From the Archives, #1

Matthew.
We call him Matty, and I think that he will always be Matty to us.

He's a pretty funny little guy.
And he sure doesn't mind getting his picture taken.









His laugh comes right from his belly!
It's not hard to get a good one from him.

Last weekend, we went up to Rob and Brandy's house for our family Christmas party. Brandy got a moose pillow pet for Christmas.
Matthew LOVED him!
He laughed and laughed at that moose!





And he rode the moose.
Gitty up!





Sleeping?
No. Just pretending.



He's gaining words by the day and is putting all of those words into sentences.
He repeats everything everyone says...especially what Joshua says.
I love how he talks right now. He puts lots of space in between his words.
Staccato speech.

One thing that Matty really loves is gum.
He likes hot gum best--anything minty is hot gum.
There are some that are too hot for him, but he will try them anyway.
Tonight he got one that was a bit too hot.

Matty: Hot...gum!
Me: Was that gum too hot?
Matty: It's...cool...now.
Me: Your hot gum is cool now?
Matty: Yes. Put...in...frigerator.

Did I mention that he is also a problem-solver? :)

Enjoying the Journey,

My Funny Little Elves

A facebook friend of mine found this gem!

Do you know that after I made my video, I laughed until my sides hurt.
My dad won't get to see this if I leave it only on facebook, so I'm posting it here too.

Enjoy, Dad!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Whatta Ham! and Various Unrelated Thoughts

Just so you know, I don't make it a regular practice of putting my children in roasters.

This one was Carrie's idea.

Paul took the roaster to work yesterday so that his department could warm up a Christmas ham for lunch. When he got home from work, I put the base part of the roaster on the island until I could wash the pan.

Carrie, getting tired of holding a wiggly Matthew, placed him in the roaster.

Look at Joshua checking Matthew out.

And look at the thing in Matthew's mouth. It's not really a pacifier. It's one of those little pop-out timers that you put in to see if he's done.



Now Joshua is saying, "Hey! I wanna try that!"
Matthew must be thinking, "Get back, Buddy. I'm not done yet! See my timer?"



Now Matthew is hiding so that his turn won't be cut short.



Sorry, Matthew.
It's Joshua's turn.



"Please! Just one more turn!"



Oh, Brothers!



How did I get Joshua out of the roaster? I threatened to tell him the story of "Hansel and Gretel."

No, not really. Carrie wouldn't let me.


Are you wondering how cookie-making went yesterday?
Here's Joshua. He was promoted from "panner" to "roller."



And here's what happens when you decide to roll your head instead of the cookie dough. That's powdered sugar.

Boy was he sweet!

And boy did he get "unpromoted."



Here's one of my favorite cookies from when I was a little girl.

My Aunt Shirley used to bring these special cookies to our Christmas Eve at Grandma Huff's house. They are called Candy Cane cookies--today I'll drizzle them with a powdered sugar and candy cane glaze. Yummy!



I only make one batch of these. I learned several years ago when I started making these cookies how time consuming they are to make.

Every year when I make these, I think about Aunt Shirley and all the work she did to bring these every year.

Aunt Shirley, I don't know if you read my blog or not, but if you do, thank you!! These are a very special memory from Christmas.

I love you!



So, there you have it. Yesterday at our house.

Today on the agenda is some house-cleaning, fudge-making, and present-wrapping.

Sounds a little too ambitious to me, but that's how I roll. Too much on the "to-do list" so that at the end of the day I think, "What did I do today?!"

One of these days, I'll learn.

You know what I'm happy about?
I'm happy that Paul's department didn't have a Christmas turkey. My blog title would have seemed a little mean if it had been turkey.

Oh, For the Love of Cookies! Part 2

Let the mess begin!

Miss Sticky Fingers...
Don't you lick those fingers! People are watching! :)



What would a great cookie-making day be without some sampling along the way?




And don't forget a little bit of trauma.

I don't even remember what the tears here were about.

I think it had something to do with Carrie taking Joshua's favorite red, white, and blue sprinkles (I know, I know--it's Christmas, not the Fourth of July) to use on her cookies. Joshua's sudden crying led to some crying from Matthew.



Good job, William.

Some sweet cookie sprinkling skills being demonstrated here.
And don't forget that winning smile!
He has learned to overlook trauma.



Oops.
Look what happens when Mom is busy taking pictures of someone else.
Can you see the mountain of sprinkles on top of that cookie?



Here's a close-up.
Sorry for the flash glare.
And while you're looking at the sprinkles, look to the right and check out the bites out of several nearby cookies. It's funny what you notice "after the fact."



And, Joshua, what do you plan on doing with that mess you've made?



Mwahaha!



Can you see the sugar crystals hanging from his lips?!



When the decorating is all done, there is always a bunch of mismatched sugar sprinkles left in the bottom of the pan.

Usually we use this mess of sprinkles to make a few Junk Cookies--cookies that get all of those sprinkles poured on top of them.

This year, William decided to try something a little different.

Lovely.




What I don't have is a picture of the rest of Joshua's container of sugar crystals getting dumped on the floor.
Grrrr....

"Does someone need a hug?!"

Ah, Carrie, you know me so well.

She even vacuumed them all up for me.
Thank you, Sweetheart.



And to think...we're doing this all over again today.
Sigh.




(Please try to ignore that Mountain Dew sitting right next to all that sugar. Thank you.)

Oh, For the Love of Cookies! Part 1

And yet another Christmas tradition!

Cookie-making is definitely one of those Christmas traditions that MUST be done in our home. In fact, this year, we're doing it twice. We made a batch to take up to my dad's last weekend, and we will be making another batch to take with us to Grandma and Grandpa's on Christmas Eve.

And, of course, it's from this second batch that we will choose the cookies that will be left for Santa.

Look how excited Joshua is about making cookies!



Cookie-making gets easier as the kids get older.
More help with the mixing, rolling, cutting, baking and decorating.

I said it gets easier--not less messy.
I think the mess is inevitable.

My mom used to say that "Messy cooks make the best cooks."
Is that the truth or was that just an excuse for being a messy cook?
Carrie will tell you that it is the honest truth!



Joshua decided that he would be the official "transferer" of cookies from the table to the pan.
He gave himself the title of "the panner."
He kept saying, "I want to PAN the cookies. I'm going to PAN the cookies."

Carrie thought that he might need a little sisterly help...
Joshua obviously didn't agree.



Look at the concentration as he carefully pans the cookies!



And where was Matthew during all of this?



Not one whimper or cry out of him!
There was too much entertainment in the kitchen.
No time to think of throwing a fit!

Wanna see how neat we are when decorating the cookies?
Tune in...

The Twelve Days of Christmas

It's been a Christmas tradition since Carrie and William were small.

Grandma Atkinson prepares bags with individually wrapped gifts inside for each of the kids. The gifts are labeled with the numbers 1-12. Each day the kids get to unwrap a gift with the last gift being unwrapped on Christmas Day.



Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Brian came over Sunday evening to deliver the bags so that the kids could open their first gift of the season--Christmas ornaments!

You know, little kids wake up earlier than big kids, so on Monday morning, Josh just sat looking at his second gift while waiting patiently for Carrie and William to get up.



Matthew had no idea what was going on. He was just happy to have something new to put in his mouth.



Look at these neat little bottles of Coke! Aren't they cute?

Matthew didn't get Coke. He got some Apple Juice that he drank for breakfast.

No...I didn't let the kids drink their Cokes for breakfast--I made them wait until after they ate their breakfast. :)

I won't even tell you when I let them eat their Day #4 chocolates.

It's Christmas, right?



Once again, a Christmas tradition that Joshua doesn't remember from last year, but boy is he catching on. It's only Day #5 and he knows that you must get up early AND wake everyone else up in order to open your gift.

I guess I could let him open his gift as soon as he wakes up, but it's just so much more fun to have them all open them together. And, the gifts are usually all the same or similar, so there's no way that Carrie and William would ever be surprised if I let Josh open his first.



Thank you, Grandma, for this very special Christmas tradition.
I can only guess how time consuming this must be--not only the shopping, but individually wrapping and labeling each gift.
Wow!
A great example of the sacrificial love that God has for us.

Christmas Fun Has Begun

It seems that every December there is an event that kicks off Christmas for us--anyway in my mind there is. For me, it's usually a different event every year that signals the start of the Christmas festivities.

This year, going up to my dad's house seemed to start it off for me. Maybe because of all the Christmas baking we did. Or maybe it was the shopping.

I think, though, that it may have been Joshua's anticipation. He's 3 this Christmas, so I don't really think that he has much memory of last Christmas. Everything is new to him again this year--and there is so much more recognition of what we're doing.

In other words, he's really "getting it."

So, here is a rundown of our weekend up north.

It began with the car ride. As the kids get older, the car rides become more bearable--and might I say...enjoyable! We haven't driven this far with Matthew yet because he really hasn't been a very good car rider.

To our relief, he is now...

and so is William.



Here's a picture of Paul, Matthew, Carrie, and Gilda waiting for the official "GO" to pass out the presents.



Then, of course, comes play time!




With a little teasing thrown in.



And what would a picture of Paul be without his infamous bunny ears?



Joshua has just gotten caught with his hand in Matthew's Gerber Puffs. The Banana Puffs are not safe when Joshua is around!


And the lighting of the candles.

That's my dad's younger brother sitting next to him...my Uncle Rick. I have to throw in the "younger" because Uncle Rick makes sure that he includes that whenever he can. He is said to resemble Kenny Rogers, the older version of Michael McDonald and Santa Claus.

I would say that he probably is most like Santa. In fact, I was talking to him on the phone one evening last week, giving him Christmas ideas for the kids, when Josh came up and sat beside me. I told him that he should go to the other room, but he said, "No." Immediately Uncle Rick said, "Tell him that you're talking to Santa and that he should be a good boy and listen to his mommy." I told him that and very quickly he sat up straight and stopped talking. I handed the phone to Josh and Uncle Rick gave the most impressive "Ho! Ho! Ho!" that I've ever heard. Josh talked to him for a minute and then ran into the family room.



I think Dad looks pretty dog-gone good!
Dog-gone. There's that word again. I think I tried to use it once before and wasn't sure how to spell it. Oh well.

Gilda put the candles away to be used on Dad's 86th birthday! :)
Of course, we couldn't just leave it at that. The big kids had to figure out that Paul and I would be 58 years old then.
Thanks.




And, of course, a little rest and relaxation!
Much needed after all that excitement.
And eating.

I didn't even get any pictures of the wonderful hometown Wooden Peel pizza that we look forward to when we visit!

It's the best pizza ever--owned by a local family and passed down to the next generation. It's right downtown by one of only two stoplights in town and made it a great place to hang out after high school football games. Many of my teenage memories include the Wooden Peel.



And what would Christmas be without a few Christmas memories.

This is the angel that was on top of our Christmas tree when I was a kid. Dad even decorates the tree with the same kind of big lights (although probably much more advanced) that we had when I was growing up. I think the ones that we used were called "Cool Brights" because just when a bulb would get really, really hot, it would shut off. These don't do that, but they look like the same kind.

I can't look at that Christmas angel without thinking of Mom. This was our 16th Christmas without her, but when Christmas comes, the memories and Christmas traditions I follow make her seem very near.



We ended our stay with a drive out into the country to see my Grandpa's farmland. He died in May of 2006 and the land was auctioned off at the end of that summer to his Amish neighbors and friends.

So really, the land is no longer Grandma and Grandpa Bellman's. The house that I remember has been taken down and replaced with a very big--and I say typical--Amish home. I'm happy about that. It is beautiful, and I'm sure that they will be able to do some of the repair to the farm that Grandpa couldn't keep up with anymore.



A quick apology to my brother Rob. He was there! Honest. I just think he must be a really good camera-dodger!

You just wait. I'll get you when you come down here for Christmas!