Creative Camie

It is often that I look and my life and count myself as blessed. I could name a number of things to complain about. But when I look at my children and who they are becoming, my heart skips a few beats in awe and wonder and gratitude that I was lucky enough to have these children as part of my family.

I know this blog seems to be focused on the baby. Gavin consumes my whole world right now. He is in my arms all day. He sleeps with me at night. Many of the things I want to do I can't do because that cute little guy demands my attention. He has transformed from a helpless newborn to a 20 pound biter who can roll all over the place, can stuff the smallest particles into his throat, and can melt my heart with his adorable laugh. He is learning so many new things all the time that I want to document his achievements. But sometimes I don't focus on the other wonders going on in my home.

Camie is one of those blessings that I don't give enough attention to. When I look at that girl, I see beauty, talent, love, kindness, compassion, intelligence, and admiration. Camie can do anything. She can clean almost as fast as I can. And she doesn't complain. When she messes up and gets assigned a job as her punishment, she dutifully completes the job without complaining. And she doesn't try to get out of it. She likes to help me. She wants to hold the baby. And she is truly a blessing in my life.

Camie can do more than just help me. She has an amazing ability to create things from almost nothing. Camie went through my scraps from the Easter dresses and decided to make her dolls some Easter clothes too. That girl is so talented. She has the ability to entertain herself, to create, and really doesn't ask for much. She is very independent. And I am so lucky to be her mom. She is a huge helper. She is wonderful. And I love that girl!

I think Heavenly Father took many of Evan and my best qualities, mixed in a few more, and created Camie.

Incentives

What do all these things have in common? You practice your piano BEFORE school and you get a yummy treat in your lunch that day. If you buy your lunch, you get the treat as soon as you walk in the door from school.

Want to know how well this is working in my home? We got up late the other morning, Taneal had 30 minutes to get ready before she had to leave for orchestra. We went ahead and read scriptures as a family and I told Taneal she could go ahead and get breakfast while the family read. So what did she do? Before she got dressed, before she got something to eat, while the family was reading scripture without her, she went downstairs and started practicing her piano. She wanted that treat.

Thanks, Kim, for the great idea. It is working wonders in my home!

Dying Easter Eggs

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Better late than never, right? We had so much fun dying the eggs. I boiled 25 eggs so that each child could decorate 5. They thought I was being stingy, but we had to eat the eggs and I didn't want to figure out how to consume that many boiled eggs. They really had a great time. It is fun to see how different each child decorates. Some of them were super creative and some just got the job done. And, we had some yummy develed eggs for Easter dinner.

Easter Sunday

I love Easter Sunday. This is the only time all the children get new clothes. And never before have I bought the boys new clothes. But thanks to Costco, they got these new fancy Sunday outfits. I was planning on getting Spencer a tie, but Taneal was with me when I saw these church outfits. I think she kneeled on the floorright there in the store and seriously begged me to get them. They were something like $12 per outfit and I gave in. And they all looked so dang cute!

Taneal and Camie's dresses were a different story. They don't sell big girl sizes at Costco. I got on the internet and looked to see what Kohls and Target had and I was quite disappointed. They were either sleeveless, too short, or WAY out of my budget. I could have gone out shopping all over creation in hopes of finding something, but I didn't have the courage to manhandle 3 little boys to find an acceptable dress. And then when I found the dress, chances were that I would pay too much and then it wouldn't fit or Taneal wouldn't like it. So I figured it would save time to make the dress. Besides cut-out time, it took about 2 hours. It went really fast and I really liked how they turned out. Plus, I had extra fabric to make them a purse to match. Danielle was so bummed that I got her a Costco dress because it didn't have a purse to match. And I also made the mistake of not getting head to toe pictures of my girls all decked out in their dresses that I hand sewed! What was I thinking? Okay, maybe I was thinking that one of you readers out there would be a serious seamstress and zoom in on the picture and see all the flaws. Because there are quite a few mistakes. I never claimed to be good at sewing, I just know how. I took a class. I still need experience. But Taneal and Camie were thrilled, I didn't have to leave the comforts of my home because I used fabric I bought years ago with good intentions of sewing some beautiful dresses, and I didn't get frazzled by hauling three small boys shopping. How was that for a major run-on sentence? And, the dresses were modest. Whew.

Can't say what will happen next year. If I can find modest, reasonably priced dresses without a major hunt, I will opt for that. The boys will probably just get a new tie. Maybe I will make those. Or not. But it is fun to dress my kiddos up, snap a few pictures, and have them look pretty for a few minutes.

Gas Prices

I just filled up my car and had to get a picture. I would drive a smaller car if I could, but I have six children. And, I got $0.20 off per gallon because I used my Kroger card.  Wow! I think I am staying home.

Cooking

I have been having fun lately. I found this new blog (the link to it is on the right side of my blog) and I am having so much fun trying new recipes. They recently published a cookbook and of course I bought it. It seems that everything I make from their recipes actually turn out. I have been experimenting over the last month and here are some of the pictures.

I don't usually take pictures of the food I make, but I have this little running joke with my sister. It began by her trying to make bread. For some reason it wasnt working and so I sorta did a tutorial over my phone thorugh text messages and pictures. I was having fun and she probably thought I was so lame. But it kind of became a joke between us. Every time I baked something that looked pretty, I started sending her a picture of it for her to drool over. She was welcome to come over anytime to eat with us, but for some reason she didn't want to drive 45 minutes to eat what I was making.

 That is why I have these pictures. I have never been a really good cook.I remember the first time I cooked a chicken breast for Evan right after we got married, I served it up to him on a beautiful plate. He looked at it and said something to the effect of, "that's it?" I didn't realized I was supposed to serve up other things with the chicken, I was just happy I had actually cooked a chicken breast.  I have tried over the years. And I am much improved. I actually enjoy baking and cooking (unless my children complain about the particular dish and wont eat it without consequences). It is a lot of work, but most of the things I make actually turn out. It has taken almost two decades of practice to be able to make that claim.

Spelling Homework Tells All

This is Danielle's spelling homework. She circled the spelling words. The assignment was to use her spelling words in a sentence. My favorite is the first one, "I can't watch TV." The TV has been off limits to her the past two weeks and she just earned her privileges back Monday.

My next favorite is: "I do not know how to do my jobs." She always says that to me. She complains and complains about how she doesn't know how to do her jobs and I tell her she can figure it out or she can get a lot of practice, and then she does a wonderful job, sometimes even better than what her two older sisters do. Danielle is GREAT at doing the dishes. Yet she still complains that she doesn't know how.

I bet the school teachers know much more about our home life than we think.

Easter Cookies

I found this really cool recipe for amazing icing. The colors are vibrant, it is fun to work with, and the kids ooo and aahhhh about them. And did I mention they taste delicious?

Twice a year my church holds a world-wide conference. We are able to watch it over the Internet. Each time they have the conference, I look forward to it. I learn so much and it is so uplifting. The small problem is that my children tend to have a hard time sitting through conference and listening, let alone being quiet enough for me to listen.

This year I decided to try something new. I made sugar cookies during the first two-hour session on Saturday morning. In between the sessions, I put the base color of frosting on that needs to set for two hours. And then I prepared bags of icing for the children to decorate the cookies during the second two-hour session Saturday afternoon. I had a few sample pictures for them to get ideas. And you know what? It worked. The were so quiet as they decorated. I heard both sessions of conference on Saturday. They did a little talking, but I made so many cookies that they had plenty to decorate. And then they were stuffing their faces with the cookies once they were done decorating that it left nice, peaceful silence in my home while I listened. And the kids listened, too. They were able to tell me some of what they learned with conference. Of course my little boys couldn't tell me cause they probably didn't understand the speakers, but they were quiet. And it was a fun family bonding moment.

I think we may have to start this up as a new tradition.

Gavin is 6 months

My little guy is growing up so fast! I know every parent says that about their children, but I am serious! He is rolling all over the place. He can sit up by himself. I don't even have to put pillows around him. He is a whopping 19 pounds. I figured he would be bigger, but he is still big. My favorite thing about Gavin right now is how he holds onto me like a monkey. He can wrap those chubby legs and arms around me and it is like he is holding on for dear life. It is the cutest thing ever. He smiles so easily and has a wonderful laugh. He still spits up like crazy, and he even makes a grossed out face becuase he doesn't like to spit up any more than I don't like him spitting up. He can drink from a straw. And a cup. He doesn't really care for baby food but wants whatever we are eating, except he still doesnt know how to eat solids any bigger than about 1/2 the size of a pea.He can pick up very small things off the carpet and get them to his mouth. He has crawled once, but couldn't duplicate it. If you put him on the ground on his tummy, he gets up on his hands and toes with his bum high in the air. He is being like a normal baby, not like any of my children have ever been before. He rolls. My other children didn't roll until after they crawled. He is up on all fours at six months. My earliest to do that was 9 months. He is one of a kind and I am so in love.

Ouch!

Nathan is one of those little boys that wakes up each morning and runs to the backyard. He will do without breakfast just to be outside. Rain or shine, he's still out there. And even if he is only in a t-shirt and diaper and it is super cold, he would still rather be outside than taking the time to put a jacket and some pants on. He is so unlike me. I am amazed at how many hours this little two-year-old can spend in the backyard, one that is somewhat small in the middle of a neighborhood where the homes are almost literally stacked on top of each other. But outside stays that little man. He has adventures with mud and more mud, he loves digging in the dirt, and last week we even found a little snake. Sometimes there are lizards. Quite frequently lady bugs. And he loves to scream at the birds and try to chase them. Sometimes a neighbor's ball will end up in our yard and he loves to throw it over the fence of a different neighbor who is a single lady without children. And then when she discovers the ball in her backyard she throws it back over the fence to us. It makes Nathan so mad because it isn't our ball and why can't she just keep it in her yard? Once she was outside when he decided to throw the ball back to her yard where it didn't belong. So she threw it right back over. She is a very nice person, thankfully. And Nathan picked that ball right back up, screamed in frustration and threw it back over the fence. And she threw it right back. Nathan stormed in the house, mad as all get out, and complained that our neighbor needs to keep her ball in her own yard. I tried to explain that it wasn't her ball at all, but he told me it was hers and she needs to stop throwing it back over the fence. It just made me laugh.

With all the adventure out back, there is bound to be an injury. One of the slats to the fence came loose, probably because Nathan was peeking into the other neighbor's yard who does have a child. Nathan pulled that slat completely off the fence and in the process managed to get a whole plethora of splinters. (I had to use a big word there because I actually thought of one. go me!)I tried to pull the splinters out, but Nathan wouldn't have anything to do with that. I kissed it better and he still cried and finally gave up and went back outside. He was so proud of those splinters when his hero (his dad) came home that evening. Check out the splinters under his nail! He had two more under there that he did let me pull out. OUCH!

It has been two weeks since he got those splinters. I took another child to the doctor and while I was there asked her if she thought I should make an appointment to get them out. They hadn't become infected and worked themselves out. She said I needed to get them out. And then this last week passed and quite frankly I forgot about them. I checked out his cute little pudgy fingers this morning and the splinters are gone. He still has the ones under his nail, but as his nail has grown, the splinter are coming out too.

Bad Guy Hat

Nathan informed me this was his "bad guy" hat. He wears hats all the time. His favorite is his cowboy hat. I had no idea he called this his bad guy hat. Don't even know where he got the idea. The things two-year-olds come up with!

Brownies

My sister-in-law once put a post about the coolest brownie baking dish ever. And I thought she was crazy. Still do. Who in the world would want to eat the crust of the brownie? It is crunchy. It is hard. It makes your jaw tired just thinking about having to chew on it. If you are going to waste calories on eating a brownie, it might as well be enjoyable. Right?

 This is where I like to do my first cut of the brownie. I trained my children wrong. That is where they go, too.

Straight for the middle.

I should have trained them to eat the edges so I could have all the middles.

Thank goodness for Evan. He is like my sister-in-law and prefers the edge peices.