(Monday, November 10, 2008)
Puddy with her first hair do. How stinkin’ cute is she with this little pony tail???
She looks so BIG to me in this picture- more like a kid and not a baby, you know?
Big Kids in the backyard yesterday
LOVE this picture of the two of them!
Goofin’ off!
Mary’s rendering of a shark.
Does anyone know why today is a special day??
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Happy Birthday to the Marine Corps today!
I realized I hadn’t posted a picture of our “Countdown to Christmas” Chain.
I don’t know about you guys but WE GOT A LOT OF CANDY. Way to much for my little chickadees to be eating all at once. Also, at this young age, they have no concept of how long it will be until Christmas is here. So, for the last several years, I’ve used our Halloween candy to make a “countdown to Christmas”.
I lay out a huge, long piece of cling-wrap on the counter. I count out 54 pieces of candy to represent the 54 days between Halloween and Christmas. (actually, I do 108 pieces- so each kid gets one piece a day). I lay out the candy in a line on the cling wrap leaving 2-3 inches between each piece of candy. Then I roll up the cling wrap and use string to tie off the sections between each piece of candy. I’ve got two pieces in each section so that M. and N. each get one piece.
They know they each get one piece of candy after lunch if they’ve eaten well. And they know that when we get to the end of the chain it will be Christmas. As November progresses into December, they really watch the chain and check it daily to see how much shorter it is getting.
My Mom came to visit on Friday night and to spend the night. She brought the kids a new Thanksgiving book. Here she is reading to the two big kids.
I don’t know why this picture of my kitchen looked so cozy to me. That is my FAVORITE Yankee Candle burning in the back- “Macintosh Peach” (which means, of course, that it has been discontinued and can now only be found on Ebay) and my favorite red pot that I always keep out.
What a big change from when we bought it, huh? I’m not sure what was worse- the wallpaper border, the light fixture, the cabinets, or the fact that the stove top was so close to the cabinet on the left that the two burners on the left were completely unusable because you couldn’t get the pots on them because of the wall. When I said we did a complete renovation, I wasn’t kidding.
I’m remembering why I always say that the age from 12 months- 24 months is THE most difficult age. She threw a flat out, screaming, FURIOUS fit the other day.
However. I am determined to conquer this defiance NOW rather than later.
With Mary, we met the fits head on at around this age and conquered them. It was a trying several months but after that she was, and continues to be, just a dream.
With Nathan, we let it go. When he was 15 months old- 22 months old we were in the process of selling our house and all the work that that entails, buying a new house and completely renovating it, moving into new house and having a miscarriage. It was a horrible, horrible time. The worst time of my life. And I let things slide discipline-wise with Nathan. It wasn’t his fault and I should have done better. I got in the habit of avoiding things that I knew would make him angry and trying to distract him or appease him when he did throw a fit just because I thought I had other more important, pressing things to do than stop and address his fit. I should have realized that the other things were not as important as training, disciplining and teaching him properly. Somehow I lost focus of what was truly important and oh, how we have paid for it. Not just us, but Nathan too. By the time he was 2yo the pattern of disobedience was set. It was to late to turn things around easily. We have had to work SO hard to turn things around with him. It’s been a hundred times more difficult than it was with Mary. We let his disobedience grow and become ingrained. He developed the habit of defiance. And it has been much, much more difficult to root it out of him. And it’s been hard for him too- it’s been and continues to be such a difficult lesson for him. Last Thanksgiving was the turning point for us and great strides have been made this year. But it’s been very hard work and not something that I wish for Savannah to have to endure needlessly.
*If she is old enough to throw a screaming, furious fit she is old enough to obey cheerfully.
*If she is old enough to look at me in the eye when I tell her “no” and to do it anyway, with that knowing gleam in her eye, she is old enough to obey.
*If she is old enough to be angry because I told her “no”, then she is old enough to understand “no” and to obey “no”.
My goal for her is to be a happy, cheerful, content little girl and I intend to do what I can to help her grow in that area.
Savannah on Sunday, 11/9/08
Here she is this afternoon. She’s pulled Mary’s new coloring book down from the craft table and is inspecting it.
She found a crayon and thinks she might try out this coloring thing like the big kids do.
Clearly, Daddy’s work boots are the perfect place to store crayons. Later on Kip found a whole box full of crayons in his boot.
Ugh. Yesterday was NOT a good day here at the Jewell household.
*Yesterday the air felt damp, slightly muggy. This always irritates me.
*The kids were…. let’s just say it wasn’t their best day ever. Nathan was high-maintenance yesterday and Mary directly defied me at Chick-Fil-A. Mary very rarely does this- in fact, I can’t remember the last time she was defiant.
*Savvy has been cranky the last few days. Not sure what was up with that.
*I made pot roast for dinner and even after cooking for FIVE hours in a covered dutch oven at 375 degrees, it still wasn’t fork tender.
It was just one of THOSE days, you know? A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
A few good things:
I cleaned the kitchen yesterday. That always feels good.
I finished making Crock Pot Apple Butter.
On Tuesday I finished my Birthday shopping for Kip. There was one item that was out of stock that the store had to order for me. All I have to do is go pick that up.
I got some awesome books for the kids while I was out running errands on Tuesday. I found some great deals on Richard Scarry Books and the DK Eyewitness books at Edwin McKay’s.
We went out to dinner at El Cubilate on Tuesday night and then went and walked around TRU- it was a fun family night out.
Yesterday I got to read ONE OF MY FAVORITE CHILDHOOD BOOKS out loud to my kids while we snuggled on the couch. That was nice.
Ms. Barbara recently bought Mary this cowboy dress which Mary LOVES. Isn’t she cute?
We were up early this morning to get to the polls. Kip and I were out of bed by 5:30am. Anyone who knows me knows that I am NOT a morning person so this was quite a feat for me. While he took a shower, I threw some clothes on, packed breakfast and drinks for the kids and various other miscellany required any time you take three kids somewhere. By 5:50am we had the kids up and were out the door a few minutes after 6:00am. We took the kids in their pajamas. I packed apples for their breakfast and Honey Nut Cheerios for Savvy.
There was already a line when we arrived but as soon as the polls opened at 6:30am the line started moving. We were out the door by 6:45am.
Here are the big kids eating their apples while waiting in line.
I just bought Savvy Honey Nut Cheerios for the first time a few days ago. Let’s just say she is a fan. She spent the majority of the morning looking like this: (stuffing cheerios in her mouth)
Savvy with a mouthful of cheerios.
Doesn’t this pie look delicious?
Now, if there’s one thing I can do well, it’s making pie. Here’s a tutorial for those who’d like to learn how to do so. It’s easy and cheap to do- not that difficult and doesn’t take that long.
#1: When making pie crust you will get very messy hands so you need to have out everything you need to make the pie crust.
You need: pie plates, a large mixing bowl, 1 cup measuring cup, 1/2 cup measuring cup, butter knife, rolling pin, pastry blender, a thin metal spatula, flour, crisco, salt and a large glass of ice cold orange juice. I was out of orange juice when I made these pie crusts so I used water but really, OJ would be better.
oops, I forgot to put the pastry blender out when I took the above picture.
#2: You want to put a 2:1 ratio of flour:crisco in your large mixing bowl. For one open top pie (like a chocolate pie or coconut cream pie) I’d use 2 cups flour, 1 cup crisco. For a closed top pie (like an apple pie or blackberry pie) I’d do at least 2 1/2 cups flour:1 1/2 cup crisco. Maybe even 3 cups flour:1 1/2 cups crisco. Then sprinkle salt over the flour and crisco.
#3: Using your pastry blender, combine the flour, crisco and salt until it forms a fine mixture. Now, do what you need to do to get it thoroughly combined. BUT- the less you handle the pie dough the better your crust will be. Excessive handling makes the crust tough- and you want your crust to be light and flaky.
#4: Now, here’s where it starts to get messy. Pour at least 1/2 to 2/3 of the glass of ice water in the bowl. Use your fingers to hold back the ice and fish out any stray ice cubes that make it into the bowl. Combine until you have one large sticky ball. If there are still stray bits of dry dough and flour in the bottom, add more water.
Here’s the thing with pie crust- it’s better to have the dough ball too wet than too dry. You’re going to have flour spread on the counter when you’re rolling out the dough and it will soak up any excess wetness. But, if it’s to dry the dough will be crumbly, won’t stick together well or roll out correctly. Then you have to put it back in the bowl, add more water, etc. Which is not good because, as I said above, the less you handle the dough the better it will be.
#5: A wet, sticky ball of dough.
#6: Since I am making a closed top pie (blackberry), I need to split the dough roughly 1/3 and 2/3. As you can tell, I get real technical with it. Using my hand, I eyeball about where 2/3 of the pie is and separate it.
#7: Spread a generous amount of flour on your counter and put the dough ball on top of it.
#8: Now, gently pat the dough and turn it several times on the floured surface to get a nice, smooth, floured ball of dough.
#9: Using your rolling pin, start to roll out the pie dough. If the top of the dough gets sticky and starts to cling to your rolling pin, just sprinkle more flour on top.
IMPORTANT: When you are rolling out the pie dough do NOT bear down on the rolling pin. Be gentle rolling it out and as your rolling pin nears the edge of the pie dough lift UP on the rolling pin instead of pressing down.
#10: Keep going until you have a nice, smooth, flat pie crust. If the edges are somewhat raggy, don’t worry about it. They are going to be rolled under in a minute anyway so it doesn’t matter.
#11: If you are new to making crust it might be hard for you to judge how big you need to roll it out. A quick cheater way is to upend your pie plate on the crust. This is about how much extra room you should have around the edge of the pie crust to accommodate for the depth of the pie plate and extra for around the edges when you crimp.
#12: Take your thin, metal spatula and start running it under the pie crust all the way around. You want to gently loosen it from the counter.
#13: You probably won’t be able to quite reach the middle, so loose around the edges as much as you can and then flip half of the crust over on itself as I did below. Then use the spatula to finish loosening the crust from the counter.
#14: Grab your pie plate and put it directly behind the pie crust. You are going to QUICKLY lift the pie crust and set it in the plate. If you try to carry the crust half way across the counter it will rip and you’ll have to start over.
#15: Put crust in the plate.
#16: Open the crust back up so that it covers the whole pie plate.
#17: Add your pie filling.
#18: Put a couple dabs of butter on top.
#19: Now, go back to your bowl. Remember you have that smaller, 1/3 of the dough ball still there? Go ahead and roll it out just like you did above. Loosen it from the counter and flip it in half.
#20: Place it on top of your pie.
#21: Unfold it so that it covers the entire pie.
#22: Take all the excess, raggedy ends of crust hanging over the sides and gently turn them under. Sort of press them together while you do this to seal the crust. Then use your thumb and fingers to crimp the edge to make it look pretty.
#23: Here’s the pie with the edges turned over but not yet crimped.
#24: Once you’ve crimped the edges, use your knife to add some slits into the top of the pie.
#25: Bake pie until the edges are golden brown and crispy.
#26: Fresh blackberry pie!
Thursday, 10/30
Here’s a few pictures of our first time carving a Jack-O-Lantern. Excuse the messy kids- we had just finished a spaghetti dinner and the kids had played outside for 2 hours prior to dinner. It was definitely a bath night here!
You might wonder where Savvy was during these pictures- Queen Crank was not happy Thursday evening. There was much unhappiness so I didn’t get a good picture. Plus she was COVERED in spaghetti sauce from her ears to her toes. 
We had such a great time! We trick-or-treated all over the neighborhood. We got to stop and chat with neighbors we don’t see that often. We met our across-the-street neighbor up on the main road. Their daughter had dressed up as a witch for Halloween and was wearing her Mom’s slip-on heeled pointy-toed shoes (she’s 12 years old). Her feet were killing her as we have a pretty big neighborhood so it was a looong walk. Kip had driven the van and parked it as we walked each street so they jumped in with us to finish t-o-treating.
Ready to go!
Examining her loot!
Savvy was SO done when we got home around 9:30pm. Right after we took this picture Kip put her to bed. When we checked on her around 11:00pm before we went to bed, she hadn’t even moved since he put her down. She was still covered in her blanket- something that never happens. She was literally in the exact same position as when he put her down an hour and a half before.
Kip took these pictures of the kids with their candy all spread out. That’s part of our neighbor in the corner of these pictures.
Thursday, 10/23
Savvy, standing with her walker/doll stroller.
The walker started to roll forward, she took one step and then crashbangboom there was sobbage and a knocked noggin.
Mary with the farm set- she got it out and set it up herself.
The dollies all ready for their afternoon tea. From left to right- Charlotte, Rosie, Annie, Lucy, Emily
A stack of books to read- the fabulous Egermier’s Bible Story Book, Usborne’s Pirate ships, Usborne’s First book of Nature, Cynthia Rylant’s wonderful “When I Was Young in the Mountains” and of course… some of our old favorite Golden Books from when I was a kid…
Nathan with his new pirate- Greybeard.
Mary has been carrying around her “magazine” for days (actually it’s a Magic Cabin catalog) and she so despartely wants this Tree Trunk House. Sadly for her, it’s out of Santa Claus’ budget this year.
Nathan the pirate.
Friday, 10/24
The big kids were quiet this morning- generally not a good sign. I peeked in the living room to see that Mary had hauled out the stack of Dr. Seuss books and was quietly reading Dr. Seuss’ ABC book to herself.
Watcha’ doin’ sis?
They sat and read together for quite a while… sweet.
oops- while I was taking their picture, I left the gate open. There goes Puddin’ off to explore as fast as she can go.
Last week-
Not sure which day though. Savannah pulled herself up to standing! She had only done it once before, about a month ago, for our babysitter. She’s never done it again until now. I looked in the living room and there she was- standing up! WoOHOo!
Nathan- that same day. He LOVES his robot sweatshirt!
Monday, 10/20
Savannah- out on the front lawn.
Mary and Nathan that same day.
I mentioned in an earlier post that we were going to have one of the pictures taken by the photographer back in August turned into a portrait on stretched canvas for my FIL and MIL’s Christmas gift.
I can either choose one picture and have it turned into a giclee print (it would be on a stretched canvas)…
OR
I can have all three pictures printed and then take them to a professional framing store and have them matted and framed in a horizontal frame kind of like THIS. Except it would be much bigger, double matted, etc.
What do you think? Help me to decide!
ONE:
TWO
THREE
