Hymn 4

"Shepherds, rejoice! lift up your eyes,
And send your fears away;
News from the regions of the skies,
Salvation's born to-day.

"Jesus, the God whom angels fear,
Comes down to dwell with you;
Today he makes his entrance here,
But not as monarchs do.

"No gold nor purple swaddling bands,
Nor royal shining things;
A manger for his cradle stands,
And holds the King of kings.

"Go, shepherds, where the infant lies,
And see his humble throne;
With tears of joy in all your eyes,
Go, shepherds, kiss the Son."

Thus Gabriel sang, and straight around
The heav'nly armies throng;
They tune their harps to lofty sound,
And thus conclude the song:

"Glory to God that reigns above!
Let peace surround the earth!
Mortals shall know their Maker's love,
At their Redeemer's birth."

Lord, and shall angels have their songs,
And men no tunes to raise?
O may we lose our useless tongues
When they forget to praise.

Glory to God that reigns above,
That pities us forlorn;
We join to sing our Makers love,
For there's a Saviour born.

From The Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts, p. 292

What's On YOUR Amazon Wish List?

Durango Boys Beef Chew

"Only one ingredient: Bull pizzle."

Wow. Since there is only one ingredient, I'm glad that's it.

HT: 22wds

Did She Just....??

"Something just dripped on me. Did she just...??"

"Yep, she did."

The dangers of transferring baby from changing table to bathtub, sans diaper.

Christmas Cookies

Baking:

Frosting:

Sampling:

Pretzel dipping:

Cooing:

Rainy Day Art

Yum

I've been making these granola bars way too much lately, but I'm pretty sure I'll never be sick of them. Found them over at Smitten Kitchen. These are so delicious, and probably healthier than packaged granola. Not so sure how healthy it is to eat the entire batch though - I totally could.

Granola Bars

Makes 12 to 16 bars

2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup shredded coconut, loosely packed
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ (I used 1/4 cup ground flax seed)
2/3 cup honey
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (good, but I used regular salt, too)
1 1/2 cup dried fruit, or a mix of dried fruit (I used chopped apricots, cranberries and blueberries - sometimes cherries, too)
OPTIONAL
1/4 cup brown sugar (I didn't use, still pretty sweet)
3 tablespoons melted butter ( I tried and it didn't stick together as well as it should - don't use butter now)
3 or 4 tablespoons peanut butter (I just tried natural chunky pb on my last batch. Not good at first, but delicious after freezing!)

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Butter an 8×12-inch baking dish (lacking this, I used a 9×13-inch) and line it with parchment paper.

Toss the oatmeal, almonds, and coconut together on a sheet pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the wheat germ or flax seed. Reduce the oven temperature to 300°F.

While the mixture is still warm, stir in the honey, vanilla and salt until the mixture is well coated, then the dried fruit. Pour the mixture into your prepared baking dish andpress, press, press it in (wet fingers and/or a silicon spatula work great for this) until the mixture is packed as tightly as possible.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until light golden brown. Cool for 2 to 3 hours before cutting into squares — your best serrated knife is great for this.

You can store these in an airtight container at room temperature for a week or two, as you would cookies, however, I prefer to store mine in the freezer. I find that they stay the most crisp this way as all granola tends to soften at room temperature after a day or more.

Turkey Trot

"Ready?"

"No. Go!"

Three Sweeties

(Jay tends to title pictures as they're taken. I decided to go with this one.)

Sweetness

Bethany (a.k.a Auntie Bobo) posted a picture of her and Phoebe from the other day. Love it!

Things Change

Phoebe's Second Week

(Phoebe starts crying while I'm reading to Trey)

Me: "Phoebe, you need to wait for a minute, I'm reading to Trey right now."

Trey: "SHE'S CRYING! You gotta pick her up, Mama!"

Phoebe's Third Week

(Phoebe starts crying while Trey is on my lap)

Trey: "Phoebs, TREY is on Mommy's lap right now. You have to wait."

Get a Clue

Meet Joe from Blues Clues:

He brought Steve trick-or-treating:

And the little giraffe that posed with them!

I Passed!

She's Here!

Sweet baby Phoebe Parker was born on October 19th at 1:41pm!

7lbs, 13oz and 19.5 inches long.

We are all doing great, and so glad she is here!

37 Weeks Down...

... and 2 to go, since I won't be going past 39 weeks this time. (whew!)

Some things I've learned this time:

• Swedish Fish are disgusting, after the craving is over. (If anyone wants an almost-full bag, let me know.)
• Zofran is my friend... especially in the first trimester.
• Jay is very tolerant of my cravings, especially if it's Mexican food almost weekly (sometimes more) for months on end.
• Being pregnant with a girl seems to be (so far, at least) easier than with a boy. Except for the guilt that comes with the chocolate/sweets cravings. I don't remember having those with Trey. Ahhh, girls.
• I do NOT want my picture taken this pregnancy. (Probably related to the results of the sweets cravings...) Nor do I want to assemble a baby scrapbook. Sorry Phoebe.
• Trey is getting close to being as good at nicknames as his Uncle Andy and Dad. Phoebe is now, "Fifi," "Phoebes," "Phoe-baby," "Phoe-ba-lee," and "Baby Seeeeeeester." More come every day, and I'm sure they will get more colorful as years go by...
• I should have ordered the Prenatal Support Belt MUCH earlier than week 35. It helps!
• Medela will send you replacement tubing for your breast pump for free... you don't have to buy it. (Thanks for the tip, Amazon reviewers!)
• Don't answer, "What do you mean?" with a quizzical look as a joke when someone asks you, "When are you due?" It's kind of a mean trick and might make someone cry.

My favorite things:

• Trey sitting on my lap (um, as best as we can maneuver with my huge belly) and giggling when baby sister kicks him. "Baby kicked me! She's so silly."
• When baby moves around like crazy and other people in the room take notice. A few weeks ago we had a bunch of people over for Jay's birthday, and everyone was taking part in a conversation. All of a sudden someone across the room says, "Oh my goodness, look at Katie!" and Phoebe was dancing and wiggling around so much, it just looked weird. I remember hearing, "Someone needs to get that on YouTube!"
• NOT being on bedrest!
• Trey was admiring a newborn baby at church today, and whispered to me, "Where'd they get the baby?" I told him that she (the mom) had the baby in her tummy, and it came out. (Best I could come up with on the fly, folks.) He looked at me with huge eyes, a huge smile, and pointed at my belly. As in, "We're going to have one of those?!?!" Loved it! (We'll see how long that lasts...)
• Laughing at the "Pregnant Women are Smug" video (HT: Elissa's blog). If I laugh at it, that means I'm not a smug pregnant woman, right? (P.S. Don't answer.)
• The lack of anxiety during this pregnancy. Lots of reasons I'm sure, including experience, less complications, the fantastic book I read called Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest, and all of these have to do with God's grace. I'm so grateful.

3x the Fun

The Three Hazens enjoying Pumpkin Fest 2009

Happy Birthday, Sambo!

And ....

Happy Birthday, Sam!!

Beautiful Duet

Stickin' It To The Man (Theologically)

During a "Naughty Santa" / "Yankee Swap" / Whatever-you-want-to-call-it Christmas party for the young single's group at our church, I received a Joel Osteen "Be a Better You" daily calendar. The fact that I always rag on Joel Osteen made this an ironic providence indeed.

The calendar was on the floor at the top of the stairs the other day for some reason, and as Trey and I were walking up the stairs, he pointed to it and said "Yech!".

His Momma raises him right.

Anyway, here's the Anti-Joel Osteen. I'm posting it as a birthday present... to me.

P-Fest Goodies

The goods with Em's Pumpkin Festival logo are already coming out... and selling out! I went to buy these t-shirts for the whole fam the day they were advertised to come to Grimms, and they were already selling out of the adult shirts!

No worries if you haven't purchased yours yet, they are ordering a new batch that should be in by this week. There are also other goodies (including pins, hats, etc.) coming in this week at other local shops!

Chiefs Game

Our first Peoria Chiefs baseball game of the season... we went with the Harvest Singles Group again this year. Every year we wonder why we don't go more often. We have such a good time!

Bronco Baby

We visited Luke and Em in their adorable new house this past weekend, and had so much fun! The boys got to take a ride in Luke's fancy Bronco, which was quite an experience. Not sure the carseat in this thing was quite legal, but Trey decided he was too scared to go very far anyway!

The print on the carseat is just about perfect, don't you think?

PINK!!!

Auntie Em & Uncle Luke sent Baby Sister this adorable hat! Trey decided to give it a try:

Farm Park

Today we went to Fon Du Lac Farm Park with Molly, Jack & Max and Cassi, Josiah & Ezra. We had a great time - despite the heat!

Jack and Trey, just waiting to get in:

And the best part of the day: "milking" a fake cow. No kidding...

Meet Harold

Harold the turtle enjoys car rides, eating Goldfish crackers, sleeping next to Trey in bed, and hiding in Trey's shirt pocket. Without the convenience of a shirt pocket Harold can ride in a back pocket of Trey's shorts, but if forgotten he may possibly be mistaken for a 'big poop' when Trey sits down.

Favorite Fridays

Trey loves Fridays, since it usually means story time at the library. The extra-fun times are when Carys and Sarah are there...

Sometimes we'll stop for a treat at Eli's Coffee Shop, and we ran into lots of friends last Friday! The Wuthrich Family was there, too - such fun to hang out with them for a few minutes, meet sweet Yonas, and take advantage of some great photo ops on Eli's porch.

(This one is Trey with Yonas, Josie, and Miles Wuthrich. :) )

Adorable

Bobby and Mae

Meet our new duck friends... not as shy as they probably should be!

We're amused easily here in good 'ol Morton, IL.

No-nap Monday

This is what happens when I tell Trey that he doesn't have to sleep, but he needs to stay in bed for a little while longer:

The whole room ends up in his bed with him.

Sweet Visits

A quick visit with the Bement Family (sans Brian) - made me miss them even more!

The kids loved Jay's bedtime rendition of "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus": 

July 4th Weekend

Update-a-rama

Starting with Jay's fellowship matching. Pulmonary/Critical Care Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin in Madison: 

We're pretty bummed about it, don't you think?