Sleeping Babies

I love my kids. I love playing with them and teaching them new things.
One of my favorite things to do is cook and bake and the kids have
inherited that love from me. Normally I enjoy letting them help me.
I let them take turns pouring the ingredients in the bowl and Possum
will even count ingredients for me such as eggs. This is a good learning
experience for them. But not today!! I was preparing a meal to take to
Granny and Pop (some of our adopted Kentucky grandparents). Granny
has been in the hospital and I knew it would be a help to Pop if I took
them some food. Naturally, the kids wanted to help. Today has not
been a good day for sharing and getting along and so they did not
want to take turns pouring the cake ingredients into the bowl.
Thankfully nap time came!

When I went into their rooms to check on them this is what I saw.
I couldn't resist taking their pictures. They look so peaceful now.
To complete the scene you can imagine Papa Brasseal singing in
the background (Squirrel has listened to Papa's CD while she sleeps
since she was a newborn.). I have told Papa that he is going to have
to record a new CD just for Squirrel.

So now over the sound of Papa's music and the smell of the chicken,
vegetables, and Honey Bun cake cooking I have a few hours of peace.
Thank goodness for sleeping babies!!!

Getting ready for church

Saturday nights and Sunday mornings are busy at our house trying to get everybody ready for Sunday School and church. Squirrel had her toe nails and finger nails painted and her hair put in sponge rollers. She was a very "pretty" girl on Sunday morning!

The Little Hunters

Possum has such an imagination! We ate supper on the back deck last night and all he could do was talk about all of the animals in the back yard that he wanted to shoot. We convinced him to clean his plate and then he could get his gun and go hunting. He ate his food and then he and Barkley started off on their hunt. Possum would shoot the birds, turkeys, deer, and whatever else came up in the yard and Barkley would go and retrieve the kill. We had a great time watching the two of them. If the hunting and fishing tales he tells now are any indication he is going to be a true hunter and fisherman!

Chocolate-the best medicine

The packages are finally ariving! The first one included some chocolate. Possum and Squirrel are just like their mother and know that chocolate makes everything better!!

This morning Possum came to me and said that he wanted banana pudding pancakes. Since he has not wanted anything to eat, I wanted to grant his request and fix what he wanted. The problem was I didn't know what banana pudding pancakes was. I started questioning him and all he could

say was that they had made them on Elmo. I questioned him further by asking him if he wanted a banana pudding (which is a favorite of his and his daddy). He said no. I asked if he wanted pancakes (made from Mama's recipe of course). He said no. He wanted banana pudding pancakes. I

finally figured out that he wanted pancakes with bananas mashed up in them. I quickly mixed them up and started to cook them. I admit that they smelled really tempting and told Possum that I wanted one as well. He quickly reminded

me that I was on a diet and could not have one. A few minutes later Joel called

home to check on us and I was giving him a run down of the morning. I told him

that Possum said that I couldn't have a banana pudding pancake because I was too

fat and on a diet. Possum got really upset looking and said "Mommy, you are not

too fat. You are just on a diet." Anyways, I watched on patiently, praying that

he would eat the pancake. After several minutes pasted the pancake was finally

all in the belly and thankfully it has remained in the belly! Maybe Possum

is coming out of this awful virus.

Banana Budding Pancakes

1 cup Self Rising Flour

1/2 cup Sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon (or more) Vanilla

1 mashed banana

Mix with milk

Cook and serve with Possum's favorite- Blueberry syrup

Home from the hospital!

Possum is home from the hospital and recuperating. He dehydrated and had to be admitted in order to get fluids. We have had a sick little boy on our hands. He is expecting several packages from grandparents and wanted to be out waiting for the delivery man.

I popped a tent up in order for him to lay in the shade and watch for the delivery truck. Hopefully one will come soon!

The Surprise

Meet the newest member of our family- Barkley.

As many of you know we have had dog troubles the past year. We have lost three labs, one of which Joel had for ten years, for various reasons.

The latest accident happened two weeks ago.

This morning Joel decided to surprise the kids with a new puppy. Barkley is nine weeks old and has already made friends with Squirrel, who is our animal lover. He should make a nice playmate for the kids. As you can see they are already enjoying riding him around in their four-wheeler.

The Pretty Flowers

Possum and Squirrel love being outside. They like to talk about how God made

everything. It doesn't matter how many times Possum has seen stars at night

he is always amazed and tells us that God made all of the stars. These pictures

were made in Nashville at Centennial Park. On this occasion, they both wanted

to pick all of the "pretty flowers" that God had made. It was a chore to keep them

out of the well manicured flower gardens. I'm sure they will never be the same after

a possum and squirrel played in them!

We came home from a fun weekend with family to Possum getting sick and

having to go to the ER. It is never fun when a little one gets sick. Thankfully

he is on the mend. This morning he woke up to tell me "My belly don't feel

better. I don't like it when my belly don't feel better." He is as tired of

feeling bad as we are of having him feel bad. He kept telling his daddy last

night that he was all better and that he could wrestle with him now. We

knew better and Joel did not want to take the chance of having a possum

get sick on him.

Squirrel had her 18 month check-up and shots yesterday and so we had

to deal with her not feeling well also. I think she will be fine as well.

We are anxiously waiting for daddy to come home from work with a

big surprise for us. We will reveal the surprise at a later time!!!

Squirrel

Squirrel loves jewelry. She can be such a prissy little girl and then a complete tomboy with her
brother. Aunt Linda sent her a bag of beads and she decided to wear half of them at one time.
She came in the living room and told us that she was "pretty".

Thanks Aunt Linda for the beads!

Weekend with NeNe

What a weekend!
Possum, Squirrel, and myself went to Nashville to the
Opryland Hotel to meet Nene, Papa, Kamryn, MeLeah and Maddie.s
We started the weekend by touring the hotel and going to eat at the
Rainforest Cafe. That was an experience since Possum is scared of
thunderstorms and it storms in the Rainforest every 3o minutes.

On Friday we took the kids to the Parthenon and Centennial Park.
What an impression we made on that place! The kids wanted to pick
all the "pretty flowers" to take home.

Later that day we rode the riverboat through the Opryland Hotel and
played in the room. We had a blast and the weekend went by far too fast.

Thanks NeNe for a fun time!

Fishers of Men-Lake Barkley

My husband and I are very active in a ministry called Fishers of Men.
This weekend we are on the famous Lake Barkley-Kentucky Lakes.
Possum (our 2 1/2-year old boy) decided he was old enough to come to
FOM with us this weekend and stay at the motel. I think he just wanted
some time alone with daddy and mommy without Squirrel (our 1 1/2 year
old girl). Possum said that he would help me with the work at the pre-tourney
meeting if I would buy him some Bug Juice. That's pretty cheap labor!
So far he is having a big time being the "only child". He is patiently waiting to get
to the weigh-in site so he can fish with the worms he dug from mommy's flower
beds before we came. Maybe we will have a picture of a big fish to show later!

Visit our Fishers of Men website at www.fomntt.com

* Easter Baskets from NeNe...