Richard Girls...this is for you!

My friend showed me this recipe. We think it is gluten-free, but you're the experts so you'll have to double check. She said her husband loved them and that they freeze well. Thought I would pass this along.

Monster Cookies

INGREDIENTS:
6 eggs
2-1/4 cups brown sugar
2 cups white sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 tsp. baking soda
1 cup butter
1-1/2 pounds peanut butter(2 1/2 cups)
9 cups rolled oats
1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cup candy-coated milk chocolate pieces (M&M's)

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a very large bowl, mix ingredients in order given. (Use hands if necessary).I used my Bosch Mixer
2. Drop on cookie sheet (an oven liner or parchment paper works well) about 5 cookies to a sheet with ice cream scoop and flatten. Or use a regular cookie scoop and flatten slightly for smaller cookies.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bake for 12 minutes for larger cookies and 9 for smaller . These burn easily so don't overcook. Makes about 40 saucer size cookies or 8 dozen regular size.
Note: This recipe does not call for flour.

Strange Comforts

Does this image bring comfort to you?

I didn't think so. So, most kids have a special blanky or teddy that brings them comfort. Not Levi. No, he's too weird for that. His comfort item: fingernails. Usually the thumbnail, but any finger will work. Whenever he is tired or upset, he rubs our fingernails. It is so weird. But hey, we never have to worry about losing Levi's comfort item... kinda hard to misplace your fingernails.

This is Brinley's comfort item. Not nearly so weird, but it has a great story. I know that Heavenly Father is involved in the details of our lives, that He is intimately aware of us, and He loves to bless us. I know that the principles of personal revelation and inspiration are very true. Nothing has taught me this more than being a mother. I feel like I receive inspiration from the Lord every day.

Brinley has hated her carseat from day one. I think her main complaint was that she wasn't being held, therefore she hated it. She would scream and cry the entire time we were in the car everytime we went anywhere, even if she had just been fed and changed. Needless to say, I wasn't exactly thrilled to go anywhere. One evening, we were all headed out the door when a thought came to me, "Take the rattle with you." I recognized that this was a prompting because it was similar to other promptings I have received. I thought, "She can't play with a rattle yet," but I went and grabbed it anyway (it was still in its package). We got in the car and, of course, Brinley started screaming again. Then the though came, "Shake the rattle." So I did. IT WORKED! She stopped crying immediately. And it has worked almost everytime (unless she is hungry or needs a diaper change, but can you blame her?). We call it our "Magic Rattle". I am so grateful for that little rattle. I can now go places without going crazy. Mostly, I am grateful to the Lord for answering an unasked prayer.

(p.s. I no longer have to use the rattle all the time. Brinley doesn't mind her carseat nearly as much anymore. Sometimes she fusses until she's in the car. But it does still come in handy quite often... I'd better buy some backups!)

12 Things About Levi

Levi is turning two this weekend, so I thought I should take a minute to do a little update on him. I can't believe it has been two years since he came into our lives, but then again, I can't imagine life without him. More than anything in the past two years, Levi has provided hours and hours of free entertainment and a whole new definition for the word "love". So if you have time, I'd like to tell you a few things about this two-year-old Levi.

Levi at 2 days old.

Levi at one year and 51 weeks on the same changing table. My tiny baby has definitely grown!

1. Levi loves books. We read to him every night, and when we try to say goodnight, he points to the chair by his crib and says "chair". He also loves to look at books on his own, and his crib is filled with them. As lots of you know (or could tell by checking out the sidebar on this blog), I've been doing a lot of reading lately. Levi has obviously noticed, because he has started reading all the big chapter books we have in the house. Twilight has been a favorite (obviously inspired by me), along with The Oddyssey, Utopia, and Aristotle.

2. Levi is a natural sharer, and one of the best I've ever seen. Not perfect, but really good. I've really admired this about him.

3. Levi definitely has a sweet tooth (hmm...where could he have gotten that from?). Hide the chocolate everyone!

4. Levi's favorite person is probably Joe (Sam's brother). Close seconds are Mom, Dad, Brinley, Asa (possibly would tie with Joe if he still lived here), Nate, Jace, and Grandpa Thurgood.

5. Levi still loves anything and everything that has to do with balls. Sometimes he can throw a perfect spiral, and he is teaching himself to dribble a basketball.

6. Maybe even more than balls (is that possible), Levi LOVES balloons. A balloon can keep him entertained longer than anything I can think of right now.

7. Levi is very fond of praying... especially over snacks. The other day, he got a box of unopened cereal, yelled "Ma" until I paid attention, then said "Pray" and bowed his head and folded his arms. We often find ourselves praying over a grape or a couple of chips. It is adorable. I guess we must be teaching him something right.

8. Levi has figured out the camera (kinda...), and it is hard to keep him away from it. Whenever I download pictures to my computer, I'm always surprised at what I find. For example, the latest was a picture including a mirror in our bedroom. Reflected in the mirror was me in my underwear... yeah, that one got deleted! In the collage above is one such self-portrait.

9. Levi has started talking in a sudden rush. Every day there are more and more words, and I am somewhat (read: extremely) proud of myself for being able to recognize what he is saying. Just now, he held up a lid and said "lid" for the first time. My favorites right now are "pray" and "bike" which he pronounces "bike-ee).

10. Levi is the sweetest big brother. He treats Brinley so nicely and is only mean on accident. He loves to give her kisses and hugs and toys. He likes that she has started smiling. Whenever strangers talk to him, he always points of "Min-me" to them.

11. Levi must remember from his pre-Earth training what it means to be two. Just this last week, "no" has become his response for everything, he started saying "mine", and he can throw one heck of a fit. I do have to count my blessings, though, cause often when he throws a fit in runs into another room and slams the door. When he comes out, he's happy again.

12. Sam introduced Levi to the game Bloons on the computer, thinking it would entertain him. Levi loves it! However, the plan kinda backfired when Levi discovered you can click on other games in the sidebar. Now it is a constant "Ma, Ma, Ma" every three seconds when he wants to change games.

Valentine's Day

We celebrated our Valentine's this year on February 16th and 17th. We figure, there's really no special reason to celebrate on the 14th... and everything is on sale after that. Plus, restaurants aren't nearly as busy. We think it's a pretty good idea. On Monday (the 16th), we exchanged Valentine's gifts. Levi picked his out at the store: a package of four soft balls--baseball, basketball, soccer ball, and his favorite... football (also know as a "Joe ball" because he watched his Uncle Joe play football this Fall) and a mylar balloon. No, I'm not lame... he picked out the plain silver one himself. Brinley got a cute little teddy bear that says "Be Mine" on it. Along with my usual box of chocolates (love it!), Sam surprised me and got me a huge ol' gorilla. It was pretty hilarious. We went out to Olive Garden while Sam's sister watched the kids. That was probably the most romantic thing Sam did for me... pulled out his phone and found a sitter for the kids without even discussing it with me. I love that man!

On Tuesday, we got around to our Valentine's Day tradition: giant heart-shaped sugar cookies! This is a tradition I had growing up, and we've continued it on with our kids. Levi had a blast decorating his cookie and mostly with eating the Kissables. For the sake of our (read: my) waistline, Sam suggested that we just help Levi eat his cookie instead of making more for ourselves. Good idea, but with how good those cookies are, I'm kinda regretting not having one all to myself!

One Sunday Morning

I took these pictures the second Sunday of this month (see... I'm getting so close to being caught up!) Brinley just looked beautiful in the dress her aunt Lauren gave her. Unfortunately, so just wanted to be held that entire morning, so anytime I put her down she cried... kinda hard to take pictures while holding her, so I had to accept the crying. Levi was too cute and climbed over to comfort her. He is the sweetest big brother, and a cutie to boot!

Hangin' Out

For the first several weeks of her life, Brinley was a bit of a crier. (Glad to report that, now two months old, she is getting so much better!) In order to get anything done, I would carry her facing out on my hip with my arm around her waist. I pretty much lugged her around like this most of the day. Never fail, she would end up falling asleep. She loved to sleep hanging over our arms like this. Someone should invent some sort of contraption that you can hang your baby on...for the sake of my arms!

Brinley: 1 month old

Isn't she beautiful?

Sledding Videos

Here are several videos of my family sledding at Camp Z.


Jared and Justin racing


Lacey and me (with a flash of Sierra)


Jared, maybe?


Jack


Doug


Sierra and Jack


Bronson


Amber and Lacey

Camp Zarahemla

The first weekend in January, we stayed with the Thurgood side of the family in a cabin near White Pass called Camp Zarahemla. It turned out to be quite the adventure. Literally seconds before we went out of cell phone reception, I got a message saying that they were having problems with power outages and to bring lanterns. As soon as I listened to the message, we lost reception, so I couldn't call anyone else in the family to warn them. Sam and I stopped and got a few cheapo flashlights, but they didn't have lanterns.

Well, sure enough, there was no power. The whole place is heated by a giant wood-burning stove and the stove and oven are gas powered, so the only thing we were without was light. But let me tell you, it is hard to sit around in the dark and not feel depressed or crazy. Even worse than that is trying to keep track of and entertain so many little kids in the dark. Changing diapers and cooking also proved a bit difficult.

If you know my family, then you know they aren't ones to just sit around on their thumbs... they went to find out what was wrong. The lights flickered on for just a second once, and Sam saw a fireball shoot out someone in the trees. They investigated and found that a tree had fallen on a transformer. We called the power company and after some long hours, missing equipment, and several return trips, they were able to get the power on. Hallelujah! Of course, it went off again a few more times, but we did have power most of the rest of the time we were there.

It was lots of fun to be cozied up in a cabin surrounded by feet and feet of snow. We went sledding, ate lots of soup, and played Rock Band and Bananagrams. The little kids loved playing in the loft with all the beds. Everyone was there except Ben, who had to be back down at school. We missed you Ben!

Opposite from last year, Levi hated sledding. The only thing he liked about the snow was when Sam would get a pile of it in his hand and then blow it all away.

Photo Shoot

Here are some pictures that I took of Brinley when she was about 3 weeks old.

Brinley's Blessing

Brinley was blessed on December 28, 2008 at home by her father.

Brother and Sister
Sam's family: (L-R; B-F) Nate, Asa, Tag, Dad/Grandpa, Lauren, Joe, Connie
Rhonda, Mom/Grandma, Arina, Ann, Abe
Kamora, Kelsey, Brinley, Sam, Levi
Kelsey's family: (L-R; B-F) Evan, Lacey, Bailey, Mom/Grandma, Dad/Grandpa, Shelly, Justin, Logan, Jared, Kristin, Ben
Savannah, Kailey, Jace, Kelsey, Brinley, Sam, Sierra, Levi

Having large families means never having good family pictures.

Christmas

Christmas morning. This was the first Christmas we have spent in our own house with our own little family. It was so nice and relaxing. We let Levi play with each gift for (almost) as long as he wanted to before moving on to the next gift. He really wasn't too into the opening of gifts, just playing with what was inside of them. After our little Christmas morning, we went over to Sam's parent's house and had a Christmas breakfast and opened more presents there. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that.

Levi opened this present last, and he was hilarious about it. When he first saw what it was, he skipped around in circles clapping his hands for joy. It was the cutest thing... to bad I did catch it on video. Oh, it is a basketball hoop by the way.
Mommy and Brinley on Christmas morning.
Sam with his Dilbert books. We love Dilbert.
Levi with the quietbook Mommy sewed for him. Don't look too closely, I am a horrible seamstress. This was pretty much my first attempt. But Levi likes it. This is how Brinley spent most of Christmas... I'm sure she'll be more lively next year when she is more than 2 weeks old. Her shirt says "Mom and Dad's best present ever." We thought that was cute- she was our favorite Christmas gift this year.
A white Christmas!!!! A pretty rare occasion...I believe it was Sam's first since moving to Washington.
Levi got this trainset from Santa Claus!
Levi and Daddy cuddling Christmas morning.
Levi is hilarious... lately he has been sleeping with his head under his pillow. I think he got it from Sam.

Cute Pics

I took these pictures the morning of Christmas Eve. After I give the kids a bath, I tuck them into mine and Sam's bed (since it usually isn't made yet) to get them warmed up. I grabbed the camera and snapped these pictures and thought they were pretty cute. Um... Levi's froggy towel was green once upon a time, until we washed it with a red towel. Now he has a pink froggy towel. Oh well.

Christmas Eve 2008

Yes... I am finally getting around to this. Hooray! We spent Christmas Eve at Mom and Dad Thurgood's house. Everyone was there, so we had tons of fun. We did the usual thing: had TONS and YUMMY food; acted out the Nativity; sang Christmas songs; told Christmas stories; and exchanged gifts. New this year, we had the grandchildren display a talent. I'm not posting all the pictures, but we have some very talented kids! It was so much fun, just like always. And our family is getting huge! There were 27 of us plus one on the way... needless to say, it was crowded.


Levi opening his gift from cousin Carson. Lightening McQueen... what boy doesn't love Cars?

Madi, the oldest grandchild with Brinley, the youngest.

Levi's talent: throwing a ball. Of course, I got the before and after, but never could quite catch him in the act.
My niece Kailey... talk about flexible!
Sam with our nephew Bronson. Both were shepherd's in our reenactment.
Me with my kids! I love them!
Our narrators: Jared (my brother) and Madi (niece)
A few of the grandkids: Logan (wiseman), Jace (shepherd), Kailey (Mary), Jackson (Joseph), Savannah (angel)
Cutie Parker as a shepherd
Brinley's "1st Christmas" outfit that Grandma Thurgood gave her. She was so small that even the newborn outfit drowned her. She was still in preemie clothes at this point.
Sam and Levi as shepherds. I was the pianist (along with my sister Lacey).
The sweetest little shepherd!
Levi and cousin Carson (and cousin Parker, who didn't make this picture) LOVE to play in Grandma and Grandpa's fireplace. All the grandkids have loved to do this, and they have cleaned out the fireplace over the years... surprisingly though, there is still some soot left, because they always end up dirty!