Snowy Spring Surpise!

Snack J found a brown and black catepiller

out by the chicken coop this morning in the snow. It was curled up and he wouldn't touch it so i carried it inside and we had a science preschool moment. 

Baby C thought it was the cutest thing in the world and kept making "awwww,  ohhhhhhhh" high pitched squeals.

After we made a habitat for the newest family member....

Snack J quickly found his magnifying glass to investigate.

(Gotta love Sid the Science Kid)

I have a ton more posts to do, but I'm saving them for a reward for cleaning my room, which has been doubling as a storage room since I disembled the office in my front room.  Wish me luck!

Saturday morning long run!!!

I just ran 5 miles this morning with Linnell. We kicked out 10 min. miles. What's cool is that I had so much fun talking with her that I felt like I could keep on going!  I might just be able to handle this half marthon training after all! (We'll see if I say that on my 10 mile run ;o) I just bought new shoes from Peak Performance yesterday and they were great at fitting my feet, and determining what type of shoe I needed.  The run this morning was like running on air.  Can't beat that new pair of running shoe feeling! I had started to feel shin splints coming on, so I knew I couldn't postpone the purchase any longer.  I did spend 90$ on a pair of asics stability shoes, more than I've every spent on shoes in my life, but still cheaper than a gym membership, and so far I'd have to say worth every penny. 

I have to say one of the coolest things is to go running early in the morning as the sun rises, you feel at one with nature, it's like a little secret that most of the world doesn't get in on, because they're still in their beds. Of course I'm not doggin sleeping in, that's also one of the greatest things in the world, but every once in a while you got to try waking up early and getting out into nature. Thanks Linnell for showing up! I probably would have crawled back into bed if you wimped out, cause I was up most of the night with Snack J.  But that's another story :o)   

babies don't keep

BABIES DON'T KEEP

Mother, oh Mother,
come shake out your cloth,

empty the dustpan,

poison the moth,

hang out the washing

and butter the bread,

sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house

is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery,

blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little

Boy Blue (lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).

The shopping's not done

and there's nothing for stew

and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo

but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.

Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?

(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing

will wait till tomorrow,

for Children grow up,

as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs.

Dust go to sleep.

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep......

~Author Unknown ~

Is this working?
oh, awesome!  I've got my mobile blogging service to work finally. 
now I can text a blog entry whenever my kids say something cute
or post a picture taken from  my cell directly to a post. 
That's kewl. 

Classic Book Review Charity Style...

So I have discovered a new way to get my reading in while doing laundry, organizing, scrubbing the kitchen, and getting dinner ready:  My MP3 player with free downloaded books from http://www.librivox.org/ .  I chose to start with the above 3 books: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Wuthering Heights. It's been a couple weeks since I finished the Wuthering Heights, the last of the 3.  I 've been pondering on them, and while there and many interesting morals, the outstanding theme for me in all three of them, for this reading, has been the manners and proper language of that time, early 1800's.  All three books have the characters placed in the upper middle class. While none of them had proper titles such as Lord or Lady, they all had servents and did not participate in day to day household duties as meal prep, laundry (which is why we should be easy on ourselves when we can't get it all done, those really rich people have maids, cooks, gardeners, nannies) .  One of the distiguishing differences between the servents and their masters,or upper and lower classes were their language and manner. The lower class had a coarseness about them, I just googled the definition of coarse manners and it was exactly what I was trying to say: Of low, common, or inferior quality. Lacking in delicacy or refinement: coarse manners. Now in America, the land of the free, there is not an official class system.  There are divisions between rich and poor, but there are no laws keeping people in the place they were born. Everyone can choose how they act and speak.  I feel that polite manners are becoming scarce, the type of language that shows refinement and thoughtfulness are becoming a thing of the past. It is pervasive in the media and communities.  It doesn't mean we have to follow along, we can be make a change in ourselves against the tide of ignorance.  I have made an effort to increase my thoughtfulness and politeness in speech and actions for the past two weeks.  I have been surprised at how NOT natural it came. I tend to think of myself first instead of helping others first, and it takes concious effort to change. But that is the last point I wanted to bring out, is that we CAN change, that's what's so beautiful about this life and this country, we have the freedom to carve out our own lifestyle and increase our capability to acquire refined manners in action, thought and speech.  (and do our own laundry, cook our own meals, raise our own children....;O)

Monday morning breakfast....POP QUIZ

Sissy Sue decided to quiz Snack J this morning over scrambled eggs and toast.
What's your favorite number?   --------TWO!!!!! Snack J yells triumphantly
What's your favorite letter?------------K!!!!! (yelling in similar fashion)
What's your favorite shape?-------------Oval!!!!! (2 hours later Snack J told me he changed that to octogon which has 8 sides
What's your favorite parallelogram?----------Uh, oh, ah, mmmm, I don't know.(phew, there's something left for me to teach my 3 year old ;o) Diamond I promped him...I hope that's a parallelogram, I'll have to google it....:o)
Sissy Sue promptly stated her favorite parallelogram is a rectangle. 
Well I was so pleased with the stimulating conversation over breakfast this morning that I forgot to do gospel study, we'll have to try again for lunch time. 

best ten minute break...worth the watch!

You might have heard about this story, but I thought I would share it.  Here is a link to her blog
http://stakerzxposed.blogspot.com/

Top o' the mornin' to ya!

Well the energy of childrens' excitment is running wild in our home today as Sissy Sue, Snack J and Baby C,(who follows along with what all the older kids do...) are determined to catch the leprechaun running amuck at our house.  Sissy Sue has been laying traps of green rice krispy treats and graham crackers to catch him, and is in awe when they disapear, (I'm sure Baby C has nothing to do with this ;o)

The leprachaun left a clue in the fridge when I started lunch and it took the kids on a treasure hunt throughout the house, he must have been able to hide the clues when the kids where playing on the swings.  (I'm having Sissy Sue teach Baby C how to swing on his belly as I taught her and Snack J, there is a learning curve to it though....)

The eggs, milk, butter, apple juice and rice krispies all magically turned green this morning! Sissy Sue is thoroughly enjoying this task of catching our leprechaun and no one has noticed that my finger tips are slowing turning green. 

The leprechaun strikes early at the Davis home!

Couldn't wait, I love this holiday!  The noodles were cooked in green water to give a greenish hue...

Made this chocolate/chocolate pudding cake with green whipped topping for a friend...It was too cute to keep!  I got the leftovers anyways, which is almost too much to keep in the house anyway, the kids will like it for a bedtime treat.  Can't wait to see what the mischevious leprachauns will do in the night...Last year they made the toilet water green.  LOL, things get a little crazy at this house on St. Patty's Day. 

Girls Night Out Again!

Tonight was the Kanesville Relief Society Birthday Dinner and Nate was a sport and took the kids with him to fix a leak at the clinic so I could go to this dinner.   It was decorated like a wedding reception, and the theme was The Emma Awards (in honor of Emma Smith).  They pulled the dark pink floor mats from the entry of the doors and created a red carpet row for the recipients of the awards to walk down, and then they had a host, a group of presenters, and awardees received a bottle of Mrs. Butterworths syrup all fancied up.  It was a delightful evening and I got to sit with two of my great friends: Shannon Smellie on my right, and Danielle Rasmussen on my left. 
I just wanted to take a second and share why I love these two gals so much:  Starting with Shannon: She has the best attitude!  She is a great example to me in so many ways, she's a great friend to so many people, she is outgoing and kind even when it's difficult to break through people's outer shell, she keeps trying and gives people the benefit of a doubt.  She is frugal and an amazing deal shopper and knows how to decorate on a dime but her house looks fabulous.  She has been coming to my exercise group for well over a year now, I can always count on her to come if she can, and she always puts in a good word for me to help get more people to come.  I treasure her strong testimoney, it has helped me many times in our numerous conversations. She has a 6 year old girl, 4 year old boy, and twin 1 year old girls.  She kept her sanity and wits about her during the first year(of twins) with such strength I admired her constantly at her ability to take it all in stride without complaining. And finally this gal had twins and looks like a teenager who has never been through childbirth ever.  Girl you rock your jeans and I think that is sooo cool, I want to be like you soon! 
OK, now onto Danielle, who for those who have listened to me try to explain "My new friend who wants to run with me!" you finally get to see a picture of her!  Isn't she darling! I got to know Danielle in a couple ways as she and I volunteer for our kindergarten child's classroom.  Her 5 year old boy is in Sister Sue's class and then Danielle started coming to my exercise class. I absolutely love every chance I get to hang out with Danielle, she is so down to earth and real, she holds no pretenses about her, and she has one of the kindest spirits I have ever had the pleasure to be around, I don't know how to explain it but she is constantly letting all the crazy things I say and do just roll right off her back and she doesn't let it ruffle her feathers so to speak (at least not around me and I haven't caught on to it yet:o) She is willing to try new things that I offer her, but not afraid to tell me no too, which is good because i wouldn't offer for her to do things with me as much if I wasn't sure she would tell me the truth of whether or not she wanted to do it.  Does that make sense?  Anyway Danielle is running the Syracuse Half Marathon with me on the Memorial Day(Now it's in print no backing out! I'm saying that to me not her;o) and I can't even tell you how excited I am to have someone want to run with me.  Our schedules don't always mesh, but we're working on it!  thanks for coming tonight Danielle!  It's great to see friends all dressed up once in a while.  I'm sure everyone had to double take when they saw my hair not in a ponytail and I put eyeshadow on!  What a fun evening.   

Cute Baby C

Baby C is so happy to be growing up so fast. He can climb on anything. Just tonight he pulled himself up the ladder to the top of the bunk bed,,, with the bottom rung of the ladder missing. Uh, oh, I thought, I've always heard of babies getting on top of fridges (Anna), but never dreamed I would have one of my own.  We always discouraged Snack J and Sister Sue from climbing, but when I saw how Snack J couldn't climb in tumbling class, we decided we'd better just let nature take it's course....famous last words....YIKES!

After several bouts of bronchiolitis this cold season, the doctor decided to put him on a 6 week inhalent Pulmacort twice daily.  Luckily he's been a fairly good sport about it, but we prefer to give it to him when he's asleep and less likely to be so helpful.

Nate's decided Baby C is old enough to learn how to follow him around the yard, including when the horses are out.  Today Nate watched Baby C while I went jogging and the other kids were napping, and Nate trimmed the horses hooves at the same time.  Nate said Baby C and he have come to an understanding when I left for the 12 hours and drove up to Idaho for girls night out with anna and melissa this past weekend.  Baby C will follow Nate's directions.  It's quite similar to training a dog: Sit, Stay, Come.  Nate said Baby C does really well with those orders when he sits Brownie dog next to Baby C and tells them both the commands.  Baby C will do what Browning dog does.  What a funny, smart dad :o)

I can't remember if Baby C was pointing out the geese flying in or T-Bone that just whinnied over yonder, but I just love the look on Nate's face, totally responding to Baby C's communication of pointing and baby talk. 

Baby C kept petting and stroking Copper and cooing Good Dog over and over.  He insists on sitting on the horses every time Nate lets them out to graze in the yard.

So what does Baby C love to do as he wanders around the yard while Nate trims the horses hooves?  Why pick up clods of dried up horse manure and break it apart!!!  That's just what a mom loves to come home to after a relaxing run: Finding her baby playing with poop.  Well, at least he stayed entertained, and the clods were dry so it wasn't too messy.  Gotta love the country!

Cottage Cheese Pancakes Tim The Toolman Taylor Style...

Can you just hear that manly grunt?!
Cottage Cheese Pancakes is a Davis Favorite which requires beating egg whites to soft peaks

But my egg beaters broke a few months ago and I have lost my hand whip. So Nate went out

to the garage and grabbed the power tool and slipped in a mini whip I used for mixing hot chocolate. 

It worked great, but I had to laugh at my Tim Allen.

The pancakes turned out delicious!

Snack J reminds me of a baby bird in a nest with his beak squacking for more!

We had run out of pancakes but Baby C was "squacking" for more so Nate tore up some bread and poured syrup on it.  Nate is a master in the art of distraction.

the recipe:

beat 4 egg whites to soft peaks set aside

mix 4 egg yolks with 1 cup cottage cheese and 1/2 cup flour and pinch of salt

fold in the egg whites

Back to Red Head!

It was Girls Night Out with two sisters Anna and Melissa and I decided that it was time to try something never done before: dye my hair!  I have claimed myself a red head all my life, but as the children have come, my hair has lost it's red and gave way to brown.  I have tried highlights but my husband says he misses the red head he married.  So my sister Anna is an expert at dying her own hair offered to help me with a temporary dye. 

We were quite tired, it was 12:30 am, at Melissa's house, but it was fun!

It turned out pretty good!  It was fun, but should wash out within 8 washes. 

Is it spring or winter?

Snack J and Baby C enjoying the first mud soup of the year and I enjoyed stripping them down to their skivvies and throwing their clothes in the washer and them in the tub.

The next day it snowed and the boys were out enjoyed the snow shortly after breakfast.

The kids love jumping on dad right when he gets home.