Look Who’s 8 Years Old!!

It is just amazing to me that 8 years have flown by and my twins are getting so big!  There was so much fear and apprehension knowing that one of my babies had Down Syndrome…we found out at 32 weeks but the doctors suspected it throughout my entire pregnancy so we always kind of “knew”.  Although I was glad that I had 4 weeks to prepare for him once I found out, there was still so much fear of the unknowns.  When reading books about it, they present all the potential medical and health issues they COULD face so you have to prepare for anything and everything.  Those 4 weeks until they arrived (at 36 weeks) were  a time of grieving for the baby boy I always thought he would be and then accepting the awesome person he WOULD be!

When they arrived, the delivery room was filled with a huge team of specialists preparing for Ricky to be the sick one.  He was born healthy and content!  Greta, on the other hand came out yelling and hasn’t stopped since!!!  She was the ill one with pneumonia and was immediately transferred to NICU.  Ricky had to go it alone with out his sister in the regular newborn nursery.

I can’t tell you what a joy these children have been!  We have been so blessed with a wonderful healthy family and I am so thankful!

Happy Birthday, my beautiful sweet 8 year olds!!!  I love you!!!!!!

Wow! Where did Christmas Go??!!

I pray that you all had a wonderful blessed Christmas!  Ours was nice and peaceful as it should be.  We always spend it with my parents at our home.  We are so blessed to have my parents nearby and willing to spend the holiday with us each year as I have 4 other siblings!

It was nice not to have to drive anywhere except to church on Christmas Eve because we were in the middle of a huge snow storm!  Once the snow finally stopped yesterday, we ALL got out to help shovel and/or snow blow our really LONG driveway!  Unfortunately, the snow was so wet and heavy that the snow blower kept plugging up with ice and snow.  My sweet really level-headed husband kept having to manually remove the snow to get it going again.  The problem was that he didn’t shut the blower off in the meantime.  Well, you can probably imagine what eventually happened…his hand got caught and it ended up somewhat mutilated!  He spend Christmas night in the E.R. and has a broken finger.  He was so lucky that he didn’t lose a finger as he met 2 men at the clinic who had!  This picture was taken last week and he was goofing around with Billy bob fake teeth!

Other than that excitement, we all had a great time opening gifts, eating a great Christmas dinner and playing with toys!

For Peter, his new grocery store was a huge hit!!

Ricky’s best toys seemed to be his “Gassy Gus” game and a Whoopie Cushion!  Do you see a theme here!!?? He has had more fun with these two toys in the last day than you can imagine!

The boys…

The twins…

The gang…

We plan and shop and cook and bake and await Christmas each year only to have it fly by at lightening speed!!!  Did it seem that way to you too?

Wordful Wednesday-Merry Christmas!

My Christmas cards are mailed, cookies are baked, house and tree are decorated and gifts are wrapped.  Now it’s time to sit back and enjoy this blessed Christmas season and reflect upon why we are truly celebrating it.

Here is our Christmas card photo that made the cut this year.  They were taken over the summer.  I think they capture the kids’ personalities perfectly…Taylor, the sweet one, Hannah and Greta-confident, sassy and cocky, Ricky-happy and his baby brother’s keeper, and Peter, the shy one!!!

Sounds like a winter storm is on the way to the mid-west this week so we will be cozy and safe at home as we celebrate the holidays with my parents! 

Merry Christmas and a blessed 2010!!!

Cute Gingerbread Houses!

I spent the morning in Greta’s classroom helping the kids make gingerbread houses.  Each child brought in one kind of  candy to share so there was a nice assortment for their houses!    I peeked in on Ricky’s classroom which is right next to Greta’s and was able to get some pictures of Ricky too!  Graham cracker houses are just the perfect size for kids to make.  We usually do those at home so each of my 5 kids can have their own but didn’t get around to it this year.

Can you read what Greta’s shirt says??!!

And here are the finished masterpieces!!!

What a fun time we had!!

I just wanted to publicly thank Melissa at “Stockpiling Moms” for the awesome giveaway for a Zhu Zhu pet which I WON!!!!  I know one young lady who will be very excited when it arrives!!!

My Little Shepherds, Wise Men and Angels!

These pictures were taken recently at different events at our church.  The youth group(high school kids) put on a short play last week and Taylor was a beautiful angel.

Today Greta will be performing in a musical at church.  My sister and her 5 kids as well as my parents are coming to watch her.  Then we will come back to our home for a brunch as we hold our annual birthday bash for Jesus!  It’s so fun for my kids to get together with the cousins they adore!  We also exchange gifts with them so they are all anxious to get some early Christmas presents.  My sister usually spends Christmas Eve and day with her husbands family so we enjoy an early celebration with them each year.

Have a blessed Sunday!  As we approach the day of baby Jesus’ birth, may HE fill you with love and peace and joy!!  Blessings….

FFF-“Hannah’s Hats” and a Giveaway!

I apologize for not following the theme for FFF this week.  We didn’t really have any Christmas card photo re-takes as I had them done professionally this year.  I’ll post our holiday photo in a few days!

I am proud to introduce the newest little entrepreneur in our family!  My Hannah, age 13, has decided to use some of her talents to start her first business.  Last month she opened her Etsy shop selling adorable fleece hats and has since expanded her line of products offered!

These cute hats are only $4.95!

She also makes the hats for American Girl Dolls for $2.95!

Cell phone and eye glasses fleece covers with rhinestone initials  for $3.50.

And the most adorable baby gifts like these soft noisemaker baby blocks.  Each block makes a different noise.  The set  of 3 is $13.95.

She even sells blankets and quilts!

If you have the time, would you stop by her shop and show her some love by “hearting” it as a favorite shop of yours!?  She works very hard, makes all her own items, takes her own photos, uploads them and lists the items herself on her Esty shop!  (and still finds time to maintain an “A” average in school!) Click HERE.

And speaking of hats, could I just show you the cute hats that I now sell at my Etsy shop?  Tons of new colors are available so ask if you are interested in one not shown.  I carry top-of-the-line hats and add only the nicest quality ribbon and silk flowers!  The infant sizes make awesome shower/baby gifts and I also carry hats for toddlers through teens.

Infant hats with one flower on an alligator clip are only $9.50…add matching socks for $3.00 more!!!

Most come with matching ruffle socks.

 All the bows and flowers are on an alligator clip so you can remove them and wear them in the hair or add to another hat or headband!

Most come with 2 coordinating bows or flowers AND a pair of socks for only $16.00!!!!

I am adding new socks each week so please check back often.  My prices are some of the lowest ones out there as I have just reduced all of them along with shipping costs!!!

Sorry for the amount of pictures but we are both so excited about the products we have!!!!  Hannah gets so excited when she gets an order!  She takes her business very seriously and really puts love and time into the stuff she sells. If you order from her, you won’t be disappointed!!!

Have a great day and stop by the “other Hannah’s blog” to see more FFF!

Edit:  My friend, Melissa over at Stockpiling Moms is having an awesome giveaway for a Zhu Zhu Pet and Surfboard.  These toys seem to be one of the hot items this Christmas season and I haven’t been able to find one for my Greta.  Now you can have the chance to win one from Melissa by clicking HERE!

 

FFF-Holiday Baking

My kids favorite kind of cookies to make and decorate(and eat) at Christmas time are gingerbread cookies.  On Wednesday morning we woke up to sub-zero wind-chills and up to 12” of blowing and drifting snow.  School was cancelled!!!!!  We decided it was the perfect day to do some baking. 

Miss Greta is such a wonderful helper.  She loved every step of this process and was so excited to help with everything!

Taylor and Greta rolled the dough and cut out all the cookies! 

Look at all the great cookies they cut out and baked!

Then all 5 kids helped frost them.  The decorator frosting I use hardens really nice and leaves a beautiful rich shiny color!  Peter really LOVED helping decorate cookies and cried when I told him he was done…he has such a terrible cough and was coughing on his cookies all the time!!  (his, unfortunately, ended up in the trash later!)

The finished products!

And speaking of his terrible cough, we are off to the doctor to rule out pneumonia before the weekend is upon us.  He has a slight fever.  The last time he got a fever and it rapidly spiked, he went into a 30-minute seizure that even the paramedics couldn’t stop…and it turned out he had pneumonia!  I’m not taking any chances today!!!

To see more FFF, go to Hannah’s blog!

Edited:  Peter still has a fever but the doctor thinks the cold and cough are just caused by a virus.  Thanks for your sweet thoughts and comments!

Decorator’s Frosting:

2 egg white

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup light corn syrup

Assorted food colors

♥♥Beat egg whites until they hold a soft peak.  Add sugar gradually and beat until sugar is dissolved.  Add syrup and beat for one minute.  Use food coloring to get the desired colors.  Keep covered when not in use..it dries out quickly and hardens so nicely on cookies!!!