Cousin Carter

On Monday my nephew Carter came over for the day while Katie went to a conference. Here are some pics and a short clip of their day. Most of you know what Carter and Owen look like, but a lot of my family doesn't get to see them often so this is for you guys. I can' say they did anything COOL, but they were cute. This was before they grew tired of each other. After a couple of hours we had a few episodes (mostly Carter!!!) sorry Katie had to throw that in there. Owen was not w/out fault plenty of times too!

Hair

We had no plans for today. Brent was going to help his parents, I was going to stay home and piddle around and do the things that I had put off all week etc. No big plans. We decided first though that we would go into Clay to an auction. A lady from our church was having the sale. So we told the kids to get ready. You can imagine the amount of complaints we got about how they "just wanted to stay home". I understood, but thinking we really weren't going to be gone THAT long they could handle it, plus I needed a few groceries. So as the kids were getting ready, I heard Maddison say "mom I think I need your help". She comes out and she had managed to get her hair wrapped around a round hair brush that you use to flip your hair under or out. If I have told her once I have told her a thousand times, "that brush isn't made to comb your hair out, please use the regular brush", but she didn't listen and it finally happened. I tried to take pics and video but she was so MAD at me I couldn't get very good ones, but thought I really need to post this to all you moms w/girls feel free to use this as an example. My first thought when this happened to her was the Everybody Loves Raymond show when Deborah got her curling iron caught in her hair and Raymond left her. (classic episode if you haven't seen it)...

You will also see that my sweet little girl wasn't so sweet at this moment. We did manage to get it out w/out cutting it. Brent was here to help and he has more patience for stuff like this than I do. His words were, "I didn't think this could actually happen!"

Farming

Sunday night we went to Grandpa Derald and Grandma Debbies. Brent had to do some welding so he took Garrett and then Maddie, Owen and I came later in the afternoon. Just in time for chores. Owen loves the outside and especially the tractor and cows. It was pretty brisk that evening so everyone is pretty bundled up.

New Find

Last night Brent was in the shed cleaning. This is our once a year throw away things we "thought we could use"..I am afraid more will stay than go, but atleast he is trying. I only go out there if I have to or to get the lawn mower out. Anyway he calls me from the shed asking me to send Maddison out he had found something..4 NEW BABY KITTENS! The video of Owen and Maddison of the new kittens. I can't say I was real thrilled w/the find, yeah their cute and all, but right now we have NO pets and Happy. Go ahead and say it we are the meanest parents in the world and yes there have been a few tears shed over show and tell pet days. We try to tell them they have a "pet" its just in the pasture 10 months out of the year and to take a picture of their cow and new calf, but that doesn't really go over. Why??? Its the same thing isn't? Garrett you will see is absent for the video. He took one look at the kittens and mumbled something and went back upstairs. Please disregard all the junk our mudroom..

Sweet Swap

Katie from Bring on the Lloyds is doing a sweet swap so below is my receipe to add. Go to her blog to check out more receipes.

Cinnamon Rolls

1 1/2 T. Yeast
2 1/2 cups water
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
5 1/2 to 6 cups flour
1 egg

ICING-1/4 cup melted butter, 1/2 cup milk, 2 to 3 cups powdered sugar, 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Should be rather thin

Heat, water, butter, sugar and salt. Add 2 cups flour and yeast. Beat together. Add egg and rest of flour, mix well. But don't over mix. Let rise until double. Knead down, Let rise again. Roll out 1/2 inch thick. Warm 1/2 cup butter and spread on dough. Mix 1 1/2 cups sugar with 1 1/3 T. cinnamon. Put on top of dough and roll up. Cut into 1 in. slices. Put into greased pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes Spoon icing over rolls. Serve Warm



**Notes from my experiences....These do take awhile to make but they are so worth it. We keep our house pretty cool in the winter so in order to get my rolls to rise quicker. I heat my oven up to 110 degrees and then shut off and place the dough in the oven to rise. I also have been known to put on my dryer in the laundry room or very close to a vent.
**I have also been able to stretch the receipe to make 2 9x13 disposable pans out of this receipe and the rolls were still very big.
**I also suggest cutting down the butter that goes on the dough as I have had it coming out my roll and makes it hard to stay rolled.
**I don't put quite as much butter in the frosting either.
**I use a bread knife to cut or a very, very sharp knife to cut the slices
**One more quick note...when you are heating your first ingredients and add it to flour and yeast make sure the water mixture isn't so hot that it will kill your yeast. If this happens they won't rise. I think warm to hot on a quick finger test you should be ok. (but I am not a professional baker).

These are Awesome cinnamon rolls. We eat these for snacks, breakfast, and dessert. Again take a little time, but great thing for multi-tasking. These make great gifts too.

Enjoy

Worth it?

I went to Manhattan today to go to the craft fair Buttons N Bows. Let me back up...I took the kids w/me to Manhattan today to go to the craft fair...Yes, I know what you are thinking. Don't remind me. It has been a LONG time since I have had all 3 kids by myself and gone to Manhattan, let alone on a Saturday. There is definately a reason I go during the week at 8:30 in the morning. The kids were actually pretty good at the craft fair considering the amount of people and the fact that strollers aren't allowed in any of the buildings. Plus my mom went w/me there, so I wasn't truly by myself. By the way Brent was going to Hanover for a playoff football game, so our season isn't quite over yet.

Ok so we hit the fair, mall-just to grab a bite to eat and take back a sweater, no other shopping was done, Hobby Lobby. Then my mom went home and I headed off to Walmart and Walgreens. In the car I told G&M if they were good in Walmart and cooperated they could get a pop for the way home AFTER Owen went to sleep. "Sure mom, no Problem" those words spoken from the older two. We pulled into the parking lot at Walmart, I mentally checked going Walgreens off my list as I knew the kids were not going to make it through walmart. Owen had been woken up about 6 times in and out of car, so I really just tried to get neccesities on the list and get out. We go in and things are running smoothly..Maddison told me she had to go potty BEFORE we were at the back of the store - Plus #1.. Found razors on sale -Plus #2 Ran into some old friends Plus #3. Then things started to go South at the toy section. Older two wanted to look at "Christmas Ideas". Owen wanted to sleep. Started for grocery aisles. South #1-Free Samples were for adults only this time. South #2-Owen had little lunch and wanted cheese curls in cart. I opened them and things were soso, until and here is the kicker......Bye, Bye Pacifier!!!!!! I only noticed after Maddison started sucking the cheese flakes off of Owens' fingers--don't even ask about that one!, Owen screamed and I went to plug him up. And no pacifier. So I am trying to play it cool. I am thinking its in the backpack which is buried under groceries. Surely Owen can make it the last 10 minutes or so. After some fussing in line and the other two complaining their feet were going to fall off from all the WALKING they had to do, (go ahead and picture emmy award for their dramatics), we headed to van. But not BEFORE we go grab two cans of pop from vending machine. Which this particular day is when I find out that Walmart does NOT SELL the 25 cent Sam's Choice cans anymore. Either coke or pepsi in a bottle for 1.25. At this point I was like who cares but you are splitting the pop. After a very quick decision on flavor we headed to the van w/one pouting about the pop. It doesn't matter who.....Unload and go to dig through the diaper bag for pacifier and people are honking waiting for my parking space. I don't like confrontation so I back up only to decide we are going back to buy a pacifier, because that was the LAST one we owned and I didn't feel like ridding the pacifier today. I know its time, but Lord not today please....so we drive around and find a parking spot farther away than orginal, unload everyone and off we go in search of a pacifier. We wind and weave our way through aisles, people, displays to the baby section, only to discover they don't have/carry THE pacifier we needed. So plan #2..search the aisles starting in the chips. (last known place)...no avail. I grab a 2 pack of 96 cent pacifiers and a loaf of bread (which I forgot last time) and headed to checkout. Only to find that EVERY lane is 5 people deep w/huge cart fulls. Express and self checkouts were even LONGER. Head to customer service which is worse. I finally went to the jewlery counter and waited less than 5 minutes but seemed forever. Some of you may wonder about the older 2, well, they kept up w/feet attached, but boy they sure thought they were going to fall off for sure. Head back out to van, out the wrong door and ended up walking in the cold far too long than need be. Ok everyone is back in the van....Owen is fit to be tied and screaming his head off. Rip open the pacifiers shove one in his mouth. He looks, gags, and throws it on the floor. No luck, the kid won't take the thing. I've had it. I head home. Owen actually fell asleep soundly and slept the whole way home, until I tried to carry him in. He awakes and doesn't know what to do to comfort himself and so the screaming starts over. The kids unload the van while I try everything I can to get Owen to go back to sleep or just calm down. As a last resort after 45 minutes, I go to his room, pull the crib out from the wall, clear everything out, and partially open the pack n play that stored underneath and prayed. And GOD ALMIGHTY answered. There in the dust bunnies sat a little blue pacifier. I didn't even bother cleaning it off, Owen grabbed it and his head hit the pillow and was out!!! Quick as a switch... Ok so I'm really sure this IS THE LAST ONE! Oh I didn't buy anything at the craft show either in case you wondered! So was it worth it? I suppose. I did truly see a miracle today. Good thing the Lord has a sense of humor!!! Amen. Have a great weekend....