Holiday Happenings

We "misplaced" our camera for a little while but we finally found it. I don't have many pictures as to what we have been doing during this Christmas season but I have a few recipes. One afternoon the kids were driving me bonkers and I decided we needed to do something interactive. I remembered my mom had done cinnamon ornaments with my nieces and nephews one year so we decided to give it a try. They actually turned out pretty cute and they make your house smell lovely. It's a very good preschool on up aged activity. Here is the recipe I used:

1 cup cinnamon

1 tbsp cloves

1 tbsp ground nutmeg

1 tbsp ground ginger

3/4 cup applesauce

2 tbsp Elmer's glue

In a bowl combine spices. Add applesauce and the glue. Stir ti combine.

Knead the mixture by hand for 2-3 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Divide into 4 equal portions. On lightly floured board, roll each portion to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut dough with floured cookie cutters. You can make a hole at the top to add ribbon to hang at this point. Place each ornament on wire rack and allow to dry at room temperature for several days. Turn ornaments over daily so they will dry evenly. Once dry, add ribbon to hang them with. Spray with water to refresh the scent throughout the season.

I wish I had some pictures of the kids making them but I don't. Maybe next year....

On Sunday we got together with the Philly Black's to make gingerbread houses and visit with John-David's Sister and husband. We only got two pictures before our camera battery died on out finally located camera. Jackson and Jocelyn's house is the one shown. It was a home that was hit hard by a storm and was already struggling from poor building materials and less than focused builders. Some were enjoying the candy free for all that was placed in front of them instead of concentrating on the house. Eve and Eliza's house is shown in the right corner. Much more focused builders thus a much more quality house.

A gingerbread house hit by Hurricane Jocjac.
The happy builder's. You'll notice on the face of Jackson that he was really getting into things and was eating some of the "mortar". He left a lot of evidence.

I went to a cookie exchange this week and decided to try to come up with a recipe to use Hershey Mint Truffle kisses. They have become a favorite of mine this year. Here is one more holiday recipe for you to try especially if you like mint and chocolate.

Mint Truffle Kisses cookies

2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 pkg of Hershey Mint Truffle kisses, unwrap about 24 kisses

Heat oven to 350 Degrees. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until creamy. Add egg and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating well. Drop rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for about 7-8 minutes, pull out and put a kiss in the center and cook for about 1 minute longer. Make sure you don't over bake. Remove and allow to cool slightly before transferring to a wire rack to cool. This cookies are delicious and make and excellent neighbor gift.

The verdict is in

The other night Jackson and I were boxing on the Wii. After our match, the baby punched at my belly. I told Jackson this and he said, "The baby likes to punch. I bet it's a boy". Well apparently Jackson could sense a boy because we found out today that baby # 4 is a boy. I guess we are in for more wrestling, tree climbing and football. Everyone is very excited for are baby.

On a side note: John-David's favorite number is 13. Jackson is the 13th grandchild on the Black side and this boy is the 13th grandchild on the Meier side. I guess 13 is a lucky number for boys in our family.

Kelsey's Party

I am finally getting around to posting pictures of Kelsey's birthday. It was a two day event which we started on her birthday. We started our her day with puppy pancakes to go with our theme of puppies.
Her actual birthday party was the next day so for her birthday, Dad took her out on a date for ice cream. She loved that. She still talks about the ice cream.When she got home we let her open a present. It is so cute watching a two year old open presents. They get so excited about the smallest things. She cheered once she opened the present even thought she had no idea what it was.
The next day her Philadelphia cousins came up for a birthday party. We started off the party with pin the patch on the puppy. That's always a classic. Then we played a few rounds of musical bones. After that we played hide the bone. This was a great crowd for these silly party games. They thought they were great.
We opened the rest of Kelsey's presents which was more cute two year old excitement. She loved cheering for herself after each successful present unwrapping. This present was a definite hit. I think Jackson is just as happy that she got the bike as she is. She loves riding it through the house. I think my favorite part of my kids birthday's is the look on their face when they get their cake. It makes everything worth it. Our fat Dalmatian cake.

We tried to take a picture of Kelsey with her cousin Tabitha in matching pj's but they weren't much for posing. We figured we would try. We are grateful that our Philly cousins could spend the day with us. Thanks.

Happy Birthday Kelsey and 100th Post

I thought that having today be my 100Th post and Kelsey's birthday was quite fitting. It's hard to believe that my baby is two. This little girl is truly the ray of sunshine in our family. Each of our kids have such unique personalities that really add to our family and Kelsey adds such joy.

This is a picture the day we brought her home from the hospital. She didn't even weigh 5lbs and barely was 17 1/2 inches long. Pretty tiny little peanut.


This is Kelsey last year around her birthday.
It didn't take her long to catch up to kids her own age. Here is Kelsey now. I will know on Monday her exact height and weight but she sure has grown. She generally is an inch or two taller that kids her age. People often comment how tall she is. I get a good laugh about it knowing how small she started.
A few things about this blue eyed baby.
* This girl loves to dance and she has got some moves. When she hears music she starts moving her shoulders and then her whole body starts going. It's hilarious to watch. She'll often say, "I need to dance" when she hears a beat. She also loves to dance in her Sunday shoes. She thinks they are tap shoes and wears them around the house. I think we have a tap dancer in the making.

* Kelsey loves babies. I can't emphasize this enough. When we lived in Columbus she use to find our friend's baby Evi, who is exactly a year younger than Kelsey, and drench her in love. If Evi was in her car seat, Kelsey would rock it. If she was being held, Kelsey would come and tickle her. She has done this same thing to the babies in our ward here. She carries her baby doll around and whenever we go to the store she finds the doll isle and tries to adopt a new one. I think she will enjoy having a baby in the house (well that is until she realizes that she loses the reigning baby title).

* Kelsey loves animals especially cats and dogs. They are right up there with babies. She stands at our glass door looking for animals that pass by our house. She also tries to tickle them but from afar.

* She is the friendliest little thing. Kelsey says hi to everyone...about 10 times but you feel welcome. If we are in our yard and some one passes our house she makes sure she says hi. When ever her dad comes home she greets him like she hasn't seen him in months. It's so cute.

* She is the family cheerleader. She cheers for everyone over the smallest thing. Every time Jocelyn practiced her scripture for the primary program, Kelsey would yell, "Yeah Joceboos" and clap. She is a great supporter.

* What a snuggler this girl is. She loves to give kisses and hugs. She always runs up to me and says, "Hi Mamaluvins" and gives me a hug and a kiss. It just melts your heart.

I could go on about this little girl because she is just so fun. Jackson and Jocelyn adore and so do her parents. We are so glad to have her in our family. We love you Kelsey or as Jocey calls her, May.

Imagination at it's finest

Imagination is not in short supply at this house for some people. We didn't have the appropriate equipment for the kind of person Jackson wanted to be so he invented his own.

Can you guess what he is?

Flu Shot Madness

I have been trying to get flu shots for the kids and I for about the past 6 weeks. Well, more the past 6 weeks for the kids and me a little shorter. Their pediatrician has been out, my family practice doctor has been out, my ob/gyn doesn't give them but urges me as a pregnant woman to get both flu shot and the H1N1 shot, and the pharmacies that have sponsored flu shot clinics have been canceled due to shortages. I have called our doctors office regularly to find out if they have been restocked but alas they hadn't and they didn't know when they would get more. I happened to call the other day and they told me a clinic that the Lehigh Valley Medical Network was offering on Saturday. I went to their website and there was my chance to get not only a shot for me but the kids as well. The best part about it was that it was free and a drive-thru. The website said they would not run out and they offered the clinic from 9-3 Saturday and Sunday. The one on Saturday was held at Dorney Park parking lot, the local Amusement Park. Since it was a drive-thru clinic you just stayed in the car. Well Saturday rolled around and I took the kids for a little drive. As I approached the free exit to the park, I was amazed that there was a line backed up on to the freeway. It took us an hour just to get off the freeway ramp to wait in another line to get our shots. It was like we were at a rock concert. Once we got the shots which took all of 4 minutes, we left the park to find lines just as long if not longer than before of people waiting for their shots. The paper reported today that about 10,000 shots were given out. I was truly grateful for this service but seriously, 2 hours to wait for a flu shot? My questions is why don't they distribute all those shots to all the doctors offices that were out and the pharmacy flu shot clinics that are out? I am no health administrator but wouldn't have that been a little more efficient and faster? It seems that every year we have flu shot shortages. Is it impossible to use the numbers from the year before to get a guessimate of how many shots we are going to need for the coming year? I realize I know nothing in this area but I am just tossing it our there as an idea. I guess next year I'll start calling in July for our flu shots to ensure we get one.

Halloween Week

This week we had a few different Halloween festivities going on. We started out the week by doing the traditional pumpkin carving. Our kids are finally at the age where they actually have an opinion about what their pumpkins are carved into. Jackson wanted a spider to go with his costume. I am glad that dad was on that design committee. I am not much of an artist but John-David did pretty good job at free handing a spider. As I was reviewing the pictures I took from the evening, this one of Jackson caught my eye because his goofy face looked a lot like this photo

that we took of Jackson from his first Halloween 4 years earlier. I guess pumpkin guts really makes him feel goofy.

Jocey wanted a happy-Jocey face pumpkin. She was modeling what that would look like. It turned out a little different than that but close. She really doesn't like the scary part of Halloween like Jackson does so she likes to add the word happy to things like a happy witch or happy ghost. I think it makes her feel less scared. Kelsey looks like she has been eating dirt off the pumpkin but that has just remnants of our "graveyard dessert" on her face. We made her a happy jack-0-lantern too but hers had a little snaggle tooth:)
John-David was on an Emergency Department(he says it's not a room, it's a department)rotation this month and was able to complete all his shifts by the 24th. We decided to use his little break to go to the temple. We are in the Washington D.C. temple district which is about 3 1/3 hours away. Although the Manhattan temple is closer, we decided to go to D.C. because I have never been. We left right after preschool on Wednesday and hurried down there so I could go to an evening session. After I dropped the family off at the hotel I drove to the temple. I have always heard how beautiful the D.C. temple is and that is known to cause some traffic congestion because of it's beauty but it still took me by surprise. As I rounded the corner of a very dark road and suddenly a brightly lit fairy tale castle was in front of me. Actually it was the temple but that's what it reminded me of. It choked me a little. I was also in awe of it's size. I know many temples have multiple levels because they are built in downtown metropolitan areas but this had multi levels and it was free standing. It was huge. I didn't realized that it's the largest temple the church has. Pretty neat.

John-David ventured to the temple the following morning then after he returned home, we hoped on a subway and headed into D.C. Our kids of course loved the subway ride and I have to say they are cleaner than N.Y.'s. We didn't have a lot of time so we had to just pick what we thought would keep our kids attention the longest. We decided to hit the Museum of Natural History first and on our way there we crossed the Mall. We got a shot of the capital building but as you will notice in the picture, the Mall has seen better days. John-David though that it was still recovering from Inauguration and the tourist season. Maybe but it looked kind of trashy. I hope I can come back another time and see it in better repair.
Jackson loves dinosaurs and was more that happy to see all the bones the museum had to offer. They also had a pretty amazing Ocean exhibit. The great thing about this museum is that it is free. Most of the museums in the area are free.
After the Natural History museum, we headed to the Aerospace museum. I think it had a more official name but that sound good for now. It was a pretty amazing museum and it had a lot of cool simulations of different flight things but I am still partial to the Air force museum in Dayton. Nothing can match the shear immense size of that place.
We were running out of time and energy but thought that we needed to go and see a few of the monuments in the area. The White House is in the background of this photo of the two nut cases shown here. I really wanted to walk to the gate but settled of this photo instead.

The Washington Monument.

We walked over to the memorial for World War II and the reflecting pool but I was having some hip issues and didn't have the energy to walk to the Lincoln memorial. I figure that in the next 5 years we will come back at least once and we will get to see the rest of D.C.

We left early Friday morning to be back in time for Jackson's preschool Halloween parade and party. Jocelyn wanted to be dressed up for the occasion and got her witch get up on.
Jackson's class plus the other afternoon class paraded around the school and then down the block. It was quite the parade. I need to insert something here. I must give credit where credit is due. Although this is not a good picture of the spider costume, John-David was a very important part of that costume coming together. I did sew the legs on the costumes but it was our in house surgeon who hand sewed each segment of the legs and then sewed them together to make them move when Jackson moved his arms. I am glad that all this surgical training is getting put to good use:) I also have to give John-David all the credit for our previous post. He was the one who came up with the entire announcement idea and actually he is the one who did the post. He can be pretty creative.
In Columbus and now here, Trick or Treating is done on a night other than Halloween. Yes I know this is strange but we just go with the flow so we went trick or treating on Friday night. I am learning that I do not take wonderful pictures. I have this one of them before they went out and then two black ones of while they were knocking doors. We just hit our street but felt that was a sufficient amount of our little goblins. Kelsey was very serious about it and if the bowl of candy was offered to her she would help herself to more than one. People thought that she was so cute though that they didn't care. She has sweet tooth especially for suckers.
The following night, on Halloween, our ward had a party but of course I forgot the camera. I dressed up like a cat and John-David put a sign on him that said "Meow". He went as the cat's meow. Yes, that was once again one of his ideas. I think he just didn't want to get dressed up like Frankenstein as Jackson wanted. As part of the party they had a "Trick or Trunk". If we didn't already have enough candy we now have doubled the stash. Our kids are going to rot out and I am going to gain 50 lbs, non- pregnancy related. I did snap this picture of Kelsey when we got home that was kind of funny. I dumped all of the kid's loot over the two day period in a grocery sack for each of them. Kelsey was not going to put hers down. She was determined to protect her candy.

As a side note and something to look forward to as a future post, Bethlehem, Christmas City, USA, is in full decorating mode. About 1 1/2 weeks ago I was taking Jackson to school and noticed all the Christmas trees they were tying to the stop lights. Large bells have also been seen adorning the stop lights now. Yesterday on the way to the ward party we spotted large candles by freeway entrances. And in my own little community of Hellertown, the man down the way finished the stable he was building in the front yard and is now in process of putting together the nativity. On the other side of the yard, it looks like he is putting together a Santa scene. At least we can say now we are in the month of November and it doesn't sound nearly as insane that they are already decorating for Christmas. Tis the season.

Halloween preview

In preparation for Halloween we decided to sample some of our upcoming costumes. All of them are home-made!
Jackson the spider

Jocelyn the Witch

Kelsey the Witch

Mom and Dad the bakers!
You might be asking yourself, "Now why would they choose to be bakers?"
Naturally because there is a bun in the oven!
It'll be fresh for delivery in April 2010!

Fall Fun

Some people at our house must be really ready
for sledding season.... or just really creative.

Our Country "Bump"kin

As you can tell, I haven't been apart of the blogging world lately. We didn't really have anything exciting going on but then John-David's sister Bonnijane came to visit. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures really while she was here and then all the kids got sick. We've had horrible rainy weather here as well so we haven't been out much. Finally on Monday the sun came out and we were in between people being sick so we decided to venture to the park. We were having a nice time until Jackson made a poor choice and needed a little time out. I, being mother of the year, left my almost two year old unattended on the 5-12 year old play ground on the slide platform while I sat Jackson on a bench for a little "thinking time". Next thing I hear is crying and I turn around to find Kelsey is on the ground flat on her back. I run over to her, check her over, discover no blood and we go sit on the bench. I check her again and notice there is a little blood on the side of her mouth but I assume that is from the fat lip forming. I decided it was time to go. I put her in the stroller, gather the other two and begin the walk home. All the way home Kelsey cried. When we got home she cried for another hour. I couldn't figure out why until during Family Home evening I look down while she was laying in my lap and see this.

No wonder she was crying for so long. She lost part of her front tooth. Most mothers would have thoroughly inspected their children's mouths right after they fell. Not me. Now she has a snaggle fraggle tooth. I wanted to cry when I saw it. Her poor little mouth. It must hurt her too because she cried when she tried to eat an apple slice and gave it back. I think I might take her to a pediatric dentist. She has always been our wild dare devil and I think it has finally caught up with her. Kelsey displaying her new "snaggle".

At least you can't tell from a far that she has a country bumpkin tooth. I guess she just is getting ready for Halloween. Maybe I should have her go as a pumpkin instead.

Visit from Grandma

This past week we were fortunate to have my mom come and visit for 8 days. We scheduled a lot of things so my mom could see as much of the area as we could. The kids were so excited to have Grandma Larna Jeano come visit because they got to be roommates for the week. We have a spare bed in their room and when they would wake up in the morning, they would all lay in bed and talk. I felt sorry for grandma because she got an early wake up call especially considering the two hour time change but I was in heaven. I didn't have to wake up to little kids pressing their faces against mine asking for breakfast.

We showed grandma all sites in Bethlehem and then we ventured out to the surrounding areas. Lancaster County is about 1 and 1/2 hours from us and is home to a large Mennonite and Amish community. My mom likes reading books about them so we thought we would check out the area.
I had done a little research on the Internet as to where to go once you got to the area. There was a tour boasting that it was the best one because you leaned a lot about the Amish and why they are the way they are. I will give them 4 stars as far as information goes but I was a little perturbed by the fact the authentic Amish house was in the same parking lot as the Target. It was actually located right next store. It's hard to get authentic feel when I can see the big red target logo from the back of the farm. I eventually got over the fact that the Amish are just cashing in on our stupidity of wanting to find out who these people are and went with it. After we explored the farm we decided to go to a few of the towns to see what was there.
We checked out a few of the bakeries and even bought a jug of the most disgusting root beer made from yeast. John-David was pretty sure it was home made moonshine.
One thing we came across that was pretty fun was a pretzel factory. The place gave a little tour and then showed you how to twist a pretzel. Kelsey absolutely loves pretzels and the fact they had free samples at her arms reach was like she had died and gone to heaven. She was munching on them so much that the lady behind the register filled a cup to send with her for the road. I don't know that we will be rushing back to Lancaster County any time soon but we learned some things like how to twist pretzels.

The real reason why my mom comes and visits us is to really just pick apples. She loves apples and we haven't missed a year yet picking them. Since we were new to the area, we didn't know exactly where the best place to go so we went with the one that was closes to us. I think it was a good choice. You got your boxes from the ladies at the register then you got on a bus with the top cut off and they took you to the orchards. Minimal walking for little legs and the scenery was beautiful.

The apples were pretty big and they tasted pretty good. My mom was having so much fun picking that we ended up with two boxes full.
As we were leaving the orchard, I looked over and saw this church. From this picture it looks like it's a temple but it's not. The scenery alone makes me want to come back next year but unfortunately we saw a big for sale sign on the end of the property. It might not be around next year.
Jackson and Jocelyn using teamwork and a wagon to get the apples to the van.
On Saturday morning we went down to Philadelphia. I wanted to do something I hadn't experienced yet so we went to the Italian market. It's a few blocks of open air market with fresh produce, fish and all sorts of stuff. It was so fun. I would highly recommend this if you like something a little out of the ordinary and really cheap produce.
It was hard to get a picture of it to give you a real feel of what this is but just come and visit us and we will take you there:)
I couldn't pass up taking a picture of this. When I showed John-David this, Jocelyn looked too and said, "Why is there a radio on that bike?" Good question Jocelyn.

We couldn't have my mom leave Philadelphia without trying a Philly cheese steak sandwich. John-David had heard the two best places to get one were just down the way from the Italian market so we ventured down to Geno's. It's pretty famous and a lot of famous people have gone there. The walls were lined with photos of people eating one of their sandwiches one being Slyvester Stalone. We decided that even though the sandwiches were $8.00 a piece if Rocky eats them we would too. I personally thought it was the best Philly I have had in Philly but I still think my mom makes the best. I have issues with ketchup being on the Philly cheese steak sandwich and that's what everyone does here.
After stuffing our faces with food we headed back to Independence Hall for our tour. It's a good thing I had taken the tour a few times because with kids you don't get to hear a lot.
My mom made sure that Jackson learned how to make rope with this guy. He thought it was cool. Jackson was really excited to see the liberty bell for some reason. He kept asking when we were going to see it. When we finally got there, he marched right up to it, put his hands on his hips and posed. He really wanted a picture with the bell.
Kelsey didn't really want a picture with the bell.
Aside from all our travels, we put grandma to work. She cut 6 inches off of Jocelyn's hair. She help me sew all the Halloween costumes, made treats for us to eat like apple pie and she was the official helper for the two older kids. They wanted grandma to help them with everything and it was blissful. Grandma got to walk Jackson to and from his preschool class each day he had it. One day I picked him out without grandma and I was greeted with, "Where's grandma?" He was not to happy to see dear old mom.
I had been saving our visit to the Crayola Factory for when my mom got here because I knew she would love it as much or more than the kids. The Crayola Factory was decorated for Halloween and she had a fun time taking all the kids picture in these cut outs they had displayed around the factory.


My kids really had a fun time but I almost wonder if they were a tad older if they would love it more. They had very short attention spans for some of the projects.
Attached to the museum was the canal museum and this was Jackson's favorite. It was a 90 foot canal that you floated your boat through lock systems. It was really cool and I think Jackson could have stayed there the whole time.
The rest of the canal museum showed what life was like living on the canal.

The day my mom left we stopped by Valley Forge on the way to the airport. It was beautiful and it was very interesting to see the huts that the soldiers had made so long ago. It's hard to imagine that grown men slept on these bunk beds. I think I would have hate to be the guy in the middle. Warm, yes but oh so claustrophobic.
The National Park had added this part since I had been here 5 years ago. It was so interesting to see Washington's quarters. I don't know what generals sleep in today but these were pretty humble.
We had so much fun with Grandma, we were so sad to see her go. We hope she comes again. Thanks Grandma for a fun time.