Come what may

Birthdays, Birthdays

2010-07-23T10:53:00.000-07:00

I have a love/hate relationship with birthdays...birthday parties specifically. I love planning my kids parties, coming up with a fun theme, invitations, games and cake but they tire me out by the end of summer. That's what I get for having 5 kids in the Summer well, that and really swollen feet while I'm pregnant. I have four birthday's down and 1 to go.

Solomon turned nine this year and love's all things sports. This year he decided to go to the Oakland A's vs. Mariners game for his birthday. He invited two friends and we took them to the game, filled them up with junk food and got to see Ken Griffey Jr. play in one of his last games.

Miss Jocelyn June turned the big 8. We had lots of family here and celebrated with a fabulous tea party. We made these teapot invitations together:The girls decorated fancy hats and then sat down to munch on finger sandwiches, chocolate covered strawberries and jam cookies. Finishing it off with a perfect teapot cake (thanks Amy!)

Isaac turned four and chose a Shark Attack theme.

We made these invitations and cupcakes and got ready for the invasion of 9 four year-olds. He had a great time playing shark games and being the center of attention.

Penny girl turned one. She really deserves her own post but that will have to come at a later day. I made her a darling pink flower cupcake but things didn't turn out as planned. I had the cupcake sitting on her tray. Isaac asked if he could have that cupcake instead of the plain frosted ones I made for everyone else. After I said no, he sneaked it off and hid it in the bathroom. When I found it, it looked more like a mangled weed than a pink flower so Penny ended up with a plain white one. It was okay, she doesn't even like cake, I should have just given her a bowl of ice cream.

To my Dad

2010-06-20T14:41:00.000-07:00

I've always been a Daddy's girl.

My dad has always been there for me, helping me with tough decisions and setting an example for me on how to live life. Here are some of my favorite memories of my favorite dad.

1) As a little girl I loved having my dad fix my hair. I felt this special bond with him because we both had blond curly hair. He would be so gentle and use his special fuzzy brush and talk about how pretty I was.

2) During school we would have a surprise visit from the 'principal' for lunch which always made the day more special.

3) On my 16th birthday my Dad took me out of school at lunchtime and we went on a date to the DMV to get my first official driver's license. Afterward we went to lunch at Taco Cabana.

4) A year later I got my first speeding ticket. I was too scared to tell my Mom, I told Dad and he helped me work everything out and even broke the news to mom for me.

5) I loved doing the swing and jitterbug with my Dad at dances. I even loved when he would give me lessons on how to keep the boys a 'safe' distance away at the dance.

6) Going on walks with Dad was a tradition. We had great conversations as well as him trying to embarrass me in front of the bus stop by doing little skipping steps in front of my friends.

7) I got my Dad's sense of humor, whether we are wrestling each other off of a footstool at the BYU bookstore or just teasing each other we have a lot of fun together.

Thanks for always being there for me Dad. Words can't express how much I appreciate your example and love. I love you.

Dollar store frames

2010-06-17T07:38:00.000-07:00

I have always loved the looks of the large wall with the a large symmetrical display in matching frames. The problem always was it is expensive to buy 12 matching frames and then to find coordinating prints to go in them... I have this huge wall at the end of my kitchen and I needed something to fill it without costing a fortune. I have always loved the art on the back of the cooking magazine, Cook's Illustrated (best cooking magazine ever!) so I decided to use that. I found these unfinished wood diploma frames at the dollar tree and decided to go for it.

I spray painted all the frames red so that they would make a larger impact and then hung them in two rows across the wall. I taped paper up the wall in several different configurations but ended up liking this arrangement best. I may do one more row on the top (the ceiling is 12 feet)or a smaller row of 5x7 prints but I like this wall a lot better now.

I linked this to CSI. This weeks theme is dollar store. People have made some incredible stuff from the dollar store!

Guest bed make-over

2010-06-08T07:43:00.000-07:00

Whenever summer time starts and I switch to my more easy going homeschool schedule I start getting excited for projects again. Last summer I worked on the girls room, I refinished their dressers, made curtains and decorated their walls. This summer I am at more of a loss of what to do since we will *hopefully* be buying a new house soon I don't want to do things specifically for the spaces we have in this house since they may not work in the new house. So I am trying to start with the projects that will work anywhere. I refinished a headboard for Grandma's room AKA the guest room. Side note: Jocelyn asked me the other day when we could have another baby when I asked her why she said she missed Grandma and wanted to see her again.

I didn't take a picture before I primed it but here is this old Oak head board. I found it on craigslist, it belonged to the former mayor of Fremont's son you know :) I got it from the lady who used to clean their house, they gave it to her about 20 year ago and now it's mine.

I wanted something bright and cheery to add a pop of color to the room. So Apple Green it became:

I wanted to make it a little more original so I found the perfect stencil and Martha Stewart here and made a stencil to add to the little squares. I distressed the whole thing and put it in it's new home. Maybe I will make the applique pillow too although the darling ruffle pillows my friend Emily made would look great too. Now Grandma has a new reason to come and visit :)

I am linking this up to the Martha Stewart challenge for the CSI project.

Grand Canyon

2010-06-03T11:46:00.000-07:00

Joseph and I had never been to the Grand Canyon and so we wanted to take a family trip there while we are living within driving distance. Joseph had his heart set on camping the whole week we were there. I was willing to go along with it but not thrilled about tent camping for 5 days after driving for 14 hours with 5 kids. I am so glad we did. Being out in nature as a family was perfect. The kids never tired of playing with the rocks, sticks and dirt. I enjoyed getting up with the sun and not ever really knowing what time it was.

Day one:
Since we were only planning on driving 4 hours to Bakersfield we didn't leave until noon. After packing up our Odyssey to the roof we pulled out. We made quick time to Bakersfield arriving at our good friends Ben and Vanubia's at around 5:30. It was so fun to reconnect with old friends and meet new friends. The kids played great and Vanubia prepared a delicious meal for us to enjoy together. We stayed up and talked and played games.
Day two:
After packing the kids in like sardines Joseph made a decision that we needed a car top carrier. We stopped by Sears and picked up a carrier, loaded it up with sleeping bags and gear and could finally breathe in the car. I had printed up some games from a website for the kids to play in the car. We stopped and got Blizzards when they all got Bingo. All of us got into finding how many different license plates we could see. Solomon got really excited when I told him I would give them each five dollars if they found Hawaii. We never found Hawaii but we did find all the states except Hawaii, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. We got to the National Park just in time to set up our tent, roast some hot dogs and marshmallows.
Day three:
It was COLD at night! It was in the 20's each night we were there. Luckily the kids just burrowed down into their sleeping bags and penny slept in her snowsuit and blankets. I think Joseph and I were the coldest. We planned on going to church at 1:00 so we had time to take a hike out and get our first glimpse of the Grand Canyon. It is amazing and beautiful! We went back to our campsite to get dressed for church. There is a branch that meets in the park. It was small having only about 12 people. It is for all the people who work and live in the park. The four brothers who were the only kids in primary were thrilled to have our kids there. It's kind of funny that our kids literally doubled the primary :) After church we walked along the rim to the geology museum for awhile before heading back to play at the campsite for the evening.
Day four:
The Ranger programs were phenomenal! We went on the Fossil hike. The kids loved learning about the fossils and I was amazed how many we were able to find. Jocelyn found 104 different fossils! We took naps in the afternoon and played.
Day five:
We went to a program on the california Condor, and a geology talk and walk. This is the day Joseph started plotting our family hike down into the Canyon. It is 12 miles down to the canyon floor. Every mile you go down it gets about 8 degrees hotter. We knew we wouldn't be able to make to all the way down (next time Joseph!).

Day six:
We got up early and got the Bright Angel Trail at 9:30 AM. It was overcast and cold so we had bundled up well. About a mile down into the canyon it started to snow. It was beautiful. When we got to the 1.5 mile rest house the ranger there asked us how far we were planning on going. We told him we planned on going to the next rest house. He kept advising against it. I started getting a little nervous but we started down. Joseph had a goal for us to make it to the next rest house so away we went. We made good time to the 3 mile rest house, the last point that has water and bathrooms. By this time it was 80 degrees and hot. There were signs everywhere warning about dehydration and telling stories of people who had run the Boston Marathon who died hiking down into the Grand Canyon. We made it to the 3 mile rest house and were ready to turn around. We ate our picnic lunch and headed back at 12:30.

The hard part about hiking into a canyon is that the downhill part is first. We were already tired but now we were hiking UP the canyon. The kids were troopers and there was minimal complaining. I am so glad since I was barely making it, Penny in a hiking back pack was heavy! I got huge bruises on my hip from the constant bouncing. Just so you don't think Joseph was hiking fancy free, he was carrying many liters of water, food, coats and supplies, honestly I had the easier load. When we finally made it back to the 1.5 mile house the Ranger was so excited to see us. Apparently he had been off duty a while before but didn't want to leave until we had gotten back. He said he had never seen a family with so many kids hike that far into the canyon. We finally made it back to the top around 6:40. We were exhausted but thrilled with our accomplishment.

1.5 mile rest house

Day 7:

Waking up this morning I could barely move! I have never been so sore in my life. We took it easy today. We went to the Native American Ruins had a picnic right on the rim and the kids fulfilled their requirements and were sworn in as offical Junior Rangers.

Day 8:

We left for Santa Ana to visit my sister Tatiana. Tati was so nice to let us stop by and visit for the day since she was in the middle of moving to her first house. We spent a lovely and relaxing day at the beach with her and her girls. We also got our family pictures taken on the beach which is something I always wanted to do.

Day 9:
Home again, Home again. The trip home went smoothly. Like I said Penny was an angel. Isaac had a rough time for about an hour but we finally worked through it.

Picture Recap...

S'mores everynight YUM!

Picnic on the rim

The newest set of Junior Rangers :)

Wrestling in the tent with Dad

We made it back to the top!

Sand Monsters
Bathing Beauty

Penny @ 10 months

2010-06-02T14:50:00.000-07:00

Penny has been such a joy to have in our family. It's hard to believe that she is already over 10 months old! This last month she has started clapping, waving, playing peek-a-boo, and has mastered the art of crawling, even down the step into the front room and over the rungs of the kitchen chairs. She pulls herself up on everything but she hasn't figured out how to get back down. She is still such a happy baby, smiling at anyone who pays her any attention at all. She's just a tease though, if you try to take her from me she quickly panics and tries to get back to me. She will crawl around playing, keeping herself happy for hours. She hates baby food and will only eat something if there are chunks in it (despite the fact that she is still completely toothless). She sleeps through the night in her own room (a first for me by this age) and is the best traveler. She didn't cry at all on the 24+ hours we spent in the car on our family road trip to the Grand Canyon. It probably helped that she had her adoring brothers and sisters surrounding her.

How did we get so lucky?

*Sorry about the watermarks on the photos I am waiting for my copies but Lisa was an amazing photographer if you are looking for someone in so cal or colorado :)

Have I Done Any Good?

2010-01-31T16:22:00.000-08:00

I went to lds.org to look something up for my class I was teaching and the headline caught my eye. Have I Done Any Good in the World Today? It got me thinking about our family goals.
We set two family goals for the new year. One was to try and be more service oriented. We decided to do a family service project at least once a month. It can be a bit tricky to find a service project that an 8,7,5, and 3 year old can participate in.
After reading the plea to members to help Haiti I knew I wanted to find a way to help them as a family. We called the kids in and watched this video:

Then we asked the kids what we could do to help. They had ideas of sending food or blankets. We read them the article asking for members to donate to the LDS Humanitarian Service. Then we asked them how they could earn money to donate. Solomon and Jocelyn collect aluminum cans and plastic drink bottles for money. We suggested that we take the recycling that they had been saving up for the last 6 weeks and donate all the money that they made. I could tell Solomon was a little hesitant to give up his hard earned money, while Jocelyn ran off to her room to get the .86 cents she currently had to donate. We went out as a family and collected the cans and bottle, smashed them down and got everything ready for the recycling center. I hope they feel like the made a difference.

I would love any ideas/advice for great family service projects that you may have done.

33% of my life

2009-12-28T09:30:00.000-08:00

Today is our anniversary. 10 years. That seemed amazing in and of itself but then I realized I have been married for 33% of my life! 10 more years and I will have been married for half of my life. How did we get from there

to here?

10 years of marriage

9 countries that we have dragged our family through.

8 moves starting in a studio apartment to our first home we have always made it our own.

7 pregnancies always filled with excitement and sometimes ending in heartbreak.

6 cars from the Honda Accord that brought us together to the Honda Odyssey which now can barely hold us we have good memories of getting from here to there.

5 children, they are amazing little people... a piece of me, a piece of you and a piece of heaven.

4 jobs... the telemarketing job that didn't go past training and Deloitte that has given us so many growing experiences our family has always made it through.

3 states. Okay, so I was having a hard time coming up with three but we have lived in Utah, Washington and California :)

2 people

1 Forever Family

2009-11-25T00:20:00.000-08:00

2009-09-26T15:24:00.001-07:00

I don't update this much so here are some pages I have made of what we have been up to since Penny was born.

We drove down to the beach for the day with the youth in our ward. It was beautiful and relaxing.
I made rainbow tutu's for all the girls at Adelaide's birthday party and I couldn't resist making one for Penny too. I made super hero capes for the two boys who came, I think their parents appreciated that I didn't make them wear tutu's (although Isaac keeps stealing Addie's and wearing it, Joseph says I'm not allowed to take pictures of that).

Right before Joseph had to head back to work after his 3 weeks of paternity leave we drove down to Monterey and went to the aquarium for the day.

I took the kids to a fun family water park for the day, Isaac loved this water slide and my water sling came in very handy for Penny.

Jocelyn and Solomon both had their first soccer game and are loving playing soccer. Jocelyn scored her first goal today, go Joc!

Solomon and I made his catamaran together for the Raingutter Regata and he got 2nd place!

She is still my biggest smiler and getting so big!

Reading Time

2009-09-26T15:10:00.000-07:00

I know having a big family, there's less of me and Joseph to go around, but I always hope that the benefits of having lots of brothers and sisters balances that out. It's when I catch a moment like this that I am so grateful for each of my children and what they give to each other and learn from each other.

Jocelyn's learning to digital scrapbook

2009-09-06T08:34:00.000-07:00

Jocelyn has been wanting to learn how to digital scrapbook. We had our first lesson in photoshop this morning and she wanted to post it online just like I do so I told her we could put it up on my blog. Jocelyn's first scrapbook page made all by herself :)

Something for Sunday

2009-08-29T10:14:00.000-07:00

There is a primary goal for each of the kids to memorize all 13
Articles of Faith and when they do the presidency bakes them a pizza size cookie as a reward. My oldest two had them finished and passed off in no time. What has surprised me is how quickly Adelaide has memorized them. All I do is sing her whichever article she is working on as her good night song and she has already memorized up to number 11. What really surprised me though was when I heard Isaac in the other room singing the 10th Article of Faith as loud as he could. I have a video of him doing the whole thing but I thought this one was so funny because of how he got frustrated at the end when he messed up at the end. I think I will have to make him his own giant cookie since the challenge isn't for nursery kids :)

Penny for your thoughts

2009-08-20T16:53:00.001-07:00

Here's my sweet little Penelope Kim, a.k.a Penny. She has been a really easy baby so far and is definitely loved and adored by all her brothers and sisters. I've been especially surprised and touched by how much Solomon loves to take care of her. He is always offering to hold her while I shower or do other things. Isaac is so funny he loves to ask me a series of questions:

Ike: Can Penny run?
Mom: No
Ike: Can Penny talk?
Mom: nope
Ike: Can penny eat?
Mom: no
Ike: Yes she can, from Mommy.

This is always followed by uncontrollable laughter (on his part) I'm not sure why, but he thinks he is hilarious.

Jocelyn loves to interpret different noises Penny makes as words. She will get all excited and insist that Penny just said, yeah, or sure. Yes, my baby is apparently very precocious.

I really enjoyed Joseph's 3 weeks of paternity leave. The first day I jokingly asked him what was for dinner and he followed through by cooking almost every single meal for the entire time. He also did all the laundry, by the end he was informing me that we really need to buy one of those whirlpool duet washer and dryer. I should have hit him while he was weak, now that I'm back on laundry duty I think our *need* for a super washer and dryer was converted to a *need* for a ping pong table. (which we bought last Saturday).

I should have had him do more of the cleaning around the house while he was home, because my *need* to hire my housecleaner back isn't impressing him thus far...

Here's a few more pictures/pages of my sweet Penny girl.

One week

Two Weeks

Three Weeks

Four weeks and really starting to smile :)

faith is like a little seed

2009-04-09T20:53:00.000-07:00

I love having a garden. Sometimes I like the idea of a garden more than the daily watering/weeding/harvesting that it entails but I spend a lot of time planning and dreaming up what I want to plant in my little plot of earth. This year I have planned my biggest garden. Our house here has a huge garden shaped like an E and last year I only planted one section of it. This year I really wanted to fill it up. I got this great California organic seed catalogue and decided to try starting my garden from seeds for the first time. I have to say sticking these little seeds in the dirt I started panicking that I had just wasted a lot of money on seeds. I was really nervous that my little seeds would be duds and not sprout at all...

But they did! I just love to look at them. And hopefully thanks to the fact that my garden has automatic sprinklers installed they will continue to grow.

In my veggie garden I've got 5 different kinds of tomatoes, 4 different kinds of cherry tomatoes, crookneck squash, zucchini, watermelon, cantaloupe, edamame, rhubarb, scallions, 5 kinds of peppers, 3 kinds of cucumbers, pumpkins, celery, breadseed poppies, strawberry spinach and sunflowers.

I also planted a cutting flower garden with sweet pea, zinnia, cosmo, giant poppies, calendula, amaranth and a hummingbird mix.

No such thing as a free lunch?

2009-02-24T19:41:00.000-08:00

Free sub at Quizno's!
Okay, so it's not free because you have to spend about 30 seconds registering but free sub at Quizno's? I'm there!
Get your free sub here

Baby Peanut

2009-02-13T14:29:00.000-08:00

Joseph had told me he really wanted to wait and find out if we were having a boy or girl until the baby was born. I was opposed at first but as I started thinking about it, I liked the idea. It's the perfect time to try something new and who knows, it might be our last chance to be 'surprised' later rather than earlier.

Today I had my ultrasound appointment at 1:00 and last night Joseph changed his mind and said he couldn't stand to wait and so we should just find out. After some discussion I decided that we could and would wait until the birthday to see. My sister had told me it was a really neat experience to wait (she has waited for 2 out of her 6) and so now here I am post-ultrasound and nothing really to announce except my baby definitely has arms, legs, a heart, brain and supposedly kidneys although I couldn't really tell what the technician was showing there.

Joseph was sighting phantom 'boy parts' the entire time (umm, no Joseph that was the umbilical cord) so evidently he thinks it's a boy. It will be fun to argue, er I mean discuss boy names and girl names for the next 4 months or so. Until then I will call my baby... peanut.

When life gives you lemons...

2009-01-29T13:45:00.001-08:00

I made lemon bars, lemon tarts, lemonade, lemon curd, lemon cookies, lemon poppyseed cake, lemon rolls, lemon parmesan fish and that's just the start!

We picked 400 lemons off of our tree and I've managed to give 150 away. This picture is how many we have left on the tree. I've gone from choosing recipes that look yummy to trying to find recipes that use up the most lemons (I'm sorry but 1 T. lemon juice only uses one lemon!) The other problem is that most lemon things are desserts. I tell you this is not a good situation for somebody trying NOT to gain 70 pounds.

I did discover that it is possible to can lemon curd so as soon as I borrow a canner (thanks for living so far away Amy!) I can really make a dent in my lemon supply. Now I only have one more problem...

What can I do with 400 oranges???

5 peas in my pod

2009-01-12T15:14:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to share how excited I am that we will be adding one more to our family in July! We will find out in 3 weeks whether it is a boy or a girl (although Joseph is lobbying to wait and see). It took us a lot longer than we had originally planned but I am finally believing that it's real. Now I just have to convice Isaac that he is a big boy and not a baby anymore.

singing and other lost talents...

2008-12-23T04:36:00.000-08:00

Over Christmas we went to a Musical Christmas Evening in my parent's ward. It was wonderful. Everyone that performed were extremely talented musician's and it was just inspiring to hear such beautiful music. At the end they have a tradition of having a sing-along with the audience of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. I loved standing up and feeling the power of joining my voice with such a large group and feeling the vibrations of the organ coming up through my toes and singing with my full voice, something I don't do very often unless I'm calling for my kids (I sing for them to come, yes it is still lazier than going to get them but sounds better than screaming across the house). It reminded me of choir camp back in High School when I sang Mozart's Requiem with a full choir and symphony, so powerful.

It got me thinking about the things I used to love to do or feel passionate about that don't seem to have much of a place in my life. I think it happens to all of us, we find new hobbies that fit in with our current lifestyle. But sometimes I miss the things I was so involved in before. I think I also have the problem of wanting to do so many things and I can't do them all. I love what I do now, I love homeschooling my kids (which is my number one activity now and will be for as long as I can), scrapbooking and I still play the piano. I just wish sometimes I could do it all.

New Hair

2008-12-07T14:20:00.000-08:00

I suddenly decided this week to chop all my hair off. I was going for flippy and cute, not sure I managed it. These are some of the reactions I got:

Jocelyn: "You don't look like my mom any more"

Joseph: "Are you going to be able to fix it like that?"

Girl in my primary class: "Are you wearing a wig?"

The Birds and the Bees, okay fine just the Bees

2008-11-12T19:34:00.000-08:00

I planned my first big homeschool field trip today. I have wanted to take my kids to a bee farm for a long time and so I googled and found Marshall's Bee Farm in Napa Valley. It sounded like so much fun but I was worried it wouldn't live up to the description, but it turned out great! The kids got to put on bee keeping hats and go right out to the hive and see everything in it. They even found the queen bee! Then they each got to eat honeycomb right out of the hive. They also got to see where they process the honey (uncap the wax covering the honeycomb and spin it to get the honey out). Then they got a whole table full of honey to try (20 different varieties) plus crackers, cheese and bananas and yogurt parfaits to eat. Isaac kept yelling, 'more honey'. I guess it's not that different from the 'more candy' I've been hearing him yell since halloween. It was so much fun and thanks to all my friends for coming!

Building an Eternal Family

2008-11-11T01:25:00.000-08:00

Last night for Family Home Evening I did a lesson based on the song My Eternal Family. It's not in the primary songbook it was one of those songs in the friend a couple years ago. Anyway, it is one of the songs for the primary program next year and it is the song all the primary is supposed to learn in January. I love primary music and I think it is such a wonderful way to teach the gospel to my kids. I love making my kids picture music sheets for the songs we learn. Here's the one I made for this song.
I got out a bunch of different tools and set them out and then had sticker labels. We sang each line of the song and the kids had to find the 'tools' we use to build our family. Then they got to come up and choose a tool from the table to represent that tool. The hammer was serving, the screwdriver was speak with kindness, the staple gun was help at work and play etc... It was really fun. But the best part was our activity. We decided to try and build a family pyramid. We set up the camera on timer and after two tries we got this:

Our very own eternal family pyramid.

That's how I roll

2008-10-24T09:42:00.000-07:00

I've done sewing projects off and on with my kids and Solomon was wanting to sew something new (he just thinks it's cool to use a machine that if you put your finger in the wrong place could get a needle through it). We've made lots of fun easy sewing projects together and so I started hunting for something new and maybe a little more complicated. I found this fun tutorial for a crayon roll and knew my kids would love it. It's perfect too because the math curriculum I use involves a lot of coloring and they are always hunting for the right color. We went the fabric store and I let them each choose 3 fat quarters to make their roll up. I thought they turned out so cute
Now Adelaide just sat on my lap while I pretty much made the whole thing but Solomon and Jocelyn were able to make them all by themselves. We've been working on more for christmas presents for their cousins and friends (act surprised ok?) I did come up with a different idea for the closure, I just used a pony tail holder and a button, I think it's more kid friendly than tying a bow. She makes one darn cute seamstress eh?

Going Veg

2008-10-20T21:22:00.000-07:00

I never thought vegetarian could possibly be used to describe me. I love meat, well I love all food. I have tried to make some healthy choices in our eating, I try to make fish once a week (which is either Salmon or Tilapia I'm too chicken to try anything else) and my children are pretty much only allowed to snack on fruit. But about two weeks ago Joseph out of the blue said he thought we should try to eat a couple of meat-less meals each week. After I recovered from my shock and extracting a promise that he would not complain at all about there being no meat I started trying out some vegetarian meals. It's been two weeks of no meat here at our house and finally Joseph did ask if we were ever going to eat meat again. But overall it's been good. Making Bean and Potato Enchiladas was way cheaper than making flank steak fajitas that's for sure and my kids have actually eaten, read that at least 3 bites, of everything I've made. And technically I know we aren't even going true vegetarian just trying to eat less meat. We'll see how long it lasts.

All about the kids

2008-09-28T14:09:00.001-07:00

I forgot the camera for Solomon's first two games but I finally remembered it yesterday. I got some great photos, but the best one is this one of him scoring a goal, I can't believe how perfectly I captured it :)

Yesterday Adelaide came up to me and wanted to sing me a song she made up for me. She was being really cute dancing around with these balloons and singing.

The song was making me feel pretty good too...until the second verse. The first verse went something like this, "Mommy's the best mommy, she's so nice and fun. I love her so much." But then the second verse started, "My mommy's so nice except when she yells and is really mean." Needless to say the warm fuzzies were gone.

Today at church the babysitter that babysat for us last weekend came up and told me that when she was putting the girls to bed they asked if she would lay down with them until they fell asleep (something I do with my girls sometimes). So they were all laying there holding hands when Jocelyn said to our 15 year old babysitter. "Courtney, you are going to be such a great mom."

The Family that sings together...

2008-09-14T21:21:00.000-07:00

I love singing. I have always dreamed about having sing alongs with my kids and singing songs together at church. I had really just about given up on those dreams as my son Solomon seems to really have a strong dislike for singing (it's like pulling teeth to get him to sing anything!) But today Joseph and I were asked to speak in church and I thought it would be nice if our family sang a primary song in French together. I admit at first I was just going to sing with Jocelyn but Joseph said we should try singing together. We practiced and it didn't sound half bad so we sang altogether. Thanks family for making one of my dreams come true :)

Things to make life easier

2008-08-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

I hate lunch. I hate deciding what to make that A) at least half of the kids will eat and B) is easy to put on the table and C) is somewhat healthy and well-rounded. So I finally figured something out that helps me not only get through lunch but all the meals. I've started planning every meal and snack for the week. It is so nice to not have to scramble around for what to put on the table. We also eat so much healthier. Here is my menu plan for last week:

Mon ...........Tues............Wed
Cereal........Yogurt/fruit...cereal

Quesadillas...ham/pretzels...Annie's pasta
plums.........carrots........cherry tomatoes
cucumbers oranges........nectarines

Grapes........apple slices...dried cranberries
PBCrackers....cheese.........graham crackers

Shrimp Salad..sweet n sour...Tostada leftovers
melon.........meatballs......corn
breadsticks...rice/broccoli..watermelon

Thurs..............Fri..............Sat..............Sun
pancakes.............oatmeal...........biscuits........cereal

chicken nuggets......hot dogs..........PB&J............tuna
plums................carrots.............oranges.......apples
sweet potato fries...strawberries........carrots.......cucumber

smoothie.............goldfish............bananas.......grapes
popcorn..............oranges.............nutella toast..banana bars

crab quiche..........cous cous...........sweet n sour...salmon
peas.................salad.................peas................wild rice
cantaloupe...........watermelon............ rice................broccoli

Desserts: Peanut butter bars, snickerdoodles

Other bonuses: not as much complaining, my daughter started to complain about what was for lunch but stopped when I showed her that her favorite lunch was coming up the next day. Not as much pestering, instead of bugging me about what was for snack or dinner they just went and looked for themselves what they could have.

I also try to plan one meal that I can double and freeze to make a quick meal for another week (I doubled and froze the crab quiche and the cous cous was frozen from before and a few fun desserts to make with the kids or when I *need* some chocolate.

Okay so looking back at my menu I take back that we eat healthy...we just eat more of a variety :)

So in a perfect world I would do this every week instead of every once in a while like I do now.

The upsides of having a teenager

2008-07-15T09:13:00.000-07:00

For the last few weeks I have become the proud mother of 5...okay not really but I have had our 15 year-old neighbor/babysitter from Paris come and live with us for the Summer. I have to say, I LOVE having a teenager:) Now don't get me wrong she hasn't really even done much babysitting for me but it is the little things. We are out running errands and I need to run in and pick up my holds at the library, I can actually run in and grab them without unloading and herding my whole little troop in and out and we get to do fun things like go to a Jonas Brother's concert together. I'm going to miss her when she's gone but there's already talk of next summer...

Starting again

2008-07-11T17:33:00.001-07:00

I think I will get back into blogging again, it was fun last year when I did it so here it goes again. I love my kids birthday parties, I love having a day where everything is special for them. We just celebrated two birthday's: Isaac turned two and then the next day Jocelyn turned 6. Here's a page I made of Isaac eating his bulldozer dirt cake.

He loved opening presents but the next day on Jocelyn's birthday he got pretty made that he couldn't open all her present too. We are still waiting to have Jocelyn's party but hopefully it's going to happen next week.

{Birthday party success!}

2007-06-01T05:28:00.000-07:00

My son turned 6 and I was really nervous to throw him a party with all of his school friends because it would have to be all in French. I almost decided not to do a party at all but I love throwing parties for my kids. I tend to turn it into activities for weeks. Solomon had decided he wanted to have a rocket party. We started out making some rocking invitations. I designed a rocket template and then found the perfect kit, Intergalactic Boy, by Victoria Feemster (she sells at OAKS, TDS and O-scraps). After we printed all the pieces out we spent an afternoon curling paper strips around pencils and cutting and glueing. There is a little pull-out card with the party info and you pull it out of the rocket. It was fun and we ended up with some awesome invites!

Then we found an idea for turning candy into rockets. We used mentos and covered them with paper from the kit and then added shiny silver rocket tops and more fire coming out the back. Last we made a pinata. I printed out paper from the kit and we hodgepodges it all over an oval shaped balloon. Then I made a silver rocket tip, cute out some fin/wings. We also printed up a little decoration for the side that said, 'hors de ce monde' or 'out of this world'.

The night before the party I spent awhile translating how to explain the different activities (how to play pin the astronaut on the planet, rocket BINGO, and what a pinata was) We started out with playing pin the astronaut on the planet. Then we played rocket BINGO. Then we did this http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/space/morbit.htm way cute art project. Then we brought out the rocket cake that we made like this except we wrote out Sol instead of USA.

I bought sparklers to put in the backwith the candles to make it really exciting. So after the sparklers finished we had Solomon blow out the candles, but he couldn't. I had accidentally bought trick candles. The kids were all busting up laughing and we finally all blew together and got them out. I guess that's one of the problems that comes from not speaking fluent french ;) We opened presents and then did the pinata. Pinatas aren't really popular here so none of the kids had seen one before. But they understood the concept quick, whack at this with a stick until candy falls out, not too difficult for 6 year old boys to figure out :) It was a great success and we all had a blast.

Now I've started planning Jocelyn's party. She wants a princess party and I think we are going to do little make-overs, paint their nails and stuff. Should be fun!

Here's this weeks template for the challenge at www.elementalscraps.com . Today is the grand reopening, with one amazing and huge mega kit that is FREE with a 10 dollars purchase. Awesome! Also remember if you do just three of the challenges at ES you get a free kit.

http://www.4shared.com/file/17056250/cb8f4ce2/ribbon_board_johanna_berry.html
Here's a link for the rocket invitation template I made too if you have a little boy birthday coming up soon! Quick instructions: Fill with your desired papers and decorate. Print. Cut out pieces. Cut out one additional rocket shaped piece of plain paper. Glue two rocket papers together only along edges and leaving the bottom open. Curl paper strips around a pencil. Attach curled strips to the back of the insert. Write 'Pull' on the bottom of the insert. Insert it into the rocket leaving just enough for the word pull to show. Here's the link.
http://www.4shared.com/file/17058294/8088b0c4/rocket_template_johanna_berry.html
As always please leave a comment on my blog if you download my templates!

{Visitors}

2007-04-26T05:36:00.000-07:00

Can I tell you how excited I am, my sister is coming to visit me! We lived 5 blocks away from each other for the last three years and the I up and moved to Paris on her (aren't I a rotten sister?) but hey she gets a trip to France out of it right? She is bringing her whole family, she's got 5 kids, so add that to my 4 and we are going to have a full house. So I am trying to plan our meals and decided it would help me be organized to have a cute set of meal planners and shopping lists. So last night I put these adorable little things together using Bree Clarkson's What's cookin template and SaraAmarie's way fun Grandmas Garden kit.

Bree's Templates are available at www.scrapbookgraphics.com and SaraAmarie sells at www.oscraps.com

So last week I did something I swore I would never do again, tried out to be a cheerleader :) I just love www.thedigishoppe and couldn't pass up the chance to get involved there :) I am having fun commenting and scrapping there. I just have to tell you if you are looking for a fun friendly site that offers lots of encouragement this is the place!

Last order of business and why you are probably here and reading this in the first place, templates. Mormishmom made my day by asking where I sell my templates, she wanted to buy some, I was in shock :) So I had a few laying around on my hard drive that I thought I would package up and give away just because mormishmom likes them ;) Here's the first one.....

http://www.4shared.com/file/14780486/62d95a60/johanna_berry_story.html
And next is a kind of crazy one I made. But who know you might want it :)

http://www.4shared.com/file/14781088/3ad4b8de/johanna_berry_triangles.html

So have a happy Thursday and until next time (which very well may be a month or two days).

Remember to please leave me a comment here if you download, it makes me happy :)

{Recipes}

2007-04-02T06:15:00.000-07:00

My SIL is putting together a family cook book and I thought I would post two of my fav recipes, they are incredibly good, healthy and fast...who could ask for more?

Apple-Chipotle Salsa

1 cup diced (1/4 in) Granny Smith apple (unpeeled, rinsed)
1/2 cup diced (1/4 in) red onion
1/2 cup diced (1/4 in) red bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup apple juice
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp ground dried chipotle chili or cayenne
1 pork tenderloin or 4 boned, skinned chicken breast
Chili spice rub

In a bowl, mix apple, onion, bell pepper, cilantro, apple juice, vinegar, and chili. Cover and chill.

Chili spice Rub

1 Tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon firmly packed brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon cayenne

mix in small bowl.

Rub chili spice mix all over chicken or pork. Roast in 375 degree oven for 25-30 minutes, or grill.
Transfer chicken to plates. Serve with green apple-chipotle salsa.

Sweet and Spicy Vegetable Couscous

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped red onion
2 large carrots shredded
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 can corn
1 (9oz) package frozen sweet peas
1 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 1/2 cups uncooked couscous
1/2 cup peanuts.

Heat oil in Dutch oven or large saucepan over medium heat until hot. Add onion and carrot; cook and stir 2-3 minutes until tender.
Increase heat to med-high. Add all remaining ingredients except couscous and peanuts. Mix well. Bring to a boil. Stir in couscous. Cover; remove from heat. Let stand 5 to 7 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Fluff with fork and add peanuts. Also delicious with spicy sausages.

{One link for all}

2007-03-24T00:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, I combined all three gifts into one zip file, thinking that maybe if I simplify this *might* work.

http://www.4shared.com/file/12805424/e310efda/templates_negatives.html

I'm sorry, it's the first time I have used 4shared but I will get it. Crossing my fingers...

{Neglected already}

2007-03-22T02:35:00.000-07:00

I haven't had my blog a month but I neglect it already:) So I had a lot of fun with all of the RAK's and PIF going on at DST and the designers I design for were sweet enough to let me RAK several of their awesome products too. I like creating too and sharing, it's so much fun to see a lo in the gallery and recognize something in it that I made! That's actually the whole reason I decided to start a blog was so I had a place to share stuff I made. Of course you get a little dose of my family and life as well :)

So here are some little things I have made lately. I had several people say they like my little photo negative in my header. I was trying to make it look like an acrylic sticker, just a slightly different twist on an old thing. So I made a couple different colors and included a gray one for easy recoloring to whatever color you happen to need.

http://www2.blogger.com/
Here are two more templates I have cooked up lately. The three circles is the one for the challenge at www.elementalscraps.com so check it out :)

Hope you like them :)

http://www.4shared.com/file/12701749/b789af3a/johanna_berry_negatives.html

http://www.4shared.com/file/12701750/d74e26df/johanna_berry_circlesincircles

http://www.4shared.com/file/12701750/d74e26df/johanna_berry_3circles.html

I *think* I fixed the links, leave a comment if you download :)

{Home Again}

2007-03-04T06:49:00.000-08:00

I know it was wishful thinking but I didn't get my templates posted before we took off for Germany. But I will put them at the end of this post, you gotta wade through my trip to Germany first :) The trip didn't start off great, Solomon woke up crying in the night that his ear hurt. I knew we would have to schedule a Dr. trip on the way out because I didn't want to be stuck in Germany where we don't speak the language and have a really sick kids on our hands. Luckily we were able to get an appointment easily and we sailed in, confirmed he had a huge ear infection grabbed our antibiotics and were on the road.

We listened to the Wizard of Oz on the way and the kids were all troopers, no fits or incessant asking if we were there yet. We got to our hotel at 11 pm and went straight to bed. The next day Joseph went off to the wedding (kids couldn't go so I hung out with all 4 in the hotel room). 5 hours later I was losing it, it was raining and cold so we couldn't even go outside much. But I survived.

We had fun the next few days eating german food and sightseeing around Frankfurt. My favorite place we went was the Dom cathedral. The European Emperors were crowned there from like 1235 to the 1500's. I told Sol and Joc all about the Emperors getting crowned there hoping they would be good and not mind looking around another church but they were pretty bummed when they found out they didn't have all the crowns on display.

It was a fun week but as always it's good to be back home.

Here's my latest page, the file got so big (probably from the 8 pictures I put on there from my 8 megapixel camera) that PSP just stopped working and kept shutting down anytime I tried to do anything. Frustrating! So Finally I called it quits and here it is:

Credits are here:
http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=82381&limit=recent

Also as I promised two more templates.

The last one is for the challenge at http://www.elementalscraps.com

http://download.yousendit.com/2215ECB62A8CF0F6 http://download.yousendit.com/D33600C3752EC66A

Note: I have not figured out how to make the links clickable on here yet so you have to copy/paste the url into your browser to get to the download. If anybody wants to enlighten me on how to make the links clickable please do, I haven't had time to sit down and figure it out for myself yet :)

2nd note: Feel free to leave me a comment and if you use the templates send me a link I would love to see what you do :)

Okay I'm done :)

{Yummy Stuff}

2007-02-25T07:32:00.000-08:00

I love to cook. I love to try out new recipes. Sometimes I have to make myself make the same thing. I also love to experiment. Hugo's always says he’s lucky if I follow a recipe exactly the first time and then it’s a miracle we have the same thing without me changing anything. Sometimes this turns out really good and sometimes not so good. This morning it turned out good! I was making pancakes, I made some with blueberries and then I decided to see if we liked red currants in them. Then on the last couple I decided to try and mimic the flavor of our favorite pastry here in France, Croissant aux Amandes et Chocolate.

Imagine a croissant with chocolate inside soaked in an almond sauce and then sprinkled with almonds and powdered sugar, Heaven! So I added some almond flavoring, coconut and chocolate chunks to my pancake batter. Yummy! It was delicious. Definitely going to do that variation again.

Today we have a wedding to go to. It will be a full day affair. The wedding is at 3 but then the reception right after goes until all hours. It will be fun to take pictures and see what a French wedding and reception is like.

Monday we are taking off for Frankfurt, Germany. Hugo and I really need to plan what we are going to do there soon, like I should be doing that now:) Reminds me I need to download and burn a new book on CD for the kids to listen to in the car. We just finished listening to Peter Pan, it was really fun.

I have a few more templates (I made my Dance Dance Revolution page into one) that I will be putting up soon, maybe I will have time tomorrow before we head out...

One new page for me:

My little girl loves babies and she has really latched onto this vintage doll that was given to us. She calls it her 'Baby Emma'. It's so sweet to watch her.
Credits are found http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=78807&cat=all&ppuser=422

{Just Because}

2007-02-20T01:58:00.001-08:00

I like to create and I like to share. I have been making these templates for the sketch challenge at www.elementalscraps.com and I thought I would put them on here for anyone who wants to visit my little blog. The linked circles is for the challenge for this month, you get a free kit for participating :) Anyway would love a link if you use them. Have a great Tuesday!

download links:
http://download.yousendit.com/C8C70EB37CEE5813
http://download.yousendit.com/2EF867EF0F3EF811
http://download.yousendit.com/12D90A537C7EDA25

{Winter Break}

2007-02-19T04:10:00.000-08:00

So apparently the kids are on winter break now. If you knew me at all you would think I was the kind of mom who would be super involved with her kid school. But since I don't speak French I am pretty much in the dark. If Sol hadn't come home with a note on Friday saying there was no school for the next two weeks I would have had no idea. I would have showed up to take them to school today. At least if I had done that nobody would have been there to see me look so stupid :)

I am excited for the week of with the kids. I miss the laid back days of getting up whenever we want and not having a specific schedule. Don't get me wrong, there are good things about having to get 4 kids up and ready to be out the door by 8:15 everyday, for instance we all have breakfast together and I read the kids books and we learn a new song for church at breakfast (I don't usually eat breakfast so I need something to do while they are eating). I do plan on doing that during winter break but I didn't this morning so I'm not off to a great start.

I wanted to scrap some picture of Ike before he had chicken pox so I made this page of him eating his first real food (also for lifts with a twist). I'm a lazy mom in a lot of ways. I don't do baby food. I have better things to do than sit and spoon feed a baby for 20 minutes when half of it ends up on his clothes anyways. So I just wait until they are about 7 months old and start handing them food at meal times. Keeps them occupied atleast.

Credits are here
http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=76583&ppuser=422

{Poor Baby}

2007-02-17T21:10:00.000-08:00

I thought my kids were having such mild cases of chicken pox but Ike’s got it bad. He’s probably got a couple hundred just on his head, and since he is bald you can see every single one. The poor guy. He hasn’t been sleeping hardly at all. I just kept thinking oh this is probably as bad as it is going to get and then I would look at him a few hours later and see 20 more pocks. He was sleeping so badly that Hugo and I ended up staying up until 2:30 watching LOST because why not enjoy ourselves if we are going to be up all night with a fussy baby? Now all his chicken pocks are starting to scab, a good sign but definitely doesn’t make him look any better.

Poor Baby

Here are my latest scrapbook pages. I was really happy how this one turned out, kind of funky and grungy. My 5 yo seriously get's into this, he is awesome!

Our first trip after we moved to France. The beaches at Normandy were beautiful and so rich in history, amazing!

{Jinxed!}

2007-02-07T07:49:00.000-08:00

So I think I jinxed myself yesterday about the whole ‘good mom’ thing. Today I think I am going to get the chance to prove myself. We started out with Hugo not setting his alarm clock and so he was running too late to walk to the gare to catch the 5:38 train he needed to catch in order to get to Paris in time to catch his train to some town north of paris. So I had to wake up all the kids and drag them down to the car to run Hugo to the gare. I had to run a red light to make it but he did catch his train, with literally one minute to spare. By then of course the kids are all bright-eyed and bushy tailed and the chances of them going back to sleep are slim to none. So I resign myself that I am up for the day when Jocelyn comes up and says, “Mommy what’s this on the back of my neck?” Chicken pox. Yes I thought we had gotten by with only Solomon getting it but no, it looks like I am in for the long-dragged out version where they come down with it one at a time every two weeks. She already has more pox on her than Solomon had, hopefully it doesn’t keep getting worse with each kid.

But good news is that when I called the Dentist to cancel our appt for this afternoon I discovered that our appointment was for the 14th (gotta love this language barrier thing) so at least I didn’t drive all the way into Paris for a non-existent dentist appt!

{Good Mom Day}

2007-02-06T07:30:00.000-08:00

Why is it that I feel like I am a good mother on the days where my children play together nicely, we do fun things together and everything goes smoothly. If you really think about it I should feel like a good mom on the days when my kids are being rotten but I somehow manage to stay calm and patient. But at any rate today was a good day. The kids played together really nicely, I played some fun games with them. In general a good mom day.

This past weekend we had a break from the gray skies and rainy weather. I decided we had to take advantage of that. We thought about making a run for Eurodisney but decided that we should save that for when we can get the discount tickets. Instead we went to a big park in Paris called La Jardin d’Acclimatation. We had a great time. There was a little amusement park area, menagerie, playgrounds. Afterwards we walked around downtown Paris. I was looking for this beautiful coat I saw a few weeks ago but we didn’t find me one. But on the bright side we found a really good boulangerie to eat at and I had my first Croque Messieur, tasty. On the way home we found a video rental place near us. We rented Nanny McPhee and watched it with the kids. Loved it, maybe I’m twisted but I had a good laugh when the kids were ‘eating’ the baby.