Part of a big family

We had German pancakes for breakfast. We were about out of syrup. while at Costco, taneal texted me this message:

"This morning I had to scrape the syrup off of other peoples plates because there was none"

She wanted to remind me to buy more syrup.

Just made me laugh. Who does that? Couldn't believe she would actually scrape syrup off someone else's plate and eat it. Yuck! She must be used to having lots of siblings!

Gingerbread Houses

It is that time of year again. My children LOVE to decorate gingerbread houses, and since it has become one of our traditions over the last few year, it was fun to do it again this year. We invited my sister, Bonnie, and her husband over along with another family that we go to church with.

This year I made two houses for my family. We divided into teams and it was really a whole lot of fun to see Camie, Danielle, and Spencer all work together. They were totally a team, went right at it, not squabbling of any kind at all. They each just took a part and went at it and had fun.

Seeing as how I am having a hard time even getting a post up to my blog, I am not going to go into any fancy elaboration, I am just going to get this out there. Wish I had more time to tell the story, but lets let the pictures do it in this post.

Halloween decoration

I finally finished my Halloween decoration so I could put it away in the attic. I stamped the kids feet on heavy poster foam board and hung it with ribbon. Although the paint made some of the kids feet slippery and slide making them look like they have humongous feet, I still love it!

Grateful #22: Self-Entertaining Children

We didn't go to the store today. We didn't even go for a drive. And most of us didn't even watch any television. We played. Played with cousins. Baked pies. Visited. Baked some more. And the children? They played outside.

Digging holes.

Wonder if they remember that book, Holes, I read to them a few years ago? Probably not.

Not just Camie. But Danielle. And taneal. And even Spencer. Along with their cousins Eden, Emma, Landon, and Lauren.

They dug and dug and then dug some more. And they got even dirtier. But they had so much fun digging and playing and digging and talking.

And I was grateful I got to help bake and cook and take care of only Nathan and Gavin. The other kids were self-entertained. I just had to provide food and drinks and a few trips to the back pasture to see their progress.

A beautiful day.

Grateful #19: Memories and Pull-Ups

Last night we went and saw my niece, Rebecca, perform in the play Beauty and the Beast. I left the two little ones with my sister and took Taneal, Camie, Danielle, and Spencer.

And suddenly, as we were about to leave to go see the play, I had a flashback. I saw myself at Spencer's age, with the same problem that Spencer still has, and I decided to prevent the problem I had almost 30 years ago.

I had him go put on a pull-up.

You see, I had a bed wetting problem until I was about 10. I was such a sound sleeper. My parents tried everything. Doctors, medications, experiments, everything. And I still continued to wet the bed.

Why my parents let me, I don't know. But they let me spend the night with my school friend when I was about 8. Yes, I was still bed wetting at this point. And my friend's parents didn't speak very good English. They decided to take me and my friend to a late night movie. And the movie wasn't in English. It was in Chinese or something like that. But it had sub titles.

Can you imagine what would happen at a late night showing with sub titles for an 8 year old? You got it. I fell asleep. And I wasn't wearing a pull up. Yep, you got it there too. I seriously peed on that nice and squishy and super absorbent theater chair.

And you better believe I was so horrified at what I had done that I didn't tell a single soul.

I left that super wet chair for someone else to discover while I was nowhere to be found.

I still can't even imagine being the next person to sit in that seat.

So as we were preparing to go to the play to watch my super talented niece perform, and as the memories flooded back, I had Spencer quickly go slip into a pull-up.

So nobody would have to sit in a chair filled with pee.

What a surprise that had to of been 30 long years ago. Some unexpected girl on a first date with a really hot guy.

Only to discover her pants dripping wet. And stinky.

Memories and pull-up.

Prevention.

Gavin's first words

At 14 months, Gavin can say:

Ma ma
Da da
Nah nuh (hungry)
Go go go
Doo (dude)
No (nose)
Na'an (Nathan)

Family Pictures Fall 2011

These are the family pictures we just got back from my friend who is an amazing photographer. Still trying to decide which picture would be most fitting for above the fireplace.

Grateful #15: pictures

I love pictures. Especially pictures of my loved ones. Today I receive the pictures we had taken a few weeks ago by my very talented friend, April. She was able to capture personality, beauty, and amazing pictures and give them to me to enjoy. I have really enjoyed them, looking them over and over and over. She did an amazing job. These are something I will treasure the rest of my life.

I am blogging from my phone as I lie in bed ready to sleep. I don't have the pictures on my phone so I can't upload them right now. I will try to do that tomorrow. But I do have the Christmas card I was trying to create, and it contains one of the pictures I really like. Enjoy, I sure am.

Camie's Birthday Party

This year was Camie's turn to have a birthday party. She decided (or maybe I talked her into it) to have a Halloween theme party because there are so many fun things to do with a Halloween theme.

 These were the party favors that went home with each child. Inside them was sweetened popcorn in fabulous Halloween colors.

 Some of the food: mummies

 Cheese ball

 The whole gang enjoying the creepy food.

 The kids LOVED the dry ice in the punch and how it smoked.

The played the mummy game where they had a time limit to wrap someone in toilet paper. Camie had so much fun with this game.

Candy Corn Parfaits. It is cheesecake moose. I really have no idea how to spell that word. At first it looked like mouse. I know I don't have it right.

This is the dart game we played. They threw darts at the balloons. And it was so much fun!

This is the cake that Camie wanted.

And this is the popcorn that I put inside the witches' brooms.

Witches fingers from string cheese and slivered almonds.

 It was a super fun party and Camie felt like a super star. Mission accomplished.