Complaining Casserole

We had complaining casserole for dinner tonight. Our family calls it that because that is just what the kids do, complain. It is really yummy too. One of Jason and my favorites. Meat and beans and corn and olives and cheese mixed together into a kind of taco casserole that you eat with tortilla chips. Matthew is willing to eat almost anything so he eats it without complaining but the other three are most annoying! Nathanael fusses and gags and thinks we are trying to kill him. Jonathan and Grace whined about different ingredients in the casserole until the realized they could pick through it and eat what they liked. Grace ate the beans and corn and olives while Jonathan ate the meat and cheese and a little of the corn. Together they finished the bowl.

Jack Sprat could eat no fat.

His wife could eat no lean.

And so between the two of them,

They licked the platter clean!

A Christmas Preview

We usually take the kids to the photo studio this time of year for Christmas pictures. This year, in the interest of saving money we decided to go to the park and just take some snapshots. Nathanael is really interested in photography and got a nice tripod for his birthday so we were even able to get some pictures of the entire family. Here is a Christmas preview. Are these the best pictures? Of course not. I will put some of the really good shots on here AFTER Christmas cards have been sent out. I just thought these crazy shots showed the kids personalities perfectly!

Wild Child


Thinker

Stubborn

Rambunctious

Just General Silliness!

In the Eye of the Beholder

We went to Costco today to get a few things. The things we went to get did NOT include a new dress for the princess of the household. As we walked down the aisle though there was this gorgeous collection of "holiday" dresses for little girls. There were red dresses and green dresses and even purple dresses. They all paled in comparison to one dress. Black velvet on the top and shimmering turquoise on the bottom. It may be the most beautiful dress for little girls that I have ever seen. Grace NEEDED it! Amazingly, it was only $18.99 so how could I resist? As I reached to get her size I noticed other people picking out dresses. They were buying red dresses and green dresses and purple dresses. It made no sense. Did they not see that the PERFECT dress was right in front of them? I couldn't believe that anyone would choose any of the other dresses when the shimmering turquoise dress was available. They seemed to like the other dresses. I suppose beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder! Don't worry, you will get to see the perfect turquoise dress on our little princess soon. Probably on our Christmas cards. She will be beautiful in the eye of just about any beholder!

Happy Birthday Big Brother!

My brother David's birthday is today. He is old! No matter how old I get, he will always be older! He is obnoxious and annoying and troublesome and the best brother ever. David is my only brother and he is two years, two months and two days older than me. When we were little and figured that out we were quite impressed. So happy birthday to the fun brother who let me boss him around. Thanks for singing the songs I decided you should sing and playing the games I wanted you to play. Thanks for driving me to the mall. Thanks for a fun trip to Disneyland just the two of us when we were in college. To say happy birthday I will now give you the story back that you want. Just kidding. You can't have it. Happy birthday anyway!

A Little Bit of Everything

Everyone is finally well at our house. Yeah! Today I took the preschoolers to Children's Bible Study. Tomorrow I am taking all four children to The Living Desert, which is a zoo with desert animals. It is a field trip with Matthew's enrichment class. The next day we are going to Disneyland with a friend for her birthday. Then on Thursday and Friday we have to catch up on all the schoolwork that should have been completed. The boys actually got today's work and a lot of tomorrow's work done today so it won't be too hard to catch up. Wednesday is a school holiday so they won't have work to make up for that day off. I love homeschooling and the ability to take time off when we want.

We have been praying for our friends The Garcia family as they are in Eastern Europe adopting their daughter, Kellsey. We are so excited at all that God is doing in their lives. Can't wait to see how God works in the life of little Kellsey after they get her home. They have court tomorrow so please join us in praying that all goes smoothly.

Halloween Cuties

This year's costumes were, well, anything the kids pulled out of the costume box that they wanted to wear. Yep, that's right. We didn't buy costumes this year. Our kids are deprived I know! I figured that we have at least thirty costumes in the box and they should be able to find SOMETHING they liked. A friend just outgrew the Cinderella dress so Grace did get a "new" outfit but I still didn't buy it. I am glad we didn't go out and spend a fortune because the kids were sick on Halloween and didn't get to do all their plans anyway. These pictures are actually from the week before Halloween when we went to a party at a friend's house.


Nathanael "Indiana Jones". I bought him this new jacket but he needed a new jacket anyway. The kid just has some nerve and just keeps growing!

Grace "Cinderella". Like a true princess, she had lost one of her princess shoes before leaving so these sandals had to do.

Matthew "Cowboy". You probably remember this outfit from the springtime when he went to horse riding camp. We spent a small fortune on real cowboy boots and hat then so I wanted him to get at least one more wearing from them.

Jonathan "Fireman". This outfit used to be Nathanael's. Was he ever really this small? I think the orange Crocs really complete the outfit, don't you?

The Story of Grandma Ooh

One fine day in September, 1999 we had a birthday party for a cute little boy named Nathanael. It was his very first birthday. His beloved Auntie Christy brought him one of those toys where you put the ball in at the top and watch it roll down the ramps. This was delightful to Nathanael and he did it over and over and over again. My mom, while she was known simply as "Grandma" was spending some time at our house. Every time Nathanael would drop the ball into the toy she would put her hand over her mouth and exclaim "ooh" as if she were truly impressed. Nathanael loved it and would run up to her if she wasn't paying attention when he put the ball in and ask her "Mandma, say ooh!" and she would. Every time she did it he would exclaim once again "Mandma, say ooh!" He was quite delighted long after she was tired of saying ooh. He then started calling her Mandma Ooh. As he got older and was able to say grandma she was call her Grandma Ooh and the name has stuck. All the kids have been known to call her Grandma Ooh even though they don't understand where the name came from.

All of this was for my friend Diana who asked how the name Grandma Ooh got started.

Update on Jonathan and Grace

Grace's fever wouldn't go down yesterday in the evening so Jason took her to urgent care while I stayed home with the boys. The doctor said she has a throat infection and started her on antibiotics. This morning I took Jonathan to their regular doctor and the doctor said he just has the virus that everyone seems to have right now. He also looked in Grace's throat again just to make sure he agreed with the urgent care doctor and he did. It is indeed a throat infection. Not sure whether it is technically "strep throat" because they didn't do a swab. Apparently it doesn't matter if it is strep throat or a different throat infection, they would still do antibiotics anyway.

Grace is asleep right now and Jonathan is soon to join her. Wish I could. I have to pick up Nathanael in a little bit and go to a meeting at his school. Sigh. I am really praying that the kids sleep better tonight because last night I got VERY little sleep. As soon as I got one child to sleep, the other one woke up. Grr. Oh well, this too shall pass.

The Fever Household

Jonathan and Grace both started running fevers of 102 yesterday afternoon. We cancelled our Halloween plans with friends and took the kids for a quick trip to trick or treat at the mall (keeping the two sickos in the stroller) so the older ones wouldn't feel cheated out of all Halloween fun. We then ran by Chipotle, put aluminum foil around everyone's chest and picked up our free burritos. (Chipotle's give free burritos to anyone who dresses like a burrito for Halloween.) Dinner for six of us was eight dollars just because we got some drinks and chips. Then we came home and rested the rest of the night.

Jonathan and Grace both had restless nights. This morning Jonathan's temp was 102.7 and Grace's was 104.4 so we decided that all of us would stay home from church. So here we are, cuddling on the sofa on a Sunday morning. So sad to miss church today. Sigh.

On a lighter note, this morning Jonathan has completely lost his voice and I am having a really hard time thinking of that as a bad thing!

I am off to hand out doses of Tylenol and thank God that I have these precious little people to nurse back to health. God is indeed good all of the time!

This is the Life!

We have accomplished nothing today. I have played on the computer. The boys alternated between video games and building forts with shoe boxes. Grace has run around destroying the boys forts and Jason has played Xbox. Aaaah! This is the life!