Little Bright Spot....

For nearly an entire week, 3 out of our family of 5 have been sick. It has been a miserable bug. Nausea, body aches, fever, sore throat, cough, stuffy nose, the works. Annaliese, Avrie & I were the "lucky" ones this time, but we are hopeful this won't go on too much longer. Being a mom is exhausting for me when I'm healthy. When I'm sick it is nearly impossible. It has been a hard week.

This evening I had to take notice of one little bright spot in this crazy week.....my happy little Addie. All three of my girls are just the greatest but tonight I have to say I felt extraordinarily thankful for my little Adeline. It was while I was brushing her teeth and singing songs with her tonight that it struck me. "This girl has been great ALL day long! She has been happy from the minute she woke up this morning to this very moment." What a great little girl! I mean, she didn't even get cranky pre or post nap! I just sat there in amazement as I watched her just be her happy little self! It was just heaven to see this little one just glowing, happy & totally healthy! It radiated from her and somehow made me feel less sick for a moment.

Tonight as I read stories, she snuggled in close and and listened to every word. When I put her to bed she gave me the sweetest hugs and sweetest smiles and went to sleep. Ah. Her happy little disposition was just what I needed today. I love that sweet Adeline.

Photo of my Happy Addie from tonight.

A Day at The Field Museum

On Saturday Kermit & I loaded up the kids and spent a few hours at The Field Museum. This museum is just fabulous! The building's architecture is so beautiful. Huge and grand! I just love it! The exhibits are always interesting & unique. In the center of the main hall there is of course the famous skeleton of Sue, the largest and most complete T-rex ever discovered. People come from all around the world to see her and have their picture taken in front of her. Someday maybe we will.

When we go to the Field Museum we bypass Sue (though we do wave), and bypass the map of all our choices of exhibits. We head straight for the "Nature Walk" to view all kinds of non-extinct animals. Seriously, this is almost better than a zoo! Our girls LOVE it! It is hall, after hall, after hall of animals. The artwork and surrounding habitat for these animals is so realistic! They have done an amazing job making these exhibits come to life, as if you were seeing live animals in the wild! We always have a great time visiting our animal friends at The Field.

We also like to visit the new Play Lab at the Field Museum. All the exhibits there are kid friendly and hands-on.




On our way home, we of course had to stop at Portillos. We all got hot dogs except Kermit. He got a hamburger. He LOVES their hamburgers! He thinks they are better than In-n-Out. I think not....that's why I always get a dog. Portillos is expanding and just opened a restaurant in California not too far from my parents. Our next visit we will have a taste test...Portillos hamburger VS. In-n-out! Then he will see that there is simply nothing more heavenly than an In-n-Out Burger! I will say this about Portillos, they have the BEST chocolate cake ever! That also qualifies as heavenly in my book!

Cake Deco 101

A couple of weeks ago I finished a cake decorating class with my friend Karyn. (It was the Wilton beginning course one at JoAnn's.) This is actually something that I've wanted to learn to do for the last 10 years! I'm so glad to finally know what all those little metal tips in my dusty cake decorating kit are for and how to use them!

For class we had to make icing at home and bring it to class to use. Figuring out the right consistency was tricky for me. One week I'd make it too thick, the next too thin. I definitely have a new respect for the art of cake decorating. It's a lot of work! The last class we had to bring in a cake to decorate. I can't tell you how excited the family was to see this cake when I brought it home. If I would have known how big of a hit it would be I would have made a yummier cake cared more about my end result! Anyway, here it is. I'll have to keep practicing and make some fun cakes in the months and years ahead! YUM!

I have a thing for cute cake plates and stands. I hope to finally be able to put a pretty cake on a pretty stand. Can't wait!

Easter 2008

Easter weekend was a very memorable one this year. It is so fun to have little kids that get so excited for the holiday. Annaliese was especially excited. She was so proud to have some understanding of why we celebrate Easter. She says, "Jesus died and then he rose." She was also very excited for the Easter Bunny to come. This year (and every year from now on!) the bunny came on Friday night! We woke up Saturday and had our egg hunt. Later that day we went to a birthday party for one of the little girls from church and then to Ikea. It was a perfect day! Sunday was perfect too! We have 9am church. We got up and dressed and off we went to church, arriving early enough to get soft seats. In my book, that's on time. The service meetings were all very uplifting & the girls were darling in their little blue dresses.

A scary funny story. On that Saturday night before Easter, I was up late baking & decorating cookies for my primary class and for the young men. At 11:30pm I was finally done and decided to load up the car to make the next morning a little easier. After all, it is hard work getting three little ones out the door to church, any short cut I can take, I will. I line up all the bags and baskets that I want to take out and take a deep breath. Our garage is detached from our house. I have to walk about 20 feet through our backyard to get to the garage. Kermit is already in bed, but it's always a little scary for me to go outside at night so I rarely do it, even when Kermit is right there. I know that weirdo people wander. Over the years we've had things stolen from our backyard & garage. We've had our car rummaged through & all the change and small bills stolen out of our car. I also know that my neighbor two blocks up had a homeless person LIVING in a small secluded area of her backyard a few years back!!!! Oh yeah, and there's the little night squirrels with naked tails that pass through occasionally too. So...ANYWAY...I take a deep breath and head outside with all my Easter treats to take out to the van. I unlocked the van remotely and left my keys on the kitchen counter. Right when I got into the garage and was about to open the van door, ALL THE DOORS LOCK, right in front of my eyes! YIKES! I was so spooked I nearly jumped out of my skin!! I ran back to the house FAST! I locked the door behind me, ran upstairs, woke up Kermit and called the cops! I'm seriously thinking that somebody is in my van that doesn't belong there! I was shaking like crazy! The cops come in about 3 minutes. Pretty amazing. They find nothing. Whew. I am such a dork. I felt so stupid when we finally figured out what happened. If you ever get a Honda Odyssey...keep this in mind...there is a special "safety feature" that automatically re-locks the doors if they are unlocked remotely & no doors have opened within 30 seconds. Oh. At least there wasn't a homeless guy trying to keep warm in my awesome mini van. Silly me.