Dear Son

My Dear Son,

In one short week, you will be in my arms. I'm guessing you'll have a mop of black hair, eyes like pools of dark chocolate, and your Daddy's olive skin. You'll probably cry a little and be swaddled like a burrito in a hospital blanket. You'll sleep a lot, but open your eyes now and then. And you will be perfect. Absolutely perfect. I can't wait to stare at you, snuggle you, and smell your sweet baby smell. You, my dear, are a miracle. God says He knit you together in my womb and that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. Always know that you have a purpose, you are unique, and you are already abundantly loved.

So until next Friday, keep growing and developing in your safe baby house that is my belly. And we'll be seeing you soon, Little Guy.

Love,
Your Mom

Harry Potter and Vampires

Confession: I have never read a Harry Potter book. When I started teaching sixth grade in 1999, Harry Potter mania was just beginning. And it continued throughout the next eight years that I was in the classroom. I won a copy of the first Harry Potter book at a teachers' conference several years ago, so I own one, but have never read it. For some reason Harry has just never interested me. I'm sure some people think this is a tragedy. Maybe I am missing out? One day I'll probably read them-- perhaps when my girls are older and are interested in reading them. But until then, Hogwarts and Dumbledore are just words to me.

Enter Twilight. This book was just circulating around the last year that I taught (06/07 school year). I knew it had something to do with vampires, but that was it. Another topic of zero interest to me. So I avoided reading it. Then a sequel came out. Then another. It seemed like everytime I walked by the young adult section at Barnes 'n Noble another sequel had appeared on the shelves and was stocked in mass volume. Then my friends started reading them. My aunts and cousins started reading them. At my monthly bunco group, the women I played with started discussing "Edward and Bella" and various situations from the books. Then a movie came out. And then.......I decided to read them. And I actually liked them!

So far I've just read Twilight and New Moon. I think Edward's character is well developed and fascinating. As a vampire who by nature craves human blood, he chooses out of a moral conviction to only drink animal blood so that he does not harm humans. The main female character, Bella, has a scent so intoxicating to him that he is incredibly attracted to her, but constantly battles his vampire desires with an even greater desire to be with her and protect her. Edward is like a dark knight in shining armor. Edward and Bella's love grows throughout the first book and continues into the second book until an unfortunate event the night of Bella's 18th birthday takes the couple on a painful journey. With the introduction of a rival pack of werewolves in New Moon the plot thickens even more.

I'm looking forward to reading the last two books. I guess I like vampires more than I thought I did. =)

What are some of your favorite series of books?

106 is HOT

Don't let this beautiful, blue sky fool you. Yes, it looks like the sky of a perfect, balmy summer day. With perhaps a gentle wind to cool you now and then. Ahhhh....if only that were true.

Instead this is the sky of a hot, windy, 106 degree day here in Oklahoma. We have been having record breaking heat lately. When the seven day forecast shows up on the TV screen during the ten o'clock news, it looks like this: 106,106, 106, 105, 103....and on and on. And when you're 37 weeks pregnant, this really feels like 120 degrees.

So what to do when it's 106 degrees outside and you don't have access to a pool? Why break out the slip 'n slide of course! It keeps the girls cool and helps them run out some energy.
I had a slip 'n slide when I was little that got lots and lots of use. My friend, Shauna, and I would spend hours on that thing! I remember it had a yellow, plastic mat, and it had a plastic banana that hooked up to the water hose and sprayed water over the mat. I admit that last summer I tried the slip 'n slide as a 31 year old adult. I misjudged my weight and went flying right off the end into the grass. Oops! There will definitely be no slipping or sliding for me this summer. Not with this belly, that's for sure.

So what does a 9 month pregnant Mama do in 106 degree heat while her little ones are playing in the water? Sit and sweat. That's about it. I tried reading, but I gave up after the sweat drops started rolling off my nose and onto the pages. I think we only stayed outside about 30 minutes, but I seriously needed a shower when we were done. I also really needed a big glass of lemonade that day!

What do you guys do to cool off in the heat?

Her Own Way

Dress-up is still a popular way to play at our house. I have a big, Rubbermaid box stuffed full of dress-up clothes. My mom and I raided a 75% off post-Halloween sale at Target and purchased all kinds of outfits suitable for young imaginations. I've also thrown in some of my old scarves, aprons, shoes, and gloves. It's funny the way each of my girls puts together her dress-up outfit in a certain way. Hannah is very "by the book." She put on this Cinderella costume the other day and wanted everything exactly like Cinderella. She put on a blue headband, hair tied up in a bun, and a black ribbon as a choker, and she put on her clear "jellies" for shoes. And ta-da-- a perfect Cinderella!

Hannah as Cinderella. Not sure who the baby is-- maybe she and Prince Charming have started a family.

Leah, on the other hand, does dress-up in a much different way. She makes up her own characters or a combination of characters. She just throws on whatever looks good to her at the moment. The same day that Hannah dressed up as Cinderella, Leah concocted this outfit: a white angel costume, sunglasses, tiarra, pink scarf, Hannah Montana necklace (a recent birthday party favor), Hello Kitty watch (an old Happy Meal toy), and a pink, shiny purse to go with the whole ensemble. I asked her who (or what) she was and she said, "I'm a princess angel."

Leah the Princess Angel. Perhaps she's carrying a plate of food to a person in need.

My girls are similar in many ways, but it's great to see some of their differences come out in the way they play. I'm glad they each do things their own way sometimes.

Did you used to play dress-up? What were some of your favorite dress-up things?

New Art

We have lived in our house for two years now, but are still just finding the right art pieces to hang on the walls. Our previous house was built in the 1950's and had much shorter ceilings. This house has just the opposite which makes hanging art sort of tricky. Paintings that fit perfectly at the old house look tiny on our walls here. So we've been slowly finding and hanging pieces that we like and that we think fit the space.

For about a year, Mike had been hunting on the internet for a series of skateboards designed by Evan Hecox (one of his favortie artists). It took a lot of patience and a lot of phone calls to skateshops all over the country, but he finally managed to collect them all. We recently hung them up together and they look great!

Two boards came from California, one from Germany, one from England one from Indiana.

In addition, Mike has been painting again recently-- something he has really missed. He's been out in the garage late each night working on a painting for our house and here's the final product. He was really pleased with the end result.

Mike said the guy in the painting is a Russian Cosmonaut. And Mike stil needs to sign it! I really like it here in our entryway.

This weekend we are hosting a party at our home for the entire film crew at Mike's work. We're really looking forward to it, and I'm glad we have some new things hanging on our walls!

Baby Room

We've finally finished getting our baby boy's room ready, so I thought I'd share a few pictures. It looks simple, bright, and cheery, which I'm happy about. Even though he'll be sleeping in our room for a few weeks, it feels good to have his room complete. It makes it seem so official. Like the room is just ready and waiting to have him in there-- to hear his cooing and crying and giggling, to smell that wonderful, sweet baby smell, and to keep him warm and comfortable while he sleeps. It's also neat to see all these decorations that we used with our girls getting a second life with our son.

A view from the hallway. I can't wait to sit and rock him in that chair!

The changing table. It will see lots of diaper action soon.

His crib. I wonder which one of his sisters slept in this one?

A few outfits my mom picked up at Target the other day. We can't seem to stop buying more of these snuggly sleepers.

Tundra keeping an eye on things. She and Ellie are very curious about the changes being made in this room. I'm sure she'll keep everything under control.

Baking Day

As a part of my nesting phase recently, I decided that I should start stocking up some food in my freezer for those post-baby weeks when I won't feel like cooking very much. I don't have a large freezer, so making several weeks worth of food just isn't possible. But my goal is to have 5 meals frozen, plus a few snacks or breakfast items available. I already had some taco soup and banana bread stashed away, but yesterday I decided to get busy on a few more things.

First, I decided to make lasagna. It's quick, easy, and freezes well. I made one pan to eat tonight with a few friends who are coming over and another pan to freeze.

My wonderful assistant, Hannah, posing with our two lasagnas.

Next I tackled the question of what to make with a large can of pureed pumpkin. I usually buy the smaller cans to make my favorite pumpkin bread, but the store I went to yesterday only had the large cans. So I looked online to see what else I could make with pumpkin and I found this recipe for chocolate chip pumpkin muffins. I was sort of doubtful about the combination of chocolate and pumpkin, but the muffins turned out really tastey.

I confess that I ate three of these right out of the oven. I did manage to put a dozen in the freezer though.

Finally I used the rest of the pumpkin to make two loaves of pumpkin bread. One for now and one for the freezer. I took the following picutre this morning before I cut a few slices of the non-freezer loaf for breakfast.

Yum! Overall I felt very productive and also very tired after standing in the kitchen for a few hours. I think I'm going to freeze some pizza dough (since homemade pizza is a weekly staple around here) as well as a pan of enchiladas. Not today though. I need a cooking break!

What are some other ideas of meals that freeze well?