Pizza Making 101

For a while now I've wanted to make homemade pizzas with the kids. It's something that is done strictly for the experience....considering Totinos pizzas are .99 and they love them. So during our Christmas break we decided to give it a try.

The kids had a great time working together to get their creations done. The girls even wore their new aprons Aunt Darla made them for Christmas. I'm a little jealous. Mine isn't nearly as pretty as theirs.

During the process David and I had a lot of fun reminiscing about our pizza making past. We both worked at the same pizza place while we were teenagers. (But not at the same time)

At guess what? they turned out pretty good. Nana would have loved it... the crust was so crispy.

Christmas

Ho! Ho! HO!

Every year we go to the McFatter family Christmas in DeQuincy. And every year Santa Claus makes an appearance. When I was little, the event was held on Christmas Eve and so it wasn't strange that Santa came by the Ranch to give out a few presents to all the kids. Now, we get together on the Saturday before Christmas, so mom and dad had to do a little fast talking to explain why Santa was already "out and about"

I was really concerned how Ty was going to do with seeing Santa. But as soon as Santa called his name to get his present he was off my lap in record speed. And when I suggested a picture later,he was all smiles and ready to pose. I think he "gets" that Santa is the one bringing the presents.

Everyone else was eager to take their turn on Santa's lap as well. Well almost everyone, Zane's too big and Mia is too scared. We've yet to get one picture of her with Santa. There's always next year

Christmas preparations

We've actually been done for quite a while now with all the decorations. We held our Life Group Christmas party at our house this year. It was the first Friday of December so that made us kick it in to high gear early. Although we really enjoy having all the decorations up it adds a lot of days to the "waiting" the kids have to do.

Kaylee was quick to teach Ty about the Mistletoe tradition. And he was quick to learn.

Every year since Zane has been born David has held the person up so they could place the star on the tree. And then as we have added children he has held everyone at the same time to get the star on. Well this year may be the last of that tradition.

He got them all up there but it was quite a challenge. Zane may have to be on a ladder next year.

Poor Mia, she just couldn't trust Kaylee and Trent to keep her up there.

No Surgery Tomorrow

Ty was scheduled to go in for two additional surgeries tomorrow. He was having a thumb reconstruction and circumcision. But on Friday morning he began running a low grade fever and having cold like symptoms. We waited until today to see what would happen. And although he is feeling better he still sounds a little wheezy in his chest. Since both surgeries are non-emergent then we can wait. Plus this will give us an opportunity to see if the dentist can coordinate schedules and maybe next time we can get 3 things taken care of at once.

Elfin' Fun

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Dashing through the Snow

Look! Snow real live snow! Here in Houston. There are still Christmas miracles.

The kids went to Awana tonight and on the way there we were all oohing and ahhing over the snow and Kaylee said "this is the best day of my life"

Our little guy

Ty's personality is really shining full force now. He's such a funny little guy. We are AMAZED at how much he understands. Even with his speech problems he usually can get his point across. He's learned to say "Why?" and "Why Mommy?"

Ty and Mia were playing with a Christmas advent calendar that makes a manger scene once it's all put together. I told them they could get the first two ornaments out and hang them up. So they pulled out Mary and a sheep. We've been trying to explain everything about Christmas to him in basic terms. I told him this lady's name is Mary and she was Jesus's mother.

A little later everyone was doing something else but Ty was still playing with the calendar. And I heard him saying something over and over. I went to see what it was and he had hung the sheep next Mary and he was saying "Mary had a little lamb, Mary had a little lamb"

It was so sweet and I was so proud he had put that together. He knows the song because it's the first song Zane learned on his trombone this year. We sing it often around here.

When Mia came in Ty told her too, "Mary had a little lamb" She was so upset and said, "NO Mommy No" I said yes Mia look he hung the sheep by Mary get it? She said "No Mommy, Mary didn't have a little lamb, she had a little Jesus"

My Boy scout the Pancake Chef

Last weekend Zane went camping with his Boy scout group. When he came back he told us that on Saturday morning he and another 6th grader had made breakfast. Breakfast was pancakes and bacon. So when it was time to fix something for dinner Zane quickly volunteered to make pancakes. At which I quickly said OK!

He did a great job! The griddle I have is designed to make 4 at a time. (I use to have a bigger one that makes 8 but a I accidentally left a spatula on it and the plastic melted, Now Bed Bath and Beyond doesn't carry the big one anymore....but this is about Zane...)

So, when he started making his pancakes he was only pouring 2 at a time. I said Zane go ahead and make all 4, or we might be here all night. Remember there are 7 people to feed?
At which he replies, "MOM, I'm not multi-talented"

First Fruits

We've had this Satsuma tree for two years now. We planted it one January and then had to move it the next January to the new house. So, it's had a lot of re-adjusting to do.
But this season we got two good Satsumas off it. The boys picked one and the girls picked one.

It's hard to figure out how to divide things into 5 equal pieces. Especially since there are only 2 things to divide. I had decided we would peel them and then separate the pieces. But when we started asking who wanted some, only Kaylee and Zane did. Maybe next year we'll have more.

I LOVE my new photo program

Last month at my annual scrapbooking crop, I was complaining about how to keep my digital photos organized. Mechiel, who shall now be known by me as the Explainer of all things photo, shared with me about Picasa. Picasa is a free program that allows you to edit, share, organize and do worlds of other things to your digital photos.

Mechiel walked me step by step through her pictures and showed me all types of tricks. The ease of this program is just phenomenal. I will say it again, because it needs repeating, Phenomenal.

So for the last month I have been playing with my new found Picasa. Basking in it's organization when today I discovered something even more magical about Picasa.

This:


One click did this. All I have to do is have it printed out.
Six 2x3 pictures ready to be cut apart and placed on a page.

And this..... No more photoshop, no more lining it up, no more stretch, skew and crop.


Now to many non-scrapbookers out there you probably don't get it. And that's OK. But to the scrapbookers I can feel your jaws hitting the ground. One click people, one click.

I will be available later for tutorials, and Picasa is free to pay me all royalties. (except that it's free to download and they don't make anything off the program) Oh well, as long as they gave it to me.......... it's worth thousands in my eyes.

It's a small world after all...

It's a small world after all.... It's a small world...everybody sing!
OK, Seriously, A few weeks ago I ran into Mia's Pre-K3 Teacher, from last year, Mrs. Paula. Paula stopped me in the hall to tell me that she had recently been up north visiting friends. While she was visiting on Sunday morning she went to the church she had attended like 10 years ago.

While at the church she ran into some old friends who once worked in the nursery that she formerly coordinated. They began to catch up with what had been going on in their lives and they introduced Paula to their new daughter, from China. Paula talked to her and commented that she had a little girl in her class last year from China, Mia. And that Mia's parents have 4 children and had just returned from China adopting a little brother. And the mom said, "Is Mia's brother named Ty?"

So from there it was just unbelief as Paula told me the family she knows so well is Mark & Molly Cotter from Oregon.
The same Cotters that we drug around Guangzhou with us. The same Cotters that looked at me(more than once) with half trusting eyes as I put them in a cab and sent them on their way ahead of us to where ever our destination was for the day. The same Cotters that we spent 6 days in China with. The Same Cotters that we borrowed the game boy charger from more than once. And the same Cotters who adopted precious little Leah that shares the same special need as Ty does.

The world just seems to get smaller and smaller, even when you meet in China.

Happy Halloween