In the kitchen

So far I've had three kids who enjoy cooking...although Kaylyn only became interested in the past few months, so it took her longer. Kinley loves it! She makes cakes all on her own and decorates them. She makes Ramen noodles after school and has cooked supper with supervision a few times. We have an old cookbook for kids that my stepmother gave to her a couple of years ago. She got it out the other day and found a few things she could make. On this day she made something called Wake Up Drink.

So, we got our ingredients together...I had to add sugar to the ingredients since our orange juice was unsweetened.

I cup up the apple while Kinley put everything into the blender.

Then she did the mixing. I was the only one who liked the drink...I actually loved it. Landon drank some but didn't love it. If I had the ingredients I'd make some more...or get Kinley to make it for me.
The next thing she wanted to make had something to do with peanut butter...I think I'll wait a while on that. I don't know if we have the all-clear on that yet.

Helping Daddy

Jose' gave Landon a lesson in changing the oil in my Expedition this past weekend. He loved it!

His Other Mom

Not everyone is lucky enough to have a Mother in their life. Someone who loves them unconditionally, no matter what they do and someone who cares what happens to them and worries about them. Some people spend their whole life looking for that Mother figure. Not Stephen. His Aunt Sherri, my twin sister, has been there for him from day one. We named her as his godmother and she has lived up to that responsibility. She stayed with us for the first two weeks of his life and bonded with him, maybe more in the beginning than I did. I was recovering from a c-section so she slept with him, got up with him, fed him and got him back to sleep. Those memories are precious to her. I'll never forget how when he was a week old she left for the weekend to give us some alone time. She went to my other sister, Lori's, house and when my BIL asked her how the baby was doing she broke down. She cried like she had left her own baby. She loved him like he was her own. She still does. I hope she knows how much I appreciate her. I hope she realizes what an influence she has on his life. I know if anything ever happened to me he, along with my other three kids, will still have a Mother.

Thank you Sherri for loving my kids like they were your own. Thank you for welcoming him into your home and making it his second home while he's at school.

Happy New Year

We had a very quiet New Year's Eve. It was just Jose', Landon and I here for most of the night. Stephen was out with friends, Kinley was at my sister's house and Kaylyn went to her boyfriend's house for the first part of the night. My sister and her kids usually come for new year's eve but didn't this year. Jose' and I cooked our usual food for that night...ham, black eye peas, cabbage and bread in my bread machine. We decided not to do our fireworks since it was just the three of us and Landon usually doesn't enjoy them much. We saved them for the next night when my sister and her kids would be here to do them with us. We played the Wii with Landon a lot and after Kaylyn and Zach got back they played with him.

New Year's day Sherri and her kids and Kinley got here and they stayed for a few nights. The first night we did our fireworks and Landon LOVED them. We started him on a new medication that I thought wasn't working but I realized that night they are. He's never wanted anything to do with fireworks and would usually stand way back with his hands over his ears. This time he was right in the middle of it all and even did the sparklers...a lot of them. He was just so happy :-). I loved seeing him have so much fun with something he is normally afraid of.

The next night Jose' made a fire in the back yard and we roasted wieners for hot dogs and made smores. It was a perfect night for it, not too cold but cold enough to want to be close to the fire. Jose' had 80's music playing :-). After a while Jose's cousin and three of his kids and two cousins came over and stayed until midnight. The kids played football in the back yard until we called our's in for baths. It was a fun night.


Kinley and Madison were busy those few days throwing birthday parties for their "babies". New Year's night they did a party for Madison's babies, Grant and Anna. They made their own cake...did a good job on it, played games and even had gifts for them.
The next day was Tommy and Molly's party, these are Kinley's babies. Again, they baked and decorated a cake by themselves. We played pin the tail on the donkey and some other games and had cake and gifts.
I can't get ANY of the pictures from her party to load :-(. Maybe I'll try again later.

Making Cookies

I love seeing my kids do something together and get along doing it. Nothing makes me happier than seeing them have fun doing something together :-). Christmas Eve Kaylyn made gingerbread and sugar cookies as gifts for her boyfriend and his mother and asked Kinley to help her. They even gave Landon a job. It took them several hours and not once did they fight about anything.

At first Kaylyn was having trouble getting the dough to roll out so I showed her how to use flour so the dough won't be so sticky...that worked. After that they did the rest.

Our Christmas

I'm just now getting around to doing this but better late than never, right :-). It is Sunday night and the kids go back to school tomorrow. I don't know if I am sad because I will miss them or happy because I need some alone time. Jose' also goes back to work tomorrow. Landon has been saying he doesn't want to go back but while taking a bath tonight he said he misses his friends and could he go to school tomorrow. Kinley has been sad and watching the clock all day. Stephen left this afternoon to go back to college.

We had a very very nice Christmas and I had all my family home for two weeks. We've gotten use to staying up very late and sleeping late the next morning. It will be hard to get up at our normal time in the morning. Christmas eve we did the same thing we do every year. First we go to my dad's house around 5:00 and stay until around 8:00. There were 21 of us there. My niece, Jessica, drew my name and got me some pajamas and houseshoes from Victoria's Secret. They kids got too much to list between the four of them. It's so chaotic during present opening that I sometimes don't even know everything they got until we get home.

My dad and Kaylyn

Daddy and Lynn with all the grandkids.

I think it's time for Kinley to stop standing in front of her Daddy for pictures LOL.

After we left my Dad's we went to the in-law's house. We try to save room so we can eat again there. My MIL makes turkey tamales every Christmas eve. My contribution is always a vegetable tray w/dip. Most of the family was there but we were missing a couple. One BIL didn't come and one niece was with her Dad this year. My MIL got me a very nice Thomas Kincaid snowman. He's glass and the front of his belly is open and you can see a village in there with lights on in all the windows. Then there is a little train that goes around and around the base. It all sets on a wooden base. I was so surprised!! She usually doesn't know what to get me and will sometimes even just give me money. It made me feel good that she chose something that nice for me. My SIL got me a picture frame. We stayed there until around 10:30.

Me and my father in law.

When we got home we let the kids play a little while with their new toys. Then they got ready for bed, set our their gifts in separate piles and Kinley put out the milk and cookies and a letter she wrote to Santa. The letter says...Thank you elves for making all the toys for all the boys and girls. Thank you Mrs. Claus for making Santa Clause so round and plump. Most of all thank you Santa for delivering presents to all the boys and girls. I hope I am on the Nice list.

The kids all went to sleep very fast and it felt so good to finally get in bed that night. My favorite part of Christmas is going to bed on Christmas eve excited about the next morning and listening to Christmas music until I fall asleep. I'm just so happy at that moment!!

The kids didn't wake us up until 7:00 the next morning. Like always the kids waited in the hall until everyone was ready and then I opened the door. Landon had been practicing running down the hall LOL...he was ready. We spent the next hour seeing what we got and opening our gifts. We take turns opening one at a time so we could enjoy each one. I had a very nice Christmas! Stephen got me an IBook, Jose' got me a personal DVD player, house shoes, Victoria Secret panties, a goodie bag of things he knows I like and earphones for my dvd player. We helped Stephen get a Mac laptop and we got him Doc Martin boots, a Fossil watch and jacket. Kaylyn got a pink Dell laptop, down comforter and sheets, cross necklace, hair straightner and blow dryer. Kinley got American Girl twin dolls with a stroller, a chalk and marker board easel, disco light for her room, art supplies, Crayola magic light, Pictureka game and a footprints ring. Landon got a Wii with three games, guitar, Crayola magic light, dancing reindeer and a Trouble game. There were other small things but this was most of it. Jose' had a good Christmas too. I got him a cross necklace, pajamas, a Snapfish calendar I made and Stephen got him a surround sound system for the living room.

Kinley with her new babies, Emma and Andrew. I had more pictures from that morning to share but for some reason it's not wanting to add certain ones.

After we did gifts we ate Grands cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then Jose' and I started cooking lunch. He fried the turkey and made dressing and I made a brocoli rice and cheese casserole, homemade mac and cheese and bread in the bread machine. We didn't eat until around 2:30 because we ate such a late breakfast. We watched Elf while we ate and then just played the rest of the day. When it got dark we did our stockings. We started that tradition a few years ago. It gives us something to look forward to all day :-).

So, that was our Christmas. It was over too fast and as always that night I was sad. It's just such GOOD family time.