Nikki's new do

Our kids treat our cat, Nikki, like royalty... tortured royalty, but royalty still the same. This cat only drinks fresh flowing water. I think that's a little outrageous, but everyone in our family complies to her needs except me. Luckily, I have succeeded in keeping her out of the kitchen sink. The other day Madeline was in the bathroom helping her get a drink of water when I heard laughing. "Oh, sooo cute, look at Nikki!" I went in to find that she had given her a kitty make-over. She had slathered her fur up with lotion and spiked it. Nikki sported the do all day. Sometimes I feel guilty for everything my kids do when I am not watching. Though, on the other hand, if I watched them more closely, I would miss out on this!

We share everything, unfortunately

This is what I found today when I went to get Lucy from her nap. The crib tent, which I got to keep a certain curious 2 year old out works pretty well, but we discovered today that it is no match for a mischievous 7 year old. I heard Lucy wake up making happy little noises, Hannah and Johnny wanted to "talk" to her, and I assumed Maddie was still sleeping so I wasn't in any hurry to retrieve them. I should have known after five minutes of peace that something was up. Sure enough, Lucy was hosting a party in her crib.

Notice the runny noses and watery eyes? They were all sick today, usually this doesn't keep us from taking the older, less sick, kids to church while either John or I stay home with the others. This works unless John is on a business trip. So we all stayed home and tried Sunday Stations, something I have been wanting to try for a few weeks. We read about it in the Friend (March issue, I think). We made four stations, 10 minutes each; one for writing a letter, one for reading the friend, one for coloring flannel board stories, and one for doing origami just for fun. It worked really well other than feeling like I needed to be four places at once; reading to Johnny, deciphering instructions for Hannah, keeping Maddie from using the letter decorating stamps on her legs and Lucy from eating them.

This is our usual Sunday Dinner:

Mark and Julie Perry's light Whole Wheat Waffles
(they gave this to us quite a while ago, I hope they don't mind us sharing)

Sift Together
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Salt

in a separate bowl, Mix:
1 cup Buttermilk
1/3 cup oil
1 tsp. Honey
2 egg yolks

Combine with dry ingredients

In another bowl beat the left over
2 egg whites until stiff and fold in
the other ingredients and cook in a
waffle iron.


Marilyn Zimmerman's Homemade Buttermilk Syrup

This has a caramel taste

(I have to use a big, 2 gallon I think, stock pot for this--if I don't it has pretty exciting and disastrous consequences)

4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups real butter
1 3/4 cups milk
1/4 cup vinegar
1/2 cup white corn syrup
2 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbs. vanilla

Mix milk and vinegar and let curdle (I like to make sure the milk is at least room temp.) Add all ingredients to a very deep pan, except for the vanilla. Boil 5 minutes over low heat stirring frequently. Watch out, this is where it gets exciting. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Serve hot. Store remaining syrup in the refrigerator.

The Honest Scrap Award

If I fail to make this interesting, a picture of my kindergarten class might help. I am the shrinking violet in the lower right hand corner. You'll see how this fits in later.

All right Heather, here it is finally, thanks for this tag. By the way, thanks for inspiring Hannah's note, that made my day, I'm so glad she has good primary teachers.

Here goes the tag:It is called the honest scrap award and these are the rules...

A) First list 10 honest things about yourself--and make it interesting even if you have to dig deep.

B) Pass the award on to 7 bloggers that you feel embody the spirit of Honest Scrap

I was painfully shy all through school, K-12, I remember walking home from school one day thinking to myself that I could count the words I said out-loud on one hand. When I went to college I made a huge effort to reach beyond myself and become less shy. It took a lot of work but having 40 roommates (I kept a list of names) all but cured me of that.

I get embarrassed when people ask me if I have a College Degree because it kind of has a hokey name. I have a bachelor's degree in "Enhancing Children's Development through literature". It was a degree made up by my counselor when I told her that I didn't want to be a teacher half way through student teaching. I dropped out of student teaching, took a few art, literature and poetry classes and tada! a new major was created. I am so glad that I took the classes that I took though, they have been so helpful to me in my life.

I am a hypocritical mother. I will run outside in my bare feet to tell my children to put shoes on.

I have a love, hate relationship with my body. I love my eyelashes and my feet, but I would trade them in a heartbeat for my sister's (Kathleen's) thick, beautiful platinum blond hair and the Loveless family behind. I am just barely succeeding in convincing John (after 9 years) that a "curvy" body is a good thing--I am still working on convincing myself.

I played the Alto saxophone in Jr. High and High School. There wasn't an official high school band class, so I played with the Jr. High throughout my high school years, that was a bit humiliating. I loved the Saxophone though and someday want to learn how to play "blues" style.

I really, really, really hate riding horses. They are beautiful creatures and I can fake calmness around them, but inside I am quietly freaking out. Every time I ride one I can't believe that I am putting my life in control of an animal that I hardly know, so much less predictable than a machine. Maybe that's my problem, I have never gotten to know one.

In my life I have permanently disabled and/or totalled 5 vehicles and a boat on a trailer, miraculasly nobody was hurt. I have become much better at driving in the past ten years besides a little fender bender last year. I have pondered many times the insanity of human beings in creating cars, we weren't made to travel at high speeds, were not that indestructible.

I am smarter with my glasses, make-up and clothes on. I just can't think until I am completely ready for the day, so if you see me dropping my kids off at school and I don't look like I have had a chance to get ready--don't ask me any complicated questions.

I laugh when I watch Curious George with my kids, I love that show.

I think it's cute when my babies suck their thumbs--that's hard to admit:/


I'm not sure if my Bancroft friends check in very often or if you have time, but if you do: Kim, Carla, Tanya and Kendra, I tag you!

A more palatable dining room

Here are some pictures of our more neutral dining room. I had a chance to tidy up while Maddie was napping, so I thought I would take the opportunity to capture the moment. It's kind of funny, with all the happiness that bright colors bring me, I felt this strange sense of relief as my sea-foam blue was covered up by "oats". I was a bit surprised by this and tried to make sense of the feeling. I came to the conclusion that it must be like skydiving, it is an extreme sport and gives you a rush of adrenaline, but I am sure skydiver's wouldn't want the feeling to last forever. I have never actually been skydiving, but now I don't have to --because I have experienced extreme painting. I can check that off of my list of things to do in my lifetime.

Johnny was so excited to help me paint, and I just couldn't say no (one of my many weaknesses). I decided a good safe spot would be under the computer counter. He was more than happy to, because it is his "favorite hiding spot". I gave him a paint brush and let him go to town. He did a pretty good job, but I did have to touch up a bit with the roller when he wasn't looking.

Those sneaky Leprechauns

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I've always viewed St. Patrick's day as one of those optional holidays, but John and I love confusing our children too much to let it pass without a little trickery. In the past three years it has become a pretty fun holiday for us. It started out with a simple Leprechaun cake (another excuse to make a cake), then it evolved to those sneaky leprechauns taking little bites out of it on the Eve of St. Patrick's day and dropping gold coins as they searched for it. The next year, we came upon the idea to build a contraption to trap them (with the cake as a lure). Last year we almost caught them, but they escaped by cutting a hole in the box with the butter knife that was used to prop the box up.


This year I didn't remember to make the cake until it was too late, so we used the chocolate oatmeal cookies from Family Home Evening for the lure. We used the plate of cookies as a counterweight to keep the box up.

Hannah made a note for them, so that they would know just what to do. Then she and Johnny found some green pajamas so that they wouldn't get pinched in their sleep, Hannah didn't have any, so she borrowed some of Johnny's.


Well, those Leprechauns tricked us again, they used a hat and some stacked gold nuggets to keep the box up while they enjoyed their treat.


Usually, the leprechauns carry gold chocolate coins with them, but this year they brought gold nuggets (rolo's) because apparently there is more of a demand for gold coins this year and there weren't enough to go around, I am sure it has something to do with the economy in Ireland.

I was hesitant to share this last picture, but I have come to realize that my chances of being awarded Mother-of-the-year are pretty slim. I may as well acknowledge my slip ups, and if possible even enjoy them just a little. This is what Lucy had for breakfast, I put her in her highchair so that I could make Hannah's school lunch and when I came back 3 minutes later, Maddie had stocked her up with rolos. She even unwrapped them for her, Lucy loved the flavor, but was having trouble with the caramel. I had to swipe it out of her mouth before she choked, but not before taking a picture (where are your priorities Cheryl!)

Just another Sunday

Sundays at our house can be kind of hectic, but there is something special about this day that always nudges the gratitude section of my heart. The past two weeks I have taken a few pictures of what I love about this day.



After church John always makes waffles, this is a tradition that we started when Maddie was born. She always needed so much attention after church, and I was always so tired that John took it upon himself to make our Sunday dinners. The waffle recipe that we have is really easy (thanks Julie and Mark) and John has them down to an art, they are delicious served with our homemade buttermilk syrup (thanks Marilyn). We have made a renewed effort to use more whole wheat in our diets so grinding wheat is now the highlight of Sunday dinner preparation, and everybody has to be involved whether we want them to be or not. Thanks John for your patience and all of your hard work, and also for your going the extra mile and grinding enough wheat for my bread. (I don't know why Hannah is wearing my coat in this picture, she can be a little clown sometimes.)

I love to hear about the what our kids learn in primary, and I love to look at the things they make, it always makes me happy. Last week Hannah brought home a note for me, I still don't know how it tied into her lesson, but it made me smile.

(I didn't know if I should be worried about this, but I chose to just enjoy the moment.)

Awww shucks, love you too Hannah! ;)

River Dancing or Ballet?

Lucy can't decide which dancing style she likes the best. I'm thinking we can fore go the college fund and rely on dancing scholarships for this little girl, she's pretty talented.

The good part is after my embarrassing commentary--it's amazing what we do to get our children to laugh.

1-800-TOOTHFAIRY

The toothfairy has a 1-800 number. We didn't know this until we heard John's brother, Bill, call her when one of his daughter's lost a tooth. This is very valuable information now that we have a daughter who is losing teeth, thanks for sharing it with us Bill. The other day we had to give her a call, of course we only heard John's side of the conversation, but this is how it went:

"Tooth Fairy"....

"TOOTH FAIRY"...(to Hannah)"I really hate these automated systems"

..."Yes, we have a daughter who just lost a tooth."..."Hannah Loveless"..."Lower incisor"..."this morning"....

Then he gave the person on the other end of the line our address and told her "thank you."

We have discovered that giving the tooth fairy a call doesn't guarantee that she will be able to make it the following night. Apparently she had a lot of deliveries that night (or maybe she forgot) and had to deliver Hannah's gold dollar while she was at school.

She may be cute, but she has the mouth of a sailor.

Remember the old Popeye cartoons? Madeline does.

Today she was playing in the living room with Johnny when I heard her say "Oh my Gosh!" Now there are so many other phrases that could be worse, but out of curiosity I asked Hannah "Do you know where she learned that?" Hannah told me that she learned it from the Popeye cartoon DVD that we have. Then she proceeded to inform me that Popeye doesn't know better for various reasons, one being that he is not a church going man. I am just amazed that Maddie could understand Popeye's mumbling enough to imitate him

This is when Johnny came in, he loves this type of topic. He told me that he has a friend who always says the "W" word. What's the "W" word you ask? It's "What the Heck!" I didn't know whether to laugh or nod seriously in dissaproval when he whispered this to me. I ended up laughing and then nodding as seriously as I could.

Sometimes it's hard to know what to do when you're the mom. Obviously my children haven't heard me use my favorite slang words (pure luck), maybe I should stop using them now.

Can you guess what made this mark on our window?

When I saw this I thought it was so sad that I had to laugh. Our neighbor is from Bosnia and raises pigions which are native to Bosnia. He is so proud of them, he trains them to do tricks and enters them in competitions and such (quite interesting to watch actually). The little shed in the picture is his pigeon house, unfortunately they are probably all on our roof right now so you can't see them. Well, the other day we were all on the main floor when we heard a very loud crash in our bedroom. I ran upstairs to see what it was--nothing. a few days later I noticed this ghost of a pigeon on our window. Although we have found a dead pigeon or two in our yard in the past, we didn't find one this time. Tough bird!

Hey, anyone want to buy a house?

A few weeks ago we made the bitter-sweet decision to sell our house. For a while I have been wanting to move to a little more of a rural place, and we found one (thanks Lori and Matt for the idea). We are planning on finding a place in Kaysville as soon as we sell our home. I am such a small town girl at heart, and this is about as close as I will get to a small town close to John's work. It will actually be a better commute for him, something that we are both looking forward too--fewer city streets. We bought our home 5 years ago, for super cheap, when John decided to take a break from engineering and try his luck at flipping houses. We held on to this house for our own enjoyment even after he started his job at L-3 because we just couldn't beat the price of living in it. We refer to this house as our fun house because there was no possible way we could ruin it when we moved in. It was hideous, and we have learned so much about how to fix and remodel and what is really important in a home and family. John built the garage of his dreams, we completely demolished and rebuilt the kitchen with an added dining room, and so many other little things it is hard to count. We feel like we are ready to graduate from "home remodeling 101" so now the time has finally come to flip our house!

We plan on moving into a house that is not a fixer-upper this time.

Here are a few "before" pictures:

Our scary partially finished basement

Really gross downstairs bathroom

Old, worn out shingles. There was a hole (the size of an inspector) in the roof at this time.



carpet with cigarette burn marks the size of hockey pucks and who knows what stories these walls have to tell.


Kitchen--need I say more?

As I said this was our fun house, so please don't pay attention to our bright dining room, I painted it that color to look like a retro 50's diner (and also to impress my kids of course). I will be repainting it a more neutral color this weekend. Also we were kind of in the middle of a landscaping project when the photographer came by, it is nearly finished now.

Click on the link below to see the after pictures.


www.obeo.com/522568

Enjoy!

Oh how she grows

Lucy is growing so fast, and we all love her so much. Yesterday I caught her toying with the idea of pulling herself up with her overturned toy basket. I am amazed, even after seeing this with her three older siblings, she looks a little amazed too.Maddie wanted to hold Lucy yesterday, and I just had to take a picture, it always reminds me of an ant carrying a pupae. As you can tell, Lucy wasn't very thrilled with the whole idea.

Our little homemade stuffed animals

Last Saturday my friend's three children came over for a few hours to play while she attended a class. I absolutely adore her children, she has an eight year old, a six year old and a one year old . I was planning on spending the morning sewing binding on the quilt I made for Hannah's bed while they played, but that all changed as soon as I pulled out the sewing machine. Bela, the oldest, expressed how much she wanted to learn how to sew. So on a whim, we spent the morning making stuffed animals. I have never made these before, but it was actually easier than I expected. We drew patterns on pieces of paper (Hannah insisted on drawing her own), and then we cut out the fabric, I sewed them with a little help with pedal pushing, and they stuffed, stitched and decorated. It took most of our morning, but it was so worth it to see how cute they turned out, they were all so unique.