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!

Festivities

I'm a little behind on what the Wilson things have been up to. And we have been busy! ( Well, sort of! I am not as busy as I used to be because I just can't do as much. Plus, I learned an important lesson from my recent ordeal: I don't play enough with my children. When I couldn't do anything but lay on the couch, all I wanted to do was be with the kids and take care of them . Then when I was slowly getting around I just played quietly with Johnny on the floor or the couch-way more than I used to because that's all I could do. It was wonderful! Now, I am able to do stuff again, but I will not forget this lesson. I've switched my house cleaning and such so that I am able to devote more undivided attention to my sweet darlings. Ok, back to the subject at hand....my sweet darlings!)

Pumpkin carving: We got a pumpkin and carved a kitty face. J was very wary of touching the slime and guts, M absolutely loved it! She squealed with delight during the whole ordeal! (Actually, I had to save it so she could play with it again another time!)

 Notice J is saying "cheese" to M and not the camera. So typical!

Since we are going to be in Utah during M's birthday, we celebrated with her class on Friday. She was so excited! Thursday avo we made cheesecake Oreo treats that she picked out. (Very yummy by the way, I'll be happy to give you the recipe.) Thursday night as we were lying in bed and talking about her birthday celebrations (and there will be a lot this year) she said, "I'm so excited I can't even look at my imagination!"
This girl is so stinking precious! She was so tickled that her class sang "Happy Birthday" to her and that her teacher gave her a "birth certificate" and birthday crown.

Today we had a fun day. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of all the fun stuff. This morning we made and played play dough for at least an hour. Then the little Wilson things had a game of their own going on. I just love it when they play together so well.

While M was reading to J, I came up to tell her something and she said, "Mom, don't extract me, I'm reading!"

Not long after, we were preparing to go for our "family fun outing" as she calls it and she mastered the shoe tying trick! She was so excited and proud!

 On said outing, we explored Warren Dunes State Park. It is about twenty minutes from our house. And gorgeous. And windy. And cold. We did manage to climb to the top of a very high dune (which kinda scared J because your foot slides down about half a foot every time you step). M loved it. The wind off Lake Michigan was very cold so we didn't stay long. It was a beautiful drive and we are excited to have such a fun place to play. I think it will be good in all seasons for different reasons, but I am definitely going camping there. Then we drove another twenty minutes to the Chocolate Garden. We had a chocolate tasting of some gourmet truffles and they were so good. That was a fun treat. After that we stopped and grabbed a few groceries and headed home. This was my kinda day!

Broomsticks and Bedrest

While I have been glued to the couch and unable to do anything for my family, my sweet mama has been doing it for me. (J too,but this post is about her.) She has been cooking and cleaning and playing with the kids. They decided to make Halloween cookies as both something fun to do together, and as thank yous to return to people in the dishes in which they brought us a meal. I didn't get a pic of M and mom during the process, but only after. And I love J's smile as he is cutting the dough. Such sweet memories for them!