randomness & a craft

We shop at HEB, and Emma gets a balloon each time we go. She usually releases it into the sky when we get home. We had a long conversation about heaven the other night at dinner. She told us that in heaven we would all have wings, and she would have all of her heb balloons too.

We've been dealing with phone technicalities, so I wanted y'all to know....

I finally got a new cell phone, but I don't get a cell phone signal in my house. It's because we have tech shield in the attic. The tech shield kills our cell phone signal. So, we get no missed calls, voice mails, or text messages while in the house. This applies to Rob too. So, if you need to get a hold of us, it's best to call the home phone when we're home and the cell phone when we're not. In case you haven't heard back from us, that could be why.

I also can't continue a cell phone conversation from my car to the house. My call will drop in the garage :) It's delightful. Not to mention that fact that I usually have two kids to unbuckle, one kid to carry in, sippy cups, trash, one ginormous purse, water bottles, and a whole slew of other junk to bring into the house with me. I've tried chatting in the driveway, all the while Emma's in the background going, "Let me out." And, if you know her at all, she know she's persistent. It's pretty much impossible to chat and do the above. In short, when I hit my drive way, my conversation ends.

One more thing about phones....we aren't alerted when we receive a voice mail at home. So, I have to remember to periodically check them. Sounds easy. It's not. Either that or I am just a failure. There have been many times I've found a two week old voice mail on the home phone :) I know my husband sells cell phones for a living, but could we make this any more difficult?

Last phone thing, I promise. We are getting a new home number too.

Rob and Emma had some sort of cough and cold last week. For once, it wasn't me, and as awful as it is, I was thrilled. Rule number one of motherhood should be: You will never be able to crawl into bed sick, ever again.

Everybody thinks Carson is a girl. Even if he's in a baseball outfit.

And news flash, Emma's stuffed Tigg and Giraffe are REAL. On accident, she left home without them today. You would have thought we were at a funeral. Crocodile tears would be putting it mildly. "But, I love them.... & they are my babies.... & I promised them they could go to Chick-fil-a with me.... & they are at home crying right now.... & I miss them very much...." I attempted to convince her that Tigg and Giraffe were at home having a picnic together in the playroom. I even faked a phone conversation with Tigg, where Tigg said he was okay and asked Emma to please stop crying. When I hung up the fake phone, she had one question for me, "Did you talk to Giraffe too?" And, I wonder why I'm exhausted at the end of the day.

Emma has an imaginary friend. Somedays her name in Lena. Other days her name is Sarah. Most of the time, Emma calls her Little Sister. Emma has complete conversations with her, buckles her into the backseat of our car and. and. and. Use your imagination. Emma does.

Okay, so enough randomness. Here's a craft for y'all. It was fun & we already had everything we needed at home.

Salt Dough Ornaments

1 cup salt

2 cups flour

1 cup warm water

Preheat oven to 200. I use my kitchen aid stand mixer and dough hook. Add the salt and flour. Mix well. Then, add the warm water. Mix until doughy. Put some wax paper down on the counter, and sprinkle very lightly with flour. Roll out the dough (a little thicker dough is better than too thin), and use the cookie cutters of your choice. Use a straw to make a hole in the dough~for ribbon later.

Bake them on parchment paper for two hours. Turn the oven off, and let them sit for one additional hour.

If you run out of parchment, like I did, you could bake them straight on the cookie sheet. Mine turned out fine either way.

I did most of the mixing and baking part the day before. Then, left it to Emma to paint.

She just loves a craft.

We used acrylic paint and glitter, and she had a blast.

One batch should be sufficient. It made more ornaments than you can see on the tree. Here's the finished product...

This craft could apply to any holiday...Valentine's, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. I think they would also be cute tied on packages for Christmas.