Blackboard quote of the week revisited and winner of "7"

Hmmm. Relieved and convicted at the same time. Can't wait to see how the kids dissect this one over dinner tonight:).

-And congrats Gretchen for winning the copy of my new favorite book "7". I sent you an email:)

"7" An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess

A couple months ago a friend linked a blog post about adoption aftermath on her FB page.  When I read this post I realized I felt like Jen Hatmaker had crawled inside my head or peered inside my house and leaked out all our dirty little secrets.  Right then and there I became a fan!  Or her BFF that she doesn't even know exists...either way it's all good.  I got the chance to read her newest book "7" An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess...again she must have crawled straight into my brain, figured out that I have all of this uneasiness building up in me, then decided to spend a year of her life working out my junk. She also decided to eloquently and humorously write it all down and put it all out there for everyone to see.   

 I read the book in less one day, (of course I was completely attentive to my rowdy brood the entire time)and let me tell you it is a game changer folks.  I love it!  I can't wait for you all to read it too. You can read some reviews and more about it here.   I am having a giveaway for a copy if you just leave me a comment here or on FB.  It has me all riled up for my 2nd annual February No Spend month this year!  I have some bigger and better ideas as I would love to incorporate some of Jen's ideas of limiting excess into the month as well.   I would so love some of you to join me, let me know what you think!!! Please leave a comment with your email address to be entered into the give-away!!  

The Birthday

As if Christmas week wasn't busy enough already..we celebrate 3 birthdays the week of Christmas....Simple family parties are the only way to go :)

 I can't believe our little girl is 5...seems way too grown up.  I vote we should add a number in there between 4 and 5... just to slow these guys down a bit.   Mina's requested meal was stir-fry and dumplings...and a coconut/chocolate bunny cake...

 She is our only family member who's love language is "gifts"  so Christmas week with a b-day and Christmas....she is beaming from the inside out.

 and here is Ty...I can't even begin to count how many photos I have of this guy posing or jumping into pics...he LOVES to be the center of attention.

 Jack's b-day is next in succession,  I was not in picture taking mode this night but this smile, (an orthodontist dream) melts my heart.

 Can I pause for a moment and ask Mom's of young boys what the heck is up with boys caring so stinkin' much about their clothes and the brand names????  I feel a little ill about it all.  My first and hopefully only kid that wants clothes (very particular clothes) for bday and Christmas.

 And Finn completes our birthday trifecta two days before Christmas .    She starts out her day with birthday french toast.

 I LOVE watching her open gifts... she would be completely satisfied with one thing from the dollar store and she would have just the same expression of JOY on her face.

 If I could capture the look of sheer joy, this would be it..

 and this..

 and this..

 and this..can you tell that this girl is just naturally happy and joyful All.the.time!  How funny that is her middle name...for reals

 and for my keeping it real photo of the week.  This is what envy looks like in photos...envy when your sister is opening gifts and your birthday was 5 days ago and you have to wait 360 more days for your own special day full of attention and presents and ruling the roost...

Happy Birthday babies...now could you all just pause for a year or two and let me catch up to you growing up???

Christmas 2011

Do you remember the days when they couldn't stand each other?  Now, Thick as thieves these two. I truly believe being polar opposites is the salvation of this relationship.  

 We had a super marvelous low key Christmas..  Just the 8 of us!!!

Last year I mistakenly only bought 1 gingerbread house...This year we had 3 teams of gingerbread house builders, and I think we found the problem...see the focus

They are on a full fledged constentrating on their candy constructing

These two also...full on  tunnel vision for the perfect gingerbread house

 Then you have these guys, the weak links..up to their eyeballs in shenanigans and goofballing around

 I mean like- grossss me out....

 What the girls are doing....

 What the boys are doing...

 I love having Collin home...he is a foodie like me. He said he would take over Christmas eve dinner and I would do Christmas...This is what was on his menu...  Sauteed shrimp with butter and lemon sauce..

 and our families favorite crab cake recipe...served with a salad and big crusty bread...yumm-o  .  So fun to have my boy in the kitchen with me!!!!!!

 My favorite part of Christmas Eve is that we all sat around the computer and found our Compassion Int'l sponsor child.  The cutest little 5 year old boy from Haiti, that just melted all of our hearts in about one second flat!!!

 Jack read the Night before Christmas...

 and I read the story of Jesus' birth from the Bible

 all while we had the yummiest hot cocoa ever made ....I will have to post the recipe sometime...dangerous!

 Does anyone else think I should fear the teenage years with this one...cause I'm skeered

 Finn,  open your mouth and close your eyes...

 yeah, we are such a mature and posh family...

 We started a new tradition this year of hiding a "pickle" ornament in a tree, the first to find it gets to open the first present...  Only one child was focused enough at 6:00 a.m. , the same child that was waking me up on the hour every hour since 3:00 in the morning... giving me a full 2 hours of sleep Christmas night.  arrrrrgggggghhhhhh

 Collin's favorite Christmas present...a dolphin pillow pet... i know he's a freak, he knows it too so he won't be offended that I'm telling you.

 He also got a money tree, doesn't every college kid want a money tree over a pillow pet???  His response..."did you see this on pinterest Mom? "  he's a freak and a brat... but he loves to help me in the kitchen so I loves him...a lot

 the carnage

 Christmas dinner, grilled leg of lamb, tabouli salad, roasted potatoes, grilled asparagus, tzatziki sauce...all made while still wearing my jammies...made it taste so much better :)

 Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture???

 yeah, neither do we :)

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!!!!!

Crafting fail

The kids and I had thought we found the perfect DIY Christmas project to give Papa and Grandpa for Christmas.  They both love starting a nice warm fire as evidence of Grandpa here...

We had seen this craft all over pinterest and blogs.  So we figured we would give it a go.   

One thing I have to say to all those bloggers who posted their how to steps on this is... SHAME!!!! While we are pleased with the end result of this project...getting there was wayyyyy harder than anyone had led on.

The step by step calls only for Pine cones, candle wicking, wax and cupcake liners.  We feel like we are pretty crafty folks so we decided to add coloring and a Cinnamon scent as well.

Please note that this is truly the only step of the process that a child can and should help you with.  Placing already wicked pine cones in cupcake liners, it takes all of 2 minutes...Then they must vacate the area as they will most like be scalded with hot molten wax or possibly over hear you using foul language under your breath. 

This child, my super crafter, is using a super sharp butcher knife to cut the huge blocks of wax into teeny tiny pieces...don't worry this step only takes an hour or two...

You melt the wax, in 15 separate batches, (it takes about 45 minutes per batch)...and hot wax and water will splatter all over your stove and floor and may possibly singe your skin when you try to move it or turn down the heat.  

Once you have braved melting the wax, pouring it into the cupcake liners, searing your fingertips, and making a total wreck of every available surface in your kitchen,  use a butter knife to scrape off wax and reposition the pine cones so you set them up for another go around.

Keep pouring the wax until the bottom of the wick is covered with wax, otherwise...reposition all wicks and repour...again..

Try to ignore all of your other children when they ask if you are ever going to be done with this project, so you can feed them and they can actually get out of their pajamas by lunch time and maybe have a small chance at interacting with you at some point in the day..

6 hours later, when you are finally done...show off your biggest and smallest creation and act like it was all worth it.

They did turn out nice, but do not be fooled, 5 hour project with at least 1 hour of clean up... pots and pans that had to hit the trash rather than deal with hours of scrubbing...  If you decided to try this one...don't say you weren't warned :)  

Today we will be doing our annual cookie bake off and we are expecting much better results :)
Merry Christmas!!!!!!!