Yellow Makes Me Happy

The cure for my picky eater!

My third child challenges me everyday!  Not always in a bad way, she just has a lot of spirit!  Anyway, we have been struggling with her eating habits for a while.  My older two kids will pretty much eat whatever I put infront of them, but this little one wrinkles her nose up at almost everything! 

A month or so ago, we went to a local restaurant called Fujiama.  It's a Benihana kind of a place.  While we were there, they fashioned some kid friendly chopsticks for the kids.  They used a rubber band and a piece of paper at the top... Anyway, that was really interesting for Georgie... She ate EVERY piece of her chicken and a good portion of her rice.  I tried to save those chopsticks for as long as I could... Eventually they gave out!

Well, last Friday while out shopping I found a set of "cheater" chopsticks...  They have worked magic at every meal since I brought them home. 

Evidence... breakfast waffles...

She cleaned her plate! (This was Monday morning... Instead of getting dressed she put on her fairy outfit... she get's to stay home with dad Monday mornings while I take the other 2 to school)

    Charley really like them too!

And of course Sam had to get in on the action...

Success! I'll take any victory!

What is going on here?

Well, I tell you!  I always try to be so prepared this time of year so I can sit back and enjoy... but no matter how much I plan, it never turns out that way!  I get in over my head!  I volunteer for this and that... you know how it is right?  Well, lot's of things have been going on around here.

Charely and I made some awesome almond cupcakes...

 

We have been doing our daily advent activities...  We started with our usual... the count down to Christmas chain with the little poem that says, "I'll hang this chain of green and red in my room above my bed. Each night a chain I'll cut away and soon it will be Christmas Day."

Here is a picture of Charley's letter to Santa.  I helped with the writing, but she wrote her own name...

She really wants that dolly that comes with a potty... It was #1 on the list (gross!).  Georgie wants a Bratz girls doll.  I think she only wants that because we don't allow those in our house.

Yesterday we made milkshakes... My little dude ate his and finished off both of his sister's

Today our advent was to bake cookies.  The girls were busy watching yesterday's advent (Horton Hear's a Who), so it was just Sam and me.  It was my goal to let him do as much as possible in the measuring/mixing.  Hmmm... If you know my boy, he's like a bull in a china shop, aka a little clumsy.  He turned the mixer on full speed before the flour had been encorporated...

 

 

I had to throw my baking powder away because it got sullied up with cocoa powder!  Sam's face was priceless.  The cookies turned out really well in spite of the amount of ingredients that were spewed from the bowl!

I also went to Portland last weekend with my momma, grandma, aunt and my 2 cousins.  Our annual Christmas shopping trip.  It was so much fun.  Zach always get's us a hotel room with his points, and this year he had 2 $100.00 gift certificates for McCormick and Schmick's.  Needless to say we went over that.  We ordered everything our little hearts desired.  And we ate it all too!  Phew! 

We also boosted the ecomony single-handedly...

There are the girls shoving everything into the back of the ole Tahoe! 

There's my momma.  She's wearing my sweater.  She's cute... a little crazy, but cute :)  Gosh are my kids gonna think I'm crazy when they get older?  I probably will be crazy after raising the three of them!  hehe.

Be back soon!  I promise... MERRY CHRISTMAS my peeps!

You are never gonna believe this!

My adventure started out by meeting my mom half way between my house and hers to drop off my kids...

Then, I left for Redmond to meet up with Zach... I made a pit stop at one of my favorite stores The Common Folk Company.

 Not a very good picture... Sorry about the reflection.  Here are a couple of my finds.

Little, vintage 1960's elves...

  and a handpainted one of kind original Santa.

Then I drove over the 520 bridge (yeah I took this picture while I was driving... shame on me!)

Next we got cleaned up and went here...

The EMP (Experience Music Project) in Seattle.  We were there for Zach's 10 year service party for work.  (I think he was the youngest 10 year employee there!)  On the invitation to the party it said there would be a "Renowned, Suprise band from Seattle".  It turned out to be the Presidents of the United States of America.  It was so COOL!

Yeah, that's me in the red coat with my friend Lori (her husband was also a 10 year guy) leaning against the stage while Chris Ballew, the lead singer, was like 2 feet behind us.  Can you believe it?

They sang all the classics (Peaches, Lump, Some Postman).  They came into the odience afterword and talked to people and were so nice.  They sound exactly the same in concert as they do on their CD (everyone got a copy of their greatest hits on the way out the door).  Zach got the guitarist's pick and  one of the drummers drum sticks (both Chris Ballew and the drummer, Jason Finn, autographed it).  It was an amazing night!

Not to be overshadowed by the party, I would like to say congrats to Zach.  Congrats on 10 years my man!  Thanks for all you do for us!

I went up North...

Today my cousin Taylor and I headed up to Seattle.  We went to University Village (I think I've mentioned before that it's my favorite place to shop).  We went to Anthropologie...

 I had to sneak my camera in my purse...  I have a Nikon D40x, so to pull it out on the down-low is a task!

My favorite store...

They have the coolest candy and little Christmas goodies ever!

They always have the cutest window displays... Yum!  I bought some of that mix that's in that big jar.  It had candy corn, little maple walnuts, little corn shaped candies and some pumpkins... 

Then we went to Blue C Sushi for lunch.  We sat in a booth next to a conveyor belt and picked the plates that we wanted as they came by.  It was really interesting.

I'm not a huge sushi fan, but I guess we I must've liked it well enough, because these are our empty plates.  Each color plate is a different price, and when you're done you stack them up and the waitress totals up your bill.  I'm not sure I would go again because I am more of a cheeseburger type of girl, but it was a cool experience!

I'll try to take some pictures of my goodies later...  No school Tuesday!!!