All in One

Ian's birthday was a very busy day! It started off with streamers and balloons as usual. He decided to have Toad in the Hole and of course was given one of his gifts for breakfast.

I then spent the rest of the morning cutting veggies and making cake for later in the day. He spent some time working on his new Lego Technic set. He LOVED it and I was reminded why the tradition got started to open on gift at breakfast. It keeps the super excited child busy for a little while while he waits for the party to really get started.

 Cousins arrived at about lunch time and after some food and a bike ride everyone returned to our little house for cake and Ice Cream an of course presents.

 I don't think Ian could have been happier with the gifts he received. Tintin Wii game, another lego set, Mario Knex car, a fort building set and his very own set of scriptures.  Until my kids turn 8 they use an old set of scriptures from my youth. Ian was very thrilled to get his own set with his name on them as well as a set to scripture stickers to put in. Everyone knows this boy well because he couldn't have been happier with all this gifts.

 Since this is the birthday that Ian turned 8 so after all the cake and presents we put on our dresses and headed to the church for Ian's baptism.

 Ian of course insisted on wearing his cub scout belt and hat along with his ever present bag to his baptism. The hat did end up staying in the car thank goodness.

 I can't say we took many pictures at the baptism itself. It went really quickly and I felt pretty busy the whole time so this is the best picture of my beaming boy that was taken at the event.

I am so proud and happy for my little guy. He is such a wonderful boy and tries so hard to do what is right. He also is just so enthusiastic about life.

Happy Birthday and Congratulations on your baptism.



p.s. I don't want to do both a birthday and baptism on one day again. It was convenient but made for a rather stressful, hectic day! Good thing I have a year and some before we having to think about planning another baptism.  Everything went lovely but I felt like we rushed from one thing to next and didn't get to really enjoy or savor the experience of either the party or the baptism.

First Den Meeting

And so it begins.  This big kid is so excited to finally get to be a boy scout.

We bought the uniform a few days ago and he has worn at least some part of it ever since.

Henry is very sad that he has to wait a few years before he gets to go.

Very Umbridge

On Monday night we had an FHE lesson on safety. Ian is starting cub scouts and needed to go through the child abuse pamphlet that was included with his new Wolf handbook so we went through it for FHE and went over the rules of our house. One of the things that was emphasized was the fact that they always tell me where they going and if there is a change in their plans then they need to let me know what the changes are.  They kids knew all the answers and were able to go through the different scenarios giving all the correct responses. I thought they had this down.

Tuesday afternoon some of our kids friends showed up at the door on their bikes. They often ride over to our house and hang out for an hour or so after school. They are always welcome to come but sometimes the fun of having friend over makes my kids forget the rules. When it was time for the others to head back home all the kids went out to what I thought was just saying goodbye. Next thing I knew all was quiet in my driveway and no kids were in sight. Luckily Molly was snoozing soundly on the big blue chair. But my older three were nowhere.

They were only gone for 15 min. They had only gone and rode their bikes with their friends for a few extra minutes in the cul-de-sac. My kids often go are ride there on their own. But they know they have to let me know they are going there. When they came home and came inside I sat them down to discuss this infraction. I knew they needed a punishment to make sure they knew they had the rule ingrained into their memories.  At first I thought to just take away privileges like screen time or computer/wii time. But that wouldn't happen until the future so instead I gave them the only thing I could think of that would be immediate and "painful" enough to make a point.

I gave them lines.

"I will not leave the house without telling mama".

100 x for Sophie
75 x for Ian
50 x for Henry

Oh my goodness was there weeping, wailing and all sorts of begging.

It took them a long time to complete this task. A full three hours for the boys and Sophie actually finished hers in about two. I did give them a short break for dinner. I don't withhold food. My kids get too crazy when they are hungry.  It was amazing how much less crying and whimpering went on once they all had their stomachs full.


There was still a lot of begging to only have to do ____ instead of the number I gave them. But I didn't budge. I made them each meet the number I told them.  I was so mean and I felt like Pro. Umbridge from the Harry Potter books. At least they didn't have the sentence etched into the skin of the back their hands. They were writing in pencil and not their own blood.  I just hope the rule is now something they will remember.

I don't know if this break in the rules would have hit me so hard if we had not just had the discussion the night before.


They were all smiles once they each reached their number. They actually felt like they accomplished something.  I hope we don't have to repeat this punishment again. I just hoped it worked and they will not have this problem again in the future.

Just Because and a Great Cookie Recipe.

I didn't want my post about Tin Tin to be the last thing I post for the year.  But I can't say I have any goals or resolutions set for the start of the new year. I am still in the thick of the holiday whirlwind. It doesn't really end around her until after Ian's Birthday which is still a week away. And this year he turns 8 so there is all sorts of things to do and plan for.

So anyway... this post is mostly some random pictures from the last few weeks.  They don't fit into a post and yet to don't want to loose them or forget about them.

My kids all loved the candles. They asked if we could light them just about every night.

Here Molly is holding a chocolate frog which is the treat I made for each of our co op friends.  Oh and those cookies on the counter are the BEST! I got it from this site. But just so I don't forget it I am going to repost it here.  These are SOOO good!

Better-than-Brownies Chocolate Cookies

from Brown Eyed Baker

2 2/3 cups (about 16 ounces) bittersweet chocolate, chopped

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

4 eggs

1 1/3 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set it over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally, until completely melted and smooth.

In the meantime, whisk together the eggs, vanilla and sugar in a medium bowl. Set aside. In a small bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder.

Add the melted chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and stir to combine well. Slowly add the dry ingredients, folding them into the batter. Once all of the flour is incorporated, fold in the chocolate chips.

Scoop about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough (a medium cookie scoop’s worth) onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are firm on the outside. Like brownies, do not overbake! Leave to cool completely on the baking sheets.

Makes about 24 cookies

One Grandma gave Henry this monkey but Molly quickly took charge of it and has been holding it like a baby wrapped in a blanket. She calls it her Baby Jesus.

We checked out The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and of course had to make a few origami Yoda puppets.

And now I will get back to playing with all the new toys and games we received for Christmas. The boys have especially loved their Mario, Luigi and Yoshi Knex toys. They have been building little tracks for them to race through for days now.

We have had a good year and look forward to the next.


Have a Happy New Year!

Better than Expected.

My kids each found a movie theater style box of Raisinettes in their stockings on Christmas morning.  They were the perfect snack to stick in their pocket for movie they would get to go to the theater to see the next day.  I know... wait until the next day?.... but Christmas was on the Sabbath this year so no movie that day.

We don't go to movies very often so this was a very special treat!

 My husband was the one to take the kids.  (I stayed home with Molly. We will have to wait to see it on DVD or Netflix.) He said he didn't have really high expectations for the film. He had read some mixed reviews. Plus this is one of his favorite things to read aloud to the kids. He has a voice for each of the characters and he didn't want to be disappointed when they made the characters sound different. He was also worried about the story and how they would combine story lines of the different books. Would it still have the charm of these old 1930's comics?

 When the kids came bursting in the doors of Grandma's house after returning from the film, they were all pumped up and excited about how good the film was. They LOVED it! My husband said it exceeded his expectations.  And, of course, now my kids want to get the Wii video game that goes along the film. It was one of the many previews that were shown before the film began.

My kids gave this film two thumbs up and can't stop telling me about this or that from the film. And for someone who hasn't ever read the comics or watched the film, it is rather funny to hear and ends up being just a big jumble of words. I guess I better check these books out of the library again and read through them so I can understand what these guys are talking about.

Christmas Party

I am finally getting around to posting the pictures of our Church Christmas party. It was a few weeks ago.

Since there is no longer an activities committee someone is just selected to be in charge of each activity. My husband was chosen to make sure the Christmas party happened this year. And can I just say it was stressful! I have been on Relief Society activity committees and such so it just didn't seem like it would be that much different than that but my husband, who has not had that pleasure found the whole experience rather daunting. Plus this is just the season of busyness so it was somewhat difficult to get others, that were also asked to help pull this shindig together, to meet to plan etc. But he was really grateful for those that did! And the whole event went very well and all had a great time.

Here are some pictures of our family from that night. There is a photographer in our ward who took the pictures with Santa and other shots during the night. He did such a fantastic job! I quickly downloaded a few and used them for our Christmas card this year.

Here are all the primary kids singing a few Christmas songs.

Ian is really singing away!

Can you tell what song the kids are singing here?

My husband MC'd the event and so was on the mic most of the night.

Of course Molly had to go up and see him. She was not going to sit still with me for anything.

And if Molly got to go up then Henry of course had to go up as well.

So from our house to yours Merry Christmas to all.