Being Toothless

Well, Malorie has now lost 5 teeth now and is looking pretty cute. She has earned lots of money pulling those teeth. Although the toothfairy seems to get very busy becuase she doesn't always make it the first night the tooth is under the pillow. Here is a recent picture of Mal with no teeth. We are so gald they came out, she was looking a little like a snaggle tooth.

Shocking I Know

Ok everyone, are you sitting down, please don't fall off your chair, I know you will all be suprised, I BAKED. Yes, it is true I acutally made french bread from scratch today and it turned out great, the kids even loved it and hubby was very impressed. I think however that I need to invest in a kitchenaid, the dough beaters don't really cut it, the dough went all the way up them and into the holes where the beaters go into the beater. It was a mess. Doesn't it look good enough to eat. YUMMY.

Home at Last

Well, for all of you who don't know, I finally quit my job to stay home and be a mom. My last day of work was on the 28th of May. It was a very hard and emotional day for me. I said goodbye to some very dear friends and co-workers. Now I know that I can go visit anytime but lets face it we all know it is never the same. They will be missed very much.


I am however looking forward to new adventures with friends, neighbors and my little family as we go about daily life.


This is my most recent family picture, this is what I gave up my job for. I sure love them and hope that I can be a better mom for being home with them and getting to know them better.




Hey maybe I will become a better blogger as well. Who knows. I'm sure there will be days of blogging wondering why in the heck I ever quit and days that I will be very greatful that I did.


Life is full of ups and downs and how we handle them is all up to us.

A Soft Place to Land

Thanks Aimee for your last blog, A Soft Place to Land (if any of you haven't read it you should). I had just the experience tonight that your blog helped me get through with a good attitude and no anger toward G. Tonight was a big night for T and M. They got a belt promotion in karate and G had to work late and didn't know if he would make it. I got a little frantic of the thought of being there on my own with all 4 kids. I wanted to get mad at G's job and be irritated but the more I thought about it, it only made sense to me that he would rather be with us than slaving away at long hours without any overtime pay just to make sure he keeps a job to keep us alive. How much more I appreciated him tonight. So, we left the house at 5:30, got a pizza and sat in the parking lot of Smith's by karate eating dinner together, and watching a movie on the portable dvd (my one great hope of keeping Keiffer entertained). My mom did come and helped a lot (my saving grace). When belt promotions were done it was 8:20 pm and we were headed home, only to get a call from G, "I am still at work but should be leaving soon.", thinking again of Aimee's blog I remained calm and knew he was doing what he could to get home. I got home hoping that soon he would walk through the door to help me finish the baths and bedtime rituals, but he never came. Needless to say I began calling him at 11:00 to make sure he was still alive. He pulled up just as I had called him, he made it home. I knew then even more (and am glad there were no hard feelings of doing the home job alone) that he really wanted to be home when he disappeared into each childs room to watch them sleep for a few short moments. I think that is a tuff thing for a dad to be gone before his children are awake and to arrive when they are already sleeping. I give him more credit for the job he does. I love him, and hope he feels he has a soft place to land away from the mundane world of work.

Maren Melissa 3 Months

One of the most beautiful miracles in life,

One of the greatest joys we can ever know,

and one of the reasons why there is a little extra

sunshine, laughter, and happiness

in our world today.

Saved From a Yell

Ok so the days I work I feel kind of crazy, like I am in a whirl wind and everything has to go just so, so that I am on time for things. Keiffer is one that wants to do things on his own time frame. I find myself yelling at him a lot to "HURRY UP OR I AM GOING TO BE LATE, YOU ARE MAKING ME MAD" bless his heart I love him. Then one day I stopped to think on his level. What would I want my mom to do with me. Of course give me love and attention. So from that day on when I have to wrestle him to the ground trying to get him dressed I make a game out of it. I chew on his ears, I tickle him we laugh and take time to love and before I know it he is all dressed and I didn't yell. Now that doesn't happen all the time but most of the time now. It makes the home a happier place and a refuge from daily trials of life that we all go through.

Now back to my craziness, Tues. we rush rush rush and after the kids are where they need to be I head out for work. After work it is rush rush rush, pick the kids up from daycare, give them a granola bar to hold them over until dinner, rush them off to karate. I sometimes sit and nurse Maren in the car with Keiffer crying becuase he wants to go home while I wait for Malorie's class to finish, then we go home while Tav is at karate and get dinner. Then Gabe picks up Tav and comes home. So this one paticular Tues. I nursed Maren, waited for Malorie and then headed home. I was in a hurry to get

dinner done while Maren was happy for a few min. I was running around trying not to trip on

kids when all of a sudden I hear the spilling of cocoa pops on the kitchen floor. Keiffer had dumped a whole box on the floor. I started with a yell and then blogging came to mind and saved the day. Instead of finishing my yell I grabbed the camera and snapped a shot, kissed my boy and thanked him for a blogging moment. Then swept the pops into a pile and finished dinner.

What a difference it makes not to yell. I am a yeller and trying hard to change my ways.

Chocolate Gravy and Biscuits

As most of you know when I was about 5 my parents were divorced and my dad went back to California to live. We would spend the summers there and one of the best memories I have is being able to go to grandmas with all the family and have Chocolate Gravy and Biscuits. When my grandma was young growing up she lived in Oklahoma and had Chocolate Gravy and Biscuits everyday for breakfast. I think I would have been sick of it by then. Anyway, her dad was killed when she was a young age and she had to help take care of the kids. She made it everyday and what was left over would sit in the big cast iron pan until morning and then they would add more to it. Well, we only got it during the summer when we were there to visit. My grandma Davis has since past away and we have decided to carry on the tradition of Chocolate Gravy and Biscuits thanks to my Bro. Zac and his wife Kim. They do it every conference weekend and that is now what my family is going to do. Conference is always right around her birthday (April 4Th) so we will continue to celebrate her birthday with our favorite Chocolate Gravy and Biscuits.

This is a picture of Malorie enjoying hers with her cousins flat Stanley that came to visit.

Recipe

3 C. Sugar

8 TBS Flour

3 TBS Cocoa

1/4 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 C. Milk

Handful of Chocolate Chips

Combine sugar, cocoa and salt in pan, in a separate bowl add milk and whisk flour into it like making gravy so it doesn't lump up, then add to dry mixture. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to med./low and cook for 30 min or until it thickens up. Add vanilla and a handful of chocolate chips for fun. Stir until melted. Should be a little thick, not runny. Place a samll slab of butter in the center of a plate, pour chocolate gravy over it and mix in, then add your biscuits. Any biscuit like bisquik biscuits or whatever you like. You can tear and dip or break and mix.

Enjoy with a big glass of milk.

Grandma Davis