. Daniel has been doing pretty good at soccer, and gets pretty focused on the task at hand, but Austin had a little more trouble really getting into it. He mostly wanted to hang out with the ref and the coach and talk about the game. But he really got into it today, and stayed focused on the game, and scored 3 goals. The look of joy on his face after each goal was priceless! And of course, Daniel was super hyped to have beat his personal best on scoring!

Here are photos of the boys in their Cougar team shirts. Such cuties!

Princess Castle

One of the presents that Gretchen got for her birthday was a princess castle tent. She decided she wanted to sleep in it tonight, but she only made it halfway through the night before she was ready for the comfort of her own bed. But she just loves the tent!

Winter Wonderland

This week's challenge at I Heart Faces was Winter Wonderland. Of course, I'm a day late in submitting, but I thought I would share my photos anyway. We've had some great snow at our new house this year, and one particular day it was perfect weather to play in the snow. Here are some scenes from that day.

Oh, and I am asking for constructive critiques of my photos. I've got just a simple point and shoot digital camera, so I can't do a lot of fancy stuff, but I would love to hear some good feedback. Thanks! Of course, I'm a bit biased - I think my subjects are the cutest in the world!

Today's Snowy Day

We got more snow overnight and all day today. These pictures were taken about 2:30 this afternoon, and more snow fell after this. This is why I got stuck in my driveway today, and so Daniel & Gretchen had to stay home from preschool. Austin went to school because they bus was running as normal. We had a good snow day at home - watched movies, ate popcorn, and cuddled in bed. And Daniel & Gretchen managed to have fun with a spray bottle water fight - harmless fun that got the wiggles out!

My Three Little Reindeer

My brother Nick took these pictures of my cuties when he was over on Christmas Eve. I love how they turned out!

Daniel's 5th Birthday

Happy Birthday Daniel!

Wow - 5 years old! It still seems like yesterday when I first met my little frog-eyed prince! He was 3-1/2 weeks old, and had bright red hair (that changed to blonde right after he turned one) and he had little froggy eyes from being born 8 weeks early. And now he's 5, and will be in kindergarten in the fall, and I'm trying to remember where the last 5 years went!

At one month old, 5 days after we met him and brought him home from the hospital.
He was 5 pounds!

With Mommy and all of his presents - he was so blessed!

With Grandma and Grandpa

Happy New Year!

It is 2011 - I can't hardly believe it! This was the scene near our house as we drove into Spokane for the annual Barth Family Christmas Party. Very snowy and very beautiful.

Today Daniel Turns 5!

Today is Daniel's birthday. He got a coupon for a free Happy Meal in the mail, so even though we had a huge snowstorm today, we braved the roads and drove in. Daddy even got off work early because the weather was so yucky! We all met up at McDonald's, and had a couple of hours of just playtime and eating. Then Daddy took Daniel to his birthday surprise - a hockey game for just the two of them. Daniel was pretty excited! He got to open one present today - a gift from Aunt Melissa, Uncle Tim and Aimee since they can't make it to his party. He got "How to Train Your Dragon" toys, and even though he hasn't seen the movie yet, he really liked the toys.

Grinding your own Grains

Now that we have moved out to the country, I am very eager to start growing my own garden and raising animals. And as we drive through miles of wheat fields to get to our house, it strikes an urge in me to start making more of my own breads. The kids call the wheat fields "cake and cookie fields" because I explained to them once that the wheat that is grown is ground into flour and turned into cakes and cookies and breads. Of course, all the heard was "cakes and cookies". So now, we drive past miles of cakes and cookies to get to our new home!

Making our own cakes, cookies and breads would taste double nice if done using our own grain grinder. I'm entered to win one, and I'd like to invite you to enter to win one as well - or at least check out the one they are reviewing. It's pretty awesome, and I'm crossing my fingers and toes that I might get one!

Go to Happily Domestic to read her review and see what it takes to enter to win one of your own. And check out some of her other blog posts as well - I'm having fun reading all her reviews and getting great ideas from her site.

Timmmmmberrrrr!

This is what I woke up to today. Heavy, heavy snow and down she went! Thankfully it didn't hit our house.