Baking With My Buddy

Titus and I spent some time baking together today. There's nothing super exciting, or even blog-worthy about this moment necessarily, except for the fact that I really enjoy baking with my kids at this stage in life.

He did manage to crack an egg onto the floor. I wish I would have snagged a picture of that too!

I feel like I've been so far behind in blogging our family memories that I just haven't blogged much of anything at all. When I look back at the stories I used to blog about when they were little I smile at all the things I would have otherwise forgotten if I hadn't written them down.

I especially love when I come across posts about the little everyday things. Like this. Just me and my buddy making a disaster out of my kitchen baking one of Rob's most favorite treats, The Pioneer Woman's French Breakfast Puffs.

Who knows, maybe I'll start blogging more of these random everyday moments before this stage of life is also just a memory!

Disney Magic (Part 1)

Call us crazy, but here we are in Anaheim again! Tomorrow morning we'll wake up early and hit the ground running. And we can't wait! 

But for now, I want to get this first set of pictures up.

We picked the kids up from school on Thursday afternoon and headed South to my mom's house in Klamath Falls. After a brief stop (just enough time to eat, sleep and run) we headed to the California boarder bright and early Friday morning. You might notice that we have more kids with us than normal. Our nieces Ashly and Amanda get to join us this year!

We wanted to eat at In-N-Out for lunch, which meant either eating super early or super late. Since we had an early breakfast we opted for an early lunch.We got there just as it was opening right after 10 am. 

Amanda and Ashly had never eaten there, but they'd heard lots of good things about it. It didn't disappoint. 

Yum. Yum!

What?

While most of the kids spent time playing their electronic devices and reading books, Ashly spent most of her time scoping out license plates. We pay a quarter for the first person to find each new state on our long trips. She made out like a bandit!

 
The car ride was long. Really long. We left just after 7:00 am and didn't get to our hotel until around 10:30 pm. We hit some traffic just North of L.A. and followed a drunk driver for about 35 miles. That was fun! I actually called 911 so we were hoping to see him get caught, but he eventually exited the freeway without getting spotted by any of the three cops we passed. It was disappointing.

We woke up early this morning and headed to Downtown Disney where Rob and I surprised the kids with a character breakfast. Surf's Up with Mickey and Friends! 

Silly boy!

I sat with Ashly for a while in front of this cozy spot at the Grand Californian hotel. She had a headache so we rested a bit while the rest of the group toured some shops in Downtown Disney. 

Soon she was up and running, and even playing with the Hulk made entirely out of Legos. How cool is that? 

More Lego creations. 

We finished the afternoon with some Jamba Juice and the kids spent some time in the pool.

After that we headed back to Downtown Disney, but those pictures will have to wait. It's bedtime!

Let the games begin!

There are plenty of days that I miss the fact that my children are no longer babies. 

Today is not one of those days, however!

We pulled out Settlers of Catan, our favorite board game!

 It requires at least three players to play, so we don't get to play it very often. And, it takes around 2 hours, so it's not really one that you can just pull out and play quickly with a few friends. Before we had kids we played it a lot, but it's mostly been sitting in the closet over the last several years. 

We had some time and wanted to do something special with Titus since Leeann was out on a special date of her own (pedicures and shopping with grandmas!). We decided to teach Titus how to play it. He has a strategic mind like his daddy and a competitive streak like his mommy. 

That's a very good combination for playing board games! 

This is a fairly complicated game. In fact, the box says 12+. However, Titus can play Chess and Stratego rather well, so we thought he might be able to catch on to this game over time. 

It didn't take much time at all! He quickly wrapped his mind around a lot of complicated pieces of this multi-faceted game. Mommy and daddy didn't help him win, but we did go easier on him than we normally would if he knew how to play. We always try to be nice to first-timers!

Lo and behold, he pulled out the win by amassing the largest army, hiding a victory point and stealing the longest road from Rob at the end! I'm such a proud mommy!

As wonderful as babyhood is, there's definitely a lot to enjoy about having school-aged kids.

I am so excited to have another Settler's player in our house now! Unfortunately, I think this little boy might give me a run for my money... I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet! 

The beginning of the end of babyhood

Wednesday night Titus's tooth was just barely hanging on.

He spent a good half-hour trying to wiggle it out in front of the bathroom mirror. 

I had the camera ready to catch the big moment, but it just didn't seem to be happening that night. Instead I got a cute video of my precious son!

The next day we just happened to be at the dentist to get some cavities fixed. While Titus was mindlessly watching the t.v. in the ceiling, the dentist just took a little tool and effortlessly yanked his first baby tooth out of his mouth. Titus didn't even so much as flinch! 

I, on the other hand, nearly cried. 

My baby is just a few short months away from turning 7. A week from today he will be off to school full days. I can hardly lift him up anymore. He lost his first tooth. 

I'm starting to slowly come to terms with the fact that my baby isn't really a baby anymore. The truth is though, he'll always be my baby... long after he has babies of his own.

Isn't that just how it works?  

Newspaper Article

This morning several people let me know they'd seen an article on Leeann in the newspaper. She had an enormous picture on the front page of the food section. 

A little bit later they put the article up online as well... right smack on the most prominent part of the webpage!  

Last week Leeann was interviewed by a reporter from the Democrat Herald Newspaper. She and a photographer came by our house and watched Leeann make the Almond Chocolate Toffee Crunchies that she won a reserved grand champion ribbon for at the Linn County Fair last year.

Leeann was beyond thrilled to be asked to make her toffee for a real life reporter, and she's super excited about getting to be in the paper!

Here's a picture of Leeann and I displaying our reserved grand champion ribbons and baked goods from the fair last year. You can read all about it here. 

She's already been plotting and scheming as to what to make for this year's fair. Honestly... so have I! 

Leeann and I have always had fun baking together in the kitchen and we are definitely looking forward to baking up some more delicious creations this year! Titus has actually really gotten into it as well. His attention span isn't quite as long, but he also enjoys helping me bake. 

Truth be told, as much as they love spending time baking with me though, their favorite part is licking the spoon!

Missions Trip to Africa

My husband, Rob is going on a missions trip to Africa in just under two months. I am attaching his support letter below and asking for you to prayerfully consider supporting him financially and/or through prayer. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am writing to share with you some of my plans for the upcoming spring.  On March 20^th, 2012 I will be traveling on a short-term mission trip to Nairobi, Kenya with North Albany Community Church. Our team will return on April 4th.    

Since 2007 North Albany Community Church has supported Huruma Nursery School in the middle of the Mij wa Huruma Slum on the outskirts of Nairobi.  The school has 3 classes that include 3, 4, and 5 year olds that total almost 100 children with 3 teachers.  Along with the 3 teachers and the cooks salaries we also provide a daily meal of ugali and vegetables at noon and a cup of porridge during the morning break. This meal will often be the one meal a day that most of these children will have.  Without this school most of the children would not be able to continue on to primary school. 

Our team of five is traveling to Nairobi to support the ongoing work, continue our relationship with Huruma Community Chapel (local church) and make needed repairs at the school. 

Additionally,  Robyn and I have sponsored a boy through Compassion International for nine years and it appears I will be able to meet him during this trip!

I am writing to friends and family seeking support.  You can support me in two different ways.

Your prayer support is needed.  At the time of this writing I am quite nervous about our trip.  It is a long distance to travel and I’ve never been apart from my wife and kids for this long.  I deeply need your prayers in preparation for this trip.  Your prayer support is also needed for our team’s unity and wisdom.  We’ll be faced with unexpected needs, and we desire to meet the most pressing needs. 

The second way that you can partner with me is by giving financially.

The cost to me is approximately $2800.  My trip costs will include; work project, airfare, lodging & food.  Should you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

With Gratitude,

Rob Buhl

P.S. Monetary gifts should be directed to: North Albany Community Church, (memo: Kenya Team). 1273 NW Thornton Lake Dr. Albany, Oregon 97321.  Gifts are tax deductible.

Titus's 6th Birthday

Titus turned six on Friday. Six! If you'd like to know how I feel about it you can head over here, to my other blog. This one is about preserving family memories. That one is about my thoughts and feelings and things I ponder from time to time.

Anyway, here on our family's blog I now present... Titus's sixth Birthday!

His special day started out with breakfast with Daddy. Daddy almost always takes the kids out to a special breakfast of their choosing for a special date. Titus chose Cork's donuts. He enjoyed his huge donut and strawberry milk before heading off to school with some extra donut holes to share with his classmates. 

We enjoyed a super fun party with friends and family at McDonald's. Despite my last minute party planning, everyone he invited was able to attend which made for a really big, really fun, really crazy adventure. He even had a couple of friends from school attend, which was a first for our family--and totally awesome!

These are Titus's presents from the friends (and family) at his party. Legos, Starwars and Nerf. Yup, that's my son! He was so excited about all of his fantastic new presents and they couldn't have been more perfectly fit for him. 

And the "adults" at the party, minus the mom driving around town to calm her fussy baby, had a little too much fun with the Ronald McDonald lips on a stick that our Birthday party hostess brought out to us... just because they had them lying around. Apparently we looked like the type of people that would make good use of them I guess! 

It was so wonderful to have a stress free party where the food, cake and ice cream all came with the package and there was plenty of space to play and have fun. All we had to do was show up and bring the Birthday boy and his presents. No set up, no clean up, no planning. Having a kiddo who's Birthday falls smack in the middle of the holiday season makes the relatively few dollars spent on the party worth their weight in gold! 

The night before the party I did Titus's six year-old interview since I knew we wouldn't have time to do it the next day. Titus watched me type his answers verbatim as he said them and he literally corrected my spelling, grammar and dictation skills all within the course of this short interview. He's one smart cookie!

Titus’s 6 Year Old Interview

(Questions by mom, answers by Titus)

What is your favorite toy? Starwars and Legos.

What is your favorite food? Macaroni and Cheese.

What is your favorite book? Starwars books.

What is your favorite place to eat? The place where we eat peanuts and drop them on the floor. The warehouse? I don’t remember what it’s called… (Roadhouse Grill).

Who are your best friends? Logan, Weston, Josh and Bruce.

What do you want to be when you grow up? Lot’s of things. Police officer, fire fighter, a cowboy, a worker, a builder, a racecar driver, and that’s it.

What is something you are good at doing? Going through tiny holes. Playing Lego Starwars. Playing the Wii. And that’s it.

What’s your favorite movie? Starwars.

What is your favorite treat? Cookies!

What is your favorite subject in school? Mostly English and Spanish.

What is your favorite thing to do? My favorite thing to do is playing with Legos and my Lego sets.

Where’s your most favorite place to be? At Josh’s house or Logan and Weston’s house and Disneyland and Legoland.

What’s your favorite holiday?  Christmas.

What do you like most about yourself? I have no idea.

What is your favorite game to play? Sorry.

Do you think you’ll ever get married? Yup, of course.

How many kids do you want to have? Ten! Actually, 20. Well, I think 30. I think 40. 20 girls and 20 boys!

Tell me about your family. Daddy’s the funny one. And he likes to wrestle. Leeann’s sometimes freaked out by people and she’s also funny. And mommy likes to do the computer a lot. She does the phone a lot too.

What are you looking forward to about your Birthday tomorrow? Getting lots of Starwars stuff. McDonalds, friends and that’s it.