Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow....

We had a white Christmas! It hasn't snowed here on Christmas in over a hundred years so this is a very big deal.

The snow only made a great Christmas more special.  We had a Christmas Eve brunch so we got to see lots of family.

                                                              Jace and  Ashlee

                                               Gavin gets some Daddy love.

On Christmas the kids opened lots of presents, we had lots of  food and we played, played, played.

                                                      Gifts for six kids is a LOT of gifts!

                                                          Beth almost got lost in presents.

                                                               O.k., where's my gift?

                         Daddy did a lot of this Christmas afternoon. Umm, what's up with the teddybear?

We've spent the last week hanging out, playing with new stuff and having a relaxing time. Hope all of you had a great Christmas!

Snowflakes

  We've had snow flurries for the past few days which is really unusual here, if we have any snow it's not usually until January or February. It seemed like a good time to make some snow of our own. We made coffee filter snowflakes and we made some with regular paper and glitter.

 We also looked up some pictures of real snowflakes and talked about how they are formed.

Mahaley says that snowflakes are proof of God's existence.

 I agree.

                                                                                                                      

The many faces of Beth

Betsy loves, loves, loves to dress up. Christy got her dress up clothes as an early Christmas gift and she is in heaven playing dress up.






Gingerbread Houses!

Today we did our annual gingerbread houses. It's a tradition, pizza, some early Christmas gifts, and decorating. We had 13 cousins all together. Wow!



The five youngest cousins



It is really hard to take a picture of  5 little kids



No, Mama. I'm not eating the candy.

Candy. What candy?



Leah and Ashlee

 

Mahaley's house.



Betsy's house.



Jordan and Emma



Dezere



Tommy's house.



Jordan's house



Leah's house



Emma's house





Gavin







Ashlee's "Candy factory explosion"



Rosie's happy with her work



Jamie

Half of the kids made their houses explode, or on fire, Tommy's tree crushed his gingerbread family and Mahaley's Santa was peeing off of the roof. I worry about these guys a little.









A week at the Smith's

Thursday 12/2
    Mahaley had her endoscopy today. They way overdid the anesthesia so it took a frighteningly long time for her to wake up. They didn't find anything obviously wrong but did rule out some things and took some biopsy samples that will take a while to get back from the lab. We had planned to get a nice lunch on the way home to make up for her 24 hour fasting but she couldn't even walk to the van and slept all the way home. My poor baby:(
   In the afternoon I left Mahaley home recuperating and took the rest of the kids to the Christmas parade where we met up with Adam, Niki, and Syd . Emma and Leah got to be in the parade with their girl scout troop. There was face painting, a bouncy house, candy and (extremely) hot chocolate. Rosie kept saying "ice, Mama, ice." After the parade I took all the kids out for pizza. It was fun and they were incredibly well behaved but I was wiped out, after all I got up at 5 am and I am not a morning person.

Friday 12/3
      This afternoon I sent 4 out of 6 kids away on sleepovers. Any mom with sense would have probably left the baby home with the teenager and went out with some girlfriends or something or at the very least have gone shopping alone. But did I do that? Nooo. I took a bath with the baby and put her to bed early and then ate junk food and watched scary movies with the teenager. Hey, I'm just grateful that she still wants to spend a Friday night with me. Pathetic, isn't it?

Saturday 12/4
       Today I let my kids talk me into having friends over. I also brought baby Jace home with me. Now we have four extra kids over. My condition was no more sleepovers until after January.  One good thing about having a lot of kids is that a couple more over don't really matter. One bad thing about having a lot of kids is that other people assume that having a couple more over don't really matter. We're having fun though.

Sunday 12/5
    Skipped church today because I couldn't fit everyone in the van and because some kids didn't go to sleep until very, very late last night. I made pancakes for breakfast and so far everyone is still mostly well behaved and happy. I'm getting ready to send the extra kids home and make some pot roast for dinner and then we are going to put up our Christmas tree.

Tuesday 12/7
      I had a terrible, terrible, stay in bed, in a dark room, migraine all day yesterday. Wayne had to go pick up some groceries because we were out after the weekend. But Kim came by in the afternoon and brought me some migraine medicine and by dinner time I felt well enough to go to the grocery store and feed the kids. Today I am much better but I still have that floaty feeling that I always have after a migraine. I took the kids to the library this afternoon to make up for missing story time this morning and we got stuff to make some salt dough ornaments tomorrow. I just can't wait;)
 

Thanksgiving times 2

Obviously Thanksgiving exhausted me. Eithier that or I'm just a really lazy blogger. I know people with 7, 8, 9 kids who manage to blog every day but somehow I just can't manage to find the time.
 Anyway, for Thanksgiving day we went to my in laws. We had a nice time. Good food, very relaxing but I got no good pictures because my new camera (which I have returned) did this:

It just would not focus and the flash was all screwed up. So I also got no pictures of our Thanksgiving at home the next day. We ate lots more food and I think everyone had a good time. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I like to cook anyway and you don't have to worry about buying the right gift for anybody. Cooking food that people like I can do!

I also have to mention that Jamie had a birthday! He's 13. I can hardly believe it. He is an awesome kid. I'll have to do a whole post on just him to do it proper justice.

                                                                   Before his gift.

                                                      After he got his DSI, I think he was excited.

stupid camera

Wish Mahaley luck, she has some tests tomorrow, including a sedated endoscopy which she is very nervous about. She can't eat AT ALL today and we have to leave a 5 am tomorrow so overall she is not a happy camper.

More glasses

Emma and Leah got their new glasses. Don't they look cute? Unfortunately Mahaley and Leah's glasses have already been broken. That's right, they barely lasted a week. Their backup glasses hadn't even been delivered yet. See, I am a smart Mama. I knew they would need an extra pair, just not this soon! The ladies at the optomitrist's office snickered at me when I brought the glasses back. I think they are making bets on how long they will last this time around.

                                                                 

                                                                                               

               

We're Baaaack

Ok we didn't actually go anywhere but a storm did knock out our internet for a few days. It was really a blessing in disguise because we got all new lines which totally improved our signal, Yay!
 Besides I really needed a few days with no contact from the outside world to recover from our weekend trip to Chuckie Cheese. I swear that place is like purgatory for parents. I know some people like it but there is obviously something WRONG with those people. I mean seriously, two hundred kids, loud music, flashing lights, lousy food, it's horrible. And don't even get me started on the "turn your hundred dollars worth of tickets into sixty cents worth of plastic crap" counter. If you've never been get down on your knees and thank the parenting gods. If you have then I know you would love to never go again so I've thought up a few ways to avoid it.

1) If your kids have never been then you can pretend like there's not one in your state. (eventually though  they will get invited to a birthday party and then you have to pretend like " they must have just built one here")

2) Tell them it's like the circus and "it's not in town yet"

3)Tell them that the people who own it are mean and only let in kids under age....(fill in the blank with your 
kid's age)

4) Tell them the police shut them down for having too many people inside

5) Call and report them for having too many people inside (I'm positive they go over legal capacity every Saturday and that can't be safe, right?)

6) If all else fails offer your kids something better (like a brand new Wii , you will probably save money)

If you're one of those  people who enjoys being tortured spending that kind of quality time with your kids then I apologize for any offense. After all I don't want to upset the crazy Chuckie worshippers.

Doctors, doctors, doctors

We've spent the past few days catching up on checkups and things. I'm trying to cram in everything I can on this year's insurance. Rosie went to have her ears checked. They're looking good so for now we are still postponing new ear tubes. I took all of the kids and myself to the eye doctor. They won't schedule us all in one day so it took several days. Mahaley and Leah needed reading glasses. Mahaley is THRILLED. She has wanted glasses for years, apparently they are the new "IN" thing. Emma was so disappointed not to need glasses that I finally had to promise to buy her frames with clear glass. Mahaley got hers already but mine and Leah's will take a few days, we have special eyes.




Mahaley's new look.


Sydney came over yesterday and stayed the night. She is so funny. She pretends to stab herself and die. I know that sounds more disturbing than cute but trust me it's hilarious:) I didn't get a picture of that because my camera totally sucks. (Santa, are you listening?) But here are some cute ones anyway.

Saving light?

I hate Daylight Savings Time.
One reason is that it's really hard to explain the concept to kids (especially since I'm not so sure I really get it myself). After a lengthy explanation touching on farmers hours, saving electricity and wartime concerns, Betsy finally says " I really just want to know where they keep the (saved) light!" Another reason I hate it is that you can't explain to a baby that they are now waking Mommy up at 7am instead of 8. The whole transition just really screws up my schedule and I'm a little ticked off by it. I think it's an outdated, no longer useful idea. Isn't there a petition to end it that I can sign?
Because the whole time thing made me so grumpy I stayed home all day today. I got almost nothing accomplished but laundry.  Most of the kids spent the morning at church. Thank you God for our church bus program( and I mean that sincerely from my heart).

Rosie and Beth helped with the laundry.

I am not exaggerating when I say that this is the first time I have seen the bottom of that laundry basket in 6 months.


I have been getting a lot of (not positive) feedback about the fact that there's NO CAKE on this site so I've decided to add some of our favorite recipes.

White Chocolate Cheesecake Mousse

3 oz. white chocolate - find some good eating chocolate, not those fake white chocolate chips
8 oz. cream cheese- softened to room temp.
3/4 cup powdered sugar - sifted
1 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Melt chocolate in microwave, try 15 to 30 seconds at a time until smooth.
Mix chocolate and cream cheese in a medium bowl.
In a separate bowl mix sugar and cream.
Whip cream until stiff peaks form.
Fold cream cheese mixture into whipped cream mixture.
Line a colander with a thin cloth, like cheesecloth or with coffee filters.
Put cream cheese mixture into colander and set colander into a slightly larger bowl, you want there to be space underneath for liquid to drain out.
Leave in fridge overnight.
Discard the liquid that drains out. You can put the finished mousse into a graham cracker or shortbread crust or you can do what we do and just stand around and eat it out of the bowl. It's really good topped with strawberries.

I forgot to mention that I always double this recipe and if people are coming over I triple it.
Happy Eating!

I took Jamie in for his yearly physical today. His thirteen year old  check up. How did my little boy get to be nearly 13 so soon? And he is now officially taller than me by half an inch. I don't know whether to feel sad because he's getting so old or because I'm getting so old. Then I took him to lunch at Moe's. I try to get time alone with the kids whenever I can and I really like hanging out with Jamie because he's so funny.
After I dropped Mahaley off at the high school football game I took the other kids to Emma and Leah's girl scout investiture ceremony. For anyone who's not familiar with the girl scout cult umm organization this is where current members ( some of them lifetime members) welcome in new girls and "pin" them with little gold star pins. There were a few glitches that resulted in our table getting our spaghetti dinner last out of around 200 people at 8 pm. But the girls did have fun. We did crafts and ate tons of dessert so of course that made it worth it in the end.
I tell you what though, sometimes I am that Mom who has it all together. I have healthy snacks ready in case our dinner is almost two hours late. I have baby wipes to save us from crafts that involve paint. I have extra clothes for a baby who dumps banana pudding in her lap. I have extra clothes  for a mom whose baby dumps chocolate cake in her lap. I have a sippy cup to contain dangerous red fruit punch. I have extra napkins nearby to mop up the spilled red fruit punch. I remember to bring a camera to capture my daughters "pinning". I get my daughters new vests in time for said pinning. I have an extra paci for a sleepy baby in case one gets lost on the ride home. Yes, sometimes I am THAT mom.... and sometimes I am NOT.

What's Up?

I haven't caught up in a few days because I've been busy, busy.
Leah had her last soccer game of the season and her team is the Championship team. They made more goals in some games than the other teams made in the entire season. Their team will be featured in our local paper.
Congratulations, Leah!
 Beth had a new dance class on Tuesday and Mahaley has one on Monday and Tuesday and I spent half of Tuesday searching for new dance shoes. I haven't found the "right" ones yet because we don't exactly live in a huge city with lots of shopping choices so they had to make do with the not so right ones from Payless.
 Rosie had speech yesterday. She frustrates me because she is a great imitator so she will try to copy almost any sound or word but she doesn't actually use the words that she can say. She said water and a couple of other words for Miss Andrea last session and hasn't said them since, but she has started to use hi, bye, more, yes and no. I kinda wish she had waited awhile to learn no:).
 I took Mahaley to her GI doctor today. It took over six hours, most of it driving and I HATE to drive and I REALLY HATE driving on the interstate. We have decided to move ahead with an endoscopy to try and find out what her stomach issues are all about. We will do it at Children's Hospital since she will need to be under anesthesia. Hopefully we will get some answers.




Leah and her friend "B" celebrate a great season



Rosie peeks under the door to watch the girls dance, I think we have a future ballerina here.

More Halloween fun!

Today we went to the Halloween party at the church. There was a lot to do. Trick or treat was set up all through the church, there was food and cotton candy and popcorn. They had inflatables and a hayride and a petting zoo and games. Now the kids are way sugared up and overtired and ready for bed (ok I'm ready for bed).



Rosie's new friends.

Jamie posed with the Ckick fil A cows and got free coupons 

Betsy loved the inflatables



Sydney was super happy!

Happy Halloween!

Yea, I know Halloween is tomorrow. But here in the bible belt we would never ever dream of celebrating a pagan holiday and mocking evil on Sunday.  However it is perfectly acceptable to do it on Saturday as long as we wash off the fake blood before we get dressed up on Sunday morning.

Mahaley had a party to go to so for the first year ever she did not join us:(

The other kids dressed up as a zombie (Jamie), a Japanese girl (Emma), a country music star (Leah), Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz (Betsy), a clown (Rosie). Ashley and Jace also went with us. They were a skeleton queen and a garden gnome ( who refused to wear his hat and beard). We met up with Adam, Niki, Sydney and Justin. Sydney was the cutest little pirate girl ever.

Betsy turned out to be a little con artist. At every house she ended up with more candy than the rest of the kids. She would wait until they gave her something and then look sadly into the bowl and say " I sure do like Kit-Kats" so of course they would give her more. Or sometimes she would respond to a compliment with " Thank you, I know I look cute, I'm being adorable today". Of course that was adorable so she really racked up on the candy!

Now we are looking forward to a week of tummy aches from all that candy. You know a long time ago when I cared more before I knew better I used to ration out my kids Halloween candy. I'd give them one or two pieces after they had finished their vegetables at dinner. Then I realized that with the amount they hauled in I would be giving out candy (and listening to the begging)  until Christmas, when they would get more candy, which would last until Valentines and so on and so on. Then I came up with my current brilliant strategy. I let them eat all they want, every day all day for three or four days and then I trash it all. No one throws up more than once and after a few days it's over and done with.

Up and coming country star!



Where's Toto?



Cutest pirate wench ever.

Very serious zombie.

Pretty and shy.....