Trip to Michigan

We're here!! After a 14 hour drive (since we ended up having to stop a little more than we had hoped) we are now in Royal Oak at Steve's parents. We arrived yesterday morning, and were able to catch a nap even. We are having a blast.

Yesterday was our nephew Jack's 9th birthday, so they had a family birthday party. We went to Tim and Cathy's house, and had pizza, cake, and ice cream. We played outside, wrestled, and Steve and Tim played Guitar Hero. Apparently that was a blast. :)

I got a call at 4 am this morning and found out that my new niece is finally here! Lexy. She wieghed 7 lbs 7 oz, and was 21 in long. Everything went well.

Food

We've been very busy around the house, trying to get laundry finished, and make tortillas and cookies, for our trip to Michigan. I wanted to have a lot of tortillas so that we could use them for our wraps while we are moving and such. So, I made a huge batch, and got about 60 tortillas.
Now, they are in the freezer! They don't take any time at all to thaw out.
Anyway, as you can see, I am trying to teach our little ones responsibility, how to be a good worker/helper (they're good helpers anyway), and to do it with a good attitude, so that as they get older, they can also help others ,and when they are grown and on their own, they will know how to take care of themselves if they have to! Also, they are happier helping then when they are on their own playing all the time!

Elyana is very upset that she cannot have the plunger to walk around the house with.


Usually the children argue over who does what! So, they now just do it together. I sort the laundry , or sometimes Gabe does, I put in the water and detergent, and they put the clothes in. Then, when the clothes are done in the wash, I take them out and put them into a basket, and they put them in the dryer while I get the washer ready again.

The floors also needed a good wash, even though we do mop, I thought it would be good to do a really good job since we would be leaving, and people will be coming in to look at the home as a possible rental option.






Enjoying the tortillas that I just made! The children wanted ham rolls right away!
going into the freezer.
This bread is a whole wheat soda bread I wanted to try, as it has no yeast, and only about 2 tbsp of honey, which could be cut in half.


Yummy, breakfast, with goggles!


Elyana enjoying breakfast, and Gabe enjoying breakfast while wearing his new swim goggles.

These are my oatmeal cookies that I love, and I had some blue berries and raspberries to use up, so I threw those in also!

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 c butter
1 1/2 c brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
6 c oats
1/2 c applesauce
1/2 c honey
about 1 1/2 handfuls of ground flax seed meal.


I added about 1/2 -3/4 cup of flour to this. I found this recipe online, and then changed a few things. I added the applesauce and honey and took that cup of sweetener from the brown sugar. . I also added cinnamon, and chocolate chips. The cookies are very very soft and chewy, which is how I love them. If you try it, I hope you enjoy it!
The raspberries went great with the chocolate chips.

This is Gabe and Virginia, enjoying MckMama's Sour Cream and Spinach Pancakes, with blueberries added, and blueberry cream cheese!!! Very yummy!

Sooo...This week has been extremely busy.

I Promised More

I promised more photos, so here they are. Some from the MckPicnic
as well. What a blast that was!!!! Loved meeting another mom that
has children so close in age like we do!

Daddy's on nights, but we can still take a nap with him!


The wool diaper cover I'm knitting. I now am almost complete, and
will get more photos.

Mommy, Michael (in the sling), and Elyana going down the slide!

Gabe and Gini wanted to eat with their "friends" :) So
I agreed. Lovely family.
MckMama, Stellan and Michael. Boy did Michael like
Stellan!

Haha I don't even know what to say about this one!
Stellan, Virginia, Michael, and Gabryel
We usually do not have cheetos and chips at our house, but they were on
sale, and "Aunt Shannon has cheetos"! Well, ok then, we have to have them
too!
Big Mac, Gabe, Elyana, and friends.
Ranch....It's the new ketchup. Of course I always put a bib on my
children when they eat.
Umm...Asian Chicken, with peppers and onions
I made rice as well. It was really good, and turned out
really well for my first "shish-ka-bobs".


Gini is our stealthy one. She was in her room for an hour, and all was quiet.
Steve heard a bump and went to investigate. He found Gini in
the basket on her back, with her feet sticking out, just laying there.
Why? because she's Virginia. I mean just check out the bucket head photo.


Someone doesn't want daddy to go to work!
See?? She loves to wrestle her daddy, and love on him.
And the rest usually join in.

Recent Happenings

We have been very very busy recently. We've been looking for a new place to rent, preferably one that is cheaper than what we have now, but that has a backyard, and that we could plant some veggies in. We found it!! We're so excited. The floors are all laminate, so no carpeting the worry about, the backyard is all ours. The best part?? There's a very old upright piano in the garage! The landlord was going to leave it if I wanted it, so hopefully he did. It's beautiful. We get to plant some veggies in the old flower gardens. I'm not good with flower gardens, and they're a lot of work when I can be working on something that produces something useful. I'm not a flower person anyway.

I am also in the process of making cloth diapers and covers for our babies! I have a pattern that I am going to make some AIO (All in ones), some pockets and covers, and I also learned how to knit off the internet the other night, so I am about half way done with my very first, wool diaper cover! I missed a couple stitches here and there, but all in all, I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

We are also preparing for our two week trip to Michigan. We are so excited to go, and that the Lord has given us such a long vacation time! Then, when we get back, Steve will be on his week of nights, then we are moving to the new place! So busy, yet so exciting! Plus, I have material on the way for those diapers! Yikes!! So much to do, and also taking the children, and exploring so much.

Elyana is saying so many words this week, I don't even know which ones were her first! She says dog, she just said "Bah!" for bye tonight, for the first time, She was trying to say hippo, with the Little Einsteins movie. Oh! now I remember, she said baby a month or so ago. That truly was her first word, aside from the momma and dada. Of course she said dada first 'cause she's a daddy's girl and all. I just started last night putting her in her bed to sleep instead of holding her. I figured I would do it when Steve is on nights as he doesn't handle the crying very well, and.....so far, she likes it. I thought she would, as she was starting to fight us trying to get comfortable to sleep, and Gabe did the same thing, so I thought it was time. Tonight went even better. It took less time than last night. I sat by the toddler bed knitting so she could not get up, and out she went. YES! I am hoping to knit her some baby legs. I got the idea for those from this post on another blog that I follow. Wonderful idea to use them for potty training! Elyana like to try so I'm hoping to do it this fall/winter, and with the babylegs in place of pants at home, hopefully it will work!
Michael is army crawling all over now! He just started scooting everywhere this week, and nothing is safe! He uses his elbows, and get up on his knees to push himself forward. He loves to get around that's for sure. He is still sleeping well.

Gabe is getting big, and really using his imagination! He told me on the way out of Walmart the other day (it was quicker than driving to Target since it was right on the way) that I could go get the car, and him and Gini would stay with the babies and wait for me, and when I got back with the car then they would get in. I said I don' t think so, but thank you for offering! hee hee

Gini is Gini. She is no longer napping, unless she is very very tired, and is having less meltdowns. When she does, she goes in her room, until she comes out without whining (unless she hasn't eaten then I give her something to get her sugar levels up). It is working well, and I started using my timer, and when they are not obeying, they have to sit by the wall for 3 minutes. Then they can get up, we talk about it, and they have to apologize. We're getting somewhere! There is light at the end of the tunnel. God truly gives you wisdom when you ask for it, you just have to use it!! This is a great article on wisdom. Very short, but deep. Just scroll to the third page.

Well, I have a few pictures to post as well, but won't be able to do it tonight, as I have sewing to do! I'll try to get some of them up tomorrow, and give some more details about the MckPicnic!