Gluten dairy and egg free chocolate cake

It's not as bad as it sounds! The main ingredient, believe it or not, was garbanzo beans! And it was supposed to have eggs, but I fed the last of them to the kids for lunch so I had to improvise. I used applesauce and bananas instead and the boys said that it tasted like chocolate covered bananas. They also said it was the best chocolate cake they've ever had. Little did they know it was the healthiest! Glad we found a winner!

Mr Micah approves!

He LOVED getting to have a very rare treat! Almost never is there any kind of desert that is dairy and gluten free! (I think the pecan pie muffins and coconut milk ice cream are the only deserts he's had (besides his birthday cake.)) The sentence of the hour (his only sentence) was" Some more!"

The batter was so good

The boys literally liked the bowl (Ninja) clean. And since there were not raw eggs, I was fine with that!

Such a sweet face

It's hard to believe that she's always causing some kind trouble isn't it? Or that 5 minutes before I took this picture (BEFORE breakfast) I was on the phone with poison control for the 10th time in her 2.5 years. This time because in the FIVE SECONDS that it took me to walk to the cupboard and get out a bowl for her, sh managed to open the" childproof" Extra Stregnth Excedrin and eat one. I can't understand how it's possible because even I can't open the bottle that quickly! No need to worry, she could have 4 before we need to worry. Umm, good to know. Thankfully, they were uncoated and tasted terrible so she tried to spit it out. It will only be through the Grace or God Himself that will get this child to adulthood.

What are you...A monkey?

Seems to fit her personality quite well, don't you think?

Boys.

Not only are they fascinated, but Jonah does his best to gross me out talking about leaking eyeballs and such. Ick.

My hair is stuck!

Selah has a bandaid obsession. She needs a bandaid for EVERYTHING and will even try to tell you that "it's bleeding!" Hopefully she has learned not to put them on her head.

Stairs!

We have stairs! We can now use our sliding glass door off the kitchen! Bryan did a great job building these stairs and the kids think being able to go out that door and use the stairs is the coolest thing ever! (It's so bizarre to us that they just attach a railing to block the door rather than build stairs on new homes here. And what's even crazier is how many people never put stairs on and just don't use that door! Which, by the way is called a "door wall" in MI.)

The Lego nightmare continued....

I had no idea the Legos could get worse. Well, I guess I knew the COULD get worse I just didn't think they WOULD. I was wrong. (It has all been picked up now, they've learned that a puch broom works wonders for this!)

No! I do it!

Selah has to do everything herself with no help. This can lead to much screaming and frustration on her part. (And much annoyance on ours.) She got a little overwhelmed here and had to take a break.

Gluten free Dairy free Pecan Pie Muffins

I'm slowly learning how to adapt recipes for Micah. I definitely messed this one up, it ended up all over the oven and you have to just eat it straight out of the pan, it doesn't really come out. But that's okay because they still taste fantastic! He was thrilled to be able to have some.

What?

Nobody like paper towels all rolled up and neat. That's so last year.

Meet King Beta

There's a new member of the family, and Selah was SO excited to hold him on the way home. At least once she stopped being scared of him. (Although I wasn't sure this was a wise idea, letting her hold him, she managed to not lose him so it was a successful mission after all.)

No shirt (or pants) no shoes no service?

Mr Micah dumped an entire cup of water on himself and his mama doesn't keep a diaper bag! So he ended up in his diaper and socks (and coat).... and then we went to Petsmart. Luckily, people thought he was cute and didn't kick him out. Though they did wonder if it suddenly warmed up outside. (It didn't. It's 33 degrees out, but luckily we had a blanket in the car!)

7 years

Seems that 7 years is the life expectancy of Corelle here at our house. Never had a problem until we moved into the new house and this was piece number 2. Breaking a dish is one thing but shattering is quite another. And it was full of CoCo Wheats. Talk about a mess. Both the food and the glass went everywhere. I'm thinking it may be time for some new dishes...

Micah's favorite game

He's throwing a rubber tire from a Lego set. But he also loves to throw balls and dice...and anything else he can! Jonah encourages this as much as possible, which may not be suggested but so far it's been fine.

Kids having fun

Sometimes all it takes to amuse a group of kids is turning on the ceiling fan. They took it from there

Silly me

I thought maybe the kids were going to pick up the Legos without being threatened yesterday. Imagine my surprise this morning at seeing this. Where's the Lego fairy when you need her?

Is it just mine?

Or do your kids do this, too? WHY must they suck the dirty water out of the washcloth? It's so gross. Selsh still does it as well and both Jonah and Noah did it when they were little, too! What's so appealing about dirty bath water?

A glimpse into the future

Selah looks SO grown-up to me today. I think it's her goofy bed-head. Just a reminder that someday she's going to leave. (Thank Heavens?? Only kidding. I'm sure she going to mellow out as she gets older and I'm not going to want her to leave...right?) All kidding aside, it does make me want to drop what I'm doing and spend some time with her before she's all grown up!

It's 8 am...

Do you know where your kids are?
Mine are creating a Lego headache already. When I see the Legos all dumped like that, I have to wonder how many we have...and if it's really necessary! But I admit all four of them love to play with them and on "Lego days" Jonah and Noah will spend HOURS creating different things. Definitely beats playing video games!

I need a wet wipe!

"There's medicine all over my legs!"
This is what happens when Mommy tries to switch the laundry without locking Selah up first. She climbs right up the front of the dresser like a monkey and gets into the Neosporin. No worries, it's only $4 a tube.
When I asked why she did that, she replied" because I like that!"
Of course!

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More snow.

We thought maybe winter was over, since for the first time in months we had more than 2 consecutive days that we saw the grass. A week with grass and even some 50 and 60 degree days had us all dreaming about the arrival of spring and summer. But, sadly, mother nature wasn't as gracious as we hoped and we are once again with snow (just a little as grass is still peeking through!) And nothing but temps below freezing in the next week. It's hard not to miss GA (where current temps are in the 80s!) On days like this.

Bath time

It appears that they weren't too happy to be skipping bath tonight and took matters in their own hands. They were found hiding behind the shower curtain with Selah squirting soap onto both their hands and then they were rubbing it in their hair. Note Selah's chic hair style.

Legos

Everybody love legos. Micah loves them so much he sits in them. And then" shares" them with everyone else. (Aka throws them all over the place.)

Patiently waiting

We belong to a Catholic Homeschooling group that has Bible Study twice a month. And today, we're meeting at our house. The kids are a wee-bit anxious for someone to get here!

Oops

Guess Mommy shouldn't be cleaning the garage while" watching" the kids play outside!

There's a rule here

And it states that Selah is NOT allowed to take non-board books to bed. Why? Because this is what she does. Now, to be fair, she does this to board books about 30% of the time, too. (Impressive, really.) But regular books this is about 85% of the time. Daddy thinks we have too many books (how could there be such a thing??) So maybe that's why he keeps sending her to bed with them?

Queen Selah

Well, she's the queen. There's nothing wrong with dumping half a bottle of cinnamon into her mother's coffee! (She added some extra to the rice pudding, too. Wasn't that kind?)

Good mom or Bad mom

I'm not sure which I am for letting the kids eat this for breakfast but since it's Monday, I'm all about easy. And I can assure you they think I'm a good mom for it! (Jonah looked at me and said, "rice pudding FOR BREAKFAST?? Umm, okay...."

Hair!

Mr. Blue Eyes is starting to get some hair!! Of course, I want to cut it because it is looking a little too" mohawky" for me, but I'm restraining myself for now. There's also a little bit in the back behind his ears and it looks like it's starting to curl....

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My baby

Sometimes I look at him and I just can't believe it. That's my baby? He's not a baby anymore! (Although he does sleep worse than most babies.) I alternate between being relieved that I am starting to get a handle on things and being so sad that I don't have a baby. If only we could pause life how it is right now...

Helpers

Jonah's helping out by feeding Micah some sweet potatoes while Mom finishes making lunch. Micah's saying cheese for the camera.

Car washing

Jonah decided to" wash" the van with some handsoap and a squirt gun. Micah, while fascinated, was a bit afraid and hid behind Jonah, clutching his shirt. It was so sweet.

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A tease of Spring

We were blessed with 2 60 degree days smack-dab in the middle of 30 degree days. Really makes one long for Spring to hurry up! Bryan was finally able to build his new grill and make us some long awaited hamburgers. And we got to take the kids to the (very crowded) park. What a great day after a LONG Winter!

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Somebody found a marker. Colored on her brother, too.

Apparently she hasn't left the toilet paper phase yet. I was drying my hair with my back to her. But at least she's trying to roll it back up? (She eventually gave up, tore it off and threw it away. So I guess we're making progress since she cleaned up her own mess.)

That's MY (fill in the blank.) That's all we hear from Selah. Today she stole Micah's coat. When I said that it was Micah's she just brought me his other coat and thought all was dandy. I admit she looks cute, but....poor Micah.

I'm thinking this swing will not be used by another new baby at our house. We put it in Selah's room for her dolls, but Selah and Micah are in it way more than the dolls. Funny since NONE of our kids have ever liked the swing as a baby. Apparently that's reserved for after they surpass the weight limit.

Selah's ready for summer, even if Mother Nature isn't cooperating yet!

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Life with Noah is always interesting. This is his peanut butter and honey "sandwich." Made with a platform of honey and then a heart peanut butter with dots on top. Looks...messy!

Lent

Hard to believe it's Lent again already.  But it is.  And one of the things I am trying to do for Lent this year is post a picture (or even better multiple but let's be realistic here) every day.  Maybe one day I'll get caught up. Until then...

This is the crown of thorns the kids made today.

(In the middle are an alligator and snake, made from scraps. Just in case you were wondering.)

The idea is that everytime they do something nice that would please Jesus they get to remove a thorn.  They usually do really well, at least for a few days!

Maybe I'll remember to take a picture at Easter this year and post it so you can see how many they were able to remove.