Christmas 2012

What a beautiful day we have had. It was a smaller Christmas, and very low key, just the way I have come to love it. In days gone by I would have spent a lot more, and gotten caught up in all the latest and greatest. I am glad that I have gotten past that in my old age. :) As our family has grown, I have found that we really don't need a lot of things. I am glad that I can say that for our family, less is best. Each of the kids got something that they were excited about, and they got some things that they needed. Everyone is happy with the day, and it feels so great to focus more on the real meaning of Christmas, rather than what all the companies want us to focus on. My father in law made the comment after all the gifts were open, "Well, Walmart didn't make any money on you guys this year, did they?" That is mostly true, although I did shop there a little bit, since I had gift cards. Mostly food type stuff though.  Here are a few highlights:

Ginga' received a Kindle Paper white.  He loves reading, and lately he, Rock, and I are all trying to read the same thing, so the Kindle has become a very useful item in our home.  He also got that bottle of green hot sauce that is sitting on the desk behind him.  He loved that.  If you notice, his pj's have hot chilies and hot sauce on them.  The more spice the better, in his book.

 Rock keep asking for night vision goggles.  Yes, he always seems to want things that are a bit off the beaten path.  Well, we looked at them, but decided that they cost WAY to much, and the long term usage of them would be rather short.  We figured that the novelty would wear off pretty quickly.  So, Mr. T (aka the Genius) found instructions on line on how to build your own night vision goggles.  So, for a fraction of the cost, we bought him the components to build his own.  Watching him open his gifts was hilarious, since he couldn't really figure out what all these strange looking parts were for.  It isn't easy to stump him, so it was pretty fun.  I'll have to check back after he makes them and let you all know how they worked out.  The upside to this is: when the night vision gets boring, he can take it apart and use the parts for other things.  At least that is what Mr. T tells me, don't ask me, I'm not the tech master. 

Last year Nutmeg got a violin for Christmas.  Then she grew, a lot.  So much so, that she needed to go up to the full size violin.  So for Christmas number 2: she got another violin.  That's okay though, she was excited for it to be more comfortable.  It already sounds so much better than the smaller one.  She just couldn't get her fingers in the right places anymore.  She also got another crochet book, this one: 

 and is already planning which animals to make first.  

This is a super fun project that I did for the girls for Christmas.  This is the process of dying play silks.  You use kool aid.  It smelled really good.  I felt so strange buying all the kool aid for it though, since we don't drink it here.  These two pictures are about all I have of the process, after I cleaned off my black hand, I wished I had gotten a picture of that too!  Oh well.  The silks start off white, then you mix different kool aid packets together to make different colors.  Here's a link to the one I used:  http://www.gerberadesigns.com/triedandtrue/?p=390

Here are the girls, loving their new play silks.  Seriously, hours of fun here.  I can't wait to see what else they will come up with.  I also made hankerchief sized ones for them to use to dress their dolls and stuffed animals and whatever else they can think of to do with them.  Say good bye to all those dress ups!  Woo hoo!! 

Apple didn't really need anything.  I mean really, baby number five.  With two older sisters.  She got a few teethers, like the one she's chewing on, and clothes.  Since I thought we were done after Squirrel, I had gotten rid of most of the baby stuff.  Oops.  :)  

 We also got a family pass to the zoo.  I couldn't decide how to 'wrap' that one up, so I put a bunch of their stuffed animals and animal figures around under the tree, and told them that they all had something in common.  They couldn't figure it out.  Some of the guesses were great though.  Here's a few I remember:  Rock guessed, "I know, they are all vertebrates!"  Well, yes, they were, however not the answer I was looking for.  Nutmeg guessed, "They are all God's creations!"  She is so sweet, true statement though.  We finally had to tell them.  They just couldn't get it.  But they are excited to go.  The first thing Ginga' said after that was, "We have to go with the Halls', they have a pass too."  Why, yes, they do.  I'm sure we will do that.  Their aunt has one as well, so I'm sure we will go with them as well.  So, if any of our other good homeschooling friends have passes, let us know.  It would be fun to meet up there.

I am so grateful for my family, the gospel and all that I have been given.  I am so blessed.  What a wonderful day.  Mr. T and I didn't do much for each other, we got shoes.  We both needed them.  He got rechargeable batteries, and I am a proud owner of a food steamer.  My old one broke a few years ago, and I am excited to have one again.  I received a wonderful Christmas email from my dear friend in Hungary, and it just finished my morning off wonderfully.  I am so blessed to have wonderful friends.  I am excited for the upcoming year to see the growth that will come from my children.  I love homeschooling for many reasons, but that is one of them.  I get to be with them so much that I see how they are growing and learning.  Fabulous.

Nutmeg's Newest Talent

This is the newest obsession of Nutmeg.  She has been making these cute crocheted animals like crazy.  She made a bunch for her cousins for Christmas, they are the ones with tags on them.  She has made several since I took this photo, she now has a whole octopus family.  I think my favorite is that yellow dog.  So cute.   She makes them hats and scarves and is exploring other clothing type options.  I guess we can get rid of our stuffed animals now, she can just make whatever they want to play with!  She's busy making them presents for Christmas, and has a whole Christmas morning planned out for them.  The hardest part of her having new talents is that she wants to work on them, and that is really hard for Squirrel, who wants to play with her, or wants to do what she is doing, and is frustrated that she can't crochet too.  Oh, it's hard to be the little one.  I just love seeing Nutmeg develop into the amazing young lady she is becoming.  What a jewel she is to have in our home.

Squirrel's Solo

She was so excited to do this! She went around singing her solo and driving her siblings crazy. I didn't even know that she was trying out for a solo, she just stayed after practice and did it. I went looking for her wondering what in the world was taking her so long, and there she was, singing her little heart out.

Squirrel-isms

Our little Squirrel is so funny.  Some of the things that come out of her mouth, crack us up.  I sometimes feel that she is an old soul in a little body.  I have been wanting to do this blog, mostly to keep up on the funny and cute and sweet things they all do.  But especially for her, someday, we will all have a good laugh about all the things that she says.  So, the most recent thing she said is this.

We were watching Looney Tunes the other day, just the girls and I.  The boys were gone to Arizona, and the girls wanted to do something out of the ordinary, so I went to Amazon and searched around for something free we could watch, since we have Amazon Prime.  Well, we are pretty particular around here about what we watch, and mostly we only watch documentary type things, unless the movie is just supposed to be amazing.  Especially for Squirrel, she has a very active imagination, and we learned the hard way that if she watches something at all disturbing, she can't even eat, she gets so worked up about it.  And it takes a long time to get it out of her head.  So, I wasn't interested in having that happen again, especially when I was the only parent in the house for a few days.  So, I found Looney Tunes.  It has been forever since I saw it, and I figured it was safe.  Anyway, the episode was about when the Martian guy is trying to blow up earth and Bugs Bunny ends up in a rocket and blasted to Mars.  Well the whole time, Squirrel is sitting next to me, sort of huffing and grunting and obviously having an issue of some sort.  Finally, she blurts out, like she's had a revelation, "This show must teach kids what they should not do!  Blowing up earth is bad!"  Funny girl.  But smart, blowing up earth, would be bad.  Apparently, she watches TV to learn something from it, she sure was trying hard to find a moral in that cartoon.

After watching a few more episodes, I realized that there is a ton of blowing up and shooting things in Looney Tunes, I had forgotten how violent it could be.  But since it's so unrealistic and bright and colorful, defying all laws of nature and physics, she didn't have any bad dreams and hasn't seemed to have had any side effects from it.  Yippee!

Grilled Salmon and California Slaw

This is what we had for dinner last night.  It was so good.  I tried to take a fancy picture, but it didn't do it justice.  It had this yummy oriental marinade and sauce on it.  So good. This is the sauce recipe: it's the secret ingredient for sure. 3 TBL soy sauce 1 garlic clove, peeled (press it if you aren't going to blend the sauce up) 1 tsp ginger finely chopped 2 1/2 TBL honey 1 tsp toasted sesame oil (this is my new favorite seasoning, it smells so good.) 1/4 C rice vinegar 14 C olive oil You are supposed to blend this altogether, it makes it a very nice sauce when you do, but I suppose if you were feeling lazy, you could just hand mix it. Then you use half to marinade the fish, then the other half you put on the coleslaw. The coleslaw had: Napa cabbage, red bell pepper, carrots, water chestnuts and avocadoes in it.  Salt and pepper to taste. We are making this one again, for sure!

Ginga's Eagle-Nov. 2011

He built this sign for the city.  This is the finishing touch, putting on the roof.

 Here he is taking the Oath of the Eagle Scout.  A bit nervous, perhaps.

 His Certificate

Here I am, proudly receiving my Eagle Neckerchief.  Yea!  So proud of him, and I am very happy to have one down, one to go! 

Mom

See this lady?  She's my mom.  And she's incredible.  I sometimes wonder why she hasn't been translated yet.  :)  The only thing that comes to mind, is her OCD on loading a dishwasher.  She is sort of particular about that, but if that's what's keeping her here, she can just keep rearranging that dishwasher all she wants.  She's nearly perfect, that's for sure.  I have to put this in here, because this week, she has made it possible for Nutmeg to do the paper route while Ginga is out of town with Dad (aka Mr. T) and Rock.  She (at age 72 mind you, and yeah, she doesn't color her hair) has been getting up at 5:30 every morning to drive her on the route.  For the last five days.  Before we had Apple, I would've done that, but for right now, I never really know when she will wake up for feedings, and since no one can do that but me, I can't really leave.  (I am sure some one else more creative than I am could figure that out, but it just makes me to nervous to leave her here when everyone else is sleeping. Oh, and I have a strict policy-I don't wake up babies unless I absolutely have too!  Right now it just wouldn't work at all, since it's just her and the 5 year old in the house with me when Nutmeg goes to deliver the papers.)  So, my incredible mom is generously giving up her sleep to help us out around here.  I am so grateful to have her in my life.  She is so loving and kind and generous.  LOVE YOU MOM!!

I can't believe I'm doing this...

I really never thought I'd do a blog.  However, after reading several friends blogs, and seeing that it is so easy to record the happenings in their lives this way, I finally took the plunge.  I'm sure it will evolve as I figure out how to add things on here.  But for now, I'm excited to try an easy way of scrapbooking/journaling.  I really like that I can quickly add pictures and video in.  Once upon a time, I tried the whole scrapbook thing, back when it was pretty popular, and I have a closet that is still holding my scrapbook stuff that I always meant to get to.  But with little kids around, getting out all that stuff just caused disasters.  It was too much trouble.  So, we will go with this.

Jumping in..and here we go!

So Sweet!

Isn't she a doll?  This is her favorite thing to do.  She loves to stand in her crib, and cruise from one end to the other.  She also likes the thrill of letting go of the side, then quickly grabbing it before she falls over.  Sometimes she makes it, and other times, not so much.  She has a great pair of lungs though to let us know that she has a problem.  However, she doesn't think that crawling or rolling over is such a great idea.  She just lays on her back like a beached whale, (but on the wrong side) and hollers.  I suppose at some point she will decide that she wants to be mobile, but in the meantime, I'm okay with knowing where she is, and that she can't get into things just yet.