Our Bubble World: February 2010

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Christopher - Future Cheerleader

Doug and I encourage our children to participate in sport activities. However, right now with me semi-disabled sport activities aren't as easy to fit into our schedule. Earlier in the school year there was a three saturday basketball camp that both Ben and Chris did and more recently there was a spirit camp. Chris was really excited to do it while Ben could have done without. So, seeing as it was only one night after school we let Chris join. I have decided that we either have to worry about our son or that he is a very smart boy. Out of 88 children that went he was the only boy. Smart or do we worry? This is one of the cheers that he participated in at a high school basketball game after the camp.

Ready to cheer!

First attempts at hat making

Ben and Chris earn Accelerated Reader (AR) patches at school for reading so many books in a given genre and passing a test on them. Since Ben is now in 4th grade he has been bugging me for 5 years to get him a hat or backpack to put his patches on. Well I finally decided to bite the bullet and make something. That something turned out to be these hats. I found a tutorial online and with only minor mistakes achieved these finished products. Definately a work in progress but not too shabby if I do say so myself. They did end up fitting my 4 1/2 year old better than the older two, but who's meassuring?

Monday, February 22, 2010

Life

Why can't life be like the old sitcoms? In those shows the woman gets pregnant and ends up with the littlest bump in front imaginable and then a few shows later delivers a healthy baby and looks great right afterwards. Not so in my life. Nine months later I have a state fair winning pumpkin , you know the gigantic ones, protruding out my front, haven't been able to see my toes in months (which by the way are all swollen with retained water), and that cute little bump? well that was right after conceiving. I guess I have been lucky in that I never get morning sickness and usually I feel great right up until 36 weeks by when I'm ready to have the baby, but this time is different. A few months into the whole thing I got psyatic pain, then a herniated disk which caused pain untold and my right foot is still numb from, then I needed a root canal, and to top it all off of course I got gestational diabetes again. I'm just over 27 weeks and already have asked my doctor if it is too early to have the baby. I'm trying real hard to see what it is I'm suppose to learn through this trial, but so far have come up with zip. I get tired easier and snap at the kids as a result. All I want to do is lie in bed and yet all I want to do is get out of the house because I'm stuck here as a result of the disk and I can't lift anything including children so putting Lexie in the car is out. Walking is a chore yet I don't want to be in a wheel chair all the time. The weather is so nice right now that I want to be outside working on our land, but can't. I guess all I feel is frustration and it is taking it's toll. Sitting here reading what I have written makes me think maybe I'm not trying so hard to see the good and the reason why at all. Sounds like a lot of complaining to me, but there you have it anyway. My one and hopefully only one pity party at least during this pregnancy :)

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Sewing adventures

A small group of ladies meets once a week at my house to try our hand at sewing. Some of us are newbies and some are ametures (we know enough to get us in trouble). Our first project was a purse, but I thought it would be a pain, which it was in a sense, and decided to make this easy on first.

So, here is my first purse.

Here is the project purse.

It has a pocket inside that I divided into three compartments, a magnetic clasp, and a cardboard bottom. Next time I think I would leave out the cardboard bottom. I liked the way it hung without it.

Love on a Cloud

Our traditional Valentine's Day dessert

3 large egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

3/4 cup sugar

8 oz cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

2 cup cool whip

1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)

1 can cherry pie filling

1 cup mini marshmallows (optional)

Heat oven to 275*F. Cover baking sheet with heavy brown paper (grocery bag); draw outline of heart, 9 in across greatest width, on paper. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Beat in 3/4 cup of sugar 1Tbsp at a time; continue beating until stiff and glossy. Do not underbeat. Spoon meringue into outline on paper, building up sides.

Bake 1 1/2 hours. Turn off oven; leave meringue in oven with door closed 1 hour. Remove from oven; finish cooling away from draft.

Blend cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar and extract. Fold in cool whip and marshmallows. Pile into meringue shell. Cover and chill. Just before serving top with pie filling. Cut and serve. Enjoy!

Valentine's Day

What a good day this day was. Church didn't start until 1pm so I was able to make a nice big breakfast for everyone: Butterbraid bread, bacon, and hashbrowns. Doug showered Lexie and me with his love and kind gifts. I wish I could say a gave him something great but I was only able to make my own stuff this year and gave him cococut chocolates and a poem. He loves them or should I say loved since the chocolates are gone, but I always love to do more for him. He is so good to me.

Here are Lexie's gifts. The card in the envelope is also a lion.

My gifts from Doug:

Flowers, candy, valentine socks, and a card

Lexie waiting for chocolate with her lion

And now some shots of the little princess all dolled up for Valentine's day

Look at those curls!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Lexie turns 2

Lexie turned two this year. Since she is my only girl and probably will be for awhile (I'm currently going to have a boy in May) I wanted to make a girlie type cake. Last year for Valentine's day Doug gave me this cupcake pan and it was perfect for Lexie's birthday. A little hard to get two candles on. Last year would have been ideal since she was one and one candle would be perfect, but oh well we managed.

So here is her cake

Wow! Look at that cake!

I'm a big girl now

Happy birthday Lex!

Cool girl

I'm too good for this cake

Snowflakes in the hair

Just some pictures

Roy and Sierra's wedding reception in Washington

Lexie having fun while eating her cupcake

Got those feet off the table!

Lexie wearing Grandma's coat

Chris and Lexie waiting for bedtime

Christopher turns 7

January 22, 2003 was a normal day. Play at home with Benjamin, clean house, sit around and then a doctors appointment. My sister Lilly watched Benajmin while Doug took me to the appointment. Then everything changed. There was a possibility I could have Toxemia so I needed to take all this stuff home to collect samples all night, but wait another option: I could just have the baby. Having the baby sounded good to me so my midwife broke my water (about 4pm), I flooded the place (I had a lot of amniotic fluid), and then horrible contractions forever. An epidural and short nap later and just after 7am Christopher was born. My how the time flies now he is a big 7 year old.

He got these cool PJ's and loves them

Opening some more gifts

Eating his cake and ice cream. Happy Birthday Chris!

Friday, February 5, 2010

Christmas at Grandma's and Grandpa's

Like I said last post, after we were done with Christmas at our house we loaded up and went to my parent's place for more Christmas celebration. Most everyone was there even if it was for a brief period. It was nice to be with everyone even if we were a little crowded. Boy have we grown.

Christopher and Evan full of excitement

Gifts waiting to be opened

The grandchildren helped pass out the gifts. Here Lex is taking her turn.

Lilly's boy Parker opening a gift

Grandma gave Evan a Dora blanket. He was so excited that he spread it out and demanded a picture be taken

Now December pictures are all done. Phew! Oh, wait! Now it is February and I still have January pictures to do. Man it is hard when you fall behind. I'll try to get the new pics on the computer soon and load them up. Until then enjoy life!

Christmas at our house

More Christmas - better late than never.

We had to set up some sort of blockade to make sure the children wouldn't come out to peek at their stocking before it was time.

The line up to come out and see what goodies were left if any

The stockings before the crowd hit them

Lexie opening up her stocking of goodies

Little candy striper

Cool girl Lex hangin' with mommy

Opening the big box from Uncle Roy and Aunt Sierra

Ben opening a cookbook

Everyone has to huddle where the gift opening is. Chris is trying to open one of his gifts

Lexie got her first baby doll for Christmas and it was love at first sight.

We had a nice Christmas morning at home. After the stocking we ate breakfast which consisted of Clementines from our stockings and Butterbraid bread (so good if you've never had it kinda like a huge danish in loaf form). After all the gifts were done we played a little and then bundled up to go to my parents for more unwrapping.

Christmas Eve

I guess it is about time I put some of our Christmas activities up. There were so many to go through it took a bit of doing, but now I'm done so here we go.

This year we didn't have a Christmas party because of my bad back so we made a list of things we could do, cut them up, put them in a jar, and randomly drew what we would do on Chritmas Eve. Here's our evening in pictures and lots of them.

We made candy

And some of us ate it too!