Whoa, boy, do you have some reading to do!! I've been super busy today trying to blog like crazy. So get reading already!
January 26, 2012
January 17, 2012
How did you spend your cloudy, windy, MLK day?
We took a family bike ride, flew a kite, worked on a pinewood derby car and relaxed. Nice.
Family Reunion
We had the rare opportunity to get together with my mom's sister's family here at our house last Sunday. Here is the cast of characters:
My mom (who had just had foot surgery two days before) + her husband, Steve...
...her children: Meredith (that's me!) + family, Mark + family, and Michael + family
My aunt (mom's older sister) Ann...
...her son, Tim + wife, Jamie and two kids, Lyle and Gretchen (from California)
...her son, Russell + girlfriend, Jessica and dog (Chaya) (from Austin)
My mom likes to call it a "chaotic, love fest" when we have gatherings like this. It was loud and busy and FUN. I made two lasagnas, caesar salad, garlic bread and chocolate cake. It was great to see everyone. We lived near these guys when I was in 5th grade and have lots of funny stories about our time together. Fun to see the family tree grow with all these babies!
January 11, 2012
Pretzels
Every month we get a magazine published by the church just for children, called The Friend. My Caleb loves it - and he always asks if we can make the fun recipes that are there each month. This month I agreed since I happened to have all the ingredients on hand one Sunday afternoon. It was a recipe for homemade pretzels that you shape into letters. CTR stands for "Choose the Right".
Download 2012-01-14-ctr-pretzels-eng
These little things turned out to be DELICIOUS!! And SO easy!! We liked them so much that we made them again the next night too - and made our initials. These will be a family favorite for a long time I have a feeling. p.s. must have melted butter and salt!!
Our January Birthdays
These two celebrate birthdays two days apart - January 1st and January 3rd:
This year Samuel turned 5 and Derek turned 41.
We celebrated Sam's birthday with a big party in early December - you can read all about it HERE. So, on NYE we took them out for a b'day lunch at Cheddar's. Then Mom came over on NYDay to help us celebrate Samuel. I made homemade mac&cheese (his FAVORITE) and Nana brought him a special cupcake and GUM. He also got a magna doodle, a movie, and an angry bird! He's pretty spoiled.
This kid is such a joy! He's quirky and funny and makes me smile every day. EVERY.day. He loves vitamins (insists on having some every morning), protein shakes, suckers, snacks and gum (lots of GUM!). He's huge (90% in height) with super long legs. He has blonde curly hair. We paint his nails with horrible tasting polish to try to get him to stop sucking his thumb. He still naps on days that he doesn't go to school. He is not super friendly or social (he's my only shy guy), but has a heart of gold for those he knows and loves. The other day I put a picture in a frame incorrectly and said "I'm such a kook!" and he looked at me seriously and said, "Mom, you are NOT a kook - you are beautiful!". He loves his momma and I love him right back! He also loves the dog - despite his many attempts to torture her - he talks about her to everyone and routinely prays for her. Right now he loves reading his scriptures every night before bed (New Testament stories). He rides his bike like a maniac. He dresses himself - in all sorts of color combinations - usually in shorts that are too small and shirts that are too big. His giggle is contagious. And his cries are obnoxiously loud (and he likes to point his head to heaven and just wail!). And my favorite - anytime Derek or I leave for anything he yells HUG! or KISS!! and runs to say goodbye to us. Love that boy of mine!
Derek then had a low-key birthday with grilled chicken (his favorite) and ice cream. He got monogrammed cufflinks from me - just for fun, and gift cards from parentals! The next weekend we celebrated him and Michael Lee's birthdays with a bunch of friends at Brio for a fun dinner. These are great people!
Chappells, Millers (A&M), Enlows, Gordons, Millers (K&D), Sivleys, Lees, Smiths (not pictured: Halls, taking picture)
January 09, 2012
It's baaaa-aaack!
I half expected all of the street lights to go out and Facebook to shut down last night around 8 pm. Why? Because "Downton Abbey - Season 2" was premiering on PBS! Doesn't everyone love this show as much as I do?! Derek laughs at me - but I was as giddy as a schoolgirl over this show starting up again. I taped it last night and watched as soon as homeschooling was done and Samuel had gone down for his nap today. I LOVE this series. It's magical and beautiful and wonderful and lots of other -fuls too, if I could just think of some. Mr. Bates and Anna, Lord and Lady Grantham, Mary, Cybill and Edith (poor, silly Edith), Matthew Crowley, Carson, O'Brien, Mrs Pattmore, etc, etc. Really great show. So glad it's back. It adds a little spice to my January.
January 07, 2012
New Year's Eve
As tradition requires, we spent another NYE at the Hicken's! Sadly this will be our last one there, at this house at least. It was nice and quiet and casual...with more than enough food. Since we had church the next day at 9 am, we watched the ball drop at 11 pm and called it good! Fun to be with this group (Hicken's, Crawford's, Dalebout's and Tanner's) and reminisce on 10 years of NYE's together.
December 31, 2011
Fun Family Day
With Derek off all week after Christmas, we got to spend some quality time as a family. One of our favorite days was going rock climbing at "Canyons" and seeing a movie ("We Bought a Zoo" - very cute story, but too much language for a PG for my taste). The boys are good at rock climbing - no fear. It was fun learning how to "belay" for the them too.
Bank Fraud
I fell victim to a very sneaky phishing scam over the Christmas break - one that allowed people in Croatia to get a hold of our bank passwords and account numbers...one that gave Derek and I a 4-hour date in the bank office one day. One that caused a whole lot of grief and time and pain and suffering. BUT...alas, all that is behind us now.
Anyway...while we were spending quality time with our new friend Ilir (a very nice Serbian gentlemen) at Bank of America, my Dad and Christy generously offered to take the boys for the day (thank heavens!). They went to the SeaLife Aquarium at Grapevine Mills, ate lunch and headed to Bass Pro Shops. They also took them fishing! And they got to spend some time with Mike, Liv and Reid. I'm pretty sure this day was considered "heaven" for my boys. The only pictures I have are ones that Caleb took on his new camera, which mostly include inanimate objects, but I was able to find a few of real people and animals that I thought would make a good remembrance of that great and terrible day (great = them, terrible = us).
H/D/S Christmas Get Together
We resolved to spend as much time as possible with the Hicken's over the holidays, with their upcoming move being so imminent. We had planned on going bowling and then having dessert back at our house. But as luck would have it the bowling alley we tried was FULL and so we headed back to our house with no plans and no food. We ordered Pei Wei on-line and sent the men to pick it up. We played games (Scattergories and Spontuneous) and laughed A LOT. As usual it doesn't take anything special to make fun memories with this crowd. We also exchanged Christmas gifts. Now if we could only convince those H's to stay....
Check out the fortunes from the fortune cookies...how did they know?!
And this is what happens when you say "a silly one" to this group:
