Happy Birthday, Aly!

Our sweet, dramatic, bright, friendly, silly, wonderful 9-year-old.
We had a party in a hotel in Nebraska for Aly's birthday this year.
We packed rainbow cakes in jars.
Aly made us home-made ice cream for the top from one of her presents. Mmmmm.
And we all partied!

Newest Edition

Introducing Ethan Dean...

He weighed 8lbs and was 19 1/4 inches long.

From the beginning he has been a very content baby.
The older kids were absolutely in love!

Biggest brother/littlest brother.

My little "Mommy."

So fun to have another brother!

All I can say is look out Ethan. :)
We are so very thankful for this little blessing from the Lord. We are praying the Lord uses him mightily for His glory!

Cutting Wheat

I'm behind again, so I figure the best place to start is with the most recent and work backwards. We'll see how it works. :)

It's Harvest time "around these parts" and Chuck is glad to have a part helping a local farmer and friend. I think he'll always be a farmer at heart, so he really enjoys being in the field.
The kids love the chance to go "help" him. They love watching the huge machine cut the golden wheat and really love getting to taste the yummy meals that go along with helping harvest, but I think their favorite part is being with their Daddy uninterrupted for hours.
I like it because the blue Kansas sky, tractor colors and golden wheat make a beautiful backdrop for pictures. So get ready for a whole lot of pictures. :)

Our Youngest is Four!

Wow, am I feeling old these days. Our Baby Anna has turned four and our oldest is just about to turn ten - yikes! Four. She has gone from a toddler to a preschool-aged little girl. Her birthday celebration began a couple of weeks before the actual day. While we were in Illinois for a short visit, Mom decided to have a little celebration so they could share in the fun of seeing her open presents.
She was so excited. She kept saying "It's not my real Birthday, just a celebrate!"Here she is admiring Grandma's beautifully decorated table and "patiently" waiting for the "celebrate" to begin.
She's had a lot of fun playing with (and wearing) her wonderful gifts. Thanks Mom & Dad and Uncle Curtis and Aunt Jessica!
*side note* Yes, she is dressed as Dorothy. She was pretending to be "somewhere over the rainbow" since we were away from Kansas! :)

For her real day, April 30th, We had a small party with more family. Anna has two cousins on the Lambert side that have birthdays within a couple of days of hers. She was able to celebrate with Emma who turned 13! We had a good time even though we were missing Culley who turned two on May 1st. The happy birthday girls.

This year I attempted the largest and most complicated cake I have yet. Anna is very into the movie Tangled (Disney's version of Rapunzel that came out this year). So somehow (thanks to the world wide web) I got the idea to make a cake that looked like Rapunzel's tower.Anna and her "cake."
The top of the tower was the only part made of actual cake, the rest was made of crispy treats and ice cream cones and covered with fondant. It looks like Rapunzel is ready to dive out of her tower. ;)After a near catastrophe with the "grass" (made of delicious green cake) :) cracking and the tower almost falling to its death, I threw out the cake and made rice crispy treats that were able to hold up the tower.Phew! Success.Ready to dig in.
A little playing first!
Here are a few Anna-quotes I jotted down a while ago:
"I wish God named me Picky-Picky, but He didn't. He named me Anna."
"I don't look like Anna today, I have braids."
"Momma, can you call me Teapot?"
"I don't like our house because we don't have enough remotes. We need twelve."
"Mommy, you're such a good cooker!"
"God always forgives us. You do too, right, Mommy?!?"
"I wish I could be a pirate! Then I would never get in trouble!"
Caleb sneezed on Anna's hand. In a disgusted voice she exclaimed "YUCK! You blessed on me!!"
As we were driving into the sun, Anna said "Oh man, the sun is in my nose!"
"Hi Mom! Nice to meet ya!"
"Hosanna. That's my last name. It really is."
"Mommy, if someone says 'you're naughty, I'm going to take you in the deep water to get you eaten by sharks,' that's not nice, right Mommy?
"OH fanks Mom! You saved my life!!" (I helped her get off of a chair)
"Mom, I wish your name was Hey. I would say 'Hey.'"
"I've got something in my teeth. Can I have a pickle?" (toothpick)
Oh sweet girl, we love you so much. We can't wait what God has planned for you!

A Visit From Grandma

A couple of weeks ago, we were blessed to have my mom come visit for the week. Chuck, along with my dad and brother, made his annual trip to California to the Shepherd's Conference (there are downloads from this year's conference if you're interested - the guys are always so challenged and encouraged). Mom and I thought since we would both be without our men, it would be the perfect time for her to come visit.We took advantage of the nice weather one day and had a picnic at the park. Caleb even got out of school early that day so he got in on the fun too.
The week started out with Aly wanting Mom to teach her to sew. This is one area I will always think of as an area that I let my poor mom down. She is a wonderful seamstress and would have loved for me to share that passion with her. I have not. I am finally to the place, though were I would like to begin sewing some easy projects. I was glad to let Aly enjoy learning to sew from my expert mother. She has enough passion and desire to learn to sew for the both of us!The first project was sewing straight lines on fabric which turned into a perfect accessory for Anna.

Then she was ready to go. Mom helped her make her very own bag.
BEAUTIFUL!
While Mom had the sewing machine out we had a long list of mending to do. It's nice having your own personal seamstress! The first (and probably most important) item on the list was Anna's "Dorothy dress." Our little Dorothy was very happy to have her dress fixed. Mom fixed a couple other clothing items, hemmed pants and jeans, made curtains and another favorite was pillows for the boys.Caleb has the "cool football players don't smile for pictures" look down!Mom and the kids with all of their projects.
We were all so thankful for ALL of the things Mom did for us while she was here! Thank you, Mom. I am so grateful for you and all you taught me and are teaching me. I am continually humbled by all the ways you sacrifice of yourself for us and others! Thank you for a great week (and a sparkly clean house)!!

Free Jeans!

I have written about deals before and have thought about sharing more about good deals but didn't think my two readers (my mom and father-in-law) would care to read about it. :) But this week at Target, the deals are too good to let slip by without sharing. Last night the girls and I headed "to town" and got some great deals. My favorite was getting FREE jeans (don't have a picture of those)! They also had some great coupons for their Target brand -Up&Up- making for some really cheap cleaning and health supplies.
I bought all this for only $2.11!! I saved $23.87!

I will break down how I got the jeans, but will link to people who are much better at this than me for the other deals.

Here are the details on how to get your free jeans:
*Print the coupon from Target's website ($5 off women's denim): It will be easier to find if you click on the apparel section to the left.
*Target has several styles of jeans on sale ~ I found a pair for $4.98 ~
*Used the coupon.
*FREE jeans! I loved seeing the receipt "...denim $0.00..."

Here are a couple of different places I have seen a breakdown of the other Target deals this week (only good through this Saturday).
From Deal Seeking Mom
From Money Saving Mom and another deal from Money Saving Mom on frozen foods.
And from Moms By Heart.
Hope that helps, Steph. Anyone who has any questions, email me. :)

The Vision of a Three Year Old

Last week I mentioned that Anna had found a picture in this cute cupcake book that she thought we just *had* to make for Valentine's Day. Well, Aly joined in and they were bound and determined to recreate the beautiful "box of chocolates." So, after some prodding I agreed and they set to work.

The inspiration:

Rising to the challenge:
Beginning the process:
Taking a break to make sure it's tasting alright:
Let the decorating begin:
The first decorated "piece of chocolate":(Just as she had found the picture and knew we had to make the box of chocolates, Anna picked out the piece of chocolate she wanted to create and off she went. She got the supplies and made it all by herself.)

The masterpiece:
Pretty close.
It's such a neat thing for me to watch these sisters enjoy doing things together.