Before and after

The first haircut was way less traumatic than I thought it would be. At 22 months, I buzzed him right before cutting Daddy's hair. When the tickling buzzing was too much to handle, we gave him a lollipop to calm him down. Ellen spent the whole time stating emphatically that she didn't need a haircut, that clippers were for boys, and that her hair was just fine.

Holiday treats

See, Mom? The toffee finally did work out. It took me about four ruined batches, though, and I still don't know what I did or didn't do to get it right. It may be a while before I try that again!

In the same amount of time that it took to make English toffee, Ellen and I made cranberry orange muffins, Rice Krispies treats, peppermint popcorn, carmel corn, and peanut clusters. I don't usually get excited about holiday baking and treat-making on my own, but I had fun in the kitchen with my mom and sisters while visiting before Christmas. So when I got home, I couldn't get the idea of having a treat party out of my head. We had some friends over for lunch and the toffee disaster, but that took so much time I ended up making most everything else beforehand on my own or with Ellen later.

About a week later I got tired of seeing the peanut brittle ingredients on the kitchen counter, and since my mom assured me that it was exponentially easier to make than toffee, Jack and I gave it a go. Not pictured: two beautiful pans of peanut brittle. Also not pictured: Nutella fudge. I got the recipe at the sample counter in the grocery store. It was sooooo easy. Next time, I think I'll add more Nutella to give it more of a hazelnut taste, though.

For your holiday enjoyment:

Nutella Fudge
1/2 jar Nutella Chocolate Hazelnut Spread
1 11.5 ounce bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 tsp vanilla

Butter an 8x8" pan. In a large microwave safe bowl, put Nutella, chocolate chips and condensed milk. microwave on high for 90 seconds, stopping at 30 second intervals to stir mixture very thoroughly. When done microwaving, add vanilla and stir mixture until all chips are completely melted and the mixture no longer looks shiny. Pour into prepared pan and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes to set. Cut into 1" squares.

Gingerbread house

All the pieces of the gingerbread house made it to Lubbock! We spent our first Family Home Evening back in Lubbock putting (most of) the pieces together. Ellen and Jack Jack did the M&M and candy corn decorating, I frosted, and Jack kept stray hands out of the sticky stuff. We ran out of frosting before we got to the horses and the sleigh, but I think we'll still follow family tradition and let it go for a New Year's party.

Ellen's birthday, Part II, and really, really late because I forgot about these pictures we took

One cake mix makes 50+ mini cupcakes. Plenty for the four kids in our preschool Spanish class, their siblings, their moms, and our daddy. With several dozen left over to take to friends.

Feliz cumpleaños, sprinkles, and green candles.

Yummy!

She's so excited about her birthday gift from mom and dad . . .

A tricycle! Yes!!!!

Little Baby

There are just eight days until Christmas, but this song is for all year.

Joy to everyone

An early Christmas gift for you all.

Enjoy.

Holiday cheer

When I'm in town for the Midway High School Winter Choir Concert, I usually go because I still have siblings singing in the choirs.

I always arrive with pretty low expectations as I tell myself that there's no way any high school choir can be as good as I remember this group of choirs being. Once again, I was surprised at how amazing they actually did sound, and how much I love well-sung choral music. All of the choirs sounded beautiful, and I consider myself a discriminating listener.

The traditional closing to the concert involves inviting choir alumni to join the combined choirs on stage to sing "Let There Be Peace on Earth." As my favorite youngest sister reminded me this year, it has been fifteen years since I actually sang as a student. However, I still remember the words, I still know members of the choir, and I've sung the song more times as a former student than as an actual student.

Thank you, Midway High School Choirs, for making my holiday even more meaningful.

More turkey!

Last week at preschool Ellen and her friends made turkeys. Can I just say that double-sided tape is brilliant? The kids added feathers to their heart's content without any sticky, gluey mess.

Thursday after dinner Ellen helped Nana put up and decorate her Christmas tree. The past two mornings have been very calm since Ellen and Jack are perfectly content to sit on the couch, look at the lights, and listen to Christmas music.

Today we're going to the Starks Family Reunion, a.k.a. Second Thanksgiving with lots of family, food, and fun.

What I'm thankful for

Turkey.
Cranberry sauce.
Dressing.
Green bean casserole.
Sweet potatoes.
Mashed potatoes.
Gravy.
Homemade rolls.
Pumpkin pie.
Eating for two.
:)

Actually, I'm really, really thankful for these people:


And these cuties:


And this cutie:


And I'm most thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, and his suffering for me so that I can try again every day to be a better wife, mom, sister, and daughter.

Thank you!

"We're bouncing like Tigger!"

Actually, the quote was, "Mommy, botamos como Tigger!"

We made it to Nana and Papa Starks' house late this afternoon, just before dark. Thanks to Daddy's skillful driving and hilly country roads, we may actually have caught a little air. Or maybe we were just checking the shocks on our car. To our three-year-old, that's as close to bouncing like Tigger as you can get.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Hello from out here

Ellen, Jack, and I made it to Grandma and Grandpa J's house in record time. The kids were exceptionally good in the car, and we've been partying here ever since with the grandparents, two aunts, three uncles, and three cousins. We expect more family to arrive soon.

And we miss our Daddy, so be safe and come to us soon!

Happy birthday, Ellen!

Ellen is THREE!!

Feliz cumpleaños (That's how they say it in Spain)

I love Jack because he is a hands-on Daddy.
I love Jack because he knows how to clean up.
I love Jack because he is intelligent, and he knows how to fly under the radar.
I love Jack because he appreciates efficiency.
I love Jack because he notices the details.
I love Jack because he understands the big picture.
I love Jack because he looks to the future in making decisions.
I love Jack because he brings me flowers and sends me interesting links.
I love Jack because he cares what I think.
I love Jack because he has a beautiful voice.
I love Jack because he wants the best for his family.
I love Jack because he wants to be with us forever.



Happy Birthday, Jack!

Will this hurt your car?

Will this hurt your car?

We voted.

Candy

Your family can do incredible things, too.

Note that I'm the only one wearing my mask to protect my identity.

Whatcha eatin', Ellen?


Chocolate, of course.

Dress rehearsal

This is the only time you'll see my kids in these costumes. A friend generously offered us our pick of her windfall of Halloween costumes. Ellen picked out the alligator, and Jack Jack just looked too cute in the bear costume. My friend made that costume herself. I am in awe, as I will never be the Halloween costume sewing type. That's too much effort for one event.

We tried the costumes on and got really excited about our venture into the wild animal kingdom.

However, after the Ha-BOO-tat party, the JRCLS lunch, the ward trunk-or-treat and Fall Festival, and Heritage Halloween at the Ranching Heritage Center, the kids had never worn the costumes. It has been 80 degrees here in the past week, and that's just a little much.

Ha-BOO-tat

Every year the Texas Tech student chapter of Habitat for Humanity hosts a Halloween carnival for the families in the neighborhood where they build all of their houses. This year the theme was Super Heroes. Since Jack is the Co-President of the student organization, we decided to go all out.

Of course, neither of our super kids are smiling in this family photo, but they were both excited to be there. Ellen found the matching shirts on the couch yesterday morning, and I am still laughing about this conversation we had:

E: What's this?

Me: Those are our costumes for the party tonight. We're going to be the Incredibles.

E: Oh, it's wonderful!

Why, thank you, Ellen. I'm pretty excited about how the shirts turned out myself, since I am completely anti-making-my-own-child's-elaborate-Halloween-costume, no matter how cute it promises to be. One night's not worth it.



These shirts, however, will not have such a short life. Ellen will probably want to wear it again tomorrow. If it didn't have lollipop drips all over the front, I might have let her.



And what can I say about the hair? Super-mega-gel. Ultra-fine blond hair. I've been putting off trimming up his hair in anticipation of this one event. The only thing cuter than this little spike of hair above this little face is that the kid's name is actually Jack. But we call him Jack-Jack. Ha.

And if you've never seen the cuteness turned flaming demon baby on the Disney movie The Incredibles, you could just stop by my house. The personality and super power similarities are uncanny.

--UPDATE -- 10:25 pm
We did, in fact, all wear our T-shirts again. Today we had a law school related lunch, costumes optional. We were the only ones wearing "costumes." It was still fun.

This holiday is turning out to be more fun than I thought.

October 2006
Exhibit A: The pumpkins.
Lately, Ellen's favorite color is orange. When we're coloring and I ask her which color she likes best, she says "a-na-nan-jado" (That's anaranjado.)


Exhibit B: Cute, plush costumes. And pumpkins.


October 2007
Exhibit A: The pumpkins.
There's just something about kids and pumpkins. Maybe it's just my kids. Lately Jack Jack is on high alert for spotting pumpkins, pictures of pumpkins, decorated pumpkins, plastic, cloth, flat, 3-D pumpkins. If it's a pumpkin, he's freaking out until I say, "calabaza!"


Exhibit B: Cute plush costumes. Anaranjados.


I used to think Halloween was just a former pagan holiday that kids exploit to get lots of candy and adults use as an excuse to dress up in silly costumes. It's a lot different with my own kids in this family-friendly town. We have quite the line-up of Halloween events. . .

What's for breakfast?

My least favorite breakfast growing up was oatmeal. Something about the texture and taste of cooked oatmeal made me rather have a piece of toast before heading out the door for school.

In a fit of preparedness anxiety last year, I bought several canisters of oatmeal (quick and rolled) to add to my food storage, along with 40 pounds of pinto beans, powdered milk, and a year's supply of salt. One morning last month I woke up thinking oatmeal sounded really, really good. Trust me; these things happen when you're pregnant.

So I got out a canister of quick oats and, since I had no idea how to actually make oatmeal, I followed the directions on the container exactly, with a timer and everything. Then at the end I stirred in some raisins. I was still thinking of childhood oatmeal, and that raisins can make lots of things better. What happened next was a revelation. I like oatmeal. My kids like oatmeal. My kids ask for oatmeal for breakfast. Well, Ellen does. Jack doesn't know that many words all together yet, but if I'm eating it and don't offer him some, he has a fit. If I do offer him oatmeal, he wants his own bowl and spoon.

The next day I thought oatmeal with blueberries sounded good. I had frozen blueberries, so while the oatmeal was cooking (for one minute) I mixed a cup of blueberries with a couple of spoonfuls of sugar and microwaved them for about a minute. Oatmeal with blueberries is even better than oatmeal with raisins, (probably because of all that sugar I added) and my kids loved it, too.

The next day I made two servings because I was tired of having to give away half of my oatmeal to my kids. I went through an entire canister of quick oats in a couple of weeks. Then I tried the canister of rolled oats. They take slightly longer to cook (3-5 minutes), but turned out to be just as tasty, and Ellen and Jack don't know the difference.

Then I saw a food blog post on making instant oatmeal packets from scratch using oats, dried fruits, and powdered milk. Thinking it would be a good experiment for using a prime food storage item, as well as adding calcium to my diet, and also thinking that the only thing worse than eating oatmeal as a child was eating oatmeal with milk poured on top, I added powdered milk to the boiling water at the same time as the oats, fully expecting to reach my grossness limit and end up feeding the entire batch to the kids. The result? Creamy, yummy oatmeal.

We don't eat oatmeal every day, but we did for about two weeks. Now I make some variety of oatmeal on a regular basis. And as it gets colder here, I will probably be making it even more often to counterbalance the effects of drinking smoothies for breakfast.

Yummy Oatmeal:
Cook plain quick oats or rolled oats on the stove according to package instructions. For 2 servings, add 1/4 cup powdered milk when you add oats to boiling water.

After cooking, add any of the following:
Fresh berries, peaches, pears, mangoes, or bananas
Frozen berries or fruit with sugar to taste
Applesauce or apple butter
Maple syrup
Brown sugar and a sprinkle of cinnamon
Butter and honey

And for an added, super-nerdy bonus: as you eat, think about how the oats are sucking all the bad cholesterol out of your body and making you feel so much better about the piles of dirty dishes, dirty laundry, and disorganized toys that await.

Flowers, trees, butterflies, bees, and rabbits

Last Friday we took a field trip to the Lubbock Memorial Arboretum.

We walked through a rose garden.


We saw a scarecrow.


We spotted lots of butterflies and pretty flowers.




Ellen and her friend chased a rabbit. We went over, under, around, and through a bridge. Good thing there was no water underneath.













Then just after I took this shot of Jack looking back onto the bridge, the batteries in my camera died, and I discovered that both sets of backup batteries were also dead.


That left us free to quit trying to get the kids together for cute photos and check out the senses garden: herbs for smelling, different colors for looking, crazy textures for feeling, more herbs for tasting, and reading the signs out loud for hearing.

Ellen is really working on her climbing up and jumping off skills. She climbed on a brick retaining wall and jumped off several times before she caught her foot, skinned her chin and bit her tongue. She was able to walk back to the car, and she has since resumed climbing and jumping activities.

Jack is working on walking up and down steps. Going down, he takes a little jumping step and then laughs like crazy if he is able to keep his balance. Once he gets all the way down, he walks back up the steps to come down all over again.

Hooray for running around outdoors and coming home tired field trips.

Baby, it's cold outside.

We had a cold front come through last week. Rain, wind, cold weather. Perfect for adding weather words in Spanish to our repertoire. We were actually on our way to one of the homeschool Spanish classes I teach. I took a calendar and a bag of random kids' clothes (like a scarf, a swimming suit, socks, a jacket, a hat, shorts, a t-shirt and sandals) and talked clothing vocabulary and weather vocabulary and what kind of clothes you need in what kind of weather. It was fun!

Mummies

We went to the opening of the Egyptian exhibit at the Science Spectrum, free for members. I was expecting something a little more hands on, I guess. It was actually a traveling exhibit of artifacts and replicas that were used in making the movie that is also currently showing at the Omni theaters. We walked through the one room of cases, but the kids didn't even stop to look at anything. We did manage to take a couple of pictures.

Ellen colored at the craft table set up for kids with Egypt-related crafts like writing your name in hieroglyphics and making an Egyptian paper doll. The museum staff at the table passed out supplies and tidbits of Egyptian information. Did you know silver was prized more than gold because silver was harder to come by? Did you know Egyptians liked wearing colorful clothing and gemstones? Did you know most Egyptians wore wigs? I had to ask what the wigs were made of. The answer? Mostly animal hair, but also papyrus. As in the stuff they also wrote on. Who knew?

Windmill museum

We took a field trip to the windmill museum, a.k.a. the American Wind Power Center and Museum with our preschool class. Ellen and Jack were in awe of the huge, streamlined Vesta, representative of the wind turbines we see all along the highway on our way to Waco.


Jack was really excited to walk on the railroad ties with the big kids.


Here we are inside the museum part. There were all kinds of different windmills from all over the world and all time periods. Lots were working. I guess they were working. They were moving, at least.


Ellen really looks cute when I can get a good smile out of her.