Josh's First Christmas

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! It was fun having little Josh around for all of his "First Christmas" experiences. We'll quickly share some with you.

Josh thought Santa's white glove was really interesting.

Josh made sure we went for speed over quality while decorating our gingerbread house. All the kids helped of course. (It looks perfect.)

We went to see the Christmas lights and camel at Rock Creek, and Josh stayed bundled up except for this quick picture.  Brrr!

On Christmas Eve, Josh watched his siblings perform at the first annual talent show at Grandma Hardy's house. Jonathan played "Angels We Have Heard on High," while Nicole, Zach, and Greg sang all the words.

Joshie on Christmas Eve.

Josh slept through most of the presents on Christmas morning, but when he woke up Santa had a big present waiting for him. 

Josh with his first ever Christmas present from Mom and Dad.

A baby tiger! If Josh is much like his older siblings and their stuffed animals, this is the beginning of a long friendship.

He did not want to be a Josh-in-the-Box.

Josh is all ready to tell about the symbols of Christmas. 

Enjoying some time by the tree, with his gift from Santa. Josh is almost four months old and learning to grab things.

Christmas was on Sunday this year so we got all dressed up for church. He looks excited.

All in all, it was a very special day.

Merry Christmas, everyone! 

As Fresh as it Gets

Eggs! We're getting eggs!  Stay tuned for some funny egg pictures. But first...

The run. We wanted to build a run for the chickens so they could get out for fresh air. We found that the ground is SO hard in that area. We gave in and had our neighbor bring a tractor to drill the holes for the posts. (We thanked him with eggs, of course, and the chicken card I made, above.)

Ben and I set the posts with dirt and water (hard as cement!). Then when his dad was visiting, Ben somehow talked him into helping put up the chicken wire. They even built a nice man-door for it. 

The chickens love their new run!

And we love that Jonathan can help with the chores now. He thinks it's fun.  After school he opens the chicken door, gathers the eggs, and puts out fresh water. (After dark, the chickens all go back inside and we close the door so they'll be safe from predators.)  

The chicken wire looks cool in the snow!  And strangely, the chickens like to come out on snowy days too. But not when it's windy. That seems to ruffle their feathers.

Our egg production is booming. We get 8 or 9 eggs a day. Did you notice something funny about the picture above? 

That is a very large egg!

It had two yolks inside! This has happened twice so far. Jonathan wants me to boil it next time.

(Notice the super huge griddle we just got to cook all these eggs. I can also do twelve pancakes at a time!) 

Another funny egg. This one doesn't have a shell! We decided not to eat it. Ew. 

It's also interesting to notice that there are occasionally spotted eggs, which are fertilized but still edible. I forgot to take a picture of one up close but I just noticed that there is one in the egg carton three pictures above, if you want to hunt for it. (Above the big one and to the right.) 

The best part of all our egg production is that we have plenty of eggs to go around!  We've eaten a lot more French toast. And scrambled eggs. The kids get to help more with the cooking now because it's okay if an egg gets broken occasionally.  We have boiled eggs for after-school snacks. And we can share fresh eggs with neighbors and co-workers and still have plenty left over for our family.  I'm looking forward to trying my hand at omelets one of these days. If any of you out there have a  favorite egg recipe, please send it our way! 

All in all, we're very happy with our chickens and their eggs.  I'll end this post with a quote from Zach:

"Chickens are our friends.  We give them food and they give us eggs."   

Turkey Rolls

This post is a little late making it onto the blog. But maybe somebody out there has always wanted to celebrate Christmas with cute little rolls shaped like turkeys? If so, here you go! 

Turkey Rolls

Step 1:  Whip up a batch of dough from your favorite crescent roll recipe. (Mine is at the end of this blog post.)

Step 2: Divide dough into three balls. Roll out each ball into a circle the size of a dinner plate, then slice it into 8 triangles, as you would a pizza.

Step 3:  Spray 24 cupcake tins with oil. Gently stretch each dough triangle so that the "beak" and "tail" can lay partly over the edge of the cup. Don't let the turkeys touch each other.

Step 4:  For each turkey, use clean kitchen scissors and cut 4 slits in the tail, then gently fan out to make feathers. Use a toothpick to poke little eyes. Cover and let rise for 15 minutes.

Step 5:  Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until the turkeys are golden brown. Brush with butter.

Step 6:  Enjoy being the coolest mom ever.




-------------------------------------

Here's a crescent roll recipe from The Food Nanny on BYUTV:

Liz's crescent rolls

2 Tbsp active dry yeast

1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp warm water

1 cup milk

3 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

About 5 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp salt

butter

1. In small bowl combine yeast and water. Cover and let stand for about 10 minutes.

2. Heat milk in microwave until just warm, not scalding.

3. Beat eggs, oil, and sugar together. Stir in the milk and yeast mixture. Stir in 5 cups of the flour and the salt until combined. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead to form a moderately soft dough, still slightly sticky. (I did all of this in my mixer since it has a bread paddle.)

4. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place until dough is sticky, 2 to 3 hours.

(This is where you start following my directions above. But if you want regular crescent rolls, keep reading here.)

5. Lightly grease a 12 x 18 inch sheet pan and set aside.

6. Punch the dough down and turn onto a lightly floured surface. Pat with additional flour if necessary for handling and keep your hands floured.

7. Divide dough into thirds. Roll one section into a circle about the size of a dinner plate. With a pizza cutter, cut once down the middle, then across, then diagonally (just like a pizza) to make eight wedges. Roll up each wedge from the wide end to the point. Place the rolls point side down on the prepared pan. Repeat with remaining sections. All rolls should fit on one pan.

8. Cover with a clean dish towel and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 15 minutes.

9. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400. Bake 5 minutes on the bottom rack, then move to middle rack and bake 5 minutes or until the rolls are light brown. Remove rolls from oven and brush tops with butter.

Merry Thanksgiving and Happy Christmas!

Grins and Giggles

Joshua has figured out that he is a very happy baby!   He is quick to respond to any attention with a wide-mouthed, gummy smile.  And his latest milestone - he laughs!  We have to work for it a little, but it's so worth the giggles. I caught a few on video. 

There are two videos, each 39 seconds. The first one has better giggles but the second has funny expressions mixed in.  Please turn up the volume and enjoy!  

(If the screen won't play for you, click the link below it.) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_J9vfHKKJ0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc-SKslCjsQ

One more thing. The other night Ben was patting the baby's back before bedtime. We noticed that Josh was patting Ben's arm too! What a sweet boy. He loves his daddy. 

And he must love his mommy too, because he slept through the night three nights in a row!  Lots of happy people at our house.  

Tricks and Treats

Trick. We forgot about pumpkin carving until the night before, just before bedtime. It was kind of tricky but we got them done fast. We had  lot of helpers willing to get their hands dirty. 

Treat.  Each of the kids got to draw their own jack-o-lantern face. Their smart dad carved two faces on a pumpkin (opposite sides) so everyone was happy. 

Trick. How is little Josh sitting on the table by himself?  Magic.

 

Treat. The school carnival was Halloween-themed this year so the kids wore their costumes. We had a lot of fun and Nicole won almost all the games again, including the cake walk. What a lucky little fairy!

Trick. I made a haunted castle cake to donate to the carnival. I got 1st place in the decorating contest! I had very little time to do it and I can see a bunch of things wrong with it, but I'm excited. Winning is fun. 

Treat. I love these kids!  We ended up with Buzz Lightyear, Ironman, a Power Ranger, and a Fairy. 

Trick. Oh, and a Cookie Monster. Yum yum yum yum yum!  He slept in the car most of the time.

Treat. This is one of our favorite non-family places to go trick-or-treating. "Deanie" taught each of our kids in nursery at church when they were ages one to three. Buzz Lightyear loves her and didn't want to leave!

Trick. What a precious little fairy! Haha.  

Well, another Halloween has come and gone. Thanks for sharing in our tricks and treats!

Fear Itself

Last month we were driving through a nearby town and saw somebody building a pyramid out of straw bales. I began freaking out. Because clearly it is NOT safe to go inside stacked bales of straw. What are they thinking?!? 

Ben calmed me down by convincing me that the pyramid just LOOKS cool. Nobody goes inside. Oh.

A few weeks later his dad and stepmom came for a visit and guess where we went.

 Yup. The pyramid. And do people go inside? We sure do. 

It's in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the largest straw maze in the world. Totally worth putting our lives at risk. 

But before the big maze, we played on the slides and crawled through huge pipes. (That is Zach coming down the slide.) Next we went in the small maze. It was perfect for Greg and Nicole.

Then on to the 3D maze. I didn't go inside but of course I didn't think twice about sending my kids in.  They crawled up and around and down on different levels. Cool idea!  We only lost one kid in there. After several rescue attempts, Ben finally found Jonathan using his cell phone as a flashlight. Jonathan, of course, didn't realize he was missing.

Pop Quiz: Do you know the difference between hay and straw? Are you sure?

It came time for the big maze and its entrance through the pyramid. Sigh. I saw that there were wooden beams supporting the straw bales. Um. Not good enough for me. But I went for it anyway, trying to ignore the sudden doom awaiting me. 

Surprise! We survived. 

It was pitch black inside (probably explains why they were selling flashlights at the entrance) and it was extra exciting because I was pushing Josh in the stroller. So every time I bumped into something, I wasn't sure whether it was a person or a wall. So I'd push harder, trying to decide when to turn. It was actually really funny. After we escaped the pyramid, there was an extravagant straw maze to find our way through. 

Greg got to ride with Grandpa Nelson, who was kind enough to let him in and out whenever he wanted. Like when they came to a buried mattress. What a cool place for a trampoline, right?

There were some gruesome things that I wish the kids hadn't seen. Jonathan wanted me to take this picture. Ew. 

We sat down for a meal of... Nevermind. Just look at the cute kids and grandparents.

The maze was long. Really long for kids. I loved it. But I think we were all relieved when we got to the end!

The kids finished off our visit by playing in the "sandbox" of pinto beans. 

We had a wonderful time at the straw maze with the kids and grandparents. It was definitely an adventure to remember! 

And it turns out that the straw pyramid isn't dangerous after all. As long as nobody lights a match....

Blessing Day

Hi. It's me, Joshua. I'm a chunky little boy. I'm 5 1/2 weeks old and I weigh about 13 pounds now! My mom's arms are really tired.  My favorite things to do are eat and sleep and stare at people. My family sure loves me a lot.

(Jonathan, Nicole, Dad, Joshua, Mom, Zachary, Gregory) 

On Sunday I went to church for the first time.  My dad gave me a baby blessing. It was a special day. Some of our family and friends traveled to see me. How nice of them!  I let them hold me in my cute blessing outfit. 

 Don't I look sharp? Mom took about a billion pictures of me.

Some funny things about me:

-I like to pull my own hair so I still have to wear mittens at night.

-I burp reeeally loud. Please excuse me.

-I have features of each of my siblings, especially Jeffrey.

-My hands are like huge paws and my feet are super long.

-I like my binky in the afternoon. Not morning or night. 

Well, that's all for now!

I'm worn out. 

Love, Joshua