The Cute and The Messy

About a week ago I was making some mini butter tarts. I found the recipe while looking for another recipe. I realized I have not had a butter tart in years and craved them instantly.
I'd never made them before because they are readily available in Canada, but no where to be found in Tennessee.
I was patiently trying to make the little tart shells when Ryan came up behind me and said, "Our kids are like those tarts."
"What, messy?" I retorted. I was slightly annoyed that he was making fun of my first ever batch of butter tarts.
"No," he replied. "They're cute."
"Ah, yes. Thanks." Now I understood what he meant.
Then he added, "Annnnd...you hope they turn out."

Well isn't that the truth! I really do hope they turn out.
The tarts and the kids.

In honor of the butter tart, here is a compilation of the recent cute and messy things about my children.

The Messy

*Keira smearing hand soap all over the commode. Then, in her hair.
*Selina is not a mess, but makes a ton of mess. He favorite thing to do right now is make a lot of picture books out of construction paper, scissors, and crayons.
Scissors + construction paper = confetti everywhere = = non stop vacuuming.
*Keira vs spaghetti = mess
*Keira ripping the wrappers off of crayons add to the confetti mess (say that 5x as fast as you can)
*Keira unloading her dresser drawers 5 millions times a day
*Selina leaving her grilled cheese crusts jammed in the cup holder in the car

The Cute

*Keira playing cars with daddy asking him over and over "Are you serious?" Then Ryan responding, "No, are you serious?" And she says, "No. I not serious. Are you serious?"
*Selina recently saw her first ballerina performance. She now wants to be a ballerina and shows off all her moves. Most of them are awkward but delightfully amusing.
*Selina makes herself and Keira a bowl of cereal or yogurt every morning.
*Watching them put bobbles on the Christmas tree. About 50 are crammed in 1 sq. foot.
*When Keira watches football with daddy she cheers, "Go football game!!"
*I can hear the girls playing downstairs with all of the extra decorations, laughing and giggling. Selina just said to Keira, "We need to decorate so mommy will be proud! Do you understand?" and, "We're celebrating Christmas!"

Well, the countdown for Christmas is on!
With Selina barely believing in Santa, we can't miss anything. The carrots for the reindeer need to washed and ready to go. The cookies for Santa need to be baked and left on the table with a glass of milk. The stockings need to be filled and carefully placed in the girls rooms without waking them up. And not to forget the gifts that are to be wrapped and put under the tree. The tree is only 10 feet away from the kid's rooms and they sleep lightly. Christmas Eve will be like Mission Impossible.

I think I better see what they've done to "decorate" downstairs. Either it's going to be cute or messy or both.

By the way, the butter tarts turned out much better than I had expected :)