November in a nutshell

So the holidays are upon us and it has been crazy busy. I obviously haven't taken the time to post. Well since it is almost Christmas I thought I should at least recap November. So here are the highlights of the month of Thanks and Giving.

Craft time with Emily. She made a VERY colorful turkey.
Gingerbread houses at the Jones' A tradition 2 years in the making.

Saw my friend Lisa in an amazing performance of Fiddler on the Roof.

Went to the midnight Showing of New Moon with all my girl friends.

And celebrated Thanksgiving. We went to Brock's mom's family at noon on and his dad's at 5:00 on the actual holiday and then got around to my family on the 3rd.

It was a great month filled with lots of fun things. It is never boring on the Fruth Frontier.

I love him because

So anyone knows I am married to the most wonderful man in the entire world, nay, universe. I love him for so many reasons and i love him more and more everyday. But one of the reasons I love him is because he never ceases to make me smile. As I announce that we are having manicotti for dinner he proceeds to tell our children that "Mommy is a manihotti". Smile, warm fuzzy feeling, lots of love. I am so glad I have eternity to spend with this man.

Clever Little Girl

So I was mopping the kitchen the other day and noticed that I the floor needed some attention along the baseboard. So I said "Emily, I have a special job for you." I got out the cleaning toothbrush and had her get along the baseboard while I did the rest of the floor. She did fairly well for a three year old. But the best part was that she was singing while cleaning. Not just any song mind you, it was "Cinderelly, Cinderelly..." Either she watches too many movies or just felt like a princess at that moment.

I Love It

So tonight at dinner Emily and my dad were talking and he says to her that tomorrow they can go out and dig in our flower garden (He is going to help me finish getting it mulched and stuff before winter.) Anyway Emily looks at my dad with a gleam in her eye and a huge excited smile and says "you mean like dogs?" I laughed so hard. She is forever cracking me up.

3 years old already?

Wow it is so hard to believe that three years ago I was in labor for 12 hours; two of which were spent pushing and this little "thing", this tiny miracle, this blessing was brought into this world and has blessed my life. I get so frustrated with her just as much as I laugh with her and she makes me smile. She keeps me humble and teaches me so much about myself and life.

That was then...

This is now:

I love you Emily. You are my life.

Birthday Party #1

So my baby is not longer a baby anymore. 3 years has flown by. She has actually been 3 a coupla weeks but I am a little slow on the update here. I decided it would be fun to have a friends party for her this year. I decided that I am not going to do that again until she asks for one or we have a house. Everything went fine and all it was just a little crazy having 8 kids and five adults in a 1200 sq. ft. apartment. Mainly in the lower level of that apartment halving the square footage. Thanks to my good friends who helped man the kids especially since Meghan decided it was time to eat while they were all there outside playing and thanks to my wonderful husband and great little brother for manning the kitchen the entire time. We went with a Fall Carnival (of sorts) theme this year. They decorated mini pumpkins, played games with pumpkins, ate home made caramel corn and hand dipped corn dogs and elephant ears. The guys did a great job. They tasted just like something you would get at a fair.

Birthday Party #2

So Friday (actual birthday) we did some celebrating with just us. Emily requested tacos for her birthday dinner and chocolate cake. She is a 3 year old who knows what she wants.

Birthday Party #3

This is the party with the grandparents on Saturday. There were a lot more pictures but I picked the top 5. Bubble wrap was the favorite gift until the tea set came out.


Brock partied hard. He fell asleep right in the middle of the festivities.

We made a pumpkin roll and cheesy potato soup in bread bowls for dinner

She now has big girl panties. Here she is donning the entire pack. I guess it will still work like a diaper if you put all 5 pair on. She has since learned they go on under the panties and potty training is going well. Yeah! Hoo rah!

Emily Says....

So the two new recent things Emily has said that made me laugh are:

No Way Hosey (Jose)

We had a family home evening lesson on the sacrament. You know things we should be doing or not doing. What we should be thinking about and why it is important. So we are using the picture of the deacons passing the water from the Gospel Art Picture kit and I say, "Emily, the sacrament water is special water. Do you know why it is special water?" She nods ever so sure of herself and says "its chocolate water"

Trunk or Treat

I like continuity and themes. So this year I was a flower done at the last minute right before we left for the party but you get the jest. The girls were bees and my super cute hubby was a bee keeper. I've already got next years planned. And Brock will do it wether he wants to or not.

Grandpa was an Argentine Cowboy.

Em is just a little excited about that candy.

Halloween

On Halloween night my friend Pualani held the annual Hamman Family Halloween Party. It is usually just for the kids but it was a lot of fun. It is amazing to me how much joy and fun I can have watching my kids have fun. Here is a quick recap in pictures:

Wagon ride around the yard and through the side woods.
wow, little girl in the pink, don't look so excited.

Meghan having too much fun; as always.

The ghost pinata.

The mummy cheese ball I made for the party.

Time to relax

The last load of laundry is in the dryer.
The Kitchen is cleaned from dinner.
Floor is swept.
Living Room cleaned and vaccuumed.
Menu planned for tomorrow.
To Do list done.
Email checked.
Husband at business meeting.
Time to blog or read a book or watch a movie or whatever I want.

Emily woke up yesterday morning with a fever of 101.5. Today it is gone and all that is left is a runny nose and bit of cough. She is still a little irratible. I can't tell if that is because she is still under the weather or if she is back to normal. Meghan is grumpy and clingy and jealous of Emily getting held a lot over the last two sick days. I think part of it is she is cutting a couple of molars. Life is good. I have a wonderful husband and two absolutely beautiful girls. Meghan is moving along. She walks if she holds on to her push toy and will cruise the furniure and or people when ever she gets a chance. She crawls so fast and goes up the stairs just as fast. Time to get out the gate. Well its been time for a while but I really should do it soon. Well Brock just got home and I'd like to get a shower before bed. (Didn't get that one done on today's to do list).

Sisters

"Here Meghan let me feed you. I do it myself mom"
The look says it all


They really dig that baby Einstein.

Fun with Prayer

Em is starting to expand her prayers now. It used to be that every prayer was "bless this food" with a hiss of "I don't need any help" or "I do it myself" as we would try to teach her to expand her vocabulary.

Since she has been branching out we've gotten some great prayers such as this one while she was blessing her food. "Heavenly Father, bless mommy and daddy and Meghan and mommy and daddy and mommy and Emily and this day, and the alligator comes and chomps our house and we throw him out the gate, bless this food, make us strong in the name of Jesus Christ Amen."

The other night for family prayer amidst the bless mommys and so forth she said "bless us to get on the website and be musketeers etc... "

It is so hard to keep a straight face sometimes and be a good example.

Brain Dead

So I had this planner a "Mom's Plan It" planner to be exact. I got it at the Mom's Night Out that Anna and I went to about a month or so ago. Anyway. It was sitting on the dryer cerca the open washer and fell in unbeknownst to me. After each canning batch I would throw my towels and washcloths etc.. into the open washer and then do a load of laundry as needed. Well I went to get our my clothes to put in the dryer and voiala!!! Paper on everything!!!!

You can't really tell on Meghan's camo jammies complete with ruffle on the but. It just kind of blended in.

Here is the floor after shaking paper off every single piece of clothing.


The maintenance guys came out a couple weeks ago because our washer was leaking. It came through the wall into the living room, was leaking into the kitchen and boiler cabinet. I couldn't figure out why it would do this. Then it dawned on me as he was snaking out the pipe to the washing machine. It is probably that pile of paper from my planner that has been hanging out in the pipes. Since then we have had no more incidents and I have tried to keep things off the dryer or at least not near the open washer.

Here is brain dead number 2. I was making rice for dinner and in a hurry and while making the stir fry to go with said rice I kept smelling this burning smell. I lifted the pot that cooks the rice and the instruction manual was in between the heating element and the pot. (Note the perfect burn circle.) That was a close one.

Kidneys

I thought this picture of my "kidney" tomatoes would be a great way to talk about Meghan's latest ultrasound update. Her kidneys look the same. The right one still has hydronephrosis (sp) and the left one still has reflux. We'll check her again when she is 18 months. Dad is going to do that one because they do the IV, Catheter and they strap her down to a table for an hour. That was fine when she was 4 months and slept through it but I won't do it at 18 months.

Bath Time

My kids are so stinking cute! Here are some bath time shots.

This looks very conspiritorial to me.
" Mmm. I love to suck the bath water out of my washcloth."

" I love to just drink it from the bath toys"

"Hey Emily, can I get in too?"

Innocent?

Don't let these girls fool you. They are not as innocent as they look. Cute yes, innocent no.
Here is a bit of their artwork. I was feeding Meghan breakfast downstairs while Emily and Danielle were getting along and playing happily upstairs (first clue that something was up). But I kept feeding Meghan thinking "how nice." Then I hear over the monitor "Black, blue, pink, black, yellow..." I think wow they must be sorting the bucket o balls. Then I think there are no black balls and Emily definitely knows black. (second clue) I decide to go up and they had gotten the "empty" old cartridges off the desk and painted themselves. They are very abstract but lovely.

They got their toenails painted pretty spot on.

Hope

Hope, an amazing word. It means so much to so many people. Hope is something that has sustained people throughout the ages, hope in God, hope in times of peril, hope for a brighter tomorrow, etc... Well for me hope currently weaves through Four things. ONE I hope that Meghan does not wake up to night at 1:30, 2:30, or 3:30 which has been the common theme all week. TWO I hope that Emily calms down, goes to sleep and doesn't' wake up Meghan in the process. THREE I hope that the people who stole our gas tank off of our grill really needed it so that we could some how be of service to them unknowingly. And FOUR I hope that they rot in Hades!
I mean don't take the one sitting right in front of the grill (maybe they new that was empty), but lets go to the trouble of lifting off the grill cover and getting the tank off. At least they put the cover back on. Fortunately there was enough gas left in the empty tank to do our burgers tonight before it died.

Why Hello There

I can't believe it has really been like 5 weeks since my last entry. Why is that you may ask. Becca, what could you have possibly been doing? Well, see for yourself...

My most excited and biggest helper.

The spoils of my garden.

Thanx to Aldi's for that $0.99 sale on strawberries since we didn't make the pick your own season.

I have been a canning fool. We did something like 13 gallons of salsa, applesauce, green beans, dried beans, chicken, chicken broth, strawberry jam, I don't know what else. It is all a big blur. I actually have other things to blog about. I have done other things, but canning is usually done at night after the kids are in bed and by then I am too tired to blog. I can't seem to do it during nap time anymore since Meghan is the only one who takes one. Emily still needs one even if she doesn't think so. I have decided though it isn't worth the fight. Thanks to my friend Deb who faithfully checks my blog everyday even though I have done nothing with it. These 3 entries are for you Deb. I will be catching up over the next few days off all the other things we have been doing this last month or so.