Bunk Buddies

It feels like I have done nothing at all but paint this week.  I have a green dining room... and Kaleb has a yellow and blue room!  Since the beginning of time, Kaleb's favorite colors have been "lellow, bue & white." And then it changed to yellow, blue and white.  He's also a pretty big fan of video games, Super Mario Brothers in particular.

Here are a few pictures of his new and improved room...

Notice the bunk beds.  One clearly Kaiya's... and one Kaleb's.  These beds were separate in each of their rooms, but they have been begging to share a room again.  I let it go for a few weeks of the requests, but then Kaiya ended up sleeping on the floor in his room for a week straight.  Tony and I talked and decided that they will outgrow this desire to share a room within a year or so.  So why not let them enjoy sleeping in the same room while they want to.  And the timing is great, because we have a bunch of family coming for Thanksgiving... so my nephews will have a lovely pink zebra room all to themselves. :)

While I was surprised by the desire to share a room, I am really so delighted.  They have always been such great buddies.  I really hope it stays that way.

Throwback Thursday HBD Rev Billy Graham

Just finished watching The Cross online and thought this would be a fun Throwback Thursday post since today is Rev. Billy Graham's birthday!  Here is a picture of my dad and I with Ruth Graham.  

And here is a picture of my sisters and I backstage at a Billy Graham Crusade in Seattle, Washington.  And that, my friends, is Sandi Patti. This one had to be posted because I loved her...like so much. And I have a boy haircut.  And my eyes are weird.  And why are my sisters edging me out? She was my idol first.  Oh....those adorable little sisters are always stealing the show. 

Seriously, though... That crusade was one of the sweetest things I have ever experienced.  The massive crowd... The "Just As I Am..." The lives changed... 

Happy Birthday Reverand Graham!

Smoothie Inventor

There's this thing about Kaleb.  He wants to be an inventor.  I once asked him why and he said he just thinks it would be so cool to create things to fix people's problems.  Raising an inventor is both a blessing and a curse.  I can only imagine what Benjamin Franklin put his mother through when he was a child. :) 

There's this other thing about Kaleb.  He rocks at making smoothies.  He has watched Tony and I make smoothies often enough that for the past 3 months, he has been making his own smoothie breakfast each morning.  And honestly... he's pretty good at it.  One time he had a friend stay the night and he made smoothies for their breakfast.  His friend went home and told his mom it was the best smoothie he had ever tasted.  She asked me for the recipe. Just had to laugh and tell her it was Kaleb's special recipe.

This morning Kaleb wanted to "invent" (his words) a new smoothie.  He started to tell me the ingredients he wanted to use and I immediately start struggling with that balance of not wasting our food, but also allowing him the opportunity to be creative.  So... I let him do it -- with the one rule -- he would have to drink whatever he made. Whether it tasted good or not.

Here's the first few ingredients:  2 peeled (that took some convincing) clementines, 1 banana, coconut milk, pomegranate seeds and 2 giant scoops of peanut butter. *cringe*

 

Here are the rest of the ingredients: frozen strawberries, frozen blueberries, frozen peas, carrots, and a scoop of protein powder.

As you can tell... he is pretty confident this is going to taste fabulous.

 

Here's the video of his first taste... and a little narrative about the smoothie.

 

And here's the video of Kaiya's first taste.

 

 

While he was drinking it, he was telling me how he should definitely make this smoothie recipe for the police officers.  They would LOVE it, he says.  And he is pretty sure he wouldn't be able to make it fast enough to keep up with their demand.  And then 5 minutes later, when it is all finished, he tells me that he only liked it as much as Kaiya liked it.  Which wasn't that much.

Hyser Halloween 2013

There's no doubt about it.  Kadence Quinn is a sneaky child.  We've caught her several times all closed up in the pantry eating things she isn't supposed to.  It happens at least once a week.  And her response every time is: "What?"  Said in this cute little voice that even has herself convinced she knows nothing of what could be wrong about the situation. 

This year trick-or-treating was no exception...  The kids buckets were getting a bit heavy and so we told them they could dump into the wagon.  We start strolling down the street and all of a sudden I see Kadence grabbing as much candy as she can and stuffing it into her trick-or-treat- bucket.  Here's a picture of her busted!