Life With The Stanfords

A little Easter

As always, our Easter weekend was busy, but full off fun. Saturday, we went to Jade's mom's house in Opelousas. Jade's dad fried turkeys, Jade picked up boudin balls (YUM!) in Krotz Springs and Claire made her first cheesecake -- Chocolate Eruption Cheesecake from this cookbook, which is fabulous.

This year, instead of making all the children's Easter outfits, I made mine instead. That was WAY easier! For the first time, I am pleased with the results of something I've made for myself. This is the pattern I used. The only problem I had was that it needed a good deal of "taking up" up top. Be aware if you decide to make it. The fabric is an Amy Butler print. Love her stuff. Some of the girls from church and I wore our hats. That was fun. We're all set for the royal wedding. Pinkies up!

 
For Easter lunch, we ate at my sister's house. She always sets such a beautiful table. Here's a pic of the outdoor table.

 
Here's a closeup of the plates. To die for! She got these from Hobby Lobby. They always have really neat Christian-themed tableware and decorations. I hated to eat off these plates. They were so pretty.

 
This year, Candice chose this menu for our Easter lunch. It was delicious. All the flavors were so good together. Here's a pic of the Shrimp Shooters she made. Very pretty.

 
Dessert was incredible. Here's the Hummingbird Cake (from Southern Living, of course).

 
Look at the Chocolate Cheesecake! Is that cute or what? This cheesecake is amazing. It has a crunchier crust, chocolate cheesecake and a light chocolate mousse layer on top. YUM!

 

Well, that was great. I'm exhausted! I totally bailed on my "clean eating" last weekend. Plus, I've got cheesecake hanging out in my fridge. I've cheated this week. I'm not made of stone ya' know. I've gotta get back on it...or it's gonna get back on me. (That's a little weight loss humor for you. I crack myself up. Really.)

Christmas Day or...God's Economy

Christmas was supposed to be VERY tight this past year. Indeed it was. I had already informed our children and family that they should not expect much, if anything, from us for Christmas. We're not in dire straits, granted, but we are determined not to go into more debt. Jade quit his second job back in August and we've been trying to be financially disciplined and obedient. At any rate...

I wrote the list of things I would get for our children for Christmas. It was tough. Each would get about three small things each. Shopping was torture because I like to buy stuff. Beautiful things were everywhere.

One night I went to meet my Dad to drop off Blythe and Owen with him. He got out of the car and met me with money in his hand. He said, "Here, Jenn, we want to buy Claire a laptop." I fell apart. I wanted to get that for her more than anything, but just wasn't able. God provided through my parents. 

A couple of days later, a girl I've known since she was a teenager emailed me and said that she and her husband would like to buy some presents for my children for Christmas. Now, here's the deal. We have plenty. We don't need anything. I thought about how to respond to her email.

a) "Thank you for thinking of us, but we don't need anything." Pride intact, independence maintained.

b) "Thank you for thinking of us. We have all that we need. If there are some needy families in your area that you know of, please give them the presents. However, here are some things that my children have mentioned wanting for Christmas..." Pride trampled upon, dependence upon others on full display, and a possibility of seeing God do something cool.

I chose "b". My friend began mailing packages. Every day, new boxes would arrive at our home from the UPS guy, the FedEx guy and the mail lady. It was all so mysterious to the kids, especially to my 13-year old, who's smart enough to know that this was way more than "three small things each". I just kept telling her that God is very good and that He loves us very much.

Christmas day arrived. Here is a picture of our den with presents:

Here are some pictures of my children opening the "three small things each" that turned into a den full of things:

 

At the end of all this, my children wanted to know where all of these presents came from. At that moment, with five sets of curious, wondering eyes looking at me, I was able to tell them about the goodness, the mercy, the love, the GLORY of the God of the universe. The joy I felt spilled over in many tears as I told them how God provided an abundant Christmas for them.

And then, Jade asked me what was in the bag next to me. I looked down to see the most beautiful jewelry store bag sitting beside me. Inside was a ring box tied up in a bow. I opened it to find a beautiful sapphire ring.

God had given Jade an unexpected bit of money just before Christmas. I cried of course. 

The Christian walk is not always full of presents, but it is always abundant. God is always good, even when things are tight and difficult. I will never, ever forget this Christmas or how God poured out his blessings on my children and me through the love of others.

God's economy is tough for us to take. We want to be independent and manage our own affairs. It's interesting, though, when you become a Christian, you become part of the body of Christ. Each part of the body is dependent upon the other. When one hurts, we all hurt. When one rejoices, we all rejoice.

Ron Blue said, "God's economy is so much more flexible, abundant, rich, and freeing than our own." When we surrender and obey, He provides. I have found that He usually chooses to provide through other people. When God provides, the giver gets blessed, the receiver gets blessed, and God gets glorified. My challenge to you and to myself is for us to open ourselves up to God's provision. Be obedient and see what the Lord will do.

I myself have this testimony,

"Our mouths were filled with laughter,
   our tongues with songs of joy.
   Then it was said among the nations, 
   'The LORD has done great things for them.'

The LORD has done great things for us,
   and we are filled with joy." --Psalm 126:2-3  

Christmas Eve

We always spend Christmas Eve in Opelousas with Jade's mom and fam. The kids are so wound up by the time we get to their house, we have to tether them so they don't just fly off. I love this picture. Don't you just love love? It's so beautiful. And just think, this is just a little glimmer of what Heaven will be like. Wow.

Grandmom made these awesome aprons for Ethan and Blythe since they're both aspiring chefs now. She even made custom recipe cards for them. Can you see that they're made from a potholder and dish towel? So creative! If you'd like the directions, let me know and I'll have her post them for you.

 
Owen got this great Iron Man costume. It must be great because he wore it the rest of the night, even at the Christmas party. Wouldn't it be great to be like that again? Can you imagine yourself walking into the family Christmas party wearing your Iron Man costume because you just love it? Love that boy.

 
  
 We LOVE us some Grandmom. And can you blame us? She puts the AWE in awesome.

 
Here's Blythe with her Aunt Gracie - fresh from her first semester in college. Gracie made wonderful grades (of course) and she's settling in to college life. Unfortunately, she also had to get a job. Can you imagine?

 
Papaw Jeff and Grandma Mona. I had to include a picture of them because they're just lovely. Every year, they always say a few words about how blessed they are by their family. When grandparents say things like that, it makes me want to be even better the next year.
Teenage boys. Enough said. 
Uncle Steve and Aunt Diane hosted a wonderful Christmas Eve party as usual. The gumbo and rolls got me through the night. We got home about 10:30 p.m. and only had to stay up until 12:30 a.m. to get ready for Christmas Day. I confess, though, that putting out the gifts for my kids is the highlight of my entire holiday. I love giving them good things I know they're going to love. So much joy!

The Stanford Days of Christmas

On the twelfth day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me...

12 months of blessings

11 Christmas CDs

10 days with no school

9 cups of egg nog

8 Christmas dishes

7 pans of fudge

6 days of wrapping

5 gorgeous kids

 
4 fams to visit

the 3 in 1

2 peeps in love

 
and a baby on the way!

 
Merry Christmas! Love, The Stanfords

Christmas Eve

A few notes:

1. My birthday was great. I didn't have to cook supper - the best present of all.
2. Today is Christmas Eve. I have to bathe four kids and myself, make fudge, and wrap presents by noon so we can head to our first party in Opelousas today. So not ready for this whole marathon of festivities. I love it when I'm there, but getting there is so much work. And I'm lazy.
3. Tomorrow - Christmas at home, then Aunt Peggy's in the afternoon.
4. Saturday - Christmas with my family at Candice's all day.
5. Sunday - another family Christmas party in Lafayette and Claire's 13th birthday.
6. Monday - trying to figure out where to put all the new toys, noshing on leftovers 'til I'm sick, meltdown.

Holiday Fray

At this point in the sesaon, I ask myself, "Why can't we just take the 'Christ' and leave the 'mess', er, I mean 'mas' out of it?" Every year, I promise myself I will not wear myself out doing and doing and doing. And here I sit -- worn out. Aaargh.

Ah well, here's a little, and I do mean little, recap of the week. I'm too tired to do a decent job of it.

Gingerbread Houses

The kids made gingerbread houses at their cooking class on Thursday. They did such a beautiful job. Ethan's house included a chimney, a very detailed wreath, and an air vent. I do believe that boy's going to be an architect.

Blythe, always thinking, filled the inside of her gingerbread house with candy. You know, there's a lesson there. Man looks at the outside, but God looks on the heart. Her insides are sweet!

My little Owen did such a great job for a four-year old. I was so impressed with his work.

My kids couldn't bear to look at their gingerbread houses all week. They begged me to let them eat the houses. So I let them. A simple stomach pump was all that was required to break them out their subsequent sugar comas.

Evelyn's Birthday/Christmas at Grandpapa's

Sunday was Evelyn's birthday. She's two-years old now.

We brought a birthday cake with us to Grandpapa's house in Forest Hill.

Grandpapa's wife, Kayla, fixed us some gumbo and potato salad. Aunt Nony brought fudge. We were all set. Here are Jade and his sister sitting next to each other texting. Which would be worse? Sitting next to each other texting other people or sitting next to each other texting each other?

 

Miscellany

Claire gets to start wearing makeup on her birthday next week. I say, "Practice makes perfect," "If at first you don't succeed," and well, "We all know what junior high makeup looks like." In her defense, I think she was going for the glamorous fairy look.

 
  
In other news,

My 41st birthday is tomorrow. Wow, good thing I'm not 40 anymore, huh?

Two dance parties, one family party down...four family parties to go.

I'm wrapping presents in my sleep, people!

The Tree

We got the tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving -- right on schedule. Would you believe almost all the Christmas trees were gone???

What's the matter with people? Pretty soon, I'll have to go get a tree in October or go without. Sheesh!

As usual, my children look homeless when we go to get the Christmas tree. I don't understand it -- every year! Flip flops and camouflage -- that's how we roll.

I picked out the perfect tree as soon as we got there, but that was too easy. We couldn't just pick up the first one we found. Everyone had to look at the trees and offer an opinion.

That's fine. Really. I'm fine.

Papa had lots of help putting up the tree.

Then half of our lights didn't work, so Jade insisted on stringing all of them out and trading out good bulbs to try to make one whole strand that would work. Jade said that Dave Ramsey would say that's what we should do. After a very long time, we still didn't have enough lights for the tree.

The next day I went to Wal-Mart and figured out that lights were $1.89/box. Let's see, 3 boxes of 100 lights at $1.89/ box. That comes to about $6.00. Anyway.

After we got the tree put up, we had homemade hot chocolate and popcorn with marshmallows -- our traditional "put up the tree" snack. We picked Veggies Tales' Star of Christmas as our inaugural Christmas movie this year.

And a good time was had by all.  The End. 
 

One big wad of thankful...

So Thanksgiving's been over almost three weeks now. I feel I must post about it, though.

On Thanksgiving day, we went to Jade's mom's house like we always do. We had an amazing time as usual. Mr. Pat, Jade's stepdad, always fries turkeys for us. Oh my goodness. They are so delicious. And I wonder, how many of you have French fries for Thanksgiving? We always do. Believe it or not, they are the perfect pairing for fried turkey.

Here's the chef with Jade and Owen:

Mr. Pat just had hip replacement surgery and is doing great. You wouldn't believe how much hardware is in his hip. He really is the bionic man.

One of the things I love about holidays is how family just drifts in and out and all around. It reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite books, The Relatives Came,

"Then it was into the house and so much laughing and shining faces and hugging in the doorways. You'd have to go through at least four different hugs to get from the kitchen to the front room. Those relatives!"

Jade's sister, Nichole and her husband, Frank, couldn't make it this year. We couldn't play bocce ball without them. I really missed Nony, but then I was going through the pictures and saw this one of Blythe. Nony, I guess you were there after all (ya'll are twins!):

 

Part II

On Saturday, we had Thanksgiving at my sister's house. She always sets a beautiful table:

The cousins played together all day...

  
and the grown-ups played together all night:

This is a little game my sister found called Partini.  

With categories like "Bouncers", "Hum Punch", and "Mime Twist", it's been known to make people laugh so hard they cry:

 
Ah, good times, good times.

  

Christmas time is here...

I'm really having blog withdrawals. I thought all of my computer problems were solved, but alas, they have only just begun. It seems that I need to bring my computer in and have everything reinstalled - and I do mean everything. I don't know what I'm waiting for. I keep thinking I'm going to get a couple of posts out and then unplug it, but I really can't function without my photo editing software and some other things.

It appears that Thanksgiving and most of Christmas will probably go unblogged. There will be a little black hole in the Stanford history when seemingly nothing happened.

Of course, everything is happening.

• Today is Jade's birthday (the first of five December birthdays in our immediate family). Happy Birthday, Baby! I need to cook, bake and wrap.
• I need to have two candy cane dresses made by Saturday night.
• I need to pay bills before "they" turn off our lights.
• I need to homeschool.
• I need to work out. Ha!

I have managed to:

• Survive Thanksgiving
• Decorate the house for Christmas
• Get the childrens' Jesse trees up and started.

Enjoy the Christmas music. I had hoped to add some new favorites to the list, but Playlist is not functioning on my computer (my FlashPlayer is kaput and refuses to be reinstalled).

Here's to a joyful season filled with the wonder of God's glory and love for us. (See how positive that was - even in the face of great inconvenience? Thank you.)

Easter Part 3 (of 3)

Easter Sunday was overcast and drizzly at our house. The kids were very excited about their Easter baskets, though. Claire got a really cool Nancy Drew book, Ethan got a chicken that lays gumball eggs (he's a gum maniac), Blythe got a little piano book with Bible tunes in it, and Owen got a styrofoam rocket launcher.

I usually only buy Easter basket gifts with a Christian message, but this year I totally failed. And like my friend, Liz - no Resurrection Eggs this year. Why do I feel like a heathen when I don't do the Resurrection Eggs? Maybe it's because they're so easy to do and I still forget to do them. I did buy chocolate crosses. Yeah me.

The kids were beautiful in their Easter clothes - even if they didn't all match this year. Here's my silly boys:

And my pretty girls (I didn't give Evelyn away, but she was taking a nap):

Here they are together:

Here's Jade and me (I found this dress for $5.00 at Wal-Mart. Score!):

 

Here's Evelyn, a little OD'd on Easter:

 

We had a shrimp boil at my cousin Wendy's house. My cousin, Paul, makes amazing boiled shrimp and boiled crawfish. I'm so glad they picked shrimp for Easter:

Unfortunately, I didn't end up with any other good pictures. We had a great time, though. We at a LOT of good food. Then we went home and I crashed and burned. I slept for about four hours. Then we watched Extreme Home Makeover and I cried like a baby, because I'm an idiot when I'm exhausted.

All in all, a lovely weekend. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!