A quick post...

I am at my neighbor's house using her computer. I don't want to take too long, but I wanted to let everyone know that I had another miscarriage. I lost the baby this weekend. We are doing very well, and I am doing better today! I have a lot of thoughts and emotions to share...I will do so another time. I wanted to thank everyone for their love and support. Most importantly for their prayers. I am definitely being shaped, molded, refined into becoming a better person thru these trials lately. I know I am in the Lord's hands and at His Mercy! I am heartbroken but feel very comforted and at peace, knowing that Heavenly Father has a plan, there is a reason, there is a purpose and I accept it all...The kids and Rob are doing well. Keep us in your prayers. Thank you!

Computer Troubles...

Just a quick post to let everyone know that we are in the process of buying a new computer. Our old one is no longer functioning. We are going crazy. I am able to go to the Neighbor's house to check e-mails, and I took the time to write this post. So, I will not be able to blog for a while or e-mail. Call me if you need me!!!!! See ya soon, and I hope everyone enjoys their Christmas. Maybe we'll have a computer up and running by Christmas...UMPH! Merry Christmas! Oh, Rob's sister Michelle Had her baby on Dec. 9th. He weighs 6lbs 10 ounces and was 20in. Long. Welcome to the family Jason Henry English. I will post more about him when we have a computer at home.

An answer to prayers...

The Lord has blessed us and answered our prayers again. We are expecting #5 sometime in August. We thought we would wait a little bit to tell everyone, but my pudge shows otherwise. Besides, the kids know and once the girls know, the word gets out, especially with Juliette, who has been telling complete strangers about her baby in Mom's tummy! We are so very excited and filled with so much love. We had no special way of telling the kids this time, they figured it out. James knew, because we talked to him about it. Sophia gave me a hug the other night and she said "There is a baby in there!". Then Juliette last week made a comment to the effect of her being sure that there was a baby on the way. So, we had to reassured them all that "YES" there is a baby on the way. This is a special time for our family. After my miscarriage two months ago we have been really praying hard for another little one. All the kids would add to their prayers "if it be Thy Will". I guess it is the Lord's Will or perhaps the power of children's prayers and their faith. Now, we are praying that all goes well and that we can be blessed with keeping this baby. Although, we have faith and know that whatever the outcome is we will accept it and learn from it. It is a growing time for our little family. There is much faith and hope abiding in our home!

Some fun Pictures...

After church I took some fun pictures of the kids. This time no one got injured or ended up in the Emergency Room, like last time...heeeehaaa! I got some good ones, except the camera is not doing so good. After I dropped it three months ago, it just hasn't been the same. The focus and lighting is always off, and what I see on the LCD screen isn't always what I see on the computer monitor, oh well!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Yummy Cookies...

I found this awesome recipe for the perfect Peanut Butter Cookies from "The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook". I like them crunchy, and this are just right. I also added some chocolate chips to the recipe (I was craving chocolate) and they were extra yummier. Sophia helped me make them and she just had a blast along side me. I love baking with her. Anyhow, here is the recipe. Enjoy making them!

P.S. I didn't add the peanuts and I used just the regular soft Peanut butter instead of crunchy. I also didn't use parchment paper, just straight onto the cookie sheet. They turned out fine.

Best Peanut Butter Cookies:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 pound unsalted butter -- or 2 cubes

1 cup packed brown sugar -- light, not dark

1 cup sugar

1 cup peanut butter -- extra crunchy

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 large eggs

1 cup dry-roasted peanuts -- ground very fine

Optional: 1 C. chocolate chips

Bake at 350 for 11-13min. (I did 11min. for my oven)

1. Adjust oven racks to the upper and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 350.

2. Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder and soda together in a bowl. Mix gently and set aside.

3. Beat the butter and sugars together in a large bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes. Beat in the peanut butter until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Beat in the vanilla, then the eggs, one at a time, until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beaters as needed.

4. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly mix in the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Add in the ground peanuts until mixed thoroughly.

5. Working with 2 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll dough into balls (or use a cookie scoop) and lay on two parchment lined baking sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart. Make a cross-hatch mark with a fork, pressing down moderately to slightly flatten the cookies.

6. Bake until edges are browned slightly (golden) and the centers have puffed and are beginning to deflate, 10-15 minutes. Rotate pans halfway through baking time.

We have three Hens laying eggs...

We have three eggs with different colors and sizes. This is the first week that we got three eggs from one trip to the coop. So, our guess is that, besides the New Hampshire Red Hen, the Black Australorp and one of the Road Island Reds are laying eggs now. The Black hen lays the white, the New Hampshire Red lays a light brown, and the other a darker brown. We have yet to see the other Hens laying eggs. We are excited about the chocolate brown, and greenish blue eggs to be produced. Patience, I guess! The eggs are smaller than the store bought kind, but the flavor is yummier and stronger. I need to take a picture of one of the eggs being fried next to a store bought one, so you can all see the difference. YUM! P.S "Rubbish" the other rooster has taken over the pack without any problems. We sure like him...

Sophia & Paden-isms...

So, Rob and I enjoyed another wonderful ride to Preschool with Sophia and Paden. These two are so cute and they can say the darn est things, especially Mr. Paden. Rob always asks him the best questions knowing that he is going to get an innocent and sincere answer. I purposely have a mini notepad in the car with a pencil to write all that I can down. This time I wrote about 3/4 of the conversations, because I got carsick, oh well...I got most of the best stuff. Here is how this ride went:

Rob: "So, Paden what is your full name?"

Paden: "Paden Anikan, and I thought my baby brother's name was Luke"

Rob: "So, you like Star wars?"

Paden: "Yeah, Darth Vator scares me, but Luke getting his hand cut off doesn't scare me"

Sophia to Paden: "I brought you a chocolate"

Paden says nothing...

Sophia: "You have to say 'thank you' Paden"

Paden: "Oh, Thank you"

Rob: asks a question regarding Paden's Christmas Tree...

Paden: "Christmas Tree is for Santa. He is going to bring me a remote controlled, orange Corvette."

Rob: "What is he bringing Evan?"

Paden: "A teddy bear"

Rob: "How about Kai?"

Paden: "A transformer"

Rob: "What about your mom and dad?"

Paden: "A big hat for Dad, and a new remote controlled monster truck for mom...that crashes into our house"

Rob: "Do you give gifts to people?"

Paden: "No, only Santa does"

Rob: "What are your parents going to buy you?"

Paden: "I don't know"

Rob: "What does Santa drive"

Paden: "hmm, a truck or something"

Sophia: "No, a sleigh with reindeer"

Decorating the tree and Santa's Letters...

We have this tradition that every year our family gets new ornaments. Our tree doesn't have any specific theme, it has a style of its own made by a variety of ornaments. Most ornaments have special meaning, like the kids' First Christmas, or the year we got our first batch of chickens, etc. We are hoping to give these back to the kids when they move out, this way they can have some ornaments to decorate their first Christmas Trees. They really like getting a new ornament each year. It is so sweet to see them put their names and the year they got them on the back. Now, the hard part has been getting Sophia to not take them off the tree. She loves touching them and playing with them. URGH! Then we had another day to write our letters to Santa. The kids got to make and decorate their own cards and they hung them on the tree. Now, we get to wait until Christmas and see what Santa brings.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Santa's Little Dancers...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

"The Candy Cane: Represents the shape of the shepherd's crook, used to bring lost lambs back to the fold. At Christmas time we are reminded of the Shepherds who had angels appear to them and tell them of the Savior's birth."

Luke 2: 15, 20 15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. • • • 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

Obedience...

Our Obligation to the Lord "We are living in challenging economic times. However, if we look back over the past years, we find there have been, and will continue to be, times of relative prosperity and times of financial uncertainty. But regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, if we first pay our obligation to the Lord and then use wisdom and good judgment, the Lord will help us manage the resources He has given us." Sheldon F. Child,

"The Best Investment," Ensign, May 2008, 80

Sophia graduates...

Good-bye High chair and hello Booster chair! I finally convinced Rob that his little baby girl could graduate to the big girl chair at the table. We have been hesitating far enough and prolonging the experience of teaching Sophia to sit at the table with the family. This was a big deal for Sophia. So we made sure we made it a big deal as well. She helped me clean the old high chair and helped Daddy take it to the attic, then a few minutes later she walked in the door with a big grin and a Booster chair at hand. We cleaned it up and then she set it up on the chair of her choosing. I helped her buckle the chair down and she climbed right in. She couldn't stop smiling and making cute sounds of pure excitement. Here are the cute pictures to prove it...

Oh~Christmas Tree, Oh~Christmas Tree...

So, with Rob's weird schedule we are having to do our tree in parts, as well as decorating for Christmas. It is kind of exciting to see what we can get done each new day and if we'll get time to do a lot. Yesterday we got the tree out and it took us about 40 min or so to put it together. We had a fun-time listening to Christmas music and perfecting the branches. The kids chose to not a get a real tree this year, and instead we are using our 13 year old tree. They couldn't wait until Dad could fit hunting for a tree, on his schedule or perhaps couldn't bare another terrible experience! Last year we got a $10.00 tree-permit and drove about an hour and a half to find the perfect tree. We headed up towards Mt. Baker, and drove on snow. After driving and looking out the window for the dream tree, we were getting tired and car-sick! We finally stopped to check out an area with possible choices, only to find out that we were stuck in the snow. After much praying and pushing, we were on the road again. Then, The Tree, The perfect Tree was sighted. By now it was getting dark and the snow was coming down harder. We geared up in our winter coats, hats, mittens, scarves and shoes to go cut this tree. We took one step only to sink down about 2 feet. So, the girls and I were out of this for sure now. James and Rob managed to cut the tree down. They did a great job! Tying it up on the car roof was another dilemma. We brought plenty of rope, but it was so darn cold and windy...it was hard to tie that tree up. Then the girls started crying because they were wet and cold. James joined in with whining about how long this was taking and so on. I can't remember all the stuff that Rob and I were telling the kids during our tree-tying process. But, it was not pretty and nice! We were so frustrated, so tired and cold!

On the way home we finally laughed at our experience and told the kids that this was going to be a family tradition each year. They all shouted "NO THANK YOU!" When we got home we had to trim the tree down because it was a bit too big. Then, as we put on the ornaments, the branches began to sag because of the weight. So, we ended up putting our most lightest, ugliest, least favorite ornaments on the tree. I had to remind myself that it was just a tree with ornaments and that the symbolism was more priceless and meaningful then the very sad "Charlie Brown" looking, Christmas Tree we had. At the end it grew on us and we just loved our simple and sad looking tree. Eventually this became a fund memory and we talked about it for days to come. I guess we will not be going along with our new Christmas tradition this year as discussed last year. I guess we are going back to the old tradition and using our old tree instead. I can handle that!

The Star...

I wonder, what does Christmas mean,

With its stars and shiny balls?

Is Christmas more than Christmas trees And toys and games and dolls?

Of this I’m sure: There’s something more,

For I’ve heard many say That in a strange and far-off land,

A child was born this day.

And Christmas is to celebrate His coming from above.

He showed us how we all should live

And told us we should love.

I thought it would be nice to try and discuss the different symbols of Christmas and their meaning for the next 24 days. It is meant to remind us of the true meaning of Christmas. We always talk to our kids about it each year as we put ornaments on the tree. I thought I'd start with the "STAR"~the new star that appeared when Christ was born and led the wise men to the Savior.

"O, star of wonder, Star of light, Star with royalty beauty bright. . .""The star was a heavenly sign of promise long ages ago. God promised a Savior for the world and a sign of the fulfillment of that promise was the great star of the East. The star now reminds us of God's love for mankind and of God fulfilling His promise.

Helaman 14:5

5 And behold, there shall a new star arise, such an one as ye never have beheld; and this also shall be a sign unto you.

Stars were gleaming, shepherds dreaming;And the night was dark and chill.Angels’ story rang with glory;Shepherds heard it on the hill.Ah, that singing! Hear it ringing,Earthward winging, Christmas bringing!Hearken! We can hear it still! See the clearness and the nearnessOf the blessed Christmas star,Leading, guiding; wise men ridingThrough the desert dark and far.Lovely showing, shining, growing,Onward going, gleaming, glowing,Leading still, our Christmas star!

Nativity time...

For as long as I can remember I always wanted a beautiful nativity set: "Willow Tree for Demdaco" to be exact. I saw this one years ago and just thought it was gorgeous, but too expensive. So, I settled for the smaller, cheaper ceramic kind (which after 4 kids they were all broken and glued together too many times). Then, last year I broke down and shopped for weeks online for my dream Nativity Set. The Willow Tree Collections of any kind are just beautiful. The figurines are amazingly carved to depict their purpose. I shopped and shopped until I found a great deal. 40% off and free shipping was just as good as I got for weeks. So, I went for it! Oh, and how glad I am that I did!!! It was such a joy to see it set up in our living room and watch the kids talk about the figurines and discussed who each represented. Although, I was anal about not letting any of them touch them...so we bought (a gift from the Abuelos) a kid's nativity set by Fisher Price that lights up and plays music. Greatest toy ever! This year I had the kids help me out with it. I was nervous that they would break them, but I wanted them to do something as a family, and we could talk about the Savior's birth at the same time. With each figurine we discussed who each was and I kept reminding the girls to please be extra careful. James had the honors of setting up the nativity on our mantle. After two ripped boxes and one broken goat's ear...we managed to look back and enjoy the sweet reminder of why we celebrate Christmas! We'll be setting up our Christmas Tree tonight with Dad. We are all excited! P.S. James took most of our pictures today, he did a great job!!