Overheard On New Year's Eve

Mary asked Grace if she wanted a pet rat. Grace replied unenthusiastically, "No, I would actually prefer a little brother to a rat."

I guess we can cross both of those off of her wishlist.

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We were reading a story tonight before bedtime. We were trying to get Rebecca to share the pop-up book with Joshua. I said, "Rebecca, you need to share and let Joshua see the book."

Rebecca clutched the book tightly to her chest and said, "I can't read to Josh, I'm not a mommy."

When Your Mom Sends You This

What do you think she is trying to say? So, is it proper etiquette to send a thank you note?

Some Things Just Make Me Laugh

I just called up the stairs, "Where is Mom?" After a minute's pause, I said again, "I need the beautiful lady."

Rebecca's little voice answered, "Here I am, Daddy."

Favorite Christmas Present

Brigham will be happy to know what my kids' favorite Christmas present is. (Can't you see how excited Rebecca is to be rocking her shirt?)

Though I suspect their cousins won't be happy to know, that Brigham's favorites are my children.

Are you coming?

We still have a few leftovers.

Christmas Baking, Part 2

6:38 pm - The second (and final) round of car deliveries are done.
5:41 pm - The first round of car deliveries have been completed.
4:06 pm - The kids start delivering plates to families on our street.
3:49 pm - We are ready for plating. The fudge is cut, the ginger spice cookies and fruit bars are ready. The bookshelf has the sugar cookies, Rice Krispies treats and mini cupcakes. We have plates and are using envelopes (with a family picture in it) for labels.
3:14 pm - The blueberry and cherry bars have their glaze and are ready to go.
2:52 pm - The coconut blueberry bars have finished baking.
2:39 pm - Another batch of Rice Krispies treats are done.
2:07 pm - The cherry bars are done cooking and we have dipped the orange ginger spice cookies in white chocolate.
1:35 pm - Cherry bars are about ready to go in the oven.
12:44 pm - Chipotle break for lunch. Around this time, Rebecca looked up and said, "Moves like Jagger." It came out of nowhere. We weren't listening to the song nor had we earlier today.
11:55 am - Rebecca and Ruth decided to settle down and watch a movie. Joshua was still going strong in the kitchen and said, "This is wicked fun." He is a true Bostonian.
11:48 am - Icing the sugar cookies is almost done.
11:34 am - Mary and Joshua icing sugar cookies.
11:19 am - Mary and Joshua have finished dipping sugar cookies and I have finished the orange ginger spice cookies.
11:07 am - Dipping in chocolate and decorating the sugar cookies from last night.
10:08 am - All the mini cupcakes have been frosted, so Joshua moved the last batch out of the kitchen.
9:42 am - Ruth wondering why she has such a crazy family.
9:40 am - Mary and Joshua frosting and decorating the mini cupcakes.
9:12 am - Joshua and Rebecca working on the wet ingredients for the orange ginger spice cookies and Joshua working on the dry ingredients for the same cookies.
8:59 am - Mary zesting oranges for the orange ginger spice cookies.
8:41 am - Joshua opening the candy canes and smashing them for decorating purposes.
7:35 am - One pan of Rice Krispies Treats are done.

Christmas Baking

We started our traditional Christmas baking. We made the sugar cookie dough on Sunday night. Tonight we rolled out and baked 14 dozen sugar cookies and made one jelly roll pan of fudge. We managed to do that in just over two hours. Tomorrow we will be working on the rest of the treats. I love making Christmas treats!

Proving a Point

I wrote the post below late last night. Rebecca could not have known what I wrote. But that did not matter. At 4:30 am, she woke up and wanted a drink of water. I got her water, but fumbled passing the small cup of water to her. I told her to go snuggle with Mom while I cleaned up. She did not want to leave me, so I changed her shirt and cleaned up the water.

I asked her if she wanted to go back to her bed, but she had woken up. So we laid down together in our bed. But for some reason, she would not pull up the covers. I figured I would give her a minute and then pull up the covers. After a minute or two, I tried to pull up the covers. She pulled them back down. I told her that I wanted to have the covers on me. She said no. I told her that I was going to have the covers on me, she could do what she want.

She said okay, got out of bed and stomped off to her room. She slammed the door shut. I have to say that I wasn't upset she decided to put herself back to bed. But, I never would have guessed that is how it would have gone.

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If you are interested in a festive juice to drink, I recommend Trader Joe's Pear Cinnamon Cider. It does sound a little weird, but it is quite good. Give it a try.

A Girl to Love

Rebecca is a great kid. She goes at full speed and loves life. She laughs, demands, cries and melts your heart … and does it all again one minute later. She lives each day with a single motto: If my parents say to me why do you have to act so two, then today has been a successful day. She is successful everyday and definitely is two.

Do you want to get to know Rebecca a little better? Well, these photos give a glimpse of her life. We had to find a new photographer since Rebecca Mudrick has moved away. We are really happy with the photos that Saydi took of us.

Let me know if you learn something new about Rebecca. I love the expression on her face for this series of pictures. Look at her pose. I think the picture with her sticking out her tongue should go on the wall with all the other pictures of my parents' grandchildren. I love that little one.

For My Uncle Tim

My Uncle Tim asked me to put a picture of the family on the blog. Well, Tim, here you are. We have a lot of great pictures from this photo shoot and I need to post some of them. In order to do that, I need to find a little more time. I have not been successful at that lately.

For now, enjoy one photo of the whole crew.