Nov. 3, 2009 - Voting and Dentist...
My children usually go alone or in twos to the dentist. Today my older 2 had their cleaning appt.s so my sister came over to watch the 3 younger kids for me.
I am glad that my 12 year old doesn't mind if I take photos of him :) Some kids would be embarrassed, but he thinks it's cool that I like to keep a record of their lives!
Here's my handsome son who is just a hair taller than me who is 5' 6"... it's strange that we see eye to eye!
Then it was my daughter's turn. Her humor is SO much like her Daddy's...
The hygienist thought it was pretty funny (but had an idea when my daughter didn't respond to "Hi"! She had seen the funny teeth a LOT this week! haha)
Oh she is SO cute!!!
Wait...did I say "CUTE"??
They both got a clean bill of health...NO CAVITIES!! (although they both need BRACES!! Argh!!!)
And today was the big voting day in Maine and we made sure to go and vote "Yes" on Question #1 to help to keep marriage in Maine sacred between a man and a woman... the way God intended it :)
The kids on their way inside...
They always LOVE to vote with us because their Grampa is the Constable of our ward. Since they combined a few wards today at our Civic Center... he was the HEAD Constable! They thought they was VERY cool!
We all got our "I VOTED TODAY!" stickers and were on our way!
Now I am tuckered out after a long day and am looking forward to relaxing with a good book (which happens to be "Twilight" tonite!) BUT since the time change always confuses us for a while... it feels like it should be bedtime but it is only 5PM!!!!! Oh well... guess I will go and knit for a while ;-)
� 0 Comments � Post A Comment! � Permanent Link
Oct. 7, 2009 - Simple Blessings...
With 5 children and one on the way... thinking of all the knitting I had to do this winter was stressing me out a bit! My wonderful Mom offered her knitting services and then I offered her organic wool and she got to work! (she also learned a few new things along the way like knitting on circular needles, the long tail cast-on and weaving in ends!)
THANK YOU, MOM!!!!! This meant SOOOOO much to me!!
(and now she is knitting hat for her Great Grandkids AND then she'll knit my Husband and I a hat! Isn't that terrific??? WHAT a BLESSING!!!!!!!)
� 6 Comments � Post A Comment! � Permanent Link
Sep. 8, 2009 - "E"s 4th Birthday Prince Breakfast and Party (pic heavy!!!)
It's hard to believe that my youngest turned 4 on Sunday!!! He was SO excited to get up and have his Prince Breakfast!!!
Here's the young Prince with his Daddy...
Me and my sweet boy...
His breakfast consisted of an ice cream milkshake, sausages, orange frosted cinnamon rolls, fresh fruit salad and his name written in tropical Skittles! MMMM That's MY kinda breakfast!
The poor old train candle started going a little crazy so it was time to blow them out!!
I guess the "BIR-IDA-BOY" needs a new candle!!
He opened a few gifts after breakfast and really liked his big brother's gift! FOUR dollars!
A nice big "thank you"!!!!
His party was in the afternoon!!
Yes... he had a pink cake :) Strawberry on strawberry!
He was eating a black olive...
So I prayed he wouldn't spit it out all over the cake when he blew his candle out!! Phew...
Time to open gifts!
He had his best buddy/cousin helping him!
I was thinkin' this might be his favorite...
or the camo sleeping bag or the soccer ball from Grampa & Nana...
But I think the bubble gum from Aunt Bonnie won the prize!!!
Does anyone know who these people are on my couch???
The big 4 year old with his brothers and sisters...
Happy Birthday, "E"!! I love you!!!
� 7 Comments � Post A Comment! � Permanent Link
Aug. 24, 2009 - Double Streusel Coffee Cake
I wanted to make another breakfast cake this morning. (Let the cravings begin!!) The one I made the other day was a blueberry coffee cake, but today I wanted more of a streusel. Well, I found the perfect streusel cake recipe!!
At first I felt incredibly horrible for actually continuing with the recipe after seeing how much sugar was in it LOL but then I did a little research. I found out how many grams of sugar were in 1.5 cups of sugar (I doubled the recipe to make it a 9X13) and that came to 300 grams. I know. That's a lot of sugar! BUT wait...it gets BETTER!! I had to actually double THAT because it also called for 1.5 cups of brown sugar in the streusel topping!!! YIKES!! SO... a grand total of 600 grams of sugar in this little sweet cake.
I decided I'd cut it into 16 pieces so when I divided 600 grams by 16 pieces (a good math lesson I am going to tell my kids about) I figured out that each serving contained 37.5 grams of sugar. I made sure to check our tub of yogurt and each 1 cup serving has 28 grams of sugar. I wouldn't even think twice before giving the kids a cup of THAT. Then I checked the Oreos (no one said I was perfect!!!) and it would take about 4 Oreos to equal the grams of sugar in one piece of my coffee cake. No... my kids don't eat Oreos for breakfast, BUT we got them to take to the beach and they each probably had 5 or 6 over the course of the day!!! GROSS!! They aren't homemade and just full of junk!!!
I guess no matter what... this cake is high in sugar BUT I'd rather my kids have a treat that is homemade (with milk, eggs, and I even exchanged 1 cup of the flour for whole wheat!) than to have processed grossies!!
Bon Appetit!
� 5 Comments � Post A Comment! � Permanent Link
Aug. 19, 2009 - Our 3rd Day of School... (pic heavy!)
How many public schooled kids do you know that get to take a field trip on their 3rd day of school? Oh the beauty of homeschooling!!
Today we woke up and it was gorgeous outside! I said to my Husband, "How about we go to the ocean today?" So the packing began! The kids were SO happy that they didn't have to spend another morning doing paperwork! Can you blame them??
Of course we had to pose for a few family photos:
Dad & Kids...
Mama & munchkins...
Here's my littlest guy having fun in the waves...
The kids had a lot of fun in the water, but honestly, today they had more fun in the sand!
"C" starting digging a hole...
and it got bigger...
and bigger...
and BIGGER!!
"A" had seen my brother build a sand castle while we were visiting this summer and he decided to copy it!! What do ya think, Brian? Is he as good at it as you?
Sweet "L"
Sand castles...
"A" made more sand castles than the beach has probably seen all summer!
While "C" was swimming, he found some Sea Sponge! At first it creeped me out like it was a little squid or something... then when I realized it was sponge... it became very cool!
And "Z" found some seaweed that she was treating like a baby... (gross!!!)
until she decided to drop it on "C"s back and run away! LOL
Who's this guy? :)
After we had our fill of hanging out on the beach, we packed our stuff up, brought it to the van and then came back to take a nice, long walk!
One of the highlights of the ocean is walking over to the rocks and hunting for stuff...
But then of course Mom has to stop all the fun for another photo session!
I had to get in on this one!
OK...back to the fun! A couple boys walked up to show them some live crabs they found! How cool!!
Sea life...
And I thought this sea grass was the most beautiful shade of green! (which happens to be my FAVORITE color!)
And while Dad and the 3 older kids were exploring, the 2 younger kids and I found a shady spot...
Thank you, Lord, for a special day with my family! And thanks again, everyone, for letting me share a bit of my life with you!
