Laney is 5!

Laney had her fifth birthday yesterday. I can't believe she's five. She's the most caring and giving five year old. She's also very independent and wants to do everything for herself. Yesterday I made her waffles and fried apples for breakfast and then she opened presents. We took Laney, her sisters and her cousins to her favorite bounce house. Then we went Red Robin for Lunch and the Build a Bear store after that. Josh made a prime rib dinner and I made her girly star wars cupcakes. Her favorite character is Luke Skywalker. Happy Birthday Laney Rose!

Christmas Day!

Wow! I can't believe Christmas is over. It came and went very fast this year. Every Christmas I always wonder what the next year will bring, and how much older my girls will be next year. Next year Laney will be in Kindergarten and be turning 6, our youngest Addy will be 2 1/2 (that will seem very strange to me since we have always had a baby around.) I know I just need to focus on the now and enjoy this time I have at home with them all to myself. We had a good Christmas. My Mom and Dad came to our house, which I am so thankful for. We really don't like to be all by ourselves on Christmas. The kids had a really good time with them. They just left this morning and our next guests will be arriving tonight! Christmas eve we had a ham and went to look at Christmas lights. Last year Josh and stayed up late to wrap all the presents on Christmas Eve, this year we wrapped the night before Christmas Eve and only had to protect the presents under the tree for one day. The girls now have lots of stuff to keep them busy, this very moment I have two munchkins sleeping and two playing their new hippo game. Thank you to everyone who spoiled our girls this Christmas and for loving them as much as we do.


Addison in the Rose Petal Cottage Santa brought them.


Addison wanted to continuously be wrapped in the blanket Grandma Sherry made for her.


Daddy and princess Savanna playing light sabers. Our Star Wars fanatic Laney asked Santa for a light saber, so he brought us three!



Savanna in the Rose Petal Cottage.



Everyone with their special quilts from Papa John and Grandma Sherry. If you look closely Savanna is applying lip stuff (what is it with two year olds and their need to use the whole tube in one day?) and Addison is holding up her new toothbrush.


My princesses! Well three of them anyway.

LB's hair cut

Laney has been asking everyday for two weeks if we can cut her hair short. I love long hair on her, but her hair is really thick and gets tangled. Hair brushing time was becoming the worst part of our day. Josh likes her hair long and didn't want her to cut her hair. He doesn't have to brush her hair. Anyways, I took her to the mall yesterday to get her hair cut. I thought maybe she would get a little sad when she saw her hair being cut, but she sat still with a smile on her face. She loves it and Josh and I both think she looks very cute.
Before

After

Dessert for two

My husband usually has dessert every night. We bought some blackberries at Costco the other day and I told him to get two boxes so I can make a pie. Every night since then he has been asking me to make the pie. Tonight was the night. We made it a little date. I made homemade blackberry pie with homemade whipped cream. I also have a stove top espresso maker, so I made us two lattes. Yum! Then we played Guitar Hero.

Christmas visits

My kids are so excited for family to finally get here. First Mima and Papa are coming on Christmas eve. We miss them and are very excited to see them (even though we just saw them for Thanksgiving, once a month is not enough.) Then my girls favorite cousins (with the exception of baby Aidan, yes we still call him baby Aidan) are coming to stay at their house! My neighbor was just telling me that they don't invite their family to stay at their house because they don't like to mess up their sleeping arrangements or have a house full of people. I told that I don't care if we are tripping over people in the middle of the night, we are stoked that people are coming to visit. Here's a picture of two of my girls with their cousins in a past Christmas.Aahh! I can't believe how big these kids are getting!

Work with Daddy

Savanna is extremely close to Josh and the other day when he left for work, she threw a huge fit 'cause he wouldn't take her with him. She put her shoes on and everything. So today, Josh just wanted to go into work to check on things. He took Laney, Olivia, and Savanna with him. Can you imagine how that's gonna go? I wish I was there with a camera. The girls were beside themselves. They have been dying to go to work with Daddy. With three girls gone, that leaves me with one little Addy Mae. We are watching Mamma Mia and I probably take a shower and get dresses while they are gone. I can't remember the last time I was almost home alone!
The girls warming up on the couch after playing in the snow the other day.

Chrismas dresses photo shoot

It started snowing yesterday morning, but it didn't really stick until the sun started to go down. Last night the girls got all bundled up and played in the snow. It takes forever for me to get all their snow gear on. It was worth it. They had a good time. Then they came in for some hot chocolate. I have to say, I make some mean hot chocolate. When they woke up this morning and the snow was still there, I decided what better time for a snow and christmas dress photo shoot. They are always begging to wear their dresses. By the time I got them all dressed the snow was starting to melt. But I got some fun ones that I will treasure forever.

I covered her black eye with make-up, but you can still kind of see it. Livi you are Mommy's stinker but you melt my heart.

This girl is getting so big. The toddler is completely gone and my big girl is here. Laney you are so beautiful.

This one is so much like Josh. It takes a really long time to get a picture of her where she isn't frowning or has her head down. I had to bribe her with lots and lots of candy.

Addy, your are the baby and you know it. I love how sweet you are to me, and am holding on to your babyness.

I wish I could have had this for the christmas card. This was before the candy bribes.

Their candy bribe had fallen into the snow and they were searching for it.



Everytime I get done taking their pictures, I'm in awe of how beautiful they are. And how blessed we are to have happy and healthy children.

Gift giving and receiving

I love giving gifts at Christmas time. This year I had good intentions of making jam and apple butter and sending it to everyone, but I can't even get my laundry folded and put away. Maybe in a couple of years when my helpers are a little older. I think I chose this topic today because in the past I have felt bad for receiving gifts that I thought were too expensive or when someone had put a lot of thought into my gift. I've also felt bad for buying my kids presents, which is only rooted from what others think about children and how many gifts they think are appropriate. Now looking back, I see how silly that is. I think we need to be good gift receivers as well as good gift givers. When I give others gifts, my children and family members included, it comes from my heart, not from a need to follow the commercialism of Christmas or to receive thanks in return. It's called freely giving. I don't think withholding gifts from kids teaches them anything about the true meaning of Christmas. Kids learn how to freely give from us. And being a scrooge just to prove a point, doesn't teach them anything. And as for how many gifts are appropriate for children, well, I think that's up to the parents to decide. Every family is different, and which ever way your family chooses to give, it's the correct way. Whether you give throughout the year or Christmas is the big gift giving time, that's ok. In our family, our kids don't get a whole lot of new toys during the year, because we choose to give at Christmas time. If your family chooses to not give gifts at all that's ok too. If your family believes Santa takes away from the true meaning of Christmas then that's ok too. But it's also ok to put up Santa next to the nativity scene. (A little bit off the subject, but my brain works in mysterious ways.) There is definetely a balance of giving and getting. Our kids are too small to be helping at the soup kitchen, but they will be donating some of their used toys to the Goodwill and donating some new toys to the local toy drive. This time of year is a good start for kids to learn about freely giving and getting, so when God has an awesome gift for them someday, they will be more likely to FREELY receive that gift. God's love is freely given, a hard thing to understand in our human ran world.

Letters to Santa

We (I should say I) wrote letters to Santa today. Laney actually would ask me to write the word she wanted to write and then she would copy what I would write. Then they decorated them with christmas hello kitty stickers and we took them to the santa mailbox at Macy's. I would have taken a picture, but the store has a sign that says no photography. We went and saw Santa after that and took a ride on the carousel. I took pictures of their christmas jammies last night and today they were wearing there christmas shirts.

Gingerbread house

Christmas is officially two weeks away! The Staples family is very excited. Today the girls and I made our first gingerbread house. I know I bought one two years ago, but we never made it. Savanna ate the frosting and all the candy I gave her to put on the house. Laney and Olivia did an awesome job on decorating and Addison kept walking around the table to see which sister would give her some candy. I think in one of these pictures Savanna has frosting on her face.

Josh was at work today, so he missed the messy craft. He had an emergency root canal yesterday so hopefully he feels better today. Now I know why dentist's make so much money. I'm a little frustrated that our insurance doesn't pay more for a root canal.

Enjoy our gingerbread house.

Olivia's Black Eye

Olivia got her first black eye. They were running around like a bunch of crazies and Olivia and Savanna bumped heads. I tell Savanna all the time that her head is a weapon. It's heavy and she swings it around. I've been hit with her dome a few times and it hurts. Olivia was freakin out, like anytime she gets any sort of ouchies, then I looked at her eye and saw a huge welt underneath her eye. Poor thing. It doesn't seem to hurt her.

Snow

It snowed a tiny bit here today. The girls flipped out and said, "It's Christmas!" I told them that it is Christmas time but not Christmas day. It only lasted a few minutes and then melted a few minutes later, but it sure was fun.

Family Devotions

Last night we had our first family devotion. I hadn't started doing this before, because I didn't think the girls would sit and listen. The only one listening was Laney, but hey, you gotta start sometime. It was a very short lesson on where the Bible came from, how God created us and we should follow his rules in the Bible, and little bit of the christmas story. Laney listened and answered all the questions I asked correctly. Savanna sat in Daddy's lap and Addy in mine. Olivia kept bowing in her ballerina costume and repeating "Yes your highness." She lives in barbie princess world. So I asked her "Where was baby Jesus born?" and she said, "At the doctor's!" Then I asked her "Where did the bible come from?" and she said, "From your room!"

Christmas survey

Getting to Know Your Friends - Christmas Addition

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. Even though bags would be easier, it's not as much fun.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Real!!! I actually tried to buy a fake tree last year and I took it back.

3. When do you put up the tree? Day after Thanksgiving. If the tree place would of had them earlier, I would of gotten one.

4. When do you take the tree down? When ever it starts to bug me.

5. Do you like eggnog? NO

6. Favorite gift received as a child? A beautiful purple dress that my great grandmother sewed for me. She also made a matching dress for my doll.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. But it's a plastic toy one. I'm afraid a pretty one would just get broken in my house. You cant have a broken baby Jesus.

8. Hardest person to buy for? My dad.

9. Easiest person to buy for? The kids, Josh and my brother.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. Because I love to get them in the mail, I love to send them out.

11.Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I don't think I can remember.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I love them all, but am fond of the classics like Holiday Inn, White Christmas, and It's a Wonderful Life.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? The past few years, I've found good deals on the toys the kids are asking for before Thanksgiving

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I just did last week for a white elephant party, but I'm not gonna say what the gift was!

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Desserts and baked goods.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? clear on the tree... and clear outside on the house

17. Favorite Christmas song? I like the ballads like O Holy Night and Carol of the bells This year I'm trying to teach the girls Little Drummer Boy.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? The past couple of years we have gone to Oregon, this year we are excited to stay home and have family come here. Thanks guys! Can't wait to see you.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? No.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning!! And one present on Christmas eve.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Traffic and cranky workers at the stores

23. What do you want for Christmas this year? I just want the girls to have a good christmas and our family to get here and have a great time.

24. Favorite ornament theme or color? I'm staring at my tree right now and I just love it. Laney just told me our tree is the most beautiful tree she has ever seen.

25. Favorite for Christmas dinner? My husbands prime rib. He is one handsome cook!

Books

I'm reading this book called THE SHACK by William P. Young. It's one of the best books I've read in a long time. If you have questions about why God allows bad things to happen to you or the people you love this is the book to read. (besides the Bible of course) It also talks about being Jesus lovers and followers and not "christians". Being a christian or a religious person is not going to save you or bring you peace. A true relationship with Jesus is what brings those things. I highly recommend reading this book.

Home

We are back from a Thanksgiving trip to Flagstaff. Brian and Chelsea, I'm so sorry we missed you. We had a good trip. Thank you Mom and Dad, for cooking for us and dealing with our chaos. We got our christmas tree yesterday and will be decorating it today. I love fresh trees. My house smells so good. I think I'm done christmas shopping so I get to concentrate of baking and doing fun christmas crafts with the kids.

Christmas pictures

Today we trekked up the mountain to where the snow was. We went up there just to take pictures. The red heads don't like to be cold, so they didn't last very long. Laney could play in the snow all day, and doesn't care if she's cold. Baby just thought it was cool that she was wearing shoes for the first time. Here are few pictures that are cute but will not be making the christmas card.

Addison Mae finally starts to walk

Addy is almost 16 months old and she just started to walk this week. It just takes one day of practice and they are off and running. She's definetly my latest walker. She also started talking a lot this week. I guess she decided this was the week to no longer be a baby. I can't believe all four of my kids are officially toddlers, except for Lane who will be five a few days after christmas. We also took Savanna and Addison's baba's (bottles) away this week. I'm excited we are moving on, but also sad that my babies are growing up. I was gonna post a video, but it's taking to long to respond so I will just put up some pictures that I've taken recently.


Savanna was the only one who would sit to take a picture in front of the shark.






Addison is a very happy baby when she wakes up in the morning.

Thanksgiving

The Staples family made it to Flagstaff! No snow today, but it has been raining. We had dinner with my family and some church members who don't have family in town. My favorite dish is always my mom's sweet potato casserole. Dad made some very moist turkey and an awesome corn pomogranite relish. Highlights of the day were: Sharing Thanksgiving with Native Americans, Myrna Yellowhair had a great idea and said "Let's reinact the First Thanksgiving!" Playing pin the top hat on the turkey. And of course the yummy food. The thing I am most thankful for, is of course my family. I love my husband so much and am thankful we started a family and the life we share. I am very thankful to all of our extened family for loving and supporting us and our girls. Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving

Today, we are leaving to go to Flagstaff for Thanksgiving with my parents. I am very excited for many reasons. First, it's supposed to snow! I love taking snow pictures. Second, I miss my parents. Third, hopefully Josh and I will be able to go to a movie. We haven't been on a date for almost 6 months. Fourth, Mom and I are going shopping on Friday morning. We wake up very early, get our starbucks, and are usually the friendliest people shopping that morning. Oh my gosh, I have a lot to do today. We are leaving after Josh gets off work, probably around 6:00 p.m. Today is the busiest day of the year in the grocery business. He's gonna be wiped out.

10 things I used to do before having four kids...

It's been a long week.

1. I used to roll my kitchen towels and arrange them in a pretty basket
(Now I stuff them in there)

2. get to sit down at meal times
(now I'm serving seconds, refilling drinks, and repeating "sit on your bottoms please", "keep your hands to yourself", and "don't steel Addy's food!")

3. Organize my clothes in color and style order
(I now have 3 laundry baskets of clean clothes that I dig through every morning. At least they're clean)

4. wished I looked like a swimsuit model
(I just want to loose the 20, 30, 40 lbs. of chubs I've gained from being pregnant for 4 1/2 years)

5. Used to stay up late watching movies with my husband
(I'm asleep the second after the title is shown)

6. Used to judge Mom's at the store with crying or misbehaving kids
(All I have to say is 4 kids, ages 4 and under)

7. Used to sit next to my husband when we went out to eat
(Josh is usually trying to keep the kids seated, I'm holding a couple of kids and the whole restuarant is watching us eat)

8. Used to wear perfume
(I usually smell like peanut butter or whatever was smeared on me at meal time)

9. Go shopping by myself
(I'm lucky to make it out of the house with one or two)

10. Used to think of myself more often
(No one realizes how selfish they were, until the kids and reality, came along. Thanks Lord for the lesson on selfishness.)

The Best Turkey Recipe Ever!

For Mine and Josh's first Thanksgiving, I made a turkey from Martha Stewarts magazine. I have never made another turkey since. This is the BEST tasting turkey ever. I hate dry, unseasoned turkeys and this turkey will be very moist and tastefull. One of the things that makes it so moist, is the brine you soak it in the night before you are going to cook it. And the spice butter that you baste it with is to die for. Here is the recipe:

Brine: your gonna need a stockpot

4 cups salt
5 cups sugar
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces (I use a handful of baby carrots)
2 stalks of celery, also cut
2 onions also cut into pieces
2 leeks also cut (remember to wash of all sand)
3 bay leaves (I use dried)
1 head of garlic cut crosswise (I don't remove the skin)
2 TBLS whole peppercorns
1 TBLS ground cumin
2 teasp crushed red pepper flakes
1 teasp cloves
2 teasp whole allspice (I use ground)
8 cups of water

Boil all of these things until the most of the sugar has desolved (Your house is going to smell amazing)

The Brine has to be completely cooled before soaking the turkey in it overnight. I usually boil the brine on Wen. morning and let it cool in the fridge all day. I put the turkey in a huge ziploc bag that is supposed to be for storage. You can add more water to cover the turkey. Don't forget your turkey has to be completely thawed.


Spice butter:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter softened
2 teasp salt
1 teasp ground black pepper
1 teasp dried thyme
1 teasp ground cumin
1 teasp garlic powder
1 teasp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teasp ground allspice
1/4 teasp ground cloves
1/4 teasp ground nutmeg

You can make this several days in advance, just remember to let it soften before you put it on the turkey. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees, cover that turkey with the spice butter and cook for 30 min. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees, add more spice butter, and cover the turkey with foil. Put the spice butter (we use a pastry brush) on the turkey every 30-45 minutes until the turkey is cooked!

Josh and I made a turkey last weekend. (Because it was $5 and it fed our family for an entire week.) We only used the spice butter, and the turkey was still pretty darn good.

Happy Thanksgiving! MMmm, I can smell and taste the turkey just thinking about it!

MOPS, everyday journal

I went to MOPS this week and wanted to share something that I learned. For those of you who don't know what MOPS is, it stands for Mothers Of Preschoolers. Basically, it is a bunch of moms with small children getting together for food, crafts, and gab time. And childcare is provided, so you can see why I would like something like that! It is a national organization with small groups held in churches. I started going to MOPS when I was pregnant with Laney in California. Then attended in Flagstaff and now here in Albuquerque. It's the best way to meet other mommies when you move to a new area. Now that I have four small children at home, MOPS gets me out of the house every other Tuesday. Anyways, this week another mom (also with four kids) was sharing that she had started a simple scrapbook of her everyday life. She photographed things that she did on a everyday basis, like laundry or helping kids with homework. She did this for a the month May. She logged how many miles they drove in their car and how many e-mails she received that month. So many times we want to log all the good memories or very fun times we have as a family. But I think in 30 years my girls will appreciate the everyday memories and will want to see pictures and journal of what our life was like at home. The good, the bad, and the ugly. In January, after the holidays, I will follow her lead and start a journal with picutures, of everyday life at home.

Why I hate Trix cereal

I just got finished cleaning up after breakfast. Yesterday I went to the grocery store and got three boxes of cereal. It was on sale and I had a coupon. I got two boxes of Trix and one box of Golden Grahmns for $1 each! The Trix were not such a good idea. Here's why:

1. Trix are tiny balls that roll all over the floor while I am sweeping.
2. They are multi-colored, and stain my tile floor red, blue, yellow and green.
3. Also stained are our clothes and baby's face and hands.
4. When milk is added they become sticky.
5. Stuck to baby's bottom, my pants and the bottom of four little girls feet.
Oh dear, I just found two in the living room, I'm sure they rolled in there on there own.

The Staples family will not be eating round multi-colored ceral again!

My morning Jogs

About a month ago I decided that I needed some exercising. Addison was 15 months old and I hadn't lost the weight that I had wanted to. I decided to get up at 6:00 before the kids woke up and go for a jog. When I say jog, I mean mostly walking with a few minutes of jogging. I hate exercising, but loved the time to myself. Albuquerque is very pretty when the sun is just coming over the mountains, and the city lights are still on. I walk up a hill with my back to the city and then when I reach the top, I turn around and get to see the view on the way down. I loved the first few weeks, then lost interest and didn't want to get up in the morning. Then, for my birthday, my husband got me a ipod nano. So I figured since he spent the money, I need to use it and start jogging again. It really was the best gift ever. I forgot how much music moves and motivates me. I have since downloaded several upbeat songs that get me moving in the morning and am trying to jog more than I walk. GO ME! Josh told me that he thinks I have lost weight just in this last week. Thanks Babe. That was exactly what I needed.

A list of songs that get me moving:
A beautiful day U2
Bleeding love Leona Lewis
Don't stop the music Rihanna (I pretend that my husband is dancing with me in this song)
The Story Brandi Carlile
I like to Move it (from Madagascar 2) will.i.am
Pocket full of Sunshine Natasha Bedingfield

Some cool down songs:
Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 in G minor; Prelude Yo-yo Ma
Dona Nobis Pacem Also by Yo-yo Ma

Are these kids all yours?

At the grocery store: Watch out, there's a two for one deal in aisle 5.

In the women's section of a department store: I didn't think shopping for a bathing suit was hard enough so I borrowed some children to make the experience easier.

At a restaurant: We asked for the Children Section, they came with the table.


At the mall: Bill Gates will give me a $1 for every time someone asks me that question. I'm on my way to becoming a millionaire, thanks!

In a parking lot: I'm practicing to be part of the 10 clowns tumbling out of a tiny car circus act.

On the sidewalk: I'm a gypsy, do you have any kids for sale?

At home, answering the door: I have a boy and a girl. Wait... *counts the children quickly.* Dang it! *yelling over my shoulder* Tell your father to quit playing with the cloning machine again!

While waiting in line: I don't have any kids. *asked in a psychotic hushed voice* Do you see children?

At school: I'm testing the number of children it takes to drive a person insane.

Anywhere: Yes, we're trying to take over the world.

I found this online and it made me laugh, so I thought I would share.

Staples family

This is my very first blog! I hope to use this to update family on the girls and exciting happenings in the Staples family. I'd also like to share recipes and good mommy ideas. Maybe even the days that are not so great, at home with the girls.