Decorating cookies

Lately life seems to be so jammed packed with things to do. We wake up at 6:30 and Taneal and Camie catch the bus at 7:30. Then reading lessons with Danielle, meals cooked, kitchen cleaned, soccer practice three nights a week, homework and then bed. We needed to break the schedule and have a little fun. So, I decided to make homemade sugar cookies and let the kids decorate them. Wow, right? In a lot of families this is probably a weekly occurrence. Well, it can be pretty messy with four children and greasy frosting(Nathan isn't too involved yet). And, being the only adult referee, messes don't get cleaned up as easy and quickly, so we avoid messy projects. But, sometimes the messiness of a project needs to be overlooked and just have fun. so, I let the kids use the cookie-cutters and cut out the dough, I colored the frosting, put it into decorating bags, and let the kids have at it. it was so much fun and they loved it!

I should relax and do things like this more often.

Angels Among Us

I really believe Heavenly Father watches over us and answers our prayers. Many times He uses people around us as His instruments. When I first had Nathan, my prayers were answered by the meals friends brought over, by the kind deeds people did, and by the thoughtfulness of those around me. And He extends His love and help to us even in ways that we haven't asked.

Evan has been gone for nearly three months for training with his new job. We are so grateful for this job, he was unemployed for eight months before. He left a week before Nathan was born. He was able to come home for a few days during the birth and for a few days after the Hurricane. I traveled to my parent's house and was able to see him for one day where we blessed Nathan. It has been hard having Evan gone because I miss him so much. It has also been hard having five children, one being a newborn, and all eight and under, all by myself. I guess I shouldn't say "all by myself" because that isn't true at all. My mom came and helped out before Nathan was born while I was on bed rest. My mother-in-law came for two weeks right after Nathan was born. My nephews have been doing my lawn. I have wonderful friends that have been such a blessing and help. I have not done it all on my own. Heavenly Father has been watching over me and giving me help when I have needed it, even at times when i didn't ask.

I like to call those whom Heavenly Father sends to help, angels. There are angels all around us. Many of those angels are right here in my home. Taneal is such a great helper to me. She helps in ways that an eight-year-old can help. She is able to get the kiddos cereal (which has sometimes been for supper), can warm up chicken nuggets, can put shoes on the little ones, can help with some of the cleaning, and can do little things that make such a big difference.

Camie has been wonderful with Nathan. She loves babies and is so good with them. She is always asking me to hold Nathan, I rarely have to ask her for help because she is already helping.

And last night my angel surprised me. Taneal was busy preparing a Family Home Evening lesson. I was trying to get supper cooked. Nathan was very fussy and had been so all afternoon. Camie tried to help with him but he still wouldn't stop crying. I couldn't get him to sleep or even comfort him, hard as I tried. I finally put him on the couch and let him cry because I had to get supper finished. My sweet Danielle, who is barely four, found Nathan's binkie and laid on the couch with him holding the binkie in his mouth so it wouldn't fall out. She probably spent a half hour on the couch with him until she finally fell asleep with her hand still holding the binkie in his mouth. She was my angel that night and I am so thankful for her and for my loving Father in Heaven who used her to help me when I really needed it. I took a picture because I want to remember this moment and how I really felt the love of our Father in Heaven.

My true boy

What do all these things have in common?

My little Spencer has turned them all into guns! And where did he learn this?

Yesterday he started shooting me with a dime!

Got Milk?

Bran Muffin Recipe

When Nathan was born, several meals were brought to my home. I was so appreciative. The food was so good and it was so nice to not have to worry about preparing dinner. One of the ladies in my ward brought muffin mix over for breakfast. She had it already mixed up, just needed put in the muffin tin and baked. Pretty cool. And, on the lid she had a note that gave the instructions that also said the dough could be stored in the fridge for up to 3 MONTHS! Wow! Well, I cooked up the muffins and they were so good. My children loved them. So, I finally got my hands on this recipe and thought I would share it. It does make a large batch, but not to worry, it lasts in the fridge for 3 months.

Bran Muffins

Combine and let stand:

2 Cups boiling water

2 cups Kellogg's All Bran

Cream in a large bowl:

1 Cup Shortening

3 C Sugar

4 eggs

In another bowl combine:

5 Cups flour

5 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp salt

4 Cups Kellogg's All Bran

1 qt buttermilk (wait to combine this)

To shortening mixture fold in 1 qt buttermilk and the dry mixture alternating the two. After that is all combined, add the first mixture and stir completely. Be careful, if that mixture is still hot you may need to add a little at a time to keep the batter from curdling.

Store in an airtight container(s) and will keep in fridge up to 3 months.

Fill muffin tins/cups 1/2 full and bake at 400 degrees 15-20 minutes.

Spencer singing

Spencer has always loved to sing. i remember at his 1st birthday, after everyone had sung happy birthday to him, he started to sing it. He could hardly talk, so to hear the little guy carrying somewhat of a tune mixed with sounds remotely close to "happy birthday" was pretty impressive. He sings all throughout the day. This is a video of him singing "I am a Child of God", one of the songs he sings a lot.

Nathan loves his bath

So this little boy can be screaming, arching his back, and just plain grumpy. As soon as you lay him on the bath mat and start the water, he starts grinning. As he is getting undressed, he is happy. As soon as he touches the water, his breath catches for a moment, and then the legs and arms start splashing. For being 9 weeks, that is a lot of emotion. It is so fun to give him a bath because he smiles more during his bath then any other time. Click on the triangle to watch the video.

3 week pictures

There is an amazing photographer in my ward who took pictures of Nathan. I am so excited to share them.

A trip to the mall

I decided it was time to take Danielle and Spencer somewhere fun and cheep. There is a great mall here in the area that has a carousel and also a soft play area that is so much fun for the kids to play in. I needed to do a little shopping, so I thought the combination would be fun. Danielle and Spencer had a lot of fun and Nathan slept the whole time!

Danielle was so excited to ride the zebra on the carousel. Spencer was excited until I tried to put him on his horse. I had to have help from the attendant because I was holding Nathan and Spencer refused to get on. Of course once the carousel started and he realized this was fun, he enjoyed the ride.

Texas Fire Ants

Anybody that has lived in Texas or has visited Texas and walked through the grass knows just what I am talking about when I mention Texas fire ants. What a horrible insect to invade this earth! They are everywhere and mean. They swarm. I swear they climb onto you very quietly and once they are all on you, they signal to all their friends, 1,2,3 BITE!!!!! And their bite is what gives them their name. And, once they bite, they leave you with a mark that itches for a week.

While at my parent's house this last weekend, me dear Spencer, managed to sit in a pile of ants. He started screaming but remained sitting in the pile of ants. Camie came running and moved him while Evan took off all his clothes and brushed the ants off. My dad was grabbing the hose ready to spray Spencer down. Afterwards, Spencer kept telling us he had "fire" on him. I doubt he will repeat the same mistake again.

These pictures do not give Spencer justice. He was bit probably about 50 times. He had them up his legs, around his waste, and on his neck. The bites swelled. We put Cortizone cream and Calamine lotion on him, and one of those or the combination stopped the swelling. These bites are a few days old. Poor little boy. It's too bad he had to figure out Texas fire ants the hard way. Danielle did the same thing when she was about his age.

One of my friends was puling weeds and got a few bites on her hand. He whole hand is swollen. These ants are just mean!

Blurb Slurped my Blog

I love to say that title. Blurb is a company that prints books. I had them "slurp" my blog. I then edited the 450 pages down to 200 pages. It took a lot of time, but it was exciting thinking that all this journaling that I have been doing and the scrapbooking that I have NOT been doing will be put into a book. The guilt overload went away. And, UPS brought it to my doorstep today. I like the results, but the books seems too expensive and fragile to let my smaller kids thumb through. So, maybe I should save a little of the guilt in not scrapbooking, because at least with scrapbooks they have page protectors around them and little hands can't hurt them as easy.

I guess this book will have to go up on a higher shelf and wait little hands maturity. It was fun to do and I love that all this journaling is now somewhere other then cyberspace.

Nathan's Blessing

This weekend I traveled to my parents house. Evan has been working some long hours and we haven't seen much of him. He had a day off and we had an opportunity to see him, so we took it. I traveled 5 hours by myself in a car with five children. It was so worth it. It was so exciting to have Evan with us, to watch him interact with our children, to see him hold our new baby. Moments like this remind me how much I love him. His is a wonderful man.

With Evan's work schedule, we were starting to wonder when we would be able to bless Nathan. We didn't know when he would have time off to be at church and if and when he did get the time, it would be at last minutes notice. Nathan was already 8 weeks, and growing. When I found out we would have this chance to be with Evan on Sunday, i decided to seize the opportunity. I called and asked my Bishop for permission, and he said we could do it in my parent's home as long as the Bishop of my parent's ward was in attendance. Well, my dad is the Bishop of his ward, so that was easy.

Evan ended up arriving too late on Sunday, so we blessed Nathan Monday. It was Evan, my Dad, and my brother in the circle blessing Nathan. My sister-in-laws Tonia and Beth were able to be there with some of their children, Maddie and Eden. I have never blessed a baby in a home or even been to a blessing in a home, but the spirit was so sweet. I really enjoyed the blessing and the peacefulness of doing it in a home. There was no pressure of the big dinner afterwards or the show of all the people in the congregation. Just a precious moment where my baby was held by men that I love and given a wonderful blessing. The quiet peace I felt is one of those moments I will always treasure.

Nathan was great. He talked through the blessing. He has just started the baby-jabber, and I love to hear it. As soon as the blessing was finished, I held him in my arms and he started to yawn. I put him down in the chair so I could get some pictures, and he fell asleep. What a sweet baby.

A Glorious Night

Taneal did the dishes tonight! Loaded the dishwasher, handwashed the pots and pans, wiped the counters, and cleaned the sink. Over the last 8 years I have dreamed of this moment. I am a happy mom.

Diapers and Proud of It

All of my children have been potty trained by the time they were Spencer's age. Yes, they were girls and I know from what EVERYONE has told me that boys take longer. I'm okay with that, but If I could encourage him to be potty-trained a little sooner, that would be nice. With my girls, as soon as I had a baby, I pointed out that the baby was a baby because they wear diapers. So, although the older child thinks they are big (as do I), they are still a baby because they are in diapers. Within weeks of that, they soon get potty trained. Well, not the case with Spencer. He is still in diapers and proud of it.

Chunky Boy!

About two weeks ago I was at the doctors and I weighed myself (amount not disclosed) and then held Nathan and weighed myself again. The baby is a whopping 12.5 pounds! That was at five weeks. He doubled his weight in five weeks. He is now seven weeks and out of all his 0-3 months clothes. At the rate he is going he will be as big as Spencer in no time.