Another First Day of School and a New Addition!

Along with zillion’s of parents everywhere, I sent my precious kiddos off to school today. Grades 2 and 4. I still so quickly and easily think of them as being 2 and 4. These days go by so quickly!

Titus is proudly sporting a huge gap in his smile where his two front teeth used to be. He is as silly, active, witty and fun-loving as ever. I love being this little guys mommy!

And this one. My teeny, tiny, itty bitty little girl. Who, apparently, is hardly a little girl anymore. She now boasts a bigger shoe size then her mommy and is growing into an exceptionally stunning young lady.

These two. I simply cannot get enough of these faces! Sometimes I take a step back and ponder how blessed it is to be a mother. What an awesome, incredible job I’ve been blessed with!

And finally, the blessing of being a parent can come in various forms. Let me introduce you to our newest addition, Jade. She is 16 and has been living with us for nearly a month now. We first met her when she was 14 and we were excited to get a chance to interact with her again a few months back.

Jade needs a place stay until she’s ready to graduate and get out on her own. We’re very excited to welcome her into our family. The kids have especially enjoyed having a “big sister” around lately!

Which means tomorrow I’m also sending a kiddo off to high school. That’s just crazy! A good kind of crazy of course!

Newspaper Article

This morning several people let me know they'd seen an article on Leeann in the newspaper. She had an enormous picture on the front page of the food section. 

A little bit later they put the article up online as well... right smack on the most prominent part of the webpage!  

Last week Leeann was interviewed by a reporter from the Democrat Herald Newspaper. She and a photographer came by our house and watched Leeann make the Almond Chocolate Toffee Crunchies that she won a reserved grand champion ribbon for at the Linn County Fair last year.

Leeann was beyond thrilled to be asked to make her toffee for a real life reporter, and she's super excited about getting to be in the paper!

Here's a picture of Leeann and I displaying our reserved grand champion ribbons and baked goods from the fair last year. You can read all about it here. 

She's already been plotting and scheming as to what to make for this year's fair. Honestly... so have I! 

Leeann and I have always had fun baking together in the kitchen and we are definitely looking forward to baking up some more delicious creations this year! Titus has actually really gotten into it as well. His attention span isn't quite as long, but he also enjoys helping me bake. 

Truth be told, as much as they love spending time baking with me though, their favorite part is licking the spoon!

Silly Kids!

I let each of my children have 1/2 hour tonight to be in charge. I explained to them that they make the rules and can do whatever they want. BOTH of them chose to watch a movie! Seriously, I thought I was gearing up for some real kid-inspired fun... I must figure out a way to expand their imaginations!

Whiskers

We play a game at our house called "whiskers". It's along the same vein as giving butterfly kisses or Eskimo kisses, but it's where someone rubs their chin on some else's face or arms and yells, "Whiskers!" It's especially cute when Titus does it because he really thinks he's hurting you (since Daddy's whiskers hurt when you do that). He does it with all his little might!

Anyway, I was just up in Leeann and Titus's rooms with them and I pulled my pant leg up because I felt something funny on my knee. Leeann looked at me with a puzzled expression and inquisitively looked up and said, "Mommy, why are you growing whiskers on your leg?"

Because it's almost winter time my love, it's almost winter!

Funny Girl

"Mommy, can we take the Dave Ramsey video to Disneyland with us?" asked Leeann. Only Buhl children enjoy watching Dave Ramsey for fun!

Kid Quote

I overheard Leeann saying in a conversation to Titus, "I want to be a mom but first I need to learn all the rules in all the houses. THEN I can be a mom. And I need to learn to cook all by myself with any help first." How cute is that?

At Dinner

At dinner tonight Leeann looked up at me and matter-of-factly said, "Dave Ramsey says sell the condo."

Then she went back to her food! We were talking about this with them the other day when we told them we rented out the other house and that we wouldn't be moving back into it for a while. We were talking about needing to sell this one, but for now we need stay here.

Isn't it funny the things they pick up? Perhaps we talk just a little to much about Dave Ramsey these days?!?!

But Mom!

This morning I laid Leeann's clothes out for her. She climbed out of the shower and walked into her room to find a purple long sleeve striped shirt and a purple vest on her floor where I set them out for her.

She came out in the hallway with a confused, dejected look on her face. "But mom, I've already worn those to school before!"

The poor girl has so many clothes (thanks Aunt Shelly and Great Grandma M!) that she didn't realize that she might occassionally wear the same thing more than once a year!

In her defense, she really probably hasn't worn the same thing twice because she still had her summer clothes out for the first month of school and we recently pulled out her winter clothes giving her a whole new set of clothes to choose from.

She wasn't being prissy or snotty, just honestly questioning if she was supposed to wear the same thing twice. Silly girl!