Happy 18th Birthday Joy!

I remember when my Parents told us that they were going to have a baby. I was in 5Th grade. Melissa was one of my good friends, and her mom was going to have a baby also. Our moms were due on the same day!! I remember going to school and we would find each other and were so anxious to see if the other one had their sibling yet. Melissa's mom had her baby on Valentines day. We kept thinking any day now my mom would have the baby. Every day at school, my teacher and what seems like everyone would ask me if my mom had the baby yet. FINALLY a WHOLE WEEK and a day later, Joy made her grand entrance into the world. My sister Jessica woke me up telling me that my mom had gone to the hospital and she was having the baby. I was finally able to go to school and tell everyone that my mom was having a baby.

My dad took us to the hospital one night and it was pretty cool seeing her for the first time! I remember holding her and just knowing that I was going to love her forever and ever!!

From the moment of birth we all new she was gonna be spoiled. And spoiled she was. Wait, spoiled she is!! My family loves to give her a hard time about all that she gets away with. We always giver her the old....mom and dad never let us get away with that!!But with a face like that how could anyone not spoil her!!
Over the past couple years, I have come to really love and appreciate Joy. Not only is she my sister and my babysitter. But she is also my friend.
Even though we are 11 years apart, and we aren't growing up like I did with my other sisters, we have still stayed up late talking about boys, and sharing shoes. ( I think she likes my shoe collection!!) And that is the stuff that memories are made of, the stuff that sisters do.

I look forward to seeing her go to college, ( Maranatha Joy, Marantha, just accept it!!) and finding a husband, and getting married. Oh yah, just so everyone knows, I call dibs on being the Made of Honor!!

So as she celebrates her 18th bday, I hope she has the best one ever, and may no stupid boys make you cry!

Good Saturday to you!

We have had a very relaxing Saturday. We have had a snow storm today. They were predicting 6 inches. I don't know how much we actually got. At least enough for Brother to be excited about shoveling. :)

I don't think Hunny was as excited about the shoveling as Brother was. But with both of them working it didn't take them any time at all.

Guess who has lost tooth #3?? Dada has been trying to get this tooth out for a couple weeks. Since I don't do teeth, Hunny has been working with Dada on pulling it out. He tried on Monday, but it just wasn't quite ready to come out. Friday morning while eating her cereal, it literally just fell out. She almost swallowed it, but she thought it was funny that something hard was in her cereal.

Here are the boys that Brother plays with as school. He is becoming really attached to these little guys. They seem like a great bunch of kids. I look forward to seeing them grow.


The kids love to drink Hot Chocolate when they get home from school. Dada is barely in the door when they are asking me to make them Hot Chocolate. They also now want it in a travel mug. And yes, they have already requested coffee to drink, but I told them no, their response was that Grandma lets them. ;)
Remember when Grandma always let you have things your parents NeVer let you have!! Like IcE CreAm before bed? (Hmmm, so that's why I still want ice cream before bed!!)

So our understanding is that with Grandma it's ok, but at our house they don't get it till they grow up. Brother then asked me if that meant when he was 27, and I told him....yes 27. 27 is when you can have coffee!! :)

We have Joy's bday party tonight. The kids are looking forward to seeing their cousins. I bet Joy is looking forward to being 18!! That just doesn't seem possible!
Have a GreAt NigHt!!

Love Thursday

I just want you to know that this is the second time I am writing this post! I somehow deleted the whole thing! I am so frustrated!!

I have had a very busy and tiring week this week! I had concessions at school on Tuesday night. ( I do want to take thank Hunny for taking the time and going shopping at Sam's for all my concessions stuff! He really made that day a whole lot easier for me. )
Since I was busy, I wanted to make up for my absence by making a nice meal for my family last night. The other day when we were at the store, Hunny picked out some chicken wings. I made chicken wings with a homemade BBQ sauce, mashed potatoes, fresh green beans and rolls. I hadn't ever made chicken wings, but I thought it would be fun to try it. Well, let me tell you....it was a success!! Brother LoVeD them! Notice all the napkins by his plate!! :) I think we were trying to clean his mouth the whole rest of the night! He should have just taken another bath!


Dada and I also made cupcakes last night. I let her do most of it. She was so thrilled with that!! I did however take over when we had to pour the cupcake batter into the liners. (I really didn't feel like cleaning batter up off the floor.

The LovLieSt part of the night was when Brother KepT saying that he LoVeD his family so much! He said that he LoVeD me for making his FaVoriTe meal and he LoVeD his DaDa for the playing the Wii with him. That was the BesT part of my whole evening!

BFF'S

Today was such a cool day for Dada. I went in to check her blood sugar at lunch time and she was so excited about something!! She just couldn't wait to tell me what her friend Abby got her! Around her neck was the cutest Best Friend Necklace!!


Abby got Elisa and Dada both a BFF necklace! Dada has the Best, Elisa has the Friends and Abby has the Forever!

For some silly reason....that just made my day! I was so happy for her all day.



Side note......I just want everyone to know that I really did do Dada's hair before school. She always undoes her hair during class. I just didn't want everyone thinking about how I am an unfit mother!! =)

Love week

My Valentine. MY high school sweatheart,

my one true LoVe.

This is Love week at our church. We are supposed to look for little ways to show love to our families and maybe another family that God lays on our hearts this week.

I made HeArt shaped ChoCoLatE ChIp PanCakEs today for breakfast. Although Brother said that he didn't like HeArts, when I tried to take the pancakes away......he started to whine. So I think he just wanted to act like he didn't like it.

I hope you take the time to show your family or someone else how much they are loved!

A night with the Wolf's or better yet, an answer to prayer

Most of you know that Dada was diagnosed with diabetes when she was 3. It was a very scary time for us. We felt alone and overwhelmed. Here we had this little child who was sick, who couldn't tell us how she was feeling or what was the matter with her. It was a very difficult time. But day by day, we sort felt a little more capable.
We have had our days. Let me rephrase that. I have had my days. There are days (normally when her sugar has been good )when I feel okay, like I can handle whatever is thrown my way, and then the very next day, when her sugar sky rockets, that I feel like I have no idea what I am doing.

My friends have been incredible through all this. They have listened when I have cried. They really truly genuinely try to think about what Hunny and I are going through. I am so grateful for that support.

A little over a year ago, we heard about another family...the Wolf's, who are walking this same road. Their little 6 yr old was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. My heart went out to them. I knew the emotions that they were going through.

I have often wondered how Dada feels about having diabetes. She was so little when she was diagnosed, that she doesn't remember what life was like before getting her finger pricked a bazillion times a day, she doesn't remember life before measuring food, and daily shots, or to be hooked up to her insulin pump 24 hours a day. For that, I am honestly thankful. She is aware that other kids don't have to do that. She knows that the other kids in church and school don't have to eat snacks like she does.

.
I have prayed for a little friend for her. One that will help her along the path of her life. One that will help take care of her and watch out for her. I have often looked at little girls that we hang out with and wonder which one will be that special friend for Dada who will help protect her

Last night, we finally had dinner with the Wolf's. I really think that the Lord has given us each other for support. It is so nice to just sit and look into another mother's eyes and know that she knows how you are feeling. That she understands the fear that is behind your eyes. The fear that you hide from the rest of the world. Another mother who will walk along beside you and help hold you up through the roller coaster of juvenile diabetes.

I am so happy that the girls have each other. I know that they became fast friends. They were already asking to spend the night at each other's house. I look forward to having Kate over for many a play dates and slumber parties.


Maybe this will be the friend that I have prayed for for Dada. I pray that they will help watch out for each other.


So my prayer for our families, is that we will grow in friendship. That we will bask each other in prayer. And help lift each other up when we are struggling.

SuGar CooKies

I have neVer been a crafty person. In fact I have always ran the other way when people even talked about crafts. Just ask Tancy!! I think that has changed since I started working at school. I see how much the kids love doing art projects. I think before I honestly didn't want to be bothered with doing it. How selfish of me! I think of all the fun things I have missed doing with my kids because of my own selfish thoughts. Now that I know how much fun it cAn be, my goal is to really take the time and do FuN little projects with the kids. (Don't get me wrong though....I still don't like a huge mess!!) Like I said in my previous post, this week I am really showing my family how much I love them. And after learning that LoVe is spelled TiMe. I have really tried to give my family my time. In doing that last nights project was making sugar cookies. ( I will post the recipe below ) And let me tell you. The kids were SO excited about this! Dada couldn't wait to get home from school! Homework was done in record time. I had previously made the dough, so all we had to do was roll and cut out the cookies.
The other day at Target (which I LoVe that store BTW) I picked up some cute heart shaped cookie cutters. They had about 4 different sizes which I loved! The kids had fun picking their size cookies that they wanted!
The kids didn't want my help. They wanted to do everything by themselves. I did roll out the dough most of the way and then let them "finish" rolling it out and then they picked their cutters and had at it. Some of the cookies looked better then others. Some of Brothers were pretty mutilated but it was so worth it to see the look of pride in his eyes.
We got the first batch in the oven and were anxiously waiting for them to come out of the oven! Dada couldn't wait to ice them!
I think Brother was just interested in icing 1 of them.....just so he could eat it! After he ate 1, he quickly disappeared!
I felt bad for Dada, her sugar was high yesterday, so she wasn't even able to have 1. But she was a great sport about it, and was happy just to help ice them.
I do want to thank Joy. She came over to babysit last night so HuNny and I could go out for VaLenTineS DaY. Dada and her finished icing the last dozen or so cookies. And then she even helped clean up the kitchen!




Here's the recipe for the SuGar CooKies. I used my favorite recipe book The Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

2/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
4 teaspoons milk
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Thoroughly cream shortening, sugar, and vanilla. Add egg; beat till light and fluffy. Stir in milk. Sift together dry ingredients; blend into creamed mixture. Divide dough in half. Chill 1 hour.

On lightly floured surface, roll half of dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Keep other half of dough chilled until ready to use. Cut into desired shape with cookie cutters. Bake on greased cookie sheet at 375 degrees about 6 to 8 minutes. Cool slightly, remove from pan. Makes 2 dozen



I also iced the cookies using a recipe I got from my best friends mom years ago. Her mom makes the most AmaZinG wedding cakes ever! And she used to work at this little amazing bakery where I grew up. Her name was Suzy, and she is a very dear lady to me. I don't think she knows how much she meant to me growing up. Erica and I would always want to go to each others house, but for one reason or the other I always ended up over at their house. Suzy AlWayS made me feel welcome and LoVed. Even when Erica and I would come up with quite the shenanigans ( and let me tell you, we had some doosys ) She was always KinD to me. Her home was a ReFugE to me especially when things in my life seemed so uncertain. I love her dearly. Anyway.....here is the recipe.

2 lbs powdered sugar
1 cup crisco
2 T butter
2/3 cup milk
1/2 t salt
2 t vanilla
Combine and beat for 10 min. This recipe makes a lot of icing. But it is worth it when you are making lots of cookies or cupcakes and you want lots of colors.