Delicious and Strange

Ok SEVEN people that read my blog! Here is a recipe for you to try! My mother used to make this for our lunches. Our lunches were so good our friends used to beg us to trade their school lunch for our homemade one. Talk about an awesome mom! A few years ago we asked her about it and she gave me the recipe. (I somehow remembered it with cream cheese, but apparently I was wrong about that.) So, today I dug it out of my "recipes I'm going to try someday" folder and made it for M's and my lunch. It was surprisingly tasty! I was laughing because I was pleasantly surprised (and it just struck me funny thinking about when my siblings and I have talked about it) and wanted Mr. J to try it, but he wouldn't because I was laughing. He said the laughing was a warning to him! I'm telling you, he is missing out! Go ahead and give this strange, but tasty sandwich a try!
Peanut Butter and Orange:
1 Orange
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbls brown sugar
1/2 peanut butter
Peel and dice the orange, serving the juice. Sprinkle the pieces with cinnamon. Blend well the juice, sugar, and the p.b. For each sandwich spread this mixture thinly on both pieces of bread. Place orange pieces on one of the slices and top with the other slice.

Now I can't wait to see if little Miss M liked it or not! I am hoping to pass on the tradition of awesome lunches!

Big Trip

For some reason, I would like to recount most of our trip. I have tried not to be "that" kind of blogger with mandatory detailed descriptions of every day-where I have to "catch up" on my blogging and such. However, our trip out west was a big adventure and I'd like to show it! (At least some of it!) Here we are waiting for our ride to the airport:

Good bye Michigan!
Johnny finally crashed on the plane!

Hello Utah! The kids wanted to jump on the trampoline immediately! They loved it! And they loved being with their cousins-as you will see in the next few posts.

Halloween

This year Halloween began very early in the morning with the Wilson things. M had a Halloween parade at school and a class party. So, we got our Cheetah girl ready to go. Here she is doing some poses:
(I don't know if you can tell, but J was trying to copy his sister on every pose.)

Once Mr. J got her off to school, J and I got ready. Here is my darling little "Batdude":

I didn't get any pictures of M in the parade or her class party because I was busy with the class party, but here is one of her teacher (on right, Thing 1):

Later that evening, the little Wilson things and I (just had a thought: next year we should be the wild things!) went to the party at church. Here is Batdude playing a cookie walk. Next to him in the orange is one of our favorite little friends.

And here he is again with his first experience at a Nerf gun, with a little help...

And, because it was cold and rainy, we did not get to trunk or treat, so we trick or treated to each of the classrooms, about three or four times! They had a blast though. I forgot to mention, M changed her costume before we left and went as Merida.

Fun and tiring day considering I was up late the previous night getting ready for M's class party, and then stayed up very, very late packing for our big trip! More on that to come.

Birthday Girl, cont'd

Today we had more birthday celebrations-appropriately enough as today was M's birthday. My sweet and feisty little girl is SIX! I can't believe it! I'm always a little sad on her birthday because she is growing up so stinking fast and I never feel like I'm spending enough time with her and never giving her as much attention as I want. It's even worse now that she is in school because I don't even see her for most of the day. This little darling is my best friend (aside from husband and siblings, of course). I love her. She has so much of me and Mr. J. I hope we can nurture the good parts of her and weed out the not-so-good qualities she inherited from us. She is such a talented and creative person! I love that she can already draw better than I can. She loves learning and life. She loves making up songs and listening to music, learning the words so she can sing a long. She loves the Gospel and already has such a sweet testimony that she likes to share with others. I learn from her on a daily basis. My life is so much better with her in it. She brings me joy and comfort and has every day of her life. I thank God for her each day. Such a precious spirit!

I din't get pics of everything we did today. But here is a short rundown. She requested crepes so I spent the morning making those (of which she only ate two, oh well). She helped some (she does love to cook). Then we went to Discovery Park in PG. She had a lot of fun running around with her cousins and exploring.
Silly faces:

At the park, right before we left, she was on a spinning toy. A lot. Then got in the van. We made our way to the mall. During that time she got a phone call. After the call she played some games on my phone. By the time we got to the mall she was very very car sick and threw up in the parking lot. After that she felt better. We went to Build-a-Bear so she could pick out an outfit for Emily. She had a lot of fun doing that. Then since her shoes are torn up and too little we went and got her some new shoes. After that we ate ice cream at Cold Stone (risky I know but she was fine). She thought that was pretty funny that she got to eat ice cream for lunch on her birthday. After that we went to Aunt B's house and played for a while. Then went home and played outside with her cousins for a couple hours. Then we had cheesy scrambled eggs (her request) for supper. After that we bathed, had FHE, and watched a movie. Then when J was down and the house was quiet, she wanted to make a book.

We spent the last few minutes of her birthday drawing and writing quietly. I really enjoyed that. Then I lied down with her in her bed (as I have done almost every night of her life). I told her the story of when she was born and how glad I am that she is here and mine. Then I watched as she drifted into peaceful sleep. Talk about precious moments!
Happy Birthday, Maile!
PS: thank you so much to all who have called and sang and talked to her. She loved each phone call!

Birthday Girl,continued

We began M's birthday celebrations early, and she has loved every minute of them. We started with a fabulous meal at her fav restaurant. This itty thang ate an entire bowl of "white noodles" aka fettucine alfredo, breadsticks, salad, and topped it off with this beauty!

Then on Tuesday we had her family party. In the morning I let her open her birthday shirt from Grandmama. She wore that all day (and will again on Monday). Then we opened her gift from Grandma and Grandpa and video chatted with them. She loves the mermaid pool and played with it and will get lots of hours out of it.

Then we video chatted with Grandmomma, Granddaddy, and Sha. She got to open all her presents from them, Aunt Cathy, and Seth and Kristen. We heard many squeals of delight!

Striking a pose!