Urgent Prayer Request - Please!

Two full-time missionaries in Haiti, Cody and Maria Whittaker, are facing a grave situation with their 3-year-old daughter Susana.  She was flown to Miami Children's because they thought she had contracted malaria.  Turns out, they found a malignant mass in her stomach.  They are doing further tests today to determine where they go from here.  You can visit their website here to leave them a word of encouragement or get updates.


Thank you so much for praying. 

An Ode to Leeks

I know, weird, right?   But true.

Last night, my children ate leeks.  Yes, these leeks.

The ones that are, in essence, an onion.  My devoutly anti-onion children ate onions.  How, you may ask?

Careful camoflage.

I have had three little packages of lamb burger just sitting in my freezer.  Waiting for the perfect recipe.  We have had Jeromes sister Celine with us for a week, and I wanted to fix something special for her.  She LOVES lamb, like any good French-American teenager should. 

I found this recipe from Betty Crocker (have I mentioned lately how much I love that site?) and decided to try.  It really is easy, and the lamb could be substituted with any meat you like.  

And it got my children to eat leeks.  And repeatedly say, throughout the meal, how much they liked leeks.  Worth the shot?  I think so. 

Easter Eggs

I know, I know.  It is about 3 weeks past Easter.  With the way allergy season has hit our house, I am lucky to remember my name most days.  But, in the interest of all the aunts & uncles who read this blog, I know I will be in trouble if I dont post these.


We got complicated, girly eggs this year.  Three day eggs.  Day one involved hard-boiling the eggs, then cooling them. 


Day Two, we got to dye.  Here is my artsy attempt, complete with paper towels.  Classy, I know.

Katrina chose this moment to become traumitized because she had to share with her sisters.

Eventually, the sisters made amends and enjoyed each others company whilst creating their artwork.

And, here are the finished creations, complete with speckling of an unknown origin.

Day Three involved sponges and painting of the eggs.  But, by this time I was so over the egg dying that I did not get any photos of the complete eggs. 


On a side note, we discovered that our children REALLY love hard boiled eggs.  Needless to say, the art work did not survive for long.

I Scream You Scream

We scream for 31 Flavors!  Dollar Scoop Nights are the best.

Now, Katrina must eat her ice cream like a perfect princess.

The other two?  Yeah, not so much...

There is a fringe benefit to being the youngest, you know.

Katrina was fed ice cream with a spoon at this age.  Violet?  We just reach for the camera!

Thankful Thursday

This week, I am thankful for:

peaceful moments with my girls

that God never stops teaching us new things

for new friends

and family relationships that can develop into friendships

Meet Our New Babies

We love babies at our house.  Except our babies may not be typical.

See?  I told you.  Arent they cute?

And this is our new Mama.  To my dad, she is #24.  To Katrina, she is Rosie.

And she is turning out to be a great mom. 

Drama Queen Adventures

I think this should be a regular feature on this blog. But maybe that's just me...





Anyways, we had a full day on Saturday. Jerome had to work, so we girls (including Jerome's sister Celine) got up, dressed, and fed, then headed out. We went to Wal-Mart to buy a birthday present for Anna's birthday party, went to Ronda's for hair cuts, dropped Nina off at the party, got lunch and spent a few hours at the park with the littles, then picked up Katrina.





On the way home, I decided that we had better stop by the sporting goods store to get Kat a t-ball mitt. She is quite the lefty princess, so finding her a mitt has been interesting, to say the least. My first mistake was stopping so close to nap time. Bad idea.





The only left-handed t-ball mitt they had for girls was black with hot pink accents. It was a Jennie Finch model, and pretty cool, if you ask me. I would have used one, if they had big girl sizes. Well, we paid for it and headed out.





One of my co-workers was coming into the store with her family as we were heading out, so we stopped to chat for a few. All of a sudden, Katrina burst into tears. I couldn't quickly figure out what was wrong, so we bid a hasty retreat to the car.





On the way home, she told me that she didn't want the black glove. She wanted the purple glove. I tried to explain to her that the black glove was just right for her because she is a lefty.





"Well then, I'm not gonna be a lefty anymore. I'm gonna be a righty!" Enter tears & snot.





Miraculously, after a 2 1/2 hour nap, she decided that the black glove was pretty cool. And, yes, I know how weird it is that my 6 1/2 year old still takes that long of a nap. I love it. I am not complaining. And when we discovered that we just might have a switch hitter on our hands, being a lefty was acceptable again.



Ah, the adventures of a drama queen!