My Lydia Grace turned 10 on Sunday!
Lydia wasn’t feeling well. I took her to the doc today. They did x-rays of her abdomen and couldn’t find any problems, so she’s on medicine to help with her stomach pain and nausea. Hopefully she’ll be able to go to school and enjoy her day tomorrow.
I am a new bunny mommy! I recently adopted Rosie, a mini lop, through the House Rabbit Society. It was a blast going to the bunny foster home and picking out a bun of my own! Rosie is the cutest, sweetest thing EVER. She isn’t shy or fearful of anything, not even James’ new 75 pound doggy, Buddy.
Happy Valentine’s Day! As with most of the holidays, I enjoy the time through the eyes of my children. This last week has been filled with Valentine box crafting. Jessica and I staged a photo shoot of her guinea pigs. We took quite a few Valentine-esque photos of the piggies. She taped them all over her box, inside and out, along with a number of red hearts. It was quite a tribute of love for her pigs.
Lydia’s box was topped with a Littlest Pet Shop disco scene, complete with a working disco ball! Elaina and I made a really cute monkey box and Anjelia did a bunny box, of course. I wish I had pictures, but I’ve all but given up on my camera. I miss taking pictures.
Speaking of pictures. . . I tried to take pictures of my homemade noodles! Yes, I made homemade noodles for the first time. Unfortunately, I have no documentation. They turned out very yummy. (Thank you Robin, for teaching me!) I was proud to serve them for James’ sis, Christie, who visited us last week after seven long years! It was so good to see her. She recently returned from being deployed to Iraq and we were thankful to have her home! I also had the honor of having James’ Aunt Kathryn over. I’ve missed these ladies!
Jessica has fallen in love with the music of John Denver. She has the BEST of teachers this year and Mrs. R plays John Denver music during class. Jessica borrowed her teacher’s cd so James could put the music on her MP3 player. Too cute!
Do you remember your Valentine boxes? What kind of music did you like in grade school?
Elaina spent days in front of our fireplace with a fever. Landon was right by her side the entire time.
Despite the bitter cold, I hope you have a warm and cozy, love filled week!
Sadly, the girls’ Christmas break is over as they started back to school today, leaving behind this pile of laundry. My king size bed is almost completely covered!
I have two more loads in the laundry room to throw on top!
Are there better family moments than Christmas morning? What joy! Every difficult parenting moment throughout the year seems a small price to pay for the joy of being with children on Christmas morning!
James gave the girls and me Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve. We sprinkled oatmeal in the driveway for the reindeer, set out Santa’s milk and cookies and tucked the anxious and tired girls into their beds. I set out on my three hour excursion to pick up Lydia and Jessica’s animals. The kitten stayed at my sister’s home for a month, while the guinea pigs stayed with Carl, Mary and Tori. Thanks so much for your help!
On most Christmas mornings the girls wake us up and drag us out of bed, but this year James and I were wide awake at the first sound of kids whispering while excitedly running up and down the stairs. We couldn’t wait to surprise Lydia and Jessica!!
My Lydia is growing up to be such a sweet and responsible little girl. She has gone from being the most hard headed kid around to being a fun, responsible and caring girl. She’s always been a joy, but she’s just so easy now! It’s been a privilege to watch her grow up.
One thing we started noticing about Lydia, as early as two years old, is her intuition. I hung her Christmas stocking up one day while she was napping. I was excited and went ahead and filled it early. When she awoke from her nap, she walked into the room, pointed at her stocking and said, “Cookies!”. I couldn’t believe it. In the toe of her stocking were animal crackers!! How did she know that?
A couple of years later she kept telling us that she was getting something green for Christmas. She mentioned it several times. My mom and Larry gave the girls a green John Deere gator! How did she know that?
Well, this year James and I are beyond excited! We have a kitten for Lydia for Christmas! We’ve told her many times that she can’t have a kitten. The kitten is being babysat by my niece, Emily. I’m going to get him on Christmas Eve. He’s going to stay in our room until Christmas morning. I wrapped a big box yesterday. It’s as tall as Lydia and in it I have a smaller wrapped box full of packing and a picture of the kitten. After she opens it and sees the pic, we’ll bring out the kitten!
She came home from school yesterday to the big box that I had excitedly set out for her. She walked over to it, shook it and said, “Is there a cat in there?”. I was speechless! I wonder if God has given a her a special gifting. She certainly is a remarkable girl!
I am so excited! I have found my new Christmas cookie for our annual Christmas Cookie Exchange! I did a test run of this recipe last night and my family’s eyes lit up with delight as they nibbled away. They are delicious! I have to make seven dozen for our exchange, but I get to bring home seven dozen different yummy cookies. It’s so fun!
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (10 oz.) jar maraschino cherries
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Add dry ingredients and stir until smooth.
3. Roll into 1 - inch balls about the size of a walnut (larger if desired). Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Drain cherries and reserve juice. Press center of each ball with thumb. Place a cherry in indentation.
5. In a saucepan, heat condensed milk and chocolate chips until chips are melted. Stir in 4 teaspoons of cherry juice. Spoon about 1 teaspoon of mixture over each cherry and spread to cover cherry. (More cherry juice may be addeed to keep frosting of spreading consisitency.)
6. Bake for 10 minutes.
“Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.â€
This has been the laziest of weekends. An ice storm has passed through our area shutting everything down, even church! We’ve spent the last two days making cutout sugar cookies and roasting hotdogs and sausages in our fireplace! (I LOVE my hotdogs black!) I’ve consumed more cookies than I can count and I’m sure I’m in some kind of blood sugar coma, as I can barely move. I thought it a good time to share about our recent holiday happenings.
We enjoyed a relaxing Thanksgiving at home. I baked for two whole days so my family could sit down for a half-hour meal! It was worth it and I really enjoyed all of the cooking. I was even able to use my new sideboard!
Anjelia grew tired of waiting for the meal to be ready. She fell fast asleep in front of the fireplace. It’s so warm and cozy.
