A few of our favorite things

The Sound of Music. Who doesn't like it? Great singing. Great acting. Great story. The beloved Frauline Maria sings about a few of her favorite things... like raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens and brown paper packages tied up with string.

So in honor of that movie, which my kids (and their mama) really enjoy, here are a few of our favorite things:

Truman: His Buddy Bear and toothbrush, both of which he puts in his mouth to suck, chew and bite on. Poor Buddy Bear gets so stinky that he has to have a serious bath in the washing machine every 3 days or so.


John: Bob the Builder movie and undies, and a toy tractor to go with it. We're just beginning to get him used to the idea of potty training. He loves to wear real underwear! The other day when I was helping him get his Bob the Builder underwear on, I said "John, do you tee-tee on Bob?" And his reply was "NO WAY!!!"



Evelyn: Her sweet little baby dolls and animals (shown here: Lady, Baby Jessica, Polly, Lilly, Lexa, and Panda). She is a dedicated little mommy, and makes sure that all their needs are met. Unless she gets distracted by playing with Truman, who is her very favorite baby.

Brad: Good books. Right now he's reading through The Chronicles of Narnia for the umpteenth time. He has just recently finished The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit (all of which he has read numerous times).

Jenny: My new oven! Just arrived a few days ago! I do alot of baking and cooking, and my favorite feature in this oven is that it's a convection. That means I can cook 2-3 trays of cookies all at the same time! I'm so excited!

Are you wondering what's cooking inside? That's a Big Oven Pancake! I got the recipe from my friend Leslie Black a few years ago. It's one of the easiest recipes ever, and it's fun to watch it cook! The kids really enjoy watching because the "walls" of the pancake grow so big and tall. After it's finished cooking, it settles back down pretty quickly. If you're interested in trying this at home, here's the recipe:

Big Oven Pancake

Adjust oven rack to lowest-middle position. Melt 3/4 stick butter in a 10x13 glass baking dish, in a 425-degree oven.

Mix together:
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
4 eggs

Pour into baking dish over melted butter, bake 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. To serve, sprinkle with powdered sugar & fresh fruit or syrup.

8 months old, Truman!

Today Truman is 8 months old! How are we celebrating?

-Enjoying the beautiful weather today, playing in the backyard
-Postponing washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen
-Rearranging the living room furniture
-Eating cobbler that Brad made in our little bitty toaster oven (more on that below)
-Rejoicing in 8 consecutive days of our entire household sleeping through the night!!! (Evelyn slept through the night at 6 weeks. John did at 9 weeks. So naturally, I thought I had the system down. But Truman proved me wrong! I hope he continues on his current trend of sleeping!)

Now you're wondering: why did Brad make cobbler in the toaster oven? Simply because we have no oven in our kitchen! There is a big hole in the wall, where an oven once was. We bought a new one, and it was supposed to be delivered on Wednesday. Tuesday night, Brad took the old oven out, in anticipation that 12 hours later we would have a sparkling new oven in its' place. Not so.

After the delivery time frame came and went, I called Sears. Just to find out where the deliverymen were. And instead, I found out that they didn't have our oven, and we would have to wait for another whole week! Needless to say, I was quite upset. But the kids are having a blast playing in their "kitchen", and using it as a hiding place. So that makes it better!

Yesterday John was playing with his dinosaurs. He found two that looked alike, one big and one small. Then he set them up, facing each other, and in his sweet but limited vocabulary, he said: "Hi Daddy! Hi Daddy! Up? Up?" And he picked the smaller one up, and put it in the "arms" of the bigger one. That was so cute and sweet, all I could do was just watch this tender dinosaur moment. And I was reminded again of how wonderful John's Daddy is. Every day when Brad comes home from work, that scenario takes place between John and Brad, instead of the two dino's. The kids are so blessed to have a daddy like Brad. And I am the luckiest gal in the planet to be married to that awesome, strong, velociraptor!

And in parting, I will leave you with this. Funny conjugations recently heard from Evelyn:

"Ouch! John bumped into me and I bote my lip!"

"My new watch glew in the dark."

What a trip!

We've been home from Michigan for almost a week. What a wonderful trip! I never thought that driving so far with three kids (ages 4, 2, and 7 months) all squinched together in the backseat of our Equinox would have gone as smoothly as it did. One hour into the trip, Evelyn asked "are we almost there yet?". Oh, boy. I thought it would be a question we would hear at least 50 more times. But that was the only time she asked!

Praise God for providing safety... and also fun, patience, laughter, and hours that rolled by smoothly and quickly! Next time I would also like a swivel-seat in place of our current front passenger seat. That way I can go round and round in circles, facing the kids or the road ahead, without distorting my back or craning my neck beyond natural limitations!

Evelyn, John and Truman had such fun playing with their cousins (and with the grown-ups, too!).

John (in the orange) playing the electric piano with his cousin, Kyle.

Evelyn plays dress-up with her cousin Jessica.

Truman and his younger cousin, Graham, talk sports.

At the first part of our visit, my sweet sister, Faith, flew up to Michigan to join us. It was great fun having her with us. One of our favorite things was making snow sculptures (a rare art form that Brad's mom wonderfully excells at!) in the back yard. Turns out, Faith is quite talented as well!

Faith and Jenny, on Christmas Day

Can you imagine being a kid and having this kind of fun at your grandparents' house? Evelyn and John slid down the mattresses over and over for a good hour.

I like the picture above, even though it isn't necessarily good photography, because you can tell that Evie is just zooming down the "slide"!

And here, you see, someone had the idea to put plastic grocery bags on the kiddos to help reduce the friction, thereby allowing them to travel faster. They were like greased pigs!

Thanks so much, Grandma and Grandpa, for hosting us for such a long time. We had a great time, and were delighted to be with you for Christmas!