Israel's Photography, Happy Birthday to Me!, Fish Stix Puzzles, and It's Fall

Israel is a true budding photographer. He really enjoys creative pictures and had fun at this climbing site on Old Woman Springs Road.

So, I forgot to blog my birthday. I turned 31 and had the super great present of my friend Liz coming over from AZ for New Years. We played Pandemic (one of my all time favorite games that Stan got me for my birthday-thanks love!) put together puzzles, and enjoyed Joshua Tree Nat'l Park. We pulled taffy for New Year's Eve before letting off little poppers in the back yard and running around our back yard (at 9am) shouting Happy New Year with the kids. Notice the red on my hands and the kids lack of shirts? red food coloring is not to be taken lightly:)

On the Hidden Ranch Hike. Liz and I climbed into this little archway- Israel was our photographer

cutie patuty Julia wearing Stan's hat My cake is a cranberry pudding recipe I got from by friend Betsy. It was a caramel sauce. Not much could be better than this! I posted the recipe here.
This 500 piece fish stix puzzle was given to Eliza. The giver (who will not be named) insisted that it looked hard, but was really easy because of the fish stix design. This puzzle took at least 10 combined hours to complete. Super fun, different, and so challenging. Eliza said we could have it and to give it back to her on her 17th birthday. If you're looking for a puzzle challenge-it would be a good one.Sorry the video is sideways. I rotated it, but it didn't stay rotated. You'll have to rotate your head instead:)
Happy 2010 and remember- it's only 21 Days until Groundhog's Day. Don't forget to have a big party, eat groundhog stew (we're hoping we can catch one in CA) and watch one of the best movies of all time.

"How did you know my dad stinks?" and Giant Challah Bread

A neighbor surprised us the night before we left for Christmas in VA (and a huge blizzard- more on that here) by bringing us all lots of gifts. She used to be an Avon lady, and we were showered with lots of Avon goodies. For Stan she gave him cologne and 3 deoderants- to which Israel asked "How did you know my dad stinks?"

On another note I finally made Challah bread (I've fantazised about eating it since my study abroad in Jerusalem in '99.) I used a recipe from one of my Jewish professor's wives. It was 5 hours of rising time. Well in the directions it says 4 small round loaves or braid it. I wanted to braid it just like the kind we always bought early in the morning on Friday mornings in the Orthodox Jewish Quarter. Well, I foolishly made 1 loaf of challah bread instead of 2 or maybe 4 and not surpirsingly needed extra baking time.
It tasted just like I remembered and we devoured half of it last night. The trick was finding a container big enough for the rest of it:) I posted the recipe here Every Day Dinners.

Virginia for Christmas

Stan's parents kindly flew us home for Christmas. What none of us realized was that we would be landing right in the middle of a snow storm in Greensboro and attempting to drive North into a storm some called the Monster Blizzard of the South. After 5 hours of terrifying driving on mainly 2 lane roads (nothing big goes from Greensboro to Check, VA) in a front wheel drive minivan whose windshield and wipers wouldn't stop freezing, we finally reached enough civilization in Roanoke and thankfully were able to find a hotel with a short drive way the we could manage we spent the night and left the next morning at 10 am. Thankfully the snow had stopped around 7am and we were okay to drive into the mountains or wonderfully plowed roads. The trip from our house to grandma's took an impressive 30 hours. And the kids to better than was expected all things considered.










Our fun trip ended all too soon and we were headed back to the airport again. 17 hours to home.

ps-If anyone is around Greensboro we stopped at the most delcious eatery Elizabeth's Pizza Italian Resturant. It's worth your time- great service and even better authentic foods.

Merry Christmas! Love, the Halls

Hi Santa . . .

And she did better than Julia who shouted "No, No, No" once it got to our turn:)

Anybody else have children terrified of Santa?

Israel's Primary Talk

Israel did so good on his talk today. He wrote it from minimal help from me and did a great job. I pointed to each word as he read it all by himself. (We practiced saying Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego) We're so proud of his reading and his love of the scriptures and Jesus Christ.



Here's his talk

My family is blessed when we remember Jesus. One of my favorite stories is of Daniel's friends in the dungeon of fire. Shadrach, Meschack, and Abed-nego had bee nthrown into the fire because they would not worship idols. They prayed and Jesus was beside them and they did not burn. The bad guys were scared. Daniel's friends were blessed because they remembered Jesus. My family is blessed when we do good things like helping my mom and dad and my sisters. We are reverant and good when we remember Jesus. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

The Living Desert

Stan and Israel both had Veteran's Day off, so we went to The Living Desert outside of Palm Springs. We all had a really good time, even if it our stroller got a flat:)

Thanksgiving 2009 Collage

 

Thanksgiving 2009

 
 
 
 

ps Thank you Pioneer Woman- we had your flat apple pie, fried chicken and mashed potatoes (with Cream Cheese)

Happy Storytime Surprise

Our tiny library does a weekly storytime on Wednesdays. It's small (so much better than crowded Provo) and I usually take the girls, today Israel and his friend Layla (yes a girl) went with us. Guess what they sent us home with?







are you curious?










can you guess?

Shot 1 everybody happy

Shot 3- still trying to get Julia to smile- Eliza is done.

Shot 5- Julia giving her all, Eliza wishing she was anywhere else.

That's right, not only did we make these really cool turkey headbands, but each child got to pick their own new book to keep. We're now the proud owners of Chips and Salsa, Jimmy Sangwow's Out of the world Moon Pie Adventure, and Lil' Bill's Is it My Turn Now.

W. I. P.'s

1 almost done, 2 to go on my Sewing Organizer from Flossie Bottoms. The tutorial is in 3 seperate posts. There are lots of little steps, but it's very doable. Also, I was confused on the scissor triangle part- I commented on her post and she emailed me that same evening with the answer. I love the little trash compartment- top right- it velcros on and off. Also, bottom leftcorner is a needle and pin holder (currently snapped closed). It folds into 3rd and has a strap I haven't added yet.

You can see here my more creative free motion quilting. As usual I stuggle with my machine's tension, so you can see the blue thread coming thru- I didn't fix it on purpose this time because I liked the effect on the plain brown fabric.

My 1st applique project: A pink elephant baby quilt. I'm in love with the results. With applique, not so much. Here's a sneak peak.

Dolly Diapers- A definate work in progress. I got the idea from Make it and Love it here, but she doesn't give a pattern, so I went thru lots of practice runs. I've made 2, but have 6 more to go and if I have time, little changing pads to go with them.

So Funny

I know I did this as a kid.

Israel just came out of his room after changing into jammies looking like he'd gained a few pounds.

He'd put on his clean school clothes for tomorrow under his jammies to save time in the morning.

I love that kid

Too bad I had to make him take them off.

What We (the TBD BC) read this month

First, I joined The Benner Daily Bookclub. Posted about it here

2nd, this month we read 3 books. Of the first two and its sequel

I definately prefered The Hunger Games. These books are worth your time. Very intriguing, very fast reads. Katniss is a great main character with many strong supporting characters as well.
Can you imagine being in an arena with 24 other people- and knowing only 1 of you is getting out alive?
Can you imagine that drawing names like a lottery to see who will be in the arena is what your country forces people to every year to remind you of your past rebellion?
Can you imagine needing food to survive so badly that you allow your 12-18 year old children to put additional chances in the lottery just so you can survive?

Intrigued?

Now you wanna read these books, don't you?

The last read of the month Vampire Academy I finished yesterday. It's the first in a series with the 5th one coming out May 18th 2010 and the 6th one late 2010 according to her website.
I read this one is a day too- quick, interesting, not clean enough for my teenage nieces, but a good read. I'm planning on reading the whole series (work with me library . . .)
It's a pretty complicated world author Richelle Mead has created. From the site "Two races of vampires walk our world. One, the Moroi, are alive and wield elemental magical. The other, the Strigoi, are undead and evil--feeding on the innocent to survive. Rose Hathaway--a half-vampire with poor impulse control--is training to be a bodyguard for a Moroi princess. Learning to decapitate and stake is hard enough, but Rose's real danger may lie in an illicit romance with one of her instructors..."

Read these books- or if you already have, let me know what you think. And if you want ot join TBD's bookclub- I'm sure she'd still have you- even if she is Team Gale not Team Peeta:)

In the Hot Seat

My meeting with Mr. Principal was a bit intimidating at first- you'd think I'd be over that since I'll all grown up and all, but I didn't enjoy it in the least.

We sat and looked at Israel's attendance report and he kept on telling me all these stories of kids with 54 excused absences or taking 3 weeks for funerals etc. I wanted to focus on Israel and the laws, but it was difficult to keep steering him on target.
He said of the 14 letters sent I'm 1 of 3 actually meeting with him. He said as long as we keep them informed of his absences in the future and do the make-up work everything should be fine. I said what about SARB? Aparently we're not enough of a problem for that yet, just keep communicating.

Me- I have been communicating, we've been doing all the make-up work. What more are you expecting?

Him- just keep communicating

see how helpful the discussion was?

Me- so the issue is funding, correct?- you only receive money for actually attendance

Him- we just need the children to come to school (another boring story followed)

see how open he was with me on the issues?

I did get a few questions answered, but not what I was hoping.

I left knowing
1. no SARB yet
2. no court date
3. no fine
4 "keep communicating"
5. I don't like CA school system or it's laws

Egg-in-the-Hole

I read and love The Pioneer Woman's blog. Not only does she make me laugh constantly, but she also makes me hungry. I have enjoyed with complete success every recipe of hers that I have tried. Yesterday her cookbook FINALLY arrived in the mail!

"The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl"
I'm salivating all over the place just looking at it. The book is full of personality, great photography (not just of food but ranch life), funny stories, and of course lots and lots of pictures to explain how to prepare her recipes.

This morning for breakfast I tried out the easiest recipe from the "In the Morning Section". Egg-in-a-hole. I'm a lover of runny eggs, and I'm amazed to say this is my new favorite way to eat them.

1 piece of bread-I'm using my own wonderful homemade wheat bread-YUM
1 egg
salt and pepper
butter

cut out a circle in your bread (I used a glass) I didn't want to waste the circle, so that went into the pan too.
heat skillet- melt some butter
add bread
after about a minute add the egg into the hole
salt and pepper liberally

wait 1 minute
flip
wait another minute or longer is you don't like runny
All done-

Eat and enjoy.

you can find her book on Amazon for 14.95 (instead of 27.50)
Her entire website is worth you time too www.thepioneerwoman.com
She's also a homeschooler, her own photographer, and has her entire Black Heels to Tractor Wheels love story on the site- going for Country Club to Country.

ps- school update- this afternoon at 12:20 I'll finally be meeting Mr. Principal.

The Power of the Brain

Read the following: start slow and then speed up

I cdnoult blveiee that I cluod auaclty uesdnatrnrd what Iwas rdaning. The phaonmneal pweor of the human mind Aoccdring to rscheearch at Cmabridge Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in what order the ltteers in a word are, the only iprmaotnt thing is that hte frist and lsat ltteer be in the right pclae. The rset can be a taotle mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. This is bcuseae the human nimd does not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the owrd as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

This week with Israel home all day from school we finally checked out www.starfall.com. It's the site his teacher uses during their computer time. If you have any pre-k or kg children it's a fun alphabet and learning to read site. Zac the Rat taught us all about the short a sound in a silly story of jam, ants, and fans. Also- you get to decorate your own gingerbread man and your own snowman (Israel's top favorites). The site also recieves feedback. After every activity you do it asks if you liked it (smiley face), if if was okay (straight mouth face), or didn't like it (frowny face). I like that they're checking in with the kids for what works and what doesn't.

Another site worth mentioning- The Yuckiest Site on the Internet- This one is super fun. We found it in our search to answer Israel's "Why is my pee yellow?" Pimples farts, burps, and funnybones- get your answers here. Any boys out there especially are gonna love this site.

Do you have any sites that you've found really work well for your children? Please share.

Trick or Croup?

We got a nice surprise at 4 am Halloween Morning- Julia had croup (which has now gone thru all of our kids). We still took her trick-or-treating though. Most of these pictures are from Thursday's Fall Festival at Israel's school or Friday's Haunted Hospital at Stan's work. Living in a new place (and a town without street lights or sidewalks) made for interesting trick-or-treating.
Carving pumpkins for FHE- we had no idea the wouldn't last a week. I love Israel's expression in this shot.

Our end result. the middle pumpkin Israel designed himself (Stan cut it out)

The Fall Festival- Eliza wanted to wear pink-ALL pink.

Julia at the bean bag toss

The first scary person in the Haunted Hospital. All the people would sit still like they were statues with a bowl of candy right in front of them. Israel reached for candy and he "came alive" it scared Israel really well and the girls didn't like it at all, but Israel and Stan went through a second time.

> Eliza was super cute as a fireman. She's holding her right hand like she's holding a big water hose. And yes, this is what she wants to be when she grows up. She teaches everybody Stop, Drop, and Roll, and reminds us what we should do if our house is on fire.

We hope you had a happy and healthy Halloween! I've enjoyed seeing every one's costumes.