To post or not to post

We have our 20-week ultrasound on Wednesday. While we are interested to know how the baby is developing, we are mainly eager to find out the gender of our newest addition. With this milestone, I have been debating whether or not I should take a "preggo picture" to post on this blog. I mean, one pregnancy profile picture wouldn't kill me, right? At the same time, I have no interest in looking at myself getting bigger any more than I have to, so why would anyone else? It is already hard enough to bend over and walk up the steps, so should I have to injure my ego too?

So what do y'all think? To post or not to post? That is the question. Let me know what you think!

Chocolate fix fixed

I found myself eating straight out of a bag of chocolate chips last night, so I decided to make something with the chocolate in an attempt to eat less of it. After a quick cookbook scan, I chose Puppy Chow. I don't think I have made the stuff since Tyler and I have been married! The kids thoroughly enjoyed it and P. proceeded to liquefy her portion. What does liquefied Puppy Chow look like? Glad you asked. Glad you asked.


This picture hardly does it justice. Perhaps I should have taken a full-body shot. She somehow managed to suck all of the sweet coating off of the Chex and then deposited the soggy Chex onto her legs. As I was cleaning her up, most of the Chex fell onto the floor where the dog was eagerly awaiting a treat. He turned up his nose at it. What a picky dog! (I will have to add soggy Chex to the list of foods he doesn't eat, including Cheerios--perhaps he has a distaste for cereal?--any fruit, jello, and green vegetables.) So there I was, wiping down the floor of soggy Chex as P. gleefully ran from the room on her newly acquired sugar high. Perhaps eating straight from the chocolate chip bag is the better late-night option.

My spontaneous moment

I am not a spontaneous person. Scheduling something two days in advance is spontaneous to me. But when I saw the great forecast on Tuesday morning and knew that my husband needed to sleep all day to recover from his back-to-back midnight shifts, I decided to get out of the house with the kids. And, thankfully, it was a good decision. So much so that I might even try being spontaneous again, but not any time soon!

With numerous options open, we decided to go to a local attraction called Grant's Farm. S. absolutely loved it and just kept saying, "I love this, Mom!" We have been there numerous times since moving here, but E. was the only one who remembered visiting. We rode the tram, watched the elephant show, brushed the goats, and saw some really cool animals. (Grandpa, we even saw a 5 week old mustang!)

I tried a few times for a group photo. P. was more interested in finding her water bottle though!

At the elephant show.
In the goat pen. There are easily over 100 young goats in there! I try not to think about where the goats go when they outgrow this area ... because there are no other goats located on the farm. Goat cheese ... goat meat ... glue ... maybe a secret ingredient in Budweiser ... ewww.
A free-roaming peacock that met us out on the road as soon as we arrived on the tram. It was stunning!
After gathering up his courage, a video of E. feeding a camel. S. wouldn't even think of it--she was certain he would bite!


At the zoo
While Grant's Farm is pretty cool, we also like visiting the zoo. We went one day back in March when the temperature reached 70 degrees. We were there with thousands of other people ... on a Wednesday morning at that! But going early on a spring morning yielded a lot of active animal encounters. One of our favorite parts was the penguins. We had just watched Happy Feet the week before and the penguins were very chatty during their breakfast. Again, S. was amazed. It is like she is discovering the world and everything is really coming to life for her.

With the penguins.


On the carousel. Can you catch a glimpse of Ty and the kids?







P. speaks
P. is becoming quite the little talker. She will come into the room, walk up to me, and proceed to tell me a story about ... well, something! Just this week she said S.'s full name for the first time. She can also say the dog's full name and is now choosing what she would like to eat and wear by pointing at her choice and saying, "that one." It is really cute. She also follows the dog around the house telling him, "no, no, no." Chester doesn't think that is so cute. It is amazing how fast she is growing up and how her personality is really emerging.

Awana highlights

E. just had his last Awana night this week, complete with singing, awards being handed out, and tons of cookie eating. E. got his Book 1 Award ... and he flew through it. Of course, it helps when the leaders don't know you can read yet and you are doing 4-5 verses a week by reading them over their shoulder. Little stinker. I had to put a stop to that! Here are some photo highlights from the night:

While my laptop was still sizzling from the burn and crash, E. also took part in the Awana Grand Prix and I never had the chance to post any videos or pics. So, a few months late, here they are!

The derby car and its design team

The weigh-in
The competition
The cheerleaders ... or did they just come for the snacks?
Actual race footage!

Summer is in sight

On Saturday night the kids had their end-of-year program for the co-op we have been a part of this past school year. S. performed a couple of rhymes and E. performed in a musical that he has been learning all semester in his drama class. It was a great night; I was really proud of all the kids had accomplished and learned. Just five more weeks of our own work at home and then summer break. Yay!

E., on the right, performing in Come, Messiah, Come.














S. in a cute video. She is in the middle.

Angel food cake: a little piece of heaven

I like angel food cake. (It hasn't always been this way. I used to think that it resembled a cardboard-like sponge that was drowned in sugar to make it palatable.) We had angel food cake with strawberries and Cool Whip on Easter. It was light and fruity ... just how I like it! Later that night, I was looking at the ingredients list and read this odd warning label:

Excess consumption may cause stomach discomfort.

Drats. Wish I would have read that label before I ate the whole thing.

Burn and crash

"Kim, don't you mean 'crash and burn'?" Actually, no. Let me explain. I have been offline for over a month now. (Did you notice? Please tell me you noticed!) My laptop's power adapter started sparking and smoking one day while I was working. After a good scream--I thought a snake was coming out of my laptop, ridiculous I know--I unplugged the laptop and let both of us cool off. After ensuring Apple* that the adapter didn't burn our house down, I didn't have to call 911, and our insurance adjuster didn't come out, the local Apple Store graciously provided me with a new power adapter ... despite their claim that it happened because of "normal wear and tear." However, my laptop was never the same. Start-up became really slow, it would suddenly shut down, and then eventually I couldn't even launch any applications. It was totally dead. I never thought being unwillingly cutoff from the "outside world" would be so awful! Hopefully I will have another laptop soon and be able to connect with everyone again!

In the meantime, take it from me, unplug your laptop whenever not in use lest you burn your house down.

*Despite this little episode, I still widely favor Macs over PCs. Just wish they didn't cost three times as much!