Recipes

I would like to put together a cook book filled with easy yummy recipes. It would be great if they didn't use a ton of ingredients, and if they used food storage items it's a bonus!! Please send along any recipes that your family loves and wouldn't mind sharing. Thanks! You can email them to me at sherryanne77@sbcglobal.net

New Year's Resolution

My resolution this year is to be more organized. This I can apply to just about any catagory in my life so it works well as a goal. So far I am on track with my goal and making progress. Wahoo!

Christmas in Arizona

This year around August, John came home and said he couldn't get time off for Christmas. After a talk about gas prices ($4.00 per gal) the lack of vacation time and a tight budget, we came to the decision that this year we'd have Christmas here at home instead of traveling to John's parents home in Arizona.

Of course plans change. By mid November gas prices had dropped by about half and John found a way to get time off. Then came the phone call that John's parents were moving to Washington and this would be their last Christmas in Arizona. Washington is pretty far, too far to drive most years. So we made the decision that we'd do our best to afford the trip this one last time. So off we went the weekend before Christmas, again driving all night and arriving early early in the morning. Then the fun and festivities began. Read on for the complete details of our Christmas Vacation.

Snow and a trip to the YMCA

The kids were extatic about the amount of snow on the ground when we arrived. They played and played until they were cold, wet and exhausted. Then after a drying off period did it all again. Jonah made a snowman, Katie John thew snowballs and Sariah made snow angels.
The YMCA is a yearly tradition. The kids LOVE to go to the YMCA with Grammy, they dream about it all year. Here is a picture of the swimmers. Keira, her cast and I sat on the sidelines for a bit snapping pictures and watching kids & John go down the water slide. We always have such a fun time.

Gingerbread Man Army & Word Search Delight

A favorite activity for the kids was decorating gingerbread men. They love to frost, sprinkle and eat them. It takes a while with only 3 kids and a Grammy... but it sure was a delicious and productive activity.

Jonah has recently discovered the joy of word searches. His primary teacher at church would send home lesson themed searches each week. At Grammy's house Jonah was thrilled to discover that she had a new word search delivered to her house everyday in the paper! What a fun thing!

Here he is happy as a clam, completing today's word search.

Snowy, slippery climb up Thumb Butte

Here we are at the top of the of the Thumb Butte climb. In the background you can see the big "thumb". There sure was a lot more snow than we'd expected. Pat and I did our best to keep our footing on the slippery slopes. The kids seemed to have little problems, or if they fell it didn't seem to bother them. The view from the top was great... we could see for miles. After our rest at the top (and realization that we should have brought more water) we started down. We decided on a shorter route (because the sun was sinking fast), but it had more snow thus more icy slippery. The handrails were very helpful on the steeper switchback filled decent. We made it back to the car with only minutes of daylight left. What a fun adventure we all had climbing Thumb Butte, next time we'll climb with more water and less snow. On the way home we stopped to see some Christmas lights before we went home to eat dinner.

Birthday Girl! Katie John turns 7

The long awaited birthday day finally arrived. Katie John was very excited when she was able to see the very cute cake her Grammy made for her. It was decorated with 4 princess on each castle tower and Princess Katie John in the center. Uncle BJ & Kara, Uncle Danny, Grandpa & Grammy were just some of the guests. The rest of the party went well, as she opened each gift with such happiness. Katie John loves being seven years old.

Christmas Eve

After grandpa read the "Night Before Christmas" to all of us, I got a quick shot of the kids' excitement before going to bed.

Christmas Morning & Dinner

To ensure a Christmas morning that didn't start at 6:00am... we told the kids that they couldn't wake us up until 7:00am. We had a half of a Christmas movie recorded on the dvr that the kids could finish watching and Jonah knew how to find other little cartoons in case the movie ended before the specified time. Sure enough.... it worked!

Here are the anxious kids waiting at the top of the stairs to see if Santa came!

Katie John checks out her stocking and finds a princess memory game along with new toothbrush and toothpaste and shampoo and conditioner.

Jonah grinned from ear to ear when he discovered santa brought a Star Wars lego set... He also got silly putty and a chess set. Santa hit the nail on the head this year with him.

Sariah shows off her stocking filled with coloring and activity books. Santa also brought her Snow White toys.

Keira seemed only interested in the candy cane she managed to unwrap (with help). What a cute picture!

Sariah is demonstrating how to eat scones with powdered sugar and butter, the classic Christmas morning breakfast.

Katie John was chosen to be Grandpa's gift helper this year. As a "trainee" she learned the tricks of the trade this year crawling around the tree fetching gifts for Grandpa to hand out. She did a really good job.

The whole gang at Christmas dinner! Yummy!

Our 4th trip in 2 weeks to Orthopedics, 3rd cast

On Monday Keira had an appointment to get a replacement cast because her ankle swelling had gone down and the cast was loose. So we get a cast (not as cute as the last) and off we go. About 6:00pm on Tuesday John picks up Keira to hold her and whamo bamo her cast has fallen mostly off! This of course was a perfect ending to a stressful day of learning that John's car was broken beyond reasonable cost and we'd have to replace it. Anyway... I wrap her leg with ace bandages and call Kaiser. Of course they tell me that the safest course of action is to take her to the emergency room for a splint... but if I chose to just wait until morning to get an appointment probably nothing major would happen. So of course I chose the most reasonable action and just kept her from putting any weight on her ankle and called orthopedics this morning.

So off we went to get a new cast --hopefully from the good cast guy who did our first cast. Of course this morning was the coldest so far... BRRRRR so we practically ran into the building just to keep from freezing in place. Fortunately the good cast guy (Dave) was available and got us right in and took extra effort to ensure a good cast, and of course with a cute candy cane wrap. He also gave us a walking boot just in case it fell of while we are in Arizona (no Kaiser there). We really appreciated Dave, he gave the kids graham crackers to keep them all distracted, Dylan from his wild poopy diaper that at the moment I couldn't do anything about and keira from her castless ankle. What a nice guy! We are now at home, kids napping happily and a Mom with slightly less stress, still wishing for calm.

A long list with a lot of almosts...

I am a list maker. Here we are in the week before Christmas scrambling to finish all the things that need getting done. We leave for Arizona at the end of the week and my list still has many things left to do. Our tree is up, cookies made... but not yet put on the tree. The present list is almost finished... but not yet shopped for. The sewing machine is out... but the baby blankets aren't made yet. The laundry won't fold itself and keeps multiplying. My bananas are almost ripe for holiday bread... but I'm running out of delivering time. Life at Christmas time is often hectic and hurried almost beyond my sanity. I am wishing for calm this year. Maybe I should put that on my list...

All cute and feeling better

Keira and I went to orthopedics today to have a cast put on. The appointment went very quickly and before we knew it we were in the cast room. We asked for a candy cane stripe and this was our outcome... look how cute! It's so very festive and Christmasy!

Broken

Well, today was a practically normal day until nap time. I had just put Keira down for her nap and had finished putting Dylan (our neighbor friend) down for his nap. Back in the living room I heard Keira crying a little more intensely than a dropped blanket or pacifier. I go in to check on her and she is on the floor crying. Apparently she had tried to climb out of her crib and fell. She was favoring one leg, but I didn't think much of it until 10 minutes later she was still crying. So I did some testing and saw that she wouldn't put any weight on her left leg and nothing was making her feel better. So I called my friend Shannon (Dylan's mom) and she rushed home from work ready willing and able to rescue me. She herded the rest of my kids down to her house and entertained them while I got Keira into the car and drove to the emergency room. I was hoping for a sprain or something, but sure enough it was a broken ankle. You can see the break at the back of her ankle, it looks like a little triangle piece has come off. It's a 4-6 week fix. So you'll be seeing us carrying Keira a lot since she probably won't be able to walk with a cast.
This is Keira at home smiling for the camera... a brief moment of not crying. I've got her dosed up on Tylenol with Codine... but it's not really helping.

Keira was very brave at the doctors. The emergency room visit was only 2 1/2 hours, which was a great blessing. She wouldn't have lasted much longer, especially after the splint went on. We hope the guy in the casting room will humor us with a candy cane colored cast on Thursday.

Joking Jonah

Jonah is our 3rd grader. This year he has truly turned into the joker of the family. He reads joke books and then tells us jokes at dinner, in the car, during homework... just about everywhere.
The girls try to follow in his footsteps, but they are still learning the concept of humor and often their jokes aren't funny. Jonah is doing well in school. He loves playing soccer after school with friends and is a member of the Chess Club.

Jonah is also a cubscout and fast learning the skills of a cub. He attends his meetings regularly and has already earned lots of beltloops and badges. He is really looking forward to the pinewood derby coming up in January. He will work on his car with his dad. What a fun thing to look forward to.

Creative Katie John

Katie John is our 1st grader. Today was the 1st grade feast for Thanksgiving. I went down to take pictures for the yearbook, so I was able to take extras of my girl. She is wearing a hat she made and eating on a placemat she wove herself! What a fun thing!

This is one of Katie John's drawings that she did at school. It's a circus tent if you couldn't tell.

Katie John really likes going to school and playing with her friends. She likes to play with her dolls, but especially she loves to sing. Katie John is one of the best singers in primary and works hard to know all the songs. She likes to sing in the car, in her room, in the backyard.... just about everywhere (to Jonah's dismay). Katie John is very special in many ways.