Recipe Blog

For those of you who gave up looking at the recipe blog, I have finally started it up again. So if you need some ideas, head on over. Cami has posted some too that are so good! If anyone else wants to add some recipes...please do! And for those who aren't contributers and you want to, let me know!
canihavetherecipe.blogspot.com

Trying to overcome my struggles

I'm going to admit it. I have always had a big struggle with comparing. And the worst thing is I usually compare my weakness to others strengths. I don't know why I do it, but I do. The most frustrating thing to me is when I compare my boys to other children. Why? Every kid has struggles, no kid is perfect. But for some reason I seem to think they are. When my kids are more wiggly at church, I notice the ones that are sitting perfectly still. When my kids are refusing to do chores, I think to myself, I bet other kids are doing their chores. When Corbin isn't reading Harry Potter books, I think, all the other kids his age probably are. AHHH! Stop.

Well, last night, I started reading from a wonderful book my mother-in-law had called Teaching Children Joy from Linda and Richard Eyre. This book holds the secret to overcoming my struggle. My favorite paragraph made me think so much and is why I am writing this down today. I have to write it so that I can remember better. Linda Eyre writes "I.Q. vs. J.Q."

"We started our school because of our strong disagreement with the common supposition that the greatest thing that a child can posess (or that we as parents can help him to attain in order for him to 'succeed' in today's society) is a high I.Q. Too much stress is placed on young children's abilities, on being able to put together numbers and letters quickly, on manipulation skills. The world at large seems to be overly aware of 'How soon will my child read?' Or 'Just listen to him count or recite.' While these things do have their place, we strongly believe that real happiness, contentment, and ability to cope with the world lie in a child's J.Q. (joy quotient). Ponder, for a moment, the quality of a child's life once he has obtained confidence in his own ability to make decisions, to enjoy and be aware of nature, to understand another person's ill feelings, to set a goal and accomplish it, to share with and serve his friends, and to see himself as a totally unique individual with a great deal to offer to others. Each of these are joys that can be taught, and we are of the opinion that the ideal time to teach them is before the age of five and before the beginning of formal education. With a foundation of these 'joy' concepts, the other abilities often associated with I.Q. will come quickly and naturally. By teaching a child joy, we can give him both a calm spirit and an active mind."

Joy, that's what I desire most for my kids. I am now trying my hardest to not compare. I am proud of all those parents out there who do an amazing job with their kids. But now, it is time for me to be proud of my kids. Teach them what really matters. In time, they are going to learn to read, they are smart boys and I know they will succeed. Now is the time to enjoy each moment and let them be kids, let us laugh together, play together, and learn together! I want to help them develop their talents individually, they each have something the world needs and only they can do it!

And to Justin, thank you for being so good at this, you were so meant to be their dad!

Levi is no baby

He doesn't even want to think about being our baby, he is much too big. The last couple of months we have seen him grow up so much. He loves playing with his brothers and he loves anything that involves big boy stuff. Yes, even super heros. He's got the theme of heros down, da na naaa, na na na naa naaa.... really, from a one year old??!

The latest words he has been saying are, "mommy, eeee" (mommy, see)

He even eats better than his older brothers. Last night at dinner, Justin was trying to give Corbs and Tay fun bites, which included star wars characters flying into their mouths. Levi decided he could do that for himself. He made great big airplane noises into his own mouth.

The last couple of days Levi has been playing with this gun, practically non stop. He hands it to me, puts the bullets in, has me shoot it, then he runs and grabs them off the wall and comes back for more...seriously, non stop...

Oh we can't get enough of this boy!!!

Anyone need some baby toys, they are just collecting dust??

Why fear?

The other day I had just picked up Corbin from school and was driving home. For the first time on the radio I heard about the earthquake in Haiti, I was heartbroken. The numbers of death I had heard were awful. Corbin could tell I was bothered and he asked me what was the matter. I told him about the earthquake and that so many people had died and were without homes. Why I told him, I don't know, because ever since then he has become so scared at night. He asks us if there will be an earthquake or fire tonight, we try to reassure him that we will be okay and that we are all together. The other night he was extremely nervous about going to bed. He climed up in our bed and didn't want to leave. Justin asked him if he thought praying to Heavenly Father would make him feel better, Corbin said yes. After the prayer Corbin told us he felt better and he knew that he would be protected. But he was still deep in thought and after a moment he asked, "Why did Heavenly Father create Earthquakes and fires?" Um...well, Fire can be used for good or bad, He gave it to us to help keep us warm, but we need to make sure that we are responsible and never play with fire. Luckily, that answer was good enough.
In this life, we know there is good and bad, love and hate, joy and sorrow. There are some really tough, scary times ahead, but there are also wonderful, joyful moments too. That's what we need to look forward to! Why live our lives in fear? We can make it through the hard times. All we need is to be prepared. And that is what we are trying to focus on in our family right now. Do not fear, have faith, and be prepared.

Merry Christmas

This is, of course, the best Christmas ever (it beats last year 30 times!). The only thing that would have made it better was if I didn't procrastinate getting things done to the last second, ah, will I ever learn??
We really enjoyed spending Christmas Eve at home with just the 5 of us. We had Cordon Blues, mom's potatoes, veggies, and leftover cake (I didn't want to make another dessert, since we had treats falling out of the fridge and cupboards) It was yummy. Afterwards, I had to finish sewing up some pajamas for the boys (again, procrastinater), it only took about 30 minutes then I had to hurry and wrap them, so the boys could unwrap them...what's the point of wrapping, I don't know, but they sure were excited! Afterwards we did our nativity, then we turned out the lights, except the Christmas tree and sat on the floor singing Christmas songs, ending with Silent Night. It was beautiful. Nothing makes me happier than to see our little boys sing along to this hymn.

We then set out some cookies and milk for Santa, then Corbin told Taylor, "we have got to go to bed so that Santa will come!!" It was one of the best times the boys have ever gone to bed! After they were in bed, Justin and I watched It's a Wonderful Life while I wrapped presents. We finally dragged ourselves to bed at 1:30. I guess that's just part of Christmas for parents!!
At 8:15 in the morning, Corbin opened his door and was extremely tired still. He was pretty certain it was Christmas, but he needed to make sure. He peeked around the corner and his face lit up! He ran back into his room and yelled "Taylor, Taylor, it's Christmas, Santa really did come!!" He ran to our room to get us out, then he ran to the kitchen to see if the cookies and milk were gone, they were. He came yelling "mom, the cookies are gone, Santa is real, Santa is real!!"

Um, am I making this worse... he kept telling me throughout the day, so Santa is real, huh mom..I tried to avoid answering the best I could. I think he was testing me after what happened a few weeks ago...arrgh...

But at least he was happy...they were both so excited with what they got! It was the year of power rangers, ninja turtles, spider man, and guys with little guns!

They love costumes, so obviously these were going to be a huge hit. Santa found them at the after halloween sale for 5 dollars each (originally $20)! Great bargain shopping Santa!

Even Levi loved them! (we gotta teach him how to pose like a hero :)

Every kid needs one of these cars. Levi loves chillin in here (btw, he does have a diaper on!)
A few years ago my dad gave us several of the wood things he made for us when we were younger. I have been rotating them because of limited space. For the past several months the boys have been begging me to get the bear house down. I decided to surprise them and get it down for Christmas!

It is tradition to have the big present be hidden under a blanket, so that's what I did with this one. They were so excited and have already played with it for hours!

Although, the only thing I need to get now is a girl doll, it just doesn't look quite right...(check the bed)
This year we made homemade gifts for each other. It was fun to do and I think very memorable.

Taylor made his brothers cube puzzles.

Corbin made his brothers some more capes, we can never have enough (besides the green one is GROSS! It was worn everywhere!)

I made Levi this car mat, but in the end, it really is for all of them. I got the idea from Mandi, she made one for her boy last year and I fell in love with it. I planned on making it this year for our boys. I am so weird about making everything so straight, I was crazy about measuring everything out and making the lines perfect. I will never have the fun random style! I didn't want to have the train go through the whole city so I just made a small part at the bottom corner that they could built from with their train set.

I found the cars at Target and had to get them for Levi, they are so cute and chunky (perfect for little hands). I made the town to fit the size of those cars, so they had better not break!!!

We hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas and we hope this New Year brings you so much joy and happiness, just as you deserve!!

Dear Taylor,

When did you go growing up on us? We can't believe you're four years old.

This past year has been a big growing year for you. You became a sunbeam and you love it. You have always wanted to go and have not tried to beg us to stay, it is your thing and you can do it all by yourself. You love your teachers, they make you feel so special. You love having your friends in your class. You love to sing the primary songs. Right now, your favorite one is Silent Night. It makes me tear up when I hear you sing it with me.

This past year you learned to use the potty. It seems longer than that because once you were ready, you never turned back. You picked it up so well. Thanks for making that easy for us!

You have become so much more independent. You love to get dressed pretty soon after waking up, no being in your pajamas all day, unlike your mom and older brother!

You love superheros, you love transformers, and you even love a guy you made up...firefeeseen, he's pretty cool in your eyes...cause he does everything!!! and each day he can do even more!

You love milk, it is your comfort. I think you could have 6 glasses a day.

You have always been such an easy going boy and so easy to please. You make our family life so calm and full of joy. Thank you for coming to our family and being the boy you are. We love you more than words can say!!

Happy Birthday Tay!!

Early Christmas Present

The boys had to try out our early present...but so did mom and dad...(especially after the chocolate ganache cake we had for Tay's birthday!)

As I am writing this, Corbin has woken up and is now begging to go run on it. Justin had him running up to 8 mph...for about 5 seconds.
Taylor loved having it on a steep incline, walking along.

Levi just loved walking at a 1.5 mph walk, he was doing that for about 5 minutes.

After trying out the present, we were in the family room. Taylor did a somersault for fun, Levi was watching him, then he bend down and flipped right over, we were shocked! He just kept doing it over and over cause he got such a great response from us, he was chessin it up! I can't get over it, out baby is getting way too big, way too fast. I think he will be our competitive boy, do to having 2 older brothers!