One last post...

...Before this baby shows its face! At least thats what I'm hopin'! :) We've been calling Gramma Jo on the phone every day as usual but not with any exciting news like "Hey, pack yer bags cuz baby is on the way". Just the general chatty stuff...

Here's Tay-O talkin' to Gramma Jo.

Well, okay so he's just listening and wiggling all over the place as usual. :)

We ARE ready and waiting over here tho.

I've got the cleaning done (although I'm not sure how much longer that can last),

The baking done

I love my double ovens but when your belly sticks out as far as mine neither the higher one or the lower one is very convenient to reach into and since I'm rather accident prone to begin with I have this to show for all the baking I've been up to lately. Kate asked me yesterday If I could please take it off as its been 5 days since I did it and it currently looks like this.

YUCK!

The canning is done ...at least for now, but more is going to be needing done if this baby don't hurry it up some.

The lawn is mowed!

My sewing is never DONE, but I've gotten all kinds of stuff sewed lately...

Here are a few of the items although none have their buttons on yet simply because this town has only Walmart for their button selection and I didn't find what I wanted. :)

Still needs its elastic in the waist but you get the idea.

Um yeah, this is supposed to be post-maternity and I'm counting on my lose-25-lbs-in-one-day diet to do the trick for making it actually fit me! ;)

This looks a little better.

P.S. Thanks for the buttons mom! They turned out perfect!

Everybody got their haircuts done. Well, except me of course. I'm waiting for my sister which means after the baby comes.

The poor boy got hair in his mouth! :)

In other news, Kate and Tay-O got their trike fixed after much labor with the new B-day tools! ;)

We went to the fair a couple times while it was here and saw the usual stuff:

Pets

The usual farm animals

The not so usual farm animals

(like this furry chicken who cant find its face)

Some wild animals

And some elephants.

Kate was dying to ride an elephant but it was a ridiculous price for a short walk around the pasture and back...

So she settled for the ferris wheel...

and the train ride!

She LOVED them both and while at the top of the ferris wheel looked down on all the rides whirling around and exclaimed exitedly, with eyes shining, " Oh! I would like to ride on all those ones too! That would be SO FUN!"

I just snapped this pic the other day in a spur of the moment snapping session where I plunked them in the rocking chair on the deck in the midst of their daily play and shot some pics, after Mr. Wise Guy was looking for a pic of the 2 kids together to put on his new credit card and we came up blank in our search of any recent and not so recent files.
I LOVE IT! :)

Miss Kate looking very angelic...

...aand more like herself! :)

A decent portrayal of both kids personalities above and below.

and a couple extra I couldn't resist puttin up. :)

And last but not least, Miss Kate preaching from her make-do pulpit. :)

Bakin' N Bakin'

Just thought I'd do a little catchup post from our pre-thanksgiving baking. Felt like a spent 3 days straight in the kitchen...which means...so did Miss Kate. So here goes...

Hmm. Check the consistency.

Looks about right. What else can I add?

How about a fork, a measuring spoon, and a measuring cup.


Yep, every time I turned around she snuck in a few more ingredients. It gets a little more sticky when she puts a napkin or butter wrapper or plastic baggy (or all manner of treasures she finds on the counter) into some wet ingredients. Or maybe she'll take it upon herself to add all the utensil from the utensil canister if left alone long enough. Thankfully she's only just begun doing that trick before I've caught her.


I have noticed her progress in the kitchen since spending so much time baking with me. She has learned, when the stirring begins to get boring, to add ingred. as i just mentioned... and she has also learned that the things she stirs are edible and often taste quite good. Although she has been known to continue tasting tiny pinches of a mixture containing nothing but flour,soda,salt,and wheatbran.


Notice she has 2 beaters. She kept licking one and then the other, back and forth. It was funny to watch her.

Licking these small beaters kept her busy for quite a while.

They were from the filling of these truffles!!!

Mmmm!











Bleah, I'm beginning to feel queasy after all that chocolate...
got any buckets handy mom?














HaHa! Just kidding!!! :)

Okay lets get back to business here...







What is this horrible looking stuff that I have been told to stir?










She began stirring more and more violently, (and the stuff became increasing less appealing) until I finally had to tell her "Whoa there baby, slow down! You are making a big mess!"























(Notice the growing amount of batter spread hither and yon.)
(I also just had the thought that this might make a good post pic next time i have the flu. haha)











Back to the subject at hand... All I got for my attempts to reign in my wild child was this little bit of attitude.




Leave me aloone mom...I'm busy helping you.

PS. These muffins tasted much better than the batter looks. :P

Sorry the spacing and wording is all funky. I didn't have time to figure out how to fix it.

In the Kitchen With Miss Kate

As you all know, Miss Kate loves to stir. She is in her element when she is allowed to stir anything.She also takes her stirring duties very seriously...When fixing the eggs for breakfast she stirs with all diligence.
Until she notices you watching her and smiling to yourself. :)
Then she is just very pleased with herself. She loves to follow me about "helping" me do whatever I'm doing...but most of all she loves to work in the kitchen with me.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, she can be found in the kitchen, on the counter doing whatever I will allow her to. :)While helping mom make tuna sandwiches for lunch...She has found the bread knife.
I promise this isn't as dangerous as it looks, she is just getting a good grip on the knife so she can try her hand at slicing the bread. She's fairly cautious and the knife is fairly dull. (also the glowing toaster oven behind her isn't even hot to the touch yet, and she knows better than to get into the knife set which is also behind her.)

She gives a few attempts at sawing the bread...
Before deciding that stabbing a precut slice would be more suited to her talents.

Lacking the needed coordination with her left hand, she attempts the right hand.

Mission accomplished!!!

...the bread has finally stuck to the end of her knife

And (thankfully) mom is done making lunch now so knife stabbing techniques will be delayed until a future lunchtime.
(P.S. I really don't promote violence in any way, shape, or form...it just appears that way sometimes.) :)

Now it's on to the baking...

She is allowed to dump the dry ingredients together which she does very seriously. She is always very focused when helping in the kitchen until she notices me laughing at her. :DThe she proceeds to stir the dry ingred. until she is needed with something else...or usually until I need the dry ingred. then I console her by letting her turn the mixer on and watching her "stirrings" dissapear into the dough.On this particular day we were making Pumpkin Cookies (soo very good)

So while I continued with the actual baking of them she was allowed to stir the left over pumpkin.

She was stirring happily along...Until she looked over and noticed the other bowl there on the counter beside her, begging her to stir it too.She tried to just ignore it, but it wouldn't go away...So at last she gave in.
(who cares if there was nothing in it but an empty butter box)

I mean, who can resist the opportunity to stir something...

or better yet, two somethings at once....Until her arm got tired. :)

Hope you enjoyed watching as much as she enjoyed stirring,

and have a great rest of your day. :D