BIRTHDAYS

January is a very busy month for our family. Shane (16th) , Sarah (27th) and Steve (31st) all have their birthdays. This year, Shane had a STAR WARS party and Sarah had a GLAMOUR GILR party -- where we did hair and painted fancy nails. Steve celebrated his birthday eating brownies with chocolate icing!!



Shane is wearing his Anakin Skywalker costume and the Darth Vader pinata as a mask :)



7 already!!

"@&*!%#*" words

We all know that there are some words that we really don't want our kids to say. Not that they are "bad", they just don't sound nice. For instance, in our family we try not to say hate, so if repeating someone else, we say the "h" word. Stupid is not allowed either, so sometimes we use the "s" word.

Now FART is another word that just sounds ugly. Toot, seems much more pleasant. So I told Shane that I really didn't want him to say it because it didn't sound nice. Of course, telling Shane not to say something, just makes him say it ALL THE TIME. I could deal with that, BUT...after asking me in public "Mommy can I say the "f" word?" I had to just beg him to please say Fart. Fart was better than others thinking that we use THE "f" word.

Funny Batman Boy

Shane loves to dress up in costumes, he has Spider Man and Batman from previous Halloweens. Last week, he couldn't find his batman costume, so here is how he improvised...cape, mask, and belt.



Thank goodness he had on underwear. If not, I would have still taken a picture, but wouldn't have posted it. :)

BOYS

Oh my. The stories I have to tell. A couple of weeks ago, Sarah went into the bathroom she shares with Shane and hollered out that the sink was yellow. When we asked Shane if he peed in the sink, he said not in this one, but I did in that one. When asked WHY he peed in the sink, he said just "because". Steve asked him to show us just how he managed to get the pee in the sink, wondering if he had used a stool, or what. Shane climbed up on the counter, put one knee on each side of the sink, and that was that. A couple of days later, we discovered a yellow bathtub.

Now, I am wondering, he is really a naughty boy, or just simply curious? Surely he is learning about the world using cause and effect.

We do watch a lot of Sid the Science Kid...a fabulous PBS show where the kids do all kinds of "investigations" as they learn about their world. Maybe I should get him a science journal where he can "draw" about the things he tries.

Today, while taking a bath, I heard a lot of bubbles in the tub. Now, I was sitting in the floor, deep into a game of Suduko, so I didn't really glance up, just merely asked Shane if he had tooted. He laughed and said yes. Only later, about 10 minutes, when Shane said he wanted to get out, did I look in the tub and see the floating poop. Of course, we had to shower after that and scour the tub. But again, did he intentionally go, or was it just a watery toot? We may never know.

Life for the mom of a boy, is never BORING.

A very quiet house

Our kids spent the night at Memaw's last night, and our house is very, very quiet. Steve and I are just sitting around, with no tv on, and marveling about the last time it was this quiet. I remember walking around our neighborhood in Washington, when I was still pregnant with Sarah and listening to the quietness of life. I joked with Steve that once Sarah arrived our lives would never be the same again. How right I was. Now our days are full of noise the sounds of childern. Laughing, singing, whistling or trying to, burping, running around the kitchen island, reading, tattling, wrestling, arguing, whining, giggling, banging on the playing the piano...etc.

What a relaxing schedule I had today...time-off to be Shannon, and not just Mommy. Here's what my day looked like:
Woke up about 8:30
Finished the last 50 pages of a Karn Kingsbury book Every Now and Then
Ate my cereal on my own without any body else sharing it
Took a nap about 10:00
Watched a Chick Flick.

Ahh-what a day. If only Starbucks had a delivery service.

This kind of day is nice every once in a while, but of course I wouldn't trade my kids for anything in the world.

Sopapilla Cheesecake

If you have not yet tasted the dessert Sopapilla Cheesecake, then you simply must. It is fabulous. Of course, with 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar, 2 packs of cream cheese, and a stick of butter, how could it not be good? Click here for a great blog full of fun recipies.

Sopapilla Cheesecake

2 cans Pillsbury Crescent rolls

2-8oz Cream Cheese (room temperature)

1 1/2 cups Sugar

1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract

1 tsp Cinnamon1 stick butter (1/2 cup real butter not margarine)

1. Spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray.

2. Unroll and press 1 can crescent rolls into the bottom of your baking dish and press the seams together.

3. In a separate bowl blend the cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and 1 and a half tsp vanilla -- spread over top of dough.

4. Unroll the second can of crescent rolls and place on top of the cream cheese mixture pressing seams together again.

5. Melt butter and pour over top layer of crescents.

6. Mix the reaming 1/2 cup of sugar & cinnamon together.

7. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture generously over the top.

8. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until bubbly and bottom crust is slightly brown.

9. Cool, slice and enjoy!

Happy New Year!

Look at all the NEW BLING my BLOG has! Try saying that 5x in a row. :) Many thanks to Cari for taking the time to show me some cool BLOG secrets and to hosting a fun-filled New Year's Eve. The kids enjoyed hanging out, watching Nemo and running the circle from living room/kitchen/dining room--over and over. Cheers that no one ever fell and got hurt.

You really can't ask for a better friend...she cooks, she cleans up the mess, she takes pics, and she even emailed me these cute smilebox pages already completed with pictures. So glad we live back here in FTW so we can be around for sharing in meals and fellowship together!