Monday, December 28, 2009

Happy Christmas






I tried, again, to load a video from iphoto but it didn't work. Shame, It was darling! Eliyah and Justice playing together, independent of anyone older. We had a great First Day of Christmas. Yep, we're celebrating all 12 days, Christmas through Epiphany. And we celebrated Advent. So we will have been consciously celebrating Jesus for 6 weeks! Our days of Christmas celebrations are less defined than I hope they will one day become. We want to do something special each day. Some of our friends also celebrate Epiphany and we'll be sharing a meal with them that day. I'll post more later on why we have chosen to remember Epiphany. It's quite relevant, you know, if you are a Jesus follower and interested in being missional.

On to the photos. Oh. My. Word, my kids are daaaaarling! I know the stockings-on-the-couch pic is smiliar to the banner photo, but I love Justice's roll-away smile. Aedyn is not so keen of potty training but he does like the sticker poster in this Elmo book. Yes. Eliyah is that sweet in person. More so. She is always kissing us, which means her widely opened mouth clamped onto our check or chin. Ellie's a lover.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Happy First Birthday, Justice!

On Sunday we celebrated the first birthday of our beautiful son, Justice River. This has been an amazing year for our family with Justice's birth as the excellent beginning. Our joy baby loves to giggle, speed crawl, climb everything, share with his sister (toys and food), soak up the giant hugs of his brother and hang-out in papa's arms. LOVE LOVE LOVE you, sunshine baby.

Grandma Debbi's Eggnog

I was just typing this up for a friend and decided to post it here as well. This eggnog is fantastic. If you love the sticky sweetness of most commercial "eggnog," you'll be surprised by how much better real eggnog tastes!

If you use eggs and milk from animals that haven't been confined in tiny boxes and dosed daily with antibiotics and hormones, even better!

Debra's Eggnog
Make the custard a day ahead, it takes time to cool. Recipe makes a quart, we double for 1/2 gallon or quadruple for parties.

A. The Custard
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
4 cups milk
1/8 teaspoon mace or nutmeg
Mix the yolks and sugar in a pan. Add the milk and mix well. Cook the custard on stovetop on med, stirring often (constantly at the end) until the mixture coats a spoon (you will notice a change in the consistency—a thickening). The change from raw eggs to custard seems to happen suddenly, just before the boil. Don't let it boil. This takes a LONG time. 30 min possibly, much longer when quadrupled. Let cool, strain, then refrigerate until cold.

B. The Meringue
3 egg whites (room temp)
3 Tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
Just before ready to serve, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. While beating, gradually add the sugar and then the vanilla.

Combining A & B: Gently fold in about 1/3 of the custard to the meringue. When fully incorporated, fold in the rest of the custard. This helps keep the eggnog a bit fluffy. Top with more nutmeg. Nice with a little kick of bourbon, rum, or brandy.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

She's Official!


Our baby girl is legally ours forever! The court hearing lasted about 10 minutes and then Eliyah enjoyed having her parents' full attention as the three of us went to lunch. The adoption party on Saturday was really lovely. (The court hearing had been re-scheduled from last Friday.)

We are so happy.

Click to play this Smilebox slideshow: Eliyah's Adoption
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Friday, December 11, 2009

Joy to the World, Banner instructions



Jenny, Sara and I made this lovely banner the day after Thanksgiving. We made it from a kit from Oriental Trading. It turned out so pretty! I sent the banner kits to my sister and S-I-L's so they could make some lovely-ness as well. It would be really fun to do with older kids. Unfortunaly, there were no instructions in the kits. Here are some brief directions.

1. Coat the punch-out letters with glue and cover with glitter. (We used tinsel glitter, silver/gold mixed) and set aside.
2. Choose 13 papers as 'backing' papers. Cut along edges with craft scissors.
3. For each backing paper, choose a coordinating paper. This is your 'front' paper. Use the rectangular cardboard tag as a template and trace tags on your front paper. Cut them out and glue onto the cardboard tags.
4. Poke a whole through the front paper to complete the wholes on the cardboard tags.
5. Glue the front paper/tags onto the backing paper. Poke the holes all the way through so the ribbon can be strung.
6. Glue the letters onto the front papers.
7. Make some spacers from the cardboard shapes. We used stars. Cut paper to shape and glue onto cardboard. Poke holes in the paper to match those on cardboard.
8. Thread ribbon through the letters, leaving a little space and the word spacer shapes. (see picture for how we did it) The ribbon that came with our kit was bright red and so I bought some burgundy to match better.)
9. Embellish with shapes or bows, if you wish.
10. Enjoy!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Adoption Hearing Date Change

We got a call from our lawyer's office yesterday afternoon. The judge has changed our hearing date from this Friday to next Wednesday, Dec. 16. So our Christmas cards are inaccurate. And, this Saturday when we hold Eliyah's adoption party, she won't be legally ours yet. Oh well, we'll eat cake anyway.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

The Reenactment

On Sunday, while Eric and I were putting the babies to bed for the night, Aedyn tripped on the living room rug. Our friend Sara (whom the children call Ama Sara) was with Aedyn at the time. Aedyn cried for a few minutes, was comforted by Sara, and he was drying his tears as Eric and I got downstairs. He told us he fell and asked me to take pictures of him falling. And crying.

Enjoy the reenactment.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Autumn Afternoon with the Boys


Last week, while Eliyah napped, Eric and I played outside with the boys. The afternoon was warm and sunny and the leaves perfectly crunchy. Justice loved exploring the yard on all fours while Aedyn jumped in leaves and smacked the stone path with a stick. Looking at these pictures puts my difficult weeks in perspective. I have a truly blessed life.


Thursday, November 19, 2009

Shake It

A few moments ago Aedyn was watching Backyardagins, a cartoon that usually has interesting music. I told him that the music made me want to dance. Aedyn replied, matter-of-factly, "Mama wanna shake her bah'um." (That's 'bottom,' for those of you not versed in Toddler.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Poop

The poop situation is out of control around here. Perhaps we should stop feeding the children.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Where is Jesus Christ?

Aedyn: Where is Jesus Christ? (we were listening to worship songs)
Me: He's in Heaven, waiting to be with us.
A: Ae'yn want to play with him!
Me: Jesus loves you! He wants to play with you, too.
A: Ae'yn is Jesus' friend!

I love my job!

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Happy Hemi-Birthday, Eliyah Grace Tuleen




She's scooting a bit and vocalizing loud squeaks. She LOVES watching and reaching for her brothers. Her first two teeth came in this week. Our Eliyah is such a Sunshine Baby, always grinning and constantly interacting. She prefers looking into peoples eyes over playing with any toy or even eating. Every day we are delighted to be her parents!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

The Night She Slept

Friday evening I drove to the bigger city around here and stayed in a lovely B&B for a night of REST! I arrived around 7:00 and enjoyed a glass of wine and headed upstairs to soak for an hour in a big tub surrounded by Italian marble. A cup of chocolate hazelnut tea and magazine made for one great bubble bath. No crying baby or barging-in 2 year-old! I was in bed by 9:15 and slept for 8 beautifully uninterrupted hours then stayed in bed dozing off and reading for a few hours. At 8:30 I joined 8 other guests for cinnamon swirl french toast, sausage, and fruit salad in the dinning room. Good coffee, too. mmmmm. I took a walk around the pretty neighborhood before a drive to the big mall to pick-up Greek food for lunch. I was back home by 1:30, the kids were napping and Eric and I watched The Daily Show. A long family walk in the Autumn sunshine and dinner at our fave Mexican restaurant topped off the day. What a great early birthday present from my fantastic husband! AND there's more to come--Dinner out at the new (& only) Thai restaurant in town (THANK YOU, Sara for the gift certificates and for babysitting!) and a weekend with our lovely friends in Columbus, OH. Happy Birthday, indeed. (mm-hmm, on Friday my age will be divisible by 5 & 7 but not 6 & 8.)

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

9 to 5 (and 31)

Eliyah Grace Tuleen is now 5 months old, Justice River is 9 months, and Aedyn Shepherd is a ripe old 31.


Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Imagine


This week Aedyn met 2 new friends. A few days ago I walked into the dinning room to find him standing on a chair that he had pushed up to the window saying, "Hello, Mrs. Star!" He told me she had black eyes like Eliyah and that the sun was 'so bright' to see her. Today I went to get him out of nap time and he said, "Get Thomas, too."
Me: Where's Thomas?
A: (pointing towards the pillow) "Right there. Thomas awake."
M: Come on Thomas. Let's go downstairs.
Aedyn held out his hand and 'held hands' with Thomas as we walked down the stairs. Near the bottom he said, "Let's go see the pretty flowers, Thomas." and they headed for the front porch. Thomas has blue eyes and dark brown hair and is big like Aedyn.
My 2 1/2 year old! What a fun kid.

Miss Congeniality



Eliyah has been with our family for just over 3 months and in 3 more she will be officially our baby! December 11 is our adoption hearing date. We should have a party. (You coming?) She is such a sweetheart! She's now so social that she would rather smile and giggle than take a bottle.

Aedyn is sitting next to me (we keep up with kid friends on the blog, some he's never met, "Hi" Z & M, Elliot & Isaiah, Micah & Eli). He just said, "The yellow sun smiles so pretty in the sky." It's overcast outside so he must be remembering.

Justice, our Joy Baby, is happily napping right now. He's teething his front 2 top teeth, speed crawling army style, and laughing at EVERYTHING.

I love the opportunity to raise these little people!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

August in Review





I just uploaded 60 pictures, our record of August 2009. The kids and I were home, mostly; playing, eating, and sleeping. We did get to the farmers' market in the capital city as a family one Saturday which was a nice outing for us. We also went out to lunch TWICE as a family. These are Big Successful Events to me. You see, a two year old and virtual twin babies are major work. Eric has had some brutal rotations that kept him away about 100 hours a week and I have a hard time functioning cheerfully on the very little sleep I get.

Eric had the great honor of standing up in our friend's wedding in England last week, and, while that kept him away for 5 days, him mom and our niece came to stay with us and help. We loved having Grandma and Ashley here! We miss them already.

May September bring more good growth for our kids, more time with Eric (the second half of the month, maybe?) and more sleep for me. My mom's coming tomorrow and Aedyn is so excited!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Bearing False Witness

This post isn't about my family. I'll do that later. But first I've got to get this off my chest. I have been so disgusted by some of the comments made by people (famous and not) whom I consider Family members, Christians who are either deliberately misleading others about health care reform or those who are doing so with irresponsible ignorance. Of course people can disagree about any issue; but obscuring an opposing position is cowardly and rude. I urge you, my blog friends and strangers, to fact check so you can positively contribute to the conversation.


http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/settingtherecord


Below is an article from CNN.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama appealed Wednesday to faith-based groups to help garner support for his plan to overhaul the nation's health care system.

President Obama speaks at the White House Wednesday.

President Obama speaks at the White House Wednesday.

"I need you to knock on doors, talk to neighbors, spread the facts and speak the truth," he told religious leaders and reporters on a conference call that was streamed over the Web at faithforhealth.org.

"This debate over health care goes to the heart of who we are as a people," he said. "I believe that nobody in America should be denied basic health care because he or she lacks health insurance."

Some 140,000 people participated in the call, the coalition of more than 30 faith-based groups that organized the event said in a written statement.

Obama urged the listeners to reject misinformation about his plans, noting, "There are some folks out there who are, frankly, bearing false witness."

He referred to some assertions as "ludicrous," and cited as an example rumors that the government is planning to set up "death panels" to determine the fate of the nation's elderly.

"That is just an extraordinary lie," he said, adding that it was based on a provision in the House legislation that would allow Medicare to reimburse someone who voluntarily sought counseling on how to set up a living will for the end of life.

"It gives an option that people who can afford fancy lawyers already experience," the Harvard-trained lawyer said.

In addition, the plan does not provide health insurance to illegal aliens, it does not represent a government takeover of health care and it would not lead to government funding of abortion, he said.

"These are all fabrications that have been put out there in order to discourage people from meeting what I consider to be a core ethical and moral obligation: that is, that we look out for one another; that is, I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper. And in the wealthiest nation in the world right now we are neglecting to live up to that call." Video Watch a discussion of the emotion and rhetoric of some town hall meetings »

Obama, who took no questions, said the opposition was no surprise. "Throughout history, whenever we have sought to change this country for the better, there have always been those who wanted to preserve the status quo," he said. "These always boil down to a contest between hope and fear."

Prior to the call, Obama's director of domestic policy, Melody Barnes, said the president still believes that including a public option is the best way to achieve low-cost, affordable health care.

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The public option has been a sticking point among some Republicans, who consider it to be the camel's nose under the tent of government-run health care.

But, she added, "he also said he's open to other ideas.

Monday, August 10, 2009

My Beautiful Children





The Lovely Angela shot these. Thank you, Ange. I treasure these photos.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Beautiful Weekend

Please read Angela's lovely post about our Girls' Weekend. It was really wonderful. I love my friends! I love that they love me! So click on the highlighted words and go see some pictures of us.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Cucumis sativus

Or, its common name, according to Aedyn: cute-cumber

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

7/4/09

I'm trying Smilebox slide show for the first time. You have to wait a while for the pictures, unfortunately, but they are worth the wait, I think!
Click to play this Smilebox slideshow: Independence Day 09
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Sunday, June 28, 2009

Week in review

Here we are, enjoying Fathers' Day out on our deck.
Twins being wiggly (I have a video of the wiggly part, but can't get it to upload.)
Brothers reading.
Aedyn making yogurt pie for Fathers' Day. (That's sour dough starter in the jar, it's not for the pie.)
I am tired. I can't get more than 5 hours of sleep on a good night and none of those hours are consecutive. Thankfully, Eric's schedule changes this week so he will be able to help with the early morning routine when everyone needs diaper changes and fed at the same time. I also have a mother's helper coming for a few hours each afternoon, mostly to play with Aedyn, and this helps tremendously (THANK YOU S and J) and I'm able to get something on the table for supper, even if it's scrambled eggs and toast, repeatedly. BUT I'm grateful for each day with our three kids!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Happy Hemi-Birthday, Justice!

Loves: Banana/Rice meals, nursing, chewing on anything, waking in the morning, cuddling

Talents: grinning for photos, holding his sister's hand while they lay next to each other to nurse/bottle eat, sucking on his own toes

Accomplishments: great solid food eating skills, cutting 1 tooth with 1 on the way




Friday, June 19, 2009

Favorite Words

I love Aedyn's pronunciation of many words. Sometimes they are his own words, entirely.

squiffy: squishy
skaw-yee: coffee (I almost cried when A corrected himself and said 'coffee' the conventional way today.)
skeekens: chickens
nook: (until recently, gawk): milk
mimi vahm: minivan
Eh-ee-ah: Eliyah
J...Ustice: he's working on getting the J in there
wittle waahm: little lamb
oct-oct-coc-ta-gon: octagon
scoikel: circle
k-tangle: rectangle
hesh: fish
brawn cwackos: graham crackers




Saturday, June 13, 2009