What is it about shoes?

I seriously think that girls are born with a gene that predisposes them to love shoes! We went shoe shopping last night for the wedding next week and the girls had a ball. We quickly picked out the wedding shoes and then Maddie and Jeni proceeded to try on every pair of shoes they could get their hands on, especially the high heels! They pranced, they danced, they jumped and ran and twirled. They strutted and then practiced their "wedding walk" - sorry Sarah and Steve, I'll try to convince them to just walk normally in the next few days... They had so much fun! Even Grace got into it. I finally put her on the floor so she wouldn't dump herself on her head out of the cart (child safety belts do not work with her!) and she loved crawling over and looking in all the different boxes and touching the shoes. Nathan on the other hand was content to try on one pair of shoes and then he just chased after his sisters.In the end we were successful. We came away with three matching sets of shoes for the girls and some handsome black shoes for Nathan. I could have had a matching set as well (I can wear a size 4 in the girls section since I have freakishly small feet) but opted for a nice new pair of heels instead. We're going to look great next week!

A wonderful day!

Yesterday was my birthday and it turned out to be a great day! The kids were really cute and wanted to give me some presents so Nathan gave me one of his Thomas trains. Jeni gave me one dollar and 5 pennies, but then she told me it was to help buy treats for the kids to eat on the trip to Salmon, ID coming up on Saturday - very thoughtful! Then Bob and the kids got me a box of Cavanaugh's chocolate. Steve and Sarah gave me a Scentsy warmer and several different fragrances to go with it (Love it!!) and Bob's family gave me a book of church art as well as some money.Bob surprised me by taking the day off and he gave me my favorite present of all - a clean kitchen! Grace has been sick and very clingy the last few days and Maddie had a really intensive project at school so the dishes had stacked up. He did them all for me then picked up clutter and vacuumed for me all while he made me sit down and relax! I felt so guilty, yet luxuriant! It was wonderful - thank you Honey, you're the best!!

Later that afternoon we went to Costco because we needed some salt for the water softener. Well, $350 later we left with two bags of salt, a Wii console and a Wii Fit to go with it. We've been trying to get a hold of a Wii for months now but nobody has had them for a while. We spent the rest of the day playing on the Wii and trying to figure out whose turn was next! It was a lot of fun.

Jeni's big news!

Jeni was very excited to loose her very first tooth last Monday evening! It has been very loose for quite some time now but she finally brushed it out when she was brushing her teeth!She put her tooth under the pillow and the Tooth Fairy brought her a golden dollar! What a lucky girl!

Why buy expensive toys?

So last week when I went grocery shopping I bought a case of applesauce. Jeni labeled them for me and did a great job. Not only does every can have the date but also hearts and polka dots and one special can even has crowns! It kept her entertained for quite a while!When she was done I didn't get around to taking them downstairs to put them away for a few days. First Nathan started stacking them up every which way. Grace loved to crawl over and knock them down for him. It kept them very entertained for a long time too!
Then Jeni and Maddie would come home from school and they started making towers and buildings as well! A simple box full of cans kept all four of them entertained for several days!
So maybe I should throw out the Barbie dolls and Thomas the Trains and just give the kids cans to play with! Besides, when they get bored with the cans, we can open them up and have something good to eat!

Got green?

Why do kids love St. Patrick's Day so much? I don't remember it being such a big deal when I was a kid but then maybe I'm just getting old. Oh well.

The girls had to get creative because their uniforms don't have any green in them so they colored their lips green and drew green freckles on their cheeks.They also gave Nathan a green handlebar mustache and freckles so he would be ready for the day. No pinches at our house!
Then we had breakfast of green eggs and ham. Yum!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The Tuxedo

Steve and Sarah came by with a tuxedo they bought Nathan for their upcoming wedding next month. Nathan is going to be one of the ring bearers with Sarah's nephew Ross. We took Nathan in the other room to get him dressed in his "mosquito" (he couldn't remember tuxedo!) where he was happy to get gussied up.
The G.Q. look, what a cutie!
But then when we went into the other room to show everyone else he got some serious stage fright and wouldn't smile for anything.Maddie trying to assist with the smiling.
He still looks very handsome. Hopefully he will warm up to the whole idea before the wedding comes!

Ride 'em Cowgirl!

Maddie helped Grace go riding on her horse named Appaloosa! Yee-haw!Grace was in the kitchen with me the other night and crawled over to the pantry where she found herself a snack - a block of white dipping chocolate.
She gnawed on it for quite a while with her two little teeth and was quite upset when the dog finally got it away from her. She's definitely a Moultrie - she loves her chocolate!