In a nest

Ky has been in and out of a high fever (104+) the last few days (better today? so far) and so has been very cuddly and quiet.  I love reading to him and singing to him and cuddling him, and the older boys have been really nice to him.  They like to make him little "nests" where he can snuggle and have all the things he needs close by. :)

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Christmas morning breakfast

I have usually made granola for our Christmas morning breakfast in the past because it's easy to make ahead of time, and we don't have it often, so it seems special.  But this year I found another make-ahead recipe I wanted to try.  It's Baked French Toast, from the King Arthur Flour blog (GREAT baking blog, by the way; I love it) and you can find the recipe here.

I made it with my own wheat bread and it was delicious!!  I put it together the night before (it only takes 10 min. to prepare or so.)  Then I put it in the oven when we came downstairs on Christmas morning and it was ready when we were done looking at our stockings.  We also baked the bacon (Beth taught me that you can do that, but I usually forget to try it---it's a great method though) and everyone declared that we'd found our new Christmas morning breakfast tradition. 

Would you like to try it for New Year's?  Here is the recipe with my suggestions:

Glaze---this is 1 1/2 times what they suggest; I found there wasn't enough syrup the first time I made it (my bread soaked up more, perhaps?)

3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3 tablespoons honey
Melt the butter in a saucepan.  Add sugar and honey and cook it for a few minutes, till it boils and the sugar dissolves.  Pour it into a 9x13 glass pan so it coats the bottom.

Lay slices of bread on top to cover the syrup.  (About 9 pieces of bread, or 6 if they're big)

Custard:
Then whisk together until smooth:
1 1/2 c. whipping cream, half-and-half, or milk (I did 1/2 c. cream, 1 c. milk)
5 eggs
1 t. almond extract
1 t. vanilla extract
1/4 t. salt

Pour this custard over the pieces of bread, making sure everything is well-coated.  Cover the whole pan with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge overnight.  The bread will soak up the custard as it sits.

In the morning, mix this Topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (they say 1/4 t. of each, but I always double my spices in something like this)

Remove the plastic wrap from the pan and sprinkle the topping evenly over the bread.  Then bake it at 350 for about 45 minutes.  (If desired, put the bacon in for the last 30 minutes or so.)

When you serve it, drizzle some of the extra syrup from the pan on top (you can also flip the pieces upside-down so the syrup side is up).  It is also good re-heated the next day (right, Sam?) if you have any left over---which you won't unless one of your ravenous children is not feeling quite as ravenous as usual :)

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Christmas

I made the boys these shirts with their favorite animals on them.  Sam helped design the animals, and I cut out fabric scraps and appliqued them on little T-shirts.  I was pleased with how cute they turned out.

Nativity--other wise man and/or angel absent due to circumstances beyond our control (i.e., Seb's utter refusal to participate) :)

Sebby with Brownie 1 and Brownie 2

In Sebby's stocking, Santa put another monkey just like his old one.  Since we don't really encourage our kids to ask for something from Santa ("He knows what you need better than you do!") I was pleased to hear Seb say, shortly before seeing his stocking, "I just WISH Santa would bring me another Brownie JUST LIKE BROWNIE!"  (The best part of that story is that his Grandma happened to give Seb another monkey---very similar, but bigger, immediately named Brownie 3 but now nicknamed "Bob Monkey" for some reason---and when we were talking today about things we would wish for, Seb said, "I wish I could have another monkey which I would name Brownie 4.")

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Christmas Eve

The boys love candles

Christmas Eve is one of my favorite days (nights?) of the whole year---we have our butterscotch roll party in the morning and then in the evening we have dinner by candlelight and Elf Olympics and various other festivities.  The last few years we've made a greater effort to have everything ready/wrapped early, which allows us to relax and have fun on the 24th.  This year we watched last year's Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert on KBYU, and it was excellent---we all loved it---so I think that may become part of our tradition too.

Elves.  (Malachi was doing this toothy thing all night---not sure why)

One of the contests is Lego-building.  Here we have my Segway scooter---with peepholes for younger riders.

Seb explains his creation (very elaborate)

The Sock Game (with animals---renamed "Load Santa's Sleigh").  Great hilarity always ensues during this game.  Seb's scary red eyes edited out, to become scary black eyes.

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Sometimes I

yell "Stop that!" to Sebby in the other room, even though I don't know what he's doing.

And usually, I'm right.

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Four more "gingerbread bears"

We couldn't find any packaged gingerbread men this year (and I didn't think homemade ones would keep all month) so this year we had "gingerbread bears" on our advent calendar.  Note that on the last day before Christmas, EACH boy will get a bear. :)

Also, don't be alarmed, but Daisy is a bunny.  A very cute one.

Abraham had his first-grade Christmas program.  As you can see from the pictures, when one hauls three other wiggly kids to a program, one doesn't wish to sit in the front where one can see (and be seen).  But it was a nice program---his class sang AND DANCED, which I thought was ambitious of his teacher, but it paid off---they did a great job.

1 million cake platters I made for my 1 million sisters-in-law.  Fun.  I love having Christmas projects to work on!

A cute, snuggly family in their cute, snuggly pajamas

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Not that the nature of the thing has changed

So, you know how supposedly as you become more familiar with something you tend to like it more?  Like that saying---first we dislike, then tolerate, then embrace (or whatever it is---sorry for the bastardization)?  Well, I guess that's really true.

Because there's this kid who sits in front of us every year at the BYU basketball games.  And apparently we are really, really fascinating to him because he always turns around and STARES at us, wearing this vacant, slack-jawed expression.  Usually I meet his eyes right on, or wiggle my eyebrows at him, which freaks him out so he turns back around, for a few minutes anyway.  But this has been going on for YEARS now, and at first he was just a tiny kid, so you figure, kids are just like that, but then as he got older it got kind of annoying and I kept wondering what was wrong with the kid, quit staring, sheesh!  I mean, Sam and I cheer and sing the fight song and yell at the refs, but really we are not THAT loud or surprising so I don't know what the open-mouthed captivation is all about.  It bothered me and for awhile I took to giving him stern and forbidding looks every time I met his eyes.

Anyway, now he's this hulking preteen, and it was so weird, because he came to a game for the first time a few nights ago, and when he sat down I felt this surge of almost paternal affection for the kid.  (I say paternal, not maternal, because it was kind of detached---a pat on the head rather than a hug.)  Like, "Oh, look at our little guy, getting so big and independent!  I can remember when he was just a rosy-cheeked young pup holding his mom's hand, and now look at him going out to get his own popcorn!"  When he turned around and looked at me (he's getting slightly less obvious about it, too) I felt so proud and proprietary, I'm pretty sure I actually beamed at him.  (Which still freaked him out and made him turn back around, I might add.)  How odd!  I suppose all those hours of exposure* to the little dear finally wore me down. 

(*Note to self: do not watch any more Elijah Wood movies!)

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Bright eyes

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More about Ky's birthday

For Malachi's birthday Abey and Sebby made him this "little house."

As you can see he had a fine time with all the things they put in there for him.  (Trumpet---blanket---books---stuffed animals---toys.)  It was a nice change from the usual refrain of "Malachi---don't touch that---that's mine!"

We made him a cake that looked like his birdie.  Coincidentally, the words "birthday" and "birdie" sound just about the same when Ky says them, so it was his "boodie booday cake."  Yum!

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Lights and hot chocolate

Do you celebrate the anniversary of the day you got engaged?  Tell your husband that you ought to.  We don't do anything elaborate, but it's another excuse to do something fun and tell your kids the story of how it all happened, which we all like a lot. 

Last week we bundled up and rode Trax up to see the lights on Temple Square.  It was freeeeeezing!  7 degrees.

This little bundle was the warmest of all, zipped into Daddy's coat

Luckily I had taken the precaution of telling the boys several times earlier in the day, "You will be cold!  You will be really, really cold, and you'll want to complain about it, but it won't help, because I will not feel bad for you, and I'll tell you there's nothing I can do about it, because there won't be, and then afterwards we will warm up with hot chocolate."

So the complaining was minimal.  Also, we were wearing double socks (for some reason the boys thought that was really hiliarious).

The lights were gorgeous.  I had heard they'd scaled back the number of Christmas lights on Temple Square, and they had, but it was still so beautiful.  Daisy (the warm one) just looked around happy and bright-eyed the whole time.  The boys liked the fountains (still running) and the lights floating on the pond.

Afterwards we went to our favorite chocolate place.  Oh, it is SO good.  Hatch's Family Chocolates---it's in the Avenues---a little family-run chocolate shop that sells THE BEST hot chocolate you will ever have.  It tastes like pure melted chocolate (which it basically is)---like what I always imagined the chocolate river in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would taste like.  [Remember when Willy Wonka dips out a cupful of that chocolate and gives it to Charlie?  That always sounded so good to me.]  If you are ever in Salt Lake, and are cold, you must go try it.  The address is 390 E. 4th Ave.

Their chocolates are really delicious too.  These pictured are peanut-butter-filled dark chocolates with sea salt on top---they're amazing.  And Hatch's also has ice cream for sale---if we ever make it there in the summer I'm going to have their hot fudge sundae, which I've heard is great.

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Don't forget . . .

to come have yourself glamourized at our party tomorrow!
We can't wait to see you (come hell or high water).  And if you didn't RSVP . . . come anyway!
See you then.

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TWO

It feels like such a long time since last December 11th. 
Last year Malachi was just a baby.  Last year he got to celebrate his joint birthday with his Grandpa.

We miss Grandpa!!

And Ky isn't a baby.  He's a huge enormous boy.

Last year Ky could sign several words, and say one word.  (Cheese.)

This year he talks almost exactly like a real person.  In fact, he talks quite a bit more than a real person.  He has a cute little way of talking that includes lots of exclamations! and conversational filler such as "actually" and "well . . . " and "anyway."  He will not stop saying something until he's heard an acknowledgement (such as: "Yes!  That IS a big front-end loader!")

Some cute sentences he's saying lately:

"Wow, wook, Mommy!  See a tall-tall cwane, mommy!  Wow!"

"So many stars up dere!  A-maaaz-ing!"

"Hiiiii, Mommy and Daddy!  Um, how was backet-ball game?"

"Um, Sebby, dat's MINE monkey, ack-chu-wee."

"Aving a-fel [falafel] tonight Mommy?  Oh-kaay, oh-waaay!"

"I hear fire gin-gin-gin-gin!" [=fire engine---he has a hard time figuring out where the word ends]

"Av-go!"="here you go" (said in a high, cheery voice as he hands you something)

Last year he had not quite learned to walk yet.

This year he does EVERYTHING, and I mean everything, his brothers do.  Only not quite as well.  Which often leads to injury.  (And Sebby might be a factor as well.)  He has had thousands of bonks, scrapes, scratches, bruises, and (above) a smashed finger which we thought was broken---but wasn't quite.  And he has borne it all with great fortitude and bravery.  In fact he often says in his prayers, "Help us to be bwave."

Last year he loved his birdie.

And this year . . . he still loves his birdie.  (He says it "boo-die.")

One of my favorite things about Ky is how much he loves me and Sam.  He is SO loving and affectionate, and he's the first one of my children to be excited (instead of disappointed) when we come home after a night of babysitting.  He always says "hi!" in a happy voice when I enter the room.  And sometimes also, "How-you?"

He loves to sing and can sing several songs all the way through by himself.  (One favorite is "Horsie horsie on your way," which he calls "Horsie on mine way.")  He loves Primary songs and, in fact, when we substituted Seb's Sunbeam class awhile ago, little Ky was the quietest and most obedient "Sunbeam" during Singing Time.

I love Malachi's big blue eyes, his long eyelashes, his curly hair (although he's still cute with his recent haircut---it makes him look older) and especially his sweet, loving, enthusiastic, cheerful personality.  He is our sweetest little sunshine and we love him SO much!

Happy Birthday, Malachi!  Have fun being TWO!

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