It was a Good Weekend to be Leah

Yes, it was a good weekend to be Leah...and the other girls, too, but Leah had some special things!

Like being in ANOTHER parade!

Leah and her friend, Brian, were randomly selected to carry the banner for their class!  They were so excited!  

On Friday afternoon, Maggie, Gracie, Aaron and I went to the parade, which was only about 20 minutes long, so the little girls were able to still get in an afternoon nap...

...also known as a win for mommy ;)



After school, Leah "did the dishes."

I was internally cheering and patting myself on the back for having a daughter so eager to serve the family by taking care of the dishes.  

Then, I realized that by "doing the dishes," Leah really meant "playing with the water."  

For the record, I was quite happy about that, too!  I enjoy her creative play.

Yes, she washed 3 dishes in 30 minutes.  But, she also very thoroughly rinsed out the empty milk jug you see in the picture :)



On Saturday morning, Leah picked out Maggie's clothes.

She if full of love with all of those hearts!  

Maggie got the small flute/recorder/whistle in a goody bag from school and she asked Leah to give her lessons!



The girls and I went to Hobby Lobby on Saturday morning.  Our friend, Lori, and her 4 daughters came with us.  

Here's how excited my girls were when I told them their friends were coming!

Lots of little girl squealing and jumping up and down!

All of the girls did great at Hobby Lobby!  After Lori and I got what we needed, we wandered up and down the Christmas aisles and the girls looked at beautiful things.  It was pretty fun watching the expressions of other shoppers as our little posse of girls made their way through the store :)

I wish I wouldn't have forgotten my camera!


And, lastly, on Sunday afternoon, we cuddled on the couch while watching a little House Hunters on hgtv.

We love trying to figure out which house they are going to choose!

I also enjoy the opportunity to talk about contentment and not needing to have fancy things to be happy.

I mean, seriously!  Some of the people on that show are ridiculous!  As if you couldn't possibly live in a house without 2 sinks in the bathroom or obviously not being able to cook unless you have granite counters.

Silly, silly.

Not that there's anything wrong with those things, but some people really need to pull themselves together :)



I hope your weekend was great, too, even if you weren't in a parade!



I'm linking up with Blair on Wild and Precious.

Apple Cider Floats aka Apple Pie in a Glass

You know how when you're eating an apple and then take a drink of milk and you kind of want to spit it out?  

Milk + Apples = GROSS

However...

Ice Cream + Apple Cider + Soda = AMAZING-NESS!!!

It's almost counter-intuitive to put this combination together, but believe me, your taste buds will thank you!

You don't need much to make these:

Apple Cider (the cloudy kind is definitely better, but I'm not the apple cider police, so use whatever your little heart desires)
Clear Soda (lemon lime soda or ginger ale)
Vanilla Ice Cream

That's it!

Are you ready for the very complicated directions?  Oh, and please excuse the cloudiness of the glass...sometimes I think jet dry is a scam.

Then...

Lastly,

aaaaaaaand...

Sharing with an adorable 3 year old is optional.

Oh, and lest you think I am a recipe creating genius, I adapted this from Mel's Kitchen Cafe who adapted it from Our Best Bites!

These are a fun, easy, seasonal way to end a meal!

If I was in junior high, I would start chanting "Do it!  Do it!  Do it!" to encourage you to make this....

But, I'm obviously much too mature for that sort of thing :)

Give these a try AND have a great weekend!

I'm linking up with A Southern Fairytale for Mouthwatering Monday!

Ice Packs and Bandaids

What in the world do ice packs and bandaids have in common?

They are magical.

(obviously)

They cut off at least 75% of the crying.

That's magical in my mommy book!

So, it doesn't take much for me to give my girls a bandaid (or 8) or an ice pack.

Every now and then, Leah will very lightly bump her head on the bunk bed (she's on the top bunk, so I'm not really sure how that happens) as she's getting settled in for the night. 

Because it's night time, everything is more dramatic, so she cries and cries.  

Naturally, I want her to stop crying so she'll go to sleep I want to nurture and care for her, so I get her an ice pack.

Here's my issue with ice packs:  They are too COLD!  But, when you wrap them in a towel, they aren't cold enough.

What to do...what to do?

Answer:  a sock!

For example, earlier this week, Maggie legitimately bumped her head on the wooden arm of our futon.

She went to the kitchen, grabbed a gallon sized freezer ziplock bag and filled it with all of the ice packs she could find. 

I'm not going to say that looks real effective ;)

I went to my sock drawer and got a fairly heavy (clean) sock.  

Then, I took ONE ice pack from Maggie's bag o' chilliness.

I simply stuck the ice pack in the sock!

Ta-da!  Easy peasy lemon squeezey!

That's much better!

Now that Maggie had an ice pack, Gracie wanted one.

I told her that Maggie had an ice pack because she bumped her head and Gracie didn't need one because she didn't bump her head.

I kid you not, Gracie proceeded to lightly bump her head on the other wooden arm of the futon on purpose and began to fake cry in order to necessitate an ice pack.

You can't make this stuff up!

I gave her one, too!

And then everyone was happy :)

Gender Reveal Party

Even though Gracie is only 3, I feel like the whole being pregnant landscape (maybe due to pinterest) is a little different.  Families have super cute pregnancy announcements!  And the gender reveal parties?!  So cute!

It almost makes me want to have another baby.  

Almost.  

Don't get your hopes up.  We are doner than done.

Anyway, our friends, Brandon and Hannah, are having a baby and when Hannah told me they were going to find out the baby's gender ahead of time, I immediately offered to host a gender reveal party for them!

So fun!

I looked around pinterest to see if there were any cute gender reveal cakes. I got my inspiration from this cake.

Hannah dropped of the envelope with the baby's gender written on a piece of paper!  Yay!

I started out by making a Wacky Cake.  

I let it cool and trimmed the edges.  

Then, I cut it in half the long way.  

I filled the inside with my mom's super easy butter cream frosting.

You need:

3 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons butter, softened

3 tablespoons shortening

1 teaspoon vanilla

milk (or cream) to desired consistency

Blend the first 3 ingredients together.  Add a splash of milk, vanilla, and food coloring.  Whip it with the mixer.  Add more milk until you get the desired consistency.

For chocolate frosting, add in 3 tablespoons of cocoa with the powdered sugar.

This recipe is really easy to divide into thirds or in half.  Super versatile! 

Anyway, I made the frosting for the inside of the cake...dyed the appropriate color, of course!  

I made white cream frosting for the outside of of the cake.

Then it was time for decorating!  

I practiced on a white dinner plate.

While I decorated, Leah combined blue and pink plates, cups, and napkins.

When she was done with that, she and Gracie had a snack of apples and leftover chocolate milk...

on the floor in the kitchen where I was working, of course!

I was slightly obsessed with how well the cake turned out!

It was pretty easy!  I mean, I'm going to be putting flowering branches on any cake possible!

I cut the above frosting recipe into thirds and made 1 chocolate, 1 blue, and 1 pink.

I used 3 tips:

The number 3 tip was for the writing and branches.

The number 16 tip was for the little flowers.

The number 21 tip was for the flower-y dot things edging the bottom.

Let's look at the cake again, shall we?!

I feel like you can kind of tell how I did it once you see the tips.

Once I was done with the decorating, I let Leah have a try!

She did awesome!

I told her that I'd let her decorate a cake some time soon.  I love how she likes to try creative things!

And, I'd say she's quite good at it!

After supper, I set the table up for the simple party...

and added my Fuzzy Navel Mocktail and cups.

Everyone loves the fuzzy navel mocktail.  Seriously.

Oh, I made popcorn on the stove (buttered, of course) for a salty snack.  I'm all about the sweet and salty balance!

Anyway...

Brandon and Hannah and the rest of the guests arrived, and they cut the cake!

Yay!!!

You can never have too many baby girls!  I'm so excited for them and can't wait to meet their sweet daughter in February!

Congratulations, Brandon and Hannah!

Mondays are Happy Days

Mondays are garbage day around here, so that makes Mondays very exciting!

You see, when you live on a dead end, the garbage truck is one of the few vehicles to make it down...that and the people awkwardly turning around in our driveway.

Gracie is always very grateful for the garbage men.

She opens the door and yells to them, 

"Thank you!  Thank you, garbage men, for taking our garbage!"

So, so sweet.

She's always very disappointed when they don't hear her.

The other good thing about this Monday in particular is that Leah wanted to learn how to clean the toilet.

Um...okay!  I'll take it

And, yes, that's Maggie enjoying her snack :)

I hope your Monday was a happy day, too!

Jesus (and Gracie) in the ER

Aaron was teaching an evangelism class at our friend's church in town, so I got to go to the class, and the girls got to go to the child care/nursery area at the church.

Because Gracie is Aaron's daughter, she was running/dancing in a circle. Because Gracie is my daughter, she tripped and hit her head on the corner of a shelf.

She got a pretty decent cut by her eyebrow, so one of the volunteers ran to get me.  We looked at it and based on how deep it was and where it was, thought it would be good to take Gracie to the ER.  

We had driven to the church separately because Aaron wanted to be there early, so he took Leah and Maggie home and I took Gracie to the ER.

I was thankful that we got right in!  

But, that's when things got interesting.

The last time Gracie was in the hospital was when she got the bump removed from the inside of her mouth/lip.  

The time before that was when she had a broken leg.

Let's just say that she's not a fan of hospitals.

Plus, she really remembers getting the bump off of her lip; she was talking about it to me in the last couple of weeks.

So, yeah.  

Not.a.fan.

We went in to get her vitals taken and she flipped out.

She didn't want the monitor thing on her finger (to take her pulse, etc.) and sure didn't want them to take her temperature.

Not to mention, she wasn't about to get on the scale.  

She let me put her down long enough for them to weigh me.  I then held her on the scale and they subtracted the weights to get her weight.

Oh, and did I mention that she was full of unnecessary bandaids?

I think everyone asked me what happened to her!  Thankfully, most of them were moms (or experienced with kids) who understood that bandaids mostly fix emotions :)  

Anyway, we went into our exam room and hardly had to wait at all before a nurse came in.  She took a peek at Gracie's owie and said she couldn't tell if Gracie would need stitches or not.

The doctor came in (she was great...totally reminded me of our friend, Tina) and took a look in Gracie's ear.

Gracie wasn't having it.

Then, the doctor tried to look in her mouth.  

Gracie pursed her lips together as hard as she could.  I think she was afraid they were going to cut something out of her mouth, seeing as that's what happened the last time she was at the hospital.

The doctor said that Gracie needed surgical glue on her cut.  I was so relieved that they didn't give her stitches!

I sat on a chair and held Gracie on my lap, making sure that I was holding her hands while the nurse held her head still, and the doctor put the glue on her cut.

Gracie was screaming and screaming and screaming.

It's hard to even think when your child is so stressed and unhappy.  I head wasn't really even clear enough to articulate much of a prayer.

I just prayed peace in the name of Jesus over her again and again and again.

Gracie stopped crying immediately.

She closed her eyes and just rested in my arms.

Between applications of surgical glue, the nurse said, "I don't even need to hold her head still."

Jesus made His presence known in the Emergency Room.

We finished our time in the ER drenched in peace.

We happily made our way back to the minivan less than 40 minutes after we entered the hospital.

Next stop:  McDonalds, for the promised Happy Meal!

Gracie was back to her fun, busy self after her nap!

I'm thankful that Jesus hears when I don't have the words.  He hears and He comforts and He heals.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us...

Romans 8:26

I'm linking up with Blair at Wild and Precious.

Cuuuuuuuuuute!

These girls of mine say some pretty funny things :)

Enjoy a few !

Leah was in the bathroom getting ready for bed when she asked me...

Leah:  Mom, do all the animals die?

Becky:  Yeah.

L:  Plants, too?

B:  Yep.

L:  What about people?

B:  Yeah, honey, everyone dies, but Jesus makes things new again...(pause as I figure out how to explain a resurrected body, etc.)

L:  Like recycling?

Leah is reading my blog :)

We were driving by the Mississippi River...

Leah:  Mom, is that the Pacific Ocean?

Becky:  No, it's the Mississippi River.

L:  It sure looks like the Pacific Ocean!

B:  Uh, yeah...

It's fairly obvious that she's never been out of the midwest :)

Maggie was in the bathroom, playing with some cups and looking in the mirror...

Maggie:  Did you know that I'm a robot?

Becky:  I had no idea!  All this time I thought you were a girl!

Maggie:  Just kidding!  I'm your fuzzy Maggie!

Putting the girls to bed on our small group night...

Maggie: Why can't we be at Bible study?

Becky:  Well, we're talking about grown up stuff.

M:  Like what?

B:  Being married and stuff...

M:  YUCK!  Do you talk about the kiss part?

Now, I don't mean to leave Gracie out here, 

but her funny things have been related to potty training.

And let's not kid ourselves, that's best left off the internet :)

Have a happy weekend!