Determined girls...

Back on Martin Luther King Jr. Day we spent the morning cleaning the house. The kids really wanted to play some video games since they were out of school for the day, but I told them that no one was playing anything until the house was all vacuumed and the bathrooms cleaned. At one point I was sitting on the couch in the living room nursing Baby K when I heard a thumping sound coming slowly up the stairs. Then I saw Blondie and Kitty's heads slowly coming up - they were both using all of their strength to slowly pull the vacuum up the stairs step by step so that Kitty could vacuum her bedroom - and it's a pretty heavy vacuum! I quickly called out to my husband and we sat and watched those 2 determined girls take the vacuum all the way up to Kitty's room. It was awesome!

Another year, another family calendar

After a couple of late nights and unanticipated computer/printer issues I finally got my family calendars finished and mailed out yesterday. Among the issues that sprang up this year was that the paper that I have been using up to this point is no longer being made by the company and I can't find any other companies that make it - double-sided photo paper with matte on one side and glossy on the other. So this year and probably from here on out I will be using double-sided matte paper. It was quite the operation though because I had some left over paper from previous years that I used for some of the calendars and then I used matte for the other half of them - so I had to keep really good track of what I had printed so far and what I still needed to print (and on which paper).

This was my 8th year of putting together calendars for my family and I think this was one of the better ones that I've done. The kids really enjoy looking through the old calendars and it's fun seeing how much the kids have grown throughout the years. I'm already looking forward to next year!

Where's Baby K?

This is where M&M found Baby K this afternoon - in the front closet. I had left her in the living room while I was making dinner and someone had left the closet door open... and the fun is only just beginning!

Computer woes

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been working on family calendars again for my family. They run February thru January so I can work on them after the Christmas rush each year during January which is usually fairly uneventful. Being that my husband works with computers, we have several around the house. The computer that I usually work on is an older Macintosh and really my only complaint is that it is old and getting slower every day it seems. The other problem with the computer is that the printer drivers for our printer are not very good. For the most part I can print just fine from the Mac to our printer, but with the high quality photo pages that I need for the calendar, I prefer to use the computer downstairs in my husband's office.

My husband is very anti-Microsoft and he tries to do everything possible to avoid using Microsoft products. My husband's computer runs FreeBSD and all of the open source freeware he can find. One of the problems with this is that to get things to work the way you want them to takes a lot more time and effort. One thing that we haven't gotten working quite right from the FreeBSD computer is the printer. We can print from it, but usually the margins are off and it's hard to get it the way you want. Our FreeBSD computer used to be setup to dual boot on either FreeBSD or Windows if you needed it. Since I printed the calendars last year my husband did away with the dual boot and thus Windows - he did find a Windows Emulator for FreeBSD though so if we absolutely need to use Windows we can. I have some Windows software that I have used for printing my calendars each year and with the unsurety of printing in FreeBSD my husband agreed to help me set the software up with the Windows Emulator.

So, things were working just fine and on Saturday I got a lot of the printing done - probably a little over half. Then I didn't work on it on Sunday, but my husband got the computer set up so it would be easier for me to run the windows emulator. So Monday morning my husband told me that I should be all set for printing that day. Well, after he left for work I went downstairs, launched the windows emulator and couldn't contact the server where my files are located. At first I thought it was just a windows problem but then I couldn't access the internet from FreeBSD either - yet the Mac could do it just fine. I called my husband at work and he had me try a few things, but no success. It turns out that while my husband was getting things working for me for printing, he was also updating and building a lot of other things on the FreeBSD box and as of right now things are still not up and running. So my calendars that I wanted to have finished today so I could mail out tomorrow are still only halfway done...

And then they still need to be bound and hole-punched...

Hopefully he will have more success tonight...

Another first...

On Saturday I was busy all day printing out family calendars and preparing a lesson for Relief Society on Sunday. I was excited because Baby K went to sleep early and the other kids managed to be quiet so that she stayed asleep. Well, just when I was getting ready to get to bed myself, Baby K woke up and decided to be wide awake for the next several hours. At one point I was holding her while watching some T.V. and I stuck my finger in her mouth to feel her gums. Much to my amazement I discovered that she had a tooth poking through her bottom gum! She hasn't been particularly fussy or out of sorts lately - the only thing that has changed recently is that her appetite hasn't been as big as it was a few weeks ago. We could tell that her gums were a little tender yesterday though because she kept biting down on things during Sacrament Meeting and then crying because it hurt...

And Baby K finally went to sleep at about 3:30 a.m. Sunday morning - thankfully DH decided to let me get some sleep and he stayed up with her - he was quite tired the next day though...

It is really cute watching Baby K crawl around. She is really starting to get the hang of it and we have to be really careful where we set her down now.

On the move...

Baby K figured out yesterday how to crawl. It is so cute watching her put her little hands in front of herself and then figuring out how to get her legs to move next. She is so happy and proud of herself when she manages to get across the room to something she wants - which is usually a pile of toys that her sisters have kindly left out for her. Nothing is safe now and pretty soon she will figure out that she can crawl to get over to me as well. She also tries to pull herself up to things but doesn't quite have the leg strength & coordination to get up to her feet yet. One of her favorite things to do lately is to kneel next to the bottom stair and sit there banging her hand on the step and grinning from ear to ear.

Good mom or bad mom?

Me to Kitty: "We have to hurry and get ready this morning because my visiting teachers are coming over soon."
Kitty: "Why are they coming over?"
Me: "To visit me."
Kitty: "And what else?"
Me: "To teach me."
Kitty: "What are they going to teach you?"
Me: "How to be a good mom."
Kitty: "But you're already a good mom."
Me: "Thank you."
Kitty after thinking about it for a minute: "But sometimes Luke goes to his room."
Me (not quite sure what she's getting at): "Sometimes Luke goes to his room?"
Kitty: "Yeah, sometimes Luke has to go to his room."
Me: "Oh... Sometimes I send Luke to his room?"
Kitty: "Yeah"
Me: "Does that make me a bad mom?"
Kitty: "Yeah, sometimes."

Hooray for Kitty!

I think I can finally say that Kitty is potty-trained! She hasn't had an accident all week long and we have even left home a couple of times with underwear on. (It's always fun trying to help your toddler use the bathroom at a store when you're holding a baby in your arms...) Yesterday I let her open her Belle doll and she has been all smiles since then!She still has to be reminded a lot and doesn't go very often on her own, but things are looking promising!

Rough nights...

For some reason Baby K has not been sleeping or eating well this week. Lately she usually wakes up about once a night and has a rather healthy appetite at dinner time. This week though has been another story. On Monday she had a doctor's appointment and received an immunization shot so it might be partly due to that or maybe she is teething (but I can't see or feel anything). Monday night she went to sleep around 9:30 and then woke up at 11:30 and stayed awake until about 3 a.m. I tried at one point to bring her to bed with me to see if she would go to sleep there but she just laid there wide awake and was talking and spitting. DH & I couldn't help laughing even though we were so tired! I guess the one thing I can be thankful for is that she hasn't been crying or fussy at all, just wide awake. Then on Tuesday she slept through the night and on Wednesday she was up for several hours in the early morning again. It is definitely taking it's toll on me...

Then the last two nights she has not been too interested in food at dinnertime. So last night I decided to try giving her a biter biscuit and see how she did with that. Well, she loved it as you can see from these pictures:

Such a happy baby!!
Everything checked out fine at Baby K's doctor's appt and she is thinning out a little.

Here are her stats at 9 months:
Weight: 21 lbs .5 ozs (77%)
Height: 28.5 inches (75%)

She is definitely starting to get around. She can get up on all fours and scoot backwards and she is really starting to reach for things in front of her - she is so close to crawling forwards. The other thing that she can do now is get herself to a sitting position from laying down. It's fun watching her learn and grow so much every day. She is such a fun, happy baby to have around (except for the nights when she doesn't sleep).

Cold

For some reason I always seem to be cold lately. I walk around the house all day freezing to death and I'm always bumping up the thermostat so that the heater will go on. One advantage to being pregnant during the wintertime...

Thankfully my husband fixed our furnace a couple of weeks ago so that it works properly now. For several weeks our flame sensor wasn't working so the gas for the furnace would turn on, but after several tries the furnace sometimes wouldn't light and so the furnace wouldn't go on. This is the third time that this has happened in the 5 1/2 years we have lived in this house. Usually we call a repair company to come out and fix the furnace for us at a cost of over $100 a visit. Well, this time my husband did some looking around and found out what part was faulty and that he could fix it with a little bit of sanding with some sand paper. Plus, we found out that we can get a replacement part for about $15 if we need to replace it in the future. I really think the repair companies have some sort of scam going on. The first time we had this part replace, they used a refurbished part, only to need replacing again 2 years later. So what they probably did was take the part from another furnace, take it to their shop and sand it down or clean it and then sold us the part as refurbished... Thankfully the internet has a wealth of information just at one's fingertips and we were able to fix the problem ourselves this time with no cost to us...

Just like my teacher...

Last night Blondie asked me why I haven't fixed a dress for her Barbie doll yet. I told her that I would do it but I need her to remind me because it is not something that I think about during the day. Then she said, "Mom, you're just like my teacher. She always forgets things too."

9 months old

Baby K turned 9 months old on Tuesday and this is what she was caught trying to do:
So while she is still not crawling yet (she is VERY, VERY close and can scoot backwards a little), she thinks that she can try pulling herself up to things now... And she is very good at finding the tiniest specks of dirt on the floor...

Peanut Blossom

On Monday Luke and I made some cookies for FHE using my new mixer and the cookie paddle attachments. I just threw all of the ingredients in the bowl, turned it on, scraped the sides of the bowl once with a spatula and then we were done. I was going to take a picture of the cookies stacked nicely on a serving plate, but I forgot to and now there is only one left - this is one of our family's favorite cookies.

While we were making the cookies Luke asked if he could crack the egg. I said "sure" and then stood back and watched. He hit the egg on the side of the bowl rather timidly and then finally hit it harder to get the shell to crack. Then he tried to stick his thumbs in the crack to open the egg and it happened quicker than he was expecting and he quickly dropped the egg, shell and all, into the bowl so he wouldn't get it all over his hands... Luckily I was able to get all the shell out without any problem.

Then I was measuring out the peanut butter and Kitty was watching me. After a minute she asked, "You're not going to put that in the cookies are you?" I said, "Yes, why not?" Then she replied, "That's disgusting!" I then had to inform her that these were peanut butter cookies and that's what you put in them. To which she responded, "Okay." When I gave her some cookie dough to try later on she was a little bit hesitant at first but really liked it after she had a taste.

Here is the recipe for anyone that would like it:

Peanut Blossoms from the book Pillsbury: The Complete Book of Baking
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
48 milk chocolate candy kisses

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl, combine all of the ingredients except the candy kisses. Blend at low speed until stiff dough forms. Shape into 1-inch balls; roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately top each cookie with a candy kiss, pressing down firmly so cookie cracks around edge; remove from cookie sheets. Cool completely.
Yield: 4 dozen cookies

Bosch mixer

This is the present that my husband gave me for Christmas, the Bosch Universal Plus mixer. One of the reasons we decided on this particular mixer is because you can buy a wheat grinder attachment that works with the mixer motor or with a hand crank. We have a pretty good supply of wheat in our basement but up until now we have had no grinder to grind the wheat with.
We tried out the grinder attachment the day after Christmas and it works great. I then made several loaves of wheat bread with it and have been substituting a little bit of wheat flour in place of white flour in some of my cooking.

Happy New Year 2009!

We had a fun new year's eve celebration at our home with my parents. The kids all stayed up playing games with us until midnight (with the exception of Baby K). The kids and I made some popcorn and fudge for the party and apparently I ate a little too much chocolate because Baby K had a little bit of an unhappy stomach the next day. M&M helped get her to sleep while I was busy making a potato dish for dinner at my parents' later that day.
It's nice having older kids around to help with the younger ones...