Nora's 4th Birthday Slide Show

Well, there were many more photos than this - but these are the best ones that highlight the day. A great time was had by all and even Jackson and the babies got to explore the big jumper after all the Birthday guests had gone home. :) Enjoy!



The slide show will also be saved in the side bar under Nora's photo for a while...

Left to right starting with the kids closest to the table:

Carolyn, Jade, Bowman, Jed with his arm stretched out covering up his brother Eli, Millie directly behind juice box, Hannah, Lora Lee, Nora, Tanner, and John Paul who is not looking ;P

Big people holding kids, from Left to Right:

Diane holding Olivia, Cidny holding Paul Thomas and on the far right, Megan holding Cameron

Oh and I almost forgot to name two others!

Dead center of photo - girl in mint green, Caitlyn and boy beside her holding up balloons, JJ

~bonnie

Wordless Wednesday & Funny Faces

David, Bonnie, Nora, Olivia & Paul Thomas

Yesterday 6/24/08

Yesterday, Nora and I made a cake together. The IceMan guy had just left and Olivia was upstairs napping so I thought it would be a good time to get started. :)

Here's everything we needed to get started:
Nora loves beating the eggs - she says it's her favorite part. Too bad she is not very good at cracking them despite her efforts. It makes her so mad when after the first one, I have to do the rest. I demonstrate... but when it is her turn she just squeezes it in her hand and breaks the shell all to HEdoublehockeysticks! :P We went thru almost a dozen eggs just to get 3 withOUT shells! *sigh*After the eggs, we added the sour cream and once it was smooth added the cake mix... then the doorbell rang... it was Mr. Terminix here for his quarterly treatment. Look who took a BIG ole taste of the cake batter while I was at the door! :PMr. Cliff couldn't believe we cooked the cake in the short time he was here inside the kitchen! Only 14 minutes on high in the microwave! (although next time I'll try just 12 minutes as I think this time it was a little dry - Microwaves vary) After Mr. Cliff was done treating the outside he came in and we offered him the 1st piece while it was still warm! YumO! ;) and can you believe he turned it down!?!?! So we ate it instead!

It was good again after supper last night. David stuck our slices into the microwave for a 30 second warm up and YuuuuumO again! :)

Peanutty Chocolate Cake from Pampered Chef

1 Box Devil's Food Cake Mix
16 ounce Sour Cream
3 Eggs
9 Peanut Butter cups
½ cup Peanut Butter
½ Cup Semi-sweet morsels
2 teaspoon oil
Pampered Chef Stoneware Fluted Pan (non metal)

To grease stoneware, use Crisco shortening. Or you can use oil if you like.

Whisk sour cream and eggs together until smooth then add to cake mix stirring until smooth.

Use large scoop and place 12 scoops of batter into the bottom of stoneware-fluted pan.

Arrange 9 peanut butter cups in a circular pattern over the batter. Top with remaining cake batter. (I used the new LARGE cups and do NOT recommend - I like the original better)

Microwave on high for 11-14 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. The top of will be slightly moist on top near the center.

Remove from microwave and cool at least 10 minutes. Loosen cake from sides of pan and invert onto platter.

Place peanut butter in bowl and microwave for 30 second or until melted. Drizzle over cake.

Place morsels into same bowl, add oil and microwave until melted and smooth. Drizzle over cake and ENJOY!

Edited To add: Yes, we leave town Friday - trust me it will be long gone before then! ;) I think I'll go have a piece right now while I'm thinking about it ;)


~bonnie & Nora

Saturday - What a great Family Day!

On Saturday, 6/21/08, we had Nora Anne's 4th Birthday Party here at home with about 20 of her friends. I have not had time to make a descriptive post yet with all the photos... but wanted to go ahead and share with you this priceless photo of our family! I am so thrilled to capture a true Nora smile - these so rarely show up in photos these days. ;c)

We're counting down the days until we leave on vacation to Kentucky to visit our families. (Only 3 more days as a matter of fact!!!)

We plan to leave Friday after work.... so I better get back to "preparing to pack" aka doing laundry! I hope to share a slide show soon from the party last weekend... maybe tonight after the babies are in bed. ~bonnie

Edited to add: OK, I guess I better make a confession - I'm guilty of backdating! LOL The wordless Wednesday post below was really posted last night sometime after midnight... and I back dated it. :P Those were the only good photos left on the old camera and I wanted to share them... Also I thought Dad and Clara would enjoy seeing the sailor dress :)


David, Bonnie, Nora, Olivia & Paul Thomas

Wordless Wednesday

Here are just a few photos taken one Sunday after church at McDonalds. Nora changed into play clothes but she had a matching Sailor dress like Olivia's. Enjoy!



it's a stinkin shame that the camera cord thingy is in the way!Here's a preview of what a hair cut might look like on Paul Thomas - although we are NOT thinking of cutting off his cute curls ANYTIME soon! :P

David, Bonnie, Nora, Olivia & Paul Thoams

ALERT durring dessert

Tonight while enjoying our Blue Bell ice cream after supper... Nora looked out the kitchen window and made a very loud ALERT!!!!

"LOOK THERE IS A RAINBOW INSIDE OF THAT BIG CLOUD!!! LOOK!! LOOK!!"

"oooough" said Daddy ;) "I've never seen a rainbow inside of a cloud before!" and I of course, scrambled around to find our broken but usable camera then she and I ran outside to get a photo of the rainbow inside of the cloud. :)

I love seeing her excitement as she discovers her world!

I can remember it as if it were last week... riding along in the Monte Carlo with my mother, (between Mr. Doo-dinky's house and the cable company on the way into town as a matter of fact) and seeing a cloud such as the one Nora discovered tonight. My childish observation to my Mother was, "Look Momma, that cloud up there looks like it just got a new light bulb put in it!" :)

Who knows - maybe one day Nora will remember tonight? and I hope she remembers how we were as excited as she was... and that I went outside with her to look at it and even laid down on the driveway to get a photo of it with her in the picture ;P

Love from Texas! ~bonnie

June 4th - The Twins Turned One Year Old

Edited to add - I started on this over two weeks ago... and each time I am working on uploading photos, I get interrupted. (usually PT crying and afterwards I don't come back downstair for the night...) Sorry it has taken me so long to share Birthday photos! I'll also add a slide show on the sidebar.
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Thursday, I held play group at our home. It was a combined play group for the kids to play in the water and swing set outside while the mamma's enjoyed a Pampered Chef catalog show at the same time. :)

Prior to the party, I didn't tell anyone there would also be a Birthday celebration in addition to the Pampered Chef & Play Group - after all the twins do not *need* any gifts.... but following the eating of the PC food - we all sang the Happy Birthday Song and ate Birthday Cake for dessert! :P Look at all of these kids around my kitchen table - and I can think of 6 more kids that were here that day but for one reason or another not in the photo!!! That's 23 kids!!! wow!

My friend Cathi knew about my belated birthday plan, and was involved in the cake making! Didn't she do an EXCELLENT job!!! I was so pleased. I knew she would do a great job, but she exceeded my expectations! Thank You Cathi! :c)It was her idea to make little baby cakes for each twin to play in. Didn't Elmo and Cookie Monster turn out great!?! Cathi is so creative and comes up with the neatest cakes! If you are new to our blog, you should click on this link and take a look at the cake she made for my baby shower a year ago. We keep telling her she should start a home business... OK, first things first - Paul Thomas pulls the plate away and cookie monster comes a tumbling down!
Olivia gets an eye to eye look at her Elmo and then decides to poke his eye! (...so that is what she has been practicing for all this time as she pokes mine and David's eyes all the time??)

Big sister helps out. Nora really thought it was fun to watch the babies make such a mess!

and thanks Melanie for taking photos to capture the moment!! Look I even got to be in a few! (please excuse the no makeup look - Nora & I had swim lessons only a hour before everyone arrived) Here is Paul Thomas getting his hands dirty...

and Olivia takes a taste - look at those *sweet* lips!

not sure if he likes it or not???Olivia has already licked her fingers several times, but is so neat in eating her cake!!! Proof once again - just how opposite they really are!Some were better at mess making than others....PAUL THOMAS! :P

It's hard to tell from the photos but Olivia really did enjoy her cake. She took at least 5-6 small bites of it from my fork.... and stayed nice and clean the whole time.... ...where as brother - wellll.... he didn't eat much of his cake, but wore it instead! :cP

It was fun to watch and we are so happy so many friends could be here to enjoy it too! I'm making a slide show and will post on the side bar of more photos from the Twins' 1st Birthday! Enjoy!



David, Bonnie, Nora, Olivia & Paul Thomas