Resurrection Rolls

When Megan came home from AWANA on Wednesday she had an Easter newsletter from the church. In it was a recipe for "Resurrection Rolls". It's such a sweet and simple recipe and perfect for younger children. Yesterday I picked up the few items I needed for the rolls and this afternoon we made them. Megan loved helping and she was so interested in how the rolls were like the story of Jesus' resurrection. When I asked her what she thought of it, her response was, "Cool, mommy. That was cool!"

Here is the recipe if you're interested.

Ingredients:
1 can refrigerated crescent roll dough
8 large marshmallows
melted butter
cinnamon
sugar

Directions:
1. Give each child one triangle shaped section of crescent roll. This represents the tomb.
2. Each child takes one marshmallow which represents the body of Christ.
3. Dip the marshmallow in the butter and roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture. This represents the oils and spices the body was anointed with upon burial.
4. Lay the marshmallow on the dough and carefully wrap it around the marshmallow.
5. Make sure all seams are pinched together well. (Otherwise the marshmallow will ooze out of the seams.) Talk about how the tomb was sealed.
6. Bake according to package directions.
7. Cool then break open the tomb and the body of Christ is no longer there!

I thought we had pinched the seams of the dough well enough, but we didn't. All the marshmallow had oozed out. Thankfully Megan and I talked about what was going to happen while the rolls were still in the oven. So, when it didn't work quite right she wasn't too disappointed.

I took some pictures but I'm not sure what's going on with my camera. If I can get to the pictures I'll try to add a few to this post. Let me know if you try making the rolls too!

Happy Easter!

Nine Months Old

Mommy's birthday

So, I know these posts are a bit late, but... better late than never! Right?

My birthday fell on a Wednesday this year so we waited until Friday to get out and do something special as a family. After dinner we had fun dipping strawberries, bananas, pretzels, and marshmallows in chocolate.

I had been wanting to take the kids bowling, so after we cleaned up the mess we headed to the Rogers Bowling Center. The kids loved it! We all had a fun time together. It was a pretty good birthday, I'd say!

The Frugal Muse

A family friend just started a new blog all about saving money. It is a great resource for finding sales and how to make coupons work the best they can. She often gets many of her products free! Check it out, here!

RSV, Bald Eagles and Eyes

Sofia:
Today I ended up taking Sofia to the doctor. She has had a cold for a few days but each day it seems to get a little bit worse. This morning I could tell she was absolutely miserable! I called the doctor and got her in. It turns out she has a double ear infection and RSV, which basically has symptoms of a really bad cold. Our doctor said it seems to be a mild case. I'm thankful to hear that since she is only 8 months old (today!).

Joshua:

Joshua cracks me up. Little by little he is talking more. Almost everyday he is saying at least one new word. His newest thing to say is bald eagle, which he pronounces "Ball. Geagle." Two very separate words. I laugh every time I hear him say it. If we had a digital camera with video AND sound I would get a video so you all could hear him. It's funny! Part of what makes it even funnier, to me, is that he won't say simple things like please or thank you, but he'll say "ball geagle".

Megan:
Back when Megan was just starting to get mischievous I told her that when a girl becomes a mom they grow eyes on the back of their heads. (In other words, don't do anything foolish because mommmy see's everything.) I remember my mom telling my sisters and me this when we were little. She has never forgotten this and completely believes me. Today she was behind me, jumping around and wanted me to watch her. So she said,"Mommy, watch me with your back eyes."

Happy Birthday Chichi!

Sofia - 8 months old

Here are some recent pictures of Sofia. My sister Lisa commented recently that I don't send out enough pictures (or any, for that matter) of Sofia. Unfortunately, the accusations are true. Sofia will be 8 months old tomorrow and we are still very much in survival mode around here. She is quite a difficult baby. She doesn't like much of anything, most of the time.

You can see here how much she loves being on her tummy, especially since she can now sit up! (See video above)

She usually is a good napper. She'll go down pretty easily most of the time. Now if we could just get her to do that all night long. I'd like to take this opportunity to say "Thank you" to my husband for voluntarily taking the night shift last night so I could get a little more sleep than I have been. I actually feel semi-human today.

AWANA Grand Prix Race

Tonight was Megan's AWANA Grand Prix race. Jaime came home early from work to help her get her car all ready to go and then, when it was time, we headed to the church to check in and weigh in her car. The car was a little heavy so Jaime made some minor adjustments. She got to race several times and ended up winning third place! She didn't even realize she had won until we told her. She got a trophy, a ribbon and lots of hugs and kisses from mommy and daddy. It was very exciting. As soon as we got home she put her trophy on display up on her dresser.

Congratulations Megan! We're so proud of you!

Pajama Day

Yesterday was a rainy day around here, so we declared it was pajama day around our house. We all stayed in pj's the whole day. It was great. Hope you had a great day too!

Praise the Lord!

Our electricity finally came back on Thursday evening. It was a surprise blessing. We weren't expecting it back until yesterday or today. It was out for a total of 9 days, 7 1/2 hours! God took great care of us! We were definately blessed during this time. Unaware that this storm was on it's way, I started cooking like crazy, stocking my freezer, about two weeks before the storm hit. We have a gas stove so we had lots of great food to eat! For the first few days, we kept the house warm with our wood burning stove. We pulled all our mattresses into the family room and basicly lived there. We were able to borrow a generator and Jaime connected the whole house to it so, for the most part, we were able to live normal after that. I just had to turn off the heat to use the washing machine or coffee maker, make sure we didn't have too many lights on at once, and the microwave and dryer were off limits. I must say, if it wasn't for my time in Honduras I probably would have struggled through those 9 days. In my four years down there I got used to the power going out unexpectedly and having no idea when it might be back on, living without using a dryer (I had one, but chose not to use it most of the time), and learning to improvise during times such as these. It has been a little strange trying to get back into the swing of things now that the power is back. I've let so much slide (mostly laundry and house cleaning). I have a ton of laundry to catch up on and I'm trying to do some more cooking to stock my freezer again.

Here are some picture from our yard during the storm.

Ice, ice, ice.

Solid ice around everything.

We couldn't get into our cars!

Poor tree.

The branch that took out our electricity line.

An inch of ice!

The next morning.

Trying to save our peach tree.

The kids coloring by candlelight.

Ice Is On The Way

Over the past few days the meteorologists have been predicting ice/snow for today and tomorrow. I just went online to check the current conditions since I noticed my car was wet and my cousin's facebook status said something about her son's school closing. When I checked it I noticed that all the area schools had closed around 1:00. I started telling Megan about it and she said with great excitement and enthusiasm, "Mommy, all the other kids have to go home from school and I get to still have school because we do school at home!!! I love homeschool mommy!" Yet, another confirmation that this is the right thing for us.

On a different note, here is a picture to share.



We love you Mark, Michelle, Micah, and Arianna. Hope you are doing well in Siguat!

Blessings

Last week was a hard week for me. I was feeling quite down. I was frustrated with my kids, my husband, the lack of organization around my house, the lack of time to clean, cook, wash, fold, put away, etc... The list could go on and on. Thankfully, I made it through the week and we got away for the weekend (see previous post).

This week, in contrast, has been full of blessings.

(1) Megan and I have stayed on track with school and she has been so great with it. She mostly loves doing school but once in a while she just isn't in the mood. She has had such a great attitude about getting her work done.

(2) I got to do my grocery shopping for the week... BY MYSELF!!! It was kind of late Monday night, but I went alone and actually semi-enjoyed myself. I bought the things I needed to do quite a bit of homemade meals to eat this week as well as freeze portions for future meals.

(3) I have already done a good amount of my cooking. It feels good to see my freezer filling up with good homemade food rather than things like Tyson chicken nuggets and chimichangas.

(4) I exercised at home on Tuesday morning (the kids joined me and it was quite funny!) and went to Body & Soul on Wednesday morning. Despite the fact that I feel like I'm struggling to learn the routines, I had a good time being there.

(5) I got a call from a friend that I rarely get to see. She was going to be in the area and wanted to have lunch together. Even though we had to bring my little zoo with us, we had a wonderful time catching up and visiting.

(6) Megan got invited to have a play date with her friend Grace for a few hours this afternoon. So after lunch I dropped her off. She has missed spending time playing with Grace so I know the girls will have a wonderful time together.

(7) While Megan has been with her friend, I got both Joshua and Sofia down for naps. When I started this post they were both asleep. Joshua is now sitting in my lap watching me type and Sofia just started crying. That's ok though. I got about 45 minutes of quiet time. Enough to feel refreshed for the rest of the day.

(8) This afternoon while I was in my car the temperature said 68. 68 in January!!! The windows are open in my house and it feels so good! I believe God sent this warm day just for me! It's exactly what I needed. Everyone else in this part of the country is getting to benefit from my extra special blessing! Your welcome!!!

(9) Tonight I get to go to a bible study that has been "on-hold" since before Christmas. Many complications have come up among the group of ladies that I meet with. We are having a casual get together tonight to catch up with one another. I have missed these ladies so much and look forward to spending some much needed time with each of them. Even if I have to bring all three kiddos with me, it will be great to see everyone.

So, that is a little about my week... and it's only Thursday. I'm sure tomorrow will be wonderful too. I have plans to get together with another friend and her son. The kids love playing together and I know Sara and I will enjoy some time to visit too.

Here are a few pictures of the kids from this week.








Hope you had a wonderful week too!!!

Weekend Family Getaway

This past weekend we took off to Branson to have some much needed family together time. We stayed two nights at the Grand Country Inn. The hotel has an indoor water park, which is free to hotel guests. We all had a great time playing in the water, even Sofia. Here are some pictures and a few videos of our time there. (Sorry there's no sound for the videos. We have an old camera.)

Catching Up - Christmas

This is my third attempt at posting pictures from Christmas. So I'm gonna keep it short so I can get something up on this blog.

Catching Up - Thanksgiving

I know Christmas is past and I haven't even posted pictures about our Thanksgiving trip to Michigan and Illinois. We had a wonderful time. It was well worth the long road trip. We first went to visit Jaime's aunt and uncle in Holland, MI. There was snow, which the kids enjoyed. Being that we live in Arkansas, it's possible that is the only snow they will get all winter. We'll see, I guess. Here are some pictures from Michigan.

After a few days of fun in Holland we drove down and around Lake Michigan to my sisters house in Libertyville, IL. These first few pictures are posted just because I think they are cute!

This is a picture of my grandma with 6 of her 7 great-grandchildren.

These next few pictures are from our day down in Chicago.

We also went to Millenium park to see the Chrome Bean. I thought I had pictures from that but I can't find them. If you're ever in Chicago I recommend going to see it. It was really neat!