Wordless Wednesday

Makenzie's New Ride

Recently, Makenzie's itty-bitty tricylce broke and she has missed her bike so much. She just loved it so and yelling "BIKE" whenever she rode it. So... mommy felt sorry for her and bought her a new Little Tikes 30th Anniversary Cozy Coupe. She loves it. For those of you out there in blog world, if you purchase this product in the near future, pay the extra $10 to have it assembled. I wanted to prove to my wonderful husband that I am big and I can put things together myself. Well, I got down to the last 3 or 4 big pieces and I worked & worked and just couldn't get it finished. I had to relinquish my inability over to my husband. At 10:30 pm (after 3hours of assembly) we were done. It was worth it, because Kenzie loves her Coupe. Just couldn't wait until the wheels were on.
Or the door....

Or the roof...

Having breakfast this morning in her new ride.

No drinking and driving allowed!!

Wordless Wednesday

The House (or Nest ) on River Birch Drive

We have a mommy bird who visits our Weeping Cherry tree out front every spring and lays pretty blue eggs. I haven't seen such a prettier blue - the eggs are just gorgeous. I can watch mommy bird from our kitchen and she keeps a very good eye on her eggs from atop our roof or our neighbor's roof across the street. If she senses danger for her eggs, she swopes down in a hurry. We have seen her do it several times. We were lucky to snap these fews pictures.

Happy Birthday Baby Birdies!! We are not sure how many babies there are, but they have gotten big in a hurry. It won't be long before we see them under the tree, exploring this world we live in. Last year we were able to see the mommy teach one of the babies to fly.

It was truly amazing.

Tasty Tuesday

Tasty Tuesday is back. I have missed sharing recipes with all of you. Since the demise of my computer last month and losing all of my recipes I've been searching for some new recipes to share with you. The two recipes I am going to share with you today came from my Mops friends. Big props go out to Melisa & Angie -thank you for sharing your wonderful recipes. The oatmeal blueberry pancakes are the best I have ever made from scratch and the wing dip is so addicting. I could easily eat the whole pan by myself. Enjoy!!

Oatmeal Blueberry Pancakes

1 cup Bisquick
1 cup quick cooking oats
2 tbsp brown sugar
¾ cup milk
2 eggs
2 tbsp melted butter
1 cup blueberries

In bowl combine all ingredients except blueberries and mix well. Pour approx. 1/3 cup mix into coated skillet (with spray or butter), sprinkle 5-6 blueberries on the pancakes and cook about three minutes on each side. Flip pancake when bubbles have formed across surface. So good!!!

Wing Dip

2-Cream Cheese softened (I leave them out overnight)
1-large can Tyson canned white meat chicken
1-cup ranch dressing
½ cup Wing Sauce such as Frank’s Original
2-cups shredded cheddar cheese

Mix all ingredients together and spread into a 9x13 baking dish and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve with chips.

Makenzie Poor Baby

Nothing makes Makenzie feel better than relaxing with her favorite guy, Elmo.
Makeznie started feeling bad Monday evening, so bad that she fell asleep on the stairs around 6:30pm. She is never in bed that early so you know she really felt bad.

We are hoping she gets better real soon.

Funny Things Kids Say

I love to hear some of the funny things our kids say to us. You just have to wonder where they come up with such insight for being such tiny little people. I have noticed that Caroline is really aware of her surroundings and tends to really focus on what is happening or what people are saying. She soaks it all in and doesn't say much but a few days later she will tell me the funniest story or ask me a question about something we had seen days earlier. Of course, sometimes I have no clue what she is talking about. I can hardly remember 15 minutes ago.

Here are just a few of the things she has said or asked me in the past few days.

"Mommy, why are they putting clouds up in the sky?"
Here is where I was totally clueless. On Tuesday's and Thursday's when I drive Caroline to preschool we pass a row of smokestacks that are usually emitting smoke (is that right?) into the air. I don't pay much attention to this, but Caroline does. She thought they were making clouds and putting them in the sky. How cute is that?

"Mommy, why does he call it a tissuechief?"
We were reading a story about a dinosaur who has lost his blanket (he calls it a binkit). Towards the end of the story the dinosaur is crying because he can't find his binkit still and a little boy comes up and asks if he needs a hankerchief. The hankerchief ends up being the dinosaur's binkit and he is so happy. When we were done reading Caroline wanted to know why he needed a tissuechief and I just busted out laughing. She had the right idea didn't she?

"Daddy & Mommy can you watch an eye on my doll for me?"
This one had both Roy and I laughing. At first I couldn't quite understand what she wanted us to do. Then Roy said, "She wants us to keep an eye on her doll for her." Oh, okay.

I have to write these little gems down or I will forget them. I can't wait until she is older and mommy can tease her about all her little funny's she used to say.

Back in the Blogging World

Wow, it's great to be back in the blogging world. It's been a month since my last post and I have missed writing everyday. For those of you that know me, being without my computer has been really, really hard. Within a 24 hour time span, our refrigerator died (needed a new compressor) and my hard drive died in my three-year old computer. How is the possible? I thought maybe we had an alien living in the house destine to destroy everything I depended on. We were without our fridge for 9 days, living out of three coolers and eating out a lot. Needless to say, our eating habits for those 9 days took a turn for the worst. The girls loved it though. I honestly think, they think that french fries is it's own food group. I was so happy to have my fridge back up and running. I don't think I would have done very well in the olden days. I am definitely no Laure Ingalls.

As for my computer, it just died. Nothing could be recovered from it. That made me pretty sad. I lost a lot of files, including all my recipes, three months worth of pictures, all my Mops materials, and personal files like journaling I did for the girls. We do have an external hard drive and I did back-up but only my photos. Lesson learned for sure. For all of you readers, back-up your files as often as you can.

Some good things did come out of having no fridge and no computer. My house hasn't been this clean in a long, long time. All of our windows were washed, inside and out which hasn't been done since we have lived here. I cleaned my oven, cleaned & scrubbed the fridge, mopped all of my floors and got the cobwebs down from the ceilings and walls. I was like a mad women cleaning every inch of this house. I believe my family thought I had lost my mind.

I also learned that not having my computer was a good thing. I spent more time with the girls, playing and reading books more than we normally do. I wasn't in here checking my email every 5 minutes or looking at Facebook to see if I had any new "Friends". I actually made phonecalls instead of sending emails and I wrote a few notes as well.

So... as awful as having some major appliances go wacko on me for a few days, it wasn't so bad. I also learned that I could depend on my neighbors when things got tough around here. (Thank you to Sherry for lending us her fridge and freezer for 9 days - you are awesome.)

I've missed my blogging family and I look forward to sharing all of the happenings of the Smith family with you again. We had Easter Egg hunts, birthday parties (4 of them) and I have a lot of Wordless Wednesdays to share with you. Stay tuned for more. :)