Overheard...

All 4 girls were playing and this is what I hear....

Diva says: We do not eat pie and cake in this family. We eat healthy fruits and vegetables.

Now where would Diva hear such a phrase. LOL

Christmas

I would like to wish everyone a:

Blessed and Merry Christmas!

Caking with the kids

My friend Kris held a cake decorating class for the children. My girls had a ton of fun, and made a huge mess. Thanks Kris - let's do it again soon. Above is C enjoying her sprinkles, um, I mean cake.

The Cards are in the mail

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have not mailed Christmas cards since the twins were born.

Well I am happy to say -

The Christmas Cards are in the Mail!!!

If you do not receive one, and wanted one, please drop me an email. Our mail is notoriously bad here in hicksville.

I need help...

Due to allergies, the only meat we can eat is pork and beef. Well after 3 1/2 years of pork and beef, I am stumped on how to make it. The girls love beans, and pasta, and cheese, and eggs, but not rice.

I need some dinner ideas. Please help! They need to be pretty high in protein for little C who eats at least every 45 minutes, more if there is no protein around.

We cannot have chicken, turkey, fish, seafood, or pear.

The Vock family Sugar Cookies

Many of you have asked for my sugar cookie recipe lately, so here it is.
This recipe has been double and makes A LOT of cookies.

- Cream together 2 Cups sugar and 2 Cups butter.
- Add 2 eggs and 2 tsp vanilla.
- Add 6 C flour, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1 tsp salt.


Chill for 2 hours.
Roll out using powdered sugar to help with sticking.
Cut out.
Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.

If you let 3 year olds share a chair....

If you let 3 year old share a chair at a meal....they will spill something.
If they spill something...they will want to change clothes.
If you let them change clothes...they will come out of their room wearing shorts and a t-shirt in December.
If you let them wear the shorts and t-shirt...they will complain of being cold.
If they complain of being cold...they will convince you to snuggle in bed with them to get warm.
If you snuggle in bed with them...you will fall asleep.
If you fall asleep...the twins will climb on the cupboards and get into the cookies.
If they get into the cookies...they will spill on their clothes.

All because they shared a chair.

Just not normal

So the twins do everything in their own way and own time.

Overheard - C saying: The princess has go potty, make way....pause...ok, now all I need is paper, the princess NEEDS paper.

I look that direction, A is taking care of said princess.

Just thought you should know :P

Allergies Suck!

I am glad that C cannot read cuz I would not want her to feel bad, but allergies suck.

C was being sneaky on Saturday and ate a piece of candy cane. Now, this candy cane was in our home for approximately 5 minutes, I saw it in the wagon and planned to take care of it as soon as everyone was settled. She was sneaky, went into the daycare, ate the candy cane, - all in the 2 minutes that she was out of my sight!

Within 5 minutes her nose started to run, she started to cough, and she broke out in hives. 2 minutes later I used the Epi-Pen Jr. on her.

We left for the er soon after. While there (for 4 1/2 hours) she received 2 albuterol treatments, oxygen, Predisolone, Benedryl, and a shot of a steriod.

It was terribly stressful, but I am grateful for the prayers of many friends.

She still needs Benedryl every 4 hours to keep hives at bay, otherwise, she is doing fine.

UPDATE: I just received an email back from Spangle Candy Canes, their candy cares are free of pear and pear juice! YEAH

What do you get....

What do you get when you mix 4 girls, 1/2 a package of white chocolate (melted), and pretzel rings?

One 3 year old licking the spoon...

4 girls having fun...

a huge mess...

a batch of pretzel cookies that are JUST for at home...

and a serial shower, the kids are put through one at a time at a quick pace.

On the crazy meter: a mere 3

God Bless

Breakfast Casserole

So, in keeping with a simple Christmas, I am going to make a breakfast casserole for the extended family. The problem is, I have no clue who to do this.

Please help! Post your favorite breakfast casserole recipe.

We are avoiding, due to allergies: fish, seafood, chicken, turkey, all edible birds, and pear.

Love the Gov - NOT

It is so not a go thing when your govenor is the headline on cnn.
This is such a great state, that 2 govenors in a row have been indicted.

Bahraini clothes

Here is Diva modeling the clothes that Bill sent from Bahrain. First she is dressed up as a Bahraini boy, and after are pictures of the girl clothes. Bill sent us these for our geography boxes, that have yet to be started. We also received some more casual Bahraini boy hats to wear when the ones below are not worn. Also in our continent boxes, from Bill, are Bahraini coins and coins from the UAE. Thanks Bill!

More Christ the King pics

Earlier you saw pictures of our beautiful cake, here are pictures of us making Christ the King crowns.



MaryRose's best friend's mom even played with us.

Daddy Bear

Wondertwin C

Wondertwin A working in the foreground and B in the background.

Even Julie and Ivy, the American Girl dolls had crowns.

Christmas Music Meme

If you were trapped on a desert island and it was Christmas and all you had was a small generator, Christmas lights for your coconut tree, an endless supply of Christmas cookies and eggnog, your CD player and 6 Christmas CDs , which 6 albums would you want them to be? If you can find Amazon links, we can listen to ...

I love Christmas music, and actually listen to it year round.

I only have one CD uploaded to my Ipod, it is 50 Songs of Christmas.
I have other CDs here someplace, including a Handel's Messiah (which is not actually Christmas), an Elvis one, a kids one, and who knows what else.

There is no way I could pick 5, so I am going to just list the one above. One of my favorite songs on the CD is Joseph's Song by Michael Card.

Chorus 1
How could it be this baby in my arms
Sleeping now, so peacefully
The Son of God, the angel said
How could it be

Lord I know He's not my own
Not of my flesh, not of my bone
Still Father let this baby be
The son of my love

Chorus 2
Father show me where I fit into this plan of yours
How can a man be father to the Son of God
Lord for all my life I've been a simple carpenter
How can I raise a king, How can I raise a king

He looks so small, His face and hands so fair
And when He cries the sun just seems to disappear
But when He laughs it shines again
How could it be

Chorus 2
Chorus 1

Do you know....

how hard it is to remain stern with a 3 year old physically pushing your cheeks up into a smile?

I was trying to show C that I was "sad" that she put glue on the school lectern. She grabbed my cheeks and pushed them up and told me to be "be happy." It caused me to laugh, but she still had to finish her 3 minute time out. :)

More thanks

1 - a little girl's smile - I just love seeing my girls smile
2 - IM - the ability to tell my husband the little things that happen during the day
3 - a clean house
4 - a nice cup of tea
5 - the ability to laugh at this

5 more things

1 - Family coming for the holiday
2 - The ability to serve ham for Thanksgiving
3 - A long weekend
4 - Peppermint tea - buying this for me is one way I told my hubby he could show love for me
5 - Friends - I know I already stated this one, but I am thankful that I have friends who can help me out in a pinch, who offer to help clean my bathrooms since I do not really know how, who can prepare meals and snacks for my girls and not cross contaminated the foods.

Happy Christ the King

Today is the last Sunday in the Liturgical year, we celebrated with cake! Here is a picture of our Crown Cake. I made a chocolate bundt cake, glazed it with melted yellow icing. The girls added cranberries and gummy savers for the jewels. We had so much fun.

Funny thing - I had offered to buy M and Ms for the cake, but they decided upon cranberries!

Later on, we had some friends over to make crowns, eat cake, and play.

5 more things

1 - I am thankful for big girls who have discovered a love for reading!



2 - Coffee - it helps me face the day ahead.
3 - 3 year olds who actually use the potty once in a while
4 - mouse traps - because I am not thankful for mice!
5 - friends - we are meeting some at the indoor park today

5 Things I am Thankful for today

I have been asking the girls to list one thing each day that they are thankful for, I also do this this. We write them on leaves and glue them to our "thankful tree."

Today, I decided to write a list of what I am thankful for. I am striving for 5 things, but may end up with more as the day wears on.

1 - I am thankful that I have all of my children with me each day, all day.
2 - I am thankful for Diva, who is very dramatic and challenges me to see the world through her eyes on an hourly basis.
3 - I am thankful for Curly Girl who has helped me embrace her love of all things creepy and crawly.
4- I am thankful for the Wondertwins who have allowed me to watch them develop into two totally different little girls.
5 - I am thankful for my husband. He works all day every day so that I am able to be home with our little girls. He does this without complaining, and often has to listen to my complain.

I challenge all of readers to list 5 things they are thankful for on their own blogs. No blog? Just list them in the comments section.

The Wondertwins stike again!

No pics, but a play by play....

The twins were happily watching Dora in the playroom while the big girls and I played Wii. We checked on them often, at first. Then we got into the game and did not check on them for about 10 minutes.

In that time....

C pushed the chair over to the counter, climbed up, and learned a few life lessons. A was also there learning lessons.

Lesson 1: Just because it looks like chocolates does not mean it is tasty. The sampled some unsweetened baking chocolate.

Lesson 2: Same as one! They also sampled some concentrated (for candy) toffee flavor.

Lesson 3: Sprinkles are yummy!

Lesson 4: If you lick the top of the cinnamon and sugar, it is very tasty!

Lesson 5: Do not take the blame for the problem, blame your twin. A came in, showed me the baking chocolate bar, told me it was yucky, and blamed C.

Lesson 6: Mommy will turn Dora off if you do all of the above.

I love homeschooling

Today reaffirmed one of the reasons that I love to home education my children.
I love seeing the light bulb go off when they "get it!"

Diva doing Math: "Mom it is like it is backwards!"
Me: "What?"Diva: "Look 2 + 6 = 8" - the actual problem was 8-6=___

She realized that addition is the opposite of subtraction.
The best part - she realized it all on her own.

For Bill

I love givaways

Earrings!

Last night we braved the Mall on a Friday night to get our girls' ears pierced. Curly Girls's were done awhile ago, so it was just the wondertwins and Diva.
Here is Curly sporting some cute "Daisy blue" earrings.

Wondertwin A chose a crystal set - cuz it shows the rainbow.

Diva has pink ones! I am sorry, rose colored ones.

Wondertwin C - has rose also, of course.

Now we can use earrings as a way to tell them apart in pictures! At least until they learn to change earrings.

Fight FOCA

Christmas Cards

Christmas cards are ordered!

I Won! I Won! I Won!

I entered a few bloggy give aways last week! And look at what I won!!!
Thank you much Kelli at La Vida Dulce.

High School Musical 3

Go Wildcats!

The girls have been waiting "forever" to see High School Musical 3. The third installment of the Disney Channel hit was released in theaters. We went as a family. As seen in the picture, the girls had a blast!

She is so big!

First Haircut!

At the ripe old age of 41 months, A finally gets her first hair cut. I could not believe that pieces were almost to her tush! So, I cut off about 6 inches! Now she looks so big. Milestones make me cry.


C has not had a hair cut yet. She will not allow it.

Happy Halloween!

Dr. Frankenstein (Curly), Cheerleader (A), HSM Cheerleader (Diva), Princess (C)

Boo!

I've been boo'd by Mimi! Thanks! Consider yourself boo'd!

Museum with friends

Since daycare child had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday of this week, we decided to take advantage of the day and go to the museum with some friends. It was really nice to chat with K. The girls and O and K had a blast. Diva loves playing with K. We even made a new friend that day.

Carrot flavored pumpkins

Hard to see, but here are the pumpkin looking, carrot tasting cupcakes I made for our Girl Scout meeting last night.

Letter L

Our letter for last week was L. We made leaf cookies and frosted them. We also made leave pictures. We gathered the leaves, placed them on contact paper and covered with more contact paper. The girls had a lot of fun.

For the next 2 pictures, turn your head sideways to see our human Ns.

Letter N

This idea was taken from No Time for Flashcards. We are studying the Letter N this week, and needed a creative way to make a page for our alphabet book. So, we tore up newspapers and glued them to the N on the page. On the back we glued 9 Neckties.

Wondertwin C

Wondertwin A

C working hard with Curly Girl in the background.

In the background in A working hard.

Curly Girl is very proud of her picture. She loves art.

Halloween Craft Fun

First up - Glitter Pumpkins!


Below are the girls with their pumpkins covered with glue and glitter.
What fun!

Diva

Daycare Child

Curly Girl

Wondertwin A - dressed as Batman

Wondertwin C