Birthday and Cakes

Eli turned one this week! I cannot believe how fast this year went by! He's such a funny kid. He likes to tease me and make me chase him. He giggles with the kids and loves to sit in our family prayer circle at night. He is always challenging Ben to lightsaber fights and loves to wrestle with Liam and Natalie. He can say mama, da, uh-oh, thanks, and hello. He's a smart little guy.

We let the kids vote and they picked to go to Pirate Island to celebrate his birthday. We had a blast together! The kids got a lot of tickets, which they combined so they could have a lot more tickets. They ate, they giggled, they left without anyone creating a scene or getting lost. Eli sat in his high chair and grinned and giggled at everyone around him.

Afterward, we headed home for cake and ice cream. Before we knew it, it was bedtime.

Elijah's birthday was a whirlwind, he chose to only wait an hour and 45 minutes from the time labor started to making his grand entrance. He immediately stretched out as much as he could and went to sleep. He still loves to be free and able to move about and stretch. He's learning to go to sleep on his own and loves to eat! We're so grateful for him in our family.

The other day, Jason and I watched the movie about Julia Child. That combined with a recent viewing of "No Reservations," my mom's new cookbook that arrived in the mail the other day ("Martha Stewart's), and a secret addiction to "Cake Boss," I suddenly felt like making something a little complicated...and blogging about it. Of course, it turned out nothing like the picture in the book, but my-oh-my it was a scrumptious piece of confectionery goodness. It would have to be with 3 cubes of real butter and LOTS of chocolate to soothe the senses. This is all that was left:

It was supposed to be a devil's food cake with whipped ganache (don't you love that word) filling and a mint chocolate ganache icing. Well. I was in too much of a hurry to wait for the whipped filling, so I just used whipped cream and the icing was very runny, but very satisfying. Altogether, I'd say that it was worth all the calories, fat, and HUGE mess. (seriously, it was a big mess, there were even chocolate paw prints on the floor.)

Let's all say ganache. Ganache. Ganache. Ga-yummy!

A Christmas Gem

Jason found this little note by Liz the other day and I had to share it.
It says "Dear Jane, mom says that we get cole just cole in our stockings for christmas lets try to be good so that we wont get cole just cole for christmas love lizzy.

PS I never said she was going to get "cole" or "coal" in her stocking.

I live at the Pediatrician's Office

In October, I took Ben in to the pediatrician for a well check and cheekily told the doctor that I hoped I wouldn't see him for the rest of the year. Ha ha. The next week, Liam broke his collar bone. Then commenced what will be called the winter of the ear infections for Natalie and Eli. This consisted of about 5 visits to the doctor, 3 antibiotics, and 3 shots. Nice. Back to the Doctor in January for an ADHD evaluation for Jane, ear check (AGAIN) for the babies, and a well check for Eli. Jane tested positive for ADD (what a shock!) so she gets to go back in 4 weeks to check on her meds. Fun. I'm guessing at this point that Eli will get tubes in his ear sometime this year. Well, I live at the office, so it's no strain on me!

Speaking of ADD, when I picked Jane up, the principal helped me check her out. He asked her if she got to go get a special lunch after he appointment. Jane used her ADD hyperfocus ability and kept reminding me about taking her to Wendy's. Let me just interject here and say that she hates Wendy's. She doesn't like hamburgers, fries, chicken nuggets, or cheeseburgers. I reminded her of this on the way home. I told her she could pick from the above mentioned items or go home for lunch. I told her that under no circumstances was I going to buy ice cream while it was 3 degrees outside. She picked peanut butter sandwiches at home.
In fact, once I picked her up, she didn't stop talking the ENTIRE TIME, until after trying several times to get her attention, she finally heard me say "Please don't talk to me while I'm talking to the doctor." (He was laughing). At one point, this was what she was saying:
"Hey Mom! Look! There's a alien on that moon. (The doctor had space themed paintings on the wall.) Huh. That's funny. Hey! That's it! The man in the moon is an ALIEN! Because, people can't go in the moon they can only go on the moon. But aliens can go in it because they live there. Oooh. I get it. Huh. I've never met the man on the moon..." and on and on. She cracks me up still.

I love being a mom.

Christmas 2010

I love winter. I love snow. From Thanksgiving to New Year's Day I think it should snow and we should sled, build snowmen, and ice skate. But about this time I start dreaming of beaches and sunshine. I've decided that I really would like to go to the gulf of Mexico in Texas this summer. Warmer water, fewer crowds. In fact, I'm pretty much ready to take any trip, anywhere. TODAY!

We had an awesome Christmas. I don't think I've had such a relaxing Christmas since we had kids. I had a weird reaction to a decongestant so I slept for half the day, off and on, interspersed with puzzles, movies, and playtime with the kids. We ate well and had a great time together.

Christmas Eve we tried a nativity and it was hilarious! Richard read the narrator part and we had David and Alyson join in as shepherds. Jane and Lizzy were the angels and Abi was Mary. The boys filled in as kings while the babies ran around as various animals or shepherds or whatever we could get them to wear. The entire program lasted about 4 minutes.

The boys were excited to have Dave have a sleep-over with them. I think Ben was more excited about that than Santa coming. Ben got up at about 3 o'clock in the morning and showered so he would be ready to go upstairs as soon as family prayer was done.

It was fun watching Natalie figure stuff out on Christmas morning, she kept watching the other kids open their presents and then spent time trying to play with the others new toys. She did finally figure it out but I think I opened most of her presents for her. Elijah just crawled around and played happily with the wrapping paper.

Over all, we felt very blessed and experienced as often as we could the spirit of Christmas and the peace our Savior's life has given to us all.