Reply,

Oh Kiki as I read your crazy story all I could think, between laughs, was this only would happen to you and of course it was Lou that it happened to. That Lou what a silly man!
How I have missed reading about your funny life in small town USA. You make me feel so boring :)
Life has been busy here getting ready for 2 weeks with Gma! I am so that person that packs a week in advance because I want to make sure I have everything and there aren't last minute loads of laundry to do. So yes, my kids have been wearing the same clothes for the last 2 days so I don't have to do laundry. See I am that mom! I did just say kids...a new addition to the blog is five. You think huh what a random, different nickname to have considering he is only baby #2. I know believe me, but the number 5 is THE number in the B family and our little man will carry it on as he is in all kinds of sports. So yes he will be called five.
All that to say, I am still trying to craft as much as possible in this crazy time of life. Sadly that is not as much as I would like. I have so many crafts partly done because I find time to do one here and there between napping kids, trying to stay awake at night, and when I don't feel guilty that maybe I should be cooking dinner or cleaning some room.
I did just accomplished making the cutest DIY ornament out of buttons! I found it on Pinterest. Rant: Have I told you how much I love Pinterest?! It is the best thing EVER! I have so many pins and way too little time to make them. But oh to dream about the day that that one pin may be completed! As mom would say, "I'm dreaming in color." I am happy to say I have made many pins and loved each and every one. Done. Okay back to the ornament. Kiki, so stinking simple and your monsters would love to help sort out the buttons to find the right ones. here is the blog that shows you how to make them. I honestly love how they turned out and hello, I spent .89cents on embroidery thread because I already had buttons. SCORE! However, my computer is being lame and I can't show you my picture. boo! Have I told you technology doesn't like me?
Check the blog out! I seriously think it is the best ornament. I made 2 for friends and they loved them! Alright I need to go to sleep considering five will be waking up in probably 2 hours...which means more pinning for me hehehe
Love you Kiki and can't wait to see you in 3 days!!!

~Tia

To: Tia

Hello my long lost sister!!!  I know it is totally my fault that there has been such a long period between letters.  I'd blame it on moving, new schools, new job, etc. but it's really just fairly routine for me, so I apologize!  It's not like I had a baby or anything.Forgive me sweet sister!  I promise I'll make up for it.

Last week I had one of those days. You know the kind when you look at yourself and wonder how in the world you have managed to raise sweet, loving, happy -go-lucky kids when it is obvious to everyone that it probably has nothing to do with you as a parent just good luck on your part. 
Ok you probably don't have those kinds of days becuase you are the type of parent we all aspire to be. But, I still have hope that once your little peanut is as old as mine you will begin to experience these types of days.  So here's how everything started. 

I woke up to my alarm.  It was Wed and I was glad that I had actually had a pretty good night of sleep until I pick up my phone to notice that it isn't my "wake up" alarm going off it is the "school" alarm going off (which means we should be walking out the door to get the kids to school on time). I FLY out of bed and immediatley go to get the boys up and moving.  Buffalo pops up right away and being the diligent, responsible one begins to get ready in a frenzy. Lou has not moved. I peer closer into the bed to really lay into him to GET MOVING when I finally realize there is no one in bed.  Hmmm... go to the bathroom, nope not in there. Check on the couch, again nothing.  I start calling his name over and over.  Nothing. I start to panic.  Okay I FREAKED out.  C had already pulled the covers up and was hiding under his pillow until I say "I LOST LOU".  I go outside... finally I walk back into the kids room and find C pulling the toy box from under the bunk bed and who is "asleep" curled up against the wall, Lou. He was completely hidden from the world. My heart was beating a mile a minute. I had convinced myself that A) someone had come into our home and taken my little Lou or B) Lou had been sleepwalking and was wondering around our little town.  It is crazy how you can get so dillusional in a mere matter of seconds. Really who is going to walk into a house full of kids and only take one (Imean they all sleep in 1 bedroom). 
Well after this near emergency we all got going and surprisingly made it out the door in fairly good time.  We got to school only 5 minutes after the tardy bell (after waking up an hour late!).  I re-hashed my story that morning to all my coworkers.  They all were laughing pretty hard! I'd like to think this is because these kinds of things never happen to me but I think it is more that I am a really good story teller for always having to tell these kinds of stories.
And then it happend again.
I got an Attendance Alert email from school (9:30am, a good 1 1/2 hours after school has started). I read it immediatley and it said:  "Lou has been marked absent from school.  Please call the school immediately to explain the abscense." WHAT?!!  I saw Buffalo and Lou walk into school together, how in the world could I lose him a second time!!! 
I called the secretary and hear, "oh sorry about that I forgot to switch him to tardy, but he is here and accouted for.  To which I reply "good". "I have already lost him once today and was worried I had done it again."  I think she thought I was kidding because she chuckled. 
I took another minute to breathe deeply and call C to say don't worry I just talked to the school it was a mix up.  WOW.  At the end of the day we (all the parents from Lou's class) got an email from Lou's teacher that said they had testing the next day and it was very important everyone got a good night of sleep because all of the kiddos were a little tired today. I did not reply however I did have a long talk to Lou about staying in his bed because when he hides it really scares mommy.

What a life I live!  Gotta love kids. They sure keep your life exciting.  Must be why C and I kept having them.  Our sweet little Quinnie told one of her friends the other day "don't worry I won't die".  YEAHI love the things they say too.  I can't make this stuff up. 

I got my nails done today, all sparkley for Christmas. Counting down the days until we are together!!!

Love,
Kiki

Reply

Well let me just say that pudding sounds amazing! I am all into sweets these days and that seems healthy right I mean you eat it with fruit ;) I feel like this month has just been such a busy one with having things to do and Little One getting sick every other week it seems like. Last Saturday we found out she had an ear infection and bronchitis. Today she has hives! When I say hives, I mean hives. Not little dots all over but HUGE spots. Poor girl, she is in good spirits though and happy as can be which is great. Other than making sure I am giving her a breathing treatment when I am supposed to and medicine for her ear and now benadryl, life is good. I am about to start another rag quilt. This one is all plaids and mostly browns and reds. Very cabinish. It is for our Bible study leader and I hope she likes it, you would love it but some people may not be as into plaid so a little nervous. I already bought the fabric so nothing I can do now. Starting the cutting tonight! I have 2 weeks to get it done, I need to move fast! You know me and waiting until the last possible second for everything!
Last week I was on snack duty for Bible study and I have to say I made some pretty amazing cookies. I know, you are the recipe queen, but I just couldn't not post this. They are called Compost Cookies and you use sweet and salty treats to go inside. This time mine consisted of chocolate chips, broken thin mints, ruffles chips, and cheezits. Sounds so gross and weird but all together in a cookie it is amazing! You can use whatever you want. I have used goldfish and ritz crackers before and that was yumm-o. You can find the recipe here. I first saw this recipe on Regis and Kelly a few years back and it looked so weird I had to try it. Well now I just love it and it's so fun to try different combinations. The kids would love to help make this! Here are a few pictures I took during the baking process:

The sweet and salty treats

The batter with everything mixed in

The end result!

 You seriously need to make these and let me know what you think. LOVE YOU SISTER!

Inbox

Hi Sista!  I'm having a CA day.  OH man.... we hit a hot streak.  40's and rain over the weekend to wake up to a sunshine filled day (with some crazy wind, thanks NE) high 75.  Oh yeah, it was AMAZING!!!!!  And tomorrow only gets warmer, I can't wait.  Now all I need is a pedicure and some new flips to make my spring transformation!
Things I love lately.... HULU Plus.  Say it with me.. Hallelujah.. it really is amazing.  I am starting to catch up on all my favorite shows.  Brand new babies!!!  Thanks G-man family!  I got my baby fix for almost a whole hour. They just brought home a little baby boy from the hospital yesterday and I got to just snuggle bug with the new bundle. Oh how I miss baby smell.  There is just nothing like it.  While C and G-man (that's been his nickname since C and he were best friends in kindergarten.. yep a LONG time, since we are all turning a the big 3-0 this year) played football with the munchkins outside I sat with his wife and new baby... and then paced with the baby while new mama got some much needed sleep.  Oh how I LOVE BABIES!!!!!!

Okay Okay. I know I am supposed to talk about what I'm cooking up lately, I just am so easily distracted.  I've got a good one for you.  What do kids like the most?  I'll tell you, chocolate.  So I got the best idea.  Make chocolate "fondue", use pudding instead of melted chocolate.  So I whipped up some chocolate pudding and an array of things to dip with.  Strawberries, pineapple, marshmallows and then I thought we need just one more thing, POUND cake.  So I dug through the cabinet and pulled out the 1970s cookbook.  Loaf cake, sounds interesting, few ingredients, perfect.  I got Quinnie Poo right on it (so there was flour flying everywhere, and when I wasn't looking someone was dipping her little tiny 3 yr old fingers into the butter-sugar mixture, when does that not happen).  Here's the recipe.  I have to say the more I bake the more I enjoy my concoctions much more than those ready made buy at your grocery store things.  You should try this recipe, its a keeper.

Little One would absolutely love "dipping" her dessert into pudding.  I couldn't fool the boys with the whole chocolate fondue thing.  Apparently they remember this really cool chocolate fountain thing that Grandma has.. well Buffalo said "umm this looks like pudding" yeah yeah, okay well at least it tasted good right.  Well they had 2nd helpings tonight again.  So it couldn't have been to bad, I thought it tasted delicious.  Totally hit the spot.  Yummo!

Well I'm sleepy and I'm trying to catch up on Revenge (oh how I love you Hulu).  Catch you later.. oh yeah tomorrow should be in the 80s.  YEAH!!!!  Love you mucho!

Reply

Okay, I know I tell you sorry all the time for taking forever to post, but I am sorry. Everyday I think, I need to post and oh I'll just do it later, and then I fall asleep. BOO
Umm so that meal sounded amazing! I wish I could have been there to eat it! What are you doing for Buffalo's birthday? Are you having some fun hoedown hahaha Just kidding. When the opportunity arises I just have to take it ;)
Guess what, I finished the top of my quilt!! Seriously we have to make it when you come out it was beyond simple and since you didn't have to cut too much it went way faster than my other. I could make a ton more of this style, I just love it that much. I hope you do too! I still have to piece the back togeher and then get it quilted but woohoo!
Nothing else much has gone on this week. I need to clean though so I better get off. Love you!

Inbox

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the quilt.  OMG you're amazing!  I know you say it is easy but umm it certainly looks challenging.  I'll wait until July to tackle this when you can help me.

I won't you to know that I have successfully completed a "cleanse".  I didn't know if I could really survive on brown rice and fruit juice but I did it.  1 week down and I feel great, and I am MUCH lighter.  So YEAH.  So to celebrate a job well done my hubby made me dinner.  Your brother-in-law is one GOOD cook.  I think he's been having a craving for awhile and he did some researching and found a recipe that would be close to our favorite Italian restaurant.  There are things we had to give up moving to rural America and Johnny Carinos is one of those things.  Oh how I miss the happy hour specials, the birthday parties, the rustic Italian cuisine.  I came home tonight to one of our favorites.  Italian nachos, fruit and pistachio cesar salad, and sausage stuffed tortellini in an asiago cream sauce.  Topped off with a lovely Shiraz.  When C and I got married I never thought that I would be the one coming home to a homemade gourmet meal.  I always envisioned it the other way around (not that I'm complaining).  I have to say I am one lucky little girl.  Any man who can cook is a keeper in my book (remember that L.Lou Senior and R.Poo and GAC for that matter).

Okay you have to try this dinner it was absolutely delicious, Johnny Carino's.  So this plate doesn't look all that appetizing but it is just because well... I tried to load it up good the first time around so I wouldn't get in trouble for having seconds.. hehee.  Not only did C cook up a delicious meal he didn't stop there.  We finished the meal off with bananas foster and homemade sugar and cinnamon chips.  YUMMO.  Okay so I may have gained everything back that I had lost but holy cow it was tasty.  Guess I'll just be walking at lunch instead of eating.  A small price to pay in my book. Well I better go clean-up the kitchen.
 
Oh yeah did I mention we had a TORNADO watch yesterday.  Oh man I don't know if I am up to living in a place that gets tornadoes in February.  And snow is predicted on Friday.   Crazy weather.
Love you.  Keep up the good work on the quilt.  I can't wait to see the final product.

Reply

Kiki, so the movie was not that good last week. I mean it was good but so depressing for most of it. Fun to get out and be with the girls though. Saturday I watched one of Little One's friends in the morning. We played at the park for 2 hours and then had donuts as a treat afterwards(that sounded really good to me). The rest of the day was spent cleaning out the garage and house. We are going to have a garage sale one of these days and are sorting out what we need and what we don't need. It will be nice have some more room when we get rid of old furniture. Anyways, Sunday was so fun. We went to church and then drove down towards Laguna with the Hs and went on a hike in the canyons. It was an adventure to say the least. The trail was not very stroller friendly, I mean we could barely fit our stroller let alone their double stroller! We finally had to turn around because it went straight up hill and it was so rocky. We stopped and had a picnic lunch and headed back to the car. It was a beautiful day and the views were awesome. I'll send you pictures :) Yesterday it rained nonstop! Today we again went on a walk with the cousins. I found this blog where the mom only writes about fun playgrounds and places to hike in the OC. We tried one of her recommendations and yeah not that great, but the kids still had fun.
NOW I am quilting while Little One sleeps. I am excited about this quilt. If you remember way back when I showed you a picture of my fabrics. Well, I finally started it and Kiki, it is so easy! Way easier than my first quilt. It is a pinwheel quilt. There are tons of patterns online, but this one is a "twister" style and it is from www.country-schoolhouse.com When you come in July we should make this one for you! I think you would love it. Here are some pictures of my progress so far :)

You use a layer cake and just sew them all together in rows

Then you add a border and use this nifty tool to cut the pinwheels

And here is the first finished row!

Isn't it so fun! I am adding another border when my rows are complete :)