First Words

Sarah started talking today. She rode through the grocery store, trying to figure out how to open a bag of Goldfish crackers and saying, "Eat, eat, eat, eat..." After dinner (and Goldfish) she heard me talking with Sam about cookie dough ice cream. She perked right up and said "Cookie?". When exactly will Mom and Dad come onto the list?

Katie-Bug Quilt

Those of you who know about this quilt... Thank you for your patience. I know you have been waiting a long time to see it. I wish you could have seen it in person.

This is the original drawing I made.

Here is Sarah giving me the "you know I'm not going to listen to you so why do you keep telling me to get off" look.

The whole quilt was tied with embroidery floss that matched the color of the piece it was on. It is hard to see it in the picture, but the white flower is trimmed with a purple ribbon around the edge, like in the drawing.













Jennifer sent this picture to me. The quilt ended up big enough that all three girls can share it...while sleeping in their own beds.






I sure miss working on it. I miss the connection I felt with Katie while I was getting it ready for her family.





... I have this strange urge to go paint my toe nails red with black polka dots.

Halloween

OK, I know I am slow..Here it is January and I am finally posting Halloween pictures, but at least I am geting around to it.

Sarah had been wearing this basket around the house for days. I thought it would be great for her to go as a "basket case". She didn't cooperate, of course. It stayed on just long enough to snap this picture. She saw all the kids running around the parking lot at the church and knew that was just what she wanted to be doing too, not sitting around for pictures.

This was the back-up costume. My pretty ballerina.

This is her hollering that I am torturing her. "What is this horrible thing you are making me wear?"

Caleb as the "Grim Reaper". Every picture I took of him he managed to pull that hood part way over his face. It made him more "sinister".

There is no sinister in Sam. Here is our great warrior, our knight in shining armor! Oh, yeah, and he's got a cool sword.

(Check out that chain mail shirt that I painted a few years ago for another Halloween. The awesome crest on the helmet is new this year, though. I chopped up a hand broom from the dollar store and spend the night with the hot glue gun.)

This dapper English chap is none other than our Jacob. Don't let that grin fool you though. He is really an under-cover spy, complete with shoe phone and poison dart cane. (Remember, you didn't hear it from me.)

Here is the whole crew. Caleb brough one of his friends from the neighborhood. He was very thrilled with the idea of a trunk-or-treat (he had never heard of one before) on Saturday when his mom was going to let him go out again on Sunday. He did have to sit through our primary singing all 13 Article of Faith songs as payment. (Way to be a missionary, Caleb!)

Sarah managed to grt rid of most of her accessories, but still wasn't happy about not having full reign of the parking lot.

Apple Pie

A few weeks ago our Relief Society activities person called and asked if I would teach a class on how to make apple pie filling. "Just send me the ingredients list," she said. ...Umm, a can of apple pie filling and a can opener? O.K. I guess if I am teaching a class I should come up with something a little better than average. So I searched and searched and I found this delicious recipe. The home test was wonderful and I had a room full of very happy people after they had gone home to bake their pies. Here's the recipe.

5 med. Granny Smith apples
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons butter

1. Peel and slice apples. Soak them in water with the lemon juice.
2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and vinegar.
3. Drain water off of apples and mix apples with spices.
4. Dump the apples and spice mixture into bottome pie crust and dot filling with butter.
5. Cover with top pie crust, seal edges and cut small slits into the top.
6. Cover edge of pie with aluminum foil.
7. Bake at 400 degrees for 50-60 minutes. Remove foil for the last 10 minutes of baking.


Make sure to make this where you can put it in the oven to bake it right away. When I did it for the class I packed it up and took it home to bake. Unfortunately, I put it in the box that had my library book in it and the pie leaked all over everything. I spent over and hour with Christiaan carefully washing each of the 460 pages, trying desparately to save it. The we blow-dried until the pages were just barely damp and then put it under heavy furniture to try to keep the pages flat. I was very surprised that it turned out much better than I had expected, but I'm sure that it had more to do with the prayers than any book repair skills on our part. The pages are only a little discolored and only slightly wavy. However, I get this strong craving for apple pie whenever I sit down to read it. Must be the smell of apples and cinnamon.

My Favorite Things....

Yes, Sarah is truly a self absorbed child. Her favorite things are Her! Her favorite word is "Sarah". Her favorite thing to look at is her reflection. She even prefers to play by herself. (A big change from the three boys who wanted my constant attention.) However, I can't blame her. She is the cutest thing in this family. We all prefer to look at her and try to get her attention. I'm just not sure this bodes well for her future.

I Got Hair On My Face

I was trying to get everyone out the door for school the other day when Sam calls down the stairs, "Mom! I can't find the shaver."
"What?" I replied. Surely I had heard wrong. (It actually happens a lot with Sam.)
"The sha-ay-ver. I got hair on my face."
I must say, my children leave me speechless more often than I would care to admit. However, since Sam is my third child I have had much practice in quick recoveries. "Sam," I said, "You are supposed to have hair on your face. It's whiskers that you have to take off. Besides, if you used the razor you would cut your face and it would hurt a lot."
"Oh," says my now wiser seven year old, "I'm ready for school then."

Happy Birthday to Me!

OK, so yesterday was my birthday. I can't remember feeling more miserable for a birthday in a long time. I hadn't been feeling well for days and when I got up in the morning I had a headache that quickly progressed to a migraine. I still had to get the kids to school and Jacob had a doctor appointment right off. Of course, I forgot the copies of the lab reports until we had already gotten all the way into town. Then, the doctor we saw (not our regular) went way out into left field with his diagnosis (I already knew what the real problem was) and prescribed several drastic prescriptions for a condition that he doesn't even have a problem with. The doctor is one of those who really likes to hear himself think and not even Jacob could get a word in edgewise. (Now that's an impressive feat.) Then after school I had to drag kids through homework, still with a migraine, and I threw a frozen pizza in the oven for dinner. I managed to eat half a slice before I had to run out the door for Cub Scouts. Hmm, Cub Scouts with a migraine... fun. Christiaan still hadn't even gotten home from work because he had to stay late. Next came the Cub Scout Committee meeting. I think I enjoyed the rowdy boys more. I finally got home at 9:00pm to children watching TV, on a school night, after bedtime. Jacob wasn't even done with his homework. And since Mom shouldn't have to do dishes on her birthday everyone kindly left them where they were for me to do in the morning instead. I took a shower, took some meds and went to bed.

Translation:

I have four wonderful children and I have a husband who loves me more than anyone else. I am so grateful to have at least a rudimentary medical knowledge so that I know when a doctor is really off base. I am grateful for medical insurance coverage so that I can afford to take my son to another doctor who will fix the problem. I am grateful that my children have a school that they can go to where they are challenged both academically and where the administration sets high character standards and expects them to live up to it. I am grateful for convenience items such as frozen pizza so that on nights when I am not feeling well or am rushed I have a quick fix for dinner. I am grateful for Cub Scouts and Scouts and the strength it gives to our rising generation and I am honored to have been chosen to take my turn in leading for a while. I am grateful to know that, while Christiaan may not get the kids into bed on time, I NEVER have to wonder if my children are safe when I leave them alone with their dad. I am grateful that Christiaan has a job to go to that pays well and provides good benefits. I am grateful for indoor plumbing with hot water, for a dishwasher to throw those dirty dishes into, for modern medical advances that provide relief from pain and illness. My Mom called to wish me happy birthday. It has been years since that happened. Then, later in the evening, my Dad called too. I can't remember a better birthday. I am so blessed!