Gingerbread Extravaganza!

This week we made gingerbread sleighs to decorate as a family! When Jed was growing up they used to do this every Christmas. I got the recipe and instructions from Jed's mom, Michel, a few years ago, and now I enjoy keeping the tradition alive with our family.

Benjamin helped me roll out the gingerbread dough... Here he is giving it all he's got! Luckily this heavily floured piece of dough was all the unwanted leftover bits put together. :)

Jed creates real masterpieces on his gingerbread sleighs. He makes cool scenes on all the sides: a pine tree in the snow, a Santa head, wrapped gifts, a star, a snowman.... He's a real artist!

I'm not so creative. That's why I decorated four sleighs in the time that it took him to decorate two. :)

Jed showed Benjamin how to put a wart on his nose. Jed said they used to do this when they were kids, so apparently he is just trying to keep ALL the traditions alive. :) Jed was definitely the instigator -- by 'gluing' mini m&ms on the front of all of his teeth and smiling at us with a silly grin (and a few silly warts on his nose too!). :)

Benjamin decorated a house and some gingerbread men while we decorated the sleighs. It was hilarious to watch him! He would do a big layer of frosting, then a layer of candies, then a huge layer of frosting again, and so forth...

After we were through with decorating, Benjamin took this picture. I was pretty impressed! Most of his pictures don't turn out so well - many of them are of himself, with the camera angled for a great picture up his nose. :)
Even though Eliza slept through our Gingerbread sleigh decorating, she was able to fully participate in our Graham Cracker House decorating party this morning! I invited a few friends over and we all decorated houses with our kids. At the beginning, I was helping Benjamin get started while Eliza sat in her booster across the table with a graham cracker house. She didn't have a frosting bag or any candy within reach, and so I guess she looked at the house and figured the only thing to do was start eating it. I looked up just as she was chowing down on the roof. How hilarious!
She had a fun time decorating her house. After a while of dutifully putting candies where I put the frosting, she realized that she COULD be eating this candy instead. Thus began an internal debate every time I gave her a candy to put on the dollop of frosting: "Should I eat this or should I put it on my house???" Eventually she decided to take a bite out of each of the candies and THEN put it on the house. Every time I gave her a candy, she would say, "a taste" and then take a bite out of it before putting it on the house. It quickly went downhill, and soon she was simply not interested in wasting any more candy on her house. When we were all done and cleaning up, I saw her picking off and eating the nice row of m&ms we had put on her roof at the beginning. What a sorry looking gingerbread house that was, with a gaping hole in the roof, half-eaten gumdrops all over it, and a row of missing m&ms from the top! :)

Benjamin learns a lesson from King Wenceslas...

My #1 top all-time favorite Christmas Carol is Good King Wenceslas. I have the whole thing memorized and have sung it to Benjamin over the past holiday seasons. He now asks for it whenever we sing Christmas Carols. The other day I was belting it out in the car and came to the part, "Bring me flesh and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither" and Benjamin said, "Mom, are they bad men?" I was surprised that I hadn't ever explained the story of the song to him, and immediately started to explain to him what it was about, "Oh, no, honey. Good King Wenceslas was a good, kind, serving King..." and I told him all about the story and what the words meant --- about how he was bringing food, water, and wood to the peasant man that he saw, and how his page was getting cold and didn't think he could trudge through the snow any further, and how Good King Wenceslas told him to walk in his footsteps in the snow where he would find a bit of relief from the storm. I couldn't believe it, but I actually started to get all choked up!! (I know, I am so crazy. I really love this song, though!)

Anyway, the next day we went to the library and Benjamin begged to go to the park. I relented even though it was too cold to be outside without winter parkas. Anyway, after a while I told him we needed to go inside because I was getting really cold. Benjamin then said, "Mom, walk where I'm walking, in my footsteps, and you won't be so cold." I thought that was adorable. :)

Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing,

Ye who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing.

6 months exactly

This is me at 27 weeks (6 months along). I'm due March 11. My sister, Brittany, is due on March 30 and has been asking me to take a picture of myself. So, anyway, here I am. :) Something happened during the picture, though... somehow my belly shrunk like ten inches because I just KNOW it's about twice this size in real life....

On a side note, baby boy has been kicking me like no other for weeks now. He is a squirmy little thing! Benjamin thinks it's pretty neat to feel the baby moving around in there. :) Eliza still loves sitting on my lap, but it's starting to get rather uncomfortable- for both of us! :)

Daddy's home!

I am so excited that Jed is done with his Trauma Surgery rotation at the Main downtown Detroit hospital. It was loooooong hours, and we all missed him! I took this picture a week or so ago, when Jed was staying up even later in order to read the kids a book before he crashed to bed. He had been awake and working for probably 30 hours at this point. I thought it was so cute when I discovered him reading to the kids after finally arriving home from his shift. Every time he got home again, they were so excited to see him!

An encounter with Snakey

Jed came home a couple weeks ago with a teeny-tiny little snake that he had found on the sidewalk. He had scooped it up in a cup and brought it home as a surprise for Ben and Eliza. They loved 'Snakey'! Above you can see little Eliza waving to Snakey and saying "Hi snake! Hi!"

This video is so funny! I really wish the lighting was better. Eliza wasn't afraid of holding the snake at all. She thought it was fun! However, Ben was put off the idea of holding Snakey when Snakey pooped a little on Eliza when we first took him out of the cup. (The poor snake was pretty frightened I'm sure!) At the end of the video, Benjamin declines holding him and says, "He might poop on me."

We kept Snakey for a few days in this tupperware. I felt bad starving the poor thing, so we took the kids to Petsmart and spent 70 cents on five tiny minnows (which is what garder snakes would like to eat). Well, Snakey didn't touch the minnow (who was swimming around in a bit of water in a half of an egg shell). At that point, Jed looked Snakey up on the Michigan snake registry and he is actually a brown snake, not a garder snake. And brown snakes live mostly under the dirt and like to eat slugs and worms. Ben and Jed went outside at night to search for worms, but to no avail. So we let Snakey go back to the wild. I really hope he wasn't too weak for lack of food to be able to bounce back.... Maybe we will come across him again in the summer. He was a good little pet snake! (And now I have the deaths of five little minnows on my conscious... I feel guilty that they all just died eventually.... well, three did and the other two were killed in fishbowl water changing accidents (ask the spoon, not me... we found out it's true what Jed's dad says: Use the right tool for the right job....) )

Anyway, the kids loved Jed's surprise, and we sure had fun with Snakey!

We had just put the minnow in Snakey's 'habitat'. We all sat and watched him expectantly, as if he was going to pounce on the minnow and gulp him down before our very eyes. I think we watched him for longer than I am willing to admit. "Any second now..... oh! -there, he moved toward the minnow.... hmmm..... any moment..."

Halloween 2009!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Oh, wait, did you say it's Thanksgiving in a week? Woops, I guess I'm a bit behind....

ANYWAY, we had a great Halloween three weeks ago. :) The above picture is the only family picture we got, and one of the only pictures I got of Benjamin in the two nights that we dressed up. (And he didn't really like being picked up like that - I guess it wasn't respectable for a police officer to be picked up by his mom...) But luckily my friend Melody snapped these two pictures for me at the ward Trunk-or-Treat party on the 30th. Ben was a policeman, Eliza was Little Red Riding Hood, I was a witch, and Jed was.... a doctor. Or we can pretend that was his costume. He came straight from work. :) This will be the closest he comes to ever dressing up, so we'll take what we can get. :) My awesome witch's hat came from a Halloween package my mom sent us. And the cool black cape came from my mother-in-law who sewed it just to complete my witch's costume. So, thank you so much you two!!! :)

Here is Benjamin with a few friends, pausing long enough for a quick picture. He was a policeman riding a motorcycle. He had a cute "POLICE" sign on the back of his shirt too. He had a lot of fun zooming around on his motorcycle.

Eliza was an adorable Little Red Riding Hood. She had a cute little red cape with a checkered red&white skirt and white tights. The red shoes and red bow finished it off just right. She was a cutie. Here she is in the car on the way home from the Trunk-or-Treat party. She had a BLAST devouring candy after candy...

Jed and Benjamin drove home in Jed's car, and we both got stopped in front of a train for 20 or so minutes. We sat next to each other, me in one lane and Jed in the other, and we talked to each other through the windows. (Or at least Jed and I talked to each other and the kids, while they opened and ate candy as fast as they could.) It was fun! :)

The night before we had a family activity of decorating sugar cookies. This is the only picture that worked out. But Ben was enjoying himself too... in all the other fuzzy pictures he is holding a half eaten cookie and has crumbs all around his smile. :)

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Here we are on Halloween Night at our friends house after the trick-or-treating. Ben is not in the pictures because he was in the basement running around with all the other kids. :)

Eliza was so funny while we were trick-or-treating. She couldn't keep up that well, so we held her between houses and let her walk up the driveways herself. She didn't mind being held, but she DID mind if anyone so much as touched her candy basket! When I held her, I kept thinking that candy basket must be too heavy, so I would just support the bottom of it with my hand. Oh no, she would feel the difference and would quickly spot my hand touching her basket. She would tell me in no uncertain terms that it was HER candy and no touching! It was hilarious how protective she was! She wanted to carry it all by herself. :)

Benjamin had a great time walking from house to house. He was ENTHRALLED by some of the moving Halloween decorations. I had to wait for him patiently at many houses because he just couldn't tear himself away. On a few houses, he walked right past the candy to go up close to the decorations. When he did that once, he didn't realize until we were walking on to the next house that he hadn't got any candy at the last one. He was really worried at first that he might miss out on that candy! Such a funny guy!

Fall Activities

We went to the Henry Ford 'Greenfield Village' on October 21, on one of the last nice days of the year. It was so fun! This place is a blast. It's a restored village covering 90 acres that is set in early American times. We rode in a Model T car (above), got a train ride (below), went around on the carousel, walked along the streets and had lunch on a picnic table.

Here we are on the real steam locomotive train that goes around the entire village.

I love how Ben looks so GQ in this picture. :)

Here are the girlfriends that I went with. We all smashed together on one row of the train. It's more fun that way. :)

Eliza is saying "HI!"' to the horses just beyond the gate. She loves animals.

Little cutie.

The next evening we went as a family to the annual

AUTUMN FAMILY PARTY for the residents/med students, held at a local farm. Hay rides, pizza party, real pigs and goats... It can't get better than that, especially with my hubby with me!

The kids got rides in these little cows, pulled by a tractor in the front. Benjamin loved it, and Eliza would have if she wasn't so bundled up. She could hardly move around, so it was hard for her to enjoy the experience whilst falling off the seat and slumping to the floor...

Luckily, she got a second chance at enjoying the ride by sitting on Daddy's lap instead of Benjamin's. :)

Benjamin thought he was the luckiest guy ever to get to ride it a second time.

Don't ask me how Jed managed to smash himself into that little cow. What a great Daddy he is!

A visit from Grandma and Grandpa

Ryan and Michel came to visit us for a few days in mid October. It was SO FUN to spend time together! They were our first visitors in over a year, and we were pretty excited to have them.
We carved pumpkins together on Saturday afternoon. I promise we were enjoying ourselves - I think I just forgot the prompt SAY CHEESE! when I took the above picture! =) It was funny how it turned out to be just me and Jed carving pumpkins, with Benjamin nowhere to be found. :) Benjamin really wanted the artsy kind of jack-o-lanterns from the carving booklet, so he chose the spider for him and Daddy to carve and wanted me to carve the witch stirring her bubbly cauldron.

They took longer than just a spooky face, and he was long gone, playing elsewhere, before we had really even made headway on our jack-o-lanterns. It was pretty funny. Michel and Ryan stuck it out with us, though. :) Actually, I really like carving pumpkins, and it was fun! :)


Michel spoiled us and bought some fun toys for the kids. This pink baby doll stroller for Eliza was definitely a hit. She loves it. We found her like this one afternoon - her baby is laying on the blanket next to the stroller, and she is reading a book to her. She was so cute all settled in her doll stroller with a book.

Canoe Trip

Jed, Benjamin and I got to go on a canoe trip down the Huron River! A man in our area lives on the Huron River and let us borrow his canoe. We strapped it on to the top of Jed's Honda and drove it up river only about 5 minutes. Then we floated down the river and fished as we paddled. Surprisingly, it took us 2 hours to get back to his backyard. The river goes back and forth in multiple tight S curves.
Jed had bought Benjamin a brand new fishing pole the month before and was excited to use it with him. It just happened to be a really nice day on the 20th of October, amid many chilly days. The trees along the river were so pretty with all the autumn colors. It was perfect timing. Jed was able to get an afternoon off, and we had a very fun outing together!

news news news!

Well, we have news to officially share!

We're expecting a baby in March! We are really excited to add a new little addition to our family. I'm 20 weeks along, so, we already know the gender...

Keep in mind that out of ten grandchildren, Eliza is the only girl in the family. So, in keeping with that masculine tradition, we will be having a

BOY!!

Now we can say that out of 11 grandkids, ten of them are boys in our family. So crazy!

When the ultrasound technician told Jed and I that it was a boy, I was SHOCKED. I just couldn't believe it! Which means, that out of our three kids my 'motherly intuition' has been wrong every single time. Sheesh! But of course we are both so excited about another boy!

When I went to pick up the kids from my friend's house after the ultrasound, Ben immediately asked me, "So, Mom, what is it?" I asked him what he thought it would be and he promptly (and predictably) answered, "A boy!" I told him, "Yes, it's a boy! You're right!" He was very excited and pleased about that! He has been firm about thinking it was a boy all along. Next time I will rely on his opinion instead of my own gut feeling. :)

Toledo Zoo fun!

I planned a zoo trip with some friends on October 1st. Jed and I bought a pass to the Toledo Zoo in May and then we never went back! So I decided I had to try to get my money's worth out of it, and I was glad that three friends wanted to come along with me. It was such a blast! I really love this zoo. It started out as a pretty cold day, but by noon time is was beautiful! We had a GREAT time.

In the picture above we were on the train ride, seeing the Savannah animals. Isn't that a funny face Benjamin is pulling? It makes me laugh every time I see it. He is so weird! Reminds me of his Daddy. :)

And this is just a random picture I took the other day. I thought it was cute how they were both reading books, side by side. Benjamin has always liked doing this, and it's not uncommon for me to discover him looking at books. Apparently Eliza is watching and learning!

Detroit River boat ride and flying kites

We went on a boat ride down the Detroit River a few weekends ago, in September. It was fun to see the American side of the river and the neighborhoods on the Canada side of the river. Some of the houses on the islands in the middle of the river are huge!

There are my two cute boys!

Ben kept asking me all morning if it was a REAL boat we were going on. After telling him ten times that it WAS really and truly a REAL boat, I finally understood that he was confused where the water was that this real boat was going to be floating in. :)

Jed had a Saturday morning off work and left the house mid-morning to go run some errands. But before I knew it, Ben and Jed were outside flying a kite in the air instead! Apparently, Jed got sidetracked with the windy day and decided it was perfect kite weather. He is such a fun guy!

Unfortunately, we didn't get to stay out long. It got progressively colder and more overcast until we had to run into the garage to get out of the rain.

Eliza had fun just watching from her wagon, where she was all bundled up.

We can't wait to pull out the kites again. This week is promising to be nicer weather, so we'll see!