I love, I love my....

I made up this simple little song that I would sing to Lillee when she was a baby:

I love, I love my Lillee Bean, my Lillee Bean, my Lillee, Lillee, Lillee Bean.

When Bel was born 14 months later, the lyrics changed slightly from Lillee Bean to Belly Bear. Bel loves to hear me sing this, even at alomst 4 years old. Over the last 4 years, any time I start singing this, Isabel curls up in my arms, sucks her thumb and listens. As soon as I'm finished with the short song, Isabel chimes up, "Adin, Adin!" (translation, "Again, Again!")

Another thing I always want to remember about Bel is how much she loves to snuggle. Every night and during nap time when I put her to bed she asks, "Mommy, will you put my blanket on me."

"Yes, Bel" then I cover her and walk to the door where I turn around to tell the girls a last goodnight and switch the light off. At this point Isabel always says, "I'll come snuggle with you in the morning. In the middle!"

And she never forgets. She actually becomes quite mad if I'm up before her because that means she can't snuggle. She and Lillee also race to our room in the morning to see who can get the middle spot first. This often means our day starts with crying and fighting. So the girls are sent from the room and told to come back when they've stopped crying and arguing.

Fun times! These are the things my blog was meant for :)

Amish Friendship Bread

Photo courtesy of Allrecipes.com

Doesn't this loaf look beautiful and delicious? Well it is! And the real beauty is you share it with your friends.

That is, if you have friends. I've discovered that I don't actually have friends, well at least not Amish friends who appreciate a good loaf of bread or two or twenty. Nor do I have non-Amish friends who are grateful that I want to share something so delicious with them.

10 days ago, a good friend asked if I would like an Amish friendship bread starter. I chuckled at first, remembering my mother receiving one of these in a mason jar when I was a kid. The reason I chuckled was the memory of a slew of cursing that occurred with each feeding, separating and sharing time. I had been wanting a bread starter (sourdough, not a sweet bread like this) but figured this would be a way to get my feet wet and back into bread baking, regularly.

I accepted the offer of the starter. I spent ten days mushing the bag, feeding it and lovingly baking two gorgeous loaves of bread, but not before I separated out 4 servings of starter to share with my friends...well, the people I thought were friends.

I posted on Facebook to see if anyone wanted a starter---I figured this was a good way to ask for volunteers without sending a direct email to people or worse, calling them! I sent one starter with my mother-in-law who was going to visit a friend that she only sees once a year. It just happened that they were heading to a church fundraiser at a local restaurant and would see lots of people they knew. My mother-in-law gave it to her friend with the caveat, "I don't care if you take it over there and throw it in the trash, but you have to take it." So abrupt over friendship bread, where's the friendliness surrounding this sacred starter?

I saw the first hit to my Facebook plea, I was hopeful as I opened the email. Nope, no response to the bread...she wanted to know what soup I would be bringing to soup and swap.

Second response, WAHOOO!!! It was about the bread, YIPEEE!!!

It read, "Haha. I just saw your mother-in-law trying to get rid of some at Cici's. good luck to you!"

Friendship bread, my foot! You don't make friends with this stuff, you run them off as they're laughing in your face.

Well, for all you HAHA friends, I won't mention any names, there is a cure for someone who has lots of Amish Friendship Bread starter: Take Control of your Amish Friendship Bread Starter

I will be fine with my Amish friendship bread starter and my 10 step program (HA, I don't need 12!---if you don't get this joke, congratulations). I am in control and am now equipped with the tools to liberate myself from the oppressive thumb of a simple bread starter.

Happy, happy birthday Connor dear

Happy days will come to you all year

If I had one wish then it would be

A happy, happy birthday to you from me

If you're LDS, you know this little tune and have probably had to sing it a few thousand times in your life. It is one of my favorites, lately. maybe because we've had so many birthdays and I'm singing it a lot :)

Well, today Connor turned 7 years old! And I did my motherly duty and made him listen to the (insert number of years here) years ago on this day story for the 6th time-I didn't recount it for him on his 1st birthday.

This was probably not his best birthday, as I was sick and feeling pretty yucky. But I still fulfilled my motherly duty of making his cake. Connor doesn't like icing so he requested a cake with no icing and the sprinkles in it (meaning Funfetti cake mix from a box). No problem! The hard part was, he requested a bullet bill cake. WHAT?!?! and I can't use icing?!?! Well, here is what I came up with and he was thoroughly pleased :)

He had a nice birthday and said, "This was a great day. It will become a memorable day for me" and then he gave me a great big hug. We did OK :)

Connor's new go-cart

He received a balloon physics kit from Mamaw & Papaw (VERY cool!), and lots of fun games and toys from grandma (including some awesome magnet blocks).

Catching up again

I felt like I was back into a routine of blogging, here on my family blog and my food blog as well. Then Christmas came, which brought lots of family to our house and we were busy. Then Chase got sick.

I had slowly increased his nebulizer treatments over about 1.5 weeks and then Monday night he had a rough time. Tuesday morning we had a neb treatment at 7:30am and he was still struggling to breathe at 8:30am. I called our pediatrician and we were there by 9:30am. They gave him oral and inhaled steroids, administered another neb treatment (usually we go 4-6 hours between treatments) and still no change. Off to the ER we went.

After another neb treatment in the ER and Chase falling asleep, the Dr determined he was fine and sent us home around 2:00pm. We dropped off prescriptions, grabbed some lunch and headed back to the house. 15 minutes later, I had to give another neb. Still, he struggled to breathe.

I called our Dr and asked, "What am I looking for to determine if he should go back to the ER?" The Dr told me to give him a few hours and if he wasn't better to go back in. Within 15 minutes of being off the phone with the Dr I had determined we couldn't wait a few hours, we couldn't even wait an hour....this kid couldn't breathe. He walked around grunted, coughing and struggling to get air. So I packed us a bag, grabbed some reading material, a change of clothes and headed out the door again.

5:00pm we're back at the hospital where we were met by the same people we had seen a few hours before so they knew this was serious and did not make us wait for anything. They took us right in and started more neb treatments. After a series of nebs about 1-1.5 hours apart they realized he wasn't getting better and it was time to admit him.

We finally had a room by 10:00pm. When we made it upstairs I chuckled as they led us into the exact room we were in a year early when Chase was hospitalized with RSV. We settled in and was hoping to calm Chase down. Fat chance! This kid was hopped up on steroids and albuterol and was finally in a space that he could move rather than having to sit on my lap for 5 hours in the ER. He was bouncing off the walls! Andy and Koryn came out to give Chase a blessing and he would not sit still...it was like hitting a moving target.

I did get him to sleep by midnight and the respiratory staff came in every 2 hours to administer a neb. I was so grateful that someone else was giving him nebs because I needed a break. It felt so self-indulgent to have someone else do that for Chase because I felt that I should be doing it, but I was just exhausted.

The long and short of it, Chase did better as the steroids kicked in and we were able to stretch his nebs out over a longer period of time and made it home around 5:00pm the next day.

I love this picture. I have one of Al holding Connor, as a newborn, in a NICU rocker just like this.

This is a hospital crib/jail cell. There is a nice handmade quilt in the corner that was donated by Project Linus and we were able to take it home.

This is Chase getting into EVERYTHING! Here he is under the sink-we couldn't keep him from climbing in and out, in and out, and in and out!

Here is Chase on day #2. There was a nice little playroom across the hall from our room. He enjoyed being here.

I hope this New Year begins with a healthier family!

How does one forget...

such significant details from such a wonderful Christmas? Somehow, in my Christmas recount, I missed some details.

#1 Christmas morning, after presents were opened and while we were working on our Lincoln Log nativities, my visiting teaching companion dropped by with a bag full of warm scones that she had just made. They were wonderful!!! Imagine, soft warm pillows of pastry filled with dried cherries, orange zest and white chocolate chips. YES!!! they were delicious. Did I mention my friend is a trained pastry chef :)

#2 Connor stayed up for a few minutes after the girls went to be on Christmas eve. All he wanted to do was turn off all the overhead lights and read by the light of the Christmas tree. It was very cool to see him lounging on the glider with his book just reading away. Our camera kept using the flash since it was so dark so this picture does not really show the scene we saw.

#3 Al was helping the girls put batteries into their new My Little Pony remote control bikes when he posed for a fun picture taken by his sister, Emily. Normally, Al would say something like, "And this better not find its way onto your blog!" But he didn't say that this time so I think that means he won't mind it being here. SHHHHHHH Don't laugh too loud or he might hear you and ask (read: demand) I take it down.

#4 Here is a picture of the general Christmas chaos that happens each year when the gift opening begins. I was trying to hold Chase, because he obviously couldn't be on the floor in all this mess, help the girls get their presents into their gift bag and get through all the crazy packaging they put on toys these days. Chaos, I tell you!