Putting Things in Perspective

From Sweets with Santa to a Thanksgiving Feast it was a FULL day to end a FULL week.

Stephen is trying to catch a glimpse of Santa!

Waiting patiently for instructions on how to make reindeer antlers.

Enjoying the beginning of their sweet treats - doughnuts and scones followed by a cup of hot chocolate laden with magnificent toppings.

Walker loved the cranberry scone. Mary Frances and I decided we want to try to make some between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Their first taste of cotton candy! My first reaction was to cringe when Mary Frances spotted it, but I let them get one to share. In reality they liked it and took a few bites but it was quickly discarded. Lesson learned for mommy!

From Sweets with Santa at the Junior League's Market, we took Mary Frances to school, and then ran by the house to get our food for the Thanksgiving Feast and a quick trip to the library to get some new books and make copies of our Sunday school lesson.

Stephen does not go to school on Friday so I am not sure why I felt like I needed to attend his class feast but we did. He ate a great lunch and was very well-behaved. Sadly, I have no pictures because I was holding a tired and hungry baby throughout the meal.

Sweet Frank met us at noon for the second round of feasting!

Walker finally cashed in - poor baby.

This is Mary Frances with her dear friend Beverly.

This is how we all felt!

It has been a long week with many reminders of how blessed my family is. I spent Monday, Tuesday, and the better part of Wednesday in a the Early Intervention and Preschool Conference. I was there to get my continuing education hours to keep my licence for speech-language pathology. I attended some great workshops and learned some tidbits that I can't wait to use with my own children, with my clients, and with the children's preschool. I met some amazing parents who have endured more with their medically fragile children than I can imagine. Because I was attending this conference, we all had to be out of the house by 7:30. This was hard for us! As I am known to do periodically, I called Frank and told him "thank you" for letting me stay home with our children.

In addition, to all I have reported thus far I have been frantically trying to get the children's Christmas outfits completed so they could wear them to Sweets with Santa. They didn't get completed, but I came up with a Plan C that worked well. It was such a reminder that God provides a way and I need to be more trusting and secure in that.

Lastly, upon arriving home and getting my little ones settled for naps I checked my e-mail as I often do and in my "inbox" was a cry for help from a women here in my community. I know this lady {though not well} from my children's preschool and Junior League so the e-mail spurred me to go open my newspaper and read this article to get more information. This women always has a smile on her face and resonates the joy of knowing Christ. She has been handed a difficult lot in life but does not let it get her down. What an example! It certainly put my stress and weariness into perspective and put it on my heart to pray for her and to give what I can to ease her circumstances.

Pancakes, a Tailgate, and a Parade

Good Morning! Walker is enjoying his first pancake breakfast immensely.

I wasn't counting but Frank reported that he ate seven - that's double what I ate. It looks like I'm going to be doubling the recipe sooner rather than later. The funny thing is that I never would have given my older two pancakes at 10 months. As I was preparing the batter, I decided Walker could partake. I justified my decision that it is really only bread. My recipe has very little sugar, and of course he ate them with no syrup.

In addition to trick or treating, our Halloween provided all kinds of excitement for the little ones.

First, we attended the first birthday of a dear friend. Lindsay is a fabulous hostess and she prepared a "tailgate" party for the Ole Miss/Auburn game. Very appropriate since the daddy works for the SEC and is a huge Rebels fan.

Mary Frances loved her Auburn shaker and tattoo.

Oh no! Getting a picture for our Christmas card is going to be very difficult. First, I've got to get the outfits completed so I won't clutter my brain worrying about the pictures yet.

Olivia and Mary Frances admiring the Colonel Reb sugar cookies.
This was our SEC commercial picture - so many little ones sporting their favorite {or their daddy's} team's colors.

You can take a boy out of Mobile, but you can't take Mobile out of the boy. About four years ago, there is a guy who lives here in town who is originally from Mobile and I guess he missed Mardi Gras so he started a "mystic" parade for Halloween. Each year it has gotten bigger and bigger. This year their were 20 floats! I think our family is content to remain among the spectators so here we are. Yes, we are a two stroller family!

And now for what most people think of when they think of Halloween. The costumes! Here are our precious ballerina, big bad wolf, and sweet pea!

I'm going to huff and I'm going to puff and I'm going to blow your house down.

In reality we went to a couple of houses, but they were so content handing out candy at our house. Stephen in particular - he just passed the candy back and forth from his bag back to the big container all night.

They are already talking about what they should dress as next year. We shall see.

October Archives II

We made cookies...

for Stephen's Hallloween party at school. Stephen's class has been concentrating heavily on colors so we made a variety of Halloween and fall designs which I iced in various colors to go with a homemade Halloween/Fall book - White Ghost, Whit Ghost, What Do You See?. I'm waiting on a group picture of Stephen's class to make a copy of the book to send home with his school friends.

We painted leaves!

As we were walking Mary Frances into school the Friday before Halloween, Mary Frances and Stephen were picking up leaves and commenting on their splendor. They really were beautiful - red and orange in varying shapes and sizes. Stephen, in his matter of fact two-year-old speak, announced that we could "leaf paint" with them. Who knows where they come up with these ideas, but I readily agreed thinking we would do it after picking Mary Frances up from school before naptime since school dismissed early. Wrong, upon walking in the front door Stephen took his leaf and walked to the breakfast room table which is where we do all sorts of activities clearly telling me he was ready to paint with his leaves. And so we did... Really it is only right that I give Stephen that luxury since I spent so mch time doing those types of activities alone with Mary Frances before he was born or while he was taking a morning nap.

We did it some more after Mary Frances got home from school.

Just don't want you to forget about this one!

October Archives

A trip to the park...

Walker thought he was hot stuff in the race car with his big brother.

I love this picture because we have one on our refrigerator of Stephen that looks very similar.

Sleeping children are priceless...

I think we still need a nap - at least some days. Mary Frances has graduated from "nap time" to "quiet time." She has this quiet time on my bed which means laundry never gets completed, but I won't complain because she is really good at her quiet time. I made her a "quiet time" box stocked with paper, crayons, scissors, and other quiet activities. Mary Frances loves to learn so she enjoys practicing her letters and doing school activities. Anything with cutting and glueing is a BONUS! She loves carrying around a notebook and writing notes to her friends and family so I make sure that is in the box as well as activities related to her letter of the week at school or other themes from school. Each week I fill it with activities from Enchanted Learning and The Mailbox. The teacher/SLP in me thinks this is great and I am really quite impressed with what she can do.A bike ride...
He's ready!

She's hesitant!

We were debating if we should turn around and head home when Stephen said "No, Peach" and pointed that way.

ShuShu came to visit...

and brought a box!

which provided HOURS of entertainment. In fact, I need to retrieve it from the shed. We had supper club the night ShuShu left, and we put the box away in our efforts to pick up. It is time for it to reappear.

In Pursuit

Fall is definitely in the air here in north central Alabama. Cooler temperatures make me crave comfort food and what is better comfort food than macaroni and cheese. The idea of homemade mac 'n cheese has always epitomized comport food in my head, but none of the recipes I had tried in the past ever measured up to how cheesy and delicious I wanted it to taste. Well, this summer I finally found a recipe that measured up all the way around the table at our house. Mary Frances even requested it for her birthday dinner. Be careful not to add too much nutmeg - a little goes a surprisingly long way.


Here goes:

Three Cheese Pasta Bake

1 (8oz) package penne pasta
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 ½ cups milk
½ cup half and half
½ cup (4 oz) shredded white cheddar cheese
1 cup (8 oz) shredded Gruyere cheese, divided
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
Pinch of ground nutmeg
· Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare pasta according to package directions.
· Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour; cook, whisking
constantly one minute. Gradually whisk in milk and half and half, cook constantly 3-5 minutes or until thickened.

An aside “until thickened” always takes me longer than a recipe say even when I increase
the temperature. Any suggestions welcome! Now on with the recipe~

· Stir in cheddar cheese, Parmesan cheese, ½ cup Gruyere and the next three ingredients
until smooth.
· Stir together pasta and cheese mixture. Pour into lightly greased 11x17 inch baking dish.
· Top with remaining Gruyere. Bake at 350 degrees 15-20 minutes – until golden and
bubbly.


Now that you've read the recipe you can tell it is just cheesy enough for the children's taste buds and the Gruyere cheese adds a grown-up element but in truth what grown-up doesn't love good ol' fashioned mac 'n cheese. Probably only those who are watching their waistlines...

I owe a whole lot of people recipes so I am going to try to catch up. Sorry no pictures today~

Not bad...

I finished two out of the three! Not bad if I do say so myself especially since Walker wanted nothing to do with sitting with his brother and sister to get a picture take. It made me feel better in the end. I won't tell you how late I stayed up or how early I got up but Mary Frances and Stephen were able to wear their new clothes for pictures on Friday. Let's just say it was a good thing that Frank was out of town. I felt like Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel. Instead of never before had the sun seemed to go down so fast, I felt like never before had the sun come up so quickly. By the way, the book is one of Stephen's current favorite books. He can listen to it over and over again. He wants to check out the other Virginia Lee Burton books from the library. He turns the book over and points and asks what it is and then says, "we can check those out of the library" so they are on my list for the week.

We were so excited to have a relatively dry day that the boys and I went to the park for a few minutes before picking Mary Frances up from school. They had a ball. I wish I had pictures of Walker in the swing, but I was a bit leery of carrying the camera in without a bag. I'm afraid I've broken some part of it.

Check out our precious new sweaters ~ hand delivered by Tootsie on Thursday evening because she knew the temperatures were going to drop. And drop they did! I don't knit and don't really have any desire to learn how because Frank's mom creates such marvelous sweaters for my children. Stephen was particularly proud of his puppy dog. He was telling anyone who would listen that his Tootsie made it for him.

Almost finished... The Power of New Play Dough

I have had this bag of play dough and accessories in my sewing closet for at least a year, but there has been no need to pull it out. Well on Friday, there was need. I was looking around the house at all the picking up, vacuuming, dusting, etc... that needed to be completed as well as wondering what I was going to do for supper when I pulled out this treasure. They played sweetly, together for over an hour while I completed some of the tasks at hand and it is a good thing.

Little did I know this face was the beginning of a weekend of bellyaches for all of us!

My Sweet Boys in Helicopters

Well, I finally finished the helicopter outfits for my boys and they are a wonderful reminder of why I can't stop sewing or throw my sewing machine out of the window. Recently, I've had both of those thoughts a lot because I have so many ideas and can't seem to complete anything. I have to remind myself that I will never have enough time to do all the ideas that I can think up in my head, and I just need to be grateful for what I get done. Please forgive me for my pride, but I think my little ones look precious in these new outfits.

Stephen wore his to school yesterday for his school pictures, and he was so excited to wear it. Though he was a bit sad when we told him that daddy was riding on an airplane not a helicopter to get to California today.

My sweet Stephen...The boys were finishing lunch and I was unloading the dishes. Stephen looked at me and said "you wash those." I answered, "yes, they are clean," and he responded "thank you." He is always the first to show appreciation when someone does something for him. I hope and really expect my children to say "thank you" when they receive something from someone, but this is different. Almost daily, Stephen will realize that I (or someone else - usually Frank or sometimes Tootsie) have something for him. He always acknowledges it, and then looks me in the eyes and and says "thank you!" It melts my heart each and every time. I hope he can keep this grateful spirit

As for my Walker these are not the greatest pictures. The lighting is off and the background is dreadful but just check out that hair....

and cheeks!

My sweet third child... He scoots like Mary Frances did at 9 months and has the most precious smile. Every now and then he puts both hands on the floor and his weight on his feet so it looks like he is trying to stand up. Maybe he will be my bear crawler. We finally stopped swaddling him when we put him to sleep. Hopefully that will give him more opportunities to move since he isn't confined to his papoose during sleep. Poor thing~every thing he tries to pull up on falls over on top of him. I've seen it happen with the kitchen stool and a chair. I'm trying to prevent it, but inevitably it is going to happen again.

Frank is away for the remainder of the week and I have LOTS of sewing I would love to accomplish. You know me - it won't all get done, but a girl can dream can't she. School pictures are a huge motivation! The wonderful director at my children's preschool scheduled pictures for the entire week instead of just one day. She is so kind to let me get Walker's picture taken even though he is not enrolled this year. She also said I could get the three taken together, and so I sew with a goal of Friday morning.

I am beating myself up...I've inadvertently let my teaching certificate lapse. In reality it isn't a huge deal because I was going to have to take college classes to keep it up anyway. It sounds like I will have to take three additional hours and possibly re-take the Praxis examinations. I guess this is my motivation to clean up my filing so I can get to my Praxis results, dates, and phone numbers. Say a little prayer that they will still transfer, but I'm not counting on it. I'm mad at myself for completely missing it and then frustrated that the people at the Department of Education are not very helpful. I'm trying to cut myself some slack that three children and being out of the classroom for 5 falls now counts for something, but I can't stand that I missed it. Who knows if I will ever go back to the classroom, but I want to keep my options open. I love the idea of teaching kindergarten in an inner-city district once my children are all in school.

Okay, I best go check on my big two who were sitting on the wet front steps watching the neighbors play football in our soggy front yard. Have I mentioned that I am considering building an ark?