Melarky

H.R.T. will be 5 months this week. He’s a super easy baby and sleeps pretty well through the night. He likes his rice cereal better these days and will soon try sweet potatoes. I think he still looks like his older brother did, but he does have his moments of Hilliness. Yes, we call him all sorts of nicknames; Hilly, Hillford, Hillington, Mr. Hilyard and yes, even Hilly Billy, but mostly just cause it rhymes (I think I’m the only one calls him that).

He’s a happy baby, smiling all the time. Yes, he does cry but ONLY when he’s hungry or around 10p.m. if he’s not in bed and nursing. He’s starting to hate his car seat (just like his brother did). And he hates laying down.

Hilyard loves his older brother! The other day while older brother was practicing sitting on the potty, Hilyard laughed whole heartily at him with big belly laughs while Welly was laughing at him. And it when on like that for a while, the two boys just laughing at each other.

I knew I would love my second baby as much as I loved my first, and it was just as instant. Love at first sight. Hilyard is such a special baby with yes, a special spirit, I know kinda cheesy to say.. I guess Mom’s can just tell. Now that he is here and with our family, I can’t imagine life without him.

“THE LUNCH LADY” serving up a helping of pain with a side of humiliation!!!!! No, that’s NOT a new WWF character about to flip a table over, that would be me dressed like a lunch lady.

Why? Well, not wanting to be left out of the back to school fun, my sister Barb and I threw a BACK TO SCHOOL PARTY!!!! Our husbands, a nephew, Barb’s brother-in-law and my Welly were all starting school this week so we wanted to give them a little fun before all the work started.

School started at 6:00 p.m. sharp! We served a school lunch dinner on REAL lunch trays. The menu included items which I consider to be the epitome of all school lunches. Cartons of milk, french dip sandwiches, fruit cup, your choice of mixed veggies or carrot sticks, apple slices, tater tots, and your choice of peanut butter bars or school bus cupcakes (Barb you did a awesome job on those cakes). I stood behind the table and had “the students” go down the line and get served by me, THE LUNCH LADY.

After lunch we had a quiz. They were all questions similar to the ones on that show, “Are you smarter than a 5th grader?”. If you got the most correct you got a bag of doughnuts (I probably would have gotten better grades in school if teachers used this reward system).

Congrats Ryan and his brother Jordan for tying!

Make sure to check out the other pictures, cause well, I did my best to dress up like a teacher too! Oh, yeah, that was hot! And the whole dressing up like a lunch lady thing, well I couldn’t tell if Mark was repelled by this look or attracted to it? Just teasing you Mark.

And P.S. I didn’t get pics of everyone. Hopefully Barb will post some. My Mom and Dad, sis Carrie, niece and nephew Dianna and Jeff, Barb and her family were there as well as her brother-in-law.

And another P.S., my sister Barb also made a post about this party, unfortunately she DID post that picture of my legs.

Mark and I both agree we would have rather gotten into an acciedent than have to use our truck horn.

That horn is about the sissiest, lamest, mousiest sounding horn you’ve ever heard on a truck. It sounded more like it belonged to that Pier 49 car that’s drivin’ around Logan than on a truck. It was embarrassing!

Well we found this horn kit at Harbor Freight to see if it would improve the sissiness or totally eliminate it!

How do you think it sounds now?

P.S. Thanks for installing it Gary, now we don’t have to be so embarrassed when we have to honk. And we bought something similar to this horn.

Living in a condo takes a bit of creative thinking. Under 2,000 sq. feet, 6 years of stuff, and four occupants means a heck of a lot of stuff to fit in one heck of a small space.

When we were expecting our second child, I was more worried about how I was going to fit a second kid and all his stuff in the condo then I was to actually have another kid. After some purging and crafty organizing (if I don’t say so myself), we finally fit kid #2 into the room.

Here are some things I did while trying to organize our BLACKHAWK CONDO, but even if you don’t live in the Blackhawk condo’s you can still utilize these ideas:

I was really worried about where I would find space for all those clothes. Not only did Welly already have a lot of clothes but a new baby meant onsies, rompers, layettes, pajamas, pants, shirts, birp cloths, and….ugh, you get the idea. I only have one dresser for the two boys, so that meant most of it had to go in the closet. I installed a second pole in the closet low enough for Welly to easily reach his clothes himself. It has worked out, although I’m sure someone else could have done a better job of installation than me.

It was fairly easy, I went to Lowe’s and asked for help on what I needed. It was fairly inexpensive and easy to install. You had to drill some holes, do some measuring, not too bad, even a girl could do it (yah girl power!!!! or something like that). It’s sturdy enough for all those clothes but I’m sure it wouldn’t turn out well if the kids were hanging off of it. I was glad I put the second pole in because when I say “Welly, go get a shirt.” he can do it.

The girls in my playgroup are having a bakesale. They are participating in THE GREAT AMERICAN BAKESALE and the proceeds go to a national organization: Share Our Strength that is helping to fight childhood hunger in America. 100% of the money goes to help children in our own country.

It’s right in front of Watkin’s Printing, conveniently located by the new Walmart, Macey’s and heck, right down the road from Westhost! So go stuff your face with yummy treats (you know you want to) and help a good cause.

And while I was searching for a tasty looking cookie picture for this post I ran across a awesome site…that shows you how to make cookies like this….

and this…..

and it’s called SNACK OR DIE-Video Game Cookies, how cool is that??? And I’m sure if you make those for your video game obsessed husband your sure to get some sugar yourself (Melanie, shocking!)!!!!!

P.S.
Sadly those cookies wont be at the sale, as far as I know they wont, but still go get something anyway.

Here are some pictures of a carnival we went to this past week. There were 5 kids in our ward all turning 4 this month, so their Moms planned an awesome joint birthday party, inviting about 60 kids to celebrate with them. They went all out on the carnival theme totally impressing me with their mad party planning skills.

When you first arrived you got a bag with your name on it. It had tickets and a nickel in it. Each activity or booth cost one ticket and the nickel was for the carousel ride. There was face painting, balloon animals, fishing (for party favors), treasure hunting (for even more party favors), a bounce house, a ring toss, carousel rides, a cake walk, and a ride in a trailer hooked up to an ATV. You were given enough tickets to do everything plus some.

Click image to make it bigger.

Wellington’s favorite was the ride around the parking lot and grass. He probably went a good six times, even when he ran out of tickets he still went. He also really loved his cotton candy. I was amazed at all the food they had for everyone, keep in mind their were 60+ kids there AND their parents. They had REAL cotton candy, popcorn, frozen lemonade, watermelon, and other delectables, including a beautiful decorated cake for the birthday kids.

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We had a great time at the fair this year. Welly was older so he enjoyed the rides more. We had a good time eating, duh, it’s us! We saw some friends and family there, which made it a lot funner.

And I got an awesome picture of Mark and his BFF Clint.

Thanks for posing Clint!

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While feeding the baby rice cereal, older brother decides he wants some too. Great! I’m ready for a funny reaction. So I eat a little showing him, “Mommy likes it too” (which I do, growing up rice cereal with a little sugar was a treat for us).

Now older brother REALLY, REALLY wants some. Immediately after the first taste hits his taste buds, up comes dinner, dessert, slushie and well, you get the idea. After scrubbing the couch and floor I decided that wasn’t such a funny joke after all….

Whenever I get a chance, I try and take pictures. I’d love to take a class someday, but for now, practice will do. Any suggestions on something I could improve on? Bridge, Nicole (if you read this blog), Amanda? Carrie you took a photography class didn’t you? Or anyone else who would care to make a suggestion?? Even just one tip would help!

And yes, I photoshopped the crap out of these…

It’s never happened in the history of our marriage. But this week it finally happened. I made dinner every night! Sure I’ve been close, but we’ll always go out to eat one day or go to the in-laws the next, not that there is anything wrong with that (Mammy please don’t stop inviting us over).

Instead of eating in front of the TV like we usually do, we sat around a table that my two year old and I set. We even put on a table cloth! The dinners were planned out and even included vegetables. I’m not always great at making dinners well-balanced, but I really tried this week.

It was really nice to be able to sit around the table and have my husband sit across from me with our babies around us. It was fulfilling to make something nice for my family. And as a bonus I think Wellington might learn some table manners.

What we had this week:
Meatloaf, potatoes, gravy, Rhodes rolls, broccoli, juice.
French toast, eggs, hash browns, sausage, juice.
Kielbasa and mashed potatoes, gravy, cheese garlic biscuits, corn and juice.
Turkey Steaks, rice, chicken gravy, cheese garlic biscuits, peas, Brazilian lime aid, cookies.
Hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, and smoothies.

Mark told me he was appreciative of all the hard work and he’ll be happy to hear talk like that makes me want to do it even more.

Family Dinner Statistics from Time:

• Those who eat together three or fewer times a week, 45% say the TV is on during meals (as opposed to 37% of all households), and nearly one-third say there isn’t much conversation.
• Kids who eat most often with their parents are 40% more likely to say they get mainly A’s and B’s in school than kids who have two or fewer family dinners a week.
• The number of adolescents eating with their family most nights has increased 23% since 1998.

Links:
What’s for dinner?
The Recipe Club.
Table manners for kids.
Freeze Happy

Handy Dandy Recipe:
We’ve made this two or three times now and it works great. It’s perfect because you can make a big batch and put some on your counter, in the fridge and the freezer. It’s cheaper than the store bought mix and we think tastes better. We’ve used it in the cheese garlic biscuit recipe I just recently posted.

Better Than Bisquick Mix
4-½ cups flour
1-½ teaspoons baking powder
1-⅓ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup of powdered milk
1-⅛ cup Crisco shortening

Cut all this together with pastry cutter until it resembles corn meal. Mix thoroughly. Makes about 6-½ cups baking mix. Put in an air tight container. Keeps about 10-12 weeks. Will keep longer in fridge or freezer.