TEN

To me it seems like only yesterday your daddy and I were getting ready for your arrival and now look at you, you are ten! You are growing up right before our very eyes. Remember no matter how tall you get, you will always be my #1 baby!

Chocolate bunnies, jelly beans and Easter eggs oh my!

Today what I thought would be a horrid and lonely day was quite the opposite.
We woke up this morning to find that the Easter bunny had visited our house and left candy filled eggs (and our hard boiled eggs) all around the house. Not only that but our baskets were full of fun goodies like drawing books, bubbles and a paint your own piggy bank. After our house egg hunt we got dressed and went to church. I was dreading taking three kids alone to church because I know how they are.
My oldest is great, listens, sings sits quietly. My middle one has to be in contact with me at all times, in other words he likes to hold my arm or hand during the whole service. Upon seeing this my youngest then falls into her "baby" routine and insists on being held and cuddled during the whole service. Needless to say this does not fill me with the worshipping spirit, in fact it drives me nuts and I want to scream "leave me alone for an hour so I can pray for patience in dealing with you" not really something you can do at church I know! When Greg is there he can at least take the middle one because my daughter will not go to him.
Anyhow, you can see why I was dreading this. So we went to church, we were early so we got seats up towards the front and waited. At first they were fine and all was well but as soon as the music started so did their usual behavior but actually today I was okay with it, I made sure I was touching D-man in some way and holding Bec at the same time and JP actually helped by holding the book out and pointing to the words in the songs so his brother could follow along. It was amazing! Now this isn't to say they were perfect but they were good and I will take that and run!
We then hurried home made the salad I was suppose to make last night but I was egg stuffing and went over to my girl friends house. There we ate and ate and ate.... Had an egg hunt with 6 kids and 172 candy stuffed eggs and swam in her pool. It was a good time!
The kids were exhausted and when we came home they bathed and went to bed. Right before Bec went to sleep she said "Mommy, I missed Daddy but I had a fun time today."
Me too!

Easter Eggs

Talk about last minute...
Oh well they are done and the kids had a great time decorating and mixing the colors on the eggs.
We made our usual cascarones (confetti eggs) To have enough for Easter I start collecting them when Lent starts. I make a hole in the egg about the size of a quarter so you can use the egg yolk and whites in cooking. Then after they are dyed and dried we stuff them with confetti and seal it with a square of tissue paper. Then on Easter morning not only do we have a egg hunt but then we get to crack them on peoples heads! There is a technique to this of course because the fun is not only cracking it first before you gently slam it on the person's head but also in rubbing all the confetti in their hair so they are finding it for days after. If you have thick hair like me it IS possible to find it days after even with several washings!
However, this family fun was voted to be held when Daddy comes home next weekend.
So not only did we dye these but I also did something I have never done and gave them hard boiled eggs to dye. Funny thing was they were not sure what to do with the hard boiled eggs. I told them that we would use these tomorrow to have a small egg hunt and then we could eat them like develed eggs. They were all into that as soon as I said we could eat them!!!

I have been using this recipe for years to dye our eggs and it works great

Easter Egg Dye

1 c. boiling water

2 tsp white vinegar

a few drops of red, blue, green and yellow food coloring or the Neon food colors work great too. (I use both)

For more colors mix the color combinations to get your own unique color. My daughter likes pink and my son likes orange so we mix these up too.

don't forget a spoon (plastic) for each color to get the eggs out of the different cups.

Girls Night

No BOys Allowed!
Bec and I are all alone tonight. Greg is in New Mexico for another week and the "brothers" are spending the night with a friend. We girls are lounging on the couch eating popcorn drinking sweet tea and watching Lady and the Tramp then The Little Mermaid. We played the Tea Party game and had pasta for dinner (Bec's favorite!) I must say it is really quiet in the house without the men folk around! Now I know who the noisy people are!

Bailey 1994-2007

Yesterday afternoon we had to put our dog Bailey to sleep. She got sick Friday night and continued on Saturday. I knew something was up when she would not eat or drink and would not move after she got sick.
Turns out she was in the first stages of liver failure. Although she was not in pain yet the vet said she would be if she continued. The vet also said we could try to give her antibiotics and take her home but this would only buy her a couple of days at the most. This was such a hard decision for us, but in the end we decided that if we did that it would just be for us and we did not want her to be in pain.
She was the very first pet Greg and I got 13 years ago after we were first married. We got her the day we got the keys to our first house. Actually I picked Greg up from our apartment after I got off of work and we went to get her and then got the keys to our first base house. And then Greg left me and her at the new house and went to work! She has been my sidekick ever since. She was my first “baby”
I remember our first Christmas sitting one night in the living room watching TV with Bailey sleeping at my feet (Greg was at work) and the next thing I knew the Christmas tree had fallen on her. We both panicked because I could not get the tree off of her and she was squirming so much that I was afraid she was gonna get tangled in the lights and break the few ornaments we did have. This was the first and last time we had a real tree and by the way she never got close to a Christmas tree after that!
The kids were devastated. Bailey was always there with them since they could remember. They were all introduced to each other the same way, on the floor with Greg holding them while I stood back praying that this big dog would not eat my new little baby. But she would just sniff them up and down and then wag her tail. She was wonderful with all of my kids and slept by all of their cribs as if to protect them. JP’s first word in fact was Bailey or “Ahdee”. D use to try to ride her like she was a horse and Bec would just sit and sing to her for hours.
We have had lots of talks about heaven and what Bailey is doing now. Our favorite thought is that she is running around a big field chasing down crickets and squirrels. That and eating an endless supply of peanut butter! She use to spend hours trying to get the peanut butter out of the middle of her KONG toy.
She was a well traveled dog too being in the military she moved 7 times with us. We were so luck to that she traveled so well and that we always found a house that accepted dogs. She was part of our family and we will miss her terribly!