Cozy

Gracie: Mom, will you come cuddle me?

Mom: Sure.

We lay there snuggled under the ginormous flannel patchwork quilt I made for Wayne years ago. 

Mmmm... cozy.

Mom:  Do you feel pretty?

Gracie: (without hesitation) Yes.

Mom:  Why do you feel pretty?

Gracie:  Because God made me.  (pause)  But, sometimes life isn't so good. I get cuts and bruises and when I was born my heart didn't work.

Mom:  But God who made you is watching over you, healing you, and helping us take good care of you.

Gracie: I know.  (pause)  I'm going to miss you when I grow up and go away.

Mom:  You think you're going to get away from me?!  Not a chance!  I'm going to hide in your suitcase when you go off to college and I'm going to chase you wherever you go.  (Yes, I'll be a stalker mama)  No Gracie, you won't miss me because I'll always be near.  I love you.

Gracie:  I love you more.

Mom:  Impossible.

Mmmmmm......cozy.  

Creative Valentines

I wish I found these creative valentine ideas a few days ago BEFORE I picked up a box of pencils and store bought valentines from Wal-mart. Yes, they were 2.50, but next year I'm thinking outside the box.  I love all of these inexpensive, kid-can-do ideas....

MadLibs

bookmarks

photo cards

heart & lolipop paper flowers
oragami bookmarks
folding hearts

Happy valentines creating!

I really should lock up the FLOUR

A page from my mommy journal....

Feb. 7, 2009

Today I am thankful for my small kitchen.  About 2 hours ago, I was in the family room vacuuming and making things nice for when Wayne comes home.  I heard a ruccus in the kitchen and Christina called, "Mom!  You've got to see this!"  All of the kids were in the kitchen laughing hysterically.  I focused on the task at hand and reveled in the fact that all 5 children were happy and having fun together.  I love their laughter.  The calls for me to "come quickly!" continued.  I shut the vacuum off and turned to the kitchen to see what the joy was all about, when all of a sudden I saw a poof of flour fly out of the kitchen.  I told everyone to FREEZE as I surveyed the scene....all five angels were covered in a thin layer of flour.  Wesley clearly had the most fun; he was the whitest of all.  There was a thin layer of flour all over the tile floor, and the still giggling 3 little kids were sliding around on flour, clearly having the time of their life.  Thomas and Christina were cracking up; totally egging the kids on.  {I really should have taken pictures.  Note to self: have the camera batteries charged at all times.}  After allowing a final slide, I ushered the 3 little amigos straightway to the bathtub and into pj's.  Thomas & Christina helped me clean the kitchen and then they were off to get their pj's on.  As I cleaned I was so thankful that my kitchen wasn't twice the size.  I also thought that this was something I would have instigated many moons ago, so I wasn't furious, but I didn't join in {not today anyway}. I thought Wayne would prefer a clean kitchen when he walks in the door and I run out for a quick solo errand for sanity's sake.

Still, the look of sheer childlike joy on the kids' faces is etched in my mind...priceless.

Love-ly Countdown

Somewhere I saw a yummy February mobile made of gingerbread hearts.  Ama sent the kids heart cookie cutters for Valentine's Day, so we got started today baking (here's our fav gingerbread cookie recipe)....

Wesley heard me say, "Don't throw the cookie cutters."

We had fun rolling dough, eating dough, cutting dough, & eating cookies....

We poked holes in the cookies and strung cookies from ribbon.  

The girls hung their cookies at the foot of their beds and are going to eat a cookie a day as they countdown to Valentine's Day.  Thomas put his cookies in one of his mini storage buckets in his desk.  We hung Christina's cookies on her bulletin board...surprise, sis! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love, The Beantown Menzies

Fancy Pudding- a new favorite dessert

I don't have a photo, but this dessert should be easy to imagine how it aught to look.  My friend, Lee served this at our church Christmas party and I finally remembered to get the recipe from her.  We made it for FHE dessert last week & called it a success...

Fancy Pudding

Ingredients

1 box vanilla instant pudding

1 pint whipped cream- whip it in chilled bowl & add sugar to taste

crushed peppermint

peppermint flavoring (optional)

Directions

Make the pudding following the directions on the box.  Put in fridge while you make the whipped cream.  Using a spoon, combine whipped cream with pudding to whatever consistency you like.  It should be thinner than pudding, but not too thin.  I mix a little more pudding than whipped cream. (My 2nd batch was a little heavy on the whipped cream, so I added a couple drops of clear vanilla flavoring...problem solved)  Add a few drops of peppermint flavoring if you want.  Spoon into serving dishes & top with crushed peppermint.  The peppermint will soften a bit in the pudding.  This dessert would also make a great topping for brownies.

Thanks, Lee for sharing this recipe with me!  I did learn that I have dairy limitations in my old age:)  No matter, we all gave this dessert a thumbs up.

The '09 Derby Report by Thomas

Early on, I drew a design for a car.  I traced the car design onto my wood block.  Dad used the huge power saw to cut the shape of the car out of the wood block.  The back was flat and so dad and I sanded the back in so it was diagonal.  I did most of the sanding.  Then we decided where the weights were going to go.  After we put the weights in we put wood putty on it.  Then we painted it.  From the paint we had, I chose metallic blue.  Then we put weights that look like after burners on the back.  The next day we put the wheels on, and then we made sure that the wheels were aligned so that it would go straight and fast.  

At the derby we borrowed some of B. Hendrickson's graphite for the wheels.  It was fun working with dad because he let me do lots of stuff.  I liked designing the car all by myself and doing most of the work getting the car ready to race and win.  I'm thankful that dad is able to help me a lot.

It was really fun racing with my friends.  My friend, Ben's car looked like a Hummer.  It was my favorite car.  It had a machine gun, but they took it off.  You could feel the anticipation in the room.  Everyone was ready to race. 

After every race I said, "Good job" to my friends because they did really well.  Everyone's car was so fast!  

I got second in 1 race and 1st in 5.  I came in 1st place in my ward and 1st place overall.
I get to go to regionals with the other winners.  I can't wait!