Funnest Day Ever, Take 2

Look familiar? I wish it didn't, but almost a year ago Lauren had a broken elbow. Now Spencer has a very similar injury. Other arm and he looks to have a couple of hairline cracks above and below the elbow, but essentially the same thing. How could this happen again you ask. . .

Evening had settled on the little Stanley Family of Southern California. Mom was preparing dinner, spaghetti, and Dad was dutifully holding a fussy baby while a rambunctious preschooler climbed on him like a jungle gym. To prevent any squashing of said fussy baby, Dad instinctively shifted his position on the couch to give the precariously perched preschooler more room. Sadly, the preschooler also shifted and instead of scaling Mount Dad he slid onto the floor, landing rather awkwardly on his left arm. When his crying was not soothed by his older sister fetching his Precious, his froggy blankie, or Mom bringing an ice pack, it was decided that a trip to the ER was needed.

Ben gave Spencer a blessing and then took him to the ER around 6:30. Fortunately the new hospital had opened since Lauren's accident so they did not need to travel as far. The experience was still slow and frustrating, especially with Spencer in pain and they did not return until 10 pm. Spence does handle pain better than Lauren, that or it isn't as bad a break as Lauren's was. I'm leaning more towards the former personally. The doctor put a splint on at the hospital and Spence is going to see the orthopedic specialist on Friday once the swelling goes down to see if he needs a cast or just keep the splint. The doctor said he may be out of a cast or splint in three weeks. Hopefully that is the case. Once again at least Spencer isn't missing any swimming.

Merry Christmas!

We wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. We aren't going to be getting a card out this year, but we did want to express our love to our family and friends and our gratitude to Heavenly Father for all our blessings this year, not least of all our new and healthy baby girl. We look forward to next year and all the challenges and adventures it holds for us. In this time of uncertainty in the economy, politics, and morals of our society the constant we can hold fast to is the Savior, whose birth we celebrate at this time. May we come to Him and faithfully keep the covenants we have made so as to be safe and secure in times of turmoil and chaos. We love each of you and thank you for your friendship, love, and examples to us.

Gotta love Spencer's eyes.

I'm not sure exactly what Brenna and Spencer are looking at.

Sweet baby 3 weeks old and still sleeping well. Last night she had two, five hour stretches. I think she's growing.

Sleeping like a baby. Thankfully she actually does.

Here's a video of Brenna awake. She is also hungry so she cries a bit, but it's a cute cry.

Gingerbread Recipe

This is the recipe they hand out at the Scovil Bakery in Nauvoo. I like it the best because it isn't so heavy on the molasses. I do prefer the gingerbread fresh out of the oven. Once it has cooled off it isn't as good in my opinion.

1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Molasses
3/4 Cup oil or lard
1/2 Cup hot water

Combine - rinse molasses out of the cup with the hot water.
Add: 2 eggs

Mix together the following:
1 tsp soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 heaping tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves (this isn't actually in the recipe but I like the flavor)
6 or 7 cups flour (use 1/3 whole wheat - I don't because I don't have a wheat grinder I can use right now)
Use more flour if needed

Add dry ingredients to the egg/sugar mixture. Refrigerate dough. Roll out and cut with cookie cutter. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

You can also use the recipe to make cookies to hang on the tree. If making a house cut out the peices of your house with a pattern and bake them for 5 minutes. Remove the gingerbread from the oven and use the pattern pieces to trim off the excess cookie that has expanded during baking. Then return the gingerbread to the oven and finish baking for another 5 minutes. This will help when putting your house together so the pieces are close to the size and shape of the pattern. I forgot this step last year and it was kind of tricky getting the roof to stay because it no longer linged up with the walls.

Fun with Grandma

Grandma Snow was able to come out and help for a week. We all had a lot of fun with Grandma. We built a gingerbread house, went to Claim Jumpers to eat, went to the beach, walked around the Temple, played with a little Yorkie puppy at the Spectrum, made Hedgehog's cake, made light saber bread sticks, and played lots of Settlers of Catan. It was a really fun week.

Of course the kids had to play in the water at the temple.

It was very sunny and bright. Even when not looking directly into the sun I was still squinting horribly.

Merry Christmas from sunny California.

The finished gingerbread house with the two chief architects.

Brenna's first trip to the beach. It was very windy and chilly. We did not dress for the trip and were a bit cold. Brenna stayed bundled in her blankets so she didn't see any of the beach. Oh well, she was alseep anyway.

Spencer and Lauren loved the beach even if it was cold. That did not stop them running in the surf and throwing sand. Spencer even got knocked over by a wave and drenched. He didn't complain but he sure was shivering when we got back to the car and cranked up the heat.

We made gingerbread cookies along with the gingerbread house. Spencer put all his cookies on one branch. He nibbles them and licks all the cookies low enough for him to reach. I don't think the rest of us will be eating any of the cookies now.

This is when we were at Claim Jumpers. Spencer is extremely picky, but he'll eat the calamari. It is long and looks kind of like french fries, which is I think why he eats it. He is a funny guy.

We made the gingerbread into Jedi Knights holding light sabers. The one with the green ear muffs is Princess Leia.

So much chocolate! We had fun decorating and eating the candy. I think I may have to give up chocolate for a bit since it seems to give Brenna gas. Woe is me!!!!

The Tooth Fairy Experiment

Lauren put her tooth under her pillow to see if the Tooth Fairy really would come to get it and leave her something. (How she intended to be sure it was the Tooth Fairy and not mom and dad I don't know) To be sure that the Tooth Fairy didn't miss her she put up a few notes. She wrote these entirely by herself. She often will write little notes and things and it is so fun to see her phonetic spelling and word placement on the paper. She often will not leave enough space between words and write sentences within sentences. Hopefully with my translation you'll be able to understand what she wrote and where.

First she put up just an arrow pointing to her room.

That wasn't sufficient so she wrote a little note on her door. It says "I am this room."

This note says

"Love Lauren

S. Please write

how (with this)

are you today"

The part in parenthesis is supposed to be a new sentence and refers to the pen taped on the wall.

Incidently, the Tooth Fairy was fine and she congratulated Lauren on her first missing tooth.

Lauren's Big News

Lauren has lost her first tooth! It's been loose for awhile, but stubbornly hung in there. Last night I tried wiggling it to see if it was ready to come out. It still seemed to be pretty well attached so I left it alone, plus Lauren was getting a little anxious about it hurting too much. It fell out today during school. It was the end of the school day and time to salute the flag. Lauren wiggled her tooth to make sure it was still there and it fell out in her mouth. She brought it home in a plastic baggy and will now perform an experiment to see if the Tooth Fairy is real. We've told her a little about the Tooth Fairy but she is skeptical. She thinks it's just mommies and daddies who leave stuff under pillows, but she is willing to give it a try and see if it works.

You can kind of see in the pictures that her permanent tooth came in behind the baby tooth. The baby tooth was pushed forward and to the left so Lauren was starting to look pretty snaggle-toothed. I just hope the permanent tooth will move forward into place on it's own.

7:30, midnight, 4:00, 7:00

Also titled, Brenna at One Week.

Those are the times that Brenna woke up last night to eat. Finally I have a baby who knows that nighttime is when you sleep a lot. Lauren and Spencer didn't sleep like this at night until they were about 4 months old. Perhaps this is why I feel like I have so much energy.

I pulled down some baby toys so Lauren and Spencer could 'play' with Brenna. I showed them how she would track a sound with her eyes. They got a bit too excited to try and didn't take turns. Poor Brenna had four rattles wildly flailing around her head and didn't know where to look.

Spencer's rattle had a mirror on it and he liked putting it right on Brenna's nose and saying, "Here you are, baby." I'm sure she'll be impressed with that in about 2 months.

Needless to say we are having lots of fun with her. She has good color so no jaundice fears and she is gaining her weight back. On Tuesday she weighed 7 lbs 4 oz, just what Spencer was at birth.