if josh were a fortune teller:

He would have looked at my palm

and explained to me that even though it had been a wonderful day so far, things were about to take a turn for the worst.

it all started with the rice.

It had been a while since we had our friends the Bobby and Elisha over and I felt like Mexican. I found the most interesting recipe in my Martha Stewart Food magazine, and it all started from there.

Well, the rice lended itself to a whole myriad of other Mexican dishes, like black bean and corn salad, homemade tortillas, and my favorite Chile con carne. And then, while I was at the store yesterday, I saw something in the corner of my eye...

Ohhhhhhhhh! Mexican soda. And they come in such pretty colors. Well, since we were pulling out all the stops I couldn't end there.

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How about pulling out those old birthday decorations Emily?

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But of course Emily! What a wonderful idea that is!

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Well, thank you Emily!

This was the end result. Jeff walked in and thought I had gone a little overboard.

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"Is it the streamers?" I asked.

"It's only a Sunday dinner." He replied.

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They stayed up anyway.

Fun was had by all. Even if it was odd for just an after church affair, everyone indulged me and pretended to have fun.

This was Josh's favorite part. Keeping the baby entertained!

Wanna see something cool?? Click here!

please bless my pantry.

Josh and Ben know how to keep it interesting.

"We want smiley face pancakes! We want smiley face pancakes!"

This is what I was crafting at 5:30 in the am.

I'm surprised I got the silly roly-poly blueberry eyes on straight, because mine were still closed.

And don't even get me started in hulling those strawberries.
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Upon eating one pancake myself, I went back to bed and left the troops to their own devices. (I know! Unsupervised pancake syrup usage, my brain must have been somewhere else.) When I slowly came to my senses, I rushed back into the kitchen, but was pleasantly surprised to find both boys talking about current events and carefully eating their pancakes. Can you believe they consumed 5 pancakes apiece? I made 11 pancakes and the plate was empty! I'm in trouble when these kids hit their teenage years. Don't even get me started on Jeff's stories about eating cereal out of mixing bowls!

food network junkie.

I had to break up the monotony of cleaning the bathrooms, with a little food network. Nothing says afternoon delight better than a good cooking show. Giada De Laurentiis inspired me.

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Then, I vacuumed the carpets. (thrilling.)

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Cleaned some orange silly putty out of one of my drapes. (exciting.)

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Broke up a mini wrestling session between two particular boys I know. (spine tingling.)

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(And) then I got up to a little of this and...
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What? Did you think we could go all day without a perfectly spoiled dinner? What a better way to mess up a freshly cleaned kitchen anyway then with cinnamon straws.

Mission accomplished.

always be prepared.

Wouldn't it be hilarious if I had this printed up into a tee shirt? I should.

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Jeff is so handy sometimes. Not only can he fix things, but he tells the best old boy scout stories around. Like the time when him and his two buddies were almost killed while they were camping by a dumpster that had been knocked over by a bear and came rolling down a mountain and headed straight for their tents? Thank goodness they were inspired to pitch their tents behind some heavy boulders. How boy scout-y.

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or

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The time he was finishing up his Eagle Scout project and some of the kids who volunteered to help were not helping-- so they didn't get to feast on the Little Caesars pizza for lunch like everyone else. Him and his buddies made up a song that was sung to the tune of "Red, Red Wine" but the words were: "Little Caesars Pizza makes me feel so fine, keeps me workin' all of the time." How boy scout-y.

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or

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How 'bout the time when another member of his troop pooped his pants on a long hike and he got stuck sitting next to him in the car on the way home. Did he complain, no! How very boy scout-y. (But it must have done some damage because he still talks about it to this very day.)

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And, he's always offering to tool a leather belt for me. How very Texan that would be. Do you think it would look sexy to have a thick leather belt with "Emily" tooled into the leather on the back. I'm always expecting something like that around Christmas time or Mothers Day.

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I also love his vast knowledge of campfires and knots. This has come in handy a time or two.
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I love my boy scout.

pet rocks and pot pies.

So, we all know that busy hands need to be kept busy, right? Today, I took a whole bunch of random leftover paint, a few rocks and an hour and got some beautiful results. I mean, who has a shortage of rocks?

Ben was so delighted to paint his own pet rock. He was so careful to make each one just perfect.Josh is my little mix-master, constantly trying to come up with new and unusual colors-- but usually only ending with the same result, brown. Today though, he was able to get a rainbow of color on only one swipe of the paintbrush. What an art master!
These are my rocks. Can you tell what they are going to be? Tomorrow I have to pick up some green felt to make tops for my green and red strawberry paperweights. I'm starting Christmas gifts early this year.
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The boys helped out with dinner tonight too, after washing their hands of course. We made my old weeknight standby, pot pies. Forget Marie Callendar, these are so much better-- and just as easy, I made it up one night when I only had 15 minutes and no plan for dinner.

I love to work with puff pastry. It's so fun, and kind of an artsy food medium. I wanted to cut out fun shapes for the top, but I had 2 hungry bellies to feed so into the oven they went. It's like Christmas when you open up the oven and get to peek inside...
See? Gorgeous! (and yummy too.)
let's-clean-out-the-fridge-tonight pot pies
3 small carrots, chopped
1/4 of a small onion, chopped
2 small stalks of celery, chopped
a handful of frozen peas
a handful of frozen corn
1 can of cream of chicken soup
2 chicken breasts, chopped

1 box of puff pastry

Add all the veggies to a saucepan, and cover with water. Simmer for a few minutes until crisp tender. Drain water and stir in soup. Heat and stir. Put into 4 ramekins, mugs, or bowls (oven safe) and top with a square of puff pastry. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Enjoy!

let's not go fly a kite.

It's a sad story.

The windy day inspired Jeff and I to take the kids kite flying.

What a joy it was to pick out a kite. Squealing and cheering could be heard through out the entire store I am sure.

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Well, the wind-- she was a blowin'. As soon as we opened our car door to step outside, she caught a hold of Ben's unlucky Spiderman kite and ripped it right off the string, the kite caught wind and took off way beyond the grassy hills. Jeff went after it and brought it back a bit damaged and torn. We decided against trying to fly Josh's, and instead went for a romp around the park.

Ben wanted to get in on the picture taking action. These next shots demonstrate exactly how windy it was today.

I hate when the wind gives you a constant hair mask. Gorgeous!
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Jeff and Josh played tag the whole time, and would not pose for pictures. I was just lucky enough to get this one shot.

Mmmmmmuffins.

Get started on tomorrows breakfast a tad bit early (like today) and make some muffins.

bodacious blueberry muffins

1 and 3/4 C flour

1/3 C sugar

2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1 beaten egg

3/4 C milk

1/4 C cooking oil

1 C blueberries

Mix together all dry ingredients. In a separate bowl mix together beaten egg, milk, and oil. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just moistened. Fold in blueberries. Place in prepared muffin pan. Bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until tops are golden brown.

early morning church and candy.

Our Easter Sunday started early, we were wrestling the boys into their monkey suits at 7:30 am. Luckily, they were energized from the sugar rush of finding their Easter baskets earlier that morning. Though, we were still suffering from the puffy eyes. Candy does not help the puffy eyes. We need some cold cucumber slices.
Ben's got a nice buzz from those 20 peeps he downed before breakfast. Work it Ben!
One of my favorite Easter delights, coloring eggs. I try to keep it as controlled as possible, yet somehow the blue dye ended up getting spilled anyway. Boys!

Happy Easter 2008!

little bunny foo-foo.

I admit it. I kind of hate photo studios. Especially ones that use those goofy backgrounds. It is for this reason that I decided to take the boys spring photos this year.

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First we started out at an old pecan grove. I thought this was a great idea. I soon realized that we would have to walk through some twiggy terrain to get to the trees. Ben was just not having it. He's throwing a mini tantrum/whine session while I shot this photo. But look how serene it looks.

You'd never know. I work with it.

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Josh on the other hand was up to his old tricks. When I said "smile big!" this is what he gave me.

I had to round up the troops and give them a pep talk. I did manage to grab a few shots that were pleasant. I don't take credit at all for this feat. This was all because of a promised trip to the old fashioned Soda Fountain.

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Smiles please! Smiles everyone!

Ben is a sucker for ice cream. So much so that he sucked it in for at least 8 seconds.

Well, the brambles even got to me after a while and so we took off for our downtown. I just kept chanting "ice cream" and they kept workin' it for the camera.

Sadly, (brace yourselves) when we arrived at the soda fountian, it was closed for remodeling.

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I had to think fast.

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Of course, second best. A trip out to Sonic... but while we walk back to the car we might as well take advantage of our surroundings. (wink, wink.)

How avant garde' can you be Josh?

Will you go stand by that wall for me? How about for an extra scoop of ice cream? 'Atta boy.

About this time, things were getting sketchy. Come on, only one more block to go. *Here, sit on this chair for a minute.
*Here, rest by this door.
*Here, pretend you're a cowboy... (in Mayberry). Give me a cowboy face.


Sadly, my time limit had an end. Off to Sonic.

We celebrated a job well done with chocolate malts all around.