Snapshots of Thanksgiving- Day 16

Day 16:

This is my beautiful little sister wearing K’s jacket. She is amazing and I am so thankful for having her in my life. We went to lunch with her and my mom today. It was great. K told her he loved her and she said her heart melted and sat in a puddle in her shoe.

We also have two big brothers and a big sister, but (despite being 8 years apart) I have always been closest to her. She is working hard at two jobs, going to college for nursing, and in her first apartment. She is also a great aunt. I am so proud of her!

Bonsai Baby Butt Bomb

This picture really says it all.

This was not a fluke or some rare occurrence. E really does enjoy sitting on her brother. Poor K doesn’t stand a chance. If he tries to tackle and wrestle with her, she comes back ten fold. That little girl can take her big brother down.

Her signature move is waiting for K to lay down on the floor and plopping down on his head. Daddy has lovingly named this move the Bonsai Baby Butt Bomb.

She doesn’t do anything maliciously though. She is just a tough little cookie. She gleefully climbs all over everyone with a big smile. Watching them fills me with a sense of pride in her toughness and pity for K. I can already see her becoming skilled in the art of brother pestering.

Daddy, Poppy, and Papaw don’t stand a chance either… I can already picture her looking up at her dad or grandpas with those big blue eyes and watching them turn to putty in her little hands.

Daddy says we are going to lock her away when she hits puberty and arrange a marriage to one of our friends’ boys…

Snapshots of Thanksgiving- Day 15

Day 15:

Today is a twofer.

K was over-tired last night and passed out in front of his dinner at 5:30pm. We tried to wake him up but he curled up on the living room floor. E was crawling all over him, kissing him, trying to give him his juice cup… Nothing. He was out.

He had to have been a special type of tired to sleep through E sitting on his head…

This did not bode well for mommy. He slept through the night and was up at 4am. I finally put on Toy Story 2 for him and climbed back into bed but he was soon snuggled into my back and talking a million miles an hour. It was a long morning.

Today I am thankful for naps!

K finally ran out of steam and passed out with Skippy John Jones. E wouldn’t let me hold her but played till she dropped- all snoodled up with her baby doll and brother’s Optimus Prime. They were cute. I snapped a picture of each, covered them, and snuggled up on the couch for my own nap!

The kids napping at the same time is a rare and beautiful occurrence. Sometimes it is used to catch up on housework, but many times it is my rare chance to be still. Moms need to occasionally be still or take a nap.

The nap refreshed my body and God refreshed my soul.

Snapshots of Thanksgiving- Day 14

Day 14:

I am so thankful for Fall! I love the colors, the food, the reprieve from sweltering Texas Summer days.

Snapshots of Thanksgiving- Day 13

Day 13:

Despite feeling like a slave to this machine, I am thankful for laundry. It means my family has enough clothes and clean water in which to wash them. I’m also grateful that we have our own washer and dryer and our dark days of hauling everything to laundry mat are behind us. We are lucky.

Now I am going to remember this when I am elbow deep in little socks and underpants.

Soap Clouds and Small Failures

I’ve been seeing a lot of hype about putting Ivory bar soap in the microwave and decided it was time to give it a try.

I loaded up the kids today and went to my friend’s house for a play date. I stopped by my mom’s on the way to borrow her blender. We also stopped at Sonic for slushes.

We got to my friend’s house and started our soap experiment:

We cut a bar of Ivory Soap in half. (It must be Ivory!)

Next you pop it in the microwave for two minutes and watch the magic. It smells really good too.

(In the process of picking up kids to let them see I managed to knock K’s blue slush all over the floor. )

The kids loved it. It puffs up into a huge cloud. I didn’t expect it to be so light and fluffy!

K decided it was snow. Here are the kids playing.

When they were done playing we put our soap snow in the blender with a little water and food coloring.

I have a molded cookie pan with princess/girly shapes and another with cars/planes/rockets. We sprayed them with cooking oil. We scooped our soap into the pan and put it in the freezer to set up.

We actually made a blue batch for the boys but K tripped on the blender cord and we ended up with glass and blue soap everywhere.

Here are the soaps that came out. Not perfect but they were excited.

I felt terrible that we made such a big mess but it turned out ok. The kids still had a blast. Not every craft or adventure will turn out the way you expect. Most of the time our set backs bother me way more than the kids. They just thought it was fun to watch a bar of soap puff up and really didn’t care if they made perfect mini soaps.

Now I need to see if I can find a new pitcher for my mom’s blender…

***Update***I forgot to mention that it isn’t wet at all. It really is fluffy and dry to the touch. Also, I highly reccomend sweeping/vacuuming up any mess before wiping with something wet or you’ll get a big soapy mess.

Snapshots of Thanksgiving- Day 12

Day 12:

I am subbing for 6th grade band today! It has been a blast. I did the math in my head and I started playing clarinet in 6th grade band 16 years ago… Wow. It made me feel even older when I told the percussion class that their director started when I was a freshmen in high school in 1999 and they told me that they weren’t even born yet.

I am so thankful for the new crop of young people taking an interest in music. I am also grateful to the dedicated band directors that put up with crazy band kid antics. It really does form a little family and somehow that “band hall smell” will also hold a sentimental place in my heart.

Thankful Little Turkeys

I am so excited about Thanksgiving!

I made E’s mini turkey bow:

After church this morning I got asked to come up with a craft for our AWANA Cubbies tonight. We decided to make Thankful Handprint Turkeys.

You need:
Paper plates
Red, orange, and yellow paint
Brown paper or white paper colored brown
Markers (red, orange, and black)
Sharpie (I used silver.)
Card stock or paper for the back ground
Scissors
A sink or wipes to wash hands

For older kids you could let them make their own body/head and color it. Our Cubby class is mostly 3-4 year olds, so I did them ahead of time.

For the head and body cut out a bowling pin shape from the brown paper and use your markers to make a face. I didn’t have brown paper, so I colored textured white card stock and cut out 12 little bowling pin bodies. I drew on the beak, wattle, and eyes.

For the feathers we put a glob of red, orange, and yellow paint on a paper plate. We went to each kid and put their hands in the paint and had them do overlapping fanned fingers handprints. The three colors together had a neat effect. If you stick the body on right away it won’t need glue.

We wrote “I’m so thankful for…” at the top and asked each child what they were thankful for. The parents loved them and the answers were sometimes funny. The green one says he is thankful for the “TCU Bullet Train”.

This concept would make a cute shirt or onesie. You could let the handprint feathers dry and paint on the body and face. Sorry I don’t have the step by step pictures. We had our hands full with 12 little Cubbies!

Snapshots of Thanksgiving- Day 11

Day 11:

This is my 100th post! I am thankful for having a place to throw out my thoughts and ideas. Mama Miller Parenting has been an amazing outlet and I really appreciate all the talented bloggers I’ve met through it.

Thank you so much for reading!

Snapshots of Thanksgiving- Day 10

Day 10:

This evening I watched a friend from church start her new life as a wife. Her grandfather (a missionary to Thailand for many years) married them. Her twin brother (a talented trumpet player) played her processional. Her mother (a florist) decorated the church. It was gorgeous with all the shades of Fall and the couple looked deliriously happy.

I cried, but that isn’t surprising. I can get misty eyed during cartoon movies…

I am so thankful for new life.

The journey of marriage is most definitely the start of an adventure and a new life. A couple leaves their parents and single ways to become united as husband and wife. They have to submit to one another and learn to live with another person.

Parenthood comes along and brings with it a literal new life and the glorious, tedious new life of a mom or dad. In many ways a parent dies to their old nature and selfish habits (like peeing alone) to embrace the demands of children. It is humbling and at times painful, but beautiful.

I am most thankful for new life in Christ. I can’t imagine my life as a wife and mother without His strength and comfort.

Ok, I am getting misty again… Have a great night!