Amanda's Blog

Today, as I was cleaning the bathroom, I started thinking about my brother, Brad and how today is his birthday.  He is 35 years old today!!

(On a side note, as I was cleaning the bathroom, Brooke came in and asked what I was doing.  I replied, “Cleaning the bathroom.” To this, she said, “For Daddy?”  Ha!  She knows just as well as I do that Daddy cleans the bathroom more than mommy, and for that I am soooo very thankful!!)

Anyhow, back to Brad.  I started thinking about all the good memories that we have from growing up.  We were very blessed with great parents and grandparents; our childhood was easy, secure, and happy…I wish all kids could have the home we grew up in!  So, I thought I would share some of my memories on my blog to reminisce the “good ole days:)”

I remember…

I remember crying for Brad when I was just a baby at the daycare where mom took us.  I was little bitty, but I can still see it in my head.  I was in a crib and crying hard for Brad, but no one would take me to him:(  Mom only sent us to this daycare for two days because the second day, Brad beat her back to the car when she dropped us off!  He didn’t like it either!

I remember (mostly because I have heard the story over and over again:) how I was jumping over Brad when he was laying in the floor watching cartoons and landed on and BROKE his collarbone.  Ashley was brand new and just home from the hospital…guess I was a little too excited!

 (Brad sporting the sling for the broken collar bone and for some reason, that’s about all we have on:)

I remember bargaining to get what we wanted from each other and ganging up on Ashley to get her to do things for us.  We would tell her, “If you don’t change the channel, we won’t play a game with you…”  (Those were the days before everyone had 10 remote controls, and we only had 5 channels…) We were typical siblings!

I remember Brad getting stuck in a tree he was climbing, and Grandpa Green having to cut him out with a chainsaw.  Grandpa told us not to call mom at work, but Ashley and I ran home (bawling) and called her anyhow.  She could hear him screaming from across the yard and could hear the chainsaw.  Probably not the phone call you want to get at work…  Thankfully, it all worked out in the end:)

I remember Brad playing hot wheels and all things ball.

I remember having crushes on most of Brad’s friends:)

I remember Brad working on the farm with Wayne all summer long.  I remember him driving off in a deep ditch on the farm.

I remember him and Ashley eating a Fudge Round and Mt. Dew for breakfast while I ate my bowl of cereal and drank water:)

I remember Brad getting a new speaker system in his truck and being so proud of it.  I also remember it getting stolen and how awful that felt!

I remember riding to ballgames together and using said speaker system to get pumped up!!

I remember Brad getting his new full-sized white GMC pickup!  We were all so excited and happy for him!

I remember Brad hugging me and comforting me when my heart was broken.

I remember making grilled cheese sandwiches at midnight because Brad would make me feel bad by saying, “You are going to make a bad wife someday.”  Yes, he was a great brother, but still a brother:)

I remember moving to FHU with Brad.  He was a transfer student, and I was a freshman.  I was soooo thankful to have my big brother with me!!

I remember calling to tell Brad the first night that Josh called me.  I said, “You will never guess who called tonight.” He said, “I bet I can.” I said, “Who?” He replied, “Josh Ketchum.”  I then said, “How did you know?” He answered with every freshman girl’s worst nightmare, “He is sitting here in my room.” I was humiliated!  At least it worked out and Josh called again!

I remember Brad being so happy the day that Josh and I got married.  I remember the hug he gave me and how he remarked about what a happy day it was!

I remember the day that Brad married his best friend, Roxanne.  I remember standing next to Ashley as a bridesmaid and her crying her eyes out:)  It was a very happy day; one we had prayed about for a long time!

I have so many good memories of growing up with Brad.  He is such a wonderful brother and man.  I now get to make more memories of our children growing up together.  I get to watch him be a great dad and husband.  I was always very proud to be Brad’s sister, and I am proud of the man he is today!  We love you, Brad, and hope you birthday was wonderful!!!

Sorry Mom and Dad, this is the only family picture I had at my house of us when we were little:)  And, yes, this really is my dad!!

P.S. Sorry Ashley, but for some reason, most of the pictures I have are just of Brad and me.  Not sure where you were…:)

Some of you reading my blog may not know that our family is on a special diet because of food sensitivities.  Landon, Brooke,and I have been gluten-free for over two years because of Brooke and Landon’s asthma, and Landon has been on a soy-free diet because of digestive issues.  Austin now eats gluten-free too because of eczema and just recently, I have started eating dairy free while nursing Caleb because of his digestive issues. (So, we pretty much have 2 or 3 foods left that we can all eat. Ha!)

Josh would want me to clarify here that he has no known food sensitivities, and if you were considering bringing food to us (which, you probably weren’t, but just in case) he would be glad to eat all the gluten you’ve got!!

So, when it came time to make cookies for Santa (which I blogged about here), I was worried (pretty pathetic, I know) that I wouldn’t be able to eat the cookies (and I love me a good sugar cookie with lots of buttercream icing on top…or maybe I really love some buttercream icing with a little cookie to hold it:).  Well, I set out online to find a good recipe, and I hit the JACKPOT!!!  This recipe is simple; it rolled out well, cut well, and cooked up great! (I may even have to make sugar cookies more often because these were so easy and SO DELICIOUS!)  These were so good that my gluten, soy, and dairy eating family asked me for the recipe…always a good sign:)

So, without further ado, here is the wonderful recipe taken from the Pamela’s Products website:

Vanilla Roll-Out Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 bag (3-1/2 cups) Pamela’s Gluten-Free Bread Mix (no yeast needed)
• 1-3/4 sticks of unsalted butter (14 tbsp)*
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla

*I substituted Spectrums Organic Palm Shortening to make it dairy free.

Directions:

Soften butter in a mixer. Add sugar and cream until light in color. Add eggs and cream together well. Add vanilla and mix in, add salt and the whole bag of Pamela’s Gluten-Free Bread Mix (be sure to take out the yeast packet enclosed in the 19 oz bag of mix).

Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Roll out between two pieces of parchment paper that fit a baking sheet, cut out cookie shapes and remove excess dough- don’t move the cookies. Place the parchment with cookies on baking sheet and bake in preheated 350° oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until edges start to brown.

Decorate with colored sugar or candies before baking, if you desire.

I used Wilton’s Buttercream Icing recipe and sprinkles (so good, but so messy…) to decorate the cookies, but substituted the Spectrum Organic Palm Shortening for the butter and shortening and substituted ice milk for the milk to make it dairy free.

**A special thank you to Pamela’s Baking Mixes for making our gluten-free diet easier and yummier!!  If you were a real woman, my husband would want to marry you:)

Today is the 13th anniversary of the day I married my best friend!!!  I love Josh more now than I even knew would be possible.

His name has thirteen letters, so I will use them to describe him:

J – Jesus first

O – Others above self

S – Sacrificial for family

H – Honest in all things

U – Understanding of me and my crazy ways:)

A – Adoring of me and the kids (and he lets us know it!)

K – King of the house (He is a great leader for our family!)

E – Educated (So proud of his MDiv he worked hard to earn this past year!)

T – Tough and able to do any job (He’s the daddy, after all!)

C – Cares for everyone

H – Hardworking and Humble (I know that’s two for one, but I couldn’t choose:)

U – Upbeat and positive

M – Manages time and money well

I love you JOSHUA KETCHUM and am so thankful for the 13 years of marriage!

The Friday before Christmas, Josh was able to take off of work, and we were able to spend the day getting things ready to go to MO for Christmas.  (Who knew that you would need a WHOLE day to get ready to leave for a few days…guess that is life with four kids:)

On Thursday, I was talking to Austin about all that we had to get done on Friday.  He looked at me and said, “That is the best day of Christmas!” I was a little shocked, so I paused waiting for him to explain why.  He went on to say, “It is fun when we are all home working together. I like it better than getting presents.”  It was definitely a proud momma moment (and believe me, I have to hang on to those because with four little ones, there are plenty of “scratching my head,” “I feel like a failure” moments…)

So, I wanted to give you a glimpse into “The Best Day of Christmas”!  It was a fun, full day…

We started the day by making cookies for Santa.  It was not easy to find a sugar cookie recipe that would allow for all of our special diets, but I found one online, and the cookies were delicious!!  (I plan to post the recipe in a separate post soon!)  We all were involved in making and EATING the cookies. (I know you aren’t suppose to eat the raw cookie dough because of the eggs, but it is SOOOO stinking good!!)  (On a side note, I must say – It is fun to cook with the kids, but it does get hairy trying to remember whose turn it is to pour in the ingredient, turn on the mixer, turn off the mixer…do you all have the same problem???)

We also spent time today vacuuming the house, doing laundry (which is never done…), packing for our trip to MO, finishing wrapping presents, and cleaning out the car (actually the kids cleaned out the car – that is their job around here).  Brooke also squeezed in some time for our dog Stella.  She loves Stella. (I think it is because she can boss her around:)

I am glad that Austin enjoys these days at home working together.  I do too (until it is 11:00 p.m. and I am still trying to finish up…)

FYI: Josh helped a lot today…contrary to what the pictures show:)

I LOVE Christmas!!  I love spending time with family, eating yummy treats, giving gifts, and seeing the “magic” in my children’s eyes.  I also love all things Santa Clause – thanks to my mom (just ask Josh)!  We had a wonderful Christmas, and I hope that you did, too!  This was one of the few Christmases that none of us were sick.  Usually, we always share more than just gifts with our family in MO…I am sure they were thankful for our wellness this year:)  (I do not say this bragging…just in a thankful way.  I have too many times said to Josh how we are all healthy only to be awakened in the middle of the night by an “asthma” cough or high fever…so now I am a little superstitious about stating our wellness:)

I was, however, in prayer on Christmas for families that were not so fortunate. I thought of a dear friend whose four children were all sick with either the flu or strep throat:(  I also thought about a family that we know from FHU whose 2 1/2 year old daughter had a liver transplant on Christmas Eve, so they spent the day in the ICU in Pittsburgh. And the family from home whose young daughter is also battling cancer.  There are many who are not as fortunate as us, so for those I pray that they will have healthier days ahead.

I wanted to share some of our Christmas festivities with you. Christmas is a week-long event around here.  (I do LOVE Christmas, but after the week of parties and sugar highs, I am ready to get my kids home and in routine:)

Our first family Christmas was with our Burch family on December 17th.  Josh and I actually had to miss this one due to a funeral, but the kids were able to attend.  They had a great time!! Thanks to aunt Roxanne, I still have pictures to share!

 Our second family Christmas was with Ms. Ann and Mr. Dickie on Sunday night, December 18th.  Ms. Ann and Mr. Dickie are very special to us!!  They have adopted our family as their own.  Since we do not live around family, it is wonderful to have “Kentucky grandparents” to help with the kids and love on them.  They sit with us every Sunday and treat my children as their own.  The kids love them and love having Christmas at their house.

Our third family Christmas was with Pa and Nandy on Saturday, December 22nd.  We got to spend the day at their house with aunt Keisha and uncle Brandon.  The kids got some great gifts and drank way too much of Nandy’s punch:)  They also got to see some of their second cousins that they don’t see very often.

Our fourth family Christmas was with Papa and Nana on Christmas Eve.  The kids love going to their house and especially love when they get to play with their cousins.  We had a great time eating our gluten free, soy free, and dairy free food:)  (My mom has become very creative in our holiday meals trying to accommodate all the special diets!)  It is a bit chaotic trying to open gifts with 7 kids, ages 8 and under (my brother and I have stair-stepped our kids…our kids are 8, 6, 5, 3 (almost 4), 3, 1, and 3 months:)  but it is always a lot of fun!!

Our fifth family Christmas was later on Christmas Eve with my Grandma Green’s family.  It is always fun to get together with my aunts and uncles and cousins!  We always do family pictures in front of the Christmas tree (a tradition that Josh looks forward to every year…Ha!) and eat lots of good food (ribs and shrimp) before playing dirty Santa.

Finally, our sixth family Christmas was at home on Christmas morning with just the six of us.  Santa came and brought lots of goodies, and then we opened our gifts from each other.  We spent the day in our pjs and loved being at home together!

We are so very blessed and are thankful for all of our family.  What a wonderful time of the year when we get to spend time with those we love, give gifts to one another, and eat WAY TOO MUCH!!!  I sure hope that your Christmas was wonderful, too!

Caleb is 3 months today.

How can that be???  He is such a sweet baby…still!  We are enjoying him sooooo much!

Yes, life with 4 is CRAZY, but him being such a good baby makes it less crazy:)  So, what is he up to???

He is smiling all the time and even laughing some.

He is “talking” with his coos and squeals alot, too! 

He sleeps from around 9:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m., getting up once to eat around 2:30 a.m. 

He is 14.5 pounds and 25 inches long.

He loves his swing!!!  He will take great naps in it (for which I am very grateful)!!

He loves his brothers and sister, but may be a little scared of Landon at times. Ha!  Austin does great taking care of him and rocks him alot for me.

He can hold his head pretty well, but hates his belly, so no tummy time for him. (I struggle with this one because my mind says he needs his tummy time, but my heart says he’ll be fine without it…I usually listen to my heart on this one.)

He LOVES bath time and will start fussing (which he hardly ever does) around 7:30 to 8:00 p.m. wanting to get his bath and nurse.  Then, he likes to lounge around in Daddy’s arms for 45 minutes to an hour before falling asleep.

He still sleeps in our room in his pack and play.  This is mainly because his big bed is in Brooke’s room, so I don’t want to move him until he is sleeping through the night.

I have probably bored you with this information (unless you are Nana, Nandy, or Ms. Ann:), but I wanted to have it to look back on someday.

Now, I have some pictures to share of him today that I took of him by the tree…so sweet!!!

Love this one!!! He looks like a baby doll!

And…because the other 3 could not be left out…

Pure Sibling Joy!!!

(I must give props to Josh for my new Canon SLR camera that took these pictures.  He gave it to me as an early Christmas present so I would be ready to take plenty of pictures at Christmas!  Thanks, Josh…I LOVE IT!! )

Landon had his preschool Christmas party today, and guess who came for a visit???? How’d you guess it…SANTA!!!  Here are a few quick pictures of the kids with Santa.  They love Santa, and I love that they love Santa!!

All the kids with Santa.  It is a huge feat for the Ketchums to have all children with Santa and none of them crying.  Usually, our family Santa picture has one child screaming and being held down by Santa…Guess we will enjoy the picture this year because most likely Caleb will be running from Santa next year:)

Caleb’s first picture with Santa by himself!!  What a SWEET boy!!

Landon with Santa!  Doesn’t he look so sweet and innocent…well, let me tell you, looks can be deceiving! HA!

No, this is not Santa with the kids, but it is so rare to have a picture of me with the kids that I had to post it, too.  (Not too sure what Caleb is looking at…)

I sure do love Santa, and I really love pictures with him!!!

In honor of today (probably yesterday by the time you are reading this…) being such an unique date, I thought I would post a blog of 12 pictures (1 from each month) of the past year.

 I had a brilliant idea of taking a picture by the clock at 12:12 today, but thought that would be dorky, so surely my family wouldn’t want to do it too…

But, I must have married at just my level of dorkiness (probably not a word, but when you are dorky, you can make up your own words) because Josh looks pretty enthused with the picture too! Ha!  Only problem is you can’t really see the clock, so maybe it just looks like we are taking a picture by the stove holding the iPad…families do it all the time:)

On a side note (just because I want you to know how special I am)…I turned 8 years old on the 8th day of the 8th month in 1988.  You are impressed, I know:)  Also, my mom didn’t put it in the paper, but wishes now that she would have, so I am kind of still dealing with that…kind of.

With no further ado….the pictures!

January

We went to see the eagles at LBL…such a fun trip!!  Can’t wait to do it again this year!

(Yes, we have a diva for a daughter!)

February

So sweet…they love sharing a room!

March

We visited an animal farm…thought about leaving the kids:)

April

Brooke’s 5th Birthday – wearing her princess dress that Nana made her!

May

Josh graduated from FHU with his Masters of Divinity (he’s really smart now)!!!

June

We had to put Rebel, our dog of 12 years, down…he was almost 15 years old!

July

Landon’s 3rd Birthday!

August

We built a treehouse as a family.  One of the most fun (or is it funnest?  I never have figured that out…) projects we have ever done!

September

Caleb is born!!  Wow…our family looks big now!  

(This picture was right before Landon took Caleb’s head and turned it towards the camera because we said to look at the camera:)

October

Went to the pumpkin patch with Pa and Nandy!  We love fall activities!!!

November

Austin’s 8th Birthday!

December

Caleb’s first golf outing…crazy that it was in December. 

We have had a wonderful year.  God has blessed us beyond what we could have imagined almost 13 years ago when we began our lives together.  I am so thankful for my family (even on the crazy, stressful days…which seem a little more often now:).

Austin, my 8-year old, is such a sweet boy.  He made my week on Friday night when I was getting ready for our progressive dinner with our church group.  I am still at an awkward stage with my clothes since having Caleb.  I have lost most of the baby weight, but my hips haven’t gotten the memo to go back to regular size (I am just hoping they get that memo!!).  I am happy with my size, but I don’t fit in many of my clothes (and everyone with four kids (which isn’t a majority of people) knows that you don’t have the time or money to buy new clothes).  It just frustrates me when I go to get ready and “nothing” fits (I put that in quotes because some things fit, just not what I want to fit).

Anyhow, on Friday afternoon when Josh came home from work, I was feeding Caleb and as Josh and I were talking he could tell that something was bothering me.  He asked me what was wrong, so I told him how I had picked out an outfit in my mind to wear to the dinner, but when I tried it on it didn’t fit…and it bothered me.  (I really wish it didn’t bother me, but I am human and it did.)  Austin was looking at me the whole time I was telling this to Josh, and I could tell it was making an impression on him.

Well, after I finished feeding Caleb, I went to the bathroom to finish getting ready.  Soon after, Austin comes in and stands at the sink looking at me.  I acknowledge him, and then he said some of the sweetest words that I won’t soon forget.  He said, “Mom you will look good in whatever you wear.”  At this point, my heart melted, and I almost cried (and I don’t usually cry unless I am mad so this really touched me).  We then had a discussion of how I shouldn’t worry about what I look like and that other things in life are a lot more important.

Austin often tells me how pretty I am or how nice I look.  I am so thankful for my sweet, 8-year old boy!

Tonight, I wanted to share a few highlights from our fun weekend.  It started on Friday night with a progressive dinner with the young adult group from church.  (A progressive dinner is where you go to one house for appetizer, a second house for the main course, and a third house for dessert.)  This was the first time that Caleb has had a babysitter.  We are so grateful to Ms. Ann (who is like a grandmother to our children) and Brenda who kept all the kids for us!!  It was so nice to be out without any kids!!  The kids also had a great time and it was nice to have adult conversation and eat without fixing three other plates:)

After the dinner, we came home and prepared our home for company.  Mark, Lori, and their three kids spent the night with us on Friday night (yes, it was a crowded house with 11 people in the house but it was FUN!).  The kids got to stay up until 11:00 p.m. (which never happens unless they are with Papa and Nana:) and us adults stayed up until 3 a.m. talking!  What. where. we. thinking???  Josh is still not recovered (but he is 4 years older than me)! Ha! (It also helps that caffeine gets me through a sleepy day, but does nothing for him:)  If I had it to do over…I DO IT AGAIN!!  I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with Mark and Lori and love and appreciate their Christ-like attitude and example.  It was good for us to share with another minister and his wife.

On Saturday, we enjoyed spending a little more time with Mark’s family and then prepared for more company.  We had made plans to have our homeschool families over for a little Christmas party Saturday night.  We were sad that one of the families couldn’t join us because of sickness, but we still had a fun time.  Josh made a ton of smoked chicken leg quarters that were so yummy! (I now look forward to having them in the freezer to pull out and heat up on days when I don’t feel like cooking.)  The kids loved playing and us adults enjoyed visiting.

Today, we were able to have a great day of worship with our family at Seven Oaks and topped it off with a trip to the local Mexican restaurant with some friends from our young adult group after worship tonight.

We have been so blessed to have quality time this weekend with people we love and admire.  I hope your weekend was enjoyable for you, too!

 (I didn’t take pictures this weekend…guess I was too busy enjoying the company, so I just inserted some of my favorite from the last couple of weeks.)