Shaffer Family Pictures

Once upon a time, the Bear and his mommy were wandering through JCPenney and found a little teddy bear. A note was attached to the teddy bear that said, basically, "I'm lost. Please return me to the portrait studio for some free pictures." So, they picked up the bear (not to be confused with the Bear) and turned in the missing bear for some awesome coupons!

A few weeks down the road, the Shaffer family decided that now was the time and headed over to the portrait studio to redeem the coupons and immortalize their cute faces forevermore. They were quite pleased with the results and would love to share their pictures with you!

Just click on the following link. And, please, remember that we are a family that is trying to remain humble. Huge accolades are not necessary (although a comment about how much you love the pictures is totally acceptable!) :)

https://viewimages.jcpportraits.com/sharealbum/sharealbumlist?rndId=BAgHAQJH&uId=AAYEBgdC

Crazy Hair Day 2011

Today is Crazy Hair Day at the school as they are celebrating Red Ribbon Week and being drug free. Scott didn't want to spray his hair, so his crazy hair was to just not comb his hair. Not very crazy, but he's getting to that age where he doesn't like doing silly things like this. :)

However, I still wanted to post some crazy hair pictures of him - this was a couple of weeks ago when I was cutting the boys hair. I insisted that he let me at least trim it as it was driving me nuts. He was pretty sad about it, and insisted that I cut it too short, but it will still be long enough for him to be Harry Potter for Halloween!


See how long it was in the back?


3 1/2" long on top


"Please don't cut my hair"


What it looks like now - not too short is it?

Now, back to today's crazy hair day. Toady and B wanted to participate so we got some Halloween hair spray and painted them up.




Bright orange hair with red dots


My cute . . .


. . . crazy Toady!

In the past, B has wanted to spray his hair, but has never wanted to do anything more crazy than that. Last night he told me exactly what he wanted done, and since he was still more than willing and super excited about doing it this morning, I obliged.


Red pigtails, blue hair - looks like something from Dr. Seuss






My cute and crazy B

And, of course, after seeing his brothers with their crazy, painted hair, Connor wanted to join in the action. Unfortunately for him, I'm not gonna spray his hair. :) But, I will leave you with this super cute picture Brandon took of him recently at the Dinosaur Park.

Pumpkin Bundt Cake

This is what I'm making for dessert right now. My house is a yummy blend of smells between this and the french dip that's cooking in the crock pot. I'm looking forward to dinner tonight!

* 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 4 tsp. ground cinnamon
* 1 tsp. ground ginger
* 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
* 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
* 4 tsp. baking powder
* 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
* 1 tsp. salt

* 1 1/4 cups milk, at room temperature
* 1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin
* 1 tbsp. vanilla extract

* 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, at room temperature
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 2 1/4 cups sugar
* 6 large eggs, at room temperature

Heat the oven to 350º and butter two 10-inch bundt cake pans. Sprinkle with flour, and dump excess flour out.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, spices, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a medium bowl, stir together the milk, pumpkin, and vanilla extract until smooth.

In another large bowl, beat the butter or margarine and oil together with an electric mixer until combined. Next, beat in the sugar. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Alternately beat in the milk/pumpkin mixture and the flour mixture until just combined. Divide the batter between the two prepared pans.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. Cool the cakes in the pans for 15 minutes, then turn them out onto wire racks to cool completely.

For the icing, just use your favorite icing recipe, and use maple extract instead of vanilla.

(Makes 2 bundt cakes. You can cut the bottoms off the cakes, stack the flat sides together, then frost with orange frosting. Decorate to make look like a pumpkin. Or, you can take one to a party and keep one at home. Or freeze one - probably; I've never tried to freeze one, but I think it could work.)

Enjoy!

B's staples - with gross pictures

During our new flooring project at the beginning of April, B and his brothers were jumping, and Scott decided it would be fun to bounce B high as he jumped out of the tree. Instead of bouncing him high, it bounced him sideways right into the springs.

Horrendous screams, LOTS of blood, plenty of tears, and a MASSIVE headache later, and it became obvious we'd have to go to the InstaCare. There was no way I was taking four little kids to the InstaCare since Brandon was away at his Spanish class, so I called my neighbor and asked if she would watch the other kids for me.

While I was gone, Scott was so upset by the accident, feeling that he had caused it all and hurt his brother, that he just couldn't calm down. So, our wonderful neighbor gave him a blessing. And he calmed down . . . enough. (I'm so grateful for the priesthood, and for awesome neighbors that help out in times of need.) Anyway, my friend fed Connor dinner (which unfortunately was completely milk-based and caused some massively gross diapers in the days to come), but the other boys wouldn't eat. They were too upset about B.

Meanwhile, B & I were at the InstaCare. Since it was a head injury, they saw us pretty quickly. They irrigated the wound to clean it up, then put some numbing stuff on it. He was quite nervous about getting staples in his head, but he did great. He said that it didn't really hurt. He got a sucker and some stickers, and came home with four staples in his head. One staple in one cut, and three in the other.

He ate a little bit of dinner, then camped out on the couch so I could watch him and make sure he didn't pass out. We kept him pumped full of Ibuprofen and Tylenol to help with the headache, and kept my frozen corn bag on his head. Needless to say, we missed Scouts that night.

He was super embarrassed that he had to get staples (I think there's a trend here), and was glad it had happened over Spring Break, so he wouldn't have to tell all of his friends about it.

A week later, we went back to get the staples out, and that's when the tears fell. It hurt worse to get the staples out than it did to get them in. But, we asked the nurse if we could keep the staples and the staple remover. She looked at us kind of weird, but let us keep them, and B is SO proud to have those little mementos. Kind of funny.

And, a warning - the pictures are kind of gross.


The cut with one staple


Three staples


Both cuts, his hair still wet from irrigating the wound

Daddy go buh-bye

'Da Bear's favorite thing to say lately! Enjoy!

Namino Bars - my birthday cake this year!

I decided to make these this year for my b-day cake instead of a regular cake. I'm so glad I did - they were SUPER yummy. Addicting, even. *sigh* I ate way too many. :) But, I've had several people ask for the recipe, so here it is. Enjoy!

Combine, Mix & press in bottom of a jelly-roll pan, then chill:
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup melted margarine
2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
6 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 cups coconut
1 cups chopped nuts (optional)

Combine, mix until creamy, then spread over crust. Chill:
4 tsp. custard (we just use the jello brand custard)
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
6 Tbs. milk
1/2 cup softened margarine

Stir together until smooth, then drizzle over the top. Chill:
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
1 - 2 Tbs. shortening (add more if needed)

This time I used the eggs beater brand of eggs that have already been pasteurized because I had that on hand. Otherwise, we just use eggs, but we've never been sick. We keep the bars refrigerated. And, I don't put nuts in the crust, 'cause we don't like nuts. :)

Trampoline + brothers = black eye

So, on Sunday after our church meetings, Brandon was at the church for Bishop's appointments. Perfect time for me to make his birthday desserts. French Silk Pie, and yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Yummy.

Anyway, while I'm in the kitchen, happily humming along to Pandora, I hear a HORRENDOUS scream, followed by lots of screaming that was filled with not nice sentiments from one of my children towards another of my children. My first thought was, "Ugh. Here we go with stitches again. I wonder if I can just drop the other kids off with Brandon while I take B to the ER. *sigh*"

Anyway, I ran out to the trampoline to find B curled up in a ball. I took his hand off his eye to assess the damage and this is what I found:



It swelled up even more than this and he spent a good hour on the couch while I rotated cold corn bags from the freezer to his eye, and kept waking him up to make sure he didn't have a concussion. Now, apparently, Gavin & B were jumping, and Gavin jumped right at Braden, hitting him in the eye. (I'm just grateful there was no blood or need for stitches this time.)

We gave him Ibuprofen before bed and sent him off to sleep. By Monday morning, his eye was almost swollen shut and was starting to turn colors. Like this:


(Notice his blankie? *sigh* Oh, how he loves that blankie.)



By Monday night, a lot of the swelling had gone down, but he had a rainbow of colors sporting above his eye.



I haven't seen him yet this morning, but I imagine we're getting towards the end of the rainbow. He gets embarrassed when anybody notices it, and even tried to go into a store with me yesterday with his jacket on and his hood pulled up over his one eye. I told him more people would stare at him dressed like that than they would to see his eye.

All-in-all he's been a good sport about it, although I have had to try really hard to convince him to let me take pictures. He doesn't like it right now, but I'm sure he'll be interested down the road to remember his black eye.

And, I just have to laugh at what he said the other day to me: "But, Mom, if I hadn't rotated in mid-air, he would have hit my right eye. But instead, he hit my left eye. Probably a good thing, too, since I'm right-eyed. I'm right everything'd. Right eyed, right eared, right handed . . ."

Down on the farm

Scottie has a friend from school whom he has spent a lot of time with. Play dates, Webkinz, more play dates, bike rides . . . Through their friendship, her mom, Sandra, and I have become friends. (Yes, Scott's friend is a girl. He doesn't have any guy friends. Just girls.) Anyway, this friend has a blog with ideas for things to do in the summer based on the alphabet.

Today was H day, and Sandra had a friend who knew someone who would let a group of people ride a few of their horses. My kids don't really enjoy going to a whole bunch of different things during the summer (neither do I), but this is one thing I wanted to do. B was feeling a little off this morning, so I packed up Scott & Gavin and we headed out with the rest of the group.

When we got there, Mandy taught the kids a little bit about horses and let them pet one of the horses, DH, while Melanie saddled the three horses we would be able to ride. They were all older horses - averaging about 19 years old - so they were slow and gentle enough for the older kids to ride with no one pulling on the guide rope.


Scott & Gavin petting DH


Listening while Mandy taught them about horses


Scottie on his first ride on DH. . .


. . . and after! He was stoked!


Gavin riding Dancer . . .


. . . and after! See how excited he was?

Scott & Gavin each went once with someone leading their mount around the pasture and when they had dismounted, their faces were just glowing. It was so cute. They were both able to go several more times - once with each other, a couple of times with me, and a couple of times by themselves. I even went a couple of times by myself, and I was in heaven.

(Out of the group that came, we were the very last ones to leave, and it was very reluctantly. I could have stayed there riding all day long.)

At one point, after boosting the kids up on the horses a few times, and helping to keep the horses steady while they were mounting, they could see I was familiar with and comfortable around horses, so they asked if I wanted to lead the boys around. That was so fun to see their beaming faces up close and to lead the horses around.


Leading DH with Gavin on his back

When I was younger, I would go riding several times a year with my cousin, Wendy and I've always had a love of horses. In fact, that was a dream of mine - to marry a rancher and have lots of horses. (But, to be honest, I'm glad I didn't marry a rancher, because I don't like to get up early.) I've missed it, though, so I'm so grateful for this opportunity to go ride with my boys, however short it was.


Mom & Gavin going for a ride

Brandon says I look good on a horse! I have to agree. :)


Mom & Scott heading out for a ride


Gavin & Scott on DH

They were kind of fighting over who would hold the reins. Scott won out in the end while Gavin held onto the saddle horn.


Scott going solo

Ever since we came home, he's been repeating what one of the owners there said: "You're a natural."


Scott riding around the pasture by himself

I still want to have several horses at some point in my life and call them mine. Brandon wants some too. We have yet in our 11 1/2 years of marriage been able to go riding with just the two of us. I hope to be able to go sometime soon, and someday be able to fulfill this dream of mine to own my own horses. And go riding with Brandon & the boys whenever we want.

Cuddling

Last night I was SO tired. (It might possibly be because of the fact that Connor seems to think that 7:00 is the new 9:00 in the morning. And that the boys bedtime has been pushed back to a little later in the evening. Resulting in Brandon & I staying up later so we can have some quiet time. And, did I mention Connor getting up earlier? But, that's just a hypothesis.)

I was seriously ready to go to bed by 8:30. I was dragging, and my eyes were so tired that when I closed them I couldn't decide if they hurt or were relieved to be closed.

So, I put Connor to bed, then laid down on the couch downstairs while the other boys finished a game they were playing and got ready for bed. Then B came and laid with me while we waited for the other boys so we could read scriptures.

But, I don't think we ever read scriptures. I fell asleep. With the lamp on. (For those that know me, that's a big deal. I don't sleep with any sort of light on. I have to have it dark when I sleep. So, that just goes to show how tired I was.) And B was right next to me. Reminded me of when he was a baby and I would bring him into bed with me and we'd fall asleep.

Brandon left us there for a couple of hours before he came and took a picture of us. Which woke me up. And, then I left B there and went to my own bed with my arms still warm from where he was cuddled up next to me.



I love you, my B

Cookies for sale . . .

So, on Wednesday, Scottie came up to me and asked if he could make some Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies. All by himself. He's made them before with my help, so I gave him a hug and told him to go for it. I was in the living room working on the computer and I could hear him working away in the kitchen, just kind of singing to himself. Other than showing him which one was the baking soda and where I keep the vanilla, he did it all himself.

He mixed them up, then I showed him how much dough to put down for each cookie and away he went. I kept Connor away from the oven while Scott put them in and took them out, and he did it all by himself. I tasted the dough before he cooked them, and again when some were cooked and somewhat cool (Hey! I'm the Mom - I'm supposed to do that!). They were REALLY good.

Once they were cool, he ran outside and proceeded to sell them to the neighbor kids that were in our backyard. 25 cents for the big ones and 15 cents for the little ones. After that, he wanted to set up a stand in our front yard so neighbors would come over and buy some from him. I discouraged him from that - it was really windy and nobody was out and about.


As he started going door to door, the neighbor kids ran up again to buy more cookies from him. They were that good!

So, he loaded the cookies up in our wagon and went door-to-door selling them! He was ecstatic when a woman in the neighborhood bought eight cookies. "She gave me TWO dollars, Mom!" It was SO cute, and he made almost $6.00!




"Would you like to buy some cookies?"


Goin' about his business!

Way to go, Scottie bug! Love you.

(Oh, and if you'd like to buy some cookies, I'm sure Scottie would be happy to make some for you.)

Nursing

Two weeks ago, my baby turned 18 months old. Two weeks ago, I stopped nursing him. Two weeks ago, after I put my baby to bed, I sobbed while my husband held me in his arms and told me it would be okay.

Each baby has been nursed a little bit longer than his previous sibling. Not a conscious act - it just happened that way based on circumstances in our lives at that particular time. I was completely comfortable nursing my baby at 18 months. Just once a day, in the evening right before bedtime. It was our wind-down time. (Occasionally, if he had a really rough time in church, I'd nurse him just to help him get through the final hour of sacrament meeting.)

Please excuse me here while I reminisce and become emotional . . .

Nursing was rough for us at first. He nursed right after birth like a champ, and nursed so often that I finally had to ask a nurse to feed him a bottle during our hospital stay because the colostrum just wasn't enough for him. Plus, I was sore. A few days later, my milk came in with a vengeance. I was so full and hard that he couldn't nurse, and found his meals more frequently coming from a bottle.

I was heartbroken. I'm that woman that absolutely loves nursing. I love the pull of their lips, the pouts and the sighs and the grunts as my babies nurse. I love watching them, and catching their eye and having them pull off just long enough to give me a milky grin, then it's right back down to business.

Listening to Connor cry in the dr.'s office after his circumcision was so painful. I was rock hard, and he was hungry and needed comfort and I couldn't give him any milk. He couldn't latch on. I cried right along with him. I asked Brandon for a blessing when we got home, but still ended up giving him a bottle. After the boys were in bed, I was desperate, so turned to Google to see if I could find some answers.

I did, and I was able to nurse him again. It was an answer to prayers, and I have thanked my Heavenly Father so many times for that wonderful gift. The answer to my question of how to get him to nurse just leapt off the screen, and I cried again.

Then, a few months later, he got a bad diaper rash. Then his whole body broke out into a rash. We visited the dr. (not our normal doctor) who told us to wash his body with Head and Shoulders shampoo. That his skin was just really dry and the shampoo would help. It didn't.

We went back to our normal doctor who prescribed us several creams, and some strong hydrocortisone ointment to put on him daily. It helped. Until we ran out of cream and then the rash came back. It got to the point where his skin was literally peeling off his body. We went back to the dr. and I asked for allergy testing. They denied it, saying that they didn't do allergy testing in infants that young. I didn't care. At that point, I demanded it, and they finally complied.

Four weeks later (after many, many phone calls to the allergist) we learned he was allergic to dairy. I immediately cut out all dairy from my diet, and within a few weeks he was better.

Because of his allergies, I took my eating seriously. I made sure I didn't eat dairy, and if I did it was in tiny amounts, and never back to back. His is not what they consider a severe allergy, so if it's cooked into items such as breads or cookies, he does fine. However, if he touches milk he breaks out into a rash and blisters.

For over a year, I nursed him without eating chocolate or dairy. I loved it, but gradually comments started filtering in. Things like, "Aren't you done yet?" Or, "He's over a year, isn't he? Why are you still nursing?" Or, "I couldn't do it. I'd just want my body back." The thing is, these people didn't understand how much we both loved it. At times, I got really frustrated with these (well meaning) people, and I'd turn to Brandon and ask his opinion. He was always 100% supportive of me nursing for however long I wanted.

I finally decided that 18 months was probably the time, even though I didn't want to stop. That day came, and I was super emotional. I nursed him twice that day - once in the morning and then again right before bed. I laid him down, then went back downstairs with Brandon and fell into his arms just sobbing.

I finally realized why I was so emotional. He wasn't a baby anymore. He's possibly (probably, if you ask Brandon) our last one, so it was somewhat hard for me to know that I might have just nursed for the very last time. (Plus, he's not typically a cuddler, so that was my time to cuddle with him.)

I've struggled in the two weeks since then. (I'm crying right now as I type this.) There have been many times where I just want to sit down with him and nurse him. He's missed it too, I can tell. When he's stressed or tired, he'll pull at my shirt. It takes everything I've got not to give in and nurse him. I have to keep reminding myself that it wouldn't be healthy for him right now, since I have introduced dairy back into my diet. But, still, I miss it, even though I know it's fine to stop. He's old enough, and I feel blessed to have been able to nurse him at all.

I guess this long, rambling post is just to remind me about our journey. I can't believe he's 18 months old already. It went by too fast. He's supposed to still be a little baby - not a toddler. I'm going to blink tomorrow and he'll be ten, and going into 5th grade, and I'm going to feel old and be sad. So, I'm going to try to cherish this time I have with him and love him when he's still little.

Rio

Meet Rio, the newest member of our family. We've finally given up hope that Lady will ever come back. I think. Anyway, I told Brandon that if Lady wasn't back by springtime that we'd be getting a new kitten.

So, one morning, I was on the computer checking my email and just had a thought to look at ksl.com for some kittens. The picture of her and her siblings was the first one to pop up. There was one that looked a lot like Lady, one that looked a lot like Sly, and then this little girl. I called and made arrangements to come look at the kittens that afternoon.

I immediately fell in love with this little girl. The boys each had a kitten that they liked, but in the end I won out. She was only 9 weeks old when we got her the week before Mother's Day. (We're being really careful that this doesn't happen this time.)

We brought her home, and while we were eating dinner that night, we tossed around a whole bunch of names. Kiki (really easy for Connor to say - he already says it), Padfoot, Harry Potter, Hermione, Crookshanks (see where this is headed?), Dumbledore . . . Some others that were just plain silly, and some that some of us agreed on, but others didn't. We had narrowed it down to a couple, when I just said, "What about Rio?" We were all silent for a minute to let that sink in, then one by one, everybody said, "I like Rio."

So, meet Rio.


You can see how small she is compared to Brandon's hand


Sly's not so sure about Rio

Even a few weeks later, Sly still doesn't like her


Sly's a monster compared to her



And, as you can see, Connor is smitten with her. He tries to find her all the time. She's getting pretty good at avoiding him. :)

Pinewood Derby

We didn't realize the pinewood derby was drawing close until the night before the cars were due. Um, shoot. Brandon had class that night, too, so I took the boys over to the church and asked for an extension until Saturday before the race. They were good enough to allow that.

So, Friday after school, and Saturday morning, the boys got to work sketching and cutting and painting their cars. Brandon took them over to be weighed and get ready for the race. The boys were super excited, and they each came in first a couple of times, and second several times each. A super fun event for my cute little scouts.


"Yes, B got first!"


"Scott's came in first!"

Easter picture overload

We had a great Easter this year (although, truth be told, the boys were much more excited to go jump on the trampoline than they were to color eggs. So, I did most of the eggs by myself.) My sister-in-law, Dazee, invited us over to their house for a BBQ and Easter egg hunt for all the kids, and games for everybody.

The kids had a blast running their eggs on a spoon down to one end of the yard and back. Some tried to do it fast, hoping that even if they did drop the egg, they were far enough ahead that they could still catch up if they had to start over. Others (like my Gavin) took it slow and steady. I don't think he dropped his at all, but he also came in last place. (Not that we told him - we just kept cheering him on!)


All lined up, ready to go


And they're off!


"Go, Toady, Go!"

After the kids games, came the hunt. We let the little kids hunt first (3 and under), then the big kids got to go. Connor didn't really get the idea of picking up the eggs and putting them in his basket. He was more fascinated with the bubbles and dog.


"Ready, set . . ."


"Look, Mom! A doggy!"


"And a bubble!"

Big kids turn:


"Ready, Set . . ."


" . . . Go!!"


"Hmm - where could those eggs be?"


I found one!


S-t-r-e-t-c-h . . .

Once the kids finished their hunt, they played with their loot while the adults played their games. Brandon & I won the first game, and should have won the second game but for some competitiveness in his brothers and their spouses. :) All right, we got competitive too. But, it was lots of fun.


Playing with cousins


Grandma had fun swinging bubbles around


B had fun trying to pop them

I'm so glad to live close to most of Brandon's brothers and to get together with them and play games, talk, and have fun. But, one of his brothers is moving his family away from us to be closer to his work. We're so sad they're leaving, but hopefully this just gives us an excuse to make lots of summer trips up to see them.










My five guys . . .


. . . and me!