The Drama of the Spice Cake

On Saturday, the ward was having their annual Christmas party.  The week before I had volunteered to bake a spice cake.  Saturday came, I went in the morning for a teacher training session, and I ended up staying to help decorate the tables for the dinner.  I knew time was running low, so I called Spencer and asked him to bake the spice cake.  I thought a told him to just bake it and leave it alone, but he didn't hear that part.

So when I get home, the cake is on the platter (it looks mangled and nasty) and it coated in powerdered sugar.  I had wanted to come home and lightly sprinkle some powerded sugar over the top and make it look dainty and nice.  As you can see from the picture, it looks a little bit different!  So, I just took a deep breath and let it go.  After all, we are just going to eat it and it won't matter what it looks like then anyway.

When we get to church, Spencer takes the cake to the kitchen and announces that HE baked the cake and that I had absolutely no part in it.  (He is such an awesome husband!)  The party goes well.  A friend plays the violin and I play the cello.  We've been practicing the Christmas hymns and spend the party playing music for everyone.  After the party, we go to pick up our cake and find that only 2 pieces have been cut.  I think, awesome..I have almost an entire cake to eat at home!!!  SCORE!!!!

On the drive home, I take a little piece, dip it lavishly in the powdered sugar, and take a super sugary bit.  It tastes a little weird, and not very sweet.  Then it hits me...this is not sugar!!!  This tasted like FLOUR!!!  Spencer and I start cracking up laughing!!!  He explains that it was in a little bag.  I rack my brain and realize, it's not flour.  It's CORN STARCH!!!  We figure that's why there were only two pieces missing.  They started to serve it and realized it tasted gross!

But...the story is not yet over!!!  When I get home, I realize the bag with "sugar" was LABLED!  It said CORN STARCH on the bag!!!  And...those two missing pieces.  The lady (Terri Luc) who worked the kitchen had cut two yummy large slices of cake to take home and share with her husband!!!  They didn't care for the corn starch spice cake either!!!

I hope you had a good solid laugh and that you keep having a wonderful and Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Time

For Christmas this year, we decided to just go to one of the stands by the side of the road rather that make a huge outing to get a tree.  After all, it's cold, the kids are young (and were sick), and the most fun for me is actually decorating the tree.  So we got a really nice tree and set it up in the brick play-room.

Here are the 3 kids after we put the lights up.

Me, Makezie, and Isaiah with the pretty lights.

Our local YMCA had a breakfast with Santa.  We went.  Makenzie was SUPER excited to talk to Santa.  On the drive home, she said that he felt cuddily!

Hailey was much more cautious.  She wouldn't go up to him, but she allowed him to come down to her.  Isaiah was just engaged with all the beard and fur trim.

That night was the ward Christmas program.  Spencer walked around with the 3 kids while I was playing the Christmas hymns on my cello.  So...we have no pictures from that party!  But, it was fun to play the cello again and the kids had a great time.

Now all my major commitments are over and we can relax and enjoy the Christmas season.  We have all our inside decorations up and will decorate the outside this weekend.  And, we still have to buy presents.  But that part is fun!

Life at the Everitt House

Makenzie and Hailey are 100% all girl!  Since their poor mother does't wear make-up, they have to find alternate sources for their own beauty needs.  Their favorite source is the bucket of markers.  And although they say they are washable, some colors do not wash off skin very easily!

Hailey's favorite phrase is "Me me do it by myself!"  I asked her why she liked doing everything by herself.  She said, "Because I'm two."  Here is Haile's attempt at putting her PJ shirt on by herself.  She was MAD when she couldn't get it to pull down properly!

After a full day, they like taking super bubble baths.  I have a jacuzzi tub, and if you run the jets with soap in the water you get super, duper bubbles!

And then there is Isaiah.  He can comando crawl like a pro.  While we were eating dinner, Isaiah pulled all of these buckets down all by himself.  Then he spun around flapping his arms and legs around in the middle of the toys.  He was having a great time.

And that is life at the Everitt House!!!

Thanksgiving

My brother hosted Thanksgiving at his house this year.  Spencer, the kids, and I drove up early Thursday morning.  We hung out, napped, and ate a DELICIOUS meal.  My mom did an awesome job on the turkey!  Friday morning we took our family pictures.  Our family photographer was in Augusta this year, so we settled for second best--me.  But they turned out okay.  Here are my parents with all 8 grandkids.

Here are my 3 kids.

After pictures, we went to the Bristol Caverns.  It was a large tour group, but we had a fun time exploring the little cave system.  Hailey fell sound asleep on my sister's shoulder.  Isaiah had a great time flirting with whoever would look at him.  Makenzie was too fast for me to keep up with, but had a good time with her cousins.

After the caverns, we had lunch at Burger King and then headed to the Bristol Motor Speedway.  They had an ice skating rink set up and we all went ice skating.  It was the first time for all of the cousins, so that was really fun.  The adults spent most of their time helping the kids not to fall too hard and then to get up again.  Michelle, Ryan and I all had memorable wipe-outs.  Hailey LOVED ice skating.  As soon as we got any speed going, she would say "WEEEEEEE".  It was a fun-filled day!

Makezie's First Primary Program

Towards the end of every year, all the Primary kids (ages 3-12) preform in church during the Sacrament Meeting.  Some are given lines to memorize, some read a verse of scripture, some give little talks they've been asked to write, and they all sing the songs they've been learning all year long.  The program follows the themes they've been learning all year long.  This was the first year Makenzie was in Primary and got to participate.  It was so much fun to watch her.  Her class sang the song "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam" all by themselves.  She started a little early with the wrong words very loudly and with guosto.  That unnerved her for the rest of the song, but she still did great.  Her two lines this year were:

The family is ordained of God and is central to His plan.

Baptism is the first ordinace of the gospel.

What Happened to Thanksgiving?

So...on Monday, November 2nd...just 2 little days after Halloween, I went to Target.  And the entire store was decorated for CHRISTMAS!!!  Red and Green everywhere.  I thought to myself, "What happened to Thanksgiving???  Isn't there another holiday to celebrate before we jump to Christmas?"  Now, I understand selling Christmas stuff early, but to decorate the entire store before Thanksgiving?  Geesh people...live in the moment a little more!!!

We had some beautiful weather recently.  Cool enough to break out the pants and sweaters.  Warm enough to enjoy being outside.  Dry enough to make the leave crunch when you walk through them.  The girls and dogs and I went outside and played in the leaves.

Here are my two black boys, patiently letting me take pictures.

The girls playing with the leaves.  They loved racking the leaves into a pile and then walking through the pile.  When I showed them how to throw the leave in the air, their eyes lit up!

Makenzie asked Hailey if she wanted to climb trees.  Here is Hailey's attempt.  Poor little short girl!

Makenzie and Hailey digging for worms.  They love finding worms and playing with them.  They also love going fishing with Grandpa.  It's a good combination!

Happy Halloween!

For Halloween, Makenzie wanted to be a mermaid.  And Hailey, of course, wanted to be the same thing.  Luckily, I had a pattern to follow.  It was a little bit of a challenge, but I LOVE the result!

And of course, Makenzie wanted me to be a mermaid too!

If the girls are mermaids, then the boys--naturally---are fishermen!

We went to our church's Trunk or Treat on Friday.  The girls' bags are overflowing with candy!  On Saturday, we went to our neighborhood Trunk or Treat...and that produced two more overflowing bags of candy.  We are on a sugar high right now!

Isaiah had his first loli-pop.  He LOVED it!!!!!!  His eyes were sparkling and he kept popping it in and out of his mouth.  Super happy boy!

Pumpkin Decorating

We went to the Greenville Hands-On Children's museum.  They were having a special pumpkin-decorating activity.  So, Makenzie and Hailey decorated too little pumkins.  Isaiah was tuckered out and slept, but he helped hold on to them on the ride back to the car!

Buddy Walk 2009

Last year, we skipped the Buddy Walk because Isaiah had just come home from the NICU. This year we decided to go. We didn't get our act togther to raise money, but we went just to socialize. There were clowns doing facepainting and making balloon animals. There were two different magic shows. And several "buddies" performed.

This is the group picture of all the "buddies".  Isaiah and I are in the front to the right, just before the stroller.

Here is the 5 of us.  Students from Wofford College came and helped make posters for the buddies.  Makenzie and Hailey decorated the poster for Isaiah.  After the walk, all the buddies got a medal and a goodie bag.

Spencer took this picture.  If you look closely, you can see the "Team Isaiah" poster in the glasses!

Apples, Apples, Everywhere

A wonderful woman from my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints AKA LDS ADA Mormons) taught a class on how to make homemade applesauce on a Thursday.  It was awesome!  I had nothing much to do Friday, so the kids and I took a trip to McAbee's Apple Stand and purchased LOTS of apples for all the ladies from the church who wanted to try their hand at canning apples.  I bought 18 1/2 bushel bags of apples!

I used one bag of apples to make applesauce.

I boiled the apples in my water bath (the large black pot).  Then you just put the apples through the squeezo (the contraption to the right) and presto...homemade applesauce.

One bag of apples made 6 1/2 quart-jars of applesauce, 2 pint-jars of apple butter, and 2 pint-jars of apple cider concetrate (I didn't have a recipee for this one, so it might not be worth repeating).

I took another bag of apples, used a supercool corer/peeler/slicer, shoved as many apples as I could into quart jars, and then added a syrupy mixure on top...and presto: apple pie filling.  One bag made 9 quart-jars!  YUMMY!!!

One More Step Into Food Storage

I went an collected our items from the Walton Food Truck today.  It was my first time ordering and it was kind of fun opening all the boxes and organizing everythings.  A HUGE thanks to Carol Justice for doing this all the time!!!  So Spencer and I ordered a bunch of the little cans of stuff for us to try.  Then we'll figure out what we use and how to use it (without buying a huge can and realizing we don't like the stuff!)  Then we'll know what bigger things to order next time.  This is kind of exciting and kind of scary at the same time!  Luckily there are lots of families that are really good at food storage to help me out!

My Awesome Sister-In-Law

My brother married the coolest woman in the world.  She is funny and tells great stories.  While being a full-time stay-at-home mom, she started her own photography business.  She has an amazing eye for pictures and does an extraordinay job of capturing someone's personality on film.  She also won 3rd place in a regional photography competition!  Anyway...she came down to Spartanburg the 1st weekend in October and agreed to take picture of the me and the kids (Spencer was in Bogita, Columbia for work.).  WOW....that's all I can say.  WOW!!!  The sneak peak are on her blog (a little ways down now).

www.ngpblog.com/blog

UF Butterfly Garden

On the Sunday after the Jacksonville Quilt Show, my parents took us to the UF Butterly Garden in Gainseville, FL. We met my cousin Jennie and her son Evan there. We had an great time exploring the gardens. The flowers were beautiful. The paths meandered around and over a nice little stream with several little waterfalls. And then there were the THOUSANDS of butterflies flying everywhere. We all had lots of fun until it closed at 5 pm. Then we went to the Mellow Mushroom for dinner. YUM!

Here are the 4 of us. It is impossible to get a good picture of all 4 at the same time! I know my mom has been trying for 29 years!

Makenzie...the budding photographer. Jennie hasn't had a child drop and break her camera yet, so she let Makenzie use her camera to take pictures.

Hailey with the best seat in the house...Grandpa's Shoulders!

Grams and Hailey. Hailey didn't get much of a nap, so she was a little grumpy.

The butterflies LOVED Hailey...but she wouldn't hold still when they landed. And of course, the refused to land on Makenzie.

Hailey checking out the flowers. She studies everything.

And the littlest one...Isaiah. He is doing WONDERFULLY! Butterflies landed on his head a couple of times. He loved watching them flying all around. And of course...he loved the cuddle time with Grams.

Jacksonville Quilt Show

I have started a tradition with my mom, my aunt Martha, my cousin Kathy, and my mom's neighbor Ruth. We all go to the Jacksonville Quilt show together and we have SO MUCH FUN!!! We have fun wandering through the beautiful quilts, exploring the vendors, and laughing over lunch together. This year Isaiah came with me and loved being surrounded by thousands of grandmothers! My dad kept the girls for the day and the caught a 2 lb bass!!! This is one of the few events that make it onto the calender at the beginning of the year and I plan events around it!

Where did September go???

Okay...can't believe that September is almost over! It's been a good month for us. Isaiah is doing well. His 1-year-old check up went fine. And this week he has 5 doctor's appointments in 3 days!!! Cardiology, ENT, Surgeon, Eye, and finally GI. And that is in addition to his EI meeting, OT, PT, and Speech!!! Then we are heading to FL for the annual Jax Quilt show.

Crazy Weekend!

Boy...this was a CRAZY weekend!!! First, Spencer and I headed to the temple Friday night and made the 7 pm endowment session. Then, Saturday morning Spencer went mountain biking and I took Makenzie to the church for her Primary Activity. While she was there, I brought Hailey and Isaiah and ran some errands. Then pick up Makenzie and head home. I baked cookies for Relief Society and super-yummy enchiladas for the ward Fiesta Party (while we were combined with the Spanish Branch, we never had a Mexican party...now that it's a bunch of southern white people, we have a Mexican Fiesta Party???!!!) And, while doing all that I plan my lesson for Relief Society and Gospel Doctrine. And, while doing all that my brother calls and asks to spend the night...of course I say yes. We go to the Mexican Pary (super fun). Tom comes to the house and brings Abby and Emily...so the kids stay up until nearly 11 pm playing. Sunday goes smoothly. We actually get to church on time. I teach Gospel Doctrine and Relief Society, come head, eat lunch...then go visiting teach my sisters. Come home. Fix dinner. Then head over to the Poole's house for some dessert and games. Then finally I can come home and STAY HOME!!! Phew. I'm beat!!! But man...it was an AWESOME weekend!!!

YIKES!!!

We Have Entered the Blogging World!!!

Hello Family and Friends...For the past several years, we have kept you updated through Nicholle's posh-tot website. Unfortunately, Nicholle has decided to close the website. So I have been forced to learn a new computer skill...blogging. So here we are. Hopefully I'll figure things out quickly and be able to add some current pictures of all the kids. I hope you have fun following our life.