Busy Day

Rant.  My dishwasher is broken.  Again.  We have been dealing with this silly thing since the end of December.  I have had enough.  There will be the purchase of a new dishwasher this week.  The end.

 Today was gorgeous!!!  Kyle did a TON of yard work today and Luke and Leta loved "helping" him.

 We kept finding grub worms in the dirt and Luke liked to dig them out and throw them in the trash.  This particular load of dirt + grub worm did NOT make it to the trash and Luke and Leta had fun watching the grub worm.  I kept trying to get Luke to touch the grub worm or pick it up, but he wouldn't.  Then Leta poked it with her finger.  Since Big Brother can't be outdone by The Baby, he poked it too.

After my dishwasher was discovered to be broken we decided to hurry and change and run into town to look for a new one and eat at a pizza place we've heard about but never tried.  Well, the appliance store closed at 5 and we got there at 5:10.  So, off to Jo's Famous Pizza.  Here's Leta.

A.DOR.A.BLE!!!  Right?!?  And, she's almost as cute as her cousin Amelia was when she wore this outfit!  Thanks for lending it to us Audra!  Anyway, at JFP they give the kids a little ball of pizza dough to play with while waiting for their pizza to get ready.  GREAT IDEA!   It definitely kept our kids entertained and me busy trying to not let Leta eat hers.  We got the "Mediterranean" which included, mozzarella, spinach, chicken, sun dried tomatoes and feta.  It was so good!  Luke was particularly fascinated with the guy baking the pizzas.  He would pull one out and then set it on the counter and shout, "order up!" which Luke thought sounded like he was saying, "Bert!".  Luke likes anything that involves yelling and/or being loud so he yelled "order up!" several times during the night.  He was also curious if that man ever got tired of cooking pizzas.  Kyle and I think he was the owner of this particular location (the original is in Purcell, OK and opened in 1962...I think). So when we were leaving I took Luke over to ask him if he ever got tired of making pizza's.  They had a nice little conversation and I think Luke just may have a job there yelling "order up!" in a year or two.  He also spontaneously said, "You make yummy pizzas!" which made me feel good.  Good manners without prompting?!?  Dear Diary!  I also bought some of their pizza dough and came home  and put it in the freezer for future use.  

Here are L&L playing after their baths tonight.  "Mommy!  Two are riding!"

Our Favorite Strawberry Pie

Last night we had Grandpa Wilbur and Georgeanne over for supper.  It had been MUCH to long since we've seen them.  Between life, this-that-and-the-other, laziness and WT's shingles...it's been since before Christmas!  We should be ashamed of ourselves!  But, it was good to see them, even if it was long over due.

Since they're aren't company, I never go to any extra work when they're coming over.  But I did get inspired and make Our Favorite Strawberry Pie.  My mom had mentioned that she had made some for my Grandma Olson's birthday and it put the idea in my brain.  It is seriously so good.  If you haven't had my mom's strawberry pie, you need to request it.

This pie isn't hard to make, or complicated but it does take time. But not necessarily a ton of time by you in the kitchen.  There are several things that need to cool before you proceed and that makes this pie take a while to make.  Don't start this one after lunch and think you'll be having it for supper that night.  

Our Favorite Strawberry Pie

1 baked 9" pie shell
1 package (3 oz) softened (room temperature) cream cheese
1 qt. strawberries
1 cup sugar
3 T cornstarch
Whipped Cream

Spread the cream cheese in the bottom of the pie shell (make your own crust from scratch...you'll be happy you did).  Choose the best half of the washed and hulled strawberries and place over cream cheese.  Puree remaining berries thoroughly.  Add enough water to the pulp to measure 1 1/2 cups.  (I used more than 1 qt. strawberries and so I didn't have to add any water this time...YUM!)  Blend sugar and cornstarch; stir into strawberry puree.  Cook stirring constantly until the mixture boils for 1 minute.  Cool.  Pour over berries in the pie shell.  Chill about 2+ hours.  Decorate with whipped cream (again, make homemade...you won't regret it!!) before serving.

Look at me go!

In a couple of ways.  First of all, all this blogging lately?!?  Crazy.  Second, check out this project.

Trip to the Fire Sation

Kyle gets home from California today so today was our last day for doing "something special".  First we went to the library this morning for their toddler story time.  This is not something special since we usually do this every week.  But immediately AFTER we went to the fire station.  Last time we went we just saw the fire trucks.  Luke was about 1 1/2 years younger so that was perfect.  This time, however, we got a whole tour of the station house, got to look at all the fire trucks AND  we got to spray water out of the hose.  We had two very good tour guides and I think they enjoyed the break from whatever they would've been doing as much as we did.  Luke was not shy at all this time and couldn't wait to sit in the fire trucks and spent a great deal of time asking what every knob, button and lever did.  But the best part was by far, spraying the water.

 Looking at the heat sensor

 "Whoa Mommy!  Look at all the BIG TOOLS!"

 Luke enjoyed sitting in the back but after a few minutes asked to go up where the big steering wheel was.

 Leta wanted to do a lot of the things, but would chicken out at the last minute.

 Luke loved spraying the water.  He thought it was asking a lot to let others have a turn.

 Karter

We went with Shanna and Karter and a random lady from the library and her granddaughter Sarah.  It was fun to be in a little group.

Not as innocent as she looks...

Who me?!?!?

Leta got put in first time out (laundry room with a closed door) tonight for pulling my hair.  She hated every second (I was going to say minute, but about a minute was all she was in there) of it and came out a changed woman.

The Final Frenzy

Friday Leta had a bit of trouble with a tooth and the floor.  Her lip got caught in the middle and it definitely lost.  They have a little red wagon and Leta was straddling it and riding it like a car and got a little front heavy and it tipped forward and she fell off.  Her poor lip bled and bled.  There was blood running down her face and dripping off her chin...it bled for much longer than she cried.  She's a tough old bird.  So she's been sporting a fat lip since then and I have told that story too many times to count.

Leta in her dress this morning.

Luke and Leta before church this morning.  Can you believe I got this picture in ONE, yes ONE take!?!?

The cutest 3 year old I've ever seen.  (Sorry Solomon ;) )

I've talked before about how there is an opportunity at church for the boys to lead a prayer.  Well it was Luke's turn again.  And he did SUCH a good job.  On the way to church I tried to prep him and tried to get him to tell me some ideas of some things he could say in his prayer.  He wasn't helpful, so I said, "Well, what are you going to say?" to which he replied, "You'll just have to wait and see, Mommy!"  I will gladly be the ridiculously obnoxious, overly-proud parent.  He said thank you for church, bible class, the weather, Mommy (twice), Leta (two or three times), Baby Max (twice) and Daddy (twice) and Easter Sunday (twice).  So I guess he did a good job other than being a little repetitive *smile*.  He even wore a tie this morning and was excited about it, although it probably caused some confusion at church.  He who wears the tie preaches, you know *wink*.

The Frenzy Continues

Kyle is gone right now.  He left Friday late afternoon to go to San Fransisco.  He's touring Google HQ on Monday.  When he booked the trip he didn't realize it was Easter weekend and he was bummed to miss "the bunny" with Luke so Kyle and "the bunny" made a deal and he delivered baskets to our house on Thursday morning.  


Luke and Leta had fun finding their Easter baskets (that tricky bunny had hidden them!)  They had bunny and chick and heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and then hunted for eggs around the house.  Since the weather was kinda yucky that day I declared it a pajama day and we all stayed in our jammies all day long.  Luke thought that was fun and told Kyle several times how he was in his jammies ALL DAY!  I have to admit, I liked that part, too ;)


On another note, Friday morning the kids went to Body and Soul with me.  Before we leave or Kyle leaves Luke HAS to give Kyle a hug and a kiss goodbye.  Has to.  Like if he forgets and we or Kyle leaves, he will remember and then flip out.  I have found that a reminder so that this doesn't happen is best in the long run.  So.  We were getting ready to leave and I told Luke to go give Daddy a hug and a kiss good-bye.  So Luke runs off to his office, says good-bye and come back.  Leta watches all of this, and I could just tell by the look on her face she wanted to tell Daddy good-bye too.  So I told her to go and off she went as fast as her little legs could carry her to the office and then came right back.  It was so cute.  It was way cuter than it seems than when I re-read this paragraph.