Ally turned 4!

I can't believe Ally is already four! She can be such a handful sometimes, but overall she is a really good girl who just wants to entertain everyone and make them happy. There are so many things I love about Ally, but here are my top 10:

10) Her curiosity

9) Her genuine love of animals/creatures

8) Her desire to "protect" her family

7) Her desire/ability to make you laugh (even at the risk of getting into trouble)

6) Her smile

5) The sparkle in her beautiful blue eyes

4) The way she says "thingers" instead of fingers

3) The way she cries when someone else is hurt

2) Her sense of humor

1) Her love for her sisters

The moon is out tonight!

Ok, so I was going to write a post about my wonderful weekend with my kids. Matt had to work and we had no particular agenda and spent a lot of time playing on the floor, making a cake, etc etc and the two little ones were amazing angels. You know those moments when you stop to really look at all their features and you can't stop smiling about how cute, and perfect they are???

Well, that was my weekend, then Matt and Britt came home and we went to dinner at Outback, where Ally decided it was appropriate to MOON BRITTNEY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RESTAURANT!! I am talking, full moon, wiggling the thing around! LOL Then, she had a total look of surprise when we had to have a discussion about not showing your butt in public. Like she had no idea that such a thing was wrong.

Crazy kid...I must have lost my mind to think she was anything but TROUBLE!

Swimming

Swimming in the Winter is a great way to get out of the stuffy house and burn off some of the kids' energy. We had a great time and I had to wake them up for dinner! Sorry for the picture of me in my swimming suit...I am far from swim-suit worrthy, but what do you do??

New Traditions

This year we went sledding on Christmas Eve day, and I hope to make it a yearly tradition. We all had a great time (except for Cedar who did not care for it much), and the kids were nice and worn out. It made for an early bedtime so Mr. and Mrs. Clause could work their magic, and hopefully it is something the kids will remember and look forward to each year.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

So, I know I have posted pictures of the girls playing dress-up before, but these were so cute that I couldn't resist. And, we have a little problem at our house with clean-up and I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions.

Ally LOVES to play dress-up. It will entertain her for what seems like hours, but she REFUSES to clean it up. Matt go sick of cleaning it up and she wasn't able to play with them for a month! I felt bad for her and partly responsible for not having an organized place for her to store them in, so I fished them out of the basement after I thought Matt had cooled off. I bought a six drawer organizer and put them in all neat and tidy. I thought for sure she would be ecstatic to have them back and would NEVER leave them about again......WRONG!

It only took two days and although she was playing with them like crazy, she was refusing to pick them up and told Matt "just throw them away, I don't need them". So, Matt literally threw them out in the garbage and I once again had to fish them out (I want to at least save them for Cedar). UUUGH! What am I doing wrong?? How do you reason with or discipline a child who has an "I don't care" attitude?

5-minute salsa

This is my new favorite, EASY recipe. I could eat this stuff all day long and it literally only takes 5 minutes......so fresh and awesome. Let me know what you think.

Ingredients: (I don't follow it exactly...add more or less of what you like and I am lazy so I use the easier versions vs "fresh" but it is still amazing.)

1/2 small onion
1/4 C fresh cilantro
1T lime juice (Iuse the bottled stuff)
1 garlic clove peeled (I use minced garlic)
2T jalepenos (I use the canned diced stuff)
1/4t salt
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes (drained)

Directions:

Put everything except the tomatoes in the food processor and pulse 1minute x5 or until well blended, then add tomatoes and pulse quickly to desired "chunkiness".