Waiting for Claus

Early in December Leah cut her first molar. It was not a pretty sight. Alligator tears for three days until that little molar popped through. (Yes, my jammas have stars and moons... so what?)

She was happy again. Or bored actually.

Until we went waiting for Mr. Claus. Will could not contain himself.

No request from her, just a quick pose.

When we got home Nathan was so tired he couldn't stand it. He dreamt of going

back to Texas I think.

The End.

Kisses

Yesterday my visiting teacher who I visit teach came to visit me. Since it is December she brought a little wrapped package of candy. 51% of me thought OH YEAH! Chocolate and 49% of me thought - don't leave that garbage here.

Well, when she left I opened it... because Will wanted a piece. I discovered that they were cheesecake and hot cocoa flavored Hershey kisses. I thought that one would do no harm and the cheesecake flavor intrigued me. It is genius is all I have to say. I put the rest on top of the fridge to be out of sight. But, I couldn't stop thinking about the other flavor. I mean- it's hot cocoa flavored. Which means it tastes like chocolate milk. Hershey kisses are milk chocolate. What does this mean, and what is the difference. For the sake of science I had to try them. Guess what? They taste just like hot cocoa. Which is hot chocolate milk, and nothing like milk chocolate.

Genius flavors, the both of them. If I had any left I'd share but you'll have to go get your own.

Let her eat cake

Can you believe that she turns one in two days?

We celebrated in Texas and let her have a cupcake.

She thoroughly enjoyed it and mumbled num-num-num as she mashed it towards

the direction of her mouth.

I was hoping she would blow out the candle. She blows on her meals to cool them of (even if it's cold cereal). Even though dad was watching very carefully she quickly swiped her little hand out and grabbed the candle. Hot wax on a little hand- OUCH. She cried for a minute with big tears. She was fine, no burns or red marks. And the cake made it all better.

Drumroll please

Just kidding. But, it did turn out at least. This is just about the only one void of frowns, peace signs and granola bars. PHEW.

Okay, I realize you can see the ugly railing on the side but that is what matting and framing is for (and hiding shoes).

Must Make

I made two of these pies yesterday to finish off the apples that I had. I was tired of making apple butter, chips, and dried apple rings.

To see the mentioned pie go here. Oh, just do it it's only one click.

http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/posie_gets_cozy/2008/10/sour-cream-appl.html

If you make this on Thursday you will be the angel of Thanksgiving. It will put the eater of the pie into such a delirium that they will see a little shiny halo hanging right above your angelic head.

Toddling

This girl WALKED yesterday. She was standing at her favorite place (other than the dishwasher) which is the drawer containing foil and saran wrap.

She let go and took about 4 wobbly sideways steps into the middle of the kitchen. Dad, Mom and Loo-Loo all watched quietly. Then the baby looked at me, smiled and clapped her hands for herself. Everyone clapped and cheered and she fell on her bum.

I just want to suck that lip right off her face.

Home

Suze said that Sandy said that Snowflake is our home because we've moved so darn much it's the only place that was always the same.

The kids always play at the white rocks.

There are always things sitting around that someone wants to keep.

I told Suze that home is just wherever Mom and Dad are. Even though until recent years it changed quite often.

Home is where they are.

Family Pictures

My very cool friend took pictures of us on 10-18. I love them.

Go here to see

http://www.marensijbrich.com

She has smart pants too

Do you remember Sister Babe used to always sit on the dishwasher? This little turkey is always scrambling to the dishwasher. It's her favorite toy. She hearts it. Especially the knives like brother Nathan who used to scratch his plumber's pencil holder when he put knives instead of pencils there.

This little girl also said her first words this week. At first I wasn't sure. As she sat in her highchair I said "out" and signed it to her. She looked at me like forget the sign and said "out"

clear as day.

What? Did you just say out?

She wouldn't say it again.

Then, on Tuesday night dad was reading Will a bedtime book and Baby was on the floor playing with a doll. I came in and said "Leah do you have a baby?" And I kid you not the little genius held it up and said "BA-BY".

She did too, ask Eddie. She even said it twice.

Fall Snow... or Snow Fall

Last week I thought that I'd better get all the remaining food out of the garden. Aren't these pretty? I love purple onions in fajitas and other Mexican dishes.

I was glad that I did the gardening because a few hours later I saw this:

In the beginning of October- CRAZY. The kids sure had fun with it. Will made snowballs until he came in crying of frozen hands. ( will he ever believe me about gloves?)

When the Dad came home he said... "I see you pulled out all the onions. Did you know that they can stay in the ground until you need them just like carrots?" Ummm. No. Really?

Is that true? Most of the onion is above the ground wouldn't it get mushy and soft from being frozen?

Friars and Hornes

This summer I drove right on through Hamilton county Florida. Many of Grandma Arnold's kinfolk lived there. Her (so-many-greats) Grandfather was Ryan Friar. He was a minister and organized several Baptist churches in southern Georgia. However he was dismissed from his position because he believed in missionary work. (Sharing the gospel was not okay for a minister-???). He then became a Missionary Baptist Minister (who apparently CAN spread the word). Here he is in Hamilton County FL in 1870, notice he's pretty old for that time.

Susan Friar who is enumerated with him is actually his daughter in law. Kayton, Laura and Mary are the children of Susan and Samuel Friar. Samuel was killed in 1863 for resisting arrest as he had defected from the confederate army. He was 30 years old, and Susan was only newly expecting the youngest.

I have in my possession a copy of a letter written by Samuel to his father explaining why he can not participate in the war. Carl has a copy and it is very interesting and powerful. Ask him if you can read it.

This family is on the same page as Ryan. Eli Horne is a son in law (Mary a daughter) of Ryan. For some reason this is the family I am infatuated with lately. I'm pretty sure Eli died in 1915 as I found an index record of it. I can't find anything else since 1880. Also, I'm pretty darn sure that Thomas and John are brothers of Eli's because of the ages and, I can't find Eli's parents anywhere after 1860. Eli's mother would have been 50 when John was born.... old but not impossible right? What do you think? Oh, Jesse (after John) is definately Eli's brother.

Lizza-Loo

Once I heard that you should never do anything for your children that they know how to do themselves. I thought that was a pretty good idea. Until Loo-Loo started dressing herself.

I've been taking her to a jump rope class. It costs one dollar and she loves it. Sometimes Nathan goes too. She did over 80 double dutch jumps tonight. And let everyone know about 80 times.

As we walked into the gym I noticed what she was wearing:

black and orange stripped Halloween toe socks which go to the mid calf

pink and brown nikes

turquoise and white flowered capris

and a shirt that had nothing to do with the previously mentioned colors

Seeing her dressed like that made me remember this

She gets her fashion sense from me.

Sick

SKIP THE FIRST PARAGRAPH IF BATHROOM TALK MAKES YOU ILL.

Poor Will is sick. Fourth day. Only a little throw up (praise the heavens). Very much throw up poo (Will's word). Sorry it's gross. And a little funny. He'd sit on the pot and say "Oh, so SIS-GUSTING... I hate that throw up poo".

*changing topic away from the pot*

As I was getting everyone ready to drive to piano practice yesterday I looked at Will and thought- He isn't looking very good, I'll take his temp. So, I began and the reading is moving very fast like it always does at first. Except it's already at 102. 103. 103 1/2 and finally stopped on 104 IN THE ARMPIT so it's really 105. Off go his clothes and on goes the tub. We spent a while in the tub and I gave him a dose (and a half) of Tylenol. It took half an hour to get it down to 103. (At the 105 point I frantically called daddy who said tub, Tylenol, 1/2 hour call me back). So, he was feeling a little better and I knew it was on it's way down. But, boy I hate that 104-105 point. Carolyn is the only other one who's gone there. What's with the blondies and fevers?

I'm spending the day at home. Again. Give me a call.

What I did yesterday (by baby)

I woke up happy as usual. I have four front teeth now and I hope mom will dress me as a vampire for halloween because it wouldn't be a stretch.

The family drove to a river and looked around. Some of the water was hot and steaming like the bath tub. It smelled like eggs. Why did mom put that shirt on me?

Mom took pictures of this bird. I don't know why - it's not very pretty.

Leaves taste good.

Everybody but me got to play on this slide.

Nathan found a feather.

Sissy helped me swing.

And Dad went fishing.

Freed Frame

Pretend you were out for a walk on trash day and passed a perfectly fine object discarded at the curb for the garbage man to haul off to the dump. Would you rescue the item? Would you free it from a life of stinkiness and nothingness that is the life of garbage? Would you save it and carry it all the way home to give it new life and purpose?

Well, I would (did). I did knock on the person's door to ask if I could take the discarded object but they were not home. It was sitting RIGHT next to the garbage can in between other garbage bags. The trash truck was literally coming down the street.... so I took it before the city sanitation engineer did. Would you dumpster dive too?

Guess what I bought......

Look what I found in our grocery store today. 3 of my 5 kids said "oooo look mom got O*#^s " to which I dutifully replied "Don't say the O word". "These are a far superior confection in Granddad's opinion and the whole reason why the O word is a bad word". Then Nathan walked in and said "Ooooo, can I have an O*#^ ?". It's not their fault. Never in their little lifetimes have they known why Haddocks only eat Hydrox. But, now they do.

My Boyfriend

He chose Me 13 years ago

and

I'm still HIS choice.

I Heart this Boy.

Silly Willy

Today at the store Will was riding in the cart. As I turned the corner of an aisle he said to a 50ish woman passing by- "Hi old lady". And before I could react he said "oh, I just kidding your not old". (PHEW) She kept on walking and didn't say a word so neither did I.

Also he has really been a stinker about getting into the car seat lately. He wants to buckle himself but never sits down to do it. So, the process of getting into the car is 15-20 minutes and tantrums lately because I can only wait so long for him before I go crazy. Anyhow I have been "racing" him to see who buckles first and it's worked a little bit. I say "Come on Will, first one to buckle wins" except the other day after I said that he sat down and said "I can't do it it's stuck". So I buckled him up and then he raised his hands and shouted "I WIN". Cheater.

Must Makes

Recently I made two recipes that you really must try. The first one is Martha's tomato soup. Well, Martha probably has like 37 tomato soup recipes. The one I tried is called "tomato soup". It is so good- it's not funny (I do think you could definitely get away with less butter however) .



The other recipe you must try is....

Lemon Artichoke salad at allrecipes.com

If you do make this you must eat it right away as it gets watery if it sits. And, I followed the commenter's advice and used half vinegar half water instead of all water. It is really peppery. But I loved it.

www.allrecipes.com/recipe/lemon-artichoke-romaine-salad/detail.aspx

We're glad to hear that all of the Texans are safe, let us know when you're home....

GO

Please leave. Now. Go. Stop reading and get in the car and skedaddle.

Bumper Crop

Well, we didn't do anything special with the cabbage. But thanks for the recipes- I do love cabbage in a salad. When I cut it open most of the darn thing was core or thick icky pieces. I did get enough from it to do coleslaw and some regular old cabbage salad. But I've really been spending a lot of time dealing with tomatoes and peaches. If you have one of my ward cookbooks, it has a sandwich recipe in it that is something like this:



Tomato, cottage cheese and avocado. It really is good- although a bit messy.



We found this peach at the orchard. The look on her face cracks me up (I'll look like this is fun, but it really isn't).



Mmmmm. Itchy peach fuzz.

School Begins

Sixth Grade.



Fourth Grade.



Second Grade.



First try of tomato.



Please send us your cabbage recipes.


And, to make you laugh as I sat here uploading these pictures Will kept poking baby in the chest and saying "I poked your milk buttons". Where in the world did that come from? I have never heard or said "milk buttons"... have you? Sorry but we are free with almost all topics on this blog.

Happy Birthday He did Have

Nathan's birthday party sure was fun. I made a YODO cake according to Will. We watched Star Wars and had the friends stay over late.



Nathan got just one present. But it was good.



The cake tasted better than it looked. Although I wish I had done Yoda holding his light saber instead of a cane. I think it would look cool to use a skinny green glow stick.



And, baby is crawling as of last week.

Tiny Town

We went camping near this very small town. This was it.

And a coyote.

It was the kind of town that has signs with misspelled words.

And the one store/restaurant/gas pump that was there did things like this for maintenance.

But, the best part was DOMINGO. He is 87. And he is Basque so when he introduced himself to us I thought he might also say "you kilt my fader- prepear to DIE."

We did interrupt his lunch but he was so happy to talk to someone I don't think he cared. He told us about sheep and how he used to ranch 500 acres and when he heard that Sissy could play the piano quite well he said- "Oh, forget that and get yourself and accordion!"

Oh come on, we were camping.