Chocolate Ball Ephiphany??

Given the state of our financial affairs this year it seemed most appropriate to bake goodies & make items ourselves to give as Christmas gifts for our friends and families since gift buying was not an option. I wanted to share a recipe for some chocolate balls Sammy and I made together b/c not only were they yummy BUT it turned out to be a PERFECT cognitive task for a toddler. =) He had fun helping AND he practiced sorting and focusing attention/inhibition a lot so next time you have a get together to attend, why not grab your kids and have them help you whip up a batch of these. MMM MMM GOOD!

I also had a moment of insight while Sammy and I were "cooking" these treats (there really is no cooking involved but shh.. don't tell Sammy that part). Sammy is quite the helper especially when it comes to cleaning and cooking. He absolutely loves to cook and, if I can be completely honest, what I once found endearing is now getting on my nerves. It seems like every time I am in the kitchen he runs in saying "Sammy help mommy, need stool" and he goes to the pantry, gets his little stool, and pops his head up to the counter to see what he can do. Yes this is my fault completely since I have encouraged his help with our household work since before he could even crawl. I take full responsibility and should not be whining at the moment. I always thought it would be so lovely to cook with him and just pure time saving to have him help with chores. Now that he is older and more eager to help though I am realizing it is anything BUT a time saver. In fact, everything takes at least twice as long to do with his "help". For example, I could simply take the clothes out of the washer and place them in the dryer in a little under a minute I am sure but with Sammy's help it takes a good five to seven min to get each article of clothing in the dryer and have him help turn the dial. I know what you're thinking.. not such a big deal right? Well if it was just that incident, no but when you factor in the course of a day ALL the many things he "helps" with and the extra time involved.. it is no wonder I can't keep up with things around here and feel like my days have been cut short! I am rambling about this so you can understand just where I am coming from when I say we had to stop and go wash hands during our making of these chocolate balls a good 4 times I am sure because the child just could not help himself from sticking his tiny pudgy little finger in and taking a lick. I kept reminding myself that the neurocircuitry of his frontal cortex is far from mature at the ripe old age of 25 mos thus resulting in a difficulty with inhibiting what he really wants to do but c'mom.. mamma was on a schedule!

It was in this moment of frustration that God spoke patience into my heart.. or lets get honest, knocked me upside my head with His wisdom. You see long before Sammy I was guilty of this exact feeling with Hannah, I tend to focus too much on the end result of whatever project we are working on and get a teensy bit annoyed when things move in unforeseen directions and we get off track. As I started to loose my patience with Sammy eating the oreos and having to wash his hands AGAIN to keep his germs from finding their way into our treats I realized that most important things kids need to learn and accomplish to build strong character really have very little to do with the project at hand but more so to do with the aspects of character that are built while they are busy. In other words, it is when we are involved in play and projects together that I try to instill patience, mercy, kindness, the focusing of his attention, inhibitory control, etc etc. into his little heart and mind. This was one of those "ah-ha" moments that just clicked with me. Sure I guess I have kinda known this all along but when I thought about it in relation to my own life and God, it was all put in perspective. I am His child just as Sammy is mine and He forgives my mistakes and cleans up my messes and directs my way, because I am still learning. He is building my character through those teachable moments just as I try to do with Sammy. I should be as gentle and patient with Sammy as my Jesus is with me. These very qualities will help to shape Sammy's perception of Jesus in the future. I am very thankful that my Heavenly Father loves me enough to be patient with me and cares enough about my life and my attitude to teach me little lessons I need to know to be a better mommy and to ultimately love Him and my little family better.

Thank you for allowing me to ramble... Now for the recipe!

Chocolate Balls

1 pkg Oreos (double stuff with extra cream if can find)

1 8-oz pkg of Philadelphia cream cheese (I used 1/3 less fat)

1 pkg almond bark (I used chocolate but vanilla is good too) chocolate dipping squares

- Twist oreos and take them apart (good cognitive skill for toddler.. have them sort out the white from the dark into two plates)

-Scrape cream from cookies and put into large bowl (I had him use edge of spoon for his)
- Add cream cheese to cookie cream and stir
- put remainder of cookies into a ziplock bag and seal it up. Crush cookies into small pieces/powder (rolling pin works best) but use freezer bag so bag doesn't tear and get hole)- Great for little ones, they obviously love this part and helps if you ask them to find the big spots that need to be crushed

- Pour the crushed cookies into bowl with cream cheese/cookie cream mixture and mix with hands until well blended (this part is VERY messy)

- Roll into small balls and place on cookie sheet to chill in fridge for about an hour

- Melt almond bark in microwave at 20 second intervals (stir to avoid scorching)

- I just used spoon to dunk them in chocolate almond bark then spoon them back onto cookie sheet b/c took way less time but directions say to place toothpick in cookie ball and dip ball into almond bark. Place on wax paper covered cookie sheet and let stand until hardened. Enjoy!

- Store in fridge

-Makes 3 to 4 dozen

Mommy tip- Give incentive..if your child can help without eating cookies/putting finger in mix to taste then will get to eat BIG (whole) oreo cookies with milk afterwards, it worked for rest of time, wish I would have thought of at first!

Pulled 2 oreos aside for him to dunk in milk as his reward....Mmmm...mmmm....good!

Christmas Pictures!

Here are some pics from our fabulous Christmas!! It was different not having Cindy, the Chapmans, my Uncles LaVaughn and Stan, and the Griffin family with us since as you read in previous posts my ENTIRE family deserted us and moved away this year (no, I'm not bitter in the least) but we still had a wonderful day. Sammy was on cloud 9 having both his Aunt Heather and Aunt Sarah in one house.. I think if his Aunt Cindy had been there he would have actually burst into a million pieces! He really turns it on for them, showing off all his silly moves and all. Poor Heather, she barely got any moments of peace our entire stay b/c if she retreated to her bedroom Sammy would go to her door and call "Aunt Heder! Aunt Header!" until she came out to discuss whatever important matter he had for her.

Sarah and Brennan came over early that morning and we got to spend all day with them, it was just so much fun! We played with Sam's marshmellow shooter and I ALMOST got it in Brennan's giant mouth and we had a fun game of Taboo. Sammy loved going on a wagon ride with his Tia and he played cars with her all night long. She even helped give him his bath. He was in Aunite heaven! All of the family time only refueled my desire to live closer to family soon. Sammy just flourishes around all of them and he had the greatest time just being his silly self. In fact, he provided us with quite the dinner show when we ate our Christmas dinner. He enjoyed all his yummy food and made several funny comments throughout but when desert came.. wow. None of us were prepared for what he had in store! He had helped me make the birthday cake for Jesus the day before and he was very proud of it and was telling everyone about how he had stirred the batter, etc. He somehow got some chocolate icing by his eyebrow in the telling of said story and wound up smearing chocolate all over his face and hair. Did any of us intervene and stop the fiasco? NOPE! We just let it all unfold and I even caught some on video. He had us all laughing so hard we had tears! It was a very memorable dinner for sure!

I think the only thing that would have made this Christmas anymore perfect would have been if all our family were together and if I could have had Cristina and every kid from Casa there with us. I realize we would have needed a much bigger house for that though. =) My heart just aches for them constantly and as I watched Sammy make so many memories with our family I couldn't help but think of the kids and teens there in Gautemala who have never and may never experience that. I know the staff there does their best to make it a grand Christmas for the kids but it just can't be the same as spending it with a real family in a real home. I prayed especially for Cristina, that God would just surround her with his overwhelming love and presence and fill her heart with love and remind her that she DOES have a family and many people who love her and ache for her here in the states. I just wish we could have told her just how much we love her and miss her especially on that day. Thank you to Mom & Richard for our fabulous Christmas memories and especially for saving Christmas for us (you know what we mean Richard!) !! It was simply the best!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Sammy wanted to touch the moon after the Christmas Eve service and instead of telling him it was too far Sam just lifted him up and told him to try his best!! It was so sweet! I had to snap a shot.
Tickle time at Cody's house!
Our Christmas Dinner.. so small we could all fit at one table this year! It was delicious thanks to all who helped prepare it!
Sammy digging in to his "tuffin" (stuffing)
I think this is about when things started to go downhill......see that crazy look in his eye?
oh boy...
The aftermath...I of course had to put the video up too so it is at the end.
Thank you Aunt Sandra and Uncle Tom for my T-ball set!
Thank you Minima and AddyAddy for my new wagon!!
Aunt Sandra and Uncle Tom
Showing Tia Sarah his cars

Chasing Pixie.. one of his favorite things to do!
He begged mom to come "wing" with him
Now if this isn't love.... I sat ON THE CORNER in my PJS waiting for the train to come by b/c we heard it coming and Sammy loves to watch them go by.. .the things I do for that boy!
Minima fixed him some nice hot chocolate to warm us up after waiting for the slowest train on earth to come. MMMM good!

Here is Sammy's crazy video!

Few more pre-Christmas pics

I am in the process of getting pics off our camera and WOW! Looking back at the weeks before Christmas we were busy folks, ha ha! We made so many fun memories, I have lots to blog about for sure.

Here are a few pics from the little Big Brothers Big Sisters party we had at our house, it was small scale but we had a fun time. We had the "Bigs" over and made Christmas cookies and decorated stockings and hats then did a small gift exchange where us bigs gave our "littles" the gift we got them. So much fun! I will spare you the drama involved with Hannah's gift but basically for 3 years she has asked us to get her this strange Baby Alive doll. It is so creepy to me! When she is fed she moves her mouth as if chewing and then she poops and pees plus the talking and laughing and blinking. Ewww! For some reason though, Hannah has desperately wanted this doll for THREE years so after much debate Sam and I gave in and made it happen and to use her words her "dream came true". It was totally worth seeing her that happy (and now we don't have to hear about it all the time, an added bonus for sure). She was so sweet when she opened, it she just screamed then looked at us and said "you really got it?? really really? are you sure its for me and I can keep it??" then she said thank you probably 12 times or so and then bolted and actually kncoked me over giving me a hug. It was a very sweet moment.

Sammy throughly enjoyed the party, he was dancing around and thought he was big stuff. He kept saying "Sammy play big kids" and he even made his first Christmas cookies! He concentrated so very hard and was just too cute. I love watching him when he is trying hard on a project. His tongue is always out and he narrates each step. In my nerdy world of developmental psychology this is called "private speech" and is something children do to reduce their cognitive load while problem solving and is a good sign he is developing right on target. Yay! I'm sure it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that I am his mommy but I thought his cookies by far tasted the sweetest of the whole lot!

Busy little bees making Christmas cookies
Sammy was great at rolling out the dough
Can you believe how grown up Haley is now??? She has really matured this year
Mark was hilarious with his cookies, he cracked us all up
I love my Banana!
The behind the scenes crew... thankfully they cleaned up the staging area i.e. our kitchen and kept things rolling smoothly, thank you to all of you for your help and for the yummy pizza and fun activities! You all rock!!
My baby worked so hard on his sugar cookies! He took his time and planned it all out, I was one proud mamma!
Kristen got Samantha some riding boots since they ride her horses together, Samantha was beside herself if you can't tell from that grin... She actually squealed while jumping in the air kissing the boots!!!
and she gave her this horse... as you can see it was well received!
I LOVE this picture, this is when Hannah THREW her doll down and ran to me and tumbled me to the floor with hugs, super great moment for sure. Have I mentioned how much I love her??
me and my girl..(.and the creepiest doll to ever to hit toy stores)
Wow.. that was A LOT of icing!
more decorating! Check out the little elves thanks to Kristen!
Mark and his big Brother Terry
Kim and Haley were actually featured in the BBBS newsletter on the front page b/c they are such a great match so I had asked them to please autograph my copy since I have obviously never had celebrities in my house before.
Hannah Banana worked so hard on her beautiful cookies she made for me and Sam, they were delicious!!
Look at my baby working so hard!
His first ever cookies! Aren't they perfect??
I love this pic b/c looks like Sam is actually "sniffing" the sprinkles and getting high, ha ha
Mark made a "spiderman" stocking
Samantha wrote all of our names on her stocking and so of course instead of Sam pointing to his name he thought was funny to point to her since they share the same name (we used to call her Sammy before my Sammy was born and then it got too confusing with 3 Sams in the house!)
Sammy and her Kristen (her Big) they are too cute together!
Kim and Haley
Wendy who was Krista's big moved (we missed you SO MUCh at this party Wendy!) and so we told Krista that we are ALL her bigs until they can find a new match for her or until Leslie can move down here, ha ha
Mark and Terry
Me and my Banana being silly