Weekly Test Drives....

So Rich and I headed out for our 3rd week in a row of test drives. It has been so much fun, and super helpful in that we are narrowing down our choices for the future Andre' car.
I am pretty much sold on a minivan at this point. After lugging the car seat in and out of 5 different vehicles, I am starting to realize why families choose the good ol van.

The Subaru Tribecca was our first drive. Awesome car, fun to drive, but absolutely impossible to fit a car seat in the back. I mean, really. Take that one off of our list...

The Volvo XC90 was next. Such a nice ride. We would be soooo cool if we had one. And sooooo broke. Take that one off our list.

The Saturn Outlook was third. This is the car that I picture my parents driving. Tons of room, tons of versatility, tons of amenities. Too bad that Saturn is done making cars (according to the Honda salesman). This car is now 2nd on our list. It fits regular sized humans in the 3rd row, and has room to spare. It also nicely fits car seats galore, which we seem to have. The "trunk" has storage space so that my groceries, as well as the occasional stroller, diaper bag, emergency kit, and other random bags all fit. We might be able to afford this one in a few years...

4th on our list to drive was the Honda Odyssey. Such a nice van. I mean, really, what a nice van. (I am slightly prejudiced towards Honda though, since I loved my previous Accord so much. I actually cried when I got rid of it. Sniff, sniff.) The van has cool things like automatic doors, a lazy susan under the floorboard of the car to store things in, 15 cup holders throughout the van, rear windows that roll down so my sweet little 4 year old with the sensitive tummy doesn't get carsick in the way back. It is also low to the ground so that I don't have to haul the kids into the car anymore. It can also seat 8 (2005 models and newer). I could go on and on. I am almost 90% sold at this point.

A Honda Pilot was next. Nice, but then again, so is the van...

Last but not least was a Mazda MPV. I love Mazdas. They are cool cars. They are fun to drive, and they just always look pretty good. This one had a huge sunroof in it. (One of my requirements...) It only seats 6 though, and I figure if we are going van-ish, we might as well go all the way with an 8 seater.

I am still optimistic that our car is out there. We are attempting to pay outright for the car, thanks to some Craigslist sales, and an unexpected tax return, and donations to our new website.....just kidding (about the website...).
I will keep you posted.

My Girls

I don't know if the difference in skin color is due to excess consumption of orange vegetables on Maeve's part, or if this is what its going to be like for the rest of their lives. Brynn- my lily white one, and Maeve- my little olive one. We shall see....

Laundry Disaster

So, on average, I do 7 loads of laundry a week. Its not my favorite activity, and I usually have to plan an entire day around washing and folding. (Those darn water efficient washers take WAY longer to do a load than the regular washers...)

I was on load 4 (Maeve's clothing) and it was ready to go into the dryer. After I finished pulling all of the clothes out of the machine, I gave the drum a spin to make sure that there were no little socks stuck against the side anywhere. Something small, about the size of a dime, was tumbling around the back of the machine, so I reached in to pull it out and see what it was. I couldn't tell by looking. It looked like a nondescript piece of clay, or dirt. As a mom, one of the ways that I solve most mysteries, is to smell the unknown and figure out what it is. So I did just that....

IT WAS POOP!!!!
Just a small nugget of poop hanging out in our washer. No biggie. Just means that I have to REDO an entire load of laundry, in super hot water, with extra soap to get rid of whatever poop particles that are now mushed into the other clothes. Just another HOUR of my life spent washing clothing, plus an hour to clean out the washing machine. Just one little nugget.

Awesome! I love being a mom.

D Week...

I can't think of a better time in our family to have this as our verse of the week:
Matthew 7:12 "Do to others as you would like them do to you". The kids are a little bit stir crazy from the rainy days. They are antsy, irritated to have to stay inside, and in general, just pushing each others buttons as much as possible.
We studied "D" this week, and had some fun with it.

We colored the letter "D", pasted a Dog to paper, and went to the Dog pound to see the different kinds of dogs there.

Although we were supposed to focus on dogs, we ended up in the cat room petting and playing with the cats the whole time.
This one-eyed cat was a sweetheart.

Maeve was going crazy trying to get at all the cats too. Rich had to hold her back for the cats' safety...
After the animal shelter, we went for an afternoon snack of doughnuts. (Any excuse right?)


At the doughnut shop, we avoided a near disaster when Brynn dropped her doughnut on the dirty floor. (Now that is a lot of "D"s.) Thank goodness I could salvage what was left...

Tonight is Date night, but the kids don't really get to participate in this "D" activity. Hooray!

9 Months Old

Maeve has reached the 9 month mark. She is as lively as ever. She has picked up a few more nicknames - thanks to the kids. I hope that she doesn't mind...
In addition to "Maybe" and "Maybe Baby", she is also "Maevers", and "Mavis". I am trying to steer them around Mavis, since I can only picture an old man with that name, but kids are kids. I used to worry about nicknames. I worried that Brynn wouldn't have one since you can't really shorten her name. Somehow she ended up being "BB", and "B Noodle". (Although now she will tell you that her name is Madison.)
Cannon has a few names. " Cannon McMannon", "Mr. McMannon", "Cannon ball", "Tankerelli", and "Tank" -being the most common.

Anywho, back to the girl of the hour Maeve. She is cruising along furniture, chattering up a storm, and making us laugh at many points throughout the day. She has figured out that the fridge magnets are fun to throw on the ground, the computer printer is easy to open, and that the water in the toilet is within reach. She is also eating more "real" food, and has even had a taste of dog poop. She is FINALLY sleeping through the night!

Here she is in all her 9 month cuteness sporting a little headband that I whipped up for some pictures.

And this is just your typical lunch...

Parents Night Out

Rich and I are so blessed to have family nearby to help us out with our kids when we need it. They are always willing to watch them if we want to go out, and babysitting is one of the things that we (thankfully) don't always have to spend money on. We wanted to bless some of our friends in the same way. We had "Parents Night Out" on Friday and had a houseful of kids for a few hours. We played some,


ate some,

had puppet shows,

read books, and enjoyed the chaos.

(its looks a little unsafe, but don't worry parents, we were always a step away...)

Here is yet another reason why I love my husband so much!

I Spy...

buns!

C is for....

cars, cat, coloring, caterpillars, cake, chocolate and CANDY!!!!!

My kids are on a sugar overload right now! I could have gone "healthy" and made "C" all about caterpillars, cats, cars, etc. Instead I took the sugar road, and we enjoyed cake, chocolate and candy.

We colored the letter,

pasted colored circles on a cute caterpillar,

raced our new cars,

and headed to Powell Sweet Shoppe to pick out some candy...


The finished products.

Our verse for the week....

And last but not least!

Funny Story

Today is my sister in laws' birthday. We all gathered around the phone this morning to give her a call and sing her a rousing chorus of "Happy Birthday". (It was 8am)
Rich dialed the number, hit speaker phone and we all started the song as soon as we heard "Hello?"
We made it all the way through the song, and then, of course, the kids were laughing and chattering away to her, asking if she was having a fun birthday.
It was kinda silent on the phone, and I spoke up. "Hey, its Ang, Happy Birthday, How is your day going?"
Here was the reply..."Hello? Uhm, I think you have the wrong number!"

So, to the poor lady who had to sit through a pitifully long version of Happy Birthday sung by 2 kids, and 2 off key adults, I am sorry. I do hope that it made you smile though...

Happy Birthday Elissa!

Test Drives

We are on the hunt for a car. Each time we go out and do some test drives, we add more and more cars to the list of "this car might work for us". (The list is pretty long, and most of the cars are WAY out of our price range.) What is our price range you ask? Well, as of this point we have saved up $48. Its pretty sad.
Here are the reviews for the 3 cars that we test drove on Tuesday.

Acura MDX

The dealer pointed us towards this beauty. 3rd row seating, leather interior, DVD system with wireless headphones... Pure luxury. Unfortunately it comes with a $18,000 price tag. Fun to drive, and it would work for us, but talk about unrealistic...

Volkswagen Routan

Have you seen these commercials? This car is the PERFECT family minivan (if you like that sort of thing)... It comes with window shades so that too much sun doesn't shine down on my precious fair skinned children. It has a mirror specifically designated to see your kids in the car seats in the back. Automatic door closures. 4 windows that roll down. Even a sunroof. The thing felt HUGE to drive though. It came with an $30,000 price tag. (Who are we kidding here?)

Mazda 5

By far my favorite one! Seats 6 people - uhm - 2 normal size people, and 4 small people! (We even have room for one more...) Drives like a car, and although it is almost as long as the Routan, its far less wide, and a good deal lower to the ground. Here's the kicker. 28 mpg! This one comes in at $20,000. Yeah, kiss that one goodbye!

So, the result? We are no closer to finding a car. Our next mission to the dealership will include driving the Honda Pilot, Odyssey, Subaru Tribeca, Saturn Outlook (again), and any other one that we get pointed to.

Its all about "B"

This is week 2 of my 26 week endeavor. We are working on B.

We did some coloring,

some drawing,

some cutting and pasting,

some tracing, some crafting,

and a really cool field trip.

The Bee store was filled with info on bees, their hives, honeycomb and honey. There were tons of natural body products that are made from honey to purchase. There were some decadent chocolates sweetened only with honey, and of course honey.
They had a tasting bar for honey, and although I didn't count, I think there were more than 50 different types to try to taste. We managed to taste about 6, and then the sweetness got a little overwhelming.
The kids each picked out some beeswax to make candles with, and a flavored honey stick for after lunch.
We rolled the candles after dinner. It was a perfect project for them. They could both do it, and there was no danger of hurting themselves.




And Maeve just looked on the whole time, being as cute as ever!

Our verse for the week:

8 month Comparison

I have been getting a lot of "Who does Maeve look like" questions lately. Here is a comparison of the kids at the same age. I personally think that she looks more like Brynn, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion. What do you think?

Brynn

Cannon

Maeve

Maybe a better question.... Which one is this???