We tend to make a lot of treats and gifts at Christmas, as I’m sure most of you do as well. This year we made Ginger Bath Soak (thank you Martha Stewart). It was easy to do, the boys helped measure and mix and we put them in a cellophane bag with a ribbon and it made a great gift. The boys wanted to try some in their bath, of course, and it smelled wonderful.
Here’s the recipe is you are so inclined to make it:
Martha Stewart Living Ginger Bath Soak:

2 c. baking soda

1 c. epson salts

2 T ground ginger

We also borrowed a friends sewing machine, thank you Erika, and made fleece rice bags. It’s a bad name, but basically it’s a sleeve of fleece that you fill with rice and a scent (we chose lavender) and you sew shut. Then you can heat it in the microwave for about a minute and it becomes a great smelling, moist heat that you can use like a heating pad. Our boys each have one that we heat up for them each night that immediately warms up their beds and makes them super cozy. We have had a couple of the boys come loose at the seam and I’ve had to do some hand stitching repairs, but they are not so gentle with them. I worry that ones we made as gifts might do the same, fingers crossed they hold together.
In the baking dept, we made some peppermint bark, peanut brittle and buckeyes (peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate). Always good to get the kids in the kitchen to help and they a good at it, too! Our favorite project was the kids and I surprising Dee by baking the Gingerbread Cake with Lemon Sauce that her mom used to make and her childhood favorite.

Thanks to Nana and Papa, we have a new toy! Still working out some of the details of working it, but it’s an HD Flip video camera (which = super cool family movies for the blog). I can’t wait to get out and start filming.

I got this amazing sign from Dee for Christmas and it pretty much sums us up! Welcome to the chaos. Carlos has taken to scowling in most pictures and since this was the 23rd picture (and the best if you can imagine that) he was just done.
Can’t wait to hang this sign up so it’s the first thing you see as you enter our home.
All in all we had a wonderful Christmas, the boys were more excited then ever before and did really well with all the festivities.
More pictures to come, my computer ate them and all from Halloween on. So it’s de-Christmasing the house today, starting in on the to-do list and putting together the 10 sets of Legos that the boys got. Glad it was a Lego year, they LOVE them, but it’s work for Mama K for sure. Plus the frustration of them all being broken apart within a week’s time always gets to me.
Hope you had a very Merry Christmas!

Hope it’s wonderful for you all!

This last week was a whirlwind of fun and great times, with no time to blog. My brother and his family came to visit! They stayed at my folks house so most of the time we were hanging out there. We started the week with a trip to Seattle. The boys weren’t sure about skipping school to play (we rarely miss school for anything!) but the Space Needle was spectacular. It was clear, crisp and sunny. We were tourists all the way…rode the monorail, saw the sights, did a little shopping, rode the carousel and then met up with the Burr family for dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. More pictures to follow…but this week we were just enjoying our time together with Todd, Monica and Luca.
My parents were the perfect hosts, and we ate like kings..it’s been awhile since we had appetizers! Monica spoiled us with some authentic mole and huevos rancheros, too. YUM!
We’re actually just beginning to recover from the week away from home. I wouldn’t change a thing, though. We basically came home to sleep, eat breakfast, switch over laundry and get kids out the door to school…then back again to my folks house. Sunday night, as we pulled into our driveway Trey pretty much summed it up by saying “well, we’re back at the hotel again!”
Sad to see Todd, Monica and Luca leave after such a pefect visit. Looking forward to the next one!

I think the last picture is the blackmail shot of the year…yes, our boys can ballet, in their jammies before bedtime. Of course, the wrestling happened first.

So the video is funny and Carlos really tried to pull out Levi’s tooth but to no avail. I tried as well but my fingers were too big to get around his tiny tooth. Dee even tried a pair of needlenose pliers (still can’t believe Levi let her do that!) but that tooth wanted to stay. Levi worked and worked and finally had success! The second front tooth is loose, too so he’s hoping to get it out so he can sing the “All I Want For Christmas” song.

We were lucky enough to be able to spend most all of Mary’s birthday celebrating with her. We met for coffee in the morning, gave her a Snuggie (oh yes we did!) and a gift certificate to a spa. I had just picked up Trey and was getting ready to drop Carlos at school when Mary called and asked what we were doing. Levi got to stay at extended day (he won a free week of extended day at the Island School Carnival and he was so excited to use one) and the mom taxi parked and we met Mary to hang out and play games at Calico Cat and have lunch. We met again for dinner and someone (the restaurant, I believe) paid for our whole meal and that was staggering to me…4 adults and 6 kids worth of food is not cheap. Finished off the day with a trip to Mora (thanks, Mary!). We are so lucky to have Maymay in our lives and hope she had a wonderful birthday.

Swimming lessons have come to an end for this session. It’ll be a great break for us, as we’ve had our issues with the pool lately. I love the time with our friends while the boys swim and having the routine of every Tuesday and Thursday nights but I’m still angry about the way things were handled with our boys not focusing in class. I think a break will be good for all….oh, and as a friend pointed out….Trey and Carlos must have been paying SOME attention, because they both passed to the next swim class. 🙂

All the boys had their yearly eye exams and that means we got to have fun trying on glasses while we waited. At this point, nobody needs glasses. Funny part was, they all wanted them. We’ll see what the future holds but for now I’m glad to not have that added hassle…but they sure do look cute!