Awesome find...

I've been looking for a new purse for a while now, I wanted to buy something that would last a long time, since cheap purses wear out sooo fast! I looked at Target, and other stores and couldn't find anything I liked. I really wanted a cross-body bag, something that I didn't have to worry about falling off my shoulder. I found one at Target, but it was too small for my planner and cost $35 which really isn't bad but I hoped to find something on clearance.




Then yesterday I swung by Good Will, I found this lovely purse by Ameribag. ITs black, fits my planner and was in like new condition. The shoulder strap is lined with a leather lined non slip material, there is leather on the side for durability, and its super comfy to wear! I bought it for $3...looked online it retails for $90. :) I am happy!

                                           

Ehre and Her Boss

A little background: Ehre began helping me with dishes when she turned 4, but it was on a voluntary basis.  As soon as she turned 5 it was become her responsibility to do so in earnest.  So every night we are working on dishes and I try and give her constructive criticism so that she can improve.  When she washes the table she needs to have it passed off for inspection by me.

Sunday night: Ehre and I were doing dishes and she started washing the table.  I was washing pans when she came to ask for her inspection.  I didn't want to go right then, so I figured this once I would just let it be.  So I said, "Ehre, you know what I look for, why don't you inspect the table tonight."  She said OK and went to the table and looked at sideways and front ways, got down low, looked real close and said, "Ehre you forgot to wash right here and there is still some food on Ben's chair."  She followed it up by wiping her hand over the table's surface and said, "And it is still sticky over here, I need to wash this."  By now I was standing at the entrance to the dining room watching and smiling.  When she finished she came and told me she was all done and that the table was clean.  Seems my work is done, I've already raised her and she's only 5!

Jeff

Ben's new girlfriend

Ben is so cute. We we got home from church today it happened something like this.

 

Dad: Ok kids you can unbuckle, lets go have lunch

Ben: My princes she's buckled up (Moving to the back seat of the van)

Dad: What princes?

Ben: Here she is (unbuckling car seat)

(everyone exits the car, Ben with his arms wrapped around his body)

Mom: Ben what are you doing?

Ben: Carrying my Princess... (smile)

(Everyone is almost to the door when I looked back, Ben had been walking next to us and now he was running back to the car)

Mom: Ben what are you doing?

Ben: My princess, come with me (Again wraps his arms around himself till he gets inside the house saying) Come on you have to come inside too.

 

Apparently Ben has an imaginary girlfriend that goes to church with us...its cute!

Last cake for the class

Oh, the class is over now, it was so much fun.

Amy......

To Amy.....well I know a bunch of you....and I'm not sure who left the last comment. So this is to all the Amy's I know.

Regarding the comment about frosting a cake without getting crumbs in it. Here is the secret. You need to put a crumb coat on it first. Make a thin buttercream frosting (don't make your whole batch thin just a little bit) and spread it all over your cake. Don't worry about the crumbs. When you are done let your cake sit for 10-20 minutes. It will get a "crust" on it, and then you can go over it with more frosting and it should look much better. All your crumbs will be locked in, and shouldn't appear on the surface leaving you free to decorate how ever you want.

So does this answer your question? Amy please comment back so that I know which one of you left the comment!

Enjoy!
Ann

Ps. Here are two links that may help out too!
http://www.monkeysee.com/play/986-cake-decorating-how-to-crumb-coat

http://www.ivillage.com/10-steps-perfectly-frosted-cake/3-a-57694

http://www.countryliving.com/cooking/about-food/cake-decorating-0508

Saturday Cartoons

My kids, are just like I was when I was little, they LOVE Saturday cartoons. Its a favorite for them and they look forward to it all week!

Recent Cakes

This is the chocolate cake that I made for class this week. I have a friend who's birthday is the day before Valentines Day so it was fitting that it should be given to her as her birthday cake! It was fun to surprise her, and yes giving her the cake was a way of reminding her that she still has to come workout with me everyday this week at 6:30 am!



This second white cake is the one that I made for my family for Valentines Day. The technique is really simple, I know. I hope to be able to advance to more detailed cakes...without my kids putting their fingers in them!





Problems:
1. The white cake's frosting had a hard time sticking to the cake why? How do I do a crumb layer when this is the problem? Does this mean my frosting is too thick? I made it a med consistency.... I guess these questions will be addressed in class this week.
2. I need to have more pie filling, I ran out ( I was using left overs) and so then I added the white in the center, I don't like it but once its on, I didn't want to go through the hassle of taking it off and having to fix it. Lazy me.

Valentines Day Cake

I finished this up after my second cake decorating class last night. Its a chocolate cake with a chocolate butter cream icing. Yummy, I can't wait for us to eat it, even if it means that it will destroy it. Next week we'll be working on roses, more boarders and flowers, I'm excited!

Valentines Day Party

I totally forgot my camera, so I stole these from a friend. Bens Joy School class had a Valentines Day party yesterday. It was a lot of fun, Ehre loved seeing all the friends, and she has aopted Mikiah as her own "little girl".  I made the cookies and Kim made the heart shaped cupcakes, lots of sugar= lots of fun.

"Give me....."

Ehre and Ben chose a historical cartoon from the library, I was showering when they were watching, so I don't know what story ti was. But it wasn't hard to figure out when I heard Ehre repeating over and over later,

 

"Give me death, or give me liberty!"

 

:)

Now she has Ben repeating it ! My kids may not know about Patrick Henry, but they know what he said!

Ben's Birthday Cake

I'm starting a cake decorating class, and since I had the kit, I decided to use it to figure out something for Ben's birthday tomorrow. Happy #3 Booga!

CLUE

We had friends over the other night for a night of games. I haven't played CLUE in years (since Jr. High it seems!) The guys had fun placing the character with their weapon choice. It was a great evening!

Ben's Joy School

Ben's enjoyed (what we've had so far) being involved in a Joy School. HE likes having his friends come over and play, and learning about new letters, topics and shapes. Here are the two crafts we did last week when we learned about "Hats" , "Triangles" and the letter "L".

Ehre's Dance Classes

She's loving her Ballet Class, it will last till her Spring Performance in May!

Jeff's Birthday

I didn't take as many photos as I wanted to, but Jeff did catch a shot of me trying to put candles in his frozen ice-cream cake. Yes, it required a chopstick and hammer, to "preset" some holes. :)

Thanks to our friends who joined us for the 2nd year in a row. Without them this cake would last months in our freezer.

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Train Table

I was really excited to see that a friend was selling her train table! Ben's birthday gifts for next week really center around that theme, and this would be perfect. She was selling it for an amazing price so we bought it. When we picked it up thought there was one small detail that she had left out... the table top looked like this.



Jeff and I hummed over a few options, she said that a Mr. Clean eraser would take the permanent ink off,....well yeah that and the paint too so we thought on it for a while.

In the end we decided just to paint a new top. This was a really fun project, though I wish it lasted longer!

What do you think?

Beautiful Poem

This is a poem I ran across regarding our Heavenly Fathers understanding regarding our personal trials.
So beautiful!
Ann


With every tear that falls, there is a lost heart that calls.
it calls to say I'm here, don't dispair, I will come to you
when the time is right, when you least expect me and through
the quiet night open your heart to me, accept me, I will be there
in the end.
Your wait may be long, you may get frustrated by the whole
ordeal. In the end I will be real. While others around you are
succeeding your heart goes on bleeding.
I would thank you for being patient, I would thank you for
being the kind of person who shows persistance. If it were not
for this, I may never get the chance to have an existence.
In the chaos of your day, the calm of your night, let your heart
soar and take flight.
For so many tears, for so many years. You have been trying,
thinking of giving up but never doing it. In the end you just keep
on going in the hopes that I will come to you, the one who deserves
me, the one who can love me as no other can. You will be that
mother that you always wanted to be. Just you keep waiting for me.

Its sooo cold!

Hey Family!

 

We received about 5" of snow on Thursday and then it was extremely cold (-2) last night, so for the past few days we really haven't ventured anywhere. Jeff and the kids did build a LG snowman and covered a box to make an igloo, but they were working as fast as they could to return to the warm house. We've probably gone through almost a whole container of Hot Chocolate too!

 

The adjustment to being a full time mom is slowly coming, I've learned that acquiring patience is twice as hard as loosing it. (at least!) I hate to share this story, seeing that I don't want to reinforce Ehre's behavior, but its kind of funny. Its amazing how much influence a sister can have over a little sibling. Ehre's learned that once we've put the kids in bed, she can quietly whisper "Ben, come up on my bed" or "Ben turn on the light", and after he hears these whispers, he will perform the suggested action. Then as soon as he is on her bed or the light is on, this is what we hear. " MOOOOOOOM, Ben's on my Bed!" or "DAAAADDDY Ben turned on the light, and now I can't sleep!" Lately she's been very observant that we don't go to bed when they do, and she asks,

 

Ehre:"Mom, are you going to bed right now?"

Mom: "Nope, mom and dad are having their time together now"

Ehre: "But I want time with you two, tooo!"

Mom: "Sorry."

 

or

 

Ehre: How come you get to watch a movie tonight and we have to go to bed?

Mom: Because its not our bed time.

Ehre: When I'm 10 I'm going to stay up with you guys too!

 

With these bedtime conversations, she keeps us laughing!

 

This week school starts at Purdue again, so Jeff is getting ready for his class. This is his last class that he needs to graduate, after this semester all he needs to worry about his his research for his preliminary defense and then in a year and 1/2 his actual defense! So guess what hopefully by 2012 we'll be out of here!  Hopefully by the time Jeremiah is returning to the states we'll have an idea of when Jeff will be graduating and where we will be going.

 

Major accomplishment of this week, I think Ben for the most part is potty trained! Oh, it will be so nice to not buy diapers anymore. :)  He's doing a great job with independently managing this (which is sooo nice).  Ehre has memorized the first Article of Faith and today we'll work on #2, we've set a goal for her to learn all the songs this year, and she is on the right track! Other than that we did have a co-ed Volleyball night, and it was a lot of fun to finally play volleyball with Jeff. We've never played before so it was a lot of fun to show him how hard I can serve a ball....right at him!

 

Sorry this is a short email, I am writing as we are all preparing for church in 2 hours.

Lots of love!

Ann & the family!

Graduation Photos

Here are a few favorites from my friend Kim. She really did a great job!

My wonderful kids...

A friend in her New Year Resolutions, made the goal to be "a teacher not a babysitter" with her kids. I took her goal and added it to my own New Year Resolutions. This phrase has been on my mind a lot since then. Motherhood, has its rewards and they are different from the rewards I recieved when working.  When I worked in the hospitals I constantly received thank yous, and had wonderful co workers that always recognized positively our efforts. As a mom, for a long time I felt like motherhood was under appreciated. And then I realized that my kids do thank me in so many different ways, and I love it.

 

Tonight Ehre said, "Mom makes the most wonderfulest meals!", and when Ben asked me to lay down with him for his nap, he told me thank you. So then I started rethinking my previous views. Motherhood isn't under appreciated, we as moms are appreciated and loved, but we have to be willing to accept the rewards and appreciation in the small and simple forms.  Motherhood really is the best job, and its the most rewarding when done right.

 

Working in the hospital wasn't easy, and it sure wasn't always pleasant, but I didn't complain. Motherhood for me should come with the same effort and lack of complaining. Sure there are the not so fun days, but there are also the days  like today that make me feel so special and wonderful as a mom. So I guess I owe my kids a great big hug and kiss in the morning, I really do love these two, and if they can just be patient with me I promise I'll keep on trying to be a better mom.