Gracie Beautiful

Here are some pictures of my beautiful Gracie!! Being at home with her all day everyday has given me plenty of opportunities take pics of her having fun around the house. Thought I'd share some (okay, maybe a little more than some).

Dusting the living room for mommy

I can't say "with mommy" because she took over & didn't want me to do any of it. I actually had to stand on top of the chair holding her while she dusted the top of the entertainment center! I know this love for cleaning won't last forever, so figured I'd make the most of it and just let her do it.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

For Nick's birthday, the kids made "Happy Birthday" signs for him.
Here is Evan's sign

Here is Gracie's sign

She colored the letters that I told her to color, but got bored with it before we were done

Here's the back of Gracie's She wrote her name all by herself! :)

This is the 1st time she has written her name more than "G"-She watched me write the letters on another piece of paper and then wrote them on her paper.

I am so proud of both of them!!

Oh, and Daddy loved his posters!

The Circus

We went to the circus Sunday night. Evan had seen the commercials and wanted to go, especially since Spiderman was going to be there. We waited til almost time to leave before telling the kids where we were going, just to surprise them. They were so excited!

Evan got to meet Spiderman during intermission. The funniest thing was that he asked before meeting him "Mommy, is that really just a adult dressed up in a costume?" He's getting so big! I didn't lie and told him that it was. You'd think that would have made him a little less excited, but nope. He was thrilled to get up there and get his picture taken.

We all had so much fun. It was a great "Rice Family Fun Night"!

Good idea Nick and Evan!

Ice Storm

Well, I am a little behind on this post, but still wanted to share my pictures from our recent ice storm. Here's the scoop: We got several inches of snow/sleet on Monday (1/26) followed by about 4-6 inches of ice on Tuesday and then snow all day on Wednesday. We lost power Wednesday around noon. Luckily, Pam, my mother-in-law, had power and allowed us to stay at her house the rest of Wednesday afternoon, overnight, and all day Thursday. Many, many thanks to her!

Since we were leaving from mom's house Friday morning for our annual family trip to Gatlinburg, and since she had got her power back Wednesday night, we spent the night with my parents Thursday night. Many thanks to them too!

Above is a pic of my little tree in the front yard with about 4 inches of ice on it. It really was beautiful.

Here is our mailbox and deck, covered in snow and ice.

Here are the kids playing in the snow and the amazing icicles hanging on my mother-in-law's house. The longest one was at least 3 foot long!!! I don't think I've ever seen icicles that long before!

Fun with Pipe Cleaners

After having wreaked havoc the last time I tried to do crafts with the kids, I decided that we would be on the safe side this time...nothing to do with microwaves or ovens allowed!

Here are our creations.

A flower

A boy and a girl

A dog

Crafts & Chaos

So, I got this great idea from one of the blogs I follow, Flip Flops and Applesauce, to make some clay-dough type crafts with the kids. View her recipe and pictures here.

That being said, here's the Rice version. Stay with me now, it's kinda long, but well worth it!

I microwaved each plate for 2 minutes, decided they weren't ready yet, and did another minute each, and then another minute each (total of 4 minutes).

After they had cooled off, I let the kiddos each pick a paint color and start painting.

Evan opted for pink

Gracie, since Evan stole the pink, chose red

(they had decided that they couldn't have the same color stars)

Now for the fun part of the story.

While they were painting I decided to make a couple of stars with the leftover dough for myself.

As I was making my stars, I noticed that something was stinking up the kitchen. Being the great detective I am, I figured out that my sweet little daughter, who refuses to use the potty, had done a #2 in her pull-up.
Before changing her, I placed the 2 stars I had made on a plate, stuck it in the microwave and hit 4 (for 4 minutes, remember how it took 4 minutes total for the first two batches?), so they could cook while I changed her diaper.

Sooo....before actually getting the chance to complete the changing process, I smelled yet another terrible smell. My thought process-"What is that? Smells AWFUL. Smells like, like, OH NO! Smoke!!!" I hopped up off the floor, ran into the kitchen, which was quickly filling with smoke, and over to the microwave. I opened the door, expecting it to be filled with fire. Thank God there was only more smoke. Oh, and two burnt clay-dough stars, and a melted plate.

Being the smart cookie that I am, I had put my two stars on a plastic plate.

And now for the zoomed out version:

Yes, it is sitting on my deck in the snow...where else was I going to put a melted, smoking, burning plate???

Good one, huh? Sometimes I wonder where my brain went...

Gracie Can Read...

...Well, not actually, but don't tell her that! (She doesn't take it well) She was "reading" Bubby a couple of books the other day and it was so cute to hear her version of the pictures! So cute that I grabbed the laptop and started typing what she said.

Here is (verbatim) her version of "What's Wrong, Little Pookie?":

Piggy was crying in the morning on his bed
Mommy said you can come down from your bed
He was crying and mommy said you don't be crying in the bed
You can get out your bed
You just come down Mommy said you can't come down off your bed
Hippo is this a shoes on your bed Hippo?
Froggies was a little boy and the girls

You can off your girls and boys and girls and boys
Cookies was a little cookie and a big cookie was a little boy and a girl
Elephant at the zoo
You can come down off your bed and read your
you can get in your bed and read your books
you can read disciples and the road of the mommy and the girl

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I know, I know...it makes no sense, but it is soooo priceless!!! And it kinda makes sense if you are looking at the pictures.