Cure for Natalie

Hey everybody! This is a video about our sweet little Natalie that Morgan Reynolds and his sister Sallee Mathews made for us to promote the "Step Out for a Cure" diabetes walk. If you're reading this blog then you probably know Natalie. There are also millions of other adorable little kids out there like her who have to go through the same things she does. We can all agree that it's time to find a cure for type 1 diabetes and by following this link we can all make a difference. Please check out the video and donate what you can to this more than nobel cause.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F3UOCi3&h=0d7368e73442b80cc5263bd6f4ef8f03

Destructive Children

My kids have given our house, particularly the bathroom, a rough time this week.

Somehow, the bathroom door was left open and Emma got in there. Being the highly sensitive, overly cautious, natural mother that I am, I didn't realize she was in there until I heard small spashing sounds. As I go to find out what it is, this is the scene I encounter...

Emma had pulled all of her toys out of the bath and was playing with them in the toilet! She was having the time of her life!!!

As if that wasn't bad enough, the next day Natalie disappeared into the bathroom for an abnormal length of time (yea! she is actually potty trained!). Soon enough, I again heard some out-of-place splashing and went to investigate, only to find this...

In case you cannot see, that is toilet paper floating in the sink full, to overflowing, with water.

Some exciting news though. Emma has finally decided to walk for us. Although she is a little reluctant to walk on tile or any hard surface, she freely roams the living room as if she has been walking for months. For those not in close contact, Emma is now 15 months old and has ademately refused to walk for us, aside from 3 days a month ago when she would take 2-3 steps off a couch to waiting arms. Other than that, there had been nothing we could do to pursuede her to walk, even holding someone's hands. So it surprised us all when, without anyone looking, she took off from the couch and walked across the living room, even changing directions halfway through. And she hasn't looked back. She walks as if she's practiced every day for 4 months. I have no picture.

On a completely different note, I had a great time last week as I was asked to make a cake for a baby shower. I broke from "tradition" and made a more traditional style cake. My sister-in-law(I think that's the right relation, my husbands brothers wife?) found a cake online and we did our best to duplicate it. We used fondant, which was a ton of fun, and were able to create a very beautiful, somewhat professional looking cake. Leah helped a ton, thanks Leah!

If you are interested, I have added a few things to my etsy store and invite you again to check it out http://www.devany.etsy.com/.

I guess that's about it for this week. Tune in next time for an all-new episode of The Adventures of Motherhood.

4th of July

This year we decided to go to Nebraska at the last minute for Independance Day. I am soooo glad we did! It was so much fun.

The drive took us about 13 hours, 4 hours longer than it should have. So on the last leg of the trip it was dark and we followed a thunderstorm the last 4 hours. I have never witnessed a lighting storm to match it, and I lived in Texas one summer! The most time between lightning strikes was 8 seconds and that only happened once the entire 4 hours. Usually it looked like the entire horizon in front of us exploding with the biggest and longest fireworks display ever presented. Steve tried to capture it on his cell phone, but you couldn't see it very well.

The smartest thing we did the whole trip was to buy an adapter for the car that allowed us to plug in the Wii. We didn't hear from Stevie the entire trip. When we got there, we had a few days to hang out with Jared and Jeanne which was a lot of fun. I've really missed them since they moved away. My parents came on the 3rd, and my kids were really excited to see them. That is all except for Emma. My dad sat down next to her and tried to help feed her. That did NOT go over well. She is a bit of a Mama's girl and doesn't like strange men. This is a good thing.

On the Fourth of July, we had so much to do. First of all, our nephew Micah decided to take the plunge and get baptized, so it was a very special day for him. We went to the chapel, which was bordered by a corn field of course. So Steve had to get out there and play around.

Then Steve, Jared, Jesse, and my dad went to buy fireworks. About 2 hours and $300 later, they returned with their plunder. (If this is at all repetitive, I apologize. I'm sure Jeanne has already blogged about this.) The boys couldn't even wait for dark, they began letting them off in broad daylight and it took them about 3 hours to get through them all. The grand finale was one large firework that consisted of 340-something individual fireworks that ignited like a machine gun. The thing was taller than Micah. It was pretty cool.

All in all, it was a very fun trip which we may have to repeat next 4th of July. We have been spoiled and may never be satisfied with fountains and sparklers again. Thanks Jeanne (and Jared)!!!

Photos are courtesy of Jeanne.