Our Family Project

Recently, I saw a recipe for cooking a pot roast and thought I'd try it, comparing it to my favorite recipe. A few years ago I used to make pot roast very similar to this new recipe. I'd put my roast in the crock-pot, then toss some cut-up potatoes, carrots, and onions atop the roast. Let it cook, and voila! dinner in a pot. However, my roast was usually dry, and flavorless. And, forget about making a gravy ... everytime I did it was really gross! My favorite recipe I found a while ago and I've been using it for some time now. But, like with any favorite recipe, it can get old, so I thought I'd try the recipe included with the box of slow cooker liners. Here are the differences between the two recipes and which way I liked best: Recipe #1-Slow Cooker Liner Recipe Okay, this recipe says to put 1/4 cup water into the crock-pot, then add the cut-up veggies. I added some green pepper and garlic to my crock-pot. Then it says to sprinkle on the dry onion soup mix. Recipe #2-...

Before and After Last night Jon went to get ready for a meeting and came to the dinner table looking like that: naked face. Andrew asked what he had done to his beard and I whipped my head around to check it out. No, he didn't trip and fall on a razor; he willingly got rid of his goatee! I guess it was about time, he's only kept it for as long as he did because I liked it, I wanted it, and I encouraged him to have it. At one point he kept it because he thought it made him look older (which was easily supported when the children said he looked like a teenager), and one of his coworkers once said that his nose looked longer after he once shaved his facial hair. Oh well ... I guess it's just hair and it can grow back if he wants it again. And, here's the funny part about it ... he used my shave gel and my razor to do it!

My sister gave our family a Disney Sing It! video game for Christmas. A while ago she asked me to record the girls playing the game. This is the original video I wanted to post, but it was much shorter (and there's less bickering about the lyrics).

I drove by the high school recently ... glanced at the student parking lot ... did a double take. Yes, only here in our small town in Minnesota would you see a dozen snowmobiles parked on the snow banks at the back of the school's student parking lot!

Most of my children have the dream to grow up to be like their Aunt Kristina and be an artist. They love just about any medium, and I just recently remembered how much fun the children have painting. Last week I got out the painting supplies and let Adam go at it. He had so much fun just paining random pictures. At first he posed for me; at least when he thought I was only taking one or two pictures. When he realized I was not going away, he decided that he didn't want his picture taken anymore and started making a mad face so I would stop. It didn't quite work as he had planned. His mad face is just as cute as his happy face! But, he decided to smile for me again in the end; and received his due reward: I stopped taking pictures.

Sunday, Jon decided to take a picture of Kate because her look that day reminded him so much of a cross between me and his mom. But, Kate couldn't be singled out when we have another very pretty girl. Eliza came downstairs as soon as she knew Jon was taking pictures and she posed for a few pictures also. So, of course we had to get all the girls in the pictures. (I'm not considered a girl since I'm the mom.) And, well, I was changing Maryanne's clothes (because for some reason she likes to spit up on them), so we put her in the pictures the way she was to show off all of her rolls. She is certainly rounding out. We couldn't get Kate to give us a nice smile. I know, tragic! Especially when Maryanne was smiling so cutely. And, poor Eliza ... she has my hairline ... I hope one day she gets to go for a hair cut and have the stylist say she has an odd hairline (because that happened to me; she even said my hairline was a receding hairline). Naw, I really don't hope ...

Jon took a vacation day on Friday because he thought that maybe the children wouldn't have school on Friday since they didn't have school yesterday. Turns out the girls were supposed to have school, but our district took another "too-cold" day so it all worked out. We spent the day at the MN Children's Museum. The children loved just playing around and getting messy. They even had their faces painted (Kate did her own, I did Eliza's, and Jon did Andrew's and Adam's). On one floor of the museum they had an "earth world" exhibit. One corner of the room had ramps and tunnels and was to simulate an ant hill. When we were in the room that had a bunch of activities with golf balls Eliza and Kate got bored and wanted to check out another exhibit, so I took them into "Earth World." The room was empty except for us, so the girls immediately started running around the tunnels and ramps. There was even a cracked egg with a plush pupae inside t...

Maryanne's starting to smile; at least she's warm today How sad is it that our children don't usually get to stay home from school because of "snow days," but they get to stay home from school because it is "too cold?" Here's the ironic part: today it is -12° and feels like -29°, but yesterday it was -11° and felt like -30° when the children went to school. So, why did they go to school yesterday and not today? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Seriously, we live here, why???

I love this stuff so much, I've made it three times in the last month! It is that yummy! Jon took some to work and came home requesting I make more for him to take again. So, out of the goodness of my heart (and the prospect of goodness in my mouth) I complied. ECLAIR CAKE What you need: 1 cup water 1/2 cup butter 1 cup flour 4 eggs 1 large pkg. vanilla pudding, instant or cook-n-serve 1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened 1 tub whipped topping chocolate syrup How you do it: Bring water and butter to a rolling boil; whisk in flour until it forms a ball. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Beat in eggs one at a time. Press into a lightly greased 9x13 baking dish. Bake at 400° for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Meanwhile prepare pudding as directed on the package. Add cream cheese to pudding and mix well. Pour pudding into cake crust. When pudding is set, top with whipped topping. Drizzle with chocolate syrup before serving. Keep refrigerated. Step-by-Step: Okay, so ...

I've said it before, and I'll say it again and again and again: Kate has the softest heart around. She is so caring about others; always thinking of how the other person feels. A couple of days ago she came home and read to me a list that she had made of all the foods and other things that a boy in her class is allergic to. Then, she told me that she didn't want me to send any of that stuff with her for lunch or snack anymore because that little boy can't have any of it. At first I wasn't understanding; I thought she was giving her food to her friend. Then, she clarified and said that she just wants to be able to sit by him at lunch. My guess is that they have a "peanut-free" lunch table and he has to sit there alone. Kate is so in tune with her emotions and feelings that she also can sense when another person is sad or lonely. Honestly, I don't care how emotionally overboard she gets all the time because it's made her one of the kindest six-year-...

Anyone else have one of these? A mule child. On Tuesday I took all the children to the dentist for their semi-annual cleaning. Andrew and Kate went first. After about 15 minutes, the dental hygenist working with Andrew came out and asked for my help. She had polished his top teeth, then sat his chair up and when she put him back down he wouldn't open his mouth for her to finish his bottom teeth. She promised him two toys, offered to let him hold the suction, let him hold a fun toothbrush, and just about anything else she could think of at the time. So, I went back there and talked to him, pleaded with him, threatened him, and finally ended up putting him in time out on the extra chair while Eliza came back for her cleaning. By this point, Kate was finished, so she was in the waiting room holding Maryanne, and Adam came back for his cleaning. Andrew sat in that chair and I talked to him and tried to get him to agree to get back in the chair and finish his cleaning throughout Eliza...

Here we are, into Maryanne's fifth week. I can already see the chubbiness growing. Her face is rounding out, and in a few weeks she'll have the hereditary "Hill Thunder-Thighs." I can't believe that she's been in our family for four full weeks already. The strangest thing for me is that our family has just continued on living, almost like bringing a new baby into our family wasn't an interruption of life at all. In the past, whenever I had a baby it took our family six weeks (give or take) to get back to "normal." But, this time, it's almost like I never had a baby ... Maryanne must have just been with us all along. There's no denying the fact that she was meant to be a part of our family. Everyone adores her and is so in love with her; each of the children are possessive of her, and protective as well. That's been our biggest obstacle to overcome ... who gets to hold Maryanne. Adam, who is the youngest, is technically supposed to hav...

This year I made one of my family's traditional holiday treats: Chocolate Butter Balls. I don't have a clue where my mom got the recipe, but as a child (and still today) I loved these things. In fact, my brother liked the dough so much that he would put it in a bowl in the fridge and eat out of it with a spoon. Who doesn't do that with cookie dough, though? (I don't have a picture because they are all gone. Sorry about that. Maybe I'll edit to add a picture later.) I was telling my friend about them today, explaining that they are the perfect treat for a family night because there are enough ingredients for everyone to do something, and even the youngest child can help with these because you mix it together and roll it (there's no baking or cooking involved). CHOCOLATE BUTTER BALLS What you need: 2/3 cup butter, softened 3 Tbsp. cocoa 3/4 cup sugar 1 Tbsp. water 1/2 tsp. vanilla 2 cups quick oats powdered sugar How you do it: Mix all ingredients except powd...

Adam, singing a song he wrote for Maryanne Just needed to post this in celebration of how much sleep this adorable little one has been giving me during the night. The last two nights she has gone to bed around 11:30 or 12 and then slept until about 5:30. Isn't that awesome!?! I've never had a baby give me that much sleep at night until around six months when we move the baby out of our room and just let them cry. I'm just so excited that I had to share it with everyone!

Kate, with four-strand criss-crossed braids into pigtails I have a couple of neighbors who noticed a list that I'd put on my blog earlier of girl hairdo blogs that I look at. Well, something happened when I was playing with the layout of my blog and I lost all of those links on the left. My friends asked about them again, so I thought I'd post again all of the hair blogs that I've looked at. Truly, there are some amazingly talented women out there when it comes to doing their daughters' hair! Here are some of my favorite hair do ideas: Four-strand Braid (I've really been into this one recently, and it's really fun, too!) Cool Braid Fancy Messy Buns Woven Pig-tail Buns Tween Twists As you can see, I really like braids and messy buns. Although, I have yet to find a way to keep a messy bun from falling out of Kate's hair. When her hair was shorter it would stay in just fine, and now that her hair is longer the elastics slide down the bun away from her head an...