My Plan of Action

So, this is how it's gonna go down.

Marisa is insisting that I change her diaper 8 times a day. I'm sorry but 8 diapers at $.20 a pop is just too expensive. SO...I bought some cheaper diapers, but I've made a plan to have her off the diapers, the pacifiers gone, and the crib ancient history (Well, it's already ancient, it just needs to be history). Want to hear? Yes? OK.

Marisa seems to do better if she is well prepared. So, I made this chart where she puts one sticker on every day. After 7 days, the pacifiers are going to the store to "exchange" them for a toy. They will be no more. Not that she ever really uses them, she takes maybe one nap a week, but the fact that they are still around, well, doesn't aid in the "growing up" process. So, since that is probably the least traumatic of the bunch, they will go first. Besides, they are NASTY!

Seven days later there is a picture of a big girl bed. That day the crib WILL be taken apart and put away. I will make her a princess comforter to make sleeping on the big girl bed a little more fun, but I'm counting on a few rough nights. I might have to bribe Roman to sleep over in her room for a few nights so that she will stay in there, but that might just prolong the misery. We might have to bust out the childproof door knob thingies. And, maybe some ear plugs. :( I do think that she is worried about falling out because she said something along those lines the other night. So we might loose the box springs or find one of those bed rails. I don't know yet. Just putting it in the place of her crib and having no other options might be enough.

14 days later there is a picture of some undies. I'm pretty sure she is ready, at least in the physical sense. She going to have to be prodded emotionally. The hardest part is going to be getting her over her fear of the toilet. At this point she can put a sticker in one space for every time she uses the potty. Every 7 times she can have a new Littlest Pet shop toy. An expensive solution, but the only one I can really see working. She absolutely drools over them at the store. By the time she works herself through 10 or so pets, she might just have it down.

Wish me luck. I'm gonna need some kind emotional crutch I think. Maybe a case of ice cream. I could just wait for her to take the lead on all these things, but she so rarely does. I will have long since lost my mind.

Any better ideas? things that worked for you? I would love to hear em. Keep in mind, she isn't easily bribed. I'm breaking the news to her tomorrow about my little plan. I think she will be game.... at least until we hit day 7. :)

Best Dad in the World

Roman has the best dad in the world.

He bought him this hat with HIS money. Roman loves it.

As you can see, his lip is healing nicely. He got his stitches out on Friday and the Dr. says it could take up to 8 months to get to the point where we know what the scaring is really going to be like. That sure is a long time.

Until then we will be funding the Mederma company picnic.

I'm happy about the hat because if he sticks to his idea of being Sonic for Halloween next year, I've got a very strong head start.

15 months old already!

I know, I just barely shared his 14 months pictures. I'm trying to be a little less lazy and actually do these within a week of the actual date. :)

Ezra is crazy. I swear if I hadn't actually been there when he was born, I might wonder if he was one of our kids. He just got quite a different mix of genes than my other kids, but at the same time, I guess he has some similar features as the other two.
Most of the differences are in his personality. He's such a nut.

He's such a busy kid. I got absolutely no pictures of him with his monkey because he just wouldn't hold still long enough for me to get a picture that wasn't blurry.

His vocabulary is still growing and now includes

Stop! (usually accompanied with a flailing arm)
thank you
nana= banana
a-choo = the sound you make when you sneeze duh

He still has a talent that none of the rest of us seem to possess and that talent is screaming like a girl. I know I've mentioned it before but it just amazes me because I've never been able to do that high pitched scream.

He had his dr. appointment this week and is just a tiny thing. well, tiny compared to my other kids.

He weighs 23 lb 2 oz  (30%)
He is 31-1/4 " inches long (60%)
but his head is HUGE 48 1/2 cm (80%)

The Dr. suggested having me mix carnation instant breakfast into his milk to beef him up a little. Unfortunately that only made things worse as he won't drink it OR milk now. AAAKK! 

He like following around his siblings and getting in on their games and he's starting to be a big kid. :(

I Heart Faces- Texture

OK, so here is another I heart faces photo. Just playing around with a little texture. I like textured photos but I feel like I don't really know how to do it. Well, I know how to do it TECHNICALLY, but artistically I feel like I'm lacking. Not to mention that I'm not a photographer, as much as I wish I were better at it.

I guess practice makes perfect eh?

So here you go. My son playing in our living room. I felt like making the photo black and white and adding texture that it would diminish the cluttered background and surroundings.

It has a little old timey feel to it. He just needs a newsboy cap on and get rid of the obvious modern elements like the blue jeans, onesie, humidifier. Ok.. so it's not old timey at all but that's ok. :)

 Find more textured photos at I heart faces.

CC Cookies and Breaded Pork Chops

So, after a rather exciting yet still unwelcome start to our week the rest has been..... well, rather dull.

We all have a touch of a cold (except Roman) so life has been spent indoors and away from people. Not that we go anywhere or see anyone much anyway, but still.

I did try out a new recipe as well as an old favorite. (I promise I'm not turning my blog into a cooking blog. It just seems that way at the moment)

The new one was ATK's Classic chocolate chip cookies.

Here is a link: http://christopherkimball.wordpress.com/2009/08/04/perfect-chocolate-chip-cookie/

I've made a LOT of chocolate chip cookies and just when I think I've got a great recipe, it fails me in one way or another. I don't know why. Maybe my tastes change or something. But I like the kind that are slightly thick, but not cakelike, chewy but not doughy with a crisp outside and just enough chips that every bight has a chip or two but not the entire cookie. I'm looking for perfect. Every time.

The picture for these cookies made them look promising, the recipe itself is a little strange. Much different than any other recipe I've tried.

The verdict? They are good. They taste like they promise. They are full flavored with a nutty/toffee tinge to them. They were slightly flatter than I like but just a touch more flour would probably solve that. They were good fresh, not as good two days later. So... I'm still searching, but I think I'm on the right track.

I actually went by weight instead of measurements since the weights were provided and I happen to own a scale. This threw off the measurements a lot more than I expected them to. It ended up being a lot more flour than the measurements called for (over 2 cups), and a little less brown sugar (about 1/2 c instead of 3/4) I guess I go a little overboard when packing my sugar into the cups. :). It was strange. I may try them again using just the measurements. But that has me worried since It felt like I needed more flour. hmmm. (yes, I did take into account the container when I was weighing)

The thing is, the whole butter browning process, well, it takes time and the kids can't really help etc. I'm just not sure it's worth it. So... I dunno. Do you have a winning recipe?

The second recipe that I had tried before I got my cookbooks was these crunchy baked pork chops. WOW! These things are good.We've had them at least three times since I discovered the recipe a few months ago.

I think the two key elements to this recipe is brining the pork, (makes it flavorful and tender) and the fresh homemade breading. YUM!

I didn't take a picture of the final product because I wasn't really planning on blogging about it but I did take some pictures of this neat little technique I learned in my cooking class a year and a half ago.

If you recipe calls for fresh herbs ie. fresh parsley, don't clean it first then chop with a knife. It's too hard. Your herbs take FOREVER to dry and I can never get small pieces of parsley with my knife. I just don't have the patience.

First, cut off some branches, or leaves from your bunch of herbs and put them into a coffee mug.

Next, get some kitchen scissors and just chop away at your conveniently contained herbs until they are the consistency you desire.

Then get a paper towel and dump out your herbs in the middle.

Cup the herbs in the paper towel with your hand and rinse under a slow stream of water

Once rinsed, gather the paper towel around your herbs and twist it so they don't come out then squeeze out the remaining water.

Open your towel and voila! They are dry, chopped and ready to go. (OK so they don't look so dry in my picture but they were as dry as they are gonna get)

So there you have it. My cooking adventures for the week. We're having homemade pizza tonight. Well, sorta. I just can't beat the Boboli crust and sauce, so I don't try.

What are you having for dinner tonight?

Steak Interupted

So, there we were, just back from Church, grilling steaks and getting ready to relax the rest of the day away when things went down hill in a second.

Roman and Marisa were playing a game of Kung Fu something or other which entailed running up and down the hallway. They had just made it to the kitchen and were turning around to go back to the living room when Roman turned too quickly and WHACK! Right into the knoll post. "Fixed the knoll post" name that movie

Roman screamed instantly. I turned and saw blood so I brought him to the sink for further inspection. After a quick dab from the washcloth I new instantly that we had to go for stitches. It was bad. Romans top lip had split so far that it looked like a pizza slice had been taken right from his top lip, you could see through to his teeth. YUCK! Shane took one look and freaked a little. Blood is not his thing. He asked where the piece of his lip was. Nothing was missing though it was just cut so deep and so far that it was pulling apart.

So, I grabbed my purse, ran outside and turned off the grill and brought in the steaks while Shane strapped Roman into the car. And we were off. There could not have been more cops on the roads either. I saw four on my little 20 minute drive to the emergency room. So, I had too keep it within 5 mph. I didn't need a ticket, or even a pull over to top things off.

Roman stopped crying by the time we were in the car and never cried again. What a trooper! But you know emergency rooms are. It luckily was not very busy but we were still there a good solid three hours.

After thorough inspection we decided that we would try to stitch it up without sedation. It went well. The shot to numb him up was a little tricky because it had to go in his mouth way up his cheek, almost up to his eyeball where the nerve is. But he didn't cry, he just said "ow!"

We watched Funny home videos while waiting to get numb, and teenage mutant ninja turtles while he was getting stitched up (cable is such a novelty when you don't have it at home). The nurse practitioner was great and worked really hard to get his "margine" (the line of the lip) lined up right. Nine stitches later he looks much better. I hope it doesn't hurt too bad tomorrow. But it probably will.

He got a stuffed monkey and a pack of stickers and a coloring book to bring home.

Interesting how the kid who CANNOT stop talking EVER had nothing to say about the whole thing other than "this is the worst day ever!" until he was done and got all the loot then it was "the best and the worst day ever!" I kept having to ask him all sorts of questions and he didn't care for talking to all those doctors and nurses. I have my suspision that we will get the low down tomorrow though. Over, and over, and over.

Mostly I think he just had no idea what to expect, as much as I tried to prepare him on the way, but it was probably a little overwhelming, he handled it well.

We all had  late night dinner and a really late bedtime. BLAH! I wish it meant everyone would sleep in tomorrow, but it won't. Thanks to Shane's sister and her family for watching Marisa and Ezra so that he could bring me some clothes that made me look a little more decent and some shoes (I was wearing some hideous, too small sweat pants and ankle socks with sandals, YIKES). And, so he could be our support from the waiting room.

So anyway, here is our little "Stitch"

First stitches, first emergency room visit. Honestly I don't care for these types of "firsts" much.

Pasta Milano

So I promised I would share a recipe that I liked better than the last. Here it is:

Pasta Milano (a copy of Macaroni grill's dish)

Alredo Sauce Ingredients:

1/4 C. Butter
1 C. Heavy Cream
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 1/2 C. Grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/4 C. Chopped fresh parsley

• melt butter in medium sauce pan over medium-low heat.
• add cream and simmer for five minutes
• Then add garlic and cheese and whisk quickly, heating through.
• Stir in parsley and add to recipe below

Past Milano ingredients:

1tsp. olive oil
2 tsp. roasted garlic
1 C. sliced mushrooms
1 Tbsp. sun dried tomatoes
1 tsp. fresh parsley
2 oz. chicken stock
3-5 oz cooked diced chicken (I always use a LOT more)
1 C. Alfredo sauce
4 oz. cooked bow tie pasta (I use more of this too)
1 T. grated fresh Parmesan cheese

• heat a 12" saute pan. Add olive oil, and mushrooms and allow to brown. 
• Add sun dried tomatoes, parsley, stock, chicken and garlic and heat through
  
• add Alfredo sauce bow tie pasta and toss
• serve immediately and don't save leftovers (it reheats terribly)
  

Skillet Chicken,Broccoli & Ziti

This sounded so tasty to me.

Here is the recipe: http://www.mealsmatter.org/recipes-meals/recipe/31954

It's from my ATK (America's Test Kitchen) cookbook.

Aside from the long and not exactly cheep (although not incredibly expensive) ingredient list. The "one skillet" really drew me in, as well as the fact that it seemed easy enough to make.

Can I just say, if you are trying a new recipe can I suggest doing this:

Get everything for your recipe out and have it pre-measured/cut/sliced/diced so that it's ready to use. It made cooking this meal so much easier to have everything ready to go so that I could concentrate on reading the instructions and not fumbling for measuring spoons, accidentally reading the wrong amount or burning something while preparing something else. I think I will go buy some of those cute little glass bowls that I've been eye balling at Walmart. They don't cost much.

Anyway, I used frozen broccoli which worked great, I didn't buy the $7 jar of oil packed sun dried tomatoes either. I had some that were in a pouch and I just soaked them in some oil to soften them up. I also used Parmesan instead of Asiago.

So, here's how it went:

Making it was easy enough. LOVED the fact that there was only one dirty pan to clean and I really liked that there was broccoli in it. (Vegetables are scarce around these parts because no one else will eat them, but I insisted because they can be picked out)

Eating it was easy enough on my part. Marisa and Ezra gobbled it up as well. Shane said it tasted like bad macaroni and cheese and he put spaghetti sauce on it and Roman wouldn't even try it.

I don't think it tasted like macaroni and cheese, but I do think that it had a very mild flavor that wasn't all that interesting. So in a way... I guess that comparison could be made. I think if you have kids to please, it's a good dish. I think you could skip the tomatoes all together or substitute something less expensive like a red bell pepper. More than anything I think it was there for color and texture.

So there you have it. Try it, don't try it. Whatever. I give it 3 stars I guess ;)

I have a similar recipe that we love, It's a little more labor intensive, but well worth it. I will share it tomorrow.

Do You Remember The Time? IX

I had my little website before this blog, but in case you came along before my unintended transition to my blog, here is little snippet.

Ezra, who was quite heavy and chubby until he started crawling is now a little pip-squeak. He's so skinny!

Roman, didn't crawl until he was 14 months old, and didn't walk until 15 months. He also ate a lot. He was FAT! Now, he's tall and has the skinniest little legs in the world.

Oh my gosh! Where did this baby go?!?!?!? I can barely remember it. **Sniff**  He was such a good/happy baby.

Encheladas with PW

So here is my first recipe for the year. I've actually already done two others but I'm going to save them for a bit.

I chose to do Pioneer Woman's Encheladas.

When I was a kid Encheladas were my absolute favorite food. Then I guess I had some that were NOT good and I really haven't had them again. Red sauce straight out of the can is just gross. But making my own seemed a little scary so this recipe enticed me. It uses canned enchelada sauce, but adds to it.

So, here is the recipe, by the way along with tons of beautiful pictures:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/09/simple-perfect-enchiladas/

I was actually a little sceptical about these. My sceptisism grew as I cooked as nothing smelled that great, tasted that great or looked that great. Oh my!

Some things I did change: Flour tortillas baby! None of that corn garbage. I have a strong dislike for corn tortillas, they can ruin a dish is two seconds flat, but that's just my opinion. I also made half with red sauce and half with green enchelada sauce. I will tell you what I prefered in a second. I ran out of Sharp Cheddar so I sprinkled the top with a cheddar/pepper jack mix on the top. I agree with PW on the fact that the bagged cheeses just don't melt right. Something to do with the corn starch that they coat it with to keep it from sticking.

One thing I loved about cooking this dish is that even though there were three separate components to the meal, "the sauce", "the meat", and "the rest", I could do them all separately so I wasn't stressing about doing them all at once and really screwing it up.

One thing I didn't like.... I used every pan in my cupboard. Litterally. Lots of dishes involved. (esspecially when trying two different types of sauces)

If you decide to use flour tortillas, you can only really fry the tortillas for about 10 seconds on each side, not 30. And they aren't nearly as strong as corn tortillas so you can't dip them in the sauce. I just set them in the pan and drizzled the sauce over them. It worked fine.

So it came time to eat them. I served them with with lipton spanish rice. (really good by the way. If you haven't tried it, do. It's the best boxed/pouch version of spanish rice I've ever had)

The verdict? Surprisingly good considering all of the components alone were not that great. I personally liked the red sauce better than the green sauce. Although the green sauce wasn't bad either. I was the only one who ate them though. Well, Marisa had a few bites and since it was too temperature hot, she wouldn't have any more. Ezra had a few bites too. He was speachless. It wasn't too canned tasting, the tortillas were nicely seasoned and not bland, the insides were tasty and the sauce was not too overpowering or fake tasting. I actually really enjoyed them.

I may try them again with Chicken. Maybe. I'm not jumping at the chance because there are more mouths than mine to feed and it's a lot of work for something only I will eat. **SIGH**

14 months old

I'm so behind as I forgot to post 13 month pictures, and I'm not sure I even took them. whoops! It's all because of those darn holidays, messing up things and making us joyful, how dare they?

Anyway, this kid is HILARIOUS!! He's so fun to watch and has such a funny personality.

He has started to really  notice and enjoy animals. He yells at the top of his lungs every time he sees one. He has started barking at dogs and says duck. He goes nuts for fish and even enjoys the fake fish tank on the side of our humidifier.

He just learned how to go down the stairs the right way so we can take down our gate. YEAH!

He's started to add a few words to his vocabulary.

jewwww = juice
moe= more
ma= mom
no= no
go= go
c ya= bye
'blowing' = the sound a horse makes.
woo woo = the sound a train makes

He doesn't hold still, he's always doing something and he is quite mischievous although, his conscious has kicked in a few times lately and he will occasionally listen when I say "no". Gotta love it.

He hates: diaper changes, clothing changes, haircuts, brushing his teeth, cheese, drying off after a bath and anything else that requires some kind of restraint.

He loves: bouncing around on the beanbag, hiding his juice cup in random drawers and cupboards, playing with Roman and Marisa (whey they let him), tickles, peek-a-boo, and his stuffed monkey.

Oh what a cutie we have here.

Cooking Corn

In case you don't know...Corn is my nickname.

I got two new cookbooks for Christmas. One is from America's Test Kitchen. It's a show on PBS and the Create channel. I love watching it. I even stay up way past my bedtime two nights a week just to watch in quiet bliss. Now I'm dieing to try out some of the recipes and maybe learn a thing or two. The other is The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook. It's a lot more laid back, but her pictures make me want to eat, and live on a secluded ranch (it is a very pretty book), so I've got to try some of her recipes as well. Why am I telling you all this?

Well, I want to blog about it. I'm pretty sure there are some copyright issues if I publish the recipes on my blog. As much as I would like to share. If I can find an outside source for the recipes I will share the link. If I can't, I will just tell you about it. You can email me if you would really like to try something. More than recipes I just want to talk about my experiences I guess.

(Warning, I'm not going to sugar coat anything. Excuse my pun. If you are a die hard PW fan, then you might not want to read what I've got to say. Or maybe you do, I am myself a huge fan of her blog. If I don't like it or certain parts of the end result, I'm not going to tell you otherwise and while I'm not a picky person, I do feel like if I'm going spend hours cooking something to eat, it better be worth it. Sometimes I'm happy as a clam with a 3 min. bowl of Ramen noodles.  I will also give you the other family members opinion if they have one, they are the picky ones. Too often I feel like people just say something is good without saying why it's good, or why it's not. Leaving me to trust their tastes in food.)

Now, to make it interesting, and to keep me going, I'm going to try to do a new recipe every week or so. Maybe three times a month or something like that. Something "Julie & Julia" ish. Did I tell you I really liked that movie? I've rented it twice and stopped myself several times from renting it again. I will buy it when it's $10 but I rarely pay more than that for a movie. Did I tell you that I read the second book written by the author of the book Julie & Julia? Cleaving I believe, is it's title. Well, I read the first half and the last chapter anyway. Don't bother touching it. It's not good in any sense.

Anyway, that, I guess, is my first goal for the year. Only I'm only holding myself to 6 months on that one. It might start to wear me out. Or maybe none of the recipes will speak to me and a whole year would be like self inflicted torture. But I'm also thinking about the calories consumed. Not that I ever care much, but I might start caring if my jeans don't fit.

On to the next goal. I'm going to stick with the running goal. I put myself in the lottery for the St. George Marathon last year but wasn't selected. I will do the same this year. If I get in, great! If I don't, oh well, but I do want to run at least a 10K or another half marathon again. It was fun, and not too hard. And I'm sure it was good for me.

I want to give my garden a little more attention this year. It won't be too hard to do as last year it was all but ignored. I'm still setting the bar low on that one because my kids don't seem to care for my gardening much. They get really tired of being stuck in our boring yard. Maybe I will buy a slide or sandbox for them to play with out there.

To get Marisa potty trained and in her big girl bed. I know the potty training thing is mostly up to her, so I won't be down on myself if it doesn't get accomplished. However, she will be three and a half at that point and should really be ready by then. I think with both things we are just going to have to give her no other options. I think it will work with the bed issue. I have put off pushing the bed issue because she still wakes up in the night crying every now and then. I don't want her waking up, crying and coming to get me. I would much rather suffer the embarrassment of having my almost three year old sleeping in a crib. I don't know about the potty issue. I know if I just left her alone she will one day decide to use the potty, I just worry that the day won't be until she's four and a half and Ezra is potty training. I might just die of diaper poisoning before then. Ok, so I would be the first, but still.

I also want to get Roman learning how to ride a bike. I know it's not essential, but I feel like the sooner we can get it over with the better. Then maybe he can ride his bike while I run at the park or something during the summer months. Training wheels always cause so many problems that make it too hard to even ride fast with. The biggest issue with this is that he has absolutely no desire to learn. He doesn't care for bike riding much. I keep thinking that if he learns and gets better at it, he will like it more. I might be dreaming there.

This is the only real one, the only significant one, the only one that really matters. I want to have more family home evenings. Right now we probably have them 5% of the time. I've kind of discounted it's importance because we spend every evening together. Growing up we didn't have family home evening very often either. I was the youngest of a large family that was very busy with teenager stuff. So, I've never been in the habit. I just don't think about it much. But I know we are not teaching our kids enough about the gospel. So... I'm going to try to bump that up to at least 50%. Roman is getting to the age where he can understand and Marisa can appreciate the song and a treat so... Here we go! SCARY!

That's all I can really think of as far as things I want to accomplish this year. wish me luck. I'm gonna need it. :)

Happy New Year! (WTMPOAB)

WTMPOAB= Way too many pictures of a bathroom. BEWARE! :)

So, here we are. 2010. That is going to take a little getting used to.

What a year! I wanted to go back and give a little update on my new year's goals for 2009 and how I did. Frankly, I'm a little embarrassed. It was a meagar list, and I completed it with a little less gusto than I should have, but I guess it leaves room to improve next year. A lot of room.

So here was my little list:

1.Enjoy (word of the year)
2. Run a race longer than a 5K
3. Loose 5-10 lb, better abs (laughing a little at that one)
4. Finish the basement bathroom
5. Sew one nice thing for each of my kids
6. Use a song title or line from a song for each of my posts in this blog
7. Get one good nights sleep 10:30-7:30

Here's how it went:

1. I think that went ok. I don't know. It's hard to tell.

2. The is the one I actually did well. Not only did I run one race longer than 5K I ran two. It was fun.

3. I'm pretty sure I lost at least 5 lbs. I don't remember how much I weighed then, but I think if I were to loose any more weight it would be unhealthy. My stomach, now that's another story all together. Running, does nothing for my waist. I can suck it in when I really need to. :) I wish I was one of those girls that can look at their stretched out abs and marked skin and call it a badge of honor for having those kids. I can't. But I shouldn't complain. Really, I'm pretty happy with my body, until I get my picture taken next to someone who is 5 ft. nothing and has a 26 inch waist. Then I feel like some kind of beast.

4. DONE!!! HALLELUJAH!!!! Ok, well there is like two minor tiny little things and I actually bought the bolts for the drawer hardware this morning. Nothing like leaving things for the absolute last minute. So here are the pictures I mentioned at the beggining of the post. There is absolutely no natural light, and my good camera doesn't have a wide angle lens, our old camera has something funky going on so this is the best I could do on my third attempt. Want to see it better? come visit, you will have your own personal luxury bathroom and you can see it for yourself.
Click Here for the "before" pictures: 

 

 

 

 

Where the Washer and Dryer will go when we re-do our laundry room (**SIGH**)

 

Our New towels. (by far the nicest and prettiest towels in the house)

 

 

Our pretty granite counter top

 

The special order throne (only special order because we had a tight fit)

 

 

So there you have it. I know it's just a bathroom, and that there isn't anything super special about it but we are glad to have it done and proud of how it turned out. Afterall, I drew up the plans, we hand picked and constructed everything that we could. Spent numerous weekends in this one little room and tried to do our best to make it something that would last. We paid a plumber, the tub surround guy, someone to mud and tape the walls, and the vanity stuff. Other than that, Shane, my dad, and I did the work. Now... on to the family room and hallway and the basement will be finished. I will not be making any goals regarding when that will be finished, I will be sorely disappointed, I'm afraid. They shouldn't be nearly as time consuming though. Shouldn't is the key word there.

5. For Ezra I sewed the playhouse. I made Marisa a dress in February that she has worn all year long. Almost every time she wore it she got compliments. Roman was a difficult one, in fact, Shane had to remind me of one thing I did make. It was not all that nice, but it got more use than anything "nice" I could have thought up. That is his Halloween Costume. He was Mario for about a month and a half straight. He LOVES it! So I guess it counts. We get daily visits from Princess Peach as well.

6. I did it. I'm never doing that again! It kind of got to be laborious and not as fun as imagined.

7. I'm pretty sure I got at least one good night like that. I'm pretty sure it was only one. But I can't complain, I'm usually tired because I don't get to bed early enough, but I get to sleep until at least 6:00 am every night. There sure is something about a big block of sleep. It's priceless!

As for this year..... You are going to have to wait for the next post. This one is already dangerously long.