A Favorite Book

There is no single book that we have read in our home more than "The Wheels On the Bus." It is the most beloved book that we own. I have more pictures of this being read than of any other reading time. I have to hide this book by day because Alexander can spot it nearly anywhere and will start begging for "'Bas' Peeeeez!" And he's never ready to be done. Here is one recent reading.

Alex moving one of the tabs (It's a moving book)

Lucy, singing along. Loud. Always loud. =)

Light Corn Syrup Substitute and Sweet Things

My sister called me tonight and said, "I need Light Corn Syrup for a recipe, but don't have any. What can I substitute?" I knew you could make a substitute, since it is mostly sugar and water, but am loathe to guess for someone else's recipes. Messing up my own is one thing! So, I looked it up. It's very simple to make and, in an age where we are coming to recognize all of the detrimental effects that corn syrup has upon our health, and that of our children, I thought that I would pass this along for you to use as well! (Keep looking below the recipe for some of our Smith sweeties, too!)

LIGHT CORN SYRUP SUBSTITUTE
2 c. white sugar
3/4 c. water
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
Dash of salt

Combine all ingredients in a heavy, large pan. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover it for 3 minutes to get sugar crystals off the sides of the pan. Uncover and cook until it reaches the "soft ball" stage. Stir often. Cool the syrup and store it in a covered container at room temperature. It will keep for about 2 months. Yields about 2 cups.

St. Patrick's Day Parade

We were blessed to attend our first parade this month! We went to Sioux Falls' St. Patrick's Day Parade, which, apparently, is a big deal in Sioux Falls! There were so many people there and they were all quite festively attired with wigs, hats, and such. Many people had their dogs there with green leis around their necks or many had even dyed there dogs' fur green! Yikes! We got to watch part of the parade from the boardroom at Daddy's office, which offered a great view, warmth, and easier corraling of small children. Here are some pictures from the day. I hope you enjoy!

Banana Blueberry Pancakes

Alright, I know that I've been sorely remiss in keeping this up, so I'll try again. Here's a start!


A couple of weeks ago I was watching an episode of Jon and Kate Plus Eight (borrowed from Netflix) where they made Banana Blueberry Pancakes. Yum! I decided that we needed to try making some ourselves, so I experimented with this recipe; hands-down the best pancakes I've ever eaten! They're light, fluffy, and so yummy that you don't need any syrup (or really even butter, for that matter). My kids wanted a little "snow" on them, or powdered sugar, as most of the world calls it, but I think it was more the principle of the thing because they did not need it! You have to give these a try! I am going to experiement next with apple cinnamon, I think...


Ingredients
1 1/2 cups sifted all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, well beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup mashed banana
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

This recipe will yield about 24 pancakes.

Directions
1. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.


2. Add eggs, milk, butter, bananas and vanilla.


3. Stir until well blended and smooth.


4. Fold in blueberries.


5. Spoon large tablespoons of batter onto greased, preheated griddle or skillet.


6. Once bubbles begin to appear, flip pancakes only once.


7. Enjoy!

Lucy, Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, (Mostly) Bad Day

Today was a bad day. A day this bad always reminds me of that book title "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day." Today was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I don't know if I've ever even read the book, but, for me, the title says it all.

It started with a screaming child who prematurely woke up another (up until that point) sleeping child. Then I had two screaming children. It's the mathematical laws of children, as far as I'm concerned: if you have three children in a room and one of them is screaming, how many screaming children are there? Nope, not one, but THREE screaming children. That's lesson one in the mathematics of children. Although the day had lots of screaming (none mine, I promise), tears (okay, some of those might have been mine), and temper tantrums (ummmm...I plead the fifth...), there were many good moments throughout the day. This post is as much to remind me that there were good moments, as to share them with you! =)

In my Life Science class this week we studied collections: birds' nests, leaves, seeds, insects, and seashells were the main ones that we discussed. I suddenly remembered my own seashell collection, painstakingly labeled for 4-H about 20 years ago. This collection was labeled with love in a time, as I pointed out to my horrified students, when you couldn't just pull up the world wide web and use a search engine to do your work for you, but rather, you painstakingly looked up books at the library and poured over them, page by page, looking for what you needed. I recall this project with great clarity, for I have a large collection, one I love, and was quite proud of all of the work that had gone into it; it turned out fantastic. My class was properly awed as well. I had forgotten the universal fascination that seashells hold. They seem to transcend age, gender, social status, and more. Since my daughter was in need of distraction, I pulled some extras out for her to play with. Here is some of the fun that we had.

I am completely uncertain why, but Lucy was initially convinced these were hats!

We played with the sand that poured out and explored the different textures.

We stacked them in a great big heap.

We neatly stacked them like blocks.

We also went outside to enjoy the crunchy leaves that are starting to cover our lawn. Alex, in particular, enjoyed crunching these between his pudgy little hands, and trying to eat them. =)

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!" ~Psalm 127:3-4

It's been 13 months, but who's counting?

The "new" addition ~ pictured at 6 1/2 months old

Wow! I've known for awhile that I am in desperate need of redoing and updating my blog, but I realized this morning that it's been more than 13 months since I have updated it! Yikes!

In my great amounts of free time (hahaha) I have vowed to work on this! Please check back and bug me to keep me honest! To kick it off, here are a few new pictures!

Pajama Smiles

Kisses

I'm Going To Be What?!?

Lucy wants to share her good news with all of you! That's right! Lucy is going to be a big sister! Isn't the surprise on her face perfect?

Baby number two is due March 7, and Mommy and Daddy are so excited, too! Currently baby is nearly 13 weeks old, with a fast heartbeat of 168.

Thanks for sharing in our good news!

Sweet Sunshine

Here is our sweet sunshine girl today, in her nursery. She looks all bright-eyed and cheerful. Too bad mommy can't look that good, too, after being up until 3:15 am with a screaming teether. Ahhh, the kindness of youth! ;)

Smiles With Daddy

Yet another picture with the proud Papa. He has to have an adequate number of photos to decorate his desk at work, so he always encourages me to continue my shutter-bug ways. Hehe.

Another Cute Sunday

Another nice picture of Lucy and Daddy before church. She's finally getting enough hair to put more of those cute bows to use! Yea! =)

Post-Birthday Fun

Here is Lucy with just a couple of her wonderful birthday gifts. A Build-A-Bear, a Jack-in-the-Box, and a dolly. She got so many wonderful things that there are too many to post. (Not to mention that since Lucy moves at the speed of light it's nearly impossible to catch many pictures of her these days...)

Lucy's One Year Old

Lucy's birthday party was a day early, so we had to get a few additional pictures of the birthday girl on her actual day! Such a big girl!

First Birthday Party

Here are a few pictures from Lucy's first birthday party. Her attack of her cupcake was a little lackluster, but she enjoyed opening her presents and was thrilled with all of her gifts.