Family Tree Cake

Swim Lessons

Eli is learning how to swim. I was actually able to barter a cake for some private lessons in my brother's pool a few doors down. Here is Eli on his 4th lessons, this is the big day that he finally went under the water!

SUNGLASSES

Sooo ingenious!

So let me explain what is happening here: Eli is a GENIUS! haha.... I bought a new outdoor porch light at Amvets and brought it home for Kris to install. He kept dropping the screws into the bark and we were having a heck of a time finding them. So our little Eli went into the house, and came back with tissue paper and laid to over the bark and then put some ontop to hold it down from the wind. He told his Daddy this should work, so if you drop the screws they will fall on the tissue paper! And sure enough-Kris dropped another screw and we found it fast! hahaha.... I LOVE how creative my bug is!

Just the 3 of us!

I am THRILLED to have recieved this picture this am from one of my best-friends-Miranda! We rarely get a photo of the 3 of us! LOVE IT! and most of all Eli's face and hair!

PLAY-DOH

Eli and Kris were playing play-doh last night and Eli started putting the play-doh on his face! It was funny!

My Matching Boys

We took Eli to the old Poway Park to ride the train. He had a blast! Here is a pic of my 2 boys-matching :)

Cake Contest-2nd Place:)

Today I entered my 1st cake contest, held at http://www.rozsweetartstudio.com/

I came in 2nd place and am thrilled! Take a peek at my competition, most of these cakes are made from students in cake classes at the studio.

FIRST PLACE-Terry

2nd PLACE-ME

3rd PLACE-MARINA

THIS CAKE COLLAPSED....

Treehouse for contest

I am entering this into a cake contest tomorrow at : http://www.rozsweetartstudio.com/
This cake is a bit over 2 feet tall!

circus/carnival cake

Bird nest baby shower cake

Fairy Castle Cake

Visit with The Woolseys

So how funny is this? The Drurys went to go see one of our best-friends The Woolseys a few weeks ago. Christy had Casey in December:) Anyhow, we happened to wear the same shirt!

Holy first Communion Cake

This is now one of my personal favorites:

Luau Cake

Cheeseburger Cakes

I taught a little class to my nephew Noah and his friend Jacob (and Eli). Here are some pics:

Crawdad's tank

Cute Picture of Eli and Daddy after they just cleaned the "lobsters" tank:

Special Snack Tray

Got this idea from Michele at http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-05-03T00%3A08%3A00-07%3A00

This is a special snack box that we keep in the car for Eli. FUN, GREAT idea!

We planted a garden:

We turned Eli's sand/water table into a garden:

Haircut for Eli today

From this:

To this:
I LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing his forehead and ears! But it only last a few weeks and his hair grows right back out!

Mother's Day Gifts I made this year

Idea from: http://www.notmartha.org/tomake/piesbakedintinyjars/

I made a few more than those pictured, but got the idea here: http://craftstylish.com/item/39212/how-to-recycle-magazines-into-jewelry . This is cute, fun and eye cathing and just as about as "GREEN" as I get!

I made about 10 of these guys...Idea from : http://www.craftstylish.com/item/45744/how-to-turn-a-soda-can-into-a-spring-flower-brooch . I have been wearing them for about a week and have gotten TONS of compliments! I LOVE it.

I cant find the link where I got the idea for these fancy clothespins. Wish I had made more!

Idea from http://foldingtrees.com/2008/08/flower-week-tissue-paper-carnations/

Happy Mommy's Day

I love you Mom. I am thankful for you. I cherish you. I enjoy you. I am thrilled that Eli gets to have you. I am glad we live so close. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

Bread of Life Rescue Mission

Kris and I, along with some of our close friends have been connected and volunteering at a homeless shelter. We have really felt God's calling on our hearts to serve this people group-and we actually really 'like' being there!
I am heading up a silent auction for Bread of Life Rescue Mission in Oceanside( http://bolrescue.org/) on Thursday May 28th.
I am looking for donation of items or services from any and all aspects.
Do you have an item/business/service, etc... that you would be willing to donate in order to help raise money for the shelter? Any items-small or large, storebought or handmade, etc...Let's get creative!
Do you know of anyone that might be interested? Please send this email on :)
100% of the proceeds from the auction will be given to Bread of Life to help with their day to day operations.
And of course any monetary donations would be appreciated as well!

Thanks for helping us and those less fortunate out!
Kris and Jen Drury
760-727-1265

Mohawk

In the middle of our Community Group (bible study) monday night, Eli disappeared into the bathroom for quite awhile. He emerged like this! There was SO MUCH gel in his hair! haha

Earth Day-yesterday

We made this last year, but thought it would fit with Earth day yesterday. We collected boxes for months! Had alot of help from friends and family too! We hot glued all the boxes together to make this amazing house! Once we got tired of it in that room, I took down 2 walls and put it in Eli's bedroom.

Mad Science Cake

This was lots of fun with all these colors:

Thanks PAPA for Eli's stilts

Thanks for making Eli stilts, Papa and thanks to Miranda for apparently teaching Eli that 'practice makes perfect!' hahaha. The stilts were made from my fondant buckets!

Murray's the BEST dog-EVER

We hosted Van's 1st bday party in our backyard and look at this pic I snapped of our friends The Mudds daughter and Murtah. Good boy Mur!

Working on Van's 1st Bday cake

Grilled Cheese anyone?

Gotcha! All edible cake, except toothpick!

All of the sudden Eli is drawing-REAL pictures

Happy 8th bday Murray

I don't remember life without you...

My Knight in shining armor

Kris doesn't believe me, but

I miss these times. We use to spend alot of time singing and playing music with friends. Kris is teaching our Marine buddy Mike to play. Look at Murray right in the middle!

All the sudden Eli is writing

So it's a Monday night, when we have community group and Eli hangs out upstairs by himself. (remember a few weeks ago he cuts his hair up there?) Ok, so he yelled at me to bring him some paper and crayons and a bit later I went up to check on him and was shocked to see this:

Wedding Cupcakes

160 wedding cupcakes with edible crystallized flowers:

Pooh Cake

Second time around for this cake:

Easter Egg Coloring and Gifts

Kris HATES doing this every year and Eli wanted to do it with his Daddy, not me! haha

Here are also some pic of Eli opening his Easter gifts from us and Grandad and Nana.

Easter BBQ

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Then we headed to my brother's house to BBQ and hang out with the family. Eli got a kite from his Mama for Easter and he thought it was AMAZING that he could actually fly it!

Easter

I have been falling behind! And once I get behind, it's hard to start again! So I will backtrack a bit. Here are some pic from our Easter day. We went to sunrise service, held at The Flower Fields in Carlsbad with about 900 people. Enjoy!

Miracles Do Happen

There are alot of emotions going on today as today marks the one year anniversary that one of my best friends Miranda, suffered her AFE (Amniotic Fluid Embolism- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amniotic_fluid_embolism). On one hand I am so excited to celebrate Van's first birthday, however it is so difficult to not go back to that day a year ago.

April 9, 2008 was a day of mourning in the midst of celebration. There was cause for celebration of the arrival of Baby Van, but of course seemingly at the expense of his Mom, Miranda.

The next several days were terrifyingly treacherous as we awaited the news of what Miranda's future was to be, if she had any at all. The pain that I experienced that day was not a selfish pain of possibly losing my best friend, it was a pain for her husband Bryce and her parents Bob and Star. My responsibility was to do the best I could in taking care of Bryce during those awful days. Miranda woke up from her coma and I believe that God breathed his breathe into her body again. I experienced a miracle in front of my face. Her body will of course never be the same, with all sorts of complications, but her mind and spirit were saved. Most women who live have major neurological damage.

When I started typing this I wasn't sure were it was going to go and not sure what else to say except that God still performs miracles and I was a witness to one a year ago today. I am so grateful that he loved Bryce, Miranda and Van so much that he brought her body back to life. I love you 3 so much and will forever be here.

This is a song that I sang over Miranda while in a coma and in my car back and forth to the hospital countless times. I hope it blesses you as much as it brings tears and healing to my heart.

I LOVE freebies on Craigslist

So around 10am yesterday morning I checked the freebies on and found 2 free zoo tickets that expired on 3/31. I scooped them up and we were at the zoo by 11:30am :) Eli and I spent the whole day there and had LOTS of fun! We had one BIG bummer though. I, yes I, broke our digital camera! UGH I was sooo mad... As I was walking and pushing the rental car down one of the trails that is posted: "STEEP TRAIL, NO WHEELCHAIRS AND STROLLERS". Yes I was breaking the rules too! My backpack that was laying ontop of the rental car/stroller slipped off and landed on the floor. My camera was inside and obviously took the brunt of the fall. It is broken, screen is white with a bunch of lines thru it! I can't live without my camera, it goes EVERYWHERE with me and I take tons of pix with it. Guess I better figure out when we can buy another one and start shopping for a good deal! One of Eli's favorite thing at all amusement parks are the machines that smash and imprint pennies, he as you guessed collects those!

My Fireman

One of the things Eli wants to be is a Fireman, here he is practicing Monday afternoon:

Favorite Cream Corn Recipe

This recipe is from a family friend Ann ( )
and is always a favorite! I made this for Kris to take to a potluck/meeting Sunday night. And by the way it taste NOTHING like canned cream corn!

Nasty note left on my car

On Sunday afternoon I ran to Albertsons. I was in and out of there in about 10 minutes. This is what I found on the front window of my car when I returned:


Pretty Wacked out I thought and really doesn't make alot of sense. I was taken off gaurd and was anxious to show Kris when I got home. On my car is my cake business name and phone number, along with a support the troops sticker and a couple church stickers. So the person had to walk around my entire car to see all the stickers in order to come up with who I am. And then to actually take the time to write this out, poor person, full of anger- must be an exhausting way to live.

Practicing writing ELI

Eli is not much for writing... He loves to "air-write" and push buttons on games that are letters to make words, but just not too interested in sitting down and writing on paper. Well a couple nights ago as we were headed to bead I noticed this on our bedroom door! My first thought was 'WOW, that is awesome writing!' and of course my second was 'UH-OH, that is on the door!'. He wrote his name on both doors going into our bedroom. When I asked Eli about it he said he wanted to write his name on them to make sure that nobody takes them, because they belong to him! haha And if you must know, YES it is still there, I can't bring myself to clean them yet :)

Back-Track

I haven't written in awhile so I will backtrack a bit to last weekend.
We had a full day of fun; we visited a preschool, went to an Easter party, lunch out and then went to a Carnival. Here are some fun pic of our day:

UPDATE on Hummingbird Nest

I am having a hard time getting a clear picture, but you get the idea: 2 babies:)

Quilt Cake

I worked on a cake today to donate as a raffle for The Vista Newcomer's Club (my Mom is a member). This one took awhile to figure out the quilt. For those quilters, please don't look too close as I know it isn't correct! On a side note, I would love to learn to quilt one day. Everything is edible on this cake-I hope the ladies enjoy it tomorrow.

Flying indoor kites-with toilet paper!

My Eli is very ingenious! He thinks of all sorts of things to do and play. I very much enjoy how creative he is. Here is what he came up with this morning... He said he was flying kites!

Chick-Fil-A TODAY

Chick-Fil-A is having a good deal today, that's where we will go for dinner:

Fun day on Wednesday

Eli and I went to have lunch with Kris yesterday in Sorrento Valley. On the way home we stopped at Baskin Robbins for a scoop of ice cream. Eli had fun picking out what kind, of course it was based on color! He picked a sherbert that was purple, blue and green-hence the tongue! As I went to pay I was shocked! It was $2.69 PER SCOOP! Holy cow! We wont be going back there anymore.
We then stopped at a little park and fountain by the new Trader Joe's. This is a really nice area, no playground but lots of grass, gazebo, seating and a fountain. There are also lots of roses that are starting to bloom.

We then popped into Trader Joe's to find Joey the dog, so Eli could get a treat. (If you don't know what I am talking about-ask me)
On the way home we stopped at a contruction site to watch the tractors.
We also fulfilled one of Eli's desires to walk thru a car wash! haha. He is fascinated with them!
By the time we got home the ice cream man was driving by. We LOVE our ice cream man, his name is Tito. I am glad that we live in a neighborhood that Eli can experience this simple pleasure. We rarely deny him getting an ice cream even though Tito comes before dinner time and on this particular day Eli had an ice cream!
I love spending my days with you my Eli bug!

A 'tool' I LOVE

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this stuff!
I could get rid of all the foil, wax paper and saran wrap in my pantry for the press n seal! Have you tried this stuff? Go get it and you will be amazed and in ahhh that it actually works and works well. PS> for those of you who know your tags, you will know where I purchased this roll (one of my favorite stores)

For The Love of VITAMINS

Ok, so I have NEVER been able to swallow pills! I know laugh all you want, about this immature problem! When I was recovering from my C-Section with Eli the nurse got me to swallow pain pills with apple sauce and that worked well. So to this day when I need to take a pill I have to use apple sauce! UGH....So my point in the story is that I have never taken vitamins because I couldnt swallow those horse pills and I didn't want to eat half a jar of apple sauce while trying to do so! I have even decided to just eat kids chewable/gummi vitamins for periods of time! Well, we were at Walmart yesterday and lookie here what I found: I am thrilled!

Speaking of Dinner:

Monday night I made my best-friend Sue's meatballs. These are yummy and it is easy to eat too many! We like to serve these with white rice... I got about 35 meatballs with this recipe and I made mine pretty big. Look how 'loved' the recipe card is!

Eli's best-friend David

Eli calls David one of his best-friends. What Eli doesn't know is that we do to!
Here are some pic of us all Monday night after dinner, before Community Group.

OH BOY! Scissors and Eli...

So on Monday night we have our Community Group meet at our house and Eli goes upstairs and plays and watches a movie. We have never had any problems with these scenario, UNTIL this last Monday night! I went up about 2 hours after Eli was up there to check on him and found him on our bed. Ok, I thought this is fine. And then Eli said, " Mommy I got a haircut!" I of course said, " where/when?" he said, "I did it, look!"...UGH I thought to myself I would be taking him to get his hair buzzed Tuesday am. But lucky for Eli he has so much hair that you couldn't really see the damage but you could certainly see the remains of his cut hair. Funny boy! I butchered my hair once or twice when I was a little girl too! I forgot to mention he also cut his shirt!

Need a carpet cleaner? Tim is the guy

We have been using Tim Hall to clean our carpets for about 8 years now. We highly recommend him for his work and for his character. Kris and I have been building a relationship with him over the years and one day might just call him our friend. He is a single Dad and in need of more work in these bad economic times. Need your carpet cleaned, installed or repaired? Call: 760-735-0905 and let him know we sent you his way! He is very affordable and does great work. In the photos below you can see our nice clean carpets and he also patch 2 places for us. Thanks TIM!

My Favorite Cereal

My favorite cereal of all times is Fruity Pebbles. Now I should also mention that my favorite show when I was a kid was The Flinstones. So I am sure my choice of cereal and my choice of show went hand in hand. Anyhow, my little bug loves them too! Which is actually odd as he usually picks healthy/wheaty cereals. Anyhow, here's a pic of breakfast this am:

The things we let our kids do!

We have a rule in our house that says: you CAN ride your bike inside the house!
I know, crazy! What parents let their kids ride their bike INSIDE the house?!?! We do...

New Paints

These are fun new paints Daddy bought Eli at Target yesterday (mainly because they are fairly mess free):

Today's Cake

Yet another Bubble Bath/duckies cake. I think this is one of the most popular designs and a personal favorite of mine!

How STINKIN' Cute Is This?

Kris is a very "touchy-feeling" guy:) When Kris got home from work last night, he asked Eli to give him a big hug and look at this picture I snapped! I LOVE my boys!

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Eli and I made these this afternoon. YUM-O

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup light-brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 (11 1/2 ounce) package milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped

Directions
1 Preheat oven to 400°F.
2 Grease twelve muffin cups, or use liners.
3 In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt.
4 In another bowl, stir together milk, eggs, butter, and vanilla until blended.
5 Make a well in center of dry ingredients.
6 Add milk mixture and stir just to combine.
7 Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
8 Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
9 Now bake for 15-20 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in center of one muffin comes out clean.
10 Remove muffin tin to wire rack.
11 Cool for 5 minutes.
12 Remove from tins to finish cooling.
13 Serve warm or completely cool.
14 These muffins freeze well.

Blackjack-21st bday Cake

Today's creation. I had alot of problems with this cake. It is bulging a bit, one of the cards broke, the sign on top cracked, etc...

Another Cake for Eli

I hade a cake to bake today, therefore Eli wanted to decorate one too! I let him use the scraps and this is what he came up with this time! Green frosting is leftover from crocodile cupcakes.

Snack Time

Little boy wanted to eat his snack like this today, thought it was cute:

Funny Faces

I have a cold and not a bunch of energy today. Eli and I spent lots of time taking funny pic of him and looking at them. Here are a couple:

Counting Coins

My little collector (see a previous post) wanted to count coins this morning to see if he has enough to buy another packet of seeds! Mind you we have collected and planted well over 20 packets of seeds in the last couple months!

What we do with magazines

When we get a great magazine, Eli loves to make it into a book of his own. 'Mama' gave us a bird watching magazine and we made this yesterday!

Pooped Out

Monday night after Community Group 10:15pm

Remember the Hummingbird Nest?

Lookie here at what we found today:

Party Prep

We had Sherri and Brady's bday party today and here are some shots of our prep work and party time. We had a great time all 11 of us together, it was a perfect day!

Garage Sale finds

Ran to a couple garage sales Saturday morning and here is what I came home with! I spent a whopping $8 in total. (Diana R-Curry, I knew you would love the glass drink server and you can borrow it at anytime:)

Starbucks as fertilizer

Did you know that you can get used coffee grounds from Starbucks for your garden?!?! This is a great fertilizer. Eli scattered them around the yard yesterday... The Drury's are going green-well in some small aspects! haha

Flowers from my Love

Eli picked these out of the yard yesterday and brought them to me:) What a sweetie!

Sherri's gift

Today we also celebrated my step-sister, Sherri's bday. I didn't make her a cake this year, however I made this cute box-bag-purse. I got the idea from here:
I LOVE this idea and am anxious to make more!

Crocodile

This cupcake cake was made for my nephew Brady for his 6th bday. We had a fun party at out house today! More posts to follow on our day, etc...

Twins Diaper Bag Cake

I think I am getting tired of this cake design! This is the 5th time I have done this one! I almost cancelled this order, as I wasn't feeling up to par to be creative with a cake with my Dad, Gene being sick, etc... But here is it, I am not thrilled with it, but usually the things that I see, most people never notice!

"Make each day special, it's all you can do."

I don't know where Eli got this but boy is it on a perfect day! This afternoon while I was working on a cake Eli was upstairs singing a song and the words were: "MAKE EACH DAY SPECIAL, ITS ALL YOU CAN DO." You see today we got some great news about my Dad, Gene's diagnosis and overall health! It was a good day and I am sure Eli sensed that we were are, well thrilled about it. So this little song sure fits and I suppose we could all learn from these words. I love you sooo much Eli. Thanks for being encouragement and pulling on my heartstrings without even knowing it!

Many bowls of color

So this am as I was rushing to get showered and ready to take Gene to the Doc. , this is what my Eli was up to!

Typically Eli stays upstairs with me while I shower and I never worry he is into anything... Well not this morning! As I came down to check on him he was SO excited to show me what he had done! As you can see he gathered lots of bowls of water and then added my cake colors(very strong, concentrated and expensive) to the colors, stirred them up and then had a coupld sticks he retrieved from outside and was hitting the filled bowls. I asked him what he was up to and he said he was making music! hahaha. I couldn't help it! Yes he made a mess, yes he shouldn't have used my cake colors, yes he should have stayed upstairs, yes I will have to touch up paint some cabinets, yes I will have to scrub my grout---BUT I was proud of him for thinking up something like this! Later on in the day when Mama came over he put on his apron and starting mixing up all the colors (this activity lasted at least an hour). He know wants to be a chemist!

Mock Key Lime Pie

Here is a weight watchers (3 points per serving) recipe I came across. I have made it 3 times and we really like it! Give it a try, it sure is yummy:)

1 reduced fat graham cracker crust
1 (1/16 ounce) package sugar-free lime gelatin
1/4 cup boiling water
1 (8 ounce) container fat-free whipped topping
2 (6 ounce) key lime pie yogurt

Directions
1 In a large bowl, dissolve gelatin in boiling water.
2 Stir in yogurt with wire whisk.
3 Fold in whipped topping with wooden spoon.
4 Spread in crust.
5 Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Spaghetti Dinner

Taking spaghetti dinner over to my parents house tonight.

RECIPE:
2 lbs ground meat
1 small onion chopped
3-4 garlic cloves minced
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
2 (15 ounce) cans tomato sauce
2 cups water (for a long period of simmering for flavors to meld. If you don't want to simmer it as long, add less)
3 teaspoons basil
2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
1 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4-1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon fresh coarse ground black pepper
1/4 cup red wine
1 lb thin spaghetti
parmesan cheese

Directions
1 In large, heavy stockpot, brown ground meat, breaking up as you stir.
2 Add onions and continue to cook, stirring occasionally until onions are softened.
3 Add garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce and water.
4 Add basil, parsley, brown sugar, salt, crushed red pepper, and black pepper.
5 Stir well and barely bring to a boil.
6 Stir in red wine.
7 Simmer on low, stirring frequently for at least an hour. A longer simmer makes for a better sauce, just be careful not to let it burn!
8 Cook spaghetti according to package directions.
9 Spoon sauce over drained spaghetti noodles and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Cupcakes for the Sickie

I had some leftover cake batter, so Eli made cupcakes this am. Please do NOT take note that we are using store bought frosting! I am so embarrassed, I NEVER use this junk. I usually have leftover buttercream to use but not this week.

Toilet Paper bed

Eli made this beautiful toilet paper design on the bed this am. He told me that he wanted to make the bed pretty, since he was sick and had to be in it all day! Silly boy!

Sickie

My little bug is sick, poor thing. It's worse having your kids sick, than being sick yourself! I say that but I will have to say that Eli has always been a very healthy child. Never been on antibiotics in his 4.5 years of life! Every time he gets sick I think this is the time that he will actually need antibitotics. Well time and time again I take him in and all he has is a cold. I am so thankful but always have a hint of guilt for taking up the Doc's time. So lots of coughs and boogery noses for us this week!

sick face

48 lbs
44 inches tall

Eli and the Doc with his Dr. bag

PS> How do you like Eli's bed head? He says "my feathers are sticking up!"

Blueberry Pie

Here is what I made for community group dessert tonight! Boy was this yummy:)

3/4 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 cups fresh/frozen blueberries
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
1 tablespoon butter

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cinnamon, and sprinkle over blueberries.
Line pie dish with one pie crust. Pour berry mixture into the crust, and dot with butter. Cut remaining pastry into 1/2 - 3/4 inch wide strips, and make lattice top. Crimp and flute edges.
Bake pie on lower shelf of oven for about 50 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

THANK YOU Gramma Rosie! What a treat!

This package came in the perfect timing! Eli is sick with a terrible cough and we are going through some tough times with Gene and his health. Thanks for the goodies in the mail! We love you and want to see you soon!

Glittery Feet

My little bug has been doing alot of crafts with gluesticks and glitter the past couple days. So needless to say there is glitter all over the floor! Well while we were starting the bouncy ball making (see post below), I noticed these cute feetsies:

Bouncy Balls

Eli is a collector. Always has been....I imagine always will be. He first started with collecting balloons when he was under one year of age. He didn't want them blown up, he just wanted to hold them in his hand, or put them in a safe place. Eli has continued this with many objects, none really much more important than another. As a matter of fact I don't think he really cares about with the object is, as much as how many of the item he has and if they are in a safe place. Over the years we have collected rocks, feathers, dice, dominoes, flowers, seed packets, trash, bottles, and on and on and on. In the past I have tried to throw away or hide his collections, but months later Eli remembers them and asks for them.

So for Eli's 4th bday, 'Daddy and Mommy' gave Eli the ultimate collection: bouncy balls and hundreds of them! We placed them in a large clear plastic container for 'safe keeping'. Eli plays with them, but more importantly he admires them in their container! My funny boy.

Today while at Target we picked up a make-your-own-bouncy-ball-kit on clearance (I am going back to buy more kits). It was so easy and a blast and of course Eli is thrilled to have a new bouncy ball, that we made and that can be added to his beloved collection. For now he is holding it and playing with it, but I suspect by bedtime he will be putting with the others!

COPD and Gene

So most of you know that my step-dad Gene has been having health problems this last week and was diagnosed with COPD/Emphysema at the ER last Thursday.

I am not ready to go into detail about it yet and we will know lots more tomorrow when we take him to a pulmonologist. But rest assured I will certain be an advocate for NOT SMOKING!

But what I want to do know is simply share 2 of my very favorite pictures of Gene and I. The pictures show the relationship between us and therefore you can gather what a big impact this is on our families lives. I LOVE YOU, GENE... and will be your primary advocate!

Eat Your Peas

I found 'Eat Your Peas' products at one of my favorite stores called 'Farmers Daughter' (located at Bates Nut Farm. I tuck these little love notes into envelopes to friends. Isn't the name adorable? My favorite note in here is "I CHERISH YOU." How incredibly amazing would it be for your friends to know how much you 'cherish' them!
www.eatyourpeas.com and www.batesnutfarm.biz

Things that happen when "Mommies" aren't home!

Doesn't EVERYBODY (adults) know that you don't put 'Silly Putty' on the carpet! UGH

So last night I had a softball game, therefore Kris was home with Eli.

This morning as I was picking up the house I noticed there was silly putty all over the house. It was on the tv, wood floor, kitchen counter and stuck to the side of one of the fish tanks! I peeled it all off of those hard surfaces and thought to myself, 'man, I sure am glad it wasn't on the carpet.' Lo and behold as I made my way to the carpeted area downstairs I spotted a glob of silly putty! GGGRRRRR. Kris is in big trouble with me when he gets home, hahaha.

Hummingbird

So the last couple days when we go out back there is a hummingbird that just about attacks us! After looking around, now I know why:
We have a potted ficus on our back patio and this mama has made herself a nest in it! We will be on the lookout for what may hatch from the nest!

The American Flag and Mike

The DRURY home always has an American Flag flying. Why? Well I think our reason are always changing. Depending on what it going on in the USA at the time. Do you remember after 9/11 all the flags you saw flying? People had flags EVERYWHERE-even hanging off the back of their cars and trucks.... But what happened? Oh yes I know, we forget. We forget about things that happen in the past and we go on with our day to day life. I am not in any way condoning this behavior as everyone HAS to move forward. However what I am saying is that we should at least continue to show respect. Have we all forgotten about all the soldiers who have given their life for our freedom in the past years? Maybe so... Until our individual families are affected, we forget and move on.

Kris and I have recently made friends with a man named Mike. Mike has served in the Marines for over 10 years and has been to the middle east 3 times for duty. He is more than likely deploying again in the next couple months to head to the most dangerous place-Afghanistan. Mike is married with 2 young daughters. He comes to our home every Monday night, most times he gets fed dinner, does his laundry and attends our Community Group. Mike is the closest person we know who is fighting for our freedom and a VERY high cost. At this time, Mike is the reason we choose to fly a flag in front of our home. All our love, support and prayers go out to our friend Mike, as well as the thousands of soldiers serving. THANK YOU

Have you heard of "Blue Friday?" Think about participating, we do. www.BlueFridays.org

The lenghts I will go to for a good freebie

As most of you know I am always on the lookout for a freebie or a great deal. Most of the items in my house are treasures found in this manner. Well Yesterday I found free wainscoting/bead board. I am envisioning this around parts of our newly painted kitchen cabinet (on the wall of course) as well as in the downstairs bathroom. So Eli and I headed over to pick up the bead board about 15 minutes away. Got there and realized that the pieces were too big to fit into my car and especially with the car seat! UGH... So later on I borrowed Gene's pt cruiser , left Eli with my Mom and Gene and headed back over there (again 15 minutes each way). The boards fit, well kinda, with a good bungee and rope job! But I got them and headed home driving 30 miles per hour (again now more than 15 minute away). now I should also mention that as I was trying to get this whole task accomplished I had a group coming to my home for dinner in 1/2 hour and the casserole was still in the fridge! I was certainly cutting it close. So now I need to measure and figure out exactly where we will put it. I am very excited, this was a good find! Picture of the completed project will follow!

Who said girls can't tie knots!There are 5- 4foot squares and some scrap pieces.

What I did with those apples

So I think finding this recipe may have very well been a mistake! These were wonderful little apple fried bites. I served them to a house full of men last night at Community Group and they gobbled them up. I served with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. These would be great for a large party, I will definitely be making these again!
RECIPE: Apple Wontons
Chop apples into bite size pieces (peel or no peel)
Toss them with a bit of lemon juice to keep from browning
Mix the apples with cinnamon and sugar
Using store bought wonton wrapper, place an apple in each and wet the edges with water and seal them up into little bundles.
Fry in canola oil, drain well
Serve with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream (forgot to take a pic of the finished product)

What to do with these apples?

Any idea out there? I bought them in a bag, instead of individually picking them out. They got soft right away. My mom makes a great apple muffin recipe and I have an apple crisp. They are all gala apples, so more sweet than tart. What would you do? I figured I will make them into a dessert for our community group Monday night. Email me or comment below. HURRY

Small Diaper bag cake

Here is the cake that went out Saturday morning. I have done this cake 3 other times with a couple small changes. The cake flavor was marble and buttercream frosting, covered in fondant.

Paint Chips

So I got this idea from a friends blog: http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/

Eli and I went to home Depot and pick up lots of Disney, Mickey Mouse paint chips.I planned on a couple games with them but once we "faux laminated" them he wanted to keep it big like a poster. This has been lots of fun and I imagine soon I will sneak it away and cut it up, punch holes in them and put a ring on them to take with us places. We have been talking about the colors, the names of the colors, how to spell the colors, etc.. Great free idea! We will think about other ideas and go back and get more soon!