all sorts o stuff

I hate February. So totally hate it. It is amost over though and then life will be better, right?
I need to start uploading my pics in reverse order. It is getting really annoying...

So going backwards... The girls got a hold of my camera. See we actually had some nice weather last week and they built things to hold up hats that they have knit. The blue hat is the one Natalie just finished. It is for Roland. They did tell me they were taking my camera outside to take A, yes A picture of the hat. what happened when I tried to download the photo card told me I had 283 pictures!!!
I ended up with artsy pictures like this one...



Proof that really all Gwen wears outside is her pink rain boots... Really it could be snowing and that girl thinks all she needs is rain boots


Pictures of our chickens. By the way don't get too attached to that yellow one, he be dinner soon...



And yes like 3 picture of the hat...



I love my girls really. But Jack keeps getting on me that I have like 3% space on my laptop and it is because if all these pictures. I can't get rid of them, they are art!

And I feel totally old. We had three trees dropped in our yard. Saved a good bit of money by doing the clean up ourselves. But yeah we are old. It took over a week but we finally finished the one, yes one, tree in the front. I must have puled something though or maybe it was the constant looking down and chopping wood but now I can't look up. I did get over my fear of the chipper shredder, which is a good thing. And I have learned how to use a chainsaw. Another good thing.
The bad thing?
This is our side yard, wher two huge cedars were dropped. Neither one of us really wants to touch it. You can't tell very well, but the debris is about 6 feet deep. Layla tried to climb over it and we had to dig her out. The weather isn't playing nice now either.

Haaaattttt

Here she is feeling her head and saying hhhaatttt. We all have a bit of a stuffy nose and it sounds so cute



Layla just finished her first knitting project. I am so very proud of her. She made this hat for Gwendy. Now it would probably fit a newborn's head but we stretched it to fit hers. I think it might end up giving her a headache but it keeps her hair out of her face :) And don't you just love the smile she gives me at the end? Melts my heart

karate

This is how far behind I am. The girls have been in karate since the beginning of November. We had been discussing an activity for a really really long time. I wasn't opposed to something like karate, but the girls had mostly talked about dance. I did want them to have confidence and have the feeling that they could take care of themselves.
Then one day I got a little ad in our mailbox. I will be happy just this once for junk mail. The other thing with getting them into an activity is that well, the thought of driving to two different classes a week exhausted me. But this ad said beginning class was from 4 to 7. Yes, Natalie was really close to 7, but then Natalie is also about as clumsy as I am :)
So we went. First I so love our Sensai, he is really wonderful with the kids. And Layla has her first teacher crush. It is very cute. But really? I see how it happened. Layla is very serious about her karate and gets called out often in class on how well she is doing. Quite an accomplishment considering she is not only the youngest she is the shortest. Natalie is also very very good. Her kicks are amazing.
They are also learning self defense techniques. I love it. We have practiced and at first I thought there was no way those things would work with someone bigger than them, but they do!! They can break my grasp. It really is great. Not only are they learning karate, they are also learning self defense and things like helping your team(including family), courage, self control. I could actually go on and on about how amazing this class is. I have pictures but they are somewhere where I can't get them right now. This is sensai's myspace, if you go down to the third from the bottom slidshow you can see the girl's class.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=277421049

Lisa is amazing

So Lisa came to visit us. She really is an amazing talented photographer. I almost don't feel like i can say that though. I don't really think of her as a photographer anymore. She is truly an artist. An amazing artist.
She took these pictures with my camera with her flash. Anyone want to buy me a flash:)
My little Gwen and a pear. That is the other thing. She is not just an artist, she engages these kids and talks to them and gets them to make these faces. That cannot be an easy thing to do sometimes. I saw her do it with Layla outside once. She got Layla to somehow make like every Layla face there is.

Oh and these are totally unedited, they aren't even cropped. I have a bit to do today and well, I am lazy.

Dooooonuuutttsssssss

You know I would feel bad about it I really really would if it isn't for that we like never get donuts. AND there is like tons more protien/fiber and good stuff in my flour mix than any other wheat flour you could buy, me sticking my tongue out now. When I was looking for recipes Natalie looked at my screen and saw the picture of the donut, I used this recipe http://www.gluten.net/recipes/index.php?cmd=6&recid=79 and she asked, "is that wheat?" It turned into little birds all around me chirping "Is that wheat?" "Is that wheat?"
"Nope girls, gluten free."
Natalie had tears in her eyes. How could I not make them then?
The problem? Natalie likes chocolate donuts, but her favorite? maple. So I tried to make a maple frosting also. I love my girls I so love them. The donuts turned out a bit dense, filling really filling. So we have a lot of leftovers. I didn't frost all of them and they like them plain too. Really that is my favorite. That may surprise some people. I love nothing more than a really good plain buttermilk donut.
Okay chocolate eclairs come next :)

And why why why is blogger changing the order of my pics? They are now in reverse order. Oh I used Jack's shot thing to cut out the holes. I was searching through all the drawers and finally pulled it out and was like AH HAH!!! It worked perfect.

Trying again

Okay google damn google messed with the order of my pictures. I am way too lazy to try to fix this now and Gwen just woke up from a nap, so live with it:)

First we got our first Lady egg. We got yet another chicken from Ms. Kelly, and she has given us a few eggs, but this is the first egg that we have gotten from our ladies. It is the small one. We think we have 2 laying right now, we occasionally get 2 eggs in one day. They are getting bigger. We have lost two though so far. One was smashed. The other was just slightly smashed but then, this is embarrassing, I smashed it walking into the house. Yes, my fault.
It is really neat getting eggs now and I do really like having chickens.





My girls having fun. They are silly sometimes. But sweet. They were playing on trying to get closer which eventually led to them falling over. I am really really glad that they get along. In fact I am just going to say that I am amazed and insanely happy at how wonderful my children are. We were at the feed store yesterday and a woman mentioned that I have my hands full. I do get this a lot. But I had to tell her that my girls were amazing and helpful and I rarely feel like my hands are full. Oh sure there are moments when I feel like my head is going to explode, but my hands? :) not so much. Really, if they were any more better behaved I would feel like something is wrong. Jack and I talked about that a bit afterwards and he agreed. Most of the time when we start to feel overwhelmed it isn't because of the girls, it is actually because there is something else that has our attention. It does happen, we do have to deal with life. But they are also, okay not Gwen so much, really understanding when we say something like "Hey girls, we have to do this right now, can you go and do something else right now?" We are an amazingly lucky family.





And I am taking a vacation right now. It is much needed. I feel like I need to refocus on what I am trying to do. I feel very jumbled and need awhile to figure things out. I think I got sidetracked awhile ago. Took a wrong turn and had my eyes closed for awhile. I opened my eyes and really had to say wtf! where the hell am I now? I am hoping some positive changes come out of this. It is hard to take a vacation with your children though. Wish me luck.
And we are really getting on planning/starting our garden now. I will try to take some pictures soon. We have seeds coming up!!! YAY! I have to admit that this is scary for me. I really really want this to work. Our garden in Georgia didn't work, but then we couldn't keep Bubba out of it. Our garden here didn't work, but I had tried to tell Jack that we really don't get much light in our backyard, most things molded back there. This time we will be putting it in our front yard. I am excited yet scared. We are putting a lot of work in this. So send good growing green thoughts to our front yard, we are going to need them :)

Stolen

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

What I create will be just for you.

It’ll be done this calendar year.

You have no clue what it’s going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that’s for sure! However, I *do* promise that it will be more than just a handmade card!

I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch: You have to put this in your journal as well. We all can make stuff!

Yes, I stole this. It does sound like fun, and I like the idea behind it. I rarely get to make stuff for people other than my family. Right now Layla has two things she is bugging me for. So maybe it would be good for me to try making something for someone else