3 Months!

This week our little Peanut turned 3 months old!  Sometimes it seems hard to believe that she is that old already, but other times it feels like she has always been a part of our family.  She loves sitting in the Bumbo chair so she can see what's going on and what the other kids are up to.  She also loves to talk and coo to me when we have a few quiet moments together.  The other kiddos love her and still ask to hold her all the time and fight about who gets to talk to her and play with her.  I can't wait to see what the next 3 months bring!

Merry Christmas!

What child is this, who, laid to rest

On Mary's lap, is sleeping?

Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,

While shepherds watch are keeping?

This, this is Christ the King,

Whom shepherds guard and angels sing:

Haste, haste to bring him laud,

The Babe, the Son of Mary!

So bring Him incense, gold, and myrrh,

Come peasant king to own Him,

The King of kings, salvation brings,

Let loving hearts enthrone Him.

Raise, raise the song on high,

The Virgin sings her lullaby:

Joy, joy, for Christ is born,

The Babe, the Son of Mary!

Hope you all have a blessed Christmas!

God Loves Me More Than That (Review)

I recently received the book God Loves Me More Than That by Dandi Daley Mackall for review from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing.  This is a beautifully written and illustrated book for kids about a little boy who wants to know how much God loves him.  Each answer of how high, wide, deep, even how heavy God's love is are all very easy ways for children to grasp how much God loves them.  The colorful illustrations by David Hohn bring each of the answers to life and are beautifully done.  My kids loved reading this book together.  Each question and answer got them thinking of other ways to answer and they came up with a lot of them!  Even though it is hard to fully understand the depth of God's love for us, I think this book does a great job of helping do this by looking at it through the eyes of a child.  I highly recommend this book!

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Preschool and Elementary Round-Up

Well, I am not doing so good at remembering to take pictures of our school activities.  It probably wouldn't matter if I did though, since I am finding very little time to blog about anything lately.  Lovebug has decided that naps are not for him anymore (most days, once in a while he still needs one) so my free time for the computer has been cut back quite a bit.  (And I have also been spending my free time trying out my new grain mill!) We took this week off for Christmas, but I am finally getting to some of the stuff we did in the weeks before.

Lovebug really likes using the tongs and he can spend quite a bit of time placing pom poms on a paint tray.

Sweetie has been learning about Turtles for the letter T.  She used our Cuisinaire Rods to build T and pictures of T words.

She sorted T and t using this printout from Confessions of a Homeschooler's Letter of the Week Curriculum

Buddy has been learning about water so we did a few experiments.  We learned about water bending light by placing a spoon in water and seeing that it looks like it is bent where in goes in the water.

We also learned about water pressure by poking holes in a pop bottle, filling it with water, and seeing which hole shot the water out the farthest and strongest.

We have also been using our new Education Cubes, which are great for a ton of different things.  This week we used them to learn place value.  Buddy rolled two of the cubes with number cards in and put them together to make a double digit number.

Then he built the number on his place value mat and told me how many tens and how many ones there were.

We have also used the cubes for color matching, counting, and adding.  They are a great way to reinforce what we have been learning in a way that is fun for the kids.

We have also been doing a fun Christmas activity each day in December to count down the days until Christmas.  We found most of them at The Activity Mom, but this candy cane color matching file folder game has been a favorite.  All the kids love it and keep asking to do it every day!

I am link this up with Granola Mom 4 God's Elementary Round-up.  Be sure to go check out her blog to see what others have been up to!

Tasty Tuesday: Homemade Crescent Rolls

A few weeks ago, Melanie at Out of the Miry Clay shared a sweet roll recipe on her blog that can be used for quite a few different things, one being crescent rolls.  I love crescent rolls, but rarely buy them since they cost so much for the few rolls you get in the tube.  So I was so excited to try out this recipe!  If you use all the dough for the rolls it will make a lot of them.  54 to be exact.  The first time I made them, I used 2/3 to make 36 rolls and we ate them all at one meal!  They were so delicious, way better than the store bought ones.  I also used the remaining dough for the crust of an egg breakfast casserole which called for a tube of crescent rolls and it turned out good too.  For other ways to use the dough, be sure to check out Melanie's post.

½ cup warm water (110-115 F)
2 pkg active dry yeast (1 pkg = 2 ¼ tsp)
1 ½ cups lukewarm milk

½ cup sugar

2 tsp salt

2 eggs

½ cup soft butter
half of 7 to 7 ½ cups sifted flour

Mix until smooth. Add enough remaining flour to handle easily. I used my stand mixer and kept kneading for about 2 more minutes, but you could also turn onto lightly floured board and  knead until smooth and elastic (about 5 min.). Put in a greased bowl and turn to grease the top. Cover with damp cloth. Let rise in warm place until double (about 1 ½ hr). Punch down; let rise again until almost double (30 min).  Divide dough into 3 equal parts. Roll each 1/4” thick into a 12” circle. Spread with soft butter. Cut into 16 pie-shaped pieces. Beginning at rounded edge, roll up. Place on lightly greased pan, point underneath. Let rise 15-20 min. Bake 10-13 min at 375 F. (You can also shape into clover leaf rolls, twists, etc.)

Sweetie loved helping me roll them up

My mouth is watering just looking at this picture! We might have to make this for dinner tonight! Delicious!

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Laminator is on sale!

Remember the laminator I got a good deal on from amazon and got free with my Swagbucks?  Well, it is on sale again!  It is the deal of the day at amazon and is only 16.99!!!

If you need a laminator, go check it out quick, who knows how long it will last!

Our Property Value Rose Overnight!

Thanks to the Pineapple Express we now have waterfront property!

 Our former driveway

Our former front yard

That should increase our property value, right?

Tasty Tuesday: Favorite Frosted Brownies with a Christmas Twist

I just noticed that it's been a few weeks since I shared a recipe!  Between a newborn, kidney stone, school, and much more I haven't had a lot of computer time lately.  Since most of my kids are gone to Grandma's while I wait for my kidney stone to pass (pain killers work wonders!), I have a few mintues to share a new recipe. A couple days ago, Buddy asked me to help him make some chocolate cookies for Sweetie.  (I thought he was being so sweet and came up with the idea on his own, but have since found out Hubby put him up to it so we would have some cookies in the house.)  We decided to make these heavenly chocolate brownies and we added a twist for the holidays! I am warning you right now though that these are so good that they will be gone fast, so you should hide a few to save some for yourself!

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

6 tablespoons baking cocoa

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips, optional

FROSTING:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup evaporated milk (or Twin Brook Creamery Cream will work also!)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons baking cocoa

3 cups confectioners' sugar
Decorating sprinkles or crushed candy canes, optional

Directions
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Add chocolate chips if desired. Spread into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. For frosting, in a bowl, beat the butter, milk and vanilla; add cocoa. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth. Spread over cooled brownies. Decorate with sprinkles (or candy canes) if desired.


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2 Already!

Yesterday was my Lovebug's 2nd birthday.  Is so hard to believe that he is 2 already and even that he is a big brother!  He is getting so big and everyday is becoming so much more a little boy and less and less my little cuddly baby.  He is saying new words every day and loves to imitate everything his big brother likes to do. 

We had cake with Great-grandma & Great-grandpa, but he was sucking on a sucker and didn't want to take it out to blow out his candles!

He loved opening his gifts!

What little boy doesn't need more trucks?

We also got this Magneatos for him and he loves them!  They are magnetic and so easy for him to build and make things with.  His favorite thing to do with them, however, is load them up in his new dump truck with his new backhoe!

If you are looking for a great gift idea for a young kid, these Magneatos are great.  Buddy and Sweetie have also spent hours building with them.  And I think Mark has spent almost as much time playing with them as the kids have! (And if you get them on amazon.com, you could get them free or cheap using your Swagbucks!)

Shutterfly is Helping With My Mission Impossible

I usually order my photos and cards online from several different places, but I have yet to try Shutterfly.  This year I am hoping to change that!  I have been checking out all their beautiful cards for our Christmas cards and they have a great selection. 

This Snow Flurries Cocoa one is one of my favorites.  But so is this O Holy Night one.  And then there is the Kaleidoscope Stars one.  I am going to have a hard time picking which one I want to use this year!  First I guess I need to get the kiddos together for a picture. That might be even harder than choosing my card! Remember my mission impossible?  I may just have to use that picture even though the kids aren't in their nice clothes!

Shutterfly also has photo calenders, mugs, and books which would all make great gifts!  I've had a photo calender before and loved it, so I might have to look into those for some Christmas gifts this year.

They also have great birth announcement cards and birthday card.

Shutterfly is going to give me 50 FREE holiday cards for sharing this with you.  Check out all the details here: http://bit.ly/sfly2010