Toothless and Veggie Galore!

 Mr. Z lost another tooth, just in time for his birthday! We are notorious for our slow teeth-losing so I am guessing this may be it for awhile:)

He's pretty cute with missing teeth!

We have always loved his baby blue's! We are going to have to divide his birthday celebrations into a couple of days. Ben won't be home tomorrow so I will make Zakkai's special birthday dinner and he will get to open some presents (he has a small pile waiting from his Grandma!) and he very sweetly agreed to having a cake and opening his present from us on Friday night when Ben can be with us. Who can say no to ongoing birthday celebrations!

I figured out the secret to getting everyone to fulfill their vegetable quotas ~ veggie trays! I grabbed one at Sam's Club a few weeks ago on a secretly hopeful whim and was pleasantly surprised to see how much vegetable consumption went on that week! I don't have to cut up lots of vegetables and everyone really loves picking out whichever ones they like and munching. Win win!

Eliana especially loves the veggie tray! She gets upset when I put it away:) She adores sugar snap peas, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and peppers. She would munch on them for an hour if I let her!

I figure $9.98 once a week is a good way to spend some of our grocery money! It's much cheaper to get a bigger tray at Sam's than it is at the grocery store. It does take up a lot of room in the fridge and maybe it would be cheaper to buy them all separately and cut them up but honestly? I don't really care! I am usually so careful about splurging on food items because we have a tight budget to adhere to (which gets tighter each month it seems, with all these growing munchkins!) but this is worth any extra pennies to me.

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The weather has turned beautiful in the past couple of days! Beautiful for winter anyways:) The sun is shining and melting the icicles and snow (never mind the slushy mess) and the warmer air feels so good after so many weeks of frigid temperatures. Who knew 38 could feel like 60 degrees? It gives one hope that life will emerge after the harshness of the winter months.

I feel that way about life in general, not just the weather. Hoping for new life to emerge. It has been a very harsh winter for us, especially the past month, and I am beyond ready for some little green blossoms of hope to sprout. We are so thankful for all of the continued prayers and encouragement we have received from our family and friends. We are even really thankful when people honestly say to us, "I have no idea what to say to you. I don't understand all of this either but I am praying for you."

It's nice to just have people care and be there with you in the tough moments and to not always try to fill the silence of your pain. To just let you be sad for a little while. While I am so thankful for all of our family and friends who have supported and prayed for us, I am especially thankful to my mom, Ben's mom and my Grandma for loving us through all of these years and for being our prayer warriors!

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Anyone else been watching the Olympics? Even though NBC's coverage stinks, I still enjoy being able to turn on the tv in the evenings and have something fun to look forward to. It will be hard to get used to going back to nothing once it ends this weekend! I really enjoyed the ice dancing the other night and watching our couple win the gold. Does anyone else think she looks like Princess Jasmine??

Samuel has loved the snowboarding events and even went to the library and picked out a book about snowboarding. I can't quite picture him doing the half-pipe or snowboarding down a mountain but stranger things have happened!

I am off to pick up my boys from school...

Popeye Kids!

Last week was such a long week for me and some of my days just seemed to drag by. This week is full almost every single day with activities! Eliana and I have been invited out twice this week to visit friends, which will be fun. I do enjoy playing pretend, reading books, watching Sesame Street and strapping and unstrapping Baby Anna into her latest contraption 108 times a day (Okay, maybe not the last one) but adult conversation is awfully nice!

I decided that Mondays would be a good cleaning day for me since it is always a day that E and I are trapped car-less at home. Today along with scrubbing the bathroom and other little tidyings, we pulled out some fall/winter wardrobes. Wow, can it be already? Last week, we were melting in 99 degree weather and this week, we are wearing jackets or sweatshirts to go to school!

Eliana gets such good use out of her wardrobe since she's a little mite. She has definitely grown taller throughout the summer but is still quite comfortable in her 2T clothes. She has a bunch of 3T clothes ready and waiting but winter may be half over before we break those out!

The boys, on the other hand, grow like weeds! Zakkai always has insta-wardrobe from Samuel, which he loves and Samuel hates. Samuel has a very hard time letting go of things and really hates to say goodbye to clothes, especially ones he really liked. That's why I do this sort of thing when they are NOT around! Samuel will need several things to fill in the gaps in his wardrobe, especially after I convince him that it is not a fashion statement to have his wrists and ankles showing all the time:)

I actually got my kids to eat some sautéed spinach tonight! Zakkai loved it and asked for seconds, Eliana sneered at it for a few minutes but ate 3/4 of it and Samuel ate it but pronounced it just "okay." Not bad! I will keep trying!

Maybe, just maybe that healthy, very green spinach will balance out the apple pie we may or may not have eaten for breakfast......:)