S'mores with the Markster

Well, our south beach diet lasted all of one day before we decided to just do a low calorie diet. The south beach is an excellent diet if you do not have kids and a busy schedule.  Lots of planning and preparing goes into it.  We did learn some things from our previous attempts on it and we carry that knowledge on to our low calorie / smaller portion diet.  With this diet, we are still able to have some treats.  I told Larry Denzil, just give yourself the amount you would give our kids.  I forgot, that he and I give our kids different amounts.  I do the small cones with 1 scoop of ice cream or a small piece of cake.  Larry Denzil does the large 3 scoops of ice cream and a huge slice of cake.  He says he does this so there are no leftovers.  So I guess this dieting is a work in progress for him.  Of course he just has 10 pounds to shed versus my unmentionable amount.

On friday, we celebrated the no sales tax holiday by taking our kids back to school shopping.  It was exhausting.  We first hit the 2 Goodwill stores near us. Asheville has 4 or 5 total, but we wanted the ones closest to us.  And I even found 1 really good children's consignment store.  It was a little more pricey, but sold quality name brand clothing and shoes.  Actually I think their shoes were so much better than Goodwill.  Savannah found a $10 pair of Skechers pink sparkly shoes that were barely worn.  After our consignment hopping, we hit Ross and TJ Maxx.  Two retailers selling over stocks and last years fashions.  Things that do not concern my kids.  While consignment shopping, we learned that boys in general must be rough with their clothing because I was unable to find any pants for my boys.  Unlike Savannah, they got all new clothing. Savannah did find some nice surprises consignment shopping other than her pink shoes.  We found a pink shirt with the letter S bedazzled across the front.  She was thrilled.  We also found a Brownie sweater that she can wear at our Brownie meetings.  

A $25.00 find for a mere $2.00.

Hopefully you can tell from these 2 photos, we bought Ruby 

some panties.  She absolutely loves them.  She walked 

around for more than 2 hours without a single

accident.  She loves sitting on the potty.

She hasn't done anything in the

potty, but she is still very 

young.

On saturday, we thought we were going to be ingenious and take the kids to a free airplane museum.  We drove the 30+ miles only to find t

he museum closed.  The website said open, but I guess things happen.  We brought the kiddos home for some good old ultimate fighting.

  They absolutely love this game.

Can you tell Savannah is posing with all her pictures.

She does not always have that BIG smile.

I had to get this picture of Xander.  He stood up the entire time 

he was playing.  He would do these little kicks and jabs.

Of all our kids, he gets the most excited and into 

this video game.

Jacob, you once asked me if I had a favorite.  When it comes to photos, Ethan

is my boy.  The boy will pose with anything.  And he is just so dang cute.

Ethan loves making s'mores.  If you look at my 4th of July post,

you will remember Ethan is the one I could not pull away

from the marshmallows and fire pit.  The pictures

do not show his mallow goatee.

The ground was so dry, Larry Denzil had to continually water around our

little fire pit.  Uncle Ben, we get a lot

 of use out of this gift. You

truly are the greatest Uncle.

On Sunday Morning, we had a nice visitor.  Mark was driving through from a hot concert

in Atlanta.  He was able to go to church with us and have breakfast and lunch.

The kids absolutely love his wacky hand jokes.  Xander is still practicing 

his ear trick.  Many of you guys will remember that Mark is the 

guy chosen to Baptize me back in 1992 by my awesome 

Sister Missionaries Shanklin & Harris.  We have 

been friends ever since.  He was at our 

wedding in 1996 and at each child's

blessing.  He now attends our

kids baptisms.

Here, Mark is tracing Ruby's hand.  This is another tradition he has done with the kids.

On the sippy cup front.  Nothing can replace Ruby's nubby, but I have found one she will drink out of.  Avent makes a really neat sipper that has a flip lid.  Ruby loves flipping this lid.  Her milk consumption has dramatically dropped since the changing of the cup.  I guess this is a good thing with milk prices these days.