Pickled Packard Prodigies

 So....this happened!

Some may call it a curse, some a blessing. Either way, Andrew is (hash-tag) #amazing with this sort of thing. 

It is a doughnut not a donut!! 

Can I get an Amen?

This family loves doughnuts. You may be asking, but where are the pictures of everyone loving the doughnuts, Joni? How can we believe you if we have not seen a picture? To you I say, have you ever had a fresh, hot, homemade doughnut? Once these babies were destined for tummy town, I forgot all about the picture taking!

 Since I know you are dying for pictures that do not make you food hungry.....

I shall give you pictures that will make you baby hungry! 

This little dog right here is Bella. Be-a as Emilee (and now all of us) call her. Be-a is Emilee's my size barbie, or so she thinks. Emilee loves to cuddle her, pet/kiss her, and play with her. So many times I find Emilee trying to sneak Be-a into her play closet to do some sort of torturous nonsense. Be-a is always such a good sport. The perfect dog with littles around.  (Now if I only had my big yard back for her to run off all that energy!)

Originally, I wanted to get a cute picture of the girls together. But Emilee HAD to have Be-a in the picture and Penny HAD to have her cup. 

I love these non perfect pictures because, to me, they capture the true essence of my kidlets. 

This picture is so typical of Emilee and Penny. Emilee wants her own space and Penny Lou thinks that is a horrible idea. This week I continually have had to get after Emilee for pushing Penny down. Pennys new thing is to constantly want to walk around while clinging to Emilee in the form of a hug. I thought this was so adorable of Penny. How could my Emilee not love a hug? But then I wised up and remembered my time as a young one. All those times Heidi wanted to wear my clothes and hang out with my friends. I can even imagine allowing her to hang on me like that! Okay Emilee, sometimes a girl has to set boundaries. I get ya! 

(Though I do encourage verbal communication over violence)

I love that my kids love one another. I know I say that every blog post but it is always so true.I was so worried when I had the girls that there would be too much of an age difference for the kids to get along. Thank heavens I was wrong. Jaxson is such a love, so tender and kind. Watching him play Legos with his sisters melts my heart. I appreciate this sweet child of God more than I can ever express. 

Jaxson kept telling me that the worth of his drawer of Legos was $50.00. He knew this because his dad had apparently told him. And to Jaxson, $50.00 might as well be a million. SO who am I to rain on his $50.00 parade? How fancy that I let me kids play with $50.00 Legos. 

One of my favorite things about having children is watching them figure things out for themselves. I love watching their little minds problem solve. Each child is so different in their mannerisms and approach to the same situation. Nature vs Nurture in action! 

These next four pictures are exactly what I am talking about. 

And now for the main event...introducing:

The Pickling Packard Prodigies

The following is documented proof that all three of these littles are direct descendants of their father...one Andrew Don Packard.

I pulled out the jar of pickles to give everyone a snack and they all automatically started asking for the same thing.... 

...pickled garlic!!! 

They ate, and ate, and ate the pickled garlic, even my little Penny. 

Later that night when I recreated this story for Andrew, this was his reply

"Ahhhh man, did they leave any for me?" 

Then he went straight to the fridge to inspect the jar!
-I obviously missed the memo that in this house, we buy the pickles for the garlic!-

Halloweenie

As I sit here typing, this little girl is running around like a woman possessed yelling, "I love sketti, I love sketti."

Her enthusiasm for Ramen Noodels makes me laugh.  

I guess life is about our perception, eh?

Have I mentioned how entertaining my little Penny Lou is? Just the other morning, Emilee decided to pour herself a cup of milk. Why she insists on breaking this rule is beyond me!!?? Anyways, of course Emilee decided to pour the cup of milk over the living room carpet. The milk eventually spilled and as Andrew tells the story, he was not happy. So he turns around to grab a towel, very begrudgingly.  When he returned to the scene of the crime, he found Penny Lou face down, attempting to suck the milk right out of the carpet!! 

Oh Lou Lou! 

You would never know that we actually do feed this child. 

These two miss Buddy while he is at school. I am glad that they have one another. 

Now for the main event....Halloween! 

It is awesome having three kids that are old enough to participate in family activities. 

These kiddos had so much fun getting messy with pumpkin guts. 

Andrew did a great job teaching them the finer points of pumpkin gut removal. 

Penny and her spoon were cracking me up

The final product was awesome.  This is the first time I can remember putting candles in the pumpkins. I loved the effect!

 (Jaxson- left pumpkin Emilee- right pumpkin)

Below is Jaxsons pumpkin. He had me carve a J on the side, just for him. 

Below is Emilees pumpkin that I helped her with. 

She loved giving me letters to carve

Unfortunately, these expensive beauties totally rotten into mushy puddles within four days!! 

What the crap, Safeway???

This year the kids got lucky and had two Halloweens. We participated in trunk or treat and regular Halloween night. This gave Emilee the impression that every night held the possibility of being Halloween. 

Sorry sister! Not happening! 

Jaxson- Blue Ninja

Emilee- Princess Mermaid

Penny Lou- Tinkerbell

How funny is this? Oh Penny.

Emilee loves her "dollie" that my Aunt Angie made for her. Can you see that cute little heart button? 

I will now explain why LouLou did not appear in any Halloween Facebook pictures. Lets just say that before we even started trick or Treating, she was unraveling. 

A regular freak not on a leash, if you will! 

She clearly must have know how tired I was after only four hours of sleep. So she devised a plan to make it so that I could stay home and cuddle with her. She definitely was not just throwing an I hate Tinkerbell tantrum. 

At least that is what I tell myself. 

She and I ended the night reading books and snuggling on the couch. .

 This picture just captures the essence of Emilee. She loves princesses and anything considered makeup. 

Oh Jaxson. He wanted me to point out that this year he was the blue ninja. As opposed to last year when he was the red ninja. 

Such a loving big brother. 

Here is a photo of Penny Lou a few days before when she still thought dressing up was an acceptable form of entertainment. 

America's Next Top Model?

Totes Adorbs

"Totes Adorbs"

Who came up with that? Honestly. I would like to thank them for making me feel like the oldest human being in the world. The moment I had to Google "Totes Adorbs" changed me. With that one search I realized many things- 

#1- I am no longer cool

#2-I am no longer down

#3-I am old ballz

#4- Goats on floats are hilarious

Is it really necessary to make saying "totally adorable" ...faster? 

Basically, I say it to feel 18 again. 

Be Cool. 

Never surrender!!!

Speaking of goats.....how precious are these littles? Watching them pal around is a highlight of my life. Crazy that I have three kids. Or is that...cray cray that I have three kids?? 

I am having way to much fun cracking myself up over this blog post. Apparently, Halloween will need to be a whole separate entity.  

We have had some great little mess making experiments around the house of late. Water, flour and food coloring...how could that not be fun?

I really love watching the girls work together and explore. Emilee is starting to become quite the teacher to Penny Lou. 

 The goop started out as pink. If you didn't know, Emilee lives for the color pink! 

At this moment I was deciding if it was okay for her to eat flour water all in the name of a good photo opportunity. Obviously, you can see where my allegiance falls. You have to admit this is "Totes Adorbs"....right?

I owe a shout out to my mother for this. As kids, my mom always let us make messes and explore. I am sure this helped me to develop my love for science. 

Penny Lou did a great job following Emilees lead. 

                               Just another "Totes Adorbs" activity happening around here!

Andrew made homemade (is that redundant) Playdough. 

How long do you think it lasted before it was all brown and green. 

Jaxson enjoyed making forts for his Lego men. He also noted that blue food coloring turned the play-dough green, not blue. 

Penny wanted to eat and lick all the things...hence her nutty snack. 

Moments like this make me want 800 children! I forget how challenging they can be. 

Emilee, as per the usual, felt the need to hoard all the things. She also wanted to do exactly what she was told not to, feel it to the "goggies." 

Yes!! Exactly!