St. Patrick's Day 2012

On Wednesday, I thought it was St. Patrick's day. I had wanted to do something fun for breakfast, but, ah, well, we slept in and Carl was already gone so I forgot about it. We had no real plans for the day. My Sister-In-Law had been sick and it was a BEAUTIFUL day. I thought it might be nice for the kids' cousin to get outside since his Momma surely didn't feel up to it. I know I'd love someone to care for my kids for an hour or so while I'm feeling yucky. So we arranged to come over. I threw a too-small green shirt on Brady and Abbie's shirt happened to have a green letter on it. I put on my green-ish shorts and off we went prepared to avoid all pinching. (Because my SIL is SO big on silly holiday rules and cousin was well versed in the area *note the sarcasm)

During our visit I told Brady to go pinch his aunt because she wasn't wearing green. That's when I learned St. Patty's day wasn't until Saturday. So, I felt dumb, and slightly embarrassed. But at least we hadn't gone out into public. And I had more time to prep for a green breakfast and other fun things!

Now, I'm not big on doing cute, fun traditions that seem to be yet another excuse to have candy hanging around the house. Mostly because I don't want to have the responsibility to make sure the Leprechaun comes back year after year. That's no fun. I know. I can be lame. But, I try to keep things real around here. So when I can do things, I will.

This year I Pinterested around a bit to see what I could come up with. I gleened a few ideas and put this together:

A Leprechaun for Mom and Dad: Egg Head, Green Pancake Body, Sausage legs (I should have halved the sausages to make arms to, but I was winging it by that point.)

For the Kids: A Shamrock/Four Leaf Clover Green Pancake, A Skittles Rainbow over a cool whip cloud (yes, I gave my kids Skittles for breakfast and they LOVED them) which led to the "pot of gold" of scrambled eggs. Eggs got Leprechaun Repellant Ketchup and a Sausage to defend their gold. (Again, winging it.)

Brady was skeptical of the green pancake, smelled and said he wouldn't eat it. Abbie gobbled hers up. Brady did end up eating the pancake and asked for more. Green food isn't so scary after all.

We each donned a green shirt for the day. Even Carl busted out his lime green Regions t-shirt. There was no pinching of the Behunins today! As Abbie and I were out shopping, we picked up some free fries with green ketchup from Burger King. Brady, again skeptical, did enjoy the green food after giving it a try.

We had the Luck of the Irish with us for dinner. It wasn't planned, but just sort of came together. Our dinner was green-ish with, among other things, turkey burgers (I wrapped mine in lettuce to be more green,) green ketchup (courtesy BK,) avocado and pasta with green noodles. I was impressed with Miss Abigail who ate 1/2 a raw tomato and 3/4 of an avocado and asked for more of each!

I found these cute little hats on Pinterest. They looked simple enough to do on a Saturday afternoon. While the kids were taking a bath I put them together. When they were done I said "Look! I found some Leprechaun hats!! They must have left them behind!!"  

They are Striped Fudge Cookies dipped in chocolate, with chocolate and mint chip dipped marshmallows with sprinkle bands.

 Brady likes them.

Abbie likes them. Well, at least she likes the marshmallow on them.

Maybe she'd dig the cookie with some avocado on top.

Strange side effect of Leprechaun Hats: Children seem to grow gotees after consuming them. Some children produce more than others. Some seem to ooze chocolate from the mouth.

Some Random Photos

I am IN LOVE with my kids right now. They are awesome. Not perfect, but awesome.

Abbie likes to ride bikes. She may not have arms and legs long enough to reach handle bars and pedals, but she figures out a way to overcome it! She is very patient and persistent when she is working out a problem. I love seeing her wheels turn.

Symion looks on as she cruises.



 We picked up some chocolate frozen custard on the way home from grocery shopping. Abbie clearly enjoyed hers. There was no trace of the cone!

I ordered some pictures of the First Presidency and Apostles for Primary. Just for fun I quizzed Brady. He has had the chart of the General Authorities on his wall (now on the table) since November. Apparently he has been studying it. I was BLOWN AWAY as how accurate he was! This is the next day, but still amazing! Carl and I did not get as many correct as he did. Ah, to have the mind of a child again...

The Button-er

This little Guy (who is not so little anymore) has been working so hard on getting himself dressed. This morning he did his two buttons ALL BY HIMSELF!!! I didn't even know he was doing it until he had the first one done. We got so excited! We hi-tened and wahooed. Then we took a picture to share with all of you. The first one is his pose of choice.
This one is his "I'm so proud of myself" smile.
I am so pleased with him and his desire to work hard at things that may be diffucult at times. He is really starting to learn to be determined and accomplish many things.
He is also toting the water-filled Gatorade bottle for our drink breaks to kick the sickies to the curb.

Miss Abbie didn't want to miss out on the picture opp. Despite going on a week of being sick, she looks not a day over 19-months. She also had to pull a silly face. Just like her much-adored big brother.

This is Scary. And Gross. And Painful

*Updated*

And personal. And adolescent.

I started doing an oil cleansing method for my skin. Not a good idea. In this photo I thought my skin was bad. So I stopped. Then I started to use other "natural" and store bought stuff.

And things got worse.

12/8/2012
And worse. So I started taking a homeopathic herbal supplement called Clearin.
Where the skin was good, it was GOOD. I used 2 bottles in 3 weeks at $25 a pop.

and worse....


Tea tree oil for open sores, aka popped pimples.

Slather on the Benzoyl Peroxide


Couldn't afford the supplements anymore. So I stopped taking them.


Then I started antibiotics. And a couple sessions of accupuncture. And light therapy.



Slightly better....

Raging Hormones....all has exploded.

And present day. Continuing light treatments (thanks to a gracious friend who isn't charging me for them).

So, there's my dirty little embarassing secret.

Update* Things are clearning up, slowly but surely. It looks worse than it is. Most of the redness is just discolored skin. I do have blemishes, but not nearly as many, or as painful ones. I suppose God wanted me to learn to be grateful for the health and beauty I had (have).

Christmas Card 2011

This year we were a little behind the ball on getting Christmas Cards out. We regret not sending them out a week ago and taking the electronic route. But here it is!! Enjoy!

Have you lost your marbles? No, we've got two extra actually.

We got a bag of marbles from our Home Preschooling Friend who does all sorts of fun things with her kiddos. With her marbles she let her kids paint with them in by rolling them around in a box with some paint. We intend to do that. But today we did something else. Like use them as a bribe to get Brady to clean the table happily.

After exploring them I suggested we count how many of each type we had. I ran and got a clip board, piece of paper and markers. Official tools for observing things.

We drew the different kinds we saw as we counted them out. We have 7 different types of small marbles and one "Bonus Super Shooter." We concluded that we got 53 marbles (including the shooter) in our bag that was labeled with 50. Score!!

Brady really enjoyed this. What I think made it more fun for both of us was going with his pace. I tried really hard not to get too ahead of him and push him to move on before he was ready. I also had to recognize when he was done with the activity and be okay with that. Stopping when he's lost interest is an important part to keeping learning fun in our home.

I am proud of Brady for coloring the marbles, writing some numbers, counting the marbles, helping make notations and drawing the "Bonus Super Shooter."

I thought your eyes were hazel...

One lovely summer day at the library we talked about Austrailia. The kids made this cute little kangaroo craft. This is Brady's. Note the eye. I think it was an omen.... Later that day I noticed him having a teary eye and rubbing it quite a bit. I was pretty sure he just had something in it.

After consulting with my Nurse Friend we went to the doc. Conjunctivitis affirmitive. Treat with eye drops for two weeks. Postpone Abbie's birthday party. Get well soon.