Wordless Wednesday

Mmmm... Lemon Bundt Cake!

I've been experimenting a little with cake recipes, and came up with a really yummy Lemon Bundt Cake. Along with all of the other ingredients, you add a box of pudding to the lemon cake mix, and about 1/3 cup of sour cream. Then you mix it in an electric mixer for about 5 minutes on high. It is so moist and so good (just don't over bake it)! Anthony is the one that suggested adding the pudding to the mix with chocolate cakes.
A cream cheese icing is the perfect finishing touch!

Fun with Aunt Melanie

Auntie Melanie takes the opportunity to spoil the kids whenever she gets a chance. She takes them to Dairy Queen, with our friend Angela, and buys them ice cream from time to time. Of course, they think it's great! These are a few more pictures that I snagged from her because I just loved them!

(Awww... so sweet!)

Family

I have to admit, I stole these pictures from my sister, but I thought they were really cute! My parents and sisters just went to Disneyland over Spring Break. We would love to have gone, but just couldn't pull it off at this time. Hope to go in the not-too-distant future, though. (You know, before we start to get old!) :o)
What a great picture of Dad and Mom!
(Dad looks mischievous as always!)

Such an adorable picture of Mom and the girls.
(Great special effects, Sis!)

Playing outside

I love that the kids can play outside here. There's so much room for them to play and ride their bikes. Rain or shine, all they want to do is "Go outside!".

As he's riding away, he tells me, "Mommy, I'm go to see my baby cow!".

Kaitlyn loves to sit on her little bike, park it in the flower beds or grass, and just sit and watch everything around her. She hasn't started picking the flowers yet, but she does play with the petals and smell them.
She wont keep anything in her hair for more than five minutes, so she looks rather disheveled most of the time- unless I'm constantly watching her and making her keep her hands away from her hair. That's a battle I just choose not to fight at home!

Such a priceless picture!

Sitting on the patio with Papa, having a chat, and watching the sun set.

Daffy and Dillard

Meet the newest addition to the property! Since there are so many Daffodils here, Anthony came up with their names Daffy and Dillard. We call them Daffy and Dill. Anthony told Talon that the big cow was Daddy's and the baby cow was his. He's a sweet kid and always concerned about other people, so his first question was, "Sissy's cow? Mommy's cow?". Daddy let him know that Mommy and Sissy didn't get one this time, but we could look at his. He seemed okay with that answer. We are really happy we can raise our own beef. I'm a little nervous about how Talon's gonna respond when it comes time to butcher his calf, but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there. At least it wont be until next year. By then, we will have butchered Daffy and probably have another calf. I guess that's all a part of growing up and learning about the life process with cattle.
They are fun to watch. They've learned to come to the fence and beg for grain. Anthony's a softy when it comes to them, so he's always heading out there to give them their treat. How we are really enjoying living out in the country again!

I love this picture! Dill is already learning to pose for the camera!

Talon standing at the fence watching his calf. He tells me, "I want in there and watch baby cows, Mommy!". He can't wait to get in there with his cow.

So much work to do

Ugh... I hate moving! As you can see, I still have so much work to do before we are 'settled'. Where did all this stuff come from anyway?

New clothes

Kaitlyn really likes new clothes, and it doesn't seem to matter what it is. If I get her a new shirt and she sees me taking the tags off, she gets excited. She likes showing off to Daddy and Bubby so they can tell her how pretty she looks. It's so sweet to hear Talon say, "Sissy pretty!".
I found this little fleece night gown on a clearance rack and thought it was so cute. She loves it! I put it on her and she pranced around the house showing it off. Here she is modeling it for all of us.

And here are just a couple pictures I took of the kids tackling each other. Sometimes we have to get in and 'referee', but they both hold their own pretty well, and don't usually get too carried away.

Goin' on the Airplane

Talon is very intrigued with planes, trains, cars, trucks, boats... yes, pretty much anything that moves. When I was making my trips to and from Oregon for work, all he would talk about was "Mommy going on the airplane". On one of my trips, I bought him a toy plane that makes noise, and he thought that was just the neatest thing ever. So, he was super excited when he found out that he, himself, would be going on an airplane. The kids and I flew over to Oregon on my last work stretch before we moved. He and George got the window seat. He got a little nervous when we started to lift off the ground, and it got noisy. He got a worried look on his face and started saying, "Mommy the airplane broken! Mommy, I want down! I want down!". But he calmed down after I explained how the airplane goes up into the air, and then he thought it was neat when we looked at the all cars and they were getting smaller and smaller. Thankfully, it was a nice day and a smooth ride. I can only imagine the hysteria if it would have been bumpy and he thought we were going down!
When we got in the air, I told him to look out the window at all the clouds. You could just see his little mind wheels turning as he processed the fact that they were now underneath him instead of over his head.
Ahhh, one of the many joys about being a parent... watching your children as they start to grow up and have new experiences that they can actually remember!
Kaitlyn isn't so fond of the whole process. She's flown with me a couple of times recently, and she doesn't care much for sitting still for an hour, but she does pretty good. I had a few people stop me and ask me how I dared to take two little kids on a trip by myself. I must admit, once or twice, I did ask myself the same question. But the trip was really short, and the kids actually did very well.

So excited, he can hardly contain himself!

Talon's new discovery

(This was written by Daddy. I wanted it for the blog because I thought it was hilarious. I wasn't there, but when he told me about it, I laughed so hard. I wanted to remember it.)

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You know, something happened today that was so humorous I don't think I can recreate the moment. We have a pesky rug outside our patio door. My Mom and Dad were over, and Mom kept getting tripped up on it, so I told her to just move it. She did, and there were some worms who were using it as a roof. Talon was very unimpressed. When I say Talon was unimpressed, what I mean is that they totally grossed him out, but he ignored them. So, full of energy (after seeing "his cow" delivered today), and in full cowboy mode, he got to stomping around the yard like he was King Tut. Well, I was watching him and I saw him pause at the edge of the flower garden. I saw what appeared to be the dawning of uncontrollable fear on his face. I said, "Talon, your a country boy, nothing is going to hurt you..." thinking it would challenge his manhood and cause him to rise above the moment (all the while thinking he had spotted an ant or something). Well, his fear got the best of him, he took off running every which way, which resulted in some prehistoric dance. His manliness forgotten, he resorted to flapping his hands and arms all around. Somehow I got his attention, and he stopped the dance and kind of walked halfway around the flower bed. About halfway to where we sat (Myself, Papa and Granny), the image of what he had just witnessed hit him again and he shuttered and started the dance all over with the ultimate "Grossed Out" look on his face. By now, I am in complete hysterics, almost on the ground. He makes a bee-line for Papa- his face flushed (yes, just like his Mama). You can tell he is completely grossed out and irritated by the presence of something he saw. I had been asking him what it was, but he wouldn't say. Finally, Granny got him to quit shivering in revulsion, and she asked him, "What was it, Talon?". He said in a very scared and irritated tone. "S-s-s-s-s Nake!" with another shudder. I lost it. I had forgotten about the worms earlier. Papa asked if they were so long (about four or five inches), Talon vigorously nodded the affirmative. Now I know, nobody wants to read such a long story, and it was a "you just had to be there" moment. All I can say is, I was glad I was there. I hadn't laughed so hard since the last time I laughed that hard!!!

Announcing Baby Starr # 3!

Yes, we will have another little addition to our family this fall. Baby Starr #3 is due October 22nd. We are very excited!

We had our first ultrasound this week, and everything looks great! My doctor gave me a prescription for Zofran to help with the nausea, and it seems to be helping a bit.

I've been really sick and just plain exhausted over the past couple of weeks (which has made moving and working long stretches a real chore), but now that we're moved into our new home, I'm looking forward to getting settled and being able to relax a little bit.

House pictures

These are just a couple pictures of the outside of the house.

(I snagged them off the internet)

The search is finally over!

Yeah... the search is over! We finally found a house to rent! I'll admit, it's not exactly the house I was expecting, but the more I've seen it, the more I like it. At least now we have a place to live and can move to Oregon and get settled. This commuting back and forth, and working six twelve-hour night shifts in a row, is really getting exhausting!
I'll have to post some pictures of the house later. There's nothing super spectacular about the inside, it's just an average 1980's home with lots and lots of windows. The outside, however, is beautiful! The house is on 5 1/2 acres and very secluded. I see a lot of yard work and weeding in our future... there are flower beds everywhere. It looks like they are hosting a daffodil festival on the property! The owner said that the lady that had owned it before them had a bit of a planting fetish, and they had to let some of the plants die off because there were just too many. I can't even imagine what that looked like.

The kids and dogs will have lots of room to play outside, and the house has a long driveway set off of the road, so we wont have to worry about them going near the street.

There is a little orchard on the property with 4-5 different kinds of fruit trees. Looks like I'm gonna be doing a lot of canning this summer as well! The utility room off the kitchen has 2 long counters, a stove, a sink, and LOTS of cupboard space for canning and storage. I'm kinda excited about it!

I fly home on Wednesday evening, and we'll finish packing up. Jeremy and my dad are coming over on Friday with the rental truck, we'll load up, and head to Oregon on Saturday. The kids are going to stay in Oregon and go between my parents and Anthony's parents while we're gone. We thought this would be a bit easier on them so they didn't have to make multiple trips back and forth. At least I know they wont be starved for attention during that period of time!

Wordless Wednesday

Our little musician

Talon LOVES music, but is especially fond of the guitar. If we have music on and he hears a guitar, he runs and grabs his, and has to join in. We all have to then join in and sing along while he plays for us. He even moves his hands up and down the fretboard like he's really playing. (Never mind the fact that a couple of the strings are broken. In his mind, he's an accomplished musician!)

Sissy clapping and singing along.
Sometimes she'll grab the microphone and dance around and sing while he plays.

Always admiring her big brother!
She even tries to snag the guitar sometimes and play herself.