Happy Birthday!

...she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord. (1 Samuel 1:20)

5 years ago our prayers were answered and we were blessed with a beautiful baby boy - Happy Birthday Samuel!

Another Baking Mishap

So cooking is just not my thing. My family likes to tease me about the time I tried to boil an egg with no water. For some reason I thought you just threw the egg in the pan and turned on the heat. This incident tonight got Chuck laughing as he brought up several other incidents of my cooking mishaps. Like the fact that I made cookies not once but twice for various church functions using a recipe where I had written down 1 Tablespoon salt instead of 1 teaspoon salt. Yes, both times the cookies were really nasty. And the time I signed up to make a specific dessert for the ward Christmas party and when the party was over I went to retrieve my dish and noticed that they hadn't served mine because they were unable to scrap the crust off the bottom of the pan. When Chuck saw this he told me to grab the pan and run before anyone noticed it was mine. Too bad the kitchen staff had already read our last name scrawled across the side of the pan.

But still I just keep wondering why every time I need to make something to take somewhere it is a disaster. It can be the simplest thing and somehow I'll mess it up! And tonight was just another chapter to add to my cooking disaster book.

Chuck told me last night he needed me to make something for a pot luck dinner tonight. There was no way I was going to take the 4 kids grocery shopping and I didn't really have anything just laying around to make so I broke out the food storage brownie mix. I should have realized this could go horribly wrong when I read the directions.

It says to preheat the oven to 325, then later it says to cook the brownies at 350. Now I'm not a cook, but why would you preheat at a different temperature than you cook? I read the rest of the directions and followed them. I mean how hard is this all you add is water, oil and the powder - anyone can do this - WRONG!

I added all the ingredients and it was extremely dry. So I read the directions several more times trying to decide what I had done wrong. I finally convinced myself that instead of 3 and 1/2 cups of powder it really meant 3, 1/2 cups (1 & 1/2 cups total). So I figured no problem I would increase the water and oil to match the amount of powder I had already added then split the batter and bake. Well, the end result was not that great. The brownies were extremely thin and tasted a little weird so I made some of my new favorite peppermint frosting hoping to mask the taste. At least the frosting tasted good!

The sorry looking brownies!

In the end we pulled up to the pot luck dinner at the park and there were a ton of people there so Chuck and I decided we would leave the slightly iffy brownies in the car and hope no one noticed we didn't contribute anything! Let's just say this is not the first time we have decided to leave my not so appetizing contribution in the car. And I'm still not sure about those directions!

Smile

A couple of weeks ago Jenna started to smile and I was finally able to catch a picture. This is a pretty small smile. A typical smile is usually pretty crooked and her eyes disappear when her chubby little cheeks scrunch up. She has also started to coo when I talk to her. I just love when they start to interact with you. The kids also love to try and get her to smile.

The Lame Soccer Mom

Samuel is now playing soccer and I'm definately a very lame soccer mom. Let me just say that I don't really care a lot about sports. I didn't grow up in a sports playing or sports watching family - I'm not athletic at all - so I could care less if the kids play sports or not. This is my excuse for why I took poor Samuel to his first soccer practice in his jeans, no soccer gear and forgot his water bottle. See I'm a lame soccer mom!

Samuel is enjoying playing and even scored a goal during the first game. He just happened to be standing right by the net when the ball got close and so he was able to kick it in. He was so excited. So even though I still don't really care about sports - especially this week when I was freezing to death watching the game - it is fun to see the kids running around in their cute uniforms and learning new skills.

St. Patricks Day

We did several fun activities for St. Patrick's Day this year. The first was making from scratch something similar to chocolate "waffles" covered with green peppermint frosting. My mom made these for a class activity when I was in 4th grade. It's the one and only time she made them, but it left quite an impression because I have been wanting to make them again for 20+ years and I finally got my chance!

Isaac trying his first bite of the tasty creation from my childhood. Chuck and Trina were laughing at me that I had remembered this for all these years, but they were just as yummy as I remembered. I think it was the peppermint frosting!

Another day the kids and I made shamrock sugar cookies. I was very tempted to use the peppermint frosting on them, but decided it might not mix so well with the almond flavoring in the cookies. (Who knows maybe it would have been delicious, I'm just not very adventurous when it comes to baking - I like to stick with what I know tastes good - the curse of being a bad cook I guess!)

I turned around and Isaac went straight for licking the bowl.

The day before St. Patrick's Day we made a Leprechaun trap out of small box with the lid missing so when the Leprechaun followed the path of shamrocks up the rock wall he would fall into the box and we would catch him. The kids really got into this project because they really thought we would be able to catch a Leprechaun. The only problem was Samuel was asking me so many questions about Leprechaun's I was having a hard time keeping the "lies" straight - which is not a good thing with a kid that remembers EVERYTHING you say!

Our finished trap sitting on the table to catch the Leprechaun when he came during the night.

The next morning Samuel was especially disappointed that the Leprechaun had appeared to have fallen in the trap but got away. Instead he left the kids little pots of chocolate gold, rainbow twisted marshmallow treats, squirt toys and of course Lucky Charms for breakfast.

During breakfast Samuel was coming up with all sorts of ideas for how we could catch the Leprechaun next year. And of course asking me more hard questions about Leprechaun's.

This is why we only get Lucky Charms once a year - everyone likes to just pick the marshmallows out of the cereal. Isaac was especially mad that I wouldn't let him have any more cereal and decided to dump the remainder of his cereal out.

The kids spent a long time outside playing with their new squirt toys. Samuel managed to break his and was in tears saying he was never going to be able to get another one. I told him I could probably figure out where the Leprechaun had bought them, but he didn't think that was true. Luckily Chuck was able to fix it when he got home!

Water Users Conference

Grandma Luann and Grandpa Paul stayed at our home while they were in town for the annual Water Users Conference. Paul and Chuck played golf a couple of times - they even took 7th place in the Water Conference tournament. Chuck used the money they won to finally buy himself a pair of golf shoes. He was convinced the shoes made him play better when they played again that week. All of us adults and Jenna went to the banquet one of the nights. The guest speaker was the cartoonist from the SL Tribune. He talked while giving a slide show of several of his cartoons - it was very funny and intertaining. And Jenna was great and slept through the whole thing!

They also watched the kids for us one night while Chuck and I and the baby went out to eat. We went to a mexican restaurant that we didn't realize was also a cantina. It happened to be St. Patrick's Day so there was a lot going on at the cantina that night! I felt a little silly holding a new baby in my arms listening to the live entertainment and watching everyone drink their green beer. But the food was good!

Grandma is always quick to do activities with the kids. Samuel wanted rolls so Luann whipped up a batch of homemade wheat rolls for him.

And Samuel really enjoys playing games with Grandpa - especially card games.

The Last Project is Done!

Jenna finally made her deput at church this Sunday. I took the whole past month off because I just really haven't been able to sit that long with the wounded tailbone. It was nice to get back even if I did have to haul an extra big bag so I could bring along the boppy to sit on while I played the piano in primary. Good thing no one can really see me behind the piano!

My sweet girls!

I just love little girls dresses. Can't wait for these two to wear their matching dresses for Easter.

The Last Baby Project is FINALLY Done!
Jenna's baby blanket is finally finished! It was a team effort between my mom and I. I really wanted to do this by myself, but realized I could do it but it would probably take me months with everything going on around here. So I cut out the flowers and sewed them on while my mom cut out all the rest of the pieces and sewed the quilt together during the time she was staying with us. Then it took me the past several weeks to cut around all the seams. But now it's done and I LOVE it! Thanks Mom!!

This is the back which I think looks equally as cute as the front.


My baby girl - 1 month old.

There's just something about having a new born baby that brings such a special spirit into our home. I also find my emotions closer to the surface as I feel such an added measure of joy and love in my own life. The other evening Chuck walked in the room to find me walking with the baby in my arms and tears streaming down my face. He looked very concerned and asked what was wrong. As I looked at him, but couldn't answer he then understood and said, "Oh, it's your last baby". And he was so right. I found myself crying as I looked into Jenn'a precious eyes and realized this time was passing too quickly and more than likely I will not have another newborn of my own to hold and cherish. So here's to trying to soak up all those joyful moments of having a newborn baby!!

I'm NOTHING, but MOM!

Let me preface this story by saying that Samuel is always talking about what he is going to "be" when he grows up. Most days he wants to be a pilot of some sort with just the type of plane changing from a F22, to a Joint Strike Fighter to a stealth bomber. The other day I gave him one of our old digital cameras and for few hours he wanted to be a photographer. He always wants to know what he has to do in order to "be" a certain profession. I take these opportunities to stress the importance of school, how he can be anything he wants if he studies and works hard and the value of always learning which I think is so important. I just love these little teaching moments throughout the day.

Today we were busy making a very yummy treat - an early St. Patrick's day activity because I just couldn't hold off any longer. I got out my camera to take a few pictures so Samuel wanted to take a few pictures with his camera.

He snapped a picture then said, "I want to do what you do mom - take pictures for fun." Then he paused, looked and me and said, "Except mom, you just grew up to be NOTHING".

I had such a surge of so many emotions when he said those words. I wanted to laugh because it really was funny. I felt a little sad to think that a lot of the time motherhood is not as valued as it should be. But the emotion that won and I manifested rather strongly was the feminist inside me. I proceeded to tell Samuel that I was an engineer just like daddy and that I had worked for many years and made money just like daddy. I had worked extremely hard for my degree so I could "be something". I then softened a little as I told him that I made the choice to stay home and take care of him. I gave him a hug, told him that I loved him very much and then he said he was glad I took care of him.

When Chuck came home from work and I told him about this experience he laughed then said, "Well you had that one coming." I asked him what he meant by that and he told me that I had had very similar views and said things like this to my own mother. And he was right. There was a time when I did not value motherhood and the sacrifices my mom made for her family. I remember telling Chuck the day we were married, after the chaos of trying to get our group picture taken because of all his nieces and nephews running around, that we were never having children and it was too late he'd already married me! Little did I know that one day my greatest source of joy would be raising and teaching my own children even if at times they think I am "nothing". Being their mom is enough!

Random Happenings

This post has a bit of everything and is really just random happenings from the past week or so.

This is the scene at the beginning of every day for me! The kids want to be where ever the baby is. Our bedroom has been turned into another playroom. Every time I'm feeding the baby or getting her ready for the day the kids are in the room trying to help or just bringing in their toys and playing on the floor. I feel very blessed to be the mom of each of these crazy little ones!

Last Monday Samuel and Bella came back from Grandma Luann's and I was a little nervous wondering how life was going to be with 4 kids at home all day. But I must say it's been much better than I anticipated. Life around our home was already somewhat chaotic so adding another one hasn't really changed much - it's still crazy and noisy around here! I feel SO much better now that I'm not pregnant (except the tailbone) that everything seems a lot easier to handle and we're actually getting back into a routine.

The difficult part is when I need to go somewhere, but I think I've finally got that problem figured out. Last Tuesday when I loaded all the kids for the first time in the car to take Bella to Joy School I was 15 minutes late. Isaac turns into a little monster when I try and get him in his car seat. He screams, arches, hits and kicks. So he was screaming at the top of his lungs and I was using all my strength to try and force him in the seat. Let's just say I was not winning this fight and Jenna was also screaming because she hates her car seat unless the car is moving. I finally decided to take Isaac in the house to his crib for timeout. He was much more cooperative when it was time for him to "try again". We still have this battle each time we leave the house, but now I don't fight him but instead take him to timeout when he fights me. I just have to make sure I leave plenty of time to deal with this little problem!

Jenna is one lucky girl to be loved so much! When ever she is awake they all want to take a turn holding her.

I finally decided I could give Jenna a binkie and she took to it right away. I like to wait for a few weeks and make sure the baby is nursing well before giving the binkie. It has actually really been nice to help sooth her, especially during the wee hours of the morning. Isaac still loves his binkie too! (Don't you love his pink headband!)

The past couple of days Jenna has finally started to get her days and nights straight. Up until then she was up for several hours every night - usually from 12 to 3 a.m. I would feed her take the first two hours and then wake up Chuck who would walk around the kitchen listening to his iPod for the next hour or so until she would finally fall back asleep. At night she only seems to sleep well if someone is holding her. Let's just say I usually sleep a few hours in the rocking chair each night. But she is getting easier! I was telling Samuel one day that I was tired because the baby was up during the middle of the night crying. He then said, "If I was you I would just stay in bed and let her cry."

I can't believe that my baby is already almost a month old. Time is moving much too quickly! She is already holding her head up really well.

Tummy time!

The pouty face. Last week the pour little girl broke out with a bad case of baby acne. It came on overnight and Chuck took one look and exclaimed, "What happened to her face!" I guess he forgot that this has happened to each of our kids though not to this extent.

She really likes the swing.

1st bath! She didn't mind the water at all - no crying.

Misc. Pictures:

We bought a new camera a couple of days ago so I have been taking tons of random pictures to see if I like it. Right after Jenna was born Chuck was holding her and the doctor went to shake Chuck's hand and Chuck dropped the camera. It hit the floor breaking a part off the side and I couldn't have been happier! It still worked, but it was another great reason to get a new camera since I really didn't like the old one. So we'll see if we keep this new one.

Samuel the other day told me Isaac's car was not working and he was going to fix it. He got out Chuck's tools and proceeded to use the screwdriver to remove the plate and change the batteries in the car. He did all this by himself! Lucky me - the annoying sounds are working again!

This picture just made me laugh. Samuel was shooting rubber bands at a cup and Isaac wants so bad to do everything the other kids do that he joined in on the action. He seemed to shoot himself more often than the cup!

Isaac loves to sing and now he has started to try to play the piano and sing. He will sit on the piano bench with me and request songs he wants to sing from the Primary book. His favorites include Popcorn, Snowman, Wise Man, Follow the Prophet, BOM Stories, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes and Do As I'm Doing.

Samuel was at Joy School and Bella and Isaac were playing so well together that I was able to clean the bathrooms. They were being so quiet and good I almost didn't dare go in the room to find out what they were doing. When I went in I couldn't see Isaac. Bella told me she had made him a "tent" and sure enough he was in the pack and play under the sheet having a great time.