Sydney's Birthday (and a tooth fairy pillow)

This past Monday was Sydney's birthday, and we went up to my parents' house to have a family party and spend the week with them. My mom's birthday was yesterday, so we were able to spend the day with her as well. We just returned today for the weekend, because the kids have their Christmas program on Sunday night and a rehearsal tomorrow morning.

When I took Sydney shopping to pick out her birthday decorations, she said that she wanted Strawberry Shortcake stuff. Well, as we walked through the party section of Wal-mart, she spotted some snowman plates with coordinating napkins that had polka dots (Soooo Cute!) and decided that she wanted that. It's a good thing she found (and liked) these first, because the "kid's section" of party decorations did not have Strawberry Shortcake. Well, we proceeded to pick out balloons and stuff and found that Wal-mart only has one brand of balloons now. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought they used to carry a wider variety of balloons. Anyway, we got some blue and white balloons that matched Sydney's snowman theme.

Well, we will NOT be buying these balloons again! Apparently, Larissa is now allergic to yet another thing. Look what blowing up balloons did to her...

I asked her if she could smile for me...here's her attempt...

We don't know if the balloons had latex or what and if that's what she's allergic to, but her face blew up like a balloon (no pun intended). She was pretty miserable for the rest of the day and even into the next day.

My niece, Kelly, decorated a banner for Sydney's party. I thought that was really sweet of her and that she did a great job on it.


Sydney chose a carrot cake for her birthday cake. The cream cheese frosting looks like it was melting off of the cake, but it wasn't. =) It just wasn't as thick as a regular frosting for some reason, but it tasted great!


We used to just get those number candles for the girls' birthdays, but for the last few years, they've been requesting the individual candles. Sydney had a hard time getting all of them blown out at once. Here's attempt number one...

Here's attempt number two...

That last one just doesn't want to be blown out....

Finally...she got it! =)

Licking the icing off of the candles is a MUST and is sooo much fun! =)

Here's all the cousins. You can see the snowman plates and dotted napkins on the table...they were sooo cute! =)

Among Sydney's presents was a new outfit that Alyx helped to pick out for Sydney. It was a Hello Kitty shirt with some khaki pants. This was one of my favorites, so that's why I'm highlighting it. =) I thought it was really cute, because the picture on the front was in reverse on the back side of the shirt. Here she is right after she opened it...


Here she is the next day, modeling the front and back of her new outfit. I know...her hair is hanging in her face. She really doesn't like for me to put anything in it, but sometimes I just have to make her, because I get tired of not being able to see both of her eyes all the time. =)



On a side note, I just recently finished Sydney's tooth fairy pillow. She was thrilled with it and is now excitedly awaiting her first loose tooth. =) She chose the same type of yarn that Larissa did, so it's very fuzzy and difficult to make out the tooth fairy angel on the front. They love them, and that's all that matters. =)

Our Christmas Trees

We have been blessed over the years to have been given (artificial) Christmas trees by both of our parents....We've never had to buy one! =) Since we've had two-story houses for the last 3 or 4 years, we've been putting our "regular" Christmas tree downstairs in the living area and a Christmas tree upstairs for the kids...they LOVE this! Here's some pictures of them in front of "their" tree. It has teddy bears, blocks, Disney-themed bells, sleds and other various hand-made ornaments.

Here's our family picture in front of the Christmas tree that is downstairs.

We took a lot of pictures and the kids were getting pretty sick of it. =)

Sydney was the most patient, but even she gave up after a while. =)

Baby update

For those of you who aren't on Facebook (and missed my update there), I had a doctor's appointment this week, and the doctor was able to find the baby's heartbeat! =) He said it sounds great! My first sonogram is scheduled for January 6th, and they should be able to tell the baby's gender (if the baby cooperates). We were "on the fence" early on in the pregnancy as to whether or not we wanted to know ahead of time, but now, we are all just too curious and will definitely try to find out. =)

I'll keep you updated...

Planets

Did you see Venus and Jupiter earlier this week? That was pretty cool. It was hard to get a good picture, though, because there were a lot of clouds in the sky. Here's the best one out of all the ones I took.


I wish I could have gotten a closer view of it, but every time I zoomed in on it, it got too blurry. =( I guess that's why I need a DSLR, huh? Oh, well, it was still pretty awesome.

Thanksgiving

We were able to go up to my parents' house Wednesday evening, spent all day Thursday with the fam, and then had to leave Friday afternoon to do a little moving before the BIG move on Saturday.

Even though we only had a couple of days with my family, we really enjoyed the time that we did have. While we waited for "Thanksgiving Dinner," my dad gathered the kids in the family room and told them some stories from some books that he's had for many, many years. I remember reading from them when I was a kid. They are stories about jungle animals that teach morals to young kids. He was able to remember quite a few of them and really entertained the kids. Here are some pictures from "story time." =)

My dad really gets into the stories with motions and character voices. He's the best! =)

Mom and I usually go all out decorating the tables for dinner, but there just wasn't time this year. We were too busy with food preparation, and that's more important to us. =) Mom did a great job substituting sugars and oils in her recipes. She made some pie crust dough for two apple pies and a mince meat pie. We usually just use the jar of mince meat to put in the pie, but it's full of stuff that is not good for us. So, Mom found a recipe that had better ingredients, and the pie turned out great! Jason worked on the crust and made leaves and berries out of the extra dough to put on top of the pie. Look how pretty!


Does anyone else like mince meat pie? I'll have to get the recipe from my mom and post it. We top it with what we call "hard sauce." We leave out the ingredient that makes it "hard." =) It's basically a confectioner's sugar frosting. We found a confectioner's sugar made from evaporated cane juice that worked perfectly. We'll definitely be repeating this recipe for Christmas.

I hope you all had a great holiday with your friends and family.

The move and the new house

Here's the understatement of the year: "I've been busy!" I'm so far behind in blogging and have so many things to share, so I'm just going to do my best to fill you all in as soon as I can. For those who hadn't heard (since my last blog entry), we were not able to get possession of the house until last Tuesday, so we didn't actually move until this past Saturday. The move went as smoothly as it could have, and there were minimal "tragedies/casualties." =)

I'm very pleased at how quickly our house is getting into a functioning order. Last night Jason helped me put my desk area together and set up my computer and printer. I'm very excited, because the bonus room that is upstairs is going to house my desk, Jason's desk, the school stuff, and the kids toys and books. =) We have an awesome view of the natural lake behind our house from this room, too. Check it out...

This one was actually taken through the window.

Yes, that's an island in the middle of the water.

These were taken at sunset last night.

As always, God's timing was PERFECT! We were not as ready as we thought we were two Saturdays ago, so we are very thankful that it didn't work out until this past weekend. We were initially concerned that with it being the Saturday after Thanksgiving we wouldn't have anyone to help us, but we ended up having more guys help us than we would have had the previous Saturday. There were right around 15 adults and 5 children (yes, the kids carried stuff, too.) helping us with the move. We are so blessed to have such an awesome group of friends in our church. I hope we can still call them friends after this move. (We have some monster furniture.) =} Seriously, though, we really appreciate all of you who came out to help us and those of you who were unable to help but prayed for us and the move. We couldn't have done it without you...You're the best! =)

Here are some shots of the house in case you're curious. You'll have to overlook the mess of boxes everywhere, but a least it will give you an idea of what it looks like.

This is the entryway with a living room/dining room on the right.

The dining room

This is the view into the family room from the entryway.

The family room with sliding glass doors to the back porch, door to the master bedroom, and stairs to the bonus room.

The view of the kitchen from the breakfast room. The living/dining room is through the arched entry on the left. The family room is on the right. The arch on the right leads to 2 bedrooms and a bathroom.

The breakfast room. Laundry room is on the right.

The laundry room.

You know me...I have to take pictures of flowers and plants, so here are a couple of pictures of what is already existing in my yard. If you can identify the little cluster of pink flowers in the first picture, I'd love to know what they are.



After the move on Saturday, my friend, Peggy, and her boys kept me company while I waited for the cable guy. The kids had a blast out back. There was a nice breeze, so they were able to fly the kites. Here are some pictures...

This just in...

I'm taking a break from packing to fill those of you in who haven't heard yet. We're moving! This weekend! No, we did not plan it this way but were unfortunately forced into it. For the last couple of years, we've been renting our house with the intention of saving up and building in the next year or so. Circumstances (including my medical bills and the poor economy) have kept us from being able to proceed in the time that we had hoped to, but we were willing to be patient and stick it out in our current home.

A month or so ago, our landlord decided to put our house up for sale but promised to honor our lease which is not up until June of next year. With the news of the baby (which is due June 3rd) and the possibility of being booted out of our house, we began to consider our options. We knew we couldn't afford to build the house we wanted right now, so we thought about buying this house when our lease would end. Our landlord knew that we were considering this and said he would give us first dibs. As a precautionary move, we began casually looking at other homes (both sale and rent). We found a few that we were interested in, but we weren't going to consider a move this close to the holidays.

As it turns out, we're not in control of our lives, and God had other plans for us. =) We had been praying over the weekend that if our decision to wait until the new year was not what God wanted that He would show us in a very definite way what we should do. Yesterday morning, our landlord called Jason and informed him that he had let the home go into foreclosure and that it was currently in short sale. He asked that we move out by Dec. 1st. Well! If that's not a sign, I don't know what is! =)

So, yesterday afternoon, we looked at 3 rental homes that we had found and chose one of them. We let the realtor know that the monthly cost was a little higher than we wanted to pay, so she called the homeowner and he knocked off $125 to put us right where we wanted to be. So, we will now be saving $225 per month, and we will be gaining 600 square feet of living area! Sweet! God is good! We may not understand His timing right now, but we can trust that He is in control and that this did not surprise Him.

Our plans before all of this happened were to spend the week of Thanksgiving at my parents' house, and we would still like to do that. That is why we have chosen to move this weekend. Please pray for us that we will be able to get everything packed and moved by this weekend and that everything will go smoothly and relatively stress-free. =}

Orange-Honey Chicken

It's been a while since I've shared a recipe, so I figured it was about time. The last couple of months have held many food aversions (due to my pregnancy), so we've had to revamp our meal plans. This recipe is one that we recently tried, and we all really like it. Enjoy! Oh, and FYI, I did not take the picture seen below. That came with the recipe. =)


Ingredients:
4 chicken legs with thighs (we actually use 5-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts)
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp. dried parsley
1/4 tsp. pepper

Preheat oven to 375 deg. F. Grease a baking dish. Arrange chicken in prepared dish. Combine orange juice and honey in a small bowl; mix well. Stir in parsley and pepper. (Basting sauce can be prepared up to 4 hours ahead.) Brush honey mixture over chicken, covering completely. (Pierce the chicken with a fork over entire surface before putting sauce on to allow sauce to soak into the chicken.) Cover with foil. Bake chicken until cooked through, basting occasionally, about 45 minutes or until juices run clear when pierced with a knife. Remove foil and continue baking for another 10 minutes.

Weekend Events

We had a really good time at my parents' house this past weekend. Saturday was spent with the family. We had taco salad stuff for lunch, and Jason made his homemade tortillas for those that wanted burritos...they were yummy! He also made a pan of brownies for my "birthday cake," and we topped it with some (non-dairy ice cream) Cookie Avalanche made by Purely Decadent. It was really good!

Before we served up the brownies, I decided that since it was my birthday (which means I can basically do what I want for the day), I was going to play the "thankful game." You know, the one you usually play at Thanksgiving with your family? So, after they sang "Happy Birthday" to me, I proceeded to name several things that I am thankful for, including my family, Jason and the girls, God's blessings...etc. Then it was my girls' turn to share something they are thankful for. Watch the video clip below to see what they had to say...



My girls made me very proud. Who knew they were capable of keeping secrets at their age. They knew for several weeks and attended church many times and never spilled the beans (as far as we know, that is. Did any of you know?). God's timing is perfect, and we are trusting in Him to work out every detail. We are very excited and feel very honored and blessed that God is entrusting us with another sweet little one. As usual, your prayers are greatly coveted. Right now the due date is set for June 3. So far, I have never made it to a due date. Alyx was 3 1/2 weeks early, and Larissa and Sydney were both 1 1/2 weeks early. I'm imagining this one won't be any different, so we'll be adding another May birthday to the family calendar. =) (For those who don't know, May is the busiest month in our family when it comes to birthdays and anniversaries.)

I hope that none of you are offended that I did not personally call or talk to you, but I felt like this was the fastest and easiest way to get the word out. =)

And thus the ride begins...

Have you been to Busch Gardens and enjoyed the ride Sheikra? One of the last times we went, we rode it about 8 times in a row. The ride is so much fun! It has the usual slow rise to the top of the hill with all the "clink-clinking" of the mechanisms that pull you to the top. This is when my hands usually start getting a little bit clammy, and I begin to question my sanity as to why I even entered the ride to begin with. Once you reach the top of the ride, there is a small half-circle that you ride around before you get to the "drop-off." It really is breath-taking to be able to look all around the park from that high in the air. As you near the end of the half-circle, the screams begin to arise from those riders who are anticipating the impending doom. When the car comes to a stop, you find yourself perched on what feels like the edge of a cliff in a 45 degree angle, and you continue dangling in that postition unable to see the track ahead of you for about 5-10 seconds before the car finally lets loose and you drop in a true 90 degree angle. Wow! What a rush!

Right now, I feel like I'm perched at the top of that "drop-off." This week begins the craziness of the holidays that will not end until after my oldest daughter's birthday at the beginning of January. My birthday is this Saturday, and, yes, I'm finally turning 20. What?? I can't pass for 20? Oh well... Birthdays are not as fun as they used to be, you know? Why does that number have to keep getting higher and higher? I don't feel my age. In fact, sometimes I still feel like I'm in high school or college. Not that I'm wishing to be back there, mind you. I love my life the way it is right now, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Here is a picture from the surprise party my husband and dear friends cooked up last year. I couldn't believe they were able to surprise me! Notice all the toys and books my kids and Jason were carrying. I thought we were just going over for the afternoon to have a cookout and play games, so I wanted the kids to have stuff to play with. How funny! I think the kids were just as surprised as I was, especially when we saw my parents, my sister and brother-in-law and their 4 kids. They all kept the secret very well.


We will be heading out of town tomorrow afternoon to go visit my parents for the weekend. Family is the best therapy when you're feeling depressed about getting older. =) All I have to do is look at my brother-in-law, Richard, and I think, "Wow, I'm not so bad after all!" LOL!!! =D Just kidding, Richard!!! I love you!!! Please don't butcher my hair!!!

What do you have planned for the weekend? I hope you all have a great time, whether you're with friends and family or your just cleaning out the garage. =) See you when we get back!

Check out my adorable nieces!

I don't know how my sister, Laura, ever produced such cute kids. =) Just kidding, Laura...you know I love you! I received these pictures in the mail and had to scan them, so the quality is not that great, but you can still see how beautiful they are.

Dakota (left) is 4 1/2 and Macon (right) will be 3 this month.

Look at those angelic faces!

Happy Election Day!

We just voted. Have YOU yet? Don't forget to! You CAN make a difference!

Our voting precinct is always such a pleasure to visit. We've never had to wait in a long line, and we're pretty much in-and-out every time. When we used to live in Valrico, I remember having to wait in lines for hours (WITH the kids!)...that was not fun! Now that the kids are older, they are much more tolerable of these type of situations, and they make us proud of the way they behave.

I'm not sure if this is standard among all precincts, but the man that was handing out the "I voted" stickers gave one to each of the girls as we were leaving. I thought that was very sweet of him, and the girls loved it. They've really gotten into the whole election thing this year. I guess they are either becoming more aware of the world around them, or they are becoming more nosey to conversations between Jason and myself. I'm leaning towards the latter. =) They understand that we are voting in a new president, and they are very excited. All morning they've been chanting and cheering for McCain...it's really quite adorable. =)

There little minds have somehow connected religion with politics (not a completely bad idea). I think they believe that we are voting for our choice because he is "good" and not for the other because he is "evil." One of my girls voiced their concern that the other candidate (which they can never remember his name or how to say it) didn't know or believe in Jesus. How sweet is that? Even though she knows that we don't agree with him, will not vote for him and she considers him the "bad guy," she's still concerned about his soul. My heart swells! I hope she never loses that tender spirit.

Now go vote!

P.S. Happy Birthday, Richard! We love you!

Have you had your vitamin P today?

For those of you who go to the same church that I do, you already know what I'm talking about. Yesterday, our pastor and his family were out of town, so the assistant pastor and youth pastor took over the morning and evening services in his stead. The assistant pastor preached Sunday morning, and during his sermon, he made a statement that was not necessarily profound, but it compared the importance placed on taking care of our physical needs (ie. taking vitamins and other supplements) to the importance of taking care of our spiritual needs (ie. spending time in the Word). He said that along with all the vitamins that he takes in the morning, he makes sure to get a good dose of vitamin P---that's Proverbs.

Proverbs has always been one of my favorite books to read in the Bible. Every chapter seems to be filled with a little bit of something for everyone, and it doesn't matter what trial I seem to facing or what sin I seem to be struggling with, God finds a way to speak to me on such a personal level. Today's Proverbs contains two very well-known verses that are some of my favorites.

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

I love these verses, because they not only remind me that I'm not in charge and that I need to trust the Lord with everything, but they also give me a promise from the Lord that if I do trust in Him and acknowledge Him in everything I do, then He will show me the way that I should go. As those of you in our Sunday School class know, we requested prayer for some decisions that we will be facing in the next few months. These verses were an encouragement to me, because I felt like God was gently reminding me that He's got it all under control and there's nothing for us to worry about. Praise the Lord that He loves and cares about every little detail of our lives (Luke 12:6-7)!

Make sure that you take the time to get a dose of vitamin P today!

Is it normal...?

...For the "tow truck guy" to get to know you? Well, ours does! I think we have to put him on our Christmas list now. =)

Last week, Jason was driving home from an appointment and noticed that the gas prices at Wal-mart had drastically dropped. He decided that he would take my truck out after the kids were in bed and fill it up. 45 minutes after he left, he was still not home. I tried to call him, but he did not answer. I became a little worried since Wal-mart is only 5 minutes up the road. I walked past one of the windows on the front side of the house and noticed my truck pulling up to the mailbox very slowly. It stopped, and I saw Jason talking to someone that I didn't know. Come to find out...Jason had never even made it out of our subdivision. The truck broke down just before the entrance, and this guy (that I saw Jason talking to in front of our house) had offered to help Jason push the truck back to our house. It took them 45 minutes to push that monster of a truck all the way back to our house. Wow! Good Samaritans do still exist! Thank the Lord, He was looking out for Jason that night.

Long story short...we had the truck towed to Car Max (again), had it checked out and got it "fixed"...AGAIN!!! We picked it up last Saturday, drove it to church on Sunday and didn't have any problems...UNTIL....

Wednesday, when I had my doctor's appointment, I drove my truck to the doctor, but when I went to leave, it wouldn't start! Aaargh! I wanted to cry...I felt so betrayed by my beloved truck. Jason was unable to come to my rescue right away, because he was an hour and a half south of us and still had something he had to do before he could break away. He did, however, call Car Max and the tow truck guy to get everything scheduled for me. The tow truck guy said he could be there in 20 to 30 minutes. I really didn't want him to, because I didn't want to go back in the waiting room with all of our paraphernalia or sit in the parking lot waiting for Jason to come get us. I immediately started praying that God would work out the timing, so that we could wait in the truck. It was 65 degrees outside, so we just propped open a couple of doors and felt great. The girls and I ended up having to wait about 2 1/2 hours, but I didn't mind too much. God did work it out so that the tow truck guy pulled into the parking lot just a couple of minutes before Jason arrived. Isn't God great? He cares about the small stuff. =)

The tow truck guy waved as we were walking to Jason's truck and said, "Sorry we had to meet like this again." How sad is that? He knows us.

We are very thankful that we decided to purchase the extended warranty on the truck when we bought it from Car Max. We only have to pay $50 for each trip to the shop, and the amount that we payed for the warranty has been well exceeded in the cost of the repairs.

We're not sure when (and if) we're going to go pick it up. It's (supposedly) fixed right now, but we are seriously considering a trade-in with both vehicles. Since Jason has a company vehicle again, we don't need his truck (except when mine breaks down), so we thought we could save some money by trading them both in on a more reliable vehicle. Pray for us that we'll make the right decision and that God will lead us to what we should do.

Happy Halloween!

We don't do the whole trick or treating thing, but what kid doesn't enjoy dressing up? In the spirit of frugality (and recycling), I came across an idea for a curly wig that the kids could make. Check them out! Aren't they cute?


They were really easy to make. We started out with a plastic grocery bag. Cut off the handles and bottom seam of the bag. Cut down the side seams to use only one side of the bag (depending upon how large the child's head is), and while holding down the bag on their head, tape a circle all around their head beginning at the forehead and angling back just over their ears and an inch or two above the base of their skull. Once you have the circle complete, begin filling in the entire center of that circle, making sure to keep it snug on the child's head so that it will hold it's shape. The directions I had said to use masking tape, but I had more packing tape, so that's what I used--it worked fine. Here's what it should look like after you tape it completely.


Remove the "hat" from the child's head and trim off the excess bag. The directions said to use newspapers or other "curl-able" paper, so I used some old CVS ads for extra color. I cut them into 1/2 inch to 1 inch strips using my cutting board and left the fold intact so that it would open up to a longer strip. You can use a closed pair of scissors to curl the strips.


Attach the curls starting at the bottom edge of the "hat" and working up to the crown by using either double-sided tape (or create your own by rolling the tape into itself). Here are the girls "hard at work" on their wigs. =) They really enjoyed themselves and really love their creations.