Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope this has been a great holiday for all of you. It's been mostly lovely here. We loved being at Six Flags during the holidays. Our good friend's came along with us and we had a lot of fun at the park and hanging out at our hotel. The weather was cool (upper 60's) and Six Flags was seriously decked out with Christmas lights. They had a group of singers wearing costumes from the 1800's and singing beautiful harmonized Christmas carols. I think my favorite songs were "O Come Emmanuel" and "The First Noel." There was a giant Christmas tree and they had a lighting ceremony complete with fireworks and an overly animated Santa. :O

Of course we also had a fantastic time on the roller coasters, including "Goliath," "Tony Hawk's Big Spin," and "Boomerang!" The boys were all so much fun to be with we were proud of them- they went on some BIG rides. Lucy loved all the rides she went on- there are actually tons of rides for little ones.

After an amazing stop at Culver's (if you haven't had a Butterburger you haven't lived) we zipped home just in time to put together our usual Christmas Eve feast. Our friend's came for dinner and it was so nice to collaborate on the food. (The Happy Birthday sign is for Jonah, Jesus and Isaac!)

The Dads and kids played charades while I finished up a few things for the meal and my friend Jen played the most beautiful Christmas music on the piano. Dinner: Roast Beef, Yorkshire Pudding, Mashed Golden Potatoes, Salad, Rolls and Gravy. We enjoyed chocolate pie and banana pudding for dessert. We acted out the nativity and sang a few Christmas carols before sending our friends home.

The boys were sort of toast at this point- no one got much sleep on our little trip- so we sent them to bed at a decent hour and Curtis and I crashed early as well. Today has been a lot of fun. I loved watching children open gifts. I thought Daniel would crush me with his hug after he opened his "Lego Minotaurus Game." Lucy loved the eggs the boys painted and played with them the whole time we opened gifts.


We got the boys fishing rods and they went to bayou but it was actually quite cold and windy so we will try it again next week. We felt so loved by our parents and Curt's Grandma. They all sent beautiful and thoughtful Christmas packages. Granny Turner sent some Shreddies and Smarties for Curtis and he was thrilled!! :O

Curtis and I both love games and we got some for Christmas this year. There was a lot of this going on today:

I sort of dropped the ball on Christmas day food. Too much going on with our little trip! Usually I make a Christmas stollen and have deviled eggs, oranges and herbal tea. I also usually have cheese, sausage, crackers and some kind of yummy dip for munching on. Today I managed to get the tea made. Dang! So everyone has pretty much been eating Christmas chocolate and cookies all day. After a lovely Christmas Day nap I was ready to be a better mom and made some bread and soup. The recipe is from my friend, Sarah and I've wanted to try it for awhile. It was AMAZING!

I'll post the recipe asap but am being attacked by Lucy right now!!

We are all going upstairs to watch "Lord of the Rings" and then off to bed. We have thought of many of you this week and hope you've had a wonderful holiday. LY

Commence whining...

So every year December ends up being pretty crazy. This year I swore it would be different. I wouldn't volunteer for huge events at school or church. No Christmas cards and baking only if I felt like it.

But then I remembered the Christmas concert put on by my church and the neighboring Catholic church, Epiphany. I've wanted to be in ever since we moved here. It made the season fly by. Overall I'm glad I sang with the choir. The music was beautiful and it was so fun to sing with a big group, but definitely a big time committment.

And then I couldn't stop myself- I started baking. It's Kelly's fault, one of my bf's from Minnesota. Every Christmas she made this absolutely amazing assortment of cookies and delivered them to a bunch of friends. Long story short, I've lost count of the pounds of butter I've gone through in the last few weeks!

FYI: the big one is Sarah's gingerbread (spicy and yummy b/c it has a tsp of ground pepper in it- yum!), Pretzel turtles, Better Homes fudge, Mexican wedding balls and Creme wafers.

Then, when we were sort of homebound b/c Jonah broke his arm we decided to make some homemade gifts. It's actually been really fun and very satisfying for the kids. They are so excited to give their presents to eachother. Some of the other homemade gifts are: duct tape accessories, key chain deco, an origami mobile and play eggs for Lucy. These have been fun but not time/effort free.

So then I started receiving all these beautiful Christmas cards from friends and remembered how much I love getting them. So we suffered through family pics (Marci you're a life saver) and after a few Costco debacles got them in the mail- they'll all probably be late.

I had grand plans of special family nights singing around the piano and guitar, making gingerbread houses, watching all the best Christmas movies and decorating the tree. Well we actually have done a lot of singing, ending most evenings with a couple of Christmas songs. But we haven't watched a single Christmas movie yet and just decorated the tree last week! Luckily our friends invited us over just this week for gingerbread house making! It was happy chaos!

Just look at the kids if you are wondering about the ratio of candy put on the house to candy put in their mouth!

Factor in several doctor visits for Jonah, a root canal for me and two birthday parties (Isaac's is actually next week and we're mostly ready) and this month has just FLOWN!

Tomorrow we're going to Six Flags. The weather has been so nice and hopefully it'll be a fun day, fun for the kids anyway. Every year as a mom I realize that the holidays are mostly for the kids because as my pal at Chaos Theory has said, somebody has to make it all happen!!

As always I'm in awe of my mom and all the work she put into making holidays special. I've carried on her traditions of special music on Christmas morning (Percy Faith's "We Need a Little Christmas"- can't listen to it without tearing up), Christmas roast with yorkshire pudding and stocking stuffers that include but aren't limited to: an orange, a toothbrush, a mini box of sugar ceral, nail clippers and chocolate.

I guess my point is that the holidays are probably going to be a little hectic as long as I want to continue these special yearly traditions. And I have to say that I think it's worth it.

Thanks Designmom

I love the idea of homemade Christmas gifts but really haven't done much in the past b/c the boys were young and it seemed like I was just doing most of the work. But they're getting older now and I've been inspired by lots of great ideas online. Since Jonah has been home from school we decided to spend some time working on his gifts. Found a great tutorial here from Designmom and had a lot of fun today making a few shirts. I sent Jonah out for a bit and made one for him too. Shhhh...

Curtis totally belives in Sasquatch (or bigfoot as us yanks say) but he'll try to play this shirt off likes it a joke.

Jonah's a huge Percy Jackson fan so I think he will love this one.

Isaac's really into smiley faces (mostly because Jonah was recently really into smiley faces) so this one should make him happy!

Explosion with noises- yep, this one's up Dan's ally.

These were really simple. I found the shirts at Old Navy for $5 each and bought some letter stickers at Hobby Lobby for $2. We used contact paper for the cutouts. One thing I noticed is that old, dark shirts work so much faster than newer, lighter shirts. If I do it again I'll try to find some shirts at Goodwill.

Full on Believer

Last Friday my neighbor and I were watching our boys play football in the yard. They kept tackling eachother, sometimes on the concrete. Ouch! I made the mistake of mentioning that we haven't had any broken bones and have really been lucky with injuries. It's quite amazing actually considering my boys are huge climbers. Jonah has been scaling play structures and walls since he was two. I've been busted by a busybody parent more than once while playing at a park with my little spiderman.

Anyway, not 10 minutes after I made that comment, Jonah slipped in our home and fell on his outstretched arm, right on the tile! You heard me, it wasn't while roller blading or tree climbing or tackling or bike stunting... it was while jumping up to grab a basket in my kitchen. I'm not proud to say that I totally panicked when I saw his deformed arm. I yelled to Curtis and we both sort of ran back and forth for 30 seconds. Then Curtis threw his shoes on and I grabbed a huge super cold ice pack for Jonah's arm and they were off to the emergency room.

I spent the next several hours feeding the kids, cleaning up the house and crying. I hated not being with Jonah when I knew he was in agony. He and Curtis spent the next 5 hours waiting and waiting at the hospital. They came home with Jonah's arm in a splint and a bottle of codine. We were told he might need surgery but that we would have to wait until Monday or Tuesday! Arghh! Do I live in Canada? On Tuesday Jonah went in for surgery but they ended up being able to manipulate his bones back into place (injury is called supracondylar humerus fracture fyi) without cutting him open and put in 4 pins. The anesthesia made him so ill and he spent the rest of the day pretty miserable. Today he's feeling much better and will probably go back to school next week. I'm nervous to send him, especially since he doesn't even have a cast. What if someone plows into him in the hallway at school? OUCH!

He's been such a good little soldier, especially considering that his lacrosse season just started and he's pretty much out for the whole thing. He also can't type or play piano and his birthday is next week but we're putting off the party until January so he can enjoy it more. It's not all bad. We've actually had a really nice time together this week ( just finished "Race to Witch Mountain." Not bad- I can pretty much watch "The Rock" in anything but this is my fav. Love that guy). Jonah is so fun to talk with and he's very sweet with Lucy, always willing to read her a story or listen to music with her. I've actually gotten a bunch of cleaning done since I can't go anywhere. We're thankful for healthcare and good doctors and hopeful that the injury will heal correctly so he can go back to being the fun and active boy he is.


Last night Jonah was schedule to receive his "Arrow of Light" in scouts and he felt well enough to go.


Moral of this post: Knock on wood

If you still have a can of pumpkin lying around...

Does Pumpkin Lasagna sound wrong? Actually the first time I read through the recipe my mouth was totally watering. I love pumpkin. My family doesn't adore this recipe but everyone ate it... and I adore it! I made it last year for a church activity and everyone seemed to like it. I mean really, can you go wrong with mushrooms, cheese, bacon, pasta and pumpkin?!!

Pumpkin Lasagna
From: Better Homes and Gardens
Servings: Makes 12 servings.
Total: 1 hr 55 mins
Prep: 1 hr

Ingredients
12 dried lasagna noodles
8 ounces shiitake or porcini mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
8 ounces cremini or button mushrooms, sliced (I just do all button mushrooms)
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt or 1/2 tsp. salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
12 slices bacon, cut crossways into 1/4 inch strips
1-1/2 cups chopped onion
3 tablespoons snipped fresh sage or 2 tsp. dried leaf sage, crushed
2 15-ounces cans pumpkin
3/4 cup whole milk or half-and-half
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt or 3/4 tsp. salt
1 15-ounce carton ricotta cheese
1 lb. fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into thin slices (or you could just buy the grated kind)
6 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano or Grana Padano cheese, finely shredded (1-1/2 cups)


Directions
1. Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain; set aside. In skillet cook mushrooms and 3/4 teaspoon salt in hot olive oil over medium heat until tender and no liquid remains. Remove; set aside. Add bacon to skillet; cook until crisp. Remove; set aside. Discard all but 1 tablespoon drippings in skillet. Add onion; cook in drippings until tender. Add sage; cook 30 seconds. Add the pumpkin, milk, pepper, vinegar, and 1 teaspoon salt. Heat through.
2. In a greased 3-quart oval baking dish spread 1/2 cup pumpkin sauce. Cover bottom of dish with 4 noodles, trimming to fit. Spread one-third of sauce over noodles. Layer with one-third each of mushrooms, bacon, ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Repeat layers twice. Bake, uncovered, in 400 degree F oven for 40 to 45 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes. Makes 12 servings. Perfect with artisan bread and a salad. This one is probably too heavy for this meal but I made it yesterday and it was yumma!

I'm thankful for pie

This was a great Thanksgiving weekend. Filled with family games and movies, great food and a little Christmas prep. Whenever I start thinking about all that I am grateful for I'm always humbled. We have so much. So much that I usually start to feel pretty guilty. But I'm working on ignoring that feeling because I don't think it comes from God. And I'm working on being thankful and trying to serve others as much as I can, even if I'm just serving my own family.

Some of the things that made our "Thankful" list this year were:

Freedom and Safety

For Family

4 R Food and warm house

4 our beds

For are friends

Hugs

Daily I am thankful for food. And more specifically pie. I am a total pie person. In fact one of my favorite Deep Thoughts is:

"If you ever get a choice between Pie Heaven and regular Heaven, pick Pie Heaven. It might be a trick but if it's not, hmmmm boy!"

So of course one of my favorite holiday traditions is pie making. For Thanksgiving this year we only made two because it was just our family. But dang they were good pies. We had a traditional apple pie with homemade crust. I could eat it for breakfast. Wait, I did. Twice.

Then on Thanksgiving day Curtis said he would make any pie I wanted. I ordered banana cream. I was just putting it out there- we've never made a successful cream pie and I wasn't expecting it. But Curt said "Done." So I pulled out some recipes and found one for banana cream. But when I told Curtis who gave it to me, he said that maybe we should look online because that person is really into low fat food. I agreed to do a quick search. WOW- was he right on that one.

The first (low fat) recipe called for 1 egg yolk, one T butter and low fat milk.

I found another recipe online with 3 egg yolks, 2 T butter and low fat milk.

I knew we were serious about taste and quality so I figured I needed to see what Martha had to say. Say what you will about Martha Stewart, her food rocks. Her recipe called for 5 yolks, 4 T butter and 2 1/2 cups of WHOLE MILK. We were sold.

Despite being a Martha recipe it really wasn't difficult and the result... well let's just say it was THE best pie I have ever had in my life. Seriously fantastic. So good that I never even got a picture of it because I could never think straight when it was in front of me. SO good. Oh and we even used a store bought crust because I had one on hand and it was still amazing. Check it out here if are in need of banana cream pie this holiday season. You won't be disappointed.

Cool Party Hats & Lu

I found this super easy tutorial here for making origami party hats. I am terrible at origami and even I could do it. The paper I used was scrapbook size so if you wanted larger hats, newspaper would probably work great. And here are some live action shots of Lulu's birthday. I love that everyone is blowing with her. :)

Ten things we love about Lucy:

1) Whenever I sneeze she says "Bess u mom." and then keeps saying it until I say "thank you Lucy." Oh and she knows when it's a fake sneeze and won't say anything.

2) She loves to color, everywhere. Important papers, my planner, the wall, her arms and legs. Arghh- it helps that the boys seem to leave around a never ending supply of markers and pencils for her artwork.

3) Lucy loves music. We do LOTS of singing. Some of her favs: Nursery Rhymes (espeically "There was a crooked man"), "I love to see the Temple," "Angel" by Jack Johnson and "Beautiful" by James Blunt. Curtis has the last two on his ipod and plays them on the guitar sometimes. She loves them and asks for them by name.

4) "Little Bear" is her favorite entertainment.

5) Right now her favorite bedtime story is "How do dinosaurs say Good-Night?"

6) She adores my friend from church Jen and just last Sunday was howling during sacrament meeting "I want JEN!"

7) Ogurt, boke (milk) and anana are some of her fav foods. Every morning she says "Mama, cookee egg?" So we eat scrambled eggs and ketchup, which she calls "Chechetch."

8) She's economic with words. Instead of "Open it" she'll say "Opit"

9) She LOVES to play with her brothers and is already skilled in sword fighting and trampoline wrestling.

10) She just started helping us read scriptures this week. It is so cute to see her sitting with her Bible on her lap repeating every other word we read.



There are lots more! We love Lucy

Puzzle Nerd

I love puzzles. Way back in my memory I can hear my mom saying she loved puzzles too so I guess I come by it honestly. But they make me so happy. Especially if they have good colors. I'm also a sucker for any game with pieces that have good feel- if ya know what I mean. I have been collecting these for the last 10 years. I cannot explain it but we've really managed to keep most of the pieces- a festivus miracle Jerry!! Here are some of my favs:

Color Puzzle:

My good friend Melanie just bought this for Lucy's birthday and I almost cried. Isn't it beautiful? Lucy loves it too and I'm having fun teaching her colors like Chartruese and Ochre. :)

In the background you can see some of the pieces from another great game/puzzle, Blokus:

I love the pieces of this game- they just look pearly and I like all the different shapes. It's very simple with only 2 players- perfect for a younger child but becomes much more challenging with 3 or 4 players. We really have enjoyed playing it.


Magnetic Color Cubes:

I couldn't resist buying this for Daniel last Christmas. And all the boys really enjoy making designs with these beautiful little cubes.

Make N Break:

I love this game and those solid wooden blocks. Really fun family game and I've played it with 3 year olds.



Lonpos Puzzle:

I found this one online for $6 a few years ago. Now the price seems to be $10-15 but I still think it's a great buy. Using the instruction booklet you can make the puzzle very simple or quite difficult- there are some I still can't do. Bonus: the pieces have excellent feel.

Jonah stacking puzzle:

I got this one at Target for $10 when Jonah was a baby, unfortunately I've never seen it since. I LOVE this puzzle and play with it as much as the kids. I can't believe we've kept all the pieces but I sort of guard with my life, so maybe that explains it.

Rubick's cube- you were all tortured by this one in the 80's so I'll forgo the pic. I remember many frustrating attempts to solve the cube that of course ended up with us breaking off the pieces or stickers. So you can imagine how impressed I was when I started dating Curtis and learned that he had read a book on how to solve the Rubick's and could do it in a minute or so. I'm not embarrassed to admit it was a total turn on. I know, I'm a nerd. Anyway, for one reason or another I had never learned myself until last year.

During Christmas break I spent 2 weeks watching youtube vids and finally solved it. My fastest time is about 3 1/2 minutes- how do those crazy people do it in 30 seconds? So far none of my boys have been interested long enough for me to teach them. If only they knew what a chic magnet it would make them!

Before for anyone interested

I found a couple of "before" pics of Lucy's room. I always forget to take those and it's so fun to see the contrast. Wish I had more!

Karma

Curtis is a superstitious person. If I walk in while he's watching a hockey game and things start to go badly he'll politely ask me to leave. If I ever talk about something bad happening he will with all seriously tell me to zip it and then knock on some wood. He also has a thing about certains socks when he's playing a sport. I've always laughed it off... until today. See, just this weekend I was talking with a group of people and sickness came up. I couldn't help it- I'm frankly sort of amazed about it and had to mention that I rarely get sick. And when I do, it's short and mild. I get sick maybe once a year and every 3 or 4 years it will be sort of awful. I have no idea what to attribute it to other than good genes.



But I spoke too soon because last night (just a few days after bragging about my good health) I started a pukefest that lasted all night. Horrible. The. Worst. Wanted to die. I still feel rotten right now but at least I'm not hanging over a commode. Curtis and his pagan ways may have a point. The bonus is that one of the only things I can do is sit at the computer so I'm gonna post some pics of Lucy's happy blue room. Enjoy. :)

PS: Per Angry Baker's request I've written a little about the stuff in the rooms. LY AB

Curtis made this maple bed frame when we lived in Minnesota. Someday it will be Lucy's but for now it's here for guests. The drawer chest was part of my best craigslist score ever!! Bought a set of 2 for $200! Oh and the wall paint is called "True Turquoise."

I'm having a thing with birds these days and I happend to find these book ends one day at "Home Goods" for $15! They make me so happy!

Birdie mobile from an online tutorial- seriously simple. I used all fabric scraps and the wooden hoop cost $1. I covered it in ribbon. The vinyl wall art was purchased on etsy for $30. I was so happy with it. Nice and thick vinyl and it went on so easy!



I made this quilt last month- really simple design so I didn't have to cut into that fabric (Little Folks- love it). I think it cost me about $40 in supplies I made the pillow for our downstairs couch but it looked all wrong. I like it here in Lu's room. (made it from scraps and stuffed with a pillow we've had for awhile). I rarely buy stuffed animals- almost every one in our house was a gift, but I saw this polar bear and knew he needed to be in Lucy's blue room because of this awesome room I found online. Lucy is also obsessed with bears, courtesy of the best cartoon ever- "Little Bear."


I bought this lamp at TJMaxx when Curtis and I were first married. The base was brown and I never found a good spot for it in this house. A little spray paint from Home Depot and voila! The horse frame was a gift my good buddy, Marci years ago. It was a shade of blue that clashed with the walls so I painted it squash- I love how it turned out. Pink vinyl chicks off etsy ($6). "Sweet Dreams" sign was a baby gift when Lucy was born from my sweet Aunt Robin. Love it! The dress bunting was a little experiment. Every since I saw the dress quilt in the "Land of Nod" catalog I've wanted to do something with tiny dresses. For now, this will suffice. Made from scraps, the ribbon and tiny clothespins were about $3.

Here's the other piece of the dresser set- such a score! The frame for Lucy's pic was just an old one that I painted cream. Her name plate was a baby gift from a friend at church (thx Samantha!). That puzzle is a toy I bought at Target when Jonah was a baby- I love it but have never seen it anywhere since. The frame box was actually one of three ($25 each) that I bought when we first moved here. I had planned to put art and stuff from each of the boys in them. They promptly broke the door off one of them and so the other 2 have been hiding in the attic ever since. I pulled them out and realized one would be perfect for baby gown my amazing mother-in-law crocheted for Lucy. And the "L" was a gift from my neighbor Terri!

Here are some "Little Bear" pics that I put in old IKEA frames (painted cream). This book holder was something I picked up at Hobby Lobby and painted.



Close up of the lamp- you can tell I'm not a perfectionist. Oh and I found a cute little pic online to go with the words: "Faith is like a little seed."

Close up of the dress. I love this kind of project. It doesn't take long and is just fun to play with.




The quilt on the crib was one I made for Lucy when she was first born. The other crib bedding is from Target. I actually framed those illustrations for the boys when Daniel was a baby. The frames were on clearance at Kohl's and then I cut out some of our favorite pics from good books. I did have to swap a couple out though b/c I had to add Skippy Jon Jones- love that kitty!

I love the way the sunlight pours into this room in the afternoon.

Birds in flight

So I'm sort of obsessed with birds these days. I found this tutorial and wanted to give it a go. Unfortunately I cannot find a decent branch in my yard (that isn't rotting or full of fire ants- seriously!) so I used a round embroidery hoop to hang my birdies from.

Very simple and fun project! And here are a few preview pics of the kid's rooms. I have had SO much fun decorating them.

Lunch Dilemma

School lunches are here again. (Okay, so I started this post 2 months ago but I think it's still relevent). I'm trying to figure out my master plan for making it all work this year. I bought a ton of reusable gladware to pack their food in. Using 12 plastic baggies every day just feels wrong! But then I'm dealing with this every night!

Here are some alternatives I found online.

This one is called "Go Green Lunch Box." They run about $30 plus shipping.

I think this is my favorite one so far and of course it's the most expensive. It's called "Planet Box" and if you get the whole set it's -gasp- $60!

These are called "EasyLunchBoxes" and are definitely the most affordable at $14 for 4. It's definitely a better solution than my current ridiculous tupperware disaster but doesn't feel like a long term solution. Also, I'm not sure 3 bins is enough and I might end up needing more containers anyway.

Anyone tried any of these or found a better solution?