My Christmas Angels

Decorating is hard work but fun.

So far Lizzy has behaved herself around the Christmas decorations (my fingers are still crossed though). Hopefully we will be able to say the same about the presents that will soon start to arrive under the tree.

Last weekend we got all dressed up and took the girls to see the Nutcracker ballet. We all enjoyed the show. Including Rachel, even though she fell asleep shortly after intermission.

The Three Bakers

The past five weekends Ken and the girls have baked a batch of cookies. You would think by now we would have a good stock of cookies in the freezer. It seems however, few have made it to the freezer and most have ended up in our tummies!

"Digger Girls"

Featured Artists

Our featured artists include...

Emma posing with her ballerina drawing.
Rachel with her friends portrait. Drawn from left to right are Natalie, Kraig, Rachel, and Anita.

A WINNER!

Ding ding ding! We have a winner! The correct answer to Guess the Food is... fried snickers bar! The winning answer was submitted by Julia (a.k.a. Aunt Julie at www.eyesoftheblind.blogspot.com). First prize is a fried snickers bar all your own (winner must be present in our kitchen to redeem). Congratulations Julia, thank you to all participants, and good luck to all future contestants in "Guess the Food".

Guess The Food

Can you guess what the following food is?

Your only clue is that it was fried.

(Family members present during the tasting are excluded from guessing.)
Ken's first bite of the delicacy.

Romper and Gipper

These two cute and cuddly guys (wearing Messiah shirts) showed up in the mail several days ago. Emma and Rachel love Romper the monkey and Gipper the frog and want to thank cousin Whitney for sending them!

New Links

Just wanted to draw some attention to two new links on my blog. My nephew Josh has started his own blog. Glad to see at least one of the guys in the family has taken upon himself to join the family blogging ring and keep us up to date. Also, Julia sent a link to Emma that we really like. I think Emma would sit and play her "alphabet game" all day if we let her. Starfall is an interactive educational web-site. It teaches letters, phonics, and reading skills. Too bad for Emma we are still in the dark ages with dial-up and her internet time is limited.

The Fickle Hearted

Beware future suitors my daughter IS fickle hearted. You may remember the posting "Poor Poor Pooh" http://phebebird.blogspot.com/2007/08/poor-poor-pooh.html. Well, I guess this one should be titled "Poor Poor Pony". Emma has discarded Pony (the old slipper) for Rainbow Sparkles, a husky dog beanie baby, from Aunt Lois. According to Emma, Rainbow Sparkles is actually a coyote and NOT a Huskey dog. But, in any case, she has booted pony out of position. According to Emma... and I quote "I just like whatever the new toy is." Watch out Rainbow sparkles Christmas AND new competition is just around he corner!

Funny Faces

The girls picked out some of their favorite funny pictures for todays posting.

O.K. an up the nose shot is never attractive... but it is funny looking. Lizzy really is much prettier in person!

Emma think her "swirly hair" picture is funny.

This is Rachel's typical "smile" for the camera lately. Makes serious portrait taking a challenge!

Some Local Color

"Mama Said There'll Be Days Like This!"

Well, I'm not so sure MY Mama said there'll be days like this. And it hasn't just been a day but more like a week. Just to give you the highlights, lowlights, headlines, or whatever you want to call the events from the week... Monday received news that a friend was killed in a plane crash, also Monday found out that a severely autistic boy who once attended the day care center where I worked and whose father works at the same college I did was missing in the wilderness. Yesterday our Dog had an allergic reaction to something. Her mouth, nose, eyes, ears and rear end swelled up. She was pretty miserable and kept me up till about 12:30 last night. Which brings us to this morning with the dog still somewhat swelled up, Rachel with a head cold, Emma running a temp., complaining of a tummy ache and asking to go to the doctor! It has been a dismal week except for a few GOOD things we managed to squeeze in between all the bad. Our niece Brittney came for a visit. We were glad to spend some time with her on her fall break. Ken and I had an evening out. And I got in some early Christmas shopping with a friend. Yesterday we also received the good news that the boy was found after four days alone in the woods and was in fairly good condition. So to quote another song and remind myself "The sun will come out tomorrow!"

Emma Quotes

I shared a piece of cinnamon roll with Emma and she informed me that she likes the "ceiling part". I must agree aside from having a center roll the "ceiling" is the best part.

Emma told me several days ago that she wants to go to California. I told her that was far away from our house and asked why she wants to go there. Her response was "I think I should meet other children from around the world."

During a discussion about the sun being on the other side of the earth from us at night time she asked if the sun was in France and Russia. Guess my 4 year old is maturing and already picking up a few lessons on geography!

Bee Bim Bop!

A fun, rhythmic, rhyming book about cooking dinner with a good recipe at the end. My girls loved the story and we enjoyed the Korean dish, Bee Bim Bop, for supper.

Our Last Rain

Our last significant rainfall was several weeks ago. Rachel enjoyed watching the rain streak down the window.

My Sisters' Recipes And Other Family Favorites

Yes, THE cookbook arrived a little over a month ago and I have been busy selling them locally. It has tabbed divider pages with family photos, helpful hints, 400 family recipes, two adorable little girls on the cover, and is available for sale. The cost is $18 which includes sales tax. If you need a cookbook mailed, shipping costs are approximately $4 for the first book and $1 for each additional book. Just let me know if you want to place an order.

Busy and Fun Weekend

No pictures to post of the weekend...we were too busy having fun to be snapping pictures. Saturday the girls spent the day with Pa and Grandma while Ken and I went to his company picnic. We enjoyed (thanks to Beitzel Corp) a ski-lift ride, mountain coaster ride, catered lunch, and two hours of white water rafting. We had such a good time! Especially rafting the class III and IV rapids with good buddies Dan & Becky and Diane & Sheldon. Sunday we had a ground breaking ceremony for our new church sanctuary. Since Rachel was the youngest person who brought a shovel to the ceremony, she and the oldest person who brought a shovel got to break first ground. After that everyone else with a shovel dug in too. When the church service was over we had a carry-in lunch and our church retreat. Emma and Rachel had great fun at the retreat. The girls took part in a saw dust dig. Emma dug up over a dollars worth of change and Rachel over two dollars, I'm sure they thought they were quite rich. They also bounced a long time in the moon bouncer and finished the day off with a swim in the pond. To quote Emma "There's lots to do here!" Sure was a tiring but fun weekend!

Creepy Crawlies and Caterpillars

Never trust a caterpillar to stay in his jar unless you seal him in! I found this guy one morning sitting on my sink with a trail of caterpillar scat behind him. Unfortunately his jar-mate didn't leave any traces behind and is still AWOL. This has not been a good caterpillar year for us. More MIAs and deaths than survivors. We currently are left with 1 egg ready to hatch any minute, 3 chrysalises, 1 monarch caterpillar and 1 as of yet unidentified caterpillar.

Can you identify the guy in the following three photos?
It may be hard to see in the pictures but he has a red line down the center of his body lined by two blue ones on either side of the red one.

He is quite an aggressive fellow. When I tried to pick him up with my cater pillar wrangler (a small paint brush) he went psycho and would flip, wriggle and strike at the brush with his head. Much more violent than Monarch caterpillars. He doesn't eat as much or poop as much as the Monarchs but is growing at what I think is a good pace.
Also on the creepy crawlie note. Today I found a small snake skin by my front door. I'm not exactly thrilled to know another snake is out there lurking somewhere...I have made a mental note to put the big spade shovel where Emma can easily access it if she needs to fetch it for me again!

What Else Have We Been Up To?

So what else have we been up to this past month?

Enjoyed some time coloring and have started "schoolwork". This year Emma and Rachel are making numbers books. Cuddled with Schnicklefritz. Emma's favorite movie buddy (besides Daddy).
Decorated Barbie and Ken...
and dinosaurs. Emma still wants to be a "dinosaur scientist".
Rode a flamingo.

Made silly faces when the camera came out...

And celebrated Pap's 70th birthday with a family cookout.

Getting Back On Track

I think we are finally back on track after getting through some back to back colds with seasonal allergies thrown in to boot. During our time spent on the sofa (Rachel's and mine that is) I finished this almost 700 page biography. An interesting read although, in my opinion, it would have been better book with just a few less facts and approximately 200 less pages.

Childrens' Books We Like

We love to read at our house and make frequent stops at our local library. Sometimes it is nice to have recommendations of books to look for rather than randomly searching the shelves for something good. So I am sharing a list of books we like and am hoping for suggestions from some of you other Moms. I will add to this list as I think of others we like or come across new favorites (other than Emma's "Bibles" which include several toddler bibles we have).

"Grumpy Gloria" by Anna Dewendy
"Llama Llama Red Pajama" by Anna Dewendy
"Bark, George" by Jules Feiffer
"A Potty For Me" by Karen Katz
"Goldie and the Three Bears" by Diane Stanley
"Annie and the Wild Animals" by Jan Brett
"Good Night Gorilla" by Peggy Rathman
"Officer Buckle and Gloria" by Peggy Rathman
(the 2 books by Rathman are also available on Scholastic Video)
"The Runaway Bunny" by Margaret Wise Brown
"Puppy Trouble" by Alexandra Day
"Princess Knight" by Cornelia Funke
"Blue Kangaroo Where Are You?" by Emma Cheshire Clark
(and all the others in the blue kangaroo series)
"If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" by Laura Joffe Numeroff
(and all the others in the If You Give... series)
"Curious George" by H. A. Rey
"Lemons Are Not Red" by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
"Harry the Dirty Dog" by Gene Zion
"How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night" by Jane Yolen And Mark Teague
(and all the others on the How Do Dinosaurs series. Eat Their Food, Get Well Soon etc.)
"My Dinosaur" by Mark Allen Weatherby
"Winnie The Pooh and Tigger Too" A Walt Disney Book
(Rachel slept with this book by her pillow EVERY night for Months!)

Poor Poor Pooh

Many of you may remember Emma's dear old Pooh Bear. He has been her constant companion since she was first able to walk and carry him around. He has slept with her every night and taken many trips out and about with us. Needless to say he was quite loved and adored. No, this is not a eulogy, but I am sad to report the change of events or should I say- change of heart.

Several months ago this showed up in the bottom of a bag of hand-me-downs at our house...

Yes it is a slipper. Yes it is a USED slipper. No it does not have it's matching mate. And yes my daughter LOVES HER. It seems as though Pony has taken that special place in Emma's heart that was once reserved for Pooh Bear. After sleeping with Pony several nights she decided Pooh was no longer needed. When I reminded her that Pooh has been with her all this time and what a special bear he is her response was "Well, Mom I just don't love him anymore. I love Pony now." I sure hope she doesn't view future relationship in this manner. Then to top it all off several days ago Emma informed me that she renamed him Winnie The Pooh he is no longer Pooh Bear and she is having a sale. You guessed it, Pooh Bear or rather Winnie The Pooh, was being offered up for sale. I did manage to talk her out of auctioning him off and letting him stick around awhile. Maybe someday he will become dear old Pooh Bear to her once more.

Art Cabinet

If you follow my sister Julia's blog you will remember she posted a picture of my well stocked but also very cluttered and disorganized art cabinet. Well, because it was embarrassing how bad it looked and the fact that I couldn't actually locate anything anymore due to the mess was too much to take. So last week I devoted a morning to cleaning it up. It may not look like a major improvement to anyone else but at least I can find everything again! Just in time too. Next week I will be planning art projects for the nursery and kindergarten classes at our vacation bible school.

Just in case you couldn't tell this is the "after picture" to see the "before picture" visit Julia's blog (on my links list).

People Bags

Emma and I spotted some dinosaur material on a clearance rack quite a while ago. I suggested we use it to make a dinosaur bag to keep her dinosaur collection in. She had quite a different idea. A "people bag"- meaning a sleeping bag.

Emma and Rachel watching a movie and eating snacks in their "people bags".

Just when my flowers start to look a little dead and drab something new decides to open up and bloom...

These blooms I believe came from a friend of Lois' and are a nice contribution to my flower bed.

Rachel Update

I did take Rachel to her pediatrician yesterday. I was glad to get an early morning appointment. I don't know about other kids but mine always seem to perk up in the doctors office. Must be the different toys and books. Anyway, at first sight and before examining her, his observation was that she looked good and he thought she would check out just fine. The tick site looked did look good with no swelling and no rash. However, her throat looked like strep. He didn't even do a throat culture though because it looked bad enough to put her on an antibiotic regardless of a negative strep test. Which says a lot about her condition since antibiotics are not readily dispensed by our pediatric group. An antibiotic would have also been the course of treatment for a tick infection so we at least have medication for the next 10 days in any event. He also took some time to take a look at Emma's throat, even though she didn't have an appointment and in spite of the fact that it did take time considering her very uncooperative mood, just to make sure it didn't look bad too. She seems to be fine other than a yucky nose. Rachel however, is still not eating or drinking much. Nothing appeals to her other than of course, chocolate, which was the only way to bribe her into swallowing medicine. So far today, much like the previous three days, all she has consumed is two bites of a banana, almost one bottle of Boost (chocolate flavor of course) energy drink, a few swallows of other various liquids, and a small piece of bribery chocolate. Her throat hurts so bad she usually only takes on or two swallows of something before declaring " I don't like that!" or "It hurts!". At least today I have had a few less requests to be held and she had enough energy to torment her sister a few times-must have been from the Boost! Maybe it is a sign that she will soon be improving. Oh for a glorious night of peaceful sleep all night in my own bed again!

Sick of Sickness!

Praying for some days with no illnesses or doctor visits for awhile. It seems as though it has been a long time since everyone in the family has been in good health! The latest health news is that last night I found a tick on Rachel's head. It was underneath her hair and I am not sure how long it was there. Since she has also been unsuccessfully fighting with with a cold this week and I was worried her cold symptoms could mask symptoms from a possible tick infection I decided to call the pediatrician. Of course by this time it was after hours but thankfully our wonderful pediatrician was the one on call. It took him probably less than 5 minutes to call me after being relayed a message from the answering service. He told me possible symptoms to watch for, gave me his direct on call line (which he said "He doesn't normally encourage but, he knows me.") and said if her cold hasn't improved over the weekend to bring her in on Monday. I was glad I called. It was reassuring to know I could call him directly if needed and also that he is working on Monday which is usually his day off. As of today her cold still is getting the better of her so I think we will be making yet another visit to a doctor.

Butterfly Release

Some pictures from our only butterfly release so far this year.