fever, cough and barney?

Brinley 6 Comments »

That’s what’s goin’ on at our place right now…

I can tell you what’s not going on right now: sleep, laundry and dishes. Brinley’s refusing to eat anything except popcorn and PediaSure, aka “sick milk.” And Rowan is feeling neglected.

When I ask Brinley what I could do to make her feel better, she had one request: Barney. I don’t like to use such strong words, but I hate that purple dinosaur. Hate him.  Thanks Mom! But how can I deny a feverish, pink-puffy faced little girl her one request? I dug through the depths of our DVD collection and located our Barney DVD. Luckily enough for me she fell asleep 15 minutes into the DVD. Saved!

crack in the kitchen

Brinley, Drew 2 Comments »

Hey there, Master of Toast here. It’s been almost 2 weeks since our last post. We’ve enjoyed the time off from the regular grind, but now it’s time to get back at it. We’ve made a new years’ resolution to continue posting as often as we did before. Hopefully all you Stew-Stalkers out there will “spew” from time to time. Stewland Security is cracking down, and we’d really hate to see the threat level raised to orange peels. And now without further ado, the reason why you stopped by…

Today was a big day for a certain 3 year old. Brinley is a Nursery Ninnie no longer. She is now a Primary Princess. And yes her shoes are on correctly. It’s her legs that are on backwards. Really.

 

New year, same man. Drew looking mighty handsome in his new suit.

 

This afternoon Amy told me that even though we are (fabulous) renters, the kitchen was in need of some renovations. It seems a crack had developed near the stove.  At first all I saw was Brinley unwrapping butter to make some brownies…

 

I hadn’t found the crack yet, but I was lucky enough to catch Brinley licking butter off her fingers. Oh yes she did! 

Mmmm, so flavorful! I bet she’ll never try that again.

Ok, back to work. Brinley’s almost done mixing up her brownie recipe and I still haven’t found this crack that Amy told me about.

Whoops! Egg overboard, and the house began to rumble and shake!

And then, I found the crack.

Here’s a close up before I got to work on the patch job.

Hold on Drew! This was not his earthquake suit. He was about to have his head shaved so he could return to boot camp…er…I mean school tomorrow. You might be a redneck if…

The tremors subsided and I patched that crack right up. Then it was a waiting game for the gut plaster to dry…

Kitchen renovation complete! And oh the reward was sweet!

gingerbread house

Brinley, Crafts, Drew, Rowan 3 Comments »

You know us pretty well by now: cheap and crafty! The Christmas decorating marathon continued as the kids decorated the gingerbread house.

Attention to detail is important. Drew was very concerned about patterns.

That side yours and this side mine…

I don’t think they cracked a smile until the house was done.

This is very serious business, not to be taken lightly.

 

Now for the landscaping. We’ll start with the porch and then the trees…

 

We added some fresh snow to cover up any mistakes that may or may not have been made.

The completed masterpiece. Hurry and take a picture before its…

…Condemned. This was only about a week later, and look – Brinley is sporting another one of her coloring projects. Yes, I let my kids eat the gingerbread house, piece by piece. What is the point of a dusty house made of candy at the end of the month? That’s no fun! Swiping candy off the gingerbread house is a right of passage. It MUST be done, or it’s not Christmas. Mmmmm…crunchy!

Rowan was a little wrecking ball herself and snatched up a candy cane when nobody was looking. She has her “I just woke up from my nap” face on. I wonder what that tastes like to a 6 month old? Maybe she thought the candy would give her a sudden burst of energy. And now for the disclaimer: I would never have let my first or second child taste candy at the tender age of six months, but hey – I’m a little more relaxed this time around. And we are talking about seconds here, I’m pretty sure she will still live long, prosper and eat her veggies 🙂

 

 

Peppermint drool…..mmmmmmmmmmmm. And still pretty sleepy…

 

I’m guessing she really liked it, because she smeared the candy cane and frosting on her feet to save for later.