Spike

I've been desperate to do this with Lana's hair since she first got it cut, and she finally let me. I thought she looked awesome, but unfortunately she didn't agree. she said everyone would think she's a boy and she washed it out. :( Oh well. At least I got photos first.

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What's been cooking?

It's just not the time of year for eating healthy. I've made some terrible for you, delicious foods this week, to remind us of Scotland.

Deep fried potato fritters, served with loads of vinegar and some ketchup







And Sausage-less (fake sausage - disclaimer in there for my Step-mom's benefit ;-) ) rolls.

It was my first time making puff pastry. I made some mistakes but it still turned out pretty good, and puffed nicely. I'll do better next time, I'll beat the butter more. It was reasonably easy though, just takes patience and making sure to keep the dough and butter chilled. Rest and refidgerate often. I kept an icepack on the work top and kept the rolling pin in the freezer while the dough chilled.



Here they are cooking in the oven. Turned out really yum.



Some vegetarian grape jello. 1 quart grape juice and 4 tbs agar agar (seaweed based gelatin alternative) . The texture is not quite the same as jello, more like half way between pudding and jello. I think it's better than jello. Zoe and Lana scoffed it, and scoffed seconds too.




So then I had left over puff pastry, but no fruit left in the house. So I thought I'd make a sticky toffee pastry. I couldn't find a recipe so I made one up.

I melted butter and brown sugar, then added about 1/2 tsp agar agar to thicken. I boiled some dates (I'm thinking figs would work too) and drained most of the liquid. I added some flour and a spoon of the syrup stuff from the other pot to the dates and made a paste then added it to the syrup. Simmered then left to cool.



I pasted the edges of the pastry with beaten egg and folded up the edges to make crusts, then poured the syrup stuff in, then I made lattice shaped with pastry strips. Oven at 400 F for 12 minutes.



Oh my gosh! This was the most yummy thing I've eaten in a while (If I do say so myself)

I served with some ready whip, but I'm thinking real whipped cream or pouring cream or even hot devon custard would work better





Here's Rene saying "Get in my belly" - Especially for Matt and Christa ;-)

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Some December pics

I need to get myself motivated to do some scrap pages here pretty soon and to have a go making a couple products. Anyhoo, here's some pics from this month.






















I don't think this step thing was such a good iea




Mmmmm Christmas cookies




What a ham



The kids were in the church Christmas party

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I wish I could fly, way up in the sky, but I cant

You Americans won't get the Orvill reference so just ignore it.

Zoe's game today, she'd say "weggy or not, here I come!"

and start running round the house flapping her wings saying "I dee flying! I dee flying!) (I dunno what the dee bit meant)

Then she'd come to me disheartened saying "It's not working mummy"

And she'd try it all over again. I love how at 22 months old, you can really believe that maybe if you flap hard enough, you'll really be able to take off.

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Mispronounciations

Sorry the pic is so bad, I find it hard to use the laptop mousepad thingy.

I love the way my kids pronounce some things.

Kaya calls the library, "lie-va-berry"

Lana says thank you, "flank you"

Zoe has loads, my favorites being:

Glenn - "Genn"
sleepy - "feepeet"
drop it - "doo wop it"

My least favorite is the way she says thank you, the th sounds like an f, the a sounds more like uh and she leaves out the n!

Glenn mispronounces everything:
I want milk - "waaaahhhhhh"
I'm tired and want a cuddle - "waaaaaah"
I love you so much - silence with a big smile

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I'm enjoying listening to

Revival radio. It's a Christian radio station from Cumbernauld, the town I lived in in Scotland from age 6 til I got married. I know a lot of the radio DJs. You can listen online. It's sweet to hear the accents again.

Listen here

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Future Winter Sports Champion

First time we took Zoe out in the snow this year, she did not care for it at all. She was out for about 30 seconds and felt cold and miserable and wanted to come inside.

That was before we brought out the sled. A few days later I tried her on the sled, a little worried that she'd hate it. Kaya and Lana enjoy going down once or twice then are done and would rather make a snowman or a snow angel or something.

But Zoe is different. We discovered very quickly that she LOVES sledding and doesn't ever want to stop. I took her down multiple times, then had to come in, I was so cold. Zoe cried and cried and refused to take her coat etc off and said 'I go wee, I go wee!" so Kaya took her out until Kaya tired of it and was too cold. So I took her out again. She just couldn't get enough. She wanted to sled again and again and again. Her dad took her the next day too. She's a sledding maniac.


Here's how the routine went. I'd walk her up the hill (we have a perfect hill for it in our back yard) and she'd say "cay-ful mummy" all the way up (I slipped a few times).



At the top she'd say "weady? Yes! Wie down" as she got in. Then off she went.




Weeeeeee







And here she is crying and refusing to take off her coat because she wanted to go weeee more.

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Peach's stocking

It's that time of year again. Please send your messages or sign your name to help fill Heather's stocking this year. Thanks everyone, I can't express how much it means.



Here's the link, or you can just send an e-mail if you prefer.

Blessings to you all

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The Tooth Fairy

Kaya's tooth fell out yesterday! I can't express how excited she was. Of course, it came out in an apple, as I expected.

I was thinking maybe $2, but her friend was telling her all about how she got $5 so we didn't want to disappoint. I told her you get more money for the first tooth, but don't expect as much for every tooth!

She doesn't believe in the Tooth Fairy, but likes to play along for the magic and fun of it. So she put the tooth under her pillow last night, then woke me up at the crack of dawn this morning exclaiming that she got $5. She was thrilled.

A few hours later she felt sad that her tooth wasn't there anymore and she wanted it back so she can look at it. So she wrote a letter to the tooth fairy asking if she could have it back, sealed it in an envelope and put it under her pillow. As a bribe she included 6 pennies and a dime. We'll have to see what the Tooth Fairy makes of that tonight.

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Scottish word of the week - 9

We were late with this week's due to the flu. Still feeling slightly under the weather but well enough to yab about a Scottish word.


Scottish word of the week - 9 is the word:

WELLIES


n. meaning rain boots

Here's Rene's demonstration




Now listen to Billy Connoly's hilarious song about wellies.

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cold and sick

It's cold outside in Nebraska. -3 today (-19 Celsius) with a wind chill of up to -25 (-31 Celsius). It's "I feel like my fingers will snap off" cold. It's "when I breath this air it's like my lungs fill up with death" cold.

And we're all sick. Yesterday it was just Rene, Kaya and I. Puking, fevers, chills, sinus issues, crying and praying it will just end. It's miserable. I was hoping it would be gone by now, these things usually only last 24 hours. But we're still miserable today. And I think Zoe and Lana are joining in today. Haven't puked yet but they're sleeping like crazy and not moving.

The house is a total mess, we were lying around yesterday while Zoe and Lana trashed the place. Banana peels everywhere. We just are not up to cleaning it yet. I hope that when we recover from this that will be it over and done with for this winter.


On a plus, it's expected to snow tomorrow. 90% chance. 2-4 inches. Surely they won't cheat us out of it this time.

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Baby Talk

Listen to this chatterbox

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ahhhhhhhhhh

1 cup of hot chocolate (which I guess they call hot cocoa over here), made with hot milk, with a generous dob of ready whip on top, while Kaya plays happily in the bath, Zoe and Lana play computer in the other room and Glenn sleeps peacefully in his chair = 5 minutes of well earned (if I do say so myself) indulgent bliss for mum.

Definitely a highlight of my day today.

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I guess today is poop day

It caught me unawares. I didn't realize he was due a poop any time soon. But he apparently was. And wow. I was practically cleaning it off all 4 walls. I was elbow deep in cheese sauce heaven. It was on his legs and feet, up his back, all over the bed. And it had pooled in his diaper, I named it loch poopy and you probably could have gone fishing in it. That was a lot of poop.

When I finally cleaned him up, I picked him up and he let out a roaring loud burp and I just thought, "he's such a boy. He'd make his daddy proud".

And now he's completely zonked out, sleeping on my chest. He's exhausted from all that work.

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We have a wobbly tooth

It's pretty wobbly. Feels like it'll be out in a few days.
Kaya is so excited. I can't believe she's really growing up.

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Rudolf

Rudolf, Oh Rudolf his nose
By Kaya Docherty – 6 years old


Rudolf, his nose so bright
Rudolf, it fills the sky with light
Rudolf, he carries Santa to the children while they’re sleeping in their beds

Rudolf, Rudolf, the others laugh because his nose is bright
But it fills the sky with lots of light
Rudolf, Rudolf, what a kind reindeer – he should earn a present too

Rudolf, Rudolf, he carries Santa to the top of the roof
So he can send children presents

Rudolf, Rudolf I love him so
But no one knows

Rudolf, Rudolf, everyone sees
But they are going to sometimes sneeze

Rudolf, Rudolf everyone knows
That he shines wherever he goes

Rudolf, Rudolf, what a kind reindeer
When people see him, everyone cheers

Rudolf, Rudolf, his nose is so bright
He helps me in the night
So I can see
When I’m scared he comes to me

Rudolf, Rudolf, thank you so
But we have to go

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The Elves and Me

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

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2008 in pictures

These are not my own designs. These are designs by the incredible Anna Aspnes Her work is amazing.

This is so easy, you just drag your photos into the predesigned pages and click save. I figured I'd do this instead of writing a Christmas letter, so folks can get a general idea of what our year was like in a fun way.


Check out Smilebox to make your own, look out for Anna Aspnes' designs if you want the industry's best.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Oh and also it's free if you just want to publish to the web. If you want to print you pay, but I just used the free version.

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Kids' Quotes Of The Day

Kaya:-

"Mum, when you smile you're pretty. I mean, when you're angry you're I-Love-You kind of pretty but when you smile you're the real kind of pretty. "

Then a couple hours later, she cringed and confessed
"I feel like I sort of want to take back what I said about you being pretty....sorry. I still love you though".


Lana:-

sings, " What's gonna work? - team work. What's gonna work? - team work."
Kaya and Zoe join in singing and Lana screams,
"NO I WANT TO SING IT ALL BY MYSELF!!"
She kind of missed the spirit of the song I guess.


Zoe:-

points at Christmas tree - "crispy tree"

And as I was feeding Glenn and noticed something on his head I asked Zoe, "Why does Glenn have chocolate on his head"
She replied, "Because, you feeding Genn."

Dunno why it's a reason for chocolate, but I had never heard her say because before and it sounded way cute. She's been saying it all afternoon now, since noticing how tickled I was with it.

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I feel cheated

For the past couple of days the weather forecast had been predicting a snow blizzard here in Lincoln. They expected up to 6 inches of snow last night, and we were looking forward to it. But at the last minute, it changed to a forecast of up to 1 inch, and in realty we just got a light dusting.

We're all ready for a decent snow now, to help us get into the Christmas spirit and everything. Come on snow.

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Say "thanks"; this Christmas

I'm a pacifist, I'm anti war. A naive viewpoint perhaps, but I think the world needs some to be peacemakers and some to warriors.

Whatever your political views, the fact remains that many folks' brothers, sons, fathers and loved ones are away from home this Christmas, risking their lives. And whether the war is right or wrong, these folks deserve a morale boost and a word of appreciation from back home.

I like how I heard it worded recently,
"If you don't stand behind our troops....feel free to stand in front of them"


So here's a super duper easy way to send a message of thanks this Christmas to a troop. It takes 3 seconds and is completely free. Click to choose a design of a Christmas card,click to choose a message or write your own, and click send. Xerox will print is and mail it. Painless for us. Take 3 second please and click a couple buttons today. Say Thanks here

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The good and the bad of baby days

I love and hate the young baby stage.

I love it so much for the cuddles, the coos, the smiles, the innocence, the precious expressions, the snuggling up and nursing, getting to know this huge soul and personality all squeezed into a teensie weensie body, feeling so important and needed, gazing in awe at this tiny creation who's gazing back in awe at their mum, learning so much about God and love and what's important in life. I love discovering this little person who I've loved for 9 months before I even knew who they were.

I love diaper changes, bath times, baby skin folds, baby fragrances, being puked on, being peed on, rubbing baby's skin, being up with baby in the night, baby burps - so satisfying, carrying baby around with pride, feeling their little hands curl around my finger and hold on so tight like they're saying "don't let me go mummy", talking to them, singing to them, watching them sleep, watching them make funny faces or kick their legs and shake their arms and open their eyes all big and wide.

I love just about every single thing about these precious hours and days and weeks and months...

Except one thing. The fear.

Glenn's passed the milestone. Heather died at 10 weeks and 3 days old. Glenn is 11 weeks now. He's made it. But I know he's still very much in the peek risk time for SIDS. I pray every day, countless times, that God will let me raise him, that He won't take him home early.

I put him to bed at night and my stomache starts to churn as my fears come to the surface again. I involuntarily play scenarios in my head and try to erase them or focus on something different. But I can't hide from the fear. It's here, it's valid and it's so hard to get through. It takes over.

Don't get me wrong, I trust God and believe that whatever happens, He'll see me through. I know He will, as He did before. But I'm selfish and don't want to just get through. I want my boy, and I want to keep him for a while. The thought of anything alternative is too much to bare.

He's my everything. He's perfect, he's special, he loves me, he's so peaceful and content and smiley, the girls adore him so much. He's such a part of our family now, I can't remember what it was like before him.

I felt the same fear with Kaya, Lana and Zoe and I got through those months. With Kaya it was the worse. So strong, and we were a mess. But we got through, and now she's 6 and thriving. My friend Dawn told me back then, "yes sometimes bad things happen to good people, but don't forget, often GOOD things happen to good people". It was like I had forgotten that tragedy doesn't always just strike and that sometimes life goes on as normal and babies grow into kids who grow into adults. And watching Kaya go from milestone to milestone has been so healing for me.

In a way I just look forward to Glenn reaching some more milestones and getting to the point where I don't wake up 20+ times a night with my heart racing while I check if he's breathing. I look forward to him being a robust 2 year old, full of energy and spirit and life, so I don't have to worry about how I could possibly go on if I ever have to go through such loss again.

But by then he'd be older, and I wouldn't have these beautiful baby days to experience anymore. And I know I'll miss it. Because I love babies so much. I love babyhood. I love these early baby days and weeks and months. I just hate the fear.

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Scottish word of the week - 8

This week's word is the word - GREET

It is a verb, meaning to cry. You could say, "I greeted at the end of ET", or "I don't like those weans (children), they're always greetin'". Or "acht wheesht, you don't need tae greet about it"

Watch the video below to hear the word in an authentic Scottish accent.

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Silly songs for kids

I have a tradition of making up a silly song for every kid during their babyhood. Peach had a couple of simple ones.

"Heather is lovelier than a feather"

And, "I'm gonna choose some clothes for my Heather to wear, for my Heather to wear, I'm gonna choose some clothes."


Kaya's was a bit of a rip off of another song...
"In the Kaya, the mighty Kaya, the Kaya sleeps tonight"


Lana's was to the tune of the don't cry Daniel song from veggietales.
It went like this:
"Don't cry Lana
Fear not Lana
Don't you know your milk is here?
For there is milk from your Mummy
It is very yummy
You can put it in your tummy
Milk is good for you
It will help you poo"


Zoe's was:
"She's a bambino, bambino, bambino
Bambino cappuccino, cappuccino, cappuccino
Her name is Zoe is Zoe, is Zoe
I really love her soo-eee her sooo-eee her sooo-eeee"

My brother kept pointing out that bambino is the male version and I should really change it to bambina - but that just didn't rhyme with cappuccino.


So today the kids helped me make up one for Glenn. You get to hear my beautiful voice singing it in the video below. And Kaya made up actions (excuse her low cut trousers, they're a little small).

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Happy Birthday to my love

Rene turned 30 today. He's been pretty depressed about it for a while, but by today he had accepted it and has taken it like a man, like an old man hehe.

It was a fun day. We woke up and Rene stayed in bed while the girls and I went down and got Rene's birthday presents. He got a mug, a kettle, some socks, a fishing game (which Kaya got for free at a yard sale and kept secret from Rene for weeks, and a bag of doritos which Kaya bought with her own money.

Then we went out to church and I saw the lead singer from the casting pearls, who are now called Vota. I loved this band from back when I was in Scotland, they're one of my favourite bands ever. Then I moved here to Lincoln and was buying tickets for a consert when my husband pointed out they were from Lincoln! I couldn't believe it. So he was at church today and I couldn't stand to talk to him I was too star struck.

Then we came home and Rene had a surprise birthday party. My friend Stacy helped set it all up and a bunch of friends came and brought food and we had a bunch of fun. We even got a game of killer bunnies going at the end. Awesome. Rene was very surprised and felt very loved.

Then to top off a fantastic day, tonight as I was changing Glenn's diaper he gave me his first real laugh! Rene says he got a snigger from him before, but there were no witnesses so it doesn't count. I got a short but very loud laugh and it was adorable. Made my day.

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I love having people come visit

But it sure sucks when they have to go back home again. I really hate goodbyes.

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Homecoming Scotland 2009

2009 will be Robert Burns' 250th Birthday, and Scotland will be celebrating all year.

I must admit, I get a tad homesick from time to time. I do wish we could go back to visit soon..

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Zoe talking

She was talking about some scary butterfly she saw on the computer. It was actually a dragon.

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The best kind of house guests

My Dad and Step Mother are here spending Thanksgiving with us from Georgia. I am lucky to have the best type of guests ever -

They gave the kids gifts
Entertained the kids and cooked the meal!
Cleaned up after the meal and served dessert
Gave us money (I love it when people do that)
Said goodnight then went off to a hotel to sleep.

I have it so easy. I get to spend time with them without doing any work!

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Thankful for quick baths in the sink

Ok I haven't kept up well with the thankful thing, sorry.


My girls were 3+ times a day poopers when they were little babies. Glenn, however, saves it up for a few days then lets it all go at once!

And when he does finally blow it's like he fills his diaper to saturation with cheese sauce. Warm, squishy, dark yellow, grainy cheese sauce. It not only looks like cheese sauce, it smells exactly like it too. It smells delicious! I'd be tempted to pour some of it over my elbow pasta if not for the fact that I know it's poop.

Anyway, he made one of these secret recipe cheese sauce diapers the other day and the stuff was stuck on his bum and wouldn't shift. So we quickly filled the sink with water and California Baby bubbles and scrubbed him down. He seemed to enjoy his bath in the sink, though it was a little cramped up. Of course we got pictures

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Is God A Brunette?

Conversation with Kaya and Lana at lunch today.

Kaya says "Mum, I think God has dark brown hair and a mustache"

Interesting. "Lana, what do you think God looks like?"

"In a tv show God had a brown beard. I think that's what he has"

So it got me thinking, why do we never imagine God as a blondie? Do we all imagine him with dark hair? He probably doesn't have hair, other than Jesus-God, though we tend to not think of him as blond either. I'm sure there were some blond Jews right?

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Scottish word of the week - 7

This week is the word - MOCKIT

See video for explanation and to hear pronunciation.

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Thankful for washing machines

I don't enjoy the endless task that is laundry. Washing clothes is not so bad, but the baskets full of clean clothes requiring folding and putting away overwhelm me sometimes.

Yet still, I'm thankful for washing machines to make the task of laundry easier and faster. Especially on days like today, when I had to wash all our covers, and our sheets and mattress protectors and loads of towels, because Zoe and Glenn were sick and puking all over the place.

I'm also thankful that they seem to be doing much better now. They got lots of sleep today, we had a snuggly in bed watching dvds day today (and doing laundry of course).

And it's the weekend, yay!

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Thankful for sleep

I'm going to do this thankful thing again like I did last year. Just from now until Thanksgiving, I'll think of something I'm thankful for.

Today it's how good Glenn is at sleeping. This boy is just perfect in every way. He is so extremely sweet natured, he rarely complains or cries. He's so happy to just hang out with us and be cuddled and be a part of our chaos.

And he loves sleeping! We have the arms reach co-sleeper which attaches to the side of our bed and keeps him close to me, yet still in his own safe little space. I feed him and lay him in there at about 10pm and he goes right to sleep and sleeps through til morning most nights. When he doesn't sleep through he just wakes once to nurse and goes right back to sleep.



He's such a doll and such an easy baby to look after. I'm so privileged to be the one that gets to take care of him and raise him. He's just incredible.


Kaya is thankful


Lana is thankful

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The Lord Provides

I'm always humbled by the ways God provides for us.

Money is tight right now. We have no savings and at the end of every month we're diving into the pennies jar to make ends meet. I know it's hard times for everyone with the economy and bla bla bla (I've made a personal commitment to myself not to get political on my blog. There's enough of that on the web already!).

So anyway tonight the doorbell rang and it was a lady and a gentleman from St Mark's Methodist church giving us a bunch of thanksgiving food for free! We hadn't signed up for any programs or anything. They just had one basket leftover and their pastor instructed them to drive out and give it to the first house with bikes outside.

As "chance" would have it (or as God would have it!) we had a bike sitting in our yard that some neighbourhood kid had left. It's been there for a few days, we don't even know who it belongs to.

So they gave us loads of food, milk, fruit, tinned food, even a pumpkin pie!

Thanks God, for finding another creative way to see us through til next wage check. I need to stop worrying and remember that God always provides! He's never failed to yet.

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Jackpot

I intended to post this last week but never got round to it.

Rene came home from work one day last week with 4 paper bags full of beautiful, quality girl clothes and 2 large plastic sacks full of adorable baby boy clothes! There was something for everybody, and some gap, old navy and gymboree. All the clothes look awesome.

The only thing better than yard sale clothes is free clothes! Especially gorgeous ones like these. Here are a couple of my favourites:



Sweet sweater for Zoe



Tommy Hilfiger outfit



gymboree leggings for Lana and sweater for Glenn

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