Christmas fun at Nana's

We had a great time at Nana's on Christmas day. Uncle Joshie got to meet his new Neice and fun was had by all! Thanks Nana, Papa, Josh and Liz for all the wonderful gifts!

Happy Christmas!!!!

What a fab 36 hours! We left our home in Forest Heights yesterday morning around 10am. We had SOOOO much snow up here I wasn't sure we would make it to my parents house in Wilsonville. It was a slippidy slidey drive there and many places where I just closed my eyes and prayed we'd be ok, low and behold we made it safe and sound.

Nat goes to work

Ryan was nice enough to give Nat and I a much needed break from one another. Poor girl's been stuck in the house with me for over a week due to the snow and ice. She had a blast! She handed out Christmas bonuses to the "wookohs"(workers) shoveled the lot and built a snowman!

Cabin Fever!

We have been stuck here in the house for a week now. The boys were out of school all of last week. It's been tough keeping everyone entertained. It seems all we do is eat and watch tv, I've run out of creative ideas mostly because I am soooo exhausted, the girls haven't been sleeping at night. Last night when I thought I had finally gotten the girls to sleep, in my bed of course, Natalie taps me on the shoulder and says "Mommy I cleaned the potty with the toilet wand". Yep she was cleaning the bathroom at 3 AM! Ryan and Henry have ventured off into the frozen white tundra. We are unable to drive down the hill so the are meeting someone at the bottom of the hill, lucky them, I need to get out of here soon before I lose what's left off my mind at this point. It has started snowing again this morning and we expect about2-3 more inches today.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

More Snow photos!

Having so much fun in our Winter Wonderland!

Snow!!!!!

We got our first snow here in Portland yesterday. The kids are having a blast playing in it, especially Natalie who loves the "snowcakes"(snowflakes) and building Mr Snowman. Yesterday was just a light dusting but today is super cold and windy. The snow is practically coming down sideways and hasn't let up all day. The forest and snow is the thing I'll miss most about living in the West Hills.

S'mores!!!! yum

Our advent activity yesterday was Christmas s'mores, that just means smores with green and red marshmallows. They were yummy and made everyone behave very sill as you can see in the pics, and right before bed YAY!!!!! It was really fun!

Comments feature fixed!

It was a simple 'my bad' :) it's fixed now if anyone wants to comment on any earlier posts!

Comments error!

Something seems to be wrong with my html in regards to the ability to leave comments. I plan on changing my layout to try and fix the issue. I'd love to hear comments from anyone in the mean time! You can email me in my contact info on my profile page or leave comments on my scrapblog by clicking my link there on the right. Sorry, hope to have it fixed soon!

Lights Out

Yesterday evening a car hit a utility pole down the hill somewhere and our power went out. I never really thought much about power outages, in fact the few we have had in the past were kinda fun, snuggling up and candles, like camping! With FOUR kids, not so much. Harrison was terrified, Natalie didn't get it "MOM turn my light on!" Bridget was still hungry after nursing and i had no way to warm milk for her, Henry of course thought it was cool! We have a house full of electronics, laptops, personal dvd players, psp, all of were either not charged or not working(that's another story).We were able to watch Kim Possible on my Ipod, all three kids fighting over who would hold it. I never realized how incredibly unprepared I am for any kind of emergency. I had only a few votive candles, no bottled water, nothing to feed the kids for dinner. Thankfully Ryan rescued us with some fast food. The blackout lasted only a little over an hour but felt like forever. Today I think I'll buy some flashlights..........

Don't look a gift horse.....

Weirdest thing, Yo Gabba Gabba totally calms m y screaming colicky baby. I found out by accident. I was fixing lunch for Nat we were watching Nick jr. Bridget was in her bouncy wailing, screaming her little head off and then it came on "yo gabba gabba yo gabba gabba YOOOOOOOOOO" wimper, wimper silence. 30 minutes in her seat silent and transfixed. It was unreal. Thought maybe it was a fluke, had to make dinner, again Bridget's screaming. I put her bouncy angled towards the TV(mother of the year....YAY!) and turn it on. Wimper wimper silence! It's a miracle, a totally bizarre weird a** show miracle! Go Figure!

Oh happy day!

I adore my boys really I do but holy shnykies they can be a whole heck of a lot of work when combined with a colicky baby and a whirling dervish of a 3year old! They have been out of school since friday before last, PPS take the entire week of Thanksgiving off and I have no idea what yesterday was about but today's the day, BACK TO SCHOOL, back to routine, back to only fighting with them between the hours of 3pm-8pm! Don't get me wrong they're great boys but they are full of 'tween attitude these days. Henry is always complaining about something, not sure why, both those guys have a pretty good gig around here. They'd have never lasted a week in my childhood, not that it was bad at all but we had this thing called accountability, a concept my kids have yet to grasp. I guess I only have myself to blame huh? Oh my gosh I totally sound like "I walked 2 miles uphill both ways to school" just then, "kids these days"!!!!
Anywhooooo- the boys are back in school today and I'm back to our routine! Thank gosh for for The Klubhouse(drop in childcare, yay!) taking Nat to Target these days with all the christmas stuff is total torture.

Picture of the day

Tried something new with my camera and here's what I came up with, I just wanna eat her up!

What a great day!

Thanksgiving was wonderful! Good company and great food. Mom and dad showed up around around 10am with the bird. We spent the morning and early afternoon just hanging out together cooking and decorating. I made carmelized shallot and sage mashed potatoes, just about the greatest thing I've ever eaten, geesh were they good. One of the best things was drinking mimosas with my mom at noon, who da thunk it? When I think of all the years wasted not seeing what an amazing (&fun!) person she really is it makes me a bit sad! The icing? Nana and mom cleaned EVERYTHING up for me! Yay! It really was the best Thanksgiving ever.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

I am so excited for everyone to get here! I found my recipes and am ready to go. Mom and Dad will be here soon so I best get going.......Have a great Turkey Day everyone.

Hey guys, share your recipes!!!!!

So we are having Thanksgiving here at our house this year and we are splitting up the dinner so we all share and no one has too much work. I'm doing sides, my favorite, I'm a starch fiend!!! So I was wondering if you all would give me some ideas and share your favorite recipes for traditional Thanksgiving sides, you know stuffing, 'tadoes, veggie dishes. I'll share one of my very favorites with you I make it every year for Thanksgiving to start us off and usually make it 10-20 more times during the Fall and Winter. It is awesome on a blustery day and pairs perfectly with a crusty baguette.
Share your recipes by clicking on comments, Thanks!

Fresh Herb, Potato and Leek Soup
Bon Appétit | November 1992

ingredients

3 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces
5 cups canned low-salt chicken broth
3 cups water
3 large leeks (white and pale green parts only), chopped
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup minced fresh chives or green onion tops
2 tablespoons minced fresh basil or 2 teaspoons dried, crumbled
1 tablespoon minced fresh dill or 1 teaspoon dried dillweed
Hot pepper sauce (such as Tabasco)

Chopped fresh chives or green onion tops

preparation

Bring first 8 ingredients to boil in heavy large pot or Dutch oven over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until potatoes are very tender and soup thickens slightly, about 1 hour. Transfer 2 cups of soup to blender and puree. Return puree to pot. Season with salt, pepper and hot pepper sauce. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead and refrigerated. Reheat before continuing.)

Ladle soup into bowls. Garnish with chopped chives and serve.

Natalie's Grateful for....

Harrison is grateful for...

You know what they say.....

the calm before the storm!!!! Yesterday was the calm today was the storm! I'm not sure I should publicly complain on my blog about my children but because 1)their internet access is very limited and 2) when they do have access the last thing they'll want to read or look at is MY blog I'll go ahead and let it fly. I do not know how I survived until 7:02pm today. it all started with Henry complaining and making all his little "sound effects" first thing at 6:15 am after getting NO sleep because Bridget will only sleep cradled in my arms and wakes up at the slightest movement. Last minute banking and errands left Harrison out in the rain and near dark because Nat and Hen just couldn't seem to pull it together in Target! We get home and poor Harrison was so afraid I'd forgotten him. "Mother of the Year" right here! We get in, unload and the screaming starts....first Bridget then HENRY? He's 9, what the heck? I nurse Bridget and KNOW she needs a nap so I put her in her new big girl crib(from the bassinet) and she screams, and scream and then she screams some more. What am I supposed to do? Boys need homework, they all need dinner and I have a counter full of groceries melting. I run up stairs bink her and restart her music. More screaming. Start dinner and run up the stairs rebink her etc etc. STILL screaming. I figure she HAS to learn how to fall asleep on her own, right? By this point Henry's started with the major attitude. I warn him, i ask him nicely, I threaten, nothing phases him, he just keeps on with it so it's bye-bye time for Henry. "Go downstairs, I can't deal. I have warned you for 30 minutes to check the 'tude" He starts WAILING tears and screams "NO NO I want to stay up here" like I'm sending him to some rat infested dungeon, ummm hi, it's like his own mini-apartment??!! He stands on the stairs pleading and screaming at me, all the while the baby is upstairs screaming her little heart out. Guilt, overwhelming guilt takes over. I think for a moment I'm being too hard on Henry, just then he says something totally disrespectful and the gulit disappears for a moment. Run upstairs, bink Bridget, restart the music...heart is breaking.... "Ferber" method sucks! I'm starting to unravel at this point and who is my little savior? Mr Harrison! So sweet so helpful, so kind. He did whatever I asked and when he was done he was willing to do more. Maybe I did do something right..........

Ahhhh quiet!

Ryan is off today, yay! He took Nat out for a "date" and Bridge is snoring away in her bassinet. I finally have a few moments to myself and instead of doing housework(like I should) I'm grabbing a few minutes to scrap and blog! Hopefully we can all have a nice mellow day without any major incidents,lol! The peppermint ice cream is in for the holidays so we had a mini ice cream party last night. Say ICE CREAM!!!!

How cute is my baby and her big sis? This little hoodie outfit was just so  adorable I had to have a a little photo shoot!

Rough couple of weeks!

It's been challenging lately to say the least. School struggles with the boys have been weighing heavily on me. I've been racking my brain trying to come up with a way to help them enjoy learning more and understand that the job of being a student doesn't stop when they leave school. Natalie is giving me a run for my money too, she is very much like me so we knock heads often. Then poor Bridget, she so often has to wait and wait for me to be able to get around to her. 

I am very excited for Thanksgiving! We will be having it here at our house, yay! We are dividing up the work so it's not too much for anyone. It should be wonderful. 

Our beautiful Autumn view!

Bidgee finds her FEET!!!

How cute! I had totally forgotten how absolutly adorable it is when babies find their feet! Bridget dicovered her little footsies yesterday. She's not nearly as flexible as her siblings were so she really gets a yoga-style workout. Harrison, as chubby as he was could actually get all his toes in his mouth!

The Pumpkin Patch @Sauvie's Island

Henry, Natalie and Dad went and explored The Pumpkin Patch at Sauvie's Island. I stayed home to try and take some "me time" but poor Bridget fussed most of the day so I wasn't able to get as much done as I would have liked. Most of the "patch" itself was pretty picked over with only a few days until Halloween but they had all kinds of other stuff to do and Henry served at photographer for the day. These are pictures he took, with the exception of the one of him.