Mommy Moments

I'm going to try something new on the 'ol blog and write down "mommy moments". These are not anything earth shattering or huge, but just those every day things that happen in our lives. Cayden - I was so proud of him last week. He got quite a bit of money (for a 9 year old that is) for his birthday. Rob is trying to teach the kids to save money so he told him he would take him to deposit it into his savings account at the bank. He said that Cayden seemed fine with that, but then hesitated. After a few minutes, he told Rob that he had changed his mind. At first Rob thought he had decided he wanted to buy something. But instead he told Rob that he was okay putting some of his birthday money in the bank, but what he really wanted to do was give his birthday money to kids who wouldn't be getting very much for Christmas. And that is exactly what they did. He is such a sweet and caring boy.

Ashlee-Ash is unpredictable at best. We often say that the only predcitable thing about having a child with autism is the unpredictability of it. She has had a few rough days over Christmas break. Yesterday, someone had drawn on one of the new Wii remotes. Sadly, we immediately assumed it was Ashlee. When asked about it, she said with great pride, "NOPE! Not me!" and then as if she was shocked herself, "You know, I haven't made any bad choices ALL DAY!" She was so proud of herself. She also recently announced as she was playing with the Fisher Price Nativity that God had just told her that baby Jesus had a new baby brother named Eggroll. One final "Ashlee-ism". After McKell's dance recital, we were on our way home and Ashlee became very sad. I asked her what was wrong and she said, "Because Mom. I want to take dance too. You know, it is REALLY boring just being a NORMAL person!" We'll be calling the dance studio on Monday.

McKell - McKell is SO insightful and we can't get much past her. She is very intuitive. She is also brutally honest. My self esteem has to be pretty solid when McKell gets into one of her 'observant" moments. She never says anything to be mean, just honest. She was looking at my wedding photo this week and matter-of-factly said, "Mom, I think you were much better when you got married." I asked her why and she said, "Because you weren't exhausted all the time, you had bangs, and you were a little prettier." Yes, 4 kids and 13 years ago, I'm sure I was all of that.

Sadie - This child cracks me up all the time. For the past little bit, she does the "Back up Truck" move. Instead of just coming and sitting on your lap on the floor or on a little stool etc. she has to back up like a dump truck. Rob and I now start doing the "beep beep beep" like the sound the garbage truck makes any time she starts "backing herself up" to have a seat. It is hilarious. She also has a fascination with boxes and loves nothing more than to find boxes to sit on, stand on, push around, etc. Our future UPS delivery girl!

Blog Crazy---all caught up!

I apologize for the lack of posts his past month. With all the craziness of the holidays, it has been too crazy to blog. But I am all caught up today with LOTS of posts from the past month. Be sure to check out BOTH pages of posts. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

Christmas Sunday

I just had to post a quick photo of Christmas Sunday with the kids.

Winter Wonderland

We have really been hit with quite a few major snowstorms lately. The biggest one hit on Christmas Eve into Christmas Day. We weren't sure we were going to be able to even get out of our house. The snow mixed with the famous Herriman winds made for some amazing drifts. The snow in the front went all the way up above our front porch and the back yard had drifts as high as our 6 foot fence! Thank heavens for wonderful neighbors with 4-wheelers and plows to help us out! The kids of course have been in heaven with all of the snow.

The snow drifted all the way up above our front porch!
Our poor street was a mess!

Christmas Parties

The Christmas Season brings a lot of Christmas parties for us. Here are a few photos of some of them.

Cayden as a very drowsy Joseph

Ashlee as a shepherd

McKell loved being Mary at the Neilson party

McKell & Santa

Cayden & Santa

Sadie was so funny with Santa. She didn't cry like I thought she would. Instead she just stared at him and tried to figure him out. It was hilarious!

Ashlee & Santa

The whole Steedman family nativity

Cayden the wise man

Ashlee the angel

Sadie and McKell were such cute little angels

Sadie doing the fish pond at the Steedman party

Chocolate Dipping

I'll start off by dedicating this post to my moronic brother-in-law Jon who thinks that ALL I do all holiday season is dip chocolates. He is an idiot. Chocolate dipping in my family has been a tradition for over 40 years. Every year, my mom starts the process early in December. She makes peanut brittle, English toffee, Almond Roca, etc. She also starts making the fondant which is what the centers on most of the chocolates are made from. As a child, I remember Mom making the fondant and letting it cool on the round pizza tins and then watching her and dad pull and pull and pull the fondant like taffy until it turned into a fudge-like consistency. They would do this numerous times. Mom would get us kids to help as well which was always fun. On chocolate dipping day, there are a few major necessities as follows:
*Dress Warm - The house has to be rather cold on chocolate day so the chocolates will set up. It can't be too cold or the chocolate cools off too quickly and turns white. We usually do a lot of layering in our clothes and feel somewhat sorry for those not dipping who are shivering most of the day.
*Christmas Music - There always has to be a wide arrangement of Christmas music going. In particular, we have to have the Ray Conniff singers on for some of it. With hits like "The Real Meaning of Christmas", "Go Tell it on the Mountain", etc. you can't go wrong. Just think Lawrence Welk singers...on uppers. It is amazing how they can turn ANY song into either a polka or a cha-cha. And more key changes than you can count. There is a lot of singing and dancing with Ray Conniff on.
*Marble Slabs - This is what we pour the chocolate on to dip.
*Electric Frying Pan/Fondue Pot - We've used both of these for years to heat up the chocolate. It has to be just the right temperature for dipping.
Those are just a few of the essentials for dipping. When we arrive, we start flavoring and coloring the fondant and then rolling it into balls. The usuals include mint, orange, lemon, and raspberry. Mom always insists on a batch of cherry nut as well. In addition, we do almond joys, caramels, raisin, almond, and peanut clusters as well. We also do white chocolate dipped pretzels and this year I threw in some white chocolate dipped oreos. It is a lot of work, but a tradition that I cherish and look forward to every year....and a yummy tradition for sure!

The famous Watkins flavoringsAn example of the fondant before they it is dipped. These are mints. YUM!
Some of the "dippers"
Look at ALL of that chocolate!!

We try to mark the tops of each chocolate with a letter so we know what is inside. Pretty impressive letters if I do say so myself!

Merry Christmas!!

Another wonderful Christmas for the Peacock Family. We woke up to a very white and windy Christmas. It was actually blizzard like conditions here in Herriman so we were extra happy to be warm and cozy inside. Sadie was the first to be awake...way too early of course at 6:00. She and I just hung out until the rest of the crew woke up. We have a tradition that they all have to come down the stairs together so I can video the whole thing. There is nothing like seeing the kids' faces when they first come into the family room and see that Santa has come. Cayden is definitely the most animated and excited! They all were spoiled this year and got lots of fun presents. Cayden's favorites were his new basketball and football as well as his new lightsabers to add to his collection. McKell and Ashlee both got Fur Real baby bears and apparently Sadie loved more than them. Ashlee also got a talking Fur Real parrot and it was hilarious to see Sadie play with that thing. She thinks it is real and gets so excited when it starts moving and talking. Sadie got a new pink silky blankie and a baby doll for her favorites. Rob got a GPS which he is very excited about and I got a new cell phone. Yeah!! The big surprise and highlight was that Santa brought our family a Wii. It has been SO much fun for everyone. We had our traditional orange pull-apart rolls and hot chocolate for breakfast and then spent the day just hanging out, playing with new toys, sleeping, etc. Later in the day we headed to my parents' home for dinner and visiting. We definitely were blessed this Christmas.

Sadie loved her new ball from McKell

Sadie also thought every box and package was her own personal stepping stool and chair

McKell was SO excited to get a nutcracker

Ashlee LOVED her new big fluffy pillow from Grandpa and Grandma Neilson

Cayden was very happy to get a new basketball

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..."

The BEST orange pull apart rolls. I'll put the recipe on my recipe blog. These are SO yummy!