Jack plays school.

Just a quick photo shoot this morning -

I have some quick funny stories I wanted to share and document...

Jack - I asked him if he was ready to eat dinner just a few minutes ago. He replied, "No. I'm not hungry yet." I said, "Are you sure? It's already 6:00." His response: "No, it has to be 10:00 ("ten o'clock") when we eat lunch."

Grace - On the way home from day care today, I was talking to Erin because she was fussing. I said, "It's okay. We're almost home, baby doll." Grace piped up, yelling at me, "No, Mommy! Erin not doll! Erin baby!"

Erin - She recently is all about dolling out sweet open-mouthed kisses. All you have to do is pucker up, and she will give out as many kisses as are requested. So sweet!

Videos:

Prayers by Jack Thomas

Questions and Answers

Pictures:

Birthday party at the Clermont FD. 

Friend helping Gracie with her "fire department badge". 

Birthday friend with Jack 

Happy Erin at a pool play date 

Another escaping the bath seat picture

6:50 at our house means RELAX and wind down!

Freshly bathed sisters

irresistible cheeks!

Date Night at PF Changs - so much fun! 

Yesterday, Colin got up at 3:30 to head east for a deep sea fishing trip with his coworkers. As they started off, they learned that the trip was canceled because the waves were too high. He was disappointed, but it turned out to be a fun day. The wives and kids had planned on a group play date while the husbands were gone, so instead we all just joined together at the splash pad. Here are Grace and Haley posing.

Buddies, Emma and Erin chillin' in the stroller.

Mr. Jack getting splashed!

This is the best he could give me when I asked him to stop and smile.

Grace had lots of fun running around and splashing.

Jack, Erin, and Finn

I love water!

Running around and around

Loving the fountains

Grace laughing at me being silly.

Rapunzel

All of their shirts today said "Happy Camper".

Miss Mischief getting into the dog bowls and KNOWING she isn't supposed to!

Jack on Mother's Day

Our tradition on Mother's Day is to have brunch at Disney. Erin LOVED her breakfast! She had eggs, biscuits, Mickey waffles, and potatoes. 

Ready to take mommy out to breakfast! 

I thought this picture was sweet too! 

Cheese! 

Daddy and Gracie. I think I captured a moment here! <3

Mr. Jack waiting patiently for Mickey to make an appearance (he never did). 

Posing with my new running shoes. Love them.

sisters 

mmmmm...grass!

My Mother's Day gift from Gracie.

Grace was on the look out for Mickey during the entire breakfast. She was still and serious the whole time. Poor girl is still petrified of anything in costume. From the time we pulled into the parking lot, she said, "Go back home. Bye bye, Mickey."

Fort Wilderness Lodge

Jack is really into dressing up these days. He is dying for a pair of cowboy boots and a cowboy hat lately. He's been wearing blue warm up pants, a long sleeved red t-shirt (despite the 90+  degree weather), and his brown crocs because he thinks he looks like a cowboy... The outfit he is sporting in this picture is  24 months, and Gracie's is  9 months. He dug them up somewhere for some dressing up. He came running down the hall yelling, "I'm the Purdue man!" 

Okay, our house is nuts! There is no denying that. I can't make this stuff up! I left the kitchen for less than a minute to clean up, and return to Jack doing some gymnastics up our wall. He LITERALLY is climbing the walls! This kid has energy like I've never seen in any kid (and I see a lot of kids!).

Spiderman jammies from Great Grandma McCormick

Happiness out of the bathtub 

She's become Little Miss High Maintenance in the mornings when I'm trying to get ready! 

Gracie eating pizza.

Sister bath time

Grace can escape her crib. For 2 mornings, this is where she chose to get her last few minutes of sleep.  I woke up to the sound of stirring coming from the monitor, flipped the screen on, and saw her cozying up to baby Erin. 

"You can no longer contain me in this silly seat!"

Not a lot is new around here. The school year is winding down quickly. I'm really looking forward to my summer vacation and being at home. Jack is (like I mentioned above) really into imagination, dress up, etc. The other morning he put 2 chairs on their sides in a row and told Grace it was a fire truck. They would ride to the fire (making the siren sounds), get out of the truck, then the chair was moved in an upward position to make the ladder. They would put out the fire, then get back in the truck. He has a big imagination. He still LOVES books, which is great. Dr. Seuss is his current author of choice. The big thing with Gracie is she is finally really starting to talk in sentences and be able to communicate much better. She is also getting her 2 year molars. Colin and I had quite the night last week. Grace was up screaming in pain much of the night from her teeth, Erin was coughing every few seconds, and then Jack was up and petrified when a book came crashing off of his book shelf, waking him out of a deep sleep. It was an eventful and sleepless night! Erin is all over the place, crawling, pulling up, cruising. She laughs and smiles constantly. She is so joyful and such a blessing!! Please scroll down to make a donation toward my Team in Training fundraising goal. Running has been really good lately. I'm 10 lbs. from my pre-Jack weight, which excites me in ways I can't even describe in words, after being HUGE and pregnant. I need to figure out how to upload my iPhone videos. For some reason it doesn't work lately. I have some good ones! I hope everyone has a great week!!

I haven't become much better in the picture-taking department lately...at all. I will post what I have, but it isn't much. My goal is always to be better with that. It seems, lately especially, that things are constantly busy and chaotic! I'm going to make this a quick post, but will hopefully be back tomorrow with a Mother's Day post and pictures! If you are reading, I really appreciate comments. They sort of keep me motivated to write more often! I really want to make this a habit again, as it has been soooo abandoned for the past several months. Also, if you could scroll down to read my Team in Training post, I'd appreciate that too. I guess I'm being bossy tonight! :)

Colin came to eat lunch with me at work one day recently. I was laughing so hard because he brought a container of mini Oreos and decided to put one on each kid's desk. They were pleasantly surprised when they returned from lunch (I never pass out sweets)!

I don't remember what they were watching, but this is a rare occasion! It seems these two have a love/hate relationship. When they are getting along, it is WONDERFUL. But lots of times their main goal is to get under the other's skin! 

I think this was Erin's first visit to the pizza place in Venice that Colin loves. Big girl! She enjoyed eating some shredded cheese from the salad. 

Brief break in running back and forth from water fountain for some love for sister!

Grace enjoying her orange ice cream in Venice.

Jack looooves sticks! He is always on the lookout for a good stick. Grace was in Venice spending time with Grandma, so I took Jack and Erin jogging. We took a break to play in the park along the way.

Grace all dressed up in her new clothes during her sleepover with Grandma. We missed her. This was her first time away, but I'm always happy when the kids get the opportunity for some one-on-one, since it doesn't really happen here. Grace really enjoyed her time there, and I don't believe she got home sick at all. They went out to dinner and lunch, to the beach, to the pool, and played at the condo. She got lots of love and attention from Grandma, Great Grandma, and Great Aunt Janet.

Grace and Great Aunt Janet out to lunch

Happy girl loves her food!

Mike brought Grace home from Venice, and decided, on a whim, to take Jack for a sleepover.  That night I loaded up the girls after bath and jammies, to go for a run. Erin fell asleep immediately, and Grace enjoyed the ride. 

Blue-eyed girl!

Time with Uncle Mike at the Tavares Splash Pad 

I think this was also taken at the Tavares Park with Uncle Mike. Jack loved his time there too! He's asked to go to Uncle Mike's quite a bit since he's been back home.

Happy girl, despite a fever 

I had assumed E was running a fever due to teething for the past few days. Today was day 4 and she also developed congestion, so I took her to the doctor, who put her on antibiotics for tonsilitis. Poor baby girl! She's already feeling better though! She's full of mamamama and dadadada. She can repeat boo and bye-bye too!

She was not a happy camper in the doctor's office this morning. I was super thankful that Colin met me from work to sit with the big kids so I could run her in. She was crying the whole time, feeling miserable. 

I want to share three things that I've tried and loved from Pinterest. I pin dozens of things daily, but it's hard to tell what is good and what isn't without trying it out. I've made several things that I wasn't terribly impressed with the outcome, but these three things, I have LOVED! The two muffin recipes have really helped satisfy my need for sweets, since I gave up all cookies, candy, cake, donuts, ice cream, etc. And the taco seasoning is great because it has significantly less sodium than the store bought taco seasoning packets. Usually I wake up puffy and swollen the morning after we eat tacos for dinner, but I haven't either time we used this.

Healthy Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients

    1 1/4 cups Bananas
    2/3 cup Honey
    3 tbsp Light And Fit Yogurt
    3 tbsp Naturally Sweetened Apple Sauce
    2 large Egg White
    1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
    1 serving
    2 tbsp Whole Wheat Flour
    3/4 cup Oats (Quaker)
    1/2 tsp All Purpose Baking Soda
    1/2 tsp Salt
    1/2 tsp Cinnamon, Ground, 1 Tsp
    1/4 cup Semi-sweet Mini Morsels

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 12 cup muffin pan with cooking spray.

2. Mix first 6 ingredients (wet) together in a medium bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together remaining dry ingredients (except for chocolate chips); add dry ingredients to wet and mix just until blended together (don’t over-mix).

4. Pour batter into prepared muffin tins. Sprinkle top of each batter cup with the mini chocolate chips. Bake 15 to 18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of muffin comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in pan and then remove muffins to a rack to cool completely.

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Homemade Taco Seasoning

Ingredients

• 1 part chili powder
• 1 part ground cumin
• 1 part garlic powder
• 1 part onion powder
• 1/4 – 1/2 part crushed red pepper

Directions

1. Mix all the spices together and store in an airtight container. I store mine in the freezer!
2. Use sparingly. Or liberally!

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Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins
Yield: about 18 muffins
Ingredients:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. applesauce
¾ cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed banana (about 3 bananas)
6 tbsp. creamy peanut butter
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners.  In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Stir together with a fork to blend.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the applesauce, brown sugar, eggs, banana, peanut butter and buttermilk until smooth.  Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix just until incorporated and fully blended.  Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups.  Bake 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pan5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.