Two weeks ago was my Mothers birthday. I'm not going to tell you how old she is. Because I value my life.

When Aunt Robin asked her what she wanted for her birthday she said she wanted a big BBQ with the whole family. Well, everyone that was actually in our state. Buddy and the twins got a free pass.

So we all gathered out at Roger and Robins house for some grilled chicken and a million side dishes. And cheesecake. MMmmmmm...cheesecake.

The kids ran around like crazy people, I annoyed everyone by taking their pictures and we laughed at all the stories people told.

After we finished eating my brother and his family had to leave. :-(

He was working a booth for his company at the fair and needed to get some rest to prepare.

Here's Michael contemplating his future. Or seconds on the cheesecake.

Julianna tried hiding behind her coffee cup so I wouldn't take her picture. Obviously nothing can stop me.

Marianna didn't mind though. I think she might even like getting her picture taken. But don't tell her I told you that.

We ended up heading over to the fire pit and roasting some marshmallows. Poor Ryan somehow got a chunk of hot marshmallow stuck on his eyelid. Really, I have no idea how that happened. It may have had something to do with him swinging his marshmallow stick around wildly. Not that he did that. Don't worry though. He's ok.

May 18, 2009

A Baby Meme
For Paytons 2nd Birthday

How long had you been married at the time of the birth? Payton was born on our 6th anniversary.

What were your reactions when you found out that you were pregnant? We were so happy. We had been trying to have another baby for over a year.

How old were you? 29.

How did you find out that you were pregnant? Home pregnancy test. I was using those things like they were crack.

Who did you tell first? Umm...Whoever heard me shrieking from the bathroom.

Did you find out the sex? Yes.

Did you deliver early or late? I was induced three days early

Did you have morning sickness? Nope. And I didn't claim to either.

What did you crave? Chocolate which was weird because prior to that pregnancy I hated chocolate.

Who irritated you most? I'm not going to say. Just in case that person reads this.

What was your child's sex? Girl

How many pounds did you gain throughout your pregnancy? 20 lbs.

Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? Yes. I was diagnosed with a blood clotting disorder called antiphospholipid antibody syndrome. It made things a little scary but everything was fine.

Where did you give birth? The same hospital Regan was born.

How many hours were you in labor? Maybe an hour.

Who drove you to the hospital? Michael

Who watched? Michael

Was it vaginal or c-section? vaginal

Did you take medicine to ease the pain? I wish!! The epidural man was down the hall helping another woman while I was going through the worst pain. By the time he got to me I was ready to push. They gave it to me anyway so I had a good nap right after delivery.

How much did your baby weigh? 7 lbs 7 oz

What did you name your baby? Payton Joy

How old is your baby today? 2 Years old today!

January 18, 2009

A Baby Meme

For Regans 7th Birthday

I've seen this meme in quite a few places in blogland and thought it might be fun to do it on each of the kids' birthdays.

How long had you been married at the time of the birth? Eight months to the day.

What were your reactions when you found out that you were pregnant? Scared. We weren't married yet and were terrified of what our families would do/say.

How old were you? 23.

How did you find out that you were pregnant? I took a test at my Drs office. I hadn't missed a period yet but I just knew.

Who did you tell first? My brother (who drove me to my appt. Then Michael.

Did you find out the sex? No. And it made people crazy. Some of them were even mad about it.

Did you deliver early or late? I was induced two days early.

Did you have morning sickness? No but I have IBS and was in the bathroom a lot so I told everyone it was morning sickness.

What did you crave? Salty foods.

Who irritated you most? Everyone irritated me when I got hungry.

What was your child's sex? Girl.

How many pounds did you gain throughout your pregnancy? About 30 lbs.

Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? Just the usual back and hip pain

Where did you give birth? A hospital in Olympia.

How many hours were you in labor? My Dr started induction around 8 am. Labor started a little after 10. Regan was born at 2:22 pm.

Who drove you to the hospital? Michael

Who watched? Michael

Was it vaginal or c-section? Vaginal

Did you take medicine to ease the pain? Heck yeah! And it was awesome!!

How much did your baby weigh? 8 lbs 7 oz.

What did you name your baby? Regan Marie

How old is your baby today? SEVEN!!! Happy Birthday Honey!

January 3, 2009

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

We had a very busy holiday season with lots of sledding, baking, visiting family, playing with our new Wii and enjoying each others company. My house still hasn't recovered.

This afternoon Michael and I loaded up the kids and headed out to pick our Christmas tree. We went to the same tree farm that we went to our first Christmas together.

So we spent the evening hanging lights and decorating the tree. Listening to Christmas music and looking through our Christmas books.

I really love this time of the year.

Thanksgiving was a big success. We had about twenty people over for dinner. Which I had started preparing for on Monday. I let each of the the kids make their own dish. Devon and Regan each made a pudding pie in a graham cracker crust and Ryan made a jello salad. I made the mashed potatoes on Wednesday and had them warming in the crockpot Thursday morning. That was a huge timesaver! This was also my first year where I made the turkey and ham by myself. We usually buy a spiral cut ham from the store but this year I made one of the hams we had from the pig we had butchered this summer. There wasn't a big difference in the cooking time and it tasted great.

I was a little nervous having that many people over thinking it would be too crowded but I thought a lot about where to set up tables and it worked out really well. There was plenty of room for the guys to watch the Cowboys/Seahawks game (that was just sad) and for people to visit.

So now its on to Christmas and the New Year.

Trick Or Treat!

Yesterday was the fall party for regan and Ryans class. Devon volunteered to help with pin the nose on the Jack o'lantern and I helped fill goodie bags. I wish I had taken pictures of them. They were so cute! We painted paper lunch bags orange and puffed them out to look like pumpkins. I tied them with a green ribbon so the good stuff wouldn't fall out.

After school I ran over to pick up Payton from Juliannas. She was sooo nice to watch her for me so I could help out at the school. Devon walked Payton home while I ran to Papa Murphys for dinner. While we waited for our order I scooted the kids over to Aunt Kristys salon for haircuts.

We had to race home so Devon could leave with MaryBeth. (Who was so nice to wait!) They were going to help the youth pass out candy. As soon as Michael got home we took the kids trick or treating around our neighborhood.

Here's our loot!

Today is Uncle Buddys' birthday. In honor of this very special occasion I am going to post the recipe for his favorite cake. Bake and enjoy!

Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

Chocolate Cake

3 c. all purpose flour

2 c. sugar

2/3 c. cocoa

2 eggs, well beaten

1 t. baking soda

2 c. liquid sour cream, buttermilk or water

1 1/4 t. baking powder

1 t. vanilla

1/2 t. salt

1.2 c. shortening or butter

Sift, then measure flour. Sift again with cocoa, soda, baking powder and salt. Add shortening and work with spoon until soft. Add gradually the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs and blend well. Add sifted flour mixture alternately with liquid and vanilla. Pour batter into well greased 8 or 9 inch layer pans. Bake at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool and frost.

Peanut Butter Fudge Frosting

3 c. sugar

1 t.vanilla

1 c. milk

2 heaping T. peanut butter

1 heaping T. cocoa

Cook to 230 degrees on candy thermometer the first three ingredients. Add PB and cocoa. Cool and beat until spreading consistency. Frost cake.

In my upstairs closet I have three shelves of legal boxes. I've labeled each of the boxes with a season/holiday and filled the boxes with books, decorations, baking/cooking stuff, candles, projects the kids have made, etc. Actually, I have a lot for Christmas and Fall so they have tubs in the garage. But right now I'm talking about the boxes in my closet so lets just stick with that. 'K?

As I was putting our Fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving books into our bookcase I thought 'Hey! I should share some of these titles on my blog.' Since I can't think of anything else to write about that's what were going with!

P is for Pilgrim - Carol Crane

A Plump and Perky Turkey - by Teresa Bateman

Pumpkin Town - by Katie McKy

Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving - by Eric Metaxas

Thanksgiving Day at our House - by Nancy White Carlstrom

Some other books we have are:

The Great Turkey Walk - Johnny Appleseed - Pooh's Fall Harvest - The Monster Mall - Pumpkin, Pumpkin - Thanksgiving is... - Autumn's First Leaf - Thanksgiving - Thanksgiving, What makes it Special? - Winnie the Pooh's Thanksgiving - 'Twas the night before Thanksgiving - The Thanksgiving Story - The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving

One of the gifts Ryan received for his birthday was this Word World video. He's been watching WW on PBS for a while now and really wanted one of the movies. I think we watched the video two or three times on Sunday alone!

Friday was Ryan's birthday. He's FIVE years old now! Where'd my baby go?!

He asked me if I would make some cupcakes and bring them down for his class. I asked his teacher and she said it was fine. When I showed up with that plate of cupcakes I felt like a rock star. Those kids loved me!

For dinner we ordered pizza and invited Jake, Octavia and their girls over. Ryan opened his gifts (lots of dinosaurs) and we all had peanut butter ice cream sandwiches.

On Saturday we took the kids to the Hands on Children's Museum. It was so much fun. I had no idea how big it was! They had an animal hospital, a theatre, water and sand tables, a grocery store, construction zones, hospital areas (complete with real xrays) a tree house and tons of other things I am forgetting. I am seriously considering getting a family membership there.

When we left the museum we headed for Toys R Us so Ryan could pick out a toy to buy with his birthday money. He picked this and this.

Saturday afternoon I took the kids to my niece' Savannahs birthday party. She

turned six years old! Here she is with her new bike.

After we left there we met Julianna, Jessie and Payton at the water park. Devon decided she'd rather swim in the pool but the rest of us had a great time playing in the fountains!

Fourth of July Weekend

We spent our weekend visiting family and eating. Does it get any better than that?

We had Danyelle with us this weekend. Isn't that the cutest picture of her with

Payton? I just love it. Danyelle got to go out to Jake and Octavias house on Friday.

We had a BBQ and set fireworks off as soon as it got dark. Oh wait. Michael and

Jake started playing with some of them as soon as they finished eating but the

main fireworks were saved for darkness.

On Saturday we all headed out to Lonnie and Cindys house for more BBQ and lots

of visiting. Their Pastor is a licensed Pirotechnitian and was putting off the towns

fireworks display that night. I have got to say that fireworks show was the best I

have ever seen! They had some DC Talk and other old school christian music

playing in the background. We parked on the edge of a field and let the kids dance

around in front of us. It was a pretty great weekend.

Happy Birthday, Devon!

Today my baby is turning 13. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Part of me is feeling extremely old. How did I become the mother of a teenager? Just yesterday I was teaching her to ride her bike without training wheels. Now she's learning to drive a stick. (Pray for us!)

Instead of planning a big party for her we decided to celebrate her birthday by giving her a gift each day for thirteen days ending today. This worked really well. Some of the days she got a large gift (a new MP3 player) and other days it was something smaller like a manicure kit. Todays gift was a birthday card with 13 crisp (because I ironed them) one dollar bills. I think thats a new tradition I am going to do with each of the kids.

Summertime!

Summer has finally arrived! We have put away all the schoolbooks, received our report cards from WAVA and pulled the kiddie pool out of the garage. For the next 10 weeks it will be all about the lemonade, BBQ's, cousins, swimming and staying up late.

Playing Catch Up

This past week has been a whirlwind of to do lists and laundry. Always the laundry...ahem!

So today was the par-tay for Payton. She had a lot of fun and wasn't fussy at all. Which surprised me a little. Between church, lunch and the party she didn't get her nappy time. Almost everyone who was invited came to help us celebrate. (and eat cake!) So it was quite the crowd. I took loads of pictures -which I'll post as soon as I can. Our friend Nikki wasn't able to make it though. She injured her foot really bad last week and was on it too much yesterday and needed to take it easy today. Oh, I think today was her birthday too! Happy Birthday Nikki!

I'm not sure how much I'll be posting this week. I need to cram two weeks of school in and get everything ready for the family reunion next weekend. I'll at least try to get some pictures posted. Some of them turned out so nice I'll probably enlarge them and put them in the living room.

Whats more exciting than boiling two and a half dozen eggs and dying them with food coloring. Not much when you're four years old.

Happy New Year!

New Years is one of my favorite holidays. I just love having the fresh start that January 1st brings. For me it’s the time to break old habits, start new ones and get organized. Most years I have the same resolutions or goals as the last but that’s ok. Hopefully I get a little closer to reaching those goals as the years go by. This year my main goal is to become a Stepford wife. Just kidding.
I have too many goals to list here but a few of them are:
Take better care of my family. We really need to eat better.
Make time for sewing. This hasn’t been high on my list of priorities but it is something I really enjoy.
Clean out the garage for Michael. This will make him very happy because apparently a man needs his space.

Merry Christmas!

Whew! We made it through the holidays! I wasn't sure how things were going to go since half the family was sick the week before and we had so much shopping, cooking and cleaning to do.

Michaels entire family came over on Christmas eve. We had so much fun! There was lots of food and laughter so you really can't go wrong with that.

My family came over for a little while on Christmas night. They out voted me and watched Veggie Tales 'The Wizard of Ha's' instead of playing Hand and Foot. *pout*