Update

So what have been up to lately?  Lots, but mainly trying to get well.  Justin and Caroline have had colds since we left Burlington (back at New years!) and they both went to the Dr. and BOTH had ear infections!  the rest of his got the cold too but not as bad as those 2 did.  Eric is still getting teeth and having lots of nasty diapers (like 5 poops a day) and not feeling the best.  But the good news is he has cut almost all his teeth but his 2 year molars.  So in the past 9 months he has gotten 16 teeth!!  

He is a very busy baby and only stops moving to sleep.  He even walks around the table to eat!

This is the most snow we have gotten so far this year!  And the mickeys are our count down until we leave to go to Disney!!!

He is busy making all kinds of animal sounds these days and in the picture he is saying "roar".  Cute tiger huh!  HE can make the sounds for: cat, dog, pig, cow, owl, tiger, monkey, bird, and choo choo. 

 He is understanding more directions these days too.  I can tell him to go get his shoes (or something else) from a specific location and he can do it!  He is also climbing on everything.  He loves to get on the coffee table and stomp.

And he can climb the bunk bed ladder!  He busted his lip falling off the ladder after this picture!

Stomping on the table with Will and wanting me to look at his shoes!

So I have been busy going to physical therapy for my back twice a week and also have taken Miles to visit a assisted living facility.  I will visit the memory center with him every other Friday.  I also talked to the reading teacher at the kids school and will be taking Miles on Friday afternoons to let some of the kids read to him.  I am so excited about this opportunity!

Caroline ready for school one morning wearing her Christmas presents (shoes, jacket, book bag, hair bows).

Caroline is doing very well besides the ear infection and junky nose.  She was invited to join the advanced girls gymnastics class at the gym!  She was so excited and is doing really really well.  We are very proud of her!  The next level is the competitive team level!!

I'm big momma!

I took this video the other night after dinner.  Something about eating dinner gets my kids wound up!  Eric loves to climb up on the table and thinks he is really big stuff.

Lately he has been walking around with his hands behind his back.  And this morning before his nap he climbed up on the back of those chairs in the background and crawled with one knee on the backs of the chairs and one on the window ledge!  Then he even stood up!  My little daredevil!!

Confidence

Today we had an extra 5 kids hanging out at our house.  It's a neat bunch of kids that gather here and a wide age range.  There is a 13 year old 7th grade girl all the way down to Will 5 and in Kindergarden.  I'm not counting Eric.  4 boys and 3 girls and only 1 is not a brother/sister.  Caroline and Will have gotten into the habit of going around the neighborhood and "collecting" their friends and either playing outside or coming in to play in the basement.  Today they were both in the den and in the basement building rivals forts with blankets, girls against boys.  The girls had the bounce house and the boys in the basement had the use of 2 sofas.  I didn't get pictures and didn't think about doing so until right now but I will try and remember for next time.  One of the other moms and I also took all 8 kids and the dog and walked to the elementary school (half mile) to play on the playground for a while too.  It was a somewhat nice 43 here today!
But Justin overheard the following conversation between Will and Julia, the 13 year old.
Will: Do you have a boyfriend?
Julia: no
Will:  well,  can I be your boyfriend?
Julia: no

Then after the neighborhood had left the house for the day Justin asked Will about Julia.  Justin said I heard you asked Julia if she wanted you to be her boyfriend and how'd that go?  Will's response... it's cool!

Not lacking any confidence there!!

After dinner

So this is a typical after dinner occurrence around our house!  The kids love to sit in laps and the rule is they have to wait until dessert to lap sit at the table.  But we only have dessert on the weekends so they hop on in Justin's lap as soon as he finishes his dinner.

Enjoy and have a few laughs, we sure did!

Dark and stormy

Eric has a mean kinda look that he can give sometimes.  Marie called Margaret's look "dark and stormy", Karen's was called an "eat shi* and die" look and it would seem Eric has one too!

This was after school today.  He was happier a moment earlier.

See not dark and story at all!!

New recipes

So I enjoy trying new recipes.  Most turn out pretty good and some aren't "do agains".  I'm not what you would call an adventurous eater and pretty much stick to foods I know and already like and try to find new ways to enjoy them!  Then the other challenge is to make it healthy and milk free.  I got a mini doughnut maker for Christmas and love using that.  It bakes them instead of frying and then since I make the mix I can use my choice of milk that will be safe for Will.  All store bought doughnuts that I have seen have milk so this is the first time in months Will has had a doughnut.  He loves them!  

Karen also introduced me to a new website that I have been getting lots of ideas from lately.  www.tastespotting.com  it's really neat.  That's where I got the idea for the apples pictured below and for the enchiladas.

Homemade apple chips. Here is the recipe.

I don't have a mandolin so I sliced them as thin as I could with my new ceramic knife Will gave me for Christmas!

before baking

Done!  Will loved them, and they were gone pretty quick.  If I could slice them thinner they would have gotten uniformly crispy but the flavor was good.

Another recipe I have tried this week was chicken black bean and zucchini enchiladas and they turned out great!  The kids even ate them!!  The recipe can be found out here.  I made a few changes based on what I had on hand.  I shredded the zucchini and didn't use a whole jalepeno, or chili powder (cayenne is all I had), or cilantro, or the lime.  Otherwise I think I followed the recipe!!

Enjoy if you try and I will share more as we try them!

Go Deacs!

Caroline and Will got go see a Wake Forest game for the first time while we were in NC!  I have such wonderful memories of going to the games when I was a kid so it was great to be able to take them.  Uncle Eric came too and I'm sure had a great time.

Watching the Deac come out on the motorcycle.

Uncle Eric took them for a walk around the upper level.  That's them at the very top center!

Still walking!  Big crowd that night.

Will certainly did the food and drink!  He ate lots of popcorn and skittles and had a Sprite to drink.  He did fall asleep on the way home!

I hope to take them again someday but seeing as we are moving to Kansas in July I don't see it happening next basketball season!  Thanks for taking the kids and telling them all about the game and sharing a little of the food with them Dad and Uncle Eric!!

Go Deacs!!

The Golden Rule

We try to remind our kids of the golden rule it seems like almost daily depending on how much arguing is happening that day.  The whole "do to others" idea works really well until it is something one kid likes and the other doesn't.  Say tackling for example.  Caroline usually isn't such a big fan of getting tackled, Will on the other hand loves to tackle and most times is good about receiving tackles too.  But when Caroline gets hurt or upset about tackles you can't tell Will, "hey, do to others as you want them to do to you" because that's exactly what he just did!!
Over Christmas something happened involving Will (not surprising) and Justin called him over to his lap and said what's the golden rule?  Will said, "stay together and listen."  I was in the room with them and heard that and responded not quite.  That's Dad's golden rule but not Jesus' golden rule!  He could then tell us the real golden rule.
So what is Dad's golden rule of stay together and listen?  That is something Justin came up with for anytime we are out of the house.  If you can just do those 2 things it's all good!  We remind the kids of that almost every time we get out of the car to go in any store or somewhere big like Busch Gardens.  It works great.  The kids have been given expectations and do very well with those 2 rules.  Have they ever broken them?  Of course they have! But then there are consequences for them to deal with.  So following both golden rules are important in our house!

I will get the rest of the Christmas pictures uploaded sometime soon!  It's been so busy this week.