DIY crayons

pinterest inspires me!  it inspires me to spend an hour of my evening peeling crayons with my husband in order to melt those exact crayons into a new form.  i must say the end product was worth it.  and to be honest, stew and i had a good time.  i am pretty sure stew wasn't overly excited about our new purple grout(oops), but i am hoping it will eventually fade.  

if you're up for a fun night in, here's what you'll need:

1. chocolate mold- i bought mine at wal mart for $2
2. crayons- i bought 2 boxes of 48 crayons from the dollar store.
3. large pot
4. empty tin or glass jar- i used an old apple sauce jar (let's hear it for recycling)
5. something to stir the crayons- we used plastic knives

peel crayons

fill pot with enough water that the jar/tin can remain standing as you put the crayons in jar to melt.   we left the stove on medium heat the entire time and it got the job done.

be sure to stir the melting crayons.  once the crayons have melted, pour the mixture into the chocolate molds  and place in the freezer.  after about 5-10 minutes your crayons will pop right out! 

we ended up with around 30 crayons!

march madness!

march madness just about sums it up for our family.  here's a little glimpse into our past month. 

• we survived the 6 day stomach bug for the 4th time in 2.5 months (i'll save you the gory details).
• bleach became our new best friend. 
• decided on a new preschool for the two older boys for next year. 
• the boys discovered their love for playing "buzz" together(praise the LORD!)  
• did i mention that the boys had the stomach bug AGAIN?!
• ryder's glue on the forehead has lasted all month. 
• i fell in love with shauna niquist.  love her!  she has me laughing and crying.  these books are exactly what i needed to read at this point in my life.  finishing up her second book now.  if you haven't read her books, she's better than hunger games.  ok, truth be told, i haven't read hunger games. 
• the boys spent time with their grandmas, grandpas and aunties.  
• asher has had to be sleep trained AGAIN!  (oh the beauty of a sick little one.)
• did a little spring cleaning, followed by a garage sale- made some cash!

• parachutes were launched over and over again.

•  lots of playing at home due to sick children. (isaac took this picture)  

• isaac took many horrible pictures of me.   

•  this guy continued to prove he was one of the brothers and will not be left out.  

•  silliness continued

• lots of teasing

• plenty of laughing (by the grace of God).

• camping trip planned.

• camping trip canceled.  we made up for it with a trip to pizza port. the boys slept in their warm beds that night,  as it poured rain. 

• ryder drew his first self portrait.

• lots of picking out our own outfits.

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  •  asher's 7th tooth joined the scene

• several trips to legoland and the aquarium.   

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  • we were reminded how well our children go to sleep at night and how early they continue to wake up(even with daylight savings).

• many trips to the park to burn energy.

• lots and lots of hair ties were made and sold(we even landed in a few local and distant shops).  thank you friends and family for spreading the word!  turns out a little review on anthropologie holds a lot of credit with many women.  who would've thought?!  i am still slowly plucking away at my VERY little business, hairtied.  if you want to keep up with it, we'd love for you to follow us on facebook.   

here's to finishing out the rest of march with plenty of laughter and NO MORE VOMIT!  bring on easter!  

aunt letha

my mom has two great sisters.  it was a total treat to have my aunt letha(on the right) visiting from MN a couple of weeks ago.  such a joy to catch up and have her meet our asher.  my aunt letha has a very gentle spirit and is super easy to be around.  my boys loved her attention and she was great to give it!  

we ditched church

my mom made this makeshift band aid to keep ryder's hands off of the cut.  

sunday, february 26th, we ditched church.  i was hoping to keep the boys away from any extra germs while stew was at winter camp with the high schoolers.  as life would have it, we spent the day in children's hospital, collecting EVERY nasty germ you can imagine.

it started out as a great morning, the boys running around, playing in the front with their friend and neighbor, ethan.  at around 11:45am i went upstairs to put asher down for an early nap.  no sooner did i put him on the bed to change his diaper, did i hear screaming.  it was the kind of screaming that lead me to believe that something was actually wrong, not just a cry from not getting their way.  i darted down the stairs, carrying asher like a football under my arm.  at the front door stood ryder, head hanging, covered in blood.  i immediately went into "fix it" mode and wanted to check it all out. fortunately i was able to remember that the head bleeds the most.  i also recalled a similar injury that one of my small group girls suffered from while we were wake boarding(that's a great story in itself!  we'll save it for another time.).  all that said, i knew he was going to be ok as he told me that he had ran into the wall.   i called my mom and told her i needed her to come watch the other boys while i took ryder to get stitches.  5 minutes later she was there and helping me stop the bleeding.  my aunt bonnie was heading down to pick up my aunt letha from the airport and close enough that we waited for her to join us in this little adventure.

 i called children's as we were on our way.  they redirected us to the urgent care in escondido or oceanside-  we picked o'side.  turns out they don't do stitches and sent us back down to children's.  two hours and a billion germs later we were seen.  they ended up using glue on the gash, much better than stitches we were told.   ryder was great!  he was happy and laughing until the glue warmed up.  that stuff gets hot!

the nurse at the children's urgent care in oceanside cleaned him  up and gave him a new head bandage.   then being the crazy mom i am, i threw this mask on him and  promised boat loads of ice cream.  you would have done the same with all the nasty coughing and germs. 

we had plenty of hours for reading and such.

all glued shut. 

after a VERY long day, our brave little 3 year old left children's with a red badge of courage.  ryder had more than earned himself a large helping of chocolate "ice cream".  thank you to all of our family and friends for chipping in, watching our other kids, dragging isaac around to a friend's birthday party and filling in where we couldn't.  we feel so grateful for the relationships in our lives and the lives of our boys.  i am certain this won't be the last trip to children's, but i am hoping we can take a break for a little while.

oh kale!

we were out to dinner with some friends last weekend and megan told us about this amazing recipe she had tried from trader joes. she even remembered to email me the recipe!  love friends that are good with remembering those types of things.  thank you megan!  we are having this for dinner tonight, our third time in a week!  it's so easy and SO healthy(i immediately thought of all my friends on weight watchers.).

ingredients:

-1 package chicken sausage from TJS (any flavor - I used jalepeno but it's really spicy so the kids might not like it)

-1 package pre-cut kale in a bag

-2 cans fire roasted tomatoes (you could use their jarred tomatoes if you don't want to do canned, but you might need to add some more spices for flavor)

-1 can cannelini beans

-2 cups water

 slice sausage and saute a little bit until brown

add tomatoes, beans, water, and kale. 

it will look like this, but have no fear.

Simmer until kale is cooked, about 15-20 minutes

tonight we are having it with tortilla chips instead of corn bread(we don't have any left).  i think i actually prefer chips. enjoy! 

old friends and funny faces

a couple of weekends ago, lyndy and kimberly were in town for a friend's birthday party.  we had to miss the party so they stopped by our place for a quick visit before heading out to celebrate the birthday boy!

ryder was trying to match lyndy's crazy lip pose from above.  ha!
it's always such a treat to see old friends!  thanks for making the trek to see us and the boys:)

happy birthday to you...

february 16th we celebrated two of my favorite women!  my mom and my aunt share a birthday, two years apart.   the day was spent with the kids and that night we celebrated without the boys(thank you, aunt annette and uncle ken!).  i love game nights with family- lots of loud laughing- my favorite!

happy birthday to two wonderful women who have done so much to teach me and so many others about love!  we are so grateful for you.