Crib Time

Parker and Audrey are super crazy about little Miles. They love to make him happy or just run by on their way to somewhere else and plant a kiss on his little bald head. Audrey can always calm Miles down with just her voice and her face close to his. One of Parker's favorite ways to spend time with his brother is to get in his crib, lay beside him and just watch the mobile. Parker kind of hums along and talks to Miles (and to himself) while I get a few things done. He'll restart the music when it stops and give Miles things to hug, like burp rags. Parker is the kind of kid I can trust completely not to hurt or try anything crazy with Miles (one of the benefits of a 3 1/2-year age gap). He's very gentle, always has been, and he's going to be the best big brother.

See how happy it makes him? He's three months old, I can't believe it!

Here You Go, Mom!

I know, I know, I posted a bunch of pumpkin recipes the other day. But seriously, I love all desserts pumpkin. :)

My dear Mom LOVES pumpkin pie more than I can say. While she was here last weekend, I thought I would try a recipe and see how it turned out. Of course, it isn't quite as good as the best (Marie Callender's), but we all agreed that it was pretty darn good. Here it is!

Best Pumpkin Pie

Use the lower amount of spice for a golden, mildly spicy pie. The larger amount yields a more robust flavor.

1 single-crust pie shell (I used a frozen one)
1 15-oz can pumpkin
3/4 c. sugar
1 to 1 1/4 t. cinnamon
1/2 to 1 t. ground ginger
1/2 t. salt
1/4 to 1/2 t. ground nutmeg
1/4 to 1/2 t. ground cloves
3 slightly beaten eggs
1 1/4 c. milk

Sweetened whipped cream

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. For filling, in a large bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, salt, nutmeg and cloves. Add eggs; beat lightly with a fork until combined. Gradually add milk; stir until combined.
3. Carefully pour filling in pastry shell. To prevent over-browning, cover edge of pie crust with foil. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil. Bake about 25-30 more minutes or until a knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. Cover and refrigerate within 2 hours.

Serve with whipped cream. YUM!

Better Homes and Gardens, November 2006

Also, please note my new sidebar: recipes!

While I was in the Shower . . .

Yesterday, Stephanie posted a cute picture of her charming kids and what they do while she showers each morning. Back in March, I posted a picture of what I found one day: freezing cold Audrey and Parker snuggled up in a blanket. They drank their orange juice too fast and needed to cuddle.

Recently, my showers have been quite late in the morning (because of a certain fluff). When I get out, I sometimes sneak out to the living room to see what the kids have been up to. Since Audrey's long gone at school by then, poor Parker has to be alone for a few minutes and yesterday, I came out and found him doing this:

He had found the peanuts, parked his little self at the kitchen table, and helped himself. The Batman beanie was a recent gift from my parents. For when we go to the snow in Sundance. At Christmas. But Parker slept in it last night, and the night before. You might ask, why is this so very endearing to me, my little boy finding peanuts with a silly hat on?

Because I love him, that's why.

Blessing Day

Brothers

Today Neal blessed our little Miles Jefferson at church. It was beautiful; he did a great job! Neal's dad and Gail flew in from Tulsa and my parents came in from California for the occasion. We all had a great time and Miles is very blessed, indeed. Here are some of the shots we took this morning:

Us with Neal's dad, Jeff, and his wife, Gail (or Issy, as we prefer to call her!)

Three generations of H* men :)

Us with my parents, David and Lauren

The girls. Oh, how we wish we had Audrey's hair!

Thanks to Miss Natalie for taking pictures (we forgot to take some of us together!) and to Jay for helping with the blessing!

Happy Birthday Joojie!

Julianne and me back when I was much taller than her (in heels), in 1997.

Happy Birthday to my lovely baby sister, Julianne. She's the big twenty-two today! Livin' the single life in Provo, studying up a storm, and trying to change the world, one ignorant raised-in-a-bubble co-ed at a time.

You're such an inspiration to me, Jooj! I'm very proud to call you my sister. I have fond memories of taking you potty in the middle of the night when you were 3 and then sneaking you back to my bed so we could hug. I'll never forget driving the two of us to piano lessons all those times and waiting for each other to be finished.

I'm so inspired by the way you care so much about the world's down-trodden, but at the same time, you have immense love for my own little kids, too. I'm so glad you went to Mozambique and shared with me the intense feelings you had when you got home and saw our healthy babies. I'm so glad you were able to turn down a marriage proposal in Syria, so that we could see you again. ;) Your experiences all over the world have given me new perspective, and in that way, you've made me a better person. Oh, and I'm so glad you call me on your cell phone while you're walking around campus. I miss college and I love to hear the little details about your classes and the not-so-boring details of your social scene. I can't wait to see what you do with your life. You have so much potential and so much love to share with the world; take it and run with it! (hopefully all the way to Oxford, or London, or Edinburgh!) Or you could just stay here. Whatever you do, wherever you go, just know that you are immensely loved by me. :)

Happy Birthday!

Julianne and me overlooking a beach in Rhodes, December 1999.

Lincoln, Julianne and me in front of the Parthenon, Athens, Greece, January 2000.

Choices, Choices . . .

Okay, blog-surfing instead of laundry-folding. Again. Check out these super silly baby (and mommy) shirts. I love them all, how will I choose? Okay, I probably won't really buy one, but they are really funny:There's another one that says, "My mom is blogging this."

(my mom's blog is better than your mom's blog)

Just had a baby. What's your excuse?

I make milk. What's your superpower?

I found them here.

New Friends

While I was pregnant, I was really good friends with Mylanta, extra pillows and my daughter's grabber toy. I have two new inanimate best friends. Here they are:

My New Shark Super Steamer

I have two friends in the neighborhood who have these. They have immaculate houses, the kind of clean I aspire to have but can never quite accomplish. They clean with a steamer and swear by it, so I invested. So I used another one of those Bed, Bath and Beyond coupons and got myself a Shark. I love it! Never have I been so pleased with my bathroom-cleaning capabilities. It's pretty much like power-washing your bathroom (or kitchen, or baseboards, or kids' toys, etc.). It doesn't shoot out water, however, just an intense blast of (very, very burning hot) steam.

I cleaned the things in my bathroom that never get really clean (around the base of the faucet, our toothbrushes, and, my personal favorite, because of the very satisfying amount of gunk that came out of them, the toilet seat hinges!)

In the kitchen, I blasted the gunk out of the oven knobs, the dishwasher heat vent, and the vent at the bottom of the fridge. It works on tile grout and windows, too, with the addition of an attachment. My house feels much cleaner, even if I'm the only one who knows about it. You need one of these!

Okay, my other best friend, and I'm so glad I love this because it's good for me:

Oatmeal Crisp with Raisins

Neal has a nightly ritual of a bowl of cereal. He goes for Life or Honey Bunches of Oats. I've adopted the same ritual, and this is my favorite. In fact, today, it was on sale at Kroger. I bought three boxes. It's delicious, crunchy, but has those yummy chewy raisins mixed in, and it says on the box that it's good for my heart. Can't go wrong, give it a try!

Random Thoughts

Not much to blog about today, except, of course, my delightful sister-in-law Georgia's birthday! (see below)

Anyway, just had some random thoughts that I thought I would share.

• Today, on the way to Parker's preschool, I saw two things I have rarely seen.

1. A grown man fall off his bike. (Why is this so funny to me? I really had to stop myself from laughing because Parker and his friend were in the car. Yes, I'm mean.) And I said "rarely" because once, when I was driving by some missionaries on bikes, I honked to say hi, and scared one of them into falling off his bike. Oh man, that was funny, too. He was ok, of course.
   
2. A woman running, pushing a jogging stroller with her DOG inside. Ok. But don't dogs enjoy running, too? They're dogs, for heaven's sake.
   

• I learned a new term the other night. There are some things people say here in the South that you just don't hear other places. I have lived in Texas for going on seven years now and had never heard this one. I'll use it in context so you can understand:
• "I can get these Daisy scout patches for y'all, or y'all can go to the Scouting store and get them y'all's selves." Neal, born and bred in Louisiana, hadn't even heard "y'all's selves." I just love the South!


• Ross rules. You know, the "discount department store," Ross. I learned the value of stores like Ross and TJ Maxx when I was a freshman at BYU and my lovely and frugal roommate, Amy and I would go dig through the goods at these stores. I've since discovered they are incredible sources of inexpensive toys, not to mention shoes. So, I went looking for Christmas presents for my kiddos and stumbled upon a pair of super-sweet jeans pour moi. Original price: $98. My price: $13.99. Love it! And I got a few good toys, too.
  

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Georgia! We can't wait to see you in a couple weeks!

Halloween!

Here they are!

Unicorn Fairy Princess and Red Power Ranger

Really sweet chili pepper

Miles had to have his costume on earlier in the day, when smiles were more apt to happen. :)

For a picture of Audrey in another costume today, click here to see her blog.

Happy Halloween!

Computer Geeks

I have a sinking feeling that we are raising computer nerds. Television is not ever a problem or a temptation for our kids. In fact, we only ever watch it once the kids are in bed. It's that darned computer. We severely limit computer-playing time around here or some people, namely Parker, would play all day. It's pretty funny to watch his little fingers as he uses Neal's thinkpad thingy on the laptop. He's amazingly coordinated for a 3-year-old. Sometimes when it's time to turn it off, Parker says, "But I love the computer!" (yikes!) My favorite comeback, "But the computer doesn't love you back." We talk about how if you play the computer too much, your imagination starts leaking out of your ears (good one, huh?), and how you don't get any exercise when you play computer games. We're pretty much trying to convince him that the computer is a bad guy, but he's not buying it. He is pretty good about getting off the computer when his time is up, though. On Saturday, his time for the day was over, but Audrey hadn't played yet. Miles just looked so thrilled, I had to snap a picture.

Notice the tongue, PA! Those Barbie.com games can be pretty intense.

Miles for Sophie

Okay, Elliott and Ginger, I'll trade you three pictures of Miles for a few of Sophie. Deal?

The Name Game

I've decided to start a little "meme." I've seen this one before and thought it sounded fun, so here we go! If I tag you at the end, you are to post your answer to this question on your blog, then tag others to do the same. See, doesn't that sound fun?

What did you name your kids and why?

I'll start:

Audrey Mae: I've always loved the name Audrey and chose it years before I actually had a baby. Stephanie and I used to be big dorks and we watched AMC, the old movie channel, for fun when we were young. I suppose it was then that I fell in love with Audrey Hepburn and her beautiful name. It evokes such a vision of elegance and grace, qualities any girl would love to be associated with, that I thought it would be a name my daughter would like. It wasn't too difficult to convince Neal that it would make a good name for our baby girl. He just wanted to be sure that she "wasn't named after a movie star." Her middle name, Mae, was derived from Neal's grandmother May Ella Jackson, and her mother, Ella May Riddlesperger. Plus, Audrey Mae just sounded like a perfect name for a little red-haired girl from the South.

Parker James: Parker wasn't too difficult a decision either. Parker is my maiden name and we thought it made for a cool, modern, masculine-sounding boy's name. James is taken from both sides of our family. Neal's grandmother's name was Genevieve James and James Rowland Parker is my great-great grandfather's name. He lived in Missouri, served in the Civil War, and moved his family across the country to California in the mid-19th century. We reversed his name, James Parker, to get Parker James.

Miles Jefferson: Miles was our other boy option when I was pregnant with Parker. We've always liked it. It's classic, easy to spell, and not too common--just our kind of name. In my family history research, I've discovered a great-great uncle named William Myles Parker. Miles' middle name, Jefferson, is an old name in Neal's family. Jefferson DeCal H. is Neal's great-grandfather's name. In subsequent generations, it was shortened to Jeffie, but we decided to reinstate the formal Jefferson. And, if you recall, you all helped us choose that name for Miles. Thanks for your input. We love it!

If we have another baby (heaven only knows when we'll decide about that one), it will probably be either Elliott or Charlotte.

Okay, I'm tagging Stephanie, Grammy, Charlotte, and Natalie. You girls don't forget to tag someone else! You don't have to tag 4 people, I just wanted to get it going. I love to talk baby names. :) You can tag someone without kids, too, of course. If you're willing to share your list, we want to know what you WILL name your babies. Have fun!

Want Some?

Is there anything yummier than sugar cookies decorated for Halloween?

Here, Audrey is quite alarmed at the amount of sprinkles Parker has applied to one cookie.

Oh yeah, I thought of something slightly yummier: cupcakes.

Google Homepage

Okay, since we've all confessed our mad obsession with checking each other's blogs (and frankly, people, some of you don't update often enough, ahem), I thought I would share what Steph shared with me a few months ago that has made my blogging habits much more streamlined. It eliminates going from link to link to link. Thanks to Mike for showing Steph how to do it.

Make yourself a Google homepage!

Here's what you do:

1. Go go Google.com

2. Click on "Make it your own."

3. Add content. To add someone's blog, click on the little link that says "Add by URL," then type in the blog address and at the end of it, type "/atom.xml" (without the quotation marks). So, if you were to add my blog (which you should), type in (or copy & paste) this:

http://www.flowerchain.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Click on add, then go "back to my homepage" and watch the magic happen! Then bookmark your new homepage. It will prompt you to sign in when you turn on your computer. Now, each time you click on it, you'll see all your favorite blogs at once!

You can add as many blogs as you check (Steph has made tabs specifically for blogs on her homepage.) and instead of checking each one every day, (or multiple times a day, as the case may be), you just go to your Google homepage and see if the posts' titles have changed.

I have mine set up so that I can view 2 posts per blog, that way they don't take up so much room on the screen. I also have things like the weather from all the places where my family lives, Sudoku puzzles (thanks a lot Kristen), my Gmail inbox, NYT headlines, our teeny stock portfolio's quotes, and People.com headlines, which is how I found out this!
(ok, the link might not work. Project Runway judge, Nina Garcia is prego!)