Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving! Our friends the Bore family came from Seattle. Thanksgiving day was the typical football watching belly stuffing holiday at our house! We ate the usual turkey, stuffing, potatos and Krystin made the best sweet potatos I have ever had! Princess Aurora loved the turkey! If you look at her picture you will see her licking her lips while she watched Justin carve the big bird. Jaco, La-La, Care Bear, & Aiden sat at their own table and thought it was pretty fun. But they really loved playing in the empty pan cupboard.

First thing Friday morning we headed on a road trip. Our first stop was the Redwood Forest. The weather was perfect for the end of November. Jaco taught himself how to skip rocks and was so proud of himself. We all had fun climbing on logs and playing in the HUGE trees.

Care Bear and Aiden have been friends from the day they met but the romance of the beautiful forest brought out a different side to their relationship. I am sure they will hate these pictures someday but I think they are pretty cute!

We decided to check out the Tourist Trap area of the Redwoods. We opted out of the tour because it would have cost nearly $100 for all of us to go. Instead we took pictures with Paul Bunyan and payed $4 to drive through a tree which was totally worth it!

When we finished at the trees, we headed up the Oregon Coast. The waves were huge and beautiful to watch. One of the many places we stopped had a river that joined the ocean. It was not very deep as it ran into the sea, so Justin puddle-hopped over it with the girls to go exploring. On the way back, a huge wave came to shore and turned the trickling stream into a raging river. Care Bear cried the hardest even though she barely got wet on Justin's shoulders but he and La-La got soaked! At another beach, La-La found a skull. We think it is from some type of bird but who knows! Care Bear and Aiden planted sea weed trees in a small castle while Jaco practiced skipping rocks.

We stopped at another spot along the coast that had a natural bridge made out of stone. To really see it up close we had to climb down a mountainside. Near the bridge, the hike became very tricky so only Jaco, Justin and I continued on. If we had of made one false step, it would have been very easy to fall over the cliff into the ocean. The view was amazing even if it was a little scary!

Our final stop of the day was one of the prettiest with the sun going down. It was a little chilly but we got some fantastic photos! It was a perfect way to end the fun part of the day. After that we had to drive in the dark so it wasn't as pretty. :)

I am Thankful For....

....lower gas prices! On Sunday I saw it was $2.02 and today I am thrilled to see it below $2! When we filled up the U-Haul to move in July, we payed $4.70. That is a huge difference!

couple of sleepy heads

Justin thinks Care Bear doesn't need naps anymore. I think she does and I think this picture proves my point. That and the fact that she cries if you look at her wrong! She did not get a nap today and this is what happened around 5:30 p.m. If the kid could learn to sleep past 6 a.m. then maybe we could go without an afternoon snooze. This other picture is just a cute shot of Princess Aurora pretending to be a pokemon.

Rainbow!

Care Bear and I were able to enjoy a rainbow yesterday. We saw it on our way to help In La-La's kindergarten class, as we were leaving the school and then again when we were on our way home from the store. We could see the entire beautiful bow of color. As we were coming in the house she became concerned about the rainbow because it was getting wet in the rain. Too cute!

Book Club and Caramel Cake

I was invited to join a book club and tonight was my first meeting. It was really fun! It is a very diverse group of women. There is a Dr, a teacher, SAHM's, homeschooling moms and who knows what else! This months book was Hallelujah! The Welcome Table by Maya Angelou (Author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings). It is a collection of recipes with short stories to go with each recipe. We each chose one recipe to make and share at the meeting and then we discussed the book along with all sorts of other random topics usually centered around motherhood. Tonight was very enjoyable and gave me a feeling of acceptance and belonging. I really feel like I am fitting in with this community. Maybe it is because I think we will be here for awhile so I don't feel like my relationships have to be temporary. Not that any of my other friendships from other states don't count! It is just not the same when you don't live in the same city. Like not being able to hold a new baby, take dinner to a friend with a broken leg or get a massage from a friend. But I do love having friends all over the country! In the past I knew a move to someplace new was always in the future and so I guarded my feelings to protect myself. Now I feel like I can completely commit myself!

Because of the book club, I did something today that I have never done before! I made a cake COMPLETELY from scratch. It was called Caramel Cake and was delicious. It was more work than I have ever done for a cake but I found out that it was not impossible! Jaco said it was the best cake ever. He said it is great because of the frosting in the middle holding the layers together. He told me that every kid loves the frosting and usually eats it first and then just the cake isn't as good. So with frosting on the top, sides AND in the middle it is every kids dream come true. LOL The nice thing about it is, it doesn't require anything weird. The only thing I didn't have on hand was heavy cream but I think you could get away with using milk. So here are the instructions.

This picture really does not do the cake justice. It really was very yummy!

Caramel Cake

8 Tb butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 C Caramel Syrup (see following recipe)
2 C sifted flour
2 tsp baking pwdr
½ tsp salt~
1 C milk
2 large eggs
Preheat oven 375. Line two 8" pans with greased wax paper. Beat butter, and slowly add 1 cup of sugar. Beat until fluffy. Beat in syrup. Sift flour, baking pwdr, and salt then add to creamed mixture alternating with milk. In separate bowl, beat eggs until foamy. Then add remaining sugar and beat until there is a fine spongy foam. Add to cake batter and mix. Divide between 2 pans and bake for 25 minutes. To test, gently press cake with finger and if it bounces back cake is done. If not, bake for 5-10 more minutes. Let cool for ten minutes then put on cooling rack and remove paper. Frost when cake is at room temperature. Frost between layers and cover entire cake. Cool in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Caramel Syrup
1 cup white sugar
1 cup boiling water
Heat sugar in pan over low heat. Stir constantly (about 20 minutes +)until melted to a brown liquid. Remove from heat when entire surface is bubbly. Slowly add boiling water stirring constantly then pour into container to cool.


Caramel Frosting
6 Tb butter
8 oz pwd sugar
4 Tb heavy cream
1 ½ tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
Brown butter in sauce pan and allow to cool. Add sugar, cream, vanilla, and salt and beat until smooth.

Another Hair Cut

So I guess this is what I get for cutting Care Bear's hair. She decided I didn't cut enough and cut some more all by herself! I had talked to her last night about how only Mommy cuts hair and Care Bear can only cut paper. I guess the talk wasn't enough. :(

Hair Cut

Care Bear asked me to cut her hair tonight so I did! I love her hair short. For one thing, her hair is not very thick so it looks more full when it is short. It probably should be longer but that is what I love about hair! It grows back! After she looked in the mirror, she said, "Me look like Randa!" Pretty cute that she remembered her Aunt Miranda and thinks she has the same hair cut because she kind of does! I love hearing Care Bear's brain work and remember things from months ago and sometimes even from last year. It reminds me of how big she really is. Kinda sad in a way that kids grow and change so quickly. They go from these tiny helpless newborns to independent stubborn kids, seemingly overnight!

Thank You Veterans!

We live in the greatest country on earth and we have our veterans to thank! A friend sent this video link to me and I thought it was very appropriate for today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ud1Bk3Ns-E

I have brother who is actively serving in the military so I wanted to send a big thank you to him and his family. He leaves frequently and most times even his wife has no idea where he is. He also has two kids. So thank you for the sacrifices you make as a family to help this country stay amazing!

Pictures!

Here are the kid's latest pictures!

Pheasant Hunting

One of Justin's patients has a large plot of land about 15 minutes from our house. He invited Justin to go pheasant hunting on his property. So Jaco and Justin went and had some male bonding time with a gun and a bunch of birds. After hearing the first gunshot, Jaco was ready to stay in the truck with Cody who was shaking like a leaf. But then he got caught up in the excitement of looking for the birds and watching Dad shoot them. In all they brought home 6 pheasant. Jaco wasn't able to shoot at the birds because the gun was too big but he loved playing target practice with a pepsi can and was thrilled to show me the two holes he managed to put in the can. We ate two of the birds that night for dinner and I have to say they weren't too bad! As Justin handed me a garbage bag full of dead birds and asked me take care of them while he visited a patient at the ER, I thought about my sister Miranda. She REFUSES to touch raw meat. I am positive she would have died. It also made me think about cavemen. The man goes out for the kill and brings it home to the woman to prepare. Atleast I didn't have to pluck them. Anyone in my family will remember earning up to a whole quarter for plucking Dad's ducks. Justin was nice and cleaned and skinned the birds so it was like dealing with small chickens from the grocery store. The boys have gone back a couple more times and are hoping to go again, this time to shoot a wild turkey! Maybe we will have the freshest Thanksgiving turkey on the block!

It's so hard to be a mom!

Why don't kids just do what we ask them to? Why don't they listen? I hate it when we as parents have to follow through with a threat because our kids chose to do something they had been warned not to do. Yesterday I had to follow through with a punishment I had threatened to do. La-La keeps pooping her pants and then continues playing and denies it when I ask her what stinks. I have asked her why and she has said it is because she doesn't want to stop playing. It is gross that she poops but it is even more frustrating that she lies to me about it and stays in the soiled undies until I notice! Jaco is easy to punish. I just take away the tv or computer because he spends time with those things everyday. La-La doesn't have one thing that she LOVES. If I take away barbies she will just play babies. The only thing I could think of was her hair. She loves it that her hair is kinda long now so I told her if she soils her panties again then I will cut a little off her hair. I am sure this makes me the worst mom but it was the only thing I could think of and I just hoped I wouldn't have to follow through. Well yesterday, she did it so I had to trim her hair. She cried and cried. Her hair is still plenty long to put in piggy tails or a pony tail but she is still sad. I just hope she is sad enough to remember to use the bathroom when she needs to go!

On a lighter note, Care Bear had her 3 year check up yesterday and she is doing great! She is perfectly average in height and weight and ahead in her motor skills. I asked the Dr about her STILL not sleeping through the night. He thinks it could be night terrors. He instructed us to disturb her sleep about an hour before she usually wakes up screaming. He said not to wake her just move her around enough to break up the sleep cycle. If it is night terrors hopefully in a week her body will change the cycle of sleep after we have forced it to. I tried it last night and she never woke up screaming. I know it is too early to whoop and holler but I am hopeful! We also are going to try an acid reflux medicine. Care Bear always wakes up with a scratchy sounding voice and several times during the night, she has pointed to her chest when I ask if anything hurts. As a baby, she was on medicine for reflux but had improved enough to quit the medicine. I tried to give her the medicine last night but she refused to take it because it tasted horrible. So I am going to talk to the Dr again and see if there is something else we can try. She also is going back on the singulair as an asthma prevention drug. She is doing great that way but the Dr just wants to make she has a good winter and because she has been so sick in the past with asthma. So wish us luck on getting her to sleep at night! Hopefully either the reflux medicine or the changing of her sleep cycle or maybe even a combination of the two will finally give all of us peaceful slumber!

Kick or Treat....

....is what we heard all night from Care Bear who did not want to stop getting candy last night! She would have gone to every house in the city if she had her way. We had a lot of fun. Justin got paged after going to only three houses because another guy decided to shoot himself in the foot. This guy wasn't as lucky because he lost several toes in the blast and will probably lose the rest in surgery. So Justin had to leave us but was able to meet back up with us while he waited for the OR to be ready. His partner Monica has been here 8 years and never had a gunshot patient and Justin has already had two!

The kids decided this was the best Halloween ever. The church had a great carnival Thursday night, Jaco & La-La went to a party at school on Friday, Care Bear went to a birthday party and of course we all went trick or treating. Plus a fun package arrived from Granny & Papa and some cards also found us in the mail. We have more candy than ever! In years past we have been able to sell the candy to a dentist who would give the kids $2 per pound. Last year everyone got $8 and a trip to Toys r Us made getting rid of the candy very worthwhile! This year the treats just may disappear.....

Am I the only one who finds Halloween a little odd? Who decided it was ok to go to complete strangers homes and beg for candy? Don't get me wrong, I loved doing it as a kid and I love seeing my kids have fun but don't we teach them not to take candy from strangers? Isn't candy bad for us?

I'll quit talking now! Here are the pictures from the best Halloween ever!

Care Bear was a Care Bear for the church carnival and then at the last minute decided to be the acorn as she called herself for trick or treating. She was the Care Bear last year and the unicorn was a hand-me-down from La-La. Money spent for Care Bear's costume this year? zero $La-La wanted to be a witch this year. We added the hat, nose, broom, and wig to clothes we already had and abbra-ca-dabbra a witch is born! I had fun painting her face. Her best friend kept saying, "You don't look like yourself at all but it is weird because you still sound the same!"Jaco picked out his Gate Keeper costume and added the sword for extra protection. He couldn't wear a spooky costume to school so the orangutan costume that our neighbors gave him worked just fine. Cody went as a football player. You can see how much he loved it!I had so much fun decorating this year! Last spring someone put a bunch of brand new halloween decorations by the dumpster so I snagged them! I can't believe they didn't want them but I wasn't complaining. I added a couple $ store headstones and bones so for under $10, we had the coolest house on the street.

Care Bear woke up way too early like normal so I let her cuddle on the couch with me. I was dosing in and out and kept feeling her tap my face. Didn't think anything of it until I felt a long swipe with the distinct smell of a dry erase marker. The little stinker was drawing on me! I guess this will be my costume today!

Play In

Our school district starts offering Strings classes in 4th grade so Jaco is trying his hand at the violin. He goes to class 5 days a week and we are renting his instrument. He seems to be enjoying it and is doing great! Tonight they had what is called a "play in" where all the kids in the district who are taking strings, get together and play together. The high school gym was packed! The kids could wear costumes if they wanted so Jaco went as an orangutan. The 4th graders start learning by plucking the strings. They are just starting to use the bow. This video clip just shows Jaco from the back. Sorry! The place was too crowded to get a front shot. At least you can hear a gym full of kids ranging from 4th grade to high school playing Hot Cross Buns!

Our Home!

I finally got around to decorating! I wanted it to look nice so I got the help of my very artistic sisters especially Maria and went to town with some black paint and some ribbons. I think it all looks awesome and I am excited to show you! The best part was it was so inexpensive to do! I spent $9 on ribbon, $10 on the spray paint, $20 for curtains, $8 for the tablecloth, $5 for the varnish to protect the tables, $2 for stain, the poles for the pictures were $1 each, the wreath was $9 and each place setting was $5. That is a grand total of $90! Not too bad for a room makeover.

Halloween Dinner Party

We had a very fun Halloween dinner party tonight! About a month ago I found cool spooky goblets at the Dollar Store and decided to plan a dinner. We invited Justin's work partner, Monica and her friend Judy. They agreed to come and we planned to carve pumpkins too. I searched and searched online and came up with a great menu. It was a huge hit! I think we may have to do it again next year.

The goblet that started it all.

Severed toes anyone? When I saw this idea I knew I had to do it for the two foot Dr's on the guest list; Dr Johnson and Dr Freulich. They were so easy! Just cocktail wieners with a small divet cut out, wrapped in strips of tortillas, baked for a few minutes and a dab of ketchup to finish it off! I think they were a little too realistic because both Dr's were a little apprehensive about eating them.

Jaco working on his masterpeice.

Care Bear was getting impatient about carving her pumpkin so I pulled out some paint, stripped her down and let her do her own thing. She loved it and it kept her busy for awhile!

Judy, Monica, & La-La cleaning the guts out. La-La was so patient as she worked. She cleaned her pumpkin all by herself and then she "poked" the entire pattern on her pumpkin. She tried to carve a little but I was happy when Justin took over for her. I didn't want to add severed fingers to our menu!What is for dinner? How about bones and brains! Once again a super easy idea. I bought orange peppers and we carved them to look like pumpkins and then stuffed them full of spaghetti. The bones were store bought bread sticks, the kind in a can. I just cut a small slit at each end of the breadsticks and then rolled those pieces up to look like the end of a bone. And finally, we had to have a scary dessert! I took the idea of dirt dessert but instead of worms, I used these great skulls and hands I found at the dollar store to make a spooky dug up graveyard.
Here are our pumpkins! Pretty cool huh?

Pumpkins!

We went to a local pumpkin patch today! It was a small family farm that was nice and quiet with tons of perfect pumpkins.

Care Bear had the hardest time picking a pumpkin. Her requirements for a perfect pumpkin were 1) it couldn't be wet, 2) it couldn't be spiky anywhere, and 3) it couldn't be dirty. Plus she had to be able to carry it. I guess we should have taken her to Wal-Mart where she could have bought a clean dry pumpkin!

Jaco searched high and low for the biggest pumpkin in the field. I think he succeeded!

The farm had turkeys, sheep, chickens, and a horse. I have never seen white turkeys like these. If a turkey can be pretty, then I would have to say these gobblers are!

The kids were also able to pet this horse named Cassidy. Care Bear wouldn't go near it but that is no surprise!

I bought some dried cornstalks for decorating and it was a little tricky fitting them in the van. We had to put them on top of the kids seats. As we were leaving, Justin commented that there might be spiders in the stalks. Sure enough, a few minutes later, Jaco started screaming that there was a huge spider and La-La agreed. I felt bad but I had to laugh because there was not anything I could do until we stopped. I was really mean and took this picture. Sorry Jaco!

3 tips for avoiding your local Foot Doctor

1. If you break something glass, put shoes on before you clean up the glass to avoid two large chunks of the glass penetrating so deep in your foot you have to go the OR to have them removed.

2. Before going to bed, make sure there are no sewing needles in your sheets. This will insure that you will not have to go the OR to have the needle removed from your foot.

3. If you are walking in tall weeds with a gun in it's holster, make sure the safety is on to avoid shooting your own foot. This will also make sure you can avoid a trip to the OR.

Justin had to take care of patients this week with all of the above injuries. He had to stay late last night to perform surgery on the gunshot victim. That was after going in early to do surgery on someone who drove an hour just to see Dr Johnson and seeing patients all afternoon in the clinic. He is staying plenty busy which is good because it keeps him out of trouble!

This is the x-ray of the gunshot foot before surgery. The white spots are all bullet fragments.

Justin had to put an external fixator on this foot to stabilize the shattered bone. So the poor guy has a bunch of pins sticking out of his foot now and faces more surgery. I think it would have been much easier to make sure the safety was on instead!

They are BUGGIN me!

I have decided our house was built on an ant farm! I am so tired of little black ants invading my personal space. Today I discovered that they like children's advil and tylenol. My medicine cabinet was crawling with ants! I hurried and pulled eveything out so I could spray the pesky six legged creatures with window cleaner but before I could get all of them, they started disappearing into the power sockets for the microwave! It ticks me off that these tiny black things bug me so bad! UUGGHH!!!

Take a Hike!

Despite being under a freeze warning last night, today turned into a gorgeous fall day. After lunch and after it warmed up a bit we went for a great family hike. It was the perfect hike because there were no extreme ups or downs. We did have to step carefully because some areas had pretty steep drop-offs that Jaco experimented with but thank goodness a small tree stopped him before he went more than a couple feet. The goal of the hike was to see salmon jumping a water fall. I am pretty sure I saw one and La-La thinks she did too but it turns out we went a little too early. We might try it again in a few weeks. Not too long after we started the hike, Cody and I fell a little behind because he was enjoying all the new sounds and smells. La-La backtracked a bit because she was worried about me. She was worried that I might fall and get hurt or die. Then she asked me if I did fall and thought I was about to die or was hurt really bad, would I tie a note to Cody's leash and let him go so I could be found? I asked her what I would do if I didn't have a pen. She told me I could scratch a message in the dirt or write on a leaf somehow and attach the leaf to Cody. It was an odd conversation to be having with a 6 year old but I was touched that she was concerned for me. I have to say this was one of the best family hikes we have ever been on. Jaco typically does not enjoy hiking but he did so good! He loved trying to throw rocks into the river and even succeeded a couple times and the river was quite a ways away from the trail. Care Bear rode on Daddy's back the whole time and said she was tired too if anyone else said they were. La-La did great but she loves to be outside so I would not have expected anything different from her. We finished the day at a chile cook off at church. It was a great family day!

Kitty Tales

Aurora has survived with us for one week now and we have survived her. Why didn't anyone tell me kitties are endless entertainment!? She bats her toys around and does somersaults. It is so cute! She still loves to be held and we love holding her. This morning La-La came to tell me Aurora must be hungry because her tummy was growling. Turns out she was just purring! How cute is that?! Cody still thinks she is his own living, moving chew toy. They do pretty good together but we have had to rescue her a few times when her ears and tail are soaked with Cody's saliva. Aurora was introduced to the rats today. La-La thought it would be a good idea to put the kitty IN the rat's cage. Oh yeah, the rats were IN the cage too! Everyone survived but I had to have a talk with La-La about cats and rats and how cohabitation does not usually work between the two species.