Wee Whimsical Wilson Wife Writes

Recently we moved to Myrtle Beach, SC.  It has been quite the adventure so far, including moving across the country by car and being out of our home for 9 days before receiving our new house keys.  We have been to the urgent care a couple times and the hospital getting a finger glued back together and a forehead stitched up.  We drove between storms of snow and tornadoes, safely arriving in what we Wilsons consider summer weather, but we have been told to wait until July for the real humidity and heat. Our charming house is twenty years old and very cute.  It has kitchen dining and living rooms downstairs and bedrooms up. It was getting a little awkward when we purchased our electric lawn mower online and then waited several days for it to show up. We have made new friends with our culdesac neighbors, church members, and cub scouts. One of our favorite things is our neighborhood pool at the end of our street, six houses down.  We are really happy that Spen...

My friend just made these and gave ME some!  I feel so honored!  They were really crispy and clustery- new word?  So I'm sharing them with you.  Love, Paige   6 c. Old Fashioned Oats 2 c. shredded coconut 2 c. Rough chopped Almonds (I pulsed in the food processor 5-6 times) 1 c. Wheat Bran 1 t. kosher salt 1 t. cinnamon Combine all dry ingredients then add these wet ones. Stir until covered. 1/4 c. Olive Oil 1 c. pure maple syrup 3 egg whites  Whip until they are frothy and pour into oat mixture. Stir until combined.  Spread on a lined baking sheet, pressing it down gently. Bake for 40 minutes at 300. Turn large portions of granola like you are flipping a pancake. (trying to keep it clustered) Bake for 15 more minutes at 300. Check to see if its golden brown all over. If there are any patchy spots. Turn the granola one more time and bake for 5 minutes.  Let it cool and crispify on the baking sheet. Enjoy. Or...

The last few weeks with Jane have been so nice, we are so happy to have a little girl!  She is beautiful and happy and she has just started laughing sometimes when she's tickled.   She is still proportionately larger than the boys, which cracks me up.  She sleeps through the night and that is the best thing ever.   The boys are very sweet with her, especially Spencer.  He was good with Luke when he was a baby too.  Spencer has a talent for connecting with younger children. It seems like so many changes around here with Thomas starting school this week.  He is so big and so small at the same time!  I remember when kindergarteners seemed like babies to me, and I didn't even want to talk to them because they "didn't understand anything."   Obviously that was before I had my own children.  Thomas is my big kid, and he is enjoying school very much, although this week was tiring.  His te...

Jane is such a joy.  Smiling and watching her brothers are her main pasttimes, although she dabbles in dress-up, shopping, and girl's nights out.  At least three people have thought she was a doll instead of a real person!  So funny.  Sometimes she sits so still.  She loves music especially, but doesn't mind quiet periods of bouncing.  A crazy little mover, she is rolling over both ways, and army crawling all over her crib.  In the 60-70 percentile per weight, she is much bigger than my other babies.  I guess she knows a little about keeping up with her brothers.  Her eyes are still baby blue, sometimes looking blue, brown or green.  Definitely not finished changing. It's such a relief to have her out rather than in.  We love having Jane in our family and taking her with us on outtings.  She loves receiving attention from each of her siblings, and they have been honing their skills at bouncing, singing, and cuddling. ...

We are in love with our new little treasure!

Luke and I had the best time today driving to the midwives' and seeing brand-new babies!  On the way there we learned about the color red and talked about the cars, trains, and lights we saw. In the office was the most adorable little 13 day old baby girl.  I was holding Luke so tight and kissing him thinking about our little one that will be available for hugging and kissing so soon.  I couldn't believe how precious and small she was and I could just imagine holding my own sweet baby Jane next week! I found out I'm still low in Iron so I'm hoping to be able to bring that up before the baby comes.  I don't think I'll quite have enough time but hopefully it won't be too low.  All this time I've been taking a pill that isn't working!  Ugh! My little sister left on a mission yesterday!  It's so sad that we can't talk on the phone everyday-not that we actually got to talk everyday but now we can't.  But we are all so happy for her to...

Twice a year we have church on TV (or online streaming) so we can listen to our church leaders.  It's a worldwide conference, so people from over 150 countries tune in.  It's a special occasion which John and I look forward to.  There is a long-held tradition among many members of our church to eat cinnamon rolls on this day.  Pretty much if you don't have cinnamon rolls, it's not conference.  Okay, that's not true, but when I think back to my youth I remember Regina and her cinnamon roll love which she would deliver before General Conference on Sunday. Some of you are already familiar with the marvelous Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls .  They are to die for and I have been looking forward to making them for so long!  I finally got it together this morning and was not disappoined.  Mmmm!  Since we don't drink coffee I omit it from the icing but believe me they are heavenly.  If you are bored you can just read the recipe, they're that ...

Luke will be 2 in a few months, so he's at that age when he's learning so many new things and growing and changing that he's constantly surprising and fun to watch.  He's also fiesty and obstinate as he develops individuality and seperateness from his brothers.  At the same time he's adorable and personable with his blondey blonde hair and blue eyes.  He says the sweetest things like tada! and alwighk! (alright) and stupik! and I hake that.  Most of his cute phrases are learned from Spencer in Spencerese. Beginning Thursday, he's been fighting with Spencer.  Where they used to play separately they are collaborating and sharing, however, more and more often they are coming to impasse's where they both end up screaming gridlocked together grasping either end of some toy.  It's beautiful and exasperating within mere moments of each other.  They play and talk together and this morning in church when they bonked heads they took turn kissing each other...

 Today is Pizza Friday!  Here are the boys enjoying the homemade cheesy goodness in the backyard. Boys, I love you more than pizza! (and that's a lot)

We had a fantastic time with family this weekend, celebrating Easter with Grandma and Grandpa Wilson.  There was swimming, an Easter egg hunt of course, delicious food and a surprise 60th birthday party for Grandpa.  The boys loved swimming, eating candy, and playing with their cousins.  They were seriously packing the candy away the whole day.  It was a miracle any made it home with them.  There may have been some parental intervention on that point.  I was literally saying to my kids, "I'm glad you found all that candy lying around, go put it in your basket instead of shoving it all in your mouth."  It was a first for me to see kids with a handful of dum dum suckers all in their mouths at once.  To their credit, they looked like miniature balloon bouquets, not fluffly bunny contests.  The cousins were nice, and kept handing Luke chocolate eggs.  At one point Luke left a Dum Dum sucker on the floor.  Someone stepped in it, and then...

We just got back from my brother's wedding in Salt Lake.  It was a wonderful experience to be with family for the weekend, and to see the lovely couple get married.  There is something magical about little brothers being able to grow up and find someone to love them.  Elias was cracking jokes the whole time as usual, and he and his new wife looked beautiful and elegant all dressed up. The kids had a great time in Utah and were good in the car, at bedtime, plus they were healthy in general and not teething, so I love and appreciate them all the more.  They were big fans of the ice cream catered at the reception, and loved exploring new places and playing with grandparents.  My Grandpa Doty spent hours throwing a ball around with the boys and keeping the peace during set up and picture times which was an amazing and beautiful thing and made it possible for John and I to help and not to stress too much about keeping the boys clean, alive, and from destroying tabl...

A few years ago I read  The Lost Prince, by Francis Hodgson Burnett and I absolutely loved it. Unfortunately I couldn't find it again until today! I kept looking for The Little Prince. And it's not to be confused with the steamy romance with the same name. Not that I know it's steamy. Or romantic. But based on misguided Google searches for our little friend by Francis Hodgson Burnett I'd say it is. It is a children's book, essentially the little boy's version of The Secret Garden or The Little Princess. Many adults are impatient with it I've noticed in reading reviews, but for many it's a treasure. It might be best suited for the 8-10 year old boy crowd or any other simple fairy tale lovers.

C-3PO (photo: wikipedia) Thomas and Spencer absolutely love Luke's nap time because now when their little brother goes to lay down for a snooze they get to break out the "Little Legos" uninterrupted.  They've been enjoying the new toys since Christmas and I suspect a feeling of responsibility and maturaty that comes from enjoying their secret naptime pasttime away from Luke. I'm actually not really trying to protect Luke from the small pieces as much as I'm trying to teach Thomas and Spencer about choking hazards before the new baby arrives.  Luke would just break their creations and get in the way but he probably wouldn't eat Legos. Or perhaps he would, since a couple weeks ago he swallowed some earbuds. So yesterday Thomas got some new Lego Star Wars from his aunt.  He's completely obsessed and took his Legos in his cupholder in the car on the way to church and carried them around as much as possible afterward.  But the most awesome part of...

Or, I could title this post, Happy Birthday Thomas. Here's the beginning of the story of this sweet boy: 5 Weeks Five years ago John and I enjoyed a relaxed conversation on the way to the hospital to have our first baby.  It was 2 am, and my water had broken at midnight so we decided we might as well head over to the hospital since we had no idea how long to expect.  We laughed about the driving conditions and how we had anticipated a more intense drive.  No pain, traffic, weather, or speeding.  It was annoying that I felt tightness in my back but never felt a contraction stay or begin and end.  How can you measure fleeting moments of tightness? We arrived at the hospital and as I got up and started walking I started actually feeling the contractions.  John walked ahead and nurses asked him if I wanted a wheelchair.  "No, she's fine," came John's relaxed reply.  I started to wonder if I really was as fine as he said.  We ...

We started our own little kindergarten this month.  With a little kindergarten calendar, and when I say little I mean big, and some carpet squares donated it seemed we were off to a good start.  Then we headed to the library and checked out nearly fifty books which was it's own adventure.  I decided to just go with what we have and add activities and subjects as we go.   So far we are studying Aa, Penguins, and Winter. What changed from last year is the inspiration to to plan lessons around Spencer participating instead of trying to find time with Thomas alone in the afternoon during naptime or something.  It has been pure genius, giving our mornings structure, causing me to treat Spencer like he can understand, and find out that he is understanding quite a bit.   One of the benefits is that Thomas and Spencer don't spend their morning creativity with Legos and blocks by lunchtime so they are eager to play with their toys after lunc...

Inspired by a poignant tale from the past, friend's current family traditions as well as imagination and Pinterest, I set out last year hoping to win my family over to the idea of a handmade Christmas with a meaningful donation or project at it's heart.   For months I collected adorable ideas others have made for family and friends, mostly my little boys.   Autumn came, bringing with it morning sickness which wasn't so intolerable as it was tiresome and uninspiring.  My plans for getting an early start on my project making were postponed.   In the end, I just made a couple things and it was nice.  Not exactly the big wow I had in mind but still very nice.   Two 12-18 month baby skirts from woman's skirt Since Christmas, my sister Rebecca and I repurposed a woman's skirt into two baby skirts, one for me and one for our niece.   Santee Alley Well, not for me, for the little peanut.  Or as ...

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and were blessed to spend it with family doing some of our favorite traditions.  Luke surprised us on the 23rd by attacking the pew in front of him at church with his eye, right after we had arrived, so we spent church time in the ER getting him stitches while our other children enjoyed free childcare.  He was by far the cutest person in the hospital, and didn't mind at all that he had a hole in his face. We then drove to Southern California (as soon as we picked up he kids from church) and spent a week with my family, which was wonderful.  We attempted our first handmade Christmas with my siblings and parents and there were some great gifts.  For the most part the boys weren't really impressed with their gifts.  They cared about receiving them but they are pretty young so it wasn't as big of a deal for them to open presents as it was for us to make them.  John surprised me and almost made me cry, and I surprised him...

I am so excited for Christmas!  I can't wait to see my family, finally share my gifts with the boys, and do all the traditional Christmas celebration activities we have planned.  Mostly Christmas Eve at my Grandparent's and singing and foods and homemade English Toffee.  My Dad has been whipping up some wonderful little toys for that we have found ideas for online, or come up with ourselves, and it will be great to see them in person.  For now I still have lots of secrets under wraps but I will post them on the blog as soon as I can because I want so much to share them with you! Merry Christmas!

Although I tried to wait until Christmas and almost made it, we are now announcing that we are expecting a little girl at the beginning of May next year! The ultrasound was Friday and needless to say it was a fun day for all of us.  The boys loved the amazing midwife's office and toys, I loved the tech that kept saying "bomb" as in "April is bomb!" (to have a baby) and the midwives were hilarious and sweet.  They are a duo and remind me of my favorite qualities of humans in general and midwives in particular.  Of course our favorite thing was seeing that our baby girl is healthy and growing and that she really is a girl-phew! I hope you are having a pleasant December!  We are super excited about Christmas this year, our projects for the kids, the Christmas books they are getting old enough to understand like The Grinch and The Nutcracker and the music and songs.  John and I are singing in a Christmas choir which brings all kinds of good and loveliness to the...