Anyone Need A Quick Weight Loss Plan?

Then come on over to our house.


A nice little bout of stomach flu will melt all those Christmas pounds away.


In order of appearance of sickness:  Catherine, Mommy, Dominic, Anthony, Joseph, Anne.  Of course it started in the middle of the night (night before last).  It always does. 

Poor Daddy had to take care of everyone yesterday.  So far he has shown no signs of getting sick.  Maybe he'll be lucky.  We are improving today, but you've never seen such a bunch of pasty-faced kids (and Mommy).

Oh, and by the way, Merry Christmas!  

Pa Rum Pa Pum Pum

One day the kids decided to sing The Little Drummer Boy, which they learned in choir class this year.  They got up on the hearth and proceeded to sing the song (even Joseph, though he never sings in choir class). Just to be safe, though, Catherine brought along the little board book we have that has all the words in it.

Christmas Tree 2010

On Gaudete Sunday weekend we went to get our Christmas tree.  It was a cold hay rack ride!



The kids and I in front of our selected tree.  Anthony was so bundled up he could hardly move!




Timber!




Follow that tree!




The kids helped pull the tree through to get netted for the ride home.




The whole family warmed up in front of the fireplace, then we all enjoyed some hot chocolate and popcorn.




Later, Daddy brought the tree in through the front door.



The kids went to check out the tree up close.



Catherine, Dominic, Anne, and Joseph helped me to decorate the tree.  They did a good job and I only had to move a few ornaments to get them out of Anthony's (Mr. Destructo) reach.



Anthony Is Nine Months Old!

You can never start teaching them chores too early!



Really, though, he is the ruler of the house.



Joseph, The Ham

Most people don't see it, but Joseph has quite the repertoire of funny expressions.  Here is a classic one.  

Anne At Bat

What Kind Of Day Will You Have...

...when the baby is on his third outfit...


...and it is only 7:30 in the morning?



(At least it slowed down, he's only on outfit #4 now.)

Adding To The Nativity

One day a couple of weeks ago, a donkey arrived at our house. 

So Daddy carried him outside to the nativity scene in our front yard.



Where he made himself right at home.



Pictures From Catherine's Birthday

Catherine wanted the same cake as last year, so we checked out the cake pan from our library.  I finished decorating it holding Anthony in one arm, wielding the decorating bag with the opposite hand.  He stuck his fingers in the cake a couple of times, but I covered it up.  Just don't look too close.

I think this was the first time really that I decorated using bags and tips while the kids were awake, so they were very excited, especially when I handed over the bags afterward and let them practice (and eat!).

Our Catherine, big girl at 7 years old!

Catherine opened a few presents while the other kids watched closely.  She was obviously a little excited.

Anthony loved the paper.

Catherine got right to work with one of her gifts.

This post is a couple weeks overdue, but we've been a little busy around here.

Child Number Five Is First

Last Thursday I made my first ER visit with one of our children.  Anthony had gotten sick the evening before with croup and got up multiple times during the night.  Then during the day on Thursday he seemed to be improving, crawling around on the floor and playing with the other kids.  Then right after dinner time, he suddenly took a turn for the worse.  His breathing grew labored and he did not want to interact with anyone.  He just looked at me, seeming to say, Help!

So I put him in the carseat, grabbed my purse, and drove off to a nearby hospital (7 minutes away).  He got seen almost immediately and they gave him the standard treatment for croup (racemic epinephrine) and he got worse instead of better.  So they transported him (on my lap) by ambulance to a hospital in Wichita.  What a scary time.  The poor little guy was really working hard to breathe.  In the Pediatric ICU, he was poked and prodded all night long.  I had to help hold him down multiple times for IVs, blood draws, x-rays, breathing treatments, etc.  Finally, by morning he seemed to be breathing easier, and he was able to go to the regular Pediatric floor on Friday afternoon.  

Dan's brother came to our house after he got off work and stayed with the kids all evening so Dan could come up to the hospital (and cooked them dinner, and then even fixed our broken sewage pump, which had quit working on Thursday - wow!  Thanks, Al!) 



Here's Dan with our poor little sick baby on Friday evening in the hospital.  It was so warm in the room that Anthony was happy in just his diaper.  It's hard to crawl around in a hospital gown.





You can tell he is feeling better at this point.




Anthony got to leave the hospital on Saturday afternoon and come home.  Daddy and the kids picked us up.  The kids were so excited to see Anthony. 

 
Anthony is doing better this week, but still recovering from his illness.  The house is a disaster, and I'm still trying to catch up on laundry, but we are very thankful that he is home! 

If You Ask The Girls To Watch Sick Little Anthony While You Make Lunch...

...this is what you might see at our house.  Luckily he was vastly entertained.  Except for the dark circles under his eyes, he doesn't look too bad for a sick baby!

Thanksgiving At Our House

What could be better than sitting around after breakfast, drinking cappuchinos?  (Mostly froth, however!)



Maybe watching Daddy manhandle the turkey.



Or ripping up the bread for the dressing.




Or later getting to watch a movie while smelling all the wonderful smells coming out of the kitchen.




Or maybe, just maybe it was finally getting to eat all the yummy food.

 Happy Thanksgiving, only one week late!  I must say in my defense, though, that we have had someone sick in the house nearly the entire time.  Yesterday was our lone good day, as now Anthony is sick again, this time with croup.  I think I'll be asking for sleep for Christmas. 

Happy 7th Birthday, Catherine!

Chicken Baked In Pesto Crust

I had some leftover homemade pesto sitting in the fridge, so I found a yummy recipe (which I modified) to use it.  This is a picture I took before I baked it.  Of course I forgot to take an after pic, but you get the idea. 


Chicken Baked In Pesto Crust*

1.5-2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into somewhat even large pieces
2 eggs
6 tablespoons milk
1 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/2 cup pesto

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix eggs and milk in shallow bowl.  Line up pesto, egg mixture, and breadcrumbs. Brush pesto onto both sides of chicken, then dip into egg/milk mixture, then coat with breadcrumbs.  Place onto baking sheet which has been sprayed with Pam.  Bake for 25-30 minutes until chicken is baked through.  Serve with whatever you want. 

*Original recipe from "1000 Lowfat Recipes" by Terry Blonder Golson, one of my favorite cookbooks.

The Final Garden Post Of 2010

The garden has been over since the first hard frost a few weeks ago.  I am no longer picking any of these (hot peppers if you can't see)...



...or these.





So on a Saturday not long ago, Dan and the kids dismantled what was left in the garden.  The kids pulled the big stakes...




...over to the horse stalls where they will be stored until they are needed again next year. 




Then they brought over the tomato cages.  Joseph especially loves to help Daddy.




The stakes and cages put away, the dead tomato and pepper plants were pulled and then Dan tilled the entire garden and now it sits dormant, waiting until next spring.




Now we can dig!



Baking On A Rainy Day

Last Friday was a day much like this one, cold and rainy.  Since the twins had just finished going through all of the letters of the alphabet, we celebrated by making alphabet bread!  Here they are, hard on work, and loving every minute of it.



Here are the letters, some of them a little hard to distinguish.  The top ones have poppy seeds on them, the bottom ones kosher salt.  We liked the salty ones better, they were like pretzels. 




Then I helped the kids make sugar cookies, you know, the cut-out kind.  Catherine has a little baking set and last week, after a big basement clean-up, we had found all of the pieces to it, so she had been begging to make cookies.




So we mixed up some dough and I let her get to work.  She rolled out all of the dough herself and she even helped each of the others take a turn cutting out cookies.  All I did was run them through the oven and help with clean-up.  Oh, did the house smell good that day! 



Anthony Is Eight Months Old!



He has been learning how to eat.  He loves it when he gets to eat some real food and in this picture, he was excited to eat some rice.  It is amazing how such a small quantity of food can make such a mess!




He has six teeth now, as you can see!




This picture was from a few weeks ago, when we still had buckets of tomatoes sitting around. He thought they were better than toys.  He gets into anything and everything these days.  He can turn the water on in the master bathtub, he rips up any paper he finds, he can open my dresser drawers and pull all the clothes out, and he can mess up the boys' room faster than they can pick it up.   




Anthony loves to go outside, especially if he gets to crawl around in the grass.




He weighs about 21 pounds.  I took this picture and the next one today.




He pulls himself up on all kinds of things and he is definitely cruising along the furniture.  His favorite thing to do when I am trying to make dinner is to pull up on my legs and stand there hanging on to me, not allowing me to take a step.  

 So, to recap.  In the last two months he has gotten 6 teeth, started eating food, learned how to sit up by himself, how to crawl, how to pull himself up, and how to cruise, along with many other things.  No wonder he doesn't sleep very well!