Happy Birthday Shiann

Happy Birthday baby girl!! I cannot believe that my little girl is 10 today. They grow up way to fast. I am so proud of you Shiann. You are such a big help to me. You are a wonderful big sister to your 3 little brothers. You have a way of always making someone laugh when they are sad. You are a great friend to everyone and people love to be around you. You are turning into a sweet young lady. I know that you are going to be a great mother and wife. I hope you have a great day sweetie. We love you!!

Happy Birthday Cade

I just wanted to take a moment and tell my sweet little Cade happy birthday. I cannot believe that he is already 8 years old. He is such a sweetheart and is making such great decisions in his life. I am so proud of him for making the decision to be baptized. He is such a great brother and is always thinking of others feelings. He never wants anyone left out of anything no matter what and always makes sure even the kids that may not be so popular are included in his activities. I am so proud of him and cannot wait to see the wonderful man he will be. Happy birthday son. We love you so much.

And now for an edition of "Where's Luke"

Today was Luke's field trip to the grocery store for preschool. They went to Winegars and they were able to see what had to be done to run a grocery store. There were a ton of kids there and a lot of parent volunteers. The reason I named my post was all the pictures I got were kind of "Wheres Waldo". He was so excited that I got to go with him today.

Luke and his friend Ethan in the freezer section (behind the scenes)

Having cookies and punch in the employee break room when the tour was over

Strike a pose

After being at the hospital with Austin (I forgot my camera at home). I came home to find these pictures on my camera from my sweet Shiann. Obviously she wants to be an actress or possibly a model when she grows up, as you can tell. She is always striking a pose for me every time I get the camera out. For some reason I could not get the other pictures to load but they were just as cute. We love you Shiann.

Poor baby

Our poor little Austin got really sick. The doctor thought that he had pneumonia. Saturday night Ben had a hard time waking him up and his breathing was very hard so we took him to the emergency room. After giving him oxygen and running a couple tests, they decided they needed to hospitalize him with RSV. Whoever said it is better to rest in a hospital is wrong. He was the 4th of 7 kids to be hospitalized that night. Pretty safe to say neither one of us slept at all. He got to come home the next afternoon and is now resting at home trying to get better. He still has to have his breathing treatments, but as you can tell by the photo, he does not love them. We are so glad he is home. The kids and his daddy missed him so much. Cade called me at the hospital at 5:00 a.m. to check on him and see when he got to come home. This little guy brings so much joy to our home. We are glad he is ok.

Technology is not always fun

I have been meaning to update for awhile. I have the most darling, fun pictures of our Christmas parties this year. But, my computer has decided not to cooperate with me and I am unable to get on the internet. So, while I wait to get my computer fixed or looked at, I will not be able to post them since the only access I have is at work. So I am sorry to those family members that wanted to see pictures. It is going to have to wait until after Christmas, but I promise to post them as soon as I can. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas spending time with the ones you love. I know I will.

Cupcake Friday

....But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all. These were really fun for the kids for our cupcake Friday. The recipe for Rudolph Cupcakes is a chocolate cupcake recipe from Martha

Stewart. This recipe makes about 2 dozen.

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup warm water

3/4 cup buttermilk

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with liners; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla; mix batter until smooth (about 3 minutes) Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about 1/3 full. Bake until tops spring back when touched. About 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Once cool frost with chocolate frosting. Use white chocolate chips turned upside down for the eyes. For the eye color use blue or black gel (in the cake aisle) Use a red peanut M & M for the nose and pretzels for the antlers. You can dip the pretzels in chocolate if you would like.

ENJOY

Thoroughly lick the beaters

The kids finished product