The Talent Show

Addy's first grade class had a talent show last week. Addy's teacher is so great, she has the kids participate in little programs all the time to build their confidence. The kids in the class shared artwork, played the piano, some did karate and others danced and did flips. It was fun to watch. Addy wrote a poem called someone is kissing. It was really cute.

Someone is Kissing
Someone is kissing and I don't know why?
Maybe they are missing each other.
I don't know why,

I still don't know why?

What a cute girl Addy is, she sat down and came up with this poem all by herself in just a few minutes, it made me laugh a little. She did a great job, she spoke a little too quietly, but so did all of the other kids. It was a great way to boost the kids self esteem. The bratty child I spoke of in an earlier post sat next to us and coughed all over Maren. His mother told him to cover his mouth once and that was it. He whined and talked through the whole show. If my child were coughing, I would not have sat by a small baby, oh well, I guess his mother just isn't as considerate as I am. ;)

Friends

Sydnee loves Maren. As soon as Addy went back to school, Sydnee became the second mom around the house. She loves to help me with Maren. She especially loves to pick out her clothes, fetch diapers and play with her on the floor. Sydnee is very helpful, she watches Maren when I need to get ready to go somewhere. The other day I needed to get ready to go visiting teaching, so I put Sydnee and Maren in my bed with the TV on. They snuggled up and were content while I showered, it was great. I love how they smile at each other and how Sydnee talks so sweetly to Maren. I hope this friendship will continue as they get older.

6 months old already?

I can't believe how fast time is flying. Maren turned 6 months last Sunday. She is growing so fast, she is a solid little chunk. We went in Friday for her checkup, here are the stats:she weighs 18 lbs. 11 oz. and is 28 inches long. She is such a sweet girl. She came down with a little virus this week (I blame it on the bratty child at the talent show) but she has still been happy and smiley. Maren loves rolling around the floor, pulling off her socks, and eating. She is definitely a Yancey. Maren is a momma's girl. She loves everyone else, but mom is the best.

Mmmmmm Carrot Cake

Sunday I made another recipe from my book, gluten free carrot cake. Normally gluten free baked goods are dry and gritty, but not this one. It was super moist and tasty. There was no grit, my parents even claimed they couldn't tell it was gluten free. It had a thick layer of cream cheese frosting, it was the perfect touch for the not too sweet cake. I will definitely be making this one again! I didn't take any pictures because we just couldn't wait to dig in. Here is the recipe for this super yummy treat.

The Chinese Dinner Store

We've been trying really hard not to eat out often. Instead Ben lets the girls choose the menu and they cook together. The girls call restaurants the dinner store. Addy and Sydnee take turns playing the waitress/hostess, they make menus and take the orders. Last Friday it was Addy's turn to choose. She chose a Chinese themed menu. We had sweet and sour chicken, lemon chicken and egg drop soup. Since there is a recipe in my cookbook for the soup I was allowed in the kitchen to help. The recipe for the soup is super easy and it turned out great. The recipe calls for frozen corn and all I had was canned, but it still worked. It looked and tasted just like the real thing you get at the dinner store. Here is the recipe. Our sweet and sour sauce recipe is a top secret recipe from one of the best restaurants. It is so yummy. I will post it when I can find it.

I can't see.....

The fog was really thick when I took Addy to school. This is the view from our sidewalk this morning. I'm praying for a storm to blow all the gunk and fog out of the air. Just one more reason why January is so blah.

Chicken Fat

When I was in kindergarten we would exercise using the chicken fat song. I had forgotten about it until Sydnee came home from preschool the other day and told me about the chicken song. I found a web site that has the song on it. What a fun little blast from my past. If you're interested the song can be found here.

Blueberry Tea Bread

Another winning recipe from my cookbook! Yum!!! My bread took almost twice as long to bake as the recipe said, but it turned out really good. I pulled it out of the oven just before Addy got home from school. The recipe has tea in the name, so we had to have a tea party while eating it. Okay, it was actually a hot chocolate party since we don't drink tea. My sister brought the girls color changing princess hot cocoa mix (wow, that was a mouthful) from Disneyland. It's been sitting in our cupboard for a really long time, so I figured it was time to bust it out and drink it up. Sydnee chose purple and Addy chose pink. Ben even joined us and brought his doll (Maren) with him. Maren enjoyed fruit puffs during our party. I'm going to give this recipe 4 1/2 stars out of 5. If you yourself are a glutard, then check out the recipe here. P.S. A glutard is the name we have given to those with celiac disease.

Life Tastes Good Again

When I was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2007, I was quite devastated. I love bread, a lot. Ben used to make me homemade bread every weekend and it was heavenly. When I got the bad news, I went through my own little grieving process. My mother in law took me to a store that specializes in all things gluten free to help me get started. She bought me a cook book called "Life tastes good again" its written by two local ladies. Neither one of these ladies has celiac, but they have family members that do. I have been to a few of their classes, and so far I have tried lots of their recipes. Their recipes are great, I haven't found a bad one yet. After watching the movie Julie and Julia, I was inspired. I don't like fancy french food, and Julia Child's recipes don't quite fit my gluten free (GF) diet. I have decided to make every recipe in my GF cookbook over the next year and blog about them. I think I'm boring and I run out of stuff to write, so hopefully this will help. I am also working on my personal progress with the young women. I figured this would be a great project to work on. As I write this, I have blueberry tea bread in the oven. I'll let you know how it turns out.

The Bible according to Fisher Price

Yesterday after I dropped Addy off at school, Sydnee asked if she could play with the tinker toys. I said yes and she returned with the Little People Noah's ark. I asked her if she knew the story about Noah and the ark. I thought this would be a good teaching moment. I told her the story of Noah, she asked if there were trees next to the ark. I told her that Noah used trees to make the ark. I continued to tell the story while she was playing. When I told her that the rain had stopped and the dove brought back the olive branch, she then asked "Is that when they took the top off?" I was a little confused. Then I realized what she meant. The top of our toy ark comes off so that you can play with the animals inside of it. I had a hard time not laughing. I had to explain to Sydnee that her ark is just a toy and that the one that Noah went on looked a lot different.

A new year, a new blog

I don't know why, but January always leaves me feeling blah. Whenever I feel blah I change something. Usually it's the length of my hair, however since my hair is already quite short, I can't do that. There isn't a whole lot more to change, at least not quickly. So, I decided to change my blog. Wow, you say. I know, it's a huge life altering change, but for now it's helping the blahs. I always have liked the saying about little girls... Sugar and spice and everything nice, that's what little girls are made of. Well having 3 girls at home reminds me of all the sugar and spice, but there is also some naughty and not so nice moments. I decided to change the title of my blog to go with our life with 3 girls. Since this is my journal, I record the nice and the not so nice things so that one day I can look back and laugh and learn from this. So here is to the new year and making changes!

I bet you didn't know.....

I bet you didn't know that there are many different tooth fairies. I also would bet that you don't know that they are all different colors. Addy has a friend named Sariah who told her all about the tooth fairy. If you put your tooth in a glass of water, the tooth fairy will reach in to get it out and the water will turn the color of the fairy. After much coaxing (bribing) we finally got Addy's second tooth out. She is quite the drama queen when it comes to pain. I finally just grabbed it and pulled it forward and it popped right out. Addy wanted to try putting her tooth in water. Lo and behold, Sunday morning she found a glass of red water on the table with a dollar sitting next to it. We had a red fairy visit our house. Addy was very happy. I was thrilled because the tooth fairy didn't have to worry about waking any little girls up or being caught. So thank you Sariah and Thank you Kim (her mother) We now will keep watch for the colored tooth fairies.

Maren at 5 Months

The only picture I have of her 1st Christmas

I love this outfit, it has a tutu, she wears it to church

I went in to wake her up for church, she was zonked

Maren spotted this hanger across the room and rolled until she got to it

First Cereal

Maren hit the 5 month mark on Christmas Eve. She is growing up way too fast! I think because she will most likely be our last that I want to hang on to her. I love watching Maren grow and change, but it's also kind of sad. She had her first solid food (rice cereal) and loved it. She complained because I couldn't feed her fast enough. She has also tried white potatoes and sweet potatoes. She loves to sit with the family and eat. Maren's first tooth came in just a few days before Christmas and her second one is ready to break the surface. No more toothless gummy grins (sigh). She can roll over and scoot herself around. She has discovered her feet and loves to play with them and blow raspberries. She also learned how to turn on her musical fish toy in her crib. Like I said before, this is going way too fast, I wish she'd slow down so I can soak it all in. She is such a good baby, she hardly ever fusses. She smiles a lot and is just starting to laugh out loud. It is so much fun watching her grow.

Wrapping up the Holidays

Christmas came and went, and my blog has been totally ignored. We had a good Christmas. We started things off with Addy's singing program. Our pictures didn't turn out, but it was fun to see her perform after hearing her "practice" at home. Ben had lots of vacation to burn up and so he had two weeks off of work. We had a good time as a family. Santa found our house and brought the kids some fun things. One of their favorite toys is a dry-erase easel and a school set. They love to play school. Maren enjoyed her first Christmas. She mostly bounced from lap to lap and rolled on the floor in the wrapping paper. I'm such a good mom that I didn't take a single picture of her on Christmas day, at least not with my camera. We were able to spend time with both the Williams and Yancey families. Santa brought us the Wii fit balance board and games. We have spent a lot of time "working out". Who knew that a video game could make you feel some stiff muscles. Addy and Sydnee struggled with boredom and cabin fever. One of the snowy days just after Christmas we bundled up and headed across the street to the park. Ben and the two big girls went sledding while Maren and I hung out at the bottom of the hill. This was a great cure for cabin fever. New years eve, I went shopping with my sister so that I could get my Christmas present. I bought some new clothes that don't have spit up stains, at least not yet. New years eve, we put the kids to bed and Ben and I watched a movie and went to sleep. Saturday we took the kids to Kangaroo Zoo so that they could burn off some energy. It made me tired just watching them. Sunday we started our new church schedule, we go from 11:30-2:30. I will never complain about the 9 am schedule again. This is a rough schedule. It's right during lunch and nap time. Oh well, we will survive. It was nice having everyone home for the last 2 weeks, but I must say that it was very nice to send Addy to school and get back into a routine. I am a creature of habit, and I like having a schedule. Maybe now I will get my Christmas cards out!

Family Pictures

Here are a few of our pictures from November

Christmas Dresses

Today I gave my girls their Christmas dresses to wear to church. They looked so cute, we had to snap some pictures. Since this is my journal, I need to record what I experienced in Sacrament meeting. The choir and congregation sang many songs together and there were two really good talks. The first song was "Away in a Manger" I've sung that song every day for the last month with my girls, but today it was different. I was holding Maren trying to rock her to sleep. I looked at her face and thought about Mary and how she must have felt and the circumstances surrounding the birth of our Savior. I started to cry. I felt the spirit so strong and I felt so much love. Babies bring so much love into a home. I thought about Jesus and how he came as a baby into the world in such a humble setting. It's hard to describe all of the feelings I had, but love and peace are the two easiest words. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who sent His son into the world as a newborn baby to grow and learn as other children have. I am grateful for Jesus Christ and the ultimate gift of the atonement. What a great reminder at this time of year. I had a hard time keeping it together the rest of the program. The music was gorgeous and the talks were very thought provoking. I really needed this feeling of love today.

Ghosts of Christmas Past

I would like to thank my friend Laura for the idea for this post. She has been doing a 12 days of Christmas memories on her blog and it really has had me thinking a lot. Some of my memories are silly and others just warm my heart. So if you are up for some reading, continue on, but warning this might become a novel. I've had 31 Christmases so far, so there are lots of memories. Many of my memories come from pictures and stories from my mom. When I was about 3 years old we had a family home evening lesson about the nativity. We had a flannel board and my job was to place the pictures on the board at the right time. Being 3 I had a mind of my own and so the pictures were all over the place and some were upside down. I believe that was the same night that I was singing at the top of my lungs, when my mom asked me to be quiet I said "you don't tell a child of God to be quiet." I hope she laughed at that. On Christmas Eve I would lie awake, too excited to sleep and I would listen for Santa. because my siblings were much older, I would sneak downstairs by myself and check out the haul and then I would go back to bed. It was always great when Santa left something unwrapped. A lot of times I would empty my stocking and re-load it before returning to my bed to wait. Some of my favorite gifts were a play kitchen with lots of food and dishes and appliances. I wanted to be chef Brocket from Mr. Rogers. I also loved my roller skates, cabbage patch dolls, charm necklace, moon dreamers and my Molly doll. Molly is one of the original American Girl dolls. I even took a catalog to Santa so that he would get my order right. What a silly kid. When I was in grade school we would ride in buses up to the training school (developmental center) and watch a Christmas show put on by the residents of the school. It was always fun to go and watch. The kids would put on a show with music and dancing. I remember they had Sesame Street costumes and I can still see Bert dancing. They would act out the Christmas story. I remember being impressed because their manger scene had two real live doves in a cage at the top of the roof of their stable. They no longer put on a Christmas show at the training school which is sad to me. Now when I look back, I think how special all of those children and adults were. How sweet it is that they brought so much joy to others when their lives maybe weren't so great. Christmas day was always great, after opening gifts we would pick out our favorite toy and take it with us to visit my grandparents. We would stop at the Riddles and see what funny quirky gifts Grandma had picked out for us, then we would go to Grandma Carters. I have a special place in my heart for my Grandma Carter. She was the best, she made me feel like I was her favorite. It wasn't until recently that I realized that she made all of her grandchildren feel like they were her favorite. We would eat at Grandma's in shifts because her kitchen was so small. I would play with my cousins and we would show off our new toys. Grandma made the best homemade fudge and toffee. I remember sneaking as much as I could and then wanting to visit after the holidays for left overs. I loved spending time with my Grandma and all of my family. Our Carter parties were full of love and laughter and hours of playing "do you love your neighbor?" I hope that one day my children will look back at Christmas and have good memories that make them laugh and some that make them cry. I have many more memories, but for now I will spare you.

The Tooth Fairy

Last night by accident I found Maren's first tooth coming in. It's on the bottom right about the same place where Addy lost hers. Addy asked if I thought it was her old tooth that fell out. She said that maybe the tooth fairy recycles. I sure hope not.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

On Thursday night Sydnee had her pre-school program. They started with the nativity story. Sydnee was able to play Mary and her boyfriend Garett played Joseph. Yes, I said boyfriend. Sydnee calls Garett her boyfriend, it's really cute, especially since she doesn't understand the full concept of boyfriend. Anyway, they performed a few songs, recited a poem and ended with a story about Santa. It was short and sweet and perfect. We absolutely love Mrs. Jerman and her wonderful pre-school.

A Labor of Love

This last week I made ankle bracelets for our young women for Christmas. Our young women's president found the idea online and I studied it and found the supplies we needed. Little did I know that it would require a lot of work and patience to make. I pinched my fingers with the pliers and now I have two lovely blood blisters on one finger and I have many blisters on my other hand. I really hope the young women will like them. It took me at least 10+ hours to make, so at least I can count it as a personal progress project. I celebrated when I had all 21 finished, wahoo!