Check Out This...

...Gorgeous blanket!!

 My mother-in-law made this beautiful quilt for our bed

for Christmas.  She told us last spring that she would like to make everyone 

a large quilt and that we needed to let her know what fabric

we would like her to use.  I told my husband about it and then promptly forgot.

Until August, when she came to visit and mentioned it again.

So we headed to the fabric store that night, along with my sister-in-law who

had also forgotten all about the offer.

I went around and around the cotton section of the store, trying to decide on what

we wanted.  Since we haven't ever decorated our own room & Kidney Bean said

he didn't care, the world was, if you will,

my oyster.

I think I picked out at least 4 different combinations, but had a difficult time

deciding which one I like the most.  And then I decided to go with the 

pink combo.  I love it.

At first, my mother-in-law was like, "It's your quilt.  You can have

what you want."  She didn't like the combination of fabrics

that I had chosen.  But after she cut the squares & we laid them

out together, she started to really like it.

My mom sent us the pillow cases and the throw pillows, 

which she made out of the same fabrics.

Here's a closer picture.

And it's super warm.  We put it on our bed the night we got

it in the mail & it's been nice and snuggly ever since.

Thanks, Mom!

Both of you!

Potty Time

I do not like potty training.

But once again, the time is upon us.

I am a firm believer in waiting until my child is ready before

starting to help them learn to use the toilet.

Yes, even if it means waiting until they are four, like

my oldest was.

Olive was really interested in learning how last August, three weeks before

my due date with our youngest.  But I didn't think that she'd be able to learn quickly

And not revert once the baby came, so I made her wait.  But she was quite 

insistent, so we let her try it when Cheddar was a week old.

But it was too difficult for me to remember to help her as often as she needed it

on top of taking care of a tiny baby.  And she was having a lot of accidents.

And flooded the downstairs bathroom.

Which was the last straw.

I calmly explained to her that we needed to wait until she was a little older and that

we could try again after Christmas.

Whip hick brings us to today.

Day two.

And it's not too bad.  The misses have been less than the successes,

which I call a success.

And I'm hoping it works this time around.  It'll be nice to only have two in diapers again.

Book Blitz Month

According to my list of unique holidays,

January is 

Book Blitz Month

I looked up what that's supposed to mean and it's basically

to encourage people to pick up a book

and read at least one this month.

But that seems misleading to me, or at least not enough;

isn't a blitz supposed to be a bunch of something?

So for me, I'm taking it to mean

read as many books as I possibly can.

So far, I've finished two and am more than halfway through

a third.  And I'm loving it.

Would you care to join me?

At least in reading one?

New Name

Sweet little Olive has requested that we 

start calling her 

Banana.

So we have.

Friday Cookies

Some of you may remember several years ago when 

we tested recipes for holiday cookies.

We have decided to start it again, and I'm disappointed that

I can't find my magazine that we used a few years ago, since

there were plenty of recipes that we hadn't tried yet.

So I've been using pinterest, of course.

I will try to remember to take pictures in the future, but no promises.

The first one we tried is

Cran Pistachio Cookies

The recipe I found called for a Betty Crocker sugar

cookie mix, but when we made them last week I tried using my

favorite sugar cookie recipe. I also followed the advice of some of the comments

and didn't use quite as many nuts.

And they turned out great.

Try them!

2/3 c shortening

3/4 c sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1 egg

4 tsp milk

2 c flour

1 small box pistachio pudding mix

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

 1/2 c roasted, salted pistachio nuts - chopped

1/2 c dried cranberries - chopped (I didn't chop)

Cream the shortening, sugar, & vanilla.  Add the egg and milk and mix well.

Combine the dry ingredients and then mix together.  Finally,

add the nuts and cranberries.

Bake at 375 for 7-10 minutes.

The flavor we tried yesterday is

Chocolate Dipped Molasses Cookie

Also delicious.

1 1/2 c butter

2 c brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 c molasses

4 1/2 c flour

4 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp salt

white sugar for rolling the dough (I used about 1/2 c)

2 bags white chocolate chips (I only used one & didn't dip them all)

Cream butter & sugar.  Add eggs & molasses.  Mix dry ingredients together then 

slowly mix into the wet.  Roll into 1-2" balls, and roll in white sugar.  Bake 

on parchment paper-lined pans at 375 for 10-12 minutes.  

Melt chocolate in double boiler & dip half a cookie into it.  Place on

wax paper to dry. 

Both of these recipes can be found on

The Girl Who Ate Everything blog,

labled as 12 Days of Christmas cookies.

And of course we will be trying more and if the cookies are good,
I'll post a copy of the recipe here.

It's About TIme & Halloween

I have not been interested in blogging for months.

It was a task to convince myself to write the last post, and it's

been this long before I've really thought about posting another.

I don't know why that is.

I even stopped reading blogs, even though I love, love, love

to read the blog posts of my friends and see what you are up to.

And I missed a lot, which makes me sad.

But I can't go back and change my actions.

We've had a lot going on around here since summer, even though there

are so many days that it doesn't feel like it.

But I'm not feeling well today, so it's a lazy day and perfect to get

back to blogging, right?

And I'm going to start small.

The girls, of course, wanted to be princesses for Halloween.

And they, of course, wanted to be pink and purple princesses.

So I headed to the fabric store and bought fleece, since it was on sale

and I thought it'd be nice and warm for a costume.

I bought two yards of each color & had plenty of fabric, so these dresses

were $8 a piece, and then I'll probably make some new winter hats with the rest.

 I just used some elastic and felt from my fabric stash to make the crowns, after

finding a great tutorial and pattern online somewhere.

 The boys were all going to be grandpas, and we were going to cut Sour Cream's 

hair into a grandpa style (shave the top bald), but I never made it to

the thrift store to find him or daddy a sweater for their costume, so I ended up

improvising.  He wore his jeans, plaid coat, winter hat, and I made a quick

felt axe so he could be a lumberjack.

I tried putting some makeup on his face to give him a goatee, but he resisted

and it looked like a bunch of gunk, so I wiped it off and we were out the door.

And the baby, of course, hated his outfit.  But he was warm

and it was in our costume box.

Four

We are now a family of six!

Surprise!!

Here's my sweet Baby B, who will be referred to on this

blog as Cheddar.

We didn't really tell too many people that we were expecting, so don't feel

bad if you were out of the loop.

Of course we told our families (but not until around week 22),

and people who could see my belly could tell, but that's about it.

He was actually early (he wasn't due until next week), which is a new experience for me.

He was born when I was 38 weeks along, and all the rest have been late.

I woke up early one morning, when Kidney Bean's alarm was going off.

He was delaying getting out of bed and after the snooze woke me up one too

many times, I gave him a nudge.  But then I realized that Sour Cream was crying.

I wasn't too happy about being the one to take care of him, since I 

didn't really need to get up and face the day yet, but I went and helped him out.

When I went back to bed, my belly hurt a little, but I figured it was just a normal pain,

since I was long into the uncomfortable stage already.

But then I decided to head to the bathroom and my water broke.

So I went downstairs quickly and told Kidney Bean what happened.

He had just started digging into his eggs, sausage, and toast, but he left those behind

and got dressed while I tried to get ahold of someone who could come over

and watch our sleeping kids.

I really didn't want a repeat of last time & having them come to the hospital in the wee

small hours of the morning.

Luckily, I had a friend who was able to come over before she had to go to work.

She showed up quickly and we rushed off, hoping to make it.

The contractions were strong and coming fast, but I wasn't 

yelling and yelling while we drove, so I was feeling pretty good.

We arrived at the maternity ward about the same time as two other women, and

for some reason there was only one nurse available.  We were somehow

chosen as the 'lucky' ones who were attended to last.

I was sitting on an exam table in the Triage room for more than 20 minutes before she 

was able to come and check on us.

My contractions were about 2 minutes apart and she did all the admitting stuff and we

walked down to a delivery room.

Things went really well.  And my doctor was the one on call that morning, starting

just about the time that I delivered.  He walked in the room, 

took off his coat, washed his hands, and it was time.

I was yelling and yelling as I pushed, but then I think I was a little distracted

by the pain because the next thing I knew, a nurse had grabbed me by

the shoulders and shouted, "HEY!!  You need to focus and bear down!"

So I nodded at her and did.

And out he came.

A tiny little 6 pounds, 13 ounces.

And now it's about two weeks later and we are both doing great.

And here's some more pictures of this new little cutie, including one where

he and Sour Cream are introduced.