Sunday with Uncle "D" (My brother)

Sunday we went to church and then came home and made dinner, the Sunday usual. While Matt and I were working on dinner, DeLane took the kids for a joy ride in his rental car. Then after dinner, he handed Matt the keys and suggested that we take a turn to go for a spin. My kids thought it would be funny if I modelled the car.

It was a nice afternoon. The kids enjoyed themselves playing on the front lawn spending time with their favorite Uncle D.

Saturday at the dunes with Uncle "D"

Saturday at 1pm, my Brother DeLane came to spend a couple of days with us. We decided to go to the dunes for the afternoon. It was supposed to be a sunny warm day. Instead it was a little windy and cold, but we still went. Two of Matt's brother's and their kids went with us too. The kids had a lot of fun climbing around on the rocks and playing in the sand. Then we built a fire and roasted hot dog. I think they thought they were starving, because the all had two hot dogs each. We had quite the enjoyable time. "D" as we call him, was so sweet with my kids, especially with the little ones. He either had Elody or Beauchene in his arms. They took right to him. When we got home, we bathed kids, had a little dinner and we all were in to bed by 10 pm.

Elody's sleeping arrangements

Elody has discovered my night stand. My water, carmex, and lotion are no longer safe.

Wednesday night soup - Ham and Vegetable soup with bread

I have made my own cookbook, but eventually I would like to add pictures in the book. I think that's the main reason I keep taking pictures of my meals.

Jaren has lost his two front teeth

Jaren has lost 3 teeth in the past month. He was pretty excited about loosing both of his two front teeth. Jaren is in 1st grade and is doing really well. He doesn't like to do his homework, but who does. He likes to please his teacher and get his work done. He doesn't like to do his chores, but he likes to hold his baby sister. He is very tender-hearted and doesn't like being repremanded, so we try to be sensitive but firm with him. He is very easy-going and is an all-around happy kid.

Elody and Hannah

Today I babysat Sariah and Brandon while Candy took Austin to the orthodontist. When they came back, I want to get a picture of Elody and Hannah together. Elody is 7 1/2 months and Hannah is 10 months old. Beau is 2, Sariah is 3, Safia is 4 and Brandon is 5. They all really enjoy playing with one another. I wasn't able to get both babies to smile at the same time so I posted one of each of them smiling.

Monday night - Potato Soup with fresh homemade wheat toast

So as you can tell, I have been in the mood to take pictures of my dinners and posting them. Food is a part of my life. Making good food and eating a lot of it to produce milk is a major priority.

Sunday night dinner - Orange chicken and brown rice

I made one of my most favorite dinners tonight with the help of Matt and Angelique and Jileigh. We made Orange chicken on brown rice with a side of mixed veggies and spinach salad.

I don't know how to upload a document from my computer, so I am always happy to share recipes by email them.

Dinners - Meatball sub sandwiches and Cauliflower soup

I try to be a humble person, but I have a passion for great tasting food. This past week Matt and I made a big batch of yummy meatballs and cauliflower soup. One night I made meatball sub sandwiches on homemade wheat hoagie rolls and the next night, teriyaki meatballs. Beau insisted that I take a picture of him and his sandwich. He's a cutie!

Who put who to sleep?

At night, Beau takes a g-pig out of its bin and sits with it on the couch to watch t.v. Every time he does that, he falls asleep. Its too cute not to take a picture of. (These are two different times)

There's also a picture of Elody grabbing and pulling herself up Jileigh's pant leg( It was one of the first times she's done that) She did that while Jileigh was taking pics of Beau.

(Jileigh put this post together.)

Cute pics of Elody

Elody is crawling now. She was 7 months, 1 1/2 weeks old. She use to get on her hands and knees and rock and then plop on her belly and army crawl. Last Sunday night, she looked like she was really concentrating moving her hands and knees and then it clicked for her. She crawled under the stool and stood up and got trapped. She also likes to crawl over to where someone is standing and grab onto their pant legs and stand up. I have to make ita habit to look behind me when I am working at the counter before I move back. She can sit and move to crawling; but she can't go from crawling to sitting, so she goes up on her knees.

This little girl loves to stick out her tongue. One of the kids took this picture of her; but it captures her tongue well, so I included it.

She still primarily nurses. If we are having some steamed veggies for dinner, I'll feed her some. She also likes pancakes, whole mixed grains. She is still waking up a couple of times at night to nurse. Her crib is next to my bed with out the bar there. It is the same height as my bed, so she just crawls over to me, I latch her on and go back to sleep. That is how I survive.

Talon in his spare time

Talon spends his spare time listening to books on cds and swinging on a rope swing in the front yard. He has listened to over the past couple of years: The Harry Potter series, The Charlie Bones series, The Fablehaven series, The 13th Reality series, Fairest, The Alchemyst, Magyk and is currently listening to Flyte. His Grandma got him an MP3 player for his birthday last August and has loved it to it's fullest. He has been through 3-4 pairs of earphones. Thank goodness for Walmart. (By the way, Jileigh is the one who filmed this and is the one talking.)

Talon is really enjoying 11 year old new scouts. Matt is his leader as well. That really helps.

Talon is doing pretty well is school. The school district has an internet program called Power School where we can go see all of their class assignments and grades. The schools each have their own website where each teacher has a calendar. Only 1 of his teachers keep up on his calendar. These sites have been a life saver in trying to keep Talon caught up with his classes and grades. In PE, the kids have to run the mile every Monday. Talon's fastest time is 7 minutes and 15 seconds. He started the year out running the mile in just over 10 minutes. It has been fun to watch his improvement.

Jileigh's way of being funny

Jileigh loves the predator and the prey and thinks she's funny when she not only puts them in the same house, but the same doll house. She took extra pre-cautions so that the cat couldn't get anywhere near the pigs. O:)

Elody at 7 months old

This is a video of Elody doing sit-ups. She has some strong stomach muscles!

Elody the day before turning 7 months

Elody, the day before turning 7 months, pulled herself up to a standing position. She was so proud of herself. I'm in trouble!

Beau and the beloved guinea pigs

Beau fell asleep holding the guinea pigs. It was soooooooo cute that we had to take pictures.

Canned Chicken breasts

On New Years Day, Matt and I canned chicken breasts for the first time. It was so easy. I only bought 10 pounds to experiment with and wished I'd bought more.